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Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Denis Menke; An Enigma

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Rich Klein of Grand Prairie, TX, who identified the answer we were looking for in that in 1964 Bill Skowron played 73 games for each of two teams; Washington and the White Sox. By the way he also hit into 7 double-plays with each but we were looking for the Games Played. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

NEW TRIVIA CONTEST:  By answering the TRIVIA QUESTION CORRECTLY you are automatically entered into a weekly drawing for a Starbucks Gift Card.  Please enter via brillpro@gmail.com and please put your mailing address in with the answer so we can send you the gift card in the mail.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Bill Skowron played in 73 games in 1964 for both the Senators and the White Sox.

EDS NOTE; Since we are trying to expand our mailing list and readership we want to build our mailing list. Readers on our email list receive the column each Monday directly into their mailbox. Please help us out by sending your email to brillpro@gmail.com. We DO NOT SELL your emails.

NOTE; At the top right corner of the side bar you will see a link to daily sports scores. We made an agreement with Baseball 24 in a mutual sharing situation.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:  Who was the starting shortstop Denis Menke would eventually replace when he came up to the Braves in 1962?

NOTE: A Special Shout-out to Craig McGraw who sent us a photo of him using his winning Starbucks card in Mexico at 88 Pesos per cup. Thanx Craig, Drink UP!

When it comes to steady players in the 1960s the word enigma comes to mind when discussing shortstop Denis Menke. Menke was pretty much a starting shortstop for the Braves, the Astros, and later in his career as a member of the Big Red Machine. He had flashes of real positives at the plate mixed in with some downers. He held his job despite probably being one of the worst fielding shortstops in the NL.


Menke came up with the Milwaukee Braves in 1962 as a 21 year old with some pop in his bat. In 1963 he became a starter with modest success, but in 1964 he became a start shortstop. By today's standards he'd likely get a 6-year contract worth $150 million. In reality back then he was making about $20,000 a year. That was far less than minimum wage today (Today at $15 an hour an employee makes about $31,000). When he signed with the Braves he was given a $175,000 bonus. That would be $1.6 million today.

In his breakout 1964 season he smacked 20 homers, batted .283 and drove in 65 Runs.  He rivaled many of the start shortstops of the era, and was well ahead of many as there were light hitters such as Roy McMillan, Hal Lanier and Al Weis around at the time. Where he did not shine is in the field. In 1964 he committed 25 errors at short and fielded a lowly .964. It became his trademark.

Weighted against a modern day statistic; Total Fielding Runs Above Average, Menke was horrible at -25. It makes a purist wonder how could they keep him on the field. He was moved around to second and third base occasionally but a natural shortstop, the era was a victim of him. He played, he hit and drove in runs but often gave up more than he drove in.

Menke was sent to Houston in a deal with Denny Lemaster which brought shortstop Sonny Jackson to Atlanta. He was later moved to Cincinnati in the massive and lopsided Joe Morgan deal. He would play behind Dave Concepcion there. He made the All-Star Team in 1969 and received a few votes for MVP despite making 24 errors and the following year made 28 errors but batted .304. It was his only .300 plus season. His lifetime BA was .250 with 101 homers over 13 seasons.

Menke would go on to coach in the minors and the majors with several teams. He died in 2020 at the age of 80.  

TRIVIA CONTEST; After reading this column you can enter the weekly trivia contest for a chance to win a Starbucks Gift Card. Enter via the following email. Send 1) your answer to the trivia question at the top of the column, 2) your name, address and email so where we know where to send the card if you win 3) any comment you have on the column. One winner will be selected at random each week based on correct answers with the odds being based on the number of correct entries.  Please cut and paste or enter the following email into your email system.
                              brillpro@gmail.com 
 ==========================================================
I've written more than a dozen books including at least two sports books. You can find these at my Amazon page or at my own website www.bobbrillbooks.com. Please take a look at the sports books, the western novel series or the "Tattoo Murder," which is a crime book set in Ventura, CA.

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 books after reading this column.
 

Monday, December 12, 2022

Owners Say Games Too Long; 1962

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Craig McGraw of Nottingham Md., who correctly stated the first year Carl Yastrzemski was paid $100,000 was 1968 the year after he won the Triple Crown. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

NEW TRIVIA CONTEST:  By answering the TRIVIA QUESTION CORRECTLY you are automatically entered into a weekly drawing for a Starbucks Gift Card.  Please enter via brillpro@gmail.com and please put your mailing address in with the answer so we can send you the gift card in the mail.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: The first year Carl Yastrzemski was paid $100,000 was 1968 the year after he won the Triple Crown..

EDS NOTE; Since we are trying to expand our mailing list and readership we want to build our mailing list. Readers on our email list receive the column each Monday directly into their mailbox. Please help us out by sending your email to brillpro@gmail.com. We DO NOT SELL your emails.

NOTE; At the top right corner of the side bar you will see a link to daily sports scores. We made an agreement with Baseball 24 in a mutual sharing situation.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:  The trade of Bill Skowron to Los Angeles only kept the former Yankee slugger in a Dodger uniform one season. In 1964 he played for two teams and his playing time featured a very unusual statistic. What is the statistic we are looking for?

"Major League Baseball Games are Too Long!" Sound familiar? MLB owners said it in 1962.

With the recently concluded Winter Meetings we thought it interesting to see what happened 60 years ago at the 1962 Winter Meetings. There were some interesting developments. Owners felt the games were going too long so they decided to embark on a strategy to shorten playing time. Games were marathon length and it wasn't unusual for a game to take three hours to play.

        (Dan Pfister gave up 106 Walks for KC which led the AL in Walks Issued)
 The focus quickly turned to the pitchers. The owners voted to limit warm-up pitches from the mound to just five in between innings. It had been eight. The American League added this exception; during the first 30 days of the season pitchers could still take eight warm-ups, figuring it was early on and pitchers may have not had enough spring training work. The next thing they did was look at mound visits by the managers.

The NL decided the manager could only visit the mound once per inning for the same pitcher. A second visit would result in the removal of the pitcher. The AL rule had already been one visit to the mound per the same pitcher, by the manager in an entire game. 

Both leagues agreed that a pitcher awaiting his turn at bat had to do so from the On-Deck Circle. Previously a warm up player could take that spot in the Circle while the pitcher rested on the bench. The AL went even further in that it required a catcher in the On-Deck to remove ALL his catching gear while awaiting his turn to hit.

There also would be "no" Inter-league trading in June. Commissioner Ford Frick said “when you start trading like that in the middle of the season you leave yourself open to considerable criticism,” as “you might even find pennant contenders in one league getting help from low-ranked clubs in the other league and that doesn’t make sense.”

The first trade of the Winter Meetings saw Cleveland sent 3B Bubba Phillips to Detroit for rookie pitchers Ron Nischwitz and Gordon Seyfried. The big trade of the gathering saw the Yankees send 1B Bill Skowron to the rival Dodgers for pitcher Stan Williams. NYY wanted Williams badly despite him giving up the walk that lost the pennant in his final appearance in a Dodger uniform. 

Williams will always be remembered for walking in the winning run during the 1962 National League Playoff against the Giants.

TRIVIA CONTEST; After reading this column you can enter the weekly trivia contest for a chance to win a Starbucks Gift Card. Enter via the following email. Send 1) your answer to the trivia question at the top of the column, 2) your name, address and email so where we know where to send the card if you win 3) any comment you have on the column. One winner will be selected at random each week based on correct answers with the odds being based on the number of correct entries.  Please cut and paste or enter the following email into your email system.
                              brillpro@gmail.com 
 ==========================================================
I've written more than a dozen books including at least two sports books. You can find these at my Amazon page or at my own website www.bobbrillbooks.com. Please take a look at the sports books, the western novel series or the "Tattoo Murder," which is a crime book set in Ventura, CA.

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 books after reading this column.

Monday, December 5, 2022

The $100K Players in the 1960s

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Tim Nathan, Berkley, MI, who revealed that Lew Burdette was the Angels pitcher who pitched for the Yankees to start his career and only played for one other AL team; the Angels. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

NEW TRIVIA CONTEST:  By answering the TRIVIA QUESTION CORRECTLY you are automatically entered into a weekly drawing for a Starbucks Gift Card.  Please enter via brillpro@gmail.com and please put your mailing address in with the answer so we can send you the gift card in the mail.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Lew Burdette started his career with the Yankees and only played for one other AL team.

EDS NOTE; Since we are trying to expand our mailing list and readership we want to build our mailing list. Readers on our email list receive the column each Monday directly into their mailbox. Please help us out by sending your email to brillpro@gmail.com. We DO NOT SELL your emails.

NOTE; At the top right corner of the side bar you will see a link to daily sports scores. We made an agreement with Baseball 24 in a mutual sharing situation.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:  The "other" Triple Crown Winner in the American League in the 1960's, Carl Yastrzemsi, finally made $100,000 a season. In what year did he first make that salary?

 It may seem like a minuscule amount in today's salaried world where millions of dollars are being spent on major league players and at some point we will see a Billion Dollar Contract, but in the 1960s the goal was $100,000. So who was the highest paid player in the 1960s. It should come as no surprise, it was Willie Mays. In 1965 at age 34 Mays hit 52 homers and batted .317.

What Willie Mays made in a season in the 1960s was about what players today make in "at bat," and while all things are relative most fans believe players like Mays and Aaron were well underpaid. I had more than one encounter with Willie over the last 25 years and he has seemed to be not a pleasant individual. He seems angry, which is what others who have had the same experience have told me as well. It might be understandable that he might feel slighted that players who couldn't hold a candle to him during his say-hey days, make millions while he made less around $2 million in his career.

Briefly Mickey Mantle was the highest paid, the Mays and then for one year Sandy Koufax was top of the list. If he hadn't retired, the lefty pitcher might have been the highest paid in the decade over Mays. The list looks like this;

1960 $80,000 Willie Mays (SF NL)
1961 $85,000 Willie Mays (SF NL)
1962 $90,000 Mickey Mantle (NY AL)
    Willie Mays (SF NL)
1963 $105,000 Willie Mays (SF NL)
1964 $105,000 Willie Mays (SF NL)
1965 $105,000 Willie Mays (SF NL)
1966 $130,000 Sandy Koufax (LA NL) (Retired after 1966 season)
1967 $125,000 Willie Mays (SF NL)
1968 $125,000 Willie Mays (SF NL)
1969 $135,000 Willie Mays (SF NL) (Top Salary of the decade)   

During the 1960s Hank Aaron hit 40+ homers a season five times, yet Aaron never made more than $92,500 but crossed the $100k mark in 1970 at $125k. He eventually made $240k. Frank Robinson won the Triple Crown in 1966 at age 30 but didn't reach $100k until 1967, topping out at $125 in the 60s. Juan Marichal made $115k among the top players. By the end of the decade there were several. 

Pete Rose often said that knowing sluggers made $100k, he wanted to be the first $100k "singles hitter." He made in 1970 when he reached $105k.

TRIVIA CONTEST; After reading this column you can enter the weekly trivia contest for a chance to win a Starbucks Gift Card. Enter via the following email. Send 1) your answer to the trivia question at the top of the column, 2) your name, address and email so where we know where to send the card if you win 3) any comment you have on the column. One winner will be selected at random each week based on correct answers with the odds being based on the number of correct entries.  Please cut and paste or enter the following email into your email system.
                              brillpro@gmail.com 
 ==========================================================
I've written more than a dozen books including at least two sports books. You can find these at my Amazon page or at my own website www.bobbrillbooks.com. Please take a look at the sports books, the western novel series or the "Tattoo Murder," which is a crime book set in Ventura, CA.

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 books after reading this column.