1961 Pittsburgh Pirates season

1961 Pittsburgh Pirates
Major League affiliations
	National League (since 1887);
Location
	Forbes Field (since 1909); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[1] (since 1907);
Other information
Owner(s)	John W. Galbreath (majority shareholder); Bing Crosby, Thomas P. Johnson (minority shareholders)
General manager(s)	Joe L. Brown
Manager(s)	Danny Murtaugh
Local television	KDKA-TV ; Bob Prince, Jim Woods
Local radio	KDKA; Bob Prince, Paul Long, Jim Woods
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The 1961 Pittsburgh Pirates fell from World Champions the previous season to sixth place in the National League, as they won 75 games and lost 79, 18 games behind NL Champion Cincinnati.

Regular season

Season standings

National League	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Cincinnati Reds	93	61	0.604	—	47–30	46–31
Los Angeles Dodgers	89	65	0.578	4	45–32	44–33
San Francisco Giants	85	69	0.552	8	45–32	40–37
Milwaukee Braves	83	71	0.539	10	45–32	38–39
St. Louis Cardinals	80	74	0.519	13	48–29	32–45
Pittsburgh Pirates	75	79	0.487	18	38–39	37–40
Chicago Cubs	64	90	0.416	29	40–37	24–53
Philadelphia Phillies	47	107	0.305	46	22–55	25–52

Record vs. opponents

1961 National League Records Sources:
Team	CHC	CIN	LAD	MIL	PHI	PIT	SF	STL
Chicago	—	12–10	7–15	9–13–1	13–9	11–11	5–17	7–15–1
Cincinnati	10–12	—	12–10	15–7	19–3	11–11	12–10	14–8
Los Angeles	15–7	10–12	—	12–10	17–5	13–9	10–12	12–10
Milwaukee	13–9–1	7–15	10–12	—	16–6	12–10	11–11	14–8
Philadelphia	9–13	3–19	5–17	6–16	—	7–15	8–14–1	9–13
Pittsburgh	11–11	11–11	9–13	10–12	15–7	—	10–12	9–13
San Francisco	17–5	10–12	12–10	11–11	14–8–1	12–10	—	9–13
St. Louis	15–7–1	8–14	10–12	8–14	13–9	13–9	13–9	—

Game log

1961 Game Log: 75–79 (Home: 38–39; Away: 37–40)

April: 9–6 (Home: 4–2; Away: 5–4)

May: 12–12 (Home: 7–6; Away: 5–6)

June: 15–13 (Home: 10–9; Away: 5–4)

July: 9–17 (Home: 4–10; Away: 5–7)

August: 16–16 (Home: 8–7; Away: 8–9)

#	Date	Opponent	Score	Win	Loss	Save	Attendance	Record
94	August 2	@ Cardinals	2–4	Jackson	Shantz (5–3)	—	12,048	45–49
95	August 3	@ Cardinals	19–0	Haddix (7–5)	Cicotte	—	11,514	46–49
96	August 4	@ Reds	4–5	Brosnan	Labine (2–1)	—	27,383	46–50
97	August 5	@ Reds	11–7	McBean (3–1)	Hunt	—	12,125	47–50
98	August 6	@ Reds	9–4	Mizell (5–8)	Jay	Labine (7)		48–50
99	August 6	@ Reds	2–3 (10)	Brosnan	Face (4–5)	—	31,167	48–51
100	August 7	@ Phillies	3–1	Friend (11–13)	Buzhardt	—	5,586	49–51
101	August 8	@ Phillies	10–2	Haddix (8–5)	Mahaffey	—		50–51
102	August 8	@ Phillies	3–2	Sturdivant (1–0)	Short	—	11,081	51–51
103	August 9	Cardinals	0–4	Simmons	Gibbon (8–7)	Bauta	17,038	51–52
104	August 10	Cardinals	2–3	Sadecki	Francis (1–5)	—	13,812	51–53
105	August 11	Phillies	6–0 (7)	Friend (12–13)	Roberts	—	12,965	52–53
106	August 12	Phillies	4–0	Mizell (6–8)	Owens	—	8,785	53–53
107	August 13	Phillies	13–4	Sturdivant (2–0)	Buzhardt	—	12,923	54–53
108	August 14	@ Braves	3–8	Cloninger	Haddix (8–6)	—	14,648	54–54
109	August 15	@ Braves	1–4	Willey	Gibbon (8–8)	—	16,843	54–55
110	August 16	@ Braves	1–2	Spahn	Friend (12–14)	—	18,330	54–56
111	August 17	@ Cubs	4–11	Drott	Mizell (6–9)	Anderson		54–57
112	August 17	@ Cubs	4–3	Francis (2–5)	Brewer	Face (15)	16,961	55–57
113	August 18	@ Cubs	1–2 (11)	Ellsworth	Sturdivant (2–1)	—	7,469	55–58
114	August 19	@ Cubs	4–3 (11)	Labine (3–1)	Curtis	—	11,777	56–58
115	August 20	@ Cubs	0–1 (11)	Cardwell	Friend (12–15)	—	19,038	56–59
116	August 22	Braves	4–1	Gibbon (9–8)	Buhl	Face (16)	15,874	57–59
117	August 23	Braves	7–6	Face (5–5)	Nottebart	—	15,117	58–59
118	August 24	Braves	1–6	Spahn	Friend (12–16)	—	16,653	58–60
119	August 25	Cubs	1–0	Sturdivant (3–1)	Cardwell	—	12,651	59–60
120	August 26	Cubs	3–7	Schultz	Face (5–6)	Anderson	9,137	59–61
121	August 27	Cubs	7–3	Gibbon (10–8)	Curtis	Labine (8)		60–61
122	August 27	Cubs	5–6	Brewer	Mizell (6–10)	Anderson	15,471	60–62
123	August 28	Cubs	4–5	Anderson	Face (5–7)	—	13,753	60–63
124	August 29	Reds	0–3	O'Toole	Friend (12–17)	Maloney	17,999	60–64
125	August 30	Reds	3–1	Sturdivant (4–1)	Purkey	—	20,000	61–64

September: 13–15 (Home: 4–5; Away: 9–10)

October: 1–0 (Home: 1–0; Away: 0–0)

Legend: = Win = Loss
Bold = Pirates team member

Notable transactions

May 1961: Don Williams was purchased from the Pirates by the Chicago White Sox.[2]
June 20, 1961: Gene Baker was released by the Pirates.[3]
June 24, 1961: Ron Woods was signed by the Pirates as an amateur free agent.[4]

Roster

1961 Pittsburgh Pirates

Roster

Pitchers

34 Tom Cheney

26 Roy Face

37 Larry Foss

27 Earl Francis

19 Bob Friend

22 Joe Gibbon

35 Fred Green

31 Harvey Haddix

25 Al Jackson

29 Clem Labine

32 Vern Law

34 Al McBean

30 Vinegar Bend Mizell

28 Bobby Shantz

15 Tom Sturdivant

37 Jim Umbricht

39 George Witt

Catchers

6 Smoky Burgess

2 Don Leppert

2 Bob Oldis

5 Hal Smith

Infielders

16 Gene Baker

24 Dick Groat

12 Don Hoak

16 Johnny Logan

9 Bill Mazeroski

14 Rocky Nelson

11 Dick Schofield

7 Dick Stuart

Outfielders

23 Joe Christopher

20 Gino Cimoli

21 Roberto Clemente

35 Donn Clendenon

15 Román Mejías

20 Walt Moryn

4 Bob Skinner

18 Bill Virdon

Manager

40 Danny Murtaugh

Coaches

41 Bill Burwell

45 Lenny Levy

43 Sam Narron

42 Ron Northey

44 Frank Oceak

Statistics

Batting

Regular Season[5]
Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
J. Umbricht	1	1	1	1.000	0	0
G. Witt	9	2	1	0.500	0	0
B. Shantz	44	16	7	0.438	0	3
R. Clemente	146	572	201	0.351	23	89
D. Clendenon	9	35	11	0.314	0	2
S. Burgess	100	323	98	0.303	12	52
D. Stuart	138	532	160	0.301	35	117
G. Cimoli	21	67	20	0.299	0	6
D. Hoak	145	503	150	0.298	12	61
D. Groat	148	596	164	0.275	6	55
R. Face	62	11	3	0.273	0	1
B. Skinner	119	381	102	0.268	3	42
D. Leppert	22	60	16	0.267	3	5
A. McBean	28	15	4	0.267	1	3
B. Mazeroski	152	558	148	0.265	13	59
J. Christopher	76	186	49	0.263	0	14
V. Law	11	19	5	0.263	0	5
B. Virdon	146	599	156	0.260	9	58
T. Sturdivant	13	32	8	0.250	0	1
J. Logan	27	52	12	0.231	0	5
H. Smith	67	193	43	0.223	3	26
W. Moryn	40	65	13	0.200	3	9
R. Nelson	75	127	25	0.197	5	13
D. Schofield	60	78	15	0.192	0	2
L. Foss	3	6	1	0.167	0	1
H. Haddix	31	56	8	0.143	0	3
B. Friend	41	79	11	0.139	0	7
J. Gibbon	31	59	8	0.136	0	6
V. Mizell	25	23	3	0.130	0	1
E. Francis	23	28	3	0.107	0	0
G. Baker	9	10	1	0.100	0	0
C. Labine	56	10	1	0.100	0	0
F. Green	13	3	0	0.000	0	0
A. Jackson	5	8	0	0.000	0	0
R. Mejias	4	1	0	0.000	0	0
B. Oldis	4	5	0	0.000	0	0
T. Cheney	1	0	0	—	0	0

Pitching

Regular Season[6]
Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
T. Cheney	1	0	0	0	—	0
J. Umbricht	1	3¹⁄₃	0	0	2.70	1
T. Sturdivant	13	85²⁄₃	5	2	2.84	45
J. Gibbon	30	195¹⁄₃	13	10	3.32	145
B. Shantz	43	89¹⁄₃	6	3	3.32	61
A. Jackson	3	23²⁄₃	1	0	3.42	15
C. Labine	56	92²⁄₃	4	1	3.69	49
A. McBean	27	74¹⁄₃	3	2	3.75	49
R. Face	62	92	6	12	3.82	55
B. Friend	41	236	14	19	3.85	108
H. Haddix	29	156	10	6	4.10	99
E. Francis	23	102²⁄₃	2	8	4.21	53
V. Law	11	59¹⁄₃	3	4	4.70	20
F. Green	13	20²⁄₃	0	0	4.79	4
V. Mizell	25	100	7	10	5.04	37
L. Foss	3	15¹⁄₃	1	1	5.87	9
G. Witt	9	15²⁄₃	0	1	6.32	9

Farm system

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Columbus Jets	International League	Larry Shepard
A	Asheville Tourists	Sally League	Ray Hathaway
B	Burlington Bees	Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League	Harding "Pete" Peterson
C	Grand Forks Chiefs	Northern League	Bob Clear
D	Kingsport Pirates	Appalachian League	James Gibbons
D	Batavia Pirates	New York–Penn League	James Adlam and Gene Baker
D	Hobbs Pirates	Sophomore League	Al Kubski
D	Shelby Colonels	Western Carolinas League	Aaron Robinson and James Adlam

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Asheville, Hobbs

Notes

From 1882–1906, the team played in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, which became annexed by Pittsburgh as the North Shore in 1907.
Don Williams page at Baseball Reference
Gene Baker page at Baseball Reference
Ron Woods page at Baseball Reference
"Major League Baseball Regular Season Hitting Stats | pirates.com: Stats". Pittsburgh Pirates.
"Major League Baseball Regular Season Pitching Stats | pirates.com: Stats". Pittsburgh Pirates.

References

1961 Pittsburgh Pirates team page at Baseball Reference
1961 Pittsburgh Pirates Page at Baseball Almanac
Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-0-9637189-8-3.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] From 1882–1906, the team played in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, which became annexed by Pittsburgh as the North Shore in 1907.

[2] Don Williams page at Baseball Reference

[3] Gene Baker page at Baseball Reference

[4] Ron Woods page at Baseball Reference

[5] "Major League Baseball Regular Season Hitting Stats | pirates.com: Stats". Pittsburgh Pirates.

[6] "Major League Baseball Regular Season Pitching Stats | pirates.com: Stats". Pittsburgh Pirates.

1961 MLB season by team
American League	Baltimore Boston Chicago Cleveland Detroit Kansas City Los Angeles Minnesota New York Washington
National League	Chicago Cincinnati Los Angeles Milwaukee Philadelphia Pittsburgh St. Louis San Francisco
1961 All-Star Game (1st, 2nd) 1961 World Series 1961 MLB expansion draft