Baseball's Most Valuable Players

New York: Random House, 1966. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good. [6], 186 pages. Illustrations. Illustrated endpapers. Index. Gift notation on title page to Jonathan from Uncle Bobby. This is Little League Library No. 5. Cover illustration of Mickey Mantle in a batting stance. Cover worn especially at spine. George Vecsey (born July 4, 1939) is an American non-fiction author and sports columnist for The New York Times. Vecsey is best known for his work in sports, but has co-written several autobiographies with non-sports figures. Vecsey has written about such events as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics and on a wide variety of sports including tennis, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, and boxing, but considers baseball, the sport he's covered since 1960, his favorite, and has written more books about it than any other sport. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Baseball: A History of America's Favorite Game and Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner's Daughter (with Loretta Lynn), which was made into an Academy Award-winning film. Vecsey has also served as a national reporter for The New York Times. Vecsey has also helped several other celebrities and high-profile figures write their autobiographies. Vecsey's baseball books cover several different periods of the game. In The Rivals, he covers the entire history of the Yankees - Red Sox rivalry from the first half of the century up until recent years. He has written books about modern baseball such as McGwire and Sosa, about the home run record chase by Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa that took place in 1998, and Subway 2000, about the New York Mets and New York Yankees Subway Series. In sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon the best-performing player (or players) in an entire league, for a particular competition, or on a specific team. Initially used in professional sports, the term is now also commonly used in amateur sports, as well as in other completely unrelated fields such as business and music. In many sports, MVP awards are presented for a specific match-in other words, a man of the match award. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In many cases the awards are voted on by members of the media. In others the vote is by players, coaches, or umpires. In recent years, online polls from the public decide some awards. The Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is an annual Major League Baseball (MLB) award, given to one outstanding player in the American League and one in the National League. Since 1931, it has been awarded by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). The winners receive the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Memorial Baseball Award, which became the official name of the award in 1944, in honor of the first MLB commissioner, who served from 1920 until his death on November 25, 1944. MVP voting takes place before the postseason, but the results are not announced until after the World Series. The BBWAA began by polling three writers in each league city in 1938, reducing that number to two per league city in 1961. The BBWAA does not offer a clear-cut definition of what "most valuable" means, instead leaving the judgment to the individual voters. First basemen, with 34 winners, have won the most MVPs among infielders, followed by second basemen (16), third basemen (15), and shortstops (15). Of the 24 pitchers who have won the award, 15 are right-handed while 9 are left-handed. The New York Yankees have the most winning players with 22, followed by the St. Louis Cardinals with 17 winners.