X-Nico

15 unusual facts about 1961 in baseball


Bill Kinnamon

During the 1961 season, Kinnamon became a part of history as the home plate umpire during Roger Maris' record-breaking single-season 61st home run, which was hit on October 1st to break Babe Ruth's single-season record.

Bob Kennedy

The Cubs had experimented with having a committee of coaches run the team on the field since 1961.

Cal Ermer

Most of Ermer's 60-plus-year career in baseball was spent as an employee of the Minnesota Twins and its predecessor franchise (before 1961), the Washington Senators.

Calvin Griffith

Under Calvin Griffith's ownership, just a few years after his father's death, the Senators were moved to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota in 1961.

Chuck Schilling

After playing for Boston's Triple-A Minneapolis Millers farm team in 1960, Schilling broke into the major leagues in 1961, the same year as his friend and fellow Long Islander, eventual Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski.

El Tappe

Elvin Walter Tappe (May 21, 1927 – October 10, 1998) was an American professional baseball player, a catcher for the Chicago Cubs from 1954 to 1962, but he was best known for being part of the Philip K. Wrigley-implemented College of Coaches in the 1961 season.

Lou Klein

Midway through the 1961 season, Klein was named to the infamous College of Coaches, and ran the team for 11 games late in of the 1961 season.

Merle Harmon

He was fired after the 1961 season by Charlie Finley, who had purchased the ballclub the previous year, for refusing to participate in a campaign intended to spite the sports editor of the Kansas City Star.

Minneapolis Millers

The Millers folded after the 1960 season with the arrival of the Minnesota Twins in 1961.

Omaha Dodgers

The Omaha Dodgers were a minor league baseball affiliate, based in Omaha, Nebraska, of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Class AAA American Association in 1961-62.

Sid Hudson

Following his pitching career, he scouted for the Red Sox from 1955 through 1960, then joined the expansion edition of the Senators in 1961 as the team's first pitching coach.

Sugar Land Skeeters

The Skeeters are also the first independent league baseball team in the Greater Houston metropolitan area since the Houston Buffaloes' final season in 1961.

Tom Borland

Thomas Bruce "Spike" Borland (February 14, 1933 – March 2, 2013) was an American relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1960 through 1961 for the Boston Red Sox.

Verlon Walker

In 1961, he was appointed to the Cubs' College of Coaches, a rotating team of instructors and "head coaches" created as an experimental alternative to the traditional baseball hierarchy of a manager and a coaching staff.

Wid Matthews

In January of 1961, Matthews became a scout for the Mets, newly admitted to the National League as a 1962 expansion team.