In the National League you had the (should be) Hall of Famer in my book, Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Dave Parker, who pun in a second straight batting title in 1978, along with 30 homers and 117 runs batted in, while also pacing the Senior Circuit in slugging and total bases.
The man was a beast, yet also stole a career-high 20 bases, which he would match in 1979, while also slapping a career-high 12 triples.
Really, there was nothing he couldn’t do when you also take into account his rifle of an arm in right field, which was put on display for all to see in the 1979 All-Star game.
By the time he retired, he put up similar numbers to his 1978 MVP cohort Jim Rice, though Rice finally got the support needed to get into Cooperstown years later.
Parker finished with 339 homers, two batting titles, an MVP, over 2700 hits, just under 1500 RBIs and a .290 batting average.
In the American League, we come to Jim Rice, who won the award over the New York Yankees Ron Guidry when he led the Junior Circuit in hits, triples, homers, runs batted in slugging and total bases.
He hit an incredible 15 triples while slamming 46 homers to go along with 25 doubles, making him one of the few players to top 400 total bases in the period between World War II and the “steroid era” with 406.
By the time Rice finished up his excellent MLB career, he hit 382 homers, batted .298 and collected 2452 hits along with 1451 RBIs.
Though it did take a while, as I stated earlier, he finally made the Hall on his 15th and final eligible year on the ballot, garnering 76.4% of the vote.
Two absolute thumpers at the plate and legitimate superstars for the era.
