The Expansion Era

Between 1961 and 1976, major league baseball doubled in size, nearly suffocated under an avalanche of pitching dominance, rebalanced its rules to save offense, and watched its labor system crack apart. The sport added ten new franchises, moved into domed stadiums and artificial turf, and produced some of the most dramatic individual performances in its history. By the end of it, the reserve clause was dead, and the players were about to become free.

New Teams, New Cities

The American League expanded first, adding the Los Angeles Angels and a new Washington Senators franchise in 1961. The National League followed in 1962 with the New York Mets and Houston Colt .45s, who became the Astros in 1965 when they moved into the Astrodome, baseball's first indoor stadium. The Astrodome's artificial turf, installed after the original grass died under the translucent roof, spread across the sport through the 1970s and changed the way the game was played on the ground. A second wave of expansion in 1969 brought the Kansas City Royals, Seattle Pilots, Montreal Expos, and San Diego Padres, pushing both leagues to twelve teams and creating divisional play for the first time.

The 1962 Mets lost 120 games, the worst record of the twentieth century. Their manager, Casey Stengel, had won seven World Series with the Yankees. He surveyed his new roster and asked, "Can't anybody here play this game?" The Mets drew over 900,000 fans anyway, filling the Polo Grounds with a loyalty that had nothing to do with winning.

Roger Maris and the Asterisk

In 1961, Roger Maris hit 61 home runs for the Yankees, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60. The achievement should have been celebrated. Instead, Commissioner Ford Frick, a former ghostwriter for Ruth, announced that because the schedule had expanded from 154 to 162 games, Maris's record would carry a "distinctive mark" in the record books. The public understood this as an asterisk, and Maris spent the rest of his career resenting it. His hair fell out from the stress during the chase. Mickey Mantle, his teammate and the fans' preferred record-breaker, hit 54 home runs that same season, and the dual pursuit captivated the country even as Maris absorbed hostility for being the wrong man to pass Ruth.

The Year of the Pitcher

By 1968, pitching had overwhelmed the sport. Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals posted a 1.12 ERA, the lowest since the dead-ball days. Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers won 31 games, a number no pitcher has approached since. Don Drysdale threw 58 and two-thirds consecutive scoreless innings. The American League batted .230 as a whole. Carl Yastrzemski won the AL batting title with a .301 average, the lowest for a batting champion in either league's history.

Baseball responded drastically before the 1969 season. The pitcher's mound was lowered from 15 inches to 10 inches, and the strike zone was tightened. Offense recovered immediately. The changes also coincided with the Miracle Mets, who went from ninth place in 1968 to World Series champions in 1969, beating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles in five games. Tom Seaver, the team's 24-year-old ace, won 25 games and became the face of a franchise that had been a national joke seven years earlier.

Sandy Koufax and Roberto Clemente

Sandy Koufax's peak was the most dominant stretch by any pitcher in the live-ball era. From 1963 through 1966, he went 97-27 with a 1.86 ERA, threw four no-hitters including a perfect game, and won three Cy Young Awards. Arthritis in his left elbow forced him to retire at 30, at the absolute peak of his abilities.

Roberto Clemente played right field for the Pittsburgh Pirates with a defensive brilliance and throwing arm that no one in the sport could match. He collected exactly 3,000 hits, drove the Pirates to World Series titles in 1960 and 1971, and won twelve Gold Gloves. On December 31, 1972, Clemente died in a plane crash while delivering earthquake relief supplies to Nicaragua. He was 38. The Hall of Fame waived its five-year waiting period and inducted him in 1973.

Hank Aaron Catches Ruth

On April 8, 1974, in front of 53,775 fans at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Hank Aaron hit a fastball from Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers into the left-field bullpen for home run number 715, passing Babe Ruth's career record. Aaron had endured a winter of racist hate mail and death threats as he approached the record. He needed a police escort and a bodyguard traveling with him on the road. The moment itself was joyful, with teammates and his mother meeting him at home plate, but the path to it exposed the ugliness that still ran through American sports.

The Reserve Clause Falls

Curt Flood, a Gold Glove center fielder for the Cardinals, refused a trade to the Philadelphia Phillies after the 1969 season and sued Major League Baseball, arguing that the reserve clause, which bound a player to his team indefinitely, violated antitrust law. Flood lost his case at the Supreme Court in 1972 but won the argument. His sacrifice, he never played meaningfully again, laid the groundwork for what came next.

In December 1975, arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled that pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally, who had played without signing contracts, were free agents. The reserve clause was finished. The Big Red Machine in Cincinnati, featuring Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez, won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976 as the last great team of the old economic order. Everything after Seitz's ruling would operate under new rules.