The 1970’s

(To be filled in later)

The 1966 expansion class came of age in its fifth season as all four teams were strong contenders for the 1970 playoff field. Denver, Montreal, and San Diego all made the postseason; Atlanta missed the playoffs by two games. While Houston won the ABL West by 20 games (to earn their first-ever playoff berth) and Cleveland won the NBL East by 10, the other two divisional races were close, and several teams were still in the hunt for wild card berths during the final weekend of the season. Three of the four division winners fell to wild card entrants during the Divisional Round: San Diego toppled Denver, Chicago beat Cleveland, and San Francisco got by Houston. The only division winner to advance was Montreal, who defeated defending champion Detroit.

The American League won its second consecutive Midsummer Classic by a 4-3 margin at St. Louis, but the Junior Circuit still trailed the all-time series, 12-11.

Jeff Murchison of Philadelphia repeated as the NBL batting champion, hitting .370, while Seattle’s Dustin Guest won the Junior Circuit batting crown with a .332 clip. As Los Angeles’ Ernie Ronnebaum blasted 54 home runs to pace the Seniors, Carl Jacobs of Twin Cities led the Americans with a somewhat less gaudy 39. The RBI champs were Don Keough of Pittsburgh (124) and Mark Sisson of Houston (125). The NBL’s pitching leaders were Chicago’s Skip Crawford (2.48 ERA), Cleveland’s Roger Scherf (21 wins), and San Diego’s Ray Heath (199 strikeouts). The ABL’s leading moundsmen were Montreal’s Bob Schar (2.17 ERA), Detroit’s Larry Black and Houston’s Danny Prentice (20 wins apiece), and Dallas’ Dario Perez (198 strikeouts).

End-of-season awards in the NBL went to MVP Guillaume Moret (28 HR/82 RBI/.299 BA) of Denver, Royal Ricketts Award winner Ray Heath (20-9/2.85 ERA/199 K) of San Diego, and Rookie of the Year Bob Underwood (25 HR/97 RBI/.324 BA) of New York. The ABL honorees were MVP Mark Sisson (34 HR/125 RBI/.293 BA) of Houston, Royal Ricketts Award winner Oscar Rodela (19-8/2.24 ERA/156 K) of Montreal, and Rookie of the Year Chuck Gunter (31 HR/83 RBI/.315 BA) of Los Angeles.

San Diego (88-74) and San Francisco (87-75) were the lowest-seeded playoff teams but after the Caps knocked off Chicago and the ’Gulls outlasted Montreal, the two underdogs found themselves facing off in the first all-West Coast World Series. The home team won every game, which meant the series went the full seven and the team whose regular season record earned them the extra home game captured the World Championship; that team was San Diego.

The Hall of Fame opened its doors to Harry Osborn and Herman Carter, longtime Pittsburgh teammates who finished their careers on championship teams in San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively.

NBL Season statistics

ABL Season statistics

Weekly standings