1970 California Angels season

The 1970 California Angels season involved the Angels finishing third in the American League West with a record of 86 wins and 76 losses.

1970 California Angels
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionWest
BallparkAnaheim Stadium
CityAnaheim, California
OwnersGene Autry
General managersDick Walsh
ManagersLefty Phillips
TelevisionKTLA
RadioKMPC
(Dick Enberg, Don Wells, Dave Niehaus, Jerry Coleman)
← 1969 Seasons 1971 →

Offseason

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Regular season

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Coming off a disappointing 71-91 1969 season, the Angels rebounded to finish 86-76, tying their 1962 season as their best in franchise history up to that point. As of 2024, this is the only season that saw the Angels hold a winning record for all 162 games of a season, starting the season 5-0 and never falling back to .500 from there on.

On July 3, Clyde Wright pitched a 3-walk no-hitter against the Athletics, the first no-hitter at Anaheim Stadium since its first game in 1966. Wright would go on to be only the 2nd 20-win starter in franchise history that year and finished 6th in Cy Young voting.[5] His 22 wins that year are a franchise record as of 2024, tied with Nolan Ryan's 1972 season.[6]

Throughout the year, Alex Johnson was involved in a tight batting race with Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Oliva, and Luis Aparicio. After 161 games, Johnson was trailing Yastrzemski by only .0013. On the last day of the season, Johnson went 2 for 3 against the White Sox, legging out an infield single on his 3rd at-bat to beat Yastrzemski by .0004. As of 2024, Johnson is the only batting champion for the Angels.[7]

The Angels remained in the American League West race throughout the season, and by September 3, they were only 3 games back of the division lead heading into a 3-game set against the division-leading Twins in Anaheim.[8] However, after being swept by them, the Angels collapsed, losing their next 6 in a row and going 5-17 from September 4 to September 26 to fall out of the postseason race for good. According to Alex Johnson, it was as though the team gave up on the season following being swept by the Twins.[9]

Season standings

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AL West
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Minnesota Twins 98 64 .605 51‍–‍30 47‍–‍34
Oakland Athletics 89 73 .549 9 49‍–‍32 40‍–‍41
California Angels 86 76 .531 12 43‍–‍38 43‍–‍38
Kansas City Royals 65 97 .401 33 35‍–‍44 30‍–‍53
Milwaukee Brewers 65 97 .401 33 38‍–‍42 27‍–‍55
Chicago White Sox 56 106 .346 42 31‍–‍53 25‍–‍53

Record vs. opponents

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Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK WSH
Baltimore 13–5 7–5 9–3 14–4 11–7 12–0 7–5 5–7 11–7 7–5 12–6
Boston 5–13 5–7 8–4 12–6 9–9 7–5 5–7 7–5 10–8 7–5 12–6
California 5–7 7–5 12–6 6–6 6–6 10–8 12–6 8–10 5–7 8–10 7–5
Chicago 3–9 4–8 6–12 6–6 6–6 7–11 7–11 6–12 5–7 2–16 4–8
Cleveland 4–14 6–12 6–6 6–6 7–11 8–4 7–5 6–6 8–10 7–5 11–7
Detroit 7–11 9–9 6–6 6–6 11–7 6–6 8–4 4–8 7–11 6–6 9–9
Kansas City 0–12 5–7 8–10 11–7 4–8 6–6 12–6 5–13 1–11 7–11 6–6
Milwaukee 5–7 7–5 6–12 11–7 5–7 4–8 6–12 5–13 3–9–1 8–10 5–7
Minnesota 7–5 5–7 10–8 12–6 6–6 8–4 13–5 13–5 5–7 13–5 6–6
New York 7–11 8–10 7–5 7–5 10–8 11–7 11–1 9–3–1 7–5 6–6 10–8
Oakland 5–7 5–7 10–8 16–2 5–7 6–6 11–7 10–8 5–13 6–6 10–2
Washington 6–12 6–12 5–7 8–4 7–11 9–9 6–6 7–5 6–6 8–10 2–10


Notable transactions

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Roster

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1970 California Angels
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Joe Azcue 114 351 85 .242 2 25
1B Jim Spencer 146 511 140 .274 12 68
2B Sandy Alomar Sr. 162 672 169 .251 2 36
SS Jim Fregosi 158 601 167 .278 22 82
3B Ken McMullen 124 422 98 .232 14 61
LF Alex Johnson 156 614 202 .329 14 86
CF Jay Johnstone 119 320 76 .238 11 39
RF Roger Repoz 137 407 97 .238 18 47

Other batters

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Tom Egan 79 210 50 .238 4 20
Bill Voss 80 181 44 .243 3 30
Jarvis Tatum 75 181 43 .238 0 6
Billy Cowan 68 134 37 .276 5 25
Tommie Reynolds 59 120 30 .250 1 6
Chico Ruiz 68 107 26 .243 0 12
Tony González 26 92 28 .304 1 12
Aurelio Rodríguez 17 63 17 .270 0 7
Doug Griffin 18 55 7 .127 0 4
Mickey Rivers 17 25 8 .320 0 3
Ray Oyler 24 24 2 .083 0 1
Tom Silverio 15 15 0 .000 0 0
Rick Reichardt 9 6 1 .167 0 1
Randy Brown 5 4 0 .000 0 0
Jim Hicks 4 4 1 .250 0 0
Marty Perez 3 3 0 .000 0 1

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Clyde Wright 39 260.2 22 12 2.83 110
Tom Murphy 39 227.0 16 13 4.24 99
Rudy May 38 208.2 7 13 4.01 164
Andy Messersmith 37 194.2 11 10 3.01 62

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Greg Garrett 32 74.2 5 6 2.65 53
Tom Bradley 17 69.2 2 5 4.13 53
Lloyd Allen 8 24.0 1 1 2.62 12

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Ken Tatum 62 7 4 17 2.94 50
Eddie Fisher 67 4 4 8 3.04 74
Paul Doyle 40 3 1 5 5.14 34
Dave LaRoche 38 4 1 4 3.44 44
Mel Queen 34 3 6 9 4.20 44
Steve Kealey 17 1 0 1 4.15 14
Wally Wolf 4 0 0 0 5.06 5
Terry Cox 3 0 0 0 3.86 3
Harvey Shank 1 0 0 0 0.00 1

Farm system

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Level Team League Manager
AAA Hawaii Islanders Pacific Coast League Chuck Tanner
AA El Paso Sun Kings Texas League Del Rice
A Quad Cities Angels Midwest League Mike Stubbins
Rookie Idaho Falls Angels Pioneer League Bob Clear

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Idaho Falls

Notes

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  1. ^ Rubén Amaro at Baseball-Reference
  2. ^ Mel Queen at Baseball-Reference
  3. ^ Pedro Borbón at Baseball-Reference
  4. ^ a b Jack Fisher at Baseball-Reference
  5. ^ Clyde Wright at Baseball-Reference
  6. ^ Los Angeles Angels Top 10 Single-Season Pitching Leaders at Baseball-Reference
  7. ^ Merrick, Thomas. October 1, 1970: Alex Johnson snatches AL batting crown from Carl Yastrzemski as Angels hand White Sox their 106th loss. at Society for American Baseball Research
  8. ^ MLB Scores and Standings Thursday, September 03, 1970 at Baseball-Reference
  9. ^ Goldman, Robert (2006). Once They Were Angels. Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing L.L.C. p. 91. ISBN 9781582611631.
  10. ^ Ken McMullen at Baseball-Reference
  11. ^ Mike Krukow at Baseball-Reference
  12. ^ Tony González at Baseball-Reference

References

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Further reading

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