July 1, 1965 Replay Update

I’ve reached July 1 in my 1965 APBA baseball replay, nearing the halfway point of the season and, as is the case in most replays, there are some surprises.

The St. Louis Cardinals continue to be the best team in the league, but San Francisco put together a 21-7 record for June and is tied with the Redbirds in the National League. It’s hard to explain the Cardinals’ success. Other than Bill White’s 16 home runs, the only other player with double-digit dingers is Tim McCarver with 10. Bob Gibson is 10-6 with 114 strike outs to lead the Cardinals’ pitching staff. It seems like the Cards get key hits… singles, doubles and even a few triples at important moments to drive in a couple of runs.  I’ve found no opponent’s lead is really safe against St. Louis. They can come roaring back with a few hits.

San Francisco has it all. Juan Marichal is 11-4 with 132 strikeouts and Robert Shaw is 10-3 with 105 strikeouts to pace the Giants. Willie McCovey has 23 home runs to lead the league and Willie Mays has 20 of his own.

In the American League, the Minnesota Twins have faltered, going 13-15 in June. Detroit, which was 3.5 games behind the American League-leading Twins on June 1 are now in first place by half a game.

Here are the standings through June 30, 1965.

American      W     L             GB

Detroit           46        29        -

Minnesota     46        29        0.5

Boston           41        36        6

Chicago          39        35        6.5

California      38       36        7.5

Cleveland      37        35        7.5

New York      37        40       10

Baltimore      34        42        12.5

Washington  32        47        16

Kansas City   25        47        19.5

 

National        W        L          GB

St. Louis        50        27        -

San Fran        49        26        -

Los Angeles  47        31        3.5

Cincinnati     44        32        5.5

Pittsburgh     42        36        8.5

Phil'phia        35        38        13

Houston        35        43        15.5

Milwaukee    32        41        16

Chicago          35        45        18

New York      14        64        36.5

That’s no typo. The New York Mets have really won only 14 of their 78 games for a really bad .179 average. Four Mets pitchers have a very good chance of each losing at least 20 games for the season. John Fisher leads the Mets’ aces with only five wins.  Gary Kroll is 1-12 and there are five pitchers, mostly relievers, who have yet to win a game in 16 decisions. The Mets are truly a bad team.

Frank Howard was blasting home runs for the Washington Senators at a pace to challenger Roger Maris’ mark of 61 for the season. However, he’s cooled off. He still leads the American League with 24. Tony Conigliaro of Boston has 20 and his teammate, Carl Yazstremski has 19. Harmon Killebrew of the Twins has finally woken up and has 18 for the season.

Six American League pitchers have 10 wins. Jim Kaat of the Twins and David Wickersham of Detroit each have 10-2 records.

Sam McDowell of Cleveland leads the league with 165 strikeouts, followed by the Yankees’ Al Downing with 150.

In the National League, McCovey has his 23 home runs and Billy Williams has 22 for the Cubs. Ernie Banks and Ron Santo each have 19 home runs for the Cubs; apparently the wind is blowing out a lot in Wrigley.

Sammy Ellis has 12 wins for the Reds and Sandy Koufax leads everyone with 173 strikeouts.

Detroit and Minnesota don’t play each other again until Aug.17. The Tigers have a relatively easy July with five games against Washington and seven against the Yankees. Detroit also has seven games with the White Sox that could make the race closer if Chicago can regain what they had during the first month of the season and be competitive.

After three games with the Mets, St. Louis hosts the Giants for a three-game set on July 5-7. At the end of July, the Cards head west for six games in Los Angeles and San Francisco before returning home for four more games with the Dodgers. It should be a fun time in the National League with those games ahead.

This has been an amazing season. When I did my first replay back in 1998, most of the teams had pretty much wrapped up their divisions early. This replay looks like it could be extremely close in both divisions and will make rolling games even more fun.