Baseball in the 1960's

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

The Other 1968 Reds

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Steve Schubert of Bradenton, FL who correctly identified Steve Barber as the pitcher who gave up Roger Repoz's first home run. 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: He pitched for six teams in nine years but in 1968 he tossed a no-hitter for the Reds. Who was he?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Steve Barber gave up the first major league homer ever hit by Roger Repoz.

You can look at the 1968 Cincinnati Reds and realize they were the "Big Red Machine" about to happen. They had not yet acquired Joe Morgan but the rest of the pieces were there. Rose, Bench, Perez, Helms, Cardenas, Lee May, Alex Johnson and Pinson. They were about to become a mini-dynasty despite the fourth place finish of 1968. This column however is about the bench.

(Gary Nolan and Johnny Bench the Youth of 1968)
Rarely if ever does a team possess a bench of guys who either did, or would be feared sluggers in their own right. Just run down the names the likes of Mack Jones, Don Pavletich, Fred Whitfield, Hal McRae, Bob Johnson, and even Woody Woodward deserves a mention. These six players combined for 18 home runs and roughly about a .260 average that season.

Jones his 133 homers in his career including 31 for the 1965 Braves. He was a powerful left-handed bat who in his hey day was a strong defensive player as well. Jones played in 103 games for the Reds in 1968 and belted 10 home runs. Pavletich never batted more than 235 times in a season but hit over .300 once and hovered near it another time. His best was 12 home runs but he could really drive the ball.

Whitfield did most of his damage in the AL with Cleveland. The big first sacker would hit 108 homers in his career and three times better the 20 homer mark in a season. He hit 27 in 1966. McRae's best years were to come. With 191 life time home runs he led the AL in RBI in 1982 with 133 for the Royals. McRae several times was in the running for the league MVP.

Bob Johnson was known as a guy who could get out of bed on Sunday morning and pinch hit a single. Three times over his 11 years in the big leagues he batted over .300 with a .348 mark in 1967. A lifetime .272 hitter he played for eight different teams.

And then there was Woody Woodward. He only gets a mention here because he went almost his entire major league career without hitting a home run. Woodward broke into the big leagues in 1963 with Milwaukee and played regular shortstop for several years but also played a lot of games in those non-starting years. It wasn't until 1970 he got his first and only MLB home run.

Over 2400 times he came to the plate and finally on July 10, 1970 belted the homer off former teammate Ron Reed and the Braves. The Reds had one of the most powerful starting line-ups at the time and in 1968 they had an outstanding bench.

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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Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Roger Repoz; Beware the Month of June

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Mickey Bauchan of Flint, MI, who correctly identified Luke Walker as the pitcher who gave up Orlando Cepeda's final home run while he was playing for Kansas City against Detroit in August 1975. It figures a reader from MI gets the question about a Tigers player giving up the gopher ball. LOL. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Which Oriole's pitcher gave up Roger Repoz first major league home run in 1965?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Luke Walker was the pitcher who gave up Orlando Cepeda's final home run while he was playing for Kansas City against Detroit in August 1975.

He was one of many who were supposed to be the next Mickey Mantle. An inspiring looking player at 6'3" 190 lb., he ended up falling far short, and was just Roger Repoz. The slugging outfielder with the cannon arm, Repoz came up to the Yankees in late 1964 but became a platoon regular in 1965. As Mantle was winding down, Repoz was supposed to be heating up. It never happened.

Repoz batted a lowly .220 with 12 homers that first year in the big leagues in just 218 at bats. In a full season that would have translated to about 25 home runs. Certainly with a .260 average that would have caught the attention of Yankee brass and endeared them to keep him around longer. In 1966 after only 43 AB in 37 games (used mostly as a pinch-hitter) Repoz was dealt to Kansas City. It seems he had fallen so far from the heir apparent wagon the trade was one of journeymen, and Repoz.

(Beware the Month of June, as Repoz was traded three times, three times in June)

In June, Repoz was traded by the New York Yankees with Gil Blanco and Bill Stafford to the Kansas City Athletics for Billy Bryan and Fred Talbot. None of which were up and coming stars but rather guys who were at the end of their careers trying to hang on. Talbot would stick around for a couple of years in a Yankee uniform. The trade didn't help Repoz. He finished the 1966 campaign with 11 HR and .232.

He was batting .241 with a pair of homers in 40 games before the A's gave up on him. He was sent packing to the Angels for Jack Sanford and Jackie Warner. He batted .250 for the Halo's to finish at .247 with seven dingers. Over the next five years he would hit 52 homers and never hit higher than .240 with some dismal years in the middle of that.

When the Angeles gave up on him by sending him to the Orioles in June of 1972 for Jerry Davanon, he was sent to AAA Rochester. He played out the season and then after being traded three times in the middle of June (twice on June 10th) Repoz chose another route. He went to Japan to play ball.

He spent the next five seasons playing for more than one Japanese team and hit 122 home runs over five seasons before retiring at age 36. He did have a dubious distinction. In 1971, Repoz became the first player in MLB history to compile an OPS of greater than .700 while putting up a batting average of under .200 (.199) and playing in a minimum of 100 games.

Monday, May 10, 2021

The Cepeda Transition

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Tim Nathan of Berkley, MI, who correctly stated Bobby Richardson was the lone Yankee regular to bat .300 or better at .301 during the previous season (1959). The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Of his 379 home runs in the big leagues Orlando Cepeda hit, all but 21 were in the National League. Which American League pitcher gave up his Final Home Run in August 1974?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: While Bill Skowron was the only Yankee regular to bat .300 or better in the 1960 season, Bobby Richardson was the only Yankee regular to bat .300 or better the previous season (1959) when he hit .301.

When a player is traded to a new team for what may be termed "a change of scenery" the player sometimes responds right away. For Orlando Cepeda it was typically year two. In the 1960s the Baby Bull did it twice. First with the Cardinals and later with the Braves. Cepeda, for all his slugging and glory, was a transitional player, a key piece of the puzzle, a perfect cog in the wheel for many different teams.

The big first baseman was a monster for the Giants at first base but when Willie McCovey came along in 1960, the Giants had to make a decision. Cepeda was shipped off to the outfield and while not the happiest player on the team, he continued to hit well, but a knee injury felled him. In 1966 it was time to move on from Cepeda and the Giants needed pitching. A one for one trade sent Cepeda to the Cardinals for lefty starter Ray Sadecki.

Cedpeda didn't respond immediately but in year two he led the Redbirds to the National League pennant and to a World Series win over Boston. Teamed with a revived Roger Maris, Tim McCarver and Bob Gibson's magnificence he belted 25 homers, hit .325 and drove in 111. He was named MVP for his troubles. It was a unanimous vote. The following year he fell off (as did all big league hitters in 1968) to .248, 16 homers and 73 RBI. It was still good enough to win the pennant but the Cardinals lost to Detroit in the World Series.

Over the winter the Cards sent him to Atlanta for Joe Torre who became an all-star and batting champ in St. Louis. Again Cepeda did not respond until year two with his new club. He had nearly the same stats with the exact same 111 RBI, although his homers (34) and his BA (.305) were close. To point out how good Cepeda could be in a "year two" scenario; In his second year with the Giants (1959) he drove in 105 runs on 27 homers and a .317 BA.

Those were three of his five 100-RBI seasons. To be fair, he was pretty consistent over the years with his best season being 1961 when he smacked 46 home runs and drove in 142 at a .311 clip to finish second in the MVP Race. In 1958 he was named Rookie of the Year, again by unanimous vote. Orlando Cepeda was some kind of player and worthy of his Hall of Fame induction.

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

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.

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