Baseball in the 1960's

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

When Stan Certainly Was "The Man!"

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to David Rolfe's of Las Vegas, NV who correctly stated Clete Boyer (brother of Ken) failed to get a hit in the game on August 17, 1961 while his brother played a key role in the Cardinals game on that same day. 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.

Just a note to add; If you look at the top right hand corner of the side bar you will see a link to daily sports scores. We made an agreement with Baseball 24 in a mutual sharing situation. Hope its helpful to fans of several sports.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Stan Musial wasn't the only Cardinal great who retired after the 1963 season. Which outstanding infielder who spent 15 seasons with the Red Birds also called it quits at the conclusion of the 1963 NL season, playing his last game July 7, when he failed to get a hit as a pinch-hitter?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Clete Boyer failed to get a hit in three AB's on August 17th, 1961.

Sometimes when the writing is on the wall you really wish the text were written one year later. Such is the case of one of the greatest to ever play the game of baseball; Stan Musial.

(Musial's last At Bat)
For more than two decades Musial, the Donora, PA native, patrolled the outfield and some at first base for the St. Louis Cardinals. He hit milestones with the bat which would make him a $50 million a year player today. When he retired after the 1963 season, his final salary was $50,000.

Musial was voted to the all-star team in every year he played. He missed the 1945 season due to military service. He went into the Hall of Fame with an amazing 93.2% of the vote. He finished with 475 home runs, a lifetime BA of .331 and nearly 4000 combined RBI and Runs Scored. And he was a good fielder.

The point of the story is when he retired. The 1962 Cardinals finished in sixth place. A year later they finished in second. Musial had an amazing 1962 when you consider he was 41 years old and still batted .330 with 19 homers in over 500 AB's. He fell off as could be expected in 1963 at age 42. He dropped to .255 and just 12 homers in 124 games. It was only the second time his average dipped so low (he also hit .255 in 1959).

With young Mike Shannon, a power hitting and good defensive outfielder pushing for a chance to play, and with an aging body on the line, Musial hung them up. If he'd have hung on for one more year the headlines would have read "Musial Bows Out a World Series Champion!"

The Cardinals did indeed go to the World Series in 1964 and they beat the Yankees in seven games. Musial was watching from the good seats at that point however, and oh how the fans would have loved to see no. 6 on the field for those seven games and go out a winner.

Shannon would eventually move into the infield and play third base after Kenny Boyer was traded to the Mets after the 1965 season for Al Jackson and Charley Smith. The Smith experiment didn't pan out so when Roger Maris arrived in 1968, Shannon became the permanent fixture at third.

As for Musial's records; he led the league in hits six times. In addition to those seasons he belted more than 200 hits twice (6 times overall). Nine times he had more than 40 doubles (thrice hitting 50), five times he led the league in triples while hitting the 20 mark twice, in six seasons he hit at least 30 home runs and led the league in batting seven times (.376 in 1948). Add to that 10 times driving in over 100 RBI and 11 times scoring 100 or more and you have one of the greatest compilation of numbers you will ever see, and never see again in MLB.

AND; Probably the most amazing statistic when it comes to consistency. Musial had the exact same number of hits "on the road" as he did "at home." In both cases he had 1815 hits in his career for 3630 total.

Stan Musial truly was "The Man."

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

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.

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Boyer and Jackson; Baseball 1961

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Aaron Woien, Indianapolis, IN, who correctly stated Tom Satriano was the super versatile Angel of the mid 1960's. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: While Ken Boyer drove in two runs for the Cardinals with two hits on August 17, 1961, how many hits did brother Clete have for the Yankees that day?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Tom Satriano was the super versatile Angel of the mid 1960's.

Sometimes it's just that one guy who can ruin a great performance and on August 17, 1961, his name was Ken Boyer. The battle between the Giants Mike McCormick and the Cardinals Larry Jackson was a pitching duel extraordinaire. Neither pitcher was having a great season but they both were having great games this day in front of nearly 11,000 fans at Candlestick Park.

McCormick came in with a 9-11 record facing Jackson who wasn't much better at 8-9. Jackson would get the best this time out. St. Louis was a .500 team with the Giants fighting for the pennant and were 10 games over .500. The Giants big gun on the day was Orlando Cepeda (who would have some great years with the Cardinals later on in the decade).

Cepeda would have one of the three hits Jackson would allow; a double. It was Ken Boyer though who stole this show to back the shutout pitching of Jackson. McCormick had retired 11 in a row at one point and was sailing along into the sixth. Julian Javier opened the frame with a single and moved to second on a Curt Flood sacrifice. One out later Boyer blasted a double to bring home Javier and the Cards had all they needed, 1-0.

In the eighth Charlie James doubled and Boyer singled him home to provide an insurance run. It was all Jackson needed. At one point he retired 22 of 23 batters and the one batter who did reach base was doubled up with an infield double play ball. He did not walk a batter and struck out only two but he was magnificent and with Boyer's backing was the ace of the day. McCormick also went the distance. He gave up seven hits, walked two and struck out five.

Jackson would finish the season strong with a 14-11 record and three shutouts. McCormick was 13-16 also with three shutouts. A season later he was sent packing to the Orioles in a six player deal. That same year Jackson was sent to the Cubs in a six player deal. Each went onto have one 20-win season.

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.

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

First In Their Hearts, Sixth In The American League; The Angels

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Dan Taguchi of Los Angeles, CA who correctly stated The dubious honor Roberto Clemente had in 1960 was to lead the NL in double plays grounded into. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: In the mid-1960's the Angels had a player who nearly every year was the model of versatility, playing three of the four infield positions and catcher. Who was he?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Roberto Clemente in 1960 led the NL in double plays grounded into.

What made the 1966 Los Angeles/California Angels so interesting they would finish in sixth place in the American League but still finish first in attendance? While the team closed out the 1966 season 80-82, 1,400,321 fans went through the turnstiles of Anaheim Stadium. Bill Rigney's team did not have a .300 hitter or a batter with at least 20 homers. Aging Joe Adcock led the club with 18 in only 83 games. The club's leading hurlers each won 13 games (George Brunet and Jack Sanford) and ace Dean Chance was 12-17. So why did the fans turn out?

The team was never in danger of winning the pennant. They rarely won or lost more than five in a row. Their highlight was in mid-June when they won 11 of 13 and were seven games over .500. They were still eight games back of the Orioles but they were in fourth place. Then they dropped three in a row to Baltimore, another to Detroit and despite a four game winning streak which followed shortly thereafter, the season was essentially lost.

They still played good baseball overall, and by the end of July they were still over .500. However they were 14.5 games back of first place Baltimore. Perhaps it was the fact the Angels, despite looking up to see down trying to overcome the Frank Robinson led Birds, never gave up. On July 30th Chance pitched the Angels to a 2-1 win over Cleveland to put the west coast team into its only day in second place. They were 13.5 back. It lasted 24 hours.

Brunet, always the hard luck pitcher would face even more hard luck in 1967 when the Angels competed for the pennant, Fregosi continued to play well and alongside Bobby Knoop they were among the best double play duos of the era. Chance would become an outstanding pitcher, especially after being traded to Minnesota. The Norm Siebern/Joe Adcock platoon was replaced by Don Mincher the following season.

It was the slugging Adcock's final season and leading the team in homers at age 38 was pretty indicative of the 1966 Angels. Let's face it, this was a team of lovable players who were at a crossroads in a region hungry for a winner not named the Dodgers. They Angels were no match for the pennant winning team led by Sandy Koufax in his final season, Don Drysdale and fav's such as Wes Parker and Lou Johnson.

They really were every bit as talented as the Dodgers but were just not ready to eclipse the upper tier of the American League. The Orioles, the Red Sox and the Tigers were way too difficult for the team from Anaheim. They were never more than 3 games under .500, and as the 80-82 record indicated they played pretty evenly through the year. They had 9 walk off wins and 9 walk off losses which is pretty darn even.

This was a club of lovable characters. There were new kids on the block like Rick Reichardt, Paul Schall, Jim McGlothlin, Jackie Hernandez, Clyde Wright and Minnie Rojas. There was a mix of real fan favorites such as Adcock, Bubba Morton, Lew Burdette, Jimmy Piersall, Jack Sanford and Ramon Lopez.

Perhaps a real indication where this team of aging vets and young stars trying to shine is how they finished. One of the clubs best games was on Sunday October 2, facing Luis Tiant and the Indians. Knoop's 2-run triple in the bottom of the eighth plated the only runs of the game to back the 5-hit pitching of Jorge Rubio (WHO?). In the ninth, facing four batters, Rubio did not allow a fair hit ball. He walked Rocky Colavito and struck out Leon Wagner, Bill Davis and Fred Whitfield.

Rubio finished his career the following season with a 2-3 lifetime record in ten total career games. The Angels were a team waiting to happen with a fan base eager to see it happen. Or so one would think. The following season they were in the race for much of the year and finished 84-77 in 5th place. Attendance: Dropped off to fourth in the American League, down to
1,317,713. Some people just can't stand a winner.

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.

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