Since baseball goes back so far in time, our MLB Monday miniseries seem endless, don’t they? Hard to conceive we’re only at 1962 for this second spin. One interesting thing about this season, to us, is that what we know now as the Willie Mays World Series MVP Award actually featured one Willie Mays in the Fall Classic for the only time for the all-time great as a San Francisco Giant. Alas, he did not win the vote in ’62.

1962 World Series MVP: Ralph Terry, P, New York (AL) (original); Tom Tresh, LF, New York (AL) (revised)

The New York Yankees (sigh) won the World Series in 7 games over the San Francisco Giants in a Fall Classic that went down to the final out … again. With runners on second and third, two outs in the bottom of the ninth, it was a 1-0 game in Candlestick Park. Willie McCovey hit a hard liner that was snagged for an infield out, and that was the whole enchilada. The Yankees won Games 1, 3, 5, and 7 to win the MLB title.

New York starter Ralph Terry pitched a 4-hit shutout in Game 7 on the road to win the MVP vote, his overall numbers (2-1, 1.80 ERA) dominant in a 7-game matchup that saw the Giants actually outscore their opponents, 21-20. No Yankees hitter really dominated the Series, either; the best one was left fielder Tom Tresh (.321 BA, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 2 SBs), who also won the AL Rookie of the Year this season. Hardly incredible.

But we can’t give our nod to Terry, since he lost Game 2—and value always takes a hit when you lose a game as a pitcher. He won Game 5, and only a five-day delay due to rain enabled him to pitch Game 7. So, does anyone on the Giants warrant consideration? Not really. S.F. committed 8 errors in this matchup, which is pretty brutal overall. Perhaps they were lucky to even have a shot at the title by the time Game 7 happened.

Can we break our near-60 years of disqualifying any pitcher with a loss in the Series from winning the MVP? We think we should not. The media probably saw a good redemption story for Terry, since he’s the one who “lost” the 1960 World Series for the Yankees. That’s nice, but we’re beyond sentiment looking at this over 60 years later. We’re going with Tresh, who not the most dominant MVP ever, but he gets our nod here.

Strangely, as a rookie, he hit third in the lineup the entire matchup, even with guys like Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, and Elston Howard on the roster. That is a lot of pressure, and Tresh delivered just enough to help the Yankees win another World Series—which they wouldn’t do it again until 1977. That’s plenty of context and circumstance for us to hand him the hardware without hesitation. Well earned, too.

1962 AL MOTY: Bill Rigney, Los Angeles

The Yankees won the pennant by 5 games over the Minnesota Twins, and both teams’ managers posted a plus-2 PPP mark, negating either one’s individual chances at winning this award without any analysis needed. The third-place Los Angeles Angels finished 10 games back, as Manager Bill Rigney posted a plus-4 PPP effort, the best by a winning team in the league. Considering the Angels’ expansion status in ’61 …

L.A. won just 70 games in its first season, and to leap all the way up to 86 games in the second season while finish third is an impressive feat. Throw in the top PPP figure among his winningest peers, and that’s why we give this nod to Rigney. This was a relative miracle for the time period; it needs to be rewarded thusly.

1962 NL MOTY: Walter Alston, Los Angeles

Not many people talk about the ’62 pennant race between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Giants, but like 1951, it was tied at the end of the regular season, and the two rivals played a best-of-three playoff that counted in the regular-season statistical record. The Giants won it with a Game 3 victory in L.A. to advance to the Series against the Yankees. So … who was supposed to win it outright and either did or did not?

San Francisco. The Giants should have won the pennant by 3 games over the Dodgers and 5.5 games over the Cincinnati Reds, but instead, S.F. escaped in a playoff over L.A. and by just 3 games over the Reds in regulation. Both Dodgers Manager Walter Alston (plus-5 PPP) and Cincy Manager Fred Hutchinson (plus-5 PPP) outdid Giants Manager Al Dark (plus-3 PPP), creating the logjam. Pretty crazy, huh?

We give the nod to Alston, as a result. He almost stole the pennant from San Francisco—not because Dark was “bad” but because Alston himself was better. Ironically, both Alston (this is his fifth nod from us, by the way) and Hutchinson are former winners of this hardware, while Dark has yet to snag one. It is what it is.