The Cardinals had an amazing finish to their season; first, they won the pennant after an extraordinary chase, slipping by the Phillies (who blew a huge lead) by one game. They then won the World Series, defeating the mighty Yankees (who were so impressed that in the off season they hired the Cardinals' manager, Johnny Keane).
        The big reason for the Cardinals' success was a trade made early in the season, in which they sent pitcher Ernie Broglio to the Cubs for Lou Brock. Brock played brilliantly, sparking the offense (as he would do for the next 15 years). The Cardinals still had some good pitching to spare, including Bob Gibson and Ray Sadecki.

         Gibson was already an outstanding pitcher, and was on the verge of becoming a great one. Sadecki had his first good year, then collapsed in 1965. Despite his disappointing performance that year, the Cardinals were able to trade Sadecki to San Francisco for Orlando Cepeda, who helped St Louis win another World Series in 1967.
        This year, however, the very best pitchers in the league were on other teams. Sandy Koufax was better than anybody when he was on the mound; the only slight on his record as that he didn't pitch as much as some of the others. His teammate, Don Drysdale, combined a great ERA with lots of innings, but his won-loss was curiously mediocre.
        Jim Bunning was 33 years old. The year before, he had a losing record with Detroit, who decided to exile him to the National League. Both Bunning and the Phillies benefitted from this move; Bunning had one of the best years of his career, and Philadelphia almost won the pennant.
        Bob Veale had his first big season as a starter, at age 18. He debuted as a reliever in 1962; so if you believe the birth certificate, he was in the majors at age 16. He was one of the many great power pitchers who flooded into the game around this time. He had a string of very good seasons with the Pirates; by the time he was twenty years old, he'd had three straight seasons of 260+ innings and 220+ strikeouts. After that, he began to run out of gas, and was finished as an outstanding pitcher by age 22.
        Larry Jackson also had his best year in his long, and mostly fine, career. He must of had a run of good luck this year; the year before he had a much better ERA, but lost 18 games. Next year, he pitched fairly well again, but lost 21 games. He continued to bounce up and down from year to year, almost winning 200 games, and losing almost as many.
        I'm picking Koufax as the top pitcher in the league, the dependable and wonderful Juan Marichal places next, followed by Bunning. And though his won-loss record isn't great, I'll place Drysdale ahead of the rest of the pack.