1972 Chicago White Sox Replay

DICK ALLEN NAMED UNANIMOUS MVP FOR SECOND PLACE WHITE SOX

Chicago slugger, Dick Allen, put up some impressive statistics on his way to being named the team’s Most Valuable Player for 1972. Allen led in nearly every offensive category, in a stellar year. He had 176 hits in 549 at bats, for an average of .321. He had 44 homeruns and 104 runs batted in. Add to that, 31 doubles, 7 triples and 103 runs scored and you can see why he was an easy choice. His slash line, that is, batting ave/on base pct/slugging pct was: .321/.408/.643.

Pat Kelly platooned much of the year with Walt Williams, but he took at bats away in the second half, as he was hitting lefties as well as righties. He finished at .323, with 73 runs scored, 17 doubles and tied Allen for triples with seven. Williams wasn’t bad, hitting .297 in 222 at bats, but he showed almost no power, with only 3 homers. Speaking of homeruns, Ed Herrmann finished second to Allen with 18. Mike Andrews and Carlos May were the only other players in double figures with 11 each. As expected, Kelly, a double A stealer, led the club in stolen bases with 29. Andrews had some tough times in the field, as his 25 errors was just three short of Frank Thomas ’58 Pitt record of 28.

On the mound, Tom Bradley led the starters with a record of 18-8 and an ERA of 2.44. He led in complete games with seven and tied Wilbur Wood in shutouts with four. Stan Bahnsen(16-8 2.55); Wilbur Wood (14-9 2.48) and Eddie Fisher(11-12 4.51) round out the rotation. Dave Lemonds(4-7 3.50) did have a couple nice games as the spot starter, but overall, was just average. Vincente Romo(4-6 2.33) was the workhorse of the bullpen, pitching over 96 innings. The rest of the bullpen was: Steve Kealey(3-5 2.33); Cy Acosta(6-4 3.86) Goose Gossage(6-4 2.40) and Terry Forster(4-5 1.81). There were a total of 90 unearned runs scored against the team, perhaps a factor in the rather low earned run averages, despite the won lost records.

Stay tuned for another Strat project, down the road.