1973 Baseball Season

 

Highlights:

The 1973 season in MLB ushered in the Designated Hitter.  As a result, we decided to follow MLB's lead and divide the 3RBL into a DH and non-DH league.  We did, however, retain interleague play so at various times one half of the league was playing with and one half without the DH.

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As a result of shuffling the teams to allow those who preferred one format over the other, and perhaps as a natural consequence of teams developing, the expansion Summit City Eskimos finished first in the Presley Division, a non-DH division, and led the league with 104 wins.  Pitching and defense were their keys as the offense was only average in runs scored.  The Eskimos were second best in fielding and best in pitching with an overall 2.64 ERA, a full 51 points better than the next best team, Cincy.  

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Summit City's rotation was led by Luis Tiant (22-9 2.02) and Bert Blyleven (18-12 2.26) and the bullpen by John Hiller (7-5 2.03 and 38 saves) and Bob Reynolds (9-4 1.57).

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Surf City led the DH side of the league with 101 wins and a comfortable (perhaps too comfortable) lead over second place Providence.  Highland was the second team in the non-DH (christened the Rockabilly) league while expansion team Cincy made the post season for the fourth consecutive season although first as a Wild Card in the Rockabilly League.

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Crimson was the second division winner in the DH (christened the Classic) league but that providence team that finished 30 games behind Surf City was the Wild Card even though carrying a 71-91 record into the post season.

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Philadelphia's Rod Carew led the league in batting with a .349 mark while Highland's Henry Aaron was the top slugger at .585.  Reggie Jackson smacked 50 homers and drove in 142 runs for West Deer, both tops in the league.  West Deer's Jim Palmer posted a 27-4 record and led the league in ERA at 1.75 but he and Jackson were the bright spots as the team finished 69-93.

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Post Season:

Providence became the veritable Cinderella at the post season ball as they knocked off Crimson in five games, Surf City in seven games and pushed Cincy to seven games in the finals before falling.

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Cincy defeated Highland in seven, Summit City in six and Providence in seven games to become the first expansion team to win the 3RBL championship.