Sunday, August 8, 2021

EXPANDED YEARLY LEADER CARDS: 1973 N.L. VICTORIES

On the blog today, we move on to the National League's top winners for 1972 in my on-going "Expanded League Leader" card series, featuring some big time studs of the era:

 
Of course we start off with the great Steve Carlton, who led the world in everything for 1972, winning 27 games on his way to the first of his four Cy Young Awards.
The man was just incredible, especially given that the Philadelphia Phillies won only 59 games that year!
Coming in second that year in wins was another future Hall of Famer, Tom Seaver of the New York Mets who posted 21 victories, his third 20+ win season of his young career.
The righty also posted his fifth of what would end up being nine straight 200+ strikeout seasons, also making his sixth straight All-Star team.
Tied for third among N.L. pitchers with 20 wins apiece are Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins and Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Claude Osteen.
For Jenkins, it was his sixth straight 20+ win campaign, coming off a Cy Young winning season in 1971 when he himself led the N.L. with his 24 wins, completing an incredible 30 of his 39 starts!
In Osteen, the Dodgers got a pitcher who put in his second career 20-win season, the first which came in 1969.
Osteen paired his 20-wins with a nice 2.64 earned run average, along with four shutouts while completing 14 of his 33 starts, tossing 252 innings.
Well there you go, four pitchers making the cut here on this card, as we go ahead and move on to the American League next week!

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER...

@wthballs
Everything baseball: cards, events, history and more.