Baseball commentators frequently bemoan the fact that Seattle Mariners’ pitcher and former Cy Young-winner Felix Hernandez is a superstar stuck on a perennially underachieving team. The Mariners should do him a favor, they say, like trading him to a real team, like, say, the Yankees, who I am sure were suitably impressed after yet another mortifying performance at the hands of Hernandez this past weekend. But Hernandez seems not to mind playing for the Mariners, and there is certainly something to be said for self-image by being perceived as the only dog in the kennel who is best-in-show material. But back in the old days (i.e. before free agency), superstar players didn’t have much of a choice about what teams they played on. Ernie Banks toiled his entire career with the hapless Cubs, as did recent Hall of Fame inductee Ron Santo in all but one season. Banks certainly earned the sobriquet "Mr. Cub" in more ways than his HOF credentials would indicate.
But probably no player was more mismatched for his team than Steve Carlton, when he pitched for the 1972 Philadelphia Phillies. The season started out well enough, with the Phillies spending time near or at the top of the NL East. The team was still just a half-game out of first place on May 11, with a 14-8 record after beating the San Diego Padres. Back in the day when pitchers typically started on three days rest, Carlton had already started six games, the winning pitcher in five. But then the wheels went off the rails. The Phillies lost 21 of 23 games, a streak in which Carlton himself went 0-5. By June 6, the Phillies were in last place, and Carlton was 5-6. But while the team continued to struggle mightily, eventually finishing with a 59-97 record, Carlton was on fire, beginning June 7 with a win versus the Houston Astros. From that point until August 17, Carlton was 15-0, with the team winning 17 of the 18 games he started during that stretch; the only loss was an 11-inning, 1-0 affair against the Astros, after Carlton left the game after pitching 10 scoreless innings. In the games he didn’t start, the Phillies were a dreadful 9-44. Carlton’s personal winning streak ended in a 2-1 loss against Atlanta, despite Carlton pitching an 11-inning complete game. While the Phillies continued to plod as a team, Carlton soldiered on, winning seven of the team’s last 17 victories. His closest “competition” on the team was left fielder Greg Luzinski, who hit .281 while leading the team with 18 homeruns and 68 RBIs, with an OPS that would embarrass even Ichiro (overall, the team hit only .236 with 503 runs scored).
Today, when a pitcher starts 30 games and pitches 200 innings, he is considered a “workhorse,” but such numbers would be considered an embarrassment to old-timers. Carlton—an eventual 300-game winner—was not held out to save his arm strength, as if the Phillies were going anywhere but vacation at the end of the season anyways. But unlike today’s “workhorses,” Carlton only seemed to get stronger as the season wore one. His threw eight straight complete games to end the season, and completed 22 of his final 25 starts, pitching 220 innings, and winning 20 of those starts while posting a 1.47 ERA. Overall, the Phillies were 29-12 in Carlton’s 41 starts; in his non-starts, the team was 30-85. Officially, Carlton finished with a 27-10 record, 346 innings pitched in 41 starts—completing 30—and striking out 310 while posting a 1.97 ERA. To put Carlton’s position on that 1972 team in even more stark perspective, the rest of the team completed 13 games, had an ERA of 4.22, while the second most wins by a regular starter was 4 (reliever Brandon Bucky won seven games), and the next most innings pitched was 154.
Fortunately for Carlton, the Phillies didn't stay bad, eventually winning the World Series in 1980, with Carlton winning his third Cy Young Award. What his remarkable 1972 season did demonstrate is that individual achievement can be attained despite the abject failure of the parts around him.
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One additional football note: There have been a lot of complaints about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and how he has alienated many players with his rules and regulations. It is useful to remember that he doesn’t technically work for the players, but for the owners just like the commissioners do in baseball and the NBA; there is talk of “rebellion” among players, but I doubt that the owners will support a move to remove him. One should make note of the fact that concerning “Bountygate,” the ownership of the New Orleans Saints was not monetarily discomfited by the suspension of coach Sean Payton and a couple of players—they are the ones who are losing millions of dollars in pay. I would also argue that the punishments meted out against the Saints didn’t quite go far enough, in my opinion. There is a YouTube video of all the hits Brett Favre took in that 2010 NFL Championship game; at the time I blamed a porous, over-rated Vikings’ offensive line for those 16 hits, but looking at them in replay, I’d say at least half of the them were deliberate, after-the-play cheap shots; a flag should have been thrown on at least a half-dozen, maybe more. The most egregious non-call was the double-hit that nearly cut Favre in half and injured his ankle, an injury that would affect his play the remainder of the game and his career. Since the Saints reached the Super Bowl on the basis of these illegal hits (and highly questionable officiating on three different third-down plays in overtime), a proper punishment would have been to vacate their 2010 Super Bowl victory. The league might not be able to retrieve all the rings they handed out, but this would have put a suitable black mark on the team for eternity.
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