1965 Baseball Season

 

Highlights:

The 1965 season saw two of the downtrodden franchises rise to the top.  Wexford, the team with the poorest winning percentage of any franchise in the history of the league, posted its second winning season in the eleven-year history of the league, made the post season for the first time by winning the Wild Card position.  Inland Empire, who also posted its first season, won the Dean Division and in phoenix-like fashion went all the way to win its second championship.The 1965 season saw two of the downtrodden franchises rise to the top.  Wexford, the team with the poorest winning percentage of any franchise in the history of the league, posted its second winning season in the eleven-year history of the league, made the post season for the first time by winning the Wild Card position.  Inland Empire, who also posted its first winning season since the league's initial season won the Dean Division and in phoenix-like fashion went all the way to win its second championship.

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Presley Division:

Meadville climbed to the top of the division for the first time since 1956 and held off Philadelphia, the prior year champion and dominant force in the division, by two games.  Jim Fregosi, .290 average, and Tony Conigliaro, 43 homers and 109 RBI, spurred the offense.  Jim Maloney, 19-7 and 2.39 ERA, was the ace of the staff.  After that it was a blend of solid play from all to win the division. 

 

Billy Williams (.295-36-122) was the big gun in the Philadelphia offense that received an unexpected contribution from Jim Gilliam who finished in the top ten in both average and on base percentage.  Fred Newman was 18-10 to lead the staff while Robin Roberts captured some of his old magic with a 2.12 ERA, best on the club and third best in the league.

 

Brando Division:

Crimson coasted to the Brando crown with the league’s best record of 101 wins.  Mars Hill and Lansing provided little competition with 89 and 82 wins respectively.  Crimson’s Felipe Alou was one of only three .300 hitters among those who qualified for the crown.  He was also in the top ten in Slugging Percentage and Total Average.  His 34 homers and 102 RBI also led the team.  The face of the offense is beginning to change as Crimson seeks to inject more speed into the lineup in the personage of second year man Lou Brock who stole 45 bases to finish second in the league. 

 

Pitching, however, has been the forte of the Fire for several seasons and this was no exception.  Juan Marichal posted the top ERA of 1.74 for the league to go with a 23-11 record, 254 strikeouts, 20 complete games and a league leading 8 shutouts.  Whitey Ford posted a 19-8 record and 2.55 ERA in what will be his last full season in 3RBL.

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Dean Division:

Inland Empire captured their second division title with 100 wins, their second winning season in 3RBL history.  They held off Wexford, the best hitting club in the league, with the second-best pitching staff, after Crimson.  Mel Stottlemyre (21-8) and Bob Shaw (18-7) were the aces of the staff.  They may not have had the best offense; however, they had the best offensive player.  Willie Mays led the club and the league with a .332 batting average, tied for the lead in home runs with 49, led the league in on base percentage with a .411 mark and was third in league in RBI with 122. 

 

Wexford was the best hitting club in the league producing 4.8 runs per game.  They finished in the middle of the pack in pitching with the seventh best ERA and were fifth best in fielding.  Bill White (.299) and Pete Rose (.295) were the top batters while White (.542) and Carl Yastrzemski (.531) were their top sluggers.  Dick Allen (.367), White (.364) and Rose (.357) were in the top ten in league on base percentage and all three scored over 100 runs.  Yastrzemski (123) finished second in RBI while White (116) and Allen (110) also drove in over 100.  Rose led in hits with 208 while Yastrzemski (59) and Rose (52) were the top two in doubles.  White (35) was the clubs top homer man and he finished eighth in the league.  The rotation did have its bell-cow in Sam McDowell.  Sudden Sam posted a 20-7 record with a 2.57 ERA.  He led the league with 313 strikeouts and averaged the most K/9 at 10.4. 

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Post Season:

Inland and Crimson quickly disposed of Meadville and Wexford respectively to meet for the title.  The teams split the first two games at Crimson and Inland seized the lead in the third game behind a Mel Stottlemyre six-hitter which marked his third win in the post season.  However, Juan Marichal posted his third win to even the series on a two-hit shutout with the only run coming on a solo homer by his battery-mate, Tom Haller, in the seventh inning.  Crimson’s Whitey Ford followed with a two-hitter of his own in an 8-1 win to take the series lead and return to Crimson with the lead.

 

However, George Brunet won his second game to tie the series backed by two-run homers from Chuck Hinton, his fifth of the post season, and Willie Mays, his fourth.  The final game matched three game winners Stottlemyre and Marichal.  Willie Horton’s third homer of the post season started the scoring for Inland in the second inning, but Crimson took the lead in the fourth on a Cash double and Alou ground out.  However, Inland came right back in the fifth to score two of their own, the key blow being a Gene Oliver double which brought in the tying run and Oliver subsequently scored the eventual winner on Chuck Hinton’s single.  After that it was Stottlemyre all the way as he allowed only three hits total in the game.