Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award
The Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award (最優秀選手, Saiyūshūsenshu) is an annual Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) award given to two outstanding players, one each for the Central League (CL) and Pacific League (PL).
Each league's award is voted on by national baseball writers.[1] Each voter selects three players: a first-place selection is given five points, a second-place selection three points, and a third-place selection one point. The award goes to the player who receives the most overall points.[2] The winners are announced every year in November during Nippon Professional Baseball's awards ceremony called NBP Awards.
The first recipient of the award was Eiji Sawamura.[3] The most recent winners, in 2019, are Hayato Sakamoto, from the Central League, and Tomoya Mori, from the Pacific League.[4] In 1940, Victor Starffin became the first player to win the award consecutively and multiple times.[3] Eiji Sawamura and Kazuhisa Inao are the youngest players to receive the awards in 1937 and 1957, respectively, at the ages of 20.[5] In 1988, Hiromitsu Kadota became the oldest player to receive the award at the age of 40.[6]
Key
Position players |
RBIs | Runs batted in |
AVG | Batting average | |
Pitchers | Record | Record of decisions (tie games are omitted) |
Saves | Number of saves[B] | |
ERA | Earned run average | |
(#) | Indicates number of times winning MVP Award (if multiple winner) | |
* | Elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame[7] |
Winners
Japanese Baseball League (1937–1949)
Central League
Pacific League
Multiple winners
There have been 22 players who have won the award multiple times. Sadaharu Oh currently holds the record for the most awards won, with nine. Hisashi Yamada (1976–1978) and Ichiro Suzuki (1994–1996) share the record for the most consecutive awards won. Yutaka Enatsu and Michihiro Ogasawara are the only players to have won the award in both the Central League and Pacific League. Alex Ramírez is the only non-Japanese player receive the award multiple times after the formation of two league system.
Player | League | # of Awards | Seasons |
---|---|---|---|
Sadaharu Oh* | Central | 9 | 1964, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977 |
Shigeo Nagashima* | Central | 5 | 1961, 1963, 1966, 1968, 1971 |
Katsuya Nomura* | Pacific | 5 | 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1973 |
Kazuto Yamamoto* | JBL/Pacific[D] | 3 | 1946, 1948, 1951 |
Tetsuharu Kawakami* | JBL/Central[E] | 3 | 1941, 1951, 1955 |
Hisashi Yamada* | Pacific | 3 | 1976, 1977, 1978 |
Ichiro Suzuki | Pacific | 3 | 1994, 1995, 1996 |
Hideki Matsui | Central | 3 | 1996, 2000, 2002 |
Victor Starffin* | JBL | 2 | 1939, 1940 |
Tadashi Wakabayashi* | JBL | 2 | 1944, 1947 |
Takehiko Bessho* | Central | 2 | 1952, 1956 |
Kazuhisa Inao* | Pacific | 2 | 1957, 1958 |
Motoshi Fujita* | Central | 2 | 1958, 1959 |
Tokuji Nagaike | Pacific | 2 | 1969, 1971 |
Koji Yamamoto* | Central | 2 | 1975, 1980 |
Yutaka Enatsu | Both | 2 | 1979, 1981 |
Hiromitsu Ochiai | Pacific | 2 | 1982, 1985 |
Osamu Higashio | Pacific | 2 | 1983, 1987 |
Atsuya Furuta | Central | 2 | 1993, 1997 |
Kimiyasu Kudo | Pacific | 2 | 1993, 1999 |
Nobuhiko Matsunaka | Pacific | 2 | 2000, 2004 |
Michihiro Ogasawara | Both | 2 | 2006, 2007 |
Yu Darvish | Pacific | 2 | 2007, 2009 |
Alex Ramírez | Central | 2 | 2008, 2009 |
Yoshihiro Maru | Central | 2 | 2017, 2018 |
Yanagita Yuki | Pacific | 2 | 2015, 2020 |
Notes
- B The save statistic was not formally recorded in the NPB until the 1974 season.[125]
- C The 1945 Japanese Baseball League was cancelled due to World War II.[126]
- D After 1958, Kazuto Yamamoto became known as Kazuto Tsuruoka.
- E Tetsuharu Kawakami received his first MVP award in 1941, nine years before the formation of Nippon Professional Baseball.
See also
Notes
- General
- "最優秀選手(1リーグ)" [MVPs (1 League)] (in Japanese). Nikkan Sports. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
- "セ・リーグ歴代MVP" [Central League Past MVPs]. Sankei Sports (in Japanese). Sankei Shimbun. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
- "パ・リーグ歴代MVP" [Pacific League Past MVPs]. Sankei Sports (in Japanese). Sankei Shimbun. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
- "List of Hall of Famers". The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
- Specific
- Nagatsuka, Kaz (November 15, 2006). "Ogasawara, Fukudome given MVP awards for 2006 season". The Japan Times. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
- "2018年度 表彰選手 投票結果(最優秀選手)" [2018 Player Awards Voting Results (Most Valuable Player)]. Nippon Professional Baseball (in Japanese). Retrieved November 1, 2018.
- 1リーグ 最優秀選手 (in Japanese). Sports Hochi. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
- Coskrey, Jason. "Hayato Sakamoto, Tomoya Mori named league MVPs". Japan Times. Archived from the original on 28 November 2019. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
- "Darvish, Ogasawara earn MVP honors". The Japan Times. November 21, 2007. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
- "Kadota, Hiromitsu". The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved September 8, 2009.
- "Hall of Famers List". The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved September 8, 2009.
- "Eiji Sawamura Japanese Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
- "Bucky Harris Minor & Japanese Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
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References
- Johnson, Daniel E. (July 2006). Japanese Baseball: A Statistical Handbook. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-2841-0.