1960'S SEASONAL LEADERS- EARNED RUN AVERAGE

The next “Decade Leader” card for the 1960’s is Earned Run Average, sporting a couple of all-time low E.R.A.’s no matter what the decade:

Of course for the National League we have St Louis Cardinals great Bob Gibson, who posted one of the lowest E.R.A.’s in history at 1.13.
He achieved this with help from no one else but himself, as he posted 13 shutouts accounting for all but nine of his 22 wins, yet the guy STILL lost nine games that season!
He completed 28 of 34 starts, almost threw nothing but zeros in HALF of them, yet still came up with nine losses. Incredible!
Of course he would take home the Cy Young Award AND MVP for the N.L. For his troubles, along with his fourth Gold Glove and fifth all-star nod, on his way into the hallowed doors of Cooperstown.
Over in the American League, the decade’s lowest ERA was posted by “El Tiante” Luis Tiant, who was sadly overshadowed in the “Year of the Pitcher”, but would have EASILY taken home a Cy Young had he posted the numbers he did any other season.
All Tiant did that season for the Cleveland Indians was go 21-9 with nine shutouts over 32 starts, 19 of which he completed, and sport a sparkling 1.60 E.R.A. along with 264 strikeouts!
Forget Cy Young Award, those are MVP numbers!
However, there was a guy named Denny McLain winning 31 games for the eventual World Champion Detroit Tigers, so Tiant went home empty-handed.
He would actually go on to struggle over the next three seasons until making an awesome comeback with the Boston Red Sox in 1972, once again leading the A.L. In E.R.A. With a sub-2.00 figure, this time at 1.91.
He’d be in the Majors to stay after that, pitching through to 1982 and finishing with 229 wins along with 49 shutouts, a 3.30 E.R.A. and 2416 strikeouts over his 19-year career.

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.

1960'S SEASONAL LEADERS- STRIKEOUTS

Next up in my 1960’s “decade’s Leaders” thread is strikeouts by a pitcher, and we have two big guns to speak of, Sandy Koufax and Sam McDowell, who K’d 382 and 325 batters respectively in seasons during the decade, setting the high-water mark between 1960-69:

Of course, Koufax and his 382 strikeouts set the new modern Major League record in 1965, topping the 349 strikeouts Rube Waddell put up in 1904.
As a matter of fact, until Koufax came along the National League record for strikeouts in a season was the 267 by Christy Mathewson in 1903! So that number jumped by nearly 50% thanks to the “Left Arm of God”!
In the American League, McDowell’s 325 strikeouts in 1965 made him the first pitcher to top 300 K’s in a season since the great Bob Feller did it 19 years earlier when he fanned 348 batters in 1946.
“Sudden Sam” would also top 300 K’s in 1970, when he struck out 304 batters to lead the league for the fifth time in six years, his last K-crown.
Two power-pitchers in the prime of their careers right here, bringing back the strikeout game after a few decades of low seasonal leader totals.

1960'S SEASONAL LEADERS- PITCHING WINS

Today’s 1960’s high-water mark in stats is pitching wins, and anytime you can have a new card with Sandy Koufax on it is a good day!
Check it out:

Koufax topped the National League with 27 wins in 1966, in what would sadly be his last year in the Majors due to arm trouble which led him to retire prematurely.
It was the last season in a five year run rarely seen before or since by any pitcher in Major League history.
In those five years between 1962 and 1966 he led the league in wins three times, earned run average five times, shutouts three times, and strikeouts three times!
He took home three Cy Young Awards and an MVP (1963), finished second in MVP twice, was named to the all-star team every season and pitched the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Championships (1963 & 1965).
On the American League side of course, we have Denny McLain and his 31 wins from the “Year of the Pitcher”, 1968.
As a 24-year older, McLain just dominated A.L. Batters, going 31-6 with a 1.96 E.R.A., six shutouts and 280 strikeouts! Needless to say he took home BOTH the A.L. Cy Young Award and M.V.P. That year, a year that saw the Detroit Tigers win it all after defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.
He wouldn’t disappoint in 1969 either, winning 24 games and tossing nine shutouts while sharing the Cy Young with Baltimore Orioles pitcher Mike Cuellar.
But sadly for McLain, troubles began the very next season and he’d be out of baseball after 1972 at only 28-years of age.
Back to Koufax for a second: I always wonder what he could have done during that 1968 “Year of the Pitcher” season. Who knows, perhaps HE could have been the last 30-game winner?

1960'S SEASONAL LEADERS- RUNS

The next category up for the 1960’s “seasonal Leaders” sub-set is runs, which were led in each league by two heavy-weights, Frank Robinson and Roger Maris:

Robinson could have easily led BOTH leagues in runs scored in a season for the decade, but in this case he paced the National League with his league-leading 134 runs in 1962.
What a monster year for the reigning N.L. M.V.P., as he also led the league in doubles (51), OBP (.421) and Slugging (.624) while also hitting 39 homers with 136 runs batted in!
And to think that was only good enough for fourth in the M.V.P. Race that year!
Over in the American League we had Roger Maris, who scored 132 runs in his record breaking 1961 season when he slammed 61 homers to set a new Major League mark.
Ironically it would be the only time in his 12-year Major League career that Maris would top 100 runs scored in any season, coming closest the year before when he scored 98.
Nevertheless not a bad combo here for this card!

1960 SEASONAL LEADERS- STOLEN BASES

Next up in my “Seasonal Leaders of the 1960’s” thread are the two players who had the high-marks in stolen bases for the decade: Maury Wills of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tommy Harper of the Seattle Pilots:

Of course, for the National League, the high mark of the 1960’s was the 104 stolen bases Wills swiped during his 1962 MVP season, setting a new Major League record in the process.
That mark would last until Lou Brock came along and topped it with 118 in 1974, before the “king of steal” Rickey Henderson donned the white cleats and set the world on fire in 1982 with 130, which still stands to this day.
As for the American League, it was cool having the decade’s top mark achieved by a player on the one-year Seattle Pilots organization, in this case Tommy Harper with his 73 swipes during their only season in existence.
The following year, now in Milwaukee as the Brewers after the team moved their location, Harper would become (at the time) one of the early members of the 30/30 club when he slammed 31 home runs to go along with his 38 stolen bases, finishing sixth in A.L. MVP voting for his troubles.

SEASONAL LEADERS OF THE 1960¹s- RUNS BATTED IN

Next up for the 1960’s high-water mark leader’s sub-set in the 1970 set is Runs Batted In, which gives us our first tie in a statistical category.
Take a look:

First off we have the high-mark in RBI’s for the Majors during the 1960’s, and it was a doozy, with the 153 runs batted in that Tommy Davis had in 1962 while also leading the league in batting.
A monster year for the Los Angeles Dodger that, sadly for him, was lost with the performances of teammate Maury Wills, who would take home the Most Valuable Player Award that season.
Heck, he didn’t even finish SECOND in voting that year, having to also take a back seat to legend Willie Mays, who took the second slot behind the record-breaking speedster Wills.
As for the American high-mark, it was a tie between New York Yankees slugger Roger Maris, who notched 141 RBI’s during his record-breaking 1961 season, as well as Baltimore Orioles slugger Jim Gentile, who drove in the same amount to share the leader slot that very same season.
Ironically, for YEARS Roger Maris was credited as the A.L. leader with 142 RBI’s, one more than Gentile.
But some 20 years ago it was found that Maris was credited with an extra RBI so the number was “fixed” to 141, giving Gentile equal share of the leader position for not just the year, but 1960’s.

LEADERS OF THE DECADE: BATTING AVERAGE

Next up on the new thread celebrating the high-marks in each league for various statistics is batting average, with the legendary Roberto Clemente and Tigers long time slugger Norm Cash representing each league for the 1960’s:

Clemente’s 1967 average of .357 would give him the fourth, and last, batting championship of his career, and would top his own mark of .351 from 1961 as the National League’s high mark in that category.
Norm Cash, who put together an excellent 17-year Major League career between 1958 and 1974, would have what would normally be an MVP season in 1961 when he topped the league in batting with a .361 mark along with 41 home runs and 132 runs batted in as well as 119 runs scored.
But alas, he had that season at the same time as some other guys named Maris and Mantle, so he had to settle for the American League’s highest average for a season in the 1960’s.
Ironically, it would be the ONLY time Cash even hit .300 in his career, with his .286 average the season before as his NEXT highest mark. Go figure!

1960'S SEASONAL LEAGUE LEADERS: HOME RUNS

Today I wanted to start a somewhat short sub-set theme for the 1970 set, a “Decade’s League Leader” celebrating the high mark in each big-time stat during the decade of the 1960’s.
Just like in the multi-league league leader cards of later in the 1970’s Topps created, this one will have the American and National League player who achieved the best figure in that particular category, such as today’s statistic, home runs:

Of course we all know that Roger Maris hit those 61 home runs in 1961 to have the highest seasonal total of the decade.
Over in the National League we have the great Willie Mays who slammed 52 homers during his MVP 1965 season to top the league for the 1960’s.
If you haven’t figured it out already, I’m really big on the whole “end-of-decade” thing and love looking back and recapping the previous ten years, such as “Player of the Decade”, etc.
I’ll just be covering the big triple crown stats for both pitching and hitting, as well as saves and stolen bases, maybe even runs scored, so if you’re into this type of thing as much as I am keep an eye out for them.