Baseball in the 1960's

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

1965 Reds Blow It Down the Stretch

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Dennis Cimpl of Wauwatosa, WI, who correctly answered Ron Kline led the AL in Saves in 1965 with 29. 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: In the 1960s how many times did a Cincinnati player lead the National League in hits?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Ron Kline led the AL in Saves in 1965 with 29.

Before they were the Big Red Machine the Cincinnati Reds of 1965 were just about the most awesome hitting team in the Majors. Look at it this way; they had two players reach 200 hits, every player in the starting line-up hit home runs in double figures, three guys scored 100 or more runs and two drove in well over 100, four of them hit 30+ doubles and three had at least 10 triples. Now that is awesome.

The 1965 Reds battled the entire season spending 17 days in First. If they hadn't hit the skids down the stretch, losing seven of their last eight, they might have ended up in the World Series. It was not to be. The buzz saw was the West Coast. Losing to Houston first, then three to Los Angeles and then a big win against the Giants before dropping the final three.

In seven losses they just stopped hitting. The Reds pushed across just 10 runs in the losses, but they scored 17 in the lone win against San Francisco. If they'd just have spread out those runs the pennant loomed. Sammy Ellis won that one but the rest of the hurlers were on the mark despite the losses. Maloney, Jay, McCool and Nuxhall were all solid. The hits just stopped.

Aside from the 17-2 win, the club hit only three home runs in those seven losses, all three were solo shots in the same game the reds lost 5-3. In the 17 run game they belted four in a 21 hit barrage. It seemed as if they could only put it all together for one game.

When the dust settled on the 1965 season Vada Pinson had 204 hits, Pete Rose 209 and along with Gordie Coleman all of them hit .300 or better. Deron Johnson led the club with 130 RBI along with 32 home runs, while Frank Robinson in his final season in Cincinnati led the club with 33 homers while driving in 113 and scoring 109. Tommy Harper took the team lead in Runs Scored with 126 and stole 35 bases.

Finishing in fourth place with a respectable 89-73 record the Reds sported a pair of 20-game winners in Maloney 20 and Ellis 22. Billy McCool had 21 Saves. At the end of the year Robinson was traded to Baltimore and Johnson moved from third to Left to make room for rookie Tommy Helms. The club would finish in seventh place in 1966.

TRIVIA CONTEST; After reading this column you can enter the weekly trivia contest for a chance to win a Starbucks Gift Card. Enter via the following email. Send 1) your answer to the trivia question at the top of the column, 2) your name, address and email so where we know where to send the card if you win 3) any comment you have on the column. One winner will be selected at random each week based on correct answers with the odds being based on the number of correct entries. Please cut and paste or enter the following email into your email system.
                             SEND YOUR ANSWERS TO; brillpro@gmail.com
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Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

You can get a signed paper back copy of the above book "Tales of My Baseball Youth - a child of the sixties"  for $15 Shipping Included

Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment.

Thank you to those of you who purchased my book after reading this column.

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

The End of a Yankee Era 1965 Opening Day

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Randall Bounds of Springfield, IL, who correctly answered that Sandy Alomar Sr. hit all 13 of his home runs in the American League. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Pedro Ramos went on to lead the 1965 Yankees in Saves with 18, but which pitcher led the American League in Saves in 1965 and how many?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: All 13 of the home runs hit by Sandy Alomar Sr., in his career were hit in the American League.

Often in sports one thing leads to another and if the first thing is negative, then the next thing usually is too. Such was the case of Opening Day in 1965 for the New York Yankees. The Bombers lost the 1964 World Series in seven games to the Cardinals. It was the beginning of the Yankee slide which would not be resurrected for more than a decade. That loss led directly to the first game of the 1965 season. It was in all places; Minnesota where 15,000 fans would come out to see the team which would eventually end up in the World Series in October, 1965.

(NY Yankees in better days than Opening Day, 1965)

The game pitted Jim Bouton for New York against Jim Kaat for the Twins. It was a marathon. The aging Yankees still had the names; Mantle (who started in Left Field), Elston Howard, Roger Maris, Tom Tresh (CF), Clete Boyer, Tony Kubek, Joe Pepitone, Bobby Richardson and an outfielder named Art Lopez. Pay attention to that name. He played a significant role in this game.

Aside from Howard's solo homer in the fifth, the game was uneventful when it came to the offensive side of the ledger. Mantle had one hit, as did Richardson and Tresh. Howard added a second hit. Kaat was keeping the Yanks at bay. Bouton went five innings and gave up four runs, two earned. He didn't help himself though with a pair of Wild Pitches.

He was relieved by Hal Reniff and then Pete Mikkelson and finally Pedro Ramos. It is key to note here that with one out in the ninth, Mantle singled and was replaced by Lopez as a pinch runner, who would then take over in Left for Mickey. Howard grounded out sending Lopez to second. With two out Pepitone lifted a pop fly to third where Cesar Tovar couldn't make the play. Lopez running with two outs came around to score, and it was tied 4-4. Into extra innings they went.

Neither team scored in the 10th and New York failed in the 11th. The bottom of the inning was where the rubber met the road. Bobby Allison led off with a flyball to left which Lopez misplayed and Allison ended up on third base with nobody out. Manager Johnny Keane gave the order to Ramos to intentionally walk both Rich Reese and Sandy Valdespino to load the bases. They were hoping for a force play at the plate with the infield drawn in.

Ramos went two better. He got Zoilo Versalles to pop out to short left and he struck out Jerry Kindall. Then came time for Tovar to redeem himself and he did with a single up the middle to bring home Allison with the winning run, 5-4.

The game was sloppy, a combined eight errors and three Yankee Wild Pitches. New York went on to lose five of the next eight games and finished in 6th place in the AL, 25 games back of Minnesota who won 101 more games and would take the Dodgers to seven games before losing the 1965 World Series. The 1965 season was the only one where Lopez appeared in the big leagues. In 38 games he came to bat 51 times and hit .143. He made just ONE error in his career.

TRIVIA CONTEST; After reading this column you can enter the weekly trivia contest for a chance to win a Starbucks Gift Card. Enter via the following email. Send 1) your answer to the trivia question at the top of the column, 2) your name, address and email so where we know where to send the card if you win 3) any comment you have on the column. One winner will be selected at random each week based on correct answers with the odds being based on the number of correct entries. Please cut and paste or enter the following email into your email system.
SEND YOUR ANSWERS TO; brillpro@gmail.com
==========================================================
Need to get out of a baseball hitting slump, or a golf swing slump? Order my new book "Beating the Slump; An athlete's guide to a better career." See it on Amazon for only $5.99. That is for the Paperback, you can also order Kindle on that link. You can also order paperback copies directly from me via the email below for my other books.

You can get a signed paper back copy of the above book "Tales of My Baseball Youth - a child of the sixties" for $15 Shipping Included

Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment.

Thank you to those of you who purchased my book after reading this column.

Monday, March 7, 2022

Woody Woodward; The No-Home Run Man - Almost

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to David Hubert of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, who correctly named Burt Hooten and Milt Pappas as the two pitchers who tossed no-hitters with Randy Hundley behind the plate. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Of the 13 home runs hit by Sandy Alomar Sr. in his career, how many were hit in the American League?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Burt Hooten and Milt Pappas were the two pitchers who tossed no-hit games with Randy Hundley behind the plate.

Few position players who reach the major leagues and stay for "a career" ever go through that entire career without hitting a home run. Woody Woodward was that guy; almost. When Woodward broke into the big leagues in 1963 with the "then" Milwaukee Braves no one figured him challenge teammate Henry Aaron. He was known as a decent field-no hit infielder in a group of lesser fielding players who were on the team rotating around the second sack.

Mike de la Hoz, Frank Bolling, Denis Menke, Sandy Alomar and Roy McMillan. None of them would drive fear into opposing pitchers and none of them, save McMillan possibly, would hold out hope for a gold glove. Woodward himself would fit right in. Between them in 1964 they would smack 24 home runs. Twenty of them by Menke. The 1960's Braves could hit with the likes of Aaron, Joe Torre, Felipe Alou, Eddie Mathews and at times players such as Rico Carty, Mack Jones and Gene Oliver. Hitting was not their problem.

On the mound they had stalwarts such as Tony Clonigar, Denny Lemaster, Wade Blasingame and an aging Warren Spahn. These Braves were good but what they lacked was that strong middle infield duo to back the pitching and get on base ahead of the hitters. They traded for players, they worked the farm system and really nothing much happened.

Woodward himself was a sort of strange case. He was adequate in the field. As a hitter he was serviceable. Dependable probably is more the word Braves fans might use to describe him. The interesting thing about Woodward though was his lack of power. He spent the 1960's without a home run.

In 1964 he batted 123 times without a dinger. Forgivable since he really was a rookie getting his feet wet. The following season he played in 112 games and came to the plate 280 times. Still no homers. In 1966 he became a regular, playing in 144 games and reaching his lifetime best 516 plate appearances. Of his 26 extra base hits that season, none left the park. The following year, 1967 at age 24, it was pretty much the same scenario. Limited to 80 games in 1968 the Braves sent him to Cincinnati who needed an infielder and thought Woodward would be their guy. No home runs there either. When 1969 rolled around he would close out the decade playing in 644 games and still never leaving the park.

WoodyWoodward has spent nearly the entire decade of the 1969's, seven seasons and 1825 plate appearances without ever hitting a home run. Today, in the days of launch angles he may not even make the major league club; any major league club.

Then on July 10, 1970 after nearly 2000 trips to the plate, he would hit his first and only home run. Ironically, it came as a two run shot off Ron Reed of the Atlanta Braves, the team which he played for until two years earlier. Woodward would say afterwards "If I hit one home run for every seven seasons, it will take me 4,998 seasons to catch babe Ruth."

In a nine year career Woodward would play in 880 games and hit .236 with the lone home run. His slugging percentage would come down to .287.

While Woodward was never the Babe Ruth of anything he did end up being a pretty good general manager. Early in his GM career he didn't last long with the Yankees or the Phillies, but as head of the Seattle Mariners he took the team to the playoffs in 1995 and 1997. During that time he drafted Alex Rodriguez, Jason Varitek, Bret Boone and Derek Lowe. He also acquired Randy Johnson from Montreal. He also traded away David Ortiz, the HOFer who became one of the greatest clutch home run hitters in baseball. Then again, Woody Woodward never did know much about home runs.

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