Baseball in the 1960's: 2025

Sunday, June 15, 2025

The Big Pay Day Guys of the 60s

TRIVIA WINNER: Willie Horton was hit by the pitch by Don Kainer in his last at bat in the seventh inning of the last game of the 1980 season, while playing for Seattle. He was removed for a pinch runner. It was also Kainer's last game in the big leagues. 50 points toward the person's total.

NEW TRIVIA CONTEST: You will still be required to enter the drawing as usual. However, through June 2025 you will get points depending on the complexity of the questions. Enter each week and correct answers will get those points-one guess per person per week. The reader with the most points after June's final column will get a $50 Starbucks Gift Card. Ties will be placed into a drawing. Tell your friends and sports fans who like trivia. We will keep track of your points. - YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Who was the first MLB player to earn one million dollars in a season? TOTAL 10 POINTS.

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; 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 the end of the calendar year based on the total points acquired via weekly contests.

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Sunday, June 1, 2025

Willie Horton - Hero Among Men

TRIVIA WINNER: Jim Lonborg gave up Mickey Mantle's final home run. 25 points toward the person's total.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Which pitcher did Willie Horton face in his final major league at-bat, and what was the result? TOTAL 50 POINTS.

[THIS IS A GUEST COLUMN WRITTEN BY MICKEY BAUCHAN - THANK YOU MICKEY]

On July 22, 1967 the Tigers beat the Yankees 11-4. Norm Cash hit a grand slam and Willie Horton a three run homer. The Tigers were in second place, three games behind the White Sox. The Yankees were having one of their rare down years in the 60’s, sitting at 39-52, a dozen games behind Chicago. On the next day the teams had a double header as they both hoped to make some headway on the first place Chicagoan's.

In the opening game it was Joe Pepitone that started the scoring with a second inning 2 run home run off Tiger southpaw Mickey Lolich. Dick McAuliffe took a Mel Stottlemyre pitch deep in the fourth and then Detroit tied it at two apiece when Stott threw a wild pitch allowing Don Wert to scamper home from third. In the 7^th Roy White singled home a run to put the visitors up 3-2. In the 8^th inning Willie Horton came on to pinch hit for Lolich, but he struck out. The Yankees added a run in the 9^th for a 4-2 win. After starting the season 5-2, this loss dropped Lolich’s record to 5-12 on the season. It was also the last time Lolich would pitch for the Tigers for almost three full weeks.

After a short break Johnny Podres took the mound to start the second game. Meanwhile, a mere three miles away from Tiger Stadium, one of the worst riots in the history of our nation was taking place.

Sometime between that 11-4 game on Saturday and the first pitch that Lolich tossed on Sunday an ugly scene unfolded. Around 3 am that morning at an after hours club there was a celebration for the return home of a couple of Vietnam vets and the police had raided the club. Someone threw a rock at the officers and a riot erupted.

However, at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull it was business as usual. That business was baseball.

The Tigers staked Podres to an early lead in game two as Jim Landis started the bottom of the first with a home run. It stayed 1-0 into the fourth when Tom Tresh doubled home a run to tie the game. In the bottom of the 4^th it was Horton, the native Detroiter, homering to put the Tigers back on top, 2-1. Before that inning was over the Tigers had added three more runs for a 5-1 lead. The game ended 7-3.

The story that came out of Detroit that day wasn’t the doubleheader split. It was the riots. Ray Lane, Ernie Harwell’s broadcast partner during the 1967 season, later said there was a thick black smoke rising all the way above the third deck above the leftfield and centerfield wall. It was so thick they assumed it was tires burning. Early on in the first game there was a call to the radio booth from the longtime Tiger’s GM Jim Campbell, with instructions to not mention the smoke.

After pitching the first game Lolich went home. Between games the players were told what was happening mere minutes from the ballpark. When the second game concluded they were told what roads were closed off and they were offered the option to have security help them. Most players didn’t shower, they just hurried home to the safety of their homes and their families.

Horton, who grew up and delivered newspapers in the area of the riots had other plans.

He didn’t shower, but he drove straight to the area the riots were taking place. In his autobiography Horton said it looked like a war zone. He stood on his car, in his full uniform, and pleaded with people to stop. He understood the reasons the people were frustrated, but he tried to tell them violence wasn’t the solution. He said they were “getting away from the purpose” by burning and looting. Horton stayed well into the night on that bloody Sunday, trying to convince anyone that would listen, that there were other ways to display civil unrest. Horton returned multiple times over the next week trying to use whatever influence he had to calm things down. This was HIS city and he didn’t want it to be destroyed like this.

Earlier I mentioned that Lolich didn’t pitch for the Tigers for three weeks.

That’s because Mickey Lolich was a member of the Michigan National Guard. He showed up at Tiger Stadium on July 24^th and received a call from his commander that he was being called into duty. He spent the next few weeks assisting the National Guard as they protected a police station a few miles from Tiger Stadium. Lolich did return to the Tigers on August 11 and went 9-1 down the stretch as the Tigers finished just a game behind the Red Sox for the American League pennant.

Although I am a lifelong Tiger fan, I was too young to remember the 1968 World Series team. By the time I was 7 or 8 years old, in the early 70’s, I saw older versions of those players. They were revered for the ’68 series win. Al Kaline of course was an all time great. Jim Northrup, Bill Freehan, Cash and Lolich were still solid players during my youth. But, to be honest, I never understood the obsession with Horton. By the time I remember seeing him play, the muscular figure had“transformed” to no longer being muscle – and multiple leg injuries had sapped whatever speed he once had. I saw him as an overweight, slow designated hitter only. I knew he was a part of that 1968 team, but I never understood why he was held in such high regard. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I heard of his actions on that July evening in 1967. Since then I had more appreciation for what he did and how he literally put his life on the line for the city he grew up in and loved. THAT is why his number 23 was retired by the Tigers and if you ever make it to Michigan and visit Comerica Park – you’ll see his statue along the leftfield concourse – right next to Al Kaline and Ty Cobb and Charlie Gehringer. And rightfully so.

Sunday, May 18, 2025

The Geiger Counter: The Rule 5 Draft Crafts a Three-Decade Career

TRIVIA WINNER: Dutch Leonard in 1914 had an ERA of 0.96, winning 19 games. 10 points toward the person's total.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Who gave up Mickey Mantle's final home run? TOTAL 25 POINTS.

[THIS IS A GUEST COLUMN WRITTEN BY AARON WOIEN AND HE EVEN ADDED THE TRIVIA QUESTION - THANK YOU AARON]

“I was a little too tall, could have used a few pounds.” From Night Moves, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, 1976.

Since 1954, when the Pittsburgh Pirates selected Roberto Clemente from the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Rule 5 Draft has been an underrated source of serviceable major league players. Starting in 1977, the Toronto Blue Jays have been the franchise which most often benefitted from shrewd selections in the Draft. In between, the player who has benefited the most from the Draft has been Gary Geiger.

After four minor league seasons in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization, he was selected by Cleveland in the Draft in 1957. After a successful 1958 season as the Indians’ fourth outfielder, he was traded to Boston with Vic Wertz for Jimmy Piersall. Geiger then played at least 120 games for four of the following five seasons, missing the final half of the 1960 season with a collapsed lung. All the while, he played outstanding defense in centerfield with a strong throwing arm while posting respectable offensive numbers.

After missing nearly all of the 1964 season with a bleeding ulcer and stomach
obstruction, the already skinny Geiger carried only 130 pounds on his six-foot tall body.
He then missed most of the1965 season with a triple fracture in his hand incurred early
in the season, after which the Red Sox assigned him to AAA.

After being selected for the second time in the Rule 5 Draft, Geiger played two years for
Atlanta, batting .262 and .162, respectively, before being released and signing a minor
league contract with the Cardinals’ organization. From there he was selected for a third
time in the Rule 5 draft by Houston, where his career ended in 1970. Gary Merle Geiger died April 24, 1996 with complications from cirrhosis of the liver.

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