Three-Time MLB Baseball MVPs

Nine Players Have Won the Most Valuable Player Award At Least Thrice

Nov 23, 2007

Jimmie Foxx was the first three time winner, and Alex Rodriguez is the most recent to accomplish the feat, but Barry Bonds has more MVP trophies than anyone else.

Jimmie Foxx (Philadelphia A's 1932, 1933 and Boston Red Sox, 1938)

He was known as Double XX, but to those who watched him swat a baseball Jimmie Foxx will always be the Beast. He debuted in the American League as a 17-year old catcher with Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics. By 1932, he was well on his way to being one of the greatest hitters of all time. That year, he hit .364 with 58 home runs and 169 RBI. The next season, Foxx repeated as MVP when he hit .356 with 48 blasts and 163 ribbies.

After the 1935 season, Mack sold off many of his superstars to pay off mounting debts, and one of those stars was the big, bad Mr. Foxx. Jimmie responded by hitting the ball all over Fenway Park to the tune of a combined 77 home runs and 270 RBI in 1936 and 1937. But 1938 may have been the best of his entire career. Foxx won the batting title with a .349 avrage and drove in more runs than any other player in the majors with 175. (175!) The Beast missed winning the Triple Crown, however, because Detroit's Hank Greenberg banged out 58 homers. Foxx had to take home the MVP award as a consolaton prize. Not too bad, one would imagine.

Joe DiMaggio (New York Yankees, 1939, 1941 & 1947)

DiMaggio won his first award in 1939, when he hit a league-best .381 with 30 home runs and 126 RBI. Two years later, the Yankee Clipper won his second award, which was no small feat. That season, Ted Williams of the Red Sox became the last man in history to bat over .400, when he finished the year at a super-cool .406. But it was DiMaggio's record 56-game hitting streak that ultimately swayed the voters. It was also his .357 batting average, 30 home runs, 125 RBI and the fact that he led the Yankees to the AL championship.

But it was Joe's final MVP award that was the most controversial. His closest vote-getter was once again Williams, who won the American League Triple Crown award by hitting .343 with 32 home runs and 114 RBI. But amidst some questionable voting by some writers, DiMaggio won the award with numbers that were downright pedestrian for Joltin' Joe: a .315 BA with 20 dingers and 97 RBI.

Stan Musial (St. Louis Cardinals 1943, 1946 & 1948)

Peering over Stan the Man's career batting record, it's hard to imagine that he won only three MVPs. So it isn't much of a surprise that Musial finished in second place for the award three times and finished in the top 10 in voting in 14 different seasons. Musial's best MVP year was 1948, when he he .376 with 230 hits, 46 doubles, 18 triples and 39 home runs. Stan the Man also had 131 RBI, 135 runs scored and a sixth-best ever 429 total bases.

Berra was baseball's Everyman from 1947 through 1963: a short, squat, none-too-handome workhorse who anchored two separate Yankee dynasties with his solid defense, deft signal-calling, and ability to hit any pitch, no matter how far out of the strike zone it may have been. But during three special seasons, Yogi was the best all-around player in the American League. His MVP years were highlighted by the following statistics:

Roy Campanella (Brooklyn Dodgers 1951, 1953, 1955)

While Berra was dominating the American League from behind the plate, his rival for the title of best catcher in the world was Roy Campanella of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Campy won the National League's Most Valuable Player award every other year from 1951 through 1955. His best season came in '53, when he batted .312 with 41 home runs and 124 RBI. Campy surely had the talent to win more awards, but his career was cut short by a 1957 car crash that confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

In addition to his three MVP awards, Mantle finished runner-up in voting three times. Two of those times, he lost in the closest vote in history. But three MVPs aren't too shabby, especially considering the first came on the heels of Mantle's Major League Triple Crown season in 1958, when he hit .356 with 52 homers and 130 RBI. The next year he hit .365 with 40 dingers and won his second award. In 1960 and 1961, he lost the vote by just three points each season to his teammate and friend, Roger Maris.

But Mickey returned to the podium when he won the 1962 award in a close vote over his friend and teammate, Bobby Richardson.

Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia Phillies 1980, 1981 & 1986)

Schmidt was the best player of the 1980s. During the Decade of Greed, Michael Jack (as he was known to Philly fans) won three MVPs, hit more home runs than anyother player in baseball, and won six of his ten Gold Glove awards. Schmidt's most impressive year was probably 1980, when he led the Phillies to their only World Series crown by hitting .286 with 48 home runs and 121 RBI.

Barry Bonds (Pittsburgh Pirates 1990-91, San Francisco Giants, 1993, 2000-2004)

There is no player in baseball history who is more highly decorated that Barry Lamarr Bonds. Bonds won his first two MVPs as a slim, speedy, balanced hitter who sprayed extra base hits to all fields and played left field like few ever have. In 1993, he moved out to San Francisco, and began his evolution into the game's hreatest home run hitter of all time. In '93, he smacked 46 home runs and collected 123 RBI. And while the rest of the '90s were hardware-free, Bonds dominated the early years of the new century with four straight awards from 2001 through 2004. Those years included a record-setting home runs year (73 in 2001), two batting titles (.370 in 2002 and .362 in 2004) and an all-time best on-base percentage of .609 in 2004 at age 39.

Alex Rodriguez (Texas Rangers 2003, New York Yankees 2005 & 2007)

If there is any player who could eventually surpass Bonds's record of seven MVP awards, it is Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod had two runner-up finishes for the award before he finally broke through on the strength of 47 home runs and 118 RBI for the 2003 Rangers. Two years later, he became the all-time leader in home runs hit (48) by a right-handed Yankee player and won his second award. Rodriguez saved his best (best yet, anyway) for 2007, a year in which he hit .314 and led the Major Leagues in home runs (54), RBI (156) and Runs scored (143).

With a new ten year contract that should keep Alex in pinstripes until he is 42, the slugger has a realistic chance of someday placing a fourth, fifth, sixth and even a seventh trophy on his mantle.

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