Sandy Koufax was the unanimous winner of the Cy Young Award;
no AL pitcher received a vote. Ford received the most MVP support,
followed by Dick Radatz of Boston, and Gary Peters of Chicago. Ford
has a compelling argument, leading the league in wins and innings
pitched, with a good ERA as well. Some other guys have slightly
better ERAs, but I'll stick with Whitey and his 24 wins.
After Whitey, I'll take Dick Radatz, the Boston reliever. "The
Monster" was in his second season, and was awesome. His record is
about as good as a reliever's can be, with 15 wins, 25 saves, a
great ERA, lots of strikeouts. It's difficult to measure his value
against the other pitchers, but observers at the time thought he
was very valuable, and I am inclined to agree.
It's possible, or even probable, that the best pitcher in the
league was Gary Peters. This was his first of two ERA titles;
Peters had an uneven career, mixing some outstanding seasons with
some poor ones. You could also make a case for Camilo Pascual; a
wonderful pitcher, Pascual had a brutal start to his career but
managed to finish with more wins than losses. Unfortunately, he
began to have arm problems next year, just as the Twins started to
get really good.
This was Jim Bouton's second year in the majors. Things were
looking good for him; he was 24 years old, he was very tough to
hit, and he pitched for the Yankees. Bouton had another good year
in 1964, then both he and the Yankees fell apart. He moved on to
some different teams, including the 1969 Seattle Pilots, and became
really famous for writing a book,
Ball Four, a candid look at
life as a ballplayer (so candid that it was intensely hated by
lots of people within baseball, and commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to
prevent its publication).
Peters, Pascual, and Bouton have almost identical stats; I
don't know if I can include one or two without including all three.
But I only have room for four; I'll take Peters, followed by
Pascual, and leave Bouton off the list, even if he was just as
good.
