1971 – The Hitters

Stargell-Aaron Power, Young Stars Galore

By Glenn Guzzo

Let the debates begin, but here’s a view that Strat-O-Matic’s newly released version of the 1971 baseball season is one of its brightest historic re-creations ever.

There are so many reasons to treasure this season, now in Super-Advanced format for the first time. But almost lost in the memories of Baltimore’s four 20-game winners, Vida Blue’s spectacular rookie season, Pittsburgh’s World Series triumph and Strat-O-Matic’s first season with lefty-righty cards and other Advanced features, is a pair of power hitters whose cards are must-have for fans of the hobby.

A HOME-RUN RACE TO REMEMBER

The home run race between Hall of Fame sluggers at their peak might have escaped memory if not for Strat-O-Matic’s re-creation. Although Willie Stargell edged Hank Aaron, 48-47, their new Strat-O-Matic cards show power as spectacular as 1961 Maris-Mantle and 1998 McGwire-Sosa. For pure home run power, the Stargell and Aaron cards rival the best of Babe Ruth.

On the Basic-game side, Aaron’s career-best homer season shows automatic HOMERUN at 2-4, 2-5 and 2-6, with HOMERUN 1-15 at 2-7. Stargell answers with his career-best homer season and auto homers at 2-8, 2-9 and 2-10 with HOMERUN 1-16 at 2-6.

Aaron is even better in the Advanced game vs. lefty pitching: Automatic shots at 2-4 through 2-6, HR 1-12 at 2-7 and eight ballpark diamonds in the 2 column. With diamonds worth a Homerun 1-19 in Atlanta, that’s an intimidating 23.45 homer chances when the Braves are home (or in Chicago and Philadelphia).

Stargell is every bit as intimidating – and against righty pitching at that. He hits ‘em out without doubt at 2-8 through 2-10, adds a HR 1-16 at 2-6 and eight diamonds in the 2 column. The diamonds are worth only 1-7 shots in Pittsburgh (total: 18.8 homer chances). But they are 1-19 in Atlanta, Montreal and New York, where Stargell’s “walk-him” card generates 24 homer chances.

In a season when pitchers still had the upper hand, Aaron hit .327-47-118 with .410 OBP and .669 slugging. Against a flurry of Hall of Fame pitchers, 20-game winners and low-ERA hurlers, he homered once each 10.5 at-bats.

Stargell hit .295-48-125 with .398 on-base and .628 slugging. He homered once each 10.6 at-bats.

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THE NEAR-LEGENDS AT THEIR BEST

This 1971 release also reminds us how good some long-time players were, although not quite Hall-of-Fame caliber:

n Tony Oliva, Minnesota RF. The man who won batting titles in his first two full seasons (1964-65), led the American League again in 1971, hitting .337 and slugging a league-best .546. Though he missed 39 games to injury, he still had 22 HR, 30 doubles and 81 RBIs. He’s a special terror vs. RHP: 47 hit chances, rich in SINGLE**, not counting 7 ballpark homer and 5 ballpark single chances. Add 1-16 running. Defensively, he’s RF-2 with a -2 arm.

n Bobby Bonds, San Francisco RF. You can practically see the genes in Barry’s dad on this card: .288, 33 homers and .512 slugging (8 diamonds on each side of the card), 102 RBIs as a leadoff hitter, 26 stolen bases (*18 rating) and 110 runs (1-17 running). He’s a RF/CF-1e2 with a -4 arm.

n Reggie Smith, Boston CF. Before the knees relegated him to corner OF and 1B, Smith was an enviable CF. At age 26 in 1971, he hit .283-30-96 with an AL-best 33 doubles and 11 stolen bases (*18 rating) and 1-16 running. He had a -4 arm, though his range had slipped to a 3.

n Joe Torre, St. Louis 3B. For years a strong offensive and defensive catcher, Torre switched to third base in St. Louis, which had Ted Simmons behind the plate. Torre was the 1971 NL MVP in his career year: .363-24-137 with .555 slugging and a Majors-best 230 hits.

n Dick Allen, Los Angeles LF-3B-1B. He was rookie-of-the-year in Philadelphia, MVP for the White Sox and during his brief stay in pitcher-haven LA, Allen stroked .295 and led the Dodges with 23 HR and 90 RBIs. He had 93 walks, too for an on-base percentage of .395. He even swiped 8 bases in 9 tries.

n Pete Rose, Cincinnati RF. Since he may never be inducted into the Hall of Fame, let’s not fail to mention this .304 season with 13 HR, .373 on-base, 1-16 running and superb defense: RF-1e2 with a -3 arm.

n Rusty Staub, Montreal RF. One of the purest hitters of his day, Staub went .311-19-97 with 34 doubles and .392 on-base while getting absolutely no lineup protection for the young Expos.

n Cesar Cedeno, Houston CF. A mere 20 years old, he was already in his second full season and good enough to bat .264 with an NL-best 40 doubles, 6 triples, 10 HR, 81 RBIs. Add 20 steals (*17 rating) and 1-16 running – all while playing half his games in the Astrodome, which suffocated offense like no other stadium of its era (1971 ratings: HR 1, SI 1 for lefty hitters, 1-10 for righties). The defense is there, too: 2e4 with a -2 arm in all three outfield spots. Soon he would be a 1 with a -4 arm and a AA stealer with better hitting.

n Amos Otis, Kansas City CF. Just 24, he was the best player on a third-year team, leading the Royals to an 85-76 record on their upswing to AL West prominence. In 1971, he hit .301-15-79, with +3 clutch hitting and a card against lefties that is rich in SINGLE**. He stole 52 bases, good for AA and *19-15 stealing with 1-17 running. And his impeccable defense is CF-1(-4)e5.

n Manny Sanguillen, Pittsburgh C. The enthusiastic backstop flourished on both sides of the plate, hitting .319 with 81 RBIs that translates into +13 clutch ratings. He adds C-2(-2)e2 defense.

n Glenn Beckert, Chicago Cubs 2B. The best Cubs second baseman in the nearly 50 years between Billy Herman and Ryne Sandberg, Beckert hit a career-best .342 in 1971. A fine No. 2 hitter, he has an astonishing 30 chances for a SINGLE** vs. LHP, while being an A bunter, B hit-and-run man and 1-15 runner.

n Norm Cash, Detroit 1B. At age 38, he aged well with the bat (.283-32-91, .372 on-base, .531 slugging and 8 diamonds on each side of his card) and the glove (1B-2).

Other hitters with fine careers did well in 1971. Hit machine Ralph Garr batted .343 for Atlanta. Catcher Ted Simmons hit .304 in St. Louis. Fellow backstop Bill Freehan hit .277-21-77 with C-2(-1) e1 defense for Detroit. Bobby Murcer had his best year for the Yankees: .331-25-94 as a CF-2(-2)e6. Lee May slugged 39 HR for Cincinnati. Sal Bando hit 24 HR and drove in 94 for Oakland. Rico Petrocelli smashed 28 HR for Boston. Ron Santo hit 21 homers. Cesar Tovar hit .311 for Minnesota. Maury Wills led all shortstops by hitting .281 and still stole 15 bases at age 38. Al Oliver hit .282 at age 24 while playing more games than anyone for the World champs in Pittsburgh.

Montreal 2B Ron Hunt, who set an MLB record by getting hit by pitches 50 times in 1971, has 18 HBP chances on his advanced card, a record for regular players. Counting hits from ballpark effects in Montreal, Hunt has nearly 62 on-base chances vs. LHP and nearly 50 vs. RHP. He is the ideal No. 2 hitter – high on-base with no groundball A chances, an A bunter, and a B hit-and-run man.

None of this counts the strong seasons from the Hall of Fame hitters like Roberto Clemente (his last great season at .341-13-86), Lou Brock (.313, 64 SB, 126 runs), Frank Robinson (led the AL champ Orioles in HR and RBI), Reggie Jackson (led AL West champ Oakland in HR), Harmon Killebrew (led the AL with 119 RBIs and 114 walks) and Billy Williams (.301-28-93).

OTHER NOTES:

n CORRECTION: Montreal’s Boots Day, a CF-2, should also be a LF-2, not a LF-5 as currently carded, according to Strat-O-Matic’s Steve Barkan.

n Pittsburgh RF Roberto Clemente, who had the only -6 arm in the 1960s (1960-65), is now the only -6 outfielder for the 1970s.

n More than a dozen players who had significant playing time are rated 5 defensively, usually at a secondary position. Only one who is in Strat-O-Matic’s list of most-frequently used lineups is a 5 at his primary position: Washington LF Frank Howard, who also gets 5s in RF and at 1B.