1967

Hackbart Division				Shiloh Division
South Starrucca	105	57	...	Newmarket	94	67	...
Long Island	93	69	12	Mimosa	86	76	9
Hyde Park	83	79	22	Cleveland	52	109	42
Bergen	78	84	27	Wilderness	49	113	46

Gorney Division				Brown Division
Waukesha	96	65	...	Norfolk	106	56	...
Siouxland	83	78	13	Kilkenny	95	67	11
Bradenton	73	89	24	Fortney	81	81	25
Mexicali	50	111	46	Baltimore	69	92	36.5

<< Previous • Next >>

Comments –

Ken Sajdak – Orange City, IA -- The Siouxland Explorers announced today that they have agreed to a deal in which they will swap firstbasemen with the Hyde Park VitaMen. The deal reportedly sends slick-fielding Wes Parker to the VitaMen for the colorful George Scott (not the actor).

"We feel the Boomer may be just what we need on the X's," said the Explorers' skipper, Lewis N. Clark. "And he's the kind of guy Iowans love. The kind who knock the husk off the ball. We know he'll be a big clubhouse presence, what with his routine of talking to his bats, discoursing on 'taters,' and wearing his garlic-and-secondbaseman's-teeth necklace. We think he may be just what we need to push past those Fleamen."

When asked about the Waukesha franchise, Clark said, "Those boys always look good on paper, but when it comes down to it, they find all sorts of ways to lose - unless they're playing the Ainspans. They're just 'Fleamen.'"

Don Mahley – Dave Giusti pitched a 1-hitter for Fortney, broken up by Kilkenny’s Tony Gonzalez’ single in the 9^th. Late reports from management indicate that Giusti will be awarded an immediate $5,000 bonus on his contract this year. (Hey, folks, this is the 60's, not today. In point of fact, in 1970 I was living in an apartment complex in Pittsburgh with several members of the Pirates, and know for a fact that Bob Moose got exactly that reward for a no-hitter that year. His wife was so excited she was running around the middle of the complex yelling about it - unfortunately, she remembered to keep her clothes on.)

Marty Fiehl – Announces the post-season rewards:

First the BIG ones, the Million Dollar Babies......

Siouxland: Pete Rose wins the cool million in one of the most exciting batting races we've had in years! Beats out Tony O by one point with .357. I'm not sure if pete "beat the spread" with that one, but he's happy to end up with whatever is left over after he pays off his debts.

Long Island: Frank Robbie narrowly beats out the Say Hey Kid with 43 roundtrippers. Robbie started slow then put together a great 2nd half to put himself at or near the top of most offensive categories. The big surprise in this group had to have been Joe Pepitone with 38. Pepi got off real hot out of the box and lead the league for a while, but instead of dying off, he consistently banged ‘em out throughout the year.

Starrucca: Tony Oliva at 136 RBI's won this one by a comfortable margin. (F Robbie the runner up at 117) Probably the true testament to this was that he won a category that is normally reserved for the brute power guys. Tony didn't hit that many dingers, he just consistently drove them in with singles and doubles throughout the year batting in the 3rd or 4th batting slot in the order. Tony O. also led the league in Runs Scored, but there's no award for that one.

Norfolk: Mr. Jim Bunning was a stud, not much more you can say about it. He won not just 30 games, but 32! His complete games were phenomenal, too, with 28 out of 39 games started. 'Workhorse' doesn't do him justice. 'Machine' might.

Siouxland: Sandy Koufax pitched on all days of the week with no time off for the Jewish Holidays and it paid off. He cracked the 400 strikeout barrier in his last start of the year and finished with 402! Amazing! He almost singlehandedly carried the X's into a shot at postseason play but just didn't get the support needed from the rest of the team. Although not listed in the "Least offensive support" category, it seemed every time you read the write-ups he kept losing 2-1 or would get pinch hit for with his team down 3-0. Just a little more timely hitting, or any

hitting, could have put him up in the 30 win category with Mr. Bunning.

Siouxland: Sandy Koufax also won the ERA title with a crisp 1.60, just edging out his biggest competitor, Jim Bunning who nailed a 1.73

Now, onto the Half Million Dollar awards:

Fielding........Gold Gloves.......For Fielding Percentage

Pitcher: Waukesha.......Jim Kaat comes up the winner after being tied with 6 other starting pitchers for not making ANY errors all season long. Kitty breaks the tie though with the most Total Chances, actually a big margin, probably due to his Cat-like quickness off the mound pouncing on the grounders.

Catcher: Mimosa....Earl Battey - the Batman wins it on a combination of Fldg Pct and Throwing out the Opposing baserunner. Earl takes it in a squeaker over Bob Rodgers of Bergen.

Firstbase: Hyde Park.......Wes "Fess" Parker narrowly edges out Bill "only the ball was" White.

Secondbase: Mexicali........Al "Heidi" Weis, although he's Innocuous, Al made his presence known out at the second sack.

Thirdbase: Bergen.......Joe "Pretty Boy" Foy although he may have cried 'discrimination' every time the ball was hit to his white teammate Dick Howser at short, Joe showed that he could "pick'em" with the league’s elite whenever the ball came his way.

Shortstop: Fortney........Little Looey Aparicio wins this one hands down by leading not only Fldg pctg but Range also. He was the class of the league for us and in the American League during the 60's also. Surprisingly, might not be able to make a big league team today though, as he just wouldn't hit enough. Of course, I'm sure Looey would change his habits and training if he were around today and he'd probably be corking out 25 a year and be known as 'Andro' Aparicio!

Leftfield: Kilkenny.........Lou Brock actually ties with Mota in raw score, but wins the tiebreaker by playing in twice as many innings and twice as many total chances. Brock had a disappointing season at the plate for the Gaelics, but he didn't carry it out into the field with him, salvaging a half million to be put towards the 'Guiness Fund', also known as Sean O'Mally's Fridge.

Centerfield: Waukesha........Vada Pinson patrolled the centerfield pasture out there for the Freemen and played it like he did in real life; with excellence.

Rightfield: Kilkenny.......Tony Gonzalez proved that both him and Lou followed the manager’s advice by not drinking between innings! Tony caught most anything he could reach and he reached most anything he could catch.

Team Awards:

Pitching:

ERA: Norfolk......who else? He led this one from Day 1, finishing up with a sparkling 2.45 team era, way, way ahead of runner-up Waukesha at 2.86. Although Bunning was a big part of this one, the rest of the boys had to have sterling seasons along with Jimbo to take the crown by this much.

Strikeouts: Siouxland in a runaway with 1251, besting runner-up Kilkenny by 136! Koufax, Short, and McDowell were simply the "monsters of the Portsiders Club". He's got a great shot to win this one next year as well.

HITTING:

Bat Average: Waukesha at .263 had a nice 6 point pad over runner-up Starrucca.

Runs Scored: Newmarket at 781 snuck in there by 7 runs over Starrucca, as the Spans tapered off quite a bit in the last few weeks in the scoring categories.

Homers: Newmarket again, with 187 to best Waukesha by 7 dingers.

Fielding:

Fielding Pctg: Starrucca, a surprise winner, at least to me, at .987 in a squeaker over perenial strong in the field Fortney. (Here's a weird one......Norfolk had ZERO passed balls this entire season! Their catchers were pb1 and pb2, so I guess when they went to the backstop the blame went to the pitchers for a wild pitch.)

Double Plays: Fortney with 158. Here's where the Gators excel with the Vacuum Cleaners known as Knoop, Aparicio, and Brooksie.

STREAKS:

Pitching:

Wins: Norfolk...... Big Jim Bunning with 13

Shutout Innings Pitched: A TIE here, both with 29 in a row! Norfolk’s Jim Bunning and Waukesha's Juan Marichel.

I'm giving 300k to each team.

Hitting:

Hitting streak: Starrucca......Tony O! with 31 games. Run up early in the year and nobody else came all that close.

On Base Streak: Starrucca.....Tony O again, with his 31 game hit streak doubling for an on base streak. Willie McCovey came close on this one at 29 as I'm sure pitchers worked a bit more carefully to him and would rather give up a walk than a dinger.

Home Run streak: A tie here at 5 games in a row between Dick McCauliffe and Ken "the Hawk" Harrelson. 300k each for Kilkenny and Mexicali

Fielding Streak: Longest errorless streak of the season goes to Waukesha's Vada Pinson with 129 games in a row! He just beats out Curt "the Squirt" Flood by 1 game.

And that’s our Cash bonus's Awards for TCBA 1967!

<< Previous • Next >>