Gentile’s Big Season Not Big Enough

Thirty years ago, Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles tore up the American League. He batted .302, with 46 home runs and 141 RBIs. He hit five grand slams, two in one game.

Too bad Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were doing their Summer of ’61 thing at the same time.

“It was kind of lost,” Gentile said of the greatest season of his nine-year major league career. “They were the Yankees. They got most of the ink.

“I got some at home, but I don’t think I got any as far as New York was concerned, or the rest of the country. I don’t think they kept putting my name in with theirs.”

For much of the summer, his name belonged right alongside the M&M; Boys. Gentile hit 15 homers in August, giving him 43 for the season. At that same point, Mantle had 48 homers and Maris 51.

Gentile, a big first baseman who was nicknamed “Diamond Jim,” faded in the final weeks. He hit only three homers in September and none after Sept. 22, when he hit his fifth grand slam.

“I had 46 and I think I was trying from then on a little too hard to hit 50. I wanted to hit 50,” said Gentile, now 56 and retired from the retail business.

“I think I was getting tired. It was one of those things. I’m happy with the year I had. I had 147 hits and drove in 141 runs, which is a hell of a percentage.”

If Gentile had posted those numbers in about any other season, he likely would have walked away with the Most Valuable Player award. Instead Maris was the MVP after hitting 61 homers and driving in 142 runs. Mantle finished with 54 homers.

In today’s era, Gentile’s big year would make him an instant multi-millionaire with a long-term contract. He made $15,000 in 1961, then had to hold out 10 days the next spring before signing for $30,000.

He wound up hitting 33 homers in 1962. He remained with the Orioles through 1963, then went to Kansas City where he stayed for 1964 and much of ’65 before going to Houston. He finished his career in 1966 with Cleveland.

Gentile started out with the Dodgers. He played in just 16 major league games in 1957 and ‘58, then spent all of 1959 at St. Paul, Minn., the Dodgers’ Triple-A farm club.

Early that year, the Dodgers almost worked out a deal to sell Gentile to the Chicago White Sox. The deal didn’t materialize, and Gentile wound up spending all season in the minors.

“At the end of the year, what happens? The White Sox and Dodgers are in the World Series,” he said. “I watched it on TV.”

Gentile signed with the Orioles in 1960 and, after settling down from what he called “the worst spring I could ever have,” he hit 21 homers with 98 RBIs while platooning with Walt Dropo.

Then came the year of his life. He made headlines early in the season by hitting two grand slams off the Twins in a game on May 9. He came up again with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, but flied out.

Ironically, the big day came after a night of no sleep. Gentile had spent the previous night on the town with friends.

“I didn’t feel too good, but when I got to the park it was brisk,” he said. “It just woke me up and I felt great.”

The rest of the season felt the same way, although Gentile admits he is able to enjoy it more now than he did at the time.

“Every ball player has a year like that,” said Gentile, who finished with 179 career homers. “You hope for a year like that. It’s something to remember, that one big year stands out. Unless you’re a superstar, which I wasn’t.”

“My problem was I was never satisfied,” he said. “I was always afraid it was going to end. I always knew something was going to happen.

“I was my own worst enemy. I had quite a temper, and I just didn’t relax enough to enjoy what was going on.”