Last Active (old) Washington Senators

Here are the last active players to have played for the "old" Washington Senators. That is, the team that left Washington DC after 1960 to become the Minnesota Twins.

They were immediately replaced by the expansion Washington Senators in 1961, who 11 seasons later would also skip town to become the Texas Rangers.

Last Active New York Giants

Here are the last active players to have played for the New York Giants. Appropriately, Willie Mays is on top of the list.


Hoyt Wilhelm's last game was on July 10, 1972 - 16 days before his 50th birthday!
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Last Active Brooklyn Dodgers

On October 16th, I posted a list of the last active player from each of the first wave of relocated teams.

Today, I'm drilling down to find the last 10 active players to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Most had retired by the end of the 1960s. Some guys (like Aspromonte and Demeter) only had a few at-bats with Brooklyn.



Next: The New York Giants
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Jarry Park was a minor-league stadium

The MLB network was showing a 1970 game between the Expos and Pirates. The lighting was so bad at Jarry Park in Montreal that not only do the players have shadows, but when the camera behind home plate follows fly balls to the outfield, you can't even see the outfield fence, because the entire area is in shadows.

Heads-up: MLB Network showing 1960s World Series

I just noticed that the MLB Network will be showing various games from the 1965, 1968, and 1969 World Series on Saturday and Sunday.

Tonight they are showing 1/2 hour summaries of the 1951 to 1955 WS, followed by Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 WS.

Long-time veterans say goodbye (part 2 of 3)

Between 1965 and 1969, 117 players with 10 or more years in the big leagues retired. Below is the list of the 12 to 14-year veterans who retired between 1966 and 1969. I have posted the last baseball card for some of these players on my 1966, 1967, and 1968 blogs already, and will post more of these cards (to those blogs) over the next few weeks. (click to enlarge)

1968 World Series

I watched game #1 of the 1968 World Series on the MLB Network today. (I've seen this one earlier this year on MLB, but it's always a classic!)

The announcers were NBC's Cury Gowdy (as always), and Harry Caray (who was the Cardinals' broadcaster at the time). I think it's great that the network included the home team's regular announcer (as they would also do in 1969 with the Met's announcer). The 2 of them each announced half the game, with the other one doing sparse color commentary.

The early buzz was 16-year veteran Tiger Al Kaline playing in his 1st series, and Detroit outfielder Mickey Stanley starting at shortstop (having only played there for 9 games in his pro career, including all of the Tigers' final 6 games in 1968). The highlight of the game turned out to be Bob Gibson's stellar performance, as he pitched a complete game victory and broke the World Series strikeout record with 17 strikeouts. Denny McLain (who won 31 games that year), pitched well for a few innings, but was outplayed by Gibson.

The Tigers eventually won the series, thanks to the way their manager Mayo Smith handled his pitching rotation. Gibson & McLain started games 1 & 4, with Gibson winning both. Nelson Briles and Mickey Lolich started games 2 & 5, with Lolich winning both for the Tigers. (The Cardinals also won game 3.) After 5 games, with the Cardinals leading 3-2, Smith brought McLain and Lolich back on short rest to pitch games 6 and 7, and the Tigers won both!

The 1968 World Series was the last hurrah for long-time sluggers Eddie Mathews (Tigers - PH) and Roger Maris (Cardinals - RF).