On the blog today,
we move on to the American League and their top winning pitchers for
1974, on a 1975 “expanded league leader” card:
The top spot with 25
victories was shared by two future Hall of Famers, Jim “Catfish” Hunter
and Fergie Jenkins, who both had monster seasons and finished first and
second respectively in the Cy Young race
by season’s end.
For Hunter, he
finally brought home the Cy Young Award after going 25-12 for the
Oakland A’s, helping them win their third straight World Championship,
defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He also led the
league with a 2.49 earned run average, starting 41 games and completing
23, with six shutouts and 143 strikeouts in 318.1 innings of work,
edging out Jenkins 90 points to 75 for pitching’s
greatest award.
For Jenkins, he just
missed out on becoming the first pitcher to take home the award in both
leagues, as he would go 25-12 with a 2.82 ERA over 41 starts,
completing 29 while tossing six shutouts himself,
striking out 225 batters for the surprising Texas Rangers.
It was the last of
his seven 20-win seasons in the Majors, as he would go on to finish with
284 wins over his stellar 19-year Big League career.
In third place with
22 wins apiece are four solid starters from the decade, including one
Hall of Famer: Nolan Ryan, Mike Cuellar, Steve Busby and Luis Tiant.
All four of these
guys put in Cy worthy years for their respective teams, with Ryan
leading the league with 367 strikeouts, Cuellar leading the league with
his .688 winning percentage, Tiant leading the league
with his seven shutouts and Busby tossing the second no-hitter of his
young career, becoming the first pitcher to ever toss two no-no’s in his
first two full seasons in the Majors.
Well there you have it! SIX top-notch pitchers of the era represented on a fun card to create for the blog!