1957 SEASON WRAP UP

AMERICAN LEAGUE

South
River Gladiators
– Final Record 89-65

The Glads put on a finishing kick in the last two months of
the season and turned a tight race into a 10-game rout.  Their offense was the best in the league
as they ended up with the top three finishers in the batting race, topped by
Stan Musial’s sizzling .371.
Willie Mays wasn’t far behind and led the league with 128 runs
scored but others such as Del Ennis and Al Smith also played crucial
roles.  On the mound they had two
great starters; Warren Spahn (the AL’s
only 20-game winner) and Curt Simmons who finished with 19 wins plus reliever
extraordinaire Cal McClish who tied for the league with 17 saves.  The rest of the staff was a grab bag but
enough to get the job done.

Rossville Hornets
– Final Record 79-75

A good September pulled the Hornets into second place, one
game ahead of the Fortress.  The
Hornets offense challenged the Gladiators and the pitching staff was
comparable.   They led the
league with 221 homers including Ernie Banks’ league tying 40 and 36 from
Duke Snider.  That should have been
good enough to get them a lot closer than 10 games but the pitching staff let
them down.  Frank Sullivan was
fourth in league with a 3.21 ERA but lousy run support left his record at only
11-17 while Billy Pierce reversed that at 17-11.  The bullpen was a disaster, especially
the erstwhile ace closer Turk Lown who led the league with 11 blown saves to
offset only 12 good saves.  Frank
Lary at 13-11 was the only other double figure winner and the rest of the staff
was distinctly unproductive.

Frankfort Fortress – Final Record 78-76

The Forts were right there at the end of July but went three
games under .500 the last two months of the season and fell to third place,
though only a game out of second.
The manager used a lot of players; except for Johnny Temple no one else
appeared in more than 134 games and they did hit 197 homers but too many came
with the bases empty and they actually had a negative 37 run differential for
the season.  Several pitchers such
as Johnny Antonelli with 17 wins and Marv Grissom with 16 saves were decent but
a lot of the blame for the team failure has to rest on the shoulders of Preston
Gomez.  He was penciled in as a
potential 15-20 game winner and one of the anchors of the staff in the
preseason but finished with a sorry 7-17 record and a bloated 5.52 ERA in 34
starts.  Allowing a league leading
41 homers didn’t help.

West
Warwick Monarchs
– Final Record 72-82

The defending champs fell off from
93 wins in 1956 to only 72 a year later.
What happened?  The offense
was OK but nothing to write home about as the Monarchs had a real dearth of
players in the top ten of any significant offensive categories.   Vic Wertz had a very good year with a
.309 BA, 31 homers and 92 RBI’s but he didn’t get a lot of help and
the team was plagued by a constantly changing cast of characters which made
consistency hard to maintain.  On
the mound it was a similar story as they had only two pitchers with as many as
13 wins and Roy Face with a league leading 17 saves was the only ray of light
in the bullpen.

Goshen Aces – Final Record 66-88

Yours truly picked the Aces to win
a close pennant race but they finished in fifth place, 23 games out of
first.  In retrospect part of the
problem might have been their home park, County Stadium
which turned out to be a home run hitter’s hell.  All three of the Aces’ big boppers
(Roy Sievers, Gus Zernial & George Crowe) seriously underachieved and this
was a big reason for the team’s downfall, especially when combined with
their putrid .309 team OBA.  On the
mound, the starters held up pretty well with Lou Burdette winning 18 games and
Johnny Podres a very productive 11-9.
The bullpen was almost non-existent as they had only 13 team saves, but
then they didn’t have a lot of leads to protect.

Southport Saints – Final Record 60-94

The Holy Ones ended up 29 games
out of first but also 12 games ahead of the last place Hot Rods!  The offense was pitiful as they had an
even worse (.307) OBA average than the Aces and were dead last in run scored
with only 573 which was 272 less than the league-leading Gladiators.  Gus Bell was a major disappointment with
only 4 homers in almost 500 at bats.
The pitching staff on the other hand, led the American League with a
sparkling 3.71 team ERA.  The burden
was spread around as only one pitcher, Dick Donovan with 13 wins, posted double
figures in victories.  Vern Law had
only a 9-12 record but led the league with an excellent 2.54 ERA.

Route 66 Hot Rods – Final Record 48-106

The Rods had very little hitting
and the worst pitching in the league so the fact that they lost 106 games
should come as no surprise.  They
had a league low 82 homers and 21 of them came from one player, Wally Moon.  Billy Gardner led the league with 44
doubles and played an excellent second base but got very little help from
anyone other than Moon.  Early Wynn
pitched much better than his 10-21 record would indicate and was rewarded by
being traded to a contender just after the World Series.  Russ Kemmerer with a 1-12 record and
7.24 ERA in 29 games (14 of them starts) was more representative of the Hot
Rods’ staff.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Los Angeles Surfers – Final Record 102-52

Despite being way off in
predicting the American League winner, I was right on in the National as the
Surfers were listed as a solid favorite and  the race “could even be a Surfer
runaway” which is exactly what happened as they posted 102 victories and
were seven games ahead of the second-place Bishops.  MVP Candidate Mickey Mantle was second
in the batting race with a .377 average, first in OBA and walks plus he had 29
homers and 105 RBI’s.  Larry
Doby and Red Schoendist were other big contributors but the real secret to
their success was pitching.  The had
a sensational 3.19 team ERA and four starters with 15 or more wins, led by Jim
Bunning and Willard Nixon with 18 each not to mention a great closer in Lloyd
Merritt who had 18 saves in 19 opportunities.

Salzburg Bishops – Final Record 95-59

The Prelates had the best offense
in SPB II, bar none.  The led in
team BA, OBA & SPC by wide margins and scored 1,028 runs which was 171 more
than anyone else!  MVP candidate Ted
Williams led the league with an SPB II record .391average and despite playing
in only 126 games had 40 homers and 131 RBI’s.  Williams had some great support from
Eddie Mathews (.332, 32,132), Jackie Jensen and Bob Cerv who hit a lofty .367 in
only 330 at bats.  A rookie phenom
by the name of Bob Hazle came up from the minors in mid season and was a
“hurricane” who hit .466 in 131 at bats.  However someone has to pitch and that
was a problem for the Salzburg crew as their team ERA of 5.01 was tied with the
woeful Hot Rods as the worst in baseball.
They did have the league’s only two 20-game winners in Mike
Fornieles (23-5) and Dick Drott (20-8) but in both cases the pitchers enjoyed
sensational run support.  The rest
of the staff wasn’t much to write home about and the ace closer, Art Ditmar
had nine blown saves to go with his team leading 12 good saves.

Evanston Elephants – Final Record 90-64

Evanston was second in SPB II in runs scored
and had eight regulars or semi-regulars who hit .280 or above.  Hank Aaron won two-thirds of the Triple
Crown with 50 homers and a monstrous 166 RBI’s, besides hitting .330
while off season acquisition Ritchie Ashburn earned his money by scoring 125
runs from the lead-off spot.  They
had two 19 game winners in Bob Friend and Don Newcombe plus probably the best
reliever in the league, Turk Farrell, who had a 1.84 ERA and 22 saves in 46
games.  They were challenging for
the lead at the end of July but the Surfer juggernaut in August and September
was just too much.  The team won a
sensational 52 games on the road but had a losing record at home and the pitching
staff surrendered 193 homers, second worst in all of baseball.

Hampton Road Cruisers – Final Record 83-71

The Cruisers were in effect the
Bishops lite; a very good offense which scored 800 runs and a well below
average pitching staff, though better than the Bishops.  First sacker Moose Skowron was third in
the batting race with a .351 average and threw in 17 homers for good measure
while Frank Robinson (.322,19,99) had an All-Star quality year.  Rookie Roger Maris had 17 homers in just
360 at bats and appears to have a great future.  The pitching staff had six double figure
winners, but the leader with just 12 was Pedro Ramos.  Gerry Staley with 14 saves (8 blown saves)
was an adequate closer at best.

Dayton Flyers – Final Record 79-75

With just 128 homers, the offense
needed something more but it just wasn’t there as they ended the season
with only 697 runs scored.  Charlie
Maxwell and Yogi Berra were solid contributors and got some help from a few
other hitters but it wasn’t enough to catapult them into the first
division.  Rookie Jack Sanford
posted an 18-8 record and Mike “the Bear” Garcia was 15-9 but lack
of support and lack of talent doomed the rest of the staff to mediocrity.

Minneapolis Lakers – Final Record 70-84

The Lakers entered the season
bereft of any big time talent but made the most of a bad situation as several
players, especially Bill Virdon and Bob Nieman, significantly overachieved based
on pre-season speculation.  In fact
almost the entire roster overachieved at least in a modest sense and several
part timers did a great job.
However the cream rises to the top and when all you have is skim milk,
it’s tough to rise very far so they still ended up in sixth place.  The pitching staff was very good,
especially Paul Foytack who led the league with a spectacular 2.01 ERA to go
with his 17-10 record.  Billy Hoeft,
Lindy McDaniel and Jim Wilson were also very good starters but they bullpen
lacked a real closer as they finished the season with a league low 12 team
saves.

Portland Beavers – Final Record 67-87

The Portland crew were last in all of baseball in
runs scored with only 554, which was “only” 474 behind the top
team.  Contributing to this futility
was an absolutely atrocious .294 OBA.  The opportunities were spread around as
no player appeared in more than 126 games.
On the mound Brooks Lawrence was a decent 12-15 and Ned Garver had a
3.03 ERA and 9 victories but only 21 starts.  Ed Roebuck was a decent closer but he
didn’t get much help from the rest of the staff.