Our MLB Monday miniseries moves forward through the 1960s to a year where the New York Yankees made their last World Series appearance for a long time (in their universe). This decade was one of equality, so to speak, and that carried over to baseball as different teams started emerging as perennial challengers to the pennants in each respective league, and baseball probably was a lot more fun for the average American.

1964 World Series MVP: Bob Gibson, SP, St. Louis (original); Tim McCarver, C, St. Louis (revised)

The St. Louis Cardinals won the Fall Classic in seven games over the Yankees, with a Game 7 victory at home. After taking a 3-2 lead and coming back to their own ballpark only to lose Game 6, the Cards got a gritty performance from starting pitcher Bob Gibson in the finale, a 7-5 St. Louis win. He was voted the Series MVP by the media, for his 2-1 record, 3.00 ERA, and 31 strikeouts in 27 overall innings.

But that loss isn’t going to cut it with us; MVP pitchers can’t lose games in a playoff series, period. We’ve adhered to this rule, and we’re going to continue with it. Plus, with the matchup going full length, we also can consider Yankees players/pitchers. So this is our list of candidates: Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver (.478 BA, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 1 SB, 5 BBs, 1.279 OPS) and Yankees SP Jim Bouton (2-0, 1.56 ERA, 1.154 WHIP).

Both these guys would be known later to baseball fans for other reasons, but McCarver was the only Cardinals regular to post an OPS over .800, which means he stands out for a lot of value-added reasons. Meanwhile, Bouton pitched 17 1/3 innings, including winning the big Game 6 elimination battle on the road in St. Louis. Without him, the Yankees don’t even reach Game 7, even though lot of N.Y. hitters stood out.

But we also want to consider McCarver’s role in the field here; he did get a hit and an RBI in the deciding Game 7, so he’s good there, but he also was the one nurturing the Cardinals pitching staff through the Yankees lineup. Overall, New York outscored St. Louis, 33-32, in the Fall Classic, and that also makes McCarver’s hitting that much more significant. But his management of an overmatched pitching staff?

That makes a hige impact in our minds. So, we’re going with McCarver—which, amusingly, keeps a pattern intact here for us, in that every other year, we have confirmed the vote winner for this award. Since it was first given out in ’55, we have agreed with all the odd-year choices, and we have disagreed with all the even-year choices. We know that won’t last, but it’s funny to see it consistent over the first 10 years of analysis.

1964 AL MOTY: Hank Bauer, Baltimore

In a very close pennant race, the Yankees outdid the Chicago White Sox by 1 game and the Baltimore Orioles by 2 games. New York Manager Yogi Berra (plus-1 PPP) was not the reason the Yankees won, however, and while Chicago Manager Al López (minus-1 PPP) may have been the reason his team did not win. Overall, though, we like Baltimore Manager Hank Bauer (plus-3 PPP) for this award for getting his team into it.

1964 NL MOTY: Johnny Keane, St. Louis

This pennant race was also a doozy, with the Cards beating out the Cincinnati Reds and the infamous Philadelphia Phillies by 1 game each. The Phillies blew a 6.5-game lead with just 12 to play, of course, but St. Louis Manager Johnny Keane (plus-5 PPP) outdid two Reds managers (combined even-0 PPP) and Phillies Manager Gene Mauch (plus-4 PPP). While Mauch often takes the blame for the collapse, we see it reversed.

It’s clear the Phillies were way over their heads even when they had that 6.5-game lead. Mauch was the reason for that, surely. Nonetheless, Keane gets the nod here for winning the pennant with the highest PPP mark as well, and that’s always been an automatic designation for us. This is his first award, although we suspect it may not be his last one.