Monday, September 24, 2018

RIP - Lee Stange


Lee Stange, who pitched for the Twins, Indians, and Red Sox in the 1960s, passed away on September 21, 2018 at age 81.


Stange signed with the old Washington Senators in 1957, and pitched for the Twins from 1961 until his trade to Cleveland in June 1964. His best season was 1963, when he compiled a 12-5 records and a 2.62 ERA.

After 2 calendar years with the Tribe, he was traded to the Red Sox in June 1966 and played in the 1967 World Series.

Stange moved on to the White Sox in June 1970, and finished his career that season.

He was also a pitching coach for the Red Sox, Twins, and Athletics in the 1970s and 1980s.

Boston Globe obituary

Reuters obituary
 .

Monday, September 17, 2018

1960s Blog Hall of Fame Results (#10)


Jim Bunning and Roger Maris are the latest inductees, joining the 29 others shown below.


Bunning was a 7-time All-Star (5 in the 1960s), and 150 of his 224 career wins came during the 1960s. During the decade, he collected 19 wins 4 times, and 17 wins twice. In 1967, he finished 2nd in the Cy Young voting, while leading the NL in strikeouts (253), shutouts (6) and innings pitched (302).

Maris was a 2-time AL MVP during the 1960s ('60, '61).  Frank Robinson was the only other player to win the award twice in that decade. Roger hit 217 of his 275 career homers during the 1960s, with 133 of them from 1960-62. Besides leading the AL with 61 home runs in 1961, he led the league in RBI in both 1960 (112) and 1961 (141). (He "dropped" to 100 RBI in 1962.) He was also an All-Star from 1960-62, and won a Gold Glove award in 1960.




Complete results:

I'm really surprised that no one but me voted this time. Had all the "good" candidates already been inducted? Or did nobody want to vote because it wasn't an anonymous poll?

Is this an "asterisk situation"? Nah, there was almost 2 weeks allowed for voting, and nothing was said about what happens if only 1 person voted, so...

With only 1 person voting, candidates received either 100% or 0%. Since the other 6 received less than 15% of the vote, they will be dropped from the ballot.

I don't think there will be another ballot after this anyway.  1) There was no interest this time. 2) With those 6 candidates dropped, and all other "names" rejected on previous ballots, there is really no one left from the 1960s to consider.  I suppose Johnny Bench could be proposed, but Tom Seaver got no votes, and Bench played less in the 1960s than Seaver.


(Click the "hall of fame ballot" label below to see all past results.
.

Friday, September 14, 2018

RIP - Billy O'Dell


Former Orioles and Giants pitcher Billy O'Dell passed away on September 12, 2018 at age 85.


O'Dell joined the 1st-year Baltimore Orioles in 1954 as a bonus baby, and never played in the minor leagues.

After missing the 1955 season due to military service, he returned to the Orioles from 1956-59 (making the All-Star team in '58 and '59).

He also played for the Giants from 1960-64, winning 19 games during their NL Pennant season of 1962.

He later played for the Braves (1965-66) and Pirates (1966-67).

Baltimore Sun obituary

The Sentinel obituary

ESPN obituary
.

Sunday, September 2, 2018

1960s Blog Hall of Fame (#10)


It's time for another 1960s Blog Hall of Fame Election.



Last year Billy Williams was the lone inductee, joining the other 28 members in the Hall. One player received less than 15% of the vote and was dropped from the ballot, leaving 6 returning candidates this time:

Jim Bunning
Rod Carew
Curt Flood
Ferguson Jenkins
Roger Maris
Denny McLain

Added to the ballot this time are:
Tom Seaver (12-time All-Star, 3 Cy Youngs, 1967 ROY, won 25 in 1969)
Earl Battey (4-time All-Star, 3-time GG in 8 seasons (7 as starter)

Here is the voting history for all the current candidates:

Since Blogger has done away with the polls widget, please use the comments to vote. (Anonymous comments will not be accepted. Also any spammers commenting as an excuse to post their links to gambling sites, etc will be deleted, as always.)

Vote for up to half (this time 4) of the players on the ballot. The voting will close on 9/15, at which time comments will be disabled. Those receiving at least 75% of the votes will be inducted.


Click on the "hall of fame ballot" label below to see the results of all previous elections.