Followers

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

In Support of Steve Blass

Editors Note: This week, Baseball in the 1960s will be presenting two of the "best of" columns from our distant past. We hope you enjoy these reworked columns with updated video and links. The trivia questions however are continued from the previous weeks. Next week we will again begin with fresh columns and stories for you to follow and enjoy.


TRIVIA QUESTION: In the 1966 season, only two Pittsburgh Pirate pitchers had a losing record. Who were they?
  
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:  One of the most amazing pitchers of the modern era, Juan Marichal threw at least 22 complete games in a season in five different seasons. In 1968 he led the National League in Complete Games for a second time with an unbelievable 30 finishes.


Most pitchers will moan about the "lack of run support" they get from the bats of their teammates, but in 1969 the Pirates Steve Blass had no such complaint. Blass, who would win 16 of 26 decisions for a Pittsburgh team which was expected to do better, saw his team post at least 10 runs for him a lot.
 

  The Pirates, under Larry Shepard, would finish with 88 wins but end up in third place in the tough National League Eastern Division. They acquired aging Jim Bunning to bolster a starting staff which included Blass, Bob Veale and Bob Moose. Pirate bats were still strong with five regulars batting better than .300, led by Roberto Clemente at .345. Matty Alou hit .331 while Manny Sanguillen, rookie Richie Hebner and Willie Stargell all bested .300. Stargell added 29 homers as well.
Off the bench Carl Taylor hit .348 and was supported by veterans Gene Alley and Jose Pagan, along with youngsters in waiting Bob Robertson and Dave Cash. Freddie Patek was the shortstop, Bill Mazeroski at second and rookie Al Oliver would hit 17 homers while batting a respectable .285. 

For a change however, it was the Pirates starting pitchers which played a big positive role and Blass took the lead. The current Pirates announcer would be the first to admit the bats were working in his favor.

While Blass opened the season against Cardinal's ace Bob Gibson, with a no-decision in a 14-inning game, he was masterful. He allowed only two runs in seven innings, matching Gibson pitch for pitch. It wasn't often the Bucs scored a lowly two runs for their big guy.



In his next three wins the Pirates scored 8, 8 and 7 runs. In his losses and no decisions they weren't that productive but on June 1, the Bucco bats exploded for 14 runs to back Blass to make his record 4-2 without the aid of a home run. Five games later against the Braves the Pirates scored 10 runs behind Blass who went the distance for a six-hitter. Four days after that he started at Houston and the Pirates scored 13 runs. Included was a Clemente grand slam and while Blass was not very effective he still picked up the win to run his record to 6-2.

On August 5th, Blass started against Los Angeles at Chavez Ravine and Buc bats awoke again, scoring 11 runs with the aid of homers by Stargell, Sanguillen and Maz, as Blass bested Don Drysdale to run his record to 11-7. It would be the last double digit scoring behind Blass for the season. Five more times during the season the Pirates would score at least 10 runs with Moose (14-3) benefiting twice. 
When the dust cleared the Pirates led the league in runs, hits, triple and batting average. The team BA was .277 with non-pitchers hitting an amazing .290! While Pirate pitching ended up in the middle to later portion of the 12 team NL pack, they did lead the league in allowing the least home runs (they still played in spacious Forbes Field) and were second in strikeouts. Five Pirate pitchers finished with at least 10 wins. 

Despite his 4.46 ERA, Blass still managed a 16-10 record to lead Pittsburgh in wins. It was a far cry from his masterful 1968 season at 18-6 with a 2.12 ERA. He would go on to be the ace of the Pirates staff for years to come and 3-1 in the post season, including 2-0 in the 1971 World Series won by the Pirates.

This last season Blass retired as a beloved Pirates broadcaster to a standing ovation from the fans. He spent over half a century in the Pirates organization. 

Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

You can get a signed paper back copy of the above book

"Tales of My Baseball Youth - a child of the sixties"
for $15 Shipping Included 
Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment. 

Thank you to those of you who purchased my book after reading this column. 


Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Biggest Day for NY Mets

Editors Note: This week and the following week, Baseball in the 1960s will be presenting two of the "best of" columns from our distant past. We hope you enjoy these reworked columns with updated video and links. The trivia questions however are continued from the previous weeks.



TRIVIA QUESTION: In his amazing career the Giants Juan Marichal threw at least 22 complete games in a season on five different occasions. In 1968 he led the league for a second time. How many complete games did he toss that year?
  
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:  One of most feared hitters of the 1960s, Rocky Colavito rarely found a home for more than a few years. He was traded four times in his 14 big league seasons. Here are those tranasactions: 


April 17, 1960: Traded by the Cleveland Indians to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn.
November 18, 1963: Traded by the Detroit Tigers with Bob Anderson and $50,000 to the Kansas City Athletics for Jerry Lumpe, Ed Rakow and Dave Wickersham.
January 20, 1965: Traded as part of a 3-team trade by the Kansas City Athletics to the Cleveland Indians. The Chicago White Sox sent Cam Carreon to the Cleveland Indians. The Chicago White Sox sent a player to be named later, Mike Hershberger and Jim Landis to the Kansas City Athletics. The Cleveland Indians sent Tommie Agee, Tommy John and John Romano to the Chicago White Sox. The Chicago White Sox sent Fred Talbot (February 10, 1965) to the Kansas City Athletics to complete the trade.
July 29, 1967: Traded by the Cleveland Indians to the Chicago White Sox for a player to be named later and Jim King. The Chicago White Sox sent Marv Staehle (October 26, 1967) to the Cleveland Indians to complete the trade.


Most people don't think of Ken Boyer as a New York Met, preferring his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, but he was a Met and also played with more teams including the White Sox and the Dodgers. However, it was as a Met where he made history. Few people remember it but it was Boyer who drove in the winning run in a non essential game in 1966.

(It should be noted the classic broadcast above from YouTube was actually a game played two days before the September 6, 1966 game this column is about. We could not find the actual game.)

It was a Tuesday night at Shea Stadium and the 14-thousand-plus fans in attendance would probably not even remember this one. The game had one significant factor; a Mets win assured they would NOT end up in last place for the first time in franchise history. The club was destined to finish near the cellar. In fact, the Mets had never finished out of the cellar in their history. They wouldn't the following year either.
In the four previous seasons  the club had lost 120, 111, 109 and 112 games. In 1967 they again would lose 101. But in 1966 for the first time they would lose in double digits. The number nine grew large in New York and for the first time since the Dodgers and Giants fled the Big Apple, New Yorkers had a National League team which was not no. 10 in the standings. 

The game on September 6th, would assure it. Reds ace Jim Maloney was facing off against Mets youngster, Dennis Ribant. Maloney was looking for his 15th win, Ribant hoping for his 11th. It was the latter's night. 

Ribant made it through the first retiring the side in order. When the home town boys came to bat Maloney was wild. He walked lead off hitter Bud Harrelson who promptly stole second. Ron Hunt, as was customary with the second sacker, was hit by a pitch. He would go on to record 11 times being hit by the pitch that year, and would get hit 243 times in his bruised body career. 

So with runners at first and second Maloney, K'd Johnny Lewis but walked Al Luplow. Ken Boyer came to bat. The aging Boyer's best days were behind him but he was still hanging on at age 35. Maloney uncorked a wild pitch scoring Harrelson and everyone else moved up ninety feet. Boyer then drove a single to left scoring both Luplow and Hunt and the Mets led 3-0. 

The Reds would score two in the seventh; one on a Deron Johnson homer, but for the rest of the game it was all Ribant. The young righty went the distance giving up six hits while walking one and striking out three. Maloney took the loss. In six innings he walked seven, uncorked a wild one and hit a batter. All that came to unravel him in the three run inning.

The bottom line is that was win no. 60 for the Mets. The Cubs would only win 59. While Wes Westrum's team would go on to win 66 for New York, the key was finishing out of last place. And they did. 

The win was Ribant's last for the Mets. They shipped him off to Pittsburgh after the season for Don Cardwell in a four player deal.  Maloney would remain one of the aces of the Reds staff through the decade and Boyer would move onto the White Sox midway through the 1967 season before getting his release and ultimately finishing up with Los Angeles. 

Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

You can get a signed paper back copy of the above book

"Tales of My Baseball Youth - a child of the sixties"
for $15 Shipping Included 
Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment. 

Thank you to those of you who purchased my book after reading this column. 

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

The 1964 Kansas City A's - The Gopher Ball Rules

TRIVIA QUESTION: He was one of the most feared hitters of his day, yet Rocky Colavito was traded often. How many times did the Rock get traded from one team to another?
  
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:  One of the outstanding pinch-hitters of the era only appeared in 411 games but of those 159 were in the pinch. Carl Means Taylor played five different positions and stuck it out with three different teams in his career. Twice he played for Pittsburgh while adding the Cardinals and Royals to his resume. In 1969 in 104 games he went to bat 221 times and hit a career high .348. Perhaps his other best known factoid is the step brother of O's first sacker, Boog Powell.

When a team loses 105 games there are a lot of facets to look at but when it comes to the 1964 Kansas City Athletics you only need to look as far as the single pitch known as the "gopher ball." The home run delivered by a pitcher and for the A's of 1964, there were plenty of them.

To be fair, the A's didn't hit either. They only batted .239 as a team but did collect 166 home runs from the hitters (third in the AL), scoring 3.8 runs a game. However, when it came to giving up those home runs, A's pitchers allowed 220 for 10th in the 10 team American League. Coincidentally, it's where the club finished in 1964, last. The clubs 4.71 ERA also ranked 10th.
          (At least the A's of 1964 & 65 had Charlie O. This Charlie O.)

When a pitcher gives up one home run every nine innings it's considered on the cusp. For A's pitchers in 1964, it was very, very bad. Leading the way was ace Orlando Pena who pitched 219 innings and finished 12-14. However, in those 219 innings he allowed an amazing 40 home runs to opposing batters. That is 1.6 homers per nine innings.  
He wasn't alone. Diego Segui gave up 30 in 213 innings, John O'Donoghue 24 in 173 innings, John Wyatt 23 in 128, Moe Drabowsky 24 in 168, Dan Pfister 10 in 41, Vern Handrahan 9 in 33, Aurelio Monteagudo 11 in 31, Blue Moon Odom 5 in 31, Jack Aker 6 in 16 and the team allowed an astounding 1.4 per nine innings. 
Ted Bowsfield, Wes Stock and Jose Santiago defied the odds and were all at 1.0 per nine innings or less. The damage was already done by the time these three got into the game. When your top three starters give up almost 100 home runs in 600 innings, you are not going very far. At least you didn't in 1964. Either way it was not enough to offset the 34 hit by Rocky Colavito or the 28 belted by Jim Gentile.

The situation improved a year later. In 1965 the homers the pitching staff allowed dropped from 220 to 161 with Fred Talbot leading the way. He only gave up 25 in 198 innings and the team average of 1.0 was right where it needed to be. It still wasn't great and only good for 9th in the AL. The team ERA did improve to 4.24. When you only score 3.6 runs per game, you are going to lose more than you win.

The hitting didn't improve but actually dropped substantially. With Colavito gone and Gentile limited to 10 homers in 38 games, Hawk Harrelson led the team with 23. The club hit 110 for 10th in the American League. Not surprisingly, Kansas City again finished in 10th place but only lost 103 compared to 105 the previous season. They were 43 games back of pennant winning Minnesota while in 1964 they finished 42 back of the Yankees.

 Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

You can get a signed paper back copy of the above book
"Tales of My Baseball Youth - a child of the sixties"
for $15 Shipping Included 
Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment. 

Thank you to those of you who purchased my book after reading this column. 


Tuesday, December 10, 2019

McCarver on Third with a Triple x 13

TRIVIA QUESTION: He was known as an outstanding pinch-hitter. So much so that in 411 games he appeared 159 in the pinch. Over 1000 plate appearances, he played five different positions and once hit .348 but did not qualify for the batting title. In his six year career he played for three different teams, two of them twice. Who was he?
  
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:  In 1966, Marvelous Minnie Rojas was on the club and about to become one of the finest closers of the decade. However before Rojas blossomed in 1967, it was hard throwing big Bob Lee who led the Angels in Saves with 16. Rojas had 10. 

It's hard to imagine a catcher leading the league in triples but in 1966 the Cardinals Tim McCarver did exactly that. He gathered 13 of them! In fact, he's the only catcher to ever solely lead the league, either league, in triples in the history of modern baseball dating back to 1900. In 1972 Carlton Fisk tied for the league lead in the AL with Joe Rudi. No catcher besides McCarver led the majors in triples.


The 1966 season was an interesting one for the Cardinal catcher. He had been the regular at the position for the past two seasons. He played in more games this season than any other with 150, coming off his lowest of the 1960s the previous year at 113. It was his career high. He made the All-star team for the first time, he had the most hits (149) in his career, and his most at bats (543).

Despite McCarver's efforts the club finished 6th in the National League, well out of contention. The following year however, they rebounded, McCarver again shined and they won the pennant and the World Series. 

The fact McCarver hit 13 triples in 1966 was a real phenomenon.  Busch Stadium was moderately big but it wasn't like Forbes Field or Yankee Stadium with "triple alleys." It was only 386 to the power alleys and 414 to center. Interestingly enough, seven of the 13 triples were on the road. Of the 13 he hit one off of Sandy Koufax in what was the last and best year of Sandy's career. It came at Dodger Stadium. His last was on September first at home, and he hit two in the spacious Astrodome, but none in Pittsburgh's Forbes Field.


The rest of McCarver's career was involved in controversy on and off the field. Comments he made as a broadcaster infuriated several players and some fans. He was also involved in the Curt Flood trade to the Phillies which touched off the battle over the "reserve" clause.  

Despite his 1966 prowess with the league leading 13 triples, he never came close to double digits again in the three bagger department. The most he ever hit aside from 1966 was seven. His career total was 57 over 21 years or 2.71 per year. Subtract the 1966 season and you get 2.0 per year. To say it was a phenomenal season for the Cardinal catcher, would be an understatement. 


Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

You can get a signed paper back copy of the above book
"Tales of My Baseball Youth - a child of the sixties"
for $15 Shipping Included 
Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment. 

Thank you to those of you who purchased my book after reading this column. 


Tuesday, December 3, 2019

First in Their Hearts, 6th in the American League


TRIVIA QUESTION: Who led the 1966 Angels in Saves as a relief pitcher?
 
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:  While most people got the names of two of the three remaining MLB players who also played in the NBA in the 1960's, many forgot just one. The three were Ron Reed (NBA 65-66), Gene Conley (1964) and Steve Hamilton (1958-1960). All of the others either played before 1960 or after. They included Howie Schultz, Dave Ricketts, Mark Hendrickson, Dick Groat, Chuck Connors, Frank Baumholtz and Danny Ainge.

What made the 1966 Los Angeles/California Angels so interesting they would finish in sixth place in the American League but still finish first in attendance? While the team closed out the 1966 season 80-82, 1,400,321 fans went through the turnstiles of Anaheim Stadium. Bill Rigney's team did not have a .300 hitter or a batter with at least 20 homers. Aging Joe Adcock led the club with 18 in only 83 games. The club's leading hurlers each won 13 games (George Brunet and Jack Sanford) and ace Dean Chance was 12-17. So why did the fans turn out?

The team was never in danger of winning the pennant. They rarely won or lost more than five in a row. Their highlight was in mid-June when they won 11 of 13 and were seven games over .500. They were still eight games back of the Orioles but they were in fourth place. Then they dropped three in a row to Baltimore, another to Detroit and despite a four game winning streak which followed shortly thereafter, the season was essentially lost. 

They still played good baseball overall, and by the end of July they were still over .500. However they were 14.5 games back of first place Baltimore. Perhaps it was the fact the Angels, despite looking up to see down trying to overcome the Frank Robinson led Birds, never gave up. On July 30th Chance pitched the Angels to a 2-1 win over Cleveland to put the west coast team into its only day in second place. They were 13.5 back. It lasted 24 hours.
Brunet, always the hard luck pitcher would face even more hard luck in 1967 when the Angels competed for the pennant, Fregosi continued to play well and alongside Bobby Knoop they were among the best double play duos of the era. Chance would become an outstanding pitcher, especially after being traded to Minnesota. The Norm Siebern/Joe Adcock platoon was replaced by Don Mincher the following season. 

It was the slugging Adcock's final season and leading the team in homers at age 38 was pretty indicative of the 1966 Angels. Let's face it, this was a team of lovable players who were at a crossroads in a region hungry for a winner not named the Dodgers. They Angels were no match for the pennant winning team led by Sandy Koufax in his final season, Don Drysdale and fav's such as Wes Parker and Lou Johnson.

They really were every bit as talented as the Dodgers but were just not ready to eclipse the upper tier of the American League. The Orioles, the Red Sox and the Tigers were way too difficult for the team from Anaheim. They were never more than 3 games under .500, and as the 80-82 record indicated they played pretty evenly through the year. They had 9 walk off wins and 9 walk off losses which is pretty darn even. 

This was a club of lovable characters. There were new kids on the block like Rick Reichardt, Paul Schall, Jim McGlothlin, Jackie Hernandez, Clyde Wright and Minnie Rojas. There was a mix of real fan favorites such as Adcock, Bubba Morton, Lew Burdette, Jimmy Piersall, Jack Sanford and Ramon Lopez. 
Perhaps a real indication where this team of aging vets and young stars trying to shine is how they finished. One of the clubs best games was on Sunday October 2, facing Luis Tiant and the Indians. Knoop's 2-run triple in the bottom of the eighth plated the only runs of the game to back the 5-hit pitching of Jorge Rubio (WHO?). In the ninth, facing four batters, Rubio did not allow a fair hit ball. He walked Rocky Colavito and struck out Leon Wagner, Bill Davis and Fred Whitfield.
Rubio finished his career the following season with a 2-3 lifetime record in ten total career games. The Angels were a team waiting to happen with a fan base eager to see it happen. Or so one would think. The following season they were in the race for much of the year and finished 84-77 in 5th place. Attendance: Dropped off to fourth in the American League, down to
1,317,713. Some people just can't stand a winner.

Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

You can get a signed paper back copy of the above book
"Tales of My Baseball Youth - a child of the sixties"
for $15 Shipping Included 
Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment. 

Thank you to those of you who purchased my book after reading this column.