Baseball in the 1960's

Monday, May 3, 2021

Moose Shows How Important He Was

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Rich Nye of Batavia, IL, who answered Art Mahaffey as the pitcher who was the only Phillies non-position player to hit a home run for the club in 1964. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card. By the way, yes he is "that" Rich Nye and one of several former major league players to have read this column and responded, and we thank every one of them for the memories they provided for us in the 1960s. Thank you again. And to our loyal readers please feel free to share the column, we do appreciate it.

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: While Bill Skowron was the only Yankee regular to bat .300 or better in the 1960 season, who was the only Yankee regular to bat .300 or better the previous season (1959)?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: The 1964 Phillies pitching staff gave up 129 homers and the Phillies non-pitchers hit 129 home runs, but the team hit 130. Art Mahaffey was the lone pitcher to hit a home run for Philadelphia in 1964.

When you think of the 1960 New York Yankees you think of two things; 1) a great power hitting team of Mantle and Maris, 2) the Yankees lost the World Series to Pittsburgh in the most improbable way. There is something we should also think of about that 1960 club; Bill Skowron's enormous impact. He was third behind Mantle and Maris in some categories but led the club in at least two important ones. As the only regular to bat over .300 he led the team in average at .309 and in Doubles with 34. And perhaps his value was never better than on July 19, in Cleveland.

(Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Moose Skowron sing on Ed Sullivan Show)

It was a day Moose Skowron would show off how important he was. The Yanks sent Jim Coates to the mound against Jim Perry before 26,000 fans. Perry lasted six innings but was clobbered from start to finish. Skowron got the Yankees started with his 15th homer of the season in the second. It was an opposite field blast to give New York a 1-0 lead.

By the time the eighth inning rolled around the Indians and Yankees were locked in a back and forth barrage of home runs including Roger Maris 30th and one by the Indians Jimmy Piersall. Going into the eighth Cleveland led 9-6. In addition to the homer, Skowron had walked and struck out. Leading off the eighth Yogi Berra homered and Skowron followed with his 16th and second of the game to make it 9-8 Cleveland.

The ninth inning was where it all came together for the big man. A walk, a single and a ground ball error loaded the bases for Berra whose single plated one run and advanced everyone 90 feet. With the bases still loaded Skowron belted a Ted Bowsfield pitch for a double between the fielders in left center to clear the bases. New York now had a one run lead 12-11. Tony Kubek faced reliever Mudcat Grant and promptly singled home Skowron with the insurance run and New York walked away with a 13-11 victory.

Skowron came to the plate five times, went three-for-four with a Walk, scored three, drove in five and smacked a double and two home runs. For the year Moose was third to Mantle in Maris in homers, RBI, Runs scored and just about every other offensive category. And he had a .991 Fielding Average at first base.

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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Monday, April 26, 2021

To Wine and Dine in Philly

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Glenn Schubert of Bradenton, FL who answered Ralph Terry as the pitcher who went undefeated with a 5-0 record for the Yankees against the Minnesota Twins in 1962. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: In the 1964 season the Phillies hit 130 home runs and the pitching staff gave up 129 home runs. Phil's position players blasted 129 homers to equal the 129 the staff gave up. The 130th home run was hit by a Philadelphia pitcher. Who was he?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Ralph Terry as the pitcher who went undefeated with a 5-0 record for the Yankees against the Minnesota Twins in 1962.

Every once in a while a guy has a career day in the major leagues and for light hitting Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Bobby Wine it was April 26, 1964. The victim was the Cubs Freddy Norman. No one would ever mistake Wine for Ted Williams, or even Ron Hansen but the slick fielding shortstop had one of his best days ever at the plate as the Phils took on the Cubs in Philadelphia in a day game. It was a leisurely Sunday afternoon in eastern PA and a little more than 12-thousand of the Phillies faithful turned out to see Norman take on Ray Culp.

(Bobby Wine discussing the Collapse of 1964)

Wine, who was 0-6 in previous two games, was batting in his usual no. 8 spot in the line-up. The lifetime .212 hitter would face Norman who didn't have much that day. In the second, after a Gus Triandos solo shot to give the Phils a 2-0 lead (Tony Taylor had homered earlier), Wine grounded out. To add insult to injury (both to Norman and Wine), pitcher Culp followed with a walk.

Wine singled in the fourth but was left stranded. However, it was in the sixth that Wine made his move. With two outs Danny Cater whacked a double to left. Cubs skipper Bob Kennedy ordered Norman to walk Triandos intentionally to get to Wine. Phillies manager Gene Mauch might have thought about hitting for Wine but chose to stay with his defensive shortstop late in the game. Good thing. Wine belted a Norman pitch deep into left field for a three run homer and a 5-0 Phillies lead.

That was all she wrote. Wine did come to the plate one more time and grounded into a double play. The game ended 5-1 with Wine getting two hits and driving in three runs. After the game Wine was up to his old self. He didn't get another hit until May 4th when he singled off Roger Craig, nine days later. For the season he would hit .215 with four homers among his 15 extra base hits. But in 1964 that was the least of the Philadelphia Phillies problems.

Monday, April 19, 2021

Twins Can't Beat Those Yankees

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Dave Wright of Wilmington, DE, who correctly named 5'4" Freddie Patek sas the "other" shortstop Bill Mazeroski played with in the later years. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: During the 1962 season when the Yankees beat the Twins 11 out of 17 games, one New York pitcher beat Minnesota five times, going 5-0. Who was he?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: 5'4" Freddie Patek sas the "other" shortstop Bill Mazeroski played with in the later years, as Gene Alley suffered through injuries.

The Minnesota Twins of 1962 proved one thing if nothing else during the season; If you can't beat the best team in the league, then you can't win the pennant. The Twins finished 5 games back of the Yankees when all was said and done. They played .500 or better against every other team in the league and close to it against against Boston (winning 8 of 18). However, against New York, which eventually went on to play the Giants in the World Series, they were a miserable 7-11, giving up 6 runs a game.

(Video of selected highlights of Twins early years.)

The Twins won 91 games and still finished second despite having a well balanced club. Every one of the regular starters belted homers in double figures but none hit .300. Vic Power's .290 topped the club. Harmon Killebrew led the parade with 48 homers and 126 RBI. Bobby Allison chipped in with 102 RBI on 29 homers. Rich Rollins and Lenny Green led the team in Runs with 97 and 96 respectively. Add the likes of Zoilo Versalles, Bernie Allen and a young Don Mincher to the mix and they were solid. Even rookie Tony Oliva, a year away from stardom chipped in getting 4 hits in 9 AB.

On the mound every regular starting pitcher finished with at least a .500 record save one; Jim Bonikowski was 5-7 in 13 Starts in his only year in the big leagues. Camilo Pasqual won 20, Jim Kaat was 18-14 and Jack Kralick was 12-11. Dick Stigman was 12-5. Today we would find it remarkable that the big three combined for over 750 innings. Pasqual with 257, Kaat 269, and Kralick 242. Amazing!

But it was the Yankees who did them in. In May and June they lost 4 of 6 and in July they dropped all three contests. On two other occasions they split a pair. They last time they played New York was in late August and they could only win two in a four game set. While the Twins played well down the stretch, they could never get closer than two games. Heading into the final week of the season they had to play six of seven games against Baltimore and won four of them to finish five games back. New York though finished strong winning 11 of 16 to capture the title winning 96 games.

The Twins would be back, again winning 91 the following year. They finished third to New York, this time beating every team in the league except the Yankees and won only 6 games this time. In 1964 they faltered miserably finishing 6th. It wasn't until 1965 Minnesota led by Mudcat Grant, Kaat and Jim Perry, plus MVP Versalles and Tony Oliva's .321 they finally finished first. By the way, this time they finally beat the Yankees, winning 13 of 18, to finish 13-5. It had to happen at some point. It was the first time in forever New York's finest finished the season below .500.

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