McGee Named NL’s Most Valuable Player Over Parker; Guerrero Third

Batting champion Willie McGee, the center fielder of the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals, was named the NL’s Most Valuable Player by the Baseball Writers Assn. of America on Monday.

McGee received 14 first-place votes from a 24-writer panel, two from each league city, and finished with 280 points.

Dave Parker of the Cincinnati Reds, who led the league with 125 runs batted in, finished second with six firsts and 220 points. Pedro Guerrero of the NL West champion Dodgers was third with three firsts and 208 points and pitcher Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets, who won the Cy Young Award last week, finished fourth with one first and 162 points.

Tommy Herr of St. Louis, Gary Carter of New York, Dale Murphy of Atlanta, Keith Hernandez of New York, John Tudor of St. Louis and Jack Clark of St. Louis completed the top 10.

McGee, Parker and Guerrero were the only players listed on all 24 ballots. Points were assigned 14-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 with voters asked to list 10 players on their ballots.

“I feel I’m still young and I still have some things to learn,” the 27-year-old McGee said in a conference call from his Richmond, Calif., home. “This has been a special season for me. I’m most proud of the Cardinals as a team and an organization.”

McGee became the ninth Cardinal player to win the NL batting title, hitting .353 last season. It was the highest average ever for a NL switch hitter, topping the mark of .348 set by Frankie Frisch of the New York Giants in 1923 and matched by Pete Rose of Cincinnati in 1969. Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees set the major league mark in 1957 when he batted .365.

At the beginning of the season, McGee said: “I thought I had to improve my batting right-handed and I felt I had to be more disciplined at the plate. I’d rather be known as an all-around ballplayer able to help the team win in different ways.”

Batting second in the Cardinal lineup, McGee led the league with 216 hits and 18 triples. He scored 114 runs, third in the league, and, with rookie leadoff man Vince Coleman, served as the catalyst for a St. Louis attack that produced 311 stolen bases.

The Cardinals acquired McGee from the Yankees in exchange for pitcher Bob Sykes on Oct. 21, 1981.

“I read about the trade in the small type in the newspaper,” McGee recalled. “I called the club a few days later and I said, ‘I think I belong to you. What are your plans for me?’ ”

McGee started the 1982 season at Louisville of the American Assn. and was called up in May to replace injured David Green. He won a regular job, batting .296 and helping the Cardinals win the world championship. In the Series, he set a record for rookies by hitting two home runs in Game 3. His 24 putouts in the seven games tied another record.

McGee became the 14th Cardinal MVP winner since the BBWAA began the award in 1931. The last one was Hernandez, now with the Mets, who shared the award in 1979 with Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell.

Gooden and Tudor, who was second in the Cy Young voting, were the only pitchers to finish in the MVP top 10.