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Tuesday, June 9, 2020

The Worst Hitters of the 1960s

FOR MORE GENERAL TRIVIA CHECK OUT MY YouTube Channel !
 
TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Sammy Otis, of New York, who correctly answered the trivia question about the "other" strikeout king in the top five in 1963. It was indeed Jim Maloney. This week a new Trivia Contest. The Prize this week again is a Starbucks Gift Card. 
 
NEW TRIVIA CONTEST:  IF YOU ANSWER THE TRIVIA QUESTION CORRECTLY YOU WILL BE ENTERED INTO A WEEKLY DRAWING FOR A Starbucks Gift Card.  YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN.
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TRIVIA QUESTION:  In 1968 who managed the St. Louis Cardinals?  
 
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:
Jim Maloney was a strikeout pitcher in 1963 who may have been overshadowed by the other big name pitchers; Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson and Juan Marichal. Maloney of the Reds had 265 and was second to Koufax with 306.

When it came to "All Field and No Hit" in the 1960s a number of players stand out, but the shortstops of the era who we'll focus on were among the worst of the worst when it came to hitting.
 (DENNY MCCLAIN K'S SHORTSTOP DAL MAXVILL IN 1968 SERIES)

The ultimate on the list has to be Ray Oyler. The Tiger shortstop had a career batting average of .175 over six seasons and only once rose to the Mendoza Line. In 1967 he batted .207 with a homer and 29 RBI. It was his most productive season in many ways since he played in 148 games for Detroit and batted over 400 times. Both career highs. 

Probably the low point came when the Tigers played in the 1968 World Series, Tiger field boss Mayo Smith chose to move Mickey Stanley (arguably the best defensive centerfielder in the AL) to the shortstop position, benching Oyler. It also served to get aging Al Kaline into the line-up along with Jim Northrup and Willie Horton.
Oyler made one appearance at the plate in the Series as he was called on to lay down a sacrifice bunt. While the team did get to the World Series with Oyler used most often as the starting shortstop, he batted only .135 on the season. Oyler passed away at age 43 in 1981 and was known by team mates for his drinking issues which many said contributed to his lack of skills.

Number two on the list has to be Dal Maxvill. Maxvill was a wizard with the glove and played on some pretty good hitting teams, so to say he was pretty much the fifth card in a poker hand which held Four Aces, was pretty accurate. In 1965 and 1969 he had his worst seasons. He batted .135 and .175 with St. Louis. 
Maxvill's lifetime .217 average with six homers left him with four seasons under .200 and two more at .200 and .201. The 1968 season, the year the Cardinals faced Oyler's Tigers, was his best, batting .253. If Oyler had actually played in the Series it would have been the showcase of the two worst hitting shortstops of the 1960s.

Third on the list is Bobby Wine. The 1962 season, his first real season in the Bigs, Wine had his best year at the plate. His .244 average would never come close to being achieved again. With a lifetime .215 BA, he hit below the .200 mark twice and on two other occasions batted at .200. His lifetime 30 homers, mostly with the Phillies, showed he did have some pop but on defense, like those above, he really did shine.

Fourth on the list is Ed Brinkman, who until Ted Williams took over as his manager in Washington, was right in with the other three. His lifetime average of .225 belies his early seasons before Williams when he failed to hit .200 or better in five different seasons. Three times he batted in the .180's. After Williams he twice hit .260 or better and some thought Williams should have gotten Manager of the Year just for improving Brinkman. 
Brinkman was known as a solid defensive shortstop although his Error totals might lead one to believe otherwise. He played in more games than the others over a 15 year career, eight seasons playing more than 150 games.

Not to be outdone, the strangest case of a shortstop came with Zoilo Versalles. In 1965 he had his MVP Season, leading the Twins to the World Series. He led or tied for the AL lead in several categories including hitting 45 doubles, 12 triples and scoring 126 runs, while driving out 19 homers. He batted .273. The following season he fell of drastically to .249, followed by .200 and after getting traded to the Dodgers couldn't get off the snide hitting a lowly .196. He never recovered and was out of baseball a couple seasons later at age 31.


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  
 ==========================================================
Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

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. 
 


Tuesday, June 2, 2020

1963 Giants; Just a Bit Outside, Looking In!

FOR MORE GENERAL TRIVIA CHECK OUT MY YouTube Channel !
 
TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Dan Taguchi, of Los Angeles, who correctly answered the trivia question about Jim Gentile who played for the Dodgers and who in 1957 made his big league debut with Brooklyn before moving on with the club to Los Angeles. This week a new Trivia Contest. The Prize this week again is a Starbucks Gift Card. 
 
NEW TRIVIA CONTEST:  IF YOU ANSWER THE TRIVIA QUESTION CORRECTLY YOU WILL BE ENTERED INTO A WEEKLY DRAWING FOR A Starbucks Gift Card.  YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN.
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TRIVIA QUESTION:  In 1963, four of the top five NL Strikeout Leaders were either Dodgers, Giants or Cardinals. The fifth was a Cincinnati Red. Who was he?  
 
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:
Jim Gentile played for six different cities and for one team in two different cities. In 1957 he debuted with Brooklyn before moving west with the club to Los Angeles.  

The 1963 San Francisco Giants seemed to have everything a contender could want. They cranked out a massive number of home runs, they had solid starting pitching and while the defense was suspect they had some of the best sluggers in the game. And they played well, winning 88 games. They still finished in third place, 11 games back of the pennant winning Dodgers and five back of the Cardinals.
                    (JUAN MARICHAL'S FAMOUS HIGH KICK)
Were the arch rival Dodgers just that much better. The club did win 99 games behind marvelous pitching and good hitting. The answer wasn't in the head to head because they split the 18 games they played against Los Angeles. They were 8-10 with St. Louis and they destroyed the Mets as they were supposed to do winning 12 of 18. In a key statistic they were 33-28 in one-run games. They even played well down the stretch winning nine of their last 14. About a third of the season they were actually in first place, 47 days.

How could a team which powered a league leading 197 home runs with Orlando Cepeda (34), Willie McCovey (44), Willie Mays (38), Ed Baily (21), Felipe Alou (20) and Tom Haller (14) finish out of the money? They even had Harvey Kuenn at .290, while the only weak spots in the batting order were Jose Pagan and Chuck Hiller.  At .258 the Giants were second in team batting in the NL.


Starting pitching was solid with Juan Marichal 25-8, Jack Sanford 16-13 and Billy O'Dell 14-10.  The key may have been the bullpen which was suspect and unreliable all year. They lacked a closer. No one had more than 7 Saves, and aside from aging Don Larsen (3.05), Jim Duffalo (2.87), and swing man Bobby Bolin (3.28) no pitcher who had more than a cup of coffee with the club had an ERA under 4.00. 

They had two bright spots which did not do anything to speak of because their time had not come. Third baseman, 21 year old Jim Ray Hart was up for a while playing in 7 games, and Gaylord Perry was 1-6 in 76 innings at age 24.  


The team was not solid defensively, landing 6th of 10 clubs in fielding. Six players committed errors in double figures led by Cepeda's 21 and Pagan's 20.  

It all came to an end effectively in June. On June 24th they beat the Cardinals to remain a half game up in the NL. The next two days they dropped games to St. Louis by identical scores of 6-5 to fall out of first place. They never regained that lead and would end the season behind the Redbirds and the hated Dodgers. At the same time the Dodgers went on an 18-4 run taking over first place on July 2nd and never looking back. 

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  
 ==========================================================
Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

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. 
 


Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Jim Gentile's NOT SO Gentil DAY

FOR MORE GENERAL TRIVIA CHECK OUT MY YouTube Channel !
 
TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to TJ Strieb, of Vero Beach, Florida, who correctly answered the trivia question about Willie McCovey's 40 + homer years. McCovey belted 44 in 1963 and 45 in 1969. This week a new Trivia Contest. The Prize this week again is a Starbucks Gift Card. 
 
NEW TRIVIA CONTEST:  IF YOU ANSWER THE TRIVIA QUESTION CORRECTLY YOU WILL BE ENTERED INTO A WEEKLY DRAWING FOR A Starbucks Gift Card.  YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN.
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TRIVIA QUESTION:  Jim Gentile played for five different clubs in six different cities in his big league career. For what city did he play his first major league season; 1957?  
 
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:
Willie McCovey twice bettered 40 home runs. McCovey had 44 in 1963 and 45 in 1969. 

 Jim Gentile spent nine seasons in the big leagues and had a lot of big games, but none bigger than against the Twins on May 9, 1961. It was one of those games the Baltimore Orioles slugger would remember for the rest of his life. It put him into the conversation for the best in the league and the MVP award.

               (Jim Gentile ties record 49 years later and gets PAID for it!)

He was batting clean-up that day, behind all-star Brooks Robinson. The Twins sent Pedro Ramos to the mound against Chuck Estrada. It was early in the season but neither team was playing impressive baseball. The Twins were at .500 and the O's were just two games over.

  


The game had a great start for Baltimore. The 4,514 fans at the game were frustrated right off the bat. Whitey Herzog opened with a walk and Jackie Brandt followed with a double. Robinson walked to load the bases, bringing up the slugging Gentile. Gentile, who would finish with 46 homers that year, sent a Ramos pitch to deep center and over the wall at Metropolitan Stadium to clear the bases. The Grand Slam gave the O's an instant 4-0 lead.

The Twins failed to score in the bottom of the inning but the top of the second it was more of the same for the O's including more Gentile. Marv Breeding opened with a flyout but then Ramos did the unthinkable. He gave up a single to the opposing pitcher, Estrada which was followed by a walk to Herzog. That was enough for Ramos who was replaced by Paul Geil.

Brandt then hit a ground ball back to Geil which could have been a double play, but the pitcher made an errant throw and Estrada scored to make it 5-0. Robinson walked again, again bringing up Gentile with the bases loaded. For the second straight inning Gentile blasted the ball into the seats. This time to right for his second grand slam of the game and a 9-0 O's lead.

The rest of the game was pretty much uneventful. Gentile would draw a walk and go down on a strikeout in two subsequent at bats, but in the eighth he came up with a runner on third. A sac fly gave the slugging first sacker nine RBI on the day and the Orioles defeated Minnesota 13-5. It was a day the left handed hitting Gentile would never forget. Two grand slams in consecutive innings and a sacrifice fly to boot. 



He'd finish the season with 46 homers, a league leading 141 RBI, a .302 batting average and a .646 slugging percentage. He would finish third in the MVP voting behind Roger Maris who hit 61 home runs and Mickey Mantle who belted 54.  His outstanding defensive skills helped him be involved in 129 double plays which was good for second in the American League.

With 179 homers in his career, 1961 was far and away his best season. The Orioles that season would finish third despite winning 95 games. They closed the season 14 games behind New York as the Yankees went on to have the second greatest Yankee team of all time.  

But on this day, Jim Gentile ruled the baseball world. 
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  
 ==========================================================
Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

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. 


 


Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Ralph Terry - Giant Killer

FOR MORE GENERAL TRIVIA CHECK OUT MY YouTube Channel !
 
TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Hank Farley, of Atlanta, GA who correctly answered the trivia question about Harry the Hat Walker's batting title. Walker won the batting title in 1947 with a .363 average. He started the season with St. Louis batting .200 in 10 games but on May 3rd, he was traded to Philadelphia where his hitting stroke took hold. He batted .371 the rest of the way with a league leading 16 triples. This week a new Trivia Contest. The Prize this week again is a Starbucks Gift Card. 
 
NEW TRIVIA CONTEST:  IF YOU ANSWER THE TRIVIA QUESTION CORRECTLY YOU WILL BE ENTERED INTO A WEEKLY DRAWING FOR A Starbucks Gift Card.  YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN.
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TRIVIA QUESTION:  Willie McCovey made the final out of the 1962 World Series and in his career he was known as one of the game's most feared sluggers. How many times did McCovey hit more than 40 homers in a season?  
 
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:
In 1947 Harry the Hat Walker won the batting title with a .363 average playing only 10 games for the Cardinals before being traded to Philadelphia where he batted .371 the rest of the way as a full time player. 

In the 1960's if you asked most people who was the ace of the Yankee's staff and a stalwart in a World Series, most people would probably say Whitey Ford. In 1962 it was another long time major leaguer; Ralph Terry
 


Terry had an awesome 1962, winning 23 games to Ford's 17 and leading the team in innings pitched with 298. He walked but 57 batters and struck out 176. All figures which outdistanced Ford. Perhaps, his most amazing feat was a 1.05 WHiP to Ford's 1.21. 

 

It was in the World Series where he really stood out. That cool October day when Game One against the Giants began in San Francisco's Candlestick Park, it was Ford who got the call. He did not disappoint and neither did his Bronx Bomber teammates, responding with six runs as they defeated Billy O'Dell and the Giants 6-2. The six runs would be the second most scored by a winning team in the series which was supposed to be a slug-fest. In Game One Clete Boyer homered and Roger Maris drove in a pair, which was pretty much all the Yanks needed.  

Terry got the start in Game Two but Yankee bats went silent, managing only three hits off Jack Sanford. A Willie McCovey homer was all the Giants needed as Terry gave up only six hits but two runs. San Francisco tied the series a 1-1. 
New York came back in game three to back the four hit pitching of Bill Stafford 3-2 and take a one game lead in the best of seven series.  Ford got the call in Game Four and lasted six good innings before giving way to the relief corps. The Yankee staff gave up a total of seven runs in losing 7-3, to bring the series even again at 2-2.

Terry took the mound for his second start in Game Five and was neck and neck with Sanford until the eighth. Tom Tresh, batting third, got his second extra base hit of the night; a three run blast to put the Yanks ahead for good. Despite striking out 10, Sanford was on the losing end and Terry went the distance with an eight hitter.

New York hoped to close it out in Game Six but Ford was not up to it and the Giants were not going away. Whitey gave up five runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings and was gone along with the Yankee fans desire to avoid a Game Seven. San Francisco stayed alive with a 5-2 win.
Pitching on five days rest (he went the distance on October 10th), Terry faced the Giants in Game Seven on October 16th. Over 43,000 people filled Candlestick to see Terry take on  Sanford again. It was a Tuesday afternoon in October and as anyone knows October near the Bay can be treacherous. The temperature was in the 60's with a 20 mile per hour wind - the wind tunnel so to speak in those days.

The game was scoreless until the fifth when Moose Skowron led off the inning with a single. Boyer followed with a single sending Skowron to third with nobody out. Sanford then did the unthinkable; he walked the opposing pitcher to load the bases. Lead off man Tony Kubek hit a sharp ground ball to shortstop Jose Pagan who quickly turned the double play allowing Skowron to score, making it 1-0. 
It was a good move by the defense figuring one run would not make the difference. Unfortunately for the Giants it did. Terry was masterful until the ninth. The ninth inning involved one of the most memorable plays in World Series history.

Matty Alou led the Giants off with a bunt single. Brother Felipe and Chuck Hiller struck out. With San Francisco down to it's final out, Willie Mays banged a double off Terry, sending Matty to third and bringing up the dangerous McCovey. McCovey had tripled earlier in the game and today never would have gotten to swing the bat. Orlando Cepeda, just as dangerous but batting a lowly .158 in the series, was on deck.
With the game on the line McCovey smashed a wicked line drive which second baseman Bobby Richardson grabbed for the final out. The game and the Series was over and Terry had pitched two complete games, winning two including the final Game Seven. 

Terry allowed just four hits, striking out four and did not walk a batter, going 2-1 in the Series with a 1.80 ERA. He gave up only five runs in 25 innings and walked just two batters in leading New York to a 4-3 Series victory.  
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  
 ==========================================================
Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

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.