Baseball in the 1960's

Monday, December 13, 2021

Vic Davalillo; What Might Have Been

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Craig McGraw of Middleton, DE, who correctly stated Robin Roberts gave up the first home run ever hit in the big leagues by Jim Gentile. 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: Vic Davalillo hit his first NL home run as a pinch hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in 1969. Who gave up that home run?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Jim Gentile hit his first major league home run off HOFer, Robin Roberts.

Vic Davalillo was one of those players with great promise, who had a long career but a career which was made less productive by an early injury. The fleet Venezuelan came up quickly through the Cleveland ranks and in his rookie 1963 season was on his way to Rookie of the Year honors, batting .304 and leading off for the Indians. Then tragedy struck.

On June 12th, facing the Tigers Hank Aguirre in the first inning, Aguirre plunked Davalillo on the wrist. The wrist was broken. He returned weeks later to finish at .292 but he was never able to hit left-handed pitchers as well again. Especially in the power department. Never a power hitter, of his 36 lifetime home runs 28 were against righties, 8 against lefties.

Perhaps his best season was 1965 when he batted .301 with 26 steals. He'd remain in the upper .280's for much of his career but soon managers began to platoon him because his lack of hitting against lefties became obvious. His defense in center field always kept him in games though.

In 1968 he was sent to the Angels for Jimmie Hall and hit .298 in the year of the pitcher. The AL leader in BA that year was Carl Yastrzemski who hit .301. After suffering a nervous breakdown he would close out the 60s traded to St. Louis. In his first NL at bat he homered and revived his career. It was there he became an extraordinary pinch-hitter and would eventually become a record setter in that department, until it was broken.

Davalillo had his moments of greatness as well as his trying moments. In his 16 seasons in the big leagues he was clutch, getting key hits for the Dodgers in the playoffs and had solid moments in St. Louis and in Pittsburgh, along with a key playoff series with Oakland. He retired at age 40 but went on to play several more seasons in the Mexican League.

Imagine what might have been if not for breaking his wrist as a 23 year old outfielder in Cleveland?

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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.

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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.

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.

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