1947...Jackie and the rest

Historians, and not just of the baseball type, look at 1947 as a milestone. That was the year that baseball's color line was finally broken (again) by one Jack Roosevelt Robinson. Many now about Robinson's debut, and all the issues created by his being the first man of color to play in the modern big leagues. I won't go into all the stories, the death threats, the horrendous treatment he endured both on and off the field.

I will share two incidents, however. The first being a near mutiny and an alleged proposed boycott by the St. Louis Cardinals players if they were forced to take the field against Robinson and the Dodgers. Rumors of this issue became so rampant that National League President Ford Frick issued an ultimatum stating that any player boycotting a game against the Dodgers would face a lifetime suspension.

The Cubs, while initially voted as a team to boycott, opted to face the Dodgers and just knock Robinson down at every opportunity.

The most famous issues was the death threats. On their first trip to Cincinnati, the Dodger officials were made aware of several death threats made against Robinson. One threat that they were most concerned with involved someone with a rifle threatening to shoot Robinson should he take the field. Teammate Gene Hermanski said that the Dodgers should all wear the jersey number 42 to confuse any sniper that may be inclined to fulfill on their threat.

Several of the Dodgers were concerned for their safety, and made an effort not to stand too close to Jackie during the pre-game warm-ups. Dodger great Pee Wee Reese, who was a native of Louisville, Kentucky, often had many friends and family at the ballpark when the Dodgers played in Cincinnati.

Pee Wee saw, and knew, what was going on, and decided to take action. His simple gesture spoke volumes to the Dodger ball club, to the Cincinnati fans and to Jackie. He walked up and put his arm on Jackie's shoulder.

Reese marked Robinson as a friend, teammate, colleague and contemporary. “You got a problem with Jackie, you got a problem with me.” was the feeling portrayed by this simple act.

There is a statue of these two men, and this event, outside the Brooklyn Cyclone's stadium in Coney Island.

While Robinson had a very impressive season, he didn't crack my top ten lists for the 1947 season, but more on that a little later.

Baseball was booming. There were 388 minor league teams spread out over 52 different minor leagues, rated from Class A through Class D. Among cities that hosted teams were: Sheboygan, WI, Sanford, NC, McAlester, OK, Jamestown, NY, Zanesville, OH, Mooresville, NC, Carbondale, PA, Ballinger, TX, Hopkinsville, KY, Miami, OH, Belleville, IL, Moultrie, GA, Lanett, AL, Gainesville, FL, Hammond, LA, Seaford, DE, Kinston, NC, Galax, VA, and Greenville, AL. These were the Class D season champions for 1947.

And also of note in the minor leagues, former Yankee great Bill Dickey, who was managing the team in Little Rock, was ejected from a game three times over just five games.

On to the season at hand...

On April 27^th, Major League Baseball celebrated Babe Ruth Day, hosted by the Yankees , and honoring the legend who was losing his battle with cancer. This was the first time that all of baseball set aside a day to honor any one player. Sixty thousand fans attended the game in New York and listened to a weakened Ruth address the crowd, and that address was broadcast via radio to the fans in attendance at all the other ballparks in the League.

It would be a few days after Jackie Robinson's debut, and fifty years later, major League Baseball would also honor Robinson in the same way. Commissioner Bud Selig, along with Rachel Robinson, appeared in New York's Shea Stadium to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Jackie's first game. During that pre-game ceremony, Selig announced that Jackie's number 42 would be retired throughout baseball, and from that day, no one else could wear that number. (save for those who were already wearing it)

A few players opted to change their numbers for that last day, most notably Ken Griffey, Jr. did so. Now, each year, on Jackie Robinson Day, every uniformed person wears 42 for that game.

More on the Yankees in a little bit...

In Boston, Ted Williams would win his second Triple Crown in six years. Leading the league in hitting, home runs and runs batted in, his Red Sox were unable to keep pace with the Yankees.

Johnny Pesky became the first player in the modern era to gather 200 hits in their fist three seasons. He also became the first American League player with 200 hits but less than 40 extra base hits in a season.

Across town, the Braves featured their only Most Valuable Player, ans Bob Elliott won the award for 1947. He is the only Boston Brave to win the Award under the new voting procedures. 

Pitcher Johnny Sain ended his streak of 174 consecutive plate appearances without a strikeout. He struck out on June 22^nd. His last previous strikeout was on May 1^st, 1942.

Sain formed a formidable one-two tandem with lefty Warren Spahn, which Boston fans coined the phrase "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain"

In Pittsburgh, slugger Hank Greenberg became the first player to earn $100,000 per season. (It would also be his last season as a player)

Fellow slugger, and teammate Ralph Kiner became the only Pirate to hit 50 homers in a season. He finished with 51, tied with Johnny Mize of the Giants for the home run crown. For Kiner, it would be the first of his record six straight seasons leading both leagues in homers, and the second of his (also) record of seven straight league homer crowns. 

1947 was just his second year in the league, so he is the only player with 50 homers in his second year, and became the 2^nd National league hitter to have two three-homer games during a season. (co-home run champ Johnny Mize was the first). He would hit 54 homers in 1949, becoming the first National League to hit 50 homers in a season twice.

Also for the Pirates, pitcher Art Herring, who was at the end of his long career, still holds the distinction of having the smallest shoe size of any major leaguer. He wore a size 3.

With his 51 homers, Johnny Mize and Kiner became the first two to hit 50 homers in the same season. It was the “Big Cat's” second time that he hit 40 or more homers in a season with less than 50 strikeouts.

The Giants would slug a record 221 homers in 1947.

In Chicago, The Cubs hosted the All-Star Game for the first time. Schoolboy Rowe of the Phillies became the first player to appear in the All-Star team for both leagues. He appeared as a pitcher for the Tigers in 1935-36.

Across town, the White Sox traded for slugger Rudy York from the Red Sox. York, who lived in a hotel in Boston, was awakened by the desk clerk after a hotel guest smelled smoked, and employees traced the smell to York's room. The staff entered the room and found York asleep and the room was ablaze. The awoke him and evacuated hi. He was singed a little, and suffered some smoke inhalation, but was otherwise alright. The fire was determined to have been caused by York falling asleep while smoking a cigarette in bed.

Four month's later, York's Chicago hotel room caught fire. He wasn't in the room at the time, but that fire was caused by a lit cigarette left on a window sill. York became the first (that we know of) to have caused two hotel fires during a season.

Here's my favorite part of his story. Apart from no injuries in the fires, York eventually would work for the Georgia State Forestry Commission, working as a fire prevention officer.

In Philadelphia, A's rookie Ferris Fain walked 95 times. He would walk 113 times in 1948, becoming the second player to reach 90 or more walks in his first two season. Ted Williams would be the first.

In Cincinnati, Ewell “The Whip” Blackwell won sixteen consecutive games on his way to a twenty-two win season.

In Detroit, Skeeter Webb pulled of an extremely rare feat, and may be the only one to have done so. Appearing as a pinch runner for pitcher Fred Hutchinson, Webb would be credited with driving in a run. How you may ask? Well, the Tigers batted around, and when Hutchinson/Webb's turn to bat came up, Webb knocked in a run. So in the box score, Webb only appeared as a pinch runner, was replaced by the relief pitcher, but scored a run and drove in a run.

The Cardinals' Ted Wilks finished the season with a 4-0 record. He went 8-0 in 1946. He went 77 appearances since his last defeat, which was on September 3^rd, 1945.

In Brooklyn, the Dodgers made a trade with the Pirates, which sent Hank Behrmann, Kirby Higbe and a few others in exchange for outfielder Al Gionfriddo. That trade was made on May 3^rd. For whatever reason, on June 14^th, the Pirates returned Behrmann back to the Dodgers. So while it's not a Harry Chiti situation (where he was traded for a player to be named later, and that player was named Harry Chiti), Behrmann was kinda sorta traded for himself in a way.

Along with Jackie Robinson, 1947 saw Duke Snider make his debut as well, along with the return of (then) catcher Gil Hodges, back from military commitments. (Hodges appeared in one game in 1943)

Pee Wee Reese would have the first of two 100 walk seasons by a National League shortstop. It has only been accomplished five times, and Reese did it twice (also in 1949).

Jackie Robinson would be the first winner of the Rookie of the Year Award presented by the sportswriters. 

Dan Bankhead would become the first African-American pitcher to appear in the majors. And he hit a homer in his first big league at bat as well.

The Yankees steamrolled through the American League, winning the pennant easily by twelve games over the second place Detroit Tigers. This was helped by a nineteen game winning streak in early summer.

Joe DiMaggio would win the Most Valuable Player Award for the third time (in nine seasons). In a most contentious vote, DiMaggio beat Ted Williams by one vote for the award. Williams, who won the Triple Crown was denied the award because someone left him off their ballot. Had Teddy Ballgame been put on the ballot, that would have been at least one vote, which would have resulted in at least a tie for the award. Williams won two Triple Crowns, and lost the MVP vote to DiMaggio in both of those seasons.

Pitcher Spec Shea became the third pitcher to win an All-Star Game and a World Series game in the same season.

At the conclusion of the season, with the Yankees having sewn up the pennant, they held the first ever Old-Timer's Game...a two inning affair attended by former Yankee greats, as well as retired American League greats as well. The response was so that the Yankees decided to make this an annual event, and still continues to this day.

The Yankees would face the Dodgers in the Series, the first of five times they would would meet each other in the Fall Classic over the next nine years. The Yankees would win four of those five meetings, including this one. However...

The Dodgers would be the first team to use six different starting pitchers in the Series.

1947 would mark the first World Series to use six umpires per game.

This would be the first World Series to be broadcast on television, albeit very locally.
The Yankees won in seven games.

The power numbers for the season at hand held true, and were as follows:

Yankees	World Series Champs
Dodgers	National League Champs
Cardinals	2nd in NL 5 games back
Braves	3rd in NL 8 games back
Tigers	2nd in AL 12 games back

Now to the statistical part of the posts, I want to look at the National Pitching first. The NL hurlers had an 8.65 statistical advantage over their American League counterparts, and a 10.6% advantage over the hitters.

There were five twenty-game winners in the Senior Circuit, as opposed to just one in the Junior Circuit.

Our first look at the raw numbers gives us this top ten list:

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA
Ewell Blackwell	Reds	22-8	2.47
Warren Spahn	Braves	21-10	2.33
Dutch Leonard	Phillies	17-12	2.68
Ralph Branca	Dodgers	21-12	2.67
Harry Brecheen	Cardinals	16-11	3.30
Larry Jansen	Giants	21-5	3.16
Johnny Sain	Braves	21-12	3.52
Vic Lombardi	Dodgers	12-11	2.99
Al Brazle	Cardinals	14-8	2.84
Red Munger	Cardinals	16-5	3.37

Then, comparing the pitchers with their team's performances, we get this list:

Ewell Blackwell	Above
Warren Spahn	Above
Dutch Leonard	Above
Johnny Schmitz	Cubs	13-18	3.22
Ralph Branca	Above
Fritz Ostermuller	Pirates	12-10	3.84
Johnny Sain	Above
Larry Jansen	Above
Tiny Bonham	Pirates	11-8	3.85
Vic Lombardi	Above

Adding the formula, and brings our overall top ten pitching performances in the National League (with their MVP votes) to this:

Ewell Blackwell	2nd in MVP
Warren Spahn	15th in MVP
Dutch Leonard	13th in MVP
Ralph Branca	11th in MVP
Larry Jansen	7th in MVP
Johnny Sain	16th in MVP (tie)
Harry Brecheen	No votes
Vic Lombardi	No votes
Johnny Schmitz	No votes
Fritz Ostermuller	No votes

Now, over to the American League, where the pitchers didn't fare too well against the hitters, besting the hitters by just 6.5%.

Our raw numbers bring us this list:

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA
Joe Haynes	White Sox	14-6	2.42
Bob Feller	Indians	20-11	2.68
Joe Dobson	Red Sox	18-8	2.95
Fred Hutchinson	Tigers	18-10	3.03
Eddie Lopat	White Sox	16-13	2.81
Allie Reynolds	Yankees	19-8	3.20
Spec Shea	Yankees	14-5	3.07
Phil Marchildon	A's	19-9	3.22
Joe Page	Yankees	14-8	2.48
Spud Chandler	Yankees	9-5	2.46

Of note is Joe Page also recorded 17 saves.

So, comparing to their teams, we get this list:

Joe Haynes	Above
Eddie Lopat	Above
Early Wynn	Senators	17-15	3.64
Joe Dobson	Above
Walt Masterson	Senators	12-16	3.13
Fred Hutchinson	Above
Bob Feller	Above
Phil Marchildon	Above
Denny Galehouse	Above
Spud Chandler	Above

Which brings our top American League pitchers (with their MVP votes) to:

Joe Haynes	No votes
Joe Dobson	29th in MVP
Spud Chandler	No votes
Eddie Lopat	31st in MVP
Fred Hutchinson	22nd in MVP
Bob Feller	8th in MVP
Phil Marchildon	9th in MVP
Allie Reynolds	15th MVP (tie)
Spec Shea	14th in MVP
Denny Galehouse	No votes

Now on to the batters, where the American Leaguers fared 8.4% better overall than the National Leaguers. We'll start with the Nationals.

Our top raw performers, featuring Runs Created per Game (RCG), were:

Player	Team	HR	RBI	AVG	RCG
Johnny Mize	Giants	51	138	.302	1.45
Ralph Kiner	Pirates	51	127	.313	1.28
Walker Cooper	Giants	35	122	.305	1.19
Whitey Kurowski	Cardinals	27	104	.310	1.27
Stan Musial	Cardinals	19	95	.312	1.27
Bob Elliott	Braves	22	113	.317	1.23
Enos Slaughter	Cardinals	10	86	.294	1.20
Bobby Thomson	Giants	29	85	.283	1.17
Willard Marshall	Giants	36	107	.291	1.12
Dixie Walker	Dodgers	9	94	.306	1.09

The top three teams in offense, statistically were the Dodgers, Giants and Cardinals. While the Giants and Cardinals are well represented here, there is just one Dodger in the top ten. Mistake? No. I think it shows how evenly spread out the Dodger offense was.

The Dodgers also had the best pitching in the league, so obviously that combination is what led them to the pennant.

So now, when we look at performances against their team's averages, we get this list:

Babe Young	Reds/Giants	14	79	.275	1.10
Ralph Kiner	Above
Johnny Mize	Above
Harry Walker	Phillies/Cardinals	1	41	.363	0.86
Bob Elliott	Above
Walker Cooper	Above
Andy Pafko	Cubs	13	66	.302	0.94
Phil Cavaretta	Cubs	2	63	.314	0.92
Whitey Kurowski	Above
Del Ennis	Phillies	12	81	.275	1.01

This brings our top NL batting performances to this list:

Johnny Mize	3rd in MVP
Ralph Kiner	6th in MVP
Walker Cooper	18th in MVP
Whitey Kurowski	9th in MVP (tie)
Bob Elliott	NL MVP
Stan Musial	20th in MVP (tie)
Babe Young	No votes
Enos Slaughter	20th in MVP (tie)
Harry Walker	9th in MVP (tie)
Bobby Thomson	No votes

Now to the stronger American League, and a bit of a surprise here:

Ted Williams	Red Sox	32	114	.343	1.33
Tommy Henrich	Yankees	16	98	.287	1.35
Joe DiMaggio	Yankees	20	97	.315	1.23
Billy Johnson	Yankees	10	95	.285	1.15
George McQuinn	Yankees	13	80	.304	1.05
Sam Mele	Red Sox	12	73	.302	1.07
George Kell	Tigers	5	93	.320	1.07
Jeff Heath	Indians	27	85	.251	0.99
Bobby Doerr	Red Sox	17	95	.258	1.08
Ferris Fain	A's	7	71	.291	0.99

The surprise is how Tommy Henrich rated higher than DiMaggio, who won the MVP. This is driven in part by Henrich's higher runs per game average, which was the highest in the league. Henrich scored a dozen more runs than DiMaggio, and drove in one more run. The Runs created difference was 191-174.

Also, notice how the Yanks had four hitters clumped together, which proves out because they were by far the best offensive team in the American League. While the Dodgers had a more spread out offense, the Yankees had an incredible heart of the lineup, which also carried them to the post-season

Now, as the players compared to their team averages, we get this list:

Ted Williams	Above
Mickey Vernon	Senators	7	85	.265	1.01
Jeff Heath	Above
Stan Spence	Senators	16	73	.279	0.81
Vern Stephens	Browns	15	83	.279	0.95
Ferris Fain	Above
Buddy Lewis	Senators	6	48	.261	0.78
Tommy Henrich	Above
Joe Gordon	Indians	29	93	.272	0.99
Sam Chapman	A's	14	83	.252	1.03

Our final calculations brings the top offensive American League players to this list:

Ted Williams	2nd in MVP
Tommy Henrich	13th in MVP
Joe DiMaggio	AL MVP
Jeff Heath	31st in MVP (tie)
Mickey Vernon	No votes
George Kell	5th in MVP
Ferris Fain	19th in MVP (tie)
Sam Mele	No votes
Billy Johnson	No votes
Joe Gordon	7th in MVP

If I had a vote, my top performers in each league would then be:

National League:

Johnny Mize

Player of the Year

Ewell Blackwell

Pitcher of the Year

American League:

Ted Williams

Player of the Year

Joe Haynes

Pitcher of the Year

1967 and the Impossible Dream

1967's Impossible Dream

Prior to the beginning of the 1967 campaign, Boston Red Sox' new manager, Dick Williams, promised that his team would “win more games than we lose”. The Las Vegas odds-makers tabbed the Sox as 100-1 long-shots to make the World Series.

Williams was right, Vegas was wrong.

The Red Sox had many highlights, as well as a few low-lights, on their way to the American League pennant, in what many called “The Great Race”. Four teams entered the final weekend of the season with a chance of winning the pennant outright. It took the Tigers dropping the second game of a doubleheader to the Angels to finalize the pennant for the Red Sox (who were listening to the game in their clubhouse.

All told, the top three runners up finished no more than three games behind Boston.

The Red Sox became the first American League Champion to reach seventy losses in a season, and Williams would be the first Sox skipper to reach the Series in his rookie season at the helm.

The Sox would win their first pennant since 1946, and would face the Cardinals in the Series, just as they did in...1946. And St. Louis would win in seven games...just like in...yes, 1946.

The early season showed the rest of the League what the Sox were capable of, as Rookie pitcher Bill Rohr became just the fifth pitcher to pitch a one-hitter in his debut. Future teammate Elston Howard, then of the Yankees, doubled off of Rohr to get the only hit. A week later, Rohr pitched another complete game victory over the Yankees. He wouldn't win another game that season. He would be sent to the minors, and eventually made it back to the majors the following year with the Indians, where he would earn his third and final career win.

Local star Tony Conigliaro, from nearby Revere, Massachusetts, was easily one of the most players on the Red Sox. Destined for super-stardom, he reached 100 career home runs faster than anyone else in American League history.

Tragically, in August of 1967, Tony C was hit in a face by a pitch by Jack Hamilton of the Angels, and nearly died. He suffered a fractured cheekbone, a dislocated jaw, and damage to his left retina. He was taken from the field on a stretcher, and didn't return to the field until 1968.

Carl “Yaz” Yastrzemksi was the cream of the crop in the American League. Winning the American League's second Triple Crown in as many years (Frank Robinson of the Orioles won it in 1966), Yaz easily was voted the League's MVP Award. (Not unanimous, but more on that in a minute)

For the SABRmetric heads out there, Carl finished with a WAR (Wins Against Replacement) number of 12.4. The only other player who reached that number or higher during a season was another former Red Sox, Babe Ruth) In fact, over the course of his career, Yaz reached base 5,305 times, which is the fifth highest total in history.

And in a totally random statistic, Yastrzemski became just the third player with ten or more letters in his last name to hit forty or more homers in a season.

There were quite a few future stars who debuted in 1967. Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson and Tom Seaver, along with Graig Nettles, Amos Otis, Joe Niekro and Sparky Lyle.

Seaver and Carew would each be named the Rookie of the Year in their league. Since the inception of a Rookie of the Year for each league, this marked the second time that both winners would become eventual Hall of Famers. The other time previous? 1956, when Luis Aparicio and Frank Robinson were the winners. (It then happened in 1977, with Andre Dawson and Eddie Murray)

Seaver would be the first Met to win the Rookie of the Year, and Carew the Twin's second. (Tony Oliva in 1964)

For the White Sox, Joe Horlen won the ERA title. No White Sox pitcher has won it since.

In Los Angeles, the Dodgers had their first ever rain-out on April 21^st. The next postponement for them would be 724 games later, in 1976.

Jim Bunning of the Phillies would set a dubious record by losing five 1-0 games in 1967. He finished at 17-15, and became the oldest pitcher (at the time) to lead his league in strikeouts.

In the Bronx, Mickey Mantle became the sixth player to join the 500 home run club, behind Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Mel Ott and Ted Williams.

In Houston, rookie Don Wilson became the fifth National League rookie to pitch a no-hitter. However, Wilson's was the first both on AstroTurf and indoors.

And Eddie Mathews became the seventh player to reach 500 home runs in his career. He is the only player to have done it as a Houston Astro, and hitting it off of San Francisco's Juan Marichal marks the only time a 500^th home run was given up by a future Hall of Famer.

At Shea Stadium, the Mets held on to a slim lead over the Pirates...but the Bucs had the bases loaded with no one out in the top of the ninth. Then...the unthinkable happened. Clutch hitter Bill Mazeroski and hit into a game ending triple play...the kind of stuff that only happens in the movies.

Well, that's what happened.

The Mets and Pirates agreed to film the scene before a game, for the movie “The Odd Couple”

so, it never happened. As an interesting side note, originally the movie producers wanted Roberto Clemente to be the batter, but he declined because he though that the scene might show him in a bad light.

If you have ever seen the film, or seen the scene, it is next to impossible to discern any of the players.

But, speaking of Clemente, he became the first batting champion with 100 strikeouts.

In Minnesota, the Twins became the first team with three pitcher to have 200 or more strikeouts in a season. Dave Boswell, Dean Chance and Jim Kaat all reached that plateau.

Utility player Cesar Tovar, who would garner the only other Most Valuable Player vote apart from Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski, set the American league record for appearing in 164 games during the season.

In San Francisco, Mike McCormick became the first Giants pitcher to win the Cy Young Award. In the first season when the award was given for each league, McCormick and Boston pitcher Jim Lonborg (who is the first Red Sox winner as well) it marks the only time that both winners were 20 game winners for the only time in their career. And was the first time that either winner did not finish in the top ten in ERA.

For the Cubs, 1967 marked the first of six straight twenty win seasons for Fergie Jenkins. The Cubs reached first place on July 2^nd, the first time that they were in first this late in the season since 1945. Winning that game in Chicago that put them in first, many of the die-hards waited in the stands until the pennants atop Wrigley Field were re-arranged to show the Cubbies in first.

Unfortunately, they lost the following day, and didn't make it to the top again during the season.

Pitcher Don Larsen, who didn't play in the majors in 1966, pitched sparingly for the Cubs in 1967, and announced his retirement from the game. He was the last active player that played for the St. Louis Browns.

Now, we'll get to Kansas City, where Charlie Finley and the local government were at odds. For several years, the A's and Kansas City had been bickering and arbitrating, and suing and negotiating ways to keep the A's in town, with an agreeable lease on their stadium.

This all came to a head when the Kansas City city council voted to approve funding for a brand new state of the art football facility for the Kansas City Chiefs, but 'nickel and dimed' Finley and the A's, who nickel and dimed them right back.

Finley, who was quite a showman, realized the power of marketing, and the ramifications beyond the Athletics's ball-club. Often forgotten is the fact that Finley was very instrumental in getting the Beatles to perform at Municipal Stadium in 1964, paying the Beatles a then unheard of $150,000 for one performance. The Beatles played for thirty-two minutes.

This concert was the lowest selling concert of that tour, selling just over 20,000 tickets. Some put the low attendance to the local animosity towards Finley, who is estimated to have lost upwards of $100,000 of his own money on the concert.

Turmoil followed the Kansas City club all season long, both on and off the field. There was an incident on a commercial flight from Baltimore (The A's were the only team that did not use charter flights, saving the ball-club $50,000 per year) where there were some adult beverages consumed, and a rowdiness that ensued. The details are sketchy as to what did happen on the flight, but word reached Finley, who was at home in Indiana.

Finley asked manager Alvin Dark to look into the issue, and handle it. Dark said he would take care of it, but it wasn't to Charlie's satisfaction.

Finley called pitcher Lew Krausse and informed him that he was fined and immediately suspended from the team until further notice. He then instructed one of his public relations people to type a memo to be posted immediately in the clubhouse stating that from now on, there would be no alcohol consumption of any kind during air travel. Alvin Dark was given his own personal copy of the memo, as per Finley's instructions, and was incensed. Dark believed that he handled the matter in the best way, only to have Finley turn it upside down.

The players were none too happy, and resolved to answer Finley in a very public way.

As fate would have it, Finley met with Dark on a trip to Chicago. They had a private meeting, in which Finley discussed the way that Dark should have handled the airplane issue. Finley accused Dark of creating an 'us against him' mentality on the ball-club. Dark disagreed, saying that he was more concerned with the harmony and morale of the club.

After a few hours, and calmer demeanors, the talk turned to the ball-club at large. Dark, a seasoned baseball man, and one regarded to have a great eye for talent, flat out told Finley that this team would be a serious contender by1971. Finley agreed , and after a few more hours had passed, he had not only forgiven Dark, but had offered him a contract extension.

They called a press conference, and as they walked together, a reporter asked Finley about the rebuttal. Finley hadn't heard about it, so he asked Dark, who said that he knew about I, but thought the players would confer with him before releasing it. They hadn't.

Finley was incensed, and fired Dark on the spot. Conveniently enough, Luke Appling just happened to be staying at the same hotel, at Finley's behest, meaning that Finley had in mind to fire Dark at the outset of their initial meeting. Finley made various threats to his players and they responded back with the first unfair labor practice charge brought against a major league ball-club.

A's first-baseman Ken Harrelson called Finley a “menace to baseball”, which led Finley to 'fire' Harrelson. This was a most unusual, and unprecedented move. Had he placed Harrelson on waivers, the A's may have been able to recoup a bit of money. Instead by releasing, or firing him, he voided the contract, which made Harrelson a free agent immediately, and free to negotiate his own deal with whichever club he desired. (Major League Baseball closed the loophole that made this possible, so it couldn't happen again...players released in this manner had to be placed on irrevocable waivers first, and could then be claimed by a team who could negotiate a deal)

Harrelson, after a couple of days, contemplated apologizing to Finley, but then he began getting approached by teams looking to sign him. He parlayed that into a $75,000 contract with the World Series bound Red Sox, with a deal in place for 1968.

Also for the A's, the deal was set, however, and Oakland was to be the new home of the A's, beginning with the 1968 season. This news prompted United States Senator Sy Symington, who represented Kansas, to call Oakland, “The luckiest city this side of Hiroshima”.

There were threats and lawsuits made by Kansas City, the most serious was Senator Symington's threat to look into revoking Major League Baseball's anti-trust exemption, a threat the baseball took as real. The American League owners scrambled, and agreed to an expansion, which would happen sometime before the 1971 season, and would include a franchise for Kansas City and Seattle.

This angered their national League counterparts, who were sure that the leagues would negotiate for the northwest territory that the AL had now claimed. After several meetings, the National announced that they would not challenge the rights to the Seattle area, and that they would also prepare an expansion in the same time frame, and would involve franchises on two of the following cities: Buffalo, Dallas, Denver, Milwaukee, Montreal and/or San Diego.

Back in Oakland, Finley's first order of business was to hire a new Vice President of baseball operations. Joe DiMaggio. This move was considered a coup, as many couldn't believe that the Yankees hadn't hired DiMaggio for a job beyond a Spring Training hitting instructor/goodwill ambassador. The reality of the hire was two-fold. DiMaggio, who had grown up in the Bay Area gave the A's a local flavor immediately. And secondly. He was two years of service short to qualify for the maximum pension allowance.

On the field, Jim “Catfish” Hunter became the last pitcher to hurl five innings in an All-Star Game. The 1967 game, held in Anaheim, was the longest Mid-summer Classic, ending in fifteen innings. Cincinnati third-baseman Tony Perez hit a game-winning homer off of Hunter to cement the NL victory.

The final score was 2-1, and all three runs were scored on solo homers. In addition to Perez, Dick Allen of the Phillies and Brooks Robinson of the Orioles also went deep in the game.

But the majority of the news came out of St. Louis, where the Cardinals won the pennant handily, besting the second place Giants by ten and a half games. They won one hundred and one games during the season, and although it took them seven games, they were able to beat the Red Sox in the World Series.

The first oddity is one that I haven't been able to verify, but according to legend, Roger Maris hit a one in a billion homer. Let me explain with the hard facts...Maris was traded to the Cardinals by the Yankees for third baseman Charley Smith. He wore uniform number nine with the Yankees (where it has been retired), and the same number with the Cardinals. On May ninth, Maris hit his first National League home run. Those are the facts .

The legend goes, and it has been difficult to verify this beyond one source, was that the homer went into the stands, landing in the ninth seat of the ninth row. All the nines converging make it possibly the most unique homer in major league history.

But I digress...

On July 15^th, while hosting the Pirates, in a game the Cardinals would eventually lose, they lost more than just the game. Pirates slugger Roberto Clemente lined a ball off of pitcher Bob Gibson's leg. Gibson went down like he was shot, as Clemente reached base.

The trainer for the Cardinals came running out to the mound, and began tending to Gibson, who was in a lot of pain. He began spraying ethyl chloride on the injured area, but Gibson complained that the cooling agent was not in the right spot, and wasn't helping with the pain. The trainer pointed out to Gibson that he was spraying the 'baseball shaped dent' in Gibson's skin.

After a few moments, Gibson, one of the fiercest competitors the game has known, was on his feet, ready to try a few warm up tosses to see if he could continue, which he was able to do.

The game continued, and Gibson walked Willie Stargell, then got Bill Mazeroski to pop out. He reached a full count on Donn Clendennon, so he 'tried to open up on a fastball' when his fibula 'snapped in two'.

Gibson missed fifty-two games, but returned with a 7-1 victory over the Phillies.

In other Cardinals news, Lou Brock became the third player to make 200 hits, but finish batting below .300. (Jo-Jo White and Maury Wills did it before him) Not known for his slugging, Brock became the first to hit five homers in his teams first four games.

Orlando Cepeda won the National League Most Valuable Player Award, by a unanimous vote, just the third National Leaguer to do so. (Carl Hubbell and Frank Robinson had done it previously.)

The World Series featured the Red Sox and the Cardinals, as I mentioned earlier. The Cards won in seven games. Lou Brock stole a record seven bases during the Series, including three in the seventh game. (He would steal seven in the '68 Series as well)

Red Sox pitcher Jose Santiago became the first pitcher to homer in his first World Series game, and is the only pitcher in baseball history to hit a homer in a game that resulted in his team's loss.

OK, now on to the boring statistics....

The Power rankings were true to form, with the top five teams:

Cardinals	World Series Champs
Red Sox	American League Champs
White Sox	4th in AL
Giants	2nd in NL
Tigers	2nd in AL

First. Let's look at the American League pitching, where they fared 5% better than their National League counterparts. This season appears fairly flat, with the AL pitchers faring better than the pitchers, but the National League hitters faring 4.9% better than their American League brethren.

Combining those quotients means the leagues were pretty evenly matched, overall.

In our initial ranking, raw numbers, our leaders are:

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA	Saves
Joe Horlen	White Sox	19-7	2.06	0
Hoyt Wilhelm	White Sox	8-3	1.31	12
Moe Drabowsky	Orioles	7-5	1.60	12
Gary Peters	White Sox	16-11	2.28	0
Dean Chance	Twins	20-14	2.62	1
Steve Hargan	Indians	14-13	2.62	0
Jim Lonborg	Red Sox	22-9	3.16	0
Al Downing	Yankees	14-41	2.63	0
Earl Wilson	Tigers	22-11	3.27	0
Sonny Siebert	Indians	10-12	2.38	4

You will notice a lot of White Sox pitchers, which figures since they had the best pitching in the league, but their offense was sixth best, which is why they didn't finish higher. For comparison sake, the Red Sox had the second best pitching, and then the top offensive team, which propelled them to the League Championship.

Now, as we compare the pitchers to their team's performances, we get this list:

Catfish Hunter	A's	13-17	2.81	0
Moe Drabowsky	Above
Al Downing	Above
Steve Hargan	Above
Sonny Siebert	Above
Joe Horlen	Above
Dean Chance	Above
Luis Tiant	Indians	12-9	2.74	2
Mel Stottlemyre	Yankees	15-15	2.96	0
Jim Lonborg	Above

That brings us to this list of top American League pitching performances, with their post season voting results:

Joe Horlen	2nd in Cy Young, 4th in MVP
Moe Drabowsky	No votes
Steve Hargan	No votes
Al Downing	No votes
Hoyt Wilhelm	No votes
Dean Chance	13th in MVP
Jim Lonborg	1st in Cy Young, 6th in MVP
Gary Peters	9th in MVP
Sonny Siebert	No votes
Earl Wilson	12th in MVP

With the beginning of each league awarding a Cy Young Award, this seemed to get in the way of pitchers also garnering MVP votes, with the belief of some voters that there should be one award now for pitchers, and one for everyday players. Their minds were changed after the 1968 season, when pitchers won the MVP Award for both leagues.

Now, over to the National league pitchers, our initial numbers bring us this list:

Ted Abernathy	Cubs	6-3	1.27	28
Juan Marichal	Giants	14-10	2.76	0
Mike McCormick	Giants	22-10	2.85	0
Fergie Jenkins	Cubs	20-13	2.80	0
Jim Bunning	Phillies	17-15	2.29	0
Dick Hughes	Cardinals	16-6	2.67	3
Bob Gibson	Cardinals	13-7	2.98	0
Phil Niekro	Braves	11-9	1.87	9
Mel Queen	Reds	14-8	2.76	0
Ken Johnson	Braves	13-9	2.74	0

In the National League, the Cardinals had both the top pitching and the top hitting team.

The NL pitchers against their team's average performances:

Phil Niekro	Above
Tom Seaver	Mets	16-13	2.76	0
Ken Johnson	Above
Mike Cuellar	Astros	16-11	3.03	1
Don Wilson	Astros	10-09	2.79	0
Fergie Jenkins	Above
Jim Bunning	Above
Pat Jarvis	Braves	15-10	3.66	0
Ron Taylor	Mets	4-6	2.38	8
Ted Abernathy	Above

The Mets and Astros had the worst two pitching staffs in the league, so the 4 players listed above were helped by that fact.

Our top overall pitchers in the National league then, are as follows:

Phil Niekro	No votes
Ted Abernathy	20th in MVP
Ken Johnson	No votes
Tom Seaver	Rookie of the Year, 22nd in MVP (tie)
Fergie Jenkins	3rd in Cy Young, 12th in MVP
Jim Bunning	22nd in MVP (tie)
Juan Marichal	No votes
Mike McCormick	1st in Cy Young, 6th in MVP
Mike Cuellar	No votes
Frank Linzy	No votes

Linzy, pitching for the Giants, was 7-7 with a 1.51 ERA and 17 saves.

Now to look at the American League offense, despite having the first Triple Crown winner in ten years, the league didn't fare as well as a whole as the National League. The top hitters initially were:

Player	Team	HR	RBI	AVG	SB
Carl Yastrzemski	Red Sox	44	121	.326	10
Frank Robinson	Orioles	30	94	.311	2
Al Kaline	Tigers	25	78	.308	8
Harmon Killebrew	Twins	44	113	.269	1
Tony Oliva	Twins	17	83	.289	11
Bill Freehan	Tigers	20	74	.282	1
Don Mincher	Angels	25	76	.273	0
George Scott	Red Sox	19	82	.303	10
Brooks Robinson	Orioles	22	77	.269	1
Frank Howard	Senators	36	89	.256	0

And then compared to their team's average performance, we get:

Frank Robinson	Above
Al Kaline	Above
Carl Yastrzemski	Above
Harmon Killebrew	Above
Don Mincher	Above
Frank Howard	Above
Mickey Mantle	Yankees	22	55	.245	1
Rick Monday	A's	14	58	.251	3
Ken McMullen	Senators	16	67	.245	5

Then we get our final top ten ranking of:

Carl Yastrzemski	1st in MVP
Frank Robinson	11th in MVP
Al Kaline	5th in MVP
Harmon Killebrew	2nd in MVP
Don Mincher	21st in MVP (tie)
Tony Oliva	19th in MVP
Bill Freehan	3rd in MVP
Frank Howard	No votes
Brooks Robinson	No votes
George Scott	10th in MVP

And then over to the National League, our initial look brings us:

Roberto Clemente	Pirates	23	110	.357	9
Dick Allen	Phillies	23	77	.307	20
Hank Aaron	Braves	39	109	.307	17
Orlando Cepeda	Cardinals	25	111	.325	11
Ron Santo	Cubs	31	98	.300	1
Jim Ray Hart	Giants	29	99	.289	1
Jimmy Wynn	Astros	37	107	.249	16
Willie McCovey	Giants	31	91	.276	3
Tim McCarver	Cardinals	14	69	.295	8
Lou Brock	Cardinals	21	76	.299	52

Now comparing to their teams, we get:

Dick Allen	Above
Hank Aaron	Above
Roberto Clemente	Above
Tommy Davis	Mets	16	73	.302	9
Jim Ray Hart	Above
Jimmy Wynn	Above
Pete Rose	Reds	12	76	.301	11
Willie McCovey	Above
Tony Perez	Reds	26	102	.290	0

That brings us to our final top ten ranking of:

Roberto Clemente	3rd in MVP
Dick Allen	19th in MVP
Hank Aaron	5th in MVP
Orlando Cepeda	1st in MVP
Ron Santo	4th in MVP
Jim Ray Hart	17th in MVP (tie)
Jimmy Wynn	11th in MVP
Willie McCovey	29th in MVP
Tim McCarver	2nd in MVP
Pete Rose	10th in MVP

So, if I were to have had voting privileges, my vote would have been as follows:

American League Player of the Year:

Carl Yastrzemski

American League Pitcher of the Year:

Joe Horlen

National League Player of the Year:

Roberto Clemente

National League Pitcher of the Year:

Phil Niekro