The Southern Association Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) was an annual award given to the best player in

Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

Southern Association The Southern Association (SA) was a higher-level minor league in American organized baseball from 1901 through 1961. For most of its existence, the Southern Association was two steps below the Major Leagues; it was graded Class B (1902-19 ...

based on their regular-season performance as voted on by league

sportswriter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into t ...

s. Early iterations of the honor were voted on by league

managers Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administr ...

. Though the league was established in 1901, the award was not created until 1936. It continued to be issued through the 1961 season, after which the league disbanded. Two players won the award twice: Ted Cieslak, who won back-to-back in 1945 and 1946, and

Stan Palys Stanley Francis Palys (May 1, 1930 – February 8, 2021) was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. He was born in Blakely, Pennsylvania. He appeared in 138 games over all or parts of four seasons in the majors, from 1953 through 1956, for ...

, the winner in 1957 and 1960. Eleven

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

s won the MVP Award, the most of any position.

Catchers Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catcher ...

and

first basemen A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand p ...

, each with three winners, won the most among

infielders An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns pla ...

, followed by

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

and

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the Baseball scorekeep ...

(2). Six pitchers also won the award. Eight players from the Nashville Vols were selected for the MVP Award, more than any other team in the league, followed by the Atlanta Crackers (4); the Birmingham Barons, Little Rock Travelers, Memphis Chicks (Southern Association), Memphis Chicks, and Mobile Bears (3); and the Chattanooga Lookouts, Knoxville Smokies, and New Orleans Pelicans (baseball), New Orleans Pelicans (1). Four players from the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball (MLB) organization won the MVP Award, more than any other, followed by the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers organizations (3); the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants (baseball), New York Giants, and Pittsburgh Pirates organizations (2); the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Browns, and Washington Senators (1901–1960), Washington Senators organizations (1). Five players were from teams unaffiliated with any MLB organization.

Winners

Wins by team

Wins by organization

References

;Specific ;General * * {{Southern Association MVPs Southern Association Minor league baseball trophies and awards Minor league baseball MVP award winners Awards established in 1936 Awards disestablished in 1961