Baseball in the 1960's

Monday, June 19, 2023

The Lovable Angels of 1966

TRIVIA WINNER: The winner of this week's trivia contest is Tommy Burton of Topeka, KS. He knew that Joe DiMaggio's minor league hitting streak reached 61 games. 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: Name the three Angels who WERE managers who are in Baseball's Hall of Fame. Only two went into the HOF as "managers."

What made the 1966 Los Angeles/California Angels so interesting they would finish in sixth place in the American League but still finish first in attendance? While the team closed out the 1966 season 80-82, 1,400,321 fans went through the turnstiles of Anaheim Stadium. Bill Rigney's team did not have a .300 hitter or a batter with at least 20 homers. Aging Joe Adcock led the club with 18 in only 83 games. The club's leading hurlers each won 13 games (George Brunet and Jack Sanford) and ace Dean Chance was 12-17. So why did the fans turn out?

(The above video was posted on YouTube by a family at Opening Day 1966 Angel Stadium and while the quality is poor stick with it to the end as it shows a lot of what this article talks about.)

The team was never in danger of winning the pennant. They rarely won or lost more than five in a row. Their highlight was in mid-June when they won 11 of 13 and were seven games over .500. They were still eight games back of the Orioles but they were in fourth place. Then they dropped three in a row to Baltimore, another to Detroit and despite a four game winning streak which followed shortly thereafter, the season was essentially lost.

They still played good baseball overall, and by the end of July they were still over .500. However they were 14.5 games back of first place Baltimore. Perhaps it was the fact the Angels, despite looking up to see down trying to overcome the Frank Robinson led Birds, never gave up. On July 30th Chance pitched the Angels to a 2-1 win over Cleveland to put the west coast team into its only day in second place. They were 13.5 back. It lasted 24 hours.

Brunet, always the hard luck pitcher would face even more hard luck in 1967 when the Angels competed for the pennant, Fregosi continued to play well and alongside Bobby Knoop they were among the best double play duos of the era. Chance would become an outstanding pitcher, especially after being traded to Minnesota. The Norm Siebern/Joe Adcock platoon was replaced by Don Mincher the following season.

It was the slugging Adcock's final season and leading the team in homers at age 38 was pretty indicative of the 1966 Angels. Let's face it, this was a team of lovable players who were at a crossroads in a region hungry for a winner not named the Dodgers. They Angels were no match for the pennant winning team led by Sandy Koufax in his final season, Don Drysdale and fav's such as Wes Parker and Lou Johnson.

They really were every bit as talented as the Dodgers but were just not ready to eclipse the upper tier of the American League. The Orioles, the Red Sox and the Tigers were way too difficult for the team from Anaheim. They were never more than 3 games under .500, and as the 80-82 record indicated they played pretty evenly through the year. They had 9 walk off wins and 9 walk off losses which is pretty darn even.

This was a club of lovable characters. There were new kids on the block like Rick Reichardt, Paul Schall, Jim McGlothlin, Jackie Hernandez, Clyde Wright and Minnie Rojas. There was a mix of real fan favorites such as Adcock, Bubba Morton, Lew Burdette, Jimmy Piersall, Jack Sanford and Ramon Lopez.

Perhaps a real indication where this team of aging vets and young stars trying to shine is how they finished. One of the clubs best games was on Sunday October 2, facing Luis Tiant and the Indians. Knoop's 2-run triple in the bottom of the eighth plated the only runs of the game to back the 5-hit pitching of Jorge Rubio (WHO?). In the ninth, facing four batters, Rubio did not allow a fair hit ball. He walked Rocky Colavito and struck out Leon Wagner, Bill Davis and Fred Whitfield.

Rubio finished his career the following season with a 2-3 lifetime record in ten total career games. The Angels were a team waiting to happen with a fan base eager to see it happen. Or so one would think. The following season they were in the race for much of the year and finished 84-77 in 5th place. Attendance: Dropped off to fourth in the American League, down to
1,317,713. Some people just can't stand a winner.

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Monday, June 12, 2023

31 Games Sets the Mark for Hitting in the 1960s

TRIVIA WINNER: The winner of this week's trivia contest is Aaron Wolen, of Fishers, IN. He knew that Roger Craig started and finished has career in the month of July. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: What was Joe DiMaggio's longest hitting streak in the minor leagues?

Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak remains the cornerstone of records and while the longest streak of the modern era was Pete Rose at 44, the longest hitting streak in the 1960s belongs to two different players. Both Vada Pinson in the 1965-66 seasons and Willie Davis in 1969 were tied at 31 games for the decade. The interesting thing is the fact that it really wasn't a huge deal because in the history of MLB, there were a total of 11 players tied at 31. The list includes Rico Carty in 1970 and four other modern era players.

Since we are focused on the 1960s, we'll delve into Davis and Pinson's marks. Pinson was in his heyday in 1965. It would be one of the four seasons where he garnered 200-plus hits. On September 7, 1965 Pinson doubled off Wilbur Wood in a 5-0 win over Pittsburgh. He hit in every game the rest of the season. When Opening Day rolled around in 1966, he continued the streak until April 19, 1967, ironically also against the Pirates. Steve Blass went the distance and Pinson went 0-4.

During the streak he had 48 hits in 126 ABs for a .381 average. When the streak ended the Reds outfielder went into a slump, getting one hit in his next 17 AB. He would finish the 1965 season at .305 and the 1966 season at .288. He would never bat .300 again in a season.

Willie Davis streak differed from Pinson in that his hits came all in one year; 1969. It might be considered his best season overall finishing .311 with 11 home runs. When it came to his streak it was almost the Pittsburgh Pirates again. On August 31, the last game of the series against Pittsburgh, Davis went 0-6, but the following day he doubled against Steve Carlton. He got a hit in every game for 30 more.

The streak ended when Dick Kelley and Gary Ross of the Padres shut-out Los Angeles on September 4, in a 3-0 game. Davis went 0-4. The next night however, Davis got right back up on the horse and went 4-5 against Joe Niekro in another Dodger loss. All four were singles.

Monday, June 5, 2023

Roger Craig Til the End

TRIVIA WINNER: The winner of this week's trivia contest is Ken Levasseur of Amherst, NH. The answer is Floyd Robinson was the oldest player on the 1968 A's who finished his career in Boston. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Roger Craig began and ended his career in the same month on the calender 11 years apart. What was that month?

Roger Craig passed away this week. The Dodger pitcher who made his mark with Brooklyn in the 1950's but pitched and managed as the years went on into the 1960's and beyond. We are not going to explore his beginnings but rather his endings. After Brooklyn, the Mets, Cardinals and the Reds, he spent his final season with the Phillies. The 6'4" Craig made the most of that season.

He won in relief of Chris Short on Opening Day against the Cardinals in 1966. Two days later in relief of Jim Bunning he won the last game of his career, against the Reds. He would lose the last game of his career in mid-June when in relief, he gave up a home run to Lou Brock in the ninth inning of a 2-2 tie. He picked up a Save that year as well, the 19th of his career.

The last game he would pitch was July 10th when he finished a game against the Cubs. He faced some of the toughest hitters of the day in those two scoreless innings. The final batter he faced was fittingly the great HOFer, Ernie Banks who lined out. His last strike out was of Byron Browne.

He finished his career 74-98 with a respectable 3.83 ERA and 803 strikeouts. He also won Game 5 of the 1955 World Series, the only Brooklyn Championship in history. He went on to manage a number of teams, a lot with the Giants and finished with a record of 738–737. As a Player, Manager and Coach he was a winner in four World Series including the 1989 Giants. It was the first title for the club in 27 years.

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