July 4, 1962 Great day in Angel history

[Angels 1961]

July 4, 1962 Angels defeat Washington Senators in a doubleheader and are in first place. A great feat for a second year team. Most of you will not remember this but I do, one of my greatest memories as an Angel fan.

[Lou]

Happy Birthday, Post Malone

[DMVol]

How many games had been played? Might give you some perspective on a 60 game season...

[oldguy]

And no divisions.  Just one 10-team league.

[Angels 1961]

3 hours ago, DMVol said:

How many games had been played? Might give you some perspective on a 60 game season...

They were 45 and 34

[Angel Oracle]

And expansion teams through the 1970s generally sucked for at least 5-6 years.

[Claude]

[DMVol]

11 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

And expansion teams through the 1970s generally sucked for at least 5-6 years.

It was a lot easier after free agency, see the Marlins in the 90’s...

[Angel Oracle]

23 minutes ago, DMVol said:

It was a lot easier after free agency, see the Marlins in the 90’s...

And the D-Backs and the Rockies

The blueprint for expansion turned out to be the 1969 Royals, who struggled for the first 2 years, had really solid 1971 and 1973 seasons, and then became really good consistently from 1975-1985.   They focused on pitching early on.

Edited July 5, 2020 by Angel Oracle

[Robert Ballot]

On 7/4/2020 at 9:29 PM, Angels 1961 said:

July 4, 1962 Angels defeat Washington Senators in a doubleheader and are in first place. A great feat for a second year team. Most of you will not remember this but I do, one of my greatest memories as an Angel fan.

From the cover story in the October, 1962 issue of National Geographic, "California's City of Angels": "This year the Dogers opened 'the finest stadium in baseball,' at Chavez Ravine near the fantastic confluence of freeways in downtown Los Angeles known as the Stack; the Angels, too, play here. Excitement ran high last July 4 when, for the first time, both teams led their leagues." I thought this had to be a mistake, but the Angels -- in their second season -- finished 86-76 in 3rd place. Very probable that the reporting is correct.

 

[Angel Oracle]

After the 45-34 start, they still managed to go 30-25 as of a game 1 win in an August 31 DH in DC, and were just 2 games in back of the Yankees in the loss column at 75-59.   Sadly though, the slipper didn't fit for the rest of the season (11-17 record).   An incredible season for that era, nonetheless

The hitting was solid enough (5th in AL in runs scored, 7th in HRs and OPS).

Leon Wagner and Lee Thomas hit 63 HRs and drove in 211 between them, while playing half the time in a strong pitchers park (the Latrine).

Billy Moran and Felix Torres both drove in 74 runs. 

The pitching was very good, and balanced (solid starting and relief pitching).    Remarkably, they were 2nd in AL ERA (3.70).  

Dean Chance started his solid run as a Halo that year (half starts and half relief appearances) with a sub 3.00 ERA over 206 innings, and finished 3rd for AL ROTY.   

Belinsky of course had the first Latrine no-hitter early that season, and had a 3.56 ERA.

Ken McBride was in the midst of three straight years being in the ASG, but unfortunately was out for around 2 months late in the season after having a great start (11-3 rcd, 3.25 ERA after a mid-July SHO of the Indians).   His absence may have played a solid part in the team being 41-42 after the 45-34 start. 

Future Halos pitching coach Tom Morgan was one of several having a solid year out of the pen.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Angel Oracle