Today on the blog we move on to strikeouts in my on-going 1973 "expanded league leaders" project, where I give each league a dedicated league-leader card, and this one is one doozy, featuring three of the best pitchers of the era:
We
begin of course with Steve Carlton, "Lefty", who was coming off his
epic "triple crown" season of 1972, dominating the league on his way to
the first of his four Cy Young Awards.
Carlton struck out 310 batters over his 346.1 innings, winning 27 games for a last place team, along with eight shutouts.
The man COMPLETED 30 of his 41 starts, and pitched to a sparkling 1.97 earned run average, giving up only 76 runs. Incredible.
Behind
Carlton in the strikeout race is another legend, Tom Seaver of the New
York Mets, who was the N.L. strikeout king in both 1970 and 1971, this
time runner-up with 249 K's.
Seaver was in his prime, winning
21 games, tossing three shutouts and finishing the season with a 2.92
ERA over 262 innings of work.
His 8.6 K's per nine innings actually led the league, something he would do six of seven seasons between 1970 and 1976!
In
third place with 208 strikeouts in 1972 is yet another Hall of Fame
hurler, Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals who finished with 208, the
last of his nine 200-strikeouts seasons over his amazing career.
For
Gibson, 1972 was the final "great" season of his 17-year career,
posting a record of 19-11 with a 2.46 ERA over 34 starts, completing 23
of them with four shutouts.
In 1974 he would become (at that
time) only the second pitcher to ever reach 3000 strikeouts, with only
legend Walter Johnson ahead of him in the category.
Well, there you have it! The National League's top strikeout guys. Now onto the American League next week!
