On the blog today, we celebrate Fred Lynn's 10-RBI game in 1975, the year he set the baseball world on fire, making an unprecedented splash by going on to win the Rookie of the Year AND MVP Award:
On June 18th of that season, Lynn
absolutely destroyed the Detroit Tigers, going 5-for-6 at the plate with
three home runs and a triple, scoring four runs while driving in 10,
just one off the A.L. record set by New York Yankee second baseman Tony
Lazzeri 39 years earlier.
Though already making a splash in
his first full Big League season, Lynn really made his presence known
with this game as a young budding superstar.
Coming out of USC, Lynn was a second round pick by the Boston Red
Sox in 1973, and got his first small taste of the Majors in 1974,
playing 15 games and ripping it up to the tune of a .419 batting average
in 43 at-bats.
That was a small sampling of what fans were to see the following
year, as Lynn just took over and lead the charge for the BoSox, hitting
.331 with 21 homers and 105 runs batted in.
He'd also lead the league in runs scored with 103, doubles with 47, and slugging with a .566 average.
On top of all of that, he'd even take home a Gold Glove for his defensive efforts as well!
He was "All-World" at that point!
The Red Sox would fall short of a truly magical year for Lynn,
losing to the mighty "Big Red Machine" Cincinnati team in the World
Series, but for Lynn it would the first full season of a very nice 17
year career which saw him hit over 300 homers, drive
in over 1000 runs and stroke just under 2000 hits.
1979 would probably be his best season, when he lead the American
League in batting with a .333 average, to go along with great power
numbers of 39 homers, 116 runs scored and 122 runs batted in, all career
highs.
He would also be the only Major Leaguer of the decade to lead the
league in batting, on-base and slugging in the same season, with a
slash-line of .333/.423/.637.
If it wasn't for an odd plethora of "awesome" years by Don Baylor,
Ken Singleton and George Brett, Lynn could have won another M.V.P.
Nevertheless, that 1975 accomplishment of becoming the first player
to ever win a Rookie of the Year AND Most Valuable Player Award in the
year is something to be proud of.
