Let's Play Two! - Page 15

jksander · 01-23-2024, 05:22 PM

AUGUST 17, 1956 . . . We’re back on the road for three games against the 34-82 Cardinals in front of next-to-nobody. Hy Cohen (25-2, 1.81 ERA, 238.1 IP, 234 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) is up in the rotation to face Mike Fornieles (7-15, 3.95 ERA, 198.0 IP, 78 K’s, 1.29 WHIP). Poppell quickly got on base with an infield single, then took second and third as has become his signature first-inning move, coming in to score when Rosen got a nice bouncing hit into center field to put us up 1-0. Al Kaline hit a three-run homer in the top of the third to increase our lead to 4-0, bringing his tally to 19 on the season. Al Rosen added his 15th homer of the season, a solo blast in the top of the fifth, to make it a five-run shutout lead, and though Cohen loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth, he held our lead at 5-0 by pitching to contact for an out at center field. Erskine came in to start the bottom of the seventh, and the Cards got themselves on the board with an RBI triple by Stan Musial to make it 5-1. But that was all they’d get, and Erskine stayed out to finish the game, holding tough for the four-run win.

Hy Cohen is now 26-2 with a 1.77 ERA, having allowed just four hits with four walks and three strikeouts through six innings. Erskine earned his first save as a Cub, staying out for three innings with three hits, a strikeout and one earned run, giving him a 3.90 ERA through 67 innings as a Cub reliever. We outhit the Cardinals 11-7 in the win, led by Al Rosen who hit four times for two runs and two RBIs. Al Kaline added two hits for a run and three RBIs, and “Jackrabbit” Poppell hit twice, stole three bases and scored a run.

AUGUST 18, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (16-4, 1.83 ERA, 226.1 IP, 277 K’s, 0.75 WHIP) pitched in game two, against Dan Lee (1-10, 7.15 ERA, 73.0 IP, 26 K’s, 1.56 WHIP). Poppell reached first on a Stan Musial dropped catch which was declared an error, and Rosen batted him to third with a well placed hit into center that netted him a single. A Robinson sac-fly to center drove Poppell home without him having to steal a single base -- a rarity! The result was a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the first. Al Kaline broke it wide open in the top of the fourth, hitting a three-run blast to center that put us up 4-0, giving him 20 homers and a three run blast in each of the last two games! Maris came up to bat and hit one himself to right field that made it 5-0, with just his 13th of the year, and Jack Poppell hit an RBI double to knock in another! Jackie Robinson eventually walked the bases loaded with two outs, and Willie Mays hit a towering grand slam out of right field, giving us a 10-0 advantage and him his 42nd homer of the season! Midway through the fourth it was a complete rout, and Rogovin didn’t even give up his first hit until the bottom of the inning. The Cards got on the board with a two run homer by Bill Sarni in the bottom of the fifth, and in the bottom of the sixth they added another pair of runs off an RBI single by Jim King, making the score 10-4 heading into the top of the seventh. Bob Purkey came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth with the lead still at six runs, and he stayed out in the ninth, a run scoring for the Cardinals off a wild pitch with one out. But he did his job, getting a strikeout and a groundout to end this one as a 10-5 victory.

Rogovin is now 17-4 with a 1.93 ERA thanks to a four hit, four walk, nine strikeout, four earned run performance through seven innings. Purkey came in and dealt with the remainder, Rogovin having thrown 116 pitches, and he gave us two innings with three hits, a walk, two strikeouts and an earned run to bring his ERA to 4.09 through 22 innings. Despite the huge lead early, we only outhit them 10-7, but they walked four batters and committed three errors, two of which put Poppell on base -- big mistake! He finished with a hit, a walk and reached twice on errors to score twice and steal three bases, bringing his total to 79 on the season. But Mays’ two hits, two runs and four RBIs coupled with Kaline’s three-run homer were the real deal sealers.

AUGUST 19, 1956 . . . We remain knotted up with the Dodgers, so every game is important as this pennant race reaches scalding hot levels. Camilo Pascual (8-8, 3.14 ERA, 146.0 IP, 99 K’s, 1.18 WHIP) pitched the final of our three games in St. Louis, going up against Alex Kellner, a 31-year-old journeyman who played two games for us in relief early this year, moving on to Cincy for one relief appearance and then winding up here in St. Louis where he’s gone 3-6 with a 4.07 ERA through 79.2 innings, with 36 K’s and a 1.46 WHIP. Jackie Robinson hit a three-run tape measure homer out at left in the top of the first to put us up 3-0 via his 25th home run of the season, and less than ten minutes later Al Kaline, for the THIRD TIME in THREE GAMES, hit a three-run homer to make it 6-0! He is now red hot and has 21 homers this year, along with 14 doubles and 10 triples! Everyone batted in the top of the first, and we went into the bottom of the inning up by six and knowing our leadoff-man would be back up for the second. Ernie Banks hit a two-run homer in the top of the third, his 26th of the year, but the Cardinals kept it from being a shutout, scoring a run in the bottom of the third due to a throwing error at first base, Frank Bolling reaching safely with two outs to make it 8-1 Cubs. Jackie Robinson hit his 30th double of the season in the top of the fourth, Jackie Robinson driving him home with an RBI single to make it 9-1. Del Crandall kept the home-run train going, hitting a three-run bomb in the top of the seventh, his 13th of the year, to make it 12-1 Cubs. Another run scored in the top of the ninth on a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded, and Pascual closed out one of his strongest, quietly efficient games with three quick outs to send us back to Chicago with a 13-1 win and the series sweep.

Pascual improved to 9-8, thanks to a two-hit complete game with a walk, four strikeouts and two runs scored, only one of them earned. His 2.96 ERA and 1.2 WAR are better indicators of how his season has gone than the win-loss column -- though he’s still been significantly off from his incredible 19-5 rookie season. So it’s good to see him putting it all together again. We outhit the Cardinals 11-2, and out-homered them 4-0. Poppell, Robinson, Mays, Banks and Kaline each hit twice, and Poppell added four steals to his already gaudy totals, but the stars were the sluggers. Robinson had two hits, three walks, two runs and three RBIs, while Kaline added two hits, one walk, two runs and three RBIs.

And yet we head into the two-game series at Wrigley against the Phillies in a dead heat with the Dodgers -- we’ve won three in a row, but they’re riding a nine game streak. Let’s play some baseball -- who’s gonna blink first? Over in the AL, the 80-41 Yankees hold a relatively comfortable six game lead over the 73-46 Cleveland Guardians, with Detroit (70-47) still within eight games with at least a punter’s chance.

jksander · 01-23-2024, 08:30 PM

AUGUST 21, 1956 . . . Tom Acker (6-5, 4.09 ERA, 103.1 IP, 76 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) is back up in the rotation against Philly this afternoon, set to face Don Newcombe (14-9, 2.78 ERA, 207.0 IP, 126 K’s, 0.97 WHIP) as he attempts to bounce back from his rough outing five days ago. He gave up a triple to lead-off man Jackie Jenson to start the inning, striking out Torgeson and getting Ashburn out via a sac-fly that scored the go-ahead run. But he got out of the inning with some confidence that, though players were making contact, he could make something out of it. Poppell got a hit in the bottom of the inning, and Rosen grounded out to first to drive him in from third, tying the game heading into the second. The Phillies went back up 2-1 thanks to an RBI single by Torgeson in the top of the third, but a smooth double play by Acker with a catch for out two and a throw to first for out three got us out of the inning without significant damage. Rosen grounded out to first in the bottom of the third, but was able to drive Poppell home to score his second run of the game as we tied it 2-2, and Mays hit his 43rd homer in the bottom of the fourth to give us a 3-2 lead! Acker got more confident as the game progressed, getting through the fifth inning with a pair of strikeouts and a flyout to center, but with one out and men on first and second in the top of the sixth we went to Erskine in the bullpen to protect the lead. Unfortunately that backfired, as Erskine loaded the bases with a walk and then gave up a blooper into center field that tied it up, and then Alvin Dark hammered one out of the park via right to put the Phillies up 6-3. And then Newcombe rubbed salt in the wounds, hitting a homer from the nine-spot, his first of the year, to increase the lead to four. Erskine got out of the inning at long last, but he’d given up five runs, four of them his, accounting for his second blown save of the year -- and if we can’t mount a real comeback, it’ll be his loss as well.

Jackie Robinson got us started in the bottom of the sixth, coming out of his plate appearance with a standing double, and Mays hit one through the gap into the outfield to drive him home with an RBI single. Vern Law came in to pitch to start the top of the seventh, handling Torgeson, Ashburn and Ennis deftly to send us into the stretch trailing 7-4. In the top of the eighth, however, Willie Jones hit a solo homer out of center field to make it a four-run game. Law stayed out for the ninth and got us through, bringing up Kaline to start the bottom of the inning. He batted out to center, Maris grounded out to first, and Crandall hit to third, for an easy throw out at first to end this one as a brutal 8-4 loss.

Acker was solid through 5.1 innings, allowing five hits, three walks, three strikeouts and three earned runs, but Erskine struggled, giving up four hits and four earned runs in just two outs worth of pitching. Law was solid as usual with three innings of three hit one strikeout one earned run ball, but the Phillies outhit us 12-7 and we blew our chance with the terrible sixth inning. Robinson, Mays and Maris each hit twice, with Mays leading the way with his homer and two runs batted in, while Poppell hit once, walked once, stole four bases yet again and managed to score our other two runs. He now has 87 stolen bases in his first 62 starts, having been caught only 11 times! He also has a zone rating of +5.1, with a 1.076 efficiency rating playing second base, with only five errors.

Brooklyn lost 2-3 yesterday to St. Louis on the road in an 11-inning marathon, so we remain tied with them. But they’ve still played four fewer games than us, and they’ll get to make up a lot of ground in September with 20 of their final 26 games on their home field. Which makes us dropping these winnable games on our field all the more risky. We’re going to be putting a LOT of pressure on our ability to win well on the road in September, and on the remaining six games against the Dodgers head-to-head, if we are going to make it to our third consecutive World Series. With just 32 games remaining for us this season, we’re on pace to win 104 games and still narrowly lose to the Dodgers, which would be heartbreaking. Do we have it in ourselves to dig deep for a stretch run?

AUGUST 22, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (26-2, 1.77 ERA, 244.1 IP, 237 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) is set to pitch tonight against Robin Roberts (14-11, 2.40 ERA, 214.0 IP, 174 K’s, 0.86 WHIP) in the second game of this two-game set against Philadelphia. And Cohen struggled to find his form in the top of the first. Jackie Jenson opened the inning with a double. Torgeson walked, followed by a strikeout by Richie Ashburn, but Del Ennis singled, a line drive up the middle, to load the bases. Then disaster struck -- Smoky Burgess hit a double that scored Jenson and Torgeson, driving Ennis to third. Ennis legged it out and made it around to score a third run, but Burgess was thrown out at third for our second out. Just 18 pitches into the game and we were in a hole 3-0 with our best pitcher on the mound. He got out of the inning with a strikeout to Willie Jones, but now we were going to be dependent on making some real offensive moves to retake momentum. The Phils scored a fourth run in the top of the second, an RBI single by Jensen, but Maris got us on the board, scoring off a sac-fly by Crandall to make it 4-1 in the bottom of the second. AL Rosen hit a two-run homer to put us within a run in the bottom of the third, his 16th four-bagger this year. Mays hit a one-out triple moments later, but we weren’t able to get him around to score, heading into the top of the fourth trailing just 4-3. Maris opened the bottom of the fourth with a double, and after a Poppell walk, Maris and Poppell pulled off a perfect double steal to put two runs in scoring position with two outs and Rosen coming to the plate! Rosen blew the rally, however, by striking out swinging. Cohen got us through the sixth without any further scoring, and he stayed out for the top of the seventh, getting us into the stretch still trailing by a run -- but at 123 pitches his night was over.

We pinch hit Bouchee for Cohen in the bottom of the seventh, but he popped out to second, and Poppell grounded out to first. Rosen walked, and then Robinson grounded out, sending us into the top of the eighth with Erskine ready to pitch. His luck was piss-poor yet again, however, as Del Ennis got a one-out hit, and then Thomas Yuhas doubled to bat in an insurance run for the Phillies who now led 5-3. Vern Law came in to take over with one out and a runner on second, loading the bases but eventually getting both outs to give us a chance still in the bottom of the eighth. But our bats were dead, and Law did what he could to keep us in the game in the ninth but the Phils scored a three-run homer off the bat of Del Ennis and this one was in the toilet. We went into the bottom of the ninth trailing by five and it stayed that way as the Phillies beat us soundly 8-3, taking both games in the series. We’re getting shellacked at home, and I don’t know what to do about it.

Cohen took a rare loss, giving up seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts and ending a 16-game win streak, allowing four earned runs as his ERA blew up to 1.86 with a 26-3 win-loss record. Law had his first rough night as a Cub, giving up three hits and three earned runs with two walks and a strikeout through 1.2 innings. They outhit us 12-6, our offense led by Mays (two hits), Maris (two hits, a steal and a run scored), Rosen (one hit, one run, two RBIs via homer) and Poppell (one hit, one walk, three steals, one run scored). Brooklyn dropped another game, keeping us in our current deadlocked state, and it’s time to dig deep and figure out what we want this season to have meant.

jksander · 01-23-2024, 08:32 PM

AUGUST 23, 1956 . . . We have a big weekend with winnable games if we can get into our normal groove -- three games Thursday through Saturday against the Giants (54-66) and a pair on Sunday against the Pirates (60-61). Today Saul Rogovin (17-4, 1.93 ERA, 233.1 IP, 286 K’s, 0.76 WHIP) pitched against Bill Lemon (4-10, 5.20 ERA, 91.2 IP, 29 K’s, 1.68 WHIP). The Giants capitalized quickly in the top of the first, scoring a run with two outs against them as Bill White beat out an infield blooper to drive Hector Lopez in to put them up 1-0 as nearly 32,000 Cubs fans booed heartily. Rosen reached safely on a fielding error by their third baseman in the bottom of the fourth, advancing to third on a double by Robinson. Mays then got one into right field, tying the score with a single that put runners on the corners. Al Kaline hit an RBI single with one out to put us up 2-1 and advancing Mays into scoring position, and a wild pitch allowed both runners to advance, Lemon choosing to walk Maris rather than risk a homer -- though that meant putting Crandall up with just one out, which is just as dangerous in my book! Sure enough, he got a hit into right field and added a run to our tally, and Rogovin hit a blistering line drive to right field that added two more. Poppell walked to reload the bases, and Robinson got his second hit of the inning to keep them loaded and increase our lead to 6-1! Mays hit to the second baseman who made a great throw to first to end the inning, but we headed into the fifth up by five when we’d trailed 1-0 just half an hour earlier.

Roger Maris hit an RBI triple to make it 7-1 in the top of the fifth, and Rogovin struck out three batters in the top of the sixth after giving up a double, giving him 10 for the game through six innings. Luis Aparicio hit a solo homer to give the Giants their second run of the day, and they walked in a third run with the bases loaded a moment later, but Rogovin got out of it with his 12th strikeout, and we went into the stretch still leading 7-3. Ed Bouchee pinch hit for Rogovin with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, walking in a run to add to our lead, and Jake Poppell hit a sharp drive that bounced off the third-baseman’s glove, allowing everyone to advance and adding another run to make it a seven-run lead. Rosen walked in a run to make it 10-3 Cubs, and Robinson hit one deep into left field to score another pair. Willie Mays then added insult to injury for the Giants, hitting a 3-run power bomb into the bleachers, and the rout was on! We went into the top of the eighth leading 15-3, and Erskine came in and struck out the side in the top of the eighth. And with the lead unchanged, he got us through the ninth inning unscathed as well, completing the win as we blasted the Giants by a dozen.

Rogovin improved to 18-4 with a 1.98 ERA, allowing six hits and four walks but striking out 12 batters, allowing just three runs. Erskine didn’t allow a single hit in his two innings, notching a walk and four strikeouts as he improved his ERA to 4.37. We outhit the Giants 16-6, led by Al Kaline with four hits two runs and an RBI. Jackie Robinson hit three times for two runs and three RBIs, improving his average to .316 and getting him closer to his first back-to-back 100-RBI season, while Willie Mays added three hits, three runs and four RBIs to his tally while he improved to 44 homers on the season. Mays now has 131 RBIs this season, beating his career high of 127 set two years ago here in Chicago. He also has now beaten his previous home-run record of 43, which he set in 1953 when he first arrived in our city. He’s now just twenty dingers away from reaching the 200-homer threshhold, and he’s only 25! Meanwhile, Poppell had a rare day without a hit or a steal, snapping a six game streak with two steals or more in a game.

AUGUST 24, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (9-8, 2.96 ERA, 155.0 IP, 103 K’s, 1.13 WHIP) started for us today, facing Ted Abernathy (14-12, 2.93 ERA, 227.2 IP, 153 K’s, 0.96 WHIP) in the second of our three matchups against the Giants. We got on the board quickly, Jackie Robinson hitting a solo blast into the bleachers, his 26th this year, to put us up 1-0. Del Crandall broke it open in the bottom of the fourth, batting in three runs with a double to push the lead to 4-0! The Giants got a run in thanks to an RBI single by Jim Gilliam in the top of the fifth, and then moments later Norm Siebern hit himself a double that scored two more before he got greedy and was picked off trying to turn the double into a triple. That cut our lead to one run heading to the bottom of the fifth, and in the top of the sixth they tied it up with a solo bomb by Wally Post. Kaline tripled to start the bottom of the sixth, and Pascual batted in the go-ahead run, Kaline scoring to put us up 5-4! Robinson picked up a double to start the bottom of the seventh, and he came around to score on an RBI double by Kaline to make it 6-4 Cubs.

Vern Law came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, but he had a horrible effort, walking Norm Cash and Norm Siebern, then after getting an out by fielder’s choice, he made the absolute worst pitch to Bill Taylor, who took it all the way out of the park for a three-run homer and the lead, 7-6. Koufax came in to relieve him, getting the two outs and sending us into the bottom of the inning with work to do. After a solid ninth inning by Koufax, we remained down by a run heading into the bottom of the final frame, and three straight pop-outs ended the game as a 7-6 loss as we continue to struggle closing out games at home. At this rate September is going to be maddening indeed.

Vern Law blew the save and took the loss in his short stretch of this game, getting only one out as he gave up two walks, a hit and three earned runs to blow what Pascual had started. Pascual gave us seven innings with five hits and three strikeouts, but he walked four batters and gave up four earned runs himself, so it wasn’t exactly a pristine performance. But we’d had a chance, until we didn’t. Koufax was solid with 1.2 innings of one hit, one walk two strikeout ball, but all his work couldn’t will our hitters to get him the win despite us getting 12 hits in the game. Robinson led the way with a single, a double and a homer, falling one triple short of a cycle while scoring twice and batting in a run, while Kaline added three hits two runs and an RBI himself as well.

AUGUST 25, 1956 . . . Tom Acker (6-5, 4.14 ERA, 108.2 IP, 79 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) got the start today against Jack Sandford (3-4, 3.41 ERA, 89.2 IP, 46 K’s, 1.19 WHIP), with Cohen and Rogovin likely to go tomorrow in the doubleheader against Pittsburgh on short rest. The Giants took an early 1-0 lead off an RBI single by Bill White, but Robinson’s hot hitting streak continued with a triple in the bottom of the first, and Willie Mays’ 45th homer put us back in the lead 2-1! Jack Sandford hit a two-run homer in the top of the second to retake the lead for New York 3-2, and Acker continued to struggle in the third, giving up two more runs before finally getting out of the inning as the crowd grew restless. Poppell continued his cold streak, notching his second strikeout of the game in the bottom of the third as he continues to struggle to reach first, his first cold streak as a major leaguer. And despite getting two runners into scoring position, we again came up empty, searching for a spark to get something good going for us. Acker got through the fourth without another run scoring, but they made him throw a lot of pitches and we were almost certain to have to go to the bullpen in the next inning. We loaded the bases but came up empty yet again in the bottom of the fourth, and we brought spot starter Bob Porterfield in to pitch heading into the fifth.

Al Kaline gave us a huge boost of morale in the bottom of the fifth, hitting a two-run homer into the left field bleachers to pull us within a run with his 22nd homer of the season. And in the bottom of the sixth, Porterfield got himself a hit into right field, and Poppell finally got himself a hit, with Robinson loading the bases for Mays with our second loaded-bases-with-one-out situation of the afternoon. And just like clockwork, Mays batted into a double play, this one a 6-2-3 sequence that got the out at home and then the out at first. I still can’t believe these chances we keep blowing, and there was definitely a contingent of our home fans booing as we went out to field. Porterfield stayed sharp from the mound, however, and we still just trailed 5-4 heading into the stretch. Carl Erskine came out to pitch in the top of the eighth with the score unchanged, getting three efficient outs to keep us in the game. Poppell walked to start the bottom of the inning, quickly stealing second and third, and they walked Rosen which brought Robinson up to the plate with a chance to really make something out of this rally opportunity! BOOM! Sharp hit into left field, driving Poppell home to tie it and giving us a runner in scoring position. Willie Mays was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Ernie Banks got himself a hit into center, batting in two runs to give us a 7-5 lead! Erskine came back out for the top of the ninth, with Koufax warming up just in case -- everything had happened so fast we didn’t think to start warming him. Which immediately bit us in the ass, as Erskine gave up a solo homer to Ed Bailey, cutting the lead to one. Koufax came out at that point, walking Norm Cash, but leadoff man Gilliam popped one up right into Sandy’s glove for the first out. He walked Hector Lopez, putting the tying run in scoring position, but Red Wilson popped it straight to Poppell, who got out one at second and threw successfully to Rosen at first to complete the double play and save the 7-6 victory.

Acker struggled, going four innings with four hits, eight walks, three strikeouts and five earned runs, but Porterfield bailed him out with three no-hit innings, and Erskine came out of it with the win, improving to 5-3 with a hit and an earned run in his one inning of work. Koufax completed his 17th save of the year with two walks, giving him a 3.27 ERA through 71.2 innings. His season has not gone well at all to this point following his Rookie of the Year campaign last season -- 0.9 WAR off a 5-7 record and 1.31 WHIP through his 44 appearances. But he’s only going to be turning 21 in the offseason and I’m all in on this kid’s future once he improves his control. We outhit them 11-5 in the comeback performance, led by Robinson (two hits, two runs, one RBI), Mays (two hits, two runs, two RBIs), Banks (two hits, two RBIs) and Kaline (one hit, one run, two RBIs), all at the heart of the order. And Poppell sparked the rally in the end, getting a hit, two walks, two steals and a run on the ground as he now has 92 steals, almost certain to reach the unheard-of mark of 100+ steals for a rookie.

jksander · 01-23-2024, 09:58 PM

AUGUST 26, 1956 . . . Still deadlocked with the Dodgers, we now get ourselves a pair of games today against the 62-62 Pittsburgh Pirates, who while still ostensibly in the race still at 22 games back, are close enough to elimination to warrant considering themselves spoilers at this point. So we’re going into this one with Hy Cohen (26-3, 1.86 ERA, 251.1 IP, 243 K’s, 0.80 WHIP) taking the start against their red-hot ace Hank Aguirre (12-6, 1.88 ERA, 187.0 IP, 122 K’s, 0.90 WHIP) in game one. Ernie Banks hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second, his 27th of the season, to give us the early 1-0 lead, and Robinson hit a two-run blast into the bleachers in the bottom of the third to increase our margin to 3-0, hitting HIS 27th of the year! Danny O’Connell hit an RBI triple to put the Pirates on the board in the top of the fifth, scoring himself on a flyout by Billy Klaus to cut our lead to one run, but Cohen got out of a tight spot and kept the 3-2 lead intact for us in the middle of the frame. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Poppell avoided the tag at first because of a dropped catch, taking second because of the error, and then stealing third to put himself in a position to add insurance. He then made a truly ballsy move, trying for home on a called strike that loaded the count on Rosen, AND HE WAS SUCCESSFUL! That’s his 94th steal of the season and his second time stealing home, and it put us up 4-2! Rosen wound up flying out to center to end the inning, but we definitely had our share of momentum at the moment. That wound up being all we needed, as Cohen stayed sharp through the remainder of the game, and we pulled off the 4-2 victory!

Cohen is now 27-3 with a 1.87 ERA, throwing a complete game seven-hitter with one walk, 10 strikeouts and two earned runs. Poppell didn’t manage a single hit or walk, but reached base on that throwing error in the fifth to ice it with three consecutive steals! Robinson was our hitting leader, notching a pair of hits with a run and two RBIs.

Saul Rogovin (18-4, 1.98 ERA, 240.1 IP, 298 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) pitched against Johnny Klippstein (11-12, 3.97 ERA, 206.1 IP, 145 K’s, 1.13 WHIP) in game two of the afternoon against the Pirates. Willie Mays hit an RBI double in the bottom of the first to put us up 1-0, and Rogovin got his 300th strikeout of the season to get out of the top of the second with the Pirates still blanked. Mays then hit his 46th homer of the year in the bottom of the third to increase our lead to 2-0, at which point all scoring stopped. Rogovin had himself a hell of a game, keeping the two-run shutout safe into the top of the ninth, though with one out in the frame, Leon Wagner hit a solo homer for the Pirates to cut our lead to a run. Rocky Colavito hit a high flyer straight to Kaline in right for out number two, however, and another brilliant catch by Kaline ended the game as a 2-1 victory, a statement win for the 32-year-old veteran starter. From what I can tell, Rogovin is just the fourth pitcher to have at least 300 K’s in a season, joining Rube Waddell (1903, 1904), Walter Johnson (1910, 1912) and Bob Feller (1946). At this point in history, the record was 349, owned by Waddell, with Feller’s 348 in ’46 a close second. Holy hell!

Rogovin improved to 19-4 with a 1.95 ERA, thanks to a complete game five-hitter, with eight strikeouts, one walk and the one earned run. Each team had five hits in this duel, with Mays our undisputed leader, hitting twice with a run and two RBIs. On pace to hit 55 homers, he leads Mantle by six homers as it becomes likelier he’ll take the crown. And though Hy Cohen remains in the Cy Young running, he’s been eclipsed in pitching WAR by Connie Johnston of Brooklyn, who is currently 20-4 with a 1.62 ERA through 244 innings, with 247 strikeouts, a 0.76 WHIP and 13.8 WAR. Cohen is currently 27-3 with a 1.87 ERA through 260.1 innings, with 253 strikeouts, an 0.80 WHIP and 12.6 WAR. The race may wind up being decided in a head-to-head battle in one of our remaining three-game series against the Dodgers. Johnson, at 33, has broken out as a star for the Dodgers seemingly out of nowhere since finishing 14-7 last year with four saves and a 3.80 ERA to go with 109 strikeouts, as the right pitcher at the right time to get the Dodgers back into relevance -- and he’s recently signed a four year deal worth $400,000 to stay with the club. So I expect this rivalry to be a big thing for years to come, especially if we can get Cohen locked up long term next season.

Speaking of Brooklyn, our next three game series at home is against them, with tomorrow off to prepare ourselves. We’re currently 87-41 and they are 85-39, still tied in the standings despite their still being four games behind us in total games played.

jksander · 01-23-2024, 11:34 PM

AUGUST 28, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (9-8, 3.06 ERA, 162.0 IP, 106 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) is up to pitch in game one of our final home series against the Dodgers, set to face Johnny Podres (13-6, 2.96 ERA, 188.2 IP, 102 K’s, 1.09 WHIP). Poppell got a hit to start the bottom of the first, but was quickly tagged out trying to steal second. And though we had three hits through the first two innings, the pitching duel was in full effect and the game stayed scoreless, with defense the name of the game. Pascual gave up his first hit of the game with one out in the top of the fourth, Carl Furillo becoming the Dodgers’ first baserunner, and from there he promptly loaded the bases, though with two outs Frank Thomas hit one straight to Mays to safely keep the game scoreless. Bottom of the fifth: Roger Maris got us going by beating out an infield hit to take first, and Crandall hit one up the gap to put Maris into scoring position. Pascual laid down a perfect sac-bunt to advance both runners, and Poppell took the count full and then walked, loading the bases! Al Rosen was the one to finally break us through, hitting a nice one just into left field over their third baseman’s head, and the lead was 1-0! Robinson walked in a second run, and then Willie Mays hit a grand slam, his 47th homer of the year, to set this place ablaze! Banks doubled, followed by an RBI triple by Kaline, and Maris kept the train rolling, getting an RBI single, his second hit of the inning! Crandall and Pascual popped out to finally end the inning, but we’d blown it up and went into the top of the sixth up by eight shutout runs. Pascual held tough to the reins from there and closed the complete game out ... he gave up a meaningless solo blast by Duke Snider to ruin the shutout, but struck out George Shuba to win it 8-1.

Pascual dominated this one, improving to 10-8 with a two hit, two walk, 10 strikeout, one run game through 116 pitches. We outhit them 16-2, scoring all our runs in that beautiful fifth inning beatdown. Willie Mays had four hits, a walk, a run scored anf four batted in thanks to his grand slam, while Rosen hit three times and Banks, Kaline and Maris each had a pair.

AUGUST 29, 1956 . . . Tom Acker (6-5, 4.39 ERA, 112.2 IP, 52 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) got the start in game two against Sal Maglie (22-4, 1.43 ERA, 251.2 IP, 175 K’s, 0.78 WHIP). Al Kaline hit an RBI single in the bottom of the second to give us the lead 1-0, and we quickly loaded the bases via hits by Acker and Poppell, Rosen hit a perfect infield bouncer, and by the time Maglie had it, he didn’t have a throw, Kaline scoring our second run as the bases stayed loaded! Robinson grounded out to end the inning, but we’d drawn first blood for the second day running. Our bullpen is rested, so the goal going in was to get Acker through five innings, but he was on fire early, walking a batter early and allowing another on base via an error, but keeping their hitters completely off balance. Ernie Banks bought us some insurance with a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth to make it 3-0, his 28th homer of the season, and Acker struck out the side in the top of the sixth, really getting in a groove out there. Brookyln didn’t get a hit until the seventh inning, and Acker stayed tough through eight. Koufax came in for the top of the ninth, shutting them down efficiently as we won the game 3-0!

Acker improved to 7-5 with a one-hitter through eight innings, striking out eight and walking one. Koufax had a great night as well, with two strikeouts and a walk as he preserved the shutout. We outhit the Dodgers 8-1 in this one, completely stumping Maglie, led by Banks with two hits, two runs and an RBI, and by Maris with a hit and an RBI.

AUGUST 30, 1956 . . . Inexplicably the Dodgers have chosen to rest their best Cy Young hope, starting Don Kaiser (8-8, 4.18 ERA, 133.1 IP, 54 K’s, 1.48 WHIP) despite Johnson being fully rested. So we’ve decided to give Cohen and Rogovin an extra day of rest and go with spot starter Bob Porterfield (3-3, 3.35 ERA, 53.2 IP, 42 K’s, 0.97 WHIP) for a bullpen game. Poppell came out of the gate roaring, reaching first on a single, advancing to second thanks to a ground-out by Rosen, and then stealing third, his first successful steal of this series! He then came around to score off an RBI single by Mays, giving us the lead 1-0. But Gil Hodges powerbombed a flyball into the bleachers to tie it up in the top of the second, though we got through the inning with some exceptional defense to avoid giving them a lead. Willie Mays hit a solo shot out at left, his 48th homer of the season, to put us back on top 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth, and Kaline hit his 23rd four-bagger to make it 3-1 Cubs. Instead of a bullpen game, Porterfield came through with a quality start, though in the top of the seventh he gave up a solo homer to Campanella, cutting our lead to one run.

Carl Erskine came in with one out and a man on first in the top of the seventh, striking out Kaiser and then getting Pee Wee Reese to ground out, sending us into the stretch with our 3-2 lead intact. Vern Law came out to pitch in the eighth, and Gil Hodges hit an RBI double with one out to tie the score at 3-3, and Sully Hemus hit a quick rolling drive into right that allowed him to come home and give Brooklyn the 4-3 lead. Ernie Banks didn’t wait for long though, hitting a solo blast out of right field to tie it 4-4 with his 29th homer of the season, and Del Crandall loaded the bases with a single into right moments later, still no outs! Gene Baker came in to hit for Law, blasting a flyball into the left corner to drive home two runs and put us firmly back in the lead! Poppell hit a sac-fly to center to drive in another, and Rosen laid down a fine hit into center to extend our lead to four. Hersh Freeman came out to finish the game, Pee Wee Reese grounding out to first for the final out as we swept the Dodgers with a come-from-behind 8-4 win!

Porterfield was stellar, giving us 6.1 innings with three hits, three strikeouts, five walks and just two earned runs. Erskine picked up his third hold of the season with a hit and a strikeout, while Law got the blown save (his second) and the win (his first), giving up three hits and two runs with just one strikeout. Freeman came out for the non-save opportunity and put their runners down one, two, three, his ERA now 5.60 through 35.1 innings. We outhit them 14-7, led by Mays with two hits, a run and two RBIs. Crandall hit three times and scored a run on the ground, and Poppell and Rosen each hit twice. Poppell finally got the steals going again, picking up two to get himself to 96 on the season!

We now have a three game lead on the Dodgers in the pennant race, though they can make up ground with wins in September since they play four more games than we do down the stretch. But we bought ourselves some room, and that’s all I could ask for in a pressure-cooker race like this.

Here’s our schedule heading into the final month of the 1956 MLB season:

8/31-9/2: @ Cincinnati
9/3: @ St. Louis -- doubleheader
9/5: @ St. Louis
9/8-9: vs. Milwaukee -- doubleheader on 9/9
9/11: @ Pittsburgh
9/14-15: @ Brooklyn -- our final two games against them!
9/16: @ Philadelphia -- last doubleheader of the season
9/18-19: @ NY Giants
9/21-23: @ Milwaukee
9/25-26: vs. St. Louis
9/29-30: vs. Cincinnati

Our magic number is 23, so all but ourselves, Brooklyn and Philly are eliminated from pennant contention. In the American League, New York (86-43) now leads Cleveland (78-50) by 7.5 games, and Detroit (76-50) by 8.5 games. All other AL teams are now eliminated, with New York’s magic number at 19.

jksander · 01-24-2024, 02:13 PM

AUGUST 31, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (27-3, 1.87 ERA, 260.1 IP, 253 K’s, 0.80 WHIP) pitched tonight for game one on the road in Cincinnati, facing Don Drysdale (6-16, 4.52 ERA, 195.0 IP, 115 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). Cincy got on the board quickly, thanks to a two-run homer by Kluszewski in the bottom of the first, and Cohen struggled to find his rhythm before finally getting a bases loaded final out via strikes, throwing 29 pitches in the first frame alone. Willie Mays hit a deep blast into right field in the top of the third, however, coming out with a two-RBI triple that tied the score, and Mays took home on a wild pitch, giving us the lead, 3-2! Mays hit an RBI double in the top of the fifth, driving Robinson in to score our fourth run, and moments later Maris hit one to almost the same spot in left, doubling himself to bat in another to make it a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the frame, and Cohen had settled in well by this point as the momentum swung completely in our direction . In the top of the sixth with two outs, Jack Poppell stole third base to notch his absolutely insane 100th stolen base of the season, and Mays hit a 2-RBI double to drive him and Rosen home and put the nail in, or so you’d think -- but Elmer Valo got an RBI double in with one out in the bottom of the sixth, so they still had a chance at rallying, trailing 7-3 heading into the seventh. We brought Carl Erskine in for the bottom of the seventh, still leading by four runs, and he held serve, with Robinson twisting the dagger in the top of the eighth with a solo homer, his 28th of the season, making it an 8-3 lead. Hersh Freeman came out to pitch in the ninth, getting two early outs before putting runners on the corners. Sandy Koufax came out at that point to stifle the rally attempt, getting Kluszewski to hit a weak fly to Mays to end this one as an 8-3 win.

Cohen took the win, improving to 28-3, allowing five hits four walks and nine strikeouts through six innings, allowing just three runs. Erskine, Freeman and Koufax combined for two hits four walks and a strikeout through the remaining three innings. It wasn’t a save opportunity, but Kluszewski was the kind of player who has rung us up in the past, and that kind of rally in the ninth would have been dangerous indeed. So I’m glad to see Koufax was able to come in for the high leverage situation and get the out without surrendering anything. We outhit them 14-7, led by Jackie Robinson (three hits, two runs, one RBI) and Willie Mays (three hits, two runs, five RBIs), while “Jackrabbit” Poppell wrote himself some history with two hits, a walk, four steals and a pair of runs. He is officially the first rookie in MLB history to have 100 steals in his first season!

August was an up-and-down month for us, but we still came out of it strong, winning our last four games in a row to finish 20-10. We’re now 91-41 heading into the final stretch run, having won eight of our last ten. But we can’t let up, as most of the Dodgers’ September games are on their home field.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (19-4, 1.95 ERA, 249.1 IP, 306 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) started for us tonight, and he has the potential to compete for the all-time single season strikeouts record, having struck out 53 batters during his six August starts. Tonight he pitched against lefty hurler Bobby Shantz (8-14, 5.41 ERA, 194.2 IP, 80 K’s, 1.53 WHIP). With the bases loaded in the top of the first, Willie Mays hit a sac-fly out to center that drove in the first run of the game, and Al Kaline and Roger Maris walked in two runs in a row, encouraging a series of boos from the sparse home crowd. Banks hit a sac-fly to right, scoring Robinson from third, and Rogovin struck out swinging, completing our batting around as we took a 4-0 lead in the first half inning. But Rogovin gave up a triple to their leadoff man, and Gus Bell batted in a run with a single to quickly get the Redlegs on the board. He settled down, however, and after the back to back hits to start the inning, he got three outs in a row to send their defense back out. Robinson hit an RBI double in the top of the second to extend the lead back to four runs, but Nellie Fox hammered a homer out of right field to pull them back within three in the bottom of the third, and Elmer Valo hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth, making this one uncomfortably close, sending us into the top of the fifth leading by a slim 5-4 margin. Del Crandall gave us some breathing room with a sac-fly in the top of the sixth that drove in a run, but Gus Bell answered with a homer in the bottom of the seventh to cut the lead back to one run. Ernie Banks batted in a run with a double in the top of the eighth, however, and we loaded the bases with a chance to finally put this one out of reach. Crandall hit a sac-fly to deep center, narrowly missing out on a grand slam as another run came in, but Poppell hit into a fielder’s choice that ended the inning, our lead now 8-5.

Koufax came in and had a great eighth inning, allowing a baserunner but not surrendering any runs, and Jackie Robinson hit an RBI triple in the top of the ninth to seal it, with Mays hitting a run-scoring sac-fly to increase our lead to five runs. It should have been an easy finish for Koufax, but he loves to make it difficult -- with the bases loaded he got out number one via popout, holding all the runners. But Frank Robinson then hit a goddamned grand slam to make it 10-9 Cubs. Poppell made a solid catch for out number two, but Koufax walked Albie Pearson, bringing up Elmer f---ing Valo for all the marbles. Two outs, a man on, Valo hits it to Poppell, who makes the throw safely to first and we survive by the one run, getting the win but making our lives way more difficult in the process.

Rogovin improved to 20-4 with a 2.07 ERA, allowing eight hits with seven strikeouts, a walk and five earned runs, and Koufax (barely) eked out his 19th save of the year, a two-inning effort with four hits, three walks and four runs (three earned) to give him a 3.48 ERA through 75 innings. We outhit them 12-10, led by Jackie Robinson, who hit three times for two runs and two RBIs, giving him his 100th RBI of the season and improving his average to .323, his best average since batting .339 for Brooklyn in 1954.

SEPTEMBER 2, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual ( 10-8, 2.95 ERA, 171.0 IP, 116 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) started the final game at Cincinnati, facing Tex Clevenger (3-8, 4.39 ERA, 94.1 IP, 48 K’s, 1.41 WHIP). Roger Maris batted leadoff for us today, with Gene Baker playing second base to give Poppell a rare day off, and he took full advantage by blasting a solo homer into right field, his 14th homer of the season, putting us in the lead 1-0, and Al Kaline made it a two-run lead with an RBI single, Al Rosen able to come all the way around from second to score despite his below average speed. Del Crandall added an RBI single and the Redlegs walked Camilo Pascual with the bases loaded, and Maris got his second hit of the inning to bat in a fifth run. Al Rosen finally grounded out to send us into the bottom of the first, but we had them nicely on the ropes. They loaded the bases in the bottom of the second but came up empty, and Jackie Robinson hit a deep shot into center with the bases loaded for us in the top of the third, coming out of it with a three-run triple, extending our lead to eight runs. Ernie Banks hit a solo homer in the top of the fourth, his 30th of the year, and by that point the already thin crowd started to shrink even further. Cincinnati got on the board with a solo homer by Gus Bell in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 9-1 ballgame, but we loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, and Jackie Robinson hit a grand slam, his 29th homer of the season, to blow our lead up to 13-1 heading into the seventh inning stretch. Pascual scored a run from third base with two outs in the top of the eighth thanks to a wild pitch, and in the top of the ninth Jackie Robinson hit his second homer of the afternoon to make the margin even wider. Pascual completed the game and we won this one 15-1, going into tomorrow’s two-game set at St. Louis on a six-game winning streak.

Pascual, now 11-8 with a 2.85 ERA, gave us nine innings with just four hits, four walks, eight strikeouts and the one earned run, throwing 155 pitches. But with our numerous off days coming up, he’s unlikely to need to pitch for at least a week, so he’ll have plenty of time to recover. We outhit the Redlegs by a staggering 18-4 margin, with everybody in the lineup getting a hit (Pascual actually had two, with two runs scored and one batted in!) Our leaders were Roger Maris with four hits, two walks, three runs and two RBIs, and Jackie Robinson who hit four times including his two homers, walking once, scoring three times and driving in EIGHT RUNS -- he’s now slashing .328/.438/.668, putting on the best-rounded offensive performance of any player this year.

Our lead in the NL remains at three games -- we’re 93-41, with the Dodgers still on our heels with an 88-42 record. We’ll go into tomorrow with a well-rested bullpen, and I expect to give Cohen a chance to rest, saving him for game three on Tuesday -- we’ll start long relievers tomorrow in both doubleheader games. Our magic number remains at 20, while in the AL, New York’s 7.5 game lead over the Guardians has theirs at 16. Both races are expected to go down to the wire, however, with the Yankees still having 14 road games ahead of them, including a doubleheader at Cleveland on the 16th.

jksander · 01-24-2024, 05:41 PM

SEPTEMBER 3, 1956 . . . Not too many of these doubleheaders left this year -- tonight for game one against St. Louis, Carl Erskine (5-3, 4.28 ERA, 73.2 IP, 68 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) got the start, with the expectation of getting through at least four innings before we would go to our expanded bullpen. Al Rosen batted in a run with a single in the top of the third, with Poppell scoring the run that put us up 1-0. Erskine stayed sharp through the fifth inning, getting through the lineup twice and holding the slim shutout lead, and his arm was still going strong through the sixth, setting down Andy Carey and Frank Bolling to send us into the top of the seventh still ahead by one. Roger Maris hit a two-run blast in the top of the inning to put us up 3-0, his 15th homer of the season, and Vern Law took over for him after the stretch, Erskine having thrown nearly 70 pitches, by far his highest workload of the season. Law was incredibly efficient pitching to contact, getting three quick outs off just four pitches, and with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the eighth we added a run, as Roger Maris beat out a weak hit to reach first safely. Law gave up a triple to start the bottom of the eighth, got the next two outs with ease, and then pinch-hitter Charlie Neal hit an RBI single to put the Cardinals on the board and sending us into the top of the ninth with a three-run advantage. Don Demeter, our top 20 fielding prospect we just called up from AA for September, pinch-hit for Law to start the inning, his first MLB plate appearance and he took the count full, but popped out to center field for our first out. Poppell got himself a walk, then stole a pair and came home off an infield RBI single by Rosen to make it 5-1! Hersh Freeman came in to close out the game, getting two outs but loading the bases before getting the final out successfully, a popout by pinch hitter Russ Nixon to close out the 5-1 win.

Carl Erskine, in his first start, came out with the win, giving him a 6-3 record and a 3.95 ERA with three hits, four strikeouts and no runs. Law got his third hold of the year, going two innings with two hits and a run, amd Freeman gave up three hits but didn’t do any damage, improving his ERA to 5.35. We outhit St. Louis 11-8, led by Rosen (two hits, a run, two RBIs), Robinson (two hits) and Maris (two hits, a run, three RBIs). Poppell also hit once and walked once, stealing four bases and scoring twice.

Tom Acker (7-5, 4.10 ERA, 120.2 IP, 90 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) started game two, facing off against Dean Stone (1-6, 6.27 ERA, 51.2 IP, 30 K’s, 1.65 WHIP). With the bases loaded, top of the first, Jackie Robinson batted into a double play but Poppell scored from third to put us up 1-0. But the Cards got on the board quickly this time, Stan Musial hitting an RBI single to tie it up in the bottom of the first. We loaded the bases in the top of the third and Al Rosen walked in to score a run, with Al Kaline taking his base on balls to put us back up 2-1, and a Roger Maris sac-fly to center drove home a third. Willie Mays hit his 49th homer of the year, a two-run blast in the top of the fourth, to break this one open, and we led by four going into the top of the fifth. Acker got us through the seventh, and Larry Jansen came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, the lead still at four runs. Wally Moon hit an RBI single to drive in a run, but Jansen powered through and completed the inning, then leading off in the top of the ninth with a line drive to right, Poppell advancing him to second with a single of his own into center. Rosen walked the bases loaded, and Mays drove in a pair with an RBI single to center. Jackie Robinson hit a line drive to load the bases, and Al Kaline hit one deep into center for a three-RBI double that blew this one wide. Leading by eight, we kept Jansen out for the final frame, and he put away the bottom of their order quietly to complete the 10-2 blowout win.

Tom Acker is now 8-5 with a 3.95 ERA, having pitched seven innings with six hits, eight strikeouts, one walk and one earned run. Jansen had two innings with one hit, one walk, one strikeout and one earned run, and we outhit the Cardinals 11-7. Willie Mays hit three times with three runs and four batted in, Robinson added two hits and a run, and Poppell hit once, walked once and scored twice. We’ll go into the final game of the series against them after an off day, holding onto an incredible 11-game win streak and a four-game lead on Brooklyn.

SEPTEMBER 5, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (28-3, 1.93 ERA, 266.1 IP, 262 K’s, 0.82 WHIP) started today against St. Louis’ Vinegar Bend Mizell (8-15, 4.47 ERA, 223.2 IP, 117 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). Jack Poppell walked the bases loaded in the top of the second and then Mizell walked Rosen, giving us a 1-0 lead as Roger Maris crossed home plate to score. Then Willie Mays hit one deep into center, coming out of it with a two-run double, which was immediately followed by a Robinson two-run double that gave him 110 RBIs on the year and us a 5-0 lead. Banks kept the hits coming, driving Robinson home with a single and then the Cards finally got themselves out of the inning. Cohen hit himself a triple in the top of the third, and he got to score a rare run when Poppell drove him in with an RBI single to make it 7-0 Cubs. Ernie Banks hit a solo blast to left, his 31st homer of the season, in the top of the fourth, and Poppell scored a run on a fielder’s choice in the top of the fifth to put us up by nine. Ernie Banks doubled to drive in our 10th run of the game, and we pulled Cohen after the fifth inning with the game completely under control, wanting to give him a chance to rest his arm for the postseason stretch run. Bob Porterfield came in to pitch with the lead still 10-0 in the bottom of the sixth, and he kept them scoreless through the sixth and seventh, our guys adding a run in the top of the eighth thanks to a Willie Mays RBI single. Jackie Robinson then poured salt in their wounds with a 3-run homer, his 31st this season, victory-lapping his way to a 14-point lead. Porterfield hit into a double play in the top of the ninth but still drove in another run, and Poppell hit a line drive into right to add yet another with a standing double. Porterfield stayed out to finish the game, and St. Louis managed to get on the board with a two-run homer by Hal Rice, but the die was cast and we eventually won the game 16-2.

Hy Cohen improved to 29-3 with a five-inning three hit five strikeout game, improving his ERA to 1.89 in a game he barely had to break a sweat to win. Porterfield was impressive, coming in to mop this up and coming out of it with a four inning save, allowing just five hits, two walks, striking out five and giving up the two earned runs. His ERA is now 3.38 through 64 innings, with a 3-3 record overall through 14 appearances. We outhit them 17-8, with Robinson continuing to look superhuman -- he hit twice and scored three runs, driving in six, while Willie Mays hit four times to score two and drive in three. Ernie Banks had three hits for a run and three RBIs, putting him seven RBIs from 100 in his third of four seasons -- six more RBIs will give him 400 in his career! He’s happy being the guy who gets hits when we need them and then spends hours signing autographs for kids -- no wonder he’s a fan favorite, and we’re hoping to have a contract announced before the playoffs that will keep him here well into the future as a franchise player.

SEPTEMBER 8, 1956 . . . We have a single game against the Milwaukee Braves today, followed by a doubleheader tomorrow, all three here at Wrigley. We’ll then hit the road for ten games over a two-week span before returning to complete the season here in front of the best fans in baseball. Our win streak is now at 12 games, with the Dodgers still trailing us by four games with our magic number at 15. Saul Rogovin (20-4, 2.07 ERA, 256.1 IP, 313 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) started today against Warren Spahn (11-18, 3.73 ERA, 241.1 IP, 108 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) who at this point is relying on his ability to control the ball despite quickly declining ‘stuff.’

This place was PACKED as we got the game started, and Spahn struggled in the bottom of the first, giving up a single to Poppell and then walking Rosen and Mays, which made it easy for Robinson to drive in a run despite flying out to center for our first out. Kaline got a two-out hit into center to drive in another, but Maris popped out to right or it could have gotten ugly fast. Milwaukee got on the board in the top of the second with a Dick Wilson solo homer that barely went over Mays’ glove into the stands, and Spawn settled in to keep us from adding aything in the bottom of the frame. Banks drove in a run with a groundout in the bottom of the third to make it a 3-1 lead, and a wild pitch allowed Al Kaline to come in and make it a three-run lead. Al Rosen hit a solo homer, his 17th of the year, to make it a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth, and Maris hit his 16th homer of the year, a two-run blast that make it a six run lead in the bottom of the sixth.Rogovin struck out the side to send us into the stretch leading 7-1, and he stayed in to complete the game and make sure it stayed that way. Win number thirteen in a row, and we’re ready for tomorrow’s doubleheader!

Rogovin, having reached 20+ wins for the second year running, now has a 21-4 record and a 2.04 ERA, getting through today’s game with six hits, two walks, 13 strikeouts and just one earned run. He now has 326 strikeouts on the year, giving him a real shot at the single-season record, though if we clinch early he’ll get more rest at the end of the month rather than risk burning out his arm. This was a tight battle for hits, our guys coming out with seven to the Braves’ six, but our three runs via homers plus the run scored on a wild pitch really gave us early momentum and we never let up. Six different Cubs had hits, led by Rosen (one hit, one walk, three runs and an RBI), Maris (one hit, one run, two RBIs) and Kaline (two hits, one run, one RBI).

We still lead Brooklyn by four games, while the Yankees have a 9.5 game lead on Cleveland with a magic number of 10 ... so clinching in the AL is not far off on the horizon. Our magic number is now 14.

jksander · 01-24-2024, 08:17 PM

SEPTEMBER 11, 1956 . . . We’re back on the road, and today we’ve got a single game against Pittsburgh, then two days off before our final two games against the Dodgers in Brooklyn. We currently lead the pennant race by 4.5 games, so our destiny is in our hands. Tom Acker (8-5, 3.95 ERA, 127.2 IP, 98 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) started today against Gene Conley (12-16, 2.39 ERA, 271.0 IP, 183 K’s, 1.02 WHIP). We got out to a quick start, an RBI triple by Robinson getting us on the board and an RBI single by Kaline adding a second run in the top of the first. But the game stayed quiet from there as both pitchers dueled for position. Jack Poppell got a hit into left in the top of the sixth, just our third hit of the night, stealing second and third to get into easy scoring position. Rosen got ahit off toward third base, and Ken Boyer tried to throw home, but Poppell beat him with the head-first slide, AND HE’S SAFE! That put us up 3-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth. We loaded the bases in the top of the seventh but came up empty, and Acker got us out of the bottom of the inning with an amazing double play to keep the shutout going! Vern Law came in for the eighth inning, and Koufax closed it out in the ninth, completing the 3-0 shutout victory with three quick outs. That gives us 16 consecutive wins heading into the two most important road games of the season at Brooklyn.

Acker took the win, improving to 9-5 with a 3.74 ERA, allowing just two hits and striking out five batters with two walks in the first seven innings. Law got his fourth hold, striking out one, and Koufax got his 21st save, also striking out one -- those two combined for just 20 pitches over the final two innings. We won the hitting battle 6-2, led by Poppell with two hits, two steals and a run scored, while Crandall added a pair of hits and Robinson got himself a hit, a run and an RBI. Ernie Banks struck out twice and went hitless -- he’s still three RBIs away from being our third player to cross the 100-RBI threshhold.

With this win we’ve reached 100 victories for the third year in a row! Heading into the game with Brooklyn (95-44) they’re still four games back, and our magic number is down to 11. They’ve won their last five in a row, and are ready for a gunfight. In other news, Ernie Banks is now a very wealthy man! He’s agreed to a seven-year contract extension worth $967,500 over the length of the contract. He’ll go up from $83,000 to $102,500 next year, matching what he’d have gotten in arbitration, rising to $150,00o / year by 1960 and then $175,000 per year in the final two years of the contract.

jksander · 01-25-2024, 07:11 PM

SEPTEMBER 14, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (21-4, 2.04 ERA, 265.1 IP, 326 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) hasn’t pitched in a week, so he’s fired up and ready to go against Brooklyn’s Connie Johnson (23-4, 1.56 ERA, 271.0 IP, 279 K’s, 0.77 WHIP). I know Cohen was relishing this matchup, but he’s still day to day with the calf strain, and I’m being careful -- we need him too much in the World Series once we get there. This place seemed ready to explode like a powder keg, and the game had pitching duel written all over it. And it lived up to that early, but Brooklyn got on board first with a two-run blast out at right by Bill Mazeroski, his 14th homer of the season, to put us in a 2-0 hole in the bottom of the second. But we got back into it in the top of the fourth, Al Kaline hitting an RBI single that drove Mays in to score from second to put us within a run, and Ernie Banks hit a two-run homer to put us ahead 3-2! That was Banks’ 33rd homer of the season! Both pitchers took it to another level after that, and our one run lead still held heading into the seventh inning stretch. Willie Mays hit his 25th double of the year in the top of the eighth, putting Al Rosen on third with Robinson coming up to bat, but Robinson grounded out to first to end the inning without an insurance run. Rogovin walked a pair in the bottom of the inning but got a strikeout (his 10th!) and a double play to get out of the inning still up by a run. Connie Johnson struck out Del Crandall for his 13th K of the game, sending us into the bottom of the ninth needing to just hold on and we’d be out of it! Rogovin got a flyout, a strikeout and an infield popout to end this one as a 3-2 Cubs victory!

Both pitchers went the distance -- Rogovin got the win, improving to 22-4 with a 2.03 ERA, throwing 125 pitches as he allowed eight hits, two walks, struck out 11 and gave up just two earned runs. Johnson took the loss, falling to 23-5 with a 1.61 ERA, allowing seven hits with one walk, 13 K’s and three earned runs through 135 pitches. They outhit us, but we benefitted from doubles by Robinson and Mays and the longball later in the game by Banks, which made the difference. Banks now has 99 RBIs for the year, and Kaline added a hit, a run and an RBI as well. Mays was the only player on our team to hit more than once.

SEPTEMBER 15, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (12-8, 2.83 ERA, 187.2 IP, 131 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) got the start in game two, facing Joey Jay (10-6, 3 SV, 3.17 ERA, 139.1 IP, 82 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). Jackie Robinson hit himself an RBI triple to put us ahead of the Dodgers in the top of the third. And in the top of the fifth, Willie Mays finally hit his 50th homer of the season, a three-run blast that blew this one open. Jackie Robinson then took it back-to-back with his 33rd of the year, giving us a commanding five-run lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. Pascual surprised everyone by hitting an RBI triple in the top of the sixth that drove in another pair, and you could just sense the air being crushed out of every Dodger fan here ... their job just got a lot harder if they thought they could keep us from taking another pennant! Mays rubbed it in, hitting his second homer of the game, number 51 for the season, to make it an 8-0 game, at which point Robinson tripled, Kaline added an RBI double, and Banks got his 100th RBI of the year by driving Kaline home with a single, sending us into the stretch leading 10-0 in a most unexpected blowout. Mays hit an RBI triple to bat in his 160th run of the season without an out in the top of the eighth, Mays then scoring on an infield single by Kaline to give us an even dozen lead. We loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, and Kaline walked in another run before Ernie Banks mercifully struck out. Pascual completed the game as we completely dismantled the Dodgers, winning 13-0 on their own field.

Pascual has remained red hot of late, improving to 13-8 with a 2.70 ERA, pitching a one-hit shutout tonight with four walks and five strikeouts against the hapless Dodgers. We had 15 hits, including a double, four triples and three homers. Jackie Robinson was phenomenal, hitting three times, including two triples and a homer, walking twice and scoring two runs with two RBIs. Willie Mays had three hits, three runs and five RBIs, homering twice. We weren’t able to clinch the league with this, our 18th consecutive win, but we unleashed loads of fury on them today and cut our magic number to seven. Increasing our lead in the pennant race to six games. The Dodgers have 13 games remaining to our 11, so a lot can still happen. But we’ve put ourselves in the driver’s seat heading into tomorrow’s doubleheader against Philadelphia on the road.

SEPTEMBER 16, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (29-3, 1.87 ERA, 274.1 IP, 270 K’s, 0.81 WHIP) hasn’t pitched in a week, resting that hamstring, and he’s now back at full health according to our pitching coaches, so we’re starting him tonight against the Phillies’ Bob Rush (8-12, 3.91 ERA, 191.0 IP, 87 K’s, 1.37 WHIP) in the first game of this afternoon’s doubleheader. Philly went up quickly in the top of the first, Del Ennis hitting a fly-out that drove Jackie Jensen in to score from third to give them a 1-0 lead, bottom of the first. Al Rosen answered with an RBI single of his own in the top of the second to tie it up, but Philly answered with a solo homer by Torgeson in the bottom of the third to put them back up 2-1. Willie Mays hit his 52nd homer, a two-run flier into the center field stands, that put us back up 3-2 in the top of the fifth, and Robinson hit his 34th immediately after, putting us ahead 4-2! Robinson hit an RBI double in the top of the sixth, and Ernie Banks batted in another with a single to give us a four run lead, before Del Crandall blasted his 15th homer out of the park, lighting this place up with bombs as we exploded to a 9-2 lead. Kaline joined the long-ball party, hitting a three-run homer to left in the top of the seventh, and Crandall hit his second of the game in the top of the eighth to make it a 13-2 execution. Cohen completed the game, as we bulldozed the Phillies in game one, winning 13-2. That gives us 19 consecutive wins, putting us within two of our all-time longest win streak as a club!

With the win, Hy Cohen now has a 30-3 record, making him just the 21st pitcher of all time to put up that number! He now has a 1.87 ERA, pitching a complete game seven-hitter with two walks, five strikeouts and a pair of runs. We completely embarrassed the Phillies, outhitting them 16-7 but pounding four homers out of the park in the process. Robinson led the way, hitting three times for three runs and two RBIs, while Crandall’s two home runs propelled him to three hits, three runs and four RBIs.

In game two we went with Tom Acker (9-5, 3.74 ERA, 134.2 IP, 103 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) to go against Philly’s Curt Simmons (7-10, 4.07 ERA, 139.1 IP, 51 K’s, 1.43 WHIP). Willie Mays was quick to bat in a run in the top of the first with an RBI double, getting us going with a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, and Poppell scored a run off a Willie Mays flyout to right, giving us a 2-0 lead in the top of the third. Willie Mays added to his mamoth home run total, hitting a blast out to right in the top of the sixth to make it 3-0 with his 53rd of the season, and Al Kaline hit his 25th to add two more runs later in the inning. Acker completed the shutout with a pair of strikeouts and a flyout in the bottom of the ninth as we won our 20th game in a row, this time as a 5-0 victory.

Acker won his 10th game of the season, improving to 10-5 with a 3.51 ERA in his rookie season as a major leaguer, allowing five hits and one walk while striking out seven. We had eight hits as a team, led by Mays with two hits, a run and three RBIs, while Kaline added two hits, a run and two RBIs. Poppell also walked for the 46th time in 353 at-bats, stealing two bases and reaching 109 stolen bases for the season on just 123 tries. He won’t qualify for any “full season” all-time records because he came up too late in the season, but it doesn’t matter -- he’s clearly had a season for the ages and that he’s done it in fewer than 100 games is absolutely incredible.

jksander · 01-25-2024, 07:13 PM

SEPTEMBER 18, 1956 . . . We could tie our all-time longest win-streak tonight if we can find a way to beat the Giants on their field tonight -- they’re 64-81 but itching to play spoiler in any way possible. We play there tonight and tomorrow, and our magic number is at five, putting us incredibly close to clinching our third consecutive NL pennant. We’ll be doing it this series without the services of “Jackrabbit” Poppell, who has come down with an early case of the flu -- we’re going to be cautious and let him rest for this series and the one this weekend at Milwaukee. He’ll return to the lineup for next weeks’ final four home games.

I want to rest Rogovin until tomorrow’s game, so we’re going with a second bullpen start for Carl Erskine (6-3, 3.87 ERA, 79.2 IP, 72 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) against the Giants’ right-handed starter Jack Sanford (3-6, 3.53 ERA, 119.2 IP, 60 K’s, 1.31 WHIP). Roger Maris will be batting leadoff, with Gene Baker in the number eight spot as our second baseman. And Maris, for the second game in a row batting leadoff, opened the game with a towering home run, giving us a 1-0 lead with just his 17th homer of the season! Though we got a couple runners on base after his blast, we didn’t add any damage, and the Giants came up to bat itching to put us in our place. Instead we added another solo blast in the top of the second, Del Crandall’s 17th homer of the year, to make it 2-0, and Erskine proved to be quite consistently able to keep them off balance from the mound. But Erskine helped them load the bases in the bottom of the third, a run scoring on a sac-fly by Bill White, and Norm Cash delivered an RBI single to tie it up! Maris got a base hit in the top of the fifth and stole second without a throw, coming around to to third with an outfield hit by Al Rosen. Willie Mays then pulled off a successful squeeze play to take first on a bunt, Maris coming home to score the go-ahead run! And with two outs, Ernie Banks hit a three-run blast into the left field stands, his 34th of the season, and suddenly this close battle had become a 6-2 Cubs lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. Don Demeter came in to pinch hit for Erskine in the top of the sixth and took his first major league base on balls, but wasn’t able to do anything with it as the next two batters struck out swinging, and Vern Law came in to pitch in the sixth with a four-run lead in his hands.

The Giants were pissed off and hungry, however, and they came out swinging in the bottom of the sixth -- Don Blasingame hit an RBI single to cut our lead to three runs, but despite allowing two runners on base after that, Law held his ground and did not let them score further, and Jackie Robinson got the run back for us with a solo blast to right, giving him 35 home runs this season, sending us into the stretch with a 7-3 advantage. Del Crandall picked up a triple in the top of the eighth, scoring off a wild pitch to make it a five-run lead,, and with an out and a man on second in the bottom of the inning we brought in Steve Gromek to close things out, with Law reaching his physical limit. Ed Bailey took full advantage, hitting an RBI double to start what the Giants hoped could be a legitimate rally, but Gromek quickly got the next two outs to send us into the ninth leading by four. Willie Mays notched a triple with one out in the frame, and Kaline twisted the dagger, hitting his 26th homer of the year to put hopes of a Giants comeback to sleep while driving in a pair. Gromek wasted no time, getting three quick outs to finish the 10-4 win in style. That’s 21 in a row, folks! Our Cubs will have a chance to make club history tomorrow afternoon!

Carl Erskine is now 7-3 with a 3.93 ERA, allowing six hits and two earned runs -- no walks, no strikeouts -- in a five inning effort. Vern Law then threw 58 pitches in 2.1 innings, allowing five hits, a walk and two earned runs, while Gromek then came in and gave us 1.2 innings with just one hit. Not a bad day by any stretch, let alone for a 36-year-old who played his whole career for Cleveland only to get ditched! He doesn’t have the strong pitches to be counted on in a tight situation, but he’s still capable of earning a living. As for our offense, we outhit them 13-12 in a slugfest, but our power won out yet again ... four homers and two triples! Maris, Mays, Kaline and Crandall each had two hits apiece, with Kaline and Banks combining for five RBIs. Not bad!

Our magic number is now down to three, with this win and a loss by the Dodgers at home this evening against St. Louis, Brooklyn falling 12-5. The Yankees have lost two games in a row in the AL, but they still lead the Guardians by 8.5 games and have a magic number of one. The only way they don’t clinch is if they lose their final nine games and Cleveland win all of theirs. They’re on a tough road stretch right now, with three games this weekend, with sets against Boston and Baltimore, but their clinching is one of those inevitable facts of September baseball at this point. And local media here in Chicago are already salivating over a chance to see this Cubs lineup face the Bronx Bombers in October.

SEPTEMBER 19, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (22-4, 2.03 ERA, 274.1 IP, 337 K’s, 0.80 WHIP) is ready to go today against Seth Morehead (14-14, 3.57 ERA, 244.2 IP, 152 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). Kaline’s batting leadoff for us today, with Maris batting seventh and Baker again hitting eighth and playing second base. Rogovin needs 12 strikeouts today to tie the all-time single-season strikeouts record ... can he do it? It was certainly set up to be a pitching duel, with both teams playing stellar defense and all the contact anyone could find was soft contact. By the time we got to the top of the fourth, Rogovin had three strikeouts, we’d outhit the Giants 2-1, but no one had scored a thing. Robinson got a base hit with an out in the top of the fourth, but Banks flew out to center and they walked Crandall, putting a runner in scoring position with Maris at the plate. Maris got a good hit, but it came off the bat slow and was an easy out at right -- two stranded. And Rogovin’s control lapsed to start the bottom of the inning, with Bill White picking up an infield hit and Norm Cash whallopping one out of the park at right, putting the Giants up 2-0, though Rogovin picked up another pair of strikeouts in getting out of the inning. Robinson picked up a double in the top of the sixth, reaching third on a single by Banks. Crandall flew out to left for our second of the inning, and it wasn’t deep enough for Robinson to take the jump. But Maris came through in a pinch, getting a hit just out into right field, driving in our first run!

Rogovin stayed out for the bottom of the seventh but gave up a solo homer to Ed Bailey on his 99th pitch of the night to make it 3-1 Giants, and we decided to put Porterfield in, bringing his night to a close four strikeouts away from the record and he wasn’t happy about it ... I get it, he wanted to stay in and try for the win, but it’s not worth losing him for the playoffs or something stupid like that. Ernie Banks gave us a chance in the top of the eighth, hitting an RBI double to cut the Giants’ lead to one, and we went into the top of the ninth still trailing. Demeter took another walk, and Kaline hit a line drive to right, coming out with a double that put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with just one out! Al Rosen walked the bases loaded, and they walked Mays to tie it up! Their pitcher was in shambles, walking Robinson to put us in the lead, and they still didn’t pull him! Morehead stayed out there as Banks got a hit into right that added another, giving us a two-run lead in the top of the ninth, still just one out. Crandall and Maris popped out to end the frame, but I’d say it was downright criminal that they kept Morehead out there. What better way to say you have no bullpen? Koufax came in to close the game out for us, and he got us through with flying colors as we beat the Giants 5-3 and won our club-record 22nd consecutive game!

Saul Rogovin finished with just five hits, three walks and eight strikeouts, allowing for three earned runs in a six-inning no decision. Porterfield gave us two no-hit innings with two strikeouts, earning the win as he improved to 5-3 with a 3.13 ERA. And Koufax saved his 22nd game, walking one batter but allowing no one into scoring position. He now has a 3.33 ERA through 78.1 innings, just two outs away from equaling his innings count from his rookie season. We outhit the Giants 10-5, but the Giants still had a chance had they not walked in two ninth-inning runs. Ernie Banks led our offense with three hits and two RBIs, while Robinson had two hits including his game-clinching homer, walking twice as well.

SEPTEMBER 21, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (30-3, 1.87 ERA, 283.1 IP, 275 K’s, 0.82 WHIP) got the start tonight, going up against Johnny Antonelli (19-12, 2.44 ERA, 280.2 IP, 141 K’s, 1.07 WHIP) in what may be his last start of the regular season. With a win tonight and a loss by the Dodgers we’d be able to clinch, and I know he relishes any chance he gets against another club’s ace to lock in and show his skills. And what a duel it turned into! Cohen capped four scoreless innings with a great double play that kept Milwaukee from getting anything going, and Antonelli had worked well with his fellow defenders to keep any of our five baserunners from scoring, even when in good position to do so. We had opportunities in the fifth, however. Willie Mays got himself a hit in the top of the inning and Robinson walked, but Banks was robbed of a hit by a spectacular diving catch by Bill Bruton out at center. Crandall walked the bases loaded with just the one out, and Roger Maris batted in a run with a single. But Gene Baker hit into a double play, so we had to settle for just the 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth, and it stayed that way into the seventh inning stretch, with Antonelli locking in and fighting to keep his team focused. We loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, but Banks hit into a fielder’s choice, with Antonelli getting the out at home though the bases remained loaded with two outs, and Crandall hit out to right field to get the Braves into the bottom of the ninth with one last chance to get on the board. Cohen struck out Johnny Logan, and Hank Aaron hit one into right field that the wind kept in, for an easy catch by Kaline for out number two. And Eddie Mathews hit one straight to Mays at center and we were able to get out of this one with another 1-0 victory!

Cohen improved to 31-3 with a 1.82 ERA, allowing five hits with eight strikeouts and no walks in his 97-pitch complete game. We outhit the Braves 10-5, so it’s a testament to their stellar defense that we were stuck in a one-run game the whole way. Rosen and Maris were our two batters with two hits each, Mays scoring our only run and Maris driving it in. How’s that for symmetry?

The Yankees clinched the American League Pennant with a 7-2 win over the Red Sox on the road this afternoon. We are now a win away from clinching ourselves, but Brooklyn wasn’t willing to help us. They blanked the Pirates this afternoon 4-0 to keep their dwindling hopes alive for at least twenty more hours.

jksander · 01-25-2024, 09:26 PM

SEPTEMBER 22, 1956 . . . We found out this morning that Don Demeter, who has been getting a few chances to pinch-hit at the major league level this September, was named the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League’s MVP for his performances with the Burlington Bees (AA) this season. He hit .335 this year for the Bees, hitting 14 doubles, 10 triples and 45 homers, contributing 108 RBIs to the team which finished 69-57 this season.

Nearly 21,000 fans showed up at County Stadium this afternoon on a blustery, cool, cloudy afternoon in Milwaukee, to see if their 67-81 Braves could hold us off from clinching and snap our absolutely insane 23-game winning streak (the only one longer in major league history was the 26-game streak set by the Giants in 1916). Camilo Pascual (13-8, 2.70 ERA, 196.2 IP, 136 K’s, 1.06 WHIP) started against Bob Turley (9-19, 4.58 ERA, 218.1 IP, 154 K’s, 1.52 WHIP). Roger Maris got us on the board in the top of the third with an RBI single into right, driving Baker in to score from third, and with the bases loaded moments later, Turley walked in a run, sending Robinson to first. Kaline batted in a third run with a single, and we went into the bottom of the inning with a solid three-run lead. Bruton made a bad throw to home after a Pascual ground out, allowing a run to score from third to make it 4-0, and Roger Maris batted him home with a single for a fifth run in the top of the fourth. An incredible confluence of poor pitching helped us add another run, two wild pitches and a flyout by Rosen all in one at-bat driving Maris in to score from third. Once the floodgates unleashed, there was no stopping us -- Jackie Robinson hit his 36th homerun of the season to drive in another pair, and we went into the bottom of the fourth leading 8-0 with a contingent of Cubs fans in the outfield already chanting “Clinch! Clinch!” Milwaukee got on the board with a Gene Woodling RBI double in the bottom of the sixth, but Rosen hit a two-run homer in the top of the eighth, his 19th of the year, and we had a 10-1 lead that was all but insurmountable. Al Kaline added a solo bomb in the top of the ninth, his 27th four-bagger of the season, and Pascual stayed in to complete the game as we beat the Braves 11-1, officially clinching the NL Pennant for the third year in a row and winning our 24th consecutive game!

Pascual is now 14-8 with a 2.63 ERA, allowing eight hits tonight with two walks and a strikeout, with just one earned run after throwing 129 pitches. We outhit Milwaukee 11-8, led by Rosen with a hit, a run and three RBIs, alongside Robinson with the same. Roger Maris hit twice with two runs and two RBIs as well, and Kaline hit twice with a run and two RBIs.

SEPTEMBER 23, 1956 . . . Tom Acker (10-5, 3.51 ERA, 143.2 IP, 110 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) started the final game against the Braves, facing Warren Spahn (11-21, 3.87 ERA, 262.2 IP, 119 K’s, 1.31 WHIP). This is our final road game of the year, and then we return to Wrigley for the final week of the regular season. Jackie Robinson got us on the board with an RBI double in the top of the first. Lots of guys were getting hits, but they were turning into easy pop-outs, thanks to the blistering 16 mile per hour wind blowing in from center that kept holding hits back. Very few were actually landing, and this one turned into a rare pitching duel that involved a lot of soft contact rather than one with gaudy strikeout totals. Al Kaline finally got one that broke past the wind barrier, hitting a powerful blast into left field in the top of the ninth to extend our lead to 2-0 with his 28th homer of the season, and Koufax came out for the bottom of the innning to finish the job, completing the game with an Eddie Mathews popout to left to give us the 2-0 victory and our 25th win in a row as we return to Wrigley.

Acker allowed just one hit in eight innings, striking out seven and walking three, improving to 11-5 with a 3.32 ERA. Koufax came out and allowed a pair of hits but got the outs we needed and got his 23rd save of the year, giving himself a 3.29 ERA through 79.1 innings of work. We outhit the Braves just 5-3 on this inhospitable afternoon, led by Kaline who got three hits out of the leadoff position, scoring twice and driving in a run. Robinson contributed the other RBI for us, while Rosen picked up our other hit, walking three times but never getting anywhere.

SEPTEMBER 25, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (22-4, 2.09 ERA, 280.1 IP, 345 K’s, 0.81 WHIP) pitched his final start of the season this afternoon at Wrigley in front of a standing room crowd, going up against St. Louis pitcher Larry Jackson (6-14, 3.90 ERA, 175.1 IP, 72 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). Jackie Robinson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first, his 37th of the season, to put us on the board. But St. Louis wasn’t gonna quit in this one, as Jim King hit a RBI double to get them on the board in the top of the second to pull within a pair. Ernie Banks walked in a run with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third to put us back up by three, and Jack Poppell hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth that put us up 5-1. A Jackie Robinson flyout to center scored another, and the Cardinals just threw in the towel -- Kaline hit an RBI single, Banks flew out to center for another, and we went into the top of the fifth leading in an all-too-familiar blowout, 8-1. Rogovin struck out Bill Sarni in the top of the fifth for his 349th strikeout of the season, tying the modern-day strikeout record of 349 set by Rube Waddell in 1904! In the top of the sixth, the Cardinals got a little bit to cheer about thanks to a solo homer by Frank Bolling, but the rally went nowhere. Rogovin struck out Jim King in the top of the seventh to break the modern record, striking out Lavern Grace for No. 351 before grounding out to end the inning. Steve Gromek came in for the ninth inning, after Rogovin handed the ball over and accepted a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd, and we won the game easily 8-2, tying the all-time win-streak record.

Rogovin will finish his regular season with a stellar 23-4 record and a 2.09 ERA, striking out eight batters, walking two and giving up just five hits in eight innings, including two earned runs. Gromek remained perfect, getting three outs off soft contact to keep his unblemished ERA. We outhit the Cardinals 14-5, led by Robinson’s two hits, one run and four RBIs. Poppell, Mays and Kaline each hit three times as well.

jksander · 01-26-2024, 12:02 AM

SEPTEMBER 26, 1956 . . . Robert Diehl (1-1, 3.69 ERA, 31.2 IP, 13 K’s, 1.36 WHIP) got the start today against Vinegar Bend Mizell (10-16, 4.39 ERA, 250.1 IP, 128 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). St. Louis got on the board first with an RBI single by Wally Moon, sending us into the bottom of the first inning with a rare deficit to overcome. The way the wind was blowing, Jim King had to get a lot of work in at left field, but he was phenomenal for the Cardinals early on as they fought to hold on to the lead by a thin tether. The two pitchers battled evenly until the bottom of the fifth, when Jackie Robinson got a hit up the middle with the bases loaded, driving in a pair to give us a 2-1 lead! But St. Louis answered the call -- with two outs and men on third in the top of the seventh, Orlando Cepeda hit a two-RBI single to put them back in control, sending us into the seventh inning stretch trailing 3-2. Carl Erskine came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, and he kept them honest with three quick outs, but we couldn’t find a hit either, sending us into the top of the ninth trailing by a run and needing to keep it that way. Groundout, strikeout, popout and we were into the bottom of the frame, needing at least a run if we wanted to own the record-breaking win streak. Erskine struck out, but Poppell got on base with an infield hit, but Rosen popped out to left! Poppell stole second, and then successfully took third while the pitcher was throwing a strike to Mays. With the count one ball two strikes, Mays swung for the fences ... but came out with a whiff and we lost this one 3-2 to the Cardinals, bringing an end to the streak but forever leaving the memory of this season tied with that of the Giants back in ’16!

Robert Diehl took the loss, but threw seven innings with just four hits, striking out six but walking four and surrendering three runs. Erskine was excellent through two, with two strikeouts and nary a hit, giving him a 3.84 ERA now through 86.2 innings. We outhit the Cardinals 7-4 but they simply outhustled us, much more eager for their 47th win than we apparently were to get our 111th. Poppell picked up two hits, walked once and stole four bases, getting caught once, giving him 113 steals this season, while Robinson provided much-needed power, hitting twice and batting in a pair of runs.

SEPTEMBER 29, 1956 . . . Two games left! Tonight we play the Cincinnati Redlegs, with Tom Acker (11-5, 3.32 ERA, 151.2 IP, 117 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) pitching against Don Drysdale (8-20, 4.46 ERA, 242.0 IP, 135 K’s, 1.44 WHIP). This one was a stalemate from the start, until the bottom of the fifth when Willie Mays smacked a hard-hit ball into center field, driving in two runs with a triple to put us up 2-0! Al Kaline batted in a third run a moment later, giving us a three-run lead heading into the sixth inning. Ted Kluszewski hit a solo bomb in the top of the seventh to get the Redlegs on the board, but Gus Bell hit into a double play to end the rally. Koufax came in for the final inning, and promptly gave up a solo homer to Kluszewski, his second of the game, to pull the Redlegs within one, but Sandy was spot on from there and was able to get around a single baserunner to keep Cincinnati from forging a comeback. We won this one 3-2 and will head into the final game of the season on a defensive high note.

Acker improved to 12-5 for the season, with his final ERA resting at 3.21. He went eight innings with just four hits, a walk, a strikeout and an earned run, while Koufax netted his 24th save, with two hits and an earned run to put his ERA at 3.36. We had eight hits to their six, led by Mays who hit three times with a run and two RBIs. Poppell had a walk, a stolen base and a run scored, and Al Rosen added a hit, a walk and a run.

SEPTEMBER 30, 1956 . . . Carl Erskine (7-3, 3.84 ERA, 86.2 IP, 74 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) will start his third game of the season in tonight’s final game, making his 47th appearance as a Cub, going up against Bobby Shantz (10-17, 5.44 ERA, 228.1 IP, 97 K’s, 1.49 WHIP). Erskine has been hot for the last month, but in the top of the second Nellie Fox hit a two-RBI single to put the Redlegs up 2-0. So Jackie Robinson came out and hit a solo bomb to lead off the bottom of the second, his 38th longball of the year, so we went into the third only trailing 2-1. Erskine got a base hit to start the bottom of the third, and Poppell followed suit, bringing up Rosen who quietly loaded the bases with a hit into right field. That’s when Willie Mays came out and hit his 54th home run, a grand slam that put us in the drivers’ seat 5-2! With the bases loaded again in the bottom of the fifth, Al Kaline walked in a run and then Maris walked in another, and then Del Crandall walked in a third as the Redlegs’ reliever melted down completely. Erskine then did the most un-Pitcher-like thing, and came out with some power, hitting our second grand slam of the game to officially bring the fans to complete pandemonium. Just like that we were up 12-2 heading into the top of the sixth. The Redlegs got a pair of runs back in the top of the sixth with a two-run homer by Hobie Landrith, but Jackie Robinson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the inning, his second of the game, and Jack Poppell hit a line drive into right with the bases loaded that drove in two more runs. Willie Mays hit into right to score three more with a triple, and this rout was like no other -- a three run triple and two grand slams in one game! Vern Law came in to close things out, and we went into the stretch leading 20-4. Crandall batted in a run in the bottom of the seventh, and in the bottom of the eighth Willie Mays hit a double that completed the cycle! Johnny Temple grounded out but drove in a run for the Redlegs in the bottom of the ninth, but it didn’t matter -- we won this one by a margin that looked more like a football game, beating Cincinnati 21-5 to close out this season with a 112-42 record.

Carl Erskine finished the season with an 8-3 record and a 3.98 ERA, allowing four hits through eight innings with a walk, two strikeouts and four earned runs, while Law came in for a three-inning “save” to allow just one hit, one walk, one strikeout and one earned run to give him a 4.59 ERA through 33.1 innings since being acquired at the deadline. We scored our 21 runs on 15 hits, easily led by Willie Mays, who hit for the cycle, getting four hits, three runs and seven RBIs out of this one. Jackie Robinson also hit two homers, walking twice as well to score three times and drive in four runs. Mays finishes the year with 176 RBIs, just 15 away from the record Hack Wilson set back in 1930.

The World Series will begin here in Chicago on October 3, with games against the Yankees in New York on the 6th, 7th and (if game five is necessary) the 8th. We’d then return to Chicago for games six and seven if needed on the 10th and 11th.

jksander · 01-26-2024, 12:04 AM

Here are the final standings for the 1956 MLB season:

jksander · 01-26-2024, 12:06 AM

Postseason Tidbits

1. Jackie Robinson finished the year as the NL’s batting champion! He finished with a .333 average while slugging .693, thanks to 42 doubles, 24 triples and 39 homers, nearly matching his home run total from last year! He finishes the year with 13.1 batting WAR, and will easily be a frontrunning contender for the NL’s MVP award.

2. Willie Mays, at 25, finally has himself a Home Run title, having hit 54 this season, ten more than either Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams, who tied for second in the race. We’ll get to see how he does against Mantle during the upcoming World Series, but Mays already has 190 homers in just six seasons as a major leaguer, and this year he hit .322 and slugged .670, adding 27 doubles and 14 triples to his tally as well as putting up 11.6 batting WAR -- hitting for his first cycle at the very end of the season was just an added bonus.

3. Hy Cohen had 31 wins this year, the most in the majors, but Sal Maglie gave him a run for it, winning 27 for Brooklyn, while Connie Johnson finished with 24. It was a tight race in the NL for pitchers, and is likely to be a brutal race for the Cy Young -- multiple pitchers in the National League all have resumes that would be worthy of the award in any other year, and Johnson had a much stronger finish to his season than Cohen did. Johnson finished 24-6 with a 1.50 ERA, 312.0 innings pitched, 330 strikeouts and an 0.75 WHIP, finishing with a staggering 18.6 WAR, while Cohen finished a distant second with 13.9 WAR to go with a 31-3 record, 1.82 ERA, 292.1 innings pitched, 283 strikeouts and an 0.81 WHIP. Though Sal Maglie and Saul Rogovin also had seasons that would have deserved merit in any other season, it’s hard to think the race isn’t between Cohen and Johnson -- and Johnson’s performance looks likely to win him the award in a landslide.

4. Sandy Koufax’s season wasn’t as impressive as his freshman run last year, but he did put up the most saves of any pitcher in the majors, with 24, ten more than any other reliever, which would have put him in the running for reliever of the year had he not finished with negative pitching WAR. He finished with a 5-7 record and a 3.36 ERA, down from last year because we initially tried to use him as a starter, when it’s now clear he needs to be in the bullpen where he can develop his control and work his way up to the starting role if his skills improve. He put together a resume that included 80.1 innings of work in 52 appearances, but his WHIP of 1.33 and a home run rate of 1.5 per nine innings make him a continued work in progress. He did lead the majors with 29 shutdowns, which suggests once his control improves he’ll be a very lethal option.

5. In an era where pitchers go the distance on a regular basis, there aren’t as many opportunities for multi-reliever games where holds become a factor. But our team has the three best “setup men” in the game right now, with Hersh Freeman, Larry Jansen and Vern Law, who each had four holds this season. And Carl Erskine had three, putting himself in the conversation. Yes, the way the league plays right now you expect your starters to play the bulk of the innings, but a big reason we’ve dominated the last three seasons has been our ability to put together a winning bullpen.

6. A final note on pitching: Camilo Pascual finished a close second to Pittsburgh’s Hank Aguirre in pitching BAPIP, with batters hitting .201 against him all year, while Aguirre held batters to a .192 average. Pascual has improved in his second season in the majors, though he was often overshadowed by the flashier duo of Cohen and Rogovin. This season he started in 31 games, going 14-8 with a 2.63 ERA, while striking out 137 batters. And though his WHIP and strikeout totals dropped and he didn’t contribute the flashy WAR numbers he did last season, his ERA improved four points to 2.63, his BAPIP improved from .263, and his ERA+ went up from 139 to 141. He’s only 22, and even though he may never be the anchor of our rotation, he’s got the middle locked down.

7. Then there’s the legend of “Jackrabbit” Poppell. Signed from the Crestview Braves in the Alabama-Florida League, Poppell clearly had talent -- the fact that we spent almost a month bidding on his services against the likes of Boston and New York bears that out. But no one, including myself, thought that he would, once unleashed, become the basepath-chewing juggernaut he did in his rookie season. Once I realized he could steal bases at such a clip, while only being caught 12 percent of the time, I gave him the green light and let him dominate the leadoff spot. The 23-year-old only played in 88 games, batting 372 times, but he put up numbers the likes of which I’m unsure he’ll be able to sustain -- he hit .274/.367/.293, so purely a contact game, but he only struck out 47 times, walking 48. And once on base, he was a machine, stealing 114 bases and only getting caught 15 times! If he doesn’t win Rookie of the Year I’ll be stunned, because his legs alone were good for 5.2 WAR. Can he do it again next year now that every pitcher in the National League knows what he’s up to? It’s also easy to forget he’s a solid second baseman as well defensively, fielding in 788.2 innings with 133 putouts, 231 assists, 48 double plays, and only five errors, good for a +8.7 zone rating.

8. As a team we didn’t have a ton of fielding stats stand out competitively against the rest of the league, but for catcher Del Crandall, whose 48.8% caught stealing rate led both leagues by at least four percent! The rest of his fielding stats don’t particularly stand out, but he’s efficient and he has a great arm and a ton of ability at the position, and he’s still among the top defensive catchers in the National League.

If there’s anything else you’d like to know about, feel free to drop me a reply!

- - - - -

1956 Chicago Cubs Playoff Roster

BATTERS
C - Del Crandall
1B - Al Rosen
2B - Jack Poppell
3B - Jackie Robinson
SS - Ernie Banks
LF - Roger Maris
CF - Willie Mays
RF - Al Kaline

Bench: Less Moss (C), Ed Bouchee (1B), Gene Baker (2B), Joe Brovia (LF), Dick Whitman (LF), Daniel Howard (RF)

STARTERS
Hy Cohen
Saul Rogovin
Camilo Pascual
Tom Acker

BULLPEN
CL - Sandy Koufax
ST - Carl Erskine
SE - Vern Law
MR: Hersh Freeman, Bob Porterfield
LR: Bob Purkey
LR: Larry Jansen

jksander · 01-26-2024, 02:30 PM

OCTOBER 3, 1956
WORLD SERIES GAME ONE
New York Yankees (0-0) at Chicago Cubs (0-0)

1:05 PM -- Wrigley Field ... Attendance: 45,146
Weather: Clear Skies, 60 Degrees ... Wind blowing right to left at 10 miles per hour

NEW YORK STARTER: Allie Reynolds (22-6, 2.39 ERA, 275.1 IP, 133 K’s, 1.01 WHIP)
CHICAGO STARTER: Hy Cohen (31-3, 1.82 ERA, 292.1 IP, 283 K’s, 0.81 WHIP)

The Yankees came up to bat first in this, our first playoff matchup as foes since the 1938 World Series. Cohen is facing Allie Reynolds, the Yankees’ 39-year-old veteran who still has a plus fastball and whose incredible control and movement have made this the best year of his career in almost every metric. In the top of the first, Gil McDougald got himself a base hit with one out, but Mantle batted his ball straight to Mays in center and Roy Sievers struck out swinging. Good start, Cubbies! Al Rosen dropped a hit into center with one out and came out of it with a triple, and Mays hit a perfect weak hit into the no-man’s land between pitcher and shortstop, reaching base safely and driving in our first run! Robinson batted into a double play to end the inning, but we’d gotten ourselves into the lead quickly. But the Yankees answered in the top of the third with a solo blast by the Mick, tying the score up 1-1, and Roy Sievers put them up 2-1 with a blast immediately after. Cohen bunted successfully for a hit to start the bottom of the inning, but he was picked off on a fielder’s choice that put Poppell on base the next at-bat, and Poppell was picked off trying to steal second. But Rosen and Mays got back-to-back hits, Mays’ RBI triple getting us tied up again at 2-2 heading into the top of the fourth.

Allie Reynolds hit a double in the top of the fourth that put two Yankees in scoring position with two outs, but Cohen got leadoff-man Minnie Minoso to groundout to first, keeping it knotted. Former Yankee prospect Roger Maris then put his mark on the game in the bottom of the inning, blasting a two-run homer into the throng of Bleacher Bums, giving us a 4-2 lead -- that’s his first postseason homer! Hank Thompson committed an error at third on a bobbled catch, allowing Hy Cohen to take his base, putting Crandall in scoring position, but Jack Poppell hit into a double play that kept us from blowing this one wide. Bottom of the fifth, another run scored off a sac-fly by Robinson, and Cohen got us through the sixth despite putting a runner in scoring position. Cohen got us into the stretch with our 5-2 lead still intact, and Carl Erskine came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, easily sitting Yogi Berra, Archie Wilson and Hank Thompson down without breaking a sweat. He stayed out to pitch in the top of the ninth, giving up a double to John Hunton and getting pinch-hitter Eddie Robinson to bat himself out at center. Minoso grounded out to first, holding Hunton on third, and Gil McDougald flew out to right to end the game as a 5-2 Cubs victory!

Hy Cohen picked up the playoff win, allowing seven hits with four strikeouts, two walks and a pair of earned runs, throwing 126 pitches and giving himself a 2.57 ERA. Erskine, meanwhile, picked up his first playoff save, lasting two innings with just the one hit, keeping his ERA perfect through 18 pitches. The Yankees had their two homers, thanks to Mantle and Sievers, but we played better team ball, outhitting them 14-8, led by Willie Mays, who hit three times and batted in a pair, while Roger Maris hit twice for a run and two RBIs as well.

jksander · 01-26-2024, 02:58 PM

OCTOBER 4, 1956
WORLD SERIES GAME TWO
New York Yankees (0-1) at Chicago Cubs (1-0)

1:05 PM -- Wrigley Field ... Attendance: 45,366
Weather: Clear Skies, 57 Degrees ... Wind blowing out to right at 9 miles per hour

NEW YORK STARTER: Whitey Ford (16-7, 3.46 ERA, 244.2 IP, 153 K’s, 1.32 WHIP)
CHICAGO STARTER: Saul Rogovin (23-4, 2.09 ERA, 288.1 IP, 353 K’s, 0.82 WHIP)

The Yankees were the first to score in the second game of the Series, Hank Thompson hitting a solo blast into right in the top of the second to put the Bronx Bombers up 1-0, and Whitey Ford lived up to his reputation, proving to be incredibly difficult to hit. Depite the weather favoring hitters, both pitchers kept the environment fully pressurized, and that homer by Thompson remained an outlier deep into the game. Mays had a base hit in the bottom of the fourth, just our third of the game, but was left stranded. Kaline got himself an infield hit to start the bottom of the fifth, but he was picked off on a fielder’s choice that put Maris on first and then Del Crandall hit into a double play. For the third inning in a row we led off with a hit in the bottom of the sixth, this time Rogovin successfully bunting to take his base, and this time we did something with it -- Al Rosen hit a homer into right field to suddenly put us in the lead 2-1! In the top of the seventh, Rogovin put Sievers and Berra in scoring position, then struck out pinch-hitter Charlie Maxwell and Hank Thompson, completing the escape with a strikeout of Ford to get out of the inning and into the stretch still holding our one-run lead. With a runner on, Mantle had a chance to put the Yankees back up, but he popped out to short and ended the inning with their time running out.

The Yankees came up to bat again in the top of the ninth still trailing by a run, but Rogovin gave up a solo blast to Sievers to tie things up, and suddenly this game was anyone’s again. Berra took his base on balls, but Archie Wilson struck out swinging. Thompson walked, and then Grady Hatton struck out for the second out, bringing up Bob Cerv to pinch hit. He popped out to center, however, ending the inning knotted up 2-2, with the heart of our order coming up to bat! Willie Mays swung for the fences and narrowly missed out on a homer, but the carom off the Ivy worked well enough to get him a triple. Robinson popped out to short, Banks walked, and then Kaline got an infield hit, but they squeezed Mays out at home plate leaving us Banks and Kaline on base with Maris coming up to bat. Maris got off a hit into center, and we gave Banks the signal to go for home and he made it in headfirst ... SAFE! CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN! We’re heading now to New York with a 2-0 series lead after the incredible 3-2 victory!

Saul Rogovin came out of this one with the win, after thinking it was gonna go to extras and Koufax. He only allowed six hits through nine innings, walking three and striking out 11 batters while giving up just two earned runs. His ERA sits now at 2.00. We outhit the Yankees 9-6 in a tight battle, led by Al Rosen, who hit twice for a run and two RBIs, while Roger Maris had another great game with two hits and an RBI. Right now Rosen is hitting .750 through two playoff games, while Mays is batting .675 and Maris is .500, leading the team with three RBIs.

jksander · 01-26-2024, 03:36 PM

OCTOBER 6, 1956
WORLD SERIES GAME THREE
Chicago Cubs (2-0) at New York Yankees (0-2)

1:05 PM -- Yankee Stadium ... Attendance: 46,373
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 58 Degrees ... Wind blowing in from right at 12 miles per hour

CHICAGO STARTER: Camilo Pascual (14-8, 2.63 ERA, 205.2 IP, 137 K’s, 1.06 WHIP)
NEW YORK STARTER: Harvey Haddix (26-7, 3.09 ERA, 285.1 IP, 174 K’s, 1.16 WHIP)

Jack Poppell got things started quickly with a double in the top of the first, stealing third for his first playoff steal, and then Al Rosen got a hit just out into center to drive him home with a single! Just like that, by 1:10 p.m., we had ourselves a 1-0 lead on the Yankees on their field. But Mickey Mantle grounded into a double play in the bottom of the inning, yet Minnie Minoso was still able to score from third to tie it up. And the Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the third with a three-run blast by Mickey Mantle, putting them ahead 4-1 and really setting this place on fire. Yogi Berra hit another just moments later, a two-run blast that made it 6-1, and we were on the ropes. Jackie Robinson got us going in the top of the sixth with a two-run homer to pull us within three runs, and we brought Erskine out to pitch in the sixth, with Pascual already at 100 throws. Rosen got a shot into center field in the top of the eighth and eked out a double, and then the ump called a balk on Haddix -- his second of the game! -- and Rosen moved over to third with no outs. Robinson flew out to center for our second out of the inning, but Rosen made it home safely to make it 6-4! Vern Law came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, getting three outs in quick succession to keep us at least in this one. Top of the ninth: Kaline grounds out to first. Maris gets robbed at the wall with a leaping catch by Minoso. Crandall grounds out to first, and that’s it for us, the Yankees take this one 6-4 and cut our lead in the series to 2-1.

Pascual struggled, allowing five hits with three walks and just four strikeouts through five innings, allowing six earned runs for a miserable 10.80 ERA. Erskine only allowed one hit with two strikeouts in his two innings, and Law had a perfect final frame, but digging a five-run hole on the road has consequences. Each team hit six times in the game, our team led by Rosen, who hit twice for a run and an RBI to keep his average at .667 in the series, while Robinson hit the homer that got us back into the game, finishing with a hit, a run and three RBIs, though he’s been struggling to find consistent hits.

jksander · 01-26-2024, 03:59 PM

OCTOBER 7, 1956
WORLD SERIES GAME FOUR
Chicago Cubs (2-1) at New York Yankees (1-2)

1:05 PM -- Yankee Stadium ... Attendance: 46,445
Weather: Cloudy, 56 Degrees ... Wind blowing in from center at 14 miles per hour

CHICAGO STARTER: Hy Cohen (1-0, 2.57 ERA, 7.0 IP, 4 K’s, 1.29 WHIP)
NEW YORK STARTER: Hal Brown (16-9, 2.67 ERA, 232.2 IP, 98 K’s, 1.22 WHIP)

Both pitchers were locked in to start this one, and the crowd was in it a hundred percent, making this the loudest atmosphere of any game we’ve played all year. We got back to back hits in the top of the third with the score still at zero, but Jackie Robinson batted out to center and we remained scoreless heading into the bottom of the inning. Kaline got on base in the top of the fourth, and Maris dropped one safely in between the left and center fielders in deep left, driving in our first run with a triple ... Cubs up 1-0! But in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded, Cohen walked in Hank Thompson for the tying run, and Earl Rapp hit a two-run single into right to put them up 3-1 before he could get the final out on strikes. Erskine came out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh with the lead still at two for the Yanks, getting the outs we needed to stay in this one. Jackie Robinson led off with a double in the top of the eighth, and Kaline hit a line drive into right to bring Robinson home and cut the Yankees’ lead to one with a double of his own. Banks singled, driving Kaline to third, and Roger Maris hit a huge RBI single to tie the game, still no outs, and then the rain started falling and the ump stopped the game!

After a delay, Gene Baker came up to pinch hit for Erskine, one out, men on the corners. Norton tried to grab the ball, but couldn’t make the throw to first, and Baker reached safely, driving in the go-ahead run! These Yankee fans are apoplectic out there, and Norton’s not going to have a great night on the town if we keep this lead. Jack Poppell kept it going, getting a deep hit into center that bounced off the wall and allowed him to leg out a triple! That drove in another pair and just like that we’re up by three heading into the bottom of the eighth after a massive five-run inning. Koufax came in to pitch and got things going by striking out Hatton, and Hank Thompson batted out to center, a great catch by Willie Mays! A groundout by Archie Wilson got us into the top of the ninth, and we could feel the win ... just one more inning! A Kaline infield single was all we’d get in the top of the inning, so Koufax came back out to protect the three-run lead in the final frame. Pinch-hitter Hank Sauer walked, but lead-off man Minosa hit into a double play. McDougald kept the Yankees’ hopes alive with a single into right, and Mantle walked to put a run in scoring position. But Sauer popped up to Rosen for the final out of the game and we came out of this one with a come-from-behind 6-3 victory!

Hy Cohen gave us six great innings, with just four hits and seven strikeouts, but he walked seven guys and gave up three runs, so we had to bring in Erskine, who got the win with one inning of two strikeout two walk no hit baseball. Sandy Koufax was stellar in his two innings of work, with one hit, one strikeout and two walks as he picked up his first playoff save! We outhit the Yankees 16-5 so the game really shouldn’t have been as close as it was. Kaline led the team with three hits, two runs and an RBI, and Mays and Maris each had three hits (with Maris picking up a pair of RBIs).

One more game in New York, with us leading 3-1 ... can we close it out and win it here, or will the series return to Wrigley?

jksander · 01-26-2024, 04:44 PM

OCTOBER 8, 1956
WORLD SERIES GAME FIVE
Chicago Cubs (3-1) at New York Yankees (1-3)

1:05 PM -- Yankee Stadium ... Attendance: 46,593
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 57 Degrees ... Wind blowing in from right at 14 miles per hour

CHICAGO STARTER: Tom Acker (12-5, 3.21 ERA, 159.2 IP, 118 K’s, 1.08 WHIP)
NEW YORK STARTER: Allie Reynolds (0-1, 5.62 ERA, 8.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.88 WHIP)

With two outs in the top of the first, Willie Mays got a hit into the right field corner, coming out of it with a double, but Jackie Robinson grounded out to first, keeping us from drawing early blood. And Acker gave up a homer to Minosa on just the fourth hit of the game, bringing the Yankees fans in this place to their feet. He loaded the bases, then struck out Yogi Berra, holding all the runners again as Howard popped out to right. He then walked in a run via Hank Thompson to make it 2-0, finally getting out of it with a popout to short. One inning, 34 pitches, two runs for the Yankees. Banks, Maris and Crandall each got hits with just one out in the top of the second, however, loading the bases for us only for Acker and Poppell to come up empty. But we made up for it in the top of the third, with Rosen getting a base hit followed by a long-ball by Mays that tied the score 2-2! Rosen had a chance to put us up in the top of the fourth, but he popped out to short to come up empty. But Acker stepped up his game as we played on, and Ernie Banks got a hit into left that loaded the bases again for us in the top of the fifth, and we took the lead on a wild pitch, going up 3-2. We had them on the ropes in the top of the sixth, when Al Kaline hit a run-scoring single that extended the lead to 4-2, but the Yankees got one back in the bottom of the frame thanks to Charlie Maxwell, and we went into the seventh inning holding a one-run lead.

Carl Erskine came in for the bottom of the seventh, with Acker having thrown over 110 pitches, and New York took advantage -- Mickey Mantle hit an RBI single to tie the game with two outs, tying the game at 4-4. Poppell got on base with a single in the top of the eighth, stealing second and then advancing to third on a groundout by Rosen. They intentionally walked Mays, but Robinson popped out to center and drove Poppell in from third to put us back up 5-4. Kaline batted in another with a single, sending us into the bottom of the eighth with a two run lead, with Larry Jensen coming in to pitch. Jensen struggled almost immediately, and with Vern Law trying to warm up quickly, pinch-hitter Bob Cerv hit a two-run double to tie things up again 6-6. Law came in with one out and men on the corners, and McDougald batted out to center while Cerv held at third, followed by Mickey Mantle hitting a blast straight to Mays for the final out. With two outs in the top of the ninth, Law got himself a hit into left, taking first safely, but Poppell struck out swinging. With two outs and Roy Sievers and Hank Thompson on second and first respectively, Law pitched to Grady Hatton, putting him on first via balls to load the gun. Bob Cerv, who had stayed in to play right field, then hit it to third, and Robinson made a great throw to first, getting the out and putting us into extra innings.

We went nowhere in the top of the tenth, and Law tried to stay out, putting runners on first and second before we brought Koufax in ... belatedly, I’ll admit. And the decision proved costly, as Koufax loaded the bases, though the runners all held on a popout by Sievers to Rosen. Yogi Berra wound up being the man to put the dagger in, getting a walk-off hit into center field and giving the Yankees the 7-6 lead. This one’s on me as a manager -- we outhit the Yanks 14-9 and still kept finding ways to lose. We’ll head back to Chicago and hope the friendly confines of Wrigley help us finish what we’ve started.

Acker did everything he could to help build a foundation, coming back from that opening at-bat homer to give us six innings with just two hits, four walks, four strikeouts and three runs (two earned). But Erskine and Jensen each blew save opportunities, and Vern Law took the loss, giving up an unearned run with two hits two walks and a strikeout in 1.2 innings of work. Jansen, with two earned runs and just one completed out, took in his first playoff relief appearance and wasn’t at all up to the task -- and he’s taking it hard. As for our bats, Rosen, Mays, Banks Maris and Crandall each had two hits, with Mays leading the way with two runs and two RBIs as well. Robinson and Kaline each batted in runs, but we just didn’t have anything left for the extra inning.

jksander · 01-26-2024, 05:15 PM

OCTOBER 10, 1956
WORLD SERIES GAME SIX
New York Yankees (2-3) @ Chicago Cubs (3-2)

1:05 PM -- Wrigley Field ... Attendance: 45,320
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 51 Degrees ... Wind blowing in from center at 10 miles per hour

NEW YORK STARTER: Whitey Ford (0-0, 2.25 ERA, 8.0 IP, 3 K’s, 0.88 WHIP)
CHICAGO STARTER: Saul Rogovin (1-0, 2.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.00 WHIP)

New York came out fired up, and Mickey Mantle hit his third homer of the series out into the bleachers, putting the Yankees up 2-0 in the top of the first. In the bottom of the second, Kaline reached second on a throwing error with one out, Maris walked, and then Crandall hit a line drive into deep left, loading the bases. Rogovin popped one out to center, but it was deep enough for Kaline to score from third, and Poppell loaded the bases again with a walk, bringing up Rosen with a chance to do some damage. Alas, he struck out, and we went into the top of the third trailing still 2-1. Bottom of the fifth: Poppell hits one deep into the right field corner, high and slow to fall, and he had plenty of time to leg out a triple. But Rosen hit into a fielder’s choice, with Whitey Ford aiming squarely for Poppell, getting the tag out at home. Damn it! Banks reached base on a double in the bottom of the sixth, but again we came up empty. Rogovin struck out his 10th batter in the top of the seventh, and liked it so much he struck out two more around a single hit by McDougald, to get us into the stretch still trailing by one run.

Rogovin tied the NL Playoff strikeout record with his 13th K in the top of the eighth, but he’d thrown 155 pitches and we had to pull him with one out, men on first and second, bringing in Bob Porterfield to try and will us to the win. And he did his job, getting the last two outs by high flies out at center and left, giving us a shot heading into the bottom of the eighth. With two outs, Willie Mays got a good hit off Ford for a single, and Banks then hit one deep into center, bouncing off the Ivy and giving Robinson time to make it to third! Kaline came up bat, still two outs, but Mantle made an easy catch at center and we went into the top of the ninth still down by one. Carl Erskine came out to pitch in the top of the inning, and with one out the Yanks bought some insurance -- Minoso hit a deep blast out at left and the Yanks had a 3-1 lead, though Erskine was able to strike out Mantle and Robinson to send us into the bottom of the inning needing two to tie, three to win. And we couldn’t find a hit. The Chairman of the Board shut us down and New York’s pushed us into a game seven with all the marbles on the line, beating us here 3-1.

Rogovin took the loss, but by God he gave us everything he had. The Yankees got eight hits off him and walked four times, but he struck out 13 batters, threw 155 pitches and gave up only two earned runs. Erskine allowed the only other hit, striking out a pair but giving up the final run of the game in the process. The Bronx Bombers outhit us 9-6 this time out, with Ernie Banks being the only man who could hit off Ford twice. Saul Rogovin batted in our only run of the game, and Al Kaline scored it. Ford wound up pitching a complete game, and the run he surrendered was unearned, so his World Series ERA this season will be just 1.06.

Hy Cohen will get his third start of the series on four days’ rest as we try and survive this latest challenge ... expect the unexpected, and a packed standing-room crowd, when game seven tips off tomorrow afternoon!

01-23-2024, 05:22 PM	#281
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	AUGUST 17, 1956 . . . We’re back on the road for three games against the 34-82 Cardinals in front of next-to-nobody. Hy Cohen (25-2, 1.81 ERA, 238.1 IP, 234 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) is up in the rotation to face Mike Fornieles (7-15, 3.95 ERA, 198.0 IP, 78 K’s, 1.29 WHIP). Poppell quickly got on base with an infield single, then took second and third as has become his signature first-inning move, coming in to score when Rosen got a nice bouncing hit into center field to put us up 1-0. Al Kaline hit a three-run homer in the top of the third to increase our lead to 4-0, bringing his tally to 19 on the season. Al Rosen added his 15th homer of the season, a solo blast in the top of the fifth, to make it a five-run shutout lead, and though Cohen loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth, he held our lead at 5-0 by pitching to contact for an out at center field. Erskine came in to start the bottom of the seventh, and the Cards got themselves on the board with an RBI triple by Stan Musial to make it 5-1. But that was all they’d get, and Erskine stayed out to finish the game, holding tough for the four-run win. Hy Cohen is now 26-2 with a 1.77 ERA, having allowed just four hits with four walks and three strikeouts through six innings. Erskine earned his first save as a Cub, staying out for three innings with three hits, a strikeout and one earned run, giving him a 3.90 ERA through 67 innings as a Cub reliever. We outhit the Cardinals 11-7 in the win, led by Al Rosen who hit four times for two runs and two RBIs. Al Kaline added two hits for a run and three RBIs, and “Jackrabbit” Poppell hit twice, stole three bases and scored a run. AUGUST 18, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (16-4, 1.83 ERA, 226.1 IP, 277 K’s, 0.75 WHIP) pitched in game two, against Dan Lee (1-10, 7.15 ERA, 73.0 IP, 26 K’s, 1.56 WHIP). Poppell reached first on a Stan Musial dropped catch which was declared an error, and Rosen batted him to third with a well placed hit into center that netted him a single. A Robinson sac-fly to center drove Poppell home without him having to steal a single base -- a rarity! The result was a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the first. Al Kaline broke it wide open in the top of the fourth, hitting a three-run blast to center that put us up 4-0, giving him 20 homers and a three run blast in each of the last two games! Maris came up to bat and hit one himself to right field that made it 5-0, with just his 13th of the year, and Jack Poppell hit an RBI double to knock in another! Jackie Robinson eventually walked the bases loaded with two outs, and Willie Mays hit a towering grand slam out of right field, giving us a 10-0 advantage and him his 42nd homer of the season! Midway through the fourth it was a complete rout, and Rogovin didn’t even give up his first hit until the bottom of the inning. The Cards got on the board with a two run homer by Bill Sarni in the bottom of the fifth, and in the bottom of the sixth they added another pair of runs off an RBI single by Jim King, making the score 10-4 heading into the top of the seventh. Bob Purkey came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth with the lead still at six runs, and he stayed out in the ninth, a run scoring for the Cardinals off a wild pitch with one out. But he did his job, getting a strikeout and a groundout to end this one as a 10-5 victory. Rogovin is now 17-4 with a 1.93 ERA thanks to a four hit, four walk, nine strikeout, four earned run performance through seven innings. Purkey came in and dealt with the remainder, Rogovin having thrown 116 pitches, and he gave us two innings with three hits, a walk, two strikeouts and an earned run to bring his ERA to 4.09 through 22 innings. Despite the huge lead early, we only outhit them 10-7, but they walked four batters and committed three errors, two of which put Poppell on base -- big mistake! He finished with a hit, a walk and reached twice on errors to score twice and steal three bases, bringing his total to 79 on the season. But Mays’ two hits, two runs and four RBIs coupled with Kaline’s three-run homer were the real deal sealers. AUGUST 19, 1956 . . . We remain knotted up with the Dodgers, so every game is important as this pennant race reaches scalding hot levels. Camilo Pascual (8-8, 3.14 ERA, 146.0 IP, 99 K’s, 1.18 WHIP) pitched the final of our three games in St. Louis, going up against Alex Kellner, a 31-year-old journeyman who played two games for us in relief early this year, moving on to Cincy for one relief appearance and then winding up here in St. Louis where he’s gone 3-6 with a 4.07 ERA through 79.2 innings, with 36 K’s and a 1.46 WHIP. Jackie Robinson hit a three-run tape measure homer out at left in the top of the first to put us up 3-0 via his 25th home run of the season, and less than ten minutes later Al Kaline, for the THIRD TIME in THREE GAMES, hit a three-run homer to make it 6-0! He is now red hot and has 21 homers this year, along with 14 doubles and 10 triples! Everyone batted in the top of the first, and we went into the bottom of the inning up by six and knowing our leadoff-man would be back up for the second. Ernie Banks hit a two-run homer in the top of the third, his 26th of the year, but the Cardinals kept it from being a shutout, scoring a run in the bottom of the third due to a throwing error at first base, Frank Bolling reaching safely with two outs to make it 8-1 Cubs. Jackie Robinson hit his 30th double of the season in the top of the fourth, Jackie Robinson driving him home with an RBI single to make it 9-1. Del Crandall kept the home-run train going, hitting a three-run bomb in the top of the seventh, his 13th of the year, to make it 12-1 Cubs. Another run scored in the top of the ninth on a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded, and Pascual closed out one of his strongest, quietly efficient games with three quick outs to send us back to Chicago with a 13-1 win and the series sweep. Pascual improved to 9-8, thanks to a two-hit complete game with a walk, four strikeouts and two runs scored, only one of them earned. His 2.96 ERA and 1.2 WAR are better indicators of how his season has gone than the win-loss column -- though he’s still been significantly off from his incredible 19-5 rookie season. So it’s good to see him putting it all together again. We outhit the Cardinals 11-2, and out-homered them 4-0. Poppell, Robinson, Mays, Banks and Kaline each hit twice, and Poppell added four steals to his already gaudy totals, but the stars were the sluggers. Robinson had two hits, three walks, two runs and three RBIs, while Kaline added two hits, one walk, two runs and three RBIs. And yet we head into the two-game series at Wrigley against the Phillies in a dead heat with the Dodgers -- we’ve won three in a row, but they’re riding a nine game streak. Let’s play some baseball -- who’s gonna blink first? Over in the AL, the 80-41 Yankees hold a relatively comfortable six game lead over the 73-46 Cleveland Guardians, with Detroit (70-47) still within eight games with at least a punter’s chance. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-23-2024, 08:30 PM	#282
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	AUGUST 21, 1956 . . . Tom Acker (6-5, 4.09 ERA, 103.1 IP, 76 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) is back up in the rotation against Philly this afternoon, set to face Don Newcombe (14-9, 2.78 ERA, 207.0 IP, 126 K’s, 0.97 WHIP) as he attempts to bounce back from his rough outing five days ago. He gave up a triple to lead-off man Jackie Jenson to start the inning, striking out Torgeson and getting Ashburn out via a sac-fly that scored the go-ahead run. But he got out of the inning with some confidence that, though players were making contact, he could make something out of it. Poppell got a hit in the bottom of the inning, and Rosen grounded out to first to drive him in from third, tying the game heading into the second. The Phillies went back up 2-1 thanks to an RBI single by Torgeson in the top of the third, but a smooth double play by Acker with a catch for out two and a throw to first for out three got us out of the inning without significant damage. Rosen grounded out to first in the bottom of the third, but was able to drive Poppell home to score his second run of the game as we tied it 2-2, and Mays hit his 43rd homer in the bottom of the fourth to give us a 3-2 lead! Acker got more confident as the game progressed, getting through the fifth inning with a pair of strikeouts and a flyout to center, but with one out and men on first and second in the top of the sixth we went to Erskine in the bullpen to protect the lead. Unfortunately that backfired, as Erskine loaded the bases with a walk and then gave up a blooper into center field that tied it up, and then Alvin Dark hammered one out of the park via right to put the Phillies up 6-3. And then Newcombe rubbed salt in the wounds, hitting a homer from the nine-spot, his first of the year, to increase the lead to four. Erskine got out of the inning at long last, but he’d given up five runs, four of them his, accounting for his second blown save of the year -- and if we can’t mount a real comeback, it’ll be his loss as well. Jackie Robinson got us started in the bottom of the sixth, coming out of his plate appearance with a standing double, and Mays hit one through the gap into the outfield to drive him home with an RBI single. Vern Law came in to pitch to start the top of the seventh, handling Torgeson, Ashburn and Ennis deftly to send us into the stretch trailing 7-4. In the top of the eighth, however, Willie Jones hit a solo homer out of center field to make it a four-run game. Law stayed out for the ninth and got us through, bringing up Kaline to start the bottom of the inning. He batted out to center, Maris grounded out to first, and Crandall hit to third, for an easy throw out at first to end this one as a brutal 8-4 loss. Acker was solid through 5.1 innings, allowing five hits, three walks, three strikeouts and three earned runs, but Erskine struggled, giving up four hits and four earned runs in just two outs worth of pitching. Law was solid as usual with three innings of three hit one strikeout one earned run ball, but the Phillies outhit us 12-7 and we blew our chance with the terrible sixth inning. Robinson, Mays and Maris each hit twice, with Mays leading the way with his homer and two runs batted in, while Poppell hit once, walked once, stole four bases yet again and managed to score our other two runs. He now has 87 stolen bases in his first 62 starts, having been caught only 11 times! He also has a zone rating of +5.1, with a 1.076 efficiency rating playing second base, with only five errors. Brooklyn lost 2-3 yesterday to St. Louis on the road in an 11-inning marathon, so we remain tied with them. But they’ve still played four fewer games than us, and they’ll get to make up a lot of ground in September with 20 of their final 26 games on their home field. Which makes us dropping these winnable games on our field all the more risky. We’re going to be putting a LOT of pressure on our ability to win well on the road in September, and on the remaining six games against the Dodgers head-to-head, if we are going to make it to our third consecutive World Series. With just 32 games remaining for us this season, we’re on pace to win 104 games and still narrowly lose to the Dodgers, which would be heartbreaking. Do we have it in ourselves to dig deep for a stretch run? AUGUST 22, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (26-2, 1.77 ERA, 244.1 IP, 237 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) is set to pitch tonight against Robin Roberts (14-11, 2.40 ERA, 214.0 IP, 174 K’s, 0.86 WHIP) in the second game of this two-game set against Philadelphia. And Cohen struggled to find his form in the top of the first. Jackie Jenson opened the inning with a double. Torgeson walked, followed by a strikeout by Richie Ashburn, but Del Ennis singled, a line drive up the middle, to load the bases. Then disaster struck -- Smoky Burgess hit a double that scored Jenson and Torgeson, driving Ennis to third. Ennis legged it out and made it around to score a third run, but Burgess was thrown out at third for our second out. Just 18 pitches into the game and we were in a hole 3-0 with our best pitcher on the mound. He got out of the inning with a strikeout to Willie Jones, but now we were going to be dependent on making some real offensive moves to retake momentum. The Phils scored a fourth run in the top of the second, an RBI single by Jensen, but Maris got us on the board, scoring off a sac-fly by Crandall to make it 4-1 in the bottom of the second. AL Rosen hit a two-run homer to put us within a run in the bottom of the third, his 16th four-bagger this year. Mays hit a one-out triple moments later, but we weren’t able to get him around to score, heading into the top of the fourth trailing just 4-3. Maris opened the bottom of the fourth with a double, and after a Poppell walk, Maris and Poppell pulled off a perfect double steal to put two runs in scoring position with two outs and Rosen coming to the plate! Rosen blew the rally, however, by striking out swinging. Cohen got us through the sixth without any further scoring, and he stayed out for the top of the seventh, getting us into the stretch still trailing by a run -- but at 123 pitches his night was over. We pinch hit Bouchee for Cohen in the bottom of the seventh, but he popped out to second, and Poppell grounded out to first. Rosen walked, and then Robinson grounded out, sending us into the top of the eighth with Erskine ready to pitch. His luck was piss-poor yet again, however, as Del Ennis got a one-out hit, and then Thomas Yuhas doubled to bat in an insurance run for the Phillies who now led 5-3. Vern Law came in to take over with one out and a runner on second, loading the bases but eventually getting both outs to give us a chance still in the bottom of the eighth. But our bats were dead, and Law did what he could to keep us in the game in the ninth but the Phils scored a three-run homer off the bat of Del Ennis and this one was in the toilet. We went into the bottom of the ninth trailing by five and it stayed that way as the Phillies beat us soundly 8-3, taking both games in the series. We’re getting shellacked at home, and I don’t know what to do about it. Cohen took a rare loss, giving up seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts and ending a 16-game win streak, allowing four earned runs as his ERA blew up to 1.86 with a 26-3 win-loss record. Law had his first rough night as a Cub, giving up three hits and three earned runs with two walks and a strikeout through 1.2 innings. They outhit us 12-6, our offense led by Mays (two hits), Maris (two hits, a steal and a run scored), Rosen (one hit, one run, two RBIs via homer) and Poppell (one hit, one walk, three steals, one run scored). Brooklyn dropped another game, keeping us in our current deadlocked state, and it’s time to dig deep and figure out what we want this season to have meant. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-23-2024, 08:32 PM	#283
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	AUGUST 23, 1956 . . . We have a big weekend with winnable games if we can get into our normal groove -- three games Thursday through Saturday against the Giants (54-66) and a pair on Sunday against the Pirates (60-61). Today Saul Rogovin (17-4, 1.93 ERA, 233.1 IP, 286 K’s, 0.76 WHIP) pitched against Bill Lemon (4-10, 5.20 ERA, 91.2 IP, 29 K’s, 1.68 WHIP). The Giants capitalized quickly in the top of the first, scoring a run with two outs against them as Bill White beat out an infield blooper to drive Hector Lopez in to put them up 1-0 as nearly 32,000 Cubs fans booed heartily. Rosen reached safely on a fielding error by their third baseman in the bottom of the fourth, advancing to third on a double by Robinson. Mays then got one into right field, tying the score with a single that put runners on the corners. Al Kaline hit an RBI single with one out to put us up 2-1 and advancing Mays into scoring position, and a wild pitch allowed both runners to advance, Lemon choosing to walk Maris rather than risk a homer -- though that meant putting Crandall up with just one out, which is just as dangerous in my book! Sure enough, he got a hit into right field and added a run to our tally, and Rogovin hit a blistering line drive to right field that added two more. Poppell walked to reload the bases, and Robinson got his second hit of the inning to keep them loaded and increase our lead to 6-1! Mays hit to the second baseman who made a great throw to first to end the inning, but we headed into the fifth up by five when we’d trailed 1-0 just half an hour earlier. Roger Maris hit an RBI triple to make it 7-1 in the top of the fifth, and Rogovin struck out three batters in the top of the sixth after giving up a double, giving him 10 for the game through six innings. Luis Aparicio hit a solo homer to give the Giants their second run of the day, and they walked in a third run with the bases loaded a moment later, but Rogovin got out of it with his 12th strikeout, and we went into the stretch still leading 7-3. Ed Bouchee pinch hit for Rogovin with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, walking in a run to add to our lead, and Jake Poppell hit a sharp drive that bounced off the third-baseman’s glove, allowing everyone to advance and adding another run to make it a seven-run lead. Rosen walked in a run to make it 10-3 Cubs, and Robinson hit one deep into left field to score another pair. Willie Mays then added insult to injury for the Giants, hitting a 3-run power bomb into the bleachers, and the rout was on! We went into the top of the eighth leading 15-3, and Erskine came in and struck out the side in the top of the eighth. And with the lead unchanged, he got us through the ninth inning unscathed as well, completing the win as we blasted the Giants by a dozen. Rogovin improved to 18-4 with a 1.98 ERA, allowing six hits and four walks but striking out 12 batters, allowing just three runs. Erskine didn’t allow a single hit in his two innings, notching a walk and four strikeouts as he improved his ERA to 4.37. We outhit the Giants 16-6, led by Al Kaline with four hits two runs and an RBI. Jackie Robinson hit three times for two runs and three RBIs, improving his average to .316 and getting him closer to his first back-to-back 100-RBI season, while Willie Mays added three hits, three runs and four RBIs to his tally while he improved to 44 homers on the season. Mays now has 131 RBIs this season, beating his career high of 127 set two years ago here in Chicago. He also has now beaten his previous home-run record of 43, which he set in 1953 when he first arrived in our city. He’s now just twenty dingers away from reaching the 200-homer threshhold, and he’s only 25! Meanwhile, Poppell had a rare day without a hit or a steal, snapping a six game streak with two steals or more in a game. AUGUST 24, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (9-8, 2.96 ERA, 155.0 IP, 103 K’s, 1.13 WHIP) started for us today, facing Ted Abernathy (14-12, 2.93 ERA, 227.2 IP, 153 K’s, 0.96 WHIP) in the second of our three matchups against the Giants. We got on the board quickly, Jackie Robinson hitting a solo blast into the bleachers, his 26th this year, to put us up 1-0. Del Crandall broke it open in the bottom of the fourth, batting in three runs with a double to push the lead to 4-0! The Giants got a run in thanks to an RBI single by Jim Gilliam in the top of the fifth, and then moments later Norm Siebern hit himself a double that scored two more before he got greedy and was picked off trying to turn the double into a triple. That cut our lead to one run heading to the bottom of the fifth, and in the top of the sixth they tied it up with a solo bomb by Wally Post. Kaline tripled to start the bottom of the sixth, and Pascual batted in the go-ahead run, Kaline scoring to put us up 5-4! Robinson picked up a double to start the bottom of the seventh, and he came around to score on an RBI double by Kaline to make it 6-4 Cubs. Vern Law came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, but he had a horrible effort, walking Norm Cash and Norm Siebern, then after getting an out by fielder’s choice, he made the absolute worst pitch to Bill Taylor, who took it all the way out of the park for a three-run homer and the lead, 7-6. Koufax came in to relieve him, getting the two outs and sending us into the bottom of the inning with work to do. After a solid ninth inning by Koufax, we remained down by a run heading into the bottom of the final frame, and three straight pop-outs ended the game as a 7-6 loss as we continue to struggle closing out games at home. At this rate September is going to be maddening indeed. Vern Law blew the save and took the loss in his short stretch of this game, getting only one out as he gave up two walks, a hit and three earned runs to blow what Pascual had started. Pascual gave us seven innings with five hits and three strikeouts, but he walked four batters and gave up four earned runs himself, so it wasn’t exactly a pristine performance. But we’d had a chance, until we didn’t. Koufax was solid with 1.2 innings of one hit, one walk two strikeout ball, but all his work couldn’t will our hitters to get him the win despite us getting 12 hits in the game. Robinson led the way with a single, a double and a homer, falling one triple short of a cycle while scoring twice and batting in a run, while Kaline added three hits two runs and an RBI himself as well. AUGUST 25, 1956 . . . Tom Acker (6-5, 4.14 ERA, 108.2 IP, 79 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) got the start today against Jack Sandford (3-4, 3.41 ERA, 89.2 IP, 46 K’s, 1.19 WHIP), with Cohen and Rogovin likely to go tomorrow in the doubleheader against Pittsburgh on short rest. The Giants took an early 1-0 lead off an RBI single by Bill White, but Robinson’s hot hitting streak continued with a triple in the bottom of the first, and Willie Mays’ 45th homer put us back in the lead 2-1! Jack Sandford hit a two-run homer in the top of the second to retake the lead for New York 3-2, and Acker continued to struggle in the third, giving up two more runs before finally getting out of the inning as the crowd grew restless. Poppell continued his cold streak, notching his second strikeout of the game in the bottom of the third as he continues to struggle to reach first, his first cold streak as a major leaguer. And despite getting two runners into scoring position, we again came up empty, searching for a spark to get something good going for us. Acker got through the fourth without another run scoring, but they made him throw a lot of pitches and we were almost certain to have to go to the bullpen in the next inning. We loaded the bases but came up empty yet again in the bottom of the fourth, and we brought spot starter Bob Porterfield in to pitch heading into the fifth. Al Kaline gave us a huge boost of morale in the bottom of the fifth, hitting a two-run homer into the left field bleachers to pull us within a run with his 22nd homer of the season. And in the bottom of the sixth, Porterfield got himself a hit into right field, and Poppell finally got himself a hit, with Robinson loading the bases for Mays with our second loaded-bases-with-one-out situation of the afternoon. And just like clockwork, Mays batted into a double play, this one a 6-2-3 sequence that got the out at home and then the out at first. I still can’t believe these chances we keep blowing, and there was definitely a contingent of our home fans booing as we went out to field. Porterfield stayed sharp from the mound, however, and we still just trailed 5-4 heading into the stretch. Carl Erskine came out to pitch in the top of the eighth with the score unchanged, getting three efficient outs to keep us in the game. Poppell walked to start the bottom of the inning, quickly stealing second and third, and they walked Rosen which brought Robinson up to the plate with a chance to really make something out of this rally opportunity! BOOM! Sharp hit into left field, driving Poppell home to tie it and giving us a runner in scoring position. Willie Mays was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Ernie Banks got himself a hit into center, batting in two runs to give us a 7-5 lead! Erskine came back out for the top of the ninth, with Koufax warming up just in case -- everything had happened so fast we didn’t think to start warming him. Which immediately bit us in the ass, as Erskine gave up a solo homer to Ed Bailey, cutting the lead to one. Koufax came out at that point, walking Norm Cash, but leadoff man Gilliam popped one up right into Sandy’s glove for the first out. He walked Hector Lopez, putting the tying run in scoring position, but Red Wilson popped it straight to Poppell, who got out one at second and threw successfully to Rosen at first to complete the double play and save the 7-6 victory. Acker struggled, going four innings with four hits, eight walks, three strikeouts and five earned runs, but Porterfield bailed him out with three no-hit innings, and Erskine came out of it with the win, improving to 5-3 with a hit and an earned run in his one inning of work. Koufax completed his 17th save of the year with two walks, giving him a 3.27 ERA through 71.2 innings. His season has not gone well at all to this point following his Rookie of the Year campaign last season -- 0.9 WAR off a 5-7 record and 1.31 WHIP through his 44 appearances. But he’s only going to be turning 21 in the offseason and I’m all in on this kid’s future once he improves his control. We outhit them 11-5 in the comeback performance, led by Robinson (two hits, two runs, one RBI), Mays (two hits, two runs, two RBIs), Banks (two hits, two RBIs) and Kaline (one hit, one run, two RBIs), all at the heart of the order. And Poppell sparked the rally in the end, getting a hit, two walks, two steals and a run on the ground as he now has 92 steals, almost certain to reach the unheard-of mark of 100+ steals for a rookie. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-23-2024, 09:58 PM	#284
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	AUGUST 26, 1956 . . . Still deadlocked with the Dodgers, we now get ourselves a pair of games today against the 62-62 Pittsburgh Pirates, who while still ostensibly in the race still at 22 games back, are close enough to elimination to warrant considering themselves spoilers at this point. So we’re going into this one with Hy Cohen (26-3, 1.86 ERA, 251.1 IP, 243 K’s, 0.80 WHIP) taking the start against their red-hot ace Hank Aguirre (12-6, 1.88 ERA, 187.0 IP, 122 K’s, 0.90 WHIP) in game one. Ernie Banks hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second, his 27th of the season, to give us the early 1-0 lead, and Robinson hit a two-run blast into the bleachers in the bottom of the third to increase our margin to 3-0, hitting HIS 27th of the year! Danny O’Connell hit an RBI triple to put the Pirates on the board in the top of the fifth, scoring himself on a flyout by Billy Klaus to cut our lead to one run, but Cohen got out of a tight spot and kept the 3-2 lead intact for us in the middle of the frame. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Poppell avoided the tag at first because of a dropped catch, taking second because of the error, and then stealing third to put himself in a position to add insurance. He then made a truly ballsy move, trying for home on a called strike that loaded the count on Rosen, AND HE WAS SUCCESSFUL! That’s his 94th steal of the season and his second time stealing home, and it put us up 4-2! Rosen wound up flying out to center to end the inning, but we definitely had our share of momentum at the moment. That wound up being all we needed, as Cohen stayed sharp through the remainder of the game, and we pulled off the 4-2 victory! Cohen is now 27-3 with a 1.87 ERA, throwing a complete game seven-hitter with one walk, 10 strikeouts and two earned runs. Poppell didn’t manage a single hit or walk, but reached base on that throwing error in the fifth to ice it with three consecutive steals! Robinson was our hitting leader, notching a pair of hits with a run and two RBIs. Saul Rogovin (18-4, 1.98 ERA, 240.1 IP, 298 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) pitched against Johnny Klippstein (11-12, 3.97 ERA, 206.1 IP, 145 K’s, 1.13 WHIP) in game two of the afternoon against the Pirates. Willie Mays hit an RBI double in the bottom of the first to put us up 1-0, and Rogovin got his 300th strikeout of the season to get out of the top of the second with the Pirates still blanked. Mays then hit his 46th homer of the year in the bottom of the third to increase our lead to 2-0, at which point all scoring stopped. Rogovin had himself a hell of a game, keeping the two-run shutout safe into the top of the ninth, though with one out in the frame, Leon Wagner hit a solo homer for the Pirates to cut our lead to a run. Rocky Colavito hit a high flyer straight to Kaline in right for out number two, however, and another brilliant catch by Kaline ended the game as a 2-1 victory, a statement win for the 32-year-old veteran starter. From what I can tell, Rogovin is just the fourth pitcher to have at least 300 K’s in a season, joining Rube Waddell (1903, 1904), Walter Johnson (1910, 1912) and Bob Feller (1946). At this point in history, the record was 349, owned by Waddell, with Feller’s 348 in ’46 a close second. Holy hell! Rogovin improved to 19-4 with a 1.95 ERA, thanks to a complete game five-hitter, with eight strikeouts, one walk and the one earned run. Each team had five hits in this duel, with Mays our undisputed leader, hitting twice with a run and two RBIs. On pace to hit 55 homers, he leads Mantle by six homers as it becomes likelier he’ll take the crown. And though Hy Cohen remains in the Cy Young running, he’s been eclipsed in pitching WAR by Connie Johnston of Brooklyn, who is currently 20-4 with a 1.62 ERA through 244 innings, with 247 strikeouts, a 0.76 WHIP and 13.8 WAR. Cohen is currently 27-3 with a 1.87 ERA through 260.1 innings, with 253 strikeouts, an 0.80 WHIP and 12.6 WAR. The race may wind up being decided in a head-to-head battle in one of our remaining three-game series against the Dodgers. Johnson, at 33, has broken out as a star for the Dodgers seemingly out of nowhere since finishing 14-7 last year with four saves and a 3.80 ERA to go with 109 strikeouts, as the right pitcher at the right time to get the Dodgers back into relevance -- and he’s recently signed a four year deal worth $400,000 to stay with the club. So I expect this rivalry to be a big thing for years to come, especially if we can get Cohen locked up long term next season. Speaking of Brooklyn, our next three game series at home is against them, with tomorrow off to prepare ourselves. We’re currently 87-41 and they are 85-39, still tied in the standings despite their still being four games behind us in total games played. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-23-2024, 11:34 PM	#285
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	AUGUST 28, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (9-8, 3.06 ERA, 162.0 IP, 106 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) is up to pitch in game one of our final home series against the Dodgers, set to face Johnny Podres (13-6, 2.96 ERA, 188.2 IP, 102 K’s, 1.09 WHIP). Poppell got a hit to start the bottom of the first, but was quickly tagged out trying to steal second. And though we had three hits through the first two innings, the pitching duel was in full effect and the game stayed scoreless, with defense the name of the game. Pascual gave up his first hit of the game with one out in the top of the fourth, Carl Furillo becoming the Dodgers’ first baserunner, and from there he promptly loaded the bases, though with two outs Frank Thomas hit one straight to Mays to safely keep the game scoreless. Bottom of the fifth: Roger Maris got us going by beating out an infield hit to take first, and Crandall hit one up the gap to put Maris into scoring position. Pascual laid down a perfect sac-bunt to advance both runners, and Poppell took the count full and then walked, loading the bases! Al Rosen was the one to finally break us through, hitting a nice one just into left field over their third baseman’s head, and the lead was 1-0! Robinson walked in a second run, and then Willie Mays hit a grand slam, his 47th homer of the year, to set this place ablaze! Banks doubled, followed by an RBI triple by Kaline, and Maris kept the train rolling, getting an RBI single, his second hit of the inning! Crandall and Pascual popped out to finally end the inning, but we’d blown it up and went into the top of the sixth up by eight shutout runs. Pascual held tough to the reins from there and closed the complete game out ... he gave up a meaningless solo blast by Duke Snider to ruin the shutout, but struck out George Shuba to win it 8-1. Pascual dominated this one, improving to 10-8 with a two hit, two walk, 10 strikeout, one run game through 116 pitches. We outhit them 16-2, scoring all our runs in that beautiful fifth inning beatdown. Willie Mays had four hits, a walk, a run scored anf four batted in thanks to his grand slam, while Rosen hit three times and Banks, Kaline and Maris each had a pair. AUGUST 29, 1956 . . . Tom Acker (6-5, 4.39 ERA, 112.2 IP, 52 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) got the start in game two against Sal Maglie (22-4, 1.43 ERA, 251.2 IP, 175 K’s, 0.78 WHIP). Al Kaline hit an RBI single in the bottom of the second to give us the lead 1-0, and we quickly loaded the bases via hits by Acker and Poppell, Rosen hit a perfect infield bouncer, and by the time Maglie had it, he didn’t have a throw, Kaline scoring our second run as the bases stayed loaded! Robinson grounded out to end the inning, but we’d drawn first blood for the second day running. Our bullpen is rested, so the goal going in was to get Acker through five innings, but he was on fire early, walking a batter early and allowing another on base via an error, but keeping their hitters completely off balance. Ernie Banks bought us some insurance with a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth to make it 3-0, his 28th homer of the season, and Acker struck out the side in the top of the sixth, really getting in a groove out there. Brookyln didn’t get a hit until the seventh inning, and Acker stayed tough through eight. Koufax came in for the top of the ninth, shutting them down efficiently as we won the game 3-0! Acker improved to 7-5 with a one-hitter through eight innings, striking out eight and walking one. Koufax had a great night as well, with two strikeouts and a walk as he preserved the shutout. We outhit the Dodgers 8-1 in this one, completely stumping Maglie, led by Banks with two hits, two runs and an RBI, and by Maris with a hit and an RBI. AUGUST 30, 1956 . . . Inexplicably the Dodgers have chosen to rest their best Cy Young hope, starting Don Kaiser (8-8, 4.18 ERA, 133.1 IP, 54 K’s, 1.48 WHIP) despite Johnson being fully rested. So we’ve decided to give Cohen and Rogovin an extra day of rest and go with spot starter Bob Porterfield (3-3, 3.35 ERA, 53.2 IP, 42 K’s, 0.97 WHIP) for a bullpen game. Poppell came out of the gate roaring, reaching first on a single, advancing to second thanks to a ground-out by Rosen, and then stealing third, his first successful steal of this series! He then came around to score off an RBI single by Mays, giving us the lead 1-0. But Gil Hodges powerbombed a flyball into the bleachers to tie it up in the top of the second, though we got through the inning with some exceptional defense to avoid giving them a lead. Willie Mays hit a solo shot out at left, his 48th homer of the season, to put us back on top 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth, and Kaline hit his 23rd four-bagger to make it 3-1 Cubs. Instead of a bullpen game, Porterfield came through with a quality start, though in the top of the seventh he gave up a solo homer to Campanella, cutting our lead to one run. Carl Erskine came in with one out and a man on first in the top of the seventh, striking out Kaiser and then getting Pee Wee Reese to ground out, sending us into the stretch with our 3-2 lead intact. Vern Law came out to pitch in the eighth, and Gil Hodges hit an RBI double with one out to tie the score at 3-3, and Sully Hemus hit a quick rolling drive into right that allowed him to come home and give Brooklyn the 4-3 lead. Ernie Banks didn’t wait for long though, hitting a solo blast out of right field to tie it 4-4 with his 29th homer of the season, and Del Crandall loaded the bases with a single into right moments later, still no outs! Gene Baker came in to hit for Law, blasting a flyball into the left corner to drive home two runs and put us firmly back in the lead! Poppell hit a sac-fly to center to drive in another, and Rosen laid down a fine hit into center to extend our lead to four. Hersh Freeman came out to finish the game, Pee Wee Reese grounding out to first for the final out as we swept the Dodgers with a come-from-behind 8-4 win! Porterfield was stellar, giving us 6.1 innings with three hits, three strikeouts, five walks and just two earned runs. Erskine picked up his third hold of the season with a hit and a strikeout, while Law got the blown save (his second) and the win (his first), giving up three hits and two runs with just one strikeout. Freeman came out for the non-save opportunity and put their runners down one, two, three, his ERA now 5.60 through 35.1 innings. We outhit them 14-7, led by Mays with two hits, a run and two RBIs. Crandall hit three times and scored a run on the ground, and Poppell and Rosen each hit twice. Poppell finally got the steals going again, picking up two to get himself to 96 on the season! We now have a three game lead on the Dodgers in the pennant race, though they can make up ground with wins in September since they play four more games than we do down the stretch. But we bought ourselves some room, and that’s all I could ask for in a pressure-cooker race like this. Here’s our schedule heading into the final month of the 1956 MLB season: 8/31-9/2: @ Cincinnati 9/3: @ St. Louis -- doubleheader 9/5: @ St. Louis 9/8-9: vs. Milwaukee -- doubleheader on 9/9 9/11: @ Pittsburgh 9/14-15: @ Brooklyn -- our final two games against them! 9/16: @ Philadelphia -- last doubleheader of the season 9/18-19: @ NY Giants 9/21-23: @ Milwaukee 9/25-26: vs. St. Louis 9/29-30: vs. Cincinnati Our magic number is 23, so all but ourselves, Brooklyn and Philly are eliminated from pennant contention. In the American League, New York (86-43) now leads Cleveland (78-50) by 7.5 games, and Detroit (76-50) by 8.5 games. All other AL teams are now eliminated, with New York’s magic number at 19. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-24-2024, 02:13 PM	#286
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	AUGUST 31, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (27-3, 1.87 ERA, 260.1 IP, 253 K’s, 0.80 WHIP) pitched tonight for game one on the road in Cincinnati, facing Don Drysdale (6-16, 4.52 ERA, 195.0 IP, 115 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). Cincy got on the board quickly, thanks to a two-run homer by Kluszewski in the bottom of the first, and Cohen struggled to find his rhythm before finally getting a bases loaded final out via strikes, throwing 29 pitches in the first frame alone. Willie Mays hit a deep blast into right field in the top of the third, however, coming out with a two-RBI triple that tied the score, and Mays took home on a wild pitch, giving us the lead, 3-2! Mays hit an RBI double in the top of the fifth, driving Robinson in to score our fourth run, and moments later Maris hit one to almost the same spot in left, doubling himself to bat in another to make it a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the frame, and Cohen had settled in well by this point as the momentum swung completely in our direction . In the top of the sixth with two outs, *Jack Poppell stole third base to notch his absolutely insane 100th stolen base of the season, and Mays hit a 2-RBI double to drive him and Rosen home and put the nail in, or so you’d think -- but Elmer Valo got an RBI double in with one out in the bottom of the sixth, so they still had a chance at rallying, trailing 7-3 heading into the seventh. We brought Carl Erskine in for the bottom of the seventh, still leading by four runs, and he held serve, with Robinson twisting the dagger in the top of the eighth with a solo homer, his 28th of the season, making it an 8-3 lead. Hersh Freeman came out to pitch in the ninth, getting two early outs before putting runners on the corners. Sandy Koufax came out at that point to stifle the rally attempt, getting Kluszewski to hit a weak fly to Mays to end this one as an 8-3 win.* Cohen took the win, improving to 28-3, allowing five hits four walks and nine strikeouts through six innings, allowing just three runs. Erskine, Freeman and Koufax combined for two hits four walks and a strikeout through the remaining three innings. It wasn’t a save opportunity, but Kluszewski was the kind of player who has rung us up in the past, and that kind of rally in the ninth would have been dangerous indeed. So I’m glad to see Koufax was able to come in for the high leverage situation and get the out without surrendering anything. We outhit them 14-7, led by Jackie Robinson (three hits, two runs, one RBI) and Willie Mays (three hits, two runs, five RBIs), while “Jackrabbit” Poppell wrote himself some history with two hits, a walk, four steals and a pair of runs. He is officially the first rookie in MLB history to have 100 steals in his first season! August was an up-and-down month for us, but we still came out of it strong, winning our last four games in a row to finish 20-10. We’re now 91-41 heading into the final stretch run, having won eight of our last ten. But we can’t let up, as most of the Dodgers’ September games are on their home field. SEPTEMBER 1, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (19-4, 1.95 ERA, 249.1 IP, 306 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) started for us tonight, and he has the potential to compete for the all-time single season strikeouts record, having struck out 53 batters during his six August starts. Tonight he pitched against lefty hurler Bobby Shantz (8-14, 5.41 ERA, 194.2 IP, 80 K’s, 1.53 WHIP). With the bases loaded in the top of the first, Willie Mays hit a sac-fly out to center that drove in the first run of the game, and Al Kaline and Roger Maris walked in two runs in a row, encouraging a series of boos from the sparse home crowd. Banks hit a sac-fly to right, scoring Robinson from third, and Rogovin struck out swinging, completing our batting around as we took a 4-0 lead in the first half inning. But Rogovin gave up a triple to their leadoff man, and Gus Bell batted in a run with a single to quickly get the Redlegs on the board. He settled down, however, and after the back to back hits to start the inning, he got three outs in a row to send their defense back out. Robinson hit an RBI double in the top of the second to extend the lead back to four runs, but Nellie Fox hammered a homer out of right field to pull them back within three in the bottom of the third, and Elmer Valo hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth, making this one uncomfortably close, sending us into the top of the fifth leading by a slim 5-4 margin. Del Crandall gave us some breathing room with a sac-fly in the top of the sixth that drove in a run, but Gus Bell answered with a homer in the bottom of the seventh to cut the lead back to one run. Ernie Banks batted in a run with a double in the top of the eighth, however, and we loaded the bases with a chance to finally put this one out of reach. Crandall hit a sac-fly to deep center, narrowly missing out on a grand slam as another run came in, but Poppell hit into a fielder’s choice that ended the inning, our lead now 8-5. Koufax came in and had a great eighth inning, allowing a baserunner but not surrendering any runs, and Jackie Robinson hit an RBI triple in the top of the ninth to seal it, with Mays hitting a run-scoring sac-fly to increase our lead to five runs. It should have been an easy finish for Koufax, but he loves to make it difficult -- with the bases loaded he got out number one via popout, holding all the runners. But Frank Robinson then hit a goddamned grand slam to make it 10-9 Cubs. Poppell made a solid catch for out number two, but Koufax walked Albie Pearson, bringing up Elmer f---ing Valo for all the marbles. Two outs, a man on, Valo hits it to Poppell, who makes the throw safely to first and we survive by the one run, getting the win but making our lives way more difficult in the process. Rogovin improved to 20-4 with a 2.07 ERA, allowing eight hits with seven strikeouts, a walk and five earned runs, and Koufax (barely) eked out his 19th save of the year, a two-inning effort with four hits, three walks and four runs (three earned) to give him a 3.48 ERA through 75 innings. We outhit them 12-10, led by Jackie Robinson, who hit three times for two runs and two RBIs, giving him his 100th RBI of the season and improving his average to .323, his best average since batting .339 for Brooklyn in 1954. SEPTEMBER 2, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual ( 10-8, 2.95 ERA, 171.0 IP, 116 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) started the final game at Cincinnati, facing Tex Clevenger (3-8, 4.39 ERA, 94.1 IP, 48 K’s, 1.41 WHIP). Roger Maris batted leadoff for us today, with Gene Baker playing second base to give Poppell a rare day off, and he took full advantage by blasting a solo homer into right field, his 14th homer of the season, putting us in the lead 1-0, and Al Kaline made it a two-run lead with an RBI single, Al Rosen able to come all the way around from second to score despite his below average speed. Del Crandall added an RBI single and the Redlegs walked Camilo Pascual with the bases loaded, and Maris got his second hit of the inning to bat in a fifth run. Al Rosen finally grounded out to send us into the bottom of the first, but we had them nicely on the ropes. They loaded the bases in the bottom of the second but came up empty, and Jackie Robinson hit a deep shot into center with the bases loaded for us in the top of the third, coming out of it with a three-run triple, extending our lead to eight runs. Ernie Banks hit a solo homer in the top of the fourth, his 30th of the year, and by that point the already thin crowd started to shrink even further. Cincinnati got on the board with a solo homer by Gus Bell in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 9-1 ballgame, but we loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, and Jackie Robinson hit a grand slam, his 29th homer of the season, to blow our lead up to 13-1 heading into the seventh inning stretch. Pascual scored a run from third base with two outs in the top of the eighth thanks to a wild pitch, and in the top of the ninth Jackie Robinson hit his second homer of the afternoon to make the margin even wider. Pascual completed the game and we won this one 15-1, going into tomorrow’s two-game set at St. Louis on a six-game winning streak. Pascual, now 11-8 with a 2.85 ERA, gave us nine innings with just four hits, four walks, eight strikeouts and the one earned run, throwing 155 pitches. But with our numerous off days coming up, he’s unlikely to need to pitch for at least a week, so he’ll have plenty of time to recover. We outhit the Redlegs by a staggering 18-4 margin, with everybody in the lineup getting a hit (Pascual actually had two, with two runs scored and one batted in!) Our leaders were Roger Maris with four hits, two walks, three runs and two RBIs, and Jackie Robinson who hit four times including his two homers, walking once, scoring three times and driving in EIGHT RUNS -- he’s now slashing .328/.438/.668, putting on the best-rounded offensive performance of any player this year. Our lead in the NL remains at three games -- we’re 93-41, with the Dodgers still on our heels with an 88-42 record. We’ll go into tomorrow with a well-rested bullpen, and I expect to give Cohen a chance to rest, saving him for game three on Tuesday -- we’ll start long relievers tomorrow in both doubleheader games. Our magic number remains at 20, while in the AL, New York’s 7.5 game lead over the Guardians has theirs at 16. Both races are expected to go down to the wire, however, with the Yankees still having 14 road games ahead of them, including a doubleheader at Cleveland on the 16th. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-24-2024, 05:41 PM	#287
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	SEPTEMBER 3, 1956 . . . Not too many of these doubleheaders left this year -- tonight for game one against St. Louis, Carl Erskine (5-3, 4.28 ERA, 73.2 IP, 68 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) got the start, with the expectation of getting through at least four innings before we would go to our expanded bullpen. Al Rosen batted in a run with a single in the top of the third, with Poppell scoring the run that put us up 1-0. Erskine stayed sharp through the fifth inning, getting through the lineup twice and holding the slim shutout lead, and his arm was still going strong through the sixth, setting down Andy Carey and Frank Bolling to send us into the top of the seventh still ahead by one. Roger Maris hit a two-run blast in the top of the inning to put us up 3-0, his 15th homer of the season, and Vern Law took over for him after the stretch, Erskine having thrown nearly 70 pitches, by far his highest workload of the season. Law was incredibly efficient pitching to contact, getting three quick outs off just four pitches, and with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the eighth we added a run, as Roger Maris beat out a weak hit to reach first safely. Law gave up a triple to start the bottom of the eighth, got the next two outs with ease, and then pinch-hitter Charlie Neal hit an RBI single to put the Cardinals on the board and sending us into the top of the ninth with a three-run advantage. Don Demeter, our top 20 fielding prospect we just called up from AA for September, pinch-hit for Law to start the inning, his first MLB plate appearance and he took the count full, but popped out to center field for our first out. Poppell got himself a walk, then stole a pair and came home off an infield RBI single by Rosen to make it 5-1! Hersh Freeman came in to close out the game, getting two outs but loading the bases before getting the final out successfully, a popout by pinch hitter Russ Nixon to close out the 5-1 win. Carl Erskine, in his first start, came out with the win, giving him a 6-3 record and a 3.95 ERA with three hits, four strikeouts and no runs. Law got his third hold of the year, going two innings with two hits and a run, amd Freeman gave up three hits but didn’t do any damage, improving his ERA to 5.35. We outhit St. Louis 11-8, led by Rosen (two hits, a run, two RBIs), Robinson (two hits) and Maris (two hits, a run, three RBIs). Poppell also hit once and walked once, stealing four bases and scoring twice. Tom Acker (7-5, 4.10 ERA, 120.2 IP, 90 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) started game two, facing off against Dean Stone (1-6, 6.27 ERA, 51.2 IP, 30 K’s, 1.65 WHIP). With the bases loaded, top of the first, Jackie Robinson batted into a double play but Poppell scored from third to put us up 1-0. But the Cards got on the board quickly this time, Stan Musial hitting an RBI single to tie it up in the bottom of the first. We loaded the bases in the top of the third and Al Rosen walked in to score a run, with Al Kaline taking his base on balls to put us back up 2-1, and a Roger Maris sac-fly to center drove home a third. Willie Mays hit his 49th homer of the year, a two-run blast in the top of the fourth, to break this one open, and we led by four going into the top of the fifth. Acker got us through the seventh, and Larry Jansen came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, the lead still at four runs. Wally Moon hit an RBI single to drive in a run, but Jansen powered through and completed the inning, then leading off in the top of the ninth with a line drive to right, Poppell advancing him to second with a single of his own into center. Rosen walked the bases loaded, and Mays drove in a pair with an RBI single to center. Jackie Robinson hit a line drive to load the bases, and Al Kaline hit one deep into center for a three-RBI double that blew this one wide. Leading by eight, we kept Jansen out for the final frame, and he put away the bottom of their order quietly to complete the 10-2 blowout win. Tom Acker is now 8-5 with a 3.95 ERA, having pitched seven innings with six hits, eight strikeouts, one walk and one earned run. Jansen had two innings with one hit, one walk, one strikeout and one earned run, and we outhit the Cardinals 11-7. Willie Mays hit three times with three runs and four batted in, Robinson added two hits and a run, and Poppell hit once, walked once and scored twice. We’ll go into the final game of the series against them after an off day, holding onto an incredible 11-game win streak and a four-game lead on Brooklyn. SEPTEMBER 5, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (28-3, 1.93 ERA, 266.1 IP, 262 K’s, 0.82 WHIP) started today against St. Louis’ Vinegar Bend Mizell (8-15, 4.47 ERA, 223.2 IP, 117 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). Jack Poppell walked the bases loaded in the top of the second and then Mizell walked Rosen, giving us a 1-0 lead as Roger Maris crossed home plate to score. Then Willie Mays hit one deep into center, coming out of it with a two-run double, which was immediately followed by a Robinson two-run double that gave him 110 RBIs on the year and us a 5-0 lead. Banks kept the hits coming, driving Robinson home with a single and then the Cards finally got themselves out of the inning. Cohen hit himself a triple in the top of the third, and he got to score a rare run when Poppell drove him in with an RBI single to make it 7-0 Cubs. Ernie Banks hit a solo blast to left, his 31st homer of the season, in the top of the fourth, and Poppell scored a run on a fielder’s choice in the top of the fifth to put us up by nine. Ernie Banks doubled to drive in our 10th run of the game, and we pulled Cohen after the fifth inning with the game completely under control, wanting to give him a chance to rest his arm for the postseason stretch run. Bob Porterfield came in to pitch with the lead still 10-0 in the bottom of the sixth, and he kept them scoreless through the sixth and seventh, our guys adding a run in the top of the eighth thanks to a Willie Mays RBI single. Jackie Robinson then poured salt in their wounds with a 3-run homer, his 31st this season, victory-lapping his way to a 14-point lead. Porterfield hit into a double play in the top of the ninth but still drove in another run, and Poppell hit a line drive into right to add yet another with a standing double. Porterfield stayed out to finish the game, and St. Louis managed to get on the board with a two-run homer by Hal Rice, but the die was cast and we eventually won the game 16-2. Hy Cohen improved to 29-3 with a five-inning three hit five strikeout game, improving his ERA to 1.89 in a game he barely had to break a sweat to win. Porterfield was impressive, coming in to mop this up and coming out of it with a four inning save, allowing just five hits, two walks, striking out five and giving up the two earned runs. His ERA is now 3.38 through 64 innings, with a 3-3 record overall through 14 appearances. We outhit them 17-8, with Robinson continuing to look superhuman -- he hit twice and scored three runs, driving in six, while Willie Mays hit four times to score two and drive in three. Ernie Banks had three hits for a run and three RBIs, putting him seven RBIs from 100 in his third of four seasons -- six more RBIs will give him 400 in his career! He’s happy being the guy who gets hits when we need them and then spends hours signing autographs for kids -- no wonder he’s a fan favorite, and we’re hoping to have a contract announced before the playoffs that will keep him here well into the future as a franchise player. SEPTEMBER 8, 1956 . . . We have a single game against the Milwaukee Braves today, followed by a doubleheader tomorrow, all three here at Wrigley. We’ll then hit the road for ten games over a two-week span before returning to complete the season here in front of the best fans in baseball. Our win streak is now at 12 games, with the Dodgers still trailing us by four games with our magic number at 15. Saul Rogovin (20-4, 2.07 ERA, 256.1 IP, 313 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) started today against Warren Spahn (11-18, 3.73 ERA, 241.1 IP, 108 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) who at this point is relying on his ability to control the ball despite quickly declining ‘stuff.’ This place was PACKED as we got the game started, and Spahn struggled in the bottom of the first, giving up a single to Poppell and then walking Rosen and Mays, which made it easy for Robinson to drive in a run despite flying out to center for our first out. Kaline got a two-out hit into center to drive in another, but Maris popped out to right or it could have gotten ugly fast. Milwaukee got on the board in the top of the second with a Dick Wilson solo homer that barely went over Mays’ glove into the stands, and Spawn settled in to keep us from adding aything in the bottom of the frame. Banks drove in a run with a groundout in the bottom of the third to make it a 3-1 lead, and a wild pitch allowed Al Kaline to come in and make it a three-run lead. Al Rosen hit a solo homer, his 17th of the year, to make it a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth, and Maris hit his 16th homer of the year, a two-run blast that make it a six run lead in the bottom of the sixth.Rogovin struck out the side to send us into the stretch leading 7-1, and he stayed in to complete the game and make sure it stayed that way. Win number thirteen in a row, and we’re ready for tomorrow’s doubleheader! Rogovin, having reached 20+ wins for the second year running, now has a 21-4 record and a 2.04 ERA, getting through today’s game with six hits, two walks, 13 strikeouts and just one earned run. He now has 326 strikeouts on the year, giving him a real shot at the single-season record, though if we clinch early he’ll get more rest at the end of the month rather than risk burning out his arm. This was a tight battle for hits, our guys coming out with seven to the Braves’ six, but our three runs via homers plus the run scored on a wild pitch really gave us early momentum and we never let up. Six different Cubs had hits, led by Rosen (one hit, one walk, three runs and an RBI), Maris (one hit, one run, two RBIs) and Kaline (two hits, one run, one RBI). We still lead Brooklyn by four games, while the Yankees have a 9.5 game lead on Cleveland with a magic number of 10 ... so clinching in the AL is not far off on the horizon. Our magic number is now 14. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-24-2024, 08:17 PM	#288
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	SEPTEMBER 11, 1956 . . . We’re back on the road, and today we’ve got a single game against Pittsburgh, then two days off before our final two games against the Dodgers in Brooklyn. We currently lead the pennant race by 4.5 games, so our destiny is in our hands. Tom Acker (8-5, 3.95 ERA, 127.2 IP, 98 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) started today against Gene Conley (12-16, 2.39 ERA, 271.0 IP, 183 K’s, 1.02 WHIP). We got out to a quick start, an RBI triple by Robinson getting us on the board and an RBI single by Kaline adding a second run in the top of the first. But the game stayed quiet from there as both pitchers dueled for position. Jack Poppell got a hit into left in the top of the sixth, just our third hit of the night, stealing second and third to get into easy scoring position. Rosen got ahit off toward third base, and Ken Boyer tried to throw home, but Poppell beat him with the head-first slide, AND HE’S SAFE! That put us up 3-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth. We loaded the bases in the top of the seventh but came up empty, and Acker got us out of the bottom of the inning with an amazing double play to keep the shutout going! Vern Law came in for the eighth inning, and Koufax closed it out in the ninth, completing the 3-0 shutout victory with three quick outs. That gives us 16 consecutive wins heading into the two most important road games of the season at Brooklyn. Acker took the win, improving to 9-5 with a 3.74 ERA, allowing just two hits and striking out five batters with two walks in the first seven innings. Law got his fourth hold, striking out one, and Koufax got his 21st save, also striking out one -- those two combined for just 20 pitches over the final two innings. We won the hitting battle 6-2, led by Poppell with two hits, two steals and a run scored, while Crandall added a pair of hits and Robinson got himself a hit, a run and an RBI. Ernie Banks struck out twice and went hitless -- he’s still three RBIs away from being our third player to cross the 100-RBI threshhold. With this win we’ve reached 100 victories for the third year in a row! Heading into the game with Brooklyn (95-44) they’re still four games back, and our magic number is down to 11. They’ve won their last five in a row, and are ready for a gunfight. In other news, Ernie Banks is now a very wealthy man! He’s agreed to a seven-year contract extension worth $967,500 over the length of the contract. He’ll go up from $83,000 to $102,500 next year, matching what he’d have gotten in arbitration, rising to $150,00o / year by 1960 and then $175,000 per year in the final two years of the contract. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-25-2024, 07:11 PM	#289
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	SEPTEMBER 14, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (21-4, 2.04 ERA, 265.1 IP, 326 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) hasn’t pitched in a week, so he’s fired up and ready to go against Brooklyn’s Connie Johnson (23-4, 1.56 ERA, 271.0 IP, 279 K’s, 0.77 WHIP). I know Cohen was relishing this matchup, but he’s still day to day with the calf strain, and I’m being careful -- we need him too much in the World Series once we get there. This place seemed ready to explode like a powder keg, and the game had pitching duel written all over it. And it lived up to that early, but Brooklyn got on board first with a two-run blast out at right by Bill Mazeroski, his 14th homer of the season, to put us in a 2-0 hole in the bottom of the second. But we got back into it in the top of the fourth, Al Kaline hitting an RBI single that drove Mays in to score from second to put us within a run, and Ernie Banks hit a two-run homer to put us ahead 3-2! That was Banks’ 33rd homer of the season! Both pitchers took it to another level after that, and our one run lead still held heading into the seventh inning stretch. Willie Mays hit his 25th double of the year in the top of the eighth, putting Al Rosen on third with Robinson coming up to bat, but Robinson grounded out to first to end the inning without an insurance run. Rogovin walked a pair in the bottom of the inning but got a strikeout (his 10th!) and a double play to get out of the inning still up by a run. Connie Johnson struck out Del Crandall for his 13th K of the game, sending us into the bottom of the ninth needing to just hold on and we’d be out of it! Rogovin got a flyout, a strikeout and an infield popout to end this one as a 3-2 Cubs victory! Both pitchers went the distance -- Rogovin got the win, improving to 22-4 with a 2.03 ERA, throwing 125 pitches as he allowed eight hits, two walks, struck out 11 and gave up just two earned runs. Johnson took the loss, falling to 23-5 with a 1.61 ERA, allowing seven hits with one walk, 13 K’s and three earned runs through 135 pitches. They outhit us, but we benefitted from doubles by Robinson and Mays and the longball later in the game by Banks, which made the difference. Banks now has 99 RBIs for the year, and Kaline added a hit, a run and an RBI as well. Mays was the only player on our team to hit more than once. SEPTEMBER 15, 1956 . . . Camilo Pascual (12-8, 2.83 ERA, 187.2 IP, 131 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) got the start in game two, facing Joey Jay (10-6, 3 SV, 3.17 ERA, 139.1 IP, 82 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). Jackie Robinson hit himself an RBI triple to put us ahead of the Dodgers in the top of the third. And in the top of the fifth, Willie Mays finally hit his 50th homer of the season, a three-run blast that blew this one open. Jackie Robinson then took it back-to-back with his 33rd of the year, giving us a commanding five-run lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. Pascual surprised everyone by hitting an RBI triple in the top of the sixth that drove in another pair, and you could just sense the air being crushed out of every Dodger fan here ... their job just got a lot harder if they thought they could keep us from taking another pennant! Mays rubbed it in, hitting his second homer of the game, number 51 for the season, to make it an 8-0 game, at which point Robinson tripled, Kaline added an RBI double, and Banks got his 100th RBI of the year by driving Kaline home with a single, sending us into the stretch leading 10-0 in a most unexpected blowout. Mays hit an RBI triple to bat in his 160th run of the season without an out in the top of the eighth, Mays then scoring on an infield single by Kaline to give us an even dozen lead. We loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, and Kaline walked in another run before Ernie Banks mercifully struck out. Pascual completed the game as we completely dismantled the Dodgers, winning 13-0 on their own field. Pascual has remained red hot of late, improving to 13-8 with a 2.70 ERA, pitching a one-hit shutout tonight with four walks and five strikeouts against the hapless Dodgers. We had 15 hits, including a double, four triples and three homers. Jackie Robinson was phenomenal, hitting three times, including two triples and a homer, walking twice and scoring two runs with two RBIs. Willie Mays had three hits, three runs and five RBIs, homering twice. We weren’t able to clinch the league with this, our 18th consecutive win, but we unleashed loads of fury on them today and cut our magic number to seven. Increasing our lead in the pennant race to six games. The Dodgers have 13 games remaining to our 11, so a lot can still happen. But we’ve put ourselves in the driver’s seat heading into tomorrow’s doubleheader against Philadelphia on the road. SEPTEMBER 16, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (29-3, 1.87 ERA, 274.1 IP, 270 K’s, 0.81 WHIP) hasn’t pitched in a week, resting that hamstring, and he’s now back at full health according to our pitching coaches, so we’re starting him tonight against the Phillies’ Bob Rush (8-12, 3.91 ERA, 191.0 IP, 87 K’s, 1.37 WHIP) in the first game of this afternoon’s doubleheader. Philly went up quickly in the top of the first, Del Ennis hitting a fly-out that drove Jackie Jensen in to score from third to give them a 1-0 lead, bottom of the first. Al Rosen answered with an RBI single of his own in the top of the second to tie it up, but Philly answered with a solo homer by Torgeson in the bottom of the third to put them back up 2-1. Willie Mays hit his 52nd homer, a two-run flier into the center field stands, that put us back up 3-2 in the top of the fifth, and Robinson hit his 34th immediately after, putting us ahead 4-2! Robinson hit an RBI double in the top of the sixth, and Ernie Banks batted in another with a single to give us a four run lead, before Del Crandall blasted his 15th homer out of the park, lighting this place up with bombs as we exploded to a 9-2 lead. Kaline joined the long-ball party, hitting a three-run homer to left in the top of the seventh, and Crandall hit his second of the game in the top of the eighth to make it a 13-2 execution. Cohen completed the game, as we bulldozed the Phillies in game one, winning 13-2. That gives us 19 consecutive wins, putting us within two of our all-time longest win streak as a club! With the win, Hy Cohen now has a 30-3 record, making him just the 21st pitcher of all time to put up that number! He now has a 1.87 ERA, pitching a complete game seven-hitter with two walks, five strikeouts and a pair of runs. We completely embarrassed the Phillies, outhitting them 16-7 but pounding four homers out of the park in the process. Robinson led the way, hitting three times for three runs and two RBIs, while Crandall’s two home runs propelled him to three hits, three runs and four RBIs. In game two we went with Tom Acker (9-5, 3.74 ERA, 134.2 IP, 103 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) to go against Philly’s Curt Simmons (7-10, 4.07 ERA, 139.1 IP, 51 K’s, 1.43 WHIP). Willie Mays was quick to bat in a run in the top of the first with an RBI double, getting us going with a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, and Poppell scored a run off a Willie Mays flyout to right, giving us a 2-0 lead in the top of the third. Willie Mays added to his mamoth home run total, hitting a blast out to right in the top of the sixth to make it 3-0 with his 53rd of the season, and Al Kaline hit his 25th to add two more runs later in the inning. Acker completed the shutout with a pair of strikeouts and a flyout in the bottom of the ninth as we won our 20th game in a row, this time as a 5-0 victory. Acker won his 10th game of the season, improving to 10-5 with a 3.51 ERA in his rookie season as a major leaguer, allowing five hits and one walk while striking out seven. We had eight hits as a team, led by Mays with two hits, a run and three RBIs, while Kaline added two hits, a run and two RBIs. Poppell also walked for the 46th time in 353 at-bats, stealing two bases and reaching 109 stolen bases for the season on just 123 tries. He won’t qualify for any “full season” all-time records because he came up too late in the season, but it doesn’t matter -- he’s clearly had a season for the ages and that he’s done it in fewer than 100 games is absolutely incredible. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-25-2024, 07:13 PM	#290
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	SEPTEMBER 18, 1956 . . . We could tie our all-time longest win-streak tonight if we can find a way to beat the Giants on their field tonight -- they’re 64-81 but itching to play spoiler in any way possible. We play there tonight and tomorrow, and our magic number is at five, putting us incredibly close to clinching our third consecutive NL pennant. We’ll be doing it this series without the services of “Jackrabbit” Poppell, who has come down with an early case of the flu -- we’re going to be cautious and let him rest for this series and the one this weekend at Milwaukee. He’ll return to the lineup for next weeks’ final four home games. I want to rest Rogovin until tomorrow’s game, so we’re going with a second bullpen start for Carl Erskine (6-3, 3.87 ERA, 79.2 IP, 72 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) against the Giants’ right-handed starter Jack Sanford (3-6, 3.53 ERA, 119.2 IP, 60 K’s, 1.31 WHIP). Roger Maris will be batting leadoff, with Gene Baker in the number eight spot as our second baseman. And Maris, for the second game in a row batting leadoff, opened the game with a towering home run, giving us a 1-0 lead with just his 17th homer of the season! Though we got a couple runners on base after his blast, we didn’t add any damage, and the Giants came up to bat itching to put us in our place. Instead we added another solo blast in the top of the second, Del Crandall’s 17th homer of the year, to make it 2-0, and Erskine proved to be quite consistently able to keep them off balance from the mound. But Erskine helped them load the bases in the bottom of the third, a run scoring on a sac-fly by Bill White, and Norm Cash delivered an RBI single to tie it up! Maris got a base hit in the top of the fifth and stole second without a throw, coming around to to third with an outfield hit by Al Rosen. Willie Mays then pulled off a successful squeeze play to take first on a bunt, Maris coming home to score the go-ahead run! And with two outs, Ernie Banks hit a three-run blast into the left field stands, his 34th of the season, and suddenly this close battle had become a 6-2 Cubs lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. Don Demeter came in to pinch hit for Erskine in the top of the sixth and took his first major league base on balls, but wasn’t able to do anything with it as the next two batters struck out swinging, and Vern Law came in to pitch in the sixth with a four-run lead in his hands. The Giants were pissed off and hungry, however, and they came out swinging in the bottom of the sixth -- Don Blasingame hit an RBI single to cut our lead to three runs, but despite allowing two runners on base after that, Law held his ground and did not let them score further, and Jackie Robinson got the run back for us with a solo blast to right, giving him 35 home runs this season, sending us into the stretch with a 7-3 advantage. Del Crandall picked up a triple in the top of the eighth, scoring off a wild pitch to make it a five-run lead,, and with an out and a man on second in the bottom of the inning we brought in Steve Gromek to close things out, with Law reaching his physical limit. Ed Bailey took full advantage, hitting an RBI double to start what the Giants hoped could be a legitimate rally, but Gromek quickly got the next two outs to send us into the ninth leading by four. Willie Mays notched a triple with one out in the frame, and Kaline twisted the dagger, hitting his 26th homer of the year to put hopes of a Giants comeback to sleep while driving in a pair. Gromek wasted no time, getting three quick outs to finish the 10-4 win in style. That’s 21 in a row, folks! Our Cubs will have a chance to make club history tomorrow afternoon! Carl Erskine is now 7-3 with a 3.93 ERA, allowing six hits and two earned runs -- no walks, no strikeouts -- in a five inning effort. Vern Law then threw 58 pitches in 2.1 innings, allowing five hits, a walk and two earned runs, while Gromek then came in and gave us 1.2 innings with just one hit. Not a bad day by any stretch, let alone for a 36-year-old who played his whole career for Cleveland only to get ditched! He doesn’t have the strong pitches to be counted on in a tight situation, but he’s still capable of earning a living. As for our offense, we outhit them 13-12 in a slugfest, but our power won out yet again ... four homers and two triples! Maris, Mays, Kaline and Crandall each had two hits apiece, with Kaline and Banks combining for five RBIs. Not bad! Our magic number is now down to three, with this win and a loss by the Dodgers at home this evening against St. Louis, Brooklyn falling 12-5. The Yankees have lost two games in a row in the AL, but they still lead the Guardians by 8.5 games and have a magic number of one. The only way they don’t clinch is if they lose their final nine games and Cleveland win all of theirs. They’re on a tough road stretch right now, with three games this weekend, with sets against Boston and Baltimore, but their clinching is one of those inevitable facts of September baseball at this point. And local media here in Chicago are already salivating over a chance to see this Cubs lineup face the Bronx Bombers in October. SEPTEMBER 19, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (22-4, 2.03 ERA, 274.1 IP, 337 K’s, 0.80 WHIP) is ready to go today against Seth Morehead (14-14, 3.57 ERA, 244.2 IP, 152 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). Kaline’s batting leadoff for us today, with Maris batting seventh and Baker again hitting eighth and playing second base. Rogovin needs 12 strikeouts today to tie the all-time single-season strikeouts record ... can he do it? It was certainly set up to be a pitching duel, with both teams playing stellar defense and all the contact anyone could find was soft contact. By the time we got to the top of the fourth, Rogovin had three strikeouts, we’d outhit the Giants 2-1, but no one had scored a thing. Robinson got a base hit with an out in the top of the fourth, but Banks flew out to center and they walked Crandall, putting a runner in scoring position with Maris at the plate. Maris got a good hit, but it came off the bat slow and was an easy out at right -- two stranded. And Rogovin’s control lapsed to start the bottom of the inning, with Bill White picking up an infield hit and Norm Cash whallopping one out of the park at right, putting the Giants up 2-0, though Rogovin picked up another pair of strikeouts in getting out of the inning. Robinson picked up a double in the top of the sixth, reaching third on a single by Banks. Crandall flew out to left for our second of the inning, and it wasn’t deep enough for Robinson to take the jump. But Maris came through in a pinch, getting a hit just out into right field, driving in our first run! Rogovin stayed out for the bottom of the seventh but gave up a solo homer to Ed Bailey on his 99th pitch of the night to make it 3-1 Giants, and we decided to put Porterfield in, bringing his night to a close four strikeouts away from the record and he wasn’t happy about it ... I get it, he wanted to stay in and try for the win, but it’s not worth losing him for the playoffs or something stupid like that. Ernie Banks gave us a chance in the top of the eighth, hitting an RBI double to cut the Giants’ lead to one, and we went into the top of the ninth still trailing. Demeter took another walk, and Kaline hit a line drive to right, coming out with a double that put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with just one out! Al Rosen walked the bases loaded, and they walked Mays to tie it up! Their pitcher was in shambles, walking Robinson to put us in the lead, and they still didn’t pull him! Morehead stayed out there as Banks got a hit into right that added another, giving us a two-run lead in the top of the ninth, still just one out. Crandall and Maris popped out to end the frame, but I’d say it was downright criminal that they kept Morehead out there. What better way to say you have no bullpen? Koufax came in to close the game out for us, and he got us through with flying colors as we beat the Giants 5-3 and won our club-record 22nd consecutive game! Saul Rogovin finished with just five hits, three walks and eight strikeouts, allowing for three earned runs in a six-inning no decision. Porterfield gave us two no-hit innings with two strikeouts, earning the win as he improved to 5-3 with a 3.13 ERA. And Koufax saved his 22nd game, walking one batter but allowing no one into scoring position. He now has a 3.33 ERA through 78.1 innings, just two outs away from equaling his innings count from his rookie season. We outhit the Giants 10-5, but the Giants still had a chance had they not walked in two ninth-inning runs. Ernie Banks led our offense with three hits and two RBIs, while Robinson had two hits including his game-clinching homer, walking twice as well. SEPTEMBER 21, 1956 . . . Hy Cohen (30-3, 1.87 ERA, 283.1 IP, 275 K’s, 0.82 WHIP) got the start tonight, going up against Johnny Antonelli (19-12, 2.44 ERA, 280.2 IP, 141 K’s, 1.07 WHIP) in what may be his last start of the regular season. With a win tonight and a loss by the Dodgers we’d be able to clinch, and I know he relishes any chance he gets against another club’s ace to lock in and show his skills. And what a duel it turned into! Cohen capped four scoreless innings with a great double play that kept Milwaukee from getting anything going, and Antonelli had worked well with his fellow defenders to keep any of our five baserunners from scoring, even when in good position to do so. We had opportunities in the fifth, however. Willie Mays got himself a hit in the top of the inning and Robinson walked, but Banks was robbed of a hit by a spectacular diving catch by Bill Bruton out at center. Crandall walked the bases loaded with just the one out, and Roger Maris batted in a run with a single. But Gene Baker hit into a double play, so we had to settle for just the 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth, and it stayed that way into the seventh inning stretch, with Antonelli locking in and fighting to keep his team focused. We loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, but Banks hit into a fielder’s choice, with Antonelli getting the out at home though the bases remained loaded with two outs, and Crandall hit out to right field to get the Braves into the bottom of the ninth with one last chance to get on the board. Cohen struck out Johnny Logan, and Hank Aaron hit one into right field that the wind kept in, for an easy catch by Kaline for out number two. And Eddie Mathews hit one straight to Mays at center and we were able to get out of this one with another 1-0 victory! Cohen improved to 31-3 with a 1.82 ERA, allowing five hits with eight strikeouts and no walks in his 97-pitch complete game. We outhit the Braves 10-5, so it’s a testament to their stellar defense that we were stuck in a one-run game the whole way. Rosen and Maris were our two batters with two hits each, Mays scoring our only run and Maris driving it in. How’s that for symmetry? *The Yankees clinched the American League Pennant with a 7-2 win over the Red Sox on the road this afternoon.* We are now a win away from clinching ourselves, but Brooklyn wasn’t willing to help us. They blanked the Pirates this afternoon 4-0 to keep their dwindling hopes alive for at least twenty more hours. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-25-2024, 09:26 PM	#291
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	SEPTEMBER 22, 1956 . . . We found out this morning that Don Demeter, who has been getting a few chances to pinch-hit at the major league level this September, was named the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League’s MVP for his performances with the Burlington Bees (AA) this season. He hit .335 this year for the Bees, hitting 14 doubles, 10 triples and 45 homers, contributing 108 RBIs to the team which finished 69-57 this season. Nearly 21,000 fans showed up at County Stadium this afternoon on a blustery, cool, cloudy afternoon in Milwaukee, to see if their 67-81 Braves could hold us off from clinching and snap our absolutely insane 23-game winning streak (the only one longer in major league history was the 26-game streak set by the Giants in 1916). Camilo Pascual (13-8, 2.70 ERA, 196.2 IP, 136 K’s, 1.06 WHIP) started against Bob Turley (9-19, 4.58 ERA, 218.1 IP, 154 K’s, 1.52 WHIP). Roger Maris got us on the board in the top of the third with an RBI single into right, driving Baker in to score from third, and with the bases loaded moments later, Turley walked in a run, sending Robinson to first. Kaline batted in a third run with a single, and we went into the bottom of the inning with a solid three-run lead. Bruton made a bad throw to home after a Pascual ground out, allowing a run to score from third to make it 4-0, and Roger Maris batted him home with a single for a fifth run in the top of the fourth. An incredible confluence of poor pitching helped us add another run, two wild pitches and a flyout by Rosen all in one at-bat driving Maris in to score from third. Once the floodgates unleashed, there was no stopping us -- Jackie Robinson hit his 36th homerun of the season to drive in another pair, and we went into the bottom of the fourth leading 8-0 with a contingent of Cubs fans in the outfield already chanting “Clinch! Clinch!” Milwaukee got on the board with a Gene Woodling RBI double in the bottom of the sixth, but Rosen hit a two-run homer in the top of the eighth, his 19th of the year, and we had a 10-1 lead that was all but insurmountable. Al Kaline added a solo bomb in the top of the ninth, his 27th four-bagger of the season, and Pascual stayed in to complete the game as we beat the Braves 11-1, officially clinching the NL Pennant for the third year in a row and winning our 24th consecutive game! Pascual is now 14-8 with a 2.63 ERA, allowing eight hits tonight with two walks and a strikeout, with just one earned run after throwing 129 pitches. We outhit Milwaukee 11-8, led by Rosen with a hit, a run and three RBIs, alongside Robinson with the same. Roger Maris hit twice with two runs and two RBIs as well, and Kaline hit twice with a run and two RBIs. SEPTEMBER 23, 1956 . . . Tom Acker (10-5, 3.51 ERA, 143.2 IP, 110 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) started the final game against the Braves, facing Warren Spahn (11-21, 3.87 ERA, 262.2 IP, 119 K’s, 1.31 WHIP). This is our final road game of the year, and then we return to Wrigley for the final week of the regular season. Jackie Robinson got us on the board with an RBI double in the top of the first. Lots of guys were getting hits, but they were turning into easy pop-outs, thanks to the blistering 16 mile per hour wind blowing in from center that kept holding hits back. Very few were actually landing, and this one turned into a rare pitching duel that involved a lot of soft contact rather than one with gaudy strikeout totals. Al Kaline finally got one that broke past the wind barrier, hitting a powerful blast into left field in the top of the ninth to extend our lead to 2-0 with his 28th homer of the season, and Koufax came out for the bottom of the innning to finish the job, completing the game with an Eddie Mathews popout to left to give us the 2-0 victory and our 25th win in a row as we return to Wrigley. Acker allowed just one hit in eight innings, striking out seven and walking three, improving to 11-5 with a 3.32 ERA. Koufax came out and allowed a pair of hits but got the outs we needed and got his 23rd save of the year, giving himself a 3.29 ERA through 79.1 innings of work. We outhit the Braves just 5-3 on this inhospitable afternoon, led by Kaline who got three hits out of the leadoff position, scoring twice and driving in a run. Robinson contributed the other RBI for us, while Rosen picked up our other hit, walking three times but never getting anywhere. SEPTEMBER 25, 1956 . . . Saul Rogovin (22-4, 2.09 ERA, 280.1 IP, 345 K’s, 0.81 WHIP) pitched his final start of the season this afternoon at Wrigley in front of a standing room crowd, going up against St. Louis pitcher Larry Jackson (6-14, 3.90 ERA, 175.1 IP, 72 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). Jackie Robinson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first, his 37th of the season, to put us on the board. But St. Louis wasn’t gonna quit in this one, as Jim King hit a RBI double to get them on the board in the top of the second to pull within a pair. Ernie Banks walked in a run with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third to put us back up by three, and Jack Poppell hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth that put us up 5-1. A Jackie Robinson flyout to center scored another, and the Cardinals just threw in the towel -- Kaline hit an RBI single, Banks flew out to center for another, and we went into the top of the fifth leading in an all-too-familiar blowout, 8-1. Rogovin struck out Bill Sarni in the top of the fifth for his 349th strikeout of the season, tying the modern-day strikeout record of 349 set by Rube Waddell in 1904! In the top of the sixth, the Cardinals got a little bit to cheer about thanks to a solo homer by Frank Bolling, but the rally went nowhere. Rogovin struck out Jim King in the top of the seventh to break the modern record, striking out Lavern Grace for No. 351 before grounding out to end the inning. Steve Gromek came in for the ninth inning, after Rogovin handed the ball over and accepted a standing ovation from the sold-out crowd, and we won the game easily 8-2, tying the all-time win-streak record. Rogovin will finish his regular season with a stellar 23-4 record and a 2.09 ERA, striking out eight batters, walking two and giving up just five hits in eight innings, including two earned runs. Gromek remained perfect, getting three outs off soft contact to keep his unblemished ERA. We outhit the Cardinals 14-5, led by Robinson’s two hits, one run and four RBIs. Poppell, Mays and Kaline each hit three times as well. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-26-2024, 12:02 AM	#292
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	SEPTEMBER 26, 1956 . . . Robert Diehl (1-1, 3.69 ERA, 31.2 IP, 13 K’s, 1.36 WHIP) got the start today against Vinegar Bend Mizell (10-16, 4.39 ERA, 250.1 IP, 128 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). St. Louis got on the board first with an RBI single by Wally Moon, sending us into the bottom of the first inning with a rare deficit to overcome. The way the wind was blowing, Jim King had to get a lot of work in at left field, but he was phenomenal for the Cardinals early on as they fought to hold on to the lead by a thin tether. The two pitchers battled evenly until the bottom of the fifth, when Jackie Robinson got a hit up the middle with the bases loaded, driving in a pair to give us a 2-1 lead! But St. Louis answered the call -- with two outs and men on third in the top of the seventh, Orlando Cepeda hit a two-RBI single to put them back in control, sending us into the seventh inning stretch trailing 3-2. Carl Erskine came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, and he kept them honest with three quick outs, but we couldn’t find a hit either, sending us into the top of the ninth trailing by a run and needing to keep it that way. Groundout, strikeout, popout and we were into the bottom of the frame, needing at least a run if we wanted to own the record-breaking win streak. Erskine struck out, but Poppell got on base with an infield hit, but Rosen popped out to left! Poppell stole second, and then successfully took third while the pitcher was throwing a strike to Mays. With the count one ball two strikes, Mays swung for the fences ... but came out with a whiff and we lost this one 3-2 to the Cardinals, bringing an end to the streak but forever leaving the memory of this season tied with that of the Giants back in ’16! Robert Diehl took the loss, but threw seven innings with just four hits, striking out six but walking four and surrendering three runs. Erskine was excellent through two, with two strikeouts and nary a hit, giving him a 3.84 ERA now through 86.2 innings. We outhit the Cardinals 7-4 but they simply outhustled us, much more eager for their 47th win than we apparently were to get our 111th. Poppell picked up two hits, walked once and stole four bases, getting caught once, giving him 113 steals this season, while Robinson provided much-needed power, hitting twice and batting in a pair of runs. SEPTEMBER 29, 1956 . . . Two games left! Tonight we play the Cincinnati Redlegs, with Tom Acker (11-5, 3.32 ERA, 151.2 IP, 117 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) pitching against Don Drysdale (8-20, 4.46 ERA, 242.0 IP, 135 K’s, 1.44 WHIP). This one was a stalemate from the start, until the bottom of the fifth when Willie Mays smacked a hard-hit ball into center field, driving in two runs with a triple to put us up 2-0! Al Kaline batted in a third run a moment later, giving us a three-run lead heading into the sixth inning. Ted Kluszewski hit a solo bomb in the top of the seventh to get the Redlegs on the board, but Gus Bell hit into a double play to end the rally. Koufax came in for the final inning, and promptly gave up a solo homer to Kluszewski, his second of the game, to pull the Redlegs within one, but Sandy was spot on from there and was able to get around a single baserunner to keep Cincinnati from forging a comeback. We won this one 3-2 and will head into the final game of the season on a defensive high note. Acker improved to 12-5 for the season, with his final ERA resting at 3.21. He went eight innings with just four hits, a walk, a strikeout and an earned run, while Koufax netted his 24th save, with two hits and an earned run to put his ERA at 3.36. We had eight hits to their six, led by Mays who hit three times with a run and two RBIs. Poppell had a walk, a stolen base and a run scored, and Al Rosen added a hit, a walk and a run. SEPTEMBER 30, 1956 . . . Carl Erskine (7-3, 3.84 ERA, 86.2 IP, 74 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) will start his third game of the season in tonight’s final game, making his 47th appearance as a Cub, going up against Bobby Shantz (10-17, 5.44 ERA, 228.1 IP, 97 K’s, 1.49 WHIP). Erskine has been hot for the last month, but in the top of the second Nellie Fox hit a two-RBI single to put the Redlegs up 2-0. So Jackie Robinson came out and hit a solo bomb to lead off the bottom of the second, his 38th longball of the year, so we went into the third only trailing 2-1. Erskine got a base hit to start the bottom of the third, and Poppell followed suit, bringing up Rosen who quietly loaded the bases with a hit into right field. That’s when Willie Mays came out and hit his 54th home run, a grand slam that put us in the drivers’ seat 5-2! With the bases loaded again in the bottom of the fifth, Al Kaline walked in a run and then Maris walked in another, and then Del Crandall walked in a third as the Redlegs’ reliever melted down completely. Erskine then did the most un-Pitcher-like thing, and came out with some power, hitting our second grand slam of the game to officially bring the fans to complete pandemonium. Just like that we were up 12-2 heading into the top of the sixth. The Redlegs got a pair of runs back in the top of the sixth with a two-run homer by Hobie Landrith, but Jackie Robinson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the inning, his second of the game, and Jack Poppell hit a line drive into right with the bases loaded that drove in two more runs. Willie Mays hit into right to score three more with a triple, and this rout was like no other -- a three run triple and two grand slams in one game! Vern Law came in to close things out, and we went into the stretch leading 20-4. Crandall batted in a run in the bottom of the seventh, and in the bottom of the eighth Willie Mays hit a double that completed the cycle! Johnny Temple grounded out but drove in a run for the Redlegs in the bottom of the ninth, but it didn’t matter -- we won this one by a margin that looked more like a football game, beating Cincinnati 21-5 to close out this season with a 112-42 record. Carl Erskine finished the season with an 8-3 record and a 3.98 ERA, allowing four hits through eight innings with a walk, two strikeouts and four earned runs, while Law came in for a three-inning “save” to allow just one hit, one walk, one strikeout and one earned run to give him a 4.59 ERA through 33.1 innings since being acquired at the deadline. We scored our 21 runs on 15 hits, easily led by Willie Mays, who hit for the cycle, getting four hits, three runs and seven RBIs out of this one. Jackie Robinson also hit two homers, walking twice as well to score three times and drive in four runs. Mays finishes the year with 176 RBIs, just 15 away from the record Hack Wilson set back in 1930. The World Series will begin here in Chicago on October 3, with games against the Yankees in New York on the 6th, 7th and (if game five is necessary) the 8th. We’d then return to Chicago for games six and seven if needed on the 10th and 11th. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-26-2024, 12:04 AM	#293
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	Here are the final standings for the 1956 MLB season: Attached Images __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-26-2024, 12:06 AM	#294
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	Postseason Tidbits 1. Jackie Robinson finished the year as the NL’s batting champion! He finished with a .333 average while slugging .693, thanks to 42 doubles, 24 triples and 39 homers, nearly matching his home run total from last year! He finishes the year with 13.1 batting WAR, and will easily be a frontrunning contender for the NL’s MVP award. 2. Willie Mays, at 25, finally has himself a Home Run title, having hit 54 this season, ten more than either Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams, who tied for second in the race. We’ll get to see how he does against Mantle during the upcoming World Series, but Mays already has 190 homers in just six seasons as a major leaguer, and this year he hit .322 and slugged .670, adding 27 doubles and 14 triples to his tally as well as putting up 11.6 batting WAR -- hitting for his first cycle at the very end of the season was just an added bonus. 3. Hy Cohen had 31 wins this year, the most in the majors, but Sal Maglie gave him a run for it, winning 27 for Brooklyn, while Connie Johnson finished with 24. It was a tight race in the NL for pitchers, and is likely to be a brutal race for the Cy Young -- multiple pitchers in the National League all have resumes that would be worthy of the award in any other year, and Johnson had a much stronger finish to his season than Cohen did. Johnson finished 24-6 with a 1.50 ERA, 312.0 innings pitched, 330 strikeouts and an 0.75 WHIP, finishing with a staggering 18.6 WAR, while Cohen finished a distant second with 13.9 WAR to go with a 31-3 record, 1.82 ERA, 292.1 innings pitched, 283 strikeouts and an 0.81 WHIP. Though Sal Maglie and Saul Rogovin also had seasons that would have deserved merit in any other season, it’s hard to think the race isn’t between Cohen and Johnson -- and Johnson’s performance looks likely to win him the award in a landslide. 4. Sandy Koufax’s season wasn’t as impressive as his freshman run last year, but he did put up the most saves of any pitcher in the majors, with 24, ten more than any other reliever, which would have put him in the running for reliever of the year had he not finished with negative pitching WAR. He finished with a 5-7 record and a 3.36 ERA, down from last year because we initially tried to use him as a starter, when it’s now clear he needs to be in the bullpen where he can develop his control and work his way up to the starting role if his skills improve. He put together a resume that included 80.1 innings of work in 52 appearances, but his WHIP of 1.33 and a home run rate of 1.5 per nine innings make him a continued work in progress. He did lead the majors with 29 shutdowns, which suggests once his control improves he’ll be a very lethal option. 5. In an era where pitchers go the distance on a regular basis, there aren’t as many opportunities for multi-reliever games where holds become a factor. But our team has the three best “setup men” in the game right now, with Hersh Freeman, Larry Jansen and Vern Law, who each had four holds this season. And Carl Erskine had three, putting himself in the conversation. Yes, the way the league plays right now you expect your starters to play the bulk of the innings, but a big reason we’ve dominated the last three seasons has been our ability to put together a winning bullpen. 6. A final note on pitching: Camilo Pascual finished a close second to Pittsburgh’s Hank Aguirre in pitching BAPIP, with batters hitting .201 against him all year, while Aguirre held batters to a .192 average. Pascual has improved in his second season in the majors, though he was often overshadowed by the flashier duo of Cohen and Rogovin. This season he started in 31 games, going 14-8 with a 2.63 ERA, while striking out 137 batters. And though his WHIP and strikeout totals dropped and he didn’t contribute the flashy WAR numbers he did last season, his ERA improved four points to 2.63, his BAPIP improved from .263, and his ERA+ went up from 139 to 141. He’s only 22, and even though he may never be the anchor of our rotation, he’s got the middle locked down. 7. Then there’s the legend of “Jackrabbit” Poppell. Signed from the Crestview Braves in the Alabama-Florida League, Poppell clearly had talent -- the fact that we spent almost a month bidding on his services against the likes of Boston and New York bears that out. But no one, including myself, thought that he would, once unleashed, become the basepath-chewing juggernaut he did in his rookie season. Once I realized he could steal bases at such a clip, while only being caught 12 percent of the time, I gave him the green light and let him dominate the leadoff spot. The 23-year-old only played in 88 games, batting 372 times, but he put up numbers the likes of which I’m unsure he’ll be able to sustain -- he hit .274/.367/.293, so purely a contact game, but he only struck out 47 times, walking 48. And once on base, he was a machine, stealing 114 bases and only getting caught 15 times! If he doesn’t win Rookie of the Year I’ll be stunned, because his legs alone were good for 5.2 WAR. Can he do it again next year now that every pitcher in the National League knows what he’s up to? It’s also easy to forget he’s a solid second baseman as well defensively, fielding in 788.2 innings with 133 putouts, 231 assists, 48 double plays, and only five errors, good for a +8.7 zone rating. 8. As a team we didn’t have a ton of fielding stats stand out competitively against the rest of the league, but for catcher Del Crandall, whose 48.8% caught stealing rate led both leagues by at least four percent! The rest of his fielding stats don’t particularly stand out, but he’s efficient and he has a great arm and a ton of ability at the position, and he’s still among the top defensive catchers in the National League. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about, feel free to drop me a reply! - - - - - 1956 Chicago Cubs Playoff Roster BATTERS C - Del Crandall 1B - Al Rosen 2B - Jack Poppell 3B - Jackie Robinson SS - Ernie Banks LF - Roger Maris CF - Willie Mays RF - Al Kaline *Bench: Less Moss (C), Ed Bouchee (1B), Gene Baker (2B), Joe Brovia (LF), Dick Whitman (LF), Daniel Howard (RF) STARTERS Hy Cohen Saul Rogovin Camilo Pascual Tom Acker BULLPEN CL - Sandy Koufax ST - Carl Erskine SE - Vern Law MR: Hersh Freeman, Bob Porterfield LR: Bob Purkey LR: Larry Jansen __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World* -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds) Last edited by jksander; 01-26-2024 at 02:09 AM.

01-26-2024, 02:30 PM	#295
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	OCTOBER 3, 1956 WORLD SERIES GAME ONE New York Yankees (0-0) at Chicago Cubs (0-0) 1:05 PM -- Wrigley Field ... Attendance: 45,146 Weather: Clear Skies, 60 Degrees ... Wind blowing right to left at 10 miles per hour NEW YORK STARTER: Allie Reynolds (22-6, 2.39 ERA, 275.1 IP, 133 K’s, 1.01 WHIP) CHICAGO STARTER: Hy Cohen (31-3, 1.82 ERA, 292.1 IP, 283 K’s, 0.81 WHIP) The Yankees came up to bat first in this, our first playoff matchup as foes since the 1938 World Series. Cohen is facing Allie Reynolds, the Yankees’ 39-year-old veteran who still has a plus fastball and whose incredible control and movement have made this the best year of his career in almost every metric. In the top of the first, Gil McDougald got himself a base hit with one out, but Mantle batted his ball straight to Mays in center and Roy Sievers struck out swinging. Good start, Cubbies! Al Rosen dropped a hit into center with one out and came out of it with a triple, and Mays hit a perfect weak hit into the no-man’s land between pitcher and shortstop, reaching base safely and driving in our first run! Robinson batted into a double play to end the inning, but we’d gotten ourselves into the lead quickly. But the Yankees answered in the top of the third with a solo blast by the Mick, tying the score up 1-1, and Roy Sievers put them up 2-1 with a blast immediately after. Cohen bunted successfully for a hit to start the bottom of the inning, but he was picked off on a fielder’s choice that put Poppell on base the next at-bat, and Poppell was picked off trying to steal second. But Rosen and Mays got back-to-back hits, Mays’ RBI triple getting us tied up again at 2-2 heading into the top of the fourth. Allie Reynolds hit a double in the top of the fourth that put two Yankees in scoring position with two outs, but Cohen got leadoff-man Minnie Minoso to groundout to first, keeping it knotted. Former Yankee prospect Roger Maris then put his mark on the game in the bottom of the inning, blasting a two-run homer into the throng of Bleacher Bums, giving us a 4-2 lead -- that’s his first postseason homer! Hank Thompson committed an error at third on a bobbled catch, allowing Hy Cohen to take his base, putting Crandall in scoring position, but Jack Poppell hit into a double play that kept us from blowing this one wide. Bottom of the fifth, another run scored off a sac-fly by Robinson, and Cohen got us through the sixth despite putting a runner in scoring position. Cohen got us into the stretch with our 5-2 lead still intact, and Carl Erskine came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, easily sitting Yogi Berra, Archie Wilson and Hank Thompson down without breaking a sweat. He stayed out to pitch in the top of the ninth, giving up a double to John Hunton and getting pinch-hitter Eddie Robinson to bat himself out at center. Minoso grounded out to first, holding Hunton on third, and Gil McDougald flew out to right to end the game as a 5-2 Cubs victory! Hy Cohen picked up the playoff win, allowing seven hits with four strikeouts, two walks and a pair of earned runs, throwing 126 pitches and giving himself a 2.57 ERA. Erskine, meanwhile, picked up his first playoff save, lasting two innings with just the one hit, keeping his ERA perfect through 18 pitches. The Yankees had their two homers, thanks to Mantle and Sievers, but we played better team ball, outhitting them 14-8, led by Willie Mays, who hit three times and batted in a pair, while Roger Maris hit twice for a run and two RBIs as well. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-26-2024, 02:58 PM	#296
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	OCTOBER 4, 1956 WORLD SERIES GAME TWO New York Yankees (0-1) at Chicago Cubs (1-0) 1:05 PM -- Wrigley Field ... Attendance: 45,366 Weather: Clear Skies, 57 Degrees ... Wind blowing out to right at 9 miles per hour NEW YORK STARTER: Whitey Ford (16-7, 3.46 ERA, 244.2 IP, 153 K’s, 1.32 WHIP) CHICAGO STARTER: Saul Rogovin (23-4, 2.09 ERA, 288.1 IP, 353 K’s, 0.82 WHIP) The Yankees were the first to score in the second game of the Series, Hank Thompson hitting a solo blast into right in the top of the second to put the Bronx Bombers up 1-0, and Whitey Ford lived up to his reputation, proving to be incredibly difficult to hit. Depite the weather favoring hitters, both pitchers kept the environment fully pressurized, and that homer by Thompson remained an outlier deep into the game. Mays had a base hit in the bottom of the fourth, just our third of the game, but was left stranded. Kaline got himself an infield hit to start the bottom of the fifth, but he was picked off on a fielder’s choice that put Maris on first and then Del Crandall hit into a double play. For the third inning in a row we led off with a hit in the bottom of the sixth, this time Rogovin successfully bunting to take his base, and this time we did something with it -- Al Rosen hit a homer into right field to suddenly put us in the lead 2-1! In the top of the seventh, Rogovin put Sievers and Berra in scoring position, then struck out pinch-hitter Charlie Maxwell and Hank Thompson, completing the escape with a strikeout of Ford to get out of the inning and into the stretch still holding our one-run lead. With a runner on, Mantle had a chance to put the Yankees back up, but he popped out to short and ended the inning with their time running out. The Yankees came up to bat again in the top of the ninth still trailing by a run, but Rogovin gave up a solo blast to Sievers to tie things up, and suddenly this game was anyone’s again. Berra took his base on balls, but Archie Wilson struck out swinging. Thompson walked, and then Grady Hatton struck out for the second out, bringing up Bob Cerv to pinch hit. He popped out to center, however, ending the inning knotted up 2-2, with the heart of our order coming up to bat! Willie Mays swung for the fences and narrowly missed out on a homer, but the carom off the Ivy worked well enough to get him a triple. Robinson popped out to short, Banks walked, and then Kaline got an infield hit, but they squeezed Mays out at home plate leaving us Banks and Kaline on base with Maris coming up to bat. Maris got off a hit into center, and we gave Banks the signal to go for home and he made it in headfirst ... SAFE! CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN! We’re heading now to New York with a 2-0 series lead after the incredible 3-2 victory! Saul Rogovin came out of this one with the win, after thinking it was gonna go to extras and Koufax. He only allowed six hits through nine innings, walking three and striking out 11 batters while giving up just two earned runs. His ERA sits now at 2.00. We outhit the Yankees 9-6 in a tight battle, led by Al Rosen, who hit twice for a run and two RBIs, while Roger Maris had another great game with two hits and an RBI. Right now Rosen is hitting .750 through two playoff games, while Mays is batting .675 and Maris is .500, leading the team with three RBIs. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-26-2024, 03:36 PM	#297
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	OCTOBER 6, 1956 WORLD SERIES GAME THREE Chicago Cubs (2-0) at New York Yankees (0-2) 1:05 PM -- Yankee Stadium ... Attendance: 46,373 Weather: Partly Cloudy, 58 Degrees ... Wind blowing in from right at 12 miles per hour CHICAGO STARTER: Camilo Pascual (14-8, 2.63 ERA, 205.2 IP, 137 K’s, 1.06 WHIP) NEW YORK STARTER: Harvey Haddix (26-7, 3.09 ERA, 285.1 IP, 174 K’s, 1.16 WHIP) Jack Poppell got things started quickly with a double in the top of the first, stealing third for his first playoff steal, and then Al Rosen got a hit just out into center to drive him home with a single! Just like that, by 1:10 p.m., we had ourselves a 1-0 lead on the Yankees on their field. But Mickey Mantle grounded into a double play in the bottom of the inning, yet Minnie Minoso was still able to score from third to tie it up. And the Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the third with a three-run blast by Mickey Mantle, putting them ahead 4-1 and really setting this place on fire. Yogi Berra hit another just moments later, a two-run blast that made it 6-1, and we were on the ropes. Jackie Robinson got us going in the top of the sixth with a two-run homer to pull us within three runs, and we brought Erskine out to pitch in the sixth, with Pascual already at 100 throws. Rosen got a shot into center field in the top of the eighth and eked out a double, and then the ump called a balk on Haddix -- his second of the game! -- and Rosen moved over to third with no outs. Robinson flew out to center for our second out of the inning, but Rosen made it home safely to make it 6-4! Vern Law came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, getting three outs in quick succession to keep us at least in this one. Top of the ninth: Kaline grounds out to first. Maris gets robbed at the wall with a leaping catch by Minoso. Crandall grounds out to first, and that’s it for us, the Yankees take this one 6-4 and cut our lead in the series to 2-1. Pascual struggled, allowing five hits with three walks and just four strikeouts through five innings, allowing six earned runs for a miserable 10.80 ERA. Erskine only allowed one hit with two strikeouts in his two innings, and Law had a perfect final frame, but digging a five-run hole on the road has consequences. Each team hit six times in the game, our team led by Rosen, who hit twice for a run and an RBI to keep his average at .667 in the series, while Robinson hit the homer that got us back into the game, finishing with a hit, a run and three RBIs, though he’s been struggling to find consistent hits. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-26-2024, 03:59 PM	#298
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	OCTOBER 7, 1956 WORLD SERIES GAME FOUR Chicago Cubs (2-1) at New York Yankees (1-2) 1:05 PM -- Yankee Stadium ... Attendance: 46,445 Weather: Cloudy, 56 Degrees ... Wind blowing in from center at 14 miles per hour CHICAGO STARTER: Hy Cohen (1-0, 2.57 ERA, 7.0 IP, 4 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) NEW YORK STARTER: Hal Brown (16-9, 2.67 ERA, 232.2 IP, 98 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) Both pitchers were locked in to start this one, and the crowd was in it a hundred percent, making this the loudest atmosphere of any game we’ve played all year. We got back to back hits in the top of the third with the score still at zero, but Jackie Robinson batted out to center and we remained scoreless heading into the bottom of the inning. Kaline got on base in the top of the fourth, and Maris dropped one safely in between the left and center fielders in deep left, driving in our first run with a triple ... Cubs up 1-0! But in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded, Cohen walked in Hank Thompson for the tying run, and Earl Rapp hit a two-run single into right to put them up 3-1 before he could get the final out on strikes. Erskine came out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh with the lead still at two for the Yanks, getting the outs we needed to stay in this one. Jackie Robinson led off with a double in the top of the eighth, and Kaline hit a line drive into right to bring Robinson home and cut the Yankees’ lead to one with a double of his own. Banks singled, driving Kaline to third, and Roger Maris hit a huge RBI single to tie the game, still no outs, and then the rain started falling and the ump stopped the game! After a delay, Gene Baker came up to pinch hit for Erskine, one out, men on the corners. Norton tried to grab the ball, but couldn’t make the throw to first, and Baker reached safely, driving in the go-ahead run! These Yankee fans are apoplectic out there, and Norton’s not going to have a great night on the town if we keep this lead. Jack Poppell kept it going, getting a deep hit into center that bounced off the wall and allowed him to leg out a triple! That drove in another pair and just like that we’re up by three heading into the bottom of the eighth after a massive five-run inning. Koufax came in to pitch and got things going by striking out Hatton, and Hank Thompson batted out to center, a great catch by Willie Mays! A groundout by Archie Wilson got us into the top of the ninth, and we could feel the win ... just one more inning! A Kaline infield single was all we’d get in the top of the inning, so Koufax came back out to protect the three-run lead in the final frame. Pinch-hitter Hank Sauer walked, but lead-off man Minosa hit into a double play. McDougald kept the Yankees’ hopes alive with a single into right, and Mantle walked to put a run in scoring position. But Sauer popped up to Rosen for the final out of the game and we came out of this one with a come-from-behind 6-3 victory! Hy Cohen gave us six great innings, with just four hits and seven strikeouts, but he walked seven guys and gave up three runs, so we had to bring in Erskine, who got the win with one inning of two strikeout two walk no hit baseball. Sandy Koufax was stellar in his two innings of work, with one hit, one strikeout and two walks as he picked up his first playoff save! We outhit the Yankees 16-5 so the game really shouldn’t have been as close as it was. Kaline led the team with three hits, two runs and an RBI, and Mays and Maris each had three hits (with Maris picking up a pair of RBIs). One more game in New York, with us leading 3-1 ... can we close it out and win it here, or will the series return to Wrigley? __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds) Last edited by jksander; 01-26-2024 at 04:00 PM.

01-26-2024, 04:44 PM	#299
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	OCTOBER 8, 1956 WORLD SERIES GAME FIVE Chicago Cubs (3-1) at New York Yankees (1-3) 1:05 PM -- Yankee Stadium ... Attendance: 46,593 Weather: Partly Cloudy, 57 Degrees ... Wind blowing in from right at 14 miles per hour CHICAGO STARTER: Tom Acker (12-5, 3.21 ERA, 159.2 IP, 118 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) NEW YORK STARTER: Allie Reynolds (0-1, 5.62 ERA, 8.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.88 WHIP) With two outs in the top of the first, Willie Mays got a hit into the right field corner, coming out of it with a double, but Jackie Robinson grounded out to first, keeping us from drawing early blood. And Acker gave up a homer to Minosa on just the fourth hit of the game, bringing the Yankees fans in this place to their feet. He loaded the bases, then struck out Yogi Berra, holding all the runners again as Howard popped out to right. He then walked in a run via Hank Thompson to make it 2-0, finally getting out of it with a popout to short. One inning, 34 pitches, two runs for the Yankees. Banks, Maris and Crandall each got hits with just one out in the top of the second, however, loading the bases for us only for Acker and Poppell to come up empty. But we made up for it in the top of the third, with Rosen getting a base hit followed by a long-ball by Mays that tied the score 2-2! Rosen had a chance to put us up in the top of the fourth, but he popped out to short to come up empty. But Acker stepped up his game as we played on, and Ernie Banks got a hit into left that loaded the bases again for us in the top of the fifth, and we took the lead on a wild pitch, going up 3-2. We had them on the ropes in the top of the sixth, when Al Kaline hit a run-scoring single that extended the lead to 4-2, but the Yankees got one back in the bottom of the frame thanks to Charlie Maxwell, and we went into the seventh inning holding a one-run lead. Carl Erskine came in for the bottom of the seventh, with Acker having thrown over 110 pitches, and New York took advantage -- Mickey Mantle hit an RBI single to tie the game with two outs, tying the game at 4-4. Poppell got on base with a single in the top of the eighth, stealing second and then advancing to third on a groundout by Rosen. They intentionally walked Mays, but Robinson popped out to center and drove Poppell in from third to put us back up 5-4. Kaline batted in another with a single, sending us into the bottom of the eighth with a two run lead, with Larry Jensen coming in to pitch. Jensen struggled almost immediately, and with Vern Law trying to warm up quickly, pinch-hitter Bob Cerv hit a two-run double to tie things up again 6-6. Law came in with one out and men on the corners, and McDougald batted out to center while Cerv held at third, followed by Mickey Mantle hitting a blast straight to Mays for the final out. With two outs in the top of the ninth, Law got himself a hit into left, taking first safely, but Poppell struck out swinging. With two outs and Roy Sievers and Hank Thompson on second and first respectively, Law pitched to Grady Hatton, putting him on first via balls to load the gun. Bob Cerv, who had stayed in to play right field, then hit it to third, and Robinson made a great throw to first, getting the out and putting us into extra innings. We went nowhere in the top of the tenth, and Law tried to stay out, putting runners on first and second before we brought Koufax in ... belatedly, I’ll admit. And the decision proved costly, as Koufax loaded the bases, though the runners all held on a popout by Sievers to Rosen. Yogi Berra wound up being the man to put the dagger in, getting a walk-off hit into center field and giving the Yankees the 7-6 lead. This one’s on me as a manager -- we outhit the Yanks 14-9 and still kept finding ways to lose. We’ll head back to Chicago and hope the friendly confines of Wrigley help us finish what we’ve started. Acker did everything he could to help build a foundation, coming back from that opening at-bat homer to give us six innings with just two hits, four walks, four strikeouts and three runs (two earned). But Erskine and Jensen each blew save opportunities, and Vern Law took the loss, giving up an unearned run with two hits two walks and a strikeout in 1.2 innings of work. Jansen, with two earned runs and just one completed out, took in his first playoff relief appearance and wasn’t at all up to the task -- and he’s taking it hard. As for our bats, Rosen, Mays, Banks Maris and Crandall each had two hits, with Mays leading the way with two runs and two RBIs as well. Robinson and Kaline each batted in runs, but we just didn’t have anything left for the extra inning. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

01-26-2024, 05:15 PM	#300
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,626	OCTOBER 10, 1956 WORLD SERIES GAME SIX New York Yankees (2-3) @ Chicago Cubs (3-2) 1:05 PM -- Wrigley Field ... Attendance: 45,320 Weather: Partly Cloudy, 51 Degrees ... Wind blowing in from center at 10 miles per hour NEW YORK STARTER: Whitey Ford (0-0, 2.25 ERA, 8.0 IP, 3 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) CHICAGO STARTER: Saul Rogovin (1-0, 2.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.00 WHIP) New York came out fired up, and Mickey Mantle hit his third homer of the series out into the bleachers, putting the Yankees up 2-0 in the top of the first. In the bottom of the second, Kaline reached second on a throwing error with one out, Maris walked, and then Crandall hit a line drive into deep left, loading the bases. Rogovin popped one out to center, but it was deep enough for Kaline to score from third, and Poppell loaded the bases again with a walk, bringing up Rosen with a chance to do some damage. Alas, he struck out, and we went into the top of the third trailing still 2-1. Bottom of the fifth: Poppell hits one deep into the right field corner, high and slow to fall, and he had plenty of time to leg out a triple. But Rosen hit into a fielder’s choice, with Whitey Ford aiming squarely for Poppell, getting the tag out at home. Damn it! Banks reached base on a double in the bottom of the sixth, but again we came up empty. Rogovin struck out his 10th batter in the top of the seventh, and liked it so much he struck out two more around a single hit by McDougald, to get us into the stretch still trailing by one run. Rogovin tied the NL Playoff strikeout record with his 13th K in the top of the eighth, but he’d thrown 155 pitches and we had to pull him with one out, men on first and second, bringing in Bob Porterfield to try and will us to the win. And he did his job, getting the last two outs by high flies out at center and left, giving us a shot heading into the bottom of the eighth. With two outs, Willie Mays got a good hit off Ford for a single, and Banks then hit one deep into center, bouncing off the Ivy and giving Robinson time to make it to third! Kaline came up bat, still two outs, but Mantle made an easy catch at center and we went into the top of the ninth still down by one. Carl Erskine came out to pitch in the top of the inning, and with one out the Yanks bought some insurance -- Minoso hit a deep blast out at left and the Yanks had a 3-1 lead, though Erskine was able to strike out Mantle and Robinson to send us into the bottom of the inning needing two to tie, three to win. And we couldn’t find a hit. The Chairman of the Board shut us down and New York’s pushed us into a game seven with all the marbles on the line, beating us here 3-1. Rogovin took the loss, but by God he gave us everything he had. The Yankees got eight hits off him and walked four times, but he struck out 13 batters, threw 155 pitches and gave up only two earned runs. Erskine allowed the only other hit, striking out a pair but giving up the final run of the game in the process. The Bronx Bombers outhit us 9-6 this time out, with Ernie Banks being the only man who could hit off Ford twice. Saul Rogovin batted in our only run of the game, and Al Kaline scored it. Ford wound up pitching a complete game, and the run he surrendered was unearned, so his World Series ERA this season will be just 1.06. Hy Cohen will get his third start of the series on four days’ rest as we try and survive this latest challenge ... expect the unexpected, and a packed standing-room crowd, when game seven tips off tomorrow afternoon! __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)