1965 and who?
1965 saw a
few modern, curious firsts. The Houston Colt .45's became the Astros, and moved
into the first domed stadium in sorts. Dubbed the 'Eighth Wonder of the
World", it opened with an exhibition game against the Yankees in April, and
saw Mickey Mantle hit the first indoor home-run. It was also The Mick's only
indoor home-run.
Sandy
Koufax of the Dodgers and Bob Hendley of the Cubs combined for one of the most
amazing games in baseball history. Hendley walked outfielder Lou Johnson, who
was sacrificed to second base, then stole third base, and scored the game's
only run on a throwing error by Cubs catcher Chris Krug.
On
Johnson's next at-bat in the seventh, he doubled. It was the only hit of the
game, for either team. And he was the only base runner, as Koufax pitched a
perfect game.
Cubs
catcher Chris Krug had a brief major league career, and apart from this game,
his other claim to fame is being the builder and architect for several baseball fields,
most notably the field used in the movie "Field of Dreams."
This season
saw one of the most horrific bench clearing brawls in history, the sight of
Juan Marichal striking Johnny Roseboro over the head with his bat shocked the nation,
and rocked the baseball world.
For those
who may not be familiar with the story, Marichal was at bat for the Giants, and
took offense to the way that Dodger catcher Roseboro threw the ball back to
Sandy Koufax, and thought that the throws were a little too close to his ear. Words
were exchanged, and then tempers got the best of everyone. Instantly, the sight
of Marichal, bat over his head and coming down atop Roseboro, hushed the crowd
and totally shocked onlookers.
Several
players, from both teams, were able to wrestle the bat from Marichal, while
Giants star outfielder Willie Mays hurried a now bloody John Roseboro into the
dugout for immediate medical attention, while the on-field melee ensued.
1965 also
saw the first ever player draft, with Kansas City
picking Arizona State University
Hal McRae
and Sal Bando both went in the sixth round, Tom Seaver was drafted in the tenth
round (by the Dodgers) and Nolan Ryan went in the twelfth round. Carlton Fisk
went in the forty-eighth round to the Orioles. (He didn't sign)
The season
itself ended with the recently relocated Minnesota Twins winning the AL pennant by seven
games over the Tigers, and the Dodgers with their strong pitching edging out
the Giants to win the pennant by two games.
The Twins
won the first two games of the Series, beating Drysdale and Koufax in the process.
Claude Osteen threw a 5-hit shutout to win the third game, and the Dodger won
the next two games, behind Drysdale and Koufax.
Koufax pitched
a four-hit shutout in Game 5, and came back to pitch a three-hit complete game
shutout in the clincher three days later.
It was the
Dodgers' third World Championship since moving to the West Coast.
When one
looks at the offensive numbers, we refer to the slash lines, as in HR/RBI/AVG
or AVG/SLG/OPB or any variation of those numbers. So let's look at a few AL slash numbers for the
1965 season, using HR/RBI/AVG/Runs Scored, followed by SLG/OPS(onbase plus
slugging) and runs produced per game
player 1 16/98/.323/107 .494/.891/1.27
player 2 19/77/.273/126 .462/.798/1.15
player 3 26/108/.287/92 .468/.861/1.07
player 4 20/72/.312/78 .536/.941/1.07
player 5 18/80/.297/81 .445/.807/0.99
player 6 26/74/.279/94 .477/.827/0.91
The way a
team wins games is by scoring more runs than your opponent. Obviously. This
formula that I use places more weight on the runs created than other formulas
that I have seen, since scoring and winning are what the game is about. Player
1 and Player 2 above were the top 2 run producers in the AL for 1965.
The way one
scores or creates runs is by driving in runs, but also being able to put your
team in position to score runs, by sacrificing, getting on base, and getting yourself
in scoring positions. This is where the OPS comes into play. Player 1 came in third
in the league in OPS that year, while player 4 led the league. Player 6 is a
close match to player 2 in this respect, with player 2 having a better year
scoring runs (he led the league), but wasn't getting on base as easily as
player 6 was.
I give this
explanation as a means of the reasoning behind my rankings. In my analysis,
only four of the above six players make my top ten overall list...and the
league MVP was one that didn't. When I compare the stats to the rest of the
league, players 1-4 are the top 4 in the league. Players 5 & 6 didn't make
that cut.
But here
are the overall offensive ranking top 10, with their slash numbers:
1. Rocky Colavito, Cleveland 26/108/.287
(Player 3)
2. Carl Yastrzemski, Boston 20/72/.312 (Player 4)
3. Leon Wagner, Cleveland 28/79/.294
4. Tony Conigliaro, Boston 32/82/.269
5. Al Kaline, Detroit 18/72/.281
6. Willie Horton, Detroit 29/104/.273
7. Tony Oliva ,
Minnesota
8. Brooks Robinson, Baltimore 18/80/.297 (Player
5)
9. Norm Cash, Detroit 30/83/.266
10. Fred Whitfield, Cleveland 26/90/.293
Zoilo
Versalles of the Twins, Player 2 from the above chart, finished fourteenth in
these rankings, but was voted the Most Valuable Player for the season. Player 6
from above was Tom Tresh of the Yankees, who ranked sixteenth.
The top 5
in MVP voting was as follows
1. Zoilo Versalles
2. Tony Oliva
3. Brooks Robinson
4. Eddie Fisher (pitcher for the White Sox that didn't make
my list either)
5. Rocky Colavito
In the
National League, it's a little clearer, here is the top ten with slash numbers:
1. Willie Mays, San Francisco 52/112/.317
2. Billy Williams, Chicago 34/108/.315
3. Hank Aaron, Milwaukee 32/89/.318
4. Frank Robinson, Cincinnati 33/113/.296
5. Deron Johnson, Cincinnati 32/130/.287
6. Ron Santo, Chicago 33/101/.285
7. Dick Allen, Phildelphia 20/85/.302
8. Jim Ray Hart, San
Francisco 23/96/.299
9. Johnny Callison, Philadelphia 32/101/.262
10. Jim Wynn, Houston 22/73/.275
As you can
see by the absence of Los Angeles Dodgers on this list, they relied heavily on
their pitching staff to carry them to the pennant, much as they did in 1963.
The NL MVP
voting top 5 was
1. Willie Mays
2. Sandy Koufax
3. Maury Wills (not on my list)
4. Deron Johnson
5. Don Drysdale
The
pitching is almost as muddled as the American League offense. There was only
one Cy Young Award given yearly at this point, and Sandy Koufax won it, deservedly
so.
My overall
pitching rankings are:
1. Mel Stottlemyre, Yankees 20-9
2.63 Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles 26-8 2.04
2. Pete Richert , Washington 15-12
2.60 Jim Maloney, Cincinnati 20-9
2.54
3. Sam McDowell, Cleveland 17-11
2.18 Vern Law, Pittsburgh 17-9
2.15
4. Denny McLain, Detroit 16-6 2.61 Juan
Marichal, San Francisco
22-13 2.13
5. Milt Pappas, Baltimore 13-9
2.60 Jim Bunning, Philadelphia 19-9
2.60
6. Stu Miller, Baltimore 14-7
1.89 25sv Bob Gibson, St. Louis 20-12 3.07
7. Sonny Siebert, Cleveland 16-8
2.43 Frank Linzy, San Francisco
9- 3 1.43 20sv
8. Bob Lee , California 9-7 1.92 23sv Tony Cloninger, Milwaukee 24-11
3.29
9. Hoyt Wilhelm, Chicago 7-7
1.81 21sv Don Drysdale, Los Angeles 23-12
2.77
10. Marcelino Lopez , Cal. 14-13 2.93 Billy O'Dell, Milwaukee 10-6
2.18 19sv
So, were
there a Cy Young Award for the American League, my vote would have been for Mel
Stottlemyre of the Yankees.
Koufax would have been my choice in the NL.
As for the
overall combined top 5 in each league, here we are
Rocky Colavito Willie
Mays
Carl Yastrzemski Billy
Williams
Leon Wagner Sandy
Koufax
Tony Conigliaro Hank Aaron
Al Kaline Jim
Maloney
So Zolio is the MVP in 1965. Why? Looking at the numbers above he shouldn't have won. Did the writers go crazy? Were they bribed by Castro? Did they feel sorry for him because his name was Zolio? Well taking a look at some reasons and numbers from elsewhere as they were ignored here: First an obvious reason the Twins won. That was important then and still important today for people who understand the game. Zolio had adequate offensive numbers in general but as a SS his numbers are much more impressive and came in an age of limited SS offensive prowess in general. Zolio led the AL in runs, 2b, 3b and TB. He was 3rd in SB and was a gold glove winner at SS. He had a great 2nd half hitting well over 300 in August in September. So an offensive GG SS who produced down the stretch on a winning team and batted lead off pacing the team offensively. I can see why 19 out of 20 writers voted for him. Plus the offensive numbers in the AL were down overall.
ReplyDeleteAnd again let's not discount defense. I'm sure part of the reason Brooks finished 4th was defense. Was that a "bad" vote as well?