1966 Baseball Season

 

Highlights:

The 1966 season saw four no-hit games pitched, the highest since 1962 when six different pitchers did the trick.  Sandy Koufax started the parade on April 4th with a 2-0 win for Providence over Meadville.  It was Koufax' second of his 3RBL career and his first since 1962.  Blue Moon Odom tossed his first for Crimson over Surf City on April 23rd, Ferguson Jenkins did the deed on July 10th for Providence against Highland and Lansing's Al Jackson finished the string with a no-hitter on October 5th, the penultimate day of the schedule.  With all that pitching, however, the hitters were not without their accomplishments.  On June 2nd Highland hammered Providence 21-0 and on August 26th West Deer battered Lansing's later no-hit hurler Al Jackson and a bevy of relievers in a 24-4 rout.  Dick Allen set a new league record for RBIs as the West Deer slugger drove home 155 topping Mickey Mantle's record of 153 in 1963.  

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Presley Division:

Pittsburgh was stumbling along through most of the season before Willie Stargell caught fine in the final two months and carried Pittsburgh to the crown.  Stargell batted .258 on the year but had 40 homers and drove in 102 runs the majority of which were after July 1st.  Roberto Clemente has never really realized his batting average from MLB but his .279 mark was good for 38 doubles, 12 triple, 28 homers and 110 RBI and was the rock by which the team remained in contention.  Donn Clendenon popped 27 homers and Jose Cardenal and Randy Hundley hit 20 as the Pittsburghers presented their best lineup in seasons.  In typical Pittsburgh fashion, no one pitcher stood out with Bob Veale's 15-12 record accounting for the most wins and Sonny Siebert's 2.77 as the lowest ERA of the starting pitchers.  

 

Brando Division:

Crimson had the best team ERA (2.74) and was third in suns scored (4.4 per game).  While Felipe Alou was the best overall offensive player for Crimson (.313-34-107), Norm Cash (.278-32-114) and Tom Haller (.215-35-77) chipped in to form as good a power trio there was in the league.  Their real strength was pitching.  Juan Marichal (29-6 1.61), Tommy John (16-8 2.39) and Denny McLain (19-13 3.38) formed a workhorse trio that hurled 794 innings and with Joe Hoerner (7-4 1.23) and Al Worthington (3-6 1.94) around to record 22 and 10 saves respectively they were hard to beat.

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Mars Hill was the wild card representative but they led Crimson until late July when the Fire caught Fire and roared to the finish.  The Mules were led by Boog Powell's 33 homers and 87 RBI.  Mickey Mantle (.254-27-66), Jimmie Hall (.224-22-50) and Deron Johnson (.216-25-64) were the core of the offense.  Steve Hargan (13-6 2.10) led the league in ERA for most of the season and along with Claude Osteen (16-12 2.92), Dave McNally (14-9 3.86) and Pete Richert (12-15 3.86) formed a solid rotation.  Stu Miller, a Mars Hill Mule since he entered the league in 1956, is second all-time in league saves and this season was no different as he racked up 24 with a 1.37 ERA.

 

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Dean Division:

As usual, Highland was led by Henry Aaron who had 36 homers and 106 RBI.  However, something has happened to Henry's batting average as he struggled to a .248 mark for the season.  Joe Torre was the big bat (.306-35-103) but, in typical fashion, power just oozed from the lineup as Knoop (24), Adcock (23) Valentine (19), Phillips (19) Tresh (15), Mathews (15) and Fregosi (14) filled every spot in the lineup.  Lefties ruled the Flyer staff as Mike Cuellar (18-7 2.14) Gary Peters (16-8 2.57) and Jim Kaat (24-10 3.22) led the rotation.  It almost appeared that the Flyers did not know what to do when a righty started for them to the chagrin of Dean Chance (9-17 3.88) who deserved better.  

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Post Season:

The Highland Flyers returned to their top spot in the Dean Division after a one year absence and won the championship in a tough fight with the Pittsburgh Vikings who also made their way atop the Presley Division for the first time since 1963.  Crimson rolled on with another 100 win season in the Brando while Mars Hill finished atop the Wild Card scramble.  Pittsburgh, however, knocked off Crimson by winning the final two games on the road as Sonny Siebert won the third match-up with Juan Marichal in a 3-2 win in the seventh game of the series.  Highland, meanwhile disposed of a gritty Mars Hill team by winning the final three on the road, two of which were extra-inning marathons.  The road team success continued through the first five games of the finals as the visitor won every time until Highland was able to tame Pittsburgh with an 8-1 win in game six for the crown.