No joy in Mudville this year, as an atrocious August completely derails our season and only a late flurry of four straight wins - with three of them featuring a grand slam by one of our guys - allows us to walk away with a winning record and first division finish.
As you can see from those metrics, it's not as if we're not getting decent production from our guys, but that -5 Pythag is all the corroboration needed to show we simply haven't put it all together on a regular basis - a far cry from just one year prior.
Kiner again leads the bats, but Wertz, Easter and almost all of our starters contribute.
We are reminded about the vast difference between having a lot of pitching and a lot of
good pitching on hand. We will need to revisit what's going on here and tighten things right up if we want to give the Dodgers
et al a run for it in oncoming years.
No shots heard around this world as we get the first ever Yanks-Dodgers matchup for the WS, with both doing it fairly comfortably in the end.
Batting titles to Pete Runnels (345, 1st) and Stan Musial (363, 4th). Ralph Kiner's 40 HR lead either league, as do Mickey Mantle's 127 RBI. Both he and Willie Mays are decent enough chances to nail down both the RoY and Wagner Lajoie awards.
Billy Pierce is the league's only 20-game winner with 22 and he also posts the low ERA with 2.33, while finishing second - albeit well back - in strikeouts to Mickey McDermott, whose 210 are the most. Brooklyn's Clem Labine is tops with 29 saves.
While on the topic of awards, the league has announced that, effective immediately, the prize given to the best offensive player at each position in each league - formerly known as the Silver Slugger - will henceforth be known as the Ruth-Gibson medal, honouring Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson, who won more than 30 of this award between them in their careers.
Final Top 20s and Leaders
Monthly Award Winners
August
American League
- Batter – Al Rosen (Indians): 375 / 8 HR / 23 RBI
- Pitcher – Virgil Trucks (Athletics): 5-0 / 2.34 / 24 K / 57.2 IP
- Rookie – Mickey Mantle (Yankees): 302 / 7 HR / 23 RBI
National League
- Batter – Stan Musial (Cardinals): 402 / 7 HR / 25 RBI
- Pitcher – Preacher Roe (Dodgers): 5-1 / 3.31 / 21 K / 49 IP
- Rookie – Saul Rogovin (Cubs): 3-2 / 1.95 / 21 K / 50.2 IP
September
American League
- Batter – Ted Williams (Red Sox): 367 / 9 HR / 26 RBI
- Pitcher – Billy Pierce (White Sox): 5-1 / 1.71 / 19 K / 47.1 IP
- Rookie – Mickey Mantle (Yankees): 286 / 8 HR / 23 RBI
National League
- Batter – Willie Mays (Giants): 362 / 8 HR / 37 RBI
- Pitcher – Preacher Roe (Dodgers): 4-0 / 2.86 / 17 K / 50.1 IP
- Rookie – Willie Mays
Milestones and Observations of Note
- 2000 Hits: Bobby Doerr, Monte Irvin
- 250 Wins: Barney Brown
- A torn PCL will keep Giants 1B Preston Ward out of action for the better part of a year.
- Cubs pitcher Bob Rush misses 6 weeks with a biceps strain, while Philly’s Karl Drew has his season ended by a torn rotator cuff.
- Enos Slaughter, out since late June with a concussion, misses the remainder of the season on doctor’s advice.
- The Giants don’t even wait the season out before cutting ties with skipper George Uhle, later replacing him with Oscar Charleston.
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