| 1977 ILLOWA LEAGUE
|
W
|
L
|
PCT
|
GB
|
Manager
|
| Chicago Champions
|
92
|
69
|
.571
|
0
|
Tedd Mallasch
|
| Merrionette Park Rocket-Fire
|
89
|
72
|
.553
|
3
|
Dale Smith
|
| Davenport Fire
|
83
|
78
|
.516
|
9
|
Don Smith
|
| Quad Cities Thunderchickens
|
81
|
80
|
.503
|
11
|
Dennis Jennings
|
| East Moline Bombers
|
81
|
80
|
.503
|
11
|
Mike Bunch
|
| Monmouth Shooting Star
|
77
|
84
|
.478
|
15
|
Terry Wade
|
| Maquoketa Cardinals
|
77
|
84
|
.478
|
15
|
Tom Reisdorph
|
| Baldwin Bums
|
64
|
97
|
.398
|
28
|
Barry Rowold
|
IAL Champions: Quad Cities Thunderchickens
MVP: Mike Schmidt |
Cy Young: Ferguson Jenkins |
 Scanned IAL newsletter from 1977 |
In 1977, Dennis Jennings and his Quad City Thunderchickens (81-80) won his first IAL championship, after winning a one game playoff game versus the Bombers to make it into the playoffs, with the help of Jay Johnstone and Rick Monday and the arm of Mark Fidryrch. Tedd Mallasch and his Chicago Champions garnered first place behind bat of MVP thirdbaseman Mike Schmidt who led the league with 45 homeruns and 130 rbis. Rocket-Fire outfielder Garry Maddox picked up the batting title with a .356 batting average, teammate Graig Nettles, using BIG DICE (squares cut from a fence post by Dale Smith’s father) finished 2nd in the league in home runs with 37, also finishing 2nd in RBIs with 127. On the pitching side of things, Cy Young winner Ferguson Jenkins led the league with a 2.43. Amazingly, reliever Rollie Fingers led the league with 21 wins. That’s even more of a feat considering his Maquoketa Cardinals only won 77 games for the years.
I’d like to share with you a couple of interesting happenings. Champs outfielder Cesar Geronimo hit two homers in 464 at bats, back-to-back versus the Cardinals. In another game against the Cards, the Champs were up 4-0 in the 1st inning of a ballgame, two outs, bottom of the first, runners on 2nd & 3rd, with the pitchers ondeck, the 8th place hitter was walked to get to the pitcher, Don Groove Baylor came off the bench & hit a grand slam! |
| 1977 IAL Hitting and Pitching Leaders |
|
“In another game against the Cards, the Champs were up 4-0 in the 1st inning of a ballgame, two outs, bottom of the first, runners on 2nd & 3rd, with the pitchers ondeck, the 8th place hitter was walked to get to the pitcher, Don Groove Baylor came off the bench & hit a grand slam!”
If this is exactly true, the Champions batted out of order. DonS.