Moving on here on
the blog with my “expanded league leaders” thread, we have the top three
hitters of the American League for 1977, represented on an expanded
1978 leader card:
Of course, we begin
with the man of the year that season, the great Rod Carew, who had a
season of the ages that year, flirting with the magic .400 number all
Summer before finishing with a .388 average, also
leading the league with 128 runs scored, 238 hits, 16 triples and a
.449 on-base-percentage, making him the clear choice for MVP.
It was the sixth of
seven career batting titles for the elite batsman, while it was also the
first and only time he’d reach 100 runs batted in, with 100 on the nose
for the Minnesota Twins.
Just elite for the era!
Behind him with a
.336 average, teammate and up-and-comer Lyman Bostock, who had a
wonderful year that saw him collect 199 hits while scoring 104 runs,
with 36 doubles, 12 triples and 14 homers while driving
in 90 runs.
He would take that
production and sign via Free Agency with the California Angels at
season’s end, putting in another solid campaign in 1978 when he hit .296
with 168 hits, scoring 74 runs and driving in 71
before being tragically murdered in his hometown of Gary, Indiana as an
innocent bystander, being shot sitting in a car, just short of his 28th birthday.
In only four Major
League seasons Bostock hit .311, sadly having that talent taken from us
and left to wonder what could have been.
In third place with a
.328 batting average in 1977, underappreciated hitter Ken Singleton,
one of my favorite baseball “people”, who continually put in solid
season after season over his stellar career.
In 1977 he collected
176 hits with 90 runs scored, 24 homers and 99 RBIs, with 107 walks to
finish with a very nice .438 on-base-percentage, making his first
All-Star team while finishing third in the MVP
race.
He would do one
better two years later when he finished runner-up to the MVP Award to
Don Baylor in 1979 when he set career highs with 35 homers and 111 RBIs,
helping the Baltimore Orioles make it all the
way to the World Series before they fell to the “We Are Family”
Pittsburgh Pirates.
Well, there you go, as we move on to the top three home run hitters of 1977 for the N.L. next week. See you then!
