Stan Musial Really Was THE Man

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to David Rolfe's of Las Vegas, NV who correctly stated Clete Boyer (brother of Ken) failed to get a hit in the game on August 17, 1961 while his brother played a key role in the Cardinals game on that same day. 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.

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: Stan Musial wasn't the only Cardinal great who retired after the 1963 season. Which outstanding infielder who spent 15 seasons with the Red Birds also called it quits at the conclusion of the 1963 NL season, playing his last game July 7, when he failed to get a hit as a pinch-hitter?  
 
ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column:  Clete Boyer failed to get a hit in three AB's on August 17th, 1961.

Sometimes when the writing is on the wall you really wish the text were written one year later. Such is the case of one of the greatest to ever play the game of baseball; Stan Musial. 

                            (Musial's last At Bat)
For more than two decades Musial, the Donora, PA native, patrolled the outfield and some at first base for the St. Louis Cardinals. He hit milestones with the bat which would make him a $50 million a year player today. When he retired after the 1963 season, his final salary was $50,000. 

Musial was voted to the all-star team in every year he played. He missed the 1945 season due to military service. He went into the Hall of Fame with an amazing 93.2% of the vote. He finished with 475 home runs, a lifetime BA of .331 and nearly 4000 combined RBI and Runs Scored. And he was a good fielder.

The point of the story is when he retired. The 1962 Cardinals finished in sixth place. A year later they finished in second. Musial had an amazing 1962 when you consider he was 41 years old and still batted .330 with 19 homers in over 500 AB's. He fell off as could be expected in 1963 at age 42. He dropped to .255 and just 12 homers in 124 games. It was only the second time his average dipped so low (he also hit .255 in 1959).

With young Mike Shannon, a power hitting and good defensive outfielder pushing for a  chance to play, and with an aging body on the line, Musial hung them up. If he'd have hung on for one more year the headlines would have read "Musial Bows Out a World Series Champion!"

The Cardinals did indeed go to the World Series in 1964 and they beat the Yankees in seven games. Musial was watching from the good seats at that point however, and oh how the fans would have loved to see no. 6 on the field for those seven games and go out a winner. 

Shannon would eventually move into the infield and play third base after Kenny Boyer was traded to the Mets after the 1965 season for Al Jackson and Charley Smith. The Smith experiment didn't pan out so when Roger Maris arrived in 1968, Shannon became the permanent fixture at third.

As for Musial's records; he led the league in hits six times. In addition to those seasons he belted more than 200 hits twice (6 times overall). Nine times he had more than 40 doubles (thrice hitting 50),  five times he led the league in triples while hitting the 20 mark twice, in six seasons he hit at least 30 home runs and led the league in batting seven times (.376 in 1948).  Add to that 10 times driving in over 100 RBI and 11 times scoring 100 or more and you have one of the greatest compilation of numbers you will ever see, and never see again in MLB.

AND; Probably the most amazing statistic when it comes to consistency. Musial had the exact same number of hits "on the road" as he did "at home." In both cases he had 1815 hits in his career for 3630 total.

Stan Musial truly was "The Man."

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.

                             SEND YOUR ANSWERS TO; brillpro@gmail.com  
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The Rose Machine 1968-1969

TRIVIA QUESTION: The all-time hits leader in major league baseball, what was the result in the very first plate appearance Pete Rose made in the the big leagues in 1963? Get a bonus point if you can name the pitcher he faced.  

ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:  Mike Cuellar came to the big leagues in 1959, became a star with Houston in 1966 and was sent onto the Orioles. While with the O's he went on to win 20 or more games, four times in his career. His best was in 1970 when he finished 24-8. Overall he won 185 and lost 130.

 If a player comes to bat 550 times in a season it's a lot. If he comes to bat 600 times in a season, it is pretty amazing. When a player reaches more than 650 it's pretty dog gone awesome. When you consider the player also reached more than 700 plate appearances three times in his first seven years in the big leagues, it is a number unheard of by modern standards. Throw in the fact the player averaged less than 57 walks over the same stretch, you would put that player in the elite of the elite status. Such a player was the Pete Rose of the 1960's.

No matter where you stand on Rose; HOF or no HOF, criminal or one of the all time greats, there is no denying especially in his early career, he was among the best ever.  Take 1965 for instance. It was far from his best year at the time.

He came to the plate a league leading 757 times in 162 games at age 24. He smacked 209 hits to lead the NL and also led in official ABs with 670 while batting .312. He scored 117 runs and drove in 81 more while hitting 35 doubles, 11 triples and 11 homers. So with only 11 dingers it means he accounted for 181 runs in 162 games.

Perhaps his best two seasons were 1968 and 1969. He won the batting title both seasons but it doesn't tell the entire story. He came to the plate 692 and 731 times, official AB's were 626 and 627. Combined for the two seasons he scored 214 runs, including 120 in 1969 to lead the NL. Then there is this; 428 hits, 75 doubles, 17 triples and 26 home runs. He drove in 131 while drawing 144 walks. 

His league leading BA's were .335 and .348. His all important On Base Percentages were .391 and .428, while slugging .470 and .512. His OPS were .861 and .940. 

Putting those two seasons (1968-1969) in perspective with today's stats. He finished 5th and 4th in WAR (Wins Above Replacement). In 1968 he was fifth at 5.7 behind only McCovey, Wynn, Felipe Alou and Willie Mays. The following season he was fourth at 7.1 behind McCovey, Wynn and Aaron. Consider this; Rose is 40th all time in WAR.
 
So considering Runs he drove in and Runs he scored, minus the home runs which would account for both; Pete Rose accounted for 319 runs over two seasons all by himself, or 160 runs per year. It is a pretty amazing stat especially when you consider he batted in the Lead Off position nearly all the time.  

Pretty dog gone awesome.

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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.

Also: Please check out our new Western Short Film. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/iron-gun-western-feature-film/#/
 
Please share this blog with your friends and colleagues and leave a comment at the bottom of the blog if you have one. Thank YOU VERY MUCH!! Please pick up a copy of my book "Tales of My Baseball Youth; A Child of the 60's" at www.bobbrillbooks.com, or on Amazon.     

1969 Royals Pitchers-What Happened?

TRIVIA QUESTION: Mike Cuellar came to the big leagues in 1959 but after one short season didn't get back there until 1964. It wasn't until 1966 that he became a star. How many times did this lefty win 20 games or more in a season? 

ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:When  the New York Mets opened the club's first season it was a sign of things to come. They lost to the Cardinals 11-4 in their very first game. They went on to lose 9 in a row and 12 of 13 and finished with the worst ever 120 games lost. The Colt .45's on the other hand went the opposite way - to start. The Colts beat the Cubs 11-2 and won their first three games. They ended up 64-96 on the season. The Mets would be the first of the two to end up in the World Series however, taking the 1969 title. It took Houston into the next century to get there.

 When a young team has a starting pitching staff averaging 24.2 years old, you wonder what kind of future it has. The 1969 Kansas City Royals laid the groundwork for greatness, even though it didn't really work out that way.

Wally Bunker, Dick Drago, Bill Butler, Jim Rooker and Roger Nelson looked like the second coming with the end of the decade. It was these pitchers who were ushering the Royals into the 70's and between them they won 43 games and none were over 3.90 in the ERA department. Pretty impressive for a team which won only 69 games and finished fourth in the AL West. 

Four of these starters averaged 200 innings with only Rooker well below at 158. Young arms maybe used up too quickly, but they showed promise. Backed by a few veteran relievers such as Moe Drabowsky (33) and Dave Wichersham (33), they didn't get much support from their hitters. The club only hit 98 home runs and had a team BA of .240. They finished 9th in runs scored and 8th in hits. 

In the field they were not much better finishing 10th in fielding percentage and in errors with 157. Ellie Rodriguez was the veteran catcher at age 23 and future star Buck Martinez was a 20 year old backstop. He would also make his mark as a manager after his playing days were over. These starting pitchers were not getting a lot of help from experience at this point.

In the end the five went onto careers which looked like this;

Bunker who had won 19 games as a 19 year old with Baltimore in 1964 would pitch only two more seasons, win four more games and be out of baseball in 1971 at the age of 26 with a 60-52 lifetime record.

  (Great at a youngster, Wally Bunker's career didn't quite go to greatness)  
Drago would pitch until 1981 and while winning 17 was the highlight of his career in 1971, he would post 108 wins and 117 losses. 

Butler would have a short career, missing two seasons and while he won 9 games in 1969, he would only win another 14 in his career which ended in the mid 1970's with 24 wins and 35 losses. 

Nelson would spend another five years in the big leagues finishing his career with a 29-32 record with his best being in 1972 with an 11-6 season.

Rooker made the most of his career, even getting into the World Series with Pittsburgh. Six times he would win in double figures, twice knocking out 15 win seasons and finishing 103-109 with an impressive 3.46 ERA in 1810 innings pitched for a 13 year career which ended in 1980. He pitched an inning in the 1979 Series. Rooker appeared in four post season games. 

Rooker's claim to fame in the 1969 season actually came as a hitter, where he smacked four homers in 57 AB while hitting .281. He later became a Pirates broadcaster.

"SPECIAL OFFER"

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. It has been appreciated. You can click on the link above (my childhood photo) to see how to purchase this book; "Tales of My Baseball Youth; a child of the 60's."

Also: Please check out our new Western Short Film. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/iron-gun-western-feature-film/#/

Please share this blog with your friends and colleagues and leave a comment at the bottom of the blog if you have one. Thank YOU VERY MUCH!! Please pick up a copy of my book "Tales of My Baseball Youth; A Child of the 60's" at www.bobbrillbooks.com, or on Amazon.