National League Batting Leaders (#215, 217, 219)

Hall of Famers abound!!!

Here are the National League batting leaders for the prior season. Willie Mays appears 3 times, (unfortunately only in the 1st position for home runs).


I just got this card a few weeks ago, enabling this 3-card post to complete the 1966 league leaders set. Roberto Clemente hit .329, well ahead of the pack at .310 to .318.  Hank Aaron has his Milwaukee cap on, but the caption has been switched to "Atlanta" already. (Meanwhile, Frank Robinson's caption on the RBI card was not updated to "Baltimore Orioles".)

(Did they really need to fill up the card back? Batting .245 is hardly among the league leaders!)


Mays led the league with FIFTY-TWO homers! Teammate Willie McCovey was 2nd, but a distant 13 dingers behind. Billy Williams hit 34 homers, one more than his teammate Ron Santo.

Hey look!  Dick Stuart led the league in grand slams, but was so bad defensively that the Phillies sent him packing after just one season.


Deron Johnson is the only one of these 7 players not in the Hall of Fame. He had 17 more RBI than teammate Frank Robinson.  Also amazing is that Robby was in the top 4 in HR and RBI while batting .296, yet still was traded to the Orioles that off-season.

National League Pitching Leaders (#221, 223, 225)

Here are the NL pitching leaders for 1965. Of course Sandy Koufax is a lock for these cards. There's the expected appearances by Juan Marichal and Don Drysdale, but there are also a few surprises.


Dodgers' ace Sandy Koufax leads in all 3 categories (as he also did the following year).  Ten points behind him is the Giants' Juan Marichal, with Vern Law rounding out the top 3.  No one else is even close.  (Frank Linzy actually has the best ERA of anyone.  His 1.43 is well ahead of Koufax, but Linzy is relegated to the relievers' category.)

There were seven 20-game winners in 1965.  Koufax led with 26 wins. The Braves' Tony Cloninger (in the team's final season in Milwaukee) notched 24 wins and appears on this card - a neighborhood normally reserved for Koufax, Drysdale, Marichal, and Bob Gibson. Big D is right behind him at 23.  Marichal and Gibson broke the 20-win mark, but not by enough to score a slot on this card.

Aside from Koufax, Gibby, and Marichal, there's usually a whole 'nother group of pitchers among the strikeout leaders (as opposed to wins).  Guys like Bob Veale, Jim Bunning, Chris Short, and Jim Maloney.

LOOK AT KOUFAX' TOTAL! One hundred and six more strikeouts than the 2nd-place guy! The Bobs check in at #2 and #3, with Jim Bunning right behind them.  The next grouping of Maloney, Marichal, and Short are 20+ behind them.

I'm really sorry I didn't catch the baseball bug until a few months AFTER Koufax retired!  :(

Recap:
Dodgers - 4
Pirates - 2
Giants - 1
Cardinals - 1
Braves - 1

American League Pitching Leaders (#222, 224, 226)

Here are the AL pitching leaders for 1965. As is so often the case, only a few teams are represented here, as several players from the same team are among the 9 (or in this case, 10) leaders.


The Indians' Sam McDowell finished first in ERA and strikeouts. Twenty-two points later, second-place Eddie Fisher shows up, followed by McDowell's teammate Sonny Siebert (who also finished 3rd in strikeouts). I sometimes wondered why teams with such good starting pitching (like the '67 White Sox and Phillies) didn't finish at the top.

(The 'More than 75 Innings' list was put in as a nod to relief pitchers.)

 
Two Minnesota Twins are featured on the pitching leaders card. Jim Grant and Jim Kaat sandwich Mel Stottlemyre of the (by now) hapless Yankees. (And Sam McDowell only missed 3rd place by 1 win!)

Not only did McDowell finish first in strikeouts, but he had NINETY-NINE more than the next guy! McDowell led the AL in K's almost every season from 1965-1970. Two Tigers (destined for prominence in 1968) and McDowell's sidekick Sonny Siebert round out the card.

The photos imply that McLain and Siebert tied for 3rd place, but the listing on back shows Siebert with one less strikeout. (If Topps did that, they should have slapped McDowell on the pitching leaders card.)

Re-cap:
Indians - 4 (McDowell and Siebert, twice each)
Twins - 2 (Grant, Kaat)
Tigers - 2 (Lolich, McLain)
White Sox - 1 (Fisher)
Yankees - 1 (Stottlemyre)

American League Batting Leaders (#216, 218, 220)

Here are the American League batting leaders for the prior season. Tony Oliva and Willie Horton each appear twice, and there are two Red Sox players, and (surprising to me) two Indians. In addition to Horton, the Tigers are also represented by 1st baseman Norm Cash, so only 4 of the 10 AL teams are represented.


These were the only three AL players to hit .300 or better. Tony Oliva won the 2nd of his 3 AL batting crowns in 1965. Carl Yastrzemski was getting warmed up for his triple crown 1967 season. (Why did Topps take a photo of Yaz with his chin up? Did they really think he might be traded?) Vic Davalillo hit .301 in 1965. (I would never have guessed he appeared on a leaders card.)




Tony Conigliaro won the AL home run title in his 2nd season, breaking Harmon Killebrew's 3-year reign at the top. Tony's 32 homers were well off the normal league-leading pace in the upper-40s. Tiger teammates Cash and Horton rounded out the top 3.




Indians' slugger Rocky Colavito led the league with 108 RBI. This was his only RBI crown, although he collected over 100 six times, including 140 in 1961. (Some guy named Maris led the AL that year with 141.) Rocky won the home run title in 1959 with 42 dingers. Horton finished 2nd, with Oliva in 3rd place. (I always knew Oliva was a hitting guru, but never thought of him as a power guy, so I was a little surprised to see him here.)