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- Willie Mays ended the season in a blaze of glory as he looks to be a certain bet to take the National League Most Valuable Player Award. Mays hit his 54th home run on October 1 off Cincinnati's Sammy Ellis. In striking 54, Willie became for the first Giant in history to achieve such a high total, and tied Ralph Kiner in second place for the National League single-season mark. Hack Wilson holds the National League record with 56. Willie well outpaced his contemporaries in all of baseball this season as teammate Willie McCovey finished second with a distant 36 home runs. Mays belted fifteen home runs in the month of September, falling one home runs short of the N.L. record for most home runs in a month (16) set by Kiner in August, 1949. It was certainly at least one of Wonderous Willie's greatest seasons and also one of the happiest for him. Mays was named N.L. Player of the Month for September/October, a distinction he also received in April.
- There will doubtless be a lot of ink split this winter, speculating on the so-called imminent trading of Orlando Cepeda. This is because everybody is taking it for granted the Giants are going to use the Baby Bull as trade bait. Club Vice-President Chub Feeney indicated nothing may be done until the interleague trading period which starts November 21. Feeney reminded that the Giants have two new positions to fill through the elimination of the rule that first-year players must be carried on the big-club roster to protect them from the draft. In 1965, Ken Henderson and Bob Schroder were carried in this capacity. Speculation runs rampant that the Giants will ship Cepeda to the Red Sox for Dick Radatz. Another rumor has Cepeda going to California for Jim Fregosi. New York with its large Puerto Rican population is another speculated destination with the Mets sending Al Jackson or the Yankees shipping Jim Bouton to get Cepeda. Meanwhile, for the first time since he came to the mainland, Cepeda will play no winter ball in Puerto Rico this winter. The only exercise he plans is to give his knee "salt water treatment," wading knee deep in the Caribbean beach seas to strengthen the knee muscles, following his opertation last winter for the removal of a cartilage. "I think I'll be good as new next spring," Cepeda said before leaving San Francisco for home. "Time is all it takes." Cepeda is not unaware that he is vulnerable to be traded by the Giants. "Herman Franks is for me 100 per cent and I would hate to leave San Francisco, but baseball is my business and I know it involves trades," he said.
- Will they be back next season? This is with reference to two Giant southpaws: Warren Spahn and Masanori Murakami. Spahn left immediately after the final game for his ranch in Harshorne, Okla. "I'm a windshield rancher. I just drive araound and boss the ranch boss." How about next season? "I still think I can be a useful pitcher," he said as he cleaned out his locker, "I might yet fool some of those guys who said I should throw away my toe plate." Murakami will pitch, but where? He planned to stay in the U.S. until about ten days after the season closed, then fly to his home near Tokyo. Maski said he might have an announcement prior to his departure. Prospects were not too bright for his return to the Giants, although this was a possibility.
Juan Marichal (19-14) must be looking forward to putting 1965 behind him. The Dominican right-hander missed out on a twenty-win season after the Reds' Art Shamsky belted a three-run HR off Marichal to beat the Giants in the season finale at Candlestick.
