Next up in my ongoing "Expanded League Leaders" series is the 1975 A.L. Runs Batted In leader card featuring the top three RBI men of the 1974 season for the Junior Circuit:
We start
off with the top RBI man, the Texas Rangers' Jeff Burroughs, former #1
overall pick and young stud, who paced the league with 118 "ribbies" in
1974.
Burroughs was still only 23 years of age by season's
end, hitting 25 homers with a very nice .301 batting average to go with
the RBIs all leading to him taking home the American League MVP Award
and making his first All-Star team.
He would end up putting in
a very nice 16-year Major League career, hitting 240 homers before he
was done by the end of the 1984 season.
In second place with
103 RBIs is a man that is terribly overlooked these days, Oakland A's
All-Star third baseman Sal bando, who topped 100 RBIs for the second and
final time over his excellent 16-year career.
Bando would
finish third in the MVP race for 1974, helping the A's to their third
straight championship, hitting 22 homers and making his fourth All-Star
team, this after coming in fourth in 1973 and second in 1972.
The man was so good yet gets forgotten these days when talking about 1970's baseball.
In
third place with 99 RBIs for the 1974 season, another Oakland A's star,
Joe Rudi, who finished second in the MVP race that season, the second
time doing so in three years.
Rudi led the A.L. with 39
doubles, hitting .293 with 22 homers and taking home his first of three
Gold Gloves while making his second All-Star team for the loaded A's
offense.
Incredibly, as with the other two players featured
today, he also put in exactly 16 seasons as a Major Leaguer, with three
All-Star nods, three Gold Gloves and two second place MVP finishes to go
with his three championship rings.
