How Los Angeles Became The MVP Capital Of Baseball

LOS ANGELES, CA – Clayton Kershaw became the first pitcher since Bob Gibson in 1968 to win the NL MVP on Thursday when he was announced as the 2014 winner. Kershaw had trouble controlling his emotions as his name was announced and the Dodgers southpaw said he was “blown away” by the honor.

“You know you’re a finalist, but I guess I never really anticipated to win that, especially when you’re associated with guys like Andew and Giancarlo,” said Kershaw. “To say you’re MVP, I don’t know if I could ever get used to that, but it’s obviously a huge honor.”

Kershaw has a pretty historic past 48 hours as he was the unanimous winner of the Cy Young award, just one night earlier. It was Kershaw’s third Cy Young of his illustrious career, and his second consecutive. Kershaw received 18 first place votes for MVP, ahead of Florida Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who finished in second.

The last starting pitcher to win the MVP was Justin Verlander in 2011, but Kershaw has now joined an impressive club in the national league as one of only four players in the history of the MLB to win the Cy Young and the MVP in the same season, the others to do it are Gibson, and two other Los Angeles Dodgers, Don Newcombe (1956) and Sandy Koufax (1963).

Ironically, Kershaw was just a stone’s throw away from the AL MVP. Just an hour before Kershaw was announced, the Los Angeles Angels Mike Trout was awarded the AL MVP prize, making Los Angeles the MVP capital of the world. At 23-years-old, Trout became the youngest player to ever unanimously win the award as he received all 30 first place votes.

Trout has arguably been the best player in baseball over the past three seasons, but lost the MVP crown to Venezuelan slugger, Miguel Cabrera in 2012 and 2013 mostly in part because of Carbera’s triple-crown numbers, and the fact that his Detroit Tigers were playoff contenders.

In 2014, Trout led the Angels to the best record in baseball and also had the numbers to back it up. He lead the AL in RBIs with 111 and hit 36 home runs with 115 runs scored. Trout also became the first player since 1937 to average .939 with runners in scoring position. The last man to do it was Hank Greenberg. Another Venezuelan on the Tigers, catcher and first baseman, Victor Martinez finished second.