Baseball...numbers, stories and analysis: 1968...Williamston Kid, pitching and spitballs...

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 535^th 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	2^nd in AL
Giants	2^nd in NL
Reds	4^th 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 17^th. 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 27^th.

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 907^th 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 1,000^th 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	3^rd in MVP
Frank Howard	8^th in MVP
Frank Robinson	No votes
Carl Yastrzemski	9^th in MVP
Bill Freehan	2^nd in MVP
Tony Oliva	19^th in MVP (tie)
Jim Northrup	13^th in MVP
Roy White	12^th in MVP
Willie Horton	4^th 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	3^rd in MVP
Dick Allen	No votes
Hank Aaron	12^th in MVP
Billy Williams	8^th in MVP
Willie Mays	13^th in MVP
Ron Santo	24^th in MVP
Tony Perez	19^th in MVP
Jim Wynn	No votes
Roberto Clemente	No votes
Johnny Bench	16^th 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	5^th in MVP
Jerry Koosman	2^nd in Rookie of the Year 13^th in MVP (tied)
Steve Blass	22^nd in MVP (tied)
Tom Seaver	No votes
Don Drysdale	No votes
Joe Hoerner	No votes
Ferguson Jenkins	18^th in MVP (tied)
Phil Regan	25^th 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	5^th in MVP (tied)
Dave McNally	5^th in MVP (tied)
Mel Stottlemyre	10^th 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