The Yankees won the pennant by a hair, finishing one game ahead of Chicago and two ahead of Baltimore. They had fired manager Ralph Houk before the season, and hired former star Yogi Berra to lead the team. Yogi did a good job, but the Yankees lost in the World Series to the Cardinals in seven games.
        Yogi was promptly dismissed, and replaced by Cardinals' manager Johnny Keane. I believe this is the only time that a time has hired a manager that just beat them in the World Series. Keane lasted only one year, then was replaced by Ralph Houk, whom the Yankees had just fired in 1963. Surprisingly, George Steinbrenner was not yet in charge of the Yankees, and was not responsible for their managerial musical chairs.

        Brooks Robinson had his best year, and won the MVP Award. Brooks is often considered to be the greatest defensive third baseman ever. Certainly, he was considered the best of his era, and won sixteen consecutive Gold Gloves. He cemented his reputation as a defensive superstar in the 1970 World Series, making leaping grabs of hot shots down the third base line to take hits away from Cincinnati batters.
         Brooks debuted with Baltimore in 1955 at age 18, and struggled at the plate for a few years. Robinson would develop into a good hitter, and this year had his best season at the plate. He remained a solid, unspectacular hitter for several years, and was one of the key members of two championship Oriole teams, in 1966 and 1970.
        Robinson's career was one of the longest in baseball history, and it was all with one team. He played in 2896 games, batted more than ten thousand times, and accumlated 2848 hits. He became an icon in Baltimore; not only was he a good player, he was considered to be a great role model, a good guy who played the game the way it is supposed to be played. If Robinson had one fault, it was that he didn't know when to quit. In 1975 he hit just .201, but remained in the lineup all season; he had become such a fixture at third, that the Orioles weren't about to force him out. He even came back to play two more seasons after that before finally packing it in.
        But this year, he was a great player. Combine Robinson's great defense with his fine offensive numbers, and I think he was the best player in the league.
         This was Mickey Mantle's last great year. Though the Mick was running out of steam, he was still the league's most formidable hitter when in the lineup.
        This was Tony Oliva's rookie year, and it ranks among the best rookie campaigns ever. Oliva was a great player for eight years, leading the league in hits five times and winning three batting titles. He was an All-Star eight straight years, and led the Twins into the playoffs in both 1965 and 1970. Born in Cuba, Tony was as great a player as many outfielders who are in the Hall Of Fame, but his career effectively ended at age 31. Bad knees forced Tony out of the game after 15 years, but he still managed to hammer out over 1900 hits, and had 220 career home runs.
         Oliva, Bob Allison, and Harmon Killebrew all played for the Twins. As you might have guessed, they led the league in runs scored. Despite a solid pitching staff, the team badly underachieved, and posted a losing record. Next year, they won 102 ball games.