1972 Baseball Season

 

Highlights:

The final season before the DH came into the league and pitching was as dominant in 3RBL as it was in MLB.  The MLB slash line in 1972 was .244/.311/.354 and 7.38 runs scored per game.  In 3RBL it was .235/.298/.353 and 7.6.  ERA in MLB was 3.26 and 3RBL was 3.27.

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Carlos May put us some surprisingly strong numbers for Cincy as he led the league in batting (.335) and on base (.429).  Meadowbrook's Dick Allen was the dominant force in 3RBL as he was in MLB although Johnny Bench tied him for the league lead with 41 homers and the Meadville star led in RBI with 115.

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Providence's Steve Carlton led the league with a 29-8 record and in ERA with a 1.40 mark. as well as 340 strikeouts.  Cincy's Jim Brewer led the league with 37 saves.

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Presley Division:

The Meadowbrook Phillies held off the Meadville Eagles to win the Presley Division by two games.  Meadville won the season series 13-9 was stronger outside of the division.  

Meadville was the better offensive club as they averaged 4.7 runs per game while Meadowbrook averaged 3.8.  The teams were the opposite when it came to pitching as Meadville allowed 4.1 RPG and Meadowbrook 3.4.

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Dick Allen was the batting star for Meadowbrook as he batted .318, hit 41 homers and drove in 101 runs.  Frank Robinson was the only other power hitter as he batted .268 with 22 homers and 62 RBI.  Dick Woodson was the staff ace with a 15-7 mark and 2.19 ERA but it was the bullpen tandem of Darold Knowles (6-3-1.20 and 19 saves)  and Tug McGraw (12-2 1.56 and 17 saves) that headed a standout relief corps.

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Brando Division:

Providence bounced to the top of the standings and defeated Lansing by four games 95-91.  Lansing held the edge in head to head play with a 12-10 record but Providence made hay with 15-7 marks against Crimson and Mars Hill while Lansing was equally effective against Crimson (16-6) but were unable to put Mars Hill (9-13), the division tail ender, away.

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Providence was a good offensive team average 4.0 RPG  with the 5th best offense but they were far and away the best pitching team in the league with a 2.44 team ERA, allowing 2.85 RPG.   Lansing had the second best pitching staff allowing 3.2 RPG but the offense was league average and scored 3.5 RPG.

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As mentioned, Carlton was the dominating force on the Grays.  Nolan Ryan (18-11 2.54) 

and Phil Niekro (16-14 3.24) joined him at the top while Gaylord Perry (16-20 2.53) pitched in hard luck all season.  This quartet pitched a total of 1247 innings for the season and no other pitcher on the team threw more than 33.   Reggie Smith (

278-27-93) and Norm Cash (.265-25-73) were the heart of the offense.

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Dean Division:

Highland edged West Deer for the division crown by a single game.  However, the Flyers held a healthy advantage in head to head play at 16-6 which was decisive.   Highland was carried by the 3rd best pitching staff in the league and the power of their lineup.  Overall the Flyers were ranked 13th in team offense but they led in team home runs (205) by 63 homers over Meadville who had the second highest.  They average 4.3 RPG ranking third in the league.  

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As he seemingly has every season, Henry Aaron led the Flyers with 40 homers and 104 RBI.  Ken Henderson (27), Mike Epstein (21) and Richie Hebner (20) joined him to form a formidable gauntlet for any pitcher to pass.  Top pitcher was Joe Coleman (24-11 2.93) 

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Holly Division:

The Cincy Pops cruised to the division title with a  104-58 record and a 32 game lead over the second place Heretics.  Cincy had the best overall offense, was second in RPG (4.4), seventh best in pitching and the top defensive team.

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Cesar Cedeno was the Cincy Star as he batted .327, second to batting champ Carlos May's.335.  Cesar smacked 25 homers to lead the team, drove in 106, scored 108 and stole 53 bases.  Cincy's mound staff was a team effort as five starters won between 12 and 17 games with Marty Pattin (17-7) and Bill Stoneman (17-8) tying for most wins.  Jim Brewer led the league with 37 saves but Clay Carroll had his opportunities also and finished with 15 saves.

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Post Season:

Highland blew Lansing away in 5 games; squeaked by Providence in 7 and Cincy in 5 to win the tournament.  Cincy edged Meadowbrook in 7 to advance to the finals but dropped 4 of 5 to Highland.  Much as it was during the season, Highland led all teams with a 2.72 ERA and their 3.3 RPG was just a tad behind Providence's 3.2 who forced them to 7 games before losing.  The Flyers smacked 20 homers in 17 games bettering Meadowbrook's 10 in 14.  

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Highland was led by Mike Cuellar (4-1), Joe Coleman (3-2) and Claude Osteen (3-2) on the mound.  Ken Henderson was the top homer hitter in the post season with 4 for Highland while Henry Aaron and Rich Hebner each hit 3.  The overall best hitter for the post season was West Deer's Joe Morgan who batted .500 with a .613 OBP and .682 SLG in 31 plate appearances.  However, West Deer was knocked out n the 7th game of the first round when Willie McCovey hit a 2-run pinch hit double in the 8th inning to defeat Jim Palmer.

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Individual game results can be found on the League Records page.