In 1965 the Dodgers beat the Minnesota Twins in the World Series with clearly a much worse offensive team than they have now.
Frank Howard had just been traded to the Senators instantly turning my father into a Senators' fan. The year before he had taken my sister down to a local grocery store where Frank was signing autographs. My dad was smitten. Frank, who Vin described in the outfield as a runaway hook N ladder, became even more of a prodigious home run bomber once he left the Dodgers. Might have been able to use him in the last half of the God forsaken 60's. For years it was hard to like Mr. Claude Osteen (Did you know Osteen broke into the majors at age 17?) .
Late one night early in the 1965 season I listened as Vin described the horrible sight of Tommy Davis laying in the dirt with what was to be a season-ending broken leg. He was sliding into second though the play went to another base. He lay there in the dirt never having reached the base because his cleats had caught.
Fortunately it was still the era of the pitcher but for a young fan all seemed lost. Nobody on the Dodgers could hit and there was no Matt Kemp on the horizon.
Lou Johnson was the Elian Herrera, Cruz-type playing left field. Johnson did seem to provide some magic at times with a key hit here and there. I have no stats to support that but Vinny liked him and called him "Sweet Lou."
Willie Davis was Tony Gwynn Jr. around that time. He later had better seasons. He was hated for being an underachiever and dropper of fly balls. I guess Ron Fairly in right field was the Andre Ethier then if 9 home runs and 70 RBIs reminds you of Dre. He had a high OBP but to me that means he can walk some, didn't mean he was much of hitting threat.
John Roseboro, the clubber of Giants, wasn't hitting that year. Maury Wills was stealing bases but he wasn't much of a hitter. There was Wes Parker at first. He sometimes would resemble a good James Loney second half of the year. But not in 1965. He was still young and then he mostly sucked.
Dick Tracewski couldn't hit. I was overjoyed when he got traded to the Tigers the following year. A famous picture of him knocking down a ball in a key World Series situation was his biggest moment in the spotlight.
Jim Lefebvre won the rookie of the year that year for the Dodgers batting .250. He had a couple similar years but that was it. I once had lunch with Jim L. Heck of a nice guy. I didn't have the heart to ask how come somebody actually hired him as a hitting coach.
There was plenty of other offensive flotsam hanging around the Dodger clubhouse. Wally Moon was there playing the Juan Uribe role. Don LeJohn career minor leaguer. John Kennedy made Adam Kennedy look valuable offensively. And construction worker Al Ferrara.
There was one man in the lineup you could depend on: Jim Junior Gilliam. One of the most underrated Dodgers of all time. One of the most underrated players of his time. This was his next to last year as a major leaguer but he was still The Man. He was a professional. He was a kind of hero for Dodger fans of those days. He just got it done. When he wasn't hurt.
That was it. Truly pathetic and mind-numbingly bad offense. At the time though I didn't complain. That's what the Dodger were then and besides we had these two Masters of the Universe.
Everyone else had hitters we had two pitchers. That year Sandy Koufax allowed 120 less hits than innings pitched, struck out 382 and still somehow lost 8 games. Well we know how he lost most of them. Don Drysdale didn't miss a great deal of bats percentage-wise but I guess that's why his ERA was only 2.97 and he only won 23 games.
So I really don't want to hear about this tragic hitting club the Dodgers have now. Back when we were kids....
(p.s. being old makes your memory a little suspect. I apologize in advance if i got anything horribly wrong. Just a little wrong is OK in my book._
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