On the blog today, we have the 1975 "expanded league leader" card for the American League's top base stealers of the previous season, with a fun surprise at third place:
Starting off
with the top stolen base player for the Junior Circuit in 1974, the
Oakland A's Bill North, who paced the league with his 54 steals, the
first of two crowns for him in the next three years.
North
just missed what would have been his first stolen base crown the year
prior, in 1973, when he fell one short of sharing the lead with Tommy
Harper of the Boston Red Sox.
Two seasons later in 1976 he'd
have his best year in the Majors, leading the league with 75 steals
while scoring 91 runs with a .276 batting average, collecting a
career-best 163 hits.
In second place, and far back with 38
steals, Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who hit a blistering .364 while also
leading the league with 218 hits and a .433 on-base-percentage for the
Minnesota twins.
It's easy to forget that Carew would go on to
steal 353 bases over his stellar career, with a high of 49 in 1976, as
well as 41 in 1973.
In third place, and this is exactly the
reason I wanted to do expanded league leaders in the first place, is a
player many would be shocked to see here, the Cleveland Indians' John
Lowenstein, who stole 36 bases while quietly putting together a nice
season, collecting what turned out to be a career-best 123 hits over 140
games.
Of course we'll all remember him years later as a
great bat off the bench for the Baltimore Orioles, with 1982 a fantastic
season for him when he hit .320 with 24 homers and 66 runs batted in
over just 310 at-bats, platooning with Gary Roenicke to give the O's a
potent tandem no matter who was on the opposing mound.
And there you have it, the A.L.'s top base=stealers of 1974. On to pitching leaders!