1975 was George Foster’s coming out season. After a full and mediocre 1972, he played only bits and pieces of 1973 and 1974 before busting out in the 1975. He was still two years away from his best season, where he was the only player in the 1970s or 1980s to hit 50 homers in a season.

How good was he in 1975? He was fifth in the league in Slugging, and tenth in the league in OPS and OPS+. The ironic thing is, most of the people he finished behind were his own teamates.

So let’s look at the tale of the tape:

Runs 71
Homeruns 23
RBIs 78
Avg. .300
OBP .356
Slg% .518
Runs Created 85
OPS+ 139
Batting Runs Above Replacement 42
Fielding Runs Above Replacement 31
Equalized Average .304
Wins Above Replacement Player 8.1

Larry Herdon was a great role player for the Tigers, but he was just that. His 1984 season was pretty average, and as you can tell above, George Foster was well above average. Had he played on another team, he probably would have gotten more MVP consideration then he did.

So the Tiger’s streak ends….at one.

Scorecard 1975 Reds 5, 1984 Tigers 1

You can read Brian’s analysis at Tigerblog when he decides he wants to face reality.

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