1964 Payoff Pitch Baseball Season Set L/R Splits

Description

1964 player cards for Payoff Pitch Baseball.  This set includes L/R splits on the player cards.

After winning four straight American League Pennants, the New York Yankees turned to Yogi Berra to manage the club for the 1964 season. That decision looked suspect as the Yankees were in third place in American League four games behind second place Baltimore and four and a half games behind league leader Chicago. New York would catch fire in September winning 22 of 28 games and finished just 1 game ahead of the White Sox and 2 games ahead of the Orioles to win their record tying fifth straight AL pennant. Mickey Mantle, Elton Howard and Roger Maris paced the Bronx Bombers while Whitey Ford, Jim Bouton and Al Downing formed a formidable threesome at the top of the Yankees rotation.

Chicago rode the league’s best pitching staff to 98 wins as Gary Peters won 20 games with a 2.50 ERA and Juan Pizarro won 19 games with a 2.56 ERA. Joe Horlen only won 13 games, but had the best ERA among White Sox starters with a 1.88 ERA. 40 year old Hoyt Wilhelm anchored Chicago’s bullpen saving 27 games and posting a 1.99 ERA in his 73 appearances. The Orioles were powered by Brooks Robinson and his league leading 118 RBI and Boog Powell’s 39 HR. Los Angeles Angels pitcher Dean Chance led the league with 15 complete games, a 1.65 ERA and 20 wins.

In the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies were the cream of the crop enjoying a six game lead on September 20th. Ten losses later and the Phillies had been leapfrogged by the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds. The final day of the season saw the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds tied for the league lead with 92-69 records while the Phillies were one game behind at 91-70. The reds were hosting Philadelphia while the Cardinals were hosting the hapless Mets (53-109). The Phillies beat the Reds 10-0 to draw both teams even with identical 92-70 records. Both teams needed the Cardinals to lose to force a three-way tie for the division. The Mets took a 3-2 in the top of the 5th inning, but St. Louis roared back scoring 9 runs to win the game 11-5 and the NL pennant.

Ken Boyer provided most of the Cardinals offense with 24 HR and a NL leading 119 RBI. Ray Sadecki (20-11), Bob Gibson (19-12) and Curt Simmons (18-9) paced the pitching staff. San Francisco’s Willie Mays led the NL with 47 HR. The Los Angeles Dodgers had the league’s best one-two punch at the top of their rotation with Sandy Koufax (19-5, 1.74 ERA) and Don Drysdale (18-16, 2.19 ERA).

The World Series went the full seven games with the Cardinals winning the decisive game seven by a score of 7 to 5. St. Louis starter Bob Gibson would pitch three complete games and strike out 31 Yankee batters during the series.