Pitching Leaders AKA Top Win Total: On the front the tip of the iceberg showing just three top winners....More interesting is the rear of the card....an incredible of 10 twenty game winners....Criteria for to be on the front: 22 wins or better....The more significant story were Baltimore 4 20 game winners....making them seemingly invincible in the post season on paper at least.....see cards covering the WS for the rest of the story.....Lolich takes first honors with 25 wins....a career best for the dependable starter....Vida Blue, fresh out of minors places second 24 wins....along with dominating AL media coverage.....Wilbur Wood while an effective knuckleball reliever in the past is pressed into service as a starter....met with great and surprising success starting with 22 wins...the rest of the included the quartet of Orioles McNally, Dobson, Palmer, and Cuellar....upstarts Andy Messersmith (nee Angels), Catfish Hunter (nee A’s) and Joe Coleman (nee Tigers)....all listed except Dobson and McNally would repeat the 20 mark over there career....Pat came oh-so close with 19 wins and suffering six one run losses in 1974.
I will say, the backs of these cards have more legitimate lists of "leaders" than the 1960s cards, which listed about 50 to 60 guys, all the way down to Joe Schmoe and his 4-6 record.
ReplyDeleteI remember those cards. In some years if Topps went with just 3 players on the front a couple of 20 games winners may have been excluded. My favorite entry is something "nine tied with 6" (wins)
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