Baseball in the 1960's

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.

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: 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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                             SEND YOUR ANSWERS TO; brillpro@gmail.com
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Monday, November 15, 2021

Gordy Coleman; Just One of Those Guys

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Glenn Schubert of Bradenton, FL, who correctly stated there were two (you only had to know one) of the players from the last column who played against each other in the World Series. Al Bumbry played in the "79 Series against Jim Bibby and again in the "83 Series against Garry Maddox. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Who gave up Coleman's home run in the 1961 World Series?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Al Bumbry played in the "79 Series against Jim Bibby and again in the "83 Series against Garry Maddox..

The 1960s were filled with guys who had solid careers, which if they played today they would be millionaires. Back then they were just "those guys" who made contributions to their teams. Gordy Coleman was one of those guys.

Coleman was a Cincinnati Red who was a slugger for a couple of years, a solid first baseman for several years and who homered in the only game his team won in the 1961 World Series. Still few people remember Coleman.

It took him six years to get to the big leagues and after a cup of coffee with the Indians he was traded in the winter of 1959 by Cleveland with Billy Martin and Cal McLish to the Cincinnati Reds for Johnny Temple. After a part time season in 1960 where he hit .271 he had a break out year in helping the Reds get to the Series in 1961. He slugged 26 homers and hit .287 in a lineup with featured Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Gene Freese and Wally Post. They were a power laden team but no match for the ultimate power team, the 1961 Yankees who beat them in five games. Coleman's two run homer came in the Reds lone victory.

Gordy continued to slug his way through the next season with 28 homers and a .277 BA but in 1963 his production waned trailing to 14 home runs and .242. By the time 1964 rolled around it was the beginning of the end for Coleman. The arrival of young clubbers Deron Johnson and Tony Perez forced him to the bench more and more often.

in 1965 he saw a resurgence batting .302 with 14 home runs in a limited role but two years later at the age of 32, his career had come to an end. His .271 career BA with 98 homers over nine years spoke of a solid if not remarkable baseball career. He never made an all-star team but in 1961 he did lead the NL in assists by a first baseman.

He retired to work in the Reds front office. He died of a heart attack in 1994 at the age of 59.

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Baseball & Viet Nam

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Tim Fealy of Punta Gorda, FL, who correctly stated the 1961 NY Yankees were the only team to win the World Series in the decade and to lead the league in wins. They had 109. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Of the seven players who went to war mentioned in the "last" paragraph of this column, five of them played in a World Series, however only two sets of them played in the same Series and against each other. Who were these players? And you can name either pair.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: The 1961 Yankees won 109 games during the season and were the only team to win that many games and the World Series in the decade.

IN HONOR OF VETERANS DAY WE EXPLORE BASEBALL & VIET NAM IN THIS ISSUE.

As we honor military veterans it is pretty amazing when you realize of the 58,000 Americans who lost their lives in Viet Nam, none were major league players, and only one was wounded.

In previous decades many star players lost years of their careers to military service, in war and peace times. Ted Williams, is most prominently mentioned in this group along with Christy Mathewson in World War One. However, Viet Nam posed some different scenarios. Going into the military wasn't the "hero" thing it was in either of the World Wars or the Korean conflict. Many young players who could have signed contracts and played in the minors chose to avoid the draft and flee the country. Others chose to go to war, while still others took a different route; the National Guard.

(The only MLB player wounded in Viet Nam.)

A player could choose to join his local Guard and do service monthly, or on weekends stateside. Among those who chose this route were budding stars Gene Alley of the Pirates, Tony Conigliaro, Jim Lonborg and Dalton Jones of the Red Sox. Glenn Beckert, Don Kessinger, Paul Popovich of the Cubs were among the many who spent stints in the Guard during the season. The Red Sox won the pennant in 1967 despite losing players for extended games. We would listen to games on the radio and hear Bob Prince say "and Gene Alley won't be at shortstop today as he's doing a stretch of duty with the Guard."

(Bobby Murcer was drafted during the Viet Nam war.)

The Congressional report released in April 1967 showed that 145 pro baseball players were serving in the National Guard or Reserve to successfully avoid the draft. The Draft didn't miss all players. The Yankees Bobby Murcer was drafted which changed his career drastically. An up and coming shortstop, when he returned to play full-time he was switched to centerfield. Even Nolan Ryan was a Reservist.

Some players only made the majors because of the Guard. Players who got their break during the Viet Nam war and were rushed to the big leagues included Ken Poulsen, Norm Gigon and Len Boehmer. Pitcher Darold Knowles was activated and served his time in a support role in Japan.

(Arrived in MLB due to Viet Nam war.)

During the summer of 1968 there were several casualties in Vietnam among minor-league players. Dell Chambers and Chuck Chase were both killed in action. Among those wounded, Roy Gleason was the only former ballplayer who had once appeared in a major-league game. The Dodger player appeared in eight games in 1963.

There were several others who had their careers interrupted by going to war, not doing guard service or moving to Canada. Jim Bibby, Al Bumbry, Ed Figueroa, Chuck Goggin, Bob Jones, Garry Maddox and Carlos May. Bibby made his MLB debut in 1972 and won 111 games, Maddox also arrived in 1972 went on to hit more than 100 homers and had a career BA of .285. After his 1972 debut Bumbry would go onto 14 years in the Bigs with a .281 lifetime average, arriving in 1974 Figureroa would win 20 games in 1978, May came back in 1968 and spent 10 solid years in the majors with a .274 BA and 90 homers.

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