Circuit clouts  Official Newsletter of the United League
LEAGUE FILE (12/27) · CONTRACTS · INFO · HISTORY · FORUM
1967 · 11/1 · 3/1 · 4/1 · 4/16 · 5/1

Outlaws Rule West
Peterson, Mantilla Double Up April Awards
LOS ANGELES (May 1) -- The Los Angeles Outlaws rolled to a 21-7 start to claim top position in a competitive West Division.  Peter Vays' club has won 10 of its last 12 games, including sweeps of Brooklyn, Detroit, and Washington, and opened up a three-game lead over St. Louis after they lost two of their last three.
   The Outlaws, runners-up in the West for the last two seasons, lead the league with 6.3 runs per game, and are second in runs allowed.  Their top three pitchers (Johnny Antonelli, Fritz Peterson, and Jim McGlothlin) are a combined 15-0 in 19 starts.  Peterson leads the league with six wins and is second with a 1.66 ERA, McGlothlin is tied for second with five wins, and Antonelli won three straight outings to pull within one win of becoming the first 300-game winner in UL history.  "The club is running on all gears and every guy on the club is chipping in to win ballgames," the 38-year-old veteran southpaw said.  Antonelli picked up wins 297 and 298 despite bad outings, thanks to solid run support of his teammates, who produced 11-9 and 10-5 wins.  But it is Peterson who has emerged as the bedrock of the club's rotation.  At age 26, the southpaw from Chicago is burnishing his credentials as one of the league's top young pitchers, having notched 37 wins just a month into his third season in the majors.  The sixth overall pick in 1966, Peterson was 14-7 with a 2.70 ERA.  Last year, posting a nearly identical ERA, he improved his record to 17-8 and finished with the second best WHIP (1.06) and fourth best VORP (64.6) in the circuit.
   Meanwhile, at the plate, second sacker Felix Mantilla is off to the hottest start of his 12-year career, batting .309-10-25 with a 1.058 OPS to win Batter of the Month for the second time (June 1964) and earning his $11 million paycheck that makes him the second-highest paid player in the league.  Mantilla has clobbered 80 homers in just over two and half seasons since joining the Outlaws in mid-1965.  While Mantilla co-leads the league in home runs, Don Demeter shares that distinction in RBIs, driving in 29, including 16 in his last 12 games.  Demeter, 32, joined the club last August in the trade that sent the popular Roberto Clemente to Chicago (a trade, by the way, that is paying dividends for both clubs, as Clemente hit .339 in his first 70 games with the Colts).
   The Outlaws' 47 home runs are 15 more than any other club, and Outlaws occupy four spots on the top 11 list (Mantilla 10, Frank Robinson 9, Demeter 8, Hank Aaron 7).  Aaron, who has suffered the slowest start of the slugging quartet, is still hitting .296-7-23, with an OPS of .937.  One of the biggest surprises has been CF Tommie Agee, who is hitting .385 with a 1.147 OPS in 20 games (including .619 in his last 11 games) after hitting .135/.490 OPS in 52 games with St. Louis last year.

Reggie Who? 
Neon Cleon Top Frosh
WASHINGTON (May 1) -- Washington Monuments GM Doug Aiton, criticized in some quarters for trading away slugging Reggie Jackson, is having the last laugh after little known Cleon Jones, a fifth round pick two years ago, won Rookie of the Month honors with a league-topping .411 average in April.  Jones, 25, was named the #44 prospect in the league this spring, down 18 spots from last fall, but managed to rip UL pitchers for 37 hits in 27 games, posting a .470 OBP and 1.014 OPS.  Jones hit .301 with moderate power in two full seasons with the Triple-A Toronto Marlies, earning Isotoner Glove award in his rookie campaign, but didn't figure into Sean Holloway's big league plans at Kiner Field, what with the position crowded with the like of Frank Howard and Carl Yastrzemski.
   Meanwhile, in Toronto, Reggie Jackson broke his hand showboating on a routine catch against Kansas City on April 23.  Jackson hit .265-5-12 with a .829 OPS in his first 22 IL games.

Frank Thomas Joins 2000-Hit Club
CLEVELAND (May 1) -- His name rarely comes up in discussions about the all-time UL greats, but the slugging first baseman Frank Thomas is slowly applying the crowning jewels to one of the best batting resumes in league history.  Thomas, who collected his 400th double just three weeks ago, became just the ninth hitter to amass 2,000 UL hits.  After five seasons with the New York Gothams, in which he won two Gold Gloves (1953 and 1954) but exceeded 70 RBIs just once, Thomas joined the Brooklyn Superbas in 1955 after being drafted by the expansion San Francisco Spiders.  Thomas was for the most part a bit player on Brooklyn Superbas clubs from 1956-61, with the exception of 1960, when he hit .294-32-96 and was an important third bat after Mantle and Hamner.  But Thomas' best seasons came in 1962 and 1963 with the Dallas Texans, another expansion team.  Thomas was the 11th overall pick of the expansion draft, but turned out to be best hitter on a club that won 97 games and came within four games of a pennant in its first season.  Thomas hit .305-34-107 that year and followed it up with a .290-32-144 campaign in 1963, although the club fell to fourth place.  He posted a third straight 30-homer season in 1964, and while his power tailed off a bit in 1965 (23 HR, .440 SLG), his run production did not, as he drove in 91 runs that year and again with Cleveland in 1966.  Thomas missed almost all of 1967 with an ankle injury and is hitting .280-1-9 in 29 games this year.
   Thomas figures to be the only addition to the 2,000-hit club this year.  Gil McDougald has 1972 hits, but is 38 and laboring in Triple-A Baltimore.  Eddie Mathews has 1861 hits, but is seeing less and less playing time in Atlanta.  Frank Robinson, currently with 1848 hits, is the most likely to be the 10th member of the club, but probably not until 1969.  Below is a list of the 2,000-hit club, with the dates of their milestone hits:
 
    1. Willie Mays (4/24/64)
    2. Mickey Mantle (7/29/64) (2500 hits: 7/13/67)
    3. Willie Jones (8/4/64)
    4. Granny Hamner (4/4/65)
    5. Harvey Kuenn (8/23/65)
    6. Ernie Banks (4/2/66)
    7. Joe Adcock (9/4/66)
    8. Hank Aaron (4/21/67)
    9. Frank Thomas (4/27/68)

Hot Brock Sets Sights on New Heights
SAN FRANCISCO (May 1) -- Spider fans must again resort to finding silver linings, even before April showers bring May flowers to the city by the bay.  San Francisco has won fewer than 70 games in all but one year this decade, and already find themselves three games behind the rest of the pack.  But behind the league's limpest lumber and an underperforming pitching staff (look no further than ace Fergie Jenkins, who was 1-4 with a 6.82 before a much-needed five-hit shutout gem at Brooklyn Apr. 28), is potentially unfolding one of the best offensive seasons in UL history. 
   LF Lou Brock, 28, is hitting .376, second only to Cleon Jones, who can only be described as a flash in the pan.  But in addition to what could be his first serious run at a batting title, Brock is on pace to demolish his own stolen base record of 127, set in 1966.  Brock has stolen at least 100 bases five years running, since he became a regular in 1963.  His 127 steals in 1966 set the UL record and he owns the top five positions on the single-season leaderboard (Chuck Hinton's 89 steals last year ranks sixth).  His 565 career stolen bases coming into this season ranks second only to Willie Mays.  But Brock's 29 swipes in 26 games in April has raised eyebrows across the league, as Brock eyes 140, 150, or even 160 stolen bases.
   Brock's eye-popping stolen base numbers have tended to mask what is becoming a stellar hitting record.  Brock has three straight .300 seasons and cobbled together back-to-back 200-hit seasons in 1965 and 1966, becoming only the fifth player to do so [Granny Hamner (1957-58, 1961-62), Curt Flood (1963-64), Joe Adcock (1965-66), Lou Brock (1965-66), Dick Howser (1965-67)].  Brock is second only to Joe Torre in hits among players 28 and younger, with 976 hits. 


 

The Young & The Younger Career Leaders by Age (Under 26 and 26-30)

Hits (under 26) Bob Bailey, DAL 583 Tony Perez, STL 467 Joe Morgan, STL 463 Rico Petrocelli, BOS 342 Paul Schaal, CHI 289	Batting (under 26) Rod Carew, DAL .339 Tony Perez, STL .294 Joe Morgan, STL .278 Rusty Staub, LA .275 Bob Bailey, DAL .268	Home Runs (under 26) Bob Bailey, DAL 74 Tony Perez, STL 53 Joe Morgan, STL 47 Rico Petrocelli, BOS 47 Curt Blefary, DAL 39	VORP (under 26) Joe Morgan, STL 102 Bob Bailey, DAL 81 Tony Perez, STL 77 Rod Carew, DAL 43 Reggie Smith, STL 24
ERA (under 26) Jim Palmer, ATL 3.26 Bill Singer, CHI 3.36 Don Sutton, STL 3.38 Fergie Jenkins 3.46 Ken Holtzman, DAL 3.48	Wins (under 26) Larry Dierker, LA 44 Don Sutton, STL 39 Fergie Jenkins, SF 34 Rick Wise, WAS 33 Jim Palmer, ATL 26	Strikeouts (under 26) Larry Dierker, LA 463 Fergie Jenkins, SF 426 Don Sutton, STL 390 Rick Wise, WAS 281 Jim Merritt, DAL 260	VORP (under 26) Fergie Jenkins, SF 99 Don Sutton, STL 95 Jim Palmer, ATL 74 Larry Dierker, LA 57 Jim Nash, WAS 49
Hits (age 26-30) O. Cepeda, BOS 1696 Vada Pinson, MAN 1197 Curt Flood, CLE 1170 Joe Torre, MAN 988 Lou Brock, SF 976	Batting (age 26-30) Curt Flood, CLE .314 Joe Torre, MAN .314 M. De La Hoz, WAS .307 Jim Fregosi, STL .303 Ron Hunt, ATL .303 Bernie Allen, CLE .303	Home Runs (age 26-30) O. Cepeda, BOS 314 Joe Torre, MAN 133 Billy Williams, SF 130 Boog Powell, DAL 127 Vada Pinson, MAN 126	VORP (age 26-30) Joe Torre, MAN 279 Lou Brock, SF 270 Bernie Allen, CLE 250 Curt Flood, CLE 222 Ron Santo, WAS 194
ERA (age 26-30) Fritz Peterson, LA 2.60 Mike Cuellar, BOS 3.37 Sammy Ellis, BRO 3.42 Steve Barber, ATL 3.55 Chris Short, BOS 3.87	Wins (age 26-30) Chris Short, BOS 91 Steve Barber, ATL 74 Bob Sadowski, STL 50 Gaylord Perry, DAL 47 Fritz Peterson, LA 37	Strikeouts (age 26-30) Chris Short, BOS 813 Steve Barber, ATL 788 Luis Tiant, SF 557 Gaylord Perry, DAL 548 Bob Sadowski, STL 446	VORP (age 26-30) Steve Barber, ATL 199 Chris Short, BOS 180 Fritz Peterson, LA 148 Mike Cuellar, BOS 107 Bob Sadowski, STL 79