On the blog today,
we move on to the American League and the top three runs batted in men
of the 1977 season, displayed on a 1978 “expanded league leader” card:
We start off with
Minnesota Twins slugger Larry Hisle, who had a breakout season in 1977,
leading the league with his 119 ribbies, while also hitting 28 homers
and hitting .302, with 95 runs scored.
It was Hisle’s ninth
season in the Big Leagues, and he finally hit his stride at the age of
30, setting career bests across the board, making his first All-Star
team and finishing twelfth in the MVP race.
He’d have an even
better year in 1978 after signing with the Milwaukee Brewers as a free
agent, hitting 34 homers with 115 RBIs and a .290 batting average, good
for a third-place finish in the MVP race at
season’s end, again making the All-Star team.
Sadly, in 1979 Hisle
absolutely wrecked his shoulder, suffering a torn rotator cuff, which
pretty much ended his career, playing in only 29 games that season,
followed by 17, 27 and nine games over the next
three years before retiring.
In second place with
115 RBIs, the always electric Bobby Bonds, who had a wonderful 1977
season that saw him set a career-best in RBIs, with 103 runs scored, 37
home runs, 41 stolen bases and a .264 average
for the California Angels.
It was the fourth
time Bonds would reach 30 homers with 30 stolen bases, adding one more
season the following year, splitting time between the Chicago White Sox
and Texas Rangers with 31 homers and 43 steals.
In third place with
114 RBIs in 1977, budding uber-star Jim Rice of the Boston Red Sox, who
was about to launch himself into superstardom with an MVP season in
1978.
However in 1977 he
handled himself well with a league-leading 39 homers, with the
aforementioned 114 RBIs, with 206 hits and a .320 batting average,
finishing fourth in the MVP race while making his first
All-Star team.
Of course, in 1978
he elevated all of those numbers with an MVP year, leading the league in
hits (213), triples (15), homers (46), RBIs (139), slugging (.600) and
total bases (406), having perhaps the best
offensive season in the American League during the 1970’s.
The man was an
absolute beast at the plate, something he’d continue to do over the rest
of his career, leading straight to the Hall of Fame, and rightly so in
my book.
There you have it! The top three RBI men of 1977.
