RetroSimba

(Updated April 11, 2026)

Marty Marion of the Cardinals was the first shortstop to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award _ and he did it by the narrowest of margins.

Marion won the MVP Award by one point over Bill Nicholson of the Cubs in 1944. It was the tighest finish since the system of voting by three sports reporters from each of the eight National League cities was adopted in 1938, according to the Associated Press.

Marion started at shortstop for four Cardinals pennant winners (1942, 1943, 1944 and 1946) and led the National League in fielding percentage four times (1944, 1947, 1948 and 1950).

In 1944, Marion batted .267 with 63 RBI and helped the Cardinals to their second World Series title in three years. He hit .288 with runners in scoring position that season.

Marion played 55 errorless innings at shortstop in the World Series against the Browns. “To me, a highlight of the Series was the superiority our shortstop, Marty Marion, displayed over Vern Stephens, the Browns’ shortstop,” Cardinals outfielder Stan Musial said in his book “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story.”

Marion received 190 points to Nicholson’s 189 in the MVP voting by 24 sports reporters. In the book “Redbirds Revisited,” Marion said of that 1944 season, “I was a leader. Everyone looked up to me. Everything I did was for the team. I had several game-winning hits, and I took away a lot of hits at shortstop.”

Nicholson, a left-handed batter and outfielder, had a magnificent season for the Cubs: 33 home runs, 122 RBI and 116 runs scored. He was the league leader in all three categories.

The Cubs, however, finished fourth at 75-79, 30 games behind the first-place Cardinals (105-49).

In the book “The Spirit of St. Louis,” Cardinals outfielder Danny Litwhiler said, “Marty Marion, as far as I was concerned, if it was an important game, the most important game you have, and you need a base hit, I would take Marty over anybody I ever played with. He had something about him in a clutch _ he was tough. He was not a real good hitter, but in a clutch he was tough.

“He was also the best shortstop I ever saw … I didn’t realize how good he was until I played left field behind him. Balls would be hit that I just knew were going to be base hits … and his arm would come over and grab it and give it the flip to first base. He just had fantastic hands.”

The top points producers in the 1944 NL MVP balloting were:

_ Marty Marion, shortstop, Cardinals, 190 points.

_ Bill Nicholson, outfielder, Cubs, 189 points.

_ Dixie Walker, outfielder, Dodgers, 145 points.

_ Stan Musial, outfielder, Cardinals, 136 points.

_ Bucky Walters, pitcher, Reds, 107 points.

_ Bill Voiselle, pitcher, Giants, 107 points.

MVP voters could list up to 10 players on a ballot. Players were given 14 points for a first-place vote, nine for a second-place vote, eight for a third-place vote and so forth, ending with one point for a 10th-place vote.

Of the 24 first-place votes, Marion received seven and Nicholson, four.

“I think this was the greatest tribute to defensive play in the history of the MVP Award,” Musial said.

In “The Spirit of St. Louis” book, Marion said that when he received a phone call informing him he had won the MVP Award “I didn’t know what … it was. I never was impressed with it at all. That’s right. I didn’t think about things like that too much. Now, after years passed, that’s pretty nice, but back then, it didn’t mean a thing to me.”