Madison Bumgarner had himself a year in 2014.
Bumgarner helped the San Francisco Giants win their third World Series in five seasons, winning the World Series MVP after a dominant performance against the Kansas City Royals. Monday, Bumgarner added to his trophy case when he was named the 2014 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.
“It’s easy to mythologize the small-town sports hero. Baseball, especially, is full of them,” SI managing editor Chris Stone said. “Madison Bumgarner isn’t the Sportsman of the Year because he’s from a tiny town, but that town goes a long way toward defining who he is and it gives his story a different texture from past Sportsmen. And while he’s been an outstanding pitcher for the last five years, his Sportsman candidacy was so sudden and seemingly out of nowhere that it makes him the most unique Sportsman in recent memory.”
Bumgarner won a career-high 18 games for the Giants and posted a 2.98 ERA over 217 1/3 innings in the regular season. Bumgarner was even better during the playoffs, though. He went 2-0 and added a save in 21 World Series innings, posting a minuscule 0.43 ERA.
