Baseball in the 1960's

Monday, May 8, 2023

When Bad Henry Took Down the Cubs

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to David Rolfes of Las Vegas, NV, who correctly identified Dean Chance as the losing pitcher in the final game of the 1967 season against Boston. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

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. Please put your mailing address in with the answer so if you win we can send you the gift card in the mail.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: In his best MLB season Deron Johnson led the NL in two batting categories. One was RBI, but what was the other?

Looking back over seasons of major league baseball often times one game, just one game, can define a team's destiny. For the 1968 Chicago Cubs that game was in Atlanta on June 15th. It was a night 27,000-plus fans would see their hero send the Cubbies into a tail spin from which they would never recover.

Chicago was just six games out of first place at 30-30 and certainly had the horses to put them in the thick of the pennant race. Led by Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Ernie Banks and a young cast of characters who stood out the Cubs were primed. Among them Randy Hundley, Glen Beckert, Don Kessinger and Adolpho Phillips. The pitching was decent and the bullpen was great with Phil Regan the ace closer.

This night was not the Cubbies night though. Joe Niekro started against Milt Pappas. The Braves were not to be toyed with led by Hank Aaron, Felipe Alou, Joe Torre and Deron Johnson. The Cubs scored first. In the second, Santo drew a walk and Banks reached base when Felix Milan booted the ball. Sweet Lou Johnson tripled them both home and the Cubs led 2-0.

Two innings later Tito Francona drew a two-out walk and Deron Johnson blasted one deep to centerfield to tie it up at two-all. Both opposing Johnson's were responsible for driving in all the runs to this point. The game went on into the 10th. Both starters long gone it was a battle between the Braves Cecil Upshaw and Regan. Both put in three innings but Upshaw would have the last laugh.

With one out Milan made up for his miscue and singled. Henry Aaron then sent a shot to right field which rattled around long enough to allow Milan to score the winning run and put The Hammer in the books with an RBI double, and a Braves win 3-2.

Normally, this one game might not mean much but the Cubs would go on to lose 11 of their next 12, leaving them at 31-41 and 13 games back of the NL Leaders. They would never be any closer than 12 games back and when the final game of the season was played, they were indeed 13 games out. The June Swoon had taken it's toll and Henry Aaron proved once again, he was The Hammer.

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Tuesday, May 2, 2023

When One Game Displays a Season

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Marty Keyes of Clovis, CA, who correctly identified Pat Jarvis, Ron Reed and Phil Niekro as the three losing Braves pitchers in the 1969 playoffs. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Jim Lonborg won the final game of the season in 1967 to send the Red Sox to the World Series. Who was the losing pitcher in that game?

In what would become a classic match up of the late 1960s, Jim Lonborg and Denny McLain battled in out on a Wednesday night in May, 1967. Specifically May 24th when less than 10,000 fans in Detroit would see these two masters of the mound due battle and only one hitter make the difference. As it turns out it was one of the most important games of the season for both clubs.

Lonborg, who was in his Cy Young year and McLain who was one season away from winning his and 31 games to go along with it, took to the mound with pretty opposite records. McLain was 4-4 while the Red Sox starter was 4-1. The Detroit hurler was just as masterful as his Boston counterpart this evening, striking out six batters through seven innings.

Lonborg on the other hand struck out eight through the same time frame. Lonborg was only in trouble once, McLain only made one bad pitch. Leading off the second inning he faced left handed hitter and utility man, Dalton Jones. Jones took him deep to right for a 1-0 lead.

In the 7th Lonborg gave up a walk to Norm Cash, then hit Bill Freehan. After striking out Ray Oyler, he walked Gates Brown who was batting for McLain. With the sacks full and just one out it looked like the Tigers were about to break it wide open. However, as fate would have it Dick McAuliffe grounded to George Scott at first who threw home to Mike Ryan to get the force of Cash. Then Don Wert popped out to Ryan ending the threat.

Dave Wickersham pitched the final two innings for Detroit, holding down the fort. Lonborg gave up a double to Al Kaline but that was it and the Red Sox had a 1-0 win and Lonborg was 5-1 on his way to a 22-win season. McLain would finish 17-16. The Red Sox would go on to win the pennant one game ahead of the Tigers who went into the final day, tied with Boston. Boston won, Detroit lost and the Red Sox moved onto the Fall Classic. Oh for just one more timely hit.

Monday, April 24, 2023

The Consistent Braves

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Jacob Kribel of Canonsburg, PA, who correctly identified Tommy Davis as the 1969 Astro who previously won a batting title and it happened with the Dodgers. 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: Tommy Davis was the 1969 Astro player who previously won a batting title and he did it with the Dodgers.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Name the three Braves "losing pitchers" in the 1969 NL Playoffs.

Throughout the 1960s the Milwaukee-then-Atlanta Braves were about the most consistent in the big leagues. From 1960-1969 they won 851 games or 85 games a season. They never lost more than 77 (1967) and they never won more than 93 (1969). They finished in fifth place, 5 times in the middle of the pack. First once, Second once, 4th, 6th and 7th one time each. They consistently hovered around 85 wins and when you toss out the best and the worst, you still get 85 wins a season. Remarkable.

Throughout the years there were a couple of constants but none more constant than Henry Aaron. During the decade he hit 40 or more homers in a season five times and 39 in another season. He also hit .300 or better seven of those 10 seasons. He never had an off 1960s season and five times his RBI total was from 120-130.

There were others who were there for much of that time including Eddie Mathews (1960-66), Joe Torre (1960-68), Felipe Alou (1964-69), Tony Cloniger (1961-68) , Warren Spahn (1960-65), Phil Niekro (1964-69) and Claude Raymond (1961-63 & 1967-69). Others who dipped in were Mack Jones, Frank Bolling, Roy McMillan, Rico Carty, Ken Johnson, Denny Lemaster and Clay Carroll.

Spahn won at least 21 games three times for the Braves in the 1960s and Cloniger did it once while Niekro also scored his first 20 win season in the 1960s.

Bobby Bragan led the club for four of those seasons before while a host of managers ran the club for a couple of seasons each. Lum Harris took over for the last few years and carried that over into the 1970s.

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