1969 Baseball Season

 

Highlights:

Expansion came to the 3RBL in 1969 much as it did in MLB that season.  The league created the Holly Division and  added four teams .  The league also eliminated the Wild Card for the post season and focused upon intra-divisional play.  As a result, only the division champs advance to the post season.  Delmarva's Bobby Murcer was the top rookie in the league.

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West Deer's Frank Howard repeated as the MVP while West Deer's Ken Tatum interrupted WD's Wilbur Wood's two year run as top Fireman.  Crimson's Juan Marichal  tied former Crimson Ace Whitey Ford's record of three Cy Young awards and marked the 8th time in the 16 year history of the league that a Crimson pitcher won the award.  

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Presley Division:

Meadville won its third divisional championship and first since 1965.  The Eagles were led by batting champ Pete Rose (.357) and catcher Johnny Bench (31 HR 116 RBI) on offense and by Bill Singer (20-13 2.99) on the mound.  Earl Wilson (19-8 3.06) and Bob Moose (13-5 1.81) filled out the front of the rotation while Jim Roland (23 saves, 2.31 ERA) put the nail in opponent coffins as Meadville won by 8 games over second place Meadowbrook.

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Brando Division:

Mars Hill had a much closer battle as they unseated Crimson by 3 games and Lansing by 5 to notch their 4th division title and first since 1964.  Led by the "Boog-y-man", Boog Powell (.290, 48 HRs, 130 RBI), and supported by Jim Northrup (.285-29-106), Larry Hisle (.283-26-81) and Bill Freehan (.277-24-80) the Mules had the second highest team batting average and was third in runs scored per game.  They also sported the league's top defense to ably support Dave McNally (19-10 2.91) Jerry Koosman (18-9 2.36) and Rick Wise (18-10 2.68).  Moe Drabowsky (23 saves, 2.44 ERA) was the closer.

 

Dean Division:

After a two-year absence from the top spot, Highland captured their 7th division title by a six-game margin over 1968 winner, West Deer.  They came by the title honestly as while splitting the season series with Surf City, and holding a four game bulge on New York, it was the eight-game advantage in head to head play that brought the title home to Highland,  

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In something of a reversal, Highland, long noted for their offense, was only average in runs scored per game but a strong second in both team pitching and defense.  Claude Osteen, reversing a horrendous 1968 season, posted a 24-10 mark with a 2.89 ERA to lead the staff.  Mike Cuellar (17-16 2.57), Joe Coleman (17-13 2.86) and Casey Cox (11-7 3.04) comprised the bulk of the starting staff while Cox also served a swing man and led the team with 11 saves.

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Long time stalwart Henry Aaron (.273-36-105) led the offense but it was newcomers Richie Hebner (.328-9-75) and Carl Taylor (.323-9-70) who provided the fire the offense needed.  

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Holly Division:

The Delmarva Dogfish adopted a "win now" strategy and it worked to perfection as they reeled off 105 wins in their inaugural season.  However, they were only two games above .500 against the other three divisions in the league while hammering their own division to the tune of 68-22.

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Denny McLain led the staff with a 22-7 2.42 ERA.  Blue Moon Odom (19-8 3.30) and Dave Boswell (18-9 3.72) rounded out the Big Three while Hoyt Wilhelm (23 Saves, 1.43 ERA) and Joe Gibbon (12-5, 15 Saves, 1.82 ERA) formed an effective right-left combo in the bullpen.  

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Rich Reese (.365-22-91) led the offense along with top rookie Bobby Murcer (.272-38-126) and Alex Johnson (.318-19-97).  Mack Jones (.293-18-58), Don Mincher (.277-20-58) and Tommie Agee (.231-17-62) provide powerful depth to a lineup that led the league in runs scored per game.

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Post Season:

For the second successive post season we had a first time winner.  Meadville marched through the top offense in Delmarva and then the best defense-pitching team of the post season, Highland, in a pair of 4-1 victories.  Highland also dispensed of Mars Hill by a 4-1 mark as all of the series were dominated by pitching.  The collective ERA was 2.71 with Meadville leading the pack at 2.18 and the collective batting average was .211 with Meadville again tops at .235.  Meadville also averaged 3.8 runs per game as compared to the collective average of 2.95.

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Top pitcher was Meadville's Grant Jackson who posted a 3-0 mark with an 0.78 ERA in 23 innings of work.  Highland's Rich Hebner thrived in the post season environment with a .425 mark in 42 plate appearances.  Hebner also posted a 10 game hitting streak matched by fellow teammate Carl Taylor.  Hebner also drove in the most runs (11) with Meadville's surprising Hawk Harrelson (who struggled during the regular season) finishing second in RBI with 7 but most importantly led all post season batters with 5 home runs.

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In fact, it was the long ball that was decisive for the Eagles.  Harrelson (5), Bench (3), Aurelio Rodriguez (2) and Tony Conigliaro (2) accounted for more than half of the total home runs hit by all teams in the tournament.

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Meadville's first trip to the winner's circle marks the 9th different franchise to win the league championship in the 15 seasons we have played.

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Individual game box scores can be found on the Record Book page.