Who led his league in home runs for 7 consecutive years without once winning an MVP award?

Messr R. Kiner

Yep. Ralph Kiner, never higher than fourth for the MVP voting. Though George Will in "Men at Work" uses the MVP voting of 1987 to illustrate why one-dimensional HR hitters winning the MVP is equally unjust, showing how good Ozzie Smith was that season. So there is more than one point of view here.

Name the last rookie pitcher to win 20 games in a season.

I'm guessing if the answer were Fidrych it wouldn't be a trivia question...

Posted by italyprof on 3/15/2016 7:43:00 AM (view original):
Yep. Ralph Kiner, never higher than fourth for the MVP voting. Though George Will in "Men at Work" uses the MVP voting of 1987 to illustrate why one-dimensional HR hitters winning the MVP is equally unjust, showing how good Ozzie Smith was that season. So there is more than one point of view here.

It's not quite the same. Dawson was one-dimensional even as a hitter. It wasn't fully appreciated at the time, but Kiner walked 100+ times in 5 of those 7 seasons (and 98 in another). His OBPs were really solid for most of that run.

Posted by italyprof on 3/18/2016 3:51:00 AM (view original):
Name the last rookie pitcher to win 20 games in a season.

had to look it up....I won't spoil it

would've never have guessed that guy

Posted by dahsdebater on 3/18/2016 5:04:00 AM (view original):

Posted by italyprof on 3/15/2016 7:43:00 AM (view original):
Yep. Ralph Kiner, never higher than fourth for the MVP voting. Though George Will in "Men at Work" uses the MVP voting of 1987 to illustrate why one-dimensional HR hitters winning the MVP is equally unjust, showing how good Ozzie Smith was that season. So there is more than one point of view here.

It's not quite the same. Dawson was one-dimensional even as a hitter. It wasn't fully appreciated at the time, but Kiner walked 100+ times in 5 of those 7 seasons (and 98 in another). His OBPs were really solid for most of that run.

Fair point.

Posted by nockahoma on 3/18/2016 10:18:00 AM (view original):

Posted by italyprof on 3/18/2016 3:51:00 AM (view original):
Name the last rookie pitcher to win 20 games in a season.

had to look it up....I won't spoil it

would've never have guessed that guy

Yeah this one is hard to guess. And no, it is not Mark Fidrych.

I guessed Don Newcombe, looked it up and saw I was wrong (although he did win 17, 19 and 20 in his first three seasons). The correct answer is very tough.

Nope. Not Newcombe, good guess though.

My first two guesses were Babe Ruth and Dazzy Vance, but they both (!) only won 18 in their first full year.

Is it Tom Browning? I seem to remember that being a big deal in 1985 or whenever his rookie season was.

How far long ago?
Is it Christy Mathewson or Joe McGinnity? (Used the 1904 Giants in a theme recently)

Tom Browning, Cincinnati Reds, 1985 - 20-9, 3.55 ERA it is.

So the last rookie to have won 20 games was 30 years ago, and it looks like given current baseball thinking that he will be the last ever. The rookie 20 game winner version of Ted Williams hitting .400. Never happen again.