Happy New Year!! Pastor Rich Zawadzki thought that Keith Hernandez’ 1979 card would make a nice intro to the 2017.
At first glance, Hernandez wasn’t your stereotypical 1970s firstbaseman. He didn’t hit many homeruns; he only hit 11 for the year. Hernandez was more of the slick-fielding, hit the gap kind of hitter. He also fooled enough pitchers to collect 210 hits and bat .344 to lead the league. He did manage to drive in 105 rbis for the Cardinals while scoring a league-leading 116 runs.
All that was enough to award Hernandez the NL MVP. He had to share it with Willie Stargell though. It was the only time the MVP award was given to two players in one season (bit o’ trivia: in 1969, the Cy Young award was shared between Mike Cuellar and Denny McLain).
| Split | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 Totals | 161 | 698 | 610 | 116 | 210 | 48 | 11 | 11 | 105 | 11 | 80 | 78 | .344 | .417 | .513 |
First, let’s get this out of the way. Keith Hernandez’ 1979 card has a 1B-5, something Stargell never had.
Hernandez didn’t have a first column 1 but he had power numbers 0-0-0-0 and three 7s and an additional 10 to go along with it. The 25-7 is pretty fun to roll on, I’m sure.
He has four 14s against only three 13s and no 24s.
Monster numbers: 25-7, 64-14, 31-8
Note: the 12 was on the 16 in the 1979 set so APBA moved the standard 28 to 23 which proves to be the catch-all dice number.
In the 70s era of statistical moderation, this card really does stand out.
thanks Rich!!
Hi Tom,
This was my first year playing APBA, and I don’t think I realized how good this card was. I definitely don’t remember the 25-7, but what I find odd is that for a player hitting almost .350 to have only TWO 31’s.