LET THE ARGUMENTS BEGIN!
Today
on the blog, we move on to the American League and my pick with the top
catcher in the league for the 1970's, New York Yankees great Thurman
Munson:
Now,
Carlton Fisk is obviously a close second in my book, and he arguably
can be in the top spot for many, but with Munson putting in the full
decade, taking home an MVP in 1976 as well as the Rookie of the Year in
1970, and leading the Yankees to two straight World Championships in
1977 and 1978, he gets the nod from me here.
For three consecutive seasons he drove in 100+ runs with LESS than
20 homers, topping out at 18 in 1977, while hitting over .300 each and
every time.
I particularly love his M.V.P. year, where he had 665 plate
appearances yet only struck out 38 times while collecting 186 hits over
616 at-bats. Pretty amazing stuff. He even stole 14 bases as well!
As
for Fisk, I think we can fairly say he was incredibly the A.L.'s best
catcher for the 1980's, displaying what an unbelievable career he had
both in terms of production AND longevity for a Big League catcher.
Two amazing guys that came up at the same time and were heated opponents.
