Hernandez And Stargell Named Co-MVP's

On Nov. 13, 1979, St. Louis Cardinal Keith Hernandez and Pittsburgh Pirate Willie Stargell were both named MVP of the National League.

This marked the first time that the award was shared by two players. This was the only MVP award for both players. For Stargell, his career was winding down. On the other hand, Hernandez was just starting to hit his prime.

Stargell was coming to an end of a great career, which saw him hit 475 home runs, a .282 average and 1,540 RBI’s over a 20-year span. Some of the honors Stargell would receive over the years were being named an All-Star seven times, including three consecutive times twice, from 1964-1966, and 1971-1973. He would be a two-time World Series Champion in 1971 and 1979 with the Pirates.

In 1979 he would also win the NLCS MVP Award, World Series MVP, and the Babe Ruth Award, which is given to the player with the most home runs during the regular season.

Stargell would be inducted in Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988 with 82.4 percent of the vote on his first ballot he appeared. The Pirates would also retire his no. 8 jersey that year.

Hernandez would end up having a fabulous career following his MVP season, by earning four more Al-Star appearances; his first of five was in 1979. He would win eight-more consecutive Gold Gloves. He won two Silver Slugger Awards in 1980 and 1984, and was a two-time World Champion in 1982 and 1986 with the New York Mets.

Hernandez was inducted into the Mets’ Hall of Fame in 1997, but has never been inducted into Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame, as he never received much help from the baseball writers of America. After nine years on the ballot, in 2004 Hernandez only received six percent of the vote, and would be taken off of future ballots.

Currently Hernandez broadcasts Mets’ games for SportsNet New York and WPIX since 2006. Hernandez won two 2010 New York Emmys. He won an individual award for Sports Analyst and as part of the SNY Mets broadcast team which won the "Live Sports Event: Series 2009 Mets: The Inaugural Year of Citi Field" award.