1968...No
runs, spitballs and Williamston Kid
1968
is looked at by baseball historians as 'the year of the pitcher. By
the time the season was over, there was baseball's last thirty-game
winner, a minuscule ERA of 1.12 from a pitcher that managed to lose 9
games, including going winless for a month, and a record consecutive
shutout innings record that would last for twenty years.
It
also saw four teams that scored less than five hundred runs over the
season, the lowest batting average for a league leader and the lowest
combined league batting average, ever.
And
the stage was set for huge changes in baseball's operating protocols.
Let's
look at that first.
1968
brought the Athletic's franchise to Oakland from Kansas City.
Lawsuits, counter-suits, public deals and backroom deals led to the
third franchise shift for the A's, and had Kansas Senator Sy
Symington stating that Oakland was “...the luckiest city since
Hiroshima.” following A's owner Charles Finley's departure.
The
love/hate relationship between Finley and the Kansas City politicians
and public officials, had lost any semblance of love. The final straw
for Finley was the use of public funds to build a new stadium for the
Kansas City football team, while the A's were trying to get the same
funding for a stadium as well.
In
order to placate the Kansas City populace, the American League
decided to allow the Oakland move, with the promise of league
expansion to include Kansas City, and that expansion would happen as
soon as possible.
The
expansion was voted on, and drastic realignment was decided upon as
well. Instead of one twelve team league, there would now be two six
team divisions within the league, and would lead to a playoff series
to determine the League Champion.
The
main argument in favor of this radical realignment was simply a
financial one. As in “it's easier to sell tickets to a sixth place
team than for a twelfth place team”.
Kansas
City and Seattle were awarded new franchise, with both teams being
assigned to the American League West . They were joined by Minnesota,
Oakland California and Chicago.
To
facilitate this, the schedule also had to be adjusted, in such a way
that teams played their divisional opponents more regularly than they
did the other teams in the league.
The
National League was initially opposed to expansion, arguing that it
was too soon after the expansions of 1961/62. and were afraid of
diluting the talent.
They
finally relented, and adopted the same divisional format that the
American League did, adding teams in Montreal and San Diego.
During
these expansion notifications, it was also decided to end the tenure
of Commissioner William Eckert, who was 'allowed' to resign. Some
owners felt that Eckert 'lacked the vision' to help baseball reach a
larger audience.
After
a lengthy process, over several months, baseball finally named Bowie
Kuhn as its next commissioner.
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.
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 first 30 game
winner since 1934. (And a number not reached since)
And
while McClain was the star, it was Luis Tiant of the Cleveland
Indians that started the All-Star Game for the American League.
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 center fielder for
the Yankees was spending his time as a first baseman.
Mickey
would retire at the end of the season. During a late season game,
Tiger pitcher Denny McLain decided to groove one for the Mick, and
Tiger catcher Jim Price told Mantle of McLain's idea. Denny served up
a fastball, which Mantle hit over the fence for a homer, Mickey's
535th
career homer, moving him past Jimmie Foxx into third place on the
all-time list, behind Babe Ruth and Willie Mays.
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 thirty-four, did hit .287, but that was 19 points below his career number.
But, those performances were among the top in the National League.
There
were 1,000 less homers hit in 1968 than in 1961.
The
top team offensively were :
American League
|
National League
|
Tigers
|
Reds
|
Red Sox
|
Cubs
|
A's
|
Giants
|
The
National League, as a whole, 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, 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. Then, he pitched five straight shutouts, in the process of
allowing just two runs in ninety-five innings.
The
Cardinals as a team pitched 30 shutouts, 31 one-run games, and 21
two-run games. All told, they allowed just 472 runs on the season.
They 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
top pitching teams were:
Tigers
|
Cardinals
|
Orioles
|
Giants
|
Indians
|
Mets
|
Dennis
Dale “Denny” McLain.
Easily
one of the brightest spots in the 1968 season, compiling one of the
best seasons of the modern era. It is easy enough to see that 31-6
record, with a 1.96 ERA and understand that he was phenomenal.
He
was also a very free spirit. As a part time musician, he would
sometimes refer to himself as an organist that also plays baseball.
Denny's off the field exploits were legendary, and sometimes both
unethical and illegal.
He
had a voracious thirst for Pepsi, and was known to drink upwards of
20 bottles a day. This earned him an endorsement deal with Pepsi.
He
was on top of the game, and had the baseball world at his knees. He
would win an MVP, two consecutive Cy Young Awards, and was a three
time All-Star.
Denny
, whose nickname was “Mighty Mouth”, wasn't ashamed of his cocky,
arrogant reputation. When he wasn't pitching, he was playing
concerts, promoting rock concerts and hosting a talk show. He took
flying lessons, then bought his own plane to fly. He also hustled
golf games and made some rather dubious investments...more on that in
a minute.
He
was also known to be a 'fish' within the Tiger clubhouse, regularly
playing, and losing at, card games.
He
(allegedly) entrusted his money to a group of unscrupulous lawyers
that made his money disappear. He was finally evicted from his home,
and had all of his furniture repossessed by the Internal Revenue
Service.
He
was making over $200,000 per year, but never seemed to have enough
money.
In
1967, McClain stumbled on a great investment opportunity. Despite
baseball's long standing policy on gambling, and being associated
with known gamblers, McLain decided to invest $5,000 in a bookmaking
ring.
There
was a horse named Wlliamston Kid, who was a long shot running at the
Detroit Race Course. This horse caught the eye of a man named Hubert
Voshen, who was a successful businessman that owned and operated a
truck stop near Battle Creek.
Mr.
Voshen was inspired enough by the horse, that he put $8,000 on it to
win through McLain's syndicate. The horse did win, bringing Voshen a
$46,000 windfall.
McLain
and his partners did not have the money to cover the pay out, and
they passed Voshen between various bookies to collect the money.
Voshen
allegedly also received several phone calls asking for patience. One
of these calls was reportedly from Baseball Hall of Famer Lou
Boudreau, who happened to be McLain's father-in-law.
Voshen
was getting frustrated by the runaround, and finally had a meeting
with an 'enforcer' from a local Detroit 'family'. The enforcer
invited McLain to a meeting on his boat, where the enforcer exerted a
little bit of pressure to convince (or coerce) the pitcher to 'pay his bills', and
to reinforce the matter, stomped on two toes on McLain's left foot,
crushing them.
At
least that was the version put forward by Sports
Illustrated,
in an article called “Downfall of a Hero”, published in February
of 1970.
Denny
McLain claimed that never happened, that he never met an enforcer,
never was on an enforcer's boat on the Detroit River, and never had
his foot stomped on.
In
his autobiography, titled Nobody's
Perfect, McLain
said the foot injury was caused by a common household accident. As
in, he was on his couch watching television, and his foot fell
asleep. He tripped as he got up and stubbed his toes.
Although
at a later date, he claimed to have hurt his toes while chasing
raccoons that had gotten into his garbage cans.
What
does it matter?
Well, the toes were injured badly enough that McLain
missed several starts at the end of the 1967 season. The Tigers and
Red Sox were tied for first place going into the final game, where
McLain was on the mound, but didn't last three innings, giving up
three runs. The Tigers lost that game, and lost the pennant by one
game, with many Tiger players blaming McLain for the loss.
In
the Sports
Illustrated article,
their investigation showed that the 'enforcer's brother had bet
heavily against
the
Tigers on that last game of the season...
Allegedly,
McLain and his group did finally raise the cash to pay off Hubert
Voshen, but never delivered the money. Voshen was killed in a
mysterious single car accident. His car was found wrapped around a
tree, with a dry pavement and good visibility on a straight road.
Almost
immediately after the Sports
Illustrated
magazine hit newsstands, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspended Denny
McLain indefinitely, for gambling. He was allowed to return to the
game in July, 1970, but was nowhere near the dominant force that he
once was.
After
bouncing between several teams, major and minor league, he was out
of baseball by 1973. He was not yet thirty years old.
But
back to 1968...
The
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.
1968
was the first time that the two Cy Young Award winners faced each
other in the Series (Gibson and McLain).
In
Game One of the Series, Bob Gibson threw a shutout, striking out
seventeen batters in the process, establishing a new record that has
yet to be broken.
Game
Two featured Tiger pitcher Mickey Lolich hitting a home run in his
first World Series at-bat. He had never hit one in the regular
season,either before or after this.
Lolich
would be the last pitcher to start and win three games in the Series.
(Randy Johnson won three games, but only started two of those games)
The
Cardinals won the next two games, but then lost the last three,
giving the Tigers the Championship behind Lolich's pitching a
complete game on two days rest. And Bob Gibson taking the complete
game loss.
On
a side note, Cardinal shortstop Dal Maxvill set an all-time futility
record by going hitless in twenty-two official at bats during the
Series.
The
top overall team power rankings were:
Cardinals
|
National League Champs
|
Tigers
|
World Series Champs
|
Orioles
|
2nd in AL
|
Giants
|
2nd in NL
|
Reds
|
4th in NL
|
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 again 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.
There was also an issue with enforcing the spitball
rule during the 1968 season. Umpires were far more diligent in
looking for any perceived doctoring of baseballs by the pitchers.
Umpire Chris Pelekoudas called Cubs pitcher Phil
Regan on an illegal pitch in a game against the Reds. Claiming that
he saw an unusual 'break on the ball', and called each suspected
pitch a ball.
Three times this happened. Twice with Alex Johnson as
the batter. Johnson made two outs, but each time was called back to
the plate, as the pitch was deemed a ball.
Later in the game, Pete Rose struck out, but again
Pelekoudas observed the unusual break, and Pete was allowed to return
to the box, where he singled.
The Cubs vehemently protested the ruling, as the
game, but commissioner Eckert abided by the umpire's ruling publicly,
but also told the Cubs that he didn't believe the basis for the
ruling.
In another instance involving Phillies pitcher John
Boozer, umpire Ed Vargo noticed Boozer spit on his hand before
throwing his first warm-up pitch, and determined this to be a
violation of the spitball rule, and yelled “Ball One”.
Phillies manager Gene Mauch flew out of the dugout
to argue that it was only a warm up pitch, but Vargo claimed the rule
stated clearly that since Boozer was on the mound, he was not allowed
to spit on, or lick his fingers at all.
Mauch said “What if I tell him to spit on his hand
again?”
“Then that's Ball Two”.
Mauch had Boozer do it, and Vargo yelled “Ball
Two”.
Mauch had Boozer do it a third time,..”Ball Three”
On the fourth pitch, Vargo ejected both Mauch and
Boozer.
Reliever Dick Hall came in to relieve Boozer, facing
Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson, the recipient of the 3-0 windfall. But
Harrelson failed to capitalize, taking two strikes before grounding
out.
Afterward, National League President Warren Giles
said that Vargo was in fact, incorrect. That the spitball rule did
not apply to warm up pitches.
Other things of note from the baseball world in
1968:
Oakland A's pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter pitches
the first perfect game since Don Larsen's World Series perfecto. In
one of the great all around pitching performances, Catfish also went
3-4, driving in three runs.
Bert Campaneris of the A's led the American League
with sixty-two stolen bases, an American League record for a
shortstop.
Cleveland star hurler Luis Tiant held opposing
batters to a record .168 batting average.
Dodger's star pitcher (and All-Star Game starter)
Don Drysdale eclipsed Walter Johnson's consecutive shutout innings
record, by going 58 and 2/3rds scoreless innings.
Mets rookie pitcher Jim McAndrew lost his first
five career decisions, In those five decisions, the Mets were shut
out in four of them.
Giants ace pitcher Gaylord Perry pitched a no-hitter
against the St. Louis Cardinals on September 17th. The
next day, Cardinals hurler Ray Washburn pitches a no-hitter against
the Giants. This is the only time that has occurred.
Cubs pitcher Ferguson Jenkins finished 20-15. nine
of the fifteen losses were shutouts, a record for the most shutout
losses by a twenty-game winner in the twentieth century.
And Cubs catcher Randy Hundley caught in 160 games.
Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain was the second
earliest pitcher to notch his twentieth win, doing so on July 27th.
Tigers outfielder Jim Northrup became the sixth
player to hit two Grand Slam home runs in the same game, but is the
only player to hit three Grand Slams in a week.
Slugger Eddie Mathews retires from the Tigers. He is
the last active player from the Boston Braves.
White Sox knuckleballer Wilbur Wood establishes a
new American League record by pitching in 88 games.
Teammate, and fellow knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm
pitches in his 907th career game, breaking Cy Young's long
standing record.
Cincinnati Reds outfielder Pete Rose won his first
batting title. He is the first switch hitter to lead the league in
hitting.
Pirates pitcher Jim Bunning strikes out his 1,000th
National League batter. He becomes the first to strike out 1,000 in
each league since Cy Young,
On April 15
th, the Houston Astros
defeated the Mets 1-0 in a twenty-four inning contest. It remains the
longest game to have ended in a shutout.
In Atlanta, Hank Aaron hit his five hundredth career
home run.
In Washington, shortstop Ron Hansen pulls of
baseball's first unassisted triple-play since 1927.
And Frank Howard (a.k.a. The Capitol Punisher) went on a record home run tear. He
hit ten home runs in six games, May 12
th through the 18
th.
Giants rookie outfielder Barry Bonds became the
first player since 1898 to hit a Grand Slam home in his first major
league game.
For the Phillies, Dick Allen hit three homers
against the Mets on the last game of the season. He becomes the
second player to accomplish that.
In the relatively new baseball draft, which was in
its fourth year, the Mets had the first overall pick, which they use
to draft infielder Tim Foli out of Notre Dame High School in Canoga
Park, California.
Other first round picks included Pete Broberg by Oakland,
Thurman Munson by the Yankees, Bobby Valentine by the Dodgers, Greg
Luzinski by the Phillies and Gary Mathews by the Giants.
The Los Angeles Dodgers seemed to fare better than the
rest. They also drafted Joe Ferguson, Doyle Alexander and Bill
Buckner. The Red Sox drafted Cecil Cooper and Ben Oglivie.
Ken Forsch was drafted in the eighteenth round by
the Astros, while brother Bob was drafted in the twenty-sixth round
by the Cardinals.
Around the minor leagues, Rochester's Merv
Rettenmund was selected as
The Sporting News Minor
League Player of the Year. He hit .331 for the Red Wings.
In the AA Eastern
League, five qualifying pitchers finished the season with ERAs under
2.00. They were Silvano Quezada of York (1.34), Paul Campbell of
Elmira (1.53), Patrick Bayless of Reading (1.76), Gene Rounsaville of
Reading (1.76) and Richard Baney of Pittsfield (1.84).
In the Carolina
League, Tony Solaita led all of professional baseball in home runs.
He hit 49 homers and drove in 122 for the High Point-Thomasville
Hi-Toms. That earned the Samoa-born slugger a call up to the Yankees,
where he struck out in his only at bat. It would take him several
more years to reach the majors again, Playing for the Kansas City
Royals in 1974, and playing for Jack McKeon, who was his manger in
High Point-Thomasville.
Back to the big
leagues, and the statistical breakdown.
Looking at the
American League offense first, where the league as a whole fared 2.5%
lower than the National League hitters, we get this initial top ten list:
Player
|
Team
|
HR
|
RBI
|
AVG
|
RCG
|
Ken Harrelson
|
Red Sox
|
35
|
109
|
.275
|
1.02
|
Bill Freehan
|
Tigers
|
25
|
84
|
.263
|
0.85
|
Carl Yastrzemski
|
Red Sox
|
23
|
74
|
.301
|
0.90
|
Frank Robinson
|
Orioles
|
15
|
52
|
.268
|
0.82
|
Frank Howard
|
Senators
|
44
|
106
|
.274
|
0.89
|
Jim Northrup
|
Tigers
|
21
|
90
|
.264
|
0.94
|
Willie Horton
|
Tigers
|
36
|
85
|
.285
|
0.78
|
Tony Oliva
|
Twins
|
18
|
68
|
.289
|
0.81
|
Dick McAuliffe
|
Tigers
|
16
|
56
|
.249
|
0.89
|
Reggie Smith
|
Red Sox
|
15
|
69
|
.265
|
0.85
|
Then as compared to
their team's average performers, that top ten list is as follows:
Frank Howard
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Frank Robinson
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Ken Harrelson
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Roy White
|
Yankees
|
17
|
62
|
.267
|
0.87
|
Carl Yastrzemski
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Rick Reichardt
|
Angels
|
21
|
73
|
.255
|
0.75
|
Tony Oliva
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Bill Freehan
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Jim Fregosi
|
Angels
|
9
|
49
|
.244
|
0.74
|
Duane Josephson
|
White Sox
|
6
|
45
|
.247
|
0.58
|
Applying my formula,
which gives my true rating, we get this final list of top ten
offensive players, along with their post season BBWAA vote:
Ken Harrelson
|
3rd in MVP
|
Frank Howard
|
8th in MVP
|
Frank Robinson
|
No votes
|
Carl Yastrzemski
|
9th in MVP
|
Bill Freehan
|
2nd in MVP
|
Tony Oliva
|
19th in MVP (tie)
|
Jim Northrup
|
13th in MVP
|
Roy White
|
12th in MVP
|
Willie Horton
|
4th in MVP
|
Reggie Smith
|
No votes
|
Moving over to the
National League, our initial list is as such:
Willie McCovey
|
Giants
|
36
|
105
|
.293
|
1.01
|
Dick Allen
|
Phillies
|
33
|
90
|
.263
|
0.95
|
Tony Perez
|
Reds
|
18
|
92
|
.282
|
1.04
|
Billy Williams
|
Cubs
|
30
|
98
|
.288
|
0.98
|
Willie Mays
|
Giants
|
23
|
79
|
.289
|
0.95
|
Johnny Bench
|
Reds
|
15
|
82
|
.275
|
0.87
|
Hank Aaron
|
Braves
|
29
|
86
|
.287
|
0.90
|
Pete Rose
|
Reds
|
10
|
49
|
.335
|
0.89
|
Ron Santo
|
Cubs
|
26
|
98
|
.246
|
0.98
|
Lee May
|
Reds
|
22
|
90
|
.290
|
0.93
|
Then
looking at the team performance, we get this second list:
Dick Allen
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Hank Aaron
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Willie McCovey
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Cleon Jones
|
Mets
|
14
|
55
|
.297
|
0.71
|
Jim Wynn
|
Astros
|
26
|
67
|
.269
|
0.81
|
Joe Torre
|
Braves
|
10
|
55
|
.271
|
0.78
|
Tom Haller
|
Dodgers
|
4
|
53
|
.285
|
0.60
|
Billy Williams
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Willie Mays
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Roberto Clemente
|
Pirates
|
18
|
57
|
.291
|
0.86
|
Finalizing
the statistics brings us this top ten overall list:
Willie McCovey
|
3rd in MVP
|
Dick Allen
|
No votes
|
Hank Aaron
|
12th in MVP
|
Billy Williams
|
8th in MVP
|
Willie Mays
|
13th in MVP
|
Ron Santo
|
24th in MVP
|
Tony Perez
|
19th in MVP
|
Jim Wynn
|
No votes
|
Roberto Clemente
|
No votes
|
Johnny Bench
|
16th in MVP,
Rookie of the Year
|
Now to the much heralded
pitching. Looking at the National League first, the pitchers held a
55.9% statistical advantage over the National League hitters. Our
initial top ten list is:
Pitcher
|
Team
|
W-L
|
ERA
|
Svs
|
Bob Gibson
|
Cardinals
|
22-9
|
1.12
|
0
|
Juan Marichal
|
Giants
|
26-9
|
2.43
|
0
|
Jerry Koosman
|
Mets
|
19-12
|
2.08
|
0
|
Steve Blass
|
Pirates
|
18-6
|
2.12
|
0
|
Joe Hoerner
|
Cardinals
|
8-2
|
1.47
|
17
|
Tom Seaver
|
Mets
|
16-12
|
2.20
|
1
|
Don Drysdale
|
Dodgers
|
14-12
|
2.15
|
0
|
Ray Washburn
|
Cardinals
|
14-8
|
2.81
|
0
|
Ferguson Jenkins
|
Cubs
|
20-15
|
2.63
|
0
|
And then how they fared
against their own team's averages, we get this list:
Phil Regan
|
Dodgers/Cubs
|
12-5
|
2.27
|
25
|
Bob Gibson
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Juan Marichal
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Steve Blass
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Jerry Koosman
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Ferguson Jenkins
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Gary Nolan
|
Reds
|
9-4
|
2.40
|
0
|
Chris Short
|
Phillies
|
19-13
|
2.94
|
1
|
Don Drysdale
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Pat Jarvis
|
Braves
|
16-12
|
2.60
|
0
|
Combing and comparing, we
get this final list of top pitchers in the National League:
Bob Gibson
|
NL MVP, NL Cy Young Award
|
Juan Marichal
|
5th in MVP
|
Jerry Koosman
|
2nd in Rookie of the Year
13th in MVP (tied)
|
Steve Blass
|
22nd in MVP (tied)
|
Tom Seaver
|
No votes
|
Don Drysdale
|
No votes
|
Joe Hoerner
|
No votes
|
Ferguson Jenkins
|
18th in MVP (tied)
|
Phil Regan
|
25th in MVP (tied)
|
Pat Jarvis
|
No votes
|
Since Bob Gibson was the
unanimous choice for the Cy Young Award, no other pitche received any
votes. The same is true with Denny McLain in the American League.
McLain, in fact was the unanimous American League Most Valuable
Player as well, the only pitcher to pull off that double.
As in the Eastern League,
the American League also had five ERA qualifiers that finished with
an ERA below 2.00. Each of them are listed below. And thew fared 60%
better than the AL hitters, statistically speaking.
The initial top ten
American League pitchers were:
Denny McLain
|
Tigers
|
31-6
|
1.96
|
0
|
Luis Tiant
|
Indians
|
21-9
|
1.60
|
0
|
Dave McNally
|
Orioles
|
22-10
|
1.95
|
0
|
Mel Stottlemyere
|
Yankees
|
21-12
|
2.45
|
0
|
Stan Bahnsen
|
Yankees
|
17-12
|
2.05
|
0
|
Sam McDowell
|
Indians
|
15-14
|
1.81
|
0
|
Jim Hardin
|
Orioles
|
18-13
|
2.51
|
0
|
Tommy John
|
White Sox
|
10-05
|
1.98
|
0
|
John Odom
|
A's
|
16-10
|
2.45
|
0
|
Vincente Romo
|
Indians
|
5-3
|
1.62
|
12
|
Now looking at
performances against their team's average performance, we get this
list:
Danny McLain
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Luis Tiant
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Camilo Pascual
|
Senators
|
13-12
|
2.69
|
0
|
Dave McNally
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Mel Stottlemyre
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Tommy John
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Stan Bahnses
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Lindy McDaniel*
|
Yankees
|
4-1
|
1.75
|
10
|
John Odom
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Joe Coleman
|
Senators
|
12-16
|
3.27
|
0
|
*McDaniel also pitched
for the San Francisco Giants, but these are just his American League
statistics.
Combining and factoring,
we get this American League top ten performer list:
Denny McLain
|
AL MVP, AL Cy Young
|
Luis Tiant
|
5th in MVP (tied)
|
Dave McNally
|
5th in MVP (tied)
|
Mel Stottlemyre
|
10th in MVP
|
Stan Bahnsen
|
Rookie of the Year
|
Lindy McDaniel
|
No votes
|
Tommy John
|
No votes
|
Sam McDowell
|
No votes
|
John Odom
|
No votes
|
Jim Hardin
|
No votes
|
So, for the overall
tally, my top five in each league, matches the BBWAA voting as well.
At the top, at least.
National
League
Bob Gibson
Most Valuable
Player
Cy Young
Award Winner
Offensive
Player of the Year
American
League
Most Valuable
Player
CyYoung Award
Winner
Offensive
Player of the Year
