1968 Washington Senators season

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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← 1967 Seasons 1969 →

The 1968

D.C. Stadium on April 8.[2]

The Senators' struggles on the field and at the turnstiles helped drive owner

Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA in 1957, moved them to Los Angeles in 1960, and sold the reborn Los Angeles Lakers to Jack Kent Cooke in 1964.[3]

In a front-office housecleaning, Short ousted

Baseball Hall of Fame hitter Ted Williams, whom he lured back into uniform to become the club's new pilot.[4] Williams' signing was announced just prior to spring training on February 21, 1969.[5]

Offseason

Regular season

  • July 30, 1968, Ron Hansen of the Senators turned an unassisted triple play. He caught a line drive, touched second base and tagged the runner coming from first base.[7]

Opening Day starters

Season standings

American League
W
L
Pct. GB Home Road
Detroit Tigers 103 59 0.636 56–25 47–34
Baltimore Orioles 91 71 0.562 12 47–33 44–38
Cleveland Indians 86 75 0.534 16½ 43–37 43–38
Boston Red Sox 86 76 0.531 17 46–35 40–41
New York Yankees 83 79 0.512 20 39–42 44–37
Oakland Athletics 82 80 0.506 21 44–38 38–42
Minnesota Twins 79 83 0.488 24 41–40 38–43
California Angels 67 95 0.414 36 32–49 35–46
Chicago White Sox 67 95 0.414 36 36–45 31–50
Washington Senators 65 96 0.404 37½ 34–47 31–49

Record vs. opponents


Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET MIN NYY OAK WSH
Baltimore 9–9 10–8 11–7 7–11 8–10 10–8 13–5 9–9 14–4
Boston 9–9 9–9 14–4 10–8 6–12 9–9 10–8 8–10 11–7
California 8–10 9–9 8–10 7–11 5–13 7–11 6–12 5–13 12–6
Chicago 7–11 4–14 10–8 5–13 5–13 10–8 6–12 10–8 10–8
Cleveland 11–7 8–10 11–7 13–5 6–12 14–4 10–8–1 6–12 7–10
Detroit 10–8 12–6 13–5 13–5 12–6 10–8 10–8–1 13–5–1 10–8
Minnesota 8–10 9–9 11–7 8–10 4–14 8–10 12–6 8–10 11–7
New York 5–13 8–10 12–6 12–6 8–10–1 8–10–1 6–12 10–8 14–4
Oakland 9–9 10–8 13–5 8–10 12–6 5–13–1 10–8 8–10 7–11
Washington 4–14 7–11 6–12 8–10 10–7 8–10 7–11 4–14 11–7


Notable transactions

  • June 7, 1968:
    1968 Major League Baseball Draft
  • August 2, 1968: Ron Hansen was traded by the Senators to the Chicago White Sox for Tim Cullen.[6]

Roster

1968 Washington Senators
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Paul Casanova 96 322 63 .196 4 25
1B Mike Epstein 123 385 90 .234 13 33
2B Bernie Allen 120 373 90 .241 6 40
SS Ron Hansen 86 275 51 .185 8 28
3B Ken McMullen 151 557 138 .248 20 62
LF Frank Howard 158 598 164 .274 44 106
CF Del Unser 156 635 146 .230 1 30
RF Ed Stroud 105 306 73 .239 4 23

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Cap Peterson 94 226 46 .204 3 18
Ed Brinkman 77 193 36 .187 0 6
Frank Coggins 62 171 30 .175 0 7
Jim French 59 165 32 .194 1 10
Brant Alyea 53 150 40 .267 6 23
Hank Allen 68 128 28 .219 1 9
Sam Bowens 57 115 22 .191 4 7
Tim Cullen 47 114 31 .272 1 16
Billy Bryan 40 108 22 .204 3 8
Fred Valentine 37 101 24 .238 3 7
Gary Holman 75 85 25 .294 0 7
Dick Billings 12 33 6 .182 1 3
Gene Martin 9 11 4 .364 1 1

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Joe Coleman
33 223.0 12 16 3.27 139
Camilo Pascual 31 201.0 13 12 2.69 111
Jim Hannan 25 140.1 10 6 3.01 75
Frank Bertaina 27 127.1 7 13 4.66 81
Gerry Schoen 1 3.2 0 1 7.36 1

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Dick Bosman 46 139.0 2 9 3.69 63
Barry Moore 32 117.2 4 6 3.37 56
Phil Ortega 31 115.2 5 12 4.98 57
Bruce Howard 13 48.2 1 4 5.86 23

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Dennis Higgins 59 4 4 13 3.25 66
Bob Humphreys 56 5 7 2 3.69 56
Dave Baldwin 40 0 2 5 4.07 30
Darold Knowles 32 1 1 4 2.18 37
Bill Haywood 14 0 0 0 4.70 10
Steve Jones 7 1 2 0 5.91 11
Casey Cox 4 0 1 0 2.35 4
Jim Miles 3 0 0 0 12.46 5
Bill Denehy 3 0 0 0 9.00 1

Awards and honors

League leaders

All-Stars

All-Star Game

Farm system

Level Team League Manager
AAA Buffalo Bisons International League Wayne Terwilliger
AA Savannah Senators
Southern League
Buddy Hicks
A
Burlington Senators Carolina League Len Johnston
A
Salisbury Senators
Western Carolinas League Billy Klaus
A-Short Season
Geneva Senators
New York–Penn League Joe Marchese

Notes

  1. Baseball Reference
    . Retrieved February 14, 2024.
  2. National Baseball Hall of Fame
    . Retrieved February 14, 2024.
  3. ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (November 22, 1982). "Robert E. Short, Businessman, Dies". nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
  4. ^ Whelan, Bob; West, Steve. "Bob Short". sabr.org. Society for American Baseball Research Biography Project. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
  5. National Baseball Hall of Fame
    . Retrieved February 14, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Tim Cullen page at Baseball reference
  7. ^ "Unassisted Triple Plays | Baseball Almanac".
  8. ^ Don Castle page at Baseball Reference
  9. ^ Jim Mason page at Baseball Reference
  10. ^ Mike Cubbage page at Baseball Reference

References