1976 Baseball Season

 

Highlights:

1976 saw the return of a previous league champion in a new disguise as the New York Knights, formerly the Inland Empire, led the league in wins with 101 on their way to the championship.  It was not a cakewalk, however, as the Knights were hotly pursued by the West Deer Wanderers who finished two games behind them and made the post season as the Classic League Wildcard.

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The two teams were the class of the league and battled each other all season.  West Deer may have undone themselves as they traded their ace pitcher, Jim Palmer, to the Knights prior to the start of the season.  Backed by a stellar offense and defense, Palmer posted a 27-8 record for New York with a 2.70 ERA to win the Cy Young Award for the third time in his 3RBL career to match Whitey Ford and Juan Marichal, both of Crimson.  

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Both teams led the league with 5.1 RPG and were ranked 1-2 in offense with New York slightly better in batting average.   New York held the edge on the mound as their 3.34 team ERA was significantly better than the league average and 10 points better than West Deer.   Both were among a group of four teams that finished second in overall fielding.

 

New York's Steve Garvey led the league in batting with a .342 mark but West Deer's Joe Morgan was second in ABG and tops in SLG and OBP and was third in home runs with 36.  New York's Mike Schmidt led the league with 39 homers while West Deer's Reggie Jackson led the league with 128 RBI.  On it went as one team led the league in one category and the other team led another.  

 

In head to head competition, West Deer defeated New York 13 of 22 times.  West Deer was 17 games over .500 at home and 19 over on the road.  New York was plus 13 at home and a whopping plus 27 on the road.

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Post Season:

Both teams were gunning for each other in the post season but West Deer had to deal with Delmarva in the first series.  The Dogfish gave the Wanderers a battle but fell in six games as Gary Ross applied the coup de gras with a 7-hit shutout in the finale.  In the Rockabilly, Summit City dropped the opener to Lansing but swept the next four to advance.  The Eskimos were again slow from the gate as they dropped the first two in Philadelphia but won four of the final five, the clincher being a three hit shutout by Jim Lonborg in Philadelphia.

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In the Classic, New York took the opener but West Deer won the next two to take the series lead.  However, New York swept the next three to advance to the finals which were anticlimactic as New York won four straight allowing Summit City a total of four runs in the four games.

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