Here's a short section featuring men who were legends of the game by 1974 and naming a few who were on their way to the big time.
Mickey Mantle, "Whitey"
Ford, and "Cool Papa" Bell are among the newest members of
the Hall of Fame. So is umpire "Jocko" Conlan, with posthumous
honors being bestowed upon Jim Bottomley and Sam Thompson.
After the season, Hank Aaron goes to Tokyo for a
home-run contest against Sadaharu Oh, the Yomiuri Giants player who will
reach one more than Aaron's eventual career mark in '77. Oh hits 9 home runs in
20 tries, and Aaron goes 10 for 18. While he is abroad, the Atlanta Braves
carry out Aaron's plans to go back to where he started his career and be a
designated hitter for the Milwaukee Brewers next season instead of just
being a PR man for the Braves.
Topps issues its first "factory set" of 660
baseball cards instead of releasing it in installments as was done before. This
is also the first year of the Topps Traded series.
The champions of the three AAA circuits are the Tulsa
Oilers of the American Association, the Rochester Red Wings of the
International League, and the Spokane Indians of the Pacific Coast
League.
In the I.L., Jim Rice, after batting .337 with 25
home runs and 93 RBI for the Pawtucket Red Sox, is called up to play for
the Boston Red Sox, and Gary Carter, with 23 home runs for the Tidewater
Tides, makes his debut for the New York Mets.
Eddie Murray bats .289 with 12 home
runs and 63 RBI for the Miami Orioles of the Florida State League.
Two more Hall of Famers on the farm: Bruce Sutter,
training to be a reliever already, splits the season between the FSL's Key
West Conchs and the Texas League's Midland Cubs, while Dennis
Eckersley strikes out 163 for the T.L.'s San Antonio Brewers.
The first woman to coach in organized baseball is Lanny
Moss of the Northwest League's unaffiliated Portland Mavericks.
In Japan, the 1974 pennant winners are the Lotte Orions
of the Pacific League and the Chunichi Dragons of the Central League.
The Orions win the Japan Series.
USC wins the College World Series
for the fifth time in a row, defeating the University of Miami 7-3 in
the championship game. The Most Outstanding Player of the tournament is George
Milke.
A team from Kaohsiung -- with a 12-1 win over Red Bluff,
Calif., in the championship game -- wins the fourth Little League World Series
in a row and the fifth overall for Taiwan (Republic of China). There will be no
foreign teams at next year's tournament, suspicion of Taiwanese teams using
players from outside their districts being a concern.
The American Legion junior baseball champions hail from
Puerto Rico.
Little League Baseball opens the gates for girls June 12
when a New Jersey court finds in favor of the National Organization for Women.
Bob Aspromonte --
who as a Houston Colt .45s player had hit a home run for an Arkansas boy
in a local hospital 12 years before -- is blinded by acid from a car battery.
He gets a call from that Arkansan (who in 1962 had been blinded by lightning)
and eye surgery from the same doctor who had brought back the boy's eyesight.
Dizzy Dean dies July 17. Jim
Murray of the Los Angeles Times leads with this line: "Well,
we're all 120 years older today." The St. Louis Cardinals retire
the uniform number 17 in Dean's honor Sept. 22.
Soon after Hall of Famer Sam Rice's death Oct. 13,
the contents of a letter about whether the former Washington Senators
outfielder had in fact made a certain catch in the 1925 World Series are
disclosed.
Reportedly inspired by the WFL, Sean Morton Downey Jr.
(yes, that Morton Downey Jr.) is one of the founders of a phantom league called
the World Baseball Association. Three-ball walks, the awarding of two runs for
late-inning steals of home, and the use of not one but five designated hitters
are ideas for this concept for a 32-team operation in the Americas and Asia.
In Peanuts strips for late September, Linus Van
Pelt, in his role as statistician, reveals that manager-pitcher Charlie Brown's
ERA is around 80.00 and that Lucy Van Pelt has no putouts or assists this
season.
Wohlhuter, Vasquez, and Petty. Run, ride, and
rev it up. We take it to the track May 3.
