1968
What
happened in 1968? Plenty.
Off the
field, the nation was in turmoil, an unpopular military action, an unpopular
election, and a cultural revolution was taking place. But rather than get too
political, let's just keep this long winded article on the diamond, shall we?
Offense pretty
much disappeared in 1968. Batting averages plummeted. Carl Yastrzemski, a year
after his Triple Crown season, led the American League by hitting a robust
.301. (The record for the lowest average to win a title). The league as a whole
hit just .230, the lowest in history. Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers became
the fist 30 game winner since 1934. (And a number not reached since)
The
National League fared a little better, batting .243. While it wasn't the least productive offensive season in
league history, it did produce an incredible pitching performance.
'The Year
of the Pitcher' was deemed as such not because of Denny McLain, but rather
because of Bob Gibson. The former Wichita State Shocker was as fierce a
competitor as ever played the game, and he led the NL with a microscopic 1.12
Earned Run Average. In layman's terms, he allowed a little more than 1 run per
every 9 innings pitched. Extrapolated over a full seasons worth of games (in
his era, this means 300+ innings pitched, 30+ starts, 15+ complete games, and an ungodly
amount of pitches thrown).
In 1968,
Mr. Gibson started in 34 games, pitching 302 and 2/3 innings. He
completed 28 games, pitched 13 shutouts and won 20 games. He walked 62 and
struck out 268.He also lost 9 games.
This was a
different game than is played today. Let's look closer at the statistics I just
mentioned. He gave up 1 run per game, and lost 9 times. He completed 28 games,
in 34 starts. he won 20. He lost 9. He had the rarely seen anymore stat known as
a complete game loss. And he had a few
of them.
Even more
amazing is that Gibson went almost a month between wins, losing four straight
games. He got the victory against Tom Seaver and the Mets on May 6th, and
didn't win again until a 6-3 victory over Al Jackson and those same Mets on
June 2nd. He lost 5 of his first 8 decisions.
The
Cardinals, who hit for a .249 average, got Gibson and the rest of the staff
enough runs to help them repeat as the National League Champions, where they
faced the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.
The 1968
Tigers were led by their pitching, the aforementioned McLain and his 31 victories
was the staff ace. Mickey Lolich, Earl Wilson , Joe Sparma and John Hiller all
pitched in to be responsible for 80 of the Tigers' 103 wins. Their offense, led
by often overlooked Bill Freehan, placed 3 hitters in the top 10 in MVP voting.
The Tigers bested the Cardinals in the 1968 Series in 7 games. a Series that
had its share of impressive and historic pitching performances.
The leagues
had decided to expand the following season, adding two teams to each league,
and instituting the first year of divisional play, and a League Championship
Series. Adding teams in Canada
(Montreal ), and the Pacific Northwest (Seattle ), both teams that are no longer in existence, as
well as welcoming San Diego , and reacquainting themselves
with Kansas City ,
Major League Baseball was primed to remain the National Past Time. The fact
that teams weren't scoring runs became an issue. Runs brings fans and ratings.
Fans, and more importantly ratings, brings revenue.
The
economics of baseball in the 1960's is nowhere near what it has become in the
2010's. The same can be said of all sports. But baseball could tweak the game a
little bit, making a show out of lowering the pitcher's mound in 1969, and
going forward. Something to boost the offense. They really didn't need to.
Call it
harmonic convergence, call it a once in a lifetime, call it a cyclical anomaly,
but the pitching wasn't really that much better in 1968 than people think it
was. I think most of it was show, with some pitchers (not who you might think)
having monster years, but also the marquee players showing their age.
The 1968
baseball landscape featured some big names, Mantle, Mays, Aaron.
Mantle, was in the twilight of his career. The legendary centerfielder for the Yankees was spending his time as a first baseman. Thirty-seven year old Willie Mays, still playing center for the Giants, was starting to decline, as he had hit .263 the year before, and .288 in 1968. He drove in just 77 runs, his lowest output to date. Aaron now 34, did hit .287, but that was 19 points below his career number. But, those performances were among the top in the National League
Mantle, was in the twilight of his career. The legendary centerfielder for the Yankees was spending his time as a first baseman. Thirty-seven year old Willie Mays, still playing center for the Giants, was starting to decline, as he had hit .263 the year before, and .288 in 1968. He drove in just 77 runs, his lowest output to date. Aaron now 34, did hit .287, but that was 19 points below his career number. But, those performances were among the top in the National League
For all the
talk about the year of the pitcher, over in Cincinnati , the spawning of what would become
'The Big Red Machine' was beginning.
The Reds led the National League by hitting .273. Their
lineup included Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Alex Johnson, (another
overlooked hitter) and Lee May.
Harmonic
convergence could explain a bit of this, as the Reds only faced Bob Gibson
twice in 1968, and he shut them out both times. Maybe they just beat up on the rest
of the league.
No. I think
it was a unique situation where the pitchers, as happens with cycles in
baseball, had a few outstanding performances that set them apart from the rest.
Which
pitchers you ask?
Well, here
are the top overall performers in the majors:
Name, Team
|
MIKE
|
Wins
|
Losses
|
ERA
|
Bob Gibson, StL
|
2.4453
|
22
|
9
|
1.12
|
Denny McLain, Det
|
2.3648
|
31
|
6
|
1.96
|
Luis Tiant, Cle
|
2.2635
|
21
|
9
|
1.60
|
Dave McNally, Bal
|
2.1919
|
22
|
10
|
1.95
|
Juan Marichal, SF
|
2.0888
|
26
|
9
|
2.43
|
Steve Blass, Pit
|
2.0034
|
18
|
6
|
2.12
|
Jerry Koosman, NYM
|
1.9607
|
19
|
12
|
2.08
|
Mel Stottlemyre, NYY
|
1.9166
|
21
|
12
|
2.45
|
Joe Hoerner, StL*
|
1.8657
|
8
|
2
|
1.47
|
Stan Bahnsen, NYY
|
1.8531
|
17
|
12
|
2.05
|
Lindy McDaniel, NYY*#
|
1.8497
|
4
|
1
|
1.75
|
Jose Santiago, Bos*
|
1.8468
|
9
|
4
|
2.25
|
Tom Seaver, NYM
|
1.8300
|
16
|
12
|
2.2
|
Sam McDowell, Cle
|
1.8198
|
15
|
14
|
1.81
|
Don
|
1.8124
|
14
|
12
|
2.15
|
Jim Hardin, Bal
|
1.8104
|
18
|
13
|
2.51
|
Tommy John, ChA
|
1.7906
|
10
|
5
|
1.98
|
Ray Washburn, StL
|
1.7740
|
14
|
8
|
2.26
|
John Odom, Oak
|
1.7697
|
16
|
10
|
2.45
|
* denotes reliever
#also played with the Giants but only using Yankee
statistics.
Definitely,
some heady numbers here, and we'll delve into them in a moment. But let's look
at the much maligned offensive numbers. So, the offensive leaders are as
follows:
Name, team
|
MIKE
|
HR
|
RBI
|
AVG
|
Willie McCovey, SF
|
1.9421
|
36
|
105
|
.293
|
Ken Harrelson, Bos
|
1.8977
|
35
|
109
|
.275
|
Bill Freehan, Det
|
1.8431
|
25
|
84
|
.263
|
Dick Allen, Phi
|
1.8259
|
33
|
90
|
.263
|
Carl Yastrzemski, Bos
|
1.8232
|
23
|
74
|
.301
|
Billy Williams, ChN
|
1.8201
|
30
|
98
|
.288
|
Tony Perez, Cin
|
1.8170
|
18
|
92
|
.282
|
Willie Mays, SF
|
1.8105
|
23
|
79
|
.289
|
Frank Howard, Was
|
1.7847
|
44
|
106
|
.274
|
Johnny Bench, Cin
|
1.7821
|
15
|
82
|
.275
|
Pete Rose, Cin
|
1.7578
|
10
|
49
|
.335
|
Ron Santo, ChN
|
1.7541
|
26
|
98
|
.246
|
Lee May, Cin
|
1.7400
|
22
|
80
|
.290
|
Ernie Banks, ChN
|
1.7393
|
29
|
86
|
.246
|
Hank Aaron, Atl
|
1.7379
|
29
|
86
|
.287
|
Willie Horton, Det
|
1.7202
|
36
|
85
|
.285
|
Jim Northrup, Det
|
1.7192
|
21
|
90
|
.264
|
Glenn Beckert, ChN
|
1.7024
|
4
|
37
|
.294
|
Roberto Clemente, Pit
|
1.6957
|
18
|
57
|
.291
|
Jin Ray Hart, SF
|
1.6682
|
23
|
78
|
.258
|
Now,
factoring the players against the league average, and combining the pitchers
and hitters, the top in the American League were:
Player
|
MIKE
|
Ken Harrelson
|
1.9195
|
Bill Freehan
|
1.8644
|
Carl Yastrzemski
|
1.8442
|
Frank Howard
|
1.8052
|
Denny McLain
|
1.8046
|
Luis Tiant
|
1.7466
|
Dave McNally
|
1.7457
|
Willie Horton
|
1.7400
|
Jim Northrup
|
1.7390
|
Frank Robinson
|
1.6711
|
And in the
National League:
Player
|
Mike
|
Bob Gibson
|
1.9008
|
Willie McCovey
|
1.7370
|
Juan Marichal
|
1.6965
|
Steve Blass
|
1.6476
|
Dick Allen
|
1.6330
|
Tony Perez
|
1.6250
|
Jerry Koosman
|
1.6232
|
Willie Mays
|
1.6193
|
Johnny Bench
|
1.5938
|
Pete Rose
|
1.5722
|
The
pitching dominated the season (sort of) and also dominated the post season
awards, as Gibson and McLain were both unanimous choices for the Cy Young Award
for each league, and they both were voted the Most Valuable Player for each
league. McLain had a sweep, being the unanimous choice in the American League,
and Gibson getting fourteen of the twenty first place votes in the National,
with Pete Rose getting the remaining six.
The best
performers over their team's average for 1968 are slightly different. As you
can guess from looking at the Mike number and its rating, McLain didn't rank as
highly as one might think he would, actually finishing third in the AL. These
are the hghest performers over their team's average:
player
|
vs.
|
Frank Howard, Was
|
1.7405
|
Luis Tiant, Cle
|
1.6794
|
Denny McLain, Det
|
1.6634
|
Camilo Pascual, Was
|
1.6431
|
Dave McNally, Bal
|
1.6186
|
In the MVP
vote, Howard finished 8th, McNally and Tiant tied, and Camilo Pascual, who went
13-12 with a 2.69 ERA for the last place Washington Senators, didn't get any
votes.
In the
National League:
Player
|
Vs. NL
|
Dick Allen, Phi
|
1.6880
|
Bob Gibson, StL
|
1.6834
|
Hank Aaron, Atl
|
1.6645
|
Juan Marichal, SF
|
1.6316
|
Willie McCovey, SF
|
1.6307
|
In the MVP
vote, Gibson won, McCovey was third, Marichal fifth and Aaron was twelfth. The
much maligned Dick Allen, not a popular player with the sportswriters, didn't
get a single vote, despite hitting 33 homers and driving in 90 runs for the
seventh place Philadelphia Phillies.
With the
numbers being as close as they are, and the fact that Gibson led his team to
the World Series, it can be argued that he deserved the award. I'm fine with
that. However, Allen's contributions on a weaker team should be recognized.
I encourage your comments and questions...Thanks for reading!
This book is awesome, and the graphics are fantastic...coming in May...
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