1972 Los Angeles Dodgers season

Summary

The 1972 Los Angeles Dodgers finished the season 85–70, good for a tie for second place with the Astros in the National League West. This was the first season where the players' last names appeared on the back of the uniforms.

1972 Los Angeles Dodgers
LeagueNational League
DivisionWest
BallparkDodger Stadium
CityLos Angeles
OwnersWalter O'Malley, James Mulvey
PresidentPeter O'Malley
General managersAl Campanis
ManagersWalter Alston
TelevisionKTTV (11)
RadioKFI
Vin Scully, Jerry Doggett
KWKW
Jose Garcia, Jaime Jarrín
← 1971 Seasons 1973 →

Offseason edit

Regular season edit

 
Sandy Koufax's number 32 was retired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1972.
 
Roy Campanella's number 39 was retired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1972.
 
Jackie Robinson's number 42 was retired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1972.

Season standings edit

NL West W L Pct. GB Home Road
Cincinnati Reds 95 59 0.617 42–34 53–25
Houston Astros 84 69 0.549 10½ 41–36 43–33
Los Angeles Dodgers 85 70 0.548 10½ 41–34 44–36
Atlanta Braves 70 84 0.455 25 36–41 34–43
San Francisco Giants 69 86 0.445 26½ 34–43 35–43
San Diego Padres 58 95 0.379 36½ 26–54 32–41

Record vs. opponents edit


Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Team ATL CHC CIN HOU LAD MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL
Atlanta 5–7–1 9–9 7–7 7–8 4–8 7–5 6–6 6–6 6–11 7–11 6–6
Chicago 7–5–1 8–4 3–9 8–4 10–5 10–8 10–7 3–12 9–3 7–5 10–8
Cincinnati 9–9 4–8 11–6 9–5 8–4 8–4 10–2 8–4 8–10 10–5 10–2
Houston 7–7 9–3 6–11 7–11 8–4 6–6 9–3 3–9 12–2 13–5 4–8
Los Angeles 8–7 4–8 5–9 11–7 6–6 7–5 7–5 7–5 13–5 9–9 8–4
Montreal 8–4 5–10 4–8 4–8 6–6 6–12 10–6 6–12 6–6 6–6 9–8
New York 5–7 8–10 4–8 6–6 5–7 12–6 13–5 8–6 7–5 8–4 7–9
Philadelphia 6-6 7–10 2–10 3–9 5–7 6–10 5–13 5–13 6–6 6–6 8–7
Pittsburgh 6–6 12–3 4–8 9–3 5–7 12–6 6–8 13–5 10–2 9–3 10–8
San Diego 11–6 3–9 10–8 2–12 5–13 6–6 5–7 6–6 2–10 4–10 4–8
San Francisco 11–7 5–7 5–10 5–13 9–9 6–6 4–8 6–6 3–9 10–4 5–7
St. Louis 6–6 8–10 2–10 8–4 4–8 8–9 9–7 7–8 8–10 8–4 7–5


Opening Day lineup edit

Opening Day starters
Name Position
Maury Wills Shortstop
Bill Buckner First baseman
Willie Davis Center fielder
Frank Robinson Right fielder
Jim Lefebvre Second baseman
Willie Crawford Left fielder
Duke Sims Catcher
Billy Grabarkewitz Third baseman
Don Sutton Starting pitcher

Notable transactions edit

Roster edit

1972 Los Angeles Dodgers
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats edit

Batting edit

Starters by position edit

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Chris Cannizzaro 73 200 48 .240 2 18
1B Wes Parker 130 427 119 .279 4 59
2B Lee Lacy 60 243 63 .259 0 12
SS Bill Russell 129 434 118 .272 4 34
3B Steve Garvey 96 294 79 .269 9 30
LF Manny Mota 118 371 120 .323 5 48
CF Willie Davis 149 615 178 .289 19 79
RF Frank Robinson 103 342 86 .251 19 59

Other batters edit

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Bobby Valentine 119 391 107 .274 3 32
Bill Buckner 105 383 122 .319 5 37
Willie Crawford 96 243 61 .251 8 27
Jim Lefebvre 70 169 34 .201 5 24
Duke Sims 51 151 29 .192 2 11
Billy Grabarkewitz 53 144 24 .167 4 16
Maury Wills 71 132 17 .129 0 4
Steve Yeager 35 106 29 .274 4 15
Dick Dietz 27 56 9 .161 1 6
Tom Paciorek 11 47 12 .255 1 6
Davey Lopes 11 42 9 .214 0 1
Ron Cey 11 37 10 .270 1 3
Joe Ferguson 8 24 7 .292 1 5
Terry McDermott 9 23 3 .130 0 0

Pitching edit

Starting pitchers edit

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Don Sutton 33 272.2 19 9 2.08 207
Claude Osteen 33 252.0 20 11 2.64 100
Al Downing 31 202.2 9 9 2.98 117
Tommy John 29 186.2 11 5 2.89 117
Bill Singer 26 169.1 6 16 3.67 101

Other pitchers edit

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Doug Rau 7 32.2 2 2 2.20 19

Relief pitchers edit

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Jim Brewer 51 8 7 17 1.26 69
Pete Richert 37 2 3 6 2.25 38
Pete Mikkelsen 33 5 5 5 4.06 41
Mike Strahler 19 1 2 0 3.26 25
Hoyt Wilhelm 16 0 1 1 4.62 9
Ron Perranoski 9 2 0 0 2.70 5
José Peña 5 0 0 0 8.59 4
Charlie Hough 2 0 0 0 3.38 4

Awards and honors edit

All-Stars edit

Farm system edit

Level Team League Manager
AAA Albuquerque Dukes Pacific Coast League Tommy Lasorda
AA El Paso Dodgers Texas League Monty Basgall
Stan Wasiak
A Bakersfield Dodgers California League Don LeJohn
A Daytona Beach Dodgers Florida State League Stan Wasiak
Bob Shaw
A-Short Season Spokane Indians Northwest League Bill Berrier
Rookie Ogden Dodgers Pioneer League Gail Henley

Teams in BOLD won League Championships

1972 Major League Baseball draft edit

This was the eighth year of a Major League Baseball Draft. The Dodgers drafted 42 players in the June draft and eight in the January draft.

This was a weak draft class whose most notable player was Dennis Lewallyn, a pitcher who played for the Dodgers and two other teams from 1975 to 1981 with a 4–4 record and 4.48 ERA. The top draft pick was shortstop John Harbin from Newberry College who played in only 83 games in the Dodgers farm system in 1972 and was quickly out of baseball.

Notes edit

  1. ^ Tommy Hutton at Baseball-Reference
  2. ^ Bobby Darwin at Baseball-Reference
  3. ^ Maury Wills at Baseball-Reference
  4. ^ Doyle Alexander at Baseball-Reference
  5. ^ Dick Allen at Baseball-Reference
  6. ^ Tom Haller at Baseball-Reference
  7. ^ Chris Cannizzaro at Baseball-Reference
  8. ^ Bill Sudakis at Baseball-Reference
  9. ^ Dick Dietz at Baseball-Reference
  10. ^ 19721 Los Angeles Dodgers Picks in the MLB January Draft-Regular Phase
  11. ^ 1972 Los Angeles Dodgers Picks in the MLB January Draft-Secondary Phase
  12. ^ 1972 Los Angeles Dodgers Picks in the MLB June Amateur Draft
  13. ^ 1972 Los Angeles Dodgers Picks in the MLB June Draft-Secondary Phase

References edit

  • Baseball-Reference season page
  • Baseball Almanac season page

External links edit

  • 1972 Los Angeles Dodgers uniform
  • Los Angeles Dodgers official web site