Between 1963 and 1968, strikeouts were at a premium in Major League Baseball and my 1965 APBA baseball replay is reflecting that. Obviously, strikeout counts were increased by some of the great pitchers of that era, including Sandy Koufax, Mickey Lolich, Sam McDowell and Juan Marichal.
But pitchers got help. Former baseball commissioner Ford Frick, who, historians say, was so angered when Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961, thus breaking Frick’s hero Babe Ruth’s record of 60 set in 1927, that he ordered the enlargement of the strike zone in 1963.
In 1961, when Maris beat Ruth’s hallowed record, there were 14,947 strikeouts recorded in the majors. Two years later, after Frick’s enlarged strike zone was enacted, batters missed 18,773 times. In 1965, a total of 19,283 strikeouts were notched. It was a good time to be a pitcher.
As a result of that, baseball lowered the mound 5 inches following the 1968 season when Carl Yastrzemski won the AL batting title with a record low .301 average, giving batters more of an advantage at the plate. In 1969, there were more strikeouts than the year before – 22,473 – but keep in mind, there were four more teams in the league as well.
All that to say that I’m noticing the huge difference in strikeouts in my 1965 replay as compared to the 1947 season replay I completed in December. One of my APBA friends said 1965 was her favorite season to replay. I generally say whatever season I’m doing is my favorite, but so far, with just under 10 percent of the season completed, I’m finding this very well could be my favorite of all time, too. I’ve completed 11 replays in my 23 years of rolling APBA baseball with seasons in every decade from the 1930s to the 1990s.
There are the players I grew up with in 1965: my two favorites, Henry Aaron and Harmon Killebrew; Willie Mays; Mickey Mantle; the Alou brothers, Felipe, Jesus and Matty; Koufax; the fun-named Mudcat Grant of the Twins; and others.
There’s also the home runs – not too many like there were when I did my first replay of the 1998 season – but enough to enjoy the occasional blast. Frank Howard of the Washington Senators leads the American League at the May 1, 1965, point of my replay with 8 home runs. Those with 5 home runs to lead the National League are Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Bill White, Joe Torre and Willie Stargell. Great names in a great era.
And there are the pitchers.
Readers of this blog know I keep limited statistics. Home runs, won-lost records and saves are the mainstay. I tallied RBIs for the 1947 season and complete batting averages for only three players. This year, in addition to the big three stats, I’m tracking strikeouts of every pitcher by hand. I used to keep full stats on computers, but I found they always crashed and I’m too computer illiterate to know how to store them on “clouds” and thumb drives. I know it’s blasphemous to some APBA players to skip full stats, but I enjoy just watching the standings change over the days and compiling the records in the major categories.
(When I played APBA’s basketball game, I kept all stats by hand and a slide rule. The game was ploddingly slow. Doing scoring averages by a slide rule when I was 17 just added to that slowness).
So, here’s what I found when comparing early strikeout stats from 1965 to 1947. In 150 games so far in the 1965 season (I reached #150 this morning when Cincinnati beat the New York Mets, 7-6, on Reds’ pitcher John Tsitouris’ 11 Ks), there have been 2,443 strikeouts. That’s compared to 993 strikeouts in the first 150 games of the 1947 replay I did.
On average, 1965 teams – starters and their relievers - are striking out 16.3 batters per game. Eighteen years earlier, before Frick’s swollen strike zone, pitchers were punching out 6.6 batters each game in 1947. That’s an additional strikeout per inning in 1965.
APBA rates its players based upon their actual statistics for the season. Pitchers earn grades from A to D, much like grading in school, to replicate their ERA for the season. They are also given Xs and Ys to increase strikeout likelihood and Zs for diminishing the number of walks given.
Dodgers’ ace Sandy Koufax, who has an APBA rating of A (XY Z) which is about as good as it gets, has 49 strikeouts in four games to lead the majors. By comparison, it took the 1947 Dodgers, then in Brooklyn, 13 games for all of its pitchers to reach 49 strikeouts.
Other National League strikeout leaders in my replay are Bob Veale of Pittsburgh with 43 and San Francisco hurler Juan Marichal with 40. Al Downing of the New York Yankees, Denny McLain of Detroit and Mel Stottlemyre of the Yanks each has 31 to lead the American League.
The strikeouts also keep scoring down. I’m not a huge fan of high-scoring games. I’d rather see a 2-1 contest than a 14-8 blowout. Cleveland once beat Kansas City, 21-7, in my replay; pitchers combined for a total of 15 strikeouts in that game. But for the most part, there’s a good balance between home runs, scores and strikeouts.
I’m just under 10 percent into the 1965 replay, but the combination of strikeouts, homers and lower scoring games are adding up to making this one of my favorite replays of all time.
Amen! Unless you go way back to the dead ball era, no other period boasts as many amazing HOF-caliber pitchers, and no other era is better for power pitching unless you want to say present day when every tom dick and harry can rack up the K's. And as you say, you also have the big power hitters, too!
ReplyDeleteI am right there with you on keeping partial stats. As I wrapped up my 1964 replay, I realized that I would rather jump off a bridge than do so many stats ever again. So I only kept full (or at least increased) stats for 8 players. This time I am keeping extra stats for 60 players. That's still less than 4 per team, and some are pitchers for whom I am only keeping K's (in addition to the W-L-S I keep for everyone.) Like you, it's the races that entertain me, and the rolling of the games.
66's!