General Stats and Ranks
Some Interesting Stats and Facts
- Finished 2nd in the NL MVP voting to George Foster.
- Only Phillies player from 1933-2002 to have 130+ RBI.
- Only Jim Rice in 1978 and ‘79 and George Foster in 1977 equaled Luzinski’s numbers of .300 BA, 39 HR, 130 RBI, 99 R during the 1970’s.
- Bested Mike Schmidt in every major category except Runs.
- Just missed being the 3rd player in Phillies history (2nd at the time) to hit .300 with 30 HR, .400 OBP and .600 SLG% in a single season. Others are Chuck Klein and Ryan Howard.
- Missed 13 games due to injury, if he kept pace, he would have finished with 42 HR and 141 RBI.
- This season inspired fans to make him the leading vote getter in the 1978 all-star game.
Why He’s Here
These types of numbers might be commonplace in today’s game, but this season was one of the top-5 single hitting seasons in all of baseball in the ’70’s. Any other year in any other league Luzinski would have run away with the MVP, but George Foster happened to have the season of the 70’s in 1977 as well.
Having not been around for Luzinski, I had always thought of him as a Pat Burrell type player. Got some power, drive in some runs, not a great baserunner or fielder, pretty much a fringe all-star every year. I had no idea that he had a year like this. To put it in perspective, if Pat Burrell had the same NL ranks when he was also 26 (2003) here are what his numbers would have been:
That’s an Albert Pujols season right there. High batting average and lots of runs and doubles to go along with the huge run production. I’m not saying that Luzinski is anywhere near what Pujols is, but in 1977, his rankings were pretty similar to a normal Pujols season.
Previous ‘Top-20 Seasons’ Entries
#19 – Gavvy Cravath, 1913
#20 - Lenny Dykstra, 1993
Five pitchers that just missed (and criteria for rankings)
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Glad to see Luzinski made the list. I’m sure a lot of the youngins who never saw him play think the same way about him as you did, Pete. I was around to see him. I don’t remember him breaking in as a full time player, as I was only 5 in 1972, but I remember his best years with us.
1977 wasn’t simply a fluke or a bolt-from-the-blue year for Luzinski, either. He had a very similar, though not quite as good, season in 1975. His best stretch was from 1973 through 1978, discounting 1974 because he had knee surgery. If you look at those years, you can see a pretty steady progression leading up to his career year of 1977.
It’s too bad that he declined like he did. Prior to 2008, the team’s greatest triumph in it’s long history, and the fans’ fondest memory, was the 1980 world championship. Unfortunately for Luzinski, having a poor 1980 season and going hitless in the world series most likely diminishes how highly he is regarded in retrospect, as it certainly didn’t show him to be the valuable hitter he was during the 1976-1977-1978 run of division championships.
The Bull could flat out mash the horsehide. Beautiful level, compact stroke. I doubt that many pitchers of his era relished facing him. For a span of years, a more consistent hitter than Michael Jack.
Bull was the main reason Schmidt was able to hae all those great seasons. Think of Howard batting with a equally good HR hitter behind him, and one who hit cor average and OBP as well. You couldn’t pitch around him.
Not only could he hit, but, if Luzinski could get to the ball he was a great fielder with a good arm, and a smart, if slow baserunner. He’ll never be forgiven in Phila for Black Friday, but he was one of the main ingrediants of the ’70’s team core of Bowa, Schmidt, Bull, Boone, Lefty, Christenson, Maddox etc.