Baseball in the 1960's

Monday, December 6, 2021

The Day ONE Oriole Ruled the Baseball World

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Thomas Brazendorf, of Billings, Montana, who correctly stated Bill Virdon originally signed with the NY Yankees. 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 Jim Gentile spent most of his career in the American League he did spend parts of four years in the National League. Which pitcher gave up Gentile's first homer in the NL? Hint: He is in the HOF.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Bill Virdon originally signed with the New York Yankees, but never played in the big leagues before moving to St. Louis where he won the NL ROY and then was traded to Pittsburgh.

Jim Gentile spent nine seasons in the big leagues and had a lot of big games, but none bigger than against the Twins on May 9, 1961. It was one of those games the Baltimore Orioles slugger would remember for the rest of his life. It put him into the conversation for the best in the league and the MVP award.

He was batting clean-up that day, behind all-star Brooks Robinson. The Twins sent Pedro Ramos to the mound against Chuck Estrada. It was early in the season but neither team was playing impressive baseball. The Twins were at .500 and the O's were just two games over.

The game had a great start for Baltimore. The 4514 fans at the game were frustrated right off the bat. Whitey Herzog opened with a walk and Jackie Brandt followed with a double. Robinson walked to load the bases, bringing up the slugging Gentile. Gentile, who would finish with 46 homers that year, sent a Ramos pitch to deep center and over the wall at Metropolitan Stadium to clear the bases. The Grand Slam gave the O's an instant 4-0 lead.

The Twins failed to score in the bottom of the inning but the top of the second it was more of the same for the O's including more Gentile. Marv Breeding opened with a fly out but then Ramos did the unthinkable. He gave up a single to the opposing pitcher, Estrada which was followed by a walk to Herzog. That was enough for Ramos who was replaced by Paul Geil.

Brandt then hit a ground ball back to Geil which could have been a double play, but the pitcher made an errant throw and Estrada scored to make it 5-0. Robinson walked again, again bringing up Gentile with the bases load. For the second straight inning Gentile blasted the ball into the seats. This time to right for his second straight grand slam and a 9-0 O's lead.

The rest of the game was pretty much uneventful. Gentile would draw a walk and go down on a strikeout in two subsequent at bats, but in the eighth he came up with a runner on third. A sac fly gave the slugging first sacker nine RBI on the day and the Orioles defeated Minnesota 13-5. It was a day the left handed hitting Gentile would never forget. Two grand slams in consecutive innings and a sacrifice fly to boot.

He'd finish the season with 46 homers, a league leading 141 RBI, a .302 batting average and a .646 slugging percentage. He would finish third in the MVP voting behind Roger Maris who hit 61 home runs and Mickey Mantle who belted 54. His outstanding defensive skills helped him be involved in 129 double plays which was good for second in the American League.

With 179 homers in his career, 1961 was far and away his best season. The Orioles that season would finish third despite winning 95 games. They closed the season 14 games behind New York as the Yankees went on to have the second greatest Yankee team of all time.

But on this day, Jim Gentile ruled the baseball world.

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Monday, November 29, 2021

Honoring the Late Bill Virdon

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Mickey Bauchen of Flint, MI, who correctly named the four 1969 Padre pitchers who did pitch in the post season during their careers as Tom Dukes, Dave Roberts, Joe Niekro and Johnny Podres. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Which team in the major leagues did Bill Virdon originally sign with?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: The four 1969 Padre pitchers who did pitch in the post season during their careers as Tom Dukes, Dave Roberts, Joe Niekro and Johnny Podres.

Former ROY, NYY and Astros Manager and centerfielder for the Pirates, Bill Virdon died this past week. This week we re-run an article which his daughter said he read and loved. RIP Bill Virdon. As an eight year old starting Little League, he was the player I wanted to be. I found out I was a better infielder than an outfielder and not long after Bill Mazeroski became my hero. I still had a great fondness for Virdon as my first hero.

If ever there was a more curious case for a lead off man in the big leagues there were few more curious than the 1960's lead off hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bill Virdon came to Pittsburgh after being Rookie of the Year in St. Louis and in 1956 had his best season, batting .334. However, what happened when the 1960's rolled around remains a big question mark.

Virdon was a key player in the Pirates World Series victory in 1960. He was an outstanding center fielder on a team where he was flanked by the even more outstanding Roberto Clemente on one side, and the average Bob Skinner on the other. His defense kept him in the line up because as a hitter, and certainly as a lead off hitter, he was sub par.

(Pirates announcer Bob Prince interviews Pirate players including Virdon)
In the Series he made a game saving catch in Game 4 and other outstanding plays during the series on defense. On offense it was his sharp ground ball which hit Tony Kubek in the throat and opened a big inning for the Bucs.

Until 1965 he never hit over .269 and never had an On-Base Percentage higher than .313. He didn't hit for extra bases, averaging 20 doubles, five triples and six homers from 1961-1965. As a lead off hitter he was 16-30 in base stealing, actually leading the league with 13 caught steals in 1962.

He eclipsed 80 Runs Scored only twice and was under 60 Runs the other three years. His best hitting year as far as average (a key benchmark in the 1960s) since his breakout 1956, was his last year 1965 (it took him 10 years to achieve achieve better than .269 to finish at .279).

At 34 he came to the end of the road in 1965. It's when the Pirates made perhaps the biggest trade in franchise history sending lefty reliever Joe Gibbon to the Giants for outfield Matty Alou. Alou assumed Virdon's lead off position and his position as the new center fielder. He quickly established himself as the key to solving the Bucs inconsistent hitting.

Alou led the league in 1966 (his first year with Pittsburgh) with a .342 average, and a .373 OBP. In his first four years in Pittsburgh he would hit .342, .338, .332, and .331 getting edged out by Pete Rose for a second batting title by .003 points. In 1969 he led the NL with 231 hits.

Virdon came back in 1968 to play in six games going 1-for-3 at the plate, but he did excel as a manager with both Pittsburgh and New York, with stops in Houston and Montreal along the way. He twice won more than 90 games on his way to 995 wins and .519 winning percentage. Twice he led his teams to first place in their divisions.

Monday, November 22, 2021

The Padres Who Prayed for Hits

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Chuck Riffee of Glen Allen, VA, who correctly stated Ralph Terry was the pitcher who gave up Gordy Coleman's home run in the 1961 World Series. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: How many of the pitchers on the 1969 San Diego Padres actually pitched in a post season game in their career. Pat yourself on the back if you can name them?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Ralph Terry gave up Gordy Coleman's home run in the 1961 World Series, almost one year to the day after giving up the Series clinching Game 7 Home Run to Bill Mazeroski in the 1960 Series.

Expansion teams aren't supposed to be contenders right away. Most won't offer a polished pitching staff but most will hit, at least to some degree. Then there were the players of the expansion San Diego Padres.

The year was 1969 and the new San Diego team was far from it's days of Tony Gwynn and Dave Winfield. Gwynn would toy with .400 at one point and offer a lifetime BA of .338. Winfield, before leaving for Free Agency, would hit 154 home runs and lead the NL in RBI with 118 in 1979 in his Hall of Fame career.

(Tommy Dean with a bat which seldom helped him.)

But that was later and 1969 was now. By the time the 1969 season had come to a close 10 Padres came to the plate and closed the season with a BA of under .200. Included was the team's starting shortstop, Tommy Dean, at .176 in 101 games (308 plate appearances). Few were far better. Starting catcher Chris Cannizzaro stuck it out at .220 while starting second sacker, Jose Arcia batted .215.

On the positive side, powerful Nate Colbert led the team in homers with 24, batting .255 while striking out 123 times (no big deal today but back then over 100 K's was a setback). Downtown Ollie Brown led the hitters at .254, adding 20 dingers, and Ed Spiezio and former Dodger Al Ferrara had double figure home run totals with 27 between them. The basic starting lineup rounded out with Cito Gaston's .230 mark.

The Padres finished last (12th place) in nearly every hitting category in 1969 including runs, hits, doubles, walks, strikeouts, BA (.225) and every important other percentage statistic including on-base and slugging figures. They were dismal. They finished 52-110, 41 games out of first place. Only eight times did they beat an opponent by five runs or more, but lost by five runs or more 30 times!

Perhaps their season can be summed up this way. Twice they lost to opposing teams 19-0 and twice more 10-0. There were other double digit scoring losses but those embarrassments were the top of the heap for the 1969 Friars.

The pitching wasn't much better overall but the starters were not bad. Despite losing 20 of 27 decisions 21-year old Clay Kirby finished with a 3.80 ERA. In fact, the four main starters were all under 4.00 in the ERA department. Only one pitcher who pitched any kind of innings however finished with a winning record. Reliever Jack Baldschun was 7-2.

Of all the players on that inaugural team for San Diego, probably the only offensive player who went on to a strong big league career was Colbert. He hit 173 home runs during his MLB life. On the mound it was Joe Niekro who won 221 games in his career while losing 204. His brother Phil won 318 giving them a combined record of 540-478, which in itself is pretty amazing.

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