This week's "Expanded League Leader" card is one for the American League's top three winning pitchers of 1972. Three studs if there ever were any:
We begin with the two tied for first with 24 wins each, knuckle-baller Wilbur Wood and Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry.
For
Wood, it was his second of four straight 20-win seasons, as he was
racking up the innings with an astounding 376.2 in 1972. Think about
that for a minute!
The man STARTED 49 games for the Chicago
White Sox, completing 20 of them, tossing eight shutouts along the way
and striking out 193, with a final record of 24-17.
All of
those numbers were good enough for a second place finish in the Cy Young
race at the end of the year because of the next guy, Gaylord Perry.
Perry,
who led the National League in wins in 1970 with 23 as a member of the
San Francisco Giants, took to his new league immediately, winning 24
games for the Cleveland Indians, finishing with a record of 24-16 over
41 appearances, 40 of those starts, with a brilliant 1.92 earned run
average and five shutouts.
He too racked up the innings, completing 29 of those starts and finishing with 342.2 innings of work, with 234 strikeouts.
THOSE numbers would be the ones that brought home a Cy Young Award, the first of his two over his storied career.
Next
up with 22 wins is the league leader from 1971, Detroit Tigers pitcher
Mickey Lolich, who would have won himself a Cy Young of not for the
previous two guys, as he'd finish the year with a record of 22-14 over
41 starts, completing 23 of them and tossing yet again an incredible
327.1 innings with four shutouts and 250 strikeouts.
It would
get him a third place finish in the Cy Young race, this after his
incredible 1971 season which saw him finish second after leading the
league with 25 wins, throwing an astounding 376 innings when he
completed 29 of 45 starts, striking out a leading 308 batters while
throwing four shutouts.
Three workhorses who really put up astounding numbers in 1972!
