1961 Baseball Season

 

Highlights:

1961 was the season of Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth's home run record and such was the case in the 3RBL as Roger smashed 65 home runs for defending champions Mars Hill to set a new league record.  Philadelphia's Mickey Mantle was second with 54 while Gentile, Colavito, Adcock and Killebrew trailed the leaders while smashing more than 40.  The combination of Mantle and Colavito enabled the Philadelphia Freedom to lead the league in home runs with 236 and in runs scored with 921 on their way to 105 wins for the season.  The Crimson Fire, however, won 106 as they were almost as prolific with 909 runs scored and just missed batting .300 (.298) as a team for the season.

 

We have frequently had a player come out of the weeds to win the batting crown and this season it was Highland's Ron Fairly (.378) who broke Pittsburgh's four season strangle hold on the batting crown.  Wexford's Maury Wills (79) also broke Luis Aparicio's (76) hold as top theft king.

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Crimson's Whitey Ford (25-8) was the top winner for the season while Philadelphia's Don Mossi (20-6) and Bennie Daniels (20-9) were the only other 20 game winners.  Ford (2.19) also was the league leader in ERA as he beat Meadville's Ralph Terry (2.49) for the title.  Ford was also the workhorse tossing 321 innings while Meadville's Warren Spahn was second at 281.  Ford's 268 strikeouts, however, were not quite enough to beat an upcoming young left-hander, teammate Sandy Koufax, who fanned 283.

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Presley Division:

Philadelphia quickly broke free of the competition and rolled to a 105 win season and the earliest clinching in the league.  Having missed the post season in 1960, the Freedom came back with a fury behind the most prolific offense in the league and the second best pitching staff.  Mantle and Colavito led the attack but were ably supported by Bill Skowron, Elston Howard and newcomer Billy Williams.  Second only to Highland in team ERA, they were third in runs allowed.  

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Meadville came in second with an 81-79 record while Pittsburgh and Jersey fell far from their 1960 post season making performance levels. 

 

Brando Division:

As good as Philadelphia was, Crimson was one game better with 106 wins.  Unlike Philadelphia, Crimson was pressed by a solid Lansing team who won 99 and kept the pressure on the Fire until the final week.

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Crimson was second in runs scored with 909 and boasted a team offense that just missed the .300 mark at .298.  They hit the third fewest home runs (149) of any team but trailed only Philadelphia in runs per game (5.7 vs. 5.8)  They were third in team pitching at 3.64 trailing Highland and Philadelphia.  Norm Cash (.369) and Curt Flood (.357) were the keys to their offense.  Both amassed over 200 hits and Cash was second in runs scored at 141 and ninth in RBI with 122.  Crimson also had workhorse Ford and the up and coming Koufax to head their pitching staff.

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Lansing was driven by Vada Pinson who batted .351, led the league in hits with 233, had the most multi-hit games (73), scored 136 runs and stole 24 bases.  Long time stalwart, Roy Sievers, led the team with 136 RBI and a .580 slugging percentage.  Lansing was second in team batting a t .273 and tied for third in runs per game at 5.2.  

 

1960 champ, Mars Hill, fell to third with a 79-81 record but had the pleasure of following Maris' chase for the home run crown.  Calumet finished far off the pace although youngster Tommy Davis shows promise.

 

Dean Division:

For the third consecutive season, Surf City took the title in the James Dean Division.  Pressed by the only two-time 3RBL champion, Highland, the Beach Boys held on for a two game win and a ticket into the post season tournament.  

 

Power is the name of the game with the Beach Boys and this year was no different as Harmon Killebrew and Frank Robinson led the attack with 42 and 39 home runs respectively.  A little balance might be desired, however, as neither was among the league leaders in RBIs and Surf City was fourth in runs scored per game at 4.9.  Defense has been their Achilles heel and this season was no exception.  The Boys committed 138 errors, the third highest total in the league which left them with the third worst defense in the league.  They were fourth worst in turning double plays; fourth worst in opponent's batting average and it was only their pitching strikeout totals that made their defensive efficiency rating above the league average.  Pitching was something to crow about as the hurlers were fourth best in ERA, fourth in strikeouts and seventh in overall runs allowed.  

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Highland finished second and boasted an unlikely batting champion in Ron Fairly (.378).  The offense, however, still revolves around long time star Henry Aaron whose .334 average was seventh highest.  He led the league with 51 doubles and scored 122 times while driving in 147.  While lacking a big winner on the mound, Highland did lead the league in ERA and allowed the sixth fewest runs.  Their top starters were Bill Stafford (2.74), Dick Donovan (2.75) and Curt Simmons (2.91).

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Wexford and Inland Empire were far off the pace.  Wexford is showing some signs of moving up as they had the sixth highest offense in the league averaging 4.7 runs per game.  Developing youngsters such as Maury Wills, who led the league in stolen bases, and Jim Gentile, whose 47 homers and 124 RBI were among the league leaders.  However, the pitching has a long way to go with a league worst 5.50 ERA and 5.85 runs allowed per game.

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Inland Empire's claim to fame this season was the surprising Pete Runnels.  Runnels battled with Fairly all season long for the batting title eventually falling to fourth with a .360 average.  Pete had the longest hit streak of the season at 28 games, led the team with 195 hits and 58 multi-hit game.  

 

Post Season:

The two best teams were the Crimson Fire with 106 wins and the Philadelphia Freedom with 105.  Philadelphia had won the title in 1957 while it was Crimson's third appearance in the post season.  For the sixth time in seven seasons, the 3RBL crowned a different franchise.  This season saw the Crimson Fire torch the opposition in the post season as they reeled of eight successive wins to take the title.

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The strangest games were the first game of the Surf City and Philadelphia series and the fourth of the Lansing and Crimson set.  

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Surf City opened in Philadelphia and Harmon Killebrew smashed four home runs and drove in nine runs while going a perfect six for six with six runs scored and the Beach Boys muscled up on Philadelphia ace Don Mossi and four relievers.  After such an auspicious start Philadelphia picked itself off the floor, tied the series with a win in game two and then went to the left coast and swept the Beach Boys out to sea to advance to the finals.

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Crimson, on the other hand, had taken the first three games in a rather ordinary fashion pounding Lansing pitching for 8, 8 and 12 runs respectively.  However, in the fourth and what would be final game Lansing's Bob Gibson doused the Fire allowing no hits over seven innings of work and Luis arroyo finished up with two hit-less innings for the Songs.  However, Gibson had walked eleven batters and two had crossed the plate.  So, when Crimson ace, Whitey Ford, silenced the song offense on five hits and ten strikeouts, Crimson literally walked off to a World Series berth with a win while being no-hit.

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In the World Series, however, Philadelphia was "left" speechless as Juan Pizarro (twice), Sandy Koufax and Whitey Ford yielded a total of five runs over the four games as Crimson cruised to the Crown.

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Box scores and scripts for most games are linked at the left of the page as well as summary stats for the season.

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