Today on the blog, we move on to the American League and their top three ERA pitchers of 1974, in my 1975 "expanded league leader" series:
We
begin with Hall of Famer Jim "Catfish" Hunter, who led the Junior
Circuit with his 2.49 earned run average to go along with his leading 25
victories, earning him a Cy Young Award by season's end.
Hunter
pitched an amazing 23 complete games out of his 41 starts that season,
with six shutouts and 143 strikeouts in 318.1 innings of work, helping
the Oakland A's win a third straight World Series title.
Just
behind Hunter with a 2.51 ERA is another Hall of Fame pitcher, Gaylord
Perry of the Cleveland Indians, who went 21-13 that year, with four
shutouts and 28 complete games out of his 37 starts! These guys were
bulls!
Along with those stellar numbers, Perry also struck out
216 batters, the seventh time at that point in his career, adding one
more the following season to his already incredible Big League resume.
As
amazing as those numbers were, all it got Perry was a fourth place
finish in the Cy Young race, giving you an idea just how stocked Major
League pitching was in the 1970's.
In third place with a 2.61
ERA is the surprise of the bunch, though certainly not some no name
pitcher, California Angels starter And Hassler, who, despite that nice
ERA ended up with a record of 7-11 in his 1974 campaign.
The
hard luck pitcher completed 10 of his 22 starts that year, with two
shutouts and a save thrown in, pitching 162 innings on the nose.
Still
only 22 years of age, Hassler would stick around the Big Leagues until
1985, appearing in 387 games over his 14-year career with 44 wins and 29
saves.
And there it is! Your top three American League ERA men of 1974.