1968 A.L. Quiz: In the Year of the Pitcher, 1968, Carl
Yastrzemski led the American League in hitting with only a
.301 batting average. Who was second to Yaz? [Hint: Final
stats for #2 were .290, 6 HR, 62 RBI.] Answer below.
6/25/1950
Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Korean
War. I thought we”d take a brief moment to go into some of the
origins of the conflict. [This is not meant to be an in-depth
study like I attempt to do in my “Hott Spotts” link.]
At the close of World War II, Soviet forces occupied North
Korea while Americans held the South. In August 1945, the
Soviets surprised U.S. officials by accepting the 38th parallel as
they could have quickly overtaken the whole country.
To oversimplify the U.S. position in 1945, from a foreign policy
standpoint, we felt that with the detonation of the two atomic
bombs in Japan, the U.S. now had an umbrella of security.
Threaten us in any big way and we”d annihilate you. After all,
we were the only ones with the bomb and no one could touch
us. Thus, it was easy to let our conventional forces slip and they
did so in a big way. The military establishment fell apart. So
we were left with a choice between incinerating people or doing
nothing in the event of a crisis.
By 1946, the Cold War was beginning to come into focus.
On March 5th, Sir Winston Churchill gave his “iron curtain”
speech at Fulton, Missouri, correctly warning of the dangers to
come.
The following year, March 12, 1947, President Harry Truman
announces that the U.S. will come to the aid of Greece and
Turkey who were both threatened by Communist rebels as well
as Soviet threats. In opposing tyranny, Truman says the U.S.
will support “free peoples, who are resisting attempted
subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressure.” This
becomes known as the Truman Doctrine.
In June 1947, Truman”s Secretary of State, George Marshall,
proposes a massive aid package for Europe, the Marshall Plan,
which is an attempt to rejuvenate their economies and thus help
reduce the opportunities for communists in Western Europe.
[This was formally adopted in the spring of 1948.] Meanwhile,
Joseph Stalin was consolidating his power in Eastern Europe.
U.S. ambassador George Kennan writes his famous article for
Foreign Affairs magazine (July 1947) in which he spells out a
policy for containing Soviet ambitions. Kennan uses the
pseudonym, Mr. X.
As 1948 evolved, with the establishment of the Marshall Plan,
Stalin fought it in such a way that Europe”s non-communists
were obliged to accept that the time had come to take sides and
accept the polarization of the continent. In April, the Soviets
launched their blockade of Berlin (which was to be in effect
until May of the following year).
Meanwhile, back on the Korean peninsula, in April 1948,
President Truman had approved a Joint Chiefs of Staff policy
statement:
“The U.S. should not become so irrevocably involved in the
Korean situation that an action taken by.any other power in
Korea could be considered a cassus belli for the U.S.”
In August 1948, Syngman Rhee became the president of the
new Republic of Korea (the South), while a few weeks later, the
Soviets created the Democratic People”s Republic under Kim Il
Sung (Kim Jong Il”s father). Efforts to put the two regions
together had previously failed and the U.N. recognized the
government in the South as the only lawful one.
[Both the U.S. and USSR withdrew their troops by 1950. The
American military establishment thought it served no purpose
for our forces to be there. At this time the administration
decided to consolidate the troops on islands off the Asian coast
rather than in vulnerable positions on the mainland.]
Events began to escalate further in 1949. Czechoslovakia was
formally brought into the Soviet sphere and the division of
Germany acquired a permanence. NATO was established in
April, thereby committing the U.S. to come to the aid of the
Western democracies if they were attacked.
Then in August 1949, the U.S. lost its nuclear monopoly…much
sooner than we had expected…as the Soviets successfully tested
their first atomic bomb. We suddenly realized that Cold Wars
could turn hot and it also forced us to look at our conventional
capabilities. Top Secret NSC Order #68 called for rebuilding
the conventional side in order to provide options other than
nuclear war. [But this wasn”t signed until after the Korean
attack.]
And another huge blow for the U.S. occurred in October 1949
when Mao Zedong, having driven the Chinese Nationalist forces
onto the island of Formosa (Taiwan), established the People”s
Republic of China. [To be continued, Friday.]
[Sources: “Twentieth Century” J.M. Roberts; “The Oxford
History of the 20th Century;” “America: A History” Shi /
Tindall; “In the Time of the Americans” David Fromkin;
“A History of the Twentieth Century” Martin Gilbert]
1968
I just had to throw out some stats from 1968, the Year of the
Pitcher in baseball. In light of the power explosion of the last
few years which is making a shambles of baseball”s record
book, it sure would help if, let”s say, every 3rd season was like
this. That would help prevent mediocre ballplayers like Fred
McGriff from getting 500 home runs.
1968 was the last year there were 10 teams in each league
before expansion hit in 1969.
–Bob Gibson records a 1.12 ERA in completing 28 of his 34
starts (22-9), with 13 shutouts.
–Denny McLain goes 31-6, the first 30-game winner since
Dizzy Dean in 1934. McLain completes 28 of his 41 starts.
–Luis Tiant throws 9 shutouts in 32 starts to finish with a 1.60
ERA.
–Juan Marichal completes 30 of 38 starts in going 26-9. [I
loved this guy.]
–Dean Chance goes 16-16, but with a 2.53 ERA! Get the
picture? Not a hell-of-a-lot of hitting going on.
–In the A.L., Oakland led the league with a .240 BA.
–Baltimore goes 91-71 (2nd to Detroit) and bats .225.
–Yankees hit .214.Tom Tresh hits .195 in 507 AB.
–Pete Ward and Tommy Davis lead the Chisox with just 50
RBI apiece. Chicago scores 463 runs (2.9 per game).
–Detroit”s Ray Oyler, in one of the most pitiful displays of
hitting, ever, bats .135 (29-215.and it”s not like he at
least made contact, either. He whiffed 59 times.)
*But a gold star to my main man, Gates Brown. The Tigers
5”11″, 230 lb. pinch hitter deluxe hit .370 (34-92.and he struck
out just 4 times!)
–In the N.L., there were actually some normal performances.
Cincinnati led the league with a .273 team BA but only finished
4th (83-79) because they had the highest team ERA, 3.56. Pete
Rose won the batting title with a .335 average.
But there were some interesting performances elsewhere in the
league.
–The Mets Tommie Agee hit just .217 in his first season with
the team. Worse, he had just 17 RBI in 368 AB.
–The Houston Astros hit only 66 HR. Rusty Staub, certainly a
power hitter, had only 6 HR in 591 AB.
–In all of baseball, only 7 players hit 30 or more homers. Last
year there were 44. This year it should be over 50.
–And, 1968 was also the year in which Don Drysdale put
together a streak of 58 and two-thirds innings of scoreless ball.
[Yet he only went 14-12 for the season as L.A. hit .230 as a
team.]
–The All Star game was a 1-0 affair.
–The Astros beat the Mets, 1-0, in 24 innings!
–But the easiest way to describe the Year of the Pitcher would
be the Giant-Cardinal games of September 17-18. On the 17th,
Gaylord Perry threw a no-hitter for the Giants. The next night
the Cards Ray Washburn tossed one of his own.
**The World Series in ”68 was won by Detroit over St. Louis,
4-3, as Mickey Lolich hurled 3 complete game victories.
Rickey Henderson
Sports Illustrated had this hilarious bit about Rickey, one of the
dumber folks on the planet, whom had been recently traded
from the Mets to the Mariners. During his first batting practice
with Seattle he encountered first baseman John Olerud (a former
teammate when both were on the Mets just last year). Olerud
wears a batting helmet at all times, the result of a brain
aneurysm over ten years ago.
“What”s up with the helmet?” Henderson reportedly inquired.
“I wear it all the time,” said Olerud.
“I”ll be damned,” said Rickey. “I used to play with a guy in
New York who did the same thing.”
“That was me,” said Olerud.
Top 3 songs for the week of 6/24/72: #1 “The Candy Man”
(Sammy Davis Jr.) #2 “Song Sung Blue” (Neil Diamond)
#3 “Outa-Space” (Billy Preston)…lousy week.
Lib Dooley
Dooley died on Monday at the age of 87. Her claim to fame?
She had attended more than 4,000 consecutive Boston Red Sox
games at Fenway Park. Ted Williams once called her “the
greatest Red Sox fan there”ll ever be.”
Dooley was a teacher in the Boston school system for 39 years.
She began attending games during WW II and didn”t miss one
until last year. Hours after her death, the Red Sox were
annihilated by the Yankees, 22-1. Nice tribute, boys! [Source:
AP]
Quiz Answer: Danny Cater, Oakland A”s. Yes, for you baseball
nuts out there, Vic Davalillo hit .298 but he fell far short in
official at-bats.
Next Bar Chat, Friday. North Korea attacks the South.
