1978 American League

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1978 American League
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The 1978 season of the American League was the seventy-eighth season of the league.

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Season summary

In a one-game playoff for the American League Eastern Division title, the New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox 5 to 4. For the final out, Boston's Carl Yastrzemski popped up a Goose Gossage pitch to Graig Nettles.

Standings

Bold indicates league champion, Italics indicates World Series champion

Rank	Team	G	W	L	T	WPCT	GB	RS (RS/G)	RA (RA/G)	AVG	OBP	SLG	ERA	FPCT
Eastern Division
1	New York Yankees	163	100	63	0	.613	-.-	735 (4.51)	582 (3.57)	0.267	0.328	0.388	3.18	0.982
2	Boston Red Sox	163	99	64	0	.607	1.0	796 (4.88)	657 (4.03)	0.267	0.336	0.424	3.54	0.977
3	Milwaukee Brewers	162	93	69	0	.574	6.5	804 (4.96)	650 (4.01)	0.276	0.339	0.432	3.65	0.977
4	Baltimore Orioles	161	90	71	0	.559	9.0	659 (4.09)	633 (3.93)	0.258	0.326	0.396	3.56	0.982
5	Detroit Tigers	162	86	76	0	.531	13.5	714 (4.41)	653 (4.03)	0.271	0.338	0.392	3.64	0.981
6	Cleveland Indians	159	69	90	0	.434	29.0	639 (4.02)	694 (4.36)	0.261	0.323	0.379	3.97	0.980
7	Toronto Blue Jays	161	59	102	0	.366	40.0	590 (3.66)	775 (4.81)	0.250	0.307	0.359	4.54	0.979
Western Division
1	Kansas City Royals	162	92	70	0	.568	-.-	743 (4.59)	634 (3.91)	0.268	0.329	0.399	3.44	0.976
2	Texas Rangers	162	87	75	0	.537	5.0	692 (4.27)	632 (3.90)	0.253	0.331	0.381	3.36	0.976
3	California Angels	162	87	75	0	.537	5.0	691 (4.27)	666 (4.11)	0.259	0.325	0.370	3.65	0.978
4	Minnesota Twins	162	73	89	0	.451	19.0	666 (4.11)	678 (4.19)	0.267	0.339	0.375	3.69	0.977
5	Chicago White Sox	161	71	90	0	.441	20.5	634 (3.94)	731 (4.54)	0.264	0.316	0.379	4.21	0.977
6	Oakland Athletics	162	69	93	0	.426	23.0	532 (3.28)	690 (4.26)	0.245	0.302	0.351	3.62	0.971
7	Seattle Mariners	160	56	104	0	.350	35.0	614 (3.84)	834 (5.21)	0.248	0.314	0.359	4.67	0.978

League leaders

Bold indicates league record, Italics indicate all-time record

Batting

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Games Played	Jim Rice	Boston Red Sox	163
At Bats	Jim Rice	Boston Red Sox	677
Runs Scored	Ron LeFlore	Detroit Tigers	126
Hits	Jim Rice	Boston Red Sox	213
Doubles	George Brett	Kansas City Royals	45
Triples	Jim Rice	Boston Red Sox	15
Home Runs	Jim Rice	Boston Red Sox	46
Total Bases	Jim Rice	Boston Red Sox	406
Runs Batted In	Jim Rice	Boston Red Sox	139
Stolen Bases	Ron LeFlore	Detroit Tigers	68
Caught Stealing	Miguel Dilone	Oakland Athletics	23
Walks	Mike Hargrove	Texas Rangers	107
Intentional Base-on-Balls	Rod Carew	Minnesota Twins	19
Hit by Pitch	Don Baylor	California Angels	18
Strikeouts	Gary Alexander	Oakland Athletics/Cleveland Indians	166
Sacrifice Hits	Bert Campaneris	Texas Rangers	25
Sacrifice Flies	Don Baylor	California Angels	12
Grounded into Double Plays	Lyman Bostock	California Angels	26
Batting Average	Rod Carew	Minnesota Twins	0.333
On-Base Percentage	Rod Carew	Minnesota Twins	0.411
Slugging Percentage	Jim Rice	Boston Red Sox	0.600
On-Base plus Slugging	Jim Rice	Boston Red Sox	0.970
On-Base plus Slugging Plus	Jim Rice	Boston Red Sox	158

Pitching

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Wins	Ron Guidry	New York Yankees	25
Losses	Rick Wise	Cleveland Indians	19
Win-Loss Percentage	Ron Guidry	New York Yankees	0.893
Appearances	Bob Lacey	Oakland Athletics	74
Games Started	Mike Flanagan Dennis Leonard	Baltimore Orioles Kansas City Royals	40
Complete Games	Mike Caldwell	Milwaukee Brewers	23
Shutouts	Ron Guidry	New York Yankees	9
Games Finished	Rich Gossage	New York Yankees	55
Saves	Rich Gossage	New York Yankees	27
Innings Pitched	Jim Palmer	Baltimore Orioles	296.0
Batters Faced	Dennis Leonard	Kansas City Royals	1218
Hits Allowed	Dennis Leonard	Kansas City Royals	283
Home Runs Allowed	Dennis Eckersley	Boston Red Sox	30
Base-on-Balls Allowed	Nolan Ryan	California Angels	148
Intentional Base-on-Balls	Bob Lacey	Oakland Athletics	13
Hit Batsmen	Ken Kravec	Chicago White Sox	10
Strikeouts	Nolan Ryan	California Angels	260
Wild Pitches	Nolan Ryan	California Angels	13
Balks	Frank Tanana	California Angels	8
Runs Allowed	Roger Erickson	Minnesota Twins	129
Earned Runs Allowed	Mike Flanagan	Baltimore Orioles	126
Earned Run Average	Ron Guidry	New York Yankees	1.74
Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched	Ron Guidry	New York Yankees	0.946

All-Star Game

The American League lost the forty-ninth midsummer classic at San Diego Stadium in San Diego, CA on Tuesday, July 11, 1978 by a score of 7 to 3. The league's manager was Billy Martin.

Postseason

The American League Championship Series, featured New York Yankees, the Eastern Division winner, and the Kansas City Royals, the Western Division winner. The Yankees defeated the Royals, 3 games to 1.

In the World Series, the American League champion New York Yankees defeated the National League's Los Angeles Dodgers, 4 games to 2.

Award winners

The winner of the league's Most Valuable Player Award, given its Most Valuable Player, was Jim Rice, an outfielder with the Boston Red Sox. In the award's voting, he had 352 out of a possible 392 points and 20 first place votes.

The winner of the league's Cy Young Award, given its best pitcher, was Ron Guidry of the New York Yankees. In the award's voting, he had 140 out of a possible 140 points and 28 first place votes.

The winner of the league's Rookie of the Year Award, given its best rookie player, was Lou Whitaker, a second baseman with the Detroit Tigers. In the award's voting, he had 21 out of a possible 28 points and 21 first place votes.

Gold Gloves

The following players won the Gold Glove Award, given to the league's best fielders as voted upon by its managers and coaches, at their respective position.

Position	Player	Team
P	Jim Palmer	Baltimore Orioles
C	Jim Sundberg	Texas Rangers
1B	Chris Chambliss	New York Yankees
2B	Frank White	Kansas City Royals
3B	Graig Nettles	New York Yankees
SS	Mark Belanger	Baltimore Orioles
OF	Dwight Evans	Boston Red Sox
	Rick Miller	California Angels
	Fred Lynn	Boston Red Sox

Monthly Awards

• Player of the Month Award
  • April: Frank Tanana, California Angels
  • May: Jim Rice, Boston Red Sox
  • June: Ron Guidry, New York Yankees
  • July: Doug DeCinces, Baltimore Orioles
  • August: Jim Rice, Boston Red Sox
  • September: Ron Guidry, New York Yankees

Hall of Fame Game

The thirty-sixth annual Hall of Fame Game was played on August 7 at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, NY near the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The game ended in a 4 - 4 tie between the Detroit Tigers of the American League and New York Mets of the National League. The game was stopped by rain in top of the seventh inning.

Umpires

• Larry Barnett
• Nick Bremigan
• Joe Brinkman
• Jeff Brown*
• Nestor Chylak
• Al Clark
• Curly Clement*
• Alan Contant*
• Terry Cooney
• Doug Cossey*
• Bill Deegan
• Don Denkinger
• Lou DiMuro
• Joe Driscoll*
• Jim Dunne*
• Jim Evans
• Dale Ford
• Al Forman*
• Lester Fuchs*
• Rich Garcia
• Bob Giard*
• Russ Goetz
• Dave Gustafson*
• Bill Haller
• Ted Hendry
• Johnny James*
• Ken Kaiser
• Wayne Keister*
• Greg Kosc
• Bill Kunkel
• Bill Laude*
• Richie Lazar*
• Don Leppert*
• Ron Luciano
• George Maloney
• Boyd Mauer*
• Larry McCoy
• Jim McKean
• Durwood Merrill
• Jerry Neudecker
• Jim O'Connor*
• Steve Palermo
• Rich Panas*
• Dave Phillips
• Jerry Phipps*
• Mike Reilly
• Bill Robinson*
• Bob Roesner*
• Joe Sawchuk*
• Jim Shewmake*
• Hank Soar
• Fred Spenn
• Bill Sprincz*
• Marty Springstead
• Mike Thompson*
• Leo Turner*
• Woody Urchak*
• Vic Voltaggio
• Jerry Zimmerman*
• Rico Zuccaro*

* Denotes a fill-in umpire

Further Reading

• Will Leitch: "'78: Yanks' wild journey, Seaver's no-no, Rice rakes", mlb.com, June 5, 2020. [1]