Four Gold Gloves led the ‘69 Orioles: Brooks Robinson, Mark Belanger, Davey Johnson, Paul Blair
“Dawn of Greatness”
Statis-Pro Baseball ⚾️ Cards for the 1969 American League:
(A Merely Good Pennant Race Effort)
It’s probably useful to think of these Statis-Pro recreated teams as clones, to use a term from RPG rules. They are a new effort, but intended to augment Jim Barnes’ Sixties teams from Great Pennant races. They use his carding methodologies as determined through AI observation and calculation, rather than merely what was stated in the rules. They are what the 1969 American League might have looked like if he had included it with Great Pennant Races.
In the 1969 American League, the newly-formed East would include the defending World Series champion Detroit Tigers, the up-and-coming Baltimore Orioles, the New York Yankees, the Washington Senators (soon to become the Texas Rangers), Boston Red Sox, and Cleveland Indians.
The new AL West only had two teams who finished over .500 in the 10-team American League of 1969. The Minnesota Twins and Oakland A’s were there to set the tone in a division that included subpar teams in the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, Chicago White and Seattle Pilots (soon to become the Milwaukee Brewers, eventually flip divisions with Texas, and ultimately end up in the National League by 1998).
The 1969 Baltimore Orioles came into the season just three years removed from winning the franchise’s first World Series title in 1966, but still in the midst of change. Hank Bauer had managed the ’66 champs. But after slipping under .500 in 1967, then being a middling 43-37 halfway through 1968, Bauer had been replaced by a young feisty skipper named Earl Weaver. Under Earl, the Orioles went 48-34 down the stretch in ’68. Even though they didn’t come close to first place, they had momentum back. And excitement was alive again in Baltimore for Earl’s first full year in 1969.
Baltimore, along with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, would take their now-traditional place in the AL East. They would be joined by the Washington Senators (who eventually became the Texas Rangers and moved to the AL West). And two teams that are in today’s AL Central—the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers—were aligned in the East under this format. Detroit, as the defending World Series champions who had outpaced Baltimore by 12 games in 1968, was the team to beat.
Pitching would be the foundation of Oriole success throughout Weaver’s tenure. This inaugural 1969 edition set the tone by posting the best staff ERA in the American League. Dave McNally started 40 games, went 20-7 and finished with a 3.22 ERA. Jim Palmer was a 16-game winner with a 2.34 ERA. Tom Phoebus was a steady horse, making 33 starts, going 14-7 and an ERA that clocked in at 3.60.
In an era where starting pitchers logged a lot of innings, Weaver still had a deep bullpen to rely on. Eddie Watt saved 16 games, and his ERA was a dazzling 1.65. Dick Hall also had a sub-.2.00 ERA in his nearly sixty innings of work. Dave Leonhard gave Earl 94 innings and an ERA of 2.49. And Pete Richert saved 12 games, posting a 2.20 ERA.
All of this is excellent. But there was one more surprise piece to the puzzle. Baltimore made a five-player trade with the Houston Astros in the 1968 offseason. The players were generally non-descript. That included a 31-year-old starting pitcher, Mike Cuellar, who had never really been noteworthy - until he became an Oriole. In his new surroundings, all Cuellar did was rip off 23 wins, work 290 innings, finish with a 2.38 ERA and share the Cy Young Award.
A young everyday lineup had plenty of star talent. Boog Powell, the big first baseman, batted .304, hit 37 home runs and drove in 121 runs. Frank Robinson was in right field. He hit .308 and cleared the 30 HR/100 RBI thresholds himself. Boog and Frank finished 2-3 in the 1969 AL MVP voting. Don Buford was consistently on base, and the left fielder finished with an OBP of .397. The middle infield tandem of Davey Johnson at second and Mark Belanger at short each had OBPs of .351 themselves. Elrod Hendrick’s OBP was .333. Key reserves, Andy Etchebarren, who backed up Hendricks behind the plate, and Merv Rettenmund, who got time in the outfield, also got on base consistently.
Brooks Robinson didn’t have a vintage year, but the 32-year-old third baseman was still good for 23 home runs and solid defense. And speaking of defense, no one played it in the outfield like centerfielder Paul Blair. Baltimore was a complete team and they finished second in the American League for runs scored.
Baltimore would explode in 1969 and roll to a 109-win season, running away from Detroit and Boston in the AL East. Mike Cuellar won the Cy Young Award for the Orioles, while Boog Powell and Frank Robinson finished 2-3 in the MVP voting. This same core would win a championship in 1970, go to three straight Word Series, and win six out of seven Eastern Division crowns.
Detroit had much the same crew that won the 1968 World Series, including ace and co Cy Young Award winner Denny McLain (24-9), Mickey Lolich, Norm Cash, Willie Horton, and Al Kaline. Detroit tried Mickey Stanley at shortstop for half of the year, which helped the offense, and Jim Northrup (.295, 25 HR) had one of his best years, but they suffered a terrible loss when Dick McAuliffe was able to play only half of the year. It might not have mattered, as Baltimore pulled away from everyone early, but the loss of their lead off man and spark plug hung over the Tigers for the rest of the season.
Boston (87-75) held down third place on the strength of two outstanding performances, as both Carl Yastrzemski and Rico Petrocelli smacked 40 home runs. By now the Beantown faithful were used to Yaz’s exploits, but Petrocelli was also a decent shortstop, and his overall season was probably the best for any American League position player. Petrocelli achieved the “three nineties” - 92 runs scored, 97 RBI and 98 walks while batting .297, slugging .589 and yet he only managed a 7th place MVP season. The Red Sox fired their World Series manager, Dick Williams near the end of the season.
Under manager Ted Williams, Senators (86-76) were no longer a cellar-dwelling team- Capable fielders Eddie Brinkman and Ken McMullen and bashers Mike Epstein (30 HRs) and Frank Howard now filled a lineup that collectively swatted 148 HRs. They backed a staff with three capable starters in Joe Coleman, Dick Bosman, and Jim Hannan, with Bosman finishing 14-5 and winning the ERA title. Dennis Higgins (16 saves) and Darold Knowles (2.24, 13 saves) clamped down a bullpen that produced 41 saves.
Mel Stottlemyre, easily one of the best Yankee pitchers you’ve never heard of, won twenty games, and Fritz Peterson won 17 as New York (80-81) challenged the .500 mark for the second straight season. Unfortunately while the pitching overall was second in the league, the lineup still thought it was 1968 and batted a collective .235. Bobby Murcer in particular hit only .259 and drive in only 82 runs in spite of his 26 home runs. But it wasn’t just him- the Bronx Bombers as a team finished third from the bottom in the AL in batting, slugging and on base percentage, and could manage only 94 home runs. Only the Angels hit fewer.
Injuries to Frank Baker and the usually steady Max Alvis short circuited the Indians’ offense, dropping them into the East cellar. Luis Tiant, Steve Hargan, Stan Williams and Mike Paul finished as a group at 25-58, with Tiant losing 20 games to lead the AL one year after winning the ERA title. Cleveland’s staff had led them to 86 wins in 1968 by finishing tops in ERA, but the team fell to 62-99 in 1969, with Sam McDowell (18-14, 2.94, 279 strikeouts) the lone bright spot.
Over in the West, Minnesota pulled away from Oakland behind an MVP year from Harmon Killebrew, a batting title from Rod Carew and 20 wins from rotation ace Jim Perry. It turned out Minnesota was the big beneficiary of how the divisions broke down. The Oakland A’s were the only team in the AL West to have finished over .500 in ’68, and that was at 82-80. In the blink of an eye, the Twins and A’s were realigned out of mediocrity and into contention.
The American League’s most potent offense led the way for Minnesota in 1969, and Harmon Killebrew was the biggest reason why. Playing both first base and third base, Killebrew led the American League with 49 homers and 140 RBIs, en route to the MVP award. Killebrew’s RBI numbers point to a lot of players getting on base. As a team, the Twins had the AL’s best batting average. Second baseman Rod Carew, just 23-years-old, won the first of what would be seven career batting titles, hitting .332. Rich Reese hit .322, and also slugged .513. Rightfielder Tony Oliva hit .309 and added 24 homers and 109 RBIs.
Minnesota had traded starting pitcher Jim Merritt to Cincinnati in the offseason and got Leo Cardenas back to play shortstop. Cardenas posted an OBP of .353. Other contributors, from outfielders Bob Allison and Ted Uhlaender to catcher John Roseboro, all had OBPs over .325. There was no truly dead spot in the Twins’ lineup.
There weren’t many problems with the pitching either. Jim Perry went 20-6 with a 2.82 ERA and finished third in the Cy Young voting. Dave Boswell was another 20-game winner. Jim Kaat won 14 games. All three starters logged over 240 innings. Tom Hall and Dean Chance combined to make 33 starts and pitched well.
Closers weren’t generally a big thing in the baseball world of 1969. Minnesota was different. Ron Perranoski led the league with 31 saves, and he also logged 119 innings with a 2.11 ERA. Perranoski led up a reliable bullpen that included Bob Miller and Dick Woodson. As a staff, the Twins finished third in the American League in composite ERA.
Oakland (88-74) was putting together the staff that would win them a title in 1972- Catfish Hunter, Blue Moon Odom, and Rollie Fingers played prominent roles in 1969, as did team captain Sal Bando. But the real breakout star was outfielder Reggie Jackson, who posted the “three one hundreds”- 123 runs, tops in the AL, 118 RBI and 114 walks while bashing 47 home runs.
Elsewhere Andy Messersmith won 16 and Ken Tatum saved 22 games for the Angels (71-91); Pat Kelly (40 steals) and Joe Foy (37 steals) energized the new-look Kansas City Royals (63-93); at the age of 35 Luis Aparicio still batted .280 and played a great shortstop for the White Sox (68-94); First baseman Don Mincher hit 25 home runs and Tommy Harper stole 73 bases to lead the Seattle Pilots (64-98).
The Twins would await the Birds in the first-ever American League Championship Series. The Twins had a feisty young manager of their own, one with whom Weaver would become forever linked—a guy named Billy Martin. The first two games of what was then a best-of-five series were extra-inning nail-biters, but the Orioles won both, then won Game 3 to close out the sweep.
When Baltimore took the opener of the World Series, beating Tom Seaver, no one was expecting any drama. Even though New York was a 100-win team, the Birds were a heavy favorite. But Met pitching kicked into another gear, as Jerry Koosman and Gary Gentry proved very tough to crack. They completely locked down the great Oriole lineup over the next four games. Baltimore pitching was tough in its own right, but it was New York’s year. The Mets got the key hits, and they won the next four games. It was a championship team that would take its place in baseball lore as “The Amazin’ Mets.” Baltimore would have to wait until next year for its title, but it would be worth the wait. The Orioles- in many combinations - would remain competitive all the way to 1983.
Fred Bobberts
Original Date of Publication: Oct 22, 2026
Wanna see something Amazin’? Try the companion 1969 National League here:
No comments:
Post a Comment