1972: Tragedy, tumult
and pitching...
!972 was a
roller-coaster of a year in the world, both inside and outside of the sports
realm. It was the year of the re-election of President Richard Nixon, and the
beginning of the unraveling of that presidency, the war in Viet Nam was
still ongoing, and airline hijackings were becoming a routine occurrence.
The Munich
Summer Olympic Games in late August dominated the sports news, with American
Mark Spitz winning 7 medals in swimming that year, but that was overshadowed by
the slaughter of 8 Israeli athletes by Arab terrorists in the Olypmic Village
In the
baseball world, labor strife was
beginning to show itself, resulting in the first ever cancellation of
regular season games because of a labor dispute, losing the first week and a
half of scheduled games that season, which were never made up. As a result,
some teams played less games than other teams. One of the results of this was
the Billy Martin led Detroit Tigers winning the AL East title by a half game
over the Red Sox, with the Tigers having played 1 more game than Boston . It is safe to say
that with an equal amount of games played, the outcome may have been different.
1972 saw
the unexpected, untimely passing of former Dodger great, and current Met
manager Gil Hodges, who suffered a massive heart attack at the end of Spring
Training. he was replaced by Yogi Berra, who piloted the pitching rich team to
a third place finish.
For the
first time in over seventy years there was no professional baseball played in Washington , D.C. , as
owner Bob Short moved the franchise to the Dallas area, and renamed them the Texas
Rangers. Hall of Famer Ted Williams piloted the team to a last place finish.
Williams was reportedly miserable in Texas ,
and resigned at the end of the season.
Willie
Mays' career had quickly fallen into a rapidly declining downward spiral, and
had become an expendable player in the Giants' outfield, when long time Giants
fan, and New York Mets owner Joan Payson arranged to bring the Say Hey Kid back
to New York .
Willie was traded to the Mets on May 11th, and made his Mets' debut on the
14th, against those same Giants. Hitting leadoff, and playing fist base, Mays
homered in the 5th inning in front of his new hometown crowd at Shea Stadium.
The
season's end saw Pirate's legend Roberto Clemente's run towards three thousand
hits, trying to become the 11th player to reach that milestone. On September
28th in Pittsburgh ,
against my beloved Mets, and lefty Jon Matlack, Clemente doubled to left center
for his three thousandth, and last career hit.
Adding to
his legend in the off-season, Clemente chartered a plane in his native Puerto
Rico, filled it with emergency relief supplies, and on December 31st, took off
for Managua , Nicaragua
His plane
never arrived. It crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all aboard.
On the
playing field, Nolan Ryan debuted with the California Angels, after being
traded by the Mets for Jim Fregosi, in what has been widely regarded as one of
the most lopsided trades in baseball history...Sparky Anderson led the
burgeoning Big Red Machine to the NL West crown, again...the A's won their
second of five consecutive AL West crowns.
But there
was one phenomenal performance of note...
Lefty,
Steve Carlton of the Phillies, who had been traded from the Cardinals before
the season started, went 27-10 with a 1.97
ERA for an absolutely terrible Phillies team. Carlton won 27 games, and the team won just
59 games. He won 46% of the teams wins. And with not a whole lot of offense to
back him up, he pitched 8 shutouts and completed 30 games. (He also batted .197
with 1 homer and 8 RBI)
He endured
a 5 game losing streak early in the season, losing 2 of those by 1 run, and 2
others by 2 runs. He also had a stretch of 4 shutouts in 5 games, giving up
just 1 run in the non-shutout. So essentially 1 run given up in 45 innings.
So let's
see how that matches up. First, we'll look at the AL , combining the hitters and pitchers...
Dick Allen CHW 1.9162
Bobby Murcer NYY 1.7246
Joe Rudi OAK 1.6705
John MayberryKC 1.6446
Reggie Smith BOS 1.6266
Bill Freehan DET 1.6002
Carlos May CHA 1.5948
C.Yastrzemski BOS 1.5799
Reggie JacksonOAK 1.5494
Dick Allen CHI 1.8250
Gaylord
Perry CLE 1.7105
Bobby
Murcer NYY 1.6571
Nolan Ryan CAL 1.5527
Bob Oliver CAL 1.5429
Graig
Nettles CLE 1.5394
Bill
Freehan DET 1.5334
Jim Palmer BAL 1.5278
Joe Rudi OAK 1.5272
Ken Berry CAL 1.5043
The league
award voting were as follows:
MVP
Dick Allen
Joe Rudi
Sparky Lyle
Bobby
Murcer
and the Cy
Young:
Gaylord
Perry
Wilbur Wood
Mickey
Lolich
Catfish
Hunter
Jim Palmer
The voters
were correct on Dick Allen AND Gaylord Perry for their individual league
awards, and would have earned both honors through my system as well. If there
was one award to be given as the overall best player in the AL in 1972, it was easily Dick Allen.
Allen was
on with tremendous potential, born ten years too late. He was born in Wampum, Pennsylvania , and was signed by the
Philadelphia Phillies in 1960. He spent his first spring training in Florida , where he first
encountered segregation in the deep
south.
In 1963, he
was assigned to the Phillies minor league affiliate in Little Rock , and was met with racial hatred
like he had never experienced. He was the first African-American player for the
team, and the locals apparently arranged protests and parades around his
appearance with the team.
He made the
major leagues for good in 1964 with the Phillies, and had one of the best
rookie seasons ever. Playing in all 162 games, he amassed 201 hits, with 29
homers, 91 RBI and batted .318. The Phillies that year had an epic end of
season collapse, and failed to win the pennant, but Allen ran away with the
Rookie of the Year award, with 18 of the 20 votes. He also finished 7th in MVP
voting.
1965 is
where he began a love/hate relationship with the Philadelphia fans. Some of that perceived
animosity stems from a batting cage horseplay incident involving Frank Thomas.
Thomas, a veteran ballplayer and reportedly somewhat of a bully, was eager to
share quite a few disparaging remarks, most of them racial in nature, with the
young Allen, leading to a pre-game fistfight in which Thomas flung a bat at
Allen, hitting his shoulder. The popular Thomas was sold to the Houston Astros
a short time later.
Some of
Allen's exploits on the field are legendary in their own right. He cleared the
Coke sign at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia
with a homerun that went an estimated 529 feet. He hit a line drive so hard,
the opposing shortstop jumped to try and reach it, but the ball kept rising. It
allegedly only stopped rising when it reached the seats.
The fans in
Philadelphia
became merciless. Allen, a sensitive man, had endured threats, racial epithets,
and other disgraceful abuse, decided to then hurl things at Allen. Showering
him with fruit, ice and even radio batteries. He took to wearing his protective
batting helmet while fielding his position, which may have egged on the Phillie
faithful.
Known late
in his career for doing things on his own schedule, he partnered with the late,
great Chuck Tanner, who was his manager with the White Sox. Tanner essentially
let Dick be Dick. If he wanted to show up 20 minutes before a game, that was
fine with Tanner...as long as Allen produced. And produce he did. Winning the
MVP in 1972, could have easily won the same award in 1969 (as seen in an
earlier post of mine).
The funny
thing about Allen and all of the turmoil that was around him, with the
exception of the Frank Thomas incident, there were not many other players that
had a problem with him. (except maybe opposing pitchers)
Bob Uecker
and Mike Schmidt both have talked in various books about what a great teammate
he was.
So maybe,
soon, Cooperstown may call his name, and he
would be VERY deserving of that honor.
Sorry for
the digression...
Let's visit
the National League now:
NL vs League
Steve Carlton PHI 1.8168
Johnny Bench CIN 1.7588
Gary Nolan CIN 1.7524
Don Sutton LAD 1.7275
Billy Williams CHN 1.6813
Claude Osteen LAD 1.6267
Bob Gibson STL 1.6175
Dock Ellis PIT 1.6167
Jim Wynn HOU 1.6145
Steve Blass PIT 1.6135
NL vs Team
Steve
Carlton PHI 2.1566
Nate Colbert SD
Bob Gibson STL 1.6888
Leron Lee SD 1.6694
Ted Simmons
STL 1.6442
Phil Niekro
ATL 1.6240
Mike
Marshall MON 1.6024
Billy
Williams CHN 1.5962
Johnny
Bench CIN 1.5934
Don Sutton LAD 1.5358
And the
league award voting was:
Johnny
Bench
Billy
Williams
Willie
Stargell
Joe Morgan
Steve
Carlton
And the Cy
Young vote:
Steve
Carlton
Steve Blass
Fergie
Jenkins
Mike
Marshall
4 pitchers
tied at 5th
Bench had a
very good year, no doubt. And I can understand the hesitance of the voters to
vote for a player on a last place team for the MVP award. But the fact is, Carlton was by and far
the best player in either league and by a long shot. Carlton , notorious for not being
'press-friendly'. But the reality is, that 1972 season by Carlton is easily one of the top 5
performances ever.
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