There was no baseball this summer; a mid-season players' strike meant that the game was only played in the spring and fall, cutting out a third of the season. A crazy playoff system was set in place, where four teams in each league — the ones with the best records in each half of the season — made the playoffs. The Yankees emerged from the mess as the pennant winners, while the MVP was Athletics' relief pitcher Rollie Fingers.

         Rickey Henderson received the most votes among the players, followed by Dwight Evans. I think they were the two best outfielders in the league, both on offense and defense. Henderson was only 22 years old, and had already stolen 200 bases in his career. He also hit for average and drew walks and won a Gold Glove in the outfield. Rickey was already a potent player at this young age, and would become even more devastating when he later developed power.
        Early in his career, Dwight Evans was the weak sister in a Boston outfield that also included Jim Rice and Fred Lynn. But neither Rice nor Lynn aged very well, while Evans continued to improve, and was great the second half of his career. If you had predicted it in 1977, people would have thought you were crazy, but I think Evans was the best of those three players. An outstanding defensive player, Evans finished his 20-year career with over 2400 hits, and 385 career homers, plus a huge number of walks. Evans never got much respect while he was active, and played in only three All-Star games, but he would not look out of place in the Hall Of Fame.
        In his fifth year with the California Angels, Bobby Grich had maybe his best season. He is one of only three second basemen since 1920 to lead his league in home runs (Rogers Hornsby and Ryne Sandberg are the other two). The Angels didn't have a good season, but they would win their division a year later.
        This was a phenomenal era for third basemen. George Brett and Mike Schmidt are probably the best to ever play the position, but there was also Graig Nettles and Ron Cey and Darrell Evans and Buddy Bell and Carney Lansford. Bell played for 18 years, had over 2500 hits and over 200 lifetime homers. He was also a great defensive player, and this year had one of his best seasons. Buddy was the son of slugger Gus Bell, and the father of another good ballplayer, David Bell.
        Bell played for the Rangers, and they had a good year. The nutty playoff format hurt the Rangers this year; they failed to reach the postseason despite an impressive record. Meanwhile the Royals won the second half of the season and made the playoffs, but they were so poor the first half that they finished the season with a losing record over all.