1971 American League

The Orioles won their third straight pennant by continuing to dominate on both offense and defense. Baltimore's 101 victories put them 12 games in front of Detroit and 18 in front of Boston, with New York 4th. Washington was 5th in the East, in their last season in the nation's capital, and Cleveland was last with 102 losses. Oakland won the West, also taking 101 victories, behind spectacular youngster Vida Blue, selected the league's MVP with his 24-8 record. Kansas City was 16 games back in second place, with Chicago third, California 4th, Minnesota falling to 5th, and Milwaukee last. Baltimore swept the A's in the LCS, but lost the Series to the Pirates in 7 games.

Tony Oliva won the batting title at .337, followed by Bobby Murcer at .331. Merv Rettenmund hit .318 and Cesar Tovar .311. Bill Melton led in HRs with 33, Norm Cash and Reggie Jackson hit 32 each. Harmon Killebrew was the AL's only 100-RBI guy at 119. Second place was Frank Robinson with 99. Amos Otis led in steals with 52, Tovar had 204 hits, Don Buford 99 runs, Reggie Smith 33 doubles, Freddie Patek 11 triples. Murcer led in OPS.

Mickey Lolich led in wins and strikeouts, while Blue had the ERA lead. Lolich won 25, Blue 24, Wilbur Wood 22. Blue had a 1.82 ERA, Wood 1.91, with Jim Palmer third at 2.68. Ken Sanders led in saves with 31. In other news, Tigers reliever John Hiller suffered a heart attack in January and missed the season. He would return and have his best seasons to date.

Win Shares leaders, players; Bobby Murcer (New York) 38, Reggie Jackson (Oakland) 32, Reggie Smith (Boston), Roy White (New York) and Sal Bando (Oakland) 29, Merv Rettenmund (Baltimore), Rico Petrocelli (Boston), Graig Nettles (Cleveland) and Amos Otis (Kansas City) 27, Don Buford (Baltimore) and Paul Schaal (Kansas City) 26, Bill Freehan (Detroit) 25, Norm Cash (Detroit) and Fred Patek (Kansas City) 24, Dave Johnson, Brooks and Frank Robinson (Baltimore), Bill Melton (Chicago), Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva (Minnesota) and Frank Howard (Washington) 23.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Wilbur Wood (Chicago) 33, Vida Blue (Oakland) 30, Mickey Lolich (Detroit) 29, Jim Palmer (Baltimore), Sonny Siebert (Boston) and Catfish Hunter (Oakland) 22, Ken Sanders (Milwaukee) 21, Tom Bradley (Chicago), Joe Coleman (Detroit) and Bert Blyleven (Minnesota) 20, Pat Dobson and Dave McNally (Baltimore), Andy Messersmith (California), and Mel Stottlemyre (New York) 19.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Murcer 8.5, Mark Belanger (Baltimore) 8.4, Jackson 7.4, Nettles 7.2, White 6.4, Bando 6.3, Otis and Buford 6.2, Johnson 6.0, Rettunmund 5.9, Dick Green (Oakland) 5.6, Melton and Oliva 5.5, Thurman Munson (New York) 5.4, Cookie Rojas (Kansas City) 5.0, Freehan 4.9, Patek and Killebrew 4.8.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Wood 12.4, Lolich 7.4, Blue and Siebert 6.6, Sanders 5.9, Bradley 5.7, Bart Johnson (Chicago) 4.8, Bill Parsons (Milwaukee), Coleman, and Clyde Wright (California) 4.5, Blyleven, Sam McDowell (Cleveland), and Marty Pattin (Milwaukee) 4.4, McNally 4.2.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Nettles 8.3, Murcer 7.4, Bando and Jackson 7.1, B. Robinson and White 6.7, Melton and Rettunmund 6.5, Smith 6.4, Otis and Petrocelli 5.9, Buford 5.8, Freehan 5.7, Johnson and Schaal 5.1, Belanger 4.9, Killebrew 4.8. Pitchers (bWAR): Wood 10.7, Blue 8.8, Lolich 8.6, Blyleven 6.3, Bradley 5.9, Coleman 5.5, Siebert 5.2, Drago and Hedlund 4.4, Kaat and Stottlemyre 4.2, McDowell and Palmer 4.1.

Actual award winners:
MVP: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+--------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Vida Blue OAK 14 268 336 0.80 | 102 12 0 .118 .294 0| 24-8 312 1.82 0.952 301
2 Sal Bando OAK 4 182 336 0.54 | 538 146 24 .271 .828 3
3 Frank Robinson BAL 2 170 336 0.51 | 455 128 28 .281 .894 3
4 Brooks Robinson BAL 3 163 336 0.49 | 589 160 20 .272 .754 0
5 Mickey Lolich DET 1 155 336 0.46 | 115 15 0 .130 .390 0| 25-14 376 2.92 1.138 308
6 Freddie Patek KCR 0 77 336 0.23 | 591 158 6 .267 .693 49
7 Bobby Murcer NYY 0 72 336 0.21 | 529 175 25 .331 .969 14
8 Amos Otis KCR 0 67 336 0.20 | 555 167 15 .301 .789 52
9 Wilbur Wood CHW 0 54 336 0.16 | 96 5 0 .052 .202 1| 22-13 334 1.91 1.000 210 1
10 Tony Oliva MIN 0 36 336 0.11 | 487 164 22 .337 .915 4
11 Dave McNally BAL 0 26 336 0.08 | 74 12 2 .162 .479 0| 21-5 224 2.89 1.097 91
12 Norm Cash DET 0 21 336 0.06 | 452 128 32 .283 .903 1
13 Bill Melton CHW 0 18 336 0.05 | 543 146 33 .269 .843 3
14 Reggie Jackson OAK 0 15 336 0.04 | 567 157 32 .277 .860 16
14 Cookie Rojas KCR 0 15 336 0.04 | 414 124 6 .300 .763 8
16 Ken Sanders MIL 0 13 336 0.04 | 14 0 0 .000 .067 0| 7-12 136 1.91 1.064 80 31
17 Pat Dobson BAL 0 9 336 0.03 | 91 10 0 .110 .248 0| 20-8 282 2.90 1.102 187 1
17 Reggie Smith BOS 0 9 336 0.03 | 618 175 30 .283 .840 11
19 Davey Johnson BAL 0 8 336 0.02 | 510 144 18 .282 .794 3
19 Merv Rettenmund BAL 0 8 336 0.02 | 491 156 11 .318 .870 15
21 Leo Cardenas MIN 0 5 336 0.01 | 554 146 18 .264 .741 3
21 Harmon Killebrew MIN 0 5 336 0.01 | 500 127 28 .254 .850 3
21 Jim Palmer BAL 0 5 336 0.01 | 102 20 0 .196 .425 1| 20-9 282 2.68 1.195 184
24 Mike Cuellar BAL 0 4 336 0.01 | 107 11 1 .103 .259 0| 20-9 292 3.08 1.122 124
24 Cesar Tovar MIN 0 4 336 0.01 | 657 204 1 .311 .725 18
26 George Scott BOS 0 3 336 0.01 | 537 141 24 .263 .758 0
27 Don Buford BAL 0 2 336 0.01 | 449 130 19 .290 .890 15
28 Catfish Hunter OAK 0 1 336 0.00 | 103 36 1 .350 .770 1| 21-11 274 2.96 1.114 181
28 Graig Nettles CLE 0 1 336 0.00 | 598 156 28 .261 .785 7|
Blue was a reasonable winner, and the only player arguably more valuable was Wood.

Cy Young: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Vida Blue OAK 14 98 120 0.82 | 24-8 312 1.82 0.952 301
2 Mickey Lolich DET 9 85 120 0.71 | 25-14 376 2.92 1.138 308
3 Wilbur Wood CHW 1 23 120 0.19 | 22-13 334 1.91 1.000 210 1
4 Dave McNally BAL 0 8 120 0.07 | 21-5 224 2.89 1.097 91
5 Dick Drago KCR 0 1 120 0.01 | 17-11 241 2.98 1.231 109
5 Andy Messersmith CAL 0 1 120 0.01 | 20-13 277 2.99 1.247 179

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Chris Chambliss CLE 11 11 24 0.46 | 415 114 9 .275 .749 2
2 Bill Parsons MIL 5 5 24 0.21 | 72 12 1 .167 .500 0| 13-17 245 3.20 1.275 139
3 Angel Mangual OAK 4 4 24 0.17 | 287 82 4 .286 .686 1
4 Doug Griffin BOS 3 3 24 0.12 | 483 118 3 .244 .610 11
5 Paul Splittorff KCR 1 1 24 0.04 | 48 5 0 .104 .282 0| 8-9 144 2.68 1.137 80

Top player: Bobby Murcer. You can make an argument for Graig Nettles, but he was on a last-place team, and the evidence is much better for Murcer. This is a year when the argument for a pitcher as MVP is very strong.
#1 Bobby Murcer, #2 Reggie Jackson, #3 Roy White, #4 Graig Nettles, #5 Sal Bando, #6 Merv Rettunmund.

Top pitcher: Wilbur Wood. Blue got the headlines and Lolich had more wins, but nobody pitched any better then the big knuckleballer.
#1 Wilbur Wood, #2 Vida Blue, #3 Mickey Lolich, #4 Ken Sanders, #5 Sonny Siebert.

Top rookie: Chris Chambliss is the best of a weak field.

Top manager: Dick Williams got the A's to the top with a surging young team.

1970 National League

The year opened with outfielder Curt Flood filing a lawsuit challenging the reserve clause, after disputing his trade from the Cardinals to the Phillies. Flood reportedly didn't want to go to Philadelphia because of prejudice against black players there. Flood would lose his case, but in just six years the reserve clause would be history.

Pittsburgh and Cincinnati took the division titles this year, as the flags changed hands (unlike the American League). Cincy won 102 games and easily outdistanced LA, 14.5 back. San Francisco was 3rd, Houston and defending champ Atlanta trailed, and San Diego lost 99 in their second year of existence. In the East, Pittsburgh won only 89 but outlasted the Cubs by a five-game margin, and the Mets by six games. St. Louis finished fourth, with Philadelphia fifth and Montreal last. The Reds then swept the Pirates in the LCS before falling to the Orioles in the World Series.

The Reds won despite a pitching collapse. Except for one day, April 11, the Reds were in first place all year. Longtime ace Jim Maloney tore his Achilles tendon on April 16 and went on the DL. He never won another big league game. Wayne Simpson started the year 14-3, including ten wins in a row, but went down in July with a torn rotator cuff. Jim Merritt won 20 games, but none after August 26 and only 6 the rest of his career. He did win a playoff game. The Reds performed all kinds of slugging feats all season, and opened Riverfront Stadium, but couldn't compete in the World Series with half their pitching staff hurt. By season's end they were down to Gary Nolan, Tony Cloninger, Jim McGlothin, and whatever rookies were available.

Hank Aaron collected his 3000th hit, and a month later Willie Mays did the same. Billy Williams' streak of 1117 consecutive games played ended, an NL record. Johnny Bench won the MVP award and led in HR and RBI with 45 and 148. Rico Carty won the batting title at .366, well ahead of Joe Torre's and Manny Sanguillen's .325. Willie McCovey led in OPS. Bobby Tolan led in steals with 57. Williams had 137 runs, Wes Parker 47 doubles, Willie Davis 16 triples. Williams had 42 homers and Tony Perez 40, both of them had 129 RBI.

Bob Gibson and Gaylord Perry tied for the lead in wins with 23, followed by Fergie Jenkins' 22. Tom Seaver led in strikeouts (283) and ERA (2.82). Jenkins and Gibson tied for second in strikeouts with 274. Wayne Simpson was second in ERA at 3.02 and Luke Walker third at 3.04. Wayne Granger led in saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Johnny Bench (Cincinnati) 34, Tony Perez (Cincinnati) and Willie McCovey (San Francisco) 33, Bobby Bonds (San Francisco) 32, Rusty Staub (Montreal) 30, Billy Williams (Chicago), Pete Rose and Bobby Tolan (Cincinnati), Billy Grabarkewitz and Wes Parker (Los Angeles) and Dick Dietz (San Francisco) 29, Rico Carty (Atlanta) and Jimmy Wynn (Houston) 27, Hank Aaron (Atlanta), Bernie Carbo (Cincinnati) and Joe Torre (St. Louis) 25, Jim Hickman (Chicago), Denis Menke and Joe Morgan (Houston), Willie Davis (Los Angeles), Cito Gaston (San Diego) and Ken Henderson and Willie Mays (San Francisco) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bob Gibson (St. Louis) 28, Fergie Jenkins (Chicago) 26, Tom Seaver (New York) 25, Gaylord Perry (San Francisco) 24, Ken Holtzman (Chicago) 23, Bill Hands (Chicago), Carl Morton (Montreal) and Dick Selma (Philadelphia) 21, Pat Jarvis (Atlanta) and Gary Nolan (Cincinnati) 19.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Bench 10.0, Grabarkewitz 8.9, McCovey 8.1, Perez and Bonds 7.7, Parker 7.1, Davis 7.0, Torre 6.8, Wynn 6.6, Dietz 6.5, Carty and Rose 6.3, Gaston, Mays, and Roberto Clemente (Pittsburgh) 5.9, Morgan and Doug Rader (Houston) 5.8, Henderson 5.7, Tolan 5.6, Staub and Tommie Agee (New York) 5.4, Menke 5.3.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Jenkins 10.6, Holtzman 8.4, Jarvis 8.3, Gibson 8.1, Hands 7.3, Perry 7.1, Morton 6.8, Milt Pappas (Chicago) 6.4, Seaver 6.2, Selma 6.0.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Perez 9.0, Bench 8.7, McCovey 7.6, Carty and Williams 7.3, Grabarkewitz, Tolan, and Torre 6.8, Staub 6.7, Bonds 6.4, Gaston 6.1, Parker 6.0, Aaron, Agee, and Rose 5.9, Dietz and Hickman 5.8, Mays 5.4. Pitchers (bWAR): Gibson 8.7, Perry 8.1, Jenkins 7.0, Holtzman 6.2, Seaver 6.0, Jarvis 5.3, Hands 5.2, Nolan 5.0, Selma 4.9, Morton 4.7, Carlton 4.6, Dierker 4.4.

Actual award winners:
MVP (top 20): | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--------+---+---+--+
1 Johnny Bench CIN 22 326 336 0.97 | 605 177 45 .293 .932 5
2 Billy Williams CHC 2 218 336 0.65 | 636 205 42 .322 .977 7
3 Tony Perez CIN 0 149 336 0.44 | 587 186 40 .317 .990 8
4 Bob Gibson STL 0 110 336 0.33 | 109 33 2 .303 .751 0| 23-7 294 3.12 1.190 274
5 Wes Parker LAD 0 91 336 0.27 | 614 196 10 .319 .850 8
6 Dave Giusti PIT 0 72 336 0.21 | 16 3 0 .188 .628 0| 9-3 103 3.06 1.330 85 26
7 Pete Rose CIN 0 54 336 0.16 | 649 205 15 .316 .855 12
8 Jim Hickman CHC 0 52 336 0.15 | 514 162 32 .315 1.001 0
9 Willie McCovey SFG 0 47 336 0.14 | 495 143 39 .289 1.056 0
10 Rico Carty ATL 0 43 336 0.13 | 478 175 25 .366 1.037 1
11 Manny Sanguillen PIT 0 36 336 0.11 | 486 158 7 .325 .788 2
12 Roberto Clemente PIT 0 33 336 0.10 | 412 145 14 .352 .963 3
13 Donn Clendenon NYM 0 26 336 0.08 | 396 114 22 .288 .863 4
14 Gaylord Perry SFG 0 24 336 0.07 | 120 14 1 .117 .290 0| 23-13 329 3.20 1.144 214
15 Willie Stargell PIT 0 20 336 0.06 | 474 125 31 .264 .839 0
16 Bobby Tolan CIN 0 17 336 0.05 | 589 186 16 .316 .860 57
17 Hank Aaron ATL 0 16 336 0.05 | 516 154 38 .298 .958 9
18 Joe Torre STL 0 15 336 0.04 | 624 203 21 .325 .896 2
19 Tommie Agee NYM 0 13 336 0.04 | 636 182 24 .286 .812 31
20 Bud Harrelson NYM 0 10 336 0.03 | 564 137 1 .243 .659 23
Bench won handily.

Cy Young: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Bob Gibson STL 23 118 120 0.98 | 23-7 294 3.12 1.190 274
2 Gaylord Perry SFG 1 51 120 0.42 | 23-13 329 3.20 1.144 214
3 Fergie Jenkins CHC 0 16 120 0.13 | 22-16 313 3.39 1.038 274
4 Dave Giusti PIT 0 8 120 0.07 | 9-3 103 3.06 1.330 85 26
4 Jim Merritt CIN 0 8 120 0.07 | 20-12 234 4.08 1.286 136
6 Gary Nolan CIN 0 5 120 0.04 | 18-7 251 3.27 1.284 181
7 Tom Seaver NYM 0 4 120 0.03 | 18-12 291 2.82 1.077 283
8 Wayne Granger CIN 0 3 120 0.02 | 6-5 85 2.66 1.251 38 35
9 Carl Morton MON 0 2 120 0.02 | 18-11 285 3.60 1.426 154
10 Luke Walker PIT 0 1 120 0.01 | 15-6 163 3.04 1.337 124 3
Gibson also won easily.

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+--------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Carl Morton MON 11 11 24 0.46 | 93 15 2 .161 .455 0| 18-11 285 3.60 1.426 154
2 Bernie Carbo CIN 8 8 24 0.33 | 365 113 21 .310 1.004 10
3 Larry Bowa PHI 3 3 24 0.12 | 547 137 0 .250 .580 24
4 Cesar Cedeno HOU 1 1 24 0.04 | 355 110 7 .310 .790 17
4 Wayne Simpson CIN 1 1 24 0.04 | 64 6 0 .094 .201 0| 14-3 176 3.02 1.170 119
Close vote here.

Top player: Johnny Bench. The leader in both meta-stats as well as the writers' vote. Excellent offense paired with incredible defense is a potent combination.
#1 Johnny Bench, #2 Willie McCovey, #3 Tony Perez, #4 Billy Williams, #5 Wes Parker, #6 Bobby Bonds. No middle infielders is unusual.

Top pitcher: Bob Gibson. Tops in Win Shares and the writers' poll.
#1 Bob Gibson, #2 Fergie Jenkins, #3 Tom Seaver, #4 Gaylord Perry, #5 Ken Holtzman.

Top rookie: Carl Morton had the best year. Cesar Cedeno would have the best career. Neither Morton nor Carbo could build on their rookie success.

Top manager: Sparky Anderson got the Reds over the top in his first season at the helm.

1970 American League

The second year of divisional play brought repeats by Baltimore and Oakland, and a repeat by Baltimore in winning the LCS. It was a happier ending for Orioles' fans, as the Birds won the World Series in 5 games on a tremendous performance by Brooks Robinson. Seattle, on the verge of bankruptcy, was bought by a group of Milwaukee businessmen headed by Bud Selig and moved to the City of Beer on the very eve of the season. Court fights over this eventually brought baseball back to Seattle in 1977.
Expansion teams Kansas City and Milwaukee each lost 97 games, but were tied for fourth as the White Sox lost 106. This left Oakland and California 2nd and 3rd respectively. Baltimore easily outdistanced New York and Boston, with Detroit, Cleveland and Washington as also-rans. The East was much stronger than the West.

Alex Johnson led in batting average with his .329 mark edging Carl Yastremski's by a fraction of a point. Yaz led in on-base, slugging, and OPS. Tony Oliva was third at .325. Frank Howard led in HR with 44 and RBI with 126. Harmon Killebrew was second in homers with 41, followed by Yaz at 40. Tony Conigliaro was second in RBI with 116. Yaz had 125 runs, Cesar Tovar had 13 triples, and Tover, Oliva, and Amos Otis each had 36 doubles. Bert Campaneris had 42 steals. Boog Powell won an unlikely MVP award. Boog was 5th in homers, 3rd in RBI, and 3rd in OPS.

Diego Segui led in ERA with a 2.56 mark, followed by Jim Palmer at 2.71. Sam McDowell led in strikeouts with 304, followed by Mickey Lolich at 230. Ron Perranoski had 34 saves, and there was a three-way tie for wins between Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, and Jim Perry with 24. Clyde Wright won 22. McDowell and Palmer led with 305 innings, Cuellar had 21 complete games. Perry took the Cy Young.

Win Shares leaders, players; Carl Yastrzemski (Boston) 36, Roy White (New York) 34, Jim Fregosi (California) and Tommy Harper (Milwaukee) 33, Boog Powell (Baltimore) 31, Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva (Minnesota) and Frank Howard (Washington) 30, Alex Johnson (California) and Cesar Tovar (Minnesota) 28, Bobby Murcer (New York) 27, Don Buford and Frank Robinson (Baltimore), Thurman Munson (New York) and Bert Campaneris (Oakland) 26, Reggie Smith (Boston) and Amos Otis (Kansas City) 25, Sal Bando (Oakland) 24, Dave Johnson (Baltimore) and Rico Petrocelli (Boston) 23, Paul Blair (Baltimore) 22, Brooks Robinson (Baltimore) 21.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Sam McDowell (Cleveland) 30, Jim Palmer (Baltimore) 25, Dave McNally (Baltimore) 22, Jim Perry (Minnesota) 21, Clyde Wright (California) and Mudcat Grant (Oakland) 20, Lindy McDaniel and Fritz Peterson (New York) 19, Mike Cuellar (Baltimore) and Mel Stottlemyre (New York) 18, Ray Culp (Boston), Tommy John (Chicago) and Mickey Lolich (Detroit) 17.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Fregosi 9.3, Yastrzemski 7.5, Oliva 7.4, Munson 6.5, Harper 6.4, Bando 5.8, Petrocelli 5.5, White 5.4, Powell and Killebrew 5.3, Campaneris 5.2, Otis, Howard, and A. Johnson 5.1.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: McDowell 7.4, Palmer 6.8, John 6.7, Dick Bosman (Washington) 5.4, Culp 5.2, McNally, Lolich, and Steve Hargan (Cleveland) 5.0, Marty Pattin (Kansas City) 4.9.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Yastrzemski 9.4, Fregosi 7.4, Harper 7.3, Oliva 7.0, Smith 6.8, Powell and White 6.3, Bando 6.2, Campaneris, Killebrew, and Rodriguez 6.1, Blair 5.9, Howard 5.5, Munson 5.4, Nettles 5.3, F. Robinson 5.2, Petrocelli 5.1. Pitchers (bWAR): McDowell 8.2, Palmer 6.4, John 5.7, Pattin 5.2, Culp 4.8, Lolich 4.7, Bosman 4.4, Johnson 4.1, Grant and Hargan 3.9, McNally and Perry 3.8.

Actual award winners;
MVP (top 20) | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+------+---+-----+--+--+
1 Boog Powell BAL 11 234 336 0.70 | 526 156 35 .297 .962 1
2 Tony Oliva MIN 5 157 336 0.47 | 628 204 23 .325 .878 5
3 Harmon Killebrew MIN 1 152 336 0.45 | 527 143 41 .271 .957 0
4 Carl Yastrzemski BOS 2 136 336 0.40 | 566 186 40 .329 1.044 23
5 Frank Howard WSA 1 91 336 0.27 | 566 160 44 .283 .962 1
6 Tommy Harper MIL 1 78 336 0.23 | 604 179 31 .296 .899 38
7 Brooks Robinson BAL 2 75 336 0.22 | 608 168 18 .276 .764 1
8 Alex Johnson CAL 0 70 336 0.21 | 614 202 14 .329 .830 17
9 Jim Perry MIN 0 63 336 0.19 | 97 24 1 .247 .572 0| 24-12 279 3.04 1.130 168
10 Frank Robinson BAL 0 60 336 0.18 | 471 144 25 .306 .918 2
11 Mike Cuellar BAL 0 45 336 0.13 | 112 10 2 .089 .257 0| 24-8 298 3.48 1.149 190
12 Luis Aparicio CHW 0 35 336 0.10 | 552 173 5 .313 .776 8
12 Jim Fregosi CAL 0 35 336 0.10 | 601 167 22 .278 .812 0
12 Ron Perranoski MIN 1 35 336 0.10 | 24 1 0 .042 .083 0| 7-8 111 2.43 1.351 55 34
15 Roy White NYY 0 25 336 0.07 | 609 180 22 .296 .860 24
16 Sam McDowell CLE 0 22 336 0.07 | 105 13 1 .124 .293 0| 20-12 305 2.92 1.203 304
16 Dave McNally BAL 0 22 336 0.07 | 105 14 1 .133 .461 0| 24-9 296 3.22 1.199 185
18 Cesar Tovar MIN 0 16 336 0.05 | 650 195 10 .300 .798 30
19 Thurman Munson NYY 0 15 336 0.04 | 453 137 6 .302 .801 5
20 Don Buford BAL 0 12 336 0.04 | 504 137 17 .272 .816 16

Powell was a clear winner of a very divided vote. No one was sure who was the MVP. 8 guys got first-place votes. You gotta love the guy who cast a first-place vote for Ron Perranoski.

Cy Young: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Jim Perry MIN 6 55 120 0.46 | 24-12 279 3.04 1.130 168
2 Dave McNally BAL 5 47 120 0.39 | 24-9 296 3.22 1.199 185
3 Sam McDowell CLE 4 45 120 0.38 | 20-12 305 2.92 1.203 304
4 Mike Cuellar BAL 6 44 120 0.37 | 24-8 298 3.48 1.149 190
5 Jim Palmer BAL 1 11 120 0.09 | 20-10 305 2.71 1.190 199
6 Clyde Wright CAL 1 9 120 0.08 | 22-12 261 2.83 1.204 110
7 Ron Perranoski MIN 1 5 120 0.04 | 7-8 111 2.43 1.351 55 34
The first year for 1-2-3 balloting, and again a very divided ballot. All seven pitchers named got at least one first-place vote.

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+---+---+------+--+
1 Thurman Munson NYY 23 23 24 0.96 | 453 137 6 .302 .801 5
2 Roy Foster CLE 1 1 24 0.04 | 477 128 23 .268 .824 3
This voting, at least, was clear.

Top player: Carl Yastrzemski. Clearly the best player in the league, with the OPS lead and good defense.
#1 Carl Yastrzemski, #2 Jim Fregosi, #3 Tommy Harper, #4 Boog Powell, #5 Roy White, #6 Harmon Killebrew.

Top pitcher: Sam McDowell, one of four in the running for the writers' award. Sudden Sam should have gotten the call in this, his last big season.
#1 Sam McDowell, #2 Jim Palmer, #3 Jim Perry, #4 Dave McNally, #5 Ray Culp.

Top rookie: Thurman Munson, pretty easily.

Top manager: Earl Weaver won an awful lot of games.

1969 National League

Expansion swelled the league to 12 teams and 2 divisions. San Diego was added, as was Montreal, making this a truly international league. Atlanta won a strong West Division, with San Franciso 3 games out, Cincinnati four back, Los Angeles 8 behind, and Houston 12 back with their first .500 finish ever. San Diego was last, of course, with 110 losses. In the East, a big surprise as the Mets took first place with 100 victories. The best the now 8-year-old franchise had managed before was 73 wins. Chicago led for the first half but fell off to 8 games out. Pittsburgh finished 12 out and St. Louis was 13 back. Philadelphia lost 99 games and was the only returning team below .500. Montreal lost 110 games, the same as their sister Padres franchise did. The Mets had more surprises up their jersey sleeves, as they upset the Braves in the inaugural League Championship Series, then toppled the mighty Orioles in the World Series.

Pete Rose won his second straight batting title with a .348 average, edging Roberto Clemente's .345. Cleon Jones was third at .340. Lou Brock led in steals with 53, edging Joe Morgan at 49. Willie McCovey led in HR, RBI, and OPS, and won the MVP. McCovey's 45 HR was just ahead of Hank Aaron at 44, while Mac's 126 RBI edged Ron Santo at 123 and Tony Perez at 122. Bobby Bonds and Rose each scored 120 runs. Matty Alou had 231 hits. Alou had 41 doubles and Clemente 12 triples.

Tom Seaver led in wins with 25 and got the Cy Young. Phil Niekro was second with 23 victories. Seven others won 20 or more. Fergie Jenkins led in strikeouts with 273, edging Bob Gibson at 269. Juan Marichal led in ERA with a 2.10 mark, followed by Steve Carlton at 2.17, Gibson at 2.18, and Seaver at 2.21. Fred Gladding led in saves with 29, followed by Wayne Granger and Cecil Upshaw at 27.

Win Shares leaders, players; Willie McCovey (San Francisco) 39, Hank Aaron (Milwaukee) 38, Pete Rose (Cincinnati) 37, Jim Wynn (Houston) 36, Tony Perez (Cincinnati) and Bobby Bonds (San Francisco) 31, Cleon Jones (New York) 30, Johnny Bench (Cincinnati), Tommie Agee (New York) and Roberto Clemente (Pittsburgh) 28, Bobby Tolan (Cincinnati), Rusty Staub (Montreal), Matty Alou and Willie Stargell (Pittsburgh) 27, Ron Santo (Chicago) and Lee May (Cincinnati) 26, Billy Williams (Chicago) and Joe Morgan (Houston) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bob Gibson (St. Louis) 33, Tom Seaver (New York) 32, Juan Marichal (San Francisco) 29, Phil Niekro (Atlanta) and Bill Hands (Chicago) 28, Claude Osteen and Bill Singer (Los Angeles) and Gaylord Perry (San Francisco) 26, Fergie Jenkins (Chicago), Larry Dierker (Houston) and Jerry Koosman (New York) 25, Steve Carlton (St. Louis) 24.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Bench 9.9, Rose 9.7, McCovey 9.2, Staub 8.7, Jones and Bonds 7.7, Wynn 7.5, Tolan 6.8, Stargell 6.5, Perez 6.4, Richie Hebner (Pittsburgh) 5.9, M. Alou 5.5, Santo and Don Kessinger (Chicago) 5.4, Agee and Felix Millan (Atlanta) 5.2.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Dierker 10.6, Niekro 9.1, Gibson 8.6, Marichal 8.3, Hands 8.0, Seaver 7.5, Carlton, Perry, and Denny Lemaster (Houston) 6.5, Jenkins 6.2, Osteen 5.9, Singer 5.8, Koosman 5.1.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): McCovey 8.4, Aaron 8.1, Clemente 7.5, Wynn 7.2, Perez 6.9, Bonds, Jones, and Rose 6.7, Staub 6.6, Santo 6.4, Agee 5.9, Bench 5.8, Stargell and Tolan 5.6, M. Alou 5.0, Davis 4.9. Pitchers (bWAR): Gibson 11.0, Dierker 9.0, Hands 8.8, Marichal 8.5, Perry 7.8, Jenkins and Seaver 7.6, Singer 7.3, Carlton 7.2, Koosman 6.7, Niekro 6.6, Osteen 6.2, Lemaster 5.7.

Actual award winners:
MVP (top 20: 38 players received at least one vote) | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+----+-----+---+--+
1 Willie McCovey SFG 11 265 336 0.79 | 491 157 45 .320 1.108 0
2 Tom Seaver NYM 11 243 336 0.72 | 91 11 0 .121 .354 1| 25-7 273 2.21 1.039 208
3 Hank Aaron ATL 2 188 336 0.56 | 547 164 44 .300 1.003 9
4 Pete Rose CIN 0 127 336 0.38 | 627 218 16 .348 .940 7
5 Ron Santo CHC 0 124 336 0.37 | 575 166 29 .289 .869 1
6 Tommie Agee NYM 0 89 336 0.26 | 565 153 26 .271 .806 12
7 Cleon Jones NYM 0 82 336 0.24 | 483 164 12 .340 .904 16
8 Roberto Clemente PIT 0 51 336 0.15 | 507 175 19 .345 .955 4
9 Phil Niekro ATL 0 47 336 0.14 | 95 20 0 .211 .479 0| 23-13 284 2.56 1.027 193 1
10 Tony Perez CIN 0 28 336 0.08 | 629 185 37 .294 .883 4
11 Maury Wills TOT 0 17 336 0.05 | +623 171 4 .274 .673 40
12 Ernie Banks CHC 0 15 336 0.04 | 565 143 23 .253 .725 0
13 Johnny Bench CIN 0 12 336 0.04 | 532 156 26 .293 .840 6
13 Rico Carty ATL 0 12 336 0.04 | 304 104 16 .342 .951 0
15 Tony Gonzalez TOT 0 8 336 0.02 | +502 135 12 .269 .724 4
15 Wayne Granger CIN 0 8 336 0.02 | 21 2 0 .095 .304 0| 9-6 145 2.80 1.265 68 27
15 Ron Hunt SFG 0 8 336 0.02 | 478 125 3 .262 .702 9
15 Don Kessinger CHC 0 8 336 0.02 | 664 181 4 .273 .698 11
15 Denis Menke HOU 0 8 336 0.02 | 553 149 10 .269 .756 2
15 Jimmy Wynn HOU 0 8 336 0.02 | 495 133 33 .269 .943 23
McCovey and Seaver got the same number of first-place votes, but Big Mac got more overall support.

Cy Young: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Tom Seaver NYM 23 23 24 0.96 | 25-7 273 2.21 1.039 208
2 Phil Niekro ATL 1 1 24 0.04 | 23-13 284 2.56 1.027 193 1
Niekro actually got a vote!

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+------+-----+---+--+
1 Ted Sizemore LAD 14 14 24 0.58 | 590 160 4 .271 .670 5
2 Coco Laboy MON 3 3 24 0.12 | 562 145 18 .258 .717 0
2 Al Oliver PIT 3 3 24 0.12 | 463 132 17 .285 .778 8
4 Bob Didier ATL 2 2 24 0.08 | 352 90 0 .256 .628 1
4 Larry Hisle PHI 2 2 24 0.08 | 482 128 20 .266 .797 18

Top player: Willie McCovey. Other arguments can be made, but McCovey led Win Shares, as well as the writers' vote. That's a good argument.
#1 Willie McCovey, #2 Hank Aaron, #3 Roberto Clemente, #4 Pete Rose, #5 Jimmy Wynn, #6 Tony Perez.

Top pitcher: Bob Gibson. Seaver got all the attention, but Gibson had a better year. He wasn't as good as in 1968, so he didn't get the notice.
#1 Bob Gibson, #2 Juan Marichal, #3 Tom Seaver, #4 Phil Niekro, #5 Larry Dierker, #6 Bill Hands.

Top rookie: Al Oliver. Oliver, Hisle, and Richie Hebner are all viable candidates. Not sure how Sizemore snuck in there.

Top manager: Gil Hodges turned in one of the great all-time managing jobs.

1969 American League

Expansion came, giving the AL 12 teams and 2 divisions. Seattle received the Pilots (who would fly to a new home in Milwaukee during spring training 1970) and the AL returned to Kansas City with the Royals franchise. Both new teams inhabited the West division along with Minnesota, Oakland, Chicago and California. The East included six established teams, with Boston, New York, Baltimore, Cleveland, Washington, and defending champs Detroit. Baltimore proved to be a powerhouse, with 109 wins and a 19-game margin over the Tigers in the East. Minnesota took the West by 9 games over surging Oakland. Cleveland ended up with the worst record in the league, at 99 losses.

Rod Carew won his first (of many) batting title by posting a .332 average, Tommy Harper led in steals with 73, and Reggie Jackson led in slugging and OPS. Harmon Killebrew led in on-base, HR and RBI and took the MVP award. Killebrew had 49 HR and 140 RBI. Frank Howard was second with 48 HR, Boog Powell second with 121 RBI. Jackson scored 123 runs. Tony Oliva had 197 hits and 39 doubles. Del Unser had 8 triples.

Denny McLain led in wins again but was down to a "mere" 24, and tied for the Cy Young with 23-game winner Mike Cuellar. Dick Bosman led in ERA with a 2.19 mark, followed by Jim Palmer at 2.34. Sam McDowell led in strikeouts with 279, Mickey Lolich was second with 271. Ron Perranoski led in saves with 31. McLain had 325 innings and 9 shutouts.

Win Shares leaders, players; Reggie Jackson (Oakland) 41, Rico Petrocelli (Boston) 37, Sal Bando (Oakland) 36, Harmon Killebrew (Minnesota) and Frank Howard (Washington) 34, Frank Robinson (Baltimore) 32, Paul Blair (Baltimore) 28, Boog Powell (Baltimore) and Jim Northrup (Detroit) 27, Carl Yastrzemski (Boston) and Jim Fregosi (California) 26, Tony Oliva (Minnesota) 25, Don Buford (Baltimore), Mike Andrews and Reggie Smith (Boston), and Mike Epstein and Ken McMullen (Washington) 24, Leo Cardenas (Minnesota) and Horace Clarke (New York) 23, Roy White (New York) and Dick Green (Oakland) 22.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Denny McLain (Detroit) 29, Mel Stottlemyre (New York) 26, Mike Cuellar (Baltimore) 24, Fritz Peterson (New York) 23, Andy Messersmith (California) 22, Ken Tatum (California), Sam McDowell (Cleveland), Mickey Lolich (Detroit), Ron Perranoski and Jim Perry (Minnesota) 20, Jim Palmer (Baltimore) and Blue Moon Odom (Oakland) 18.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Jackson 10.1, Petrocelli 9.0, Killebrew and Bando 8.7, Cardenas 8.4, Green 7.6, F. Robinson and Powell 7.1, Oliva 6.8, McMullen 6.6, Dave Johnson (Baltimore) 6.5, Blair 6.3, Howard 5.9.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: McLain 8.3, Messersmith 7.5, McDowell 7.1, Tatum 6.3, Stottlemyre 6.1, Wally Bunker (Kansas City) 5.0, Peterson and Tommy John (Chicago) 4.9.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Petrocelli 10.6, Jackson 9.9, Bando 8.7, F. Robinson 8.3, Blair and Killebrew 8.2, Powell 7.4, Yastrzemski 6.8, Howard 6.6, McMullen 6.3, Northrup 6.1, Cardenas 6.0, Smith 5.9, Oliva 5.8, Buford and Carew 5.7. Pitchers (bWAR): McLain 7.5, McDowell 6.3, Perry and Stottlemyre 5.3, John 5.2, Messersmith 5.1, Cuellar and Lolich 4.3, Peterson 4.1, Perranoski 4.0, Bosman and Tatum 3.9.

Actual award winners:

MVP: (top 25)| Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+----+---+---+---+--+
1 Harmon Killebrew MIN 16 294 336 0.88 | 555 153 49 .276 1.011 8
2 Boog Powell BAL 6 227 336 0.68 | 533 162 37 .304 .942 1
3 Frank Robinson BAL 2 162 336 0.48 | 539 166 32 .308 .955 9
4 Frank Howard WSA 0 115 336 0.34 | 592 175 48 .296 .976 1
5 Reggie Jackson OAK 0 110 336 0.33 | 549 151 47 .275 1.018 13
6 Denny McLain DET 0 85 336 0.25 | 106 17 0 .160 .348 0| 24-9 325 2.80 1.092 181
7 Rico Petrocelli BOS 0 71 336 0.21 | 535 159 40 .297 .992 3
8 Mike Cuellar BAL 0 55 336 0.16 | 103 12 0 .117 .279 0| 23-11 291 2.38 1.004 182
9 Jim Perry MIN 0 40 336 0.12 | 93 16 0 .172 .430 0| 20-6 262 2.82 1.185 153
10 Rod Carew MIN 0 30 336 0.09 | 458 152 8 .332 .853 19
11 Paul Blair BAL 0 28 336 0.08 | 625 178 26 .285 .804 20
12 Leo Cardenas MIN 0 27 336 0.08 | 578 162 10 .280 .741 5
13 Dave McNally BAL 0 25 336 0.07 | 94 8 1 .085 .295 0| 20-7 269 3.22 1.176 166
13 Ron Perranoski MIN 0 25 336 0.07 | 24 2 0 .083 .237 0| 9-10 120 2.11 1.145 62 31
15 Tony Oliva MIN 0 21 336 0.06 | 637 197 24 .309 .851 10
16 Sal Bando OAK 0 18 336 0.05 | 609 171 31 .281 .885 1
17 Cesar Tovar MIN 0 9 336 0.03 | 535 154 11 .288 .757 45
18 Mel Stottlemyre NYY 0 8 336 0.02 | 101 18 1 .178 .498 0| 20-14 303 2.82 1.201 113
18 Carl Yastrzemski BOS 0 8 336 0.02 | 603 154 40 .255 .870 15
20 Ed Brinkman WSA 0 7 336 0.02 | 576 153 2 .266 .653 2
20 Jim Fregosi CAL 0 7 336 0.02 | 580 151 12 .260 .742 9
22 Reggie Smith BOS 0 6 336 0.02 | 543 168 25 .309 .895 7
23 Brooks Robinson BAL 0 5 336 0.01 | 598 140 23 .234 .693 2
23 Del Unser WSA 0 5 336 0.01 | 581 166 7 .286 .731 8
25 Mike Epstein WSA 0 4 336 0.01 | 403 112 30 .278 .965 2
It was a power hitters' year with Killebrew and Powell running 1-2.

Cy Young: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Mike Cuellar BAL 10 10 24 0.42 | 23-11 291 2.38 1.004 182
1 Denny McLain DET 10 10 24 0.42 | 24-9 325 2.80 1.092 181
3 Jim Perry MIN 3 3 24 0.12 | 20-6 262 2.82 1.185 153
4 Dave McNally BAL 1 1 24 0.04 | 20-7 269 3.22 1.176 166

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+------+-----+---+
1 Lou Piniella KCR 9 9 24 0.38 | 493 139 11 .282 .741 2
2 Mike Nagy BOS 6 6 24 0.25 | 65 5 0 .077 .259 1| 12-2 197 3.11 1.469 84
3 Carlos May CHW 5 5 24 0.21 | 367 103 18 .281 .873 1
4 Ken Tatum CAL 4 4 24 0.17 | 21 6 2 .286 .937 0| 7-2 86 1.36 1.043 65 22

With the two-division setup, the normal voting habits were disturbed. It caused some confusion, having two "winners" at the end of the regular season.

Top player: Reggie Jackson. The best players in the league were Jackson and Petrocelli, and Jackson was much closer to the pennant race. So, in a close race, the edge goes to the contender.
#1 Reggie Jackson, #2 Rico Petrocelli, #3 Frank Robinson, #4 Harmon Killebrew, #5 Sal Bando, #6 Paul Blair.

Top pitcher: Denny McLain. The second year in a row at the top for McLain, and the last. His troubles, legal and otherwise, began soon after.
#1 Denny McLain, #2 Mike Cuellar, #3 Andy Messersmith, #4 Sam McDowell, #5 Ron Perranoski.

Top rookie: Lou Piniella. Tatum had the better year, but Piniella had more long-term potential.

Top manager: Earl Weaver pushed the right buttons for the Orioles.

1968 National League

The 97-win Cardinals won the pennant easily, by nine games over the Giants. Chicago was third, Cincinnati 4th and Atlanta 5th. Pittsburgh was 6th, LA and Philly tied for 7th, the Mets 9th (their second time of not being last) and the Astros last with 90 losses.

Pete Rose won his first batting title by three points, .335 to .332, over Matty Alou. Rose also led in OBP. Willie McCovey led in HR with 36, RBI with 105, slugging, and OPS. McCovey was the league's only 100-RBI guy, as Ron Santo and Billy Williams tied for second with 98. Richie Allen was second with 33 HR. Rose and Felipe Alou each had 210 hits. Lou Brock led in doubles with 46, triples with 14, and steals with 62.

"The year of the pitcher" was evident in the National League. Don Drysdale hurled 58 consecutive shutout innings while Bob Gibson tossed 13 shutouts and posted a 1.12 ERA for the season. Gibson started 34 games, and completed 28 of them. In the other six, he was removed for a pinch-hitter. That may be a modern record, over 30 starts and never relieved in the middle of an inning. Gibson won the MVP for his performance. Juan Marichal led in wins with 26, followed by Gibson at 22, while Gibson of course led in ERA as well as strikeouts with 268. Fergie Jenkins was second in strikeouts with 260, and third in wins with 20. Bob Bolin was second in ERA with a 1.99 mark. Marichal had 326 innings and 30 complete games. Phil Regan led in saves with 25.

Win Shares leaders, players; Willie McCovey (San Francisco) 34, Hank Aaron (Atlanta), Pete Rose (Cincinnati), Jim Wynn (Houston) and Dick Allen (Philadelphia) 32, Felipe Alou (Atlanta) and Lou Brock (St. Louis) 31, Billy Williams (Chicago) and Willie Mays (San Francisco) 30, Ron Santo (Chicago) and Rusty Staub (Houston) 28, Tom Haller (Los Angeles) and Curt Flood (St. Louis) 27, Tony Perez (Cincinnati) and Roberto Clemente (Pittsburgh) 25, Johnny Bench (Cincinnati) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Bob Gibson (St. Louis) 36, Fergie Jenkins (Chicago) 25, Juan Marichal (San Francisco) 24, Jerry Koosman and Tom Seaver (New York) 23, Phil Regan (LA/Chicago) 20, Pat Jarvis (Atlanta) and Gaylord Perry (San Francisco) 19, Phil Niekro (Atlanta), Bill Hands (Chicago), Don Drysdale (Los Angeles) and Chris Short (Philadelphia) 18.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Perez 8.3, Mays and Aaron 8.2, McCovey 7.7, Wynn 7.6, Haller 7.5, Rose 7.4, Brock and Bench 7.3, Alou 7.0, Flood and Santo 6.2, Allen 5.8, Matty Alou (Pittsburgh) 5.7, Clemente 5.4.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Gibson 11.0, Jenkins 8.7, Jarvis 6.7, Seaver 6.6, Marichal 6.3, Short and Larry Jackson (Philadelphia) 6.2, Perry 6.1, Niekro 5.9, Koosman 5.8, Hands 5.2, Regan 5.0.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Aaron 7.9, McCovey 7.6, Mays 7.3, Clemente 7.2, F. Alou 7.0, Santo 6.8, Rose 6.2, Brock 6.1, Wynn 6.0, Perez 5.9, Williams 5.7, Haller 5.5, M. Alou and Bench 5.1, Alley 5.0, Allen 4.7, Beckert 4.6, Clendenon 4.5. Pitchers (bWAR): Gibson 11.9, Seaver 7.5, Jenkins 6.9, Koosman 6.8, Perry 6.2, Marichal 6.1, Drysdale 5.9, Lemaster 5.3, Giusti 5.2, Bolin and Short 5.1, Jarvis 5.0, Niekro 4.9, Jackson 4.8.

Actual award winners;

MVP: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-------+-----++--+
1 Bob Gibson STL 14 242 280 0.86 | 94 16 0 .170 .456 1| 22-9 305 1.12 0.853 268
2 Pete Rose CIN 6 205 280 0.73 | 626 210 10 .335 .861 3
3 Willie McCovey SFG 0 135 280 0.48 | 523 153 36 .293 .923 4
4 Curt Flood STL 0 116 280 0.41 | 618 186 5 .301 .705 11
5 Juan Marichal SFG 0 93 280 0.33 | 123 20 0 .163 .376 0| 26-9 326 2.43 1.046 218
6 Lou Brock STL 0 73 280 0.26 | 660 184 6 .279 .746 62
7 Mike Shannon STL 0 55 280 0.20 | 576 153 15 .266 .710 1
8 Billy Williams CHC 0 48 280 0.17 | 642 185 30 .288 .836 4
9 Glenn Beckert CHC 0 40 280 0.14 | 643 189 4 .294 .695 8
10 Felipe Alou ATL 0 33 280 0.12 | 662 210 11 .317 .803 12
11 Matty Alou PIT 0 32 280 0.11 | 558 185 0 .332 .758 18
12 Hank Aaron ATL 0 19 280 0.07 | 606 174 29 .287 .852 28
13 Ernie Banks CHC 0 14 280 0.05 | 552 136 32 .246 .756 2
13 Jerry Koosman NYM 0 14 280 0.05 | 91 7 1 .077 .227 0| 19-12 264 2.08 1.100 178
13 Willie Mays SFG 0 14 280 0.05 | 498 144 23 .289 .860 12
16 Johnny Bench CIN 0 11 280 0.04 | 564 155 15 .275 .743 1
17 Phil Regan TOT 0 7 280 0.02 | + 21 3 0 .143 .372 0|+12-5 135 2.27 1.069 67 25
18 Fergie Jenkins CHC 0 6 280 0.02 | 100 16 1 .160 .438 0| 20-15 308 2.63 1.039 260
19 Tony Perez CIN 0 5 280 0.02 | 625 176 18 .282 .769 3
20 Nelson Briles STL 0 4 280 0.01 | 80 11 0 .138 .349 0| 19-11 244 2.81 1.256 141
20 Dal Maxvill STL 0 4 280 0.01 | 459 116 1 .253 .627 0
22 Steve Blass PIT 0 3 280 0.01 | 80 11 0 .138 .305 0| 18-6 220 2.12 1.126 132
22 Tom Haller LAD 0 3 280 0.01 | 474 135 4 .285 .733 1
24 Ron Santo CHC 0 2 280 0.01 | 577 142 26 .246 .775 3
25 Clay Carroll TOT 0 1 280 0.00 | + 29 6 0 .207 .440 0|+ 7-8 144 2.69 1.153 71 17
25 Tommy Helms CIN 0 1 280 0.00 | 507 146 2 .288 .668 5|
Gibson and Rose were the contenders, and Gibson won. Deservedly so.

Cy Young: Gibson was a unanimous pick.

Rookie: 1st Max | Season Results
Rk Name Team Place Points Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+----+---+--+
1 Johnny Bench CIN 10 10 20 0.50 | 564 155 15 .275 .743 1
2 Jerry Koosman NYM 9 9 20 0.45 | 91 7 1 .077 .227 0| 19-12 264 2.08 1.100 178
A close one between two outstanding rookies.

Top player: Hank Aaron. Aaron wins for his combination of solid hitting and solid defense. Rose was a bit behind him offensively, McCovey was not his equal with the glove.
#1 Hank Aaron, #2 Willie McCovey, #3 Pete Rose, #4 Jim Wynn, #5 Willie Mays, #6 Ron Santo.

Top pitcher: Bob Gibson. There can be no other answer to this question in 1968.
#1 Bob Gibson, #2 Fergie Jenkins, #3 Juan Marichal, #4 Tom Seaver, #5 Jerry Koosman.

Top rookie: Johnny Bench. Not by a large margin over Koosman, but by enough.

Top manager: Red Schoendienst won the pennant again.

1968 American League

"The Year of the Pitcher" saw only one AL .300 hitter, Carl Yastrzemski winning the batting title at a mere .301. After this season, the strike zone was shrunk and the mound lowered to bring back offense. Detroit's Denny McLain won 31 games, the first 30-game winner in years and possibly the last we'll ever see. The Tigers won 103 games and the pennant pretty easily, with a 12-game margin over 1966 winners Baltimore, as McLain won the MVP. Cleveland was 3rd, Boston fell from the pennant to 4th, New York was back up to 5th, and Oakland (formerly Kansas City) 6th, while below .500 were Minnesota 7th, California and Chicago (tied) and Washington last.

Yaz also led in walks, on-base, and OPS, Frank Howard in home runs with 44, Ken Harrelson in RBI with 109. Howard, at 106, was the only other guy to drive in 100 runs. Bert Campaneris had 177 hits and 62 steals, Dick McAuliffe had 95 runs, Reggie Smith hit 37 doubles and Jim Fregosi 13 triples. Willie Horton was second in homers with 36. Second place in batting average was Danny Cater, at .290. So not only was there only one .300 hitter, it wasn't really even close.

Luis Tiant led in ERA with a 1.60 mark. It wasn't out of line with others: Sam McDowell posted a 1.81 mark, Dave McNally 1.95, McLain 1.96, Tommy John 1.98. It was a ridiculous year for pitching. McDowell led in strikeouts with 283, followed by McLain with 280. McLain's 31 wins and 28 complete games were well ahead of the pack: McNally was second in wins with 22. Mel Stottlemyre and Tiant each won 21. Al Worthington led in saves with 18. 45-year-old Hoyt Wilhelm tied for fourth in saves.

Win Shares leaders, players; Carl Yastrzemski (Boston) 39, Frank Howard (Washington) 38, Bill Freehan (Detroit) 35, Roy White (New York) and Bert Campaneris (Oakland) 29, Ken Harrelson (Boston), Willie Horton and Dick McAuliffe (Detroit) 28, Rick Monday (Oakland) 26, Don Buford and Brooks Robinson (Baltimore), Reggie Smith (Boston) and Reggie Jackson (Oakland) 25, Frank Robinson (Baltimore), Mike Andrews (Boston), Jim Northrup (Detroit), Mickey Mantle (New York) 24 and Ken McMullen (Washington) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Denny McLain (Detroit) 33, Luis Tiant (Cleveland) 28, Dave McNally (Baltimore) 26, Sam McDowell (Cleveland) and Stan Bahnsen (New York) 23, Mel Stottlemyre (New York) 22, Dean Chance (Minnesota) 21, Wilbur Wood (Chicago) 19, Earl Wilson (Detroit) and Blue Moon Odom (Oakland) 17.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Yastrzemski 10.2, Freehan 9.0, Campaneris 8.5, Howard 6.8, McAuliffe and B. Robinson 6.6, Monday 6.5, Harrelson and Buford 6.2, Rick Reichardt (California) 5.6, Horton 5.5, Jackson and Tony Oliva (Minnesota) 5.4, Jim Fregosi (California) 5.1, F. Robinson and Cesar Tovar (Minnesota) 5.0, Joe Azcue (Cleveland) 4.8, Northrup 4.6.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: McLain 9.1, McNally 8.7, Stottlemyre 8.4, Bahnsen 8.3, Tiant 7.7, Wood 7.2, Tommy John (Chicago) 5.8, Camilo Pascual (Washington) 5.0, Joe Horlen (Chicago) 4.7, Chance 4.5.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Yaz 10.5, B. Robinson 8.4, Freehan 8.2, Campaneris 7.3, Northrup 6.6, McAuliffe 6.4, Horton and Howard 6.3, Harrelson 6.0, Jackson 5.8, Smith 5.4, Tovar 5.3, White 5.0, McMullen, Reichardt, F. Robinson 4.9. Pitchers (bWAR): Tiant 7.2, McLain 5.9, Bahnsen 5.7, Chance 5.4, McDowell 4.9, John 4.8, McNally 4.7, Stottlemyre 4.6, Nash 3.9, Wood 3.8, Horlen and Pascual 3.5.

Actual award winners:
MVP: (top 20)| Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+----+---+-------+--+
1 Denny McLain DET 20 280 280 1.00 | 111 18 0 .162 .359 0| 31-6 336 1.96 0.905 280
2 Bill Freehan DET 0 161 280 0.58 | 540 142 25 .263 .819 0
3 Ken Harrelson BOS 0 103 280 0.37 | 535 147 35 .275 .874 2
4 Willie Horton DET 0 102 280 0.36 | 512 146 36 .285 .895 0
5 Dave McNally BAL 0 78 280 0.28 | 86 11 3 .128 .453 0| 22-10 273 1.95 0.842 202
5 Luis Tiant CLE 0 78 280 0.28 | 87 7 0 .080 .172 0| 21-9 258 1.60 0.871 264
7 Dick McAuliffe DET 0 71 280 0.25 | 570 142 16 .249 .755 8
8 Frank Howard WSA 0 63 280 0.22 | 598 164 44 .274 .890 0
9 Carl Yastrzemski BOS 0 50 280 0.18 | 539 162 23 .301 .922 13
10 Mel Stottlemyre NYY 0 43 280 0.15 | 91 13 0 .143 .386 0| 21-12 279 2.45 1.105 140
11 Bert Campaneris OAK 0 39 280 0.14 | 642 177 4 .276 .692 62
12 Roy White NYY 0 17 280 0.06 | 577 154 17 .267 .764 20
13 Jim Northrup DET 0 15 280 0.05 | 580 153 21 .264 .770 4
14 Luis Aparicio CHW 0 13 280 0.05 | 622 164 4 .264 .636 17
15 Don Buford BAL 0 11 280 0.04 | 426 120 15 .282 .804 27
15 Jim Fregosi CAL 0 11 280 0.04 | 614 150 9 .244 .680 9
17 Reggie Jackson OAK 0 8 280 0.03 | 553 138 29 .250 .768 14
17 Brooks Robinson BAL 0 8 280 0.03 | 608 154 17 .253 .720 1
19 Danny Cater OAK 0 5 280 0.02 | 504 146 6 .290 .729 8
19 Tony Oliva MIN 0 5 280 0.02 | 470 136 18 .289 .833 10
McLain won unanimously, and was not a bad pick. I think I would have chosen Freehan, though.

Cy Young: McLain was a unanimous pick again.

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+---------+---+--+
1 Stan Bahnsen NYY 17 17 20 0.85 | 81 4 0 .049 .163 0| 17-12 267 2.05 1.062 162
2 Del Unser WSA 3 3 20 0.15 | 635 146 1 .230 .560 11|
Bahnsen won but Unser received support, which was odd because Unser didn't have nearly the year Bahnsen had.

Top player: Bill Freehan. It's a toss-up between him and Yaz, but Freehan's team won this time, and Yaz got it last year. Freehan is deserving, and could have won MVP in a more normal year.
#1 Bill Freehan, #2 Carl Yastrzemski, #3 Bert Campaneris, #4 Frank Howard, #5 Ken Harrelson, #6 Dick McAuliffe.

Top pitcher: Denny McLain, for sure. The 31 wins were flashy, but it was also a good season for the hard-living pitcher.
#1 Denny McLain, #2 Luis Tiant, #3 Dave McNally, #4 Sam McDowell, #5 Mel Stottlemyre.

Top rookie: Stan Bahnsen, who was just out of the top five pitchers.

Top manager: Mayo Smith by default. Nobody did a great job this season. It could be Bob Kennedy for nursing the A's to .500.

1967 National League

The St. Louis Cardinals won 101 games and their second World Series of the decade in spite of ace Bob Gibson missing six weeks with a broken leg. Orlando Cepeda won the MVP in his first full year with the Cards as he led the league in RBI. St. Louis won handily over San Francisco, 10.5 games back in second. Chicago was putting together a pitching staff and surged to 3rd, with Cincinnati 4th, Philadelphia 5th, Pittsburgh 6th at exactly .500, Atlanta 7th, a Koufax-less Dodger team 8th, Houston 9th, and the Mets last with 101 losses.

Roberto Clemente won the batting title at .357, well ahead of Tony Gonzalez at .339 or Matty Alou at .338. Clemente also led with 209 hits. Hank Aaron led in homers with 39 as well as in slugging. Lou Brock led in steals with 52. Dick Allen led in on-base and OPS. Rusty Staub had 44 doubles, Vada Pinson 13 triples. Aaron and Brock tied with 113 runs. Second to Aaron in homers with Jimmy Wynn with 37. The RBI leaders went Cepeda with 111, Clemente with 110, Aaron with 109, Wynn with 107.

Mike McCormick led in wins with 22, and Fergie Jenkins won 20. Phil Niekro led in ERA with a 1.87 mark, followed by Jim Bunning at 2.29 and Chris Short at 2.39. Bunning led in strikeouts with 253, followed by Jenkins at 236. Ted Abernathy led in saves with 28.

Doin' the Win Shares thing...

Players; Ron Santo (Chicago) 38, Roberto Clemente (Pittsburgh) 35, Hank Aaron (Atlanta) and Orlando Cepeda (St. Louis) 34, Lou Brock and Tim McCarver (both St. Louis) 30, Dick Allen (Philadelphia) and Jim Ray Hart (San Francisco) 29, Billy Williams (Chicago), Rusty Staub and Jim Wynn (Houston) 28 each, Adolpho Phillips (Chicago), Joe Morgan (Houston), Tony Gonzalez (Philadelphia) and Curt Flood (St. Louis) 26, Vada Pinson and Pete Rose (Cincinnati) and Willie McCovey (San Francisco) 24. No Willie Mays!

Pitchers: Jim Bunning (Philadelphia) 25, Ted Abernathy (Cincinnati) 24, Phil Niekro (Atlanta), Fergie Jenkins (Chicago), and Tom Seaver (New York) 21 each, Mike McCormick and Gaylord Perry (San Francisco) 20, Gary Nolan (Cincinnati) 19, Don Drysdale (Los Angeles) and Dick Hughes (St. Louis) 18, Mel Queen (Cincinnati) 17.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Santo 9.4, McCarver and Cepeda 8.9, Clemente and Aaron 8.2, Wynn 8.0, Hart 7.3, Brock and Flood 7.2, Gonzalez and Maury Wills (Pittsburgh) 7.0, Allen and Morgan 6.7, Staub 6.5, Gene Alley (Pittsburgh) 6.3, Rose 5.9, Phillips and Joe Torre (Atlanta) 5.8.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Bunning 9.1, Seaver 7.5, Niekro 7.1, Jankins 6.9, Chris Short (Philadelphia) 6.3, McCormick and Perry 6.0, Ken Johnson (Atlanta) 5.9, Nolan 5.8, Abernathy and Claude Osteen (Los Angeles) 5.7, Drysdale 5.6.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Santo 10.2, Clemente 8.5, Aaron 8.1, Cepeda 7.6, Allen 6.8, McCarver 6.6, Hart 6.3, Brock and Gonzalez 6.1, Phillips 5.8, Wynn 5.7, Torre 5.6, Alley and McCovey 5.5, Flood and Staub 5.4, Williams 5.3, Morgan 5.2. Pitchers (bWAR): Bunning 8.4, Nolan 6.8, Short 6.6, Seaver 6.4, Perry 6.3, Abernathy 5.8, Niekro 5.7, Drysdale 5.5, Jenkins 5.4, McCormick 5.0, Queen 4.9, Maloney and Singer 4.7.

Actual award winners:
MVP (top 20): | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+
1 Orlando Cepeda STL 20 280 280 1.00 | 563 183 25 .325 .923 11
2 Tim McCarver STL 0 136 280 0.49 | 471 139 14 .295 .822 8
3 Roberto Clemente PIT 0 129 280 0.46 | 585 209 23 .357 .954 9
4 Ron Santo CHC 0 103 280 0.37 | 586 176 31 .300 .906 1
5 Hank Aaron ATL 0 79 280 0.28 | 600 184 39 .307 .943 17
6 Mike McCormick SFG 0 73 280 0.26 | 84 10 1 .119 .336 0| 22-10 262 2.85 1.148 150
7 Lou Brock STL 0 49 280 0.18 | 689 206 21 .299 .799 52
8 Tony Perez CIN 0 43 280 0.15 | 600 174 26 .290 .818 0
9 Julian Javier STL 0 41 280 0.15 | 520 146 14 .281 .718 6
10 Pete Rose CIN 0 40 280 0.14 | 585 176 12 .301 .808 11
11 Jimmy Wynn HOU 0 29 280 0.10 | 594 148 37 .249 .826 16
12 Fergie Jenkins CHC 0 26 280 0.09 | 93 14 0 .151 .404 0| 20-13 289 2.80 1.082 236
13 Curt Flood STL 0 24 280 0.09 | 514 172 5 .335 .793 2
14 Ernie Banks CHC 0 22 280 0.08 | 573 158 23 .276 .765 2
15 Nelson Briles STL 0 20 280 0.07 | 40 6 0 .150 .359 0| 14-5 155 2.43 1.153 94 6
16 Rusty Staub HOU 0 12 280 0.04 | 546 182 10 .333 .871 0
17 Jim Ray Hart SFG 0 10 280 0.04 | 578 167 29 .289 .882 1
17 Dick Hughes STL 0 10 280 0.04 | 78 10 0 .128 .278 0| 16-6 222 2.67 0.954 161 3
19 Dick Allen PHI 0 9 280 0.03 | 463 142 23 .307 .970 20
20 Ted Abernathy CIN 0 8 280 0.03 | 17 1 0 .059 .118 0| 6-3 106 1.27 0.978 88 28
Cepeda was a unanimous selection.

Cy Young: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Mike McCormick SFG 18 18 20 0.90 | 22-10 262 2.85 1.148 150
2 Jim Bunning PHI 1 1 20 0.05 | 17-15 302 2.29 1.039 253
2 Fergie Jenkins CHC 1 1 20 0.05 | 20-13 289 2.80 1.082 236
McCormick's gaudy win total got him the award.

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+
1 Tom Seaver NYM 11 11 20 0.55 | 77 11 0 .143 .399 2| 16-13 251 2.76 1.203 170
2 Dick Hughes STL 6 6 20 0.30 | 78 10 0 .128 .278 0| 16-6 222 2.67 0.954 161 3
3 Gary Nolan CIN 3 3 20 0.15 | 67 7 0 .104 .297 0| 14-8 227 2.58 1.125 206
Seaver takes a fairly close vote split among three successful pitchers.

Top player: Ron Santo. He didn't lead the league in any flashy categories, but he was a force in the Cubs rising to 3rd place. This went ignored as Cepeda got what was partly a career achievement award for sparking the Cards to the pennant with a big RBI year. Santo was a significantly better player in 1967, though.
#1 Ron Santo, #2 Roberto Clemente, #3 Hank Aaron, #4 Orlando Cepeda, #5 Tim McCarver, #6 Tony Gonzalez.

Top pitcher: Jim Bunning, at age 35, was the best pitcher in the league. In the first year of the post-Koufax era, there was no real dominant pitcher. Bunning was certainly the best one, and gets my vote. Bunning was 2nd in ERA, tied for 3rd in wins, first in innings and strikeouts, but had a record just above .500 at 17-15. Therefore, the voters mostly ignored him. Niekro was better per inning, but started the year in the bullpen and didn't throw as many innings.
#1 Jim Bunning, #2 Fergie Jenkins, #3 Tom Seaver, #4 Phil Niekro, #5 Ted Abernathy.

Top rookie was Seaver. Much as I would love to pick Gary Nolan, it was Tom Terrific all the way.

Top manager: Red Schoendienst kept the Birds together even when Gibson was out.

1967 American League

It was the year of "The Impossible Dream," and an impossible pennant race. Four teams went to the wire, as 1966 winners the Orioles faded to 6th with Frank Robinson hurting. There was the Twins, 1965 pennant winners, with their balanced team; the White Sox, sporting the best pitching; Detroit, building a pitching staff to make a run; and the surprise Red Sox, after finishing 9th in 1966 and a non-factor in the race for years, since before Ted Williams retired. Carl Yastrzemski won the Triple Crown with a magical season, and a roster of youngsters and castoffs around him won on the last day, finishing one game ahead of Minnesota and Detroit and three ahead of Chicago. California was 5th, Washington tied the Orioles for 6th, and Cleveland, New York, and Kansas City rounded out the standings.

Nobody wins the Triple Crown since Mantle, then two guys win it consecutive years. Yaz won the Triple Crown with a .321 average, 44 HR, and 121 RBI, tying Harmon Killebrew for the home run lead. Frank Robinson was second in average with a .311 mark. Yaz led in runs with 112 and hits with 189. Tony Oliva led with 34 doubles and Paul Blair with 12 triples. Killebrew was second in RBI with 113. Bert Campaneris led in steals again with 55.

Jim Lonborg and Earl Wilson tied for the lead in wins with 22, and Dean Chance won 20. Joe Horlen lead in ERA at 2.06 followed by Gary Peters at 2.28. Lonborg led in strikeouts with 246, followed by Sam McDowell at 236. Minnie Rojas took the saves lead at 27. Chance led in complete games and innings.

Win Shares numbers:
Carl Yastrzemski (Boston) 42, Harmon Killebrew (Minnesota) 38, Frank Robinson (Baltimore), Bill Freehan and Al Kaline (both Detroit) 30 each, Jim Fregosi and Don Mincher (California) and Frank Howard (Washington) 28 each, Dick McAuliffe (Detroit) 27, Tony Oliva (Minnesota) and Mickey Mantle (New York) 25, Paul Blair and Brooks Robinson (Baltimore) and Bob Allison (Minnesota) 24, Rico Petrocelli and George Scott (Boston) 23, Horace Clarke (New York) 22, Norm Cash (Detroit) and Cesar Tovar (Minnesota) 21.

For pitchers, Joel Horlen (Chicago) 23, Gary Peters (Chicago) 21, Dean Chance (Minnesota) 20, Jim Lonborg (Boston) and Jim Merritt (Minnesota) 19, Earl Wilson (Detroit) 18, Luis Tiant (Cleveland), Catfish Hunter (Kansas City) and Jim Kaat (Minnesota) 17, Minnie Rojas (California), Bob Locker (Chicago), Steve Hargan (Cleveland), Al Downing and Mel Stottlemyre (New York) 16.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Yastrzemski 11.1, Killebrew 8.5, Kaline 8.4, B. Robinson 7.7, F. Robinson 7.5, Freehan 7.3, Blair 6.9, Fregosi 5.9, McAuliffe 5.8, Oliva and Petrocelli 5.6, Mincher and Scott 5.5, Howard 4.7.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Horlen 8.8, Peters 6.8, Downing 6.7, Sonny Siebert (Cleveland) 6.2, Merritt 6.1, Stottlemyre 5.6, Hargan and Dave Boswell (Minnesota) 5.4, Hunter and Phil Ortega (Washington) 5.0, Tiant 4.8, Wilson 4.7, Lonborg and Bill Monbouquette (New York) 4.5.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Yaz 12.1, B. Robinson 8.6, Killebrew 8.0, Kaline 7.8, Blair 7.7, Freehan 6.6, F. Robinson 6.5, Fregosi 6.1, MacAuliffe 5.8, Scott 5.3, McMullen and Mincher 5.1, Petrocelli 4.9, Agee and Oliva 4.8. Pitchers (bWAR): Merritt 5.4, Chance 4.9, Horlen 4.6, Downing 4.4, Hargan and Siebert 4.2, Boswell and Hunter 4.0, Tiant 3.9, Lonborg and Stottlemyre 3.7, Kaat 3.3, Peters 3.2.

Actual award winners:

MVP (top 15): | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+---------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Carl Yastrzemski BOS 19 275 280 0.98 | 579 189 44 .326 1.040 10
2 Harmon Killebrew MIN 0 161 280 0.58 | 547 147 44 .269 .965 1
3 Bill Freehan DET 0 137 280 0.49 | 517 146 20 .282 .835 1
4 Joe Horlen CHW 0 91 280 0.32 | 83 14 0 .169 .367 0| 19-7 258 2.06 0.953 103
5 Al Kaline DET 0 88 280 0.31 | 458 141 25 .308 .952 8
6 Jim Lonborg BOS 0 82 280 0.29 | 99 14 0 .141 .346 1| 22-9 273 3.16 1.138 246
7 Jim Fregosi CAL 0 70 280 0.25 | 590 171 9 .290 .744 9
7 Cesar Tovar MIN 1 70 280 0.25 | 649 173 6 .267 .691 19
9 Gary Peters CHW 0 37 280 0.13 | 99 21 2 .212 .556 0| 16-11 260 2.28 1.069 215
10 George Scott BOS 0 33 280 0.12 | 565 171 19 .303 .839 10
11 Frank Robinson BAL 0 31 280 0.11 | 479 149 30 .311 .979 2
12 Earl Wilson DET 0 20 280 0.07 | 108 20 4 .185 .563 0| 22-11 264 3.27 1.167 184
13 Dean Chance MIN 0 19 280 0.07 | 92 3 0 .033 .151 0| 20-14 284 2.73 1.100 220 1
14 Ron Hansen CHW 0 13 280 0.05 | 498 116 8 .233 .638 0
15 Jerry Adair TOT 0 11 280 0.04 | +414 112 3 .271 .640 1

Yaz was not quite unanimous. Tovar snuck in a first-place vote. The guy who cast the vote should have been drummed out of the union.

Cy Young: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Jim Lonborg BOS 18 18 20 0.90 | 22-9 273 3.16 1.138 246
2 Joe Horlen CHW 2 2 20 0.10 | 19-7 258 2.06 0.953 103
First time for each league to award a Cy.

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+---+-----+---+--+
1 Rod Carew MIN 19 19 20 0.95 | 514 150 8 .292 .750 5
2 Reggie Smith BOS 1 1 20 0.05 | 565 139 15 .246 .704 16

Top player: Yaz was without a doubt the best. He was also clutch down the stretch, with 22 hits in his last 44 ABs when the Red Sox simply had to win. It was an all-time great season.
#1 Carl Yastrzemski, #2 Harmon Killebrew, #3 Al Kaline, #4 Bill Freehan, #5 Brooks Robinson, #6 Frank Robinson.

Top pitcher: Joel Horlen. Cy Young winner Lonborg got the press as the Bosox won, but was not the best pitcher. ERA leader Horlen, a not-too-shabby 19-7 himself, was the best pitcher this year.
#1 Joel Horlen, #2 Gary Peters, #3 Jim Merritt, #4 Jim Lonborg, #5 Dean Chance.

Top rookie to Rod Carew, with honorable mention to a contribution to the winners from Reggie Smith. But the Twins were in it to the wire, too.

Top manager: Dick Williams for bringing the Bosox to their first pennant in 23 years.

1966 National League

The Dodgers won their third pennant in four years, then got swept in the World Series in a classic upset. Sandy Koufax retired after the season, and the Dodgers took eight years to win another pennant. The 1966 race was another good one, with San Francisco finishing just a game and a half back, and Pittsburgh only three games out. Philadelphia was a solid 4th, Atlanta was 5th in its new home, and St. Louis 6th. Below .500 were the fading Reds, expansion Astros, excited Mets (first finish out of the cellar) and the Cubs in last with 103 losses in spite of a talented team.

Roberto Clemente won the MVP even though he did not win the batting title. He was 2nd in RBI with 119 and the Pirates were in the race to the final week. Matty Alou won the batting title at .342, followed by brother Felipe at .327. Felipe led in runs with 122, hits with 218, and total bases. Johnny Callison had 40 doubles, Tim McCarver 13 triples. Hank Aaron led in HR and RBI with 44 and 127. Ron Santo led in on-base, Dick Allen led in slugging and OPS, and was second in homers with 40. Lou Brock led in steals with 74.

Sandy Koufax won another Triple Crown, leading in wins with 27, ERA with a 1.73 mark, and strikeouts with 317, his best season ever as well as his last. Juan Marichal was second in wins with 25, Bob Gibson and Jim Perry had 21 each. Mike Cuellar was second in ERA at 2.22, with Marichal right behind at 2.23. Jim Bunning had 252 strikeouts. Phil Regan led in saves with 21.

Win Shares leaders, players; Willie Mays (San Francisco) 37, Dick Allen (Philadelphia) 35, Willie McCovey (San Francisco) 34, Ron Santo (Chicago) 30, Joe Torre (Atlanta) and Roberto Clemente (Pittsburgh) 29, Felipe Alou (Atlanta) 28, Hank Aaron (Atlanta) and Jim Ray Hart (San Francisco) 27, Pete Rose (Cincinnati), Jim Lefebvre (Los Angeles) and Willie Stargell (Pittsburgh) 25, Bill White (Philadelphia) 24, Donn Clendenon (Pittsburgh) 23, Gene Alley (Pittsburgh) and Tom Haller (San Francisco) 22.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Sandy Koufax (Los Angeles) 35, Juan Marichal (San Francisco) 33, Jim Bunning (Philadelphia) 30, Bob Gibson (St. Louis) 26, Phil Regan (Los Angeles) 23, Jim Maloney (Cincinnati) and Gaylord Perry (San Francisco) 21, Mike Cuellar (Houston), Larry Jackson (Chicago/Philadelphia) and Al Jackson (St. Louis) 19.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Santo 10.5, Torre 10.3, Mays 9.4, Allen 8.9, Alou 8.1, Clemente and Stargell 7.6, Aaron 7.4, McCovey 7.0, White 6.3, Clendenon, Alley, and Rico Carty (Atlanta) 6.1.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Marichal 12.2, Koufax 9.9, Bunning 9.0, Gibson 8.2, Maloney 8.0, Cuellar 6.3, Bobby Bolin (San Francisco) 6.0, Perry 5.9, Regan and A. Jackson 5.6.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Mays and Santo 9.2, Allen 8.2, Clemente 8.0, Aaron 7.8, Torre 7.6, F. Alou and Hart 6.9, McCovey 6.7, Lefebvre 5.8, Alley 5.7, Carty and Stargell 5.5, White 5.2, Clendenon and Rose 4.6, Williams 4.1. Pitchers (bWAR): Koufax 10.8, Marichal 9.0, Bunning 8.7, Maloney 6.6, Cuellar 6.5, Gibson 6.4, Perry 5.8, Veale 5.3, Bolin 4.6, Jackson 4.5, Sutton 4.3, Regan 4.1, Dierker 4.0.

Actual award voting:
MVP (top 20): | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Roberto Clemente PIT 8 218 280 0.78 | 638 202 29 .317 .896 7
2 Sandy Koufax LAD 9 208 280 0.74 | 118 9 0 .076 .215 0| 27-9 323 1.73 0.985 317
3 Willie Mays SFG 0 111 280 0.40 | 552 159 37 .288 .924 5
4 Dick Allen PHI 1 107 280 0.38 | 524 166 40 .317 1.027 10
5 Felipe Alou ATL 2 83 280 0.30 | 666 218 31 .327 .894 5
6 Juan Marichal SFG 0 74 280 0.26 | 112 28 1 .250 .585 0| 25-6 307 2.23 0.859 222
7 Phil Regan LAD 0 66 280 0.24 | 21 3 0 .143 .393 0| 14-1 117 1.62 0.934 88 21
8 Hank Aaron ATL 0 57 280 0.20 | 603 168 44 .279 .895 21
9 Matty Alou PIT 0 36 280 0.13 | 535 183 2 .342 .793 23
10 Pete Rose CIN 0 31 280 0.11 | 654 205 16 .313 .811 4
11 Gene Alley PIT 0 24 280 0.09 | 579 173 7 .299 .752 8
12 Ron Santo CHC 0 23 280 0.08 | 561 175 30 .312 .950 4
13 Orlando Cepeda TOT 0 22 280 0.08 | +501 151 20 .301 .834 9
13 Johnny Roseboro LAD 0 22 280 0.08 | 445 123 9 .276 .740 3
15 Willie Stargell PIT 0 19 280 0.07 | 485 153 33 .315 .962 2
16 Joe Torre ATL 0 18 280 0.06 | 546 172 36 .315 .943 0
17 Willie McCovey SFG 0 12 280 0.04 | 502 148 36 .295 .977 2
18 Jim Lefebvre LAD 0 8 280 0.03 | 544 149 24 .274 .793 1
18 Gaylord Perry SFG 0 8 280 0.03 | 86 16 0 .186 .393 0| 21-8 256 2.99 1.103 201
20 Curt Flood STL 0 7 280 0.02 | 626 167 10 .267 .663 14

A virtual dead heat in the voting between Clemente and Koufax. This would have been a good year for Koufax to win it, but Clemente pulled out a points victory.

Cy Young: Koufax was a unanimous choice, again.

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+-------+---+---+--+
1 Tommy Helms CIN 12 12 20 0.60 | 542 154 9 .284 .695 3
2 Sonny Jackson HOU 3 3 20 0.15 | 596 174 3 .292 .674 49
3 Tito Fuentes SFG 2 2 20 0.10 | 541 141 9 .261 .637 6
4 Randy Hundley CHC 1 1 20 0.05 | 526 124 19 .236 .682 1
4 Larry Jaster STL 1 1 20 0.05 | 45 8 1 .178 .453 0| 11-5 152 3.26 1.114 92
4 Cleon Jones NYM 1 1 20 0.05 | 495 136 8 .275 .689 16|

Top player: At the end of the day, it's Mays again. You could vote for Ron Santo, who may have had a better year, but the Cubs lost 103 games. Maybe that shouldn't matter, but it does.
#1 Willie Mays, #2 Ron Santo, #3 Roberto Clemente, #4 Dick Allen, #5 Joe Torre, #6 Hank Aaron.

Top pitcher: Sandy Koufax. Again, Marichal has an argument, but the Triple Crown is hard to argue with, even if it was park-aided.
#1 Sandy Koufax, #2 Juan Marichal, #3 Jim Bunning, #4 Bob Gibson, #5 Jim Maloney.

Top rookie: Sonny Jackson's numbers were about the same as the others, but when you add in the park effects for the Astrodome he comes out way ahead. He was still below average, and never had another year nearly as good.

Top manager: Walt Alston won another close pennant race over better-looking talent.

1966 American League

For years, the greatest players had been in the National League. Mays, Aaron, Clemente and others had been far more productive than any the AL had to offer. After the 1965 season one of those players, Frank Robinson, was traded from Cincinnati to Baltimore. The Orioles promptly won the pennant and the World Series, with Robinson dominating the league. Baltimore's long-excellent pitching took a back seat to their league-leading offense in 1966. The Orioles were 9 games in front of defending champs Minnesota and 10 ahead of Detroit, with Chicago finishing 4th and Cleveland 5th. California was 6th, Kansas City 7th, Washington 8th, Boston 9th, and the once-mighty Yankees slid all the way to last place. They weren't horrible at 70-89, but it was a far cry from the glory years.

Robinson dominated the hitting categories in winning the Triple Crown and leading by a wide margin in OPS. Robinson had a .316 average. The only other .300 hitter was Tony Oliva at .307. Robinson had 49 home runs and 122 RBI. Harmon Killebrew was second in both categories with 39 HR and 110 RBI. Robinson also led with 122 runs. Carl Yastrzemski had 39 doubles, Bobby Knoop 11 triples. Bert Campaneris led in steals with 52, edging Don Buford at 51.

Jim Kaat led in wins with 25. The league's other 20-game winner was Denny McLain with exactly that many. Gary Peters led in ERA with a 1.98 mark, ahead of Joe Horlen with a 2.43 effort. Sam McDowell led in strikeouts with 225, followed by Kaat at 205. Jack Aker led in saves with 32. Kaat had 19 complete games and 305 innings.

Win Shares leaders, players; Frank Robinson (Baltimore) 41, Harmon Killebrew (Minnesota) 33, Al Kaline (Detroit) 31, Tommie Agee (Chicago) and Tony Oliva (Minnesota) 28, Norm Cash (Detroit) 27, Boog Powell (Baltimore), Jim Fregosi (California) and Dick McAuliffe (Detroit) 26, Brooks Robinson (Baltimore) and Fred Valentine (Washington) 24, Luis Aparicio (Baltimore), Joe Foy (Boston), Bert Campaneris (Kansas City) and Tom Tresh (New York) 22, Carl Yastrzemski (Boston), Don Buford (Chicago), Willie Horton (Detroit) and Frank Howard (Washington) 21.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Jim Kaat (Minnesota) 26, Earl Wilson (Boston/Detroit) 24, Gary Peters (Chicago), Sonny Siebert (Cleveland) and Jack Aker (Kansas City) 20, Steve Hargan (Cleveland) 18, Sam McDowell (Cleveland) and Jim Perry (Minnesota) 17, Gary Bell (Cleveland) and Mudcat Grant (Minnesota) 16.

WARP3 leaders, position players: F. Robinson 10.9, McAuliffe 8.6, Kaline 7.2, Killebrew 6.7, Agee 6.2, Oliva 6.0, Valentine 5.3, B. Robinson 5.2, Powell 5.0, Aparicio and Curt Blefary (Baltimore) 4.8, Fregosi 4.6.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Peters 6.6, Kaat 6.4, Siebert 6.1, Hargan 6.0, Wilson and Bell 5.5, Aker and McDowell 5.4, Perry and Luis Tiant (Cleveland) 5.3, Fritz Peterson (New York) 4.7.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): F. Robinson 9.1, Agee 7.2, Killebrew 6.8, Oliva 6.6, Kaline 6.4, McAuliffe 6.2, Tresh and Yastrzemski 5.9, Fregosi 5.8, B. Robinson 5.5, Powell 5.1, Foy 4.9, Aparicio and Cash 4.8, Buford 4.7. Pitchers (bWAR): Wilson 5.3, Hargan 4.6, McDowell 4.5, Peters 4.3, Siebert 4.2, Kaat 3.9, Bell 3.8, Tiant 3.7, Nash 3.6, Aker 3.5, Barber 3.2, Horlen 3.1, Perry 3.0, Stange 2.8.

Actual award winners:
MVP (top 20): | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+----+---+---+--+
1 Frank Robinson BAL 20 280 280 1.00 | 576 182 49 .316 1.047 8
2 Brooks Robinson BAL 0 153 280 0.55 | 620 167 23 .269 .776 2
3 Boog Powell BAL 0 122 280 0.44 | 491 141 34 .287 .903 0
4 Harmon Killebrew MIN 0 96 280 0.34 | 569 160 39 .281 .929 0
5 Jim Kaat MIN 0 84 280 0.30 | 118 23 2 .195 .507 0| 25-13 305 2.75 1.070 205
6 Tony Oliva MIN 0 71 280 0.25 | 622 191 25 .307 .854 13
7 Al Kaline DET 0 66 280 0.24 | 479 138 29 .288 .927 5
8 Tommie Agee CHW 0 63 280 0.22 | 629 172 22 .273 .773 44
9 Luis Aparicio BAL 0 51 280 0.18 | 659 182 6 .276 .676 25
10 Bert Campaneris KCA 0 36 280 0.13 | 573 153 5 .267 .681 52
11 Stu Miller BAL 0 27 280 0.10 | 19 2 0 .105 .211 0| 9-4 92 2.25 0.946 67 18
12 Norm Cash DET 0 23 280 0.08 | 603 168 32 .279 .829 2
13 Jack Aker KCA 0 22 280 0.08 | 21 2 0 .095 .238 0| 8-4 113 1.99 0.965 68 32
14 Earl Wilson TOT 0 13 280 0.05 | + 96 23 7 .240 .799 0|+18-11 264 3.07 1.091 200
15 Denny McLain DET 0 12 280 0.04 | 93 17 0 .183 .429 1| 20-14 264 3.92 1.169 192
16 Bill Freehan DET 0 9 280 0.03 | 492 115 12 .234 .646 5
17 Andy Etchebarren BAL 0 7 280 0.02 | 412 91 11 .221 .657 0
18 Bobby Knoop CAL 0 6 280 0.02 | 590 137 17 .232 .669 1
19 Mickey Mantle NYY 0 5 280 0.02 | 333 96 23 .288 .927 1
19 Tom Tresh NYY 0 5 280 0.02 | 537 125 27 .233 .762 5

F. Robby was a unanimous winner, as it should be.

Cy Young was NLer Sandy Koufax in a unanimous vote.

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+------+----+---+--+
1 Tommie Agee CHW 16 16 20 0.80 | 629 172 22 .273 .773 44
2 Jim Nash KCA 2 2 20 0.10 | 49 5 0 .102 .265 0| 12-1 127 2.06 1.118 98 1
3 Davey Johnson BAL 1 1 20 0.05 | 501 129 7 .257 .649 3
3 George Scott BOS 1 1 20 0.05 | 601 147 27 .245 .757 4

Top player: Frank Robinson. Rarely since Babe Ruth had someone so dominated a league for a season. No one else was close.
#1 Frank Robinson, #2 Harmon Killebrew, #3 Al Kaline, #4 Tommie Agee, #5 Tony Oliva, #6 Dick McAuliffe.

Top pitcher: Jim Kaat, the 25-game winner, with Earl Wilson nearby.
#1 Jim Kaat, #2 Earl Wilson, #3 Gary Peters, #4 Jack Aker, #5 Sonny Siebert.

Top rookie: Tommie Agee, sticking after four cups of coffee.

Top manager: Hank Bauer rode the Orioles home.

1965 National League

A wild race to the finish had the Dodgers finish just 2 games ahead of the Giants, with Pittsburgh 3rd and Cincinnati 4th, Milwaukee 5th and Philadelphia 6th. It was the Braves' last year in Milwaukee, their honeymoon over. Defending champs St. Louis fell to 7th, just below .500. All seven teams were still in the race until into September, and fell off one by one. Chicago finished 8th, Houston 9th, and the Mets lost 112 games for last. The pennant race was a match between Cincy's offense, LA's pitching (magnified by their home park) and the better balance displayed by the other teams. The Dodgers are regarded as one of the weakest hitting teams to win a World Series, but they actually had a good offense held down by Dodger Stadium. LA was fourth in runs scored on the road, .02 runs from second, but 8th overall.

Roberto Clemente won the batting title with a .329 average, and Hank Aaron ran second at .318. Deron Johnson leading in RBI with 130, followed by Frank Robinson at 113. Maury Wills led in steals with 94. Aaron had 40 doubles, Pete Rose 209 hits, Johnny Callison 16 triples, Tommy Harper 126 runs. Meanwhile, Willie Mays led in HR, on-base, slugging and OPS. Mays also won the MVP.

Sandy Koufax won the pitching triple crown, leading with 26 wins, a 2.04 ERA and a new 20th century record 382 strikeouts. Tony Cloninger was second with 24 wins, Don Drysdale had 23, Sammy Ellis and Juan Marichal 22 each. Marichal was second with a 2.13 ERA, followed by Vern Law at 2.15. Bob Veale was second with 276 strikeouts. Ted Abernathy led in saves with 31. Koufax led with 336 innings and 27 complete games. Marichal had 10 shutouts.

Win Shares leaders, players; Willie Mays (San Francisco) 43, Billy Williams (Chicago) and Dick Allen (Philadelphia) 33, Ron Santo (Chicago) 32, Jim Wynn (Houston) and Hank Aaron (Milwaukee) 31, Joe Morgan (Houston) 30, Willie McCovey (San Francisco) 29, Maury Wills (Los Angeles) and Johnny Callison (Philadelphia) 28, Pete Rose (Cincinnati) and Roberto Clemente (Pittsburgh) 27, Frank Robinson (Cincinnati) and Ron Fairly (Los Angeles) 26, Jim Ray Hart (San Francisco) 25, Vada Pinson (Cincinnati) and Curt Flood (St. Louis) 24.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Sandy Koufax (Los Angeles) 33, Juan Marichal (San Francisco) 30, Don Drysdale (Los Angeles) and Jim Bunning (Philadelphia) 27, Bob Gibson (St. Louis) 26, Chris Short (Philadelphia) 24, Jim Maloney (Cincinnati) 23, Vern Law (Pittsburgh) 21, Tony Cloninger (Milwaukee) and Bob Shaw (San Francisco) 19, Ted Abernathy (Chicago), Claude Osteen (Los Angeles) and Bob Veale (Pittsburgh) 18.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Mays 11.7, Wills 9.9, Rose 9.1, Aaron 8.6, Wynn 8.3, Santo 8.0, Robinson and Pinson 7.8, Allen 7.5, Joe Torre (Milwaukee) 7.2, Clemente 6.9, Leo Cardenas (Cincinnati) 6.8, Bill White (St. Louis) 6.5, Williams and Johnny Edwards (Cincinnati) 6.1, Morgan and Felipe Alou (Milwaukee) 5.9.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Marichal 11.6, Koufax 8.6, Bunning 8.2, Gibson 7.5, Maloney 7.4, Short 7.0, Drysdale and Bob Bolin (San Francisco) 5.5.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Mays 11.5, Santo 8.5, Aaron 8.4, Williams 7.9, Allen and Wynn 7.2, Clemente 6.7, McCovey 6.5, Pinson 6.2, Rose 6.1, Morgan, Robinson, and Wills 6.0, Mathews and Torre 5.9, Alou and Callison 5.8. Pitchers (bWAR): Marichal 9.2, Bunning 8.3, Koufax 8.2, Maloney 8.0, Short 7.6, Gibson 6.4, Shaw 5.2, Law and Osteen 4.5, Veale 4.1, Ellis 4.0, Bolin 3.6, Drysdale and Linzy 3.3.

Actual award winners;
MVP (top 20): Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+-------+---+--------+--+
1 Willie Mays SFG 9 224 280 0.80 | 558 177 52 .317 1.043 9
2 Sandy Koufax LAD 6 177 280 0.63 | 113 20 0 .177 .437 0| 26-8 336 2.04 0.855 382 2
3 Maury Wills LAD 5 164 280 0.59 | 650 186 0 .286 .660 94
4 Deron Johnson CIN 0 108 280 0.39 | 616 177 32 .287 .854 0
5 Don Drysdale LAD 0 77 280 0.28 | 130 39 7 .300 .839 0| 23-12 308 2.77 1.090 210 1
6 Pete Rose CIN 0 67 280 0.24 | 670 209 11 .312 .828 8
7 Hank Aaron MLN 0 58 280 0.21 | 570 181 32 .318 .938
8 Roberto Clemente PIT 0 56 280 0.20 | 589 194 10 .329 .842 8
9 Juan Marichal SFG 0 26 280 0.09 | 98 17 0 .173 .384 0| 22-13 295 2.13 0.914 240 1
10 Willie McCovey SFG 0 25 280 0.09 | 540 149 39 .276 .920 0
11 Joe Torre MLN 0 23 280 0.08 | 523 152 27 .291 .862 0
12 Billy Williams CHC 0 21 280 0.08 | 645 203 34 .315 .929 10
13 Frank Linzy SFG 0 16 280 0.06 | 18 4 1 .222 .611 0| 9-3 82 1.43 1.212 35 21
14 Willie Stargell PIT 0 15 280 0.05 | 533 145 27 .272 .829 1
15 Curt Flood STL 0 13 280 0.05 | 617 191 11 .310 .788 9
15 Jim Ray Hart SFG 0 13 280 0.05 | 591 177 23 .299 .837 6
17 Vern Law PIT 0 12 280 0.04 | 82 20 1 .244 .524 0| 17-9 217 2.15 0.999 101
18 Frank Robinson CIN 0 11 280 0.04 | 582 172 33 .296 .925 13
18 Ron Santo CHC 0 11 280 0.04 | 608 173 33 .285 .888 3
20 Eddie Mathews MLN 0 8 280 0.03 | 546 137 32 .251 .810 1
Mays, Koufax and Wills with a clear though small margin for Mays.

Koufax was the unanimous Cy Young winner.

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+--+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Jim Lefebvre LAD 14 13 20 0.65 | 544 136 12 .250 .706 3
2 Joe Morgan HOU 4 4 20 0.20 | 601 163 14 .271 .791 20
3 Frank Linzy SFG 3 3 20 0.15 | 18 4 1 .222 .611 0| 9-3 82 1.43 1.212 35 21

Top player: Willie Mays. Mays was not head-and-shoulders ahead, but he was clearly the best. It was a great year for a great player, but not quite enough to push his team to victory.
#1 Willie Mays, #2 Ron Santo, #3 Hank Aaron, #4 Jim Wynn, #5 Billy Williams, #6 Roberto Clemente.

Top pitcher: Sandy Koufax. I am tempted to commit sacrilege and name Marichal here, but the Triple Crown, even park-aided, is too much to ignore. Marichal's ERA was just .09 runs higher, even though he pitched in a tougher park for pitchers. But not this time.
#1 Sandy Koufax, #2 Juan Marichal, #3 Jim Bunning, #4 Jim Maloney, #5 Bob Gibson.

Top rookie: Joe Morgan was robbed by his home park, the Astrodome, but had a great season.

Top manager: Walter Alston won, so that makes him the candidate here.

1965 American League

Breaking news: the Yankees did not win the pennant! They weren't even contenders, finishing 6th and under .500, while the Minnesota Twins wielded the best offense (by a large margin) in the league and won 102 games to take the pennant. Pitching-based Chicago and Baltimore finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, with Detroit 4th and Cleveland 5th. California (formerly Los Angeles, now playing in Anaheim) was 7th and Washington 8th, while Boston lost 100 games and Kansas City dropped 103. The Twins then lost the World Series in 7 games. It was the first pennant for the franchise in Minnesota, and the first pennant for the franchise since 1933 in Washington. They would win a couple of division titles, but no more pennants until 1987.

Tony Oliva won the batting title with a .321 average, while Carl Yastrzemski led in OBA, slugging, and OPS. He was also second with a .312 average. The only other .300 hitter was Vic Davalillo at .301. Tony Conigliaro led in HR with 32, followed by Norm Cash at 30. Rocky Colavito led in RBI with 108, and Willie Horton at 104 was the only other player in triple digits. Bert Campaneris led in steals with 51. Zoilo Versalles led in total bases, runs with 126, and tied Yaz with 45 doubles and Campy with 12 triples. Versalles won the MVP as the pennant club's shortstop in his career year.

Jim "Mudcat" Grant led in wins with 21, followed by Mel Stottlemyre with 20. Sam McDowell led in both ERA and strikeouts, posting a 2.18 ERA and punching out 325 batters. Eddie Fisher's 2.40 ERA was second-best, as was Mickey Lolich with 226 strikeouts. Ron Kline led in saves with 29. Stottlemyre led in innings with 291 and complete games with 18, while Grant hurled six shutouts. McDowell also led the league in walks and wild pitches. Satchel Paige made his last pro appearance, starting one game for Kansas City and pitching three innings in a publicity stunt. He allowed just one hit and no runs, though.

Win Shares leaders, players; Tony Oliva (Minnesota) 33, Zoilo Versalles (Minnesota) 32, Don Buford (Chicago) 30, Rocky Colavito (Cleveland) 28, Curt Blefary and Brooks Robinson (Baltimore) and Jimmie Hall (Minnesota) 26, Tom Tresh (New York) and Frank Howard (Washington) 25, Jim Fregosi (California), Floyd Robinson (Chicago), Leon Wagner (Cleveland), and Norm Cash (Detroit) 24, Bob Allison, Earl Battey, and Harmon Killebrew (Minnesota) 22, Carl Yastrzemski (Boston), Don Wert (Detroit) and Ken McMullen (Washington) 21.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Sam McDowell (Cleveland) 25, Mel Stottlemyre (New York) 23, Stu Miller (Baltimore) 22, Bob Lee (California), Eddie Fisher (Chicago) and Denny McLain (Detroit) 20, Hoyt Wilhelm (Chicago) 19, Sonny Siebert (Cleveland), Mudcat Grant and Jim Kaat (Minnesota) 17.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Versalles 8.5, Fregosi 8.2, Oliva 6.8, Colavito and Buford 6.0, Ron Hansen (Chicago) 5.3, Battey 4.9, Killebrew 4.7, Tony Conigliaro (Boston) 4.5, Blefary 4.3, B. Robinson and Johnny Romano (Chicago) 4.0.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Stottlemyre 9.2, McDowell 6.8, Pete Richert (Washington) 6.4, Miller 6.0, McLain 5.7, Ford 5.6, Wilhelm 5.5, Siebert 4.8, Earl Wilson (Boston) 4.7, Lee 4.5.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Versalles 7.9, Buford 7.2, Fregosi 6.3, Robinson 6.1, Cash and Oliva 5.9, Yastrzemski 5.4, Blefary and Tresh 5.0, McMullen 4.9, Hall 4.8, Colavito 4.7, Wert 4.5, Allison 4.4, Aparicio and Davalillo 4.2, Hansen 4.1. Pitchers (bWAR): McDowell 8.0, Stottlemyre 6.7, Richert 4.9, Newman and Siebert 4.4, McLain 4.1, Brunet 3.9, Lee and Miller 3.7, Ford 3.5, Chance 3.4, Lopez 3.2, Barber 3.0, McNally and Wilhelm 2.9.

Actual award winners;
MVP (top 20): Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+-----+---+--+
1 Zoilo Versalles MIN 19 275 280 0.98 | 666 182 19 .273 .781 27
2 Tony Oliva MIN 1 174 280 0.62 | 576 185 16 .321 .870 19
3 Brooks Robinson BAL 0 150 280 0.54 | 559 166 18 .297 .797 3
4 Eddie Fisher CHW 0 122 280 0.44 | 29 4 0 .138 .339 0| 15-7 165 2.40 0.974 90 24
5 Rocky Colavito CLE 0 89 280 0.32 | 592 170 26 .287 .851 1
6 Mudcat Grant MIN 0 74 280 0.26 | 97 15 0 .155 .438 0| 21-7 270 3.30 1.158 142
7 Stu Miller BAL 0 45 280 0.16 | 16 1 0 .062 .243 0| 14-7 119 1.89 0.997 104 24
8 Willie Horton DET 0 24 280 0.09 | 512 140 29 .273 .831 5
9 Tom Tresh NYY 0 23 280 0.08 | 602 168 26 .279 .825 5
10 Earl Battey MIN 0 22 280 0.08 | 394 117 6 .297 .783 0
10 Don Wert DET 0 22 280 0.08 | 609 159 12 .261 .704 5
10 Carl Yastrzemski BOS 0 22 280 0.08 | 494 154 20 .312 .932 7
13 Jimmie Hall MIN 0 19 280 0.07 | 522 149 20 .285 .810 14
14 Mel Stottlemyre NYY 0 17 280 0.06 | 99 13 2 .131 .372 0| 20-9 291 2.63 1.162 155
15 Harmon Killebrew MIN 0 15 280 0.05 | 401 108 25 .269 .885 0
16 Al Kaline DET 0 9 280 0.03 | 399 112 18 .281 .859 6
17 Jerry Adair BAL 0 7 280 0.02 | 582 151 7 .259 .653 6
17 Ron Hansen CHW 0 7 280 0.02 | 587 138 11 .235 .649 1
17 Sam McDowell CLE 0 7 280 0.02 | 95 12 0 .126 .272 0| 17-11 273 2.18 1.136 325 4
20 Bobby Richardson NYY 0 6 280 0.02 | 664 164 6 .247 .609 7

Versalles won an easy victory, even though teammate Oliva was roughly as deserving. A good case could be made for Sam McDowell as MVP, but Versalles and Oliva were on the winning team.

The NL's Sandy Koufax was a unanimous Cy Young.

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Curt Blefary BAL 12 12 20 0.60 | 462 120 22 .260 .851 4
2 Marcelino Lopez CAL 8 8 20 0.40 | 69 14 1 .203 .498 1| 14-13 215 2.93 1.240 122 1

Top player: Zoilo Versalles, in a close race with Tony Oliva. Either is a good choice, but we'll give the voters of the time the benefit of the doubt, and so Versalles gets the nod here.
#1 Zoilo Versalles, #2 Tony Oliva, #3 Don Buford, #4 Brooks Robinson, #5 Rocky Colavito, #6 Carl Yastrzemski.

Top pitcher: Sam McDowell was the best in this season, leading in both ERA and Ks. He won 17 games as well.
#1 Sam McDowell, #2 Stu Miller, #3 Mel Stottlemyre, #4 Bob Lee, #5 Sonny Siebert.

Top rookie: Curt Blefary, who was never quite able to duplicate this success.

Top manager: Sam Mele, for the pennant winners.

1964 National League

Not to be outdone by the terrific AL race, the NL featured five teams fighting for the title. Philadelphia, of all teams, emerged as the leader, holding first place from July 17 through September 27, building a ten-game margin at one point. For September, Phils manager Gene Mauch announced a shift to a three-man starting rotation, to get more mileage out of starters Jim Bunning and Chris Short, but the move backfired as the Phils lose 10 straight down the stretch. The Cardinals trade of pitcher Ernie Broglio to get Lou Brock from the Cubs loomed big, as Brock solidified the lineup and batted .348 in a St. Louis uniform. In the final week, the Cardinals, Reds, Phils, Giants, and Braves were all in it. The defending champion Dodgers fell off the pace with an injury to ace Sandy Koufax, keeping him from the mound for the last six weeks.

The Phils sank, everyone else rose, then the Braves fell off the pace to 5th. The Giants couldn't keep up, and ended up 4th. On the last day, a three-way tie was possible, with the Reds and Cards tied, leading the Phils by one game. But Philly beat Cincy, and St. Louis beat the Mets to win the pennant. LA and Pittsburgh tied for 6th, followed by Chicago, Houston and New York. It may have been the best pennant race ever.

Roberto Clemente won the batting title, his first, with a .339 average. Rico Carty was second at .330, followed by Hank Aaron at .328. The Braves had the top offense in the league. Willie Mays led in slugging, OPS, and homers with 47. Ron Santo led in on-base. Clemente and Curt Flood led in hits with 211. Lee Maye led in doubles with 44. Richie (later Dick) Allen led in runs with 125 and tied with Santo at 13 triples. Maury Wills led in steals with 53. Ken Boyer led in RBI with 119 and won the MVP. He was followed by Santo with 114 RBI and Mays with 111.

Larry Jackson led with 24 wins, followed by Juan Marichal with 21 and Ray Sadecki with 20. Koufax led in ERA with a 1.73 mark, followed by Don Drysdale at 2.18 and Chris Short at 2.20. Bob Veale led in strikeouts with 250, Bob Gibson was second with 245. Hal Woodeshick led in saves with 23. Al McBean had 22, Jack Baldschun 21. Koufax had seven shutouts.

Win Shares leaders, players; Dick Allen (Philadelphia) 41, Willie Mays (San Francisco) 38, Ron Santo (Chicago) 36, Frank Robinson (Cincinnati) and Hank Aaron (Milwaukee) 33, Roberto Clemente (Pittsburgh) 30, Denis Menke (Milwaukee) and Johnny Callison (Philadelphia) 29, Billy Williams (Chicago), Joe Torre (Milwaukee) and Ken Boyer (St. Louis) 28, Rico Carty (Milwaukee) 27, Willie Davis (Los Angeles) and Bill White (St. Louis) 26, Jim Ray Hart (San Francisco) and Curt Flood (St. Louis) 25.

Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Don Drysdale (Los Angeles) 26, Larry Jackson (Chicago) and Juan Marichal (San Francisco) 25, Sandy Koufax (Los Angeles) and Bob Gibson (St. Louis) 24, Jim Bunning (Philadelphia) 22, Chris Short (Philadelphia) and Bob Veale (Pittsburgh) 21, Jim O'Toole (Cincinnati) and Gaylord Perry (San Francisco) 19.

WARP3 leaders, position players: Mays 11.9, Allen 10.5, Santo 10.3, Aaron 9.1, Robinson 8.7, Menke 8.4, Torre 8.2, Davis 8.1, Clemente 7.9, White 7.5, Boyer 7.3, Eddie Mathews (Milwaukee) 7.1, Johnny Roseboro (Los Angeles) 6.6, Carty 6.2, Williams 6.1, Flood 5.7.

WARP3 leaders, pitchers: Drysdale 9.3, Jackson 8.8, Koufax 7.7, Bob Bruce (Houston) 7.3, Short 6.9, Veale 6.4, Perry 6.3, Bunning 5.9, O'Toole 5.7, Jim Maloney (Cincinnati) 5.5.

WAR leaders, position players (fWAR): Mays 10.9, Santo 9.1, Allen 8.7, Robinson 7.5, Aaron and DAvis 7.1, Clemente 6.5, Boyer and Menke 6.4, Torre 6.2, Callison 6.1, Hart 5.6, Williams 5.4, Carty 5.3, White 5.2, Brock 5.1, Cepeda 5.0, Mathews 4.6. Pitchers (bWAR): Drysdale 8.2, Koufax 7.8, Marichal 6.6, Gibson and Short 6.3, Jackson 6.1, Veale 5.9, Bunning 5.8, O'Toole 5.7, Perry 5.6, Bruce 5.5, Maloney 4.8, Farrell 4.1, Friend 3.7.

Actual award winners;
MVP: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+-----+---+---+----+---+--+
1 Ken Boyer STL 14 243 280 0.87 | 628 185 24 .295 .854 3
2 Johnny Callison PHI 2 187 280 0.67 | 654 179 31 .274 .809 6
3 Bill White STL 2 106 280 0.38 | 631 191 21 .303 .829 7
4 Frank Robinson CIN 0 98 280 0.35 | 568 174 29 .306 .943 23
5 Joe Torre MLN 1 85 280 0.30 | 601 193 20 .321 .863 2
6 Willie Mays SFG 0 66 280 0.24 | 578 171 47 .296 .990 19
7 Dick Allen PHI 0 63 280 0.22 | 632 201 29 .318 .939 3
8 Ron Santo CHC 0 59 280 0.21 | 592 185 30 .312 .962 3
9 Roberto Clemente PIT 0 56 280 0.20 | 622 211 12 .339 .872 5
10 Lou Brock TOT 1 40 280 0.14 | +634 200 14 .315 .821 43
11 Curt Flood STL 0 38 280 0.14 | 679 211 5 .311 .734 8
12 Larry Jackson CHC 0 26 280 0.09 | 114 20 0 .175 .384 0| 24-11 298 3.14 1.085 148
13 Jim Bunning PHI 0 23 280 0.08 | 99 12 0 .121 .261 0| 19-8 284 2.63 1.034 219 2
14 Hank Aaron MLN 0 22 280 0.08 | 570 187 24 .328 .907 22
15 Juan Marichal SFG 0 14 280 0.05 | 97 14 0 .144 .323 1| 21-8 269 2.48 1.089 206
16 Sammy Ellis CIN 0 13 280 0.05 | 24 2 0 .083 .298 0| 10-3 122 2.58 1.055 125 14
17 Sandy Koufax LAD 0 7 280 0.02 | 74 7 0 .095 .236 0| 19-5 223 1.74 0.928 223 1
18 Jim Ray Hart SFG 0 6 280 0.02 | 566 162 31 .286 .840 5
18 Vada Pinson CIN 0 6 280 0.02 | 625 166 23 .266 .764 8
18 Billy Williams CHC 0 6 280 0.02 | 645 201 33 .312 .901 10
21 Ruben Amaro PHI 0 5 280 0.02 | 299 79 4 .264 .648 1
22 Tommy Davis LAD 0 4 280 0.01 | 592 163 14 .275 .708 11
23 Bob Gibson STL 0 2 280 0.01 | 96 15 0 .156 .396 0| 19-12 287 3.01 1.170 245 1
23 Chris Short PHI 0 2 280 0.01 | 65 7 0 .108 .258 0| 17-9 221 2.20 1.019 181 2
25 Ron Hunt NYM 0 1 280 0.00 | 475 144 6 .303 .763 6
25 Barney Schultz STL 0 1 280 0.00 | 6 1 0 .167 .333 0| 1-3 49 1.64 0.933 29 14

Boyer won because the Cardinals won the pennant. If the Phils had won, Callison would have carried the day. Had the Reds finished first, Robinson would likely have won.

Cy Young: the AL guy won.
| Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----+------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Dean Chance LAA 17 17 20 0.85 | 20-9 278 1.65 1.006 207 4
2 Larry Jackson CHC 2 2 20 0.10 | 24-11 298 3.14 1.085 148
3 Sandy Koufax LAD 1 1 20 0.05 | 19-5 223 1.74 0.928 223 1

Rookie: | Season Results
Rk Name Team 1st Place Points Max Points Share| AB H HR BA OPS SB| W-L IP ERA WHIP SO SV
+--+----------------+----+-----+------+------+-----------+---+-----+-----+---+--+
1 Dick Allen PHI 18 18 20 0.90 | 632 201 29 .318 .939 3
2 Rico Carty MLN 1 1 20 0.05 | 455 150 22 .330 .942 1
2 Jim Ray Hart SFG 1 1 20 0.05 | 566 162 31 .286 .840 5

Top player: Willie Mays. He hit under .300 and the Giants slipped to a disappointing 5th, so he couldn't win a writers' vote, but he was the best in the league. Nothing unusual here.
#1 Willie Mays, #2 Ron Santo, #3 Richie Allen, #4 Hank Aaron, #5 Frank Robinson, #6 Roberto Clemente.

Top pitcher: Don Drysdale. Sounds odd for an 18-16 pitcher, but Drysdale carried the load and did it well. He didn't even draw a vote for his efforts. 2nd in ERA, 1st in innings, 3rd in strikeouts.
#1 Don Drysdale, #2 Larry Jackson, #3 Sandy Koufax, #4 Juan Marichal, #5 Bob Gibson.

Top rookie: Dick Allen, pretty clearly. Carty and Hart did well, but Allen had one of the all-time great rookie seasons.

Top manager: Johnny Keane held the course through the pennant race and brought the Cardinals home in 1st. He then switched over to the Yankees, and that team promptly fell apart.