It's Opening Day!

Here are the opening day starting pitchers (for 1967, that is), in order of the teams' 1967 finish. (Senior Circuit first, natcherly!)

Before I looked these up in Baseball-Reference.com, I wrote down who I thought was each team's opening day starter. I was right on 13 of 20 (not so difficult, because most teams had an undisputed #1 ace).

The biggest shock was that Don Drysdale was not the Dodgers' opening-day starter. That honor went to Bob Miller (who would not have been among the first 4 names I picked). Drysdale started game #4.

Only slightly less surprising was the White Sox starting John Buzhardt on opening day. (What, were Gary Peters and Joel Horlen given the day off to go fishing up in Green Bay?)

So here are the opening day pitchers:

I was four-for-four with this first group.

I was right on Bunning and Veale, but I guessed Tony Cloninger for the Braves.  And who would have thunk Bob Miller would start ahead of Don Drysdale (my guess), Claude Osteen, or Don Sutton?

I picked Larry Dierker, because I always forget that Cuellar was on the Astros then. Knowing Tom Seaver wouldn't be the opening day starter as a rookie, I guessed Jack Fisher.  Fisher/Cardwell is a toss-up.  I was right on Lonborg and McLain.

I guessed correctly on Jim Kaat, and on George Brunet (which was a completely lucky guess, because to me, all the Angels' pitchers in 1967 were non-descript). Buzhardt was a complete surprise, as I guessed Gary Peters (and Joel Horlen would have been my backup).  For the Senators, I figured it would be either Camilo Pascual or Phil Ortega.

Some great opening-day starters here at the bottom of the barrel! (Well, the first 3 anyway).  I correctly guessed all but Nash, assuming Catfish Hunter was the opening-day starter.


The next 2 posts will be the opening-day eight for each NL and AL team.