The 1960’s

To be filled in later.

Baseball rang in the new decade with good pennant races all around; three of the four divisions were decided by two games. In order to win its third straight NBL West title, Cincinnati (91-71) had to weather challenges from Dallas (89-73), the Chicago Traders (87-75), and a surprising Kansas City (82-80) club which stayed in the race until late in the season. San Francisco (102-60) trailed the Chicago Hawks (98-64) for much of the campaign but rolled past them in September to repeat in the ABL West; the Seagulls’ four-game margin of victory was the largest in either league. Both Eastern Divisions crowned new champions, as Philadelphia (96-66) slipped by an injury-plagued Cleveland (94-68) squad, while Baltimore (85-77) fought off challenges by the New York Empires (83-79) and Toronto (80-82).

Matt Garrison (.337) of the Hawks and Jim Horrigan (.378) of the Quakers were the batting champions, while Los Angeles’ Bill Fulton (41) and Cincinnati’s Barry Sheridan (44) were the home run kings. Fulton (114) edged Seattle’s Tom Howard (113) to pace the Junior Circuit in RBI, while two players, Cincinnati’s Ralph King and Cleveland’s John Sublett, claimed the top spot in the Senior Circuit, both driving in 111.

The Nationals shut out the Americans in the All-Star Game in Brooklyn, giving each loop seven victories in the all-time series.

In the NBL, Witness York (27 HR/83 RBI/.317 BA) of Cincinnati won his sixth Most Valuable Player Award, while Hamilton Craft (40 HR/101 RBI/.280 BA) of Los Angeles kept pace in the ABL, winning his fourth MVP trophy in five years. In contrast, the leagues’ Royal Ricketts Awards went to two first time winners, Cleveland’s Skip Shannon (25-11/3.27 ERA/179 K) and the Hawks’ Al Charrette (17-9/2.69 ERA/182 K). The top rookies in their respective leagues were Jose Nova of Milwaukee (11 HR/35 RBI/.270 BA) and Willie Purter of Twin Cities (9-9/ 3.45 ERA/71 K).

Philadelphia needed just six games to eliminate Cincinnati in the NBL Championship Series, while Baltimore took San Francisco the full seven in the ABL tourney before yielding. The World Series was a rematch of the 1946 Fall Classic, the first to pit the champions of the modern rival circuits. The Quakers prevailed again, downing the Seagulls in seven games to bring Philadelphia its 11th world title.

Augustus Bagley, Hampton Bunker, Mitchell Decker, and Tom McMullin were the new Hall of Famers this year, swelling the hallowed Hall’s membership to 55.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings

Three of the divisional races were all but academic by early September, as Los Angeles (109-53), Cleveland (100-62), and Cincinnati (93-69) had built large leads over their nearest competitors. The odd division out, and therefore the most exciting, was the ABL East, in which five of the six teams jockeyed for position for nearly the entire summer. With a week to play, Baltimore, Detroit, and New York were tied for first, with Boston a game back and Toronto trailing by four. When the dust settled the Lords had earned the title over the Empires by the margin of a single game.

Chicago’s Union Field hosted the All-Star Game, a 4-3 thriller won by the Americans on a walk-off RBI-double by San Francisco’s Randy Paterson. The victory gave the Junior Circuit an 8-7 edge all-time.

Paterson's hot bat also earned him the ABL batting title, although his .315 clip paled next to that of Cincinnati’s Ralph King, who hit .358 to pace the Senior Circuit. King also led his loop in RBI with 149, while teammate Barry Sheridan paced the circuit in home runs with 51. The top ABL sluggers were Baltimore’s Armando Landa, who hit 47 homers, and Los Angeles’ Bill Fulton, who knocked in 113 runs.

In the NBL, Witness York (27 HR/83 RBI/.317 BA) of Cincinnati won his sixth Most Valuable Player Award, while Hamilton Craft (40 HR/101 RBI/.280 BA) of Los Angeles kept pace in the ABL, winning his fourth MVP trophy in five years. In contrast, the leagues’ Royal Ricketts Awards went to two first time winners, Cleveland’s Skip Shannon (25-11/3.27 ERA/179 K) and the Hawks’ Al Charrette (17-9/2.69 ERA/182 K). The top rookies in their respective leagues were Jose Nova of Milwaukee (11 HR/35 RBI/.270 BA) and Willie Purter of Twin Cities (9-9/ 3.45 ERA/71 K).

Los Angeles was widely expected to advance to the Fall Classic, so it was no surprise when the Pobladores dispatched Baltimore in five games in the ABL Championship Series. A bit more surprising was Cincinnati’s triumph over Cleveland in six games to take the NBL flag. The Packers were underdogs again in the World Series, but took just six games to upset L.A. and claim their first world title since 1908. It was Cincinnati’s fourth overall.

Two players who began their careers in the Negro Leagues and ended them in the majors, catcher A.J. King and first baseman Jesse Russell, were selected as the Hall of Fame’s 56th and 57th members.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings

Cleveland’s Bobcats rolled to 115 regular season wins, dominating the NBL East, while Cincinnati (95-67) caught fire in September to turn a relatively close NBL West race into no contest. San Francisco (100-62) had a double-digit lead over Chicago in late August before seeing it slowly melt away into an uncomfortable two-game cushion with a week to play, but the Seagulls rebounded and took the ABL West title by five games. The ABL East appeared to be headed towards its usual multi-team photo finish, as six games separated the top five teams in July. A month later, Detroit held a seven-game lead, but the Wolverines fell apart during the season’s final two months while Montreal (88-74), a cellar-dweller just a season before, flew past them. It was the Habs’ first division crown.

Tom Austin’s bases-clearing first-inning triple helped lift the ABL over the NBL in the All-Star Game in Brooklyn‘s venerable Flatbush Park. The Juniors had now taken 9 of the 16 interleague meetings in the Mid-Summer Classic.

Cincinnati’s Ralph King hit .349 to repeat as the NBL batting champion, while teammate Barry Sheridan won his sixth home run crown with 52 and his third RBI title with 132. In the ABL, first time winners took all three titles: Detroit’s Dave Wynn hit .358, Montreal’s Nana Hubbard belted 45 homers, and Boston’s Armando Carrillo knocked in 120 runs. Vern Gould of Cleveland posted league-leading marks in ERA (2.13) and wins (26), while Washington’s Dave Allen fanned 209 to pace the Senior Circuit. Seattle’s Dick Reinke posted the top ERA in the ABL at 2.54, while San Francisco’s Mike Myers (24 wins) and Detroit’s Mark Johnson (218 strikeouts) topped the loop in those respective categories.

The Most Valuable Players were Cleveland’s Joe Rafferty (32 HR/122 RBI/.282 BA) and Los Angeles’ Hamilton Craft (42 HR/105 RBI/.208 BA). The Royal Ricketts Award winners were Gould (26-4/2.13 ERA/117 K) and Myers (22-10/2.98 ERA/153 K), and the Rookies of the Year were Rob Lockner (8 HR/77 RBI/.266 BA) of the Knickerbockers and Charlie Sokol (6-10/4.11 ERA/90 K) of Twin Cities.

For the second year in a row, an all-Ohio NBL Championship Series saw a favored Cleveland team fall to Cincinnati; it took seven games this time around. San Francisco got past Montreal in five games for the ABL flag, setting up a California/Ohio Fall Classic for the fourth time in seven years. The Seagulls spoiled Cincinnati’s bid to become the first repeat champion since 1951, downing the Packers in six games. It was San Francisco’s second world title.

Home run king Melbourne Trench and Negro League/Major League great Richard Willin were this season’s Hall of Fame inductees, the 58th and 59th players so honored.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings

Cleveland amassed the league’s best record (103-59) again, cruising to the NBL East crown, while Toronto (94-68) repeated Montreal’s feat from the previous season—following up a last place finish with a division title—in the ABL East. The times they were a-changin’ in both Western Divisions: in the ABL the Chicago Hawks (96-66) ended California’s seven-year stranglehold on the top spot by relegating San Francisco to a second-place finish and Los Angeles to a third, while in the NBL Kansas City (90-72) achieved the first division crown by a team from the 1955-1956 expansion.

San Francisco’s Harry Osborn, 41 years young, made sure his final All-Star Game at-bat would be a memorable one—a two run homer off Cleveland’s Matt Rutledge in the bottom of the ninth to give the ABL a 6-5 win, its third straight in the Midsummer Classic. The Junior Circuit now held a 10–7 edge all-time.

The venerable Osborn had plenty of heroics left for the rest of the season, capturing the ABL batting crown with a .310 average, while youth was served in the NBL as 26-year-old Gary Williams of Brooklyn hit .316 to capture Senior Circuit hitting honors. Joe Seidler’s league-topping tallies in home runs (38) and runs batted in (102) gave the Bluebirds a clean sweep in the offensive Triple Crown categories, while two first basemen named Armando led the ABL in home runs and runs batted in. Lando of Baltimore hit 39 dingers, Carillo of Boston knocked in 108 runs.

Mike Myers of San Francisco won the most games (21) and logged the lowest ERA (1.95) in the ABL, as Bob Schar of Boston paced that circuit in strikeouts (233). St. Louis’ Jimmy Trent won 20 and fanned 232 to lead the NBL in those two categories, while Jose Juarez of Cleveland posted the best ERA in the loop at 1.94. Two players who had been traded for one another a couple of seasons prior won Most Valuable Player Awards; Cleveland’s Joe Rafferty (26 HR/96 RBI/.311 BA) took the honor in the NBL and Toronto’s Grammercy Locke (30 HR/82 RBI/.309 BA) earned the trophy in the ABL. Trent (20-12/3.05 ERA/232 K) and Schar (14-8/2.31 ERA/233 K) were their respective leagues’ Royal Ricketts Award honorees.

The upstart Bulls pushed the Bobcats to a Game Seven before bowing in the NBLCS; the ABLCS also went the distrance, with Toronto emerging victorious. Hard John Horvath’s three-run blast in the bottom of the ninth of Game Six sealed Cleveland’s third World Championship.

Pitcher Percell Russell, Negro League and L.A. Pobladores’ star, was the lone selection to the Hall of Fame. Russell was the Hall’s 60th member.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings

Kansas City’s (98-64) blistering second half turned what had been a close three- or four-team NBL West race into no contest, while Cleveland (103-59) again raced off to the best record in baseball, enough to keep a surprisingly feisty Pittsburgh (97-65) squad at arm’s length in the NBL East. Boston (98-64) survived a brief hot streak by Montreal (87-75) that briefly made the ABL East race competitive. The most exciting race was in the ABL West, as Los Angeles—division leaders for almost the entire campaign—strived all season long to put a comfortable distance between themselves and Chicago. They could never do it, and the Pobladores (92-70) ran out of steam at the end, dropping their final four games to allow the Hawks (93-69) to overtake them and repeat as division champions.

For the second straight year the All-Star Game ended with a home run, this time off the bat of Kansas City’s Danny Phillips. The blast gave the Nationals a 4-3 victory, their first in the Midsummer Classic since 1960. The NBL now trailed the ABL in the all-time series, 10–8.

Cleveland star Joe Rafferty’s 30 home runs and 106 runs batted in were league-leading marks in the NBL; Dallas’ John Darnell (.328) was the loop’s bating champion. In the ABL Los Angeles’ Ralph King hit for the highest average (.314), Montreal’s Nana Hubbard hit the most home runs (52), and Chicago’s Bill Ray knocked in the most runs (117). The NBL’s circuit-pacing moundsmen were Cleveland’s Doug Leonard (2.18) in ERA, the duo of of Cleveland’s Fred Ahrens (20) and Milwaukee’s Mel Hartman (20) in wins, and Washington’s Dave Allen (224) in strikeouts; The ABL’s leaders in the same categories were Los Angeles’ Ernie Backman in ERA (1.95) and wins (20) and Chicago’s Bobby Peters in strikeouts (241).

In the NBL, Cleveland’s Scat Batkin (29 HR/93 RBI/.315 BA) won his 6th Most Valuable Player Award; Ray (31 HR/117 RBI/.307 BA) was a first-time winner in the American. Hartman (20-10/2.42 ERA/207 K) and Diego Favela (13-6/2.11 ERA/181 K) of the Hawks were the Royal Ricketts Award honorees, while the Rookie of the Year trophies were picked up by Dallas’ John Darnell (7 HR/65 RBI/.328 BA) in the NBL and Detroit’s Booker Lee (13 HR/62 RBI/.282 BA) in the ABL.

Kansas City rode their hot second half into the postseason, stunning the favored Bobcats and wrapping the ABLCS up in five games. Chicago’s Hawks, who had seemingly lived on the razor’s edge all season, by now seemed most comfortable in no-room-for-error situations, winning back-to-back seven-game series over Boston and Kansas City to emerge as world champions. It was the franchise’s second title.

Milton Currie, the premier defensive shortstop of the first two decades of the 20th Century, was the lone Hall of Fame honoree this year. Currie was the Hall’s 61st inductee.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings

Cleveland (97-65) coasted to its fifth consecutive NBL East title, but the other three races were competitive well into September. Kansas City (101-61) and the Chicago Hawks (99-63) emerged as repeat champions of their respective divisions, while the ABL East held its annual down-to-the-wire donnybrook, with Boston and New York locked in mortal combat all summer long. The Empires (90-72) bested the Terriers by a single game.

While the race for the division title lacked drama, two NBL East batsmen staged a photo finish for the Senior Circuit’s batting crown. Joe Horrigan of Philadelphia and Harry Rhodes of Brooklyn were both were credited with a .312 average but the slide rules revealed Horrigan’s .3123 mark as superior to Rhodes’ .3116. Another Flatbush denizen, Joe Seidler, gave the Bluebirds a clear league leader with 38 round-trippers, while the Traders’ Jeff Madsen paced that circuit with 102 RBI. The loop’s leaderboard-topping moundsmen were Cleveland’s Paul Wiley, who posted a 2.26 ERA; Milwaukee’s Bart Dunsley, who won 21 games; and Fred Harrison, who fanned 205 batters while splitting time between Brooklyn and Cleveland. The Bobcats swept the postseason awards: Harold Batkin (25 HR/60 RBI/.328 BA) was the Most Valuable Player, Harrison won the Royal Ricketts Award, and Joe Clabaugh (14-11/3.26 ERA/127 K) was the Rookie of the Year.

In the Junior Circuit Detroit’s Dave Wynn hit .343 to coast to the batting title, while Los Angeles’ Bill Fulton posted the top marks for home runs (43) and runs batted in (110). John Pardoe of Baltimore paced the loop with a stingy 1.79 ERA, while Al Huicochea won a league-leading 18 games during a season spent with two teams, Detroit and Los Angeles. The Hawks’ Bobby Peters struck out 250 hitters to top the circuit. Peters (15-8/2.29 ERA/250 K) and Pardoe (16-4/1.79 ERA/175 K) took home MVP and Rookie of the Year honors, respectively, while Tom Adams (22 HR/104 RBI/.312 BA) of Montreal won the loop’s MVP award.

The NBL won a second-straight All-Star Game, 7-2 at Milwaukee’s Municipal Stadium, to close the gap in the all-time series to one game. The ABL still held the edge, 10-9.

The postseason flew by, as Chicago swept New York and Kansas City needed only five games to eliminate Cleveland. This set up a rematch of the 1964 Fall Classic, which once again ended in frustration for the Bulls and a World Championship for the Hawks, their third since 1954.

The Hall of Fame opened its doors to four new members: John Deloge, Tom Dillard, Billy Hall, and Dick Whitney. The Hall now housed 65 plaques.

In a long-anticipated move, the leagues announced a four-team expansion for the 1966 season. Two divisions—one in each league—would get two expansion teams each, and there would be some reshuffling to maintain geographical integrity and an equal number of teams in each division. It began with a sale and a cross-country move; the Montreal Habitants’ new ownership received approval to relocate to Southern California and the NBL West as the Los Angeles Blockbusters, transferring their old name, stadium, and branding to a new expansion team which would retain the City of Saints’ place in the ABL East. The Blockbusters would be joined by the expansion Denver Burros and San Diego Captains, making the Senior Circuit a bicoastal loop at long last, while the expansion Habitants and the rest of the ABL East would welcome the Major Leagues’ first representative from the Deep South in the expansion Atlanta Generals. To complete the restructuring, Cincinnati swapped divisional alliances from the NBL West to the NBL East, while Dallas switched leagues, moving from the NBL West to the ABL West.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings