Jose Canseco Becomes Baseball's First Unanimous 40-40 MVP

On November 16, 1988, Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics was named the unanimous winner of the American League Most Valuable Player Award. He became the first player in major league history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season, finishing with 42 home runs and 40 steals to go along with a .307 batting average and 124 RBI.

Canseco received all 28 first-place votes, the first unanimous AL MVP selection since his Oakland predecessor Reggie Jackson earned the honor in 1973. The Cuban-born outfielder had arrived with force. He won the AL Rookie of the Year Award just two years earlier and now stood alone in a statistical category nobody had reached before.

The 40-40 season had seemed almost impossible. Willie Mays and Bobby Bonds were among those who came closest, but the combination of elite power and elite speed in a single year had eluded every player in the game's long history. Canseco covered the ground in one explosive summer, and voters responded by shutting out the rest of the ballot.

Oakland had won 104 games and the AL pennant that year, sweeping the Red Sox in the ALCS before falling to the Dodgers in a stunning five-game World Series upset. Canseco's MVP season was the crown jewel of a loaded roster that would dominate the American League for three consecutive pennants.

The unanimous vote left no room for debate. Whatever came later in Canseco's complicated career, the 1988 season belonged entirely to him.