BASEBALL—AMERICAN LEAGUE championship was won for the 27th time, the third year in a row, and the 13th time in the last 16 years by the New York Yankees. Clinching the pennant five days before the season closed, the Yanks eased home five games ahead of Minnesota to give Ralph Houk his second title in two years of managing. The Yankees were paced by Right-hander Ralph Terry, whose 23 victories were most in the league, and by Second Baseman Bobby Richardson, who got 209 hits to lead the league in that department. Teammate Mickey Mantle's bid for his second batting title fell short at .321 to Boston's Pete Runnels, who won his second crown with a .326 average. The Twins' Harmon Killebrew finished with 11 home runs in the last 12 games to hit the most homers in the league (48) and to drive in the most runs in the league (126). Detroit Pitcher Hank Aguirre won the ERA title (2.21) the first time he qualified for it, while Chicago's Ray Herbert showed the best winning percentage(.690) with a 20-9 record. The order of finish: New York, Minnesota, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, Boston, Kansas City, Washington.
National league championship (see page IS) ended in an Alphonse and Gaston tie between Los Angeles—which lost 10 of its last 13 games and its last four in a row—and San Francisco, which lost 10 of its last 17. The Dodgers did, however, salvage most of the individual honors for the regular season. Among pitchers, Don Drysdale won the most in the majors (25), and Sandy Koufax paced the league with a 2.41 ERA. Tommy Davis got the most hits (227), the most RBIs (150) and the best average (.347). Maury Wills, of course, stole 100 bases to set all records in that department. For the Giants, Willie Mays was the sole leader, succeeding teammate Orlando Cepeda as the league's top home-run hitter. Mays had 47 to edge Milwaukee's Hank Aaron, who blasted 45. Bob Purkey of Cincinnati paced all pitchers with an .821 mark (23-5). Order of finish: Los Angeles and San Francisco (tie), Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Houston, Chicago and New York.
BOATING—WEATHERLY, with Bus Mosbacher in command, successfully defended the America's Cup (4-1) against the Australian challenger, Gretel, dousing the Aussie's last hope with a thorough 3:40-minute defeat over a windward-leeward course off Newport, R.I. (see page 55).
Hellcat, England's defender in the International Catamaran Challenge series, kept the trophy at home with a convincing 4-1 victory over the American challenger, Beverly, in the best-of-seven series in Thorpe Bay, England. In the final race the Macalpine-Downie design won by a sizable 7-minute 10-second margin over Beverly, owned and raced by Van Alan Clark of Marion, Mass.
Miss Bardahl of Seattle took over where Bill Muncey stopped in his winning streak with Miss Century 21—five straight wins this year—when Ron Musson zipped over the Lake Tahoe (Nev.) 45-mile distance with a 94.501-mph average to win the first Harrah's championship regatta. Muncey failed to finish.
BOXING—SONNY LISTON became the new heavyweight champion of the world with a crushing knockout of Defending Champion Floyd Patterson in the first round of their scheduled 15-round title match in Chicago (see page 20).
Terry Downes, 26, one-time co-world middleweight champion already on the verge of retirement, won a 10-round decision in London over 42-year-old Sugar Ray Robinson, still the dapper dancing man who schedules occasional fights as a kind of quick-payment pension plan.
FOOTBALL—NFL: GREEN BAY, even without their scoring leader, Paul Hornung, overwhelmed the hapless Chicago Bears 49-0 in the worst drubbing of this 41-year-old pro football rivalry. Fullback Jim Taylor led the attack with three touchdowns and Hornung, benched with a pulled muscle, limped back in long enough to kick seven conversions. Although the Philadelphia passing attack, captained as usual by Quarterback Sonny Jurgensen, was excellent (18 completions), it was the Eagle defense that stopped Cleveland's running cold and gave the Eagles an upset rout, 35-7, in Philadelphia. Oldsters Bobby Layne and Y. A. Tittle met in Pittsburgh, but Tittle threw four touchdown passes to Layne's one and New York swept the Steelers 31—27. The aerial combination of Norman Snead to Bobby Mitchell kept amazing Washington at the top of the Eastern Division as the Redskins rolled to a 24—14 victory over St. Louis in Washington. Milt Plum starred in the quarterback role for the undefeated DetroitLions by tossing two touchdown passes and squirting through the line for a shocking 45-yard quarterback sneak as Detroit beat Baltimore 29-20 in Baltimore. The San Francisco crowd cheered louder for its baseball team as the scores of the crucial National League games were announced than they did for the 49ers, who had little trouble subduing Minnesota 21-7. In a battle of the West's weak ones little Eddie LeBaron engineered the first win for the Dallas Cowboys, 27-17, over the bumbling Los Angeles Rams before the smallest crowd to sit through a Rams' home game in nine years, 26,907. The few that came, booed.
AFL: DENVER BRONCOS, the big surprise of the league, cornered New York in Manhattan as Quarterback Frank Tripucka and Halfback Gene Mingo ripped through with passes, runs and field goals for a 32-10 victory. Dallas, staunchly helped by Abner Haynes and Len Dawson, stayed undefeated with a 41-21 victory at home over Buffalo. San Diego almost trampled the Oakland losers right into their home field with a 42-33 win, ably led by rookie Quarterback John Hadl who threw three scoring passes and a spectacular 86-yard touchdown run by Halfback Keith Lincoln.
GOLF—TONY LEMA won the $30,000 Sahara Invitational in Las Vegas with four sub-par rounds and a rainy-day break when his worst score, a 75, was washed out after a heavy downpour interrupted the event and caused the round to be canceled.
Mickey Wright led a field of 33 through a foggy morning over the San Diego Stardust Country Club course and into a bright, winning afternoon as she easily captured the tournament that is named for her, the Mickey Wright Invitational, with a 286.
HORSE RACING—KELSO ($3.80) easily won the $115,200 Woodward Stakes at Aqueduct. A faltering disappointment to the Bohemia Stable in earlier stakes races this season, Kelso beat the second-choice Jaipur by an impressive 4½ lengths. The 5-year-old gelding, ridden by Ismael Valenzuela, took the lead away from Beau Purple on the far turn and breezed home in the uninspiring time of 2:03[1/5] for the mile-and-a-quarter distance.
Comic ($24.80) unexpectedly won the $29,250 Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct, surprising a trio of distinguished 3-year-olds: Ridan, the favorite (fifth). Decidedly (sixth) and Greek Money (seventh). The Ogden Phipps colt, which was trained by Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, moved from seventh in the backstretch to win the mile-and-an-eighth race, finishing half a length ahead of Dedimoud.
Main Swap ($33.60) was declared the winner of the $29,650 Astarita Stakes at Aqueduct after Smart Deb was relegated to last place for bumping at the start. After a look at the films, officials upheld Braulio Baeza's foul claim against the Chicago filly that had won all seven of her previous starts. In this one Willie Shoemaker brought her across the finish line three lengths ahead of Main Swap.
TRACK & FIELD—VALERI BRUMEL, handsome Russian high jumper who held the world mark at 7 feet 5 inches, cleared a record 7 feet 5‚Öú inches (although officially listed as 7 feet 5¼ inches) on his first try in a Moscow meet. He has now jumped 1‚Öù inches higher than John Thomas, the former world record holder.
MILEPOSTS—MARRIED: TOMMY MCDONALD, 28, happy-go-lucky, pass-catching wonder of the Philadelphia Eagles (see page 47), and Patricia Gallagher, 21, of Bala-Cynwyd, Pa., the day before the National Football League season began; in Audubon, Pa.
SIGNED: ED LOPAT, 44, pitching coach of the Kansas City Athletics and former New York Yankee pitching ace, for two years as manager of the A's. Lopat replaces a former Yankee teammate, Hank Bauer, who resigned after he encountered resolute silence about his future from Owner Charles O. Finley, while not encountering Finley himself.
FIRED: MEL McGAHA, 36, youngest manager in the major leagues, by the sixth-place Cleveland Indians in another of the brisk shake-up moves that signal the end of every baseball season.
RETIRED: PAUL ARIZIN, 34, from big-time basketball, to become a part-time player for the Camden (N.J.) Bullets of the Eastern Basketball League. Twice during his 10 years as a bull-shouldered forward with the Philadelphia Warriors he led all scorers in the National Basketball Association. Business interests led him to stay in the East when the Warriors moved to San Francisco this season.
DIED: JOSEPH CAMBRIA, 72, for 34 years a baseball scout for Clark and Calvin Griffith's Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins; in Minneapolis. Cambria signed more than 500 players, many of them Cubans who affectionately called him Papa Joe (one Havana baseball-playing student Cambria did not sign—Fidel Castro, for not having a fast ball). He did not like giving bonuses to rookies and never offered one. "I don't believe in making a boy a financial success before he starts," he once said.
