Next in my on-going "expanded league leaders" thread for the 1970's, we move on to the National League's top three strikeout artists for 1974, shown on a 1975 league-leader card:
We
begin with one of the greatest, Hall of Fame lefty Steve Carlton, who
led the N.L. with his 240 K's in 1974, his second of what would end up
being five strikeout titles over his 24 year career.
Carlton
would top 200 strikeouts in a season eight times in his career, with a
high of 310 during his "all-world" campaign that saw him take home the
first of his four Cy Young Awards.
By the time he was done with the Majors, he'd finish with 4136 strikeouts, behind only Nolan Ryan over baseball's long history.
In
second place with 221 strikeouts, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Andy
Messersmith, who had a really great year in 1974 and would have been the
Cy Young winner if not for teammate Mike marshall rewriting the relief
pitcher record books.
For Messersmith, in addition to his 221
K's, he led the league with 20 wins and a 1.098 WHIP, also taking home
the first of his two straight Gold Gloves to go along with a very nice
2.59 ERA.
In third place with "only" 201 strikeouts, quite
possibly my favorite pitcher of all-time, Tom Seaver, who still managed
to make it seven straight seasons of 200 or more K's.
In what
was a down year for "Tom Terrific", he posted a record of 11-11 with a
3.20 ERA over 32 starts, tossing five shutouts while logging 236 innings
of work.
He'd come right back in 1975, taking home his fourth
strikeout title with 243 K's, following that up with yet another
league-leading total in 1976 with 235.
I was in absolute awe
of this man as a burgeoning baseball nut at that time, wishing beyond
all that he was suiting up for my beloved Yankees instead of the
cross-town Mets.
Anyway, there you have it! Next week, the American League's top strikeout pitchers.