The Winter Meetings - The Worst

 

TRIVIA WINNER: The answer to last weeks question was Nolan Ryan broke Sandy Koufax single season strikeout record by just one strikeout.  The Prize: 10 points toward the person's total.

NEW TRIVIA CONTEST: You will still be required to enter the drawing as usual. However,  through the end of 2024 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 the years final column will get a $50 Starbucks Gift Card. Ties will be placed into a drawing. Questions will be worth anywhere from 10-25 points depending on degree of difficulty. Questions will be more difficult as the year goes on, so you are never really out of the mix. 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:  This former 1960s pitcher had a record of 134-84 in a 12 year career. He retired at age 31 barely pitching into the 1970s.? TOTAL 10 POINTS. 

The Winter Meetings are about to begin and while today's free agency dominates what goes on, in the 1960s, it was the Meetings which dominated.  The Meetings are always a time of excitement for baseball fans hoping their team will make just the right move, putting them in the next World Series. I thought we'd explore some of those hopes which did not pan out in the 1960s.

The 1967 Pirates could hit despite the fall off from the Lumber Company of 1966. The club still needed pitching and thought one great pitcher would put them over the top. They set their eyes on one of the all-time greats; Jim Bunning, a future HOFer. The Phillies needed youth, the Bucs needed a Horse and Bunning was coming off another amazing season with a 2.29 ERA and a 17-15 recording while leading the league with 40 starts, 302 innings and 253 strike outs. He also led the league in shutouts with six. The perfect fit.

In return the Pirates sent starting pitcher Woody Fryman to the Phils in a multi-player deal which included future all-star second baseman, Don Money. It totally backfired for Pittsburgh, totally was a winner for Philadelphia.

Bunning had the worst year of his career in Pittsburgh in 1968, ending 4-14 with an 3.88 ERA, was traded to the Dodgers the following season and while coming back at 13-10 in 1969, was released. Fryman went onto pitch into the 1980s and won 141 games, Money (a four time all-star) had a 16 year career, batting .261 with 176 homers.

The 1964 Cleveland Indians finished fourth in the AL and needed some power to compete, so they went after a real slugger; Rocky Colavito. In what turned out to be a massive three team trade in January 1965, the Indians got Colavito from Kansas City. They gave up, to the White Sox, future stars Tommie Agee, Tommy John and slugging catcher John Romano.

Colavito did slug 56 homers and drive in 180 runs in the following two seasons but the club only improved to fifth place both years. What the Indians had hoped for didn't work. Evidently they figured they could finish in the second division with the Rock, they could finish in the second division without him. They shipped him to the White Sox for Jim King. Colavito never regained his form and hit 32 homers the rest of his career which ended at age 33 in 1968 with the Yankees.

Giving up Colavito proved to be a good thing but the return didn't improve the A's by much. The players they got, Mike Hershberger, Jim Landis and Fred Talbot were average players at best during their time in Kansas City.

A third trade involved a couple of minor league players and is the "who would have thunk it?" trade. The White Sox had a super minor leaguer who had been in their system for some time and he ended up in the Angels organization during the year of expansion. Joe Hicks was a pretty good slugger, who the new Washington Senators liked. The Angels liked a young pitcher the Sens had signed by the name of Dean Chance. In December of 1960, they swapped the two players.

In two minor league seasons Chance went 22-12 with ERA's at 2.94 and 3.13. What the Angels saw in Chance and what the Senators saw in Hicks, only somebody in the stratosphere would know. Chance went on to become one of the best pitchers of the era. Twice he won 20 games and finished with 128 wins. Hicks came to bat only 455 times in his big league career, batting .221 with 12 homers. He was out of the big leagues by 1964 but continued to play in the minors through 1966. He did however hit 107 minor league homers over 11 seasons.

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.

                              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.  

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.

WORLD SERIES; Dodgers vs. Orioles - Game TWO 1966 - Koufax Last Game

 

TRIVIA WINNER: The answer to last weeks question was the Yankees between 1927-1950 swept the World Series six times, the first against Pittsburgh with the 1927 Yankees, known as the Greatest Team of All-Time.  The Prize: 15 points toward the person's total.

NEW TRIVIA CONTEST: You will still be required to enter the drawing as usual. However,  through the end of 2024 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 the years final column will get a $50 Starbucks Gift Card. Ties will be placed into a drawing. Questions will be worth anywhere from 10-25 points depending on degree of difficulty. Questions will be more difficult as the year goes on, so you are never really out of the mix. 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:  Sandy Koufax set the major league record for strikeouts in a season in the 1900s. Who broke it in the modern era? TOTAL 10 POINTS. 

It was probably the poorest performance by a team in the history of the World Series, definitely the worst of the 1960s. More importantly, it was the very last game of the illustrious career of Hall of Fame Great; Sandy Koufax.

In the regular season Koufax had his best ever season. He pitched 323 innings, striking out 317 batters while posting a 1.73 ERA and a 27-9 record. His WHIP was an unheard of 0.985. Less than one hit or walk per inning pitched. Amazing. Because of arthritis in his arm, he would retire after the Series.

The Dodgers had already lost Game One to the Frank Robinson led O's 5-2. Those two runs would be all that the Dodgers would score in the entire Series. In Game Two, Koufax would give up four runs, but only one earned. It was a contest where the Dodgers made six errors, and it was yes, that infamous game when Willie Davis made three errors himself. 

Meanwhile Jim Palmer was shutting out the weak hitting Los Angeles on just four hits. Palmer went the distance. The loss was insurmountable. The Orioles would post consecutive 1-0 shutouts in games 3 & 4. The Dodgers combined Series BA was .142 with just 17 hits in 120 AB. Frank Robinson, who won the Triple Crown in 1966, was the Series MVP. As the Dodgers did in sweeping the Yankees in 1963, the O's used just four pitchers in the Series. 

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.

                              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.  

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.

Game One Dodgers & Yankees

 

TRIVIA WINNER: The answer to last weeks question Mike Cuellar pitched for the Reds, Cardinals, Astros, Orioles and the Angels.  The Prize: 35 points toward the person's total.

NEW TRIVIA CONTEST: You will still be required to enter the drawing as usual. However,  through the end of 2024 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 the years final column will get a $50 Starbucks Gift Card. Ties will be placed into a drawing. Questions will be worth anywhere from 10-25 points depending on degree of difficulty. Questions will be more difficult as the year goes on, so you are never really out of the mix. 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:  Going Backward from 1950, how many times did the Yankees sweep the World Series and against whom did they do it the first time? TOTAL 15 POINTS. 

It had been seven years since the Dodgers and Yankees last played in the World Series but 1963 was a new era of Dodger baseball. Long gone were the Brooklynites for the most part. The Jackie Robinson's, the Gil Hodges and the Roy Campanella's. Three of those holdovers WERE this World Series. Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Johnny Podres.

In1963, it would be something the Dodgers had never done to the Yankees, but the New Yorkers had done before. It was a four-game sweep and all the winning pitchers got their start in Brooklyn.

In Game 1, Koufax went the distance in limiting New York to six hits, 5-2. Game 2, had Podres (the hero of the 1955 World Series), down the Yanks 4-1. Don Drysdale shutout New York on 3 hits in Game 3, and drew a pair of walks himself in the days when pitchers did bat. He also struck out nine Yankees. It was all rapped up in Game 4 as Koufax again allowed only six NY hits. One of them was Mickey Mantle's only homer of the Series and the lone run. Koufax didn't walk a batter and struck out eight.

The series was such a dismal performance for the Yankees. Mantle and Tom Tresh hit the only homers for the losers, who collected just 22 hits and batted an anemic .171. Their only other extra base hits were a pair of doubles by Hector Lopez and another by Bobby Richardson.

The Dodgers on the other hand only hit .214 but did rack up eight extra base hits including three home runs. Frank Howard, John Roseboro and former Yankee Bill Skowron all went yard for Los Angeles. It was pitching which made the difference. Five of the seven Yankee hurlers had ERAs under 3.00. The Dodgers used only four pitchers in the entire series.

Probably the most interesting fact of the series was Dodger reliever, Ron Perranoski, was the only relief pitcher used by Walter Alston and he tossed just 2/3 of an inning to get a Save. He came in relief of Podres.

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.

                              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.  

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.