Baseball the Year You Were Born-1960

Major League Baseball in 1960 witnessed the New York Yankees return to the World Series after missing the post-season in 1959. This Yankee squad in 1960 would be led by a newcomer, Roger Maris, who would capture the first of back-to-back MVP Awards, only to lose as bizarre a World Series as has ever been played. The eventual champion in 1960, the Pittsburgh Pirates, were led by a league MVP of their own, Dick Groat, whose numbers nowadays would get you laughed out of the room if you suggested they were worthy of such an honor.

New York was mildly threatened in 1960 only by the Orioles and the defending pennant winners in the American League, the White Sox. At the end of June, New York was a game and a half in front of Baltimore, with the Indians and White Sox not far behind. The rest of the way, the Bombers played at a .640 clip, while Chicago and Baltimore could not keep pace and the bottom fell out for Cleveland. At the end of the year, New York won over the O's by a full eight contests. Mickey Mantle and Maris staged a race for the home run title, a prelude on a much smaller scale to the one they would hold the very next campaign. Mantle edged out Roger 40-39 to take the crown, but Maris was named MVP on the strength of his circuit high 112 runs batted in. The final ballot saw Mantle garner more first place votes from those deciding the MVP, but Maris outpointed him 225 to 222. Brooks Robinson was also in this photo finish at third, due to the fine year he had; Brooks would win the award in 1964 for the only time.

The American League batting title in 1960 went to Boston's Pete Runnels, who hit .320. Runnels had five straight .300 plus years with Boston after coming over from the Senators in 1958 and he was a great contact hitter who never struck out more than 64 times in a season. Chuck Estarda of the Orioles and Cleveland's Jim Perry tied for the most pitching victories in the league with 18. It was all downhill from there for Chuck, who would lose 17 in 1962, but Perry went on to a fine career, winning 215 games. However, his brother Gaylord would overshadow him in his own family, winning more than 300.