MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Location: file:///C:/9E8BDD12/SPBIIJuly1958Newsletter.htm Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" SPB II JULY 1958

SPB II JULY 1958

 

The South River Gladiators opened up their American Leag= ue lead to eight games against the overachieving Route 66 Hot Rods while the Salzbu= rg Bishops and Los Angeles Surfers are locked in a tight race in the National with the Prelates clinging to a two-game lead.  Pete Runnels of the Saints leads the AL with a .348 average and Ernie Banks= of the Hornets leads with 28 homers while his teammate Billy Pierce has 14 victories to lead in that category.  In the NL, Ritchie Ashburn of the Elephants leads with a .353 BA whi= le Roger Maris has 30 homers and his fellow Cruiser Whitey Ford leads with 14 wins.

 

The most exciting game of the month, if not the year, to= ok place on July 15th between the Surfers and Elephants.  The Surfers scored a run in the se= cond inning and the Pachyderms matched that in the seventh but it wasn’t u= ntil the 19th inning that another run crossed the plate when Hank Foi= les hit a two-run homer to give the Los Angeles crew a 3-1 victory.  Some key statistics are that each = team used six pitchers and the Surfers had a total of 21 players in the game while Evanston had 22.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>  Every single non-pitcher saw actio= n and except for the regular rotation starters both pitching staff were also used up.  The Elephants had 19 hits= and 5 walks but only scored a single run as 20 Evanston base runners were stranded.  <= o:p>

 

The Gladiators kept slugger Stan Musial on the bench to = rest him up for the stretch run but were still able to win 11 of 14 at home by wining five of seven from the Aces and six of seven from the Monarchs.  The Monarch series was close as al= l but one game was decided by three runs or less.

 

The Frankfort Fortress, nicknamed the Fartless by their frustrated manager, as they went 5-9 at home and sank all the way to last p= lace in the AL standings.  They won the first three from the = Hot Rods but to quote the manager “the Hot Rods revved up their engines, = blew some hot air on the fartbags and had a gas taking the last four games of the series”.  The Gladiators= then came in and won five of seven. 

 

The Goshen Aces had a real pitchers duel with the Saints= as they matched zeroes through nine innings, then the Aces scored in the top of the 14th on a fielders choice to go up 1-0 but the Aces won it in the bottom of the frame with two runs on an error, walk and two singles.  Later in the series the Saints bui= lt up an 8-0 lead but then had to hang on for a 10-8 win.  Lew Burdette of the Aces helped hi= s own cause later in the series with a two-run homer which keyed a 4-2 win.  Brooks Lawrence of the Cruisers pi= tcher a complete game victory over G= oshen; winning 8-4 with all four runs unearned and benefited from three Hampton Road homers.  Cruiser ace Whitey Ford lost his c= hance for a 15th victory when he gave up a three-run homer to Gil McDo= ugal in the 8th inning and that cost him as Goshen ended up winning 6-5. 

 

 

 

 

On July 1st the Saints Dick Donovan no-hit the Monarchs for the first nine frames.  Then Bob Skinner broke the spell with a lead off double in the 10th and moved to third on a caught fly ball.&n= bsp; Donovan fanned Faye Throneberry for the second out but then Skinner scored on a Bubba Phillips error to give the Monarchs a 1-0 win and Donovan= a heart breaking one-hit loss.

 

Below is a direct quote from our man directly assigned to covering the Rossville Hornets.

Hornets get a bee in their bonnet and take 9 of 14 at ho= me; first taking four straight from the powerful Gladiators and then dropping t= hree straight with the last two heart-breakers, 6-5 and 5-3 in 12 innings.  Banks had seven homers against the= Glads including three in one game.  = Next the Hornets stung the Fortress by winning the first three, losing the next = two and then winning the last two in the bottom of the 9th, one on a two-run homer by Banks and the other a two-out double by Charlie Neal, his fourth hit and RBI of the day. 

 

We finish up with the Cinderella Route 66 Hot Rods who a= re sitting at 54-46, despite a negative run differential.  Orlando Cepeda, the Baby Bull, con= tinues to carry the team with a .323 BA and 16 homers but the real shocker has been the pitching staff with a fabulous 3.46 team ERA and especially Ronnie Kline who is now 12-10 with a 2.42 ERA in 24 starts.  The Gladiators are starting to pul= l away but “Hot Rod Fever” has definitely found its way to Route 66!