Next up in my on-going "expanded league leaders" thread, where I give each league a dedicated league leader card with the top-3 finishers in each statistic as opposed to one card featuring the top in both leagues, is the 1973 A.L. strikeout leader card, with some top-notch arms:
First up, the arrival of Nolan
Ryan, who made his first season as a California Angel a big one,
striking out 329 batters in 1972, something we would all get used to for
the next TWENTY years!
Ryan would go one to post an incredible six 300 strikeout campaigns, the last of which was in 1989 when he was 42 years old!
I mean, come on!
By
the time the "Ryan Express" was done after a magnificent 27 year
career, he'd make a joke out of the strikeout category, finishing with
an astounding 5714.
The man posted fifteen 200+ strikeout
seasons over his career, while going on to win 324 games, throwing seven
no-hitters and 61 shutouts.
Just absurd.
Behind him
in second place was a man who once held the Major League record for
career strikeouts by a left-hander, Detroit Tigers ace Mickey Lolich,
who whiffed 250 batters in 1972, the fifth time he reached 200
strikeouts in a season.
Lolich was coming off a 1971 season
that saw him lead the league with 308 strikeouts, while also leading the
league with 25 wins, good for a second place finish in the Cy Young
race behind wunderkind Vida Blue of the Oakland A's.
By the
time Lolich retired after the 1979 season, he finished with 2832
strikeouts, the most ever collected by a left-hander in MLB history.
Coming
in third place in the A.L. with 234 strikeouts was Hall of Famer
Gaylord Perry of the Cleveland Indians, who took home the Cy Young Award
with his 24-16 record, with a 1.92 ERA and five shutouts, while tossing
an amazing 342.2 innings over 41 appearances, all but one starts.
It
was the fifth time for Perry reaching the 200-mark in strikeouts,
something he'd do another three times before he was done, finishing with
3534 for his career.
Three super-stud arms finishing 1
through 3 in strikeouts, making for what would have been a nice card to
add to the collection had it been done differently by Topps.