January (#1) with future
Hall of Famer Frank Robinson in 1963 • January 3 – The
Cincinnati Reds announce that manager
Fred Hutchinson, 44, has contracted
lung cancer. He will begin two months of radiology treatment in
Seattle and will make spring training with the team. • January 6: • Owner
Charlie Finley signs a two-year pact to move his
Athletics‚ pending American League approval‚ from
Kansas City, Missouri to
Louisville, Kentucky. • The
Chicago White Sox introduce their new powder-blue road uniforms. • January 9 – The
Philadelphia Phillies release first baseman
Frank Torre. • January 14 – The
Pittsburgh Pirates sign pitcher
Dock Ellis as a free agent. • January 15 –
Willie Mays‚ the highest-paid player in baseball‚ signs a $105‚000 contract with the
Giants. • January 16 –
American League owners vote 9–1 against
Charlie Finley's attempt to move his club to Louisville. Finley is given an ultimatum to sign a lease in Kansas City or lose his franchise. • January 20 – The
Houston Colt .45s acquire veteran shortstop
Eddie Kasko from the
Cincinnati Reds for pitchers
Jim Dickson and
Wally Wolf, plus cash considerations. • January 28 –
Cincinnati center fielder
Vada Pinson is cleared of assault charges stemming from a September 5‚ 1963 incident when local sportswriter
Earl Lawson does not pursue charges further. • January 29 – Pitcher-author
Jim Brosnan is given permission by the
Chicago White Sox to make his own deal with another team. His in-season writing has been censured by Sox general manager
Ed Short. • January 30 – The United States Senate Subcommittee on Monopolies begins hearings on baseball.
February • February 2 –
Red Faber,
Burleigh Grimes,
Tim Keefe,
Heinie Manush,
John Montgomery Ward, and
Miller Huggins are elected to the
Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee. • February 13 –
Chicago Cubs second baseman
Ken Hubbs,
National League Rookie of the Year and
Gold Glove winner, is killed in the crash of his private plane. • February 17: • Former
Chicago White Sox shortstop
Luke Appling is selected to the
Hall of Fame by the
Baseball Writers' Association of America in a runoff election. In , the first year of eligibility for Appling, he received just two votes. • The
St. Louis Cardinals reacquire outfielder
Carl Warwick from the
Houston Colt .45s for pitcher
Chuck Taylor and outfielder
Jim Beauchamp. Warwick will help the Redbirds win the
1964 World Series, setting a Fall Classic record for reaching first base consecutively as a
pinch hitter.
March • March 18 – Bolstering their
bullpen, the
Chicago White Sox acquire 35-year-old left-hander
Don Mossi from the
Detroit Tigers in a cash transaction. • March 22 – The
Milwaukee Braves sign outfielder
Cito Gaston as an amateur free agent. • March 23: • Finally,
Charlie Finley gives in to
American League pressure and signs a four-year lease with the municipal government to keep the
Athletics in
Kansas City. Finley wanted a two-year deal. His exasperated AL colleagues voted 9–1 that KC's offer was reasonable. • The
San Francisco Giants sign pitcher
Masanori Murakami‚ third baseman
Tatsuhiko Tanaka‚ and catcher
Hiroshi Takahashi, the first Japanese ballplayers ever to play for American teams. Murakami played for the
Fresno Giants and later the MLB Giants, while Tanaka and Takahashi played for the
Magic Valley Cowboys. • March 31: • The
Washington Senators acquire pitcher
Buster Narum from the
Baltimore Orioles for a
"player to be named later"/PTBNL, who turns out to be 20-year-old outfield prospect
Lou Piniella. • The
Chicago White Sox sell the contract of pitcher
Mike Joyce to the
New York Mets.
April • April 1 –
Cleveland Indians manager
Birdie Tebbetts suffers a heart attack. Third-base coach
George Strickland will fill in for three months until the 51-year old skipper returns to the team with limited duties. • April 8 –
Houston Colt .45s relief pitcher
Jim Umbricht dies of
cancer at the age of 33. In 1965, the franchise will retire his uniform number 32. • April 9: • The
Los Angeles Dodgers acquire well-traveled minor-league outfielder
Lou Johnson from the
Detroit Tigers' organization for relief pitcher and
1959 World Series hero
Larry Sherry. Detroit even sends the Dodgers $10,000 in cash to sweeten the deal. To this point in his 12-season professional baseball career, Johnson, 29, has appeared in only 96 MLB games. But he will be recalled to the Dodgers in May 1965 to replace an injured
Tommy Davis and help Los Angeles win two
NL pennants and the
1965 World Series. • To the chagrin of special consultant
Branch Rickey, the
St. Louis Cardinals trade
Jimmie Coker and
Gary Kolb to the
Milwaukee Braves for reserve catcher
Bob Uecker. After introducing himself, the Redbirds' new backstop is quickly informed by Rickey. "I didn't want you. I wouldn't trade one Gary Kolb for a hundred Bob Ueckers". • April 10 – Demolition of the
Polo Grounds in Manhattan begins, using the same wrecking ball that demolished
Ebbets Field in Brooklyn
four years earlier. • April 13: •
Lyndon Johnson, the 36th
U.S. President, throws out the ceremonial first pitch in 1964's traditional Presidential Opener before 40,145 at
District of Columbia Stadium. The home-standing
Washington Senators can muster only one hit, a third inning double by
Claude Osteen, off
Ken McBride and
Julio Navarro, and fall to the
Los Angeles Angels 4–0. • After beating the
Reds 6–3 in the traditional home opener in
Cincinnati, the
Houston Colt .45s sit in first place in the
National League for the only time under their original nickname. The next year the Colt .45s are renamed the
Astros, to reflect Houston's status as the home of the
NASA space program. • April 14: •
Sandy Koufax of the
Los Angeles Dodgers goes all the way in his only Opening Day start, allowing no walks and beating the visiting
St. Louis Cardinals, 4–0.
Frank Howard homers for the Dodgers. • Meanwhile, the
New York Mets sell the contract of 1950s Dodger legend
Duke Snider, 37, to the
San Francisco Giants. Snider will spend the last year of his 18-season,
Hall-of-Fame MLB career with the arch-rival Giants, batting .210 largely as a pinch hitter. • April 17 – The
Mets play their first game at brand-new
Shea Stadium and lose 4–3 to the
Pittsburgh Pirates before 48,736.
Willie Stargell hits the first
home run in the stadium's history, a second-inning solo shot off the Mets'
Jack Fisher. In the first-ever "
Kiner's Korner" from Shea,
Ralph Kiner's guest is
Casey Stengel. Two days later, the Mets win their first of 1,859 victories at the stadium when they beat the Pirates 6–0 behind
Al Jackson's six-hitter. • April 21 – The
Philadelphia Phillies purchase the contract of veteran relief pitcher
Ed Roebuck from the
Washington Senators. Roebuck, 32, will bolster the Phils' bullpen this season, working in 60 games and posting a
5–3 (
2.21) record with 12
saves. • April 23: • At
Colt Stadium,
Ken Johnson of the
Houston Colt .45s no-hits his former team, the
Cincinnati Reds, but
loses 1–0. Two ninth-inning errors allow the Reds to score the game's lone run: a two-base throwing error by Johnson himself on
Pete Rose's ground ball, and the second by
Nellie Fox on
Vada Pinson's grounder, which scores Rose. To date, the game is the only one in Major League history whose losing pitcher had pitched a nine-inning no-hitter. The no-hitter is the first of three in MLB this season—all of them thrown by National League hurlers. • The
New York Mets pick up third baseman
Charley Smith, 26, from the
Chicago White Sox for shortstop
Humberto "Chico" Fernández, minor-league catcher Bobby Catton, and cash. • April 24 –
Willie Mays reaches base five times in five
plate appearances—two
singles, two
bases on balls, and a solo homer—and scores five runs in the
San Francisco Giants' 15–5 romp over the
Reds at
Crosley Field.
May , who hit a 573 foot home run on May 6 which cleared the left field roof of
Comiskey Park • May 2 – The
Minnesota Twins become the third club in MLB history to hit four consecutive home runs in the same inning, as
Tony Oliva,
Bob Allison,
Jimmie Hall and
Harmon Killebrew go deep in the top of the 11th inning in a 7–3 victory against the
Kansas City Athletics. The Twins also become the first team to hit at least three consecutive home runs in an
extra innings game. The Twins' six homers on the day (an accomplishment they'll match just 12 days from now, on May 14, in a nine-inning contest) are the most by a big-league team in one game in 1964. • May 5 – Rookie right-hander
Wally Bunker of the
Baltimore Orioles pitches a one-hitter in the first
start and second-ever appearance of his MLB career, defeating the
Washington Senators 2–1 at
Memorial Stadium. The Senators' lone hit belongs to
Chuck Hinton, in the fourth inning, when Washington scores its lone run on an RBI groundout by
Bill Skowron. Bunker, 19, will throw another one-hitter on July 3 against
Kansas City, authoring two of MLB's 15 one-hit complete games of 1964. • May 31 – The second game of a
doubleheader at
Shea Stadium between the
Mets and
San Francisco Giants lasts 23 innings and an MLB-record seven hours and 23 minutes. The Giants eventually win it 8–6, on a two-run double by pinch hitter
Del Crandall. The winning pitcher is future
Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry, who throws ten shutout innings of relief. The doubleheader (swept by the Giants) clocks in at nine hours, 52 minutes of play—also the longest in MLB annals.
June • June 2: •
Lew Burdette's tenure with the
St. Louis Cardinals lasts less than a calendar year when the 37-year-old hurler is dealt to the
Chicago Cubs for fellow righty
Glen Hobbie, 28. Each club will add a "
PTBNL", outfielders
Corky Withrow and
Bob Will, to complete the transaction. • The
New York Yankees sign 18-year-old amateur free agent shortstop
Bobby Murcer, after a standout schoolboy career at
Oklahoma City's
Southeast High School. • June 4 –
Sandy Koufax pitches the third of his four career
no hitters, to pace the
Los Angeles Dodgers to a 3–0 victory over the
Philadelphia Phillies at
Connie Mack Stadium. • June 8 – The
Kansas City Athletics sign pitcher
Catfish Hunter, 18, as an amateur free agent out of
Perquimans County High School in
North Carolina. • June 10 –
Eddie Lopat, manager of the last-place
Kansas City Athletics (17–35), is fired and replaced by coach
Mel McGaha. • June 11 – Three
American League teams make a tri-cornered trade in which the
Minnesota Twins obtain second baseman
Jerry Kindall and utilityman
Frank Kostro, the
Los Angeles Angels receive first baseman
Vic Power and outfielder
Lenny Green, and the
Cleveland Indians get 2x
AL All-Star second baseman
Billy Moran. • June 12 – The
New York Mets sign 19-year-old southpaw
Tug McGraw as an amateur free agent. • June 15: • The
Chicago Cubs trade outfielder
Lou Brock and pitchers
Jack Spring and
Paul Toth to the
St. Louis Cardinals for pitchers
Ernie Broglio and
Bobby Shantz and outfielder
Doug Clemens. The
swap eventually gains notoriety as perhaps the most lopsided in the history of baseball, as Brock goes on to a
Hall of Fame career in St. Louis, while Broglio posts a 7–19 record in a Cubs uniform. Brock also is a key cog in the Redbirds'
1964 and
1967 World Series titles, and their
1968 NL championship. • The
Minnesota Twins acquire right-hander
Jim "Mudcat" Grant from the
Cleveland Indians for pitcher
Lee Stange and third baseman
George Banks. Grant will win 21 games at the top of a pennant-winning starting rotation for the
1965 Twins. • June 16 –
Ken Boyer hits for the cycle in the
Cardinals' 7–1 road victory over the
Houston Colt .45s. Bunning also becomes the first
pitcher to throw
no-hitters in both leagues, and
Gus Triandos becomes the first
catcher to catch a no-hitter in each league. Bunning throws just 90 pitches in winning his second no-hitter. The next time Bunning faces the Mets he will shut them out, the first no-hit pitcher in the 20th century to do that. The Mets fare little better in the nightcap, as 18-year-old rookie
Rick Wise pitches into the seventh inning to win his first game, giving up just three hits and three walks (
Johnny Klippstein hurls the final three frames). The Phillies increase their
National League lead to two games over the
San Francisco Giants. • June 24: • The
Minnesota Twins sign second baseman
Rod Carew as an amateur free agent.
Panamanian immigrant Carew, 19, is signed to a contract while playing sandlot baseball in
New York City by an off-duty police officer who "moonlights" as a Twins scout. • Sought-after
University of Wisconsin outfielder
Rick Reichardt signs a then-record, $205,000 bonus contract to join the
Los Angeles Angels as an amateur free agent. The highly publicized bonus will be the "last straw" that convinces MLB owners to end their bidding wars for amateur domestic talent and institute the
Major League Baseball draft, which will take effect in June 1965. • June 26 • Hard-hitting sophomore
Cleveland Indians third baseman
Max Alvis, 26, is hospitalized in Boston after an attack of
spinal meningitis. He will recover completely but miss six weeks of action. • At
D.C. Stadium, American League umpire
Alaric Smith ejects
Baltimore Orioles manager
Hank Bauer in the 13th inning of the Orioles' 9–4 victory for "talking to someone in the stands"—who turns out to be Bauer's boss, general manager
Lee MacPhail. •
Twins owner
Calvin Griffith strengthens his bullpen by acquiring
Al Worthington, 35, from the
Cincinnati Reds in a cash transaction. Three days from today, Griffith will add another veteran National League relief pitcher by purchasing the contract of
Johnny Klippstein, 36, from the
Philadelphia Phillies.
July • July 6 – The three-day
All-Star break begins with the
Philadelphia Phillies (47–28) holding a 1½-game lead over the
San Francisco Giants (47–31) in the
National League; the sluggish
St. Louis Cardinals (39–40) are in fifth place, ten full games out. In the
American League, the
Baltimore Orioles (48–28) have a three-game bulge over two runners-up, the
Chicago White Sox (44–30) and
New York Yankees (45–31). • July 7 – At
Shea Stadium,
Johnny Callison's ninth-inning three-run home run off
Dick Radatz caps a four-run rally and gives the National League a 7–4 win over the American League in the
All-Star Game. Callison is named Game MVP as the NL triumph evens the series at 17. • July 13 – The contending
White Sox swap first basemen with the
Washington Senators, obtaining right-handed-hitting, native
Chicagoan Bill Skowron, 33, from Washington for lefty-swinging
Joe Cunningham, 32, and a
PTBNL (young pitcher
Frank Kreutzer). Skowron, who made seven AL All-Star teams during his nine-year tenure (–) with the
New York Yankees, has slugged 13 homers in 73 games as a Senator this season. • July 15 – At
Metropolitan Stadium,
Minnesota Twins pitcher
Mudcat Grant serves up 13
singles and a
walk during eight innings—but none of the
Washington Senators batters comes around to score and the Senators leave 12 men on base. The 13 safeties allowed by Grant in his 6–0 shutout win rank one behind the MLB record. • July 19 –
Luis Tiant pitches a complete-game, four-hit
shutout in his Major League debut, leading the
Cleveland Indians to a 3–0 victory over
Whitey Ford and the
New York Yankees at
Yankee Stadium. Tiant—who posted a
15–1 (
2.04) record in 17 games at
Triple-A Portland—allows just four singles while
striking out 11. • July 22 –
Pittsburgh Pirates future
Hall of Famer Willie Stargell hits for the cycle, scores four times, and drives in three runs to lead the Bucs to a 13–2 rout of the
St. Louis Cardinals at
Busch Stadium. • July 28 – The major leagues celebrate the second
"cycle" in seven days • August 7 – The
Philadelphia Phillies, leading the
National League by 2½ games, fill a gap in their lineup by acquiring veteran power-hitter
Frank Thomas from the
New York Mets for pitcher
Gary Kroll, third baseman
Wayne Graham and cash. Thomas, 35, will take over as the Phils' regular first baseman and hit .302 with seven homers over the next month until he's sidelined by a fractured thumb. • August 12: • Making his MLB debut, 22-year-old right-hander
Mel Stottlemyre, just recalled from
Triple-A Richmond, throws a complete-game 7–3 victory for his
New York Yankees over the
Chicago White Sox at
Yankee Stadium.
Mickey Mantle hits a home run from both sides of the plate for the tenth time in his career. Third-place New York (66–45) keeps pace with the league-leading
Baltimore Orioles (71–43) and gains a game on the second-place ChiSox (69–45). Stottlemyre will win nine of 12 decisions as a starting pitcher, with five complete games and two shutouts, during this season's furious, three-team American League pennant scramble. • At
Crosley Field, the
Cincinnati Reds host an emotional, 45th-birthday tribute to their cancer-stricken manager,
Fred Hutchinson, before their game with the
Los Angeles Dodgers. Hutchinson has managed the Reds for 109 of their 115 games while undergoing treatment. But he will enter the hospital the next day to fight the disease for the rest of the baseball season, while coach
Dick Sisler pilots the Reds. Hutchinson will resign as manager October 19; he passes away in
Bradenton, Florida, on November 12. • August 17 – With the fifth-place
St. Louis Cardinals at 62–55 (.530) and nine games behind the Phillies, owner
August A. Busch Jr. replaces
general manager Bing Devine with
Bob Howsam, former owner of the minor-league
Denver Bears. The roster that Howsam inherits goes 31–14 (.689) to edge Philadelphia and Cincinnati for the National League pennant, and defeats the Yankees in the
1964 World Series. Devine, meanwhile, earns his second consecutive Major League Executive of the Year award from
The Sporting News. He will join the
New York Mets as assistant to club president
George Weiss on September 29. • August 20 – At
Comiskey Park, the
Chicago White Sox complete a four-game sweep of the
New York Yankees with a 5–0 shutout. As the Yankees' team bus heads to
O'Hare International Airport after the game, infielder
Phil Linz takes out a
harmonica and plays a plaintive version of "
Mary Had a Little Lamb". Manager
Yogi Berra tells Linz to put the harmonica away. After Linz asks what Berra had said,
Mickey Mantle tells Linz to "play it louder", which he does, prompting an unusually angry Berra to storm to the back to the bus and slap the harmonica out of Linz' hands; the instrument strikes
Joe Pepitone's knee. The "
Harmonica Incident" convinces the Yankee front office that Berra has lost control of the team and cannot command respect from his players. As a result, the decision is made to fire Berra at the end of the season. • August 27 – The
New York Mets sign
Jerry Koosman as an amateur free agent. • August 31 – Groundbreaking is held for the new
Anaheim Stadium; it will open in as the home of the
California Angels.
September • September 1 – At
Shea Stadium, pitcher
Masanori Murakami of the
San Francisco Giants becomes the first Japanese player to appear in the Major Leagues. He enters the game in the ninth inning of the Giants' 4–1 loss to the
New York Mets and strikes out
Charley Smith, the first batter he faces;
Ed Kranepool also strikes out two batters later. • September 5 – Locked in a three-team struggle for the
American League pennant, the
New York Yankees bolster their bullpen by acquiring hard-throwing right-hander
Pedro Ramos from the
Cleveland Indians for $75,000 and two
players to be named later, pitchers
Ralph Terry and
Bud Daley. Ramos, 29, earns eight saves in 13 games over the next four weeks and goes 1–0 (1.25). • September 7 – The
Labor Day weekend ends with 1½ games separating the top three AL teams: the
Baltimore Orioles (83–56),
Chicago White Sox (84–58) and
New York Yankees (80–56). In the
National League, the
Philadelphia Phillies (83–54) hold a 6½-game lead over three clubs virtually tied for second: the
Cincinnati Reds and
St. Louis Cardinals (both 77–61) and the
Giants (78–62). • September 9: • The
Phillies acquire veteran first baseman
Vic Power from the
Los Angeles Angels as an emergency replacement for
Frank Thomas, sidelined by a fractured thumb. Power, 36, is a seven-time AL
Gold Glove Award winner but his offensive skills are in decline. • In tonight's game at
Connie Mack Stadium, the
Cardinals and
Phillies go into
extra innings tied at five. An error by third baseman
Dick Allen leads to three unearned runs and the Cards score five in the 11th for a 10–5 victory. • September 12 –
Frank Bertaina of the
Baltimore Orioles beats
Bob Meyer of the
Kansas City Athletics, 1–0, in a game in which both pitchers throw a one-hitter. • September 17 – Seattle Mayor
James d'Orma Braman publicly declares his intention to lure the
Cleveland Indians to the city. The following month, the Indians' board of directors will announce the club will remain in Cleveland. • September 19 – The
Houston Colt .45s (61–88) change managers, with coach
Lum Harris taking the reins from the team's first pilot,
Harry Craft. • September 20 –
Jim Bunning strikes out
John Roseboro in the ninth inning to preserve the visiting
Philadelphia Phillies' 3–2 win over the
Los Angeles Dodgers. The win comes after two straight losses (both charged to
Jack Baldschun) and leaves the first-place Phils in front of the National League by 6½ games with 12 to play. When they return to
Philadelphia in the early morning, 2,000 fans, including mayor
James Tate, greet the team. • September 21 –
John Tsitouris hurls a 1–0 shutout for the
Cincinnati Reds over
Art Mahaffey and the first-place
Phillies; Cincinnati rookie
Chico Ruiz scores the only run when, with
Frank Robinson at bat, he steals home with two outs in the sixth inning. The defeat launches the Phillies on a ten-game losing streak. • September 27 –
Johnny Callison hits three home runs, but the
Phillies lose to the
Milwaukee Braves 14–8. The Phils suffer the seventh loss in their ten-game losing streak, while the Reds sweep the
New York Mets (4–1 and 3–1). The results knock Philadelphia out of first place, with the Reds replacing them—and the Phillies will never return to the top of the NL standings this season. in 1975 • September 29 – The
Pittsburgh Pirates blank
Cincinnati 2–0 at
Crosley Field (despite the Reds getting 11 hits off
Bob Friend) to end the Reds' nine-game winning streak. Meanwhile,
Ray Sadecki records his 20th victory as his
St. Louis Cardinals defeat the
Phillies 4–2 at
Busch Stadium, the seventh win in the Cardinals' eight-game winning streak and the ninth loss in the Phillies' ten-game losing streak. The win vaults the Cardinals into a tie for first place with the Reds; St. Louis had been 11 games out of first on August 23. • September 30 –
Danny Murtaugh, 46, announces his pending retirement as manager of the
Pittsburgh Pirates due to ill health after 7½ seasons, including their
1960 world championship campaign. But he will remain with team in a front-office post and return to the Pirates' helm three more times through 1976, and lead them to a second world title in .
October • October 1 –
Johnny Pesky is fired as manager of the
Boston Red Sox with two games remaining in his second season. Future
Hall of Fame second baseman
Billy Herman, 55, the Bosox' third-base coach, replaces Pesky. • October 3: • The
New York Yankees clinch their 15th American League pennant in 18 years, scoring five eighth-inning runs to break open a tie game and defeat the
Cleveland Indians 8–3 in
the Bronx. When the season ends tomorrow, New York's margin will be a single game over the
Chicago White Sox and two lengths over the
Baltimore Orioles. • As a result of the now-concluded
Philadelphia Phillies' ten-game losing streak, the day begins with four teams still having a mathematical shot at the
National League pennant, and a four-way tie is also still a possibility. But then one of the four, the
San Francisco Giants, is eliminated with a 10–7 loss to the
Chicago Cubs. At the end of the day, the
Cincinnati Reds and
St. Louis Cardinals are tied for first place, with the Phillies a game back. The scramble forces the NL to devise multiple emergency playoff scenarios. • October 4: • The
Phillies defeat the
Reds 10–0 in the last regular-season game for both teams unless there is a playoff; with the Reds' loss, the
Cardinals clinch a tie for the pennant. At the end of their game, the Phillies and Reds are a half-game back of the Cardinals, and await the result of the Redbirds' contest with the
New York Mets at
Busch Stadium. • Then the
Cardinals—never in first place until the last week of the season—clinch their first pennant since , tenth overall, with an 11–5 win over the last-place
Mets, who had beaten the Redbirds twice in the two preceding days. St. Louis's triumph averts a three-way tie for the NL crown, with Philadelphia and Cincinnati finishing one game back in a second-place tie. • As soon as their season is completed, the
San Francisco Giants fire manager
Alvin Dark and replace him with
Herman Franks, a coach whose links to the team extend to the
Leo Durocher era in
New York. • October 11 – A team of U.S.
college baseball players defeats a Japanese amateur all-star team, 6–2, in the lone game of
baseball at the 1964 Summer Olympics, featured as a
demonstration sport. • October 14 – The
Los Angeles Dodgers release infielder
Jim Gilliam and outfielder
Lee Walls; Gilliam will return to active status as a player-coach for the 1965 Dodgers. Also today, the
Boston Red Sox release two veteran outfielders,
Al Smith and
Dick Williams; Williams will begin his Hall-of-Fame managerial career in 1965 at the helm of Boston's
Triple-A Toronto affiliate. • October 15 – The
St. Louis Cardinals take an early lead in the deciding
World Series Game 7 over the
New York Yankees.
Lou Brock hits a fifth-inning home run to give pitcher
Bob Gibson a 6–0 lead.
Mickey Mantle,
Clete Boyer and
Phil Linz homer for New York, but the Cardinals hold on to win 7–5 and their seventh Fall Classic. The Boyer brothers, the Yankees' Clete and the Cardinals'
Ken, homer in their last career World Series plate appearance, a first in major league history. • October 16 – The day after the Series' final game, the managerial posts of both pennant-winning teams are vacant. In the morning,
Johnny Keane, manager of the victorious
St. Louis Cardinals, resigns, much to the surprise of owner
Gussie Busch; hours later,
New York Yankees general manager
Ralph Houk fires
Yogi Berra, citing Berra's
lack of control over his team and inability to command respect from his players. • Less than a week later, on October 20, Houk replaces Berra with Keane; the two had managed against each other in the Triple-A
American Association during the mid-1950s. • The same day, Cardinals owner
Busch, whose "secret" September discussions with
Leo Durocher about becoming the Redbirds' 1965 manager may have prompted Keane's resignation, • Spurning the Yankees' offer of an off-field role, on November 17, Berra, 39, will sign a two-year contract as a playing coach with the
New York Mets, reuniting him with
Casey Stengel. • October 19 –
Harry "The Hat" Walker is named to succeed
Danny Murtaugh as manager of the
Pittsburgh Pirates. A gifted batting instructor and successful minor-league pilot, Walker's last MLB managerial assignment came with the
Cardinals during the latter half of the 1955 season. • October 30 -
Joe Stanka is named MVP of the
Pacific League of
Nippon Professional baseball after leading the
Nankai Hawks over the
Yomiuri Giants in the
1964 Japan Series.
November • November 2 –
CBS Broadcasting Inc. becomes the first corporate owner of a Major League team after buying 80% of the
New York Yankees assets for $11,200,000.
Del Webb and
Dan Topping each retain ten percent; CBS will acquire Webb's share in March 1965 and Topping's in September 1966 to assume sole ownership of the Yankees. • November 9 –
Dean Chance, 23-year-old
Los Angeles Angels right-hander, is selected the ninth winner of the
Cy Young Award, taking 17 of 20 first-place votes;
Larry Jackson (two votes) and
Sandy Koufax (one) are distant contenders. In 1964, Chance led the
American League in games won (21),
earned run average (1.65),
complete games (15),
shutouts (11), and
innings pitched (278); he even earned four
saves. He will be the third and last AL hurler to win the all-MLB "CYA", which is dominated by
National League moundsmen prior to its replacement by separate awards for each circuit in . • November 10 – The
Milwaukee Braves sign a 25-year lease to play in the new
Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium. The Braves' move has been rumored since ; this past season, they attracted 911,951 fans, sixth among the NL's ten teams. • November 18 –
Baltimore Orioles third baseman
Brooks Robinson, who hit .317 with 28 home runs and 118 RBI, is named the American League's
Most Valuable Player with 18 first-place votes and 269 points, becoming the first non-
Yankee to win the award since
Nellie Fox in . The Yankees'
Mickey Mantle (two votes, 171 points) and
Elston Howard (124 points) are the runners-up. The Mets name Spahn the club's playing
pitching coach for 1965, and reunite him with
Casey Stengel, his first big-league manager when Spahn broke in with the
1942 Boston Braves. • November 24 –
St. Louis Cardinals third baseman
Ken Boyer, who hit .295 with 24 home runs and 119 RBI, is named the NL's
Most Valuable Player with 14 first-place votes and 243 points, becoming the first Redbird MVP since
Stan Musial won his third award in .
Johnny Callison (two votes, 187 points) and Boyer's teammate
Bill White (two, 106) are the runners-up. • In the most significant trade of the winter meetings, the
Los Angeles Dodgers trade pitchers
Phil Ortega and
Pete Richert, third baseman
Ken McMullen, outfielder
Frank Howard, and a
player to be named later (first baseman
Dick Nen) to the
Washington Senators for southpaw pitcher
Claude Osteen, third baseman
John Kennedy and $100,000. Osteen, 25, will become the Dodgers' #3 starter, behind
Sandy Koufax and
Don Drysdale, and help his team win the
1965 World Series and
National League pennant. Howard becomes a star in Washington, known as "The Capital Punisher," who slams 44 or more homers for three consecutive seasons (1968–1970), twice leading the
American League in that statistic. • The
Minnesota Twins acquire extremely versatile utility
César Tovar from the
Cincinnati Reds in exchange for pitcher
Gerry Arrigo. Tovar will play eight seasons in Minnesota. • December 7 – The
World Series-champion
St. Louis Cardinals and last-place
New York Mets make a trade, with the Redbirds acquiring right-hander
Tracy Stallard and infielder
Elio Chacón for pitcher
Gordie Richardson and outfielder
Johnny Lewis. • December 14 – The
Reds trade former 20-game-winner
Bob Purkey to the
Cardinals for pitcher
Roger Craig and outfielder
Charlie James. • December 17 – The
New York Yankees fire longtime lead play-by-play announcer
Mel Allen and replace him with former MLB catcher
Joe Garagiola. Allen, first heard on Yankee games in , is a national figure who has also described at least 17
World Series over the past 23 seasons. He will be the first-ever winner of a
Ford C. Frick Award (along with
Red Barber) in 1978. • December 24 – The
Kansas City Athletics sign amateur free agent pitcher
Rollie Fingers, a June graduate of
Southern California's
Upland High School. Fingers, 18, is a future
Hall of Famer, a three-time World Series champion, 7x
All-Star, winner of a
Cy Young Award and an
MVP Award. ==Births==