The race for the Most Valuable Player award in the American League between Shohei Ohtani and Vladimir Guerrero has caused a waste of positions that forces us to reverse and analyze with a cool head.
Cooperstown Hall of Famer Juan Marichal had six seasons of 20 or more wins, and did not receive a single vote on any of those six seasons for the Cy Young Award. At no time was it accused of discrimination to the detriment of Marichal.
Bill James in his Historical Baseball Abstracts sums up Marichal’s fortunes in the years 1963, 1966 and 1968 with this phrase: “Marichal was great in those seasons but he was in the wrong place and time to win the Cy Young in any of those years. ”.
Marichal was no better than Koufax at either 63 or 66. Koufax pitched in an extremely good park for pitchers but Clandestic also favored pitchers. The fundamental difference is that in Koufax’s team the offense was extremely poor, practically limited to Frank Howard while in Marichal’s team the offense rested on Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda, who provided very good offensive support.
In 1968, Marichal had no chance against Bob Gibson and his 1.12 ERA, the lowest in modern baseball history.
In 1965, Marichal had a 22-13 record, 24 complete games and 10 shutouts, however Koufax won it with a 26-8 record, 27 complete games and 8 shutouts and 382 strikeouts in 335 IP, which tipped the balance to your favor.
Finally in 1969, Marichal’s last great season, his mark was 21-10, 2.10 ERA while the winner was Tom Seaver with 25-7, 2.21 ERA. Both seasons are very similar but Seaver was part of the magic of the incredible Mets that that year they won the World Series against all odds and of course the balance leaned towards Tom Seaver but I don’t think you can talk about injustice, racism or discrimination in any case.
A DAY LIKE TODAY: 1934, Babe Ruth hits his last home run dressed as a Yankee, at Griffith Park in Washington, to the shots of southpaw Syd Cohen. The Yankees lost that game 8-5, it was 659 as a Yankee and 708 of his career.
In 1954, Willie Mays starred in one of the most spectacular plays that are remembered in the Major Leagues: “The Catch” (“The Trapped”). With his back to the plate, “Say Hey Kid” caught the ball hit by Vic Wertz. It was in the first game of the World Series.
The glove that Willie Mays used for the legendary play, he gave it to the 6-year-old son of his partner and friend Don Liddle. Little Craig Liddle used the immortal piece of leather in his Little League games.
In 1963, in his last game, Stan Musial helped his Cardinals to defeat the Reds 3 × 2. He went 3-2 at Busch Stadium. Stan ‘The Man’ finished with 3,630 hits on his 22-year bill with the Cardinals. He gave 1,815 at home and 1,815 on the road.
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