SPB II April 1958 Newsletter

SPB II May 1958 Newsletter

The Sou= th River Gladiators took a commanding four game lead in the American League while the National featured a tight three team race with the Surfers, Bishops and Cruisers separated by only one game. The disappointment of the year so far are= the Evanston Elephants, in sixth place, a sickening nine games back.

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The Gla= diators had a wild series with the Portland Beavers before winning 3 of 5. In Game One the Beavers scored a 1= -0 victory in 13 innings and then turned around and won an 11-9 slugfest in Ga= me Two before losing the next three. The Route 66 Hot Rods continued to surprise as they posted a 14-11 record for the month and are now 28-22 overall, but still four games back o= f the high flying Gladiators. Inclu= ded in May was a stunning 4 of five near sweep over the World Champion Surfers, a = feat also achieved in April. The R= ods pitching is holding up well, but how long can they keep it up?

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Larry J= ackson of the Aces won two games in a series with the Bishops, but lost the other three. Leon Wagner and Roy Si= evers had two homers each for Goshen= in the series. The Dayton Fly= ers were pitiful against the Aces, losing four of five and scoring only six run= s in the series, three of them coming in their only win. The Frankfort Fortress continued t= heir domination of the Elephants, winning four of five at home to compliment a similar result in April at the Evanston home park. But then they ran = into the red hot Bishops and proceeded to lose four of five. The Southport Saints shocked the h= ighly rated (but poor performing) Elephants by winning five straight at Evanston. Rookie Vada Pinson broke in with a= bang in May as he went 11-18 (.611 BA) with 8 runs scored in 6 games.

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The Ham= pton Road Cruisers continued their hot hitting as they scored 86 runs in 15 home games but gave up 85 but were able to post a respectable 9-6 home record and were 15-10 overall. The Bisho= ps were awesome at home winning 12 of 15 and pulling to within one game of the league leading Surfers. The S= urfers have the second best record in SPB II at 31-19 but if you take out the 2-8 record versus the supposedly lowly Hot Rods, they are a sizzling 29-11.

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The Saints’ Pete Runnells leads the AL with a .384 average and Rocky Colavito of the Fortress has 16 homers to lea= d in that category. Five pitchers = are tied with 6 AL victories. In the NL, Frank T= orre of the Flyers leads with a sizzling .408 BA while Mickey Mantle of the Surf= ers and Roger Maris of the Cruisers were tied with 13 homers.

Whitey = Ford of the Cruisers leads with 9 pitching victories.

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