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1963, comings and goings...and perfection

     The 1963 season can be remembered for something old, something new.

     The Cleveland Indians played the Washington Senators in D.C. In what was Major League Baseball's 100,000^th game.

     Stan “The Man” Musial decided to hang up his spikes at the end of the season, and move into the front office for the Cardinals as their Vice President. While in Cincinnati, local legend Pete Rose debuted with the Reds, earning the National League Rookie of the Year award at the season's end.

     The Dodgers atoned for their disappointing playoff loss to the Giants in 1962, to win the pennant fairly easily in 1963. They did win by six games, but the hard charging Cardinals won nineteen of twenty games during a late season run, and pulled within a game of the Dodgers, But the Dodgers swept the Cardinals in three games, and pulled away to win their eight pennant in seventeen years.

     Pitching carried the Dodgers to the World Series, led by Sandy Koufax, who went 25-5 with a 1.88 ERA and became the first National League pitcher to reach the 300 strikeout mark. They also got 19 wins from Don Drysdale, 16 wins from Ron Perranoski and 10 from Johnny Podres.

     The Dodgers were the first team to never trail in a game during the World Series.

     Koufax bettered his own strikeout record he established in 1961, and he shattered that by 37 strikeouts. Of course, that record was established in a season where there were more games played, 162 against 154. However, unlike the asterisk fiasco that haunted Roger Maris as he bested Babe Ruth's record in 1961, there was no talk whatsoever of an asterisk being assigned to Koufax's record. Whether that was due to office politics by the commissioner at the time, or the fact that Koufax obliterated his own record, or the fact that it was his own record, I don't know. But the asterisk debated seems to have only been directed at one record.

     Koufax, while winning the pitching 'triple crown', became the second pitcher to win the MVP and the Cy Young Award in the same year. The first to do so was his former teammate Don Newcombe in 1956.

    (As an aside, Newcombe served in the US Army and the US Navy, and remains the only US military veteran to win an MVP and Cy Young Award)

Tommy Davis of the Dodgers won his second straight batting title, batting .326.

There were four players during the 1963 season who were also NBA players. They were Gene Conley, Dick Groat, Steve Hamilton and NBA Hall of Famer Dave DeBusschere.

For the Cardinals, Bill White became the first National Leaguer to have both 200 hits and 100 strikeouts in the same season, while pitcher Curt Simmons became the first pitcher in eight seasons to steal home. It would be another twenty-one years before Pascual Perez became the next to do so.

Stan Musial may be the only player to accomplish this particular feat, as in hitting a home run after becoming a grandfather. His daughter-in-law gave birth on September 10^th, and Musial homered in his first at bat that day against Glen Hobbie of the Cubs.

For the Mets, Jim Hickman hit for the cycle. Hitting for the cycle, in which the batter gets a single, double, triple and homer in the same game, is rarer than pitching a no-hitter. And even more scarce is a 'natural' cycle, in which the batters get the hits in the pre-described order. Jim Hickman became just the second National Leaguer to accomplish that feat.

For the Milwaukee Braves, lefty Warren Spahn was able to beat the Dodgers in Los Angeles for the first time. In fact it was the first time he had beaten the Dodgers as the visiting pitcher since 1948. Fifteen years.

The Giants fielded an all Alou outfield for one inning late in the season. Rookie Jesus joined his brothers Matty and Felipe in New York on September 10^th. It was the first and only time that three siblings appeared on the field at the same time.

Carl Yastrzemski of the Red Sox became the first and only American Leaguer to lead the league in both hits and walks in the same season. Yaz led the league in hitting for the first of three times. His .321 was the 7^th lowest average to lead the AL. (His .301 in 1968 is the lowest ever for a batting champ)

Minnie Minoso of the Senators became the oldest player to hit a Grand Slam home run, a record that was later broken by Henry Blanco (twice).

And speaking of Senator homers, Don Leppert hit 3 homers in a game against the Red Sox in April. He wound up hitting 3 more that season, setting the record for the lowest amount of homers in a season by someone with 3 in one game.

In Minnesota, Harmon Killebrew set the record for the most homers (45) by a player that didn't drive in 100 runs (96) in a season.

In Baltimore, Steve Barber became the first Oriole pitcher to win 20 games in a season, while Luis Aparicio became the first Oriole to lead the league in Stolen Bases.

With the selection of Elston Howard, the Yankees had their fourth straight MVP. (Roger Maris twice, then Yogi Berra before Howard)

Duke Snider, a.k.a. The Duke of Flatbush,hit his 400th career home run as a member of the New York Mets. This fact barely got a mention in the New York newspapers. As the story goes, outfielder Jimmy Piersall had hit 99 in his career, and bet Snider that his 100th home run would get headlines across the country. facing Phillies pitcher, and future Mets manager Dallas Green, Piersal connected on his 100th homer, his only homer as a Met, and ran around the bases backwards. true to his word to Snider, his 100th made headlines in all the sports pages. The fame was short-lived, as he was released by the Mets about a month later. 

In Houston, the Astros unveiled an All-Rookie lineup against the Mets. Jerry Grote, Rusty Staub, Joe Morgan, Sonny Jackson, Glenn Vaughan, Brock Davis, Jimmy Wynn and Jay Dahl were the starting nine.

And speaking of the Astros, perfection happened in a manner that will probably never be seen again. Rookie John Paciorek started in a game against against those same Mets on September 29^th. He walked in his first at-bat,then singled, singled again, walked again, and then singled for the third and last time.

He never made another appearance in a major league game, suffering from several injuries including a sciatic nerve injury, which led to eventual spinal fusion surgery.. He has a perfect 1.000 batting average and on base percentage. He is the only player to have a 1.000 batting average with more than one at-bat. And, during the game (a 13-4 Astro win) he scored 4 runs, giving him an average of 4.0 runs created per game. (for your reference, Babe Ruth had a 1.47 runs created per game average)

So, on to the season at hand. We'll look at the American League offense first. The basic numbers leaders were..

Player	Team	HR	RBI	AVG
Elston Howard	Yankees	28	85	0.29
Al Kaline	Tigers	27	101	.312
Bobby Allison	Twins	35	91	.271
Harmon Killebrew	Twins	45	96	.258
Earl Battey	Twins	26	84	.285
Carl Yastrzemski	Red Sox	14	68	.321
Dick Stuart	Red Sox	42	118	.261
Tom Tresh	Yankees	25	71	.269
Rocky Colavito	Tigers	22	91	.271
Norm Siebern	A's	16	83	.272

And then, as compared to their team's performances, our rankings are:

Elston Howard	Above
Al Kaline	Above
Don Lock	Senators	27	82	.252
Carl Yastrzemski	Above
Leon Wagner	Angels	26	90	.291
Dick Stuart	Above
Chuck Hinton	Senators	15	55	.269
Norm Siebern	Above
Albie Pearson	Angels	6	47	.304
Bobby Allison

So factoring in the figures, our top ten in the AL is:

Elston Howard	AL MVP
Al Kaline	2nd in MVP
Carl Yastrzemski	6th in MVP
Bobby Allison	15th in MVP
Dick Stuart	13th in MVP
Leon Wagner	19th in MVP
Harmon Killebrew	4th in MVP
Norm Siebern	27th in MVP
Tom Tresh	11th in MVP
Don Lock	No votes

And the in the National League, we start with this list:

Player	Team	HR	RBI	AVG
Hank Aaron	Braves	44	130	.319
Willie Mays	Giants	38	103	.314
Bill White	Cardinals	27	109	.304
Orlando Cepeda	Giants	34	97	.316
Vada Pinson	Reds	22	106	.313
Willie McCovey	Giants	44	102	.280
Ken Boyer	Cardinals	24	111	.285
Frank Robinson	Reds	21	91	.259
Billy Williams	Cubs	25	95	.283
Curt Flood	Cardinals	5	63	.302

And against their team's average performance, we get this list:

Hank Aaron	Above
Billy Williams	Above
Ron Santo	Cubs	25	99	.297
Willie Mays	Above
Vada Pinson	Above
Roberto Clemente	Pirates	17	76	.320
Frank Robinson	Above
Al Spangler	Astros	4	27	.281
Orlando Cepeda	Above
Willie McCovey	Above

Adding, figuring and ciphering, brings this list of top ten National League offensive performers for 1963:

Hank Aaron	3rd in MVP
Willie Mays	5th in MVP
Vada Pinson	10th in MVP
Billy Williams	No votes
Orlando Cepeda	No votes
Willie McCovey	17th in MVP
Ron Santo	8th in MVP
Frank Robinson	No votes
Bill White	7th in MVP
Roberto Clemente	14th in MVP

Now, we'll look at the pitching, which was very strong across both leagues. How strong, you ask? The National League pitchers out performed the hitters by 35.7%, while the American league bested their hitters by 21.5%, statistically speaking of course. The low batting averages and low RBI numbers bear this out. Both leagues combined to average scoring just 3.9 runs per game.

Wit that being said, we'll look at the American League first, with the raw numbers being:

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA	Saves
Camilo Pascual	Twins	21-9	2.46
Whitey Ford	Yankees	24-7	2.74
Juan Pizarro	White Sox	16-8	2.39
Al Dowling	Yankees	13-5	2.56
Jim Bouton	Yankees	21-7	2.53
Gary Peters	White Sox	19-8	2.33
Dick Radatz	Red Sox	15-6	1.97	23
Steve Barber	Orioles	20-13	2.75
Jack Kralick	Twins/Indians	14-13	3.03
Bill Dailey	Twins	6-3	1.99	21

And against their team performances, we get...

Dick Radatz	Above
Camilo Pascual	Above
Ron Kline	Senators	3-8	2.79	17
Jack Kralick	Above
Bill Monboquette	Red Sox	20-10	3.81
Claude Osteen	Senators	9-14	3.35
Whitey Ford	Above
Juan Pizarro	Above
Gary Peters	Above
Steve Barber	Above

That brings our top AL pitchers to this result...(Bear in mind, at this point in baseball history, there was only one Cy Young Award handed out each season, and in 1963, Sandy Koufax was the unanimous winner)

Camilo Pascual	No votes
Jack Kralick	No votes
Dick Radatz	5th in MVP
Whitey Ford	3rd in MVP
Juan Pizarro	No votes
Al Dowling	No votes
Jim Bouton	16th in MVP
Gary Peters	8th in MVP, ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Steve Barber	No votes
Bill Monboquette	No votes

The National League brings us this following list, raw numbers first:

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA	Saves
Sandy Koufax	Dodgers	25-5	1.88
Dick Ellsworth	Cubs	22-10	2.11
Warren Spahn	Braves	23-7	2.60
Jim Maloney	Reds	23-7	2.77
Juan Marichal	Giants	25-8	2.41
Ron Perranoski	Dodgers	16-3	1.67	21
Bob Friend	Pirates	17-16	2.34
Curt Simmons	Cardinals	15-9	2.48
Joe Nuxhall	Reds	15-8	2.61
Jim O'Toole	Reds	17-14	2.88

And then against their teams averages. This is I believe a good way to find stellar performers that may be overlooked by their team's less than stellar record. I say that because two Mets pitchers make the list, for a team that lost 111 games:

Carlton Willey	Mets	9-14	3.10
Warren Spahn	Above
Dick Ellsworth	Above
Jim Maloney	Above
Sandy Koufax	Above
Hal Woodeshick	Astros	11-9	1.97	10
Juan Marichal	Above
Turk Farrell	Astros	14-13	3.02
Al Jackson	Mets	13-17	3.96
Bob Friend	Above

Which gives us the top pitcher rankings as follows:

Sandy Koufax	Cy Young, NL MVP
Warren Spahn	12th in MVP
Dick Ellsworth	19th in MVP (tie)
Jim Maloney	19th in MVP (tie)
Juan Marichal	11th in MVP
Bob Friend	No votes
Hal Woodeshick	No votes
Curt Simmons	No votes
Carlton Willey	No votes
Turk Farrell	No votes

So, for our top players in each league, if I were to have had a vote back in the day, my American League vote would be:

Elston Howard

Al Kaline

Camilo Pascual

Carl Yastrzemski

Bobby Allison

And in the National League, it would be:

Hank Aaron

Sandy Koufax

Willie Mays

Warren Spahn

Vada Pinson