Ken Stabler, 1945-2015 (Belated Tribute)

The following was prepared July 10, soon after Stabler's death. I thought I had posted it, but I didn't. I am very sorry.

Ken Stabler, whom the AP named the NFL's MVP in 1974, died Thursday.

Forty-one years ago, he quarterbacked the Oakland Raiders to a nine-game winning streak, going 11-2 overall (missing the next-to-last game) with a win and a loss in the playoffs. All those losses were close except the one December 29 against Pittsburgh.

That year, his fifth season in the NFL, he passed for a league-leading 26 touchdowns, and two years later he beat that mark by one. He had three fourth-quarter comebacks and three game-winning drives, the two sets containing the exact same games (Oct. 13 at San Diego, Oct. 20 vs. Cincinnati, and Dec. 21 vs. Miami). And this was the only season in which he was a consensus First-Team All-Pro.

His Approximate Value on Pro Football Reference is the team's second-highest. The Raiders had the second-highest Offensive SRS figure in the NFL (highest being that of the 7-7 Patriots), as well as the sixth-best Defensive SRS figure (down quite a bit from the year before). They rushed a lot more than they passed (#3 in rushing attempts, #23 in passing attempts), but got the most net yards per pass attempt and the most passing TDs. Stabler had two really good receivers in Cliff Branch and Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff, which is a luxury for some QBs and even better for someone having such a good season. Branch led the league in receiving TDs with 13.

It was because of good performances from him and others that two years later the Raiders won the Super Bowl for the first time. He might be on a level of quarterbacks not with Bradshaw and Namath but with Ron Jaworski and Roman Gabriel, but the Raiders were fortunate to get even that kind of quarterback. And to think, like a few other QBs, he could've been a baseball player.

[EDIT 11/30/2023: Introducing the "football" label]

Yogi Berra, 1925-2015

Yogi Berra, baseball great, died two weeks ago Tuesday.

He managed the NL All-Stars in 1974, being the manager of the senior circuit's reigning champs, the New York Mets. He got to be in the same dugout as Johnny Bench, a man with whom he's associated because there might be some debate over which one was the best catcher of all time. Also in that dugout was Hank Aaron, whose Braves were the Mets' opponents in Berra's final game as a player and the Yankees' opponents in two World Series. Another one of his former opponents calling him skipper for the day was Pete Rose, not far away from the action when Yogi pinch-hit against the Reds in '65. Aaron and Rose were the first position players on the NL side to be subbed.

Berra's five pitchers in that game were new to being All-Stars. In fact, seven of the eight pitchers were first-timers. The one who wasn't, Steve Carlton, didn't even take the mound that night. Berra gave the Pirates' Ken Brett his only Midsummer Classic moment in the sun in the fourth inning, and even though Brett didn't strike anyone out, he was good in those two frames, allowing just one hit. Brett ended up being the winning pitcher as he and four others held Reggie Jackson hitless and kept Bert Campaneris and Brooks Robinson from getting on base. Reportedly, Berra said of the 7-2 win, "We had the better team."

Moses Malone, 1955-2015

In 1974, Petersburg High School beat West Springfield 50-48 to remain basketball champions of the Commonwealth of Virginia. That season, Moses Eugene Malone, a Petersburg senior, scored 896 points to set a 12th-grade record that stood for almost forty years.¹ Then, twenty-one years before Kevin Garnett started the wave, the ABA's Utah Stars selected Malone in the third round, at a time when no other team was willing to have anyone make that jump.^2 3

He had 1,209 rebounds, including a league-leading 455 offensive, his mark of 128 blocks was among the league's top ten, and his .571 field goal percentage was third-best in the league. His play was good for an All-Star Game appearance and a place on the All-Rookie Team.

The next season, after the team folded, he played with the Spirits of St. Louis, but due to his injury and his contract holdout, he took the court nearly halfway through.

He made his NBA debut with the Buffalo Braves, Portland having claimed him in the dispersal draft. After two games, he was traded to Houston. Each team got draft picks for Malone; Portland drafted Rick Robey, while Buffalo drafted Wesley Cox and Micheal Ray Richardson. The latter ended up being dealt to the Knicks and started a solid career.

As for Moses, you don't need me to tell you what happened next. I could just throw a bunch of numbers, many pertaining to his rebound totals, but here's the nitty-gritty. Over the course of 19 seasons, he was a three-time MVP, a 12-time All-Star, and Most Valuable Player of the '82-83 NBA Finals. His jersey number, 24, is retired in Houston. In Philadelphia, his #2 should be. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in 1996 and gained a place in the Hall of Fame five years later.

Here's to the career that began in the year of '74.

<sup>1. [Andrew Rowsey of the 2013 Rockbridge County Wildcats now holds that record.]↩
2. [The next year, by the way, NBA teams drafted two guys out of high school. And also, he's not the first player to make it to the pros without going to college, as I've heard at least once today; I remember from an old sports almanac that a few guys did so in the '40s (namely Kappen, Simmons, and Graboski).]↩
3. [His Topps NBA cards are unusual in that a simple "NO" follows the colon after "DRAFTED." He was drafted, just not by an NBA team at first.]↩</sup>

More '74

Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors on their first championship in 40 years. The Warriors went 23-12 in the last four months of 1974, and they won 11 of 15 in November. They were much hotter this season, going 25-5 by the end of the calendar year! I might add some individual player stats to this entry sometime.

This summer is the thirty-fifth anniversary of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, awarded to the Soviet capital October 23, 1974, by a vote of 39-20 at the 75th IOC session. The same session confirmed the selection of Lake Placid as host city for the 1980 Winter Olympics, Vancouver having withdrawn earlier in the month.

While transferring files to my new external hard drive, I decided Thursday it would be a good time to look at some library books that were almost due. One of them was The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (N.Y.: Free Press, 2001), and the following caught my eye because the year was 1974. It tells of an El Paso second baseman, Jerry Remy, who wonders if he'll ever be a major leaguer. Dave Garcia, the Diablos' manager, started a conversation that went something like this.

DG: Listen, do you know who is playing second base for the Angels?
JR: Denny Doyle.
DG: Who runs better, you or Denny?
JR: I do.
DG: Who throws better?
JR: I do.
DG: Who hits better?
JR: I do.
DG: Well then, you're going to the major leagues.

The next year, Doyle was traded to the Red Sox only to be released in 1978, as once again Remy replaced Doyle as second baseman. Remy played in the '78 All-Star Game to begin a seven-year run with the Red Sox after three with the Angels. As I looked things up for this entry, I learned he's now doing color commentary on NESN, but this May he was too ill for a road trip. Also, due to financial trouble, his restaurant near Fenway Park was closed for a time in March before being sold, and another location in his native Fall River was also sold later in May. He was back in the booth by June, though. Hope things are going better!