The 1970’s

(To be filled in later)

The 1966 expansion class came of age in its fifth season as all four teams were strong contenders for the 1970 playoff field. Denver, Montreal, and San Diego all made the postseason; Atlanta missed the playoffs by two games. While Houston won the ABL West by 20 games (to earn their first-ever playoff berth) and Cleveland won the NBL East by 10, the other two divisional races were close, and several teams were still in the hunt for wild card berths during the final weekend of the season. Three of the four division winners fell to wild card entrants during the Divisional Round: San Diego toppled Denver, Chicago beat Cleveland, and San Francisco got by Houston. The only division winner to advance was Montreal, who defeated defending champion Detroit.

The American League won its second consecutive Midsummer Classic by a 4-3 margin at St. Louis, but the Junior Circuit still trailed the all-time series, 12-11.

Jeff Murchison of Philadelphia repeated as the NBL batting champion, hitting .370, while Seattle’s Dustin Guest won the Junior Circuit batting crown with a .332 clip. As Los Angeles’ Ernie Ronnebaum blasted 54 home runs to pace the Seniors, Carl Jacobs of Twin Cities led the Americans with a somewhat less gaudy 39. The RBI champs were Don Keough of Pittsburgh (124) and Mark Sisson of Houston (125). The NBL’s pitching leaders were Chicago’s Skip Crawford (2.48 ERA), Cleveland’s Roger Scherf (21 wins), and San Diego’s Ray Heath (199 strikeouts). The ABL’s leading moundsmen were Montreal’s Bob Schar (2.17 ERA), Detroit’s Larry Black and Houston’s Danny Prentice (20 wins apiece), and Dallas’ Dario Perez (198 strikeouts).

End-of-season awards in the NBL went to MVP Guillaume Moret (28 HR/82 RBI/.299 BA) of Denver, Royal Ricketts Award winner Ray Heath (20-9/2.85 ERA/199 K) of San Diego, and Rookie of the Year Bob Underwood (25 HR/97 RBI/.324 BA) of New York. The ABL honorees were MVP Mark Sisson (34 HR/125 RBI/.293 BA) of Houston, Royal Ricketts Award winner Oscar Rodela (19-8/2.24 ERA/156 K) of Montreal, and Rookie of the Year Chuck Gunter (31 HR/83 RBI/.315 BA) of Los Angeles.

San Diego (88-74) and San Francisco (87-75) were the lowest-seeded playoff teams but after the Caps knocked off Chicago and the ’Gulls outlasted Montreal, the two underdogs found themselves facing off in the first all-West Coast World Series. The home team won every game, which meant the series went the full seven and the team whose regular season record earned them the extra home game captured the World Championship; that team was San Diego.

The Hall of Fame opened its doors to Harry Osborn and Herman Carter, longtime Pittsburgh teammates who finished their careers on championship teams in San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings

For the first time, all eight postseason entrants won 90 or more regular season games, taking a little air out of complaints that “undeserving” teams can qualify for the playoffs. Curiously, five of the eight finalists finished with identical 94-68 records. With all of those teams already qualifying for the postseason berths, the NBL East title was decided by regular season head-to-head records, giving Pittsburgh bragging rights over Philadelphia as official division champions.

It mattered little in the long run, as both Keystone State contestants ultimately saw their seasons end at the hands of defending world champion San Diego. The Divisional Round saw San Diego defeat Pittsburgh, Philadelphia topple Denver, Dallas drop San Francisco, and Detroit finish off Atlanta. The Captains sailed to a second consecutive World Series appearance by besting Philadelphia in the NBLCS, while Dallas’ victory over Detroit gave the Wranglers a shot at a fourth world title in six years.

The All-Star Game was a 2-1 squeaker won by the Nationals, their first win in three years but their 13th overall in the 24-year history of the inter-league exhibition.

Houston’s Jackie Frost (.347) and Philadelphia’s Jeff Murchison (.350) were their respective leagues’ batting champions. The Chicago Hawks’ Ray Baum paced the ABL in homers with 39 while Detroit’s Pete Morrison topped that loop in RBI with 127; Pittsburgh’s Don Keough led the Nationals in those two categories with 56 round-trippers and 150 RBI. San Francisco’s Tim Stambaugh posted the Americans’ best ERA (1.93) while Dallas teammates Steve Coomes (20 W) and Barry Gilmore (198 K) led the league in those respective categories. The NBL’s pitching leaders were Milwaukee’s Jeff Munoz (2.25 ERA), Denver’s Francisco Castro (20 W), and San Diego’s Ray Heath (174 K).

Morrison (38 HR/127 RBI/.283 BA) won his second ABL MVP award while Guillaume Moret (29 HR/82 RBI/.340 BA) of Denver took home the NBL’s MVP trophy for the fourth straight time. Stambaugh (18-3/1.93 ERA/136 K) and Munoz (19-9/2.25 ERA/135 K) were the Royal Ricketts Award honorees while Twin Cities’ Gerald Gross (12-9/2.63 ERA/139 K) and Brooklyn’s Greg Landrum (11 HR/47 RBI/.315 BA) were their respective leagues’ Rookies of the Year.

The World Series pitted a defending champion against a recent three-time championship team trying to reignite their dynasty. The upstart San Diegans added their names to the list of repeat champions by dispatching Dallas in six.

Catcher Maggie Everts, outfielder Pat Isom, and pitchers Jim Meier and Charlie Sinclair were added to the Hall of Fame, which now claimed 83 members.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings

The most interesting race was for the American League wildcard, with Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Montreal, and Twin Cities all still in the hunt for two spots in the season’s final two weeks. Los Angeles clinched during the final weekend; Atlanta and Twin Cities stayed alive until the final game of the season before being eliminated by Montreal. The other playoff berths were wrapped up fairly early.

The Senior Circuit routed the Juniors 7-1 in the 25th All-Star Game at Philadelphia, their second consecutive triumph and 14th overall.

During the regular season the National League hit .261 while the American League hit just .251; the disparity is evident in some league leading statistics. San Diego’s Randy Barnes hit a blistering .361 to earn the National League batting title, while in the American League the Empires’ Buck DeFalco topped the loop by hitting .304. Pittsburgh’s Don Keough out-homered Houston’s Mark Sisson 46-36 but both led their respective leagues. RBI figures did not follow suit, as Keough (106) and the Hawks’ Mark Sisson (109) produced similar league-leading totals.

The top winners in the Junior Circuit were teammates Tim Stambaugh and Jerry Patrick of San Francisco, both of whom notched 21 victories apiece, as did San Diego’s Mark Pike, who led the Seniors. Patrick also led the Americans in ERA with a 1.96 mark, while Bruce Cardenas of San Diego led the Nationals at 2.15. The strikeout kings were Dallas’ Barry Gilmore (249) and Pittsburgh’s Dennis Visco (184).

The Most Valuable Players were Detroit’s Pete Morrison (.291 BA/27 HR/82 RBI) and Denver’s Guillaume Moret (.326 BA/35 HR/75 RBI). Patrick (21-4/1.96 ERA/173 K) and Visco (18-7/2.20 ERA/184 K) took home their respective leagues’ Royal Ricketts Awards, and Rookies of the Year were the Pobladores’ Dan Turner (14-7/2.01 ERA/110 K) and Cleveland’s Phil Chirico (.243 BA/6 HR/40 RBI).

The Divisional Round saw San Francisco defeat Montreal, Detroit defeat Los Angeles, Denver defeat the Knicks, and San Diego defeat Pittsburgh. Detroit then downed San Francisco in five in the ALCS as the defending champion Captains took the Burros to the a seventh game in the NLCS before bowing. The World Series was a tight affair, with Denver outlasting Detroit to win their first world title.

The Hall of Fame opened its doors to Paul Burke, Lance DeWald, and Witness York.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings

Aside from the ABL West, where San Francisco rolled to 102 wins, divisional and wildcard races were extremely competitive this year, as seven teams made the playoffs with 90-94 victories, and five additional teams just missed out with 87-89 wins.

Detroit hosted the 26th annual All-Star Game and saw the American League snap a two-game losing streak, downing the Nats 8-5. The Senior Circuit still held a 14-12 edge in the Midsummer Classic.

Two hitters—St. Louis’ Tom Adams and San Francisco’s Bobby Tapia—reached the .350 mark, earning their respective leagues’ batting championships in the process. The top marks in the power categories were claimed by a couple of familiar names, Pete Morrison of Detroit and Don Keough of Pittsburgh. Morrison popped 32 round trippers and knocked in 107 runs to pace the Junior Circuit, but his efforts were dramatically eclipsed by Keough, who belted 62 homers and drove home 149.

Dan Crumm of Toronto posted the lowest ERA in the American League (2.29), while Tim Stambaugh of San Francisco and Dan Turner of Los Angeles both notched 21 victories to lead that loop; Barry Gilmore of Dallas was the strikeout king with 237. Denver’s John Gannon won the National League’s ERA title with a 1.87 mark as San Diego’s Ray Heath earned the most wins with 21. Heath tied Chicago’s Skip Crawford with a league-best 185 strikeouts.

In the American League, Morrison (.306 BA/32 HR/107 RBI) won his third consecutive (and fourth overall) Most Valuable Player Award, Atlanta’s Frank Combs (15-9/2.60 ERA/196 K) was the Royal Ricketts Award honoree, and Dallas’ Pat Simmons (.273 BA/5 HR/54 RBI) was the Rookie of the Year. In the National League, Denver’s Guillaume Moret (.318 BA/32 HR/88 RBI) continued his historic dominance of the Most Valuable Player Award, winning it for the fifth consecutive year, while Heath (21-7/2.64 ERA/185 K) won the Royal Ricketts Award for the second time in his career and Kansas City’s Brett Weingartz (11-3/3.61 ERA/52 K) captured the Rookie of the Year nod.

The American League’s Divisional Round provided two seven game series, as the wildcard teams, Houston and Detroit, tripped up division winners San Francisco and the New York Empires, respectively. By contrast, in the National League, Eastern Division champion Pittsburgh needed just five games to knock out the New York Knickerbockers, and Western Division champion San Diego eliminated Denver in six.

Both League Championship Series were quick affairs as well, as Drillers surprised Detroit by triumphing in four of the five contests and the Industrials also took only five games to dispatch the Captains.

Houston had only made one previous postseason appearance (a first-round loss in 1970) in their 28-year history; Pittsburgh had appeared in the postseason many times, but had lost their last two Fall Classic appearances in 1950 and 1967, and their most recent world title had come in 1940, six years before the Drillers were founded. Both teams could make the claim that a World Series victory was long overdue, but the Industrials’ dominance allowed for little drama as they snuffed out the Drillers’ season in a four-game sweep. It was Pittsburgh’s eighth World Championship.

The only new addition to the Hall of Fame this year was longtime St. Louis-Los Angeles star Swanee Law, the shrine’s 87th member.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings

Two tight divisional races and competitive derbies in both leagues’ wild card competitions energized fans for most of the summer, with St. Louis eking out a NBL West title over San Diego in spite of the clubs’ identical 93-69 records—the tiebreaker was the season series, won by St. Louis. In spite of this the Captains prevailed when the two rivals met in the Divisional Round, 4-1. In similar fashion Detroit (90-72) bested Baltimore (88-74) by two games in the ABL East but bowed to the Lords 4-3 in the Divisional Round, and San Francisco (96-66) dropped their Divisional Round matchup to rival Houston (88-74). The only division champion to get out the first round of the playoffs alive this year was Pittsburgh (106-56), who swept wild card Philadelphia (92-70).

The All-Star Game was a 7-4 American League victory at Knickerbocker Stadium, their second in a row and 13th overall, bringing the younger loop within one victory of re-tying the all-time series.

San Francisco’s Bobby Tapia topped the Junior Circuit in batting (.322) and RBI (101) while Toronto’s Jorge Luna was the loop’s home run king with 28. Barry Gilmore of Dallas won the league’s pitching Triple Crown with a 1.96 ERA, 20 wins, and 266 strikeouts. Tapia and Gilmore won Most Valuable Player and Royal Ricketts Award honors, respectively, while Montreal’s Jim Foulke (.234 BA/3 HR/31 RBI) was the circuit’s Rookie of the Year.

San Diego’s Randy Barnes was the National League’s batting champion, hitting .345, while Denver’s Guillaume Moret led in home runs with 35 and Pittsburgh’s Andy Robinson led in RBI with 114. Bobby Peters of Chicago posted the loop’s best ERA (2.19), Bob Trout of St. Louis accumulated the most victories (21), and Larry Mitchell of Los Angeles racked up the most strikeouts (178). Moret won his sixth straight Most Valuable Player Award, Peters won his third Royal Ricketts Award, and Denver’s Chuck Carr (.206 BA4 HR/36 RBI) was named the Rookie of The Year.

San Diego took defending World Champion Pittsburgh to a seventh game before bowing in the NBLCS while Houston got past Baltimore in six. The rematch of the previous season’s Fall Classic went the other way this time, as the Drillers won in five to secure their first ever World Championship.

The Hall of Fame’ inductees for 1974 were Matt Garrison, Mike Myers, and Lanny Johnson.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings

A terrific ABL West race saw San Francisco (99-63), Dallas (97-65), and Houston (94-68) all earn playoff spots, with Seattle (92-70) just falling short. Detroit (86-76) won the ABL East title despite finishing with the loop’s fifth-best record. In the National League Pittsburgh (98-64) and Denver (97-65) prevailed in their respective divisions, with Cleveland (90-72) and Chicago (89-74) locking up wild card berths.

The 28th All-Star Game, played at Baltimore, saw the Americans prevail, 6-1, evening the all-time series at 14 wins apiece.

Dan Bozza of the Chicago Hawks hit. 332 to take the ABL batting title as Jackie Cooper of Brooklyn topped all NBL contestants with a sizzling .369 average. Montreal’s Ed Hudson (37) and Pittsburgh’s Don Keough (43) were their respective loop’s home run kings, while Houson’s Charlie Fee (114) and Denver’s Chuck Carr (116) led in runs batted in. Baltimore’s Larry Diego and the Chicago Traders’ Jose Mojica posted league-leading ERA’s of 2.45 and 2.63 respectively. Diego’s teammate Denny Boyd and Mojica’s teammate Bobby Peters won 20 and 22 games respectively to top their loops, while the strikeout crowns went to Houston’s Larry Bilski (192) and Milwaukee’s John Gannon (179).

Jerry Plumley (.310 BA/16 HR/63 RBI) of Detroit was named the Junior Circuit’s Most Valuable Player; that loop’s Royal Ricketts Award honoree was Diego (12-4/2.45 ERA/114 K) and its Rookie of the Year was Atlanta’s Gary Ovitt (15-13/2.59 ERA/126 K). The Senior Circuit’s top honorees were seven-time Most Valuable Player Guillaume Moret of Denver (.300/33 HR/92 RBI), Royal Ricketts Award winner Jeff Munoz of Pittsburgh (14-11/2.55 ERA/121 K), and Rookie of the Year Daniel Salas of CIncinnati (.244 BA/9 HR/70 RBI).

Houston ended San Francisco’s season in the Divisional Round for the third year in a row, beating the ’Gulls in five, while Dallas got by Detroit in six, Pittsburgh bested Chicago in six, and Cleveland outlasted Denver in seven. This set up an All-Texas ABL Championship Series and an all-Steel Corridor NBL Championship Series. Both series went seven games with Cleveland and Dallas emerging with their respective leagues’ pennants. Taking another seven games to finish off the Wranglers in the World Series, the gutty Bobcats claimed their fourth world title.

Baseball’s highest honor, the Hall of Fame induction, was bestowed on a quartet of ’50’s/’60’s stars: Bill Fulton, Rodney Holt, Stan Patterson, and Barry Sheridan.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings

Cleveland (105-57) and Denver (103-59) rolled to easy division titles in the National League, while the American League’s divisional races were tighter down the stretch but still culminated in decisive margins of victory for Houston (99-63) and Baltimore (94-68). In both circuits the most compelling races were for the wildcards, with Kansas City (92-70), Pittsburgh (91-71), San Francisco (92-70), and Atlanta (88-74) emerging as finalists.

The Junior Circuit showed no respect for their elders in the All-Star Game at Denver, walloping the Seniors 14-3 to take a 15-14 edge in the all-time series.

Bobby Tapia of San Francisco duplicated his 1974 feat of winning the ABL batting (.352) and RBI (97) titles, while Montreal’s Ed Hudson belted 27 roundtrippers to repeat as the Junior Circuit’s home run champ. Los Angeles’s Jim Arndt led that loop in ERA at 2.01, Houston’s Francisco Castro led in wins with 19, and Boston’s Bruce Shurtleff was the league’s strikeout king with 184. In the Senior Circuit, Kansas City’s Chris Taylor blew away his competition in all three Triple Crown categories, hitting .359 with 37 homers and 114 RBI. Cleveland’s Joe Clabaugh posted a 1.96 mark to pace the NBL in ERA while Chicago Traders teammates Larry Cox and Bobby Peters each posted 21 wins to tie for the league lead. Bob Briggs of Pittsburgh was the loop’s top strikeout artist with 192.

Awards

In the Divisional Round, Pittsburgh avenged last season’s LCS loss to Cleveland by besting the World Champs in five; the other three first-round series all went the full seven as Houston defeated Atlanta, San Francisco defeated Baltimore, and Denver defeated Kansas City. San Francisco turned the tables on Houston in the American League Championship Series, dispatching the Drillers in five, while Denver needed seven games to finish off Pittsburgh.

World Series

Hall of Fame

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings