Baseball in the 1960's

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.

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 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.

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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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
==========================================================
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, 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.

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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.

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