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Washington Nationals' Bryce Harper named unanimous 2015 NL MVP

Washington Nationals' slugger Bryce Harper, 23, finished his fourth major league campaign with an impressive .330/.460/.649 line, 38 doubles and 42 home runs. Harper was named the National League's MVP tonight.

By Patrick Reddington
Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

Towards the end of the 1924 Major League Baseball campaign, Washington Senators' right-hander Walter Johnson was named the American League MVP for the second time in his career after winning his first Most Valuable Player award eleven years earlier in 1913.

Johnson, 36 at the time, finished the 1924 campaign (23-7) in 38 starts, posting a 2.72 ERA, 77 walks (2.50 BB/9) and 158 Ks (5.12 K/9) in 277 ⅔ innings pitched.

"Walter Johnson, pitching ace with the Washington team for 17 years, tonight was chosen winner of the American League Trophy for 1924," a Washington Post report noted, "which crowns him as the player of the greatest value to his team during the championship season just closing."

The 1924 Senators went 92-62 that year, finishing 2.0 games ahead of the New York Yankees in the AL standings, then went on to win the first World Series Championship in D.C. baseball history.

A year later, 34-year-old Senators' shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh won the AL MVP Award after a .294/.367/.379, 16 double, four home run, 49 walk, 23 K campaign in the nation's capital which saw Washington defend its American League title before falling short of a second straight World Series championship when they lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games.

Peckinpaugh was the first shortstop to win an MVP Award, but he struggled with leg issues which left him hobbled and he committed a major league record eight errors in the Senators' World Series loss to the Pirates, though he reportedly said, "... some of them were stinko calls by the scorer."

Johnson and Peckinpaugh's MVP Awards were the last Most Valuable Player Awards by D.C.-based players before tonight, when Bryce Harper was named the National League MVP by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Harper, 23, put up a .330/.460/.649 line with 38 doubles and 42 home runs in 153 games and 654 PAs.

He beat out Cincinnati Reds' first baseman Joey Votto and Arizona Diamondbacks' first baseman Paul Goldschmidt for the MVP Award after winning a Silver Slugger, the Hank Aaron Award and the NL Outstanding Player award as voted on by his fellow major leaguers.

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