Baseball in the 1960's

Monday, June 6, 2022

Bob Gibson Breaks Leg - Keeps on Pitching

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Rich Klein of Grand Prairie, TX, who correctly stated in the 1959 season Nellie Fox had nine sacrifice bunts to his credit. 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.

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Nellie Fox had nine sacrifice bunts in 1959.

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 relief appearances did Bob Gibson make in the 1960s?

In one of the most amazing feats of courage and strength the Cardinals Bob Gibson set a standard for gutting it out in baseball which may never be matched. It took place in the heart of mid-summer 1967 in St. Louis. The Cardinals were facing the Pirates on a Saturday evening at Busch Stadium. What the 39,000-plus fans were about to see they will never forget.

The Cardinals were in first place, four games up while the Bucs were struggling 7.5 back in sixth place. Coming off one of the most formidable hitting years in team history, the Pirates were just a shell of the previous season. Roberto Clemente, Matty Alou and Gene Alley were all running the lumber, but Donn Clendenon, Willie Stargell and a few others were struggling. The team had sent Bob Baily to the Dodgers for Maury Wills who was hitting .281 at the time but with little spark.

The Cardinals meanwhile were sailing. Up and down the line-up led by Orlando Cepeda who was having an MVP season. Roger Maris, Lou Brock, Tim McCarver, Bobby Tolan, Julian Javier were all stroking hit after hit. The pitching staff led by Gibson, Dick Hughes and Steve Carlton was top notch. This club was World Series bound.

This day belonged to Gibson. In a scoreless game in the fourth, Clemente (who would have 3 hits on the day) came up to face Gibson. The Great One smashed a line drive back at Gibson caroming off his leg for a single. Gibson went down but in usual style got right back up. No one knew at the time but the drive broke Gibson's leg. It didn't matter. He wasn't coming out, not yet.

He walked Stargell, got Mazeroski to fly out and walked Clendenon before manager Red Schoendienst had seen enough. Al Jackson came in from the bullpen to take over and Gibby was through for weeks. He left with a record of 10-6 after pitching three innings, giving up one hit and the one run to Clemente. He would return to finish the season with a 13-7 pitching 175 innings with 147 strikeouts in 24 starts.

However, it was in the World Series where he was the master. He won three games and even hit a home run. The following season, 1968 he had one of the greatest season ever in the history of the game finishing with a 1.12 ERA.

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Tuesday, May 31, 2022

The Dead Art of the Bunt

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Craig McGraw of Middletown, DE, who correctly found it was Wayne Causey who led the A's in many offensive categories including BA. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Only twice during full seasons did Nellie Fox not lay down at least 10 sacrifice bunts. How many did he have in his MVP season?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Wayne Causey led the 1964 A's in many offensive categories including BA.

The art of the Sacrifice Bunt has become a lost art in major league baseball. The last time a big league player had at least 20 Sac Bunts was 2009. That pales in comparison to the "golden" days of baseball when even sluggers gave themselves up by laying down a bunt. Believe it or not one of the most bizarre statistics in baseball came in 1927 when Lou Gehrig showed his true worth as a New York Yankee.

Playing for the greatest team of all time Gehrig hit .373, 52 doubles, 18 triples, 47 home runs, 173 RBI, 218 hits, 149 Runs Scored, 109 Walks, only 84 K's, a .765 Slugging Percentage and led the majors in Total Bases with 447. Yet, he still had time to lay down 21 Sacrifice Bunts!!! The questions is with lead-off man Earl Combs batting .356 and Babe Ruth hitting .356 with 60 home runs; who was Gehrig sacrificing for? Amazing.

But this is a column about the 1960s and the top mark of the 60s was set by Houston shortstop Sonny Jackson in 1966. Jackson, a notorious singles hitter, would have his best year in "66, batting .292. It was his rookie season and his 27 bunts lead the majors. However, his total sacrifice bunts that season was nearly half his career number of 57. He never laid down more than eight after that.

The previous season the Dodgers first baseman, Wes Parker led the league with 19. Parker actually had SH's in double figures four times in the decade and he more than once hit at least 10 homers. Aside from the 1968-1969 seasons when Phil Niekro and Jim Merritt led the majors, hitters rather than pitchers were first in the SH stats.

Nellie Fox did it twice with 15 in 1961 and 20 in 1964. He used a big barrel bat which certainly made it easier to lay the ball down. Fox had at least 10 in 14 different seasons ending with 208 for his career. Fox and Maury Wills top all players from the 1960s in SHs (Fox with 72 in the decade, Wills with 90). In the modern era only Tom Glavine (216) and Ozzie Smith (214) have higher all-time numbers. Campy Campaneris had 199 but only 27 were in the 1960s. He led the majors with 40 SHs in 1977.

The all-tme leader is Eddie Collins with 512 far ahead of second place Jake Daubert with 392. Gehrig by the way finished with 106, six times laying down at least 10 bunts. Ironically, Fox played his final seasons in Houston, alongside Jackson. Maybe it rubbed off or maybe Fox gave the young Jackson some well defined tips.

Monday, May 23, 2022

Gopher Ball City - The A's of 1964

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Glenn Schubert of Bradenton, FL, who correctly found it was Bases on Balls which separated Jim Wynn and Rusty Staub in one key statistical category. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: In what would be his best year ever, which infielder led the 1964 A's in several offensive categories including Batting Average?

ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: Rusty Staub and Jim Wynn were separated by just 31 Bases on Balls.

When a team loses 105 games there are a lot of facets to look at but when it comes to the 1964 Kansas City Athletics you only need to look as far as the single pitch known as the "gopher ball." The home run delivered by a pitcher and for the A's of 1964, there were plenty of them.

To be fair, the A's didn't hit either. They only batted .239 as a team but did collect 166 home runs from the hitters (third in the AL), scoring 3.8 runs a game. However, when it came to giving up those home runs, A's pitchers allowed 220 for last in the 10 team American League. Coincidentally, it's where the club finished in 1964; last. The clubs 4.71 ERA also ranked 10th.

(At least the A's of 1964 & 65 had Charlie O. This Charlie O.)

When a pitcher gives up one home run every nine innings it's considered on the cusp. For A's pitchers in 1964, it was very, very bad. Leading the way was ace Orlando Pena who pitched 219 innings and finished 12-14. However, in those 219 innings he allowed an amazing 40 home runs to opposing batters. That is 1.6 homers per nine innings.

He wasn't alone. Diego Segui gave up 30 in 213 innings, John O'Donoghue 24 in 173 innings, John Wyatt 23 in 128, Moe Drabowsky 24 in 168, Dan Pfister 10 in 41, Vern Handrahan 9 in 33, Aurelio Monteagudo 11 in 31, Blue Moon Odom 5 in 31, Jack Aker 6 in 16 and the team allowed an astounding 1.4 per nine innings.

Ted Bowsfield, Wes Stock and Jose Santiago defied the odds and were all at 1.0 per nine innings or less. The damage was already done by the time these three got into the game. When your top three starters give up almost 100 home runs in 600 innings, you are not going very far. At least you didn't in 1964. Either way it was not enough to offset the 34 hit by Rocky Colavito or the 28 belted by Jim Gentile.

The situation improved a year later. In 1965 the homers the pitching staff allowed dropped from 220 to 161 with Fred Talbot leading the way. He only gave up 25 in 198 innings and the team average of 1.0 was right where it needed to be. It still wasn't great and only good for 9th in the AL. The team ERA did improve to 4.24. When you only score 3.6 runs per game, you are going to lose more than you win.

The hitting didn't improve and actually dropped substantially. With Colavito gone and Gentile limited to 10 homers in 38 games, Hawk Harrelson led the team with 23. The club hit 110 for 10th in the American League. Not surprisingly, Kansas City again finished in 10th place but only lost 103 compared to 105 the previous season. They were 43 games back of pennant winning Minnesota while in 1964 they finished 42 back of the Yankees.

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