I was barely, if at all, aware of baseball in 1977 but many of the players that formed the nucleus of the '77 Dodgers went on to reach the World Series in 1978 and eventually win it all in 1981. By then I was a full fledged baseball fan, baseball card collector, and baseball dynasty player (Coleco's electronic Head to Head Baseball and a notebook full of box scores and stats were my weapons of choice with the board game Pursue the Pennant coming into play later).
I decided to break in my OOTP9 with a replay of the 1977 baseball season as manager of the LA Dodgers.
I am going to stay true to the roster in 1977 which stayed pretty constant throughout the season. The Dodgers were fortunate to escape having very many major injuries that year and made no major player personnel moves during the course of the season.
The Dodgers lineup had a good mix of home grown players including the entire infield of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Ron Cey as well as catcher Steve Yeager which combined well with an outfield put together by trades in consecutive years 1975 (Dusty Baker), 1976 (switch-hitter Reggie Smith), and prior to the 1977 season (Rick Monday).
The pitching staff was nothing short of fantastic. Don Sutton, Burt Hooten, and Doug Rau were all in their prime. Tommy John, at age 34, was two years removed from, well, Tommy John surgery, but had some of his best years still coming to him. Young Rick Rhoden was the final piece of this prized rotation, a #5 here but good enough to be a #2 or #3 in many other ML rotations.
The bullpen was anchored by knuckleballer Charlie Hough, who didn't move to being a regular starter until moving to Texas in 1980. He was supported by a cast of journeymen that were far from household names: Mike Garman, Elias Sosa, Lance Rautzhan, and Stan Wall. In addition, Al Downing, the man who gave up Hank Aaron's 715th homer three years earlier, as still hanging on as a swingman.
Filling out the 25-man roster were old professional hitters Manny Mota and Vic Davillilo who were a combined 79 years old; utility man Lee Lacy, who, like Rhoden, would later win a ring with Pittsburgh in 1979; outfielder Glenn Burke, thought to be the first outed gay player in baseball (not to mention inventor of the high five); back-up catcher and future manager Johnny Oates, and middle infielder Teddy Martinez. In addition, Boog Powell, legendary Orioles slugger, was hanging on for dear life as Garvey's backup. Powell would make until August with the club, hitting .244 with 0 extra base hits.
Clearly the 1977 Dodgers were loaded with talent. They were coming off a very fine 1976 campaign where they finished with 92 wins but were still 10 games behind the eventual World Series winning Big Red Machine. The addition of Rick Monday (in exchange for Bill Buckner) was the only major change to the team, at least on the field. In the dugout, enthusiastically ready for his first full major league season was skipper Tommy Lasorda. He replaced a Hall of Famer in Walter Alston. However, Lasorda knew many of the current Dodgers very well, having coached at the big league level the past four seasons, as well as managing many of the home grown talent as they progressed through the minors.
I plan to manage each game, unless things get completely uninteresting with the team fading from contention. Since the roster stayed constant, I'll refrain from making trades. The only trade I know the Dodgers made was picking up Mets catcher Jerry Grote (in exchange for two minor leaguers) in August after Yeager was hurt for a couple weeks.
Downing and Powell were released mid-season so if they perform to expected levels, I'll probably drop them too. A few future major leaguers (Jeffery Leonard, Rafael Landestoy, Ron Washington, Joe Simpson) were called up during the '77 season, most likely after the roster expanded to 40, so I will use them for injury replacements.
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Originally Posted by Curt Schilling
