1979 NL End of May Report

He wants a Clark bar.

Despite a slight hiccup at month's end, the Pirates continue to disco their way several steps ahead of the eastern pack, while the Dodgers got it together with a 17-11 month to put at least a little daylight between themselves and their western pursuers. 

As noted in the preface to the AL report, I am re-replaying '79, it having been my first replay with the then-new cards and no tweaks. Now it's new cards, new boards, full rosters, trades, the works. Okay, let's get to the standings:

PIT    33-15  ---     LAD  29-23  ---
NY    29-21  5        SD     27-26  2.5
MON 26-21  6.5    SFG   26-26  3
STL   25-25  9       CIN    23-26  4.5
PHI    23-27  11     HOU  23-31  7
CHC  20-28  13     ATL    18-33  10.5

By comparison, in my original replay, the eventual east champion Phillies were on top by smidgen over STL and PIT with NY and MON 5th and 6th with dismal starts. Torrid Cincinnati started off 35-11 and enjoyed an 8.5 game lead in the west over HOU and LA.

Leaders, with original leaders in parenthesis:

Feed meee!

Wins: Kison-pit 9-1, Seaver-cin 8-1, Sutton-la 7-2, Niekro-atl 7-5, Perry-sd 7-5  (Seaver 9-1)

Losses: Denny-stl 2-7, Krukow-chi 2-7, Matula-atl 2-7, Shirley-sd 3-7

CG: Carlton-phi 8, Perry-sd 8, LaCoss-cin 7 

SHO: Blue-sf 3, Vukovich-stl 3

Saves: Lockwood-ny 15, Tekulve-pit 13, Littell-stl 9, Sambito-hou 9, Sosa-mon 9 (Littell 8)

He's Mike Schmidt and you're not.

HR: Schmidt-phi 18, Clark-sf 17, Horner-atl 14, Stargell-pit 14 (Stargell 19)

RBI: Clark-sf 51, Horner-atl 49, Schmidt-phi 49, Parker-pit 43, Briggs-sd 41, Garvey-la 41 (Foster 45)

Runs: Clark-sf 42, Winfield-sd 42, Garvey-la 40, Rose-phi 40 (Lopes 39)

2B: Hernandez-stl 26, Parker-pit 24, Winfield-sd 18, Taveras-ny 17

3B: Taveras-ny 7, Briggs-sd 6, Cabell-hou 6

Steals: Cedeno-hou 18, Lopes-la 14, Moreno-pit 14, North-sf 13, Smith-sd 11 (North 22)

GIDP: Buckner-chi 9, Cabell-hou 9, Hendrick-stl 9, Montanez-ny 9

Errors: Foli-pit 11, Frias-atl 11, Landestoy-hou 11

Ream capsules:

"Boy, hit a couple dingers and everybody loses their minds!"

Bucco Blatherings: The Pirates opened up a big lead in the east when they started out 31-10, but when they lost 5 of 7 to close out May, the pack caught up just a bit. "If you prick us, do we not bleed?" they opine. Bruce Kison did finally lose one after starting 9-0, but he's still on a huge roll. Bucs pitchers have surrendered a league-low 180 runs. The Pirates don't beat themselves--they have grounded into the least DP's with 25, and have only been cut down stealing 5 measly times, also an NL low. Phil Garner has crossed the plate 38 times. Dave "The Cobra" Parker leads in rbi with 43, followed by Stargell and Bill Robinson with 35 each to form a fearsome trio in the middle of the order. I would be remiss if I did not mention that Dale Berra had a two homer game before becoming invisible again. "Man that was some good coke!" he blurted to scribes after his feat.

Mets-elaneous: Whoa, Mets! They stunk like they should, the first time around, but this time they are--gasp!--contending, despite a run differential of minus 11. It's the bullpen, stupid! Skip Lockwood (4-1, 15 saves), and his pals Glynn and Allen have saved the team time and again. The relievers are a combined 13-6. Add to that the fact that the Metropolitans are a nifty 13-4 in 1-run games. Craig Swan (5-4) is really their only legit starting pitcher, though Tom Hausman somehow has managed a 5-0 log. Pete Falcone (1-5) seems to be the only Met in any kind of contact with reality. Though the team has slugged only 29 homers, they have gone doubles nutty with a crazy 109 already, led by Montanez with 16. (Montanez may be one reason they are over-achieving. I didn't do trades the first time, so they didn't have him at all. Moreover, he did most of his hitting in the final two months with Texas; here, the Mets are reaping the benefits.) Handsome young star Lee Mazzilli has just 4 homers, 3 of them in the season's early days, but has knocked in 39 runs and scored 36. The trade for Frank Taveras has worked out well, with Frank spraying gap hits all over the place. Can they keep this up? We'll see. What a story, if they can.

Expo-sitions: The Expos were the most disappointing team in my original replay, but are doing quite a lot better this time around despite a lackluster 13-14 mark in May. Larry Parrish boasts 15 doubles, 11 HR and 33 rbi. Ellis Valentine has chipped in with 32 rbi. Grizzled vet Tony Perez has scraped together just 7 rbi all season and has lost some of his playing time to Tony Solaita. The defense has been solid with a league-low 26 errors. 

Try .357!

Cardinal Numbers: The Cardinals have been a bit of an enigma so far. Vukovich is the ace with 6-2, 5 cg and 3 shutouts, but most of that came in April. Keith Hernandez got hot in the latter part of May to up his average to a gaudy .357 but his 29 runs and 28 rbi are merely good, not great, even though both marks lead the team. One thing the Redbirds do excellently is spray gap hits. They have an insane 120 doubles already. Homers are hard to come by, though. They have just 23, led by Simmons with 8. No one else has more than 3. The Cards don't run yet, either. Just 22 bags. That will change in the upcoming decade! Meanwhile here they sit at .500.

Phil My Prescription: After a stunningly inept 6-16 April showing (and last place), the Quakers revamped the line-up and righted the ship in May, going 17-11. Lefty Carlton, who started the season 0-5, is up to 5-6 now and rolling. Tug McGraw was yanked from the closer's role and Ron Reed (5 saves) installed. Mike Schmidt strikes fear into opposing hurlers, and despite being intentionally walked with frequency, he still has 18 HR, 49 rbi. "Bull" Luzinski was about to lose his LF gig when he finally started hitting. Despite just a pair of homers, Greg has 15 doubles and 2 triples to go with 21 rbi. Considering his slow start, that'll do. Gary Maddox, moved from second to fifth in the order, has 36 ribbies and great hair. Pete Rose moved from lead-off to third and seems to be always on base in front of Schmidt. So...will the real Phillies please stand up?

Baby Bear's Porridge: Your Impartial Goddess is ever the lady, and so it tells you something that when I manage these Cubs I am given to fits of shouting "Score you dumb fuckers, score!" Ahem. The Cubbies have tallied just 174 runs, 32 fewer than anyone else. It's too bad, cos they are stingy with giving runs up allowing only 197. Dave Kingman bears some of the blame for the dearth of scoring at Wrigley, with 10 bombs and 27 rbi. Both marks lead the squad, but are pretty far below what was expected at this point. On the pitching rubber, Bruce Sutter does have 8 saves, but has not always been effective, as his 1-5 record would suggest. 

Psst, chica....ask Tommy what he thinks about Dave Kingman.

So L.A.: The Dodgers rode a 17-11 May into first place in the west. Don Sutton is 7-2 and rookie Sutcliffe righted the ship and is now 6-4 after a 1-3 start. The Dodgers lead the NL with 275 runs scored and 68 bombs. They have grounded into very few DPs with just 29. If they could beat San Diego (1-6), they'd be flying high. LA has basically a one-man, one-inning bullpen in Bobby Castillo (7 saves.) After his cameo appearances, there isn't much help down there. A good time was had in Atlanta May 15-16 when the Dodgers crushed the Braves twice, 15-2 and 20-1, with a grand total of 41 hits. "We're so glad Atlanta is in the west!" they chirped, waving a map of the USA. 

Pod fans are excited!

Pod People: Its the Dan Briggs show! 11 HR, 27 runs, a whopping 41 rbi, errorless play in RF every ding dong day! Whee! In my first replay, he was a total non-factor. His card isn't that great. But he gets the rolls like crazy, and seems to always come to bat with 2 men on because of Hargrove, Tenace and Winfield hitting ahead of him. Look, peasant. It's Dan Briggs's world and we're just living in it! His heroics combined with Winfield's, have lifted the Pods to second place even though only 5 different Padres have a homer. The Pods, in their monkeyshit brown uni's, boast a pair of aces in Gaylord Perry (7-5, 8 cg, 2 sho) and Randy Jones (6-3). Lastly, the team has avoided injuries so far. We shall see if they can hang in with the Dodgers, their personal punching bag.

Giants Gibberish: Stoppit, Jack Clark! The Giants right fielder capped off a crazy May with 3 HR, 2 doubles, a single, and 17 total bases in a 16-5 demolition of the Dodgers on the 29th. He knocked in a gaudy 30 runs during the month to up his total to a league-high 51. Can nothing stop him? Meanwhile, local head case Mike Ivie has slugged 10 bombs and knocked in 37, all the while not throwing the ball any more than he has to. Darrell Evans has pitched in with 20 xbh's. So what if no one has won more than 4 games except Vida Blue (6-4)? So what if the bullpen has just 4 saves? "Mediocrity is good enough for us!" crowed skipper Joe Altobelli. 

Forget that and strap on your gear!

Rhineland Rambles: The sleepy stupid gimpy old-goat Reds staggered to a 13-15 month, completely forgetting whatever it was they did right in taking the NL flag in the first replay. George Foster has just 9 xbh's. Joe Morgan's gout keeps acting up, or something--or he changed his name to Junior Kennedy. He's been mostly MIA. Dan Driessen has 10 HR and 32 rbi to lead the team, but he is Dan Driessen and surely can't keep this up. Reserve flyhawk Champ Summers belted 6 HRs and was sold off to Detroit. Sheesh. Oh, and Johnny Bench prefers to sit and watch Vic Correll catch while J.B. paints stuff with Krylon. Their top three starters are 16-6; the other two 2-9, and the bullpen has only 4 saves, though the team leads the loop in shutouts with 6. 

Cosmic Astros: Poor JR Richard. He pitched 9 innings of no-hit shutout ball and got nothing. He was pinch hit for in the bottom of the 9th but a golden opportunity to score went a-glimmering and the game didn't end until Rafael Landestoy brought home the winner with a suicide squeeze in the 12th inning. That was on May 11th. Then on the 25th, he fanned 14 Padres but lost anyway. Nevertheless, the Spacemen put their horrid 6-17 April behind them and compiled a 17-14 May. Homers are scarce as hen's teeth, with just 13, 6 of them by Bob Watson. They've stolen 59 bases but been caught 27 times. Still, they are only 7 games out with 4 months to go. They could still get in this thing. "First we pass Atlanta, then we take Berlin!" shouted a confused Astro supporter.

"The rest of y'all need to stop blowing chunks."

Braves B.S.: You look at the bats the Braves have and think hmm, they'll score a lot! But no. They sit 11th in the loop with just 206 runs scored, and 306 given up. That last figure is 52 worse than the next most terrible club (SF). Bob Horner is a young star with 14 blasts and 49 rbi. Sarge Matthews has 31 runs and 37 rbi. But Dale Murphy isn't quite there yet with 6 HR and 19 rbi, and there isn't much after that unless you mean Barry Bonnell with his 9 HR and 21 rbi. The Braves turn the fewest DPs of any team (a measly 23) and they have only one decent starter, Phil Niekro (7-5). The staff has a microscopic 4 complete games. It will be a long season down south. 

Hope you enjoyed. On to June!