1967 Baseball Season

 

Highlights:

1967 was a very competitive year in 3RBL as nine of the twelve teams finished with 80 or more wins for the season.  While Surf City led with 102, Highland (92) was the only other team to finish with more than 90 wins.  As fate would have it, Surf City was knocked out of the post season by Highland who eventually fell to Pittsburgh who had won 88.

 

Pitching dominated as eleven teams finished with team ERAs below 4.00 and only two with batting averages over .250.  Four teams averaged more than 4.0 runs scored per game with Surf City the highest at 4.5.  While only four pitchers won 20 games, three finished the season vying for the REA crown with marks under 2.00.  While Carl Yastrzemski (45) and Harmon Killebrew (41) were the top two in homers, it was Julian Javier who hit the most in a single game when he homered three times for Lansing on April 17th as he led the Songs to a 9-8 win over Surf City.

 

After two dry years, two men hit for the cycle this season.  Meadville’s Tony Conigliaro did so against Lansing in an 18-0 rout on June 7th and Pittsburgh’s Roberto Clemente did so on June 15th on the road in a 4-3 win over Highland.

 

There were five no-hitters thrown this season.  Frank Bertania, Jim Bunning (his second), Phil Niekro, Jim Nash and Dave Boswell to raise the total to 39 in the thirteen-year history of the league.

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Presley Division:

Pittsburgh led the division with 88 wins, eight ahead of both Philadelphia and Meadville.  The Pittsburgh club was remarkably consistent in that they had the second-best team batting average, were third in runs scored per game, second in team ERA and second in team fielding.  Roberto Clemente led the team and the league in batting average with a .325 mark.  He hit 23 doubles, 11 triples and 18 homers and led the club in RBI (85) while second in runs scored (88).  Willie Stargell slumped to a .241 average as compared to 1966 but was still able to lead the team with 21 homers.  Gene Alley was the table setter for the lineup as he batted .285 and scored 104 runs.

 

Sonny Siebert was the top pitcher with a 15-8 mark and a 2.63 ERA.  Denny Lemaster and Ray Sadecki each had 12 wins, but it was the fireman, Al McBean and Roy Face, who were Pittsburgh’s trump cards as they combined for a 13-8 record and 37 saves.

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Brando Division:

Another 88-win division leader, Crimson, held off Lansing by four games to claim the title.  Crimson has been a perennial leader in pitching within the league and it seems strange to observe that 1967 was a disappointment for Fire hurlers as they finished tenth in the league with a 3.35 team ERA.  They finished third in the league in batting and fourth in pitching, but they never really dominated as evidenced by the fact that, as a team, they allowed 3.8 runs per game while scoring 3.9.

 

Tommy John (11-8), Ron Willis (11-7) and Mel Queen (11-9) were the wins leaders for the club while John Wyatt (2-1-2.18) led the team with 22 saves. 

 

Manny Alou led brother Felipe for the top mark in batting average .316-.308 while Norm Cash (25), Brooks Robinson (24) and Lou Brock (23) provided the punch.  Brock also led the team in RBI with 80 and stolen bases (48) and was second to Curt Flood in runs scored 78-76.

 

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Dean Division:

It was a bittersweet season for Surf City as they swept to the Dean title with 102 wins and a ten-game bulge over Highland only to be knocked out of the post season in four straight by Highland.  Surf City was first in hitting, first in team runs scored per game and had a vast advantage on the entire league with a 2.44 team ERA and the widest advantage in runs scored (4.5) versus runs allowed (3.1) per game.  However, as is often the case with a team that focuses on pitching and hitting, their dead last defense was their Achilles heel throughout the season as their 160 errors were 93 more than Highland’s 67, the league leader in fielding.  Surf City was only one of two teams to allow more than 100 unearned runs.  The other being West Deer who finished with a league worst 59-103 mark.

 

The pitching staff boasted two bellwethers in Joel Horlen (21-9 1.86) and Jim Bunning (24-12 1.87).  Chris Short (15-6 2.85) and Steve Carlton (11-4 2.34) finished the rotation while the ageless Hoyt Wilhelm (4-4 2.07) again led the bullpen with 20 saves.

 

 Tony Gonzalez led the team with a .311 batting average but Harmon Killebrew (.286-41-118), Al Kaline (.299-34-92) and Jim Ray Hart (.270-32-100) were its heart.

 

Highland was fourth in team batting but second in runs scored per game.  A team that has always emphasized the long ball, the Flyers finished third in team homers.  George Scott led the team with 25 while Henry Aaron and Joe Torre had 24.  Scott was the top hitter with a .292 mark and led the club in runs scored (99) and RBIs (89).  Jim Fregosi (.256) was the only other regular to finish with a batting average above .250 as Aaron (.236) and Torre (.231), normally found among the league leaders, had down years.  Aaron did lead the club with 33 stolen bases.

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Post Season:

Pittsburgh and Crimson finished with identical records, but Pittsburgh opened the post season hosting Crimson by winning the head to head series during the season.  Pittsburgh won the opener when Willie Stargell’s second homer of the game provided a walk off win.  Crimson bounced back to tie the series behind the solid pitching of Tommy John and a balanced attack.  However, Pittsburgh swept the three games at Crimson as Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente sandwiched four home runs in games 3 and 5 around a 5-hit shutout by Bob Veale in game 4.

 

Surf City held the advantage against wildcard Highland.  However, the Flyers dispatched the Beach Boys in four straight.  The series may well have been settled in the first game as Joe Torre singled George Scott home in the 11th inning for a 1-0 win against Surf City.  From that point on the Highlanders would not be stopped as they roughed up some very good Surf City pitching.  Joe Torre had 8 hits in 16 tries including 2 homers and drove in 4 runs to lead the attack.

 

The finals thus presented a second chance for 1966 loser Pittsburgh against Highland.  Pittsburgh took the opener as Clemente homered in the 5th to give Pittsburgh the lead and he threw Andre Rodgers out at the plate to end the game.  Pittsburgh won the second game as Clemente and Stargell homered and Siebert notched his second win of the post season.  Highland won the third game behind long-time Ace Gary Peters but Pittsburgh shut the Highland offense down in the final two winning 4-1 and 4-2 to win the championship.

 

As is often the case, in a short series a player performs at such a high level that he carries his team to victory.  In this case it was Roberto Clemente. 

 

Clemente led all batters with a .436 mark in 41 plate appearances.  He posted the highest slugging percentage (1.061) and was far ahead of Highland’s Joe Torre (.771) who finished second in batting at .429.  Clemente created the most runs (19.2) I can find in our post season history.  He had the highest total average (1.955), scored the most runs (11), was second to Willie Stargell in RBIs (14-13), had the most hits (17), tied for the most doubles (4), triples (1) and had the most home runs (6).  Combined with teammate Willie Stargell, they provided a 1-2 punch that accounted for 18 runs, 31 hits, 27 RBIs, 11 home runs and 23 extra base hits in the ten games played.