1969 In Baseball

Expansion

Four expansion teams joined Major League Baseball for this season: the San Diego Padres, the Kansas City Royals, the Seattle Pilots, and the first MLB team in Canada, the Montreal Expos. To accommodate the additional teams, the two leagues were split into two divisions of East and West. For the first time, extra post-season playoff series were added prior to the World Series, at this juncture best-of-five series between the East and West division leaders in each league.

Champions

Major League Baseball

The most notable part of the 1969 season were the Miracle Mets
*World Series: New York Mets over Baltimore Orioles (4–1); Donn Clendenon, MVP

*All-Star Game, July 23 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium: National League, 9–3; Willie McCovey, MVP

Other champions

* College World Series: Arizona State
* Japan Series: Yomiuri Giants over Hankyu Braves (4–2)
* Big League World Series: Mojave Desert LL, Barstow, California
* Little League World Series: Taipei, Taiwan
*Senior League World Series: Sacramento, California

Awards and honors

*Baseball Hall of Fame
**Roy Campanella
**Stan Coveleski
**Waite Hoyt
**Stan Musial

Statistical leaders

The save is introduced as an official statistic this year. Ron Perranoski lead the majors with 31.

Major league baseball final standings

American League final standings

National League final standings

Nippon Professional Baseball final standings

Central League final standings

Pacific League final standings

Events

January

*January 2 – In response to major-league owners' continued refusal to increase their contributions to the players' pension fund commensurately with their television broadcast revenues, the Major League Baseball Players Association urges players not to sign any new contracts.
*January 9 – The Chicago Cubs reacquire relief pitcher Ted Abernathy, two-time National League saves leader, sending catcher Bill Plummer, outfielder/first baseman Clarence Jones and minor-league pitcher Kenneth Myette to the Cincinnati Reds for the 35-year-old "submariner".
*January 20
**The Philadelphia Phillies trade former starting catcher Clay Dalrymple to the Baltimore Orioles for outfielder Ron Stone. Veteran Dalrymple will back up Elrod Hendricks and Andy Etchebarren on three straight American League pennant-winners and one World Series champion.
**The California Angels trade pitcher Sammy Ellis to the Chicago White Sox for outfielder Bill Voss.
*January 21 – Stan Musial and Roy Campanella are voted into the Hall of Fame by BBWAA members.
*January 22 – The Montreal Expos trade first baseman Donn Clendenon and outfielder Jesús Alou to the Houston Astros for outfielder Rusty Staub. But Clendenon refuses to report because of a personality clash with Astro manager Harry Walker that dates to their tenure together with the Pittsburgh Pirates between 1965 and 1967. On April 8, the Expos send pitchers Jack Billingham and Skip Guinn and $100,000 to Houston to replace Clendenon in the trade.
*January 29 – On his first official day as owner of the Washington Senators, Bob Short fires former slugging outfielder Jim Lemon as the club's manager. Washington finished last in the American League with a 65–96 record in 1968, Lemon's only season as pilot. In the coming weeks, Short also will dismiss general manager (GM) George Selkirk and assume Selkirk's former duties himself.

February

*February 2 – Pitchers Stan Coveleski and Waite Hoyt are voted into the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee.
*February 4 – Bowie Kuhn, 42, a partner with the National League's law firm, becomes the fifth permanent Commissioner of Baseball following a two-month-long search process. His term will continue through September 30, 1984, and especially be identified with changing player-owner relations and labor strife. Kuhn will be posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame in 2008.
*February 5 – The New York Mets trade catcher/first baseman Greg Goossen to the Seattle Pilots for a "player to be named later (PTBNL)". New York receives outfielder Jim Gosger on June 14 to complete the deal.
*February 12 – The St. Louis Cardinals purchase the contract of outfielder Byron Browne from the Houston Astros.
*February 17 – Spring training opens without 400 players who have decided to boycott it over the pension-fund impasse.
*February 21 – Hall of Fame hitter Ted Williams returns to uniform as manager of the Washington Senators. Enticed by new owner Bob Short, Williams will lead the 1969 Senators to the only winning season they will enjoy in their 11-year history.
*February 26 – The boycott ends when owners accept most of the players' terms.

March

*March 1 – Mickey Mantle announces his retirement at age 37 with 18 seasons, 2,401 games played, 536 homers, three MVP awards, 20 All-Star selections, seven World Series rings, and 12 American League pennants under his belt. He will elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in .
*March 16 – A plane crash in Maracaibo, Venezuela, kills 155 people including first baseman Carlos Santeliz, 20, the Venezuelan League Rookie of the Year, on his way to the Atlanta Braves' spring training camp. Another fatality is pitcher Látigo Chávez, 21, en route to the San Francisco Giants' camp; had had gone 12–5 with Double-A Waterbury in the Eastern League, including seven shutouts, in , and posted a 1–0 record and 0.00 ERA in three games with San Francisco in September 1968. Pitcher Pablo Torrealba, scheduled to take the ill-fated flight, misses it and takes a later one.
*March 17 – The Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals announce a one-for-one trade of All-Stars, with the Braves swapping Joe Torre for the Cardinals' Orlando Cepeda. Torre, 28, will convert from catcher to third base and win the National League Most Valuable Player Award; Cepeda, 31, is only two years removed from his NL MVP season. Both will become members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, although Torre (a nine-time All-Star and .297 lifetime hitter with 252 homers as a player) will be selected to recognize his managerial career.
*March 21 – Coming out of a one-year retirement, veteran left-hander Johnny Podres, 36, signs as a free agent with the brand-new San Diego Padres. Podres is a familiar figure in Southern California as a former stalwart for the Los Angeles Dodgers, whom he helped win the and World Series.
*March 28 – Still filling gaps in their maiden roster, the Padres acquire pitcher Tommie Sisk and catcher Chris Cannizzaro from the Pittsburgh Pirates for infielder Bobby Klaus and outfielder Ron Davis. Sisk will appear in 53 games on the mound and Cannizzaro will start 128 contests behind the plate for San Diego in 1969.
*March 31 – The Baltimore Orioles acquire veteran utility infielder Rutherford "Chico" Salmon from the Seattle Pilots for pitcher Gene Brabender and infielder Gordon Lund.

April

*April 1 – The American League's two expansion teams make a deal, with the Kansas City Royals acquiring rookie outfielder Lou Piniella from the Seattle Pilots for pitcher John Gelnar and outfielder Steve Whitaker. Upon winning a regular job, Piniella, already 25, becomes the 1969 AL Rookie of the Year and permanently launches a 1,747-game MLB playing career that lasts into .
*April 3 – Bill White, 35, returns to the St. Louis Cardinals when he's traded by the Philadelphia Phillies for infielders Jerry Buchek and Jim Hutto. First baseman White was a team leader who was selected to eight All-Star teams during his prior (–) tour as a Redbird.
*April 4 – The Cleveland Indians and California Angels swap veteran outfielders, with Cleveland reacquiring Chuck Hinton for former Los Angeles Dodger Lou Johnson. Hinton had appeared in 403 games over three seasons with the Indians between and .

*April 8
**At Shea Stadium