Baseball...numbers, stories and analysis

1957, the dawning of a new age...

      1957 was a huge turning point for the baseball landscape in the United States. Team transfers, while still not the norm, but had occurred during this decade. The Boston Braves vacated to the northern plains, making a home in Milwaukee. The St. Louis Browns, who were originally thinking about moving to Los Angeles, moved east instead, to re-emerge as the Baltimore Orioles. And the Philadelphia A's had moved to Kansas City, becoming the most westward team in Major League baseball.

      The St. Louis Browns had inquired as to the move to the coast in 1941, but the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent travel restrictions, made that move impossible at the time.

      The Milwaukee Braves were a rousing success, establishing National League attendance records in three of their first five years, and brought with them the nucleus of the 1957 World Champions. (Unfortunately, they would leave Milwaukee a few years after, taking up residence in Atlanta)

      But the biggest, most lucrative moves were announced during the 1957 season, and would take place at the season's end. The Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants would become Major League Baseball's first west coast teams. In doing so, New York became a one baseball team town for the first rime since 1887.

      The politics of big business sports casts long shadows. The Giants and Dodgers both were trying to get municipal funding for new stadiums, but to no avail in either case. And the California markets were more than happy to open their wallets to make accommodations for their new tenants.

      But there is always a domino effect that happens.

      As such:

      Both the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati franchises were rumored to be interested in moving into the New York market to replace the relocated teams. I'm not sure why the Pirates backed out, but the Reds definitely used the possibility of relocating as a leverage ploy to get funding for a new facility, or at least upgrades to their existing one.

      One ironic fact is that the Pirates were the opponent for the last game played by the Giants and the Dodgers in New York and Brooklyn. The Dodgers beat the Pirates, but the Giants lost to them.

The next part of that domino involved the Pacific Coast League, which had acted as almost a third major league team. Many stars began in the PCL before having their contracts sold to the established big league clubs. Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams are probably the best known of those players. (Remember, DiMaggio had a 61 game hitting streak for the San Francisco Seals before he donned the Yankee pinstripes. Plus, the nickname “The Yankee Clipper” has a better ring to it than just about anything involving a seal)

      With the influx of the 'real' Major league teams, combined with the territorial rights held by the PCL teams, it necessitated a realignment of the league, and a step down in classification. The Hollywood Stars franchise was sold and moved to Salt Lake City. The San Francisco Seals sold to a group in Phoenix, and the Los Angeles Angels were sold and moved to Spokane.

      But wait, the domino's ripple would be felt for a few years after. The never-come-to-fruition Continental League was formed, primarily to bring a second team to New York as a third Major League. It also included founding teams from Toronto, Dallas, Buffalo, Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

      That league never did get off the ground, but it did force the hand of the two existing leagues, and resulted in the expansions of 1961 and 1962. Those expansions, which had the existing Washington Senators relocate to Minneapolis to become the Minnesota Twins, welcomed a new team to Washington, also known as the Senators, who would stay for ten years, before themselves moving to Arlington, Texas to become the Texas Rangers.

      The move of two National League teams to California also forced the American League to investigate placing a franchise on the coast to compete, so they expanded into Los Angeles with the Angels, who would share Wrigley Field and later Dodger Stadium before moving to Anaheim.

      Incidentally, the Dodgers were the first team to purchase their own team airplane.

      Now, having just one team in California proved costly for travel arrangements in the AL, so the owners looked for another franchise to relocate, or to further expand out west. They found the team that did move, Charlie Finley's Kansas City Athletics. They moved before the 1968 season, but only after a contentious legal battle, which was resolved by major League Baseball agreeing to include Kansas City in the next round of expansion, which happened in 1969. Hence, the Kansas City Royals came into existence.

      But wait, not done with the ripples yet.

      Seeing an opportunity, the 1969 expansion by both leagues, included two new West Coast teams. The National League added the San Diego Padres, while the American League dded to Seattle Pilots.

      Well, the Seattle Pilots, who played their home games in Sicks Stadium, didn't last very long, and actually bankrupted themselves before the 1970 season. They became an American League team without a home.

      Well, here comes the city of Milwaukee to the rescue, with a group led by car salesman Allan “Bud' Selig, the gave home to the displaced Seattle Pilots, and re-branded them as the Milwaukee Brewers in honor of the original Milwaukee team in the 1901 inaugural American League season (a team that relocated to St. Louis to become the Browns in time for 1902),

      A few years later, when Mr. Selig became the commissioner, his dream of Milwaukee being a National League city came true, after he decided to move the Brewers from the American League to the National League to allow the expansion Tampa Bay franchise to enter the American League. It was the first time that a Major League team switched leagues. The Houston Astros would do the same a few years later, in order to even out each league at fifteen teams apiece, to easily facilitate the forced expansion of inter-league play, essentially causing at least one of each series of games to be the inter-league variety.

      Of course, sixty years after the fact, the initial move to California has proved to be both beneficial and profitable for all involved. And while this article is really about the 1957 season as it was played, there were more dealings after the season that should be noted.

      Ten years after breaking the color line, the Dodgers attempted to trade their beloved Jackie Robinson to their cross-town (soon to be cross-state) rival Giants, in exchanged for southpaw pitcher Dick Littlefield. It was a shocking move.    

     First, because Robinson was a mainstay in Brooklyn, and the Giants-Dodgers rivalry was a real, and a very tempestuous reality.

     Second, it was shocking because, unbeknownst to anyone, Robinson had decided that he was going to retire. Jackie had signed a deal with Look magazine, which was granted exclusive rights to Jackie and his family. Jackie was in negotiations, and later signed on with the Chock Full O' Nuts coffee company as a Vice President, but was not allowed to tell anyone until the story broke in the magazine.

      Before that could happen, the Dodgers' Walter O'Malley instructed his team to formulate a trade to send Robinson elsewhere. O'Malley and Jackie were not fans of each other, and apparently O'Malley wanted to trade Jackie a season earlier, but Buzzie Bavasi convinced O'Malley that the Dodgers could win the pennant in '56 with Jackie. So that trade was never made.

      So, with the trade in place a week before the magazine article was to run, Jackie sent a letter to Giants owner Horace Stoneham, thanking him for the opportunity, as well as the offer of a renegotiated contract, but that for the sake of the Robinson family's future, he would retire from baseball.

      Many fans believed that the trade forced the retirement, but this actually wasn't the case.

     That December trade was then voided, but the Dodger family would be rocked again a couple of weeks later.

      Legendary Dodger catcher Roy Campanella would be seriously injured in an automobile accident in January. While returning home to his estate near Glen Cove, Long Island, from his liquor store in Harlem, Campanella 'failed to negotiate a curve on a wet road' and slid into a telephone pole, and then back across the road, flipping the car onto its side.

      Campy would break his neck and undergo four hours of surgery. Doctors said that if his injury had occurred one inch higher than it did, that it would have been a fatal injury. As it was, Roy was paralyzed for the rest of his life.

      The former Negro League star, three-time NL Most Valuable Player and future Baseball Hall of Famer, continued to work for the Dodgers for many years after his injury, acting as a good-will ambassador for the team.

      In 1946, he and Don Newcombe, both African-American players, were assigned to the class B Nashua team of the New England League. There, they sat in wait for the color line to be broken by future teammate Jackie Robinson, who had been assigned to Montreal.

      Of forgotten historical significance, Nashua manager Walter Alston was ejected from a game, and Campanella took over for him, becoming the first African-American to manage white players in an organized professional baseball game.

      Campy took over with his team down by three runs, but was able to lead the team to a victory, partially because he used pitcher Don Newcombe as a pinch-hitter, and he responded with a game tying two-run homer.

      During the 1957, Cleveland Indians ace Herb Score was leveled by a line drive off the bat of the Yankees' Gil McDougald. The ball hit Score in the right eye, breaking his nose, his orbital bone, and the eyeball itself. The injury also damaged Score's depth perception.

      McDougald, for his part, was devastated by the injury. In fact, at the time that his batted ball hit Score, McDougald ran to the mound to aid Score instead of running to first base. As a result, he was thrown out at first. McDougald also vowed to retire immediately in the even that Score was unable to regain his sight. Score did return to 20/20 vision, but did miss the remainder of that season.

      Score did return to the mound for the 1958 season, but had altered his pitching motion, some believed that the fear of being hit caused that. Score said that wasn't so, but rather he had strained a ligament in his arm pitching on a damp day against Washington.

      1959 brought yet another pitching motion from Score, neither one as effective as he was before the 1957 injury, and he was out of baseball a short time later.

      The Major Leagues also changed their batting qualifications prior to the 1957 season, to the current 3.1 Plate Appearances for each scheduled game. Prior to that, the qualifications were a little lax. From 1920 through 1949, the standard was 100 games played, regardless of how many at-bats or plate appearances resulted. The American League changed their qualifications in 1936 to 400 at bats, but the National League held onto the 100 game standard until 1949.

      In 1950, both leagues adopted the 2.6 at bats per scheduled team game, which was rounded down to 400 at bats for the 154 game schedule. (comes to 400.4 for you sticklers).

      The current 3.1 plate appearance standard (which translates to 477 plate appearances for a 154 game schedule, and 502.2 for a 162 game schedule) actually helps protect the players who received a lot of walks. Since walks, especially intentional walks, counted as a plate appearance, a prodigious hitter who would receive many intentional walks wouldn't be penalized for his lack of at bats when it came to batting titles.

      One of the oddest occurrences of 1957 happened in the Class D Sooner State League. Ardmore Cardinals player-manager J.C. Dunn was shot twice during a game in Ponca City against the Cubs. A hotel porter was shooting at an unnamed Ardmore player, but shot Dunn instead.

      The game was suspended as Dunn was taken to the hospital, but his injuries were not severe, and he returned to action eighteen days later. He finished the season hitting .323, including a .592 clip in the last seven games before the playoffs.
     In a very bizarre twist, Mr. Dunn was shot and killed at his home some twelve years later, in a crime that was never solved.

      On to the big league oddities and milestones:

      Yankee pitcher Bob Grim hit a game ending (walk-off) homer on September 5^th, and White Sox pitcher Dixie Howell hit a game ending homer on September 6^th. It remains the only instance of 'walk-off' homers hit by pitchers on consecutive days.

      Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Richie Ashburn met Mrs. Alice Roth in a most unusual way. He fouled a ball into the stands, which unfortunately struck Mrs. Roth, who was attending the game with her grandsons. While she was not seriously hurt, she did require some medical attention, and was placed on a stretcher to be removed from her seat in the stands.

      As luck would have it, Ashburn was still at bat while this was going on, and somehow fouled another ball into the stands, striking Mrs. Roth once again as she was being carried out.

      Mrs. Roth, as I mentioned earlier, was not seriously injured, and Ashburn invited her and her grandsons to the game the following day, as his guest, The boys were given tours of the clubhouse, autographs, balls and bats.

      Allegedly, one of the grandsons asked Mrs. Roth if she could take them to an Eagles game and be hit by a football.
    
     The season ended with the Milwaukee Braves beating the New York Yankees in a seven game World Series. 

      In Milwaukee, lefty Warren Spahn, who began his career with the Boston Braves, under manager Casey Stengel, pitched his 41^st shutout, establishing a National League record for southpaws that still remains. He extended that mark to 63 shutouts.Spahn, who would be reunited with Stengel in 1965 with the lowly Mets, remarked that he "...played for Casey both before and after he was a baseball genius."

      Spahn would win the second Cy Young Award given out, the first Brave to win the award. He also began a streak of five straight seasons of leading the league in victories, 1957-1961.

      Outfielder Henry Aaron won the Most Valuable Player Award, the first Brave to win that award as well.

      First baseman Frank Torre set a record by scoring 6 runs in a 23-10 win over the Cubs.

      In Boston, ted Williams hit three homers in a game twice in 1957. Surprisingly, he was the first American League slugger to accomplish this feat in the same season. Williams hit .388, which was the highest single season average since his.406 in 1941. He also was the last to have a .700 slugging percentage until 1994.

      His .388 average set the record for the highest qualifying individual average over the league average. He hit .131 higher than the league (.388 against .257)

      In New York, Willie Mays of the Giants became the first in the National league to reach two 30 HR and 30 SB seasons.

      He hit 20 triples, and is the only player to have a 20 triple season and 50 homer season in their career. He was the first to join the illustriously random 33/33/.333 club. Where the 33's are homers and stolen bases, with a .333 batting average.

      Larry Walker and Vladimir Guerrero are the only others to do it.

      Mickey Mantle of the Yankees established a record of reaching base 319 times, most ever by a switch hitter. (Babe Ruth holds the all-time record with 379. He won his second (of three) MVP awards, and was the first AL switch hitter to have won the award altogether. In fact, the only other switch hitter to have won the AL MVP Award is pitcher Vida Blue for the 1971 Oakland A's.

      The Mick also hit for the cycle, the only time he ever accomplished that feat.

In the minors, Yankee farmhand Bob Riesener, pitching for Alexandria of the Class C Evangeline League, finished the season with a perfect 20-0 record.

      In St. Louis, Stan Musial led the league in batting for the seventh, and last time in his career.

      Cubs outfielder Lee Walls hit for the cycle, the only National Leaguer to do so in 1957.

      For the Senators, pitcher Pedro Ramos allowed a record 43 homers. This AL record would stand until Bert Blyleven allowed 50 dingers in 1986.

      And outfielder Roy Sievers became the first Washington player to reach 40 homers. He became just the second player from a last place team to lead his league in homers and runs batted in.

      On to the season's statistical review...

    

      While there were many of the games' great hitters active during this time, the overall pitching was actually 6.7% better than the overall offense.

      Pitching wise, the top five teams were:

Yankees

White Sox

Braves

Dodgers

Cardinals

      And the offense top five teams were:

Braves

Cardinals

Reds

Red Sox

Yankees

      And the top overall power rankings landed as such:

Yankees	AL Champions
Braves	World Series Champions
White Sox	2nd place, 8 games back
Dodgers	3rd place, 14 games back
Cardinals	2nd place, 8 games back

      We'll look at the American league pitchers, who held a 2.3% statistical advantage over the National League, first, with the initial top ten list as follows:

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA	Svs
Tom Sturdivant	Yankees	16-6	2.54	0
Dick Donovan	White Sox	16-6	2.77	0
Bobby Shantz	Yankees	11-5	2.45	5
Jim Bunning	Tigers	20-8	2.69	1
Frank Sullivan	Red Sox	14-11	2.73	0
Billy Pierce	White Sox	20-12	3.26	2
Bob Turley	Yankees	13-6	2.71	3
Bob Grim	Yankees	12-8	2.63	19
Billy Loes	Orioles	12-7	3.24	4
Jim Wilson	White Sox	15-8	3.48	0

      Then comparing them to their team average performances, that list looks like this:

Bud Byerley	Senators	6-6	3.13	6
Camilo Pascual	Senators	08-17	4.10	0
Frank Sullivan	Above
Virgil Trucks	A's	9-7	3.03	7
Jim Bunning	Above
Ray Narleski	Indians	11-5	3.09	16
Tex Clevenger	Senators	7-6	4.19	8
Jack Urban	A's	7-4	3.34	0
Dick Donovan	Above
Pedro Ramos	Senators	12-16	4.79

      Combining and comparing brings our top AL pitchers to this final list:

Dick Donovan	13th in MVP, 2nd in Cy Young
Tom Sturdivant	No votes
Frank Sullivan	No votes
Jim Bunning	9th in MVP
Billy Pierce	11th in MVP
Bobby Shantz	26th in MVP (tied)
Bob Turley	No votes
Bob Grim	16th in MVP (tied)
Ray Narleski	No votes
Billy Loes	No Votes

      This was the second year in which the Cy Young Award was given out, and the award was given to just one pitcher. Dick Donovan received the only American league vote, and that one vote kept Warren Spahn from a unanimous award.

      Over in the National League, our initial ranking looks like this:

Warren Spahn	Braves	21-11	2.69	0
Don Drysdale	Dodgers	17-9	2.69	0
Jack Sanford	Phillies	19-8	3.08	0
Bob Buhl	Braves	18-7	2.74	0
Johnny Podres	Dodgers	12-9	2.66	0
Billy Muffett	Cardinals	3-2	2.25	8
Don McMahon	Braves	2-3	1.54	8
Lindy McDaniel	Cardinals	15-9	3.49	0
Turk Farrell	Phillies	10-02	2.38	10
Vern Law	Pirates	10-08	2.87	0

      And against their teams, we get this list:

Vern Law	Above
Jack Sanford	Above
Moe Drabowsky	Cubs	13-15	3.53	0
Dick Drott	Cubs	15-11	3.58	0
Bob Friend	Pirates	14-18	3.38	0
Warren Spahn	Above
Brooks Lawrence	Reds	16-13	3.52	4
Don Drysdale	Above
Turk Farrell	Above
Billy Muffett	Above

      Our then overall ranking is as follows:

Warren Spahn	Cy Young winner, 5th in MVP
Jack Sanford	10th in MVP
Don Drysdale	19th in MVP (tied)
Bob Buhl	14th in MVP
Johnny Podres	No votes
Billy Muffett	No votes
Vern Law	No votes
Don McMahon	No votes
Turk Farrell	No votes
Lindy McDaniel	No votes

      On to the American League batters, who were 1.7% behind the National Leaguers. Their star friendly initial rankings are:

Player	Team	HR	RBI	AVG
Mickey Mantle	Yankees	34	94	.365
Ted Williams	Red Sox	38	87	.388
Roy Sievers	Senators	42	114	.307
Minnie Minoso	White Sox	12	103	.310
Vic Wertz	Indians	28	105	.282
Jackie Jensen	Red Sox	23	103	.281
Yogi Berra	Yankees	24	82	.251
Gene Woodling	Indians	19	78	.321
Nellie Fox	White Sox	6	61	.317
Larry Doby	White Sox	14	79	.288

      Then compared to their teams, we get this list:

Roy Sievers	Above
Mickey Mantle	Above
Ted Williams	Above
Al Kaline	Tigers	23	90	.295
Charlie Maxwell	Tigers	24	82	.276
Vic Wertz	Above
Minnie Minoso	Above
Gene Woodling	Above
Bob Nieman	Orioles	13	70	.273
Gus Zernial	A's	27	69	.236

      So our overall rankings are:

Mickey Mantle	AL MVP
Ted Williams	2nd in MVP
Roy Sievers	3rd in MVP
Minnie Minoso	8th in MVP
Vic Wertz	6th in MVP
Gene Woodling	No votes
Jackie Jensen	No votes
Yogi Berra	No votes
Al Kaline	10th in MVP
Charlie Maxwell	18th in MVP

      Over to the National League, with an even more superstar laden list, that initial top ten comes out to:

Hank Aaron	Braves	44	132	.322
Stan Musial	Cardinals	29	102	.351
Willie Mays	Giants	35	97	.333
Eddie Mathews	Braves	32	94	.292
Ernie Banks	Cubs	43	102	.285
Duke Snider	Dodgers	40	92	.274
Gil Hodges	Dodgers	27	98	.299
Del Ennis	Cardinals	24	105	.286
Frank Robinson	Reds	29	75	.322
Wes Covington	Braves	21	65	.284

      Then against their team averages, that top list is:

Willie Mays	Above
Ernie Banks	Above
Hank Aaron	Above
Stan Musial	Above
Stan Lopata	Phillies	18	67	.237
Duke Snider	Above
Gil Hodges	Above
Walt Moryn	Cubs	19	88	.289
Frank Thomas	Pirates	23	89	.290
Wes Covington	above

      Then our final rankings look like this:

Hank Aaron	NL MVP
Willie Mays	4th in MVP
Stan Musial	2nd in MVP
Ernie Banks	6th in MVP
Eddie Mathews	8th in MVP
Duke Snider	18th in MVP
Wes Covington	No votes
Stan Lopata	No votes
Del Ennis	15th in MVP
Walt Moryn	No votes

      The post season awards voters seemed to be in line with the rankings I came up with, so no arguments there. The one Cy Young between the leagues was the norm, but if I had to vote for one ion each league, I would have again voted the same as the voters. Spahn in the NL and Donovan in the AL.

Aaron

Spahn

Mantle

Donovan