1969 Major League Baseball season

1969 MLB season
League	Major League Baseball
Sport	Baseball
Duration	April 7 – October 16, 1969
Draft
Top draft pick	Jeff Burroughs
Picked by	Washington Senators
Regular season
Season MVP;	; AL: Harmon Killebrew (MIN); NL: Willie McCovey (SF)
Postseason
; AL champions	Baltimore Orioles
AL runners-up	Minnesota Twins
; NL champions	New York Mets
NL runners-up	Atlanta Braves
World Series
Champions	New York Mets
Runners-up	Baltimore Orioles
Finals MVP;	; Donn Clendenon (NYM)
MLB seasons
	; ← 1968; 1970 →;

The 1969 Major League Baseball season was celebrated as the 100th anniversary of professional baseball, honoring the first professional touring baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

Shea Stadium prior to a Mets versus Philadelphia Phillies game in 1969

It was the first season of what is now called the "Divisional Era", where each league of 12 teams was divided into two divisions of six teams each. The winners of each division would compete against each other in a League Championship Series, then best-of-five, to determine the pennant winners that would face each other in the World Series.

In a year marked by Major League Baseball's third expansion of the decade, the New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles faced each other in the 1969 World Series. Having won the N.L. East Division with a league-best 100–62 record, and sweeping the N.L. West Division Champion Atlanta Braves in three games in the first National League Championship Series, the "Miracle Mets" became the first expansion team to win a pennant. They faced the A.L. East Division Champion Orioles, holders of the best record in baseball (109–53), who swept the A.L. West Division Champion Minnesota Twins in three games in the first American League Championship Series. The upstart Mets upset the heavily favored Orioles and won the World Series title in five games.

Rules changes[edit]

In an effort to counteract a trend of low-scoring games and pitching ruling overall, Major League Baseball adopted two measures during the Baseball Winter Meetings held in December 1968. The strike zone was reduced to the area over home plate between the armpits and the top of the knees of a batter. Also, the height of the pitching mound was reduced from 15 inches to 10 inches, and it was recommended that the slope be gradual and uniform in every park.^[1]

A save became an official MLB statistic to reward relief pitchers who preserve a lead while finishing a game.^[2]

Expansion[edit]

MLB called for a four-team expansion to take place in 1971 at the 1967 Winter Meetings, the first expansion since 1962. However, there was a complication: influential U.S. Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri was irate over the American League's approval of Kansas City Athletics owner Charles O. Finley's arrangement to move his team to Oakland, California, for the 1968 season. This happened even though Finley had just signed a deal to play at Municipal Stadium at AL president Joe Cronin's behest, and Jackson County, Missouri, had just issued public bonds to build a stadium, the future Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium.)

Symington drew up legislation to remove baseball's anti-trust exemption, and threatened to pursue its passage if Kansas City did not get a new team. The Leagues agreed and moved expansion up to 1969, with the AL putting one of its new franchises in Kansas City. Ewing Kauffman won the bidding for that franchise, naming it the Kansas City Royals, after the local American Royal livestock show. The other AL team was awarded to Seattle. A consortium led by Dewey Soriano and William Daley won the bidding for the Seattle franchise, and named it the Seattle Pilots, a salute to the harbor pilots of the Puget Sound maritime industry.

In the NL, one franchise was awarded to San Diego, California; the other to Montreal, Quebec, resulting in the first MLB franchise outside the United States. C. Arnholdt Smith, former owner of the AAA Pacific Coast League's San Diego Padres, won the bidding for the San Diego franchise, also naming it the Padres. Charles Bronfman, owner of Seagram, won the bidding for the Montreal franchise, naming them the Expos, in honor of the World's Fair that year. This was the last NL expansion until the 1993 season.

Division Play[edit]

As part of the 1969 expansion, each league was to be split into two divisions of six teams each, with each league holding a best-of-five League Championship Series to decide the pennant. The AL was divided purely along geographic lines, but when it came to assign divisions in the NL, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals insisted on being placed in the same division with the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, on the basis that a schedule with more games with eastern teams would create a more lucrative schedule. Thus, Atlanta and Cincinnati were placed in the NL West. This alignment also addressed concerns that putting the league's three strongest clubs—St. Louis, San Francisco, and the Cubs—in the west would result in divisional inequity.

The Padres and Expos each finished with 110 losses and at the bottom of their respective divisions. The Royals did better, finishing 69–93 and in fourth in the AL West. Even though the Pilots managed to avoid losing 100 games (they finished 64–98, last in the AL West), financial trouble would lead to a battle for team control, ending with bankruptcy and the sale of the team to Bud Selig and its move to Milwaukee, Wisconsin as the Milwaukee Brewers for the 1970 season. The legal fallout of the battle would lead eventually to another round of expansion for the AL in the 1977 season, with Seattle getting a new team called the Mariners.

Logo[edit]

The modern MLB logo was first used in 1969.

A special silhouetted batter logo, still in use by the league today, was created by Jerry Dior^[3] to commemorate the anniversary. It has served as inspiration for logos for other sports leagues in the United States—most notably the National Basketball Association, which used the silhouette of Jerry West to create their current logo, unveiled after the 1970–71 season as part of the 25th anniversary of its own founding.

Spring training boycott[edit]

After the 1968 season, the Major League Baseball Players' Association and the owners had concluded the first collective bargaining agreement in major league history. However, one point remained unresolved: the owners refused to increase their contribution to the players' pension plan commensurately with revenues from television broadcasts, which were increasing as more and more fans watched games that way. With the two sides at an impasse, at the beginning of the year the union called on players to refuse to sign contracts until the issue was resolved. Many did, including stars like Brooks Robinson.^[4]

The owners did not change their position, so the players' union called for members to boycott spring training the following month if the issue had not been resolved by then. After the union rejected the owners' offer of a higher yet still fixed contribution on February 17, the day before spring training was to begin, 400 players refused to report. The owners expected the situation to resolve itself soon in their favor, since they usually lost money on training camps while the players were foregoing their pay in the meantime.^[4]

However, the players remained united, and few changed their minds about the boycott as it progressed. After the first week only 11 of those who initially boycotted had reported; at the time many had off-season jobs which they continued to work at, and those who did report were in many cases not certain of their futures with their teams. Meanwhile the owners were being pressured by the television broadcasters, who would also lose money without games to broadcast, or if teams played games with largely unknown rookies—one NBC executive said his company "would not pay major league prices for minor league games".^[4]

After that first week, new commissioner Bowie Kuhn leaned on the owners to reach an agreement as well, and they soon sat down with the players again. By February 25 they had acceded to most of the players' demands: a higher contribution of approximately $5.45 million annually, an earlier age at which players could begun drawing pensions, a wider range of benefits and less playing time required for eligibility. By the end of the month, all players had reported to spring training.^[4]

MLB statistical leaders[edit]

Statistic	American League		National League
AVG	Rod Carew MIN	.332	Pete Rose CIN	.348
HR	Harmon Killebrew MIN	49	Willie McCovey SFG	45
RBI	Harmon Killebrew MIN	140	Willie McCovey SFG	126
Wins	Denny McLain DET	24	Tom Seaver NYM	25
ERA	Dick Bosman WSH	2.19	Juan Marichal SFG	2.10
SO	Sam McDowell CLE	279	Ferguson Jenkins CHC	273
SV	Ron Perranoski MIN	31	Fred Gladding HOU	29
SB	Tommy Harper SEA	73	Lou Brock STL	53

Regular season recap[edit]

The pennant races in the American League lacked drama. In the east, the Baltimore Orioles won 109 games and won the division by a whopping 19 games over the defending world champion Detroit Tigers. The surprise team was the "new" Washington Senators. Under new manager Ted Williams, they went 86–76; it was their first winning season since joining the league in 1961. The Western Division race was a little closer, but the Minnesota Twins led most of the season and were never really threatened in winning the division by 9 games over the Oakland Athletics (who were the only other west team to finish over .500).
The National League, on the other hand, was very dramatic. The Chicago Cubs won 35 of their first 50 games, and on August 16, they led the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals by 9 games. But the Mets proceeded to win 37 of their last 48 games while the Cubs went 20–28 in the same time period and the Mets won the division by 8 games.
In the West, with 3 weeks to play in the season, 5 teams were all within 2 games of each other. The Houston Astros were the first to drop out of the race, losing 8 of 10. With two weeks to play, the San Francisco Giants led the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves by ½ game while the Cincinnati Reds were 2 games back. The Dodgers then lost 8 in a row and 10 of 11 to fall to 4th place. The Braves then went on a 10-game winning streak, ultimately clinching the division over the Giants on the next to last day of the season with a 3–2 win over the Reds. For the Giants, it was the 5th year in a row they would finish in 2nd place.

Awards[edit]

Baseball Hall of Fame

Roy Campanella

Stan Coveleski

Waite Hoyt

Stan Musial

American League

Most Valuable Player – Harmon Killebrew, Minnesota Twins

Cy Young Award – Denny McLain, Detroit Tigers and Mike Cuellar, Baltimore Orioles

Rookie of the Year – Lou Piniella, Kansas City Royals

National League

Most Valuable Player – Willie McCovey, San Francisco Giants

Cy Young Award – Tom Seaver, New York Mets

Rookie of the Year – Ted Sizemore, Los Angeles Dodgers

Gold Glove Award

Joe Pepitone (1B) (AL)

Davey Johnson (2B) (AL)

Brooks Robinson (3B) (AL)

Mark Belanger (SS) (AL)

Paul Blair (OF) (AL)

Mickey Stanley (OF) (AL)

Carl Yastrzemski (OF) (AL)

Bill Freehan (C) (AL)

Jim Kaat (P) (AL)

Regular season standings[edit]

National League[edit]

v t e NL East	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
New York Mets	100	62	0.617	—	52–30	48–32
Chicago Cubs	92	70	0.568	8	49–32	43–38
Pittsburgh Pirates	88	74	0.543	12	47–34	41–40
St. Louis Cardinals	87	75	0.537	13	42–38	45–37
Philadelphia Phillies	63	99	0.389	37	30–51	33–48
Montreal Expos	52	110	0.321	48	24–57	28–53

v t e NL West	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Atlanta Braves	93	69	0.574	—	50–31	43–38
San Francisco Giants	90	72	0.556	3	52–29	38–43
Cincinnati Reds	89	73	0.549	4	50–31	39–42
Los Angeles Dodgers	85	77	0.525	8	50–31	35–46
Houston Astros	81	81	0.500	12	52–29	29–52
San Diego Padres	52	110	0.321	41	28–53	24–57

American League[edit]

v t e AL East	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Baltimore Orioles	109	53	0.673	—	60–21	49–32
Detroit Tigers	90	72	0.556	19	46–35	44–37
Boston Red Sox	87	75	0.537	22	46–35	41–40
Washington Senators	86	76	0.531	23	47–34	39–42
New York Yankees	80	81	0.497	28½	48–32	32–49
Cleveland Indians	62	99	0.385	46½	33–48	29–51

v t e AL West	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Minnesota Twins	97	65	0.599	—	57–24	40–41
Oakland Athletics	88	74	0.543	9	49–32	39–42
California Angels	71	91	0.438	26	43–38	28–53
Kansas City Royals	69	93	0.426	28	36–45	33–48
Chicago White Sox	68	94	0.420	29	41–40	27–54
Seattle Pilots	64	98	0.395	33	34–47	30–51

Postseason[edit]

League Championship Series (ALCS, NLCS)			World Series

East	Baltimore	3
West	Minnesota	0
			AL	Baltimore	1
			NL	NY Mets	4
East	NY Mets	3
West	Atlanta	0

World Series MVP: Donn Clendenon

All-Star Game, July 23 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium: National League, 11–6; Willie McCovey, MVP

External links[edit]

1969 Major League Baseball season schedule at Baseball Reference

Notes[edit]

^ "Spirited Trading On 'Frisco Board". The Sun. December 4, 1968. p. 24. Retrieved January 31, 2011.

^ Holtzman, Jerome (May 2002). "Where did save rule come from? Baseball historian recalls how he helped develop statistic that measures reliever's effectiveness". Baseball Digest. Retrieved April 8, 2012.

^ Wall Street Journal: The Man Behind the MLB Logo

^ ^a^b^c^d Miller, James Edward (1991). The Baseball Business: Pursuing Pennants and Profits in Baltimore. University of North Carolina Press. p. 147. ISBN 9780807843239. Retrieved June 11, 2017.

[1] "Spirited Trading On 'Frisco Board". The Sun. December 4, 1968. p. 24. Retrieved January 31, 2011.

[2] Holtzman, Jerome (May 2002). "Where did save rule come from? Baseball historian recalls how he helped develop statistic that measures reliever's effectiveness". Baseball Digest. Retrieved April 8, 2012.

[logo-3] Wall Street Journal: The Man Behind the MLB Logo

[Player_spring_training_boycott-4] Miller, James Edward (1991). The Baseball Business: Pursuing Pennants and Profits in Baltimore. University of North Carolina Press. p. 147. ISBN 9780807843239. Retrieved June 11, 2017.

v t e 1969 MLB season by team
AL East	Baltimore Boston Cleveland Detroit New York Washington
AL West	California Chicago Kansas City Minnesota Oakland Seattle
NL East	Chicago Montréal New York Philadelphia Pittsburgh St. Louis
NL West	Atlanta Cincinnati Houston Los Angeles San Diego San Francisco
1969 MLB draft 1969 All-Star Game 1969 World Series

搜尋此網誌

Myujth