The Freshman Class of 1964

By the end of the 1963 season, the jury will have been out on the 1964 rookie crop for 20 years. Sole remaining exhibits in the majors as of the end of ’83 were pitcher Tommy John and infielder Bert Campaneris. The ’64 rookies may or may not be judged the best ever, but if not, the verdict should be “missed on account of disability.”

The rookie crop was rich in ’64 for two reasons. First, the rule then in effect regarding bonus signings forced major league clubs to keep many of their best prospects after a single season of minor league experience. This brought Tony Conigliaro, Rick Wise, Johnny Briggs, and Wally Bunker (among others) up two or three years before they might otherwise have surfaced. Second, recent expansion—1961 in the American League, 1962 in the National—had seen the four new clubs selecting veterans rather than journeymen, meaning lots of open reserve jobs for young players during the next several years, a situation perpetuated when the expansion clubs again pursued veterans in a special catch-up draft held after the ’63 season.

In all, fifty-three rookies played key roles for their teams in 1964 as regulars, top reserves, members of the starting rotation, or top men out of the bullpen. That’s over two key rookies per team on average, and indeed every one of the twenty major league teams had at least one rookie regular at season’s end; seventeen teams had more than one. The tally includes twenty-seven players whose rookie or sophomore performance indicated superstar potential (among them eleven pitchers) and twenty-six journeymen. All the potential pitching stars and thirteen additional players had their careers interrupted for at least a season or prematurely terminated by illness or injury. Several others fought chronic ailments throughout uninterrupted careers that nonetheless fell short of expectations. The crop includes three batting champions, two home run champs, a perennial stolen base leader, four Golden Glove winners, five 20-game winners and three other pitchers who peaked at 19 victories.

Minnesota right fielder Tony Oliva paced them all with 32 homers, 94 runs batted in, and a .323·average; also leading the American League as its first-ever rookie batting champion. Oliva led the league in hits for the first of four times with 217, a rookie record; in doubles with 43, also for the first of five times and also a rookie record; and in runs scored with 109. The following season, leading the Twins to their only World Series, Oliva hit .321 for a second straight batting title. But starting in 1967, Oliva was handicapped by minor injuries,including a separated shoulder in 1968 that cost him a September run at another batting crown. Then, on June 9, 1972, attempting a difficult catch, he so severely tore cartilage in his knee that he was thereafter restricted to DH and pinch-hitting duty. Following four more awkward and painful seasons, each marked by declining average and power production, he retired at age 36 with 220 homers and a .304 lifetime average.

Left fielder Rico Carty of the Braves and third baseman Richie Allen of the ill-fated Phillies didn’t quite equal Oliva’s numbers, but they did make a mighty run at the National League batting title in 1964, a title eventually won by Roberto Clemente at .339. Carty’s .330 placed second, and was accompanied by 22 home .runs and 88 runs batted in. Various injuries cost Carty half the 1965 season, when he batted .310. Mysteriously weak throughout 1967, he missed all of 1968 with tuberculosis, part of 1969 while still recuperating, and then, after hitting .342 and .366, the latter for the 1970 batting title, he fractured his ankle during winter league play and missed all of 1971. Further injuries put Carty on the disabled list in 1972 and ’73 while bouncing from the Braves to the Rangers, Cubs, Athletics and finally to Cordoba of the Mexican League. Returning to the majors as DH for the Indians, Blue Jays,and A’s again, he was released during spring training of 1980, having compiled 204 homers and a .299 lifetime average.

Allen was among six rookies who almost pushed the Phillies to a surprise pennant in 1964, and from the beginning he commanded the spotlight. He tied a record by playing in 162 games as a rookie, all at third base, which he’d never played in the minors. His 125 runs scored and 13 triples led the National League; other stats included 201 hits, 38 doubles, 29 home runs, 91 runs batted in, and a .318 average. Adding the next fourteen seasons, Allen hit 351 homers, averaged .292, retired twice, jumped his team a half dozen times, and was on the disabled list in 1967, ’73 and ’76. He led the National League in total bases in 1964 and slugging in 1966; the American League in home runs, runs batted in, and slugging in 1972; and in home runs and slugging again in 1974. He stole as many as 20 bases per season, played regularly at three positions, and filled in everywhere else but pitcher and catcher. Allen always claimed he jumped teams rather than give less than his best due to injury. Managers generally accused him of jaking. It didn’t help him that after he cut his right hand pushing his car, missing all of September 1967, rumors persisted that he’d really gotten into a barroom brawl.

The other Phillie newcomers were less spectacular, but in several cases no less unfortunate. John Herrnstein, nominally the team’s regular first baseman, was never highly regarded and never hit over .239, without power. Danny Cater, .296 in 60 games, hit .276 over a twelve-year career unmarred by injury, including .301 in 1970, and .313 in 1973. Pitcher Rick Wise, 5-3 as a rookie, went on to become a front-rank hurler until arm trouble cost him most of 1974. Coming back to 19-12 for the pennant-winning 1975 Red Sox, Wise pitched with pain thereafter, enjoying mixed success until returning to the disabled list in 1980. Ineffective in 1981, he pitched only one game during 1982 and was finished.

Outfielder Alex Johnson smashed .303 during the last 43 games of 1964, then .294 while being platooned in 1965. But his moody temperament and frequent refusal to hustle kept him from ever sticking with a team more than two years. A reserve with the pennant-winning ’67 Cards, he put together .312, .315 and .329 seasons with the Reds and Angels in 1968-70, edging Carl Yastrzemski by a fraction of a point for the 1970 batting title. He will be best remembered, however, as the first player ever placed on the disabled list for mental illness, that following an incident in which he threatened teammate and fellow 1964 rookie Chico Ruiz with a gun in June of1971.Johnson came back, still tough to get along with, but never again hit over .287, finishing up in 1976 with a .288 lifetime average. John Briggs, the youngest of the Phillie rookies, hit .258 in 61 games. While maturing into a slugger with speed, he missed six weeks of the 1966 season with an injured back, and despite several good seasons as a Milwaukee Brewer never lived up to expectations. He finished in Japan at age 33.

Other rookies had a significant impact on the 1964 pennant races. In the American League, Baltimore chased the Yankees to the wire because nineteen-year-old Wally Bunker was 19-5 in 29 games, third best victory total in the league. Bunker compiled a 2.69 earned-run average. Rookie right fielder Sam Bowens contributed 22 home runs, 71 runs batted in and a .263 average. After nine years of elbow trouble, Bunker retired in 1971 at age twenty-six, never again approaching his rookie performance over a full season, although he did pitch a World Series shutout in 1966. By that time Bowens was already hurt. A shoulder injury returned him to the minors in 1965; hitting .296 out of a platoon with Curt Blefary through May of 1966, he hurt his shoulder again and never thereafter hit with authority, despite another five years of trying.

Don Buford, a .262 hitter, was the only rookie who helped the White Sox stretch drive, and another of the few who was never seriously injured. He hit leadoff for the Orioles’ 1969-70-71 pennant winners.

The Yankees hung on to claim their fifth straight pennant only because Mel Stottlemyre arrived from the minors to post a 9-3 record and 2.06 ERA in 13 stretch starts. Stottlemyre became a three-time 20-game winner with a workhorse reputation until a torn rotator cuff finished him abruptly at age thirty-three in 1974. Fellow rookie Pete Mikkelsen was the ’64 Yanks’ most effective reliever, winning 7 and saving 12. Never a big star, he nonetheless pitched effectively through nine major league seasons, interrupted by two months on the disabled list at the beginning of 1970.

In the National League, midseason call-up Mike Shannon epitomized the Cardinals’ hardnosed style of play as an outfielder, third baseman, and reserve catcher (even though he had never caught before volunteering in an emergency). It took something major to get Shannon out of the lineup, but hypertension did it and almost killed him at age thirty-one in August of 1970. The Cardinals also carried rookie infielders Jerry Buchek and Phil Gagliano; neither, however, graduated from journeyman status.

The second-place Cincinnati Reds hung in there with rookies Sammy Ellis, 10-3, 2.57, 14 saves, and Bill McCool, 6-5, 2.42, 7 saves, as a spectacular righty-lefty relief combination. Converted to starting, Ellis won 22 games in 1965, while McCool saved 21 games, as well as 18 more in 1966. Arm trouble soon finished both. McCool lasted until age twenty-six, Ellis to twenty-eight. Rookie infielder Chico Ruiz claimed the Reds’ third base job in 1964, lost it to Deron Johnson, broke his ankle in 1965, and thereafter rode the bench. He was killed in an auto crash at age thirty-three in February of 1972.

The Giants’ Ron Herbel and Jesus Alou were never injured, but never really lived up to potential either; More tragic were the careers of Jim Ray Hart, slugging third baseman, and Hal Lanier, the 1964 Topps All-Star Rookie second baseman, who mostly played shortstop thereafter. Lanier never missed playing time, but suffered fits of epilepsy after a beaning in early ’65, never again approaching the .274 he hit as a rookie. Hart, after a 31-homer, 81-RBI, .286 rookie season, put together four more good years in a row and, at age twenty-seven in 1968, entered what should have been his prime with 139 home runs already to his credit. But the second of his problems to come had been sown years before. First called to the majors on July 6,1963, he suffered a broken shoulder blade the very next day when struck by a Bob Gibson fastball. Back in action on August 12, Hart was disabled four days later when another Cardinal, Curt Simmons, beaned him. Drinking heavily through his good years, perhaps to overcome fear of the ball, Hart reinjured his shoulder in 1968, had a miserable ’69 season playing while hurt, and spent most of the next three seasons with Phoenix drying out and recuperating from repeated surgery. Averages of .282 and .304 following late-season call-ups in 1970 and ’72 seemed to signal comebacks, but after a torrid 1973 start as the Yankees’ first regular DH Hart tailed off and returned to the minors. He finished up hitting .315 in the Mexican League in 1976. His lifetime 170 homers and .278 average only hint at what might have been.

Tony Conigliaro’s bad luck began in 1964 when a broken right arm sidelined him throughout August. It didn’t keep him from hitting .290 with 24 homers. The American League’s youngest-ever home run champ the following season, with 32 at age twenty, Coniglairo was leading the Red Sox to the 1967 pennant when beaned by Jack Hamilton of the Angels on August 19. Pieces of his fractured cheekbone damaged his left eye. Missing all of 1968, Conigliaro won Comeback-of-the-Year honors in 1969, then improved to a career-high 36 home runs and 116 runs batted in 1970. After a trade to the Angels in 1971 he slumped to .222. On July 10 of that year, he called a midnight press conference to announce his retirement. Subsequent examination showed his sight had deteriorated again. Conigliaro attempted one comeback as a pitcher, unsuccessfully, then made the Red Sox as a free agent DH in 1975, but hit only .123 and was shipped to the minors to make room for Jim Rice. Later in the year Conigliaro retired permanently, at age thirty, ending another career that pointed toward the Hall of Fame. His misfortune continued with a heart attack and prolonged coma in 1982, from which he is very slowly recovering, with uncertain chances of ever walking or talking again.

The Tigers came up with two jinxed rookies in 1964, pitcher Denny McLain and left fielder Willie Horton. Starting in 1965, McLain won 16, 20, 17, 31 and 24 games, and might have won more had a foot injury not sidelined him down the stretch in 1967. The circumstances of that misfortune are still hazy; some say he was jumped by gamblers. Suspended for betting on games in 1969, McLain injured his elbow, put on weight, and was finished at age 28. Twice an American League leader in victories and the only pitcher since Dizzy Dean in 1934 to win 30 games, there’s no telling what he could have accomplished if healthy and with a good head on his shoulders. Horton, meanwhile, was never kept out of the lineup for long, but he did spend time on the disabled list in 1972, ’73, ’74, and ’76, and probably should have been there in 1967 and ’71. His injuries included beanings; a broken ankle, and a broken foot. Nonetheless, he batted .273 over his career with 325 home runs. (Another promising Tiger rookie,Joe Sparma, never pitched consistently, winning 16 games in 1967 but fading out with arm trouble at age twenty-eight in 1970.)

The Angels introduced journeyman second baseman Bobby Knoop, their regular for the next five years,and pitcher Aubrey Gatewood. But their most sensational rookie was reliever Bob Lee, who jumped all the way from the New York-Pennsylvania League to post the AL’s best ERA, 1.51, while saving 19 games. He saved 21 and 16 the next two seasons, but encountered arm miseries that finished him at age thirty-one.

Sam McDowell, washed up at 33 with alcoholism and shoulder problems, wasn’t a ’64 rookie. At age 22, he was, however, senior member of the Indians’ season-ending starting rotation, which also included rookies Luis Tiant, Sonny Siebert, and Tommy John. Offensive support came from rookie first baseman Bob “Fat” Chance, who knocked in 75 runs while platooning with Fred Whitfield, and rookie outfielder Chico Salmon, hitting .307. The sophomore jinx relegated both Chance and Salmon to utility duty thereafter. Siebert enjoyed a healthy career, three times winning 16 games and tossing a no-hitter in 1966. Tiant led the American League in earned run average twice (1.60 in 1968, 1.91 in 1972), and won 20 games four times among fourteen winning seasons in the major leagues. John has won 20 games three times, with eleven winning seasons.

But both men had to overcome devastating injuries to do it. Tiant was unconditionally released twice in 1971 after two years of arm trouble. He was disabled again both in 1978 and 1980. John had 10 wins and a 1.98 ERA as of August 22, 1968, despite an early-season pulled hamstring; He threw a knockdown pitch at Detroit’s Dick McAuliffe, and in the ensuing brawl suffered torn shoulder ligaments that finished him for the year. By 1974John had fully regained his form and was 13-3 after 22 starts when his elbow tore. He missed all of 1975 while muscle tissue from his right arm, surgically grafted into his left, strengthened. The revolutionary procedure saved his career. John won 80 games between 1977 and 1980, then returned to the disabled list in 1981 for about the time of the baseball strike and hasn’t pitched consistently since.

Six-time American League stolen base leader Bert Campaneris and slick-fielding Dick Green became the Athletics’ double-play combination in 1964. Charlie Finley built the 1972-74 world champions around them, and they stayed healthy. Another all-star shortstop who emerged in 1964, Pittsburgh’s Gene Alley, was less fortunate. A member of the Sporting News all-star fielding team in 1966 and ’67, when he hit .299 and .287, Alley missed the 1968 All-Star Game with back spasms, and was never again the same all-around player. Fellow 1964 rookie Steve Blass was 19-8 in 1972 after winning at least 15 in four of the previous five seasons, but then, at age thirty-two, mysteriously burned out. He swore his arm was healthy; others were not so sure.

The 1964 rookies who came and went without much of a mark? George Smith, Gerry Arrigo, Dalton Jones, Jay Ritchie, Ed Connolly, Bill Spanswick, Jim Gosger, Mike Brumley, Buster Narum, AI Koch,John O’Donoghue, Bob Meyer, Tommy Reynolds, Derrell Griffith, Billy Cowan, Jimmy Stewart, Mike White, Bobby Klaus, and Bill Wakefield. It is worth noting, however, that several enjoyed rookie seasons that would have been heralded most years. O’Donoghue, for instance, won 10 games for the basement A’s. Cowan smacked 19 home runs. Griffith batted .290, Stewart showed speed on the bases. They remained obscure because the competition for rookie honors was so uncharacteristically fierce.

Certainly other years have produced many rookie stars: 1963, for instance, brought Pete Rose, Willie Stargell and Gaylord Perry, among likely Hall of Famers, together with Rusty Staub, Jim Wynn, Bill Freehan, Gary Peters, Ray Culp, Pete Ward, Tommy Harper, and Jimmie Hall, all of whom reached baseball’s pinnacle for at least a year or two. An allegedly thin rookie crop in 1965 still included Joe Morgan, Rico Petrocelli, Tony Perez, Jim Lefebvre, Curt Blefary, Frank Linzy, Ron Swoboda, Jim Palmer, and Jose Cardenal. Morgan and Palmer are sure Hall of Famers, Perez a reasonable candidate. The others enjoyed promising seasons.

What particularly distinguishes the 1964 rookie crop is that so many did so much so quickly, and that those who did the most the fastest—Oliva, Carty, Allen, Hart, Bunker, and Conigliaro—were so severely injured so often. Perhaps this can be judged a consequence of an unusually competitive era; five and six-team races in the National League were frequent, while the American League went six years without a repeat winner. Contending clubs are more inclined to send their best players on the field with minor injuries that could become major through aggravation. Too, sports medicine was not as advanced when most of the 1964 rookies suffered their first bad injuries. The 162-game season, air travel, and artificial turf all introduced new stresses; the slider had just begun to proliferate, and almost all the injured pitchers threw it.

Starting rotations usually included only four men instead of the five generally used today. Sammy Ellis was injured working out of a three-man rotation. The combination of short rotations and the slider appears most responsible: the Giants often used a three-man rotation, for example, but discouraged use of the slider (they favored the spitter) without losing any pitcher to chronic injury between the 1962 and ’74 seasons. Many outfielders suffered shoulder injuries because walls were not yet padded. Bean balls were thrown more frequently than today, broken ankles were more common because spikes were longer and more likely to snag. Players didn’t yet do long-distance running to strengthen their legs or weightlifting to combat specific weaknesses. What weight lifting they did ca. 1964 was oriented toward building overall strength; sometimes already strong muscles were pumped up while weak ones were neglected, resulting in more rather than fewer muscle pulls.

None of the 1964 rookies will be first-ballot Hall of Famers. It’s possible none will make it; Oliva has the best chance, followed by Carty, Allen, Campaneris, John, and Tiant. McLain, barely eligible, and Horton have outside shots. But how many could have gone to Cooperstown, without the injuries, will be forever conjecture.