DEDICATED ROOKIES: 1962 BOB VEALE

Branching out into the 1960s with my "Dedicated Rookies" theme, this time a 1962 card for flame-thrower Bob Veale of the Pittsburgh Pirates:

Veale would make his MLB debut that season at the age of 26, appearing in elevel games for the Pirates, going 2-2 with a 3.74 earned run average over 45.2 innings.

After a Sophomore season that saw him go 5-1 with a brilliant 1.04 ERA over 34 games in 1963, generally in relief, the lefty put in his first full year in 1964 and had a great year, going 18-12 over 39 games, all but two of them starts, posting an ERA of 2.74 in 279.2 innings with a league-leading 250 strikeouts, the first of what would be four seasons topping 200 K's.

He'd retire after the 1974 season with a tidy 120-95 record, with a 3.07 earned run average and 1703 K's with 20 shutouts.

Between 1964 and 1970 Veale was a very solid Major League starter, averaging 15 wins and 213 strikeouts over those seven years, easily keeping pace with contemporaries like Don Drysdale, Jim Bunning and Jim Maloney.

THE WHOLE NINE: SERIES 2- 1962 BILL FREEHAN

Today on the blog, from my custom "Whole Nine: Series 2" set released a few months back, my 1962 "missing" card for SHOULD-BE Hall of Fame catcher Bill Freehan:

This man was THE top catcher in the American League for the 1960's, taking up the position after guys like Yogi Berra and Elston Howard retired, and before young studs like Carlton Fisk and Thurman Munson came along.

With all the superstars on the field during the 1960s, it's easy to forget that Freehan was an eleven-time all-star, five-time Gold Glover, and finished in the top-ten in M.V.P. voting three times, with a second place finish in 1968 behind teammate Denny McLain.

He made his Big League debut in 1961 at the age of 19 with four appearances, hitting .400 with four hits over 10 at-bats, with four RBIs and a run scored.

1964, his first full year in the Majors, was arguably his finest season, as he hit .300 for the only time in his career along with 18 homers and 80 R.B.I.'s.
But for the rest of the decade Freehan put up comparable numbers year after year, while taking care of a Detroit pitching staff that featured guys like McLain, Mickey Lolich and Earl Wilson.
He really was ahead of the rest of the pack as far as A.L. catchers during the decade.

A solid player through and through, he'd retire after the 1976 season with a .262 lifetime average, 200 homers and 758 runs batted in over 1774 games and 6073 at-bats.

 

1960S "IN-ACTION": 1962 AL KALINE

The next "Series 3 1960s In-Action" card to get posted here on the blog is a 1962 edition for Detroit Tigers legend Al Kaline:

Fun horizontal image to go with my previous 1962 "In-Action" cards of Stan Musial and Ernie Banks from the previous two Series.

What a quiet legend Kaline was. Buried under names like Aaron, Mays, Mantle, etc, he just went about his business year in and year out and paved the way for his eventual induction into Cooperstown's hallowed halls in 1980.

The 1960's saw Kaline make eight All-Star teams, win seven Gold Gloves, and receive solid M.V.P. support seven of ten years, finishing as high as second in 1963.

Though he only led the league in a primary offensive category only once (doubles in 1961) in the 1960s, Kaline's consistency was his strength, as he topped .300 four times, 20 homers five times, and a .500 slugging percentage five times.

The 15-time all-star topped 3000 hits, 1600 runs, 1500 runs batted in and came one home run short of 400 over his stellar career, which also included 10 Gold Gloves for his defensive prowess.
An easy Hall of Fame pick, he was inducted in his first year of eligibility in 1980 with 88.3% of the ballots cast.
“Mr. Tiger” indeed!

1960's IN-ACTION SPECIAL: 1962 STAN MUSIAL

The next 1960's superstar to get an "In-Action" card in my recent custom set, the great, and one of the GREATEST, Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals:

Stan was close to wrapping up one of the greatest careers a player ever had in the sport by the time this card would have seen the light of day, eventually playing through the 1963 season before walking away.

His MLB numbers are just absurd: seven batting titles, two R.B.I. titles, five triples titles and eight doubles titles, with career numbers of 475 home runs, 1951 runs batted in and a .331 career average. Throw in his 725 doubles, 177 triples and 3630 hits along with 1949 runs scored and the numbers are staggering. 

And don't forget that Musial also lost a year to military duty, easily putting him over 500 homers, close to 3900 hits and around 2100 runs batted in if he played in 1945.

Along with the great Frank Robinson I always felt Stan Musial was often overlooked in the decades since his playing days ended.

When talk of "Greatest Living Player" came up it was always Williams, DiMaggio, Mays or even Aaron that would come up. But Stan Musial would always kind of be that after-thought.

Criminal.

Three Most Valuable Player Awards, FOUR second-place finishes, including three in a row between 1949-1951, and twenty consecutive all-star appearances, Musial definitely is a member of that rarified stratosphere of baseball royalty along with the likes of Ruth, Cobb, Mays and Wagner, among others.

 

TURN BACK THE CLOCK- TOM CHENEY STRIKES OUT 21 BATTERS

Here’s a “Turn Back the Clock” 1972 card celebrating the 10th anniversary of Washington Senators’ pitcher Tom Cheney striking out 21 Baltimore Orioles in a 16-inning complete game which saw him throw over 220 pitches:

On September 12, 1962, Cheney had a shutout going into the ninth-inning, along with 13 strikeouts.
Sadly for him, the Orioles also had a shutout going, so the game would go into extra innings.
Little did anyone know that Cheney would continue pitching, as well as striking out batters, for another seven innings until opposing pitcher Dick Hall gave up a game-winning homer to Senator Bud Zipfel, giving Cheney the shutout and record-breaking performance.
The mark still stands as the most strikeouts in a single game by one pitcher, regardless of innings pitched.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK- 1962 SANDY KOUFAX THROWS 1ST NO-HITTER

Next up in the “Turn Back The Clock” thread is a celebration of Los Angeles Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax throwing what would be the first of his four no-hitters, this one in 1962 against the Mets:

On June 30th, 1962, a year in which it was becoming evident that the young lefty from Brooklyn was beginning to harness all his potential, Koufax struck out 13 Mets, though still walking five, while cruising to a 5-0 win.
Just under 30,000 witnessed the pitching gem in person,, not realizing that they were seeing the unveiling of one of the most dominant pitching stretches in baseball history, as Koufax would go on to throw three more no-nos, including a perfect game in 1965, while collecting three Cy Young Awards and an MVP while leading the Dodgers to two World Championships in 1963 and 1965.
Sadly as we all know Koufax would have that dominance swept out from under him after the 1966 season because of arm troubles, and he had to retire while at the height of his career.
Nevertheless he accomplished enough in those few short years that he would be welcomed into the Hall of Fame’s hallowed doors just six years later in his first year of eligibility.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK- MAURY WILLS STEALS HIS WAY TO MVP!

Today we celebrate the season Maury Wills had in 1962 with the next “Turn Back the Clock” card, this one a 1972 10th anniversary edition:

In that 1962 season Wills was the spark plug for the Los Angeles Dodgers, stealing a new MLB record 104 bases, breaking the (modern) record of 96 by Ty Cobb.
It would be the third of six straight seasons he would lead the National League in steals, leading to a career total of 586.
Along with his 208 hits, 130 runs scored and league-leading 10 triples, he would eventually edge out Willie Mays and take home the Most Valuable Player trophy at season’s end.
I was always amazed when I saw that Wills officially played in 165 games during the 1965 season because of shortened games that counted in statistics but not as completed games.
As a kid I didn’t know how that worked, so was always wondering how on earth a player could do it. Ah the days before the world wide web!

1975 "CY YOUNG AWARD" SUB-SET: WHAT IF? 1962

The Dodgers and Yankees had the Most Valuable Players in their respective leagues in 1962, and if the people at SABR have anything to do with it, the two teams would also have the Cy Young winners as well.

As we all know, Dodger great Don Drysdale went on to win the award that season, when it was only given to one pitcher instead of one in each league.

But according to a great article from 1993 in a SABR journal, the consensus winner in the American League would have been Yankee pitcher Ralph Terry.

First take a look at my card design for the 1962 entry in my imagined 1975 sub-set:

For Terry, he finally seemed to put it all together in 1962 after six seasons in the big leagues, going 23-12 with a 3.19 earned run average in a league-leading 39 starts.

The previous year he had his first truly successful year in the big leagues, going 16-3 for the Yanks. But it was 1962 that would be the pinnacle of his 12 year career.

In addition to the stats mentioned, he also led the American League in innings pitched with 298.2, getting him selected for his only All-Star game and a 14th-place finish in M.V.P. voting at the end of the year.

He would also end up being voted most valuable player of the World Series, as he won two games against the San Francisco Giants, most importantly, a 1-0 shutout win in Game 7 with Willie McCovey famously lining out to second baseman Bobby Richardson with the winning runs on base.

This would atone for his "other" well known World Series moment: giving up Bill Mazeroski's 7th-game/ninth-inning home run to win the series for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960.

Terry would wind up his career after the 1967 season with the New York Mets, posting a 107-99 record with a 3.62 E.R.A in 257 starts and 338 games.

As for the actual winner of the Cy Young in 1962, Don Drysdale, he was already a feared star on the mound for the Dodgers by the time he really got it all together in '62.

But that year he was simply awesome, posting a leading 25-9 record with a 2.83 E.R.A. and a league-leading 232 strikeouts over 41 starts (also tops in the N.L.).

Though the Dodgers fell just short of the World Series that year, they'd be vindicated the following year with the arrival of one of the all-time best one-two punches on a Major League mound: Drysdale and the emergence of a guy named Sandy Koufax (you'll be seeing a lot of his on this thread over the next few weeks!).

The Dodgers would go on to sweep the Yankees in the World Series in 1963, but Drysdale would be taking a back-seat to Koufax as the ace of the Dodger staff.

But 1962 would be Drysdale's year, easily distancing from the rest of the pack in Cy Young voting, getting 14 of 20 votes to beat out Giants pitcher Jack Sanford.

By the time "Big D" was done, he'd retire at the young age of 32 with a 209 and 166 record, 49 shutouts, a 2.95 E.R.A.,  and 2486 strikeouts.

It took him a while, but he finally got voted into the Hall of Fame in 1984, though many consider him a borderline Hall of Fame member at best (like Catfish Hunter among others).

Next up, 1963 and the beginning of the "Sandy Koufax Era". The man was simply unstoppable from 1963 through 1966.

If only we could have seen him pitch into the 1970's. Boy oh boy…

In the A.L., it was pretty clear that the winner would have been Whitey Ford had they given the award for both leagues at the time.

See you then…