Baseball in the 1960's

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.

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: 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.

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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.

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Pirates and Braves Head to Head 1960

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Tim Fealy of Punta Gorda, FL who correctly stated Tony Cloniger hit two grand slams in one game. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Roberto Clemente was one of the greatest players to ever play the game but in 1960 he led the NL in one dubious category. What was it?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Tony Cloniger hit two grand slams in the same game on July 3, 1966.

Sometimes in the big leagues you can beat up on everyone of the other teams but if you can't beat the team which turns out to be the "best" that particular season, the rest doesn't matter. Consider the case of the Milwaukee Braves and the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960. All baseball fans know the Bucs won the championship in 1960. And while the Braves finished second, seven games back of Pittsburgh, it was the Pirates they just couldn't beat during the season.

The Braves had a winning record against all the other teams that season, except Pittsburgh and the Dodgers. They were 16-6 against the Phillies and 15-7 against the Cubs. Aside from the 10-12 record playing Los Angeles, the Braves could only muster 9 wins against the Pirates. The sad thing for Braves fans is their team won four of those games in the last seven games.

Pittsburgh would score more than 100 runs against every team except Los Angeles and scored 99 off of the Cardinals. The Braves did the same except instead of the Cardinals, the Braves failed to score 100 against the team from the Steel City.

The two teams records were pretty close when it came to "team" marks. Each team had a 20 game winner (Warren Spahn 21 with the Braves, 20 for the Buc's Vern Law). The Braves excelled with the long ball 170-120 as sluggers Eddie Mathews (39 homers) and Henry Aaron (40) and Joe Adcock (25), far outpaced Pittsburgh whose lone "big man" was Dick Stuart with 23.

The Pirates led in BA .276 to .265. While they did have a pair of hitters batting .298 the Braves failed to have a .300 hitter. The Pirates had two; Roberto Clemente (.314) and NL MVP Dick Groat (.325). One run games were close but the Pirates were a come from behind team. It could be the reason the club excelled due to a "never give up" attitude. Emphasized by walking off 11 wins compared to the Braves 6 in the 1960 season.

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