1968 in baseball


The Year of the Pitcher

In Major League Baseball, the trend throughout the 1960s was of increased pitching dominance. After the record home run year by Roger Maris in 1961, the major leagues increased the size of the strike zone from the top of the batter's shoulders to the bottom of his knees. A significant "power shortage" culminated in 1968, with far fewer runs scored than in the early 1960s.
Pitchers including Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals and Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers dominated hitters, producing 339 shutouts in 1968, almost double the number of shutouts thrown in 1962. Individually, Gibson set a modern earned run average record of 1.12, the lowest in 54 years, and set a World Series record of 17 strikeouts in Game 1. McLain won 31 regular season games, the only player to reach the 30 win milestone since Dizzy Dean in 1934. Mickey Lolich won three complete games in the World Series, the last player as of 2015 to do so. Luis Tiant of the Cleveland Indians had the American League's lowest ERA at 1.60 and allowed a batting average of only.168, a major league record. Don Drysdale of the Los Angeles Dodgers threw a record 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, and Catfish Hunter of the Oakland Athletics was the first American League pitcher to record a perfect game since Don Larsen in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. In addiction, Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants led the National League with 26 wins and 30 complete games.
Hitting was anemic as Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox would be the only American League hitter to finish the season with a batting average higher than.300. Yastrzemski's batting average of.301 was the lowest batting average of any league batting champion. The American League's collective slugging average of.340 remains the lowest since 1915, while the collective batting average of.231 is the all-time lowest. As a result of the dropping offensive statistics, Major League Baseball Rules Committee took steps to reduce the advantage held by pitchers by lowering the height of the pitchers mound from 15 inches to 10 inches, and by reducing the size of the strike zone for the 1969 season. 1969 batting averages climbed back to their historical averages and never again would pitching have as large a statistical average over batting in the major leagues.
1968 was the final year when baseball had no divisions within the two leagues, with the only post-season competition being the World Series itself. Four expansion teams would join baseball for the season following in 1969. This was also the first season that the Athletics franchise played in Oakland, California, after their departure from Kansas City, Missouri.

Champions

Major League Baseball

Major league baseball final standings

American League final standings

National League final standings

Nippon Professional Baseball final standings

Central League final standings

Pacific League final standings

Events

January

  • January 11
  • *Kansas City officially re-enters the American League when it is granted an expansion team to begin play in 1969. The team, to be known as the Kansas City Royals, replaces the departed Athletics and will be locally owned by pharmaceuticals magnate Ewing Kauffman. The owner immediately appoints Cedric Tallis the first general manager in team history. Tallis, 53, is the former business manager of the California Angels.
  • *The Cincinnati Reds acquire Alex Johnson from the St. Louis Cardinals for fellow outfielder Dick Simpson. Johnson, 25, had batted only.211 with St. Louis in 1966–1967, but he will win Cincinnati's left field job, hit.312 in 149 games, and be named The Sporting News' NL Comeback Player of the Year Award for 1968.
  • January 23 – Joe Medwick is voted into the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
  • January 26 – The Philadelphia Phillies sign infielder Manny Trillo as an undrafted free agent.
  • January 28
  • *Goose Goslin and Kiki Cuyler are admitted into the Hall of Fame by unanimous vote of the Special Veterans Committee.
  • *Davey Lopes, a 22-year-old outfielder, is drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of Kansas' Washburn University in the second round of the 1968 January Major League Baseball draft's secondary phase. As a second baseman, Lopes will become a Dodger regular for nearly a decade and four-time NL All-Star.

    February

  • February 6 – Voters in King County, Washington, approve by 62 percent a $40 million bond issue to build a domed, multipurpose stadium. The Kingdome will be built between 1972 and 1976 and operate from 1976 until its demolition in 2000.
  • February 8 – Johnny Edwards, former three-time NL All-Star and 2x Gold Glove Award winner for the Cincinnati Reds, is traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for catcher Pat Corrales and infielder Jimy Williams. Edwards, 29, is losing his starting catcher job to rookie and future Hall-of-Famer Johnny Bench.
  • February 13
  • *The San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers execute a four-player trade when catcher Tom Haller and minor-league hurler Fran Kasheta go to Los Angeles for second baseman Ron Hunt and utility infielder Nate Oliver. The trade is the first between the two rivals since their move to the West Coast, and the first since the December 1956 deal that would have sent Jackie Robinson from the Brooklyn Dodgers to the New York Giants—which was nullified by Robinson's retirement one month later.
  • *In the American League, the Chicago White Sox and Washington Senators make a six-player swap. Chicago sends pitchers Dennis Higgins and Steve Jones and shortstop Ron Hansen to Washington for pitchers Buster Narum and Bob Priddy and infielder Tim Cullen.
  • February 21 – Seattle's American League expansion team, set to debut in 1969, names Marvin Milkes, 44, its first general manager. Milkes had previously been assistant GM of the California Angels.

    March

  • March 4 – The San Francisco Giants sign pitcher Elias Sosa as an undrafted free agent.
  • March 24 – The Chicago Cubs release pitcher Dick Radatz.
  • March 26 – The Chicago White Sox sell the contract of veteran American League slugger Rocky Colavito to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Colavito, 34, is entering his 14th and final big-league season; the Dodgers will release him July 11, and four days later the native of The Bronx will "come home" to sign with his final team, the New York Yankees.
  • March 31 – Pacific Northwest Sports, owners of Seattle's expansion team, announces that it has chosen Pilots as the club's nickname. The moniker is suggested by a local resident to recognize Seattle's maritime heritage and its status as the home of aircraft manufacturer Boeing.

    April

  • April 2 – Infielder Phil Linz signs with the New York Mets as a free agent.
  • April 3 – Pitcher Skip Lockwood, drafted by the Houston Astros from the Oakland Athletics, is returned to Oakland when the Astros opt against having Lockwood on the final roster.
File:1969 Pulitzer Feature Photography Winner.jpg|thumb|Martin Luther King Jr. is mourned at his 1968 funeral by his widow, Coretta, and youngest child, Bernice
  • April 4 – The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the American civil rights leader, is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, causing violent civil disturbances in multiple U.S. cities. Riots in Washington postpone the traditional "Presidential Opener" on April 8 at District of Columbia Stadium. Major League Baseball postpones all games scheduled for April 9 to mark King's funeral.
  • April 11 – Denny McLain gets the ball in the Detroit Tigers' second game of the 1968 campaign. He goes seven innings against the defending American League champion Boston Red Sox, allows six hits, and leaves for a pinch hitter with the game tied, 3–3. Although the Tigers triumph, 4–3, the victory goes to reliever Jon Warden. McLain gives little evidence he's in store for an historic season, but by September 19 his record will be 31 wins, five defeats—MLB's first 30+-game winner since Dizzy Dean in —and, like Dean, he is driving his team towards a World Series.
  • April 14 – Jim Bunning's first win with the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3–0 at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium, is his 40th career shutout and includes his 1,000th National League strikeout, making him the first pitcher since Cy Young with 1,000 in each league.
  • April 15 – At the Astrodome, the Houston Astros defeat the New York Mets 1–0 in a 24-inning, six-hour, six-minute marathon. In the bottom of the 24th, Astro Bob Aspromonte's bases-loaded ground ball goes through the legs of Met shortstop Al Weis for an error that plates Norm Miller for the winning run. To date, the game is the longest to end in a shutout in terms of both innings and duration.
  • April 19 – Nolan Ryan of the New York Mets becomes the sixth pitcher in National League history to strike out the side on nine pitches. But the Los Angeles Dodgers win 3–2 at Shea Stadium.
  • April 23 – The Chicago Cubs acquire pitcher Phil Regan and outfielder Jim Hickman from the Dodgers for southpaw hurler Jim Ellis and outfielder Ted Savage. Regan will lead the NL in saves in 1968, and Hickman will make the Senior Circuit's All-Star team in.
  • April 25 – The Chicago White Sox lose their tenth consecutive game to start the 1968 campaign, stretching their two-season losing streak to 15 contests dating to September 1967.
  • April 27 – Tom Phoebus, the Baltimore Orioles' top pitcher in 1967, throws a 6–0 no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. Brooks Robinson drives in three runs and makes a great stab to rob Rico Petrocelli of a hit in the 8th inning. Converted outfielder Curt Blefary catches the game.