The votes are in from the Baseball Writers Association of America, and Dale Murphy of the Atlanta Braves has been named the National League’s Most Valuable Player for the 1982 season.
The announcement isn’t particularly surprising, given that Murphy received 14 of 24 possible first place votes. Murphy, 26, had the best season in his young career, batting .281 with 36 homers and 109 RBI. Murphy becomes the first Braves player to win MVP since Hank Aaron in 1957 when the Braves played in Milwaukee.
“I think it was more a tribute to how our team did,” said a humble Murphy, “our team doing that well is really the reason I was being considered.”
Cardinal outfielder Lonnie Smith finished a bit closer than many speculated, getting 218 votes to Murphy’s 283. The results may have been even closer had two first place votes not gone to closer Bruce Sutter, Lonnie Smith’s teammate.
What do you think? Did the award go to the right player?
| Player – Tm | Pts | 1st | AVG | HR | RBI | W | ERA | SV |
| Dale Murphy, ATL | 283 | 14 | .281 | 36 | 109 | |||
| Lonnie Smith, STL | 218 | 8 | .307 | 8 | 69 | |||
| P. Guerrero, LAD | 175 | 0 | .304 | 32 | 100 | |||
| Al Oliver, MON | 175 | 0 | .331 | 22 | 109 | |||
| Bruce Sutter, STL | 134 | 2 | .125 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 2.90 | 36 |
| Mike Schmidt, PHI | 54 | 0 | .280 | 35 | 87 | |||
| Jack Clark, SFG | 53 | 0 | .274 | 27 | 103 | |||
| Greg Minton, SFG | 44 | 0 | .176 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 1.83 | 30 |
| Steve Carlton, PHI | 41 | 0 | .218 | 2 | 8 | 23 | 3.10 | 0 |
| Bill Buckner, CHC | 38 | 0 | .306 | 15 | 105 | |||
| Bill Madlock, PIT | 37 | 0 | .319 | 19 | 95 | |||
| Gary Carter, MON | 35 | 0 | .293 | 29 | 97 | |||
| Ozzie Smith, STL | 25 | 0 | .248 | 2 | 43 | |||
| G. Hendrick, STL | 20 | 0 | .282 | 19 | 104 | |||
| T. Kennedy, SDP | 20 | 0 | .295 | 21 | 97 | |||
| Joe Morgan, SFG | 17 | 0 | .289 | 14 | 61 | |||
| K. Hernandez, STL | 12 | 0 | .299 | 7 | 94 | |||
| J. Thompson, PIT | 12 | 0 | .284 | 31 | 101 | |||
| J. Andujar, STL | 6 | 0 | .158 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 2.47 | 0 |
| Gene Garber, ATL | 6 | 0 | .133 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2.34 | 30 |
| A. Dawson, MON | 3 | 0 | .301 | 23 | 83 | |||
| F. Valenzuela, LAD | 3 | 0 | .168 | 1 | 9 | 19 | 2.87 | 0 |
| C. Chambliss, ATL | 2 | 0 | .270 | 20 | 86 | |||
| Gary Matthews, PHI | 2 | 0 | .281 | 19 | 83 | |||
| Ray Knight, HOU | 1 | 0 | .294 | 6 | 70 |