EXPANDED LEAGUE LEADERS: 1978 N.L. VICTORIES

On the blog today, we move on to the N.L.’s top three winning pitchers for 1977 shown on an “expanded” 1978 league leader card:

 

Actually the card shows SIX pitchers, as the third place spot was taken up by four guys who posted 20 wins each in 1977.

But first, we begin with all-timer Steve Carlton, who took home his second Cy Young Award that season after pacing the league with his 23 wins, while posting a very nice 2.64 earned run average and 198 strikeouts for the Philadelphia Phillies.

It was Carlton’s fourth 20-win season, something he will do another two more times before he’s done, retiring with 329 wins along with 4136 strikeouts and 55 shutouts over his incredible 24 year career.

In second place with 21 wins, “Tom Terrific” Tom Seaver, who split the 1977 campaign with the New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds, going 21-7 with a league-leading seven shutouts, while striking out 196 batters with 19 complete games, having arguably a better year than Carlton to be honest.

For Seaver it was his fifth and final 20-year season, on his way to 311 wins for his stellar career, while fanning 3640 batters and throwing 61 shutouts over 20 years under the Big League sun.

Just incredible, and easily my favorite pitcher of the decade if I say so myself.

In fourth place with 20 wins, four pitchers who all put in decent MLB careers: John Candelaria of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Ken Forsch of the St. Louis Cardinals, Tommy John of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Rick Reuschel of the Chicago Cubs.

These are all men who at one point in their careers were the aces of their staffs, putting in solid Big League tenures well into the 1980’s, with Tommy John especially unique do to his surgery just a couple of years before that would have ended his career in another time or era.

The man went on to pitch over a quarter of a century and receive a surgery that ultimately bears his name and is almost a par-for-the-course ritual for today’s pitchers. Just incredible that he was able to go on for so long and end up with 288 wins over 26 years!

There you have it! The top winning pitchers in the National League in 1977, proudly displayed on a 1978 “expanded league leader” card.

Next week, the A.L.!

 

EXPANDED LEAGUE-LEADERS: 1978 N.L. E.R.A.

Up on the blog today, we have a 1978 “expanded league-leader” card celebrating the top three pitchers in the National League in 1977 in regards to earned run average:

 

We start off with young fellow-Brooklyn native John Candelaria of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who paced the league with his sparkling 2.34 ERA while posting a record of 20-5, with six complete games and a shutout thrown in for good measure.

Ironically, the man also led the N.L. with 29 home runs allowed over his 230.2 inning workload, something you don’t see every day for an ERA leader.

Candelaria is really an underappreciated pitcher from the era, a steady starting arm who routinely threw 200+ innings before moving into the bullpen for the second half of his career.

He’d pitch 19 years in the Majors, winning 177 games and sporting a nice 3.33 ERA over 600 appearances and 2525.2 innings pitched, with 13 shutouts and 29 saves.

In second place with a 2.59 ERA, the great Tom Seaver, who split his 1977 campaign between the New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds after the shocking trade that sent “The Franchise” packing from Shea Stadium, something even THIS young Yankee fan was heartbroken over as an eight-year-old.

Seaver did lead the N.L. with his seven shutouts, while finishing the season 21-6, completing 19 of his 33 starts and tossing 261.1 innings, with 196 strikeouts, the first time he didn’t reach 200 in a season since his rookie year of 1967 when he K’d 170!

The man was simply the cream of the crop as far as pitchers were concerned during the 1970’s.

In third place with a very nice 2.62 ERA for the 1977 season was Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Burt Hooton, who was enjoying the West Coast life after starting his career with the Chicago Cubs.

Hooton posted a record of 12-7 over his 31 starts, tossing two shutouts while picking up a save in his only non-start appearance that season, throwing 223.1 innings for the eventual National League champs.

Another solid pitcher, Hooton would go on to win 151 games over his 15 year career, finishing up with the Texas Rangers in 1985 after suiting up for the Cubs and Dodgers every other season in the Big Leagues.

NO-HITTERS SPECIAL SUB-SET: JOHN CANDELARIA. AUGUST 9TH, 1976

Next up in my No-Hitters through the 1970’s thread is the gem spun by fellow-Brooklyn native John Candelaria of the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 9th of 1976 against the Los Angeles Dodgers:

The 22-year-old lefty was having himself a great season so far, coming into the game with a 10-4 record in his first full-season of Major League ball.
Against a powerful Dodger line-up that included Steve Garvey, Ron Cey et. al, he went on to strike out seven batters against one walk, beating fellow starter Doug Rau.
With the game scoreless going into the bottom of the fifth, the Pirates got a some men on base for third baseman Bill Robinson, who drove in what ended being the only two runs of the game with a double.
Candelaria took care of the rest, pitching the final four innings and securing his place in MLB history with the no-hitter.
He would go on to pitch 19-seasons in the Big Leagues, winning 177 games with a very nice 3.33 earned run average over 600 appearances, with 13 shutouts and 1673 strikeouts along with 29 saves.

NICKNAMES OF THE 1970'S: "THE CANDY MAN" JOHN CANDELARIA

Let’s go and give former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher John “The Candy Man” Candelaria a card in my long-running “Nicknames of the 1970’s” thread shall we:

The fellow native New Yorker out of LaSalle Academy had himself an excellent 19-year career in the Major Leagues, making an impact immediately as a 22-year old in 1976 for Pittsburgh, going 16-7 in his first full season, with a 3.15 earned run average over 32 appearances, with four shutouts.
The following season he had himself the best year of his career, going 20-5 while leading the league in both winning percentage (.800) and earned run average (2.34) over 33 starts, making his only All-Star game appearance while finishing fifth in the N.L. Cy Young voting.
By the time he retired as an active player after the 1993 season at the age of 39, he finished with a record of 177-122, good for a very nice .592 winning percentage, with 11 shutouts over 600 appearances, 356 of them starts, with a 3.33 ERA.
I loved his brief time with the New York Yankees in 1988 and 1989, with his ‘88 season a very good one, going 13-7 over 25 appearances, 24 of those starts.
“The Candy Man”!