The 1968 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 10 to October 10, 1968. It was the final year of baseball's pre-expansion era, in which the teams that finished in first place in each league went directly to the World Series to face each other for the "World Championship." The playoff system was developed and debuted in ; with the addition of four expansion teams, both leagues were divided into two six-team divisions, with the winners competing in the League Championship Series. It also featured the most dominant pitching year of the modern era, and was the first season for the Athletics in Oakland (having moved from Kansas City after the season). The rookie minimum salary, $7,000 in 1967, was increased to $10,000 in 1968. The Year of the Pitcher In Major League Baseball, the trend throughout the 1960s was of increased pitching dominance, caused by enforcing a larger strike zone (top of armpit to bottom of knee) beginning in 1963. The delicate balance of power between offense and defense reached its greatest tilt in favor of the pitcher by 1968. During what later became known as "the year of the pitcher", Bob Gibson led the National League with 268 strikeouts, but also setting a modern earned run average record of 1.12 (a record regarded to be unbreakable today) and a still-standing World Series record of 17 strikeouts in Game 1, while their World Series opponent Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers won 31 regular season games, the only player to reach the 30 win milestone since Dizzy Dean in 1934. His teammate Mickey Lolich won three complete games in the World Series, the last player to ever do so. Don Drysdale of the L.A. Dodgers pitched six consecutive shutout games in May and June, ending with 58 2/3 scoreless innings - a record that stood until being beaten by Orel Hershiser in 1988. Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants led the majors with 26 wins and 30 complete games. Luis Tiant of the Cleveland Indians had the American League's lowest ERA at 1.60 and allowed a opponents batting average of only .168, a major league record (since broken by Pedro Martínez in ). He also led the AL with 9 shutouts. Both MVPs for that year were pitchers. 339 shutouts were recorded in 1,619 regular-season games. The St. Louis Cardinals alone pitched 30 shutouts, the most in