1980 National League

Two great division races ended in a year for the Phillies, with their first-ever World championship in their long existence. All the other teams dating back so far had won long before. The Phils didn't have it easy, outlasting Montreal by a single game, and defending champs Pittsburgh by eight. St. Louis, New York, and Chicago finished under .500. Houston got its first division title in the West, by a game over the Dodgers and 3.5 over the Reds. Atlanta, San Francisco, and San Diego trailed. Philadelphia then went the distance to beat Houston in the NLCS, and beat Kansas City in six to win the World Series. The Cardinals led the league in offense, and the Astros in pitching, but the Phillies gave up the fewest runs on the road. Mike Schmidt led the league in HR (48), RBI (121), total bases, slugging, and OPS. Bob Horner was second with 35 homers, George Hendrick with 109 RBI. Bill Buckner won the batting title with a .324 average, a bit ahead of Keith Hernandez's .321. Hernandez scored 111 runs. Steve Garvey had 200 hits. Pete Rose had 42 doubles, Omar Moreno and Tony Scott 13 triples. Ron LeFlore stole 97 bases to Omar Moreno's 96. Steve Carlton led the league in wins (24) and strikeouts (286), and was 2nd in ERA with 2.34 to Don Sutton's 2.20. Joe Niekro was the other 20-game winner with exactly that. Nolan Ryan was second with 200 strikeouts. Bruce Sutter led in saves with 28. Carlton led with 304 innings, Jerry Reuss had six shutouts, Steve Rogers 14 complete games. Win Shares leaders, players: Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia) 37, Gary Carter (Montreal) 30, Andre Dawson (Montreal) 29, Dale Murphy (Atlanta) and Keith Hernandez (St. Louis) 28, Darrell Evans (San Francisco) 27, Cesar Cedeno (Houston) 26, Ken Griffey (Cincinnati) and Jose Cruz (Houston) 25, Dusty Baker (Los Angeles), Lee Mazzilli (New York) and Jack Clark (San Francisco) 24, George Foster (Cincinnati), Terry Puhl (Houston) and Ron Cey (Los Angeles) 23, Dave Collins (Cincinnati), Steve Garvey (Los Angeles), Mike Easler (Pittsburgh), Gene Richards and Dave Winfield (San Diego) and Ted Simmons (St. Louis) 22. WS leaders, pitchers: Steve Carlton (Philadelphia) 29, Jerry Reuss (Los Angeles) 21, Rick Camp (Atlanta), Don Sutton (Los Angeles) and Steve Rogers (Montreal) 20, Tom Hume (Cincinnati) 19, Tug McGraw (Philadelphia) 18, Phil Niekro (Atlanta) and Jim Bibby (Pittsburgh) 17, Bruce Sutter (Chicago) and Vida Blue (San Francisco) 16, Rick Reuschel (Chicago), Vern Ruhle (Houston) and Rollie Fingers (San Diego) 15. WARP3: Schmidt 10.0 (best year), Carter 7.4, Hernandez 7.1, Dawson 6.7, Cey 6.6 (last big year), Garry Templeton (St. Louis) 6.3, Ozzie Smith (San Diego) 6.0, Evans 5.8, Murphy 5.7 (first big season), Simmons 5.6, Baker 5.4, Cruz 5.1, Foster and Puhl (best year) 4.9, Cedeno (last big season), Reggie Smith (Los Angeles) and Bob Horner (Atlanta) 4.6, Richards 4.5 (career year), Easler 4.4. Pitchers, Carlton 9.3, Rogers and Reuschel 6.0, McGraw 5.5, Blue 5.3, Camp and Hume (best year) 4.8, Sutter 4.6, Sutton 4.5, Scott Sanderson (Montreal) 4.3, Reuss and Bill Caudill (Chicago) 4.1, Ruhle (career year) 4.0. WAR, position players: Schmidt 9.1, Hernandez 7.1, Carter 6.2, Dawson 6.1, Murphy 6.0, Puhl 5.5, Cey 5.4, Simmons 5.3, Cedeno 5.0, Cruz 4.7, Baker 4.5, Evans and Foster 4.3, Clark, Morgan, Richards, and Smith 4.2, Hendrick 4.1, Templeton 3.9. Pitchers: Carlton 9.1, Reuschel 5.5, Reuss 4.5, Candelaria, Rogers, and Ryan 4.4, Blyleven 4.2, Forsch 4.1, Krukow 3.6, Niekro and Pastore 3.5, Blue and Whitson 3.4. Actual award voting: MVP (top 12) Place Name Team 1st place Points 1 Mike Schmidt PHI 24 336 2 Gary Carter MON 0 193 3 Jose Cruz HOU 0 166 4 Dusty Baker LAD 0 138 5 Steve Carlton PHI 0 134 6 Steve Garvey LAD 0 131 7 Andre Dawson MON 0 72 8 George Hendrick STL 0 50 9 Bob Horner ATL 0 42 10 Bake McBride PHI 0 32 11 Keith Hernandez STL 0 29 12 Dale Murphy ATL 0 23 Cy Young (top 4) Place Name Team 1st place Points 1 Steve Carlton PHI 23 118 2 Jerry Reuss LAD 1 55 3 Jim Bibby PIT 0 28 4 Joe Niekro HOU 0 11 Can we retroactively revoke the BBWAA membership of the guy who put Reuss 1st? Rookie (top 5) Place Name Team 1st place Points 1 Steve Howe LAD 12 80 2 Bill Gullickson MON 5 53 3 Lonnie Smith PHI 4 49 4 Ron Oester CIN 1 16 5 Dave Smith HOU 2 13 Top player: Mike Schmidt Top pitcher: Steve Carlton These are no-brainers. The Phillies won, and those two did most of the work. Players: #1 Mike Schmidt, #2 Gary Carter, #3 Andre Dawson, #4 Dale Murphy, #5 Keith Hernandez, #6 Darrell Evans. Pitchers: #1 Steve Carlton, #2 Jerry Reuss, #3 Steve Rogers, #4 Tug McGraw, #5 Tom Hume. Top rookie: Lonnie Smith. This one is tough. I think I would go for a Phillies clean sweep, as they won their first World Series. Jeff Reardon, Leon Durham, Al Holland, and Bob Walk also drew a vote each in the balloting. No clear winner. Top manager: Dallas Green, for guiding the Phillies to their very first World Series victory.