1972 in baseball


Labor strife and more moving

1972 was tainted by a players' strike over pension and salary arbitration. The strike erased the first week and a half of the season, and the Leagues decided to just excise the lost portion of the season with no makeups. As a result, an uneven number of games were cancelled for each team; some as few as six, some as many as nine. The lack of makeups of those games, even when they affected playoffs, led to the Boston Red Sox losing the American League East by half a game to the Detroit Tigers.
1972 marked the first year for the Texas Rangers, who had moved to Arlington from Washington, D.C., after the season. There would be no baseball in D.C. until. The team was one of the worst ever fielded by the franchise, losing 100 games for the first time since. Manager Ted Williams hated living in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and resigned at the end of the season.
1972 would mark the Kansas City Royals' final year at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, as the next year they would move to Royals Stadium at the Truman Sports Complex in suburban Kansas City.
The World Series was won by the Oakland Athletics, the first of three straight behind the bats of Reggie Jackson and Bert Campaneris, and the pitching cadre of Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers and Vida Blue. The year ended on a sad note when Roberto Clemente died in an airplane crash off the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on New Year's Eve, while participating in aid efforts after the 1972 Nicaragua earthquake.

Champions

Major League Baseball

Winter Leagues

Statistical leaders

1 National League Triple Crown pitching winner

Major league baseball final standings

American League final standings

National League final standings

Nippon Professional Baseball final standings

Central League final standings

Pacific League final standings

Events

January

  • January 6 – In Macon, Georgia, Oakland Athletics starting pitcher John "Blue Moon" Odom sustains two non-life-threatening gunshot wounds when he confronts a man suspected of burglarizing his mother's neighbor's home. The right-hander expects to recover in time for spring training.
  • January 10 – The Chicago Cubs sign 24-game-winner Ferguson Jenkins, reigning winner of the National League Cy Young Award, to a two-year contract for $125,000 per annum. It's the richest contract to date in Cubs' history.
  • January 13 – Bernice Gera, an aspiring umpire from the Borough of Queens, wins her discrimination suit in the New York Court of Appeals, opening the door for her to become the first female arbiter in professional baseball. Gera, 40, graduated from a Florida umpiring school in 1969, but has been denied employment in the minor leagues, resulting in her lawsuit.
  • January 19 – The Baseball Writers' Association of America elects Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra and Early Wynn to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Koufax makes it in his first try and, at 36, is the youngest honoree in history.
  • January 20 – The Chicago Cubs trade outfielder Johnny Callison to the New York Yankees for relief pitcher Jack Aker, a "Player to be Named Later" who is added to the deal on May 17.
  • January 29 – The New York Yankees announce details of a major renovation of their iconic stadium in the Bronx, "The House that Ruth Built," as it approaches its 50th birthday in 1973. Under the plan, New York City will buy the stadium and land from Rice University and the Knights of Columbus and construction will begin after the baseball season, with the Yankees playing at Shea Stadium in. It calls for the revamped "Yankee Stadium II" to be ready by Opening Day,.
  • January 30 – The Baseball Hall of Fame's Veterans Committee elects three to enter the Cooperstown institution: former pitcher Lefty Gomez, 63, and deceased outfielder Ross Youngs and executive Will Harridge.

    February

  • February 8 – Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn announces that the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues has selected Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard for the Hall of Fame.
  • February 21 – Seeking to control expenses, 21 of the 24 major-league teams decide to shorten spring training drills by one week. The only clubs opening camps this month are the Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates.
  • February 25
  • *The Philadelphia Phillies make one of the most important trades in their history, acquiring southpaw starting pitcher and future Baseball Hall of Famer Steve Carlton from the St. Louis Cardinals for right-hander Rick Wise. Carlton is dealt after Cardinals owner August A. Busch Jr., infuriated by a contract impasse, publicly orders his front office to trade the young star. Carlton will spend 15 years in a Phillie uniform, win 20 or more games five times, capture four National League Cy Young Awards, make seven All-Star teams, and lead the Phillies to two pennants and their first-ever World Series championship.
  • *The Major League Baseball Players Association rejects the owners' initial proposal for a new collective bargaining agreement to take effect at midnight April 1, when the current CBA expires. In their offer, the owners have refused any cost-of-living increase in the pension plan, nor have they proposed any added assistance to former players or widows. The union's vote raises the possibility of a work stoppage on the eve of the 1972 regular season.
  • February 29 – Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves becomes the highest-paid athlete in baseball history when he signs a three-year, $600,000 contract. Aaron, 38, is believed to be the first player to earn a $200,000 annual salary. He currently has 639 career home runs—75 short of tying Babe Ruth—over 18 MLB seasons.

    March

  • March 4 – Former American League Cy Young Award winner and MVP Denny McLain, coming off a 22-loss season as a member of the final edition of the 1961–1971 Washington Senators, is traded by the relocated Texas Rangers to the Oakland Athletics for pitchers Jim Panther and Don Stanhouse. The deal will fail to revive McLain's career: he appears in only five games with Oakland before being traded, and he is out of baseball before his 29th birthday in March 1973.
  • March 6
  • *Food industry tycoon Vernon Stouffer sells the Cleveland Indians to a local investor group headed by Nick Mileti, who owns the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and the city's minor-league hockey franchise, the Barons. The sale price is reported to be $9 million, $500,000 greater than the offer Stouffer spurned from George Steinbrenner's ownership syndicate only three months before, and well below the owner's asking price of $10 million.
  • *The New York Mets learn that their prized off-season acquisition, Jim Fregosi, may miss the rest of spring training when he suffers a fractured thumb. Fregosi—obtained from the California Angels in a December trade for young Mets' hurler Nolan Ryan and three other players—is injured as he's taking ground balls while converting from his traditional position, shortstop, to a third baseman.
  • March 7 – The St. Louis Cardinals invoke the reserve clause and unilaterally renew the contracts of holdouts Jerry Reuss and Ted Simmons. St. Louis, which currently boasts the highest payroll in MLB, traded Steve Carlton in February; meanwhile, reigning National League MVP and batting champion Joe Torre remains locked in a contract stalemate with owner August A. Busch Jr.
  • March 16 – The American League's reigning Cy Young- and MVP-award winner, Vida Blue, announces his retirement at age 22. Blue, who made $14,750 during, has been battling owner Charles O. Finley over salary, and the sides are far apart. Says Finley, who has offered Blue $50,000, "Either he plays for what we've offered, or he's through in baseball." Blue's retirement will be a short one: he will rejoin the Oakland Athletics on May 2, signing a 1972 contract for $63,000.
  • March 22
  • *Nine days from the expiration of the existing collective bargaining agreement, major league owners unanimously refuse to increase pension benefits for big-league players—defying the players' union to hit the picket lines. Says outspoken hardliner Gussie Busch: "We're not going to give them another god-damn cent. If they want to strike, let them strike."
  • *The New York Yankees acquire 27-year-old left-handed relief pitcher Sparky Lyle from their bitter rivals, the Boston Red Sox, for first baseman Danny Cater and shortstop Mario Guerrero. The trade is a one-sided victory for the Yankees, for whom Lyle will go 57–40 with 141 saves in 420 games over the next seven seasons. He also will win the AL Cy Young Award as the Junior Circuit's first reliever to be so honored; he will help the Yankees win three pennants and two World Series.
  • March 24 – The St. Louis Cardinals trade second baseman Julián Javier, 35, a two-time World Series champion and 2x All-Star, to the Cincinnati Reds for pitcher Tony Cloninger, 31, a former 24-game winner. The coming season will be the last MLB campaign for both players.
  • March 30 – Marvin Miller, executive director of the players' union, reveals that MLBPA rank-and-file members polled at all 24 training camps have voted, 663–10 with two abstentions, to authorize a strike when the CBA with owners expires at midnight tomorrow. Miller will meet in Dallas with 48 player representatives tomorrow for the strike vote itself.