In 1976, the IAL picked themselves up from their initial abbreviated season and played a 161 game season. And what a season it was! Dennis Jennings and his Thunderchickens captured first place thanks to Manny Sanguillen (.383 tops by any IAL catcher), Bobby Bonds (35 HR & 100 RBIs), and a pair of twenty game winners Catfish Hunter 22-12 & Bill Lee 20-11. Rookie skipper Dale Smith & his Rocket Fire garnered 2nd helped out by Cy Young winner Andy Messersmith’s 27 wins and MVP Joe Morgan. Brother Don Smith & his Fire landed in 3rd with help from Reggie Jackson (37 HR) and Johnny Bench (54 doubles). But it was first year manager Tedd Mallasch & his aptly named Chicago Champions who took the World Series that year, hanging on for the last playoff spot after being in 1st place much of the season. In the first of many productive years, Champion Mike Schmidt homered 34 times with 109 runs. Teammate, sparkplug Cesar Cedeno batted .348, with 64 SBs, 41 doubles, & 111 runs scored.
An interesting note: Joe Morgan was not among the top 5 in homers or doubles (or triples for that matter) and 4th in batting yet still led the league in slugging percentage. Another interesting note, in the first game between two rookie managers Dale Smith & Tedd Mallasch, the last out was recorded when Cesar Cedeno flied out after re-rolling on the error card, only we weren’t supposed to be using the error card, who knew?
Number Five was playing the Maquoketa Cardinals, Ted Simmons, a switch hitter was at the plate, Craig Smith would roll with either his left or right hand depending on which way his power hitting catcher was batting. So when Craig received no response from the Cards skipper on whether his hurler was a lefty or a righty, Smith held his dice shaker with both hands, and rolled a home run!
Scan from actual IAL newsletters from 1976 (click to enlarge):
