Baseball in the 1960's

Monday, September 12, 2022

When An Owner Screws UP; Charley O. FInley

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Jim Depitro of Syracuse, NY, who knew that Elmer Valo was the player in 1960 who came to bat 92 times, 81 as a Pinch Hitter. 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: Elmer Valo was the player in 1960 who came to bat 92 times, 81 as a Pinch Hitter.

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: In 1967 Manny Jimenez batted .331 for a Pittsburgh minor league team. What was the name of that team?

In the classic baseball film "Field of Dreams" Shoeless Joe Jackson tells Ray Kinsella in response to the farmer's reasoning for adding lights to baseball fields; the owners thought it would bring in more fans and more money if they could play games at night. Jackson (played by the late Ray Liotta) answers back "phh, owners." He did it with a dismissive response, basically saying owners can do more to wreck the game than anyone else.

Such was the case with a rising star in Kansas City, who fell to earth way before he should have. Manny Jimenez was an outstanding hitter in the minor leagues and upon making his debut in 1962, he seemed to be on track for stardom. Jimenez batted .301 with 11 homers for the Kansas City A's.

In his first game on April 11, 1962 in front of only 4,064 fans in Kansas City, he faced the Twins Camilo Pascual and got three of the teams four hits off the all-star pitcher. It seemed he was well on his way. It should be noted the next night he did not even start. It was okay as only 854 fans remember it. That was the total attendance at game three of the 1962 season.

It was another week before Jimenez appeared again and he got a pinch hit in his only at bat. The season went on in strange fashion. When the dust settled on the A's season, they finished in 9th place out of 10 and won only 72 games while losing 90. Jimenez on the other hand capped an outstanding rookie season.

Not only did he bat .301, but slugged 11 homers and 24 doubles but he drove in 69 runs. Then in the off season owner Charlie O. Finley pulled Manny aside. He instructed him to stop trying to hit for average (he'd batted .340 in one minor league season) and to go for power. He wanted more home runs, like the Yankees asked Roger Maris to do after he was traded by the A's to New York. While Maris responded with 100 dingers over the next two years, Manny hit 12 over the next three years.

Not surprisingly, in his second year, the year after he debuted with 11 homers, he hit zero - none- nada! In addition, his average fell to .280, .225 and then .114. He was shipped off to Pittsburgh where he served as a pinch hitter and was out of baseball by the end of the 1969 season.

To take a rookie who could have been rookie of the year and turn him completely around, Finley later admitted what he did probably hurt the player more than helped. The proof was in the pudding.

Despite his devastating exit from MLB Jimenez did have some highlights. He had three 4-hit games, including 3 home runs and 5 RBI against All-Stars Eddie Fisher, Sam Jones, Ken McBride, Camilo Pascual, and Juan Pizarro and hit a combined .429 (24-for-56) against Hall of Famers Whitey Ford, Ferguson Jenkins, Robin Roberts, Don Sutton, and Early Wynn.

Take it from Shoeless Joe; "phh owners."

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Monday, September 5, 2022

Swingin' Gates Brown; The Best Ever?

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Mickey Bauchan of Flint, MI, who knew that Nellie Fox was the 1963 White Sox starting player with the least strikeouts (17). The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Nellie Fox had the least strikeouts of any starter on the 1963 White Sox with 17.

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: In 1960 which player came to bat 92 times with 81 of them being as a pinch hitter, setting a baseball record for most pinch hit appearances in a season?

Their names read like a who's who of non-position players. Indeed, they officially don't even have a position - at least not in the official annals of baseball, but they do exist. And, they are among the most important players in the game. They are the "pinch-hitters" or the PH in the boxscore. The guys whose only role is to bat for someone the manager feels, at the moment, is the lesser option to do what the team tries to do; win.

The likes of slugger Jerry Lynch of Cincinnati, high average Manny Mota of the Pirates and Dodgers, Vic Davalillo, Smokey Burgess, Bubba Morton of the Angels, all made their mark in the 1960's. It was said Mota could get out of bed on a Sunday morning and get a hit for someone else. However, there was one guy who had a marvelous year. So much so, he became what may have been the first player to ever have the designation by position as "Pinch-hitter" on his Strat-O-Matic Baseball Card; Gates Brown.

Brown was an awesome player when it came to coming off the bench cold and cranking out a hit. He broke into the big leagues with Detroit and in an auspicious debut, his first appearance was as a pinch-hitter on June 19th at Boston's Fenway Park. He came up to bat for Don Mossi in the fifth inning of a game the Red Sox were winning 4-1. He promptly smashed a Bob Heffner pitch over the wall for a home run in his first at bat in the bigs.

The following year Brown got the chance to play regularly and while still being used in the pinch, he did find time to bat over 400 times on his way to hitting .272 with 15 homers.

He could always hit and was used in various ways throughout the years but in 1968 he became a valuable part of the Tigers run to the pennant. He hit .370 in 92 at bats, smashing seven doubles, a pair of triples and six homers while driving in 15 and drawing a dozen walks. Brown was extraordinary. More importantly as a pinch hitter he batted .450 on the season! He appeared only 18 times in the field in his 67 games.

In the 1968 post season he only batted once and did not get a hit, but in later years he continued to bat well. In his career, Brown collected 107 hits batting for someone else, including 16 homers. The slugger holds the record for the most at bats in the AL by a pinch hitter with 414.

Brown died of a heart attack at the age of 74 and did some coaching before then with his beloved Tigers where he spent his entire career, finishing in 1975 with a .257 lifetime average. He will always be remembered for a great 1968 season when the Tigers took it all and Swingin' Gates Brown played a key role.

Monday, August 29, 2022

The Whiff Master - Dave Nicholson

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Augusto Medina of Arecibo, PR, who knew that Phil Niekro had more 10-plus losing seasons than Brother Joe. 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. YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN. Don't forget to put your mailing address in with the answer so if you win we can send you the gift card in the mail.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Phil Niekro had more 10-game losing seasons than Brother Joe.

Just a note to add; If you look at the top right hand 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. Hope its helpful to fans of several sports.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: While Dave Nicholson led the 1963 White Sox in strike-outs with 175, which starting player had the least strike-outs on that team?

It's not often a player who misses the ball about half the time sticks around for more than a couple years in the big leagues, but then again there was Dave Nicholson. Nicholson might have fit right in, in today's free swinging-home runs-at any cost atmosphere. In the 1960's though, Nicholson was a rather strange player.

In 1419 major league at-bats, he struck out 573 times. It was an amazing 40 percent of the time he came to the plate and walked away without hitting the ball fair. When you consider the fact he only walked 219 times, the whiffs were problematic. He was a slugger but never really achieved slugger status.

The height of Nicholson's ineptness came with the White Sox in 1963. It was his best overall year. He did hit 22 dingers, but only managed to eke out a .229 batting average. The mess started with his coming to the plate 520 time but with only 449 official at bats. In those 449 at bats he struck out 175 to lead the AL!

He did have 123 hits and drove in 70 runs. Imagine if he'd only struck out half as many times, how many runs he could have driven in. The Sox were a pretty good team in 1963 and deserved better. They finished second with 94 wins.

The following season Nicholson saw his playing time reduced and only batted 351 times but still managed to strike out 126 times while seeing his average dip to .204. It seemed the Sox had seen enough of him but couldn't really find any takers.

In 1965 he struck out 40 times in 85 at bats and that was the end of that. He was traded to Houston in a minor deal and improved on all his statistics after moving to the National League. He did bat 280 times with 10 homers, a .246 BA and only 92 strike outs in an Astro's uniform before being shipped off again. This time to Atlanta where he played in only 10 games before his career ended for good.

Swinging Dave Nicholson finished his career with a lifetime .212 BA and 61 home runs to go along with his 573 punch outs. In 568 major league games he averaged more than one "K" per game.

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