What if the Wild card Existed in 1970?

1970

American League - #1 Baltimore vs. #4 Oakland ; #2 Minnesota vs. #3 New York
Orioles – Earl Weaver’s club returned with 108 wins and the division crown, en route to the championship. What did they have going for them? Eight guys with double digits in HR – the whole lineup minus Mark Belanger, led by 35 from Boog Powell. Merv Rettenmund hit .322 with 18 dingers off the bench. Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally and Jim Palmer all won 20 games – a combined 68 wins.

Orioles – C Ellie Hendricks, 1B Powell, 2B Davey Johnson, SS Belanger, 3B Brooks Robinson, OF Don Buford, Frank Robinson, Paul Blair, plus Rettenmund. 21-year-old Bobby Grich on the bench, and the first appearance of future MVP Don Baylor with 17 at-bats. SP – Cuellar, McNally and Palmer, who needs a #4! Closer Pete Richert.

A’s – A rematch of the 1969 ALDS puts the A’s against the Birds again with John McNamara managing the full season this time. Four guys hit over 20 HR, led surprisingly by 32-year-old Don Mincher. Reggie Jackson was a 20-20 guy that season. Nobody won 20 games on the team – but Chuck Dobson and Catfish Hunter combined for 34 wins. Diego Segui and closer Mudcat Grant threw 285 innings in relief

A’s – C Frank Fernandez, 1B Mincher, 2B Dick Green, SS Bert Campaneris, 3B Sal Bando, OF Felipe Alou, Jackson, Rick Monday, with Joe Rudi emerging for the first time. 25-year-old Tony LaRussa sat on the bench with future playoff hero Gene Tenace. SP – Dobson, Hunter, Blue Moon Odom, and a 20-year-old kid named Vida Blue. Closer – Grant.

The Twins returned to the playoffs in 1970 with 98 wins and no more Billy Martin. Little difference offensively from the 1969 team as it was mostly Killebrew (41 HR) and Tovar (.300 Ave, 30 SB). Although there were 191 ABs from Rod Carew at a .366 clip. Leading the way in the rotation were 38 wins from Jim Perry and Jim Kaat, plus the emergence of a 19-year-old Bert Blyleven. Luis Tiant rounded out a very good staff.

Twins – C George Mitterwald, 1B Rich Reese, 2B Danny Thompson, SS Leo Cardenas, 3B Harmon Killebrew, OF Tony Oliva, Cesar Tovar, Jim Holt. SP – Perry, Kaat, Blyleven, Tiant. Closer – Ron Perranoski

Welcome back to the playoffs, New York ! Ralph Houk’s team won 93 games in 1970 – a good team that history forgot. Amazingly this was a Yankee team that had only two guys hit double digits in HR – Bobby Murcer’s 23 HR and Roy White’s 22 HR. White also led the team with 94 RBI. Three Yankees actually posted 20+ steals that year. These were the run and gun Yankees! 49 wins came out of the Yankee rotation, including 20 for Fritz Peterson. Mel Stottlemyre and Stan Bahnsen followed. Could this anomaly of a Yankee team manage to get past a vastly superior Twins team and then take on the juggernaut from Baltimore or the upstart A’s that would soon become a dynasty? It would have been interesting to find out.

Yankees – C 23-year-old Thurman Munson, 1B Danny Cater, 2B Horace Clarke, SS Gene Michael, 3B Jerry Kenney, OF White, Murcer, Curt Blefary. A deep bench that included – John Ellis, Ron Woods and Jake Gibbs. SP – Peterson, Stottlemyre, Bahnsen and the other wife-swapper Mike Kekich. Closer – Lindy McDaniel.

National League - #1 Cincinnati vs. #4 San Francisco; #2 Pittsburgh vs. #3 Los Angeles
Reds – Cincinnati welcomed the Big Red Machine in 1970 as they went on to lose the World Series to Baltimore . But how would they have done with a first round matchup against the Giants?

How about 129 HR from Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Lee May? 57 steals from Bobby Tolan? Another 21 dingers from Bernie Carbo? 66 wins from the rotation led by 20-game winner Jim Merritt (despite a 4.08 ERA!).

Reds – C 22-year-old Bench, 1B May, 2B Tommy Helms, SS 22-year-old Dave Concepcion, 3B Perez, OF Pete Rose, Tolan, Carbo. SP – Merritte, Gary Nolan, Jim McGlothlin, Wayne Simpson. Closer – Wayne Granger, with 19-year-old phenom Don Gullett in the pen.

Giants – they only won 86 games, but it would have been enough for the fourth seed. Again, the Giants would have gotten by with power – specifically Willie McCovey’s 39 HR, Willie Mays’ 28 HR and Bobby Bonds’ 26 HR. Most people would have likely forgotten about Dick Dietz’ 22 HR and 107 RBI that season. Pitching was the problem as they were quite thin after Gaylord Perry’s 23 wins and Juan Marichal’s 12 wins and 4.12 ERA. This team hit them out and served them right back up.

Giants – C Dietz, 1B McCovey, 2B Ron Hunt, SS Hal Lanier, 3B Al Gallagher, OF Bonds, Ken Henderson, Mays. 435 ABs also went to Tito Fuentes. SP – Perry, Marichal, Rich Robertson, Skip Pitlock. Closer – 40-year-old Don McMahon.

The Pirates took home the East crown with just 89 wins and were a year away from their championship. However, Willie Stargell’s 31 HR and Roberto Clemente’s .352 batting average went a long way to winning games. Al Oliver was not one of the regulars, but he added almost a full season off the bench and added 33 2Bs and 12 HR. The pitching was led by no one spectacular, but spread out 44 wins among the top four, including Steve Blass, pre-Steve Blass disease. To steal a line from Denis Leary – Steve, there is a disease out there with your name ALL over it.

Pirates – C Manny Sanguillen, 1B Bob Robertson, 2B Bill Mazeroski, SS Gene Alley, 3B Richie Hebner, OF Matty Alou, Stargell, Clemente. Plus Oliver. SP – Blass, Bob Veale, Dock Ellis, Bob Moose. Closer – Dave Giusti.

The Dodgers only won 87 games – which means that three of the four NL playoff teams had less than 90 wins. Nobody hit 20 HR, although Wes Parker had a bizarre 111 RBIs with only 10 HR. The 47 doubles helped. The team is interesting for the hint of what was to come with 21-year-old Bill Russell’s 278 ABs, 21-year-old Steve Garvey’s 93 ABs and 20-year-old Bill Buckner’s 68 ABs. They got 41 wins and a rather high ERA from the top three starters – Don Sutton, Claude Osteen and Alan Foster.

Dodgers – C Tom Haller, 1B Parker, 2B Ted Sizemore, SS Maury Wills, 3B Billy Grabarkewitz – one of the best Strat-o-Matic cards you’ll ever see on a player you never heard of, OF Willie Davis, Manny Mota, Willie Crawford and Jim Lefebvre. SP – Sutton, Osteen, Foster and Joe Moeller. Closer – Jim Brewer.

A weak National League would have likely led to the Reds going to the World Series anyway, but could the Orioles run through the A’s and likely the Twins to get there? Could this have remained an Orioles-Reds World Series, or could Harmon Killebrew and company finally won one?

My Predictions –

AL – Orioles over Athletics in four and Twins over the Yankees in three – The O’s are again too strong for Oakland on the mound and I still look at that Yankee team and wonder how they won so many games.

Twins over Orioles in six – Upset Special! Perhaps Baltimore is not as hungry after winning in 1969, but their pitching may have held up well against the O’s and who knows how the ball would bounce.

NL – Reds over Giants in four and Pirates over Dodgers in four – The Reds and Bucs were head and shoulders better than everyone else in the NL. LA would have been interesting, but they were still pretty young in 1970.

Reds over Pirates in six – I see no reason to change history here.

World Series – Twins over Reds in six – Minnesota grabs the crown and puts a ring on Killebrew and Carew’s fingers. Perhaps a WS championship would propel Olivo and Blyleven into the Hall of Fame someday.

Coming up – 1971 – most of the same teams, but the emergence of the Kansas City Royals for the first time in the playoffs, the first of two Royal Wild Cards before the beginning of their run of Division Crowns.
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