1966 Fantasy Astrology Recap
View the 1966 FABL Lineups Here!
The period between 1966 and 1967 was a rare bit of calm in an otherwise hectic flurry of movement and expansion in MLB. The Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta prior to 1966, with the Angels making the less-impactful move from Los Angeles to Orange County, changing their name to the California Angels in the process. And then of course after 1967, the Athletics would move from Kansas City to Oakland. All of this has little bearing on the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League, where players are members of their signs for LIFE.
It’s not often that you see one of the all-time great pitchers of their generation retire at age 30. But that’s what happened after 1966, when Dodgers left-handed ace Sandy Koufax (4,261 / 103.9) called it a career due to an arthritic elbow. His outstanding performance in his final season led his Capricorn Goats to the top spot in his sign’s division… but only if you ignore positional eligibility rules. I’ll return to the Earth Signs later, but first let’s talk about the sign to beat out of the entire league: the Libra Scales, who in 1966 took home a fantasy points crown for the last time until 2009.
Libra had the top three pitchers in the Positive Polarity: Cy Young Award-winning Juan Marichal (3,856 / 104.2), MLB innings pitched leader Jim Bunning (3,441 / 80.0), and midseason trade target Earl Wilson (2,595 / 68.3), who went from the Red Sox to the Tigers in real life. Their offense was only decent, led by Tigers outfielder Willie Horton (1,771 / 12.1), Yankees first baseman Joe Pepitone (1,813 / 11.9), and his legendary teammate Mickey Mantle (1,238 / 11.5)… even though the injury-shortened nature of Mantle’s season caused him to fall behind the lowly Mike Hershberger (1,282 / 8.8) of the A’s in total fantasy points.
Another pitching-rich team took the lead in the Water Division, as Scorpio fielded a starting rotation with five All-Stars and two Gold Glove winners. Jim Kaat (3,180 / 77.6) of the Twins and Bob Gibson (3,130 / 89.4) of the Cardinals took home the defensive hardware, while also slotting in as the top two Negative pitchers behind Koufax. After struggling to find ANY players qualifying for second base or shortstop in the late 60’s, even the modest contributions from Dick Groat (1,155 / 7.5) and Frank Bolling (302 / 4.0) – when added to legitimate offensive stalwarts like Norm Cash (2,082 / 13.0) and Jim Ray Hart (2,031 / 13.0) – gave the Scorpions just what they needed to sting their opponents.
Leo had no trouble winning the Fire Division, thanks largely to a pair of real-life award winners: MVP Roberto Clemente (2,468 / 16.0) and Rookie of the Year Tommy Agee (2,214 / 13.8). Neither of these two took home the fantasy equivalents of these awards: Clemente finished behind the amazing Aquarian Henry Aaron (2,737 / 17.3), while Agee could justifiably share the award with his Fire Division rival Don Sutton (2,222 / 60.1) of the Aries Rams. But there’s something so poetic about one Dodger pitching legend’s rookie season coinciding with the final season of the legend who came before.
Back to the Earth Division, Virgo’s Frank Robinson (2,887 / 18.6) absolutely destroyed the league, winning the real-life Triple Crown (just one year before Leo’s Carl Yastrzemski (1,883 / 11.8) would accomplish the feat, the only time it’s ever happened in back-to-back seasons). Virgo also had a pair of crack starting pitchers in Gaylord Perry (2,688 / 74.7) of the Giants and Chris Short (2,366 / 56.3) of the Phillies. But even the controversial decision to slot slugging left fielder Rico Carty (1,730 / 11.5) as the catcher, based on 17 games behind the plate for Atlanta (the only 17 games he would play there in his whole career) could not give the Flowers the divisional lead.
Based on my calculations, Capricorn finished ahead of Virgo by a score of 28,018 to 27,730… a margin of less than 300 fantasy points. But when you rebalance for strict positional eligibility, it’s actually Taurus who swaps places with Capricorn, leaving Virgo as the runner-up either way you figure it. The cheat I enacted for the Goats was to put Yankees rookie left fielder Roy White (768 / 6.7) at third base over Phil Gagliano (449 / 5.0), a utility player for the Cardinals. This is based on White’s 17 games at third base in 1967, his only career appearances at the position… which is almost an exact mirror of Rico Carty’s situation as the Virgo catcher!
The Bulls had plenty of stars of their own, starting with pitching ace Mike Cuellar (2,420 / 63.7), who was with the Astros at the time. Center fielder Willie Mays (2,326 / 15.3) was one of four Gold Glove winners on the team, along with third baseman Brooks Robinson, shortstop Luis Aparicio, and catcher John Roseboro. Tommy Helms (1,298 / 9.4) won the real-life Rookie of the Year award for the Reds, despite scoring almost 2,000 fewer fantasy points than Don Sutton of the Dodgers. And Felipe Alou (2,343 / 15.2) finished second in the race for the real-life NL batting title… behind his brother Matty (1,521 / 10.8), who was, coincidentally enough, a Capricorn.
Just to round out the FABL awards, Pisces third baseman Joe Foy (1,724 / 11.4) was the Negative Rookie of the year, even though he was outscored by Aries first baseman George Scott (1,744 / 10.8) overall. Speaking of Aries, Dodgers closer Phil Regan (2,294 / 35.3), the man known as “The Vulture,” was the top-scoring reliever, even though they didn’t calculate saves at the time. Cancer had the top TWO relievers in the Negative Pole: Jack Aker (2,244 / 34.0) of Kansas City and Billy McCool (1,677 / 29.4) of Cincinnati. But in a fascinating twist, the Crabs couldn’t even field FOUR primary starters in 1966, leading to the necessity of plenty of Fantasy Astrology bullpen games.