Our MLB Monday miniseries begins a new era today with this season’s awards analyses. Not only did the Brooklyn Dodgers finally win the World Series—in the franchise’s eighth attempt—but we have a World Series MVP Award pick to either confirm or revise. This makes our column a little more fun, as we won’t have Manager of the Year vote winners to assess until 1983, and that’s half a year away … in 2024. Yikes.

1955 World Series MVP: Johnny Podres, SP, Brooklyn (original, confirmed)

The Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in seven games, winning Game 7 in Yankee stadium by a 2-0 score. The home team had won every game until the final match, when Brooklyn starting pitcher Johnny Podres dealt a complete-game shutout to deliver the Fall Classic. He won the first WS MVP vote, too, for his 2-0, 1.00 ERA line in the Series, and Podres was the only Dodgers pitcher to notch double-digit innings.

We also have to consider Brooklyn centerfielder Duke Snider (4 HRs, 7 RBI, 1.210 OPS), though, even though he went 0-for-3 in Game 7. Without Snider’s big bat in the first six games, the Dodgers don’t reach Game 7. This is a tough one: Snider led all hitters from both teams in HRs and RBI, as Brooklyn outscored New York, 31-26, in the seven-game set. But for “clutch” reasons, we will confirm Podres’ award. Moxie!

1955 AL MOTY: Al López, Cleveland

The Yankees won the pennant by 3 games over Cleveland, in spite of New York Manager Casey Stengel and his minus-1 PPP effort. Indians Manager Al López (plus-6 PPP) definitely deserves his second-straight nod here. In fact, he was the only AL manager of a winning team to post a positive PPP mark during the regular season. That warrants this award, if nothing else.

1955 NL MOTY: Walter Alston, Brooklyn

For the fifth season in a row, we pick the Dodgers manager for this award: Walter Alston posted the highest PPP result (plus-3) of any manager of a winning team in the league. So, even though Brooklyn won the pennant by 13.5 games, he gets our nod again. The Dodgers really did earn their Series victory, and it’s a surprise that the team had never won a championship before, dating back to its 1884 inception.