1966, and triples...
The narrative of the 1966
baseball season should really begin in 1965. On December 9th,
the Cincinnati Reds traded their former MVP outfielder Frank Robinson
to the Baltimore Orioles for three pitchers: Jack Baldschun, Milt
Pappas and Dick Simpson. The trade was a gamble by Reds General
manager Bill DeWitt, and it didn't work out too well for them.
Robinson would help lead the
Orioles to their first World Series championship, and would win the
league's MVP Award, becoming the first to win the award in both
leagues.
He would also win the
forgotten Triple Crown that year as well. Leading the league in
Homers, Runs Batted In and Batting Average in the same season
constitutes the baseball Triple Crown. Robinson did it in 1966, the
first to do so since Mickey Mantle did it in 1956, but I call it the
forgotten Triple Crown, because Carl Yastrzemski would do it with the
Red Sox in 1967, and would be the answer to a trivia question about
the last Triple Crown winner. Until Miguel Cabrera did it in 2014.
But speaking of triples, Tim
McCarver, catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals hit 13 triples in 1966,
becoming the first catcher to lead his league in triples. Carlton
Fisk would tie for the league lead with 9 in 1972.
Before the season began, two
eminent Dodger pitchers, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale jointly held
themselves out of Spring Training as a salary negotiation tactic to
each get the raises in pay they felt they deserved. They wanted a
three-year contract for a reported $1.05million to be divided
equally.
They remained held out until
March 30th, when Koufax signed for $125,000 and Drysdale
for $110,000. Both signed one year deals. It would be Koufax's last
contract, as he would retire at the end of the season due to a
deteriorating arthritic issue with his pitching elbow.
Koufax would be the first
pitcher to strike out 300 batters in three different seasons, and the
first since Pete Alexander in 1920 to have 3 20-win seasons. He would
also win his third Cy Young Award in four seasons.
Tragedy would strike in
Detroit in regards to its managers. They started the season with
Chuck Dressen at the helm, but he suffered a heart attack in May, and
was replaced by Bob Swift. Dressen would pass away in August.
In July, Swift was taken to
the hospital to be treated for suspected food poisoning, and was
replaced by Frank Skaff, who finished the season at the helm. Swift's
treatment uncovered a malignant tumor of the lung, and he passed that
October.
New stadiums opened in
Anaheim and St. Louis, but the biggest new arrival involved the shift
of the Braves from Milwaukee to Atlanta. The Braves debuted in the
'Launching Pad” that was Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, and they
played before packed houses throughout the season, drawing more than
1.5 million paying fans to cheer their team to a fifth place finish.
The Braves played a part in
a weird historical footnote. Their Richmond minor league affiliate
signed college pitcher George Thomas (Tom) Seaver to a contract with
a reported $40,000 signing bonus. The Braves had drafted him a month
before, in the January free-agent draft. The issue was that at the
signing of the contract, Seaver's college (USC) had already begun its
inter-collegiate schedule, and his signing was a violation of the
college rule.
Commissioner William Eckert
voided the contract, and fined the Braves $500. Unfortunately for
Seaver, the college authorities disqualified Seaver since he had
signed a professional contract, even though he never appeared in a
game for any professional team.
Eckert decided that Seaver
would be a free agent, and in an unprecedented move, opened a draft
exclusive to Seaver. The Braves would be ineligible for this draft.
Three teams expressed an interest: Cleveland, Philadelphia and the
Mets. And for once, luck was on the Mets side, as the commissioner
drew their name from the hat on April 3rd of that year,
and the Mets quickly signed him to a Jacksonville contract.
Seaver would go on to become
'The Franchise' for the Mets, and would lead them to their 1969
World Series Championship. He would win over 300 games, 198 of them
for the Mets. He would also strike out over 3600 batters. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with a then all-time record of
98.8% of votes.
In that year's June draft, the Mets had the 1st overall pick, historically drafting catcher Steve Chilcott out of Antelope Valley High in Lancaster, California. Chilcott never made it to the majors, but the second round pick, Arizona State University outfielder Reggie Jackson, who was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics had a slightly more memorable baseball career.
Interestingly, with their tenth pick, the Yankees picked University of Alabama pitcher Ken Stabler, who opted for a Hall of Fame NFL career instead of baseball.
The Braves also had an
historic slugging performance in 1966 as well. No, not by Hank Aaron.
Nor was it by Joe Torre. Or Eddie Matthews. Not even Felipe Alou.
They hit 205 homers, 5 of them by pitcher Tony Cloninger. Two of
those came in the same game against the Giants, and both were Grand
Slams. Cloninger was the first player to hit two Grand Slam homers in
the same game, and is still the only pitcher to have accomplished
that feat.
Gary Peters of the White Sox
pitched a complete game shutout against the Yankees on July 30th.
Not sure if this is a record or not, but Peters threw just 75 pitches
in the game.
Jack Aker of the Kansas City
Athletics became the first American League reliever to garner 30
saves in a season. Ted Abernathy of the Cubs did it the season
before.
Two Players each had three
inside-the-park home-runs in 1966. Rookie shortstop Sonny Jackson of
the Astros, and slugger Richie Allen of the Phillies.
The New York Mets did not
finish in last place for the first time in their six year history,
while the cross-town Yankees did finish in last place, just their
third time in their sixty-three year history.
One rule change was
instituted after a bizarre play involving the Mets against the
Phillies. A foul pop was hit and headed over towards the Phillies
dugout, and as Mets catcher Jerry Grote attempted to catch the
pop-up, Phillies manager Gene Mauch grabbed at Grote's glove, making
him drop the ball. Believe it or not, this was not against the rules
at the time. The rules were changed during the following off-season.
One other seemingly trivial
thing happened in 1966 that would come to light many years later, and
that was the Players Association hiring Marvin Miller as their
Executive Director. Miller, who had previously been at the United
Steelworkers of America, would become a key player in the labor
issues and Free Agency battles of the 1970's.
On to the season at play.
The power rankings were as
follows:
Orioles World Champion
Dodgers NL Champions
Pirates 3rd
in NL
Twins 2nd in
AL
Giants 2nd in
NL
The Orioles stunned the
baseball world by beating the Dodgers in the World Series in a
four-game sweep. The baseball experts expected the Orioles bats to
struggle against the Dodgers pitching, which they did. They batted
just .200 for the Series. But the Dodgers batted only .142. The
Dodgers scored just 2 runs in the first game, and were shutout in the
remaining games. The last two games of the Series were both 1-0
games.
Let's look at the AL
pitching first...
The American League pitchers
were as a whole 5.7% more efficient than their national League
counterparts, so lets look at the initial numbers:
Pitcher
|
Team
|
W-L
|
ERA
|
Saves
|
Jim Kaat
|
Twins
|
25-13
|
2.75
|
0
|
Earl Wilson
|
Red Sox/Tigers
|
18-11
|
3.07
|
0
|
Gary Peters
|
White Sox
|
12-10
|
1.98
|
0
|
Jack Aker
|
A's
|
8-4
|
1.99
|
32
|
Sonny Siebert
|
Indians
|
16-8
|
2.80
|
1
|
Stu Miller
|
Orioles
|
8-4
|
2.25
|
18
|
Tommy John
|
White Sox
|
14-11
|
2.62
|
0
|
Hoyt Wilhelm
|
White Sox
|
5-2
|
1.66
|
6
|
Steve Hargan
|
Indians
|
13-10
|
2.48
|
0
|
Jim Perry
|
Twins
|
11-7
|
2.54
|
0
|
And then against their team
averages:
Earl Wilson
|
above
|
|
|
|
Jack Aker
|
above
|
|
|
|
Jim Kaat
|
above
|
|
|
|
Sonny Siebert
|
above
|
|
|
|
Lew Krausse
|
A's
|
14-9
|
2.99
|
3
|
Gary Peters
|
above
|
|
|
|
Don McMahon
|
Red Sox/Indians
|
9-8
|
2.69
|
10
|
Steve Hargan
|
above
|
|
|
|
Pete Richert
|
Senators
|
14-14
|
3.37
|
0
|
Denny McLain
|
Tigers
|
20-14
|
3.92
|
0
|
And then as they finally
figure, the top 10:
Earl Wilson
|
14th in MVP
|
|
|
|
Jim Kaat
|
5th in MVP
|
|
|
|
Jack Aker
|
13th in MVP
|
|
|
|
Gary Peters
|
No votes
|
|
|
|
Sonny Siebert
|
28th in MVP tie
|
|
|
|
Lew Krausse
|
No votes
|
|
|
|
Ron Kline
|
Senators
|
6-4
|
2.39
|
23
|
Stu Miller
|
11th in MVP
|
|
|
|
Steve Hargan
|
No votes
|
|
|
|
Tommy John
|
No votes
|
|
|
|
Over in the National League
we have these initial numbers:
Sandy Koufax
|
Dodgers
|
27-9
|
1.73
|
0
|
Juan Marichal
|
Giants
|
25-6
|
2.23
|
0
|
Bob Gibson
|
Cardinals
|
21-12
|
2.44
|
0
|
Phil Regan
|
Dodgers
|
14-1
|
1.62
|
21
|
Gaylord Perry
|
Giants
|
21-8
|
2.99
|
0
|
Jim Bunning
|
Phillies
|
19-14
|
2.41
|
0
|
Jim Maloney
|
Reds
|
16-8
|
2.80
|
0
|
Mike Cuellar
|
Astros
|
12-10
|
2.22
|
2
|
Joe Hoerner
|
Cardinals
|
5-1
|
1.54
|
13
|
Al Jackson
|
Cardinals
|
13-15
|
2.51
|
0
|
Against their teams, we get:
Juan Marichal
|
above
|
|
|
|
Jim Maloney
|
above
|
|
|
|
Mike Cuellar
|
above
|
|
|
|
Bob Gibson
|
above
|
|
|
|
Sandy Koufax
|
above
|
|
|
|
Jim Bunning
|
above
|
|
|
|
Dennis Ribant
|
Mets
|
11-9
|
3.20
|
3
|
Billy McCool
|
Reds
|
8-8
|
2.48
|
18
|
Bob Shaw
|
Mets
|
11-10
|
3.92
|
0
|
Ken Holtzman
|
Cubs
|
11-16
|
3.79
|
0
|
Bob Shaw
combined
|
Giants/Mets
|
12-14
|
4.29
|
0
|
I included the combined
stats for Bob Shaw, as it was his performance with the Mets that
qualified him for this particular list, not his overall performance.
But speaking of overall
performances, our top ten comes to this list:
Sandy Koufax
|
2nd in MVP, Cy Young Award
|
|
|
|
Juan Marichal
|
6th in MVP
|
|
|
|
Bob Gibson
|
no votes
|
|
|
|
Jim Maloney
|
23rd in MVP (tied)
|
|
|
|
Jim Bunning
|
no votes
|
|
|
|
Mike Cuellar
|
no votes
|
|
|
|
Phil Regan
|
7th in MVP
|
|
|
|
Gaylord Perry
|
18th in MVP
|
|
|
|
Billy McCool
|
no votes
|
|
|
|
Joe Hoerner
|
no votes
|
|
|
|
Of note here as well, this
was a time when there was just one Cy Young Award presented per
season, across both leagues. In 1966, Sandy Koufax was the unanimous
choice.
Now let's look at the
hitters. We have already established the Frank Robinson won the
Triple Crown and the Most Valuable Player award, but let's see how
the rest of the league stacked up in '66. The National League had a
5.2% statistical advantage over the American League...
Player
|
Team
|
HR
|
RBI
|
AVG
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
Frank Robinson
|
Orioles
|
49
|
122
|
.316
|
.410
|
.637
|
Boog Powell
|
Orioles
|
34
|
109
|
.287
|
.372
|
.532
|
Al Kaline
|
Tigers
|
29
|
88
|
.288
|
.392
|
.534
|
Harmon Killebrew
|
Twins
|
39
|
110
|
.281
|
.391
|
.538
|
Tony Oliva
|
Twins
|
25
|
87
|
.307
|
.353
|
.502
|
Brooks Robinson
|
Orioles
|
23
|
100
|
.269
|
.333
|
.444
|
Norm Cash
|
Tigers
|
32
|
93
|
.279
|
.351
|
.478
|
Willie Horton
|
Tigers
|
27
|
100
|
.262
|
.321
|
.481
|
Tommie Agee
|
White Sox
|
22
|
86
|
.273
|
.326
|
.447
|
Tony Conigliaro
|
Red Sox
|
28
|
93
|
.265
|
.330
|
.487
|
Now looking at their
performances against their teams performances, we get:
Frank Robinson
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tommie Agee
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Harmon Killebrew
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fred Valentine
|
Senators
|
16
|
59
|
.276
|
.351
|
.455
|
Tony Oliva
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joe Pepitone
|
Yankees
|
31
|
83
|
.255
|
.290
|
.463
|
Al Kaline
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fred Whitfield
|
Indians
|
27
|
78
|
.241
|
.283
|
.440
|
Leon Wagner
|
Indians
|
23
|
66
|
.279
|
.334
|
.441
|
Tony Conigliaro
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Which brings us these
results:
Frank Robinson
|
MVP
|
Harmon Killebrew
|
4th in MVP
|
Tommie Agee
|
8th in MVP, Rookie of the Year
|
Boog Powell
|
3rd in MVP
|
Al Kaline
|
7th in MVP
|
Tony Oliva
|
6th in MVP
|
Tony Conigliaro
|
28th in MVP (tied)
|
Norm Cash
|
12th in MVP
|
Fred Valentine
|
21st in MVP
|
Joe Foy
|
Red Sox 15 63
.262 .364 .413
|
In the MVP voting by the
BBWAA, Brooks Robinson of the Orioles finished 2nd.
Over in the National League,
we start with:
Richie Allen
|
Phillies
|
40
|
110
|
.317
|
.396
|
.632
|
Hank Aaron
|
Braves
|
44
|
127
|
.279
|
.356
|
.539
|
Roberto Clemente
|
Pirates
|
29
|
119
|
.317
|
.360
|
.536
|
Joe Torre
|
Braves
|
36
|
101
|
.315
|
.382
|
.560
|
Willie Stargell
|
Pirates
|
33
|
102
|
.315
|
.381
|
.581
|
Willie Mays
|
Giants
|
37
|
103
|
.288
|
.368
|
.556
|
Ron Santo
|
Cubs
|
30
|
94
|
.312
|
.412
|
.538
|
Felipe Alou
|
Braves
|
31
|
74
|
.327
|
.361
|
.533
|
Willie McCovey
|
Giants
|
36
|
96
|
.295
|
.391
|
.586
|
Bill White
|
Phillies
|
22
|
103
|
.276
|
.352
|
.451
|
Now looking at their teams,
we get:
Richie Allen
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Willie Mays
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ron Santo
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Willie McCovey
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Orlando Cepeda
|
Giants/Cardinals
|
20
|
73
|
.301
|
.361
|
.473
|
Hank Aaron
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jim Wynn
|
Astros
|
18
|
62
|
.256
|
.321
|
.440
|
Roberto Clemente
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joe Torre
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Billy Williams
|
Cubs
|
29
|
91
|
.276
|
.347
|
.461
|
I will mention this again,
the reason that I like to use this particular stat is because it
highlights those performers who are mired with a team that may not be
as good as the upper echelon teams, and it brings those performances
to light. It might make one look at those players in a different
light. As in the examples above, Jimmy Wynn's Astros scored the third
fewest runs in the league, so Wynn's ability to create runs was that
much better than a player from an offense rich team, if that makes
sense.
The same with the pitching
above. Dennis Ribant and Bob Shaw both pitched for the Mets, who
finished 28 ½ games out of first place, but their performances may
have gone unnoticed. Ribant and Shaw combined for 22 of the Mets 66
wins, or 1/3rd of those wins
Anyway, back to the
analysis at hand. Our top National League hitters were then ranked as
such:
Richie Allen
|
4th in MVP
|
Hank Aaron
|
8th in MVP
|
Roberto Clemente
|
MVP
|
Willie Mays
|
3rd in MVP
|
Joe Torre
|
16th in MVP
|
Ron Santo
|
12th in MVP
|
Willie McCovey
|
17th in MVP
|
Willie Stargell
|
15th in MVP
|
Felipe Alou
|
5th in MVP
|
Billy Williams
|
No votes
|
Now, My top player and
pitcher for each league would be voted this way:
AL Pitcher:
Earl Wilson
AL Hitter
Frank Robinson
NL Pitcher
Sandy Koufax
NL Player
Sandy Koufax
