Another great interview with an author. This time it’s Steve Bucci, who has spent over 20 years as a sports journalist, over half of them as a sports anchor and reporter on KYW. He has written several books on the Phillies, his most recent one with Dave Brown called Drinking Coffee With a Fork: The Story of Steve Carlton and the ’72 Phillies. The title comes from a great quote from Willie Stargell, who once said, “Sometimes I hit him (Carlton) like I used to hit Koufax, and that’s like drinking coffee with a fork.” As most local sports fans know, Lefty’s ’72 season was nothing short of jaw dropping, as he won 27 games for a team that won 59 games all year. Steve tells us whether or not Carlton ever blew up on his less talented teammates, whether Philadelphians knew they were watching something special that year, and the biggest question of them all: was Steve Carlton’s 1972 season the greatest pitching year in MLB history?
JGT: What inspired you guys to write this book?
STEVE: We were inspired by the numbers Carlton put up that season for such a bad team. Dave Brown and I thought it would make a good book, because it doesn’t seem possible, does it? How could a guy pitch that well for a team that bad? And I’ve always felt that Carlton’s ’72 has gone largely overlooked in the annals of great seasons. Most people automatically think of Gibson’s ’68, or Guidry’s ’78, or one of Koufax’s great seasons of the mid-60s, but few every mention Carlton in 1972. He was the first, and up until recently, the only Cy Young Award winner from a last place team. We thought it was time he was given his due.
JGT: If Carlton had played on an even decent team, how many games do you think he would he have won that year?
STEVE: My guess is he would have definitely gotten to 30, which is a magic number in baseball history. There was a players strike that year that wiped out the first week of the season, and cost them six games. The Phillies only played 156. So that may have cost him two or three starts. As it was, he almost won 30.
PREVIOUSLY: Interview with author Bruce Kuklick about Shibe Park.
Interview with author Tom Swift about Chief Bender.
