The Winter Trades Which Backfired

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Mike Bresina of Menomonie, WI., who correctly identified Jay Hook as the pitcher who posted the first ever New York Mets win. The Prize: 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. DON'T FORGET TO PUT YOUR MAILING ADDRESS IN WITH THE ANSWER SO WE CAN SEND YOUR GIFT IF YOU WIN.

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TRIVIA QUESTION: In December, 1964 Bob Chance (seen pictured with Tommy John below) was also traded, along with Woody Held to Washington. Who did Cleveland get in return?  
 
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN: Jay Hook was the first pitcher to ever be credited with a win in a New York Mets uniform. 

The past week or so a number of key players changed hands as teams who feel they are close to the Playoffs and teams trying to rebuild, scurry to get that right player to put them over the top, or lay the foundation for future winners. The Winter 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. Cue to Covid the Meetings are on quite a different scale, but it doesn't stop us from taking a look back at some of those hopes which did not pan out in the 1960s.

                                              (Jim Bunning leaves Philly for Pittsburgh)
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 send 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 which 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; 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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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 
 
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Thank you to those of you who purchased my book after reading this column. 
 

A Third Major League Brings the NY Mets

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to David Rolfes of Las Vegas, NV, who correctly identified Lou Brock as the base stealing leader of the 1963 Chicago Cubs with 24. The Prize: 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. DON'T FORGET TO PUT YOUR MAILING ADDRESS IN WITH THE ANSWER SO WE CAN SEND YOUR GIFT IF YOU WIN.

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TRIVIA QUESTION: Who was the winning pitcher in the New York Mets very first win? Hint; He pitched a five hit, complete game against Pittsburgh.  
 
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN: Lou Brock led the 1963 Chicago Cubs with 24 stolen bases.

 The name Branch Rickey rings many baseball bells but as seen in the video below, there may be something you never knew about Mr. Rickey, and it was all the brainchild of someone else you may never have heard of; William Shea.

           (Branch Rickey, President of the Continental League on "What's My Line")
  The Continental League - the third Major League - was scheduled to start play in eight cities beginning in 1961. It was already to go with some heavy duty backers, but then suddenly, it did not. And you can blame William Shea for that. If the name sounds familiar it should. His name was later on Shea Stadium, the home of the New York Mets. In fact, the Mets came into existence because of what he started and stopped with the Continental League.

  With the Dodgers and Giants fleeing New York for the sunny confines of California and the Kansas City A's about to do the same several years later, Shea and his friends figured to start their own major league to bring baseball back. Initially the first cities which locked in were
Denver, Houston, Minneapolis–St. Paul, New York City, and Toronto, with Atlanta, Buffalo and Dallas-Ft. Worth added before the first pitch in April, 1961. 

  Now if those cities seem familiar today, they should. All but one eventually got a Major League franchise, which was the actual goal in the first place; expansion. Only Buffalo remains a city without MLB, but continues to have minor league baseball. Shea's dream would ultimately come to pass. 

  A shrewd lawyer, each of the owners would pay $50,000 for their franchise and put up another $2.5 million to get the games going. Stadiums would have a minimum seating capacity of 35,000. A far cry from the $2 billion-plus a team might go for today. Owners included Jack Kent Cooke (Toronto) and yes the same JK Cooke who owned the Los Angeles Lakers. They had a big name League President too; Branch Rickey. Rickey of course was the architect of the Brooklyn Dodgers who brought Jackie Robinson to the big leagues and who later GM'd Pittsburgh. Rickey appeared on the popular TV show, "What's My Line" as the head of the Continental League. He stated "it was as inevitable as tomorrow morning."

  How did MLB owners react? They didn't like it even though the new league wanted to come in with the permission of MLB Commissioner Ford Frick, who did his best to be non committal. So what did they do? They expanded the NL and AL, and they did it in cities where the new league had teams planned. The first four expansion teams were the Houston Colt 45's, Washington Senators, Los Angeles Angels and yes, the New York Mets.  The old Senators had moved on to Minnesota, leaving the nation's capitol without a part of the American pastime. 

  Oh, and who did they offer the New York Mets franchise to? The owner of the Continental League franchise in New York, Joan Whitney Payson . It effectively killed the Continental League on the spot. On August 2, 1960, the Continental League formally disbanded. 

  The goal of the Continental League owners was to expand and compete. By the end of the decade they got their wish to fully expand. Washington moved to Dallas-Ft. Worth (another Continental League city), the Montreal Expos came into existence and eventually moved to Washington, Kansas City got the Royals after Charlie Finley took his A's to Oakland, and while Seattle had a team for one year the Pilots moved to Milwaukee (replacing the Braves who moved to Atlanta (another Continental League city) and became the Brewers. Denver would eventually complete the disbanded CL city list except for Buffalo.

  For his part William Shea was honored with the new Met's stadium named after him — Shea Stadium. In 2008, the New York Mets retired the name "Shea" on the outfield wall next to the other great Mets Tom Seaver, Mike Piazza, Gil Hodges, Casey Stengel, and Jackie Robinson. Although Robinson was not a Met (a Dodger traded to the Giants but retired before ever playing for them) he was added at the request of Major League Baseball. That wasn't all. Shea was instrumental in both the NFL and the NBA as well as the NHL in handling league mergers and team movement. William Shea died in New York in 1991 at the age of 84.

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. 

 

 

 

The Awful 1962 Cubs Heard Round the World

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Chuck Riffee, of Mineral, VA, who correctly identified the four Boston Braves who played in the Negro Leagues as Sam Jethroe,  Luis Marquez, George Crowe, and Buzz Clarkson. . The Prize: 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. DON'T FORGET TO PUT YOUR MAILING ADDRESS IN WITH THE ANSWER SO WE CAN SEND YOUR GIFT IF YOU WIN.

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TRIVIA QUESTION: Who led the Cubs in stolen bases in 1963?  
 
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION IN THE PREVIOUS COLUMN: There were four Boston Braves who also played in the Negro Leagues; Sam Jethroe,  Luis Marquez, George Crowe, and Buzz Clarkson.

 When you start the season losing your first 10 games there is little elsewhere to go but up. Well, except in the case of the 1962 Chicago Cubs. With the likes of Ernie Banks (37 HR), Billy Williams (22 HR, .298), George Altman (22 HR .318) along with Ron Santo, Ken Hubbs and Andre Rodgers, you'd figure this club for better than a 9th place finish drawing just barely 609,000 fans (10th of 10 teams in attendance). But the Cubs did have one highlight that year (see video below). They lost that game too, 5-3 before 6,699 fans as you can see the stands are pretty empty.

                                      (Cubs vs Phillies July 23, 1962) 

Pitching was pretty bad. Bob Buhl and Cal Koonce both won in double figures but Dick Ellsworth was 9-20. Four of the top 10 pitchers had ERA's over 5.00. It got so bad right out of the gate that after 20 games manager El Tappe was gone (4-16), replaced by Lou Klein who didn't do much better at 12-18. with Charlie Metro taking them the rest of the way (43-69).

It wasn't that the club was so bad, it's just they never could pull together anything seriously resembling a winning streak. They lost 10 straight starting opening day. They lost four in a row several times, mixed in with losing streaks of 7 and 10 games. They never won more than five in a row and that was in mid-June when they were already 20 games out of first place. 

The saddest day was perhaps September 15th at Wrigley Field when before 16,000 fans, the Dodgers spotted them four runs with Don Drysdale on the mound. The Cubbies were drubbed 6-4 and fell 45.5 games off the pace! They only played 162 that season. The team would fix itself for the final 30 days of the season and go 7-7 down the stretch to finish at 59-103. 

However, a year later the club really did right itself and under new manager, Bob Kennedy they finished above .500 at 82-80. It moved them up to seventh place and the amazing thing was, they did it basically with the same guys. Larry Jackson was added and Altman was gone. Ron Santo stepped it up and banged 27 homers and hit .297 but Banks fell off to 18 home runs and a .227 BA. Williams did about what he did the previous year and Ellsworth went from a 20 game loser to a 22 game winner. Now that's progress.

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.