#85 N.L. Batting Leaders:

Joe Torre, mirroring his RBI total is on a tear and hits a career high of .363.....Twenty eight points higher than his next best season..... While his BA is a respectable .289 in 1972 it is a major decline ....returns to the .300 level, hitting .306 as a part timer after 1976.....Ralph Garr a bright newcomer brought in speed to beat out many hits....Ralph just outside of rookie status hit .343....turned out to be his second best number in his career.....Garr continues his excellent salad days hitting with a NL leading .356 mark in 1974....line drive hitter Glenn Beckert shines by well exceeded his previous best batting average by 48 points to finish at a .342 mark....Beckert would follow up by hitting .270 in 1972.   

#86 A.L. Batting Leaders:

Tony Oliva,  Unfortunate lot...All three would not return to the top 3 in batting...Oliva took his last or three batting crowns; the first in his Rookie year of 1964 and an encore as a sophomore in 1965...Tony O was out for most of 1972 with a knee injury and while he put up solid numbers never really was the same afterwards having been robbed of his speed.... Bobby Murcer....solid career and NY darling turned his focus to home runs in 1972, collecting 33 but at the cost of a 39 point drop in BA....Murcer would reach over .300 once more, in 1973.....Merv Rettenmund sported a .318 BA and great promise but turned out to be a flash in the pan....At the end of 1971, was hitting .306 for his career; a figure that dovetailed to .271 mark  by the time he hung up his spikes in 1980.

#87 N.L. R.B.I. Leaders:

Winner Joe Torre was a pioneer of off season fitness in a time, struggling with weight issues in his last years in Atlanta, arrives in St Louis for 1969 with a slender frame....in an instant, electrified production....Joe drives in 137 Cardinals to home plate....a personal best and mean feat at age 30....Torre would never reach such statistical heights although he was a two time all star.....as they finished win and place in home runs accordingly Willie Stargell and Hank Aaron take place and show respectively in the RBI derby.....”Pop’s” 125 RBIs was his best effort but would take the crown in 1973.....Henry’s 118 RBIs was pedestrian in his career....tied for the rank of 8th in his storied career.

#88 A.L. R.B.I. Leaders:

#1 Harmon Killebrew, While the Killer lost something off his home run count his RBI collection remained healthy at 119 good for the top spot in the Junior Circuit....the last hurrah for the Harmon in a major offensive category....Harmon had been the reigning RBI king in 1969 so regaining the RBI mark was a redemption and bright spot in a mediocre Twins season....At #2 Frank Robinson’s register of 99 RBIs somewhat pales in comparison to his Reds glory days and the legendary triple crown year of 1966.....still never reached his 1971 statistics again.....#3  Reggie Smith drove in 96 runs which was his showing in league competition....but personal best was 100 in 1974 but only good for 8^th in NL.....Overall total AL run production dropped to 7472 in 1971 down from 8109 in 1970.    

#89 N.L. Home Run Leaders

Home runs leader numbers were still in vogue in NL.....Willie Stargell, always threat to go deep for nearly a decade since starting in ....Stargell enters a three year prime with NL leading 48 dingers....Pops would place fifth in 1972, and take the crown again in 1973....Hank Aaron’s 47 represents a personal best for the all time home run king....The Hammer had previously claimed three HR crowns in 1957, 1963, and 1966....Another personal best, Lee May registered 39 bombs....possibly the only bright spot at the plate for the underachieving Reds....Got traded to Houston and oh so difficult power alleys of the Astrodome....while his numbers still made top ten would never hit over 29 dingers again.