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OCTOBER 12, 1956 . . . Willie Mays was named the MVP of the World Series this season, getting 13 hits in the seven game series, finishing .433/469/.900 with four doubles, two triples and two homers! And now we await the official start of the offseason, with a lot of questions remaining about what moves we’ll need to make heading into another season of title defense.
OCTOBER 20, 1956 . . . The only Cub player to retire this offseason was Dick Whitman, who played in 229 games over 10 seasons with the Cubs, Dodgers and Phillies, finishing with a .267 average, 33 doubles, three triples and three homers, with 61 runs batted in. He’ll be able to tell his grandkids one day that he played with the greats and got a World Series ring while playing on our bench this year, but he’s unlikely to be remembered by any but the most diehard baseball nuts a few years from now. Freddie Angemeier, our first base coach, has also chosen to retire this season, making that our highest profile opening outside the many ones we’ll have to fill in our minor leagues.
OCTOBER 28, 1956 . . . We’ve been working on a deal since mid-September, but we can finally announce that Hy Cohen is staying in Chicago through at least the 1960 campaign! We’ll be paying him just $22,000 this year in the final year of his four year deal, but he’ll get a raise to $138,000 in 1958, with $150,000 in the 1959 season and $175,000 in 1960. He’s 82-14 over the first three years of his contract, with an ERA of 1.97, 718 strikeouts, an 0.84 WHIP and 29.8 WAR, which makes it a no brainer to keep him here anchoring our rotation for as long as he is willing to stay! At this point it’s been said he could probably run for mayor and win, so we did not want to leave any doubt heading into the 1957 season == Cohen is our man.
In other news, the league has announced the NL’s Gold Glove awards for fielding excellence, and we’ve got four of them on our team! Del Crandall won as the league’s best fielding catcher, with Al Rosen winning at 1B, Jackie Robinson at 3B and ... no surprise ... Willie Mays at center field. Mays has now won three Gold Gloves in a row, and Crandall has won three in a row as well at catcher.
We’ve also worked out a move with the Yankees, sending them Alonso Perry, who played a few weeks for us last year before tearing his ACL, in exchange for 20-year-old right handed reliever Dick “Hummer” Drott (#10 BNN), 21-year-old 3B Steve Demeter and 19-year-old SS Eugene Klyczek. The Yankees are betting that Perry will still have his incredible running ability and range to go with his slugging after coming back from a year-long injury, but we have our doubts and feel it’s worth the tradeoff to get a top young pitcher while getting the three years and $465,000 of Perry’s contract off our books.
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