1970 California Angels season

Last updated

1970  California Angels
League American League
Division West
Ballpark Anaheim Stadium
City Anaheim, California
Owners Gene Autry
General managers Dick Walsh
Managers Lefty Phillips
Television KTLA
Radio KMPC
(Dick Enberg, Don Wells, Dave Niehaus, Jerry Coleman)
  1969 Seasons 1971  

The 1970 California Angels season involved the Angels finishing third in the American League West with a record of 86 wins and 76 losses.

Contents

Offseason

Regular season

Coming off a disappointing 71-91 1969 season, the Angels rebounded to finish 86-76, tying their 1962 season as their best in franchise history up to that point. As of 2024, this is the only season that saw the Angels hold a winning record for all 162 games of a season, starting the season 5-0 and never falling back to .500 from there on.

On July 3, Clyde Wright pitched a 3-walk no-hitter against the Athletics, the first no-hitter at Anaheim Stadium since its first game in 1966. Wright would go on to be only the 2nd 20-win starter in franchise history that year and finished 6th in Cy Young voting. [5] His 22 wins that year are a franchise record as of 2024, tied with Nolan Ryan's 1972 season. [6]

Throughout the year, Alex Johnson was involved in a tight batting race with Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Oliva, and Luis Aparicio. After 161 games, Johnson was trailing Yastrzemski by only .0013. On the last day of the season, Johnson went 2 for 3 against the White Sox, legging out an infield single on his 3rd at-bat to beat Yastrzemski by .0004. As of 2024, Johnson is the only batting champion for the Angels. [7]

The Angels remained in the American League West race throughout the season, and by September 3, they were only 3 games back of the division lead heading into a 3-game set against the division-leading Twins in Anaheim. [8] However, after being swept by them, the Angels collapsed, losing their next 6 in a row and going 5-17 from September 4 to September 26 to fall out of the postseason race for good. According to Alex Johnson, it was as though the team gave up on the season following being swept by the Twins. [9]

Season standings

AL West
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Minnesota Twins 9864.60551304734
Oakland Athletics 8973.549949324041
California Angels 8676.5311243384338
Kansas City Royals 6597.4013335443053
Milwaukee Brewers 6597.4013338422755
Chicago White Sox 56106.3464231532553

Record vs. opponents


Sources:
TeamBALBOSCALCWSCLEDETKCMILMINNYYOAKWSH
Baltimore 13–57–59–314–411–712–07–55–711–77–512–6
Boston 5–135–78–412–69–97–55–77–510–87–512–6
California 5–77–512–66–66–610–812–68–105–78–107–5
Chicago 3–94–86–126–66–67–117–116–125–72–164–8
Cleveland 4–146–126–66–67–118–47–56–68–107–511–7
Detroit 7–119–96–66–611–76–68–44–87–116–69–9
Kansas City 0–125–78–1011–74–86–612–65–131–117–116–6
Milwaukee 5–77–56–1211–75–74–86–125–133–9–18–105–7
Minnesota 7–55–710–812–66–68–413–513–55–713–56–6
New York 7–118–107–57–510–811–711–19–3–17–56–610–8
Oakland 5–75–710–816–25–76–611–710–85–136–610–2
Washington 6–126–125–78–47–119–96–67–56–68–102–10

Notable transactions

Roster

1970 California Angels
Roster
PitchersCatchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

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

PosPlayerGABHAvg.HRRBI
C Joe Azcue 11435185.242225
1B Jim Spencer 146511140.2741268
2B Sandy Alomar Sr. 162672169.251236
SS Jim Fregosi 158601167.2782282
3B Ken McMullen 12442298.2321461
LF Alex Johnson 156614202.3291486
CF Jay Johnstone 11932076.2381139
RF Roger Repoz 13740797.2381847

Other batters

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

PlayerGABHAvg.HRRBI
Tom Egan 7921050.238420
Bill Voss 8018144.243330
Jarvis Tatum 7518143.23806
Billy Cowan 6813437.276525
Tommie Reynolds 5912030.25016
Chico Ruiz 6810726.243012
Tony González 269228.304112
Aurelio Rodríguez 176317.27007
Doug Griffin 18557.12704
Mickey Rivers 17258.32003
Ray Oyler 24242.08301
Tom Silverio 15150.00000
Rick Reichardt 961.16701
Randy Brown 540.00000
Jim Hicks 441.25000
Marty Perez 330.00001

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

PlayerGIPWLERASO
Clyde Wright 39260.222122.83110
Tom Murphy 39227.016134.2499
Rudy May 38208.27134.01164
Andy Messersmith 37194.211103.0162

Other pitchers

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

PlayerGIPWLERASO
Greg Garrett 3274.2562.6553
Tom Bradley 1769.2254.1353
Lloyd Allen 824.0112.6212

Relief pitchers

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

PlayerGWLSVERASO
Ken Tatum 6274172.9450
Eddie Fisher 674483.0474
Paul Doyle 403155.1434
Dave LaRoche 384143.4444
Mel Queen 343694.2044
Steve Kealey 171014.1514
Wally Wolf 40005.065
Terry Cox 30003.863
Harvey Shank 10000.001

Farm system

LevelTeamLeagueManager
AAA Hawaii Islanders Pacific Coast League Chuck Tanner
AA El Paso Sun Kings Texas League Del Rice
A Quad Cities Angels Midwest League Mike Stubbins
Rookie Idaho Falls Angels Pioneer League Bob Clear

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Idaho Falls

Notes

  1. Rubén Amaro at Baseball-Reference
  2. Mel Queen at Baseball-Reference
  3. Pedro Borbón at Baseball-Reference
  4. 1 2 Jack Fisher at Baseball-Reference
  5. Clyde Wright at Baseball-Reference
  6. Los Angeles Angels Top 10 Single-Season Pitching Leaders at Baseball-Reference
  7. Merrick, Thomas. October 1, 1970: Alex Johnson snatches AL batting crown from Carl Yastrzemski as Angels hand White Sox their 106th loss. at Society for American Baseball Research
  8. MLB Scores and Standings Thursday, September 03, 1970 at Baseball-Reference
  9. Goldman, Robert (2006). Once They Were Angels. Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing L.L.C. p. 91. ISBN   9781582611631.
  10. Ken McMullen at Baseball-Reference
  11. Mike Krukow at Baseball-Reference
  12. Tony González at Baseball-Reference

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References

Further Reading