Alex Johnson, 1970 American League batting champ, dies at 72

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Alex Johnson, who played for eight major league teams and won the American League batting title in 1970, has died. He was 72.

Angels vice president of communications Tim Mead tweeted the news Tuesday morning.

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The high point of Johnson's career came with the then-California Angels 45 years ago. Already with his fourth big-league team at age 27, Johnson hit .329/.370/.459 in 1970, making the All-Star game and finishing eighth in AL MVP voting. He won the batting title by one of the closest margins in history, edging Carl Yastrzemski .3289 to .3286 with a pair of hits on the final day of the season.

But cracks in his relationship with the Angels emerged that season, as he was fined for failing to run out balls. That continued in 1971, with manager Lefty Phillips pulling Johnson from an exhibition game after only an inning and other transgressions enumerated in a 1990 Los Angeles Times story. All told, Johnson was benched five times and fined $3,750 during the 1971 season for lack of hustle. The team finally suspended him on June 27 of that year, but the players' union filed a grievance and Johnson eventually was reinstated with back pay in September.

The outfielder was traded to the Indians the following month and also had stints with the Rangers, Yankees and Tigers before calling it quits at age 33.

He went on to work for a Detroit trucking company founded by his father decades earlier but told the Times in 1990 that he had never been to a baseball game since retiring.

"The game has no meaning for me anymore," he said. "I loved it. But I found out that the game is a fantasy."

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Marc Lancaster is a senior editor at The Sporting News