MVP Award is now nameless… for now
Kenesaw Mountain Landis won’t be depicted on the annual awards presented by the Baseball Writers’ Association of the America, the group said Friday. The decision came after 89% of its membership voted this week for removal.
“We will no longer will be associated with the Landis name, and the MVP plaques will be nameless in 2020,” BBWAA president Paul Sullivan wrote.
“Hopefully when some sense of normalcy returns in 2021 we can have a healthy debate over whether to add a new name or just leave it as the BBWAA MVP award,” he said.
I say leave it without a name, as all people have flaws and faults, and sooner or later will be called to remove their name from it anyway.
Landis became MLB’s first commissioner in 1920 … that ended with his death in 1944.
A federal judge in Chicago when he was hired, Landis banned Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Black Sox for throwing the 1919 World Series and helped rid baseball of gambling problems that were plaguing the game.
In 1931, Landis had given the BBWAA control of picking and presenting the MVPs. During the 1944 World Series, the BBWAA voted to add Landis’ name to the plaque as “an acknowledgement of his relationship with the writers,” O’Connell said.
Landis died a month later at 78 and soon was elected to the Hall of Fame.
Every AL and NL MVP plaque since then has carried his name — emblazoned with shiny, gold letters twice as big as the actual winner — plus a sizable imprint of his face.
Erasing history is still going strong.
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