1961- Jim Gentile’s career year

60topps-448

A few posts I posted a trivia question of sorts.  Who came in third in the 1961 MVP voting after Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.  My only hint was that this player had superior BA/OBP/SLG than Maris, the winner of the award. 

The answer, easily looked up of course, is Jim Gentile. 

Kudos to DonS who texted me the answer the next morning.  It took him two tries (his first was Norm Cash, a good guess).

In some ways, Gentile was a one-year wonder.  His 1961 season was phenomenal.  He had more runs, doubles, homers, rbis, walks than any other season in his career.  The same goes for his batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

Jim Gentile’s career stats

Year Tm G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA OBP SLG
1957 BRO 4 6 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 .167 .286 .667
1958 LAD 12 30 0 4 1 0 0 4 0 4 6 .133 .235 .167
1960 BAL 138 384 67 112 17 0 21 98 0 68 72 .292 .403 .500
1961 BAL 148 486 96 147 25 2 46 141 1 96 106 .302 .423 .646
1962 BAL 152 545 80 137 21 1 33 87 1 77 100 .251 .346 .475
1963 BAL 145 496 65 123 16 1 24 72 1 76 101 .248 .353 .429
1964 KCA 136 439 71 110 10 0 28 71 0 84 122 .251 .372 .465
1965 TOT 119 345 36 84 16 1 17 53 0 43 98 .243 .337 .443
1965 KCA 38 118 14 29 5 0 10 22 0 9 26 .246 .305 .542
1965 HOU 81 227 22 55 11 1 7 31 0 34 72 .242 .352 .392
1966 TOT 82 191 18 41 7 1 9 22 0 26 57 .215 .321 .403
1966 HOU 49 144 16 35 6 1 7 18 0 21 39 .243 .355 .444
1966 CLE 33 47 2 6 1 0 2 4 0 5 18 .128 .212 .277
9 Seasons 936 2922 434 759 113 6 179 549 3 475 663 .260 .368 .486
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/18/2009.

 

He certainly was no slouch in the couple seasons surrounding his 1961 campaign.  But anyone expecting the production they got out of him in that year was surely disappointed.