As we continue our review of WPK history up to this point in time, let's turn our attention to the 1966 season.
Starting with some of the basic facts, including final standings and award winners.
Summary/Highlights/Accomplishments/Notes, etc.:
The Jacksonville Wolf Pack repeated as WPK champs in 1966, once again defeating the Los Angles Spinners in the Championship Series (not yet christened the Kinsella Classic Series), for the second year in a row also needing seven games to accomplish this task.
Jacksonville saw 27-year old left fielder Travis Johnson have a career year, putting up 10.5 WAR, hitting .385/.463/.578 (leading the league in each of those categories), swiping 51 bases (also league leading), and collecting a WPK-best 238 hits. All of which earned him his first (of two) league MVP awards on the way to a sure Hall of Fame career. They also had the Pitcher of the Year in Juan Soto. Soto was already 33 years old when the WPK formed or he would be a likely Hall of Famer too and as it is did finish his WPK career with a record of 108-54 and with a 2.66 ERA and 34 WAR. Jacksonville, of course, also got fine seasons from Hall of Fame corner infielder Jesus Casiano and likely Hall of Fame second baseman Josh Jenkins.
Their MGL counterparts, the Los Angeles Spinners, easily won the MGL and received what would prove to be a career-best season from another future Hall of Famer, third baseman Jesus Hernandez, who all of the WPK with 11.5 WAR, hitting .346/.425/.646, hitting 43 homers and scoring a league-best 126 runs while also earned the second of his eventual seven career Gold Glove awards. Hernandez won the MGL MVP award, the lone of his great and distinguished career. The L.A. offense dropped off considerably after Hernandez, with the second best WAR on the club among position players belonging to 24-year old shortstop Philip "Seymour" Hoffman (4.1 WAR), who hit just .269/.317/.374 but provided solid defense (6.2 ZR) and stole a team-high 26 bases (8 CS). (Hoffman, who once looked so promising, saw his career tail off considerably before age 25 and he was retired from the game by 1971, when he was still only 29 years old.) But L.A. had terrific pitching, led again by Jose Santos but with strong contributions from starter Miguel Chavez (17-6, 2.60 ERA) and reliever extraordinaire Jamel McNeil (138 IP, 23 saves, 2.22 ERA, team-high 177 strikeouts).
Los Angeles also had the MGL Rookie of the Year in 21-year old first baseman Jay Ebersole. Ebersole slugged 29 homers and drove in 96 runs, both of which would prove to be career bests for him. On the other hand, he was a poor fielder, and although he had a 121 OPS+ he hit just .264/.299/.486. Power was his calling card and with his one dimensional skills his career ended up being undistinguished and his 3.8 WAR 1971 season with Portland would be his peak season (at age 26). He stuck around the WPK for a little more than 11 seasons, but never was an All-Star and his ROY honor was the only seasonal award he ever earned.
SJL Rookie of the Year Joo-il Kim, who was already 30 years old when he signed with the Pittsburgh Roadrunners as an international free agent out of South Korea, fared a bit better, in spite of his advanced age. Although his 39 home runs in 1966 would be a WPK career high for him, he did slug at least 30 bombs in five different seasons with Pittsburgh and he amassed a career WAR of 30.5. He was a 3-time All-Star and 1-time Silver Slugger award winner. He also led the league in bases on balls in 1970 with 132 (he would exceed 100 in five seasons, although he also struck out over 100 times in six of his eight plus WPK seasons).
Pittsburgh also had the Reliever of the Year in the SJL in 1966. Twenty year old Aaron Metzler had done quite well as a 19-year old in 1965 as well, when he collected 13 saves with a 1.92 ERA. In 1966 he upped his saves total to 24, lowered his ERA to 1.60, and amassed 3.2 WAR in 101 innings pitched. Although he would hang around in the WPK for more than 16 seasons, he never again put up numbers like those first few seasons. He retired in 1983 with a career saves total of 95, an ERA of 3.10, and 8.7 WAR.
The MGL Pitcher of the Year in 1966 was San Francisco's Mike Young. Young was not when the WPK formed, as he was already 34 when he won his long Pitcher of the Year (now Harris/Lee) award. He led the league in ERA in 1966 (2.24) with an 18-10 record for the 3rd place Velocity. He would have one other 18 win season (1969, when he went 18-9 with a 3.60 ERA) before retiring in 1971 at the age of 39.
The MGL Reliever of the Year was Baltimore's Seth Landry, who went 12-3 with a 1.56 ERA in 98 innings out of the 'pen. Landry would end up leading the league in saves the following two seasons but this would be the lone Reliever of the Year award he would receive in his 16-season WPK career. He retired in 1980 at the age of 42 with 199 career saves. He was named on a little over 21% of the Hall of Fame ballots this past year but will surely not be enshrined in Dubuque.
1966 saw one player hit for the cycle: Jacksonville's 21-year old right fielder Ken Brackeen in a September 5th game against San Antonio. (Brackeen would have a pair of 5 WAR seasons in his inconsistent career, in addition to the 4.6 he put up in 1966, but he also had some injury issues which led to decreased production and poor defense over time and he would hover around zero WAR (and at times below that) for several seasons before retiring in 1977, having last played in the WPK in 1975 at age 30.)
Three players would have 3-homer games in 1966 (Matt Birch with Philadelphia, Ricky Peralez with San Antonio, and HOF'er Andy Wilson for Portland).
1966 would also witness the first 50-homer season in the WPK: Jamison Bash, the 30-year old Detroit Falcons third baseman, would accomplish this, hitting exactly 50 while driving in 111 runs and putting up 10.5 WAR.
Jaime Schardein, of Charlotte, hurled the first 15 strikeout game in WPK history against the Denver Brewers on September 28th.
There would be no no-hitters in 1966 and the longest hitting streak of the season (longest in the WPK up to that point) was a 28-game stretch for Washington Night Train center fielder Ryan Rodgers.
The top draft pick in the 1966 amateur draft was starting pitcher Mike Stagner, chosen by the Milwaukee Cadets. Stagner would end up having a very good, if perhaps not quite Hall of Fame level, career. He retired in 1985 with a career record of 210-191, a 3.52 ERA, and 69.4 WAR accumulated. He was the Pitcher of the Year for Milwaukee in 1973, one of two seasons in which he won at least 20 games (20-10 in 1973). He was a 5-time All-Star and even won a Silver Slugger award but never got that elusive championship ring.
But surely the best player taken in that year's draft was Justin Vargas, who went 11th overall to L.A. but never played a single game at the WPK level for the team that drafted him. The best year's of his sure Hall of Fame career were spent with Boston, where he won 2 SJL MVP awards. He was also an 11-time All-Star, a 3-time Silver Slugger, and won a single Gold Glove award. He retired recently with a career WAR of 87.0.