SPB II June 1958
Newsletter

In the American
League the South River Gladiators maintained their four game lead over the
surprising Route 66 Hot Rods.  The
big question with the ‘Rods is their pitching staff which has incredibly
overachieved through the first three months of the season.  They had the worst staff on paper at the
beginning of the season but so far have posted an amazing 3.25 team ERA through
June, by far the best in the league.
Willy Mays of the Gladiators and Pete Runnells of the Saints are locked
in a tight race for the AL
batting title with Mays in the lead .343 to .342.  Ernie Banks of the Hornets leads with 18
homers.

In the Senior Circuit,
the Salzburg Bishops and Los Angeles Surfers are in a tight race with the
Prelates currently ahead by only one game.
Frank Torre of the Dayton Flyers is leading with a sizzling .391 average
but he might not be able to get enough at bats by year end to qualify while
Roger Maris of the Cruisers leads with 18 dingers.

The West
Warwick Monarchs won four of five at home from the mighty Bishops in a series
which featured two shutouts; by Harshman & Brewer.  The Hot Rods won three of seven at West Warwick with Ronny Kline getting two of the
wins.

The Frankfort
Fortress had home series with the last place teams in each league but were only
able to win five of twelve games.
They lost four of five to the Dayton Flyers and then the Southport
Saints were edged out 4-3 but came back to win the last two games, one a 13-inning
thriller in Game Six.

The underachieving
Evanston Elephants lost four of five to the lowly Rossville Hornets but then
were able to win the series from the Gladiators three games to two.  The Glads posted shutout wins in the
first two games, including a 19-0 massacre in Game One but then the Pachyderms
came back to win the last three.
The Glads and Elephants also hooked up in a five game series at South River which the home team won 3-2.  In Game One Warren Spahn pitched a
complete game victory and hit a home run while ex-Monarch Ike Delock just missed a shutout in Game Two but won the game
2-1.  The Glads scored two runs in
the bottom of the 9th to tie Game Three then scored the game winner
in the 13th inning.  Game
Four was a classic; the Glads were winning 9-5 going into the 9th
inning and already had two homers from Willy Mays and three from Stan Lopata.  Then
the Evanston
crew exploded for a ten-spot and won going away 15-9.  They blew a 5-0 lead in Game Five and
lost 6-5 on a 10th inning walk off single by the Sey
Hey Kid.

Received voluminous
notes from the Goshen
Aces about their month and I’ll try to summarize below.  They won 2 of 5 from the visiting Lakers
but all but Game Five were close.
Billy O’Dell hurled a five-hit shutout in Game One to give the
Aces a victory but Mike McCormick with help from Bob Porterfield posted a 3-1
win in Game Two to even the series.
The Lakers staged a late rally and won Game Three on a walkoff homer by Puddin Head
Jones.  Lou Burdette of the Aces
evened the series with a 4-3 win in Game Four but then the roof fell in as the
Lakers trounced the Aces 13-2 in the series finale.

The Hornets
came to Goshen
for a seven-game series and the Aces lost five, several in a very convincing
manner.  They were shutout three of
the first four games and lost the other 12-2.  Then they rallied to win Game Five 4-2
behind Johnny Podres but lost Game Six 6-4 with Duke Snider providing the
fireworks with three solo homers.
Harry (I got traded for myself) Chiti hit a
three-run homer in Game Seven to key a 9-4 Aces win and give them some solace
amid the carnage of the series.