Baseball in the 1960's

Monday, January 24, 2022

Fear Equals Frank Howard - Ask A Pitcher

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Jack Webster of Derry, NH, who correctly named Roy Sievers as the player the Phillies traded for to replace Pancho Herrera who was traded to Pittsburgh. 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: Of the seven players involved in the massive Frank Howard trade between Los Angeles and Washington, only two did not appear on World Series rosters during their career. Who were they?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Roy Sievers was traded to the Phillies to fill the role left void when Pancho Herrera was traded to Pittsburgh.

If 1968 was the year of the pitcher, and it was; how on earth did the Senators Frank Howard have one of his best years at the plate? Simply put; 6'7" 255 and a bat that looked like a tooth pick in his hands. While the rest of the Washington Senators were bumbling and stumbling around the .224 team batting mark, the 31 year old Howard was hitting .274. It had to be plain fear.

The Sens clubbed 124 home runs in 1968 which was good for fourth in the American League. Howard would blast 44 of them. Only Ken McMullen (20) and Mike Epstein (13) also hit homers in double figures. Howard's 106 RBI accounted for almost 25-percent of the teams total. He was the only hitter with more than 20 doubles (28) far outdistancing the runner up, Del Unser with 13.

In a year when the league's batting leader hit .301, Denny McLain won 31 games and Bob Gibson's ERA was 1.12, Howard set marks which drove opponents crazy. Yet, only 12 of his 54 walks were Intentional. They could have pitched around him every time but maybe they feared this gentle giant of a man would just reach across the plate and send one into the Upper Deck. Maybe that's why he struck out 141 times but no one cared.

Never known for his speed he even had three triples although he didn't attempt to steal a base. Can you imagine the fear a shortstop might feel taking the throw with a lumbering Howard coming your way? It makes one cringe to think of such a career ending collision.

When Howard was traded from the Dodgers to the Senators everyone knew Los Angeles was giving up a slugger. What it got in return helped the Dodgers win pennants. It was expected to put butts in the seats in Washington. It never did. Washington was last in attendance in 1968 and many other of Howard's earlier seasons with just over 500,000 fans coming through the turnstiles. And Howard played in almost every game, 158 of the 162 in 1968. Of course winning only 65 games probably had something to do with it. In fact, it wasn't until 1969 the Senators even came close to One Million fans.

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Monday, January 17, 2022

Pancho Herrera Made a Major League Splash

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Keith Walker of St. Peters, MO, who correctly named the three White Sox pitchers who won and lost games with the 1964 Tigers during Detroit's longest winning and losing streaks. They were Joel Horlen, Gary Peters and Juan Pizzaro.. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Who was the first baseman the Phils traded for to replace Pancho Herrera in the off season?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: The three White Sox pitchers who won and lost three games with the 1964 Tigers during Detroit's longest winning and losing streaks were Joel Horlen, Gary Peters and Juan Pizzaro.

A former Negro League player, Pancho Herrera was the first black player to suit up in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform. That in itself was an achievement.

While you may never have heard of Pancho Herrera, he did something few people have ever done, sort of. He finished just ahead of Mickey Mantle in his two years in the big leagues. Of course, it was a standing neither player wanted and only the Mick can be overlooked for achieving it.

In 1960 the Cuban born Herrera led the majors in strikeouts, setting a then-NL record. No he wasn't a pitcher. He mainly played first base with an occasional stint at second. In his rookie season he even garnered some MVP votes and finished second to Frank Howard in the Rookie of the Year race. His .281 batting average along with 17 home runs in 145 games seemed pretty awesome to voters. He even drove in 71 runs.

Oh, but it was that strikeout thing which would do him in. His 13 errors at first base didn't help, although he cut that almost in half the following season. In his glowing rookie campaign Herrera struck out 136 times, besting Mantle who had 125. Of course Mantle did a little better at the plate. Mickey hit 40 homers, drove in 94 and scored 119.

The next season (his last in the big leagues) Herrera tailed off a bit, cutting his strikeouts down to 120, while Mantle had 112. Again Mantle had the better year banging 54 home runs and batting .317. Pancho hit 13 HR and his BA was .251. By then he was done in Philadelphia and they sent him packing to Pittsburgh along with Ted Savage for Don Hoak. Savage bounced around until 1971, Hoak retired after the 1964 season. Neither did much after the trade.

Pancho never appeared in a big league game again. He spent the rest of his career in the minors until 1974, capping several seasons over .300 and smacking homers in double figures. He was a player-manager during some of that time. His last stop was the Mexican League where at age 40 he had five hits in 15 at bats. His strike outs today would be nothing compared to modern day sluggers who achieve less at the plate than Pancho.

Pancho Herrera died at age 70 in Miami in 2005. He is in the International League HOF.

Monday, January 10, 2022

1960S Baseball Tidbits

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Randall Bounds of Springfield, IL, who correctly named Joey Amalfitano as the player who manned second base after the death of Ken Hubbs and before the regular arrival of Glenn Beckert. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: In 1964 the Detroit Tigers had a six game losing streak and a seven game winning streak as their longest streaks of the year. Three pitchers during those streaks beat them and also lost to them. Name the three pitchers (HINT: They all pitched for the White Sox).

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Joey Amalfitano was the second baseman who took over for the Cubs after the death of Ken Hubbs until Glenn Beckert arrived.

There are lots of tidbits about baseball in the 1960s and baseball cards and the ones which seemed to always intrigue me were the ages of the players on the Topps cards. For instance, if you look at the card below of Steve Korcheck, how old would you guess he was there?

Korcheck played in 58 MLB games over four seasons batting .159. He died in 2016 at age 84.

Guess again. Korcheck, who looks 45 was actually 28. Talk about hard living. It was a much different lifestyle back then. My Aunt Ellen lived in what were commonly called the projects in Pittsburgh, which is where she would baby sit for several Pirates' including Bob Skinner. After the 1960 World Series Skinner brought her back some souvenirs including a team signed baseball of the World Champion Pirates. I never knew what happened to that ball.

Years later in doing a column for Beckett Publications I interviewed several second generation players including Joel Skinner. I brought up the story and he told me as a kid, he and a friend wanted to play catch and found a trunk in the garage with some baseballs. They took one and played in the street, destroying the ball.

When Bob came home he discovered what they had done to his "team signed" 1960 Yankees autographed baseball. Joel said he was "livid."

My late friend Billy Malone was a clubhouse guy for the mid-1960s Cleveland Indians. I asked him who was the "clubhouse signer," and he admitted it was him. He said it was part of his job to sign the names of those players who either wouldn't or just did not sign team autographed baseballs on any given day to be given as promotional items to sponsors and fans.

He relayed the story of how he got a call from GM Gabe Paul down to the clubhouse asking for two team signed baseballs for a sponsor who was up in his office. Billy said he had them but neither Sam McDowell (that days starting pitcher) and manager Birdie Tebbetts had signed. The response was quick.

"Sign the (expletive deleted) balls, Billy and bring them to my office," Paul demanded.

The final instance I'll mention is the strange case of Maury Wills. He did not have a mainstream Topps card until 1967 despite being an MVP years earlier and big league regular since 1960. Someone at Topps evidently felt he wasn't such a big deal and didn't sign him. Wills never forgot that and refused to sign with Topps. Therefor, the first mainstream card to feature him by himself was 1963 Fleer.

However, he wasn't the only one who had been in the big leagues for years but debuted in the 1967 Topps series. Rich Klein, writing in Sports Collectors Daily in 2014 pointed to others who fell victim to Topps management at some level.

"But Wills was not the only player to make his card debut in 1967. In addition, to the normal rookie card crop there were several players who had been established in the majors but finally got Topps cards in 1967," Klein wrote. "To me, the most interesting part is all of these players mentioned who waited years to be on Topps cards came in the series that were issued later in the year. These players are Dave Boswell, Doug Clemens, Arnold Early and Chris Short."

Klein went on to point out, many card collectors know however, Wills actually did appear on a Topps card in 1960 in the World Series Subset no.389 taking a throw on a White Sox stolen base attempt by Luis Aparicio.

Just a few notes from the sunshine as pitchers and catchers report in just a few weeks.

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