Baseball in the 1960s

One of the biggest differences between baseball today and baseball in the 1960s is when the big trades happen.

Today, the biggest trades seem to happen just before the trading deadline at the end of July, when pennant-contenders stock up on the extra hitting or pitching they think they might need to push them over the top. Likewise, teams already fading from the race are mostly likely to unload their most attractive properties by the end of July, particularly if imminent free agency means a player will probably be moving on anyway.

That wasn't the case in the 1960s. That was the last full decade when players were tied to teams indefinitely without the free agency option. The biggest trades usually happened over the winter, and impacted the teams involved for a season or more, not simply a couple months.

There were several big trades during the 1960s. These are the 10 biggest, based on their immediate and long-term impact on the teams involved and how they helped shape the pennant races that resulted. In some cases these trades also had a major impact on players' career, and one that in some cases extended beyond the 1960s.

1. Baltimore Orioles Acquire Frank Robinson - For some reason, the Cincinnati Reds had become disenchanted with this future Hall of Famer, only 4 years after he had won the National League Most Valuable Player award in 1961. During those 4 years, Frank Robinson hit for a combined .303 with an average of 30 home runs and 109 RBIs per season. Yet the Reds felt that Robbie was on the downside of his career and were happy to get three established pitchers - Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun and Dick Simpson - from the Baltimore Orioles. All the Orioles got in return was the 1966 Triple Crown winner and American League MVP - the first player to win an MVP in each league. The Orioles also happened to win the World Series that year.

2. St. Louis Cardinals Acquire Lou Brock - This was probably the most lopsided trade of the 1960s. (After all, Milt Pappas was 30-29 in 2-plus seasons for the Reds. The Cardinals sent 2 former 20-game winners, Ernie Broglio and Bobby Shantz, along with outfielder Doug Clemens, to the Chicago Cubs for pitchers Jack Spring and Paul Toth, and an outfielder named Lou Brock. Broglio and Shantz won a total of 8 games for the Cubs. Clemens hit .279 with 12 RBIs in 54 games. Brock led the Cardinals to the World Series. In 103 games, he hit .348 and scored 84 runs, with 9 triples, 12 home runs, 44 RBIs and 33 stolen bases. In the World Series against the New York Yankees, Brock was instrumental in helping St. Louis take the championship, batting .300 with 5 RBIs and 9 hits in 7 games, including 2 doubles and a home run.

3. Chicago Cubs Acquire Ferguson Jenkins - It looked like a steal for the Phillies. Philadelphia gave up two outfielders with more bench splinters than career hits, and a young pitcher with promise (43 victories in 4 minor league seasons), but gained 2 proven major league starters, Larry Jackson and Bob Buhl, who won a combined 27 games in 1965. Over the next 3 years, that pair of pitchers were 47-53 for the Phillies. In those same 3 years, the pitcher that Philadelphia traded, Ferguson Jenkins, won 46 games for the Cubs on his way to winning 284 in a Hall of Fame career. Starting in 1967, Jenkins won 20 or more games for the Cubs in 6 straight seasons. He is the only pitcher with more than 2,000 career strikeouts as a Cub.

4. Philadelphia Phillies Acquire Jim Bunning - It was essentially a trade of 2 players looking to rebound from a sub-par 1963. To add Don Demeter's bat to their outfield, the Detroit Tigers parted with right-handed pitcher Jim Bunning, winner of 110 games in the previous 7 seasons, but winner of only 12 in 1963. Demeter's 1962 season with the Philadelphia turned out to be a career season that he would never come close to matching. Bunning became the Phillies' ace, winning 74 games over the next 4 seasons, and becoming the first 20th Century pitcher to win more than 100 games in each league.

5. Chicago White Sox Acquire Hoyt Wilhelm - He was 29 years old when he won 15 games, all in relief, as a New York Giants rookie in 1952. At the end of the 1962 season, 39-year-old Hoyt Wilhelm (7-10 that season with a 1.94 ERA) was traded by the Baltimore Orioles (along with outfielder Dave Nicholson and infielders Ron Hansen and Pete Ward) to the Chicago White Sox for shortstop Luis Aparicio and outfielder Al Smith. How much more could Wilhelm have left in the tank? The answer, it turned out, was plenty. In the next 6 seasons with the White Sox, Wilhelm appeared in 361 games, winning 41 and saving 98, with a combined ERA of 1.92. Wilhelm's career lasted until 1972, when he retired as the all-time leader in appearances (1,070), relief wins (143), and saves (227).

I previously posted a list of the 10 things 1960s baseball didn't have that made it better than the baseball we watch today. Now here are 10 reasons why, in my opinion, baseball in the 1960s was the best of any era, and hasn't been topped since.

1. Pitching and Power - No other decade had such a robust collection of great pitchers and great sluggers.

2. 53 Hall of Famers - The 1920s and 1930s may have more Hall of Fame members. But let's face it: it was easier getting into the HOF when there were fewer players populating it.

3. Eight 300-Game Winners - Eight pitchers who appeared in the 1960s won 300 or more games during their careers. That total is one-third of all the 300-game winners in major league history.

4. 3 Perfect Games - Prior to 1960, there had only been four perfect games pitched in the major leagues since 1900. The 1960s saw three more of them: by Jim Bunning (June 21, 1964), Sandy Koufax (September 9, 1965) and Jim "Catfish" Hunter (May 8, 1968).

5. The Last Triple Crowns - No one in baseball has won a Triple Crown since Frank Robinson and Carl Yastrzemski did it back-to-back in 1966 and 1967. And they did it against the best pitching in baseball history.

6. The Last 30-Game Winner - That feat was accomplished 14 times before 1930 (a combination of dead-ball baseball and lot of starts). Then Dizzy Dean won 30 in 1934. It took 34 more years before Denny McLain won 31 games in 1968. With today's "fragile" starters working with 100-pitch counts and four days of rest, I don't look for it to happen again soon.

7. The 1968 World Series - Terrific Series - one I'll never forget. For Mickey Lolich to beat the great Bob Gibson in Game #7 on two days' rest %u2026 amazing.

8. Sandy Koufax - In a decade dominated by great pitchers, the ace of aces was the Dodgers' overpowering southpaw Sandy Koufax. I wonder if Cy Young (whose award Koufax claimed three times in four years) was that un-hittable.

9. Hank Aaron - Hank Aaron was a hitting monster during the 1960s.From 1960 to 1969, Hank Aaron led the major leagues twice in runs scored and 3 times in RBIs. He hit over .300 in 8 different seasons during the decade, and scored at least 100 runs in 9 out of the 10 years.

10. The Miracle Mets - I can remember the fifth game of the 1969 World Series when the Mets got that final out against a terrific Baltimore Orioles team. I was in college, watching the game in a dorm rec room with a bunch of guys. When the game ended, as the Mets were celebrating on the field, the room was almost silent %u2026 not because the room was full of a bunch of disappointed Orioles fans. The prevailing attitude was, "The Mets are World Series champions? Can you believe it?" I guess you had to live through the Mets' first few seasons to really appreciate how "amazin'" this championship was.

That's how I rank them, and why 1960s have such special memories for me.

Is baseball a great game or what?

Here are 10 things that baseball in the 1960s didn't have, and that today's game doesn't really need. Would baseball today be better off without these? And if so, how do you get the genie back in the bottle?

1. No Agents - In the 1960s, the only agents we knew about appeared on the television screen on Sunday evenings, working not for ballplayers but for J. Edgar Hoover and the F.B.I. ("a Quinn Martin production"). Ballplayers made a good living playing baseball 6 months out of the year. In fact, $100,000 a year was the pinnacle of baseball salaries. Then came free agency and the need for a hired gun at the negotiating table, and suddenly baseball was populated with million-dollar banjo hitters (See #6 below). There is no doubt that injecting agents into the game made ballplayers wealthier. However, there is scant (if any) evidence that the work of agents has made ballplayers more skilled %u2026 or happier.

2. No Designated Hitters - The introduction of the designated hitter in the 1970s certainly increased hits and runs in the American League through the 1980s and 1990s, but has it made the game better? Doesn't taking the pitcher out of the batting order take away from the strategy of managing a game more than it puts a better bat into the line-up?

3. No Steroids - The players of the 1960s didn't need no stinkin' steroids. Sluggers like Harmon Killebrew, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey and plenty more had all the strength they needed to drive home runs at a career rate of 500 or more. And the burst of home runs in the 1960s was certainly not due to inferior pitching (which, I suspect, was the case during the 1990s). The pitching in the 1960s was probably the best in baseball history %u2026 certainly the best since the ball got lively in the 1920s. Fireballers like Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Sam McDowell, Mickey Lolich and others didn't need steroids to throw 90+ mph strikes.

4. No Face Hair - It's true: facial hair was forbidden on major league baseball players until the Oakland A's broke the face follicle ban in the 1970s. There is no evidence to confirm that players are better - or prettier - now than they were when they were all clean shaven.

5. No Free Agents - Until outfielder Curt Flood challenged a baseball team's right to "own" a player indefinitely, free agents played almost no role in how teams were built and how pennant races evolved. The only options available to teams for improving themselves were through trades or through the farm system. That made trades a bigger deal in the 1960s than they are today. It also meant fewer end-of-July deals and no two-month player "rentals" as teams acquired free agents to-be to get over the hump of the current pennant race %u2026 only to see them sign with some other team in the off-season. Roster continuity from one season to the next? Gone, probably forever. But it was a fact of life for teams and their fans in the 1960s.

6. No Million-Dollar Banjo Hitters - If banjo hitters can earn more than a million dollars a year in this day, what would the sluggers of the 1960s have been able to earn in today's dollars? Make sure you're sitting down. In 2008, Cubs first baseman Derek Lee earned $13.25 million for batting .291 with 20 home runs and 90 RBIs. Across town, White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko earned $12 million for batting .240 with 22 home runs and 62 RBIs. Between them, they averaged $601,000 per home run and $166,000 per RBI. Apply those same pay-per-performance standards to 1960s stars and you'd get Harmon Killebrew, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron earning over $20 million each based not on their best seasons, but on their averages for the entire 1960s decade. (If they had been paid at the rate Alex Rodriguez was paid per home run and RBI, they would have made over $36 million.)

7. No Wild Cards - When you have real pennant races, the way they did in the 1960s, you don't need a wild card race to maintain fan interest while the NFL is cranking up its regular season. And the pennant really means something when only one team from each league makes it into post-season play. (Before there were divisions in each league, post-season play meant the World Series exclusively). During the 1960s, of the 18 pennant races involving all teams in a league, half of those races were decided by 5 games or less. And does the wild card really create excitement for anyone outside the cities directly involved, or is it just a way to assure that baseball commentators in the broadcast media have baseball filler throughout September?

8. No November Baseball - Is anyone really thrilled that the World Series is spilling over into November? Do we really enjoy watching players in the 35-degree dark playing at only a fraction of the effectiveness that got them into the World Series? How much nicer was it when World Series baseball was played in the waning sunshine of an Indian summer afternoon?

9. No Player Strikes - Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale tried to stage a mini, two-player strike once during spring training. But during the 1960s, there were no interruptions of play during any regular season. Baseball in the 1960s was as dependable as small town values %u2026 neither of which has survived intact, or been improved, since the 1960s.

10. No Inter-League Games - This is another "fan" gimmick that wasn't needed in the 1960s. Who really believes that the game would be harmed if this practice were abandoned in favor of playing full schedules with all your league opponents?

In the 1960s, the relief pitcher gradually became the relief specialist. No longer just the "mop up" guy, the relief specialist played an essential role in any major league team's winning strategy.

The adoption of the "save" as an official baseball statistic in 1969 (though saves were being unofficially calculated and published as early as 1960) confirmed the value and unique contribution of the closer. The pitchers listed below were bullpen pioneers. Their selection and ranking is based on a combination of their closing effectiveness and overall pitching performance in terms of strikeouts and ERA.

1. Hoyt Wilhelm -Throughout the 1960s, Wilhelm won 75 games and saved 152 more, with an ERA of 2.19 for the decade. Today he remains the all-time major league leader in career relief wins (124) and career innings pitched in relief (1,871).

2. Dick Radatz - Radatz broke in with the Boston Red Sox in 1962, going 9-6 with a 2.24 ERA, striking out 144 batters in 124 innings pitched, and leading the major leagues with 24 saves. His dominance continued over the next 2 seasons. In 1963, Radatz finished 58 of the 66 games he appeared in, going 15-6 with a 1.97 ERA and 25 saves. He struck out 162 batters in only 132 innings. In 1964, Radatz led the majors with 29 saves, posting a 16-9 record with a 2.29 ERA. He struck out 181 batters in 157 innings pitched.

3. Ron Perranoski - Perranoski's best year came in 1963, when he posted a 16-3 record and 21 saves with a 1.67 earned run average. Over the next 4 years, Perranoski appeared in 256 games for the Dodgers, saving 54 with a 2.73 ERA. He was traded to the Minnesota Twins following the 1967 season, and saved 65 games for the Twins over the next two years, leading the American League in that category both seasons.

4. Roy Face - Face's best season came in 1959, when he set the major league record for winning percentage (.947) on an 18-1 record. But he was also effective throughout the 1960s. He led the league again in saves in 1961 (17) and in 1962 (28), when he had the lowest ERA of his career (1.88). In his 16-year career, Face posted a 3.48 ERA while accumulating 193 saves pitching in 848 games.

5. Phil Regan - Regan was so-so starter for the Tigers (42-44 with a 4.50 ERA) who found great success in relief work. His best year was 1966, when he went 14-1 for the Dodgers with a 1.62 ERA and a league-leading 21 saves. He also led the league with 25 saves in 1968, splitting a 12-5 season between the Dodgers and the Cubs.

6. Stu Miller - Miller was the pitcher who was allegedly blown off the mound by a gust of wind during the 1961 All-Star Game in Candlestick Park. That was his best season for the Giants, winning 14 games in relief, saving 17 (NL best) and posting a 2.66 ERA. Traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 1963, he responded by leading the majors in saves (27) and appearances (71) while posting a 2.24 ERA. In 5 seasons with the Orioles, Miller won 38 games in relief, and saved 100, with a combined ERA of 2.37.

7. Lindy McDaniel - McDaniel pitched for 4 teams during the 1960s. One of the most underrated pitchers of his era, he led the National League in saves 3 times, collecting 141 victories and 172 saves over his 21-season career.

8. John Wyatt - The Kansas City closer from 1962 to 1965, Wyatt won 27 games while saving 70 for one of the league's worst teams. He led the American League with 81 appearances in 1964. Traded to the Boston Red Sox in 1966, he had the chance to show what he could do for a winning team, saving 20 games for the pennant-winning Bosox in 1967 with a 2.60 earned run average.

9. Eddie Fisher - Fisher was a spot starter who learned the secrets of the knuckleball from Chicago White Sox teammate Hoyt Wilhelm. His best season was 1965, when he went 15-7 for the White Sox with a 2.40 ERA and 24 saves in 80 appearances.

10. Luis Arroyo - Arroyo was a sub-.500 pitcher until he became a relief specialist. In 1961, pitching for the New York Yankees, he led the majors in appearances (65), games finished (59) and saves (29), while going 15-5 with a 2.19 ERA.