We are into the mid-1930s now on our second MLB Monday miniseries now gives out awards that didn’t exist at the time. At age 40, Babe Ruth played his last games (for the Boston Braves), which was significant, of course. The game would never be the same without him, and he changed the sport forever. If nothing else happened at all during the 1935 season, that would have been enough to make it worth remembrance. Of course, there was a World Series still, so … read on to find out more!

1935 World Series MVP: Charlie Gehringer, 2B, Detroit

After losing the 1934 World Series in crushing fashion on their home field in Game 7, the Detroit Tigers came back in 1935 to claim their first MLB championship ever with a six-game victory in the Fall Classic over the Chicago Cubs. After dropping Game 1 at home, Detroit won four of the next five—including three times by one run—to win the Series. Fortuitously, the Tigers were able to clinch the title on their home field to reward the faithful and loyal fans at Navin Field.

The heroes? Rightfielder Pete Fox (.962 OPS, 4 RBI), second baseman Charlie Gehringer (.923 OPS, 4 RBI), and starting pitcher Tommy Bridges (2-0, 2.50 ERA, 1.222 WHIP, 2 CGs). This was a close matchup, as Detroit only outscored Chicago by three runs total (21-18). Bridges wasn’t outstanding, but he did the job in winning Game 2 and Game 6 at home. Fox made an error, while Gehringer did not, and the Hall of Fame infielder also stole a base as well.

Additionally, Gehringer had two hits in Game 6, while Bridges actually surrendered 12 hits in a complete-game effort. Overall, considering the Tigers were missing their star hitter (Hank Greenberg) for most of this Series, we’re going with Gehringer for filling in somewhat on the offensive side and generating just enough scoring to get the job done in multiple games. We stripped Gehringer of his AL MVP once, so this should make up for that.

1935 AL MOTY: Rogers Hornsby, St, Louis

We have a unique situation here in the sense that the top two teams were managed to negative PPP finishes by their respective managers, and the best managerial effort—by far—was turned in by the seventh-place manager of the St. Louis Browns: Rogers Hornsby (plus-7 PPP). He more than doubled up the next-best manager in terms of coaxing the most wins out of whatever talent was available to him. Even though the Browns finished 28.5 games out of first place, this is our decision under the circumstances.

1935 NL MOTY: Bill Terry, New York

The New York Giants finished a distant third in the pennant race, but Manager Bill Terry (plus-5 PPP) got the most out of his team in the league. The Cubs scuffled to a 4-game edge over the St. Louis Cardinals despite a minus-1 PPP effort from their manager, while the Cards broke even on the PPP scale. At 8.5 games back, the Giants didn’t really threaten much in the end, but Terry put his team in position do its most damage possible, and that was better than every other manager in the league.