Champions Major League Baseball World Series: St. Louis Cardinals over Boston Red Sox (4–3); Bob Gibson, MVP All-Star Game, July 11 at Anaheim Stadium: National League, 2–1 (15 innings); Tony Pérez, MVP
Other champions College World Series: Arizona State Japan Series: Yomiuri Giants over Hankyu Braves (4–2) Little League World Series: West Tokyo, Japan Senior League World Series: Westbury, New York Pan American Games: United States over Cuba
Awards and honors Baseball Hall of Fame Red Ruffing Lloyd Waner Branch Rickey (executive)
Baseball Writers' Association of America Awards BBWAA Award National League American League Rookie of the Year Tom Seaver (NYM) Rod Carew (MIN) Cy Young Award Mike McCormick (SF) Jim Lonborg (BOS) Most Valuable Player Orlando Cepeda (STL) Carl Yastrzemski (BOS)Gold Glove Awards Position National League American League Pitcher Bob Gibson (STL) Jim Kaat (MIN) Catcher Randy Hundley (CHC) Bill Freehan (DET) 1st Base Wes Parker (LAD) George Scott (BOS) 2nd Base Bill Mazeroski (PIT) Bobby Knoop (CAL) 3rd Base Ron Santo (CHC) Brooks Robinson (BAL) Shortstop Gene Alley (PIT) Jim Fregosi (CAL)Outfield Roberto Clemente (PIT) Paul Blair (BAL) Curt Flood (STL) Al Kaline (DET) Willie Mays (SF) Carl Yastrzemski (BOS)
Statistical leaders American LeagueNational League Stat Player Total Player Total AVG Carl Yastrzemski1 (BOS) .326 Roberto Clemente (PIT) .357 HR Harmon Killebrew (MIN)Carl Yastrzemski1 (BOS) 44 Hank Aaron (ATL) 39 RBI Carl Yastrzemski1 (BOS) 121 Orlando Cepeda (STL) 111 W Jim Lonborg (BOS)Earl Wilson (DET) 22 Mike McCormick (SF) 22 ERA Joe Horlen (CWS) 2.06 Phil Niekro (ATL) 1.87 K Jim Lonborg (BOS) 246 Jim Bunning (PHI) 253 1 American League Triple Crown batting winner
Major league baseball final standings American League final standings
National League final standings
Nippon Professional Baseball final standings Central League final standings Central League G W L T Pct. GBYomiuri Giants 134 84 46 4 .646 —Chunichi Dragons 134 72 58 4 .554 12.0Hanshin Tigers 136 70 60 6 .538 14.0Taiyo Whales 135 59 71 5 .454 25.0Sankei Atoms 135 58 72 5 .446 26.0Hiroshima Carp 138 47 83 8 .362 37.0
Pacific League final standings Pacific League G W L T Pct. GBHankyu Braves 134 75 55 4 .577 —Nishitetsu Lions 140 66 64 10 .508 9.0Toei Flyers 134 65 65 4 .500 10.0Nankai Hawks 133 64 66 3 .492 11.0Tokyo Orions 137 61 69 7 .469 14.0Kintetsu Buffaloes 132 59 71 2 .454 16.0
Events
January January 11 – John McHale quits as president of the Atlanta Braves to become chief of staff to Commissioner of Baseball William Eckert. McHale, 45, replaces Lee MacPhail, who was named general manager of the New York Yankees in October 1966. January 23 – Future Baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial is named general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, replacing Bob Howsam, who one day earlier took a similar position with the Cincinnati Reds. Musial will spend only one season as the Redbirds' GM, but it results in a World Series championship. Howsam will turn around the fortunes of the Reds into a 1970s dynasty as "The Big Red Machine," which will win four National League pennants and two World Series titles between 1970 and 1976. January 28 – The Boston Red Sox select future Baseball Hall of Fame catcher and native New Englander Carlton Fisk in the first round, fourth overall, of the January 1967 amateur draft. Fisk, 19, is a sophomore at the University of New Hampshire. January 29 – Executive Branch Rickey, who died in 1965, and outfielder Lloyd Waner, now 60, are elected to the Hall of Fame by a unanimous vote of the Special Veterans Committee.
February
February 1 – Mickey Mantle, 35, signs his fifth straight contract valued at $100,000 or more with the New York Yankees and reveals that he will switch from the outfield to first base to protect his often-injured legs. His outfielding days over (his last occurring September 18, 1966), Mantle will start 130 games at first in each of the next two seasons before his March 1969 retirement. February 10 – The New York Mets purchase the contract of veteran relief pitcher Ron Taylor from the Houston Astros. February 16 – Right-hander Red Ruffing, who won 231 games (and went 7–2 in seven World Series, winning six rings) over 15 seasons as a Yankee, is elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America via a special runoff, since no candidate received the required 75 percent vote in January. In the runoff, Ruffing, 61, secures 266 votes to surpass former slugger Joe Medwick (248) and catcher Roy Campanella (170). February 23 – Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves joins the six-figure club, signing a two-year contract that will pay him $100,000 a season. A 13-year veteran, Aaron, 33, owns a .317 lifetime batting average and has slugged 442 homers so far.
March March 1: Commissioner of Baseball William Eckert approves a proposal by the Baseball Writers' Association of America that the annual Cy Young Award, given since 1956 to a single pitcher in MLB regardless of league, be separated into American League and National League awards. Recently retired Sandy Koufax won the all-MLB CYA three times in those 11 years. Chicago Cubs manager Leo Durocher names future Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, 36, a player-coach and announces that "Mr. Cub" must compete for his starting first-base job with John Boccabella, a 25-year-old. Banks will respond to the slight by averaging 152 games played between 1967 and , slugging 78 home runs, making two All-Star squads, and placing in the top 14 in National League MVP voting three times in the next three seasons."Ernie Banks" at Baseball Reference. March 21 – Spring training invitee Whitey Ford returns to the New York Yankees' roster, signing a 1967 contract for a reported $60,000. Ford, 38, a 234-game winner over his first 15 seasons with the Bombers, had been released at his own request last autumn after he underwent shoulder surgery. March 23 – Young Boston Red Sox first baseman George Scott, a future eight-time Gold Glove Award winner, knocks himself unconscious running into the right field wall chasing a fly ball during a spring training contest. The Red Sox' rookie manager, Dick Williams, who has been playing Scott in the outfield to improve his versatility, immediately announces an end to the experiment. March 27 – "The Dominican Dandy," Juan Marichal, ends a 29-day holdout by signing a $100,000 contract with the San Francisco Giants—a 33% raise over his 1966 salary of $75,000. Marichal, 29, compiled a 25–6 (2.23) record last season, and made his sixth NL All-Star team.
April April 1 – New York Mets general manager Bing Devine, on the job since last autumn, makes a five-player trade with his former team, acquiring pitcher Art Mahaffey and infielders Jerry Buchek and Tony Martínez from the St. Louis Cardinals for infielder Eddie Bressoud, outfielder Danny Napoleon and cash. April 2 – The Mets re-sign pitcher Ralph Terry, who had been released by them the previous November. Terry, 31, will appear in two early-season games then be released again on May 16, ending his MLB career. April 3 – The New York Yankees trade pitcher Jack Cullen, outfielder/first baseman John Miller and $25,000 to the Los Angeles Dodgers for third baseman John Kennedy. As part of the deal, the Yanks option young outfielder Roy White to the Dodgers' Spokane Indians Triple-A affiliate. White—who remains Yankee property—will bat .343 in 84 games with Spokane and be recalled to New York in mid-July. April 5 – Free-agent Dick Stuart, the first baseman known as much for his defensive incompetence as his slugging prowess, signs a two-year contract with the Taiyo Whales of Nippon Professional Baseball. Stuart, 34, had been released by the Dodgers last November 21. He will bash 33 homers in 125 games for the Whales in 1967. April 7: Future Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, who won 234 games over his 14-year tenure with the Philadelphia Phillies (–), signs a free-agent contract with the Phils' Double-A Reading affiliate. Roberts, 40, had been released by the Chicago Cubs last October and is trying to return to the majors with his original team. He'll go 5–3 (2.48) with seven complete games in 11 starts for Reading in 1967, but won't be summoned back to Philadelphia. The Detroit Tigers purchase the contract of rookie catcher Jim Price, 25, from the Pittsburgh Pirates. After spending five years as the Tigers' reserve backstop, he will eventually join their broadcast team and work for them from 1993 until his 2023 death. April 10: Lyndon B. Johnson throws out the first pitch in the American League's traditional "Presidential Opener" at District of Columbia Stadium; the visiting New York Yankees score seven third-inning runs and Mel Stottlemyre allows only two hits to defeat the Washington Senators, 8–0. The Cincinnati Reds defeat the new-look Los Angeles Dodgers, 6–1, at Crosley Field in the National League's traditional opener. The 1967 Dodgers are without the retired Sandy Koufax and the traded-away Maury Wills; Reds' fireballer Jim Maloney fans only one hitter but still yields just one run on five hits in seven innings of work. The Philadelphia Phillies purchase the contract of first baseman/outfielder Tito Francona, 33, from the St. Louis Cardinals.
April 11: Future Hall of Famer Rod Carew of the Minnesota Twins makes his MLB debut by singling in his first at bat off the Baltimore Orioles' Dave McNally at Memorial Stadium. Carew, now 21, will compile 3,053 hits over the course of his 19-season career. In their season opener, the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4–2 before 16,642 at Wrigley Field. Ferguson Jenkins tosses a complete game and Glenn Beckert hits a home run. April 14 – In his MLB debut, Billy Rohr of the Boston Red Sox has a no-hitter broken up with two out—and one strike to go—in the ninth inning a 3–0 victory over the New York Yankees and Whitey Ford at Yankee Stadium. A single by Elston Howard breaks up the bid, the only hit Rohr will allow."Top Individual Performances of 1967." Retrosheet. Exactly one week later, Rohr again defeats the Yankees in a complete game victory, this time at Fenway Park—the second of: 1) the only two games Rohr will win this season, and 2) the only three contests he will win as a major-leaguer. April 16: At Busch Memorial Stadium, in the St. Louis Cardinals' fourth game of the season, Lou Brock hits two home runs in an 11–8 victory over the Houston Astros. With two homers against the Los Angeles Dodgers the day before and a fifth against the San Francisco Giants on Opening Day, Brock becomes the first player to hit five home runs in his team's first four games of the regular season. Two marathon games mark American League play. In New York, the Boston Red Sox and the Yankees go 18 innings before Joe Pepitone's RBI single delivers a 7–6 victory for the Bombers. At Comiskey Park, Jerry Adair draws a bases-loaded walk in the 16th to seal a 4–3 triumph for his Chicago White Sox over the Washington Senators. Three Kansas City Athletics pitchers—John "Blue Moon" Odom, Jim Nash and Lew Krausse—issue 14 bases on balls and hit two Detroit Tigers hitters over nine innings, helping the Tigers defeat the Athletics, 6–3, at Municipal Stadium."Top Team Performances of 1967." Retrosheet. April 20 – Tom Seaver of the New York Mets earns his first major league victory, 6–1, over the visiting Chicago Cubs. It's the second start of his MLB career. April 21 – The Los Angeles Dodgers' run of 737 consecutive games without a game being rained out ends. April 25 – The Cubs acquire relief pitcher Dick Radatz from the Cleveland Indians for a player to be named later ("PTBNL"), minor-league outfielder Bob Raudman.