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| Candy: his threads are NOT "moldy"!!! |
As always, thanks to David Pinto and his Day-by-Day Database.
There's not quite the depth of pure hitting power to be found here in comparison to the AL guys, but let's not forget (though it's easy to do so...) that the NL only had twelve teams to the AL's fourteen in 1987.
So there ought to be at least ten more thumpers on the AL list than the one you'll peruse below.
We confess to still being stunned by the season-to-date totals from Candy Maldonado (or "Moldy Candonado", as we used to impishly call him back in the day).
But we note that as the balance of the '87 played itself out, Candy did indeed get "Moldy," hitting just .221/.287/.403 from August 12th on.
Many of the other folks at the top of the chart are ones you'd expect to be seeing up there:
One can't help but wonder what might have happened in terms of the infamous NL MVP voting in 1987 had Jack Clark remained healthy in September. Today, he might well have won the MVP despite missing September.
Back then, however, it had been awhile since anyone had hit close to 50 homers in the NL, so when Andre Dawson wound up with 49, it probably seemed like a big deal. Also, as we all know, RBI leaders--especially those whose totals were above 130--were clearly favored by MVP voters.
Our August totals show that Clark was right on Dawson's heels, even with the fact that he'd been bypassed via the base on balls 90+ more times than the Hawk.
Also note that other Clark--the one we know remember by the monicker "Will the Thrill." Having a fine rookie year, to be sure--just don't look too closely at those stolen base percentages!!
Finally--note the name of that fellow named Bonds. Speedy, and with a little pop, but not sure he's going to turn out to be much more than a (cough, cough) pale reflection of his old man...
