The New York Mets came up with another miracle, just barely winning an NL East that nobody seemed to want to win by posting a mere 82-79 record with an injury-riddled team. The Mets then used their superior pitching to fend off the Cincinnati juggernaut that had won 99 games, just ahead of the 95-win Dodgers. With the Tug McGraw-coined motto "Ya Gotta Believe!" and players returning from the DL for the stretch drive, the September Mets were better than they had been all year. Only 2B Felix Millan and RF Rusty Staub managed to play 150 games.
While the East had only an 11.5 game span top-to-bottom, the West sported a more typical spread, with Cincy and LA at the top, San Francisco third and Houston fourth, Atlanta fifth, and San Diego last with 102 losses. The East went NY, St. Louis, Pittsburgh (suffering the tragic loss of Roberto Clemente), Montreal, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
Pete Rose won the batting title and the MVP, Lou Brock led in steals, and Willie Stargell led in homers, RBI, and OPS. Hank Aaron had a higher OPS, but not enough plate appearances to qualify. Rose batted .338 with Cesar Cedeno at .320 and Garry Maddox at .318. Stargell had 44 homers, Davey Johnson 43, Darrel Evans 41, and Aaron 40, bringing his career total to 713, one short of Babe Ruth. Stargell had 119 RBI, Lee May 105, Evans and Johnny Bench 104. Stargell had 43 doubles, Roger Metzger 14 triples, Rose 230 hits, Bobby Bonds scored 131 runs. Lou Brock stole 70 bases.
SF's Ron Bryant was the only 20-game winner, and he won 24. Jack Billingham and Tom Seaver won 19. Seaver led in ERA and strikeouts and won the Cy Young. His 2.08 ERA was trailed by Don Sutton at 2.42 and Wayne Twitchell at 2.50. Seaver's 251 strikeouts led Steve Carlton's 223. Mike Marshall led in saves with 31. Billingham threw seven shutouts.
Win Shares leaders, players; Joe Morgan (Cincinnati) 40, Willie Stargell (Pittsburgh) 36, Pete Rose (Cincinnati) 34, Tony Perez (Cincinnati) 32, Darrell Evans (Atlanta) and Bobby Bonds (San Francisco) 31, Cesar Cedeno (Houston) 30, Joe Ferguson (Los Angeles) 29, Bob Watson (Houston), Ken Singleton (Montreal) and Ted Simmons (St. Louis) 28, Johnny Bench (Cincinnati) and Lou Brock (St. Louis) 26, Willie Crawford (Los Angeles) 24, Willie Davis (Los Angeles), Rusty Staub (New York) and Garry Maddox (San Francisco) 23, Rick Monday (Chicago), Al Oliver (Pittsburgh), Willie McCovey (San Francisco) and Ted Sizemore (St. Louis) 22.
Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Tom Seaver (New York) 29, Mike Marshall (Montreal) 23, Don Sutton (Los Angeles) and Steve Renko (Montreal) 22, Wayne Twitchell (Philadelphia) 21, Rick Reuschel (Chicago) and Dave Roberts (Houston) 20, Jack Billingham (Cincinnati) 19, Carl Morton (Atlanta), Andy Messersmith (Los Angeles)and Jerry Koosman (New York) 18, Phil Niekro (Atlanta), Bob Locker (Chicago), Don Wilson (Houston) and Ron Bryant (San Francisco) 17.
WARP3 leaders, players: Morgan 10.3, Stargell 9.7, Evans 9.6, Bonds 8.8, Bench 7.4, Ferguson 7.2, Cedeno 7.1, Watson 6.9, Rose 6.7, Simmons 6.4, Perez 6.3, Dave Concepcion (Cincinnati) 6.1, Singleton 5.9, Crawford and Bill Russell (Los Angeles) 5.8, Hank Aaron and Davey Johnson (both Atlanta) 5.4, McCovey 5.3.
WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Seaver 10.9, Renko 7.9, Reuschel 7.4, Twitchell 7.0, Steve Rogers (Montreal) 6.9, Burt Hooton (Chicago) 6.7, Sutton 6.4, Marshall 6.2, Koosman 5.8, Niekro 5.7, Morton and Ken Brett (Philadelphia) 5.4, Jon Matlack (New York) 5.3.
WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Evans 10.2, Morgan 10.0, Stargell 8.1, Bonds 8.0, Rose 7.9, Cedeno 7.5, Simmons 6.3, Perez and Singleton 6.2, Bailey 5.9, Johnson 5.8, Bench and Crawford 5.5, Ferguson 5.4, Watson 5.3. Pitchers (bWAR): Seaver 9.5, Twitchell 6.2, Koosman and Sutton 5.7, Reuschel 5.5, Roberts and Rogers 5.0, Matlack 4.6, Niekro and Renko 4.4, Wilson 4.1, Hooton and Morton 4.0.
Actual award winners:
MVP (top 20): | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+
1 Pete Rose CIN 12 274 336 0.82 | 680 230 5 .338 .838 10
2 Willie Stargell PIT 10 250 336 0.74 | 522 156 44 .299 1.038 0
3 Bobby Bonds SFG 1 174 336 0.52 | 643 182 39 .283 .900 43
4 Joe Morgan CIN 1 102 336 0.30 | 576 167 26 .290 .899 67
5 Mike Marshall MON 0 93 336 0.28 | 33 8 0 .242 .528 0| 14-11 179 2.66 1.330 124 31
6 Lou Brock STL 0 65 336 0.19 | 650 193 7 .297 .762 70
7 Tony Perez CIN 0 59 336 0.18 | 564 177 27 .314 .919 3
8 Tom Seaver NYM 0 57 336 0.17 | 93 15 1 .161 .457 1| 19-10 290 2.08 0.976 251
9 Ken Singleton MON 0 52 336 0.15 | 560 169 23 .302 .904 2
10 Johnny Bench CIN 0 41 336 0.12 | 557 141 25 .253 .774 4
11 Cesar Cedeno HOU 0 39 336 0.12 | 525 168 25 .320 .913 56
12 Hank Aaron ATL 0 35 336 0.10 | 392 118 40 .301 1.045 1
13 Davey Johnson ATL 0 34 336 0.10 | 559 151 43 .270 .916 5
14 Ted Simmons STL 0 20 336 0.06 | 619 192 13 .310 .808 2
15 Tug McGraw NYM 0 17 336 0.05 | 24 4 0 .167 .426 0| 5-6 119 3.87 1.356 81 25
16 Willie Davis LAD 0 12 336 0.04 | 599 171 16 .285 .764 17
16 Felix Millan NYM 0 12 336 0.04 | 638 185 3 .290 .685 2
18 Darrell Evans ATL 0 11 336 0.03 | 595 167 41 .281 .959 6
19 Lee May HOU 0 9 336 0.03 | 545 147 28 .270 .789 1
20 Tito Fuentes SFG 0 8 336 0.02 | 656 182 6 .277 .686 12
Rose by a slim margin over Stargell, with average beating out power, and Bonds' near 40-40 season in third, and Morgan's tremendous year 4th.
Cy Young: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Tom Seaver NYM 10 71 120 0.59 | 19-10 290 2.08 0.976 251
2 Mike Marshall MON 9 54 120 0.45 | 14-11 179 2.66 1.330 124 31
3 Ron Bryant SFG 3 50 120 0.42 | 24-12 270 3.53 1.315 143
4 Jack Billingham CIN 2 30 120 0.25 | 19-10 293 3.04 1.200 155
5 Don Sutton LAD 0 7 120 0.06 | 18-10 256 2.42 0.983 200
6 Fred Norman TOT 0 3 120 0.02 |+13-13 240 3.60 1.286 161
7 Dave Giusti PIT 0 1 120 0.01 | 9-2 99 2.37 1.277 64 20
Seaver in a race that was fairly close, but with a clear victor.
Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+
1 Gary Matthews SFG 11 11 24 0.46 | 540 162 12 .300 .812 17
2 Steve Rogers MON 3 3 24 0.12 | 41 4 0 .098 .318 0| 10-5 134 1.54 1.060 64
3 Bob Boone PHI 2 2 24 0.08 | 521 136 10 .261 .675 3
3 Dan Driessen CIN 2 2 24 0.08 | 366 110 4 .301 .731 8
3 Elias Sosa SFG 2 2 24 0.08 | 14 1 0 .071 .259 0| 10-4 107 3.28 1.271 70 18
6 Ron Cey LAD 1 1 24 0.04 | 507 124 15 .245 .723 1
6 Johnny Grubb SDP 1 1 24 0.04 | 389 121 8 .311 .818 9
6 Davey Lopes LAD 1 1 24 0.04 | 535 147 6 .275 .703 36
9 Richie Zisk PIT 0 0 24 0.00 | 333 108 10 .324 .890 0
The Sarge, trailed by a large pack.
Top player: Joe Morgan. Morgan broke out with a terrific year, but didn't draw a lot of votes because he didn't make it atop any offensive leaderboards. All-around, he was the best for the NL's winningest team.
#1 Joe Morgan, #2 Willie Stargell, #3 Darrell Evans, #4 Pete Rose, #5 Bobby Bonds, #6 Cesar Cedeno.
Top pitcher: Tom Seaver was far and away the best in the league.
#1 Tom Seaver, #2 Don Sutton, #3 Mike Marshall, #4 Rick Reuschel, #5 Jon Matlack.
Top rookie: Gary Matthews over a pretty good field.
Top manager: Yogi Berra kept the Mets close through their troubles, and they came up big at the right time.
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