1969 Baseball Season

When I was twelve, in the early spring of 1969, I was looking forward to following my first complete major league baseball season. I had fresh memories of the previous year’s exciting World Series, with the Detroit Tigers, seemingly out of it down three games to one, coming back and winning the last three games and the Series over the intimidating St. Louis Cardinals. But 1969 would be new in other ways, as well. It would be the first season that each league was split into two divisions, representing the East and the West. In addition, there would be four brand-new expansion teams: the San Diego Padres, the Montreal Expos, the Kansas City Royals, and the Seattle Pilots. For some reason, without any knowledge of the franchise or its players, the name “Seattle Pilots” resonated with me and I decided then that it would be “my” team that year (no Florida teams existed yet).

As far as the other teams were concerned, there was some notable movement in the standings from 1967 to 1968. In New York, both the Yankees and the Mets had remarkable improvements, with the Mets actually finishing next-to-last instead of last. The Oakland Athletics, recently moved from Kansas City, had also improved, as did the Chicago Cubs and the Baltimore Orioles. The Washington Senators and Houston Astros brought up the cellars in each league, respectively.

As 1969 began, it looked as if the Senators and Astros would repeat their 1968 fates, each having horrendous starts. But it became clear early on that, although still good, Detroit and St. Louis weren’t quite the same teams that ran over baseball in 1968. Instead, other teams stepped up to the front: Baltimore and Minnesota established early leads in their respective AL Divisions (Baltimore’s was a runaway, while Minnesota (with slugger Harmon Killebrew and batting titlist Rod Carew, and all-around superstar Tony Oliva had a race with Oakland (with their budding superstar Reggie Jackson, who at one point in 1969 was on pace to break Maris’s record). The Orioles were a supremely talented team with perhaps the best all-around cast of starting pitchers to ever grace a team. Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally, and Jim Palmer were the standouts in their rotation. Boog Powell, Frank Robinson, Paul Blair, Don Buford, Brooks Robinson, and Mark Belanger were some other figures that made up this “super-team”. And their irascible manager Earl Weaver was something else! Alas, though, my Seattle Pilots, in spite of a relatively “not-too-bad” season’s first half, then proceeded to go into a tailspin and finish dead-last in their division. That could have been expected because of their expansion status, but their own hometown wouldn’t support them and the franchise moved to Milwaukee (as the Brewers) the following season.

In the National League, the Chicago Cubs, (with stars like Ernie Banks, Billie Williams, and Ron Santo), were running away in the East, ahead of the improved Mets and Pirates, while in the West the much-improved Atlanta Braves (with “the great one” Hank Aaron) were usually a little ahead of a large pack of followers. Even the Astros had surged at times to get into contention. Only the hapless San Diego Padres were completely out of the race. The only thing I remember about them is that their sorry manager actually once, during the season, pulled a pitcher (Clay Kirby) who was pitching a no-hitter after eight innings, in order to put in a pinch-hitter (and the no-hitter was lost).

As the regular season drew toward the end, the Washington Senators (with slugger Frank Howard and their new manager Ted Williams) and the Pittsburgh Pirates (with the great Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, and Matty Alou) surged to respectable, winning final records. But in baseball, the second half of 1969 belonged to manager Gil Hodges and his New York Mets (another team with very strong pitchers like Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Nolan Ryan), who put on an incredible season-ending run, coupled by the complete collapse of the Cubs, to win their division. The recent ironic collapse of the Mets this year at season’s end, coupled with the Phillies’ surge, reminded me of 1969 (and hence here’s this article).

In the divisional playoffs, the favorites won easily 3-0 (Baltimore over Minnesota and New York over Atlanta). Baltimore was expected to beat the Mets in the World Series, and it started off just like that, with the Orioles’ ace pitcher Mike Cuellar stopping New York 4-1. But the Mets prevailed in the next four games and, just like a few months earlier in football (Jets over Colts), a heavily favored Baltimore team lost convincingly to an upstart New York team. Oh, and speaking of the Philadelphia Phillies, who did so well this year, how did they do in 1969? Well, thanks to Montreal, they didn’t finish in last place. But they were the laughingstock of the league anyway because of the antics of their primadonna crybaby superstar Richie Allen (who I’ve heard was rumored to finally have grown up, changed his name to Dick Allen, and enjoyed a very distinguished career)!