Saturday, January 30, 2010

Senators Saturday - Don Lock, 1964.

Don Lock, pictured here on card number 114 of the 1964 Topps set, continued his mashing ways in 1964. As in 1963, he was the Senators' big power threat.

As head smasher Don led the team in home runs with 28, ten more than his closest teammate. That was good enough for 10th in the AL. He also led the team in plate appearances (598), games (152), runs scored (73), RBI (80), walks (79) - 8th in the AL, on base percentage (.346), and slugging percentage (.461). He was second in at bats with 512.

As becomes a typical power hitter, Don also struck out a lot in 1964. He led the team with 137 whiffs. That placed him second in the AL.

On the other side of the ball, Don played 1281.1 innings in the field. That was the most on the team. During that time he had 372 chances. He made 354 putouts and had 19 assists. He did make five errors but still managed to post a .987 fielding percentage. That was seven points better than the year before.

Don's performance coupled with Washington's dismal record probably accounts for something that had not happened up to this point for Don and never would again in his career. He actually showed up in the MVP voting. He ranked last in the voting but at least his name came up.

1 comment:

Freddy said...

He has without doubt the craziest eyebrows I have ever seen.