"Dodger Blue Wrecking Crew" - Cards for the 1977 National League for Statis-Pro Baseball

 

"Dodger Blue Wrecking Crew" - Cards for the 1977 National League for Statis-Pro Baseball

1977NL_Comb_For_Print_12_12_2021.pdf

1977_NL_Pitchers_Batting.pdf

(The 1977 National League is very close to the baseline for NL teams over the last 60 years.  It does not require Normalization.)

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On October 2nd, 1977, the last day of the season, Los Angeles Dodger left fielder Dusty Baker stepped in against Houston Astro righthander J.R. Richard in the sixth inning of a game that meant nothing in the standings, but quite a bit in terms of possible history.  To that point in baseball history, no team had ever had four thirty home run hitters within the same season.  While teammates Steve Garvey, Reggie Smith and Ron Cey had cleared the bar, Baker was stuck on 29 homers.   He had entered September with 20 homers but he had uncorked a big month, clipping number 28 on September 18th with 12 games to go. Then he went cold, needing a week to hit his penultimate 29th homer on September 25th.  Now he was down to his last few chances, hitting against the fearsome Richard, who was having an excellent season and by then had a reputation as a bit of a Dodger-killer.  When he had his command Richard was terribly difficult for right-handed batters to stand in against, and up to this point in his career Baker was 7-42 against the Astro's ace, all singles.  

(J.R. Richard could throw 100 mph and his pitching style was referred to back then as "wild-effective".  His slider was not completely controllable, but it was also unhittable; he walked as many as 154 men in a season but allowed microscopic batting averages.  Baker has told funny stories about "J.R.-itis", where some of his contemporary Dodger teammates would fake the flu and beg off being in the lineup in order to miss Richard's turn in the rotation.  I remember him as being the most intimidating righthander I had ever seen until Clemens came along; I'm too young to have seen a lot of Bob Gibson.)  

Baker ripped his 30th deep into the night, and after he circled the bases, rookie outfielder Glenn Burke lifted his hand above his head.  Unsure of how to respond, Baker raised his hand up, overhead, and slapped Burke's - the first recorded "high-five".  It was an imaginative moment to mark what is in retrospect a quaint achievement.  Thanks to the steroid era eleven more teams have now had four thirty home run hitters, and one team, the 2019 Minnesota Twins, had five such players.  Baseball in the Seventies was a simpler game in a simpler time, but because different teams had very different styles of play, it was also immensely entertaining. 

Led by 20 game winner Tommy John, all five LA starters won in double figures and the Dodgers had far and away the National League's best pitching.  LA finished second in complete games and shutouts while relievers Charlie Hough (22) and Mike Garman (12) paced them to fourth in saves.  The combination of timely power and solid pitching allowed the Dodgers to finally surpass the Cincinnati Reds for the first time since 1974.  Relegated to second place, the Reds nonetheless successfully promoted Dan Driessen to take Tony Perez's place; he batted .300 to join three teammates, George Foster (.320), Ken Griffey (.318), and Pete Rose (.311), while Foster also blasted 52 homers and drove in 149 runs to win the MVP.  Cincinnati was one of two teams to score more than 800 runs without the DH in 1977, but fell to 88-74 due to inconsistent starting pitching.  Facing a losing record at the end of May, Cincinnati traded Steve Henderson; a minor league outfielder, Doug Flynn, a utility infielder; Pat Zachry, a pitcher now in his second season in the major leagues, and Dan Norman, an outfielder on June 15th, 1977 for New York Mets ace Tom Seaver.  Seaver finished 14-3 for the Reds to complete his last twenty-game winning season, finishing at 21-6 with a 2.58 ERA and 7 shutouts.  But it would take two years for this trade to truly bear fruit for the Reds.

The other team to score more than 800 runs was the Philadelphia Phillies, with 847 tallies.  Philly fans could be forgiven for believing that 1977 should have been their year.  Philadelphia had a deep and talented lineup featuring four top level fielders in C Bob Boone, SS Larry Bowa, 3B Mike Schmidt, and CF Gary Maddox, and seven hitters who smacked in double figures in homeruns, with Schmidt and OF Greg Luzinski combining for 77 homeruns and 231 RBIs.  The Phillies could also count on Cy Young Award winner Steve Carlton who finished 23-10 with a 2.64 ERA, and a four headed bullpen of Ron Reed, Warren Brusstar, Tug McGraw, and Gene Garber, who posted a league-leading 47 saves.  The Philles led the National League with 101 wins, and looked like they might be World Series bound after taking a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the 8th inning of Game 3 of the NLCS.  (Back then, the NLCS was only 5 games and the Series was tied at 1-1 with Carlton due to pitch in Game 4.)  With two out in the ninth, the Dodgers parlayed a drag bunt, and a double and an error, a single, a failed pickoff and another single into an eventual 6-5 win.  The next day the Dodgers struck first with two quick runs against Lefty, and John outdueled him for a 4-1 win, the National League pennant, and a date with the AL Champion New York Yankees - and Reggie Jackson.

The Pirates won 96 games, and under normal circumstances this would indicate a reasonably close race.  In reality, Pittsburgh was the champions of May, and while they trailed Philadelphia by a mere half game on June 3rd they would never again get that close to first place.  They were done in by an elbow injury to team leader Willie Stargell, and a poor month of June.  After June 3rd they lost five of their next seven, swept the Padres in a double header on the 12th, then lost their next seven in a row, including three walk-offs, to drop 7 games back.  This can happen to a good team - but what happened next was far more damaging to their chances, as they then won six in a row but still lost another half game to the onrushing Phillies.  The Pirates then lost four in a row to the Cardinals and Mets, and went to bed on Jun 28th after at St Louis sweep a full ten games back.  A good July closed this gap to a game and a half by July 30th, but the Phillies were able to put together excellent August and September campaigns to build the lead back.  In Stargell's absence, the Pirates were led on offense by Dave Parker, who led the NL in batting average (.338), hits and doubles and won the Gold Glove in rightfield; Bill Robinson filled in nicely for the missing Pops with a .300 batting average, 26 HRs, and 104 R BI; John Candelaria led the NL in ERA at 2.34 and finished 20-5; and Goose Gossage saved 26 games with a 1.62 ERA.  They were a very good team, but not quite deep enough in the lineup or off the bench to challenge the Phillies.

If the Pirates threatened in the East early, the Cubs led all the way through July.  Chicago forged their way to a 47-24 record on June 30th and a 7 1/2 game lead; with the White Sox also playing well there was talk of a Windy City Series.  The Cubs were led by new outfielder Bobby Murcer, who had 27 homeruns and 89 RBI overall during the season, and righthander Rick Reuschel, who finished with a record of 20-10,  At the end of the bullpen was Bruce Sutter, a second-year pitcher who finished with 31 saves and a 1.34 ERA, but the rest of the rotation as spotty, with Ray Burris, Bill Bonham, and Mike Krukow all finishing with ERAs over 4.00.  To make matters worse, Sutter would hit the disabled list on August 3rd with arm troubles.  He would return three weeks later, by the time the closer returned, the damage was done and the Phillies were in the driver’s seat.

The Cubs would be passed in the end by the Cardinals, who were transitioning from the Bob Gibson era to a new young squad who would later win it all in 1982.  Bob Forsch won 20 games, while first baseman Keith Hernandez scored 90 runs and drove in 91, but the best young talents on the team were slugging catcher Ted Simmons, who batted .318 and swatted 21 HR, and shortstop Gary Templeton, who hit .322.  The Cardinals actually finished 4th in the league in runs scored thanks to speedsters like outfielders Tony Scott and Jerry Mumphrey, Templeton, and the ageless Lou Brock, who still led the team with 35 steals.

They were building the core of the Expo teams that would be contenders later in the decade in Montreal in 1977.  Gary Carter, Larry Parrish, Andre Dawson, Warren Cromartie and Ellis Valentine all played together as starters for the first time, while ace Steve Rogers topped 300 IP for the first time.  Finally exiting the cellar, they were all building the consistency Montreal would lean on in the years from 1979-1983.  The Mets lost Tom Seaver, Jerry Grote, and Dave Kingman to trades, and '73 stalwarts like Bud Harrelson, Felix Millan, and Ed Kranepool were getting older and starting to give way to younger players, like Lee Mazzilli, Steve Henderson and John Stearns.  Falling to last in the NL East, it would be a while before the Mets would rise again.    

The Astros were also establishing a new identity, as they were second in the National League in steals and ERA.  Once a team of big boppers, speed and pitching would become the Houston imprimatur, and in this they were led by the aforementioned flamethrowing J.R. Richard and knuckleballing journeyman Joe Niekro, while left-handed reliever Joe Sambito held down the bullpen nicely.  Bob Watson (22 HR, 110 RBI) and Jose Cruz (17 HR, 87 RBI) provided the pop, while Cesar Cedeno stole 61 SB and won a Gold Glove in the outfield to add the sizzle.  In SF, the Grand Old Man of Candlestick Park, Willie McCovey, banged 28 HR and drove in 86 RBI at the ripe old age of 39 to continue his march to 500 HR and Bill Madlock hit .302, supporting pitchers Ed Halicki (16 wins), Bob Knepper, and John Montefusco, a trio of starters who (along with Vida Blue a year later) would spend a few seasons together.  

The Padres had a great outfield of Gene Richards (.290, 56 SB), George Hendrick (.311, 22 HR, 81 RBI) and Dave Winfield (25 HR, 92 RBI) but catcher Gene Tenace fell to .233 (albeit with 125 walks) and the rest of the lineup was disappointing at the dish.  This doomed team ace Bob Shirley to 18 losses in spite of a reasonable 3.70 ERA.  Gary Matthews (.283, 17 HR, 22 SB) and Jeff Burroughs (41 HR, 114 RBI) provided a little speed and sock, but the Braves fell to 9th in the NL in runs scored, a killing balance with half their games at the Launch Pad, and they weren't brilliant in the field, either, making 175 errors and turning the league’s fewest double plays (127).  Phil Niekro, Atlanta's brilliant half of the Niekro Brothers, could manage only 16 wins while losing 20 with a 4.03 ERA.  

Merry Christmas!  Enjoy these 1977 National League Statis-Pro Cards.  The 1977 American League is coming next, and along with it, a visit to the Bronx Zoo.

-Initial Publication Date 12/12/2021