The Baseball Digest Archives

December 1976

Joe Morgan was a pretty obvious choice for player of the year in 1976. He followed up his 1975 MVP season with a 1976 year that was almost as spectacular. WAR did not exist yet at this time, but retroactive calculations of his WAR totals were a sight to behold. I always found it sadly ironic that he became the avatar for Grouchy Old Ballplayer Complaining About Advanced Metrics, as there are few players whose reputations have been enhanced more by advanced stats as Joe Morgan was. Traditional numbers show him as an obvious inner circle Hall of Famer. Advanced stats raise him to the level of arguably being the Greatest Second Baseman of any era.

This list was put together before the 1976 MVP winners were announced, but the folks at Baseball Digest agreed with the eventual choices - Morgan & Thurman Munson in the AL. This top 20 list is a pretty solid one, keeping in mind that statistical analysis was much more basic back then. For example, both Tom Seaver and Mike Schmidt had great years in 1976, but Seaver had some bad luck and “only” won 14 games. In the thinking of the time that would be enough to keep him off the list. Schmidt’s omission is more of a head scratcher. He led the NL in home runs and total bases. Sounds like he should’ve made the list. The other big omission in my opinion is Frank Tanana. Perhaps if he had won 20. Any of those names would have been a better choice than Mark Littell; he had a nice enough season, but top 20?

If you looked at the table of contents, you might have seen a recognizable name. Even though the article is statistically oriented, at first glance I thought it couldn’t possibly be the same Bill James. After all, this issue was printed a few months before he self-released the first edition of the Baseball Abstract, and Bill James is a common enough name that it’s conceivable that there would have been another baseball writer with the same name. But I looked into it and Bill James did in fact pitch pieces to assorted publications, and Baseball Digest was one that ran a few of his early articles.

This issue in particular brought back many warm memories of certain players. Two of the more underrated players of this time were featured; professional hitter Al Oliver, and Toby Harrah, one of the game’s great palindromes. And of course any issue with an article about Jerry Koosman earns some bonus points. I don’t much care for the article about all-time hustlers. It reeks with a bit of that “play the game the right way” vibe. Would it shock you to know that all 9 players in that proverbial lineup of hustlers were white guys?

I remember in the 1970’s that there was a lot of discussion about the so-called Angels curse; I did not recall hearing similar talk of a White Sox curse, but I don’t buy into that one at all. Too much of the discussion focused on the standard litany of injuries that any franchise faces; no hex here. The article about the high stolen base total of the 1976 A’s was an interesting one for 2 reasons. First, this was the final year that this team remained together before virtually the entire crew departed via free agency. This season marked the real end of an era. Second, among the prolific base stealers on the team was Don Baylor, who totaled 52. His image as a burly slugger is so ingrained that it’s easy to forget he was a speedster in his younger days. And an article speculating that Gaylord Perry’s career was near its end? It probably seemed reasonable at the time, he was 38 years old. But he would win his second Cy Young Award 2 years later and eventually reach 300 victories. He was far from done.

Finally, there has always been a keen fascination with fastball speeds, and the ability to accurately measure such was in its infancy. The 100.8 MPH on a Nolan Ryan fastball was such a “wow!” moment at the time, but who knows how genuine that reading was. How reliable was the radar gun, at which point in the pitch trajectory did they get that reading, etc. So, take the accompanying list with a grain of salt.

I’ll close with my favorite advertisement from this issue. I like that in the options list for your custom made novelty $2 bill, it is specified that Brando is the godfather and Henry Winkler is Fonzie, but there is no special designation for Leonard Nimoy. Does that mean that it’s just a regular Nimoy photo, not one of him as Spock?

50 Years Ago - Land Of the Lost

When I wrote about Hong Kong Phooey a few weeks back, I mentioned its earworm of a theme song. Well, here was another one. Those of us of a certain age well remember the routine expedition that Marshall, Will, & Holly went on, which placed them at the epicenter of the greaaaaatest earthquake ever known.

Land Of the Lost was a Sid & Marty Krofft production, and it shared many elements with the rest of their oeuvre with a few slight differences. It had the requisite puppetry along with a negligible special effects and props budget. Most Krofft shows were notorious for over the top acting - I’m certain that no actor on a Krofft set was ever instructed to tone it down a notch - but it wasn’t quite as pronounced on this show. Also, looking back at their shows the puppet work was usually excessively creepy; think of The Bugaloos as an example. Land Of the Lost was creepy as well, but in a different way.

The Marshall family was transported to the titular land, which although it seemed like the prehistoric era was actually an alternate universe. In addition to dinosaurs, the land was populated by caveman type creatures. Then there were the sleestaks. Oh boy, were there sleestaks.

Looking back at them now, they were just as chintzy as anything else on that show. But to an 8 year old kid, they were terrifying. Human sized lizards, they creeped slowly and hissed menacingly. What made them dangerous was their numbers. You could probably outrun a sleestak without much difficulty; outrunning a dozen was much tougher. There was also the one intelligent sleestak; he was articulate and assisted the Marshall family in their attempts to make it back home.

The original run of the show ended in an uncharacteristically thought-provoking manner. With the help of the intelligent sleestak, they discovered that their presence had damaged the time-space continuum. I don’t know if I can fully explain it in a way that makes sense, but the way to escape was to create some sort of time travel paradox that involved having their past selves replace their current selves and it’s making my head hurt to even think about it. The Krofft brothers always denied that there was any sort of chemical assistance in their work, so I’ll take their word for it, but…

After the initial run, it has been revived twice, most recently in a poorly received Will Ferrell starring film that steered too heavily towards campiness. I honestly think there is potential for a Land Of the Lost movie with a more serious undertone. Scary lizard men are eternal. Ultimately this was a Saturday morning kids show that served an educational purpose. It taught me to never go rafting. Jagged rocks are bad enough, but I could do without being transferred over to the Land Of the Lost. It’s a lot safer indoors on dry land.

The Weather Gods Hate History

Kyle Larson intended to become the first man in a decade to run the Indy/Charlotte double, but Mother Nature had other ideas. A massive storm in the Midwest resulted in a 4 hour green flag delay at Indianapolis, which meant that he would not have enough time to make it Charlotte in time for the Coca-Cola 600. To add insult to injury, he finally made it to the track at Charlotte just as a thunderstorm hit there as well. The race was finally called early due to the weather, which meant that Larson didn’t even get a chance to run a few laps. (A couple of housekeeping points: because he didn’t start the race, Larson would not have earned any points even if he had taken over the car once he arrived, so he dropped down to third place in the season point standings. His failure to start also technically means that he’s not eligible for the playoffs, but NASCAR is usually generous when it comes to granting waivers.) So, we’ll have to wait another year for a driver to run the double. Larson sounded very deflated over the aborted attempt but also seems to remain hopeful of making another attempt next year, and Kyle Busch has also expressed interest.

As for the 500 itself, it was one of the better races in recent years. It featured lots of lead changes, 4 drivers with a legitimate chance at winning in the final stages, and a last lap pass by Josef Newgarden to take the checkered flag and become the first man to win the race in consecutive years in more than 2 decades. You’ve got to feel gutted for second place finisher Pato O’Ward. His post race interview was filled with raw emotion; if you want to know how much winning this race means to the drivers, look no further.

The Big Redhead

I’m as guilty of this as anyone, but the phrases “one of a kind” and “no one like him” are much overused. Bill Walton, on the other hand, was absolutely one of a kind. I’m so glad that we had him; his presence made the world a happier place. I’m also relieved that we only had one of him; his uniqueness is a large part of what made him so special, and it would be exhausting to see a whole mess of Bill Waltons running around.

I gotta tell you, if it were not for the excruciating physical pain that he suffered through most of his life, Bill Walton led the perfect life. One of the greatest college basketball players of all time, his legend was forever set with a 21 for 22 shooting night in the 1973 NCAA championship game for UCLA; even more impressive considering that dunking was illegal in college basketball at the time. His NBA career was unfortunately sadly truncated due to a never ending series of lower body injuries - he only managed to play as many as 60 games in a season 3 times, and he missed 3 complete seasons - but he was dominant when available, winning an MVP award and earning championship rings with 2 of the best teams of his era; the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers and the 1986 Boston Celtics. Despite the brevity of his pro career, he was still named to both the 50th & 75th anniversary NBA teams.

He truly found his calling post retirement, overcoming a stutter to become one of the most beloved broadcasters the game has ever seen. His enthusiasm for anything and everything was palpable; prone to some of the most indefensible hyperbole, yet it never bothered me. You got the sense that he was always so soaked in the moment that he couldn’t help himself. His broadcasting style was a reflection of his personality - upbeat, always looking on the positive side of anything, and prone to hilarious tangents. He had the air of a man who felt that life was one ginormous party, and he wished to invite everyone to join in on the fun.

For the last decade plus, he stuck to calling PAC-12 games for ESPN, and he was fully in his element there. He didn’t care a lick for non-west coast basketball, and seized every opportunity to praise the Conference Of Champions. I remember watching a game a couple years in which he was certain that the conference deserved around 8 at-large bids & refused to acknowledge that any other conferences even existed.

He was sadly too ill to be part of the broadcast team for the final PAC-12 men’s basketball tournament. It seems tragically appropriate that he succumbed to cancer just as this year’s PAC-12 baseball tourney was ending, which officially closed the book on the legendary conference. It’s as if he didn’t want to live in a world without a PAC-12.

Whenever a famous person dies, social media is filled with remembrances from their friends and colleagues. They can sometimes feel a bit rote, but that was not the case with Bill Walton. It’s obvious how much the people who knew him loved him dearly. May we all live our lives in such a way that those we leave behind have an endless litany of wonderful stories to tell about us. (And wouldn’t you have loved to have been a fly on the wall for some of those conversations that Walton and John Wooden must have had at UCLA?)

Closing Laughs

I think that will do for today. See everybody once again tomorrow. Thanks as always for reading Tending the Herd.