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Monday, April 5, 2021

April 8, the 1960s - Milestones & Tragedy

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to  Aaron Woien, of Indianapolis, IN, who correctly stated the two teams with the most walks in 1969 were the Giants with 711, while the least walks were taken by the Padres with 423. 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.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Rafael Robles was the first San Diego Padre to ever bat in MLB, reaching first on a ground ball error. He also accomplished another San Diego first in that inning. What was it? 
 
ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column:  The Two 1969 teams drawing the most and least walks were the Giants with the most at 711 and the Padres with the least with 423.

Some of the most memorable events happened this week in the 1960s and in particular on April 8th. For many teams April 8th meant Opening Day, which is why some of these milestones took place. Others, well, it just happened that way. 

 (NOTE: The previous video we inserted here was mislabeled. This is the correct video.)

1963: In his first Major League at Bat, Pete Rose drew a walk from Earl Francis of the Pirates in front of his home town Cincinnati fans, batting second. Two batters later he scored his first ever run when Frank Robinson smashed a homer. Rose would fail to get a hit that day in a 5-2 Reds win. Rose would get his first MLB hit five days later off Bob Friend in a loss. It was a single.


The Tigers picked up pitcher Denny McLain off waivers from the White Sox. McLain would become probably the last pitcher ever to win 30 games in the big leagues, five years later on his way to the World Series.

President Kennedy throws out the first pitch in the Washington Senators game for his last Opening Day appearance. Stadium vendors agreed not to show up in a labor dispute and the president did not have to cross a picket line. The Sens lost to the Orioles, 3-1 with Don Rudolph as the starting pitcher. Kennedy would fall victim to an assassins bullet seven months later.

1964: Pitcher Jim Umbricht passes away from cancer. He was the only pitcher to post a winning record the first two seasons the Houston Colt 45's existed. He was 33.

1966: The Dodgers and the Astros play the first ever MLB game on synthetic grass. It was known as Astroturf, in the Astrodome.

 

1968: Opening Day is postponed due to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It would be on this date six years later in 1974, Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, a Black man, would break Babe Ruth's MLB record for the most home runs in a career with 715. The home run coming off another Black man, Al Downing. Downing would later tell this reporter other players joked with him that Dodgers manager, Walter Alston, saved him to start against the Braves and "the Hammer."Downing went down in history as the man who gave up that famous home run.

1969: Four teams make their major league debut. The Kansas City Royals, Seattle Pilots, San Diego Padres and Montreal Expos. The Expos become the first ever non-US based team in the big leagues, the Pilots lasted just one season in Seattle before moving to Milwaukee. Lou Pinella is the first batter in Royals' history. 

1969: After a long recovery from the beaning by Jack Hamilton two seasons previous, Tony Conigliaro returns to the Red Sox for his first start. He smacks a two run homer and scores the winning run in extra innings. 

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. 

 

Monday, March 29, 2021

The Big Time Walkers; 1969

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Thomas Streib of Vero Beach, FL who correctly named Harmon Killebrew and Jim Wynn as the two players to lead their leagues in 1969 in drawing a Base on Balls. 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.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:  Which two teams in 1969 received the Most and the Least walks.  
 
ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column:  Harmon Killebrew and Jim Wynn were the leaders in getting walked in their leagues. Wynn in the NL 148, Killebrew in the AL 145. 

In the previous column we explored those hitters who were the free swingers in 1969; the guys who played regularly but rarely drew a walk. This week, I thought I would flip the coin and look at the players who drew the most walks in 1969. Interestingly enough, last week we learned the NL had a big edge with those free swingers. It should not be much of a surprise to tell you the AL had the huge edge on the guys who took the most Walks.

                      (Jim Wynn's tape measure homer at Forbes Field)

While there were 15 players in the Big Leagues who drew at least 90 walks, 10 of them were American Leaguers. Of the nine who had at least 100 Base on Balls, five were in the AL to four in the NL. The guy with the most however in either league was a smallish guy in stature standing only 5'10" and weighing just 160 pounds. By today's standards Jim Wynn was undersized. Albeit, he led the Majors in 1969 with 148 BB's and again with 127 in 1976. All told, The Toy Cannon drew more than 100 Walks in four different seasons.

Second in 1969 was Harmon Killebrew with 145. Walking Killebrew was understandable. With 100 or more walks in seven different seasons he basically spent the equivalent of three full major league seasons with a bat on his shoulder, striding to first base. For grins, if you added in his strikeouts (nearly 1700) it means he failed to make contact at the plate for more than six of his 22 years in the majors! The season after he almost ended his career due to an injury in the 1968 All-Star game, Killer came back with a vengeance with his best season ever; 49 HR 140 RBI .276 BA.

Willie McCovey, Joe Morgan and Rusty Staub round out the NL walkers, while the AL BB leaders featured Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Frank Howard and Carl Yastrzemski.  Pitchers couldn't figure out what to do against the Oakland A's, walking Jackson and Bando more than 200 times combined. Frank Howard, like Killebrew and McCovey were easy choices to pitch around but Morgan, Yaz and especially Staub were hitters known to have a good eye and a great knowledge of the strike zone.  

The five AL players bubbling under 100 BB are sort of an enigma. Today you might question issuing 90-plus walks per season to Ken Harrelson, Jim Fregosi, Don Buford,  Tommy Harper and Rico Petrocelli. Not so much for the lone NL slugger to approach 100 while landing in the 90's. Ron Santo was sandwiched between two great Chicago Cubs; Billy Williams and Ernie Banks.

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. 

Monday, March 22, 2021

The Non-Walkers of 1969

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Tim Fealy of Punta Gorda, FL who correctly stated the first team Harry "the Hat" Walker managed was the St. Louis Cardinals when he was a player manager for the 1955. He got his first full time managerial job with Pittsburgh in 1965. 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.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:  Six of the Top 10 batters who drew the MOST Bases on Balls in the 1969 season were AL players. Name the League Leaders in Walks drawn for each league in 1969.  
 
ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column:  Harry Walker first managed in the big leagues in 1955 as a player-manager with the Cardinals. 

They were called the "free swingers" back in the day. Two phrases by the way which are so cliche' today. One certainly has a different meaning and the other is referenced often by a younger group which never experienced "back in the day." And in today's terminology I'll put a big "LOL" after the last line. While this column is about the free swingers of 1969, it should be noted that two of the six players highlighted below were on the field for another record breaking night. See the video below.

We however, are talking about the players who played in the big leagues who rarely went to first base via the Base on Balls. For some reason it was the National League which had more of these "non walkers." In fact, the six of the seven players we researched all were NL players in 1969. The breakdown came with players who approached 500 Plate Appearances. Maybe it was because it was the first year of divisional play, but that is hard to imagine. The DH was still four years away and the year of the pitcher was the season before. Why they were more prominent in the NL over the AL, is a mystery.

The top two players in this category were Manny Sanguillen of the Pirates and Tommy Helms of the Reds. Both players failed to reach 20 walks in the 1969 season. Sanguillen came to the plate 481 times and walked only 12. He was known as a guy who could hit a ball that was a foot off the plate into the corner for a triple. 

Helms, the Reds second sacker, strode to the plate 509 times and drew only 18 walks. Neither player by the way struck out very much either. The rest of the players in the group all drew walks in the low 20's. The only AL player on the list (others such as Rich Reese were close) is the Royals Jerry Adair with 20 Walks in 461 PA.

Andy Kosco of the Dodgers was known as a hitter with power, which would lead pitchers to work around him. Not so. Kosco only walked 21 times in 453 Plate Appearances. Al Oliver of Pittsburgh also drew 21 walks in 502 PA. Roberto Pena of the newly branded San Diego Padres was on par with Oliver. He drew 21 Walks in 501 PA. 

The Braves Felipe Alou may have had the most power and been the most complete hitter of the bunch and he only drew 23 BB's in 509 PA. Alou, who belted 31 homers just three seasons prior, only smacked 5 in 1969 while batting .282. He only struck out 23 times as well. Over a career, you would probably liken Alou to Oliver as the complete hitters they were. Oliver played 18 seasons batting .303 with 219 HR and 535 BB, while Alou played 17 seasons BA .286, 206 HR and 423 BB.

It is an interesting breakdown when you consider there was some power and very few strikeouts to go along with those even fewer Walks. Sanguillen by the way only drew 223 BB in 13 seasons averaging only 17 Walks per year.

PLAYER                          PA     BB   K  HR  BA

Sanguillen                       481     12   48     5  .303

Helms                               509     18   33     1  .269

Adair                                461     20   36     5  .250

Al Oliver                          502      21  38   17  .285

Roberto Pena                  501      21   63    4   .250

Kosco                               453      21   66  19   .248

F. Alou                             509      23   23    5   .282

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.