YET
I CAN’T help but think that all it means is there are many teams that ought not
to think of themselves as pennant contenders are being deluded into thinking
they have a chance to achieve something of significance this season.
I’ve
been thinking about this because of the fact that it has been 50 years since
the American League really DID have a bonkers-type season. 1967, which might be
the Summer of Love to some people, was also the year that the American League
nearly finished in a four-way tie for first place.
The
Boston Red Sox have been having ceremonies this week to mark the fact that they
ultimately won the league championship.
Just
this Wednesday, many old ballplayers turned out at Fenway Park – including our
very own Ken Harrelson – the Hawk took time out from his duties as Chicago
White Sox broadcaster to remember that year when he joined the Red Sox in
mid-season and became a key part of why the team was able to rise from a Ninth
Place finish the year before to a league championship in ’67.
HARRELSON
MAY HAVE fond memories of that year. We all know he’s shared many a Red Sox-inspired
tale during his broadcasts throughout the decades.
But
we in Chicago have less-pleasant memories of that summer when I turned 2 years
old – the White Sox wound up being the team that finished in fourth place out
of the four teams.
Albeit
only 3 games behind the Red Sox (with the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins
finishing in a tie for second place 1 game behind Boston).
That
was the season where the four teams went into the final weekend with a
very-real chance of a four-way tie for first place. Only the White Sox had to
pick then to go on a losing streak – including getting beaten in both games of a
final-day-of-the-season double-header, losing to the Kansas City Athletics.
WHO
IRONICALLY ENOUGH were the worst team in the American League that year. Tenth
place, and in fact they moved from Kansas City after the season to their
current locale in Oakland, Calif.
The
Kansas City Athletics got to end their existence with a bang – being the team
that knocked the White Sox out of contention.
Although
for what it’s worth, one White Sox ballplayer that year was outfielder Tommie
Agee. He being the same guy who two years later got his chance at World Series
heroics and made an outfield catch that New York Mets fans still remember to
this day.
So
for as much as some people like to bash about Harrelson for being too much of a
“homer” who favors the White Sox, keep in mind that his glory days may well be
those back in Boston.
THE
FAILURE OF ’67 may also sting because that year was the end of a 17-season
streak of winning seasons the White Sox experienced. For 1968 was the beginning
of a losing period that we’re once again recalling now because of how badly the
White Sox are playing this season. The Sox may come close to losing 106 games
this year like they did in 1970.
As
for Detroit and Minnesota, each had their own odd Chicago connections.
For
the Twins, it was their top pitcher Jim Kaat, who by the early-to-mid 1970s
became a White Sox pitcher of some talent. While the Tigers had as one of their
top pitchers Denny McLain – who actually was a native of suburban Markham and
the one-time son-in-law of former Cubs broadcaster Lou Boudreau.
And
who went on to his own notoriety in baseball when he managed in 1968 to win 31
games – the last pitcher to come close to that level.
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