Seattle Mariners Quiz (1977-2002): 1) What Mariner was A.L.
rookie of the year in 1984? 2) Who was the 1st manager for the
franchise? 3) Who are the only two 20-game winners? 4) Who
is a two-time A.L. batting champ? 5) Name the top three in
career home runs? 6) What season did the team first finish over
.500? 7) How many from the Opening Day lineup in the
franchise’s first season, 4/6/77, can you name? Answers below.
1968
What a tumultuous year it was. You had the Tet offensive in
January, LBJ’s “I shall not seek and I will not accept, the
nomination of my party” address in March, the assassinations in
April and June, the unruly Democratic Convention, and on and
on.
1968 was also the year of the pitcher in major league baseball,
one unlike any other. For starters, Opening Day was moved
from April 8 to April 10 to accommodate the funeral of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. The Washington Senators were at home,
with National Guardsmen all around the stadium.
I mentioned last chat that I often hold onto articles for years,
waiting for a good time to spring one on you, and much of the
following comes from a 1992 piece by Sports Illustrated’s Steve
Rushin, who told the tale of two pitchers, Detroit”s Denny
McLain and Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals, winners of
both the MVP and Cy Young awards in their respective leagues.
Just a few general facts about the season:
There were 335 shutouts (another source I have says 339), with
82 games ending 1-0. Even the All-Star Game was 1-0. And
perhaps the best single effort that personified what was going on
in baseball in ’68 was the game between the Mets and Astros,
one that lasted 24 innings and ended up, you guessed it, 1-0.
Oakland led the A.L. in batting with a whopping .240 average.
The Washington Senators had the ‘worst’ pitching staff with an
ERA of 3.64. Carl Yastrzemski won the A.L. batting crown with
a .301 average. The Mets had a team ERA of 2.72, yet finished
only 73-89 due to the fact they hit .228.
The Pirates’ Bob Veale had a sterling 2.06 ERA, yet wound up
13-14. Don Drysdale set the mark with six consecutive shutouts,
58 2/3 scoreless innings in a row, yet ended up only 14-12. At
least Frank Howard hit 44 home runs for the Senators and Pete
Rose won the N.L. batting title with a more than respectable .335
average.
But in the purest example of the kind of year it was, even better
than the 24-inning 1-0 affair, you had the back-to-back no-hitters
thrown by Gaylord Perry and Ray Washburn, with Perry no-
hitting the Cards one day, and St. Louis’s Washburn returning
the favor the very next against Perry’s Giants.
As for McLain and Gibson, while the two dominated their
respective leagues, talk about two totally different personalities.
McLain hob-knobbed with the likes of entertainers Steve Allen,
Bob Hope, Ed Sullivan, Glen Campbell and the Smothers
Brothers. McLain’s calling card, so to speak, was the fact he
could play a mean organ, and during his spectacular season he
also found time to record two albums. Of course he also pitched
some, becoming the first to win 30 games since 1934, as he
completed 28 of his 41 starts, winning 31 and losing only 6, with
a 1.96 ERA to boot.
Gibson, the most intense competitor the game has seen (at least
in the modern era), completed 28 of his 34 starts, finishing 22-9,
305 innings, 268 strikeouts, 13 shutouts, and his unbelievable
1.12 ERA, the lowest in baseball history since 1914 (Dutch
Leonard). No one had thrown 13 shutouts since 1916 (Grover
“Pete” Alexander).
In one span of 92 innings in June and July, Bob Gibson allowed
2 runs; one on a double that landed on the foul line, the other on
a wild pitch. And think about this; he was removed for a pinch-
hitter 6 times, meaning that he was never removed from the
mound all season…..I’ll give you some time to allow this last
tidbit to sink in. Many of his teammates, such as Tim McCarver,
are on record as saying Bob Gibson didn’t make one bad pitch
over the entire season. Sure, a few of the batters were
successful, but the actual pitches he threw were exactly where he
wanted them to be for the given moment in the game. What kind
of competitor was Gibson? The previous year, 1967, he pitched
to 3 batters after breaking his leg.
But let’s look at some specific points in time during the ’68
season.
First off, Denny McLain had credited bowling in the off-season
with building up his arm strength and by May 10 he was 5-0.
May 28, Bob Gibson was just 3-5, as the Cardinals scored a total
of 4 runs in his 5 losses.
June 4, Don Drysdale threw his record 6th consecutive shutout.
Drysdale was a casual acquaintance of Senator Robert F.
Kennedy, and that evening Kennedy congratulated Drysdale on
his achievement as part of his victory speech following his own
win in the California Democratic primary. Driving home after
the game, Drysdale was listening to a recording of RFK’s speech
on the radio. It was then he learned that Kennedy had been
shot at 12:15 AM.
At the All-Star break, McLain’s Tigers had a 9 ½ game lead (this
was the year before baseball split into divisions), while Gibson’s
Cards were up by 10. Gibson was 11-5; McLain, 16-2. After
Detroit’s game that Sunday (which McLain won), Denny flew to
Las Vegas to wrap up a post-season organ gig, flew to Houston
for the All-Star game, pitched two scoreless innings, flew back to
Vegas and then on to Minnesota for Thursday’s game. It was
vintage McLain. A showman par excellence who milked his
newfound celebrity to the hilt.
Meanwhile, Gibson went into the break having thrown five
straight shutouts. Asked about the pressure of going after
Drysdale’s record, set just a little over a month earlier, Gibson
replied, “I face more pressure every day just being a Negro.”
September 2, Gibson wins #20, 1-0, his 12th shutout and lowers
his ERA to 0.99.
September 10, McLain wins #29 and goes 3 for 4 from the plate
in Anaheim against the Angels. He goes out after the game to
have drinks with Glen Campbell and the next day went to
Disneyland and appeared on Steve Allen’s show.
September 14, McLain wins #30. I know I’ve mentioned this
before, but I have vivid memories of this day. I was 10-years-old
and that Saturday I picked up my new dog, Ralph. Now Ralph
was 5 weeks old, we get him home, and I’m down in the
basement watching our big black and white TV as McLain
appears on the NBC game of the week. It was a great moment
for this baseball fan, and poor Ralph, all excited by his new
surroundings, his new master, and the game, proceeded to take
a leak all over my leg. Trust me, by the next day Ralph was
paper-trained.
September 16, Capitol Records released “Denny McLain at the
Organ,” but this was overshadowed by the fact that that same
night, Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon appeared
on Rowan & Martin’s “Laugh-In” to say “Sock it to me?”
Seriously, looking back, just a brilliant political move by Nixon
as it helped to humanize him less than two months before the
election.
September 19, McLain wins #31 against the Yankees at home.
But there was far more to the story than this. Mickey Mantle
was making his last appearance in Tiger Stadium and he needed
one more home run to pass Jimmie Foxx for 3rd on the all-time
list. McLain had a 6-1 lead in the 8th inning and he motioned to
Mantle that the first pitch would be grooved right down the plate.
But Mantle took the first two pitches.
“That’s when I knew I wasn’t dealing with a Rhodes scholar
here,” said McLain later. “Finally he asked for one about belt-
high and I threw it there. But he still had to hit the home run,”
which Mickey did.
September 27, Bob Gibson shuts out Houston, yes, 1-0, for
shutout #13 in wrapping up his regular season.
September 28, McLain is attempting to become the 1st pitcher
since 1916 to win 32, but with a 1-0 lead after 7, Tigers manager
Mayo Smith tells McLain, “You need a rest.” Granted, McLain
had thrown 336 innings that year, and the World Series was
coming up, but Denny was pissed when reliever Don McMahon
promptly lost the game 2-1.
Finally, you all know the story of the World Series between the
Cardinals and Tigers, with Detroit coming out on top 4-3 thanks
to Mickey Lolich’s 3 wins and a muffed fly ball by the
Cardinals’ Curt Flood in Game Seven, but it’s worth noting that
in Game One, Gibson fanned a Series record 17 in besting
McLain 4-0. After breaking Sandy Koufax’s mark of 15,
Cardinal catcher Tim McCarver pointed this tidbit out to Gibson,
motioning to the scoreboard where it had just been posted.
“Gimme the ball!” Gibson screamed. “Gimme the goddam ball.”
Victim #17 was coming up.
Well, you all know what happened as a result of the “Year of the
Pitcher.” Major League Baseball lowered the pitching mound
and shrunk the strike zone to promote more hitting. More runs
were scored in 1969, that’s for sure, but Denny McLain still went
24-9, while Gibson was 20-13 with a 2.18 ERA. But the
following year McLain’s arm gave out on him and he was
basically finished, let alone the fact he got in trouble with the law
for various offenses. Gibson stayed mean as a sonuvabitch for a
few years thereafter, before retiring in 1975 with a 251-174
lifetime mark.
Stuff
–Ferdinand, the winner of the 1986 Kentucky Derby, was
slaughtered last year in Japan, according to a new report by a
racing industry trade magazine (and Bill Finley / New York
Times). They chopped him up into pet food. Unfortunately, the
horse had been sold to Japanese investors in 1994 and having
met little success on the breeding front, Ferdinand was hauled
off.
“This is sickening, it’s disgusting, it’s sad, it’s every bad word
you can think of,” said Dell Hancock, whose family owns
Claiborne Farm, where Ferdinand stood at stud before he was
sold. Evidently, this isn’t the first time a champion race horse
has met such an untimely end. Just another reason for the animal
kingdom to strike back.
–July 20 represented the 30th anniversary of the death of martial
arts film star Bruce Lee. Lee was born in San Francisco in 1941,
moved to Hong Kong, back to San Francisco at age 18, then up
to Seattle for a spell before returning to Hong Kong. All along
Lee was developing his martial arts skills, while holding down
menial jobs to pay the rent, so to speak, but he became known to
a wider audience when he received the role of Kato in the
television series “The Green Hornet.” Lee then began shooting
some films in Hong Kong and he made his Hollywood debut in
1973 with the film “Enter the Dragon.” Unfortunately, he died
before the picture was released.
The story goes that Lee was a workaholic and he placed
tremendous demands on his body. In May 1973 he had collapsed
while working on a project and at the time it was determined
he was suffering from exhaustion. Then on July 20 he was at the
home of actress Betty Ting-pei in Hong Kong. Betty was
involved in a film project with Lee at the time and that day, after
the producer left for another appointment, leaving the two alone
in her place, Lee complained of a headache, so she gave him a
painkiller as he went to lie down. He never woke up.
Well, you can imagine this created quite a stir and the official
coroner’s report said that Lee had died of cerebral Oedema, or
swelling of the brain. But a later examination of the autopsy
report found that there were traces of cannabis in his system and
many experts who have studied the case since believe Lee died
from a seizure caused by the drug.
Yet there are others who still say Bruce Lee was murdered,
possibly from herbal poisoning, because his success aroused
jealousy in the martial arts profession after he had become the
first full-blown film star from his industry. He was also fiercely
independent and didn’t kowtow to the wishes of the film
producers like other actors of his time.
Then again, others say Lee had just suffered one too many blows
to the head, a la Muhammad Ali. Anyway, the legend of Bruce
Lee continues to this day and his grave in Seattle is visited
around the year by folks from all over the world.
[Source: South China Morning Post]
–Talk about having a bad day, people in India have been dealing
with the annual monsoons and this year’s flooding has killed
hundreds. But the other day, a Rhino was washed out of a
national park and into a village where it killed a man gathering
grass. The wire service story went on to say, “Four elephants
with their handlers…hunted for the rhino.” Yeah, like the
elephants are going to turn in one of their own.
–The other day I noticed an item from baseball history, the fact
that on 7/21/45 the Tigers and Philadelphia A’s played to a 24-
inning, 1-1 tie. What caught my attention was the fact that the
Tigers’ Les Mueller threw 19 2/3 innings that day. Who was Les
Mueller? I mused. The guy was only 6-8 in his career, playing a
little in 1941, then spending 3 years in the military, before
finishing up his unremarkable journey at age 26 in 1945. But he
did do something that is obviously unfathomable in today’s game.
–Golf bits / Top money winners for 2003…good race.
Tiger Woods…$4,546,496
Mike Weir…$4,321,722
Davis Love III…$4,222,038
Vijay Singh…$3,942,224
Singh leads in birdie average. Mark Calcavecchia is #2 (further
burnishing his reputation in this regard), though he is only #43
on the money list.
Dan Forsman leads in greens in regulation.
Fred Funk in driving accuracy.
Hank Kuehne in driving distance at 319 yards. John Daly is
second at 310.
Tiger has the best scoring average, 68.3, with Weir #2 at 69.0.
–Boy, I have to admit that I knew so little about salsa queen
Celia Cruz, but her funeral in New York (along with a service in
Miami) drew incredible crowds. So I apologize to my salsa fans
who wondered why I inexplicably failed to note her passing last
chat.
Top 3 songs for the week of 7/23/66: #1 “Hanky Panky”
(Tommy James & The Shondells) #2 “Wild Thing” (The
Troggs) #3 “Lil’ Red Riding Hood” (Sam The Sham & The
Pharaohs)
Seattle Mariners Quiz Answers: 1) Alvin Davis was rookie of
the year in 1984. 2) Darrell Johnson was the 1st manager, 1977-
80 (226-362) 3) Randy Johnson (20-4, 1997) and Jamie Moyer
(20-6, 2001) are the only 20-game winners. 4) Edgar Martinez is
a two-time batting champ; .343 (’92) and .356 (’95). 5) Top 3
career HR: Ken Griffey Jr., 398; Jay Buhner, 307; Edgar
Martinez, 273 (entering this season). 6) The Mariners didn’t
finish over .500 until 1991, 83-79. 7) Opening Day lineup,
4/6/77:
Dave Collins, DH
Jose Baez, 2B
Steve Braun, LF
Lee Stanton, RF….hit 27 HR with 90 RBI
Bill Stein, 3B
Dan Meyer, 1B…..22 HR 90 RBI
Ruppert Jones, CF….24 HR 76 RBI
Bob Stinson, C
Craig Reynolds, SS
Diego Segui, P………….Segui was 39-years-old and went 0-7 in
his final season.
Next Bar Chat, Tuesday.
