1961 Season

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
Home List of Articles

The 1961 Season as seen through the Prism of Player Won-Lost Records

Next in my continuing series of looking at individual seasons through the prism of Player won-lost records is the 1961 season. The 1961 season saw major-league baseball expand for the first time, as the American League added teams in Los Angeles and Washington, the latter of which replaced the original Washington Senators, who moved to Minnesota.

The Best of 1961

I calculate Player won-lost records two ways: pWins, which tie to team wins and eWins, which control for context and the ability of one's teammates. For players with more pWins than eWins, their Player wins contributed to more team wins than one might expect; for players with more eWins than pWins, just the opposite is true: their Player wins translated into fewer team wins than expected. Or more briefly: a player with more pWins than eWins was better in context, a player with more eWins than pWins was worse in context.

The top 10 players in pWins above Positional Average and Replacement Level were as follows.

		pWins over Positional Average Top 10 Players						pWins over Replacement Level Top 10 Players
	Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL		Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
1	Mickey Mantle	25.8	14.9	4.8	6.6	1	Mickey Mantle	25.8	14.9	4.8	6.6
2	Roger Maris	26.9	15.5	4.5	6.3	2	Roger Maris	26.9	15.5	4.5	6.3
3	Norm Cash	23.6	13.1	4.0	5.6	3	Norm Cash	23.6	13.1	4.0	5.6
4	Whitey Ford	19.2	12.7	3.8	5.1	4	Rocky Colavito	26.6	18.3	3.5	5.5
5	Rocky Colavito	26.6	18.3	3.5	5.5	5	Willie Mays	25.7	17.7	3.2	5.2
6	Frank Lary	19.3	13.9	3.3	4.7	6	Whitey Ford	19.2	12.7	3.8	5.1
7	Willie Mays	25.7	17.7	3.2	5.2	7	Jim Gentile	20.9	12.2	3.2	4.7
8	Jim Gentile	20.9	12.2	3.2	4.7	8	Frank Lary	19.3	13.9	3.3	4.7
9	Jim O'Toole	17.3	12.4	2.9	4.1	9	Frank Robinson	24.4	17.1	2.7	4.6
10	Warren Spahn	19.4	15.0	2.8	4.2	10	Hank Aaron	25.4	18.6	2.4	4.4

The top 10 players in eWins above Positional Average and Replacement Level were as follows.

		eWins over Positional Average Top 10 Players						eWins over Replacement Level Top 10 Players
	Player	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA	eWORL		Player	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA	eWORL
1	Mickey Mantle	25.4	15.2	4.4	6.2	1	Mickey Mantle	25.4	15.2	4.4	6.2
2	Rocky Colavito	26.9	18.1	3.7	5.7	2	Rocky Colavito	26.9	18.1	3.7	5.7
3	Norm Cash	23.3	13.4	3.7	5.3	3	Norm Cash	23.3	13.4	3.7	5.3
4	Eddie Mathews	20.0	14.1	2.8	4.3	4	Roger Maris	25.2	17.2	2.7	4.6
5	Roger Maris	25.2	17.2	2.7	4.6	5	Willie Mays	25.1	18.3	2.6	4.5
6	Jim Gentile	20.4	12.7	2.7	4.2	6	Eddie Mathews	20.0	14.1	2.8	4.3
7	Willie Mays	25.1	18.3	2.6	4.5	7	Frank Robinson	24.1	17.4	2.4	4.3
8	Frank Robinson	24.1	17.4	2.4	4.3	8	Jim Gentile	20.4	12.7	2.7	4.2
9	Ken Boyer	22.0	17.0	2.3	4.1	9	Ken Boyer	22.0	17.0	2.3	4.1
10	Frank Lary	18.1	15.1	2.2	3.5	10	Hank Aaron	24.8	19.3	1.8	3.7

The 1961 season was unique in one way. It was the only season (since at least the advent of the consistent 154-game schedule) in which the American and National Leagues played different length seasons. With expansion from 8 to 10 teams, the American League also expanded its schedule from 154 games (22 games apiece against the 7 other teams) to 162 games (18 games apiece against the other 9 teams). Meanwhile, the National League stayed at 8 teams and a 154-game season.

To attempt to control for this, the next two tables mirror the previous two tables except that Player won-lost records have been scaled to a consistent 162-game season for every team in both leagues.

The top 10 players in normalized pWOPA, pWORL, eWOPA, and eWORL in 1961 are shown in the next four tables.

		pWins over Positional Average Top 10 Players						pWins over Replacement Level Top 10 Players
	Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL		Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
1	Mickey Mantle	25.7	14.8	4.7	6.5	1	Mickey Mantle	25.7	14.8	4.7	6.5
2	Roger Maris	26.7	15.4	4.4	6.3	2	Roger Maris	26.7	15.4	4.4	6.3
3	Norm Cash	23.5	13.0	4.0	5.6	3	Norm Cash	23.5	13.0	4.0	5.6
4	Whitey Ford	19.1	12.7	3.7	5.0	4	Rocky Colavito	26.5	18.2	3.5	5.4
5	Rocky Colavito	26.5	18.2	3.5	5.4	5	Willie Mays	26.8	18.5	3.4	5.4
6	Willie Mays	26.8	18.5	3.4	5.4	6	Whitey Ford	19.1	12.7	3.7	5.0
7	Frank Lary	19.2	13.8	3.3	4.6	7	Frank Robinson	25.7	18.0	2.8	4.8
8	Jim Gentile	20.7	12.1	3.2	4.6	8	Jim Gentile	20.7	12.1	3.2	4.6
9	Jim O'Toole	18.2	13.0	3.1	4.4	9	Frank Lary	19.2	13.8	3.3	4.6
10	Warren Spahn	20.3	15.7	3.0	4.4	10	Hank Aaron	26.6	19.4	2.6	4.6

The top 10 players in normalized eWins above Positional Average and Replacement Level were as follows.

		eWins over Positional Average Top 10 Players						eWins over Replacement Level Top 10 Players
	Player	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA	eWORL		Player	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA	eWORL
1	Mickey Mantle	25.3	15.1	4.4	6.2	1	Mickey Mantle	25.3	15.1	4.4	6.2
2	Rocky Colavito	26.7	18.0	3.7	5.7	2	Rocky Colavito	26.7	18.0	3.7	5.7
3	Norm Cash	23.2	13.3	3.6	5.3	3	Norm Cash	23.2	13.3	3.6	5.3
4	Eddie Mathews	20.9	14.7	3.0	4.5	4	Willie Mays	26.2	19.2	2.7	4.7
5	Willie Mays	26.2	19.2	2.7	4.7	5	Roger Maris	25.0	17.1	2.7	4.6
6	Roger Maris	25.0	17.1	2.7	4.6	6	Eddie Mathews	20.9	14.7	3.0	4.5
7	Jim Gentile	20.3	12.6	2.7	4.2	7	Frank Robinson	25.4	18.3	2.5	4.5
8	Frank Robinson	25.4	18.3	2.5	4.5	8	Ken Boyer	23.0	17.8	2.4	4.2
9	Ken Boyer	23.0	17.8	2.4	4.2	9	Jim Gentile	20.3	12.6	2.7	4.2
10	Warren Spahn	19.5	16.4	2.2	3.7	10	Hank Aaron	25.9	20.1	1.9	3.9

The big player story of 1961 was, of course, the M&M boys, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, and their pursuit of Babe Ruth's 1927 home run record. I wrote briefly about Mantle and Maris in my article about the 1960 season, when they were also the top two players in the major leagues.

Another top performer in 1961 was Rocky Colavito of the Detroit Tigers. I have already written an article about Rocky Colavito.

The theme of the 1961 season, especially in the American League, is that of good players having somewhat flukishly great seasons. This is probably best personified by Roger Maris whose 61 home runs in 1961 was 22 home runs more than the second-most of his career and more than double the fourth-highest single-season total of his 12-year career.

I take a look next at three other players who, like Maris, had 1961 seasons that look flukish within the context of their full careers: Norm Cash, Jim Gentile, and Frank Lary.

Norm Cash

Norm Cash had a very good 17-year major-league career, mostly with the Detroit Tigers, in which he played in over 2,000 games and amassed more than 7,900 plate appearances. The top 10 players most similar to Norm Cash in career value include two players in the Hall of Merit, as well as several other players who seem to me to be right on the borderline for these Halls (at least statistically).

But Norm Cash's 1961 season was definitely out of line with the rest of his otherwise fine career. Norm Cash batted .361 in 1961. The second-highest batting average of his career was .286 (in 1960). Cash's .487 OBP beat his second-best by .085; his .662 SLG beat his second-best by .131. He even nearly doubled his second-best single-season stolen base total (11 in 1961 vs. 6 in 1962 and 1965). The 1961 season was also the only season in his career in which Cash either scored or drove in 100 runs (he did both in 1961).

Norm Cash's career, as measured by Player won-lost records, is displayed in the next table.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Norm Cash Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1958	CHA	23	13	0.1	0.3	0.266	-0.1	-0.1	0.2	0.2	0.386	-0.0	-0.0
1959	CHA	24	58	3.2	2.9	0.522	0.1	0.3	3.2	2.9	0.527	0.1	0.4
1960	DET	25	121	11.9	10.3	0.535	0.2	1.1	12.8	9.4	0.576	1.1	2.1
1961	DET	26	159	23.6	13.1	0.644	4.0	5.6	23.3	13.4	0.636	3.7	5.3
1962	DET	27	148	15.5	12.9	0.546	0.5	1.6	16.0	12.4	0.564	1.0	2.1
1963	DET	28	147	16.0	13.0	0.551	0.9	2.0	16.5	12.5	0.570	1.4	2.6
1964	DET	29	144	16.0	12.9	0.553	0.9	2.1	16.1	12.9	0.555	1.0	2.2
1965	DET	30	142	16.1	12.4	0.565	1.1	2.2	16.3	12.2	0.572	1.3	2.4
1966	DET	31	160	19.0	14.9	0.561	1.1	2.4	18.8	15.1	0.553	0.9	2.2
1967	DET	32	152	15.2	12.7	0.545	0.4	1.6	15.3	12.6	0.548	0.5	1.7
1968	DET	33	127	12.8	10.5	0.550	0.5	1.5	12.8	10.5	0.550	0.5	1.5
1969	DET	34	142	14.8	11.9	0.556	0.6	1.8	14.9	11.8	0.559	0.7	1.8
1970	DET	35	130	10.5	9.6	0.521	-0.1	0.7	10.8	9.3	0.536	0.2	1.0
1971	DET	36	135	14.8	9.1	0.619	2.1	3.0	13.8	10.1	0.579	1.1	2.1
1972	DET	37	137	13.4	11.7	0.534	-0.1	0.9	13.1	12.1	0.519	-0.5	0.5
1973	DET	38	121	9.7	9.0	0.519	0.0	0.8	10.1	8.7	0.536	0.3	1.1
1974	DET	39	51	4.1	3.9	0.517	0.0	0.3	4.1	3.9	0.511	-0.0	0.3
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			2,087	216.9	171.1	0.559	12.1	28.0	218.0	170.0	0.562	13.2	29.2
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			16	1.4	1.1	0.555		0.2	1.4	1.1	0.562		0.2
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			2,103	218.3	172.2	0.559		28.2	219.4	171.1	0.562		29.3

Jim Gentile

Jim Gentile hit 179 home runs and drove in 549 runs in 3,479 plate appearances in his career. That works out to a home run every 19.4 PAs and an RBI every 6.3 PAs. In 1961, Gentile hit 46 home runs and drove in 141 runs in 601 PAs, for rates of 13.1 PA/HR and 4.1 RBI/PA. Like Norm Cash, the 1961 season was the only one in Gentile's career in which he batted .300 or better (.302), slugged over .600 (.646), had an OPS over 1.000 (1.069), hit over 40 home runs (46) or had over 100 RBI (141).

Jim Gentile's career, as measured by Player won-lost records, is displayed in the next table.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Jim Gentile Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1957	BRO	23	4	0.4	0.1	0.780	0.1	0.1	0.3	0.2	0.668	0.1	0.1
1958	LAN	24	12	0.5	1.0	0.348	-0.3	-0.2	0.5	1.0	0.364	-0.2	-0.2
1960	BAL	26	138	14.3	10.4	0.580	1.3	2.4	14.3	10.4	0.578	1.3	2.3
1961	BAL	27	148	20.9	12.2	0.631	3.2	4.7	20.4	12.7	0.616	2.7	4.2
1962	BAL	28	152	16.1	14.9	0.520	-0.2	0.9	16.9	14.1	0.545	0.5	1.7
1963	BAL	29	145	14.6	13.6	0.519	-0.0	1.0	15.3	12.9	0.543	0.6	1.7
1964	KC1	30	136	12.0	12.7	0.487	-0.8	0.1	13.4	11.3	0.541	0.5	1.5
+– 1965		31	119	9.5	11.3	0.458	-1.4	-0.6	11.1	9.7	0.532	0.1	1.0
	HOU		81	6.4	6.6	0.491	-0.4	0.1	6.7	6.3	0.514	-0.1	0.4
	KC1		38	3.2	4.7	0.404	-1.0	-0.6	4.4	3.5	0.561	0.3	0.6
+– 1966		32	81	5.5	5.5	0.504	-0.2	0.3	5.5	5.5	0.498	-0.2	0.3
	CLE		32	1.1	1.7	0.398	-0.3	-0.1	1.1	1.7	0.399	-0.3	-0.1
	HOU		49	4.4	3.8	0.541	0.1	0.5	4.4	3.8	0.533	0.1	0.4
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			935	93.9	81.5	0.535	1.7	8.9	97.6	77.9	0.556	5.4	12.6
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			0	0.0	0.0			0.0	0.0	0.0			0.0
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			935	93.9	81.5	0.535		8.9	97.6	77.9	0.556		12.6

Frank Lary

Most of the fluke seasons in 1961 (e.g., Maris, Cash, Gentile) were by hitters. The last player I want to highlight here is a pitcher, however: Frank Lary. In 1961, Lary set career highs in pitcher wins (23), winning percentage (.719), complete games (22), and shutouts (4), and received the only Cy Young votes of his career as well as his only career Gold Glove.

All of that said, Lary's 1961 season came on the heels of a strong stretch from 1955 through 1960 in which Lary was one of the best pitchers in baseball. His 1961 season looks more flukish in retrospect, because it was the last season of his career when he was anywhere near that good. In 1961, Lary was 23-9 with a 3.24 ERA; from 1962 - 1965, Lary was 11-23 with an ERA of 4.26.

Because his prime was so short, only seven seasons, Frank Lary is somewhat forgotten these days. His fine, albeit short, career is presented in the next table, as measured by Player won-lost records.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Frank Lary Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1954	DET	24	3	0.1	0.1	0.420	-0.0	-0.0	0.1	0.1	0.477	-0.0	0.0
1955	DET	25	36	14.2	14.1	0.501	0.4	1.5	14.5	13.7	0.514	0.8	1.9
1956	DET	26	41	18.9	15.7	0.546	2.2	3.7	18.0	16.6	0.520	1.3	2.8
1957	DET	27	40	14.5	16.1	0.473	-0.4	0.8	14.7	15.9	0.481	-0.2	1.1
1958	DET	28	39	16.8	15.2	0.525	1.3	2.6	16.8	15.2	0.525	1.3	2.6
1959	DET	29	32	14.8	12.9	0.534	1.4	2.6	14.2	13.5	0.513	0.8	2.0
1960	DET	30	39	16.2	14.3	0.532	1.5	2.7	16.0	14.5	0.524	1.2	2.5
1961	DET	31	42	19.3	13.9	0.582	3.3	4.7	18.1	15.1	0.546	2.2	3.5
1962	DET	32	22	4.2	6.1	0.411	-0.8	-0.3	4.3	6.0	0.419	-0.7	-0.2
1963	DET	33	16	5.7	7.5	0.433	-0.7	-0.1	6.5	6.7	0.493	0.1	0.7
+– 1964		34	24	4.8	6.6	0.420	-0.8	-0.1	4.8	6.7	0.415	-0.8	-0.2
	DET		6	0.9	1.7	0.340	-0.4	-0.2	0.9	1.7	0.337	-0.4	-0.2
	MLN		5	0.4	0.7	0.361	-0.1	-0.1	0.4	0.7	0.342	-0.2	-0.1
	NYN		13	3.6	4.3	0.455	-0.2	0.2	3.5	4.3	0.451	-0.3	0.1
+– 1965		35	28	3.6	4.1	0.468	-0.1	0.2	3.7	3.9	0.487	0.0	0.4
	CHA		14	1.0	1.1	0.469	-0.1	0.1	0.9	1.1	0.456	-0.1	0.0
	NYN		14	2.6	3.0	0.468	-0.1	0.2	2.8	2.8	0.499	0.1	0.3
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			362	133.1	126.6	0.513	7.3	18.3	131.8	127.9	0.508	6.0	16.9
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			0	0.0	0.0			0.0	0.0	0.0			0.0
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			362	133.1	126.6	0.513		18.3	131.8	127.9	0.508		16.9

1961 Postseason

The two teams that met in the 1961 World Series offered quite a contrast. The National League representative, the Cincinnati Reds, won the pennant for the first time in 21 years. The Reds were the fourth different NL pennant winner over the previous four years.

In the American League, meanwhile, the pennant was won by the New York Yankees for the second year in a row and 11th time in 13 seasons dating back to 1949.

Experience trumped novelty, as the Yankees beat the Reds in five games. The top performers in the 1961 World Series, as measured by Player won-lost records, are shown in the table below.

	1961 World Series: Top Player Performances
		pWins	pLosses	pWORL
Whitey Ford	NYA	1.2	0.5	0.5
Johnny Blanchard	NYA	0.9	0.2	0.4

Best of 1961 by Factor and Position

Next, let's look at the top players in (context-neutral, teammate-adjusted) eWins over Positional Average in various aspects of the game.

Best by Factor: Batting, Baserunning, Pitching, Fielding

There are four basic factors for which players earn Player won-lost records: Batting, Baserunning, Pitching, and Fielding. The top players in 1961 in eWOPA by factor were as follows.

	Batting
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Mickey Mantle	18.2	9.1	4.3

Positional Average excludes pitcher offense

	Baserunning
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Vada Pinson	1.9	1.1	0.4

Positional Average excludes pitcher offense

	Pitching
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Jim O'Toole	13.5	10.8	2.8

	Fielding, P
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Mike Fornieles	0.6	0.2	0.4
Bob Gibson	0.6	0.2	0.4

	Fielding, C
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Clay Dalrymple	1.6	1.2	0.5

	Fielding, 1B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Norm Cash	2.6	2.1	0.5
Bill Skowron	2.2	1.8	0.5

	Fielding, 2B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Frank Bolling	6.1	5.0	1.0

	Fielding, 3B
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Clete Boyer	5.4	3.9	1.4

	Fielding, SS
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Roy McMillan	6.6	5.9	0.7
Ron Hansen	6.3	5.6	0.7
Gene Leek	0.9	0.3	0.7

	Fielding, LF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Rocky Colavito	7.0	5.2	1.8

	Fielding, CF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Jim Piersall	5.5	4.5	1.1

	Fielding, RF
	eWins	eLosses	Net Wins
Al Kaline	5.4	4.7	0.7
Jim Rivera	2.0	1.3	0.7
Roberto Clemente	6.7	6.1	0.7

Best by Position

Next, we look at 1961 Major-League leaders in eWOPA by position. The figures shown here only include Player decisions earned while playing this particular position, and include no contextual adjustments (expected or actual).

	Catcher
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Johnny Romano	14.8	11.5	1.7
Elston Howard	11.8	8.5	1.7

	First Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Norm Cash	21.4	12.8	3.1

	Second Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Frank Bolling	19.8	18.7	1.4

	Third Base
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Eddie Mathews	21.6	15.8	2.8

	Shortstop
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Ernie Banks	14.5	12.4	1.4

	Left Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Rocky Colavito	23.2	16.0	3.1

	Center Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Mickey Mantle	24.6	15.3	3.9

	Right Field
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Roger Maris	22.5	15.4	2.4

	Starting Pitcher
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Frank Lary	15.2	12.1	1.6

	Relief Pitcher
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Stu Miller	6.7	4.4	1.2

For relief pitchers, context-neutral records may not be the best measure of how good they are, as context can matter a great deal, depending on how a pitcher is used. Here are the top relief pitchers of 1961 in context, in terms of pWins and pWOPA.

Player	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL
	Top Relief Pitchers of 1961, based on pWORL
Stu Miller	8.8	5.1	0.632	2.0	2.8
Luis Arroyo	9.5	7.0	0.577	1.5	2.4
Hoyt Wilhelm	9.0	6.3	0.588	1.5	2.4
Jim Brosnan	5.8	3.3	0.637	1.3	1.9
Jim Coates	9.4	8.0	0.541	0.9	1.8

Finally, here are the best at three oft-forgotten positions that can nevertheless matter: pitcher offense, pinch hitting, and pinch running.

	Pitcher Offense
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Warren Spahn	2.2	2.0	0.7

	Pinch Hitter
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Jerry Lynch	1.9	0.9	0.5

Jerry Lynch had one of the best pinch-hitting seasons of the past 75+ years, with 19 hits in 47 at-bats (59 PA), including 5 home runs, 25 RBI, and a batting line of .404/.525/.851 (OPS of 1.376). The top 10 pinch-hitting seasons, as measured by (context-neutral, teammate-adjusted) eWins over positional average, are shown in the next table.

Top 10 Single-Season Totals: eWOPA by Position Pinch Hitting
Player	Season	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Travis Buck	2012	1.4	0.2	0.6
Gates Brown	1968	1.9	0.7	0.6
Joe Cronin	1943	1.9	0.8	0.6
Jerry Lynch	1961	1.9	0.9	0.5
Craig Wilson (2001)	2001	1.5	0.6	0.5
Billy Ashley	1996	1.3	0.5	0.5
Jerry Turner	1978	1.8	0.9	0.5
Smoky Burgess	1965	2.0	1.3	0.5
Gerald Perry	1993	2.3	1.6	0.4
Cliff Johnson	1974	1.5	0.7	0.4

	Pinch Runner
	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA
Humberto 'Chico' Fernandez	0.2	0.0	0.1
Willie Davis	0.2	0.1	0.1
Ernie Bowman	0.2	0.0	0.1

Noteworthy Players of 1961

Finally, let's take a look at some players who had noteworthy 1961 seasons.

Notable Debuts

The 1961 season saw the major-league debut of two future Hall-of-Famers: Carl Yastrzemski and Lou Brock.

Yastrzemski's and Brock's careers overlapped two more times through the years.

Carl Yastrzemski spent his entire career in the American League and Lou Brock spent his entire career in the National League in the era long before interleague regular-season games. They did, however, face each other once in their professional career, in the 1967 World Series.

In that World Series, Carl Yastrzemski led the Boston Red Sox (and all hitters) with a 1.340 OPS (batting line of .400/.500/.840, 3 HR, 5 RBI), while Lou Brock led the St. Louis Cardinals by batting .414/.452/.655 (OPS of 1.107, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 8 R, 7 SB).

The next table compares the postseason performances of Yastrzemski and Brock in the 1967 World Series, as measured by Player won-lost records.

	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Carl Yastrzemski	7	1.5	1.2	0.564	0.1	0.2	1.7	1.0	0.631	0.3	0.4
Lou Brock	7	1.3	1.0	0.563	0.1	0.2	1.5	0.9	0.643	0.3	0.4

Yastrzemski's and Brock's careers overlapped again 12 years later, when they collected their 3,000th career hit just under one month apart. Lou Brock collected his 3,000th hit on August 13, 1979. Carl Yastrzemski collected his 3,000th hit 30 days later, on September 12, 1979.

The final table of this article compares the careers of Carl Yastrzemski and Lou Brock, as measured by Player won-lost records.

Season	Games	pWins	pLoss	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	Games	pWins	pLoss	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL
	Carl Yastrzemski						Lou Brock
1961	148	17.3	18.4	0.485	-1.0	0.5	4	0.1	0.5	0.163	-0.2	-0.2
1962	160	21.4	20.8	0.507	-0.6	1.0	123	11.2	14.4	0.438	-1.9	-0.9
1963	151	23.3	19.0	0.550	1.2	2.8	148	17.5	16.8	0.510	-0.6	0.8
1964	151	20.0	18.7	0.517	0.2	1.7	154	21.7	19.2	0.531	0.3	2.0
1965	133	17.4	18.0	0.491	-1.0	0.4	155	21.7	19.7	0.525	0.2	1.8
1966	160	23.4	20.3	0.535	0.9	2.6	156	21.9	20.6	0.516	-0.1	1.6
1967	161	27.2	18.0	0.602	3.5	5.4	159	24.7	20.6	0.544	0.9	2.9
1968	157	25.8	17.0	0.603	3.3	5.1	159	25.6	19.5	0.568	1.9	3.7
1969	162	23.2	18.3	0.559	1.7	3.5	157	23.6	20.1	0.540	1.0	2.8
1970	161	23.0	16.3	0.585	2.2	3.9	155	20.3	22.6	0.474	-2.2	-0.4
1971	148	22.6	18.1	0.555	1.5	3.1	157	22.7	21.7	0.512	-0.4	1.4
1972	125	18.0	14.1	0.560	1.1	2.4	153	19.4	19.1	0.503	-0.7	0.8
1973	152	18.0	14.2	0.558	1.4	2.7	160	22.8	20.7	0.524	0.1	1.9
1974	148	17.5	17.4	0.502	-0.5	0.9	153	23.0	20.7	0.526	0.3	1.9
1975	149	15.8	13.6	0.538	0.5	1.7	136	18.2	19.8	0.479	-1.3	0.2
1976	155	18.2	16.9	0.518	0.2	1.5	133	15.7	16.9	0.481	-1.2	0.0
1977	150	21.5	18.6	0.536	1.0	2.7	140	14.6	15.8	0.479	-1.1	0.1
1978	144	18.2	15.0	0.549	1.3	2.6	92	7.9	11.4	0.408	-2.1	-1.3
1979	147	17.1	13.8	0.554	1.4	2.8	120	10.8	13.0	0.454	-1.5	-0.5
1980	105	10.3	10.0	0.506	-0.1	0.9
1981	91	8.9	7.8	0.533	0.4	1.3
1982	131	10.3	9.6	0.518	0.1	1.2
1983	119	7.9	9.1	0.466	-0.8	0.2
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER RECORDS	3,308	426.4	363.1	0.540	17.8	50.7	2,614	343.4	333.0	0.508	-8.6	18.6

All articles are written so that they pull data directly from the most recent version of the Player won-lost database. Hence, any numbers cited within these articles should automatically incorporate the most recent update to Player won-lost records. In some cases, however, the accompanying text may have been written based on previous versions of Player won-lost records. I apologize if this results in non-sensical text in any cases.

Home List of Articles