My How Time Flies: A Look Back at 1997
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by user Timothy Moreland(Bball3345)
Ten years ago, baseball fans were getting excited for the beginning of the 1997 season. The year before, the New York Yankees had won the World Series. This year would produce a much more unlikely champion. Along the way, there was a race for .400 and a one-man dominance of the batting leaderboard. Here is a look back at a very interesting year in the National League with some odd highlights.
Recent Hall-of-Fame inductee, Tony Gwynn batted .372 back in ‘97, to make things interesting. Right behind him, at .366, was Larry Walker, who also led the league in OBP, SLG, OPS, HRs, second in runs, and third in RBIs. Not surprisingly, Walker brought home the MVP award and a Gold-Glove. Joining Walker in the outfield with Gold Gloves were Barry Bonds, the highest-paid player at $8.7 million, and Raul Mondesi.
One notable star entered the league ten years, while another was breaking out. The Rookie of the Year for 1997 was the young Phillies’ 3Bman Scott Rolen. His batting line was an impressive .283/.377/.469, as a 22-year-old. He improved on all three of those numbers in 1998. The Cy Young winner was the Montreal Expos’ 25-year-old ace, Pedro Martinez. He threw 241.3 innings with a 1.90 ERA and 305 srikeouts. The next season, Pedro would travel to the Red Sox.
Among the Silver Slugger winners was 31-year-old SS Jeff Blauser. His OBP of .405 in the prime of his career had to be either a late breakout or a fluke. Considering he was out of baseball two years later, it appears as if it was a fluke.
Sammy Sosa’s 1997 season provided no clue of what was to come in the summer of ’98. He led the league in strikeouts that season and mustered up a pitiful .300 OBP. Sosa managed to hit only 36 HRs in 642 at bats in 1997, before hitting 66 HRs in his next 642.
The NL Manager of the Year was the recently fired Dusty Baker, who had led the San Francisco Giants to first place.
Who was the most watched team? The Colorado Rockies. Colorado led the NL in attendance with 48,006 people/game. This was only their fifth season as a franchise. The novelty wore off, as attendance began declining after that year. Today, the Rockies attract 25,980/game.
Tony Womack was an All-Star. That one makes me laugh. A player with a .326 OBP and a .374 SLG, probably is not an All-Star. He even made the MVP ballot.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have not had a winning record in quite some time, but 1997 at least brought the excitement of a playoff run to Pittsburgh. They finished 79-83, but were only five games behind the division champs, the Houston Astros. They accomplished this with the lowest payroll in the NL: $10,771,667.
Livan Hernandez must have had to pinch himself to see if his 1997 season was just a dream. As a rookie, Hernandez helped lead the Marlins to a World Series victory. Florida had finished 9 games behind Atlanta in the regular season, but won the Wild Card. In the first round, they swept the San Francisco Giants. Then, they beat the Atlanta Braves in six games. Hernandez won the NLCS MVP in that series. Against the Cleveland Indians, the Marlins won in seven, and Hernandez again won the Series MVP.
Looking back at 1997, we never could have dreamed the monster Sammy Sosa would become or how forgettable Jeff Blauser would be ten years later. What kind of surprises could 2007 have in store for us? I can't wait to find out.
