1960S ALL-DECADE TEAM: A.L. RIGHT-HANDED PITCHER: DEAN CHANCE

Our blog post today, my selection for the Right-handed American League pitcher of the 1960's, and I went with Cy Young Award winner Dean Chance:

First off, my kingdom for a nice portrait photo of the ace pitcher during his time pitching for the Los Angeles Angels!

I just could not find such a photo for this card, and hope to before I come to printing this set up later this year.

Anyway, I went with Dean Chance based on his two 20-win seasons, his sick 1964 Cy Young winning year, 11 shutouts in 1964, and five sub-3.00 E.R.A. campaigns by the time the '60's were in everyone's rear-view mirrors.

In 1962, his first full-year in the Majors, he finished third for Rookie of the Year, going 14-10 with a 2.96 E.R.A.

Throughout the rest of the decade it was more of the same, as he posted solid numbers year in and year out.

But it was his 1964 season that was far and away his best year in the Majors, as he finished with a 20-9 record with a sparkling 1.65 earned run average, 11 shutouts and 207 strikeouts, leading to a Cy Young win and a fifth-place finish in M.V.P. voting for the Los Angeles Angels.

He'd post another 20-win season in 1967, now as a member of the Minnesota Twins, going 20-14 with a 2.73 E.R.A., five shutouts and 220 strikeouts, and followed up in 1968 with a career high of 234 K's along with a 2.53 E.R.A., six shutouts and a mediocre 16-16 record.

Sadly for Chance this would be his last full season in the Majors, even though he was still only 27 years old.

1969 would see Chance make only 15 starts, going 5-4 with a 2.95 E.R.A. and 50 K's in only 88.1 innings before scraping together two more years playing for the Indians, Mets and Tigers.

He would be out of baseball for good by 1972, only 30 years old, but his solid seven years between 1962-1968 still makes him my pick as the righty pitcher on my A.L. All-Decade team for my 1970 sub-set.

 

REVISITING AN OLD BLOG POST: 1972 MISSING IN ACTION DEAN CHANCE

Today we revisit another ten-year-old blog post, this one my "missing in action" 1972 card and "career-capper" for former Cy Young Winner Dean Chance, who wrapped up a nice career with a handful of games with the Detroit Tigers in 1971:

Here's the original write-up from that post:

By August of 1971 Chance was closing out a decent 11-year career, pitching in 31 games for Detroit, with 14 starts and 89.2 innings of work.

That's enough time to warrant a card in the following year's set in my opinion, especially for a guy who put in some all-star seasons in the Major Leagues.

Most notably, he had that monster year in 1964 with the Los Angeles Angels that saw him go 20-9 with a sparkling 1.65 earned run average, 11 shutouts and 207 strikeouts, making him the only pitcher besides a guy names "Koufax" to win the Cy Young Award between 1963 and 1966.

In 1967, now as a member of the Minnesota Twins, Chance had another excellent campaign, posting a 20-14 record with a 2.73 E.R.A., five shutouts and 220 strikeouts.

By the time he retired, he put together a career 128-115 record with a 2.92 E.R.A., 33 shutouts and 1534 strikeouts, with two All-Star game nods and that Cy Young hardware from '64."

 

1971 "BASEBALL'S GREATEST MOMENTS": DEAN CHANCE & HIS 1964 SEASON

On the blog today we add former Cy Young winner Dean Chance to my "missing" 1971 "Baseball's Greatest Moments" sub-set, celebrating the man's incredible 1964 season while with the Los Angeles Angels:

Chance had himself a monster year in 1964 with the Los Angeles Angels that saw him go 20-9 with a sparkling 1.65 earned run average, 11 shutouts and 207 strikeouts, making him the only pitcher besides a guy named "Koufax" to win the Cy Young Award between 1963 and 1966.

Over 46 appearances he made 35 starts, completing 15 and tossing 278.1 innings, while also picking up four saves.

Those numbers were also good enough to give him a fifth=place finish in the MVP race when awards season came around.

For the Cy Young Award, he got 17 of 20 votes, easily out-distancing Larry jackson of the Chicago Cubs, who got 2 votes, and Koufax who got one.

In 1967, now as a member of the Minnesota Twins, Chance had another excellent campaign, posting a 20-14 record with a 2.73 E.R.A., five shutouts and 220 strikeouts.

By the time he retired, he put together a career 128-115 record with a 2.92 E.R.A., 33 shutouts and 1534 strikeouts, with two All-Star game nods and that incredible Cy Young hardware from '64.

1960'S SEASONAL LEADERS- SHUTOUTS

Next up in my 1960’s “Seasonal Leaders” thread is shutouts, and we have a couple of doozies at the top of the decade, Bob Gibson and Dean Chance with their excellent seasons in 1968 and 1964 respectively:

Of course, Bob Gibson had a season for the ages in ‘68, throwing 13 shutouts on his way to a microscopic 1.13 earned run average and a 22-9 record. Though how on earth he had NINE losses is beyond me even though I read through all the box scores! It just seems impossible to do!
But in the “Year of the Pitcher” of 1968 all sorts of craziness happened, and Gibson’s loss total was one of them.
The 13 shutouts is good for second all-time in Major League history, tied with Jack Coombs of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1910, and only behind the 16 thrown by Grover Alexander in 1916 and George Bradley in MLB’s inaugural season of 1876.
For Dean Chance, his Cy Young winning 1964 season was also one for the ages, as he cruised to a 20-9 record with a minuscule 1.65 ERA and 11 shutouts over 46 games, with 35 of them starts.
The 11 shutouts are the fourth highest total by a pitcher in any MLB season, and was accomplished by eight hurlers, with only Chance and Sandy Koufax doing it in “modern” times.
As a matter of fact, since Gibson’s 13 shutouts in ‘68, only TWO pitchers have reached double-digits since then, Jim Palmer with 10 in 1975 and John Tudor with the same amount in 1985.
Tim Belcher is the last pitcher to throw as many as eight shutouts in a season, which he accomplished in 1989, a season in which he only posted 15 wins. More than half of his wins were shutouts. Amazing.

MISSING IN ACTION (OR A CAREER CAPPER): 1972 DEAN CHANCE

Well I finally gave up on trying to find a suitable image of former Cy Young pitcher Dean Chance as a Detroit Tiger, so through the wonders of Photoshop, I created one myself for his "Missing" 1972 card (or "Career Capper" if you prefer).

Check it out:

Not a bad result if I may say so…

I may have to do the same for my other "white whale", Jim Perry as an Oakland A's player.

Anyway, by August of 1971 Chance was closing out a decent 11-year career, pitching in 31 games for Detroit, with 14 starts and 89.2 innings of work.

That's enough time to warrant a card in the following year's set in my opinion, especially for a guy who put in some all-star seasons in the Major Leagues.

Most notably, he had that monster year in 1964 with the Los Angeles Angels that saw him go 20-9 with a sparkling 1.65 earned run average, 11 shutouts and 207 strikeouts, making him the only pitcher besides a guy names "Koufax" to win the Cy Young Award between 1963 and 1966.

In 1967, now as a member of the Minnesota Twins, Chance had another excellent campaign, posting a 20-14 record with a 2.73 E.R.A., five shutouts and 220 strikeouts.

By the time he retired, he put together a career 128-115 record with a 2.92 E.R.A., 33 shutouts and 1534 strikeouts, with two All-Star game nods and that Cy Young hardware from '64.

1975 "CY YOUNG AWARD" SUB-SET: WHAT IF? 1964

Next up on my imagined 1975 Cy Young sub-set s the 1964 season and we are now fully entrenched in the Koufax-era, even though he didn't take home the award that season because of limited playing time.

The actual winner of the award was Angels pitcher Dean Chance, who had his peak season that year, while Koufax would have won the award had there been a selection for both leagues at the time.

First up, my card design:

As I mentioned yesterday for my "all-decade" card featuring Chance, 1964 was the culmination of his relatively short 11-year career, going 20-9 with a fantastic 1.65 earned run average largely based on his 11 shutouts in 35 starts. He even appeared in another 11 games, earning four saves in the process.

The rest of his numbers were good ones: a league-leading 15 complete games and 278.1 innings pitched, 207 strikeouts, a .690 winning percentage, and he only gave up 7 homers and 51 earned runs all season long.

So when Cy Young voting came around, writers easily picked him over Chicago Cub hurler Larry Jackson and Koufax, garnering 17 of 20 first place votes.

He'd go on to have a few more good seasons with the Angels and Twins, but would be out of the game by 1971 at the young age of 30.

Ironically, the player the folks at SABR picked to be the "assumed" winner of the National League Cy Young Award was another guy who was out of the Majors by the age of 30, Koufax.

It's incredible to think that during his run of dominance in the game from 1963 to 1966, this season would be his "down" year.

Ha! A year that saw him go 19-5 with a 1.74 E.R.A., a .792 winning percentage, seven shutouts and 223 strikeouts, all but the K's being league-leading numbers.

Problem was that Koufax's season was cut short after a start in August because of what was diagnosed as "traumatic arthritis", so missing out on the last month and a half of the season EASILY cost him a Cy Young, which would have made four in a row to close out his career, and adding to the legend of one of the most fantastic runs of success on the mound the game has ever seen before or since.

It IS amazing to realize that of the three pitching "Triple Crown" categories: wins, E.R.A., and strikeouts, between 1963-1966, Koufax lead the league 10 of twelve times!

Only his wins and strikeouts from 1964 would prevent a clean sweep.

The man was almost unstoppable.

Next up on this thread: 1965, and low-and-behold, another Sandy Koufax appearance, taking the award home for the second time, with the American League's Jim Grant getting picked by SABR as the pitcher most likely to have won if today's voting process was in place then.

Stay tuned…

"1960'S ALL-DECADE TEAM" SUB-SET FOR THE 1970 TOPPS SET: RIGHT-HANDED PITCHERS

Today we come to the final position on my "1960's All-Decade Team" sub-set for the 1970 Topps set: right-handed pitchers.

While the National League pick was an easy one, Juan Marichal, the American League choice was tough, but I eventually went with Dean Chance.

Take a look at my card design:

As much as Marichal is celebrated as an all-time pitching legend, you still have to feel for the guy when you consider the timing of all his banner years in the big leagues.

In 1963 he has his breakout year, going 25-8 with a 2.41 E.R.A., but takes a back seat to another guy who has a breakout year, Sandy Koufax.

In 1966 he wins 25 games again, but again takes a backseat to a now dominating Koufax, who wins 27 along with a bunch of other eye-popping numbers.

In 1968 he sets a career high of 26 wins to go along with a 2.43 earned run average, but wait, a guy named Bob Gibson has a year for the ages, winning both the Cy Young Award and the M.V.P.

But when you look at the decade as a whole, there wasn't a better pitcher in the game from 1960-1969, as Marichal went on to win 191 games, winning 25 or more wins three times, post seven sub-3.00 E.R.A. seasons,  top 200+ strikeouts six times , and get selected as an all-star every year between 1962-1969.

A lefty-righty combo of Koufax and Marichal would make any baseball fan drool to no end.

Now over in the American League it got a bit trickier, as there wasn't any one dominating hurler from the right side who made a clear cut pick here.

I went with Dean Chance based on his two 20-win seasons, his sick 1964 Cy Young winning year, 11 shutouts in 1964, and five sub-3.00 E.R.A. campaigns by the time the '60's were in everyone's rear-view mirrors.

In 1962, his first full-year in the Majors, he finished third for Rookie of the Year, going 14-10 with a 2.96 E.R.A.

Throughout the rest of the decade it was more of the same, as he posted solid numbers year in and year out.

But it was his 1964 season that was far and away his best year in the Majors, as he finished with a 20-9 record with a sparkling 1.65 earned run average, 11 shutouts and 207 strikeouts, leading to a Cy Young win and a fifth-place finish in M.V.P. voting for the Los Angeles Angels.

He'd post another 20-win season in 1967, now as a member of the Minnesota Twins, going 20-14 with a 2.73 E.R.A., five shutouts and 220 strikeouts, and followed up in 1968 with a career high of 234 K's along with a 2.53 E.R.A., six shutouts and a mediocre 16-16 record.

Sadly for Chance this would be his last full season in the Majors, even though he was still only 27 years old.

1969 would see Chance make only 15 starts, going 5-4 with a 2.95 E.R.A. and 50 K's in only 88.1 innings before scraping together two more years playing for the Indians, Mets and Tigers.

He would be out of baseball for good by 1972, only 30 years old, but his solid seven years between 1962-1968 still makes him my pick as the righty pitcher on my A.L. All-Decade team for my 1970 sub-set.

Hope you enjoyed this thread while it lasted. 

It was fun designing the cards and getting a chance to have some players that would not have been on my blog to begin with since they didn't play into the '70's.