SPB 2 JULY 1957

HIGHLIGHTS

Both pennant races heated up considerably in July, the first
month of intraleague play.  We still
have the unusual situation in that the fifth place team in the National League,
the Hampton Road Cruisers, would be leading the American League by one game but
that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
In the American League the Frankfort Fortress posted a 16-12 record in
July and were able to pull into the league lead by a game over the South River
Gladiators. The Gladiators should be able to feast on the lowly Saints and Hot
Rods in August but have a key seven game series with the Fortress at the end of
the month.  Of course, the Saints
and Hot Rods also have the opportunity to play the spoiler role.

In the National League the Bishops put together a sizzling
18-8 record in July which featured a sensational 7-0 record by journeyman Dick
Drott.  If Dick and the rest of the
Prelates can keep it up, the race promises to go right down to the wire.  Of the six series between the three
contenders (Bishops, Surfers & Elephants) only one has been played to date
so the last two months of the season will be very interesting.

Quite a few individual highlights occurred during the
month.  The Gladiators pounded out
26 homers, but allowed 23 in the 14 games played at the homer-happy Polo
Grounds.  In the first three games
of the Aces series, the starting pitchers (Moore, Burdette & Spahn) not
only won the games but also hit home runs!   In the seventh game of the
Monarchs series, the Glads won 13-12 in 10 innings despite 20 hits and 5 homers
by the Monarchs.
Monarch’s leadoff man Bubba Phillips went 5-6 with two homers and
a triple in a losing cause.

The Saints lost five of seven to the Monarchs in a series
which featured back to back 1-0 games and only scored 15 runs in the 7
games.  The only highlight for the
Holy Ones was a walk-off bases loaded walk by Daryl Spencer, who was the only
batter faced by Monarch reliever Don Elston.  However the Saints won 5 of 7 from the
underachieving Goshen Aces who struggled with a paltry .217 average in the
series.  Erstwhile ace Lou Burdette
suffered two losses with a putrid 6.85 ERA.

The Aces did with three of five from the fading Hampton Road
Cruisers as the H-R crew is starting to feel the effects of a long season and
the need to rest key players.  The
Cruisers could only muster a miserable .192 batting average in the series.   The Aces are suffering
from a lack of offense from their three big guns (Roy Sievers, Gus Zernial
& George Crowe).  It looks like
the cavernous reaches of County Stadium are seriously impacting the entire Goshen team.

The Monarchs won three of the first four against the
Fortress but then dropped three in a row to give the series to the Frankfort crew.  Frankfort
pulverized the hapless Hot Rods at home, winning six of seven and then rallied
from a 0-2 start to take four of seven from their arch rivals, the
Gladiators.  Overall the Forts were
10-4 at home during the month.

Those same Monarchs ripped 22 hits and 21 runs in winning the
first game of the Hornet series but then the offense went to sleep and only
scored four runs in the next four games (three in one game) and lost all four
before rallying to win the last two and salvage a 3-4 split.

Speaking of 21 runs, the Evanston Elephants also scored 21
runs in a game against the Dayton Flyers but they lost the series 2-5!  It seems that 21 runs is some kind of
hex.  The Pachyderms opening the month
with a convincing 5-2 series win over the Cruisers, who may well have seen
their pennant hopes go up in smoke after this and several other poor
performances during July.  In the
Elephant series, Ritchie Ashburn went 18-33 with 11 runs scored and had back to
back five-hit games!  The next
series was critical for Evanston
as they were playing the mighty Los Angeles Surfers.  In the first three games the Surfers
outscored the Elephants 28-9 and posted three easy wins; it looked as if the
Elephants season might be headed for the scrap heap but they rallied to win
three of the last four and keep the pressure on LA.  Evanston
then went 6-1 in an away series with the Lakers which featured three saves by
ace reliever Turk Farrell who after four months is now 18 of 19 in save
opportunities!

I will quote my on the spot expert, Mike See on the July
antics of the Route 66 Hot Rods:

The Route 66 Hot Rods blew a gasket in July, sporting a 2-10
record at home, 7-19 for the month overall and sank to a league worst 31-69 for
the season.  Billy Martin got into a
fight at the Copacabana with teammates Wally Moon and Gino “Holy Cimoli” and while he got in a few good hits at the
club, he still failed to get many at the plate, as his .157 average through 268
at bats showed.

Moon and Billy Garner remain the lone bright spots for the
Hot Rods.  Moon has slugged a team
leading 13 homers and Billy Garner, the June player of the month, continued his
hot hitting, batting .311 with 29 doubles through
July.  On the mound, poor Early Wynn
can’t wait for the off season as he continues to get no offensive
support.  Through 21 starts, Early
is 4-14 with a 4.29 ERA and 109 K’s.  Not great but a lot better than a 4-14
record.  Early was quoted as saying
“I’ve pitched for this franchise since 1944 and I ain’t
never seen a team this sorry.
We’ll get better but I’m just looking forward to going
fishing at this point”.

Dom Mossi leads the team with 6
victories and bullpen ace Seth Morehead has been fantastic, sporting a 1.21 ERA
in 19 games and saving 5 of the Hot Rods 31 wins.   The biggest loser so far has been
Russ Kemmerer who in 17 games, including 10 starts, is 0-9 with an 8.39
ERA.  The Hot Rods are definitely
looking forward to 1958 and more trading from Frank “Trader” Lane
who was quoted as saying “We’ll have some good players on the block
and it shouldn’t be too hard to improve on 1957.