1964 Major League Baseball season


The 1964 major league baseball season began on April 13, 1964. The regular season ended on October 4, with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of the 61st World Series on October 7 and ended with Game 7 on October 15. In the fifth iteration of this World Series matchup, the Cardinals defeated the Yankees, four games to three, capturing their seventh championship in franchise history, since their previous in. As of 2024, the Cardinals are the only National League team to have an edge over the Yankees in series played, despite holding a losing record in World Series games against them. Going into the season, the defending World Series champions were the Los Angeles Dodgers from the season.
The 35th Major League Baseball All-Star Game, was held on July 7 at Shea Stadium in New York, New York, home of the New York Mets. The National League won, 7–4.
This season is often remembered for the end of the New York Yankees' third dynasty, as they won their 29th American League Championship in 44 seasons.

Schedule

The 1964 schedule consisted of 162 games for all teams in the American League and National League, each of which had ten teams. Each team was scheduled to play 18 games against the other nine teams of their respective league. This continued the format put in place by the American League since the season and by the National League since the season, and would be used until.
Opening Day took place on April 13, featuring four teams. The final day of the regular season was on October 4, which saw 18 teams play. The World Series took place between October 7 and October 15.

Rule changes

The 1964 season saw the following rule changes:
  • In an attempt to help bolster the four expansion teams,, they were permitted to farm out four first-year players in addition to what all other sixteen teams could do. These four additional players did not count in each team's player roster, nor would the teams risk losing said players on waivers. The rules for the other sixteen teams limited the number of players to one.
  • Colored bats, unless approved by the Rules Committee, were banned.

Postseason

The postseason began on October 7 and ended on October 15 with the St. Louis Cardinals defeating the New York Yankees in the 1964 World Series in seven games.

Bracket



League leaders

American League

StatPlayerTotal
AVGTony Oliva .323
OPSMickey Mantle 1.015
HRHarmon Killebrew 49
RBIBrooks Robinson 118
RTony Oliva 109
HTony Oliva 217
SBLuis Aparicio 57

StatPlayerTotal
WDean Chance
Gary Peters 		20
LDiego Seguí 17
ERADean Chance 1.65
KAl Downing 217
IPDean Chance 278.1
SVDick Radatz 29
WHIPJoe Horlen 0.935

National League

StatPlayerTotal
AVGRoberto Clemente .339
OPSWillie Mays .990
HRWillie Mays 47
RBIKen Boyer 119
RDick Allen 125
HRoberto Clemente
Curt Flood 		211
SBMaury Wills 53

StatPlayerTotal
WLarry Jackson 24
LTracy Stallard 20
ERASandy Koufax 1.74
KBob Veale 250
IPDon Drysdale 321.1
SVHal Woodeshick 23
WHIPSandy Koufax 0.928

Awards and honors

Other awards

Monthly awards

Player of the Month

MonthNational League
MayBilly Williams
JuneJim Bunning
JulyRon Santo
AugustFrank Robinson
SeptemberBob Gibson

Baseball Hall of Fame

Venues

The New York Mets leave the Polo Grounds and open Shea Stadium where they would go on to play 45 seasons through. Excluding –, the time in which there was no National League New York team, this marked the first season to not see any iteration of the Polo Grounds not feature a major-league team since, the season prior to founding of the Giants.
The Houston Colt.45s would play their final game at Colt Stadium on September 27 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, moving into the Houston Astrodome for the start of the season.

Television coverage

CBS and NBC aired weekend Game of the Week broadcasts. Although it had been three years since the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 was passed to authorize sports leagues to enter into television contracts that "pooled" the TV rights of all their teams, MLB still operated under the older system where the networks purchased the regular season rights to individual clubs. By 1964, CBS paid $895,000 total for the rights to six teams, with the New York Yankees getting a $550,000 share. The six clubs that exclusively played nationally televised games on NBC were paid $1.2 million total.
The All-Star Game and World Series aired on NBC.

Retired numbers