The early 1970's was a crazy period in the AL, when great bunches of pitchers had 20 wins in a season (see 1973). This year, there were seven, which naturally makes it tough to pick a winner. The voters chose Jim Perry, who won 24 games for the Twins, helping them win their division.

        Perry is the brother of Gaylord Perry, the Hall Of Famer who won 314 games. Jim won 215; that means the Perry brothers combined for 529 wins (they just missed the record for brothers; the Niekro's combined for 539 wins). Despite his fine season, however, I can't endorse Perry's selection for the award.
        The AL's best pitcher during the 1970's was Jim Palmer. He won three Cy Young awards, and I've given him two more, including this year. Palmer pitched for 19 seasons, all of them with Baltimore, and won 268 games. Remarkably, he missed almost two complete seasons early in his career (1967-68) because of arm injury; his arm healed, and he had a long, successful career. Palmer was an incredibly consistent pitcher who eight times had 20+ wins, and who was frequently among the league leaders in wins, ERA, innings pitched, and shutouts.
         Palmer's career in Baltimore ran almost concurrently with manager Earl Weaver's. The Orioles had some great pitching staffs during those years; this year, I think Palmer was the best pitcher in the league, though two of his teammates won more games (Dave McNally and Mike Cuellar). In addition to being a great pitcher, Palmer is also famous for his good looks, and for his other career as an underwear model. Palmer has done a lot of broadcasting since he retired, and even tried a comeback in the early 1990's that was aborted due to an injury. As I write this, Jim Palmer is 55 years old... but last I checked, he still looked 35.
        I'm also placing Perry behind "Sudden" Sam McDowell, who had his last big year. As I have mentioned before (and is obviously evident), McDowell threw about as hard as anybody. He had a better ERA than Perry, pitched more innings, and struck out almost twice as many batters. And he won 20 games with a terrible team (the Indians).
        This was the best year in the career of Clyde Wright. He is the father of Jaret Wright, the kid who starred for the Indians in the 1997 World Series. Jaret appeared to have a bright future, but his career has been derailed by injuries; as I write this in 2001, and it still remains to be seen whether Jaret will be a better pitcher than his father.
        Fritz Peterson also had his best season. Peterson is famous as the guy who swapped families with fellow pitcher Mike Kekich. Peterson got Mrs. Kekich, two Kekich daughters, and a dog. Kekich received Mrs. Peterson and the two Peterson sons. Wouldn't you like to be one of those kids? Kekich and Mrs. Peterson divorced shortly after; I'm not sure about the other two. I do know that neither pitcher was worth a damn afterwards.