The
final 1972 award we celebrate with a 1973 sub-set card is Rookie of the
Year, won by a solid starter over the next decade, Jon Matlack, and
future Hall of Famer catcher Carlton Fisk:
In the National League, Matlack joined an already solid New York Mets
staff and proceeded to post a 15-10 record, with a very nice 2.32 earned
run average over 32 starts, including four shutouts.
It would pretty much be the prototypical Matlack season as he’d go on to
lead the league in shutouts twice, and average about 15 wins over the
next seven years.
He’d split his time as a big league pitcher evenly between the Mets and
Texas Rangers, and retire with an excellent 3.18 E.R.A., along with a
final record of 125-126 and 30 shutouts in 361 appearances, 318 of them
starts.
In the American League, Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox immediately
made his impact on the game, unanimously winning the award by hitting
.293 and leading the league with nine triples along with 22 homers and
61 runs batted in.
Of course, we all know he’d go on to star for both the Red Sox and then
the Chicago White Sox over the next 21 seasosn, 24 overall, becoming one
of the greatest catchers in the history of the game.
He be named to eleven all-star games, collect 2356 Major League hits,
and slam 376 home runs with 1330 runs batted in and 1276 runs scored.
Of course, he’d also give us one of baseball’s all-time moments, hitting
the game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series versus the
“Big Red Machine” Cincinnati Reds, the image of him waving the ball
fair a part of Major League history.
After eleven years in Boston, he would go on to play 13 more with the
White Sox, playing until the age of 45! A tank of a man, and continue to
put in solid season after season.
In 1985 at the age of 37, he set career highs in home runs (37) and Runs
batted in (107), while tying his career high in stolen bases (17) while
catching 130 games. Just amazing.
After missing out on a Hall of Fame selection in 1999 (how the Hell did
that happen?), he made it in the following year when he was named on
79.6% of ballots, joining other all-time catchers like Campanella, Berra
and Bench in baseball immortality.