Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark17
You're right about Kaline's average being good for 1968, but he was the 4th outfielder. Northrup and Horton provided more production during the regular season, and Stanley hit well enough to go along with his Gold Glove centerfield play. Something had to give to squeeze Al into the lineup for the Series.
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I don't look at it that way. You don't need to find a way to "squeeze" your HOF outfielder and face of the franchise into a lineup with Mickey Stanley and Jim Northrup, sorry. Look, by moving Stanley you lose that Gold Glove anyhow. Ae the poster above states, the gamble was could they get away with moving out the anemic Ray Oyler in favor of the reasonably good hitter Stanley. So Kaline's available status created an opportunity, it did necessitate anything. It would have been the easiest decision in the world to bench Northrup or Stanley in favor of Kaline if it came to that.
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