1956 NL APBA Replay, End Of May Report !

Joe went yard 16 times in May!

May is over in the happy alternate universe of my 1956 National League replay. Joe Adcock set (or tied... can't find what the record was in 1956, but I know he at least tied it) the NL mark for home runs in a month with a whopping 16 long balls! Go, Joe!

The standings through May 31st, 1956: 

MIL  29-11  ---
BRK 27-15  3
CIN  26-15  3.5
STL  23-20  7.5
PHI  17-23  12
NYG 17-27  14
PIT  15-29  16
CHI  14-28  16

Best teams in May: MIL 20-8, CIN 20-9
Worst: NYG 9-21 despite winning their last three.

PITCHING
MIL 1.80 (most cg 19, least RA 89, least HR 24)
BRK 3.24
PIT 3.48
PHI 3.49 (least K's 163)
CIN 3.55 
NYG 3.91 (tied most K's 222)
STL 4.08 (tied most K's 222, most HR 44)
CHI 4.63 (least cg 7, most RA 209) 

BATTING
CIN .283 (most runs 224)
BRK .259 (most doubles 76, most steals 23, most GIDP 35)
STL .258 
MIL .229 (most HR 52, least CS 5)
PHI .228 (least HR 23)
PIT .223 (least runs 120, least steals 1, most CS 14)
NYG .218 (least triples 6)
CHI .218 (least doubles 36, most triples 18, least GIDP 17) 

FIELDING
Fielding has been superb league-wide; not sure why except that there are very few "1" starting outfielders, and most of the pitchers are "2." STL and BRK have the least errors with 23, but four teams also have less than 30, NY has 31 and PIT has the most at 36. STL and CHI have turned the most DP's with 39, and BRK the least with 28. 

The TEAMS

MIL--Two things have the Braves in first place: their unbelievably good pitching, and the power bat of Joe Adcock. Apart from him, the team didn't hit well in May, with Aaron disappearing from the batting leaders (leader board to follow team reports) and dipping below .300 at .297. Del Crandall vanished as well, slumping and also spending some time on the shelf with an injury. Del "Rice Is Nice" Rice just isn't the same. Billy Bruton suffered through an awful month, seeing his average settle at a horrible .156 for the season. In May, he scored only 2 runs and has 9 for the season, batting lead-off! Andy Pafko (.318 in 44 ab's) will be seeing starts in center against lefties starting in June. Eddie Mathews (5, 17, .228) Johnny Logan (.230) and Bobby Thomson (4,10,.188) just aren't doing enough. But the pitching is sublime! Only one pitcher--Ray Crone, at 4.50--has an e.r.a. above 2.92! 

He's didn't get there for getting doubled up!

BRK--The Bums have been nagged with injuries to some of their second-tier players, and in some ways are showing the team's age, but still and all, they are one tough bunch. Don Newcombe has fireballed his way to an 8-1 log, while Don Bessent (2-2 0.92) has put out any fires that arise. Jackie Robinson fell just 4 at bats short of qualifying for the leaders with his stellar .337 average to go with being 7 out of 9 in steals. They have needed Jackie due to injuries to third sacker Ransom Jackson (.282) and flyhawk Sandy Amoros (.261) who faded in May after his excellent April. Reserve Dick Williams (2,5,.319) made the GIDP leaders despite only having 47 ab's! He keeps muttering something about wanting to manage.

Klu is dreaming of a 16-hopper through the infield!

CIN--After an uninspiring 6-6 April, the Redlegs exploded in May! Frank Robinson went from .209 to .340, and wore out NL pitching with his extra base power. Big Klu continues to lead the league in BA at  a gaudy .382 despite having only 2 homers all year. "I'm a slap hitter!" he crowed. Speaking of, his caddy Big George Crowe went 0-for-17 for the month and is hitting .071 with no homers. After George ate some bad bird seed, and Klu fell off an embankment, Stan Palys had to play first base for a few games and responded with 1,7 and .286. Even shortstop Roy McMillan went insane, lifting his average to a nifty .333 with 26 runs and 23 rbi from the 8th spot. The Rhinelanders smoked the league with a 20-8 record. Let's see if they can continue their winning ways. Klu coming back on June 1st should only make them scarier.

The man with the total 1950s baseball name.

STL--Like scoring? This is your team. The Redbirds have scored 195 runs and surrendered 188 so far. Let's start with the pitching staff, which except for acquisition Murry Dickson (3-2 2.92 as a Card) is in complete disarray. Already, nine different chuckers have toed the slab for St. Louis, and they join the sad-sack Cubs as the only staffs with ERA's above 4. When your "ace" is Tom Poholsky (5-4 3.54) it will be a long season. The Cards have a triple threat in the middle of the order, consisting of Ken Boyer (7,35,.318), Stan Musial (8,32,.304) and Wally Moon (7,19,.289) who have accounted for all but 7 of the team's homers so far.  Catcher "Cura" Smith has been limited to 61 ab's due to injury, but he boasts 2, 17, and .426! On the down side, All Name Team captain Rip Repulski languishes with 1, 10, and .195.

"Field goal!"

PHI--The league has divided neatly into the haves and the have nots. Now we begin with the nots. The Phillies are not a terrible team, and would be a lot better if Del "The Black Hole" Ennis would improve upon his 2, 12, and .188 stinko numbers. Stan Lopata (10 homers) and Granville "Granny" Hamner (29 rbi) have tried. First sacker Blaylock went insane in May, raising his average to a salutary .312, but with only 13 rbi. These Quakers just don't score. Lead-off man Richie Ashburn, coming off a dreadful .149 April, got as far as .216 for the season in May, but that's still not nearly enough. Of course, handing half their rotation to St. Louis didn't help. Skipper Mayo Smith babbles that he dreamed he won the World Series. Yeah sure, Mayo, what ever you say! 

"I am made of cardboard but i KNOW if you try to bat me lead-off!"

NYG--the Giants placed a very respectable third in April, but the wheels came off in May as they dropped 21 of 27 before sweeping three at Pittsburgh to end the month. Bill White, the scourge of the National League in April, dropped off the map in May. Hank Thompson (6,21, .279) took the first two weeks off, though his body kept going up to bat without him, before waking up in the latter half of the month. New York has no one to get on base in front of Willie Mays. Mueller (.207) and Lockman (.208) aren't getting on base and have zero power. Alvin "Yes, Dave?" Dark (0,10,.271) hits well lower in the order, but goes poof when placed at lead-off. Ace pinch hitter Dusty Rhodes suffered through a godawful 2-for-34 month, leaving him at .085. At one point, the team sank to the cellar, but when they beat the Buccos they rose back to the giddy heights of 6th place. Whee.  

Red Munger. He may be dead, from the looks of him.

PIT--Grr. The league has seen a spate of shutouts, and here is the main offender, having been blanked an incredible 14 times in 44 games. There were 21 shutouts in 50 games in April (!), but then the rate slowed to 21 of 118 games in May, no thanks to these punchless pikers. Frank Thomas (7,25,.248) doesn't show up half the time and Lee Walls (.276, 16 x-base hits) is their only other competent hitter. Dale Long set a record in real life for consecutive home runs in 1956, but for me he "boasts" 4, 15, and .238. Roberto Clemente (.230) and Bill Mazeroski (.168) aren't ready for prime time, evidently. It's too bad, because the pitching has been very good. Ancient "Red" Munger (2-4), salvaged from the Pacific Coast League, even took a no-hit bid into the 8th inning against Philadelphia before imploding. But this team just does anything it can to avoid scoring. They run into outs, bang into double plays, get tossed out stealing (1 of 15 in steal attempts.). I hate them. At least they suckered the Cardinals into taking Bobby Del Greco (.169 with PIT) for Bill Virdon (.250 since coming over).

"Watch me almost hit .300!"

CHI--The Cubs have the worst pitching, by far, to this point. Emblematic of their system-wide failure is "bonus baby" Don Kaiser, owner of an 0-8 log to go with a 6.04 e.r.a. Don began the season as the number two starter! Then he was banished to the pen, but necessity required that he start again. He lost, of course. But what about Ernie Banks? You know, Mister Cub, "Let's play two!" He's hitting .230 with 4 homers, and is tied for the league lead with 10 errors. The one bright spot was first sacker and spray hitter Dee Fondy, who lit it up in May and raised his average to .299.  He even played one game in left field when the team ran short of pickets. I wonder if he can pitch?

LEADERS

WINS: Newcombe-brk 8-1, Spahn-mil 7-4, 5 tied with 6.

ERA: Spahn-mil 1.06, Burdette-mil 1.11, Conley-mil 1.99, Newcombe-brk 2.08, Kline-pit 2.17, Friend-pit 2.21, Dickson-stl 2.46, Klippstein-cin 2.59, Buhl-mil 2.70, Margoneri-ny 2.83

IP: Spahn-mil 93, Newcombe-brk 91, Dickson-stl 84, Friend-pit 81.1, Rush-chi 79

CG: Spahn-mil 8, Dickson-stl 6, Burdette-mil 5,  Newcombe-brk 5

LOSSES: Kaiser-chi 0-8, Roberts-phi 2-8

K's: Spahn-mil 66, Jones-chi 49, Haddix-phi 46, Newcombe-brk 46, Antonelli-ny 45, Dickson-stl 45

SHO: Spahn-mil 4, Burdette-mil 3

AVG: Kluszewski-cin .382, Robinson-cin .340, Mays-ny .355, Adcock-mil .333, McMillan-cin .333, Boyer-stl 318, Blaylock-phi .312, Musial-stl .304, Bailey-cin .303, Fondy-chi 299

HR: Adcock-mil 20, Robinson-cin 14, Mays-ny 13, Snider-brk 11, Lopata-phi 10, Crandall-mil 9

RBI: Adcock-mil 38, Boyer-stl 35, Musial-stl 32, Snider-brk 31, Lopata-phi 30, Mays-ny 30

RUNS: Bell-cin 33, Robinson-cin 33, Musial-stl 32, Adcock-mil 30 

2B: Jablonski-cin 16, Boyer-stl 12, Robinson-cin 12, Snider-brk 12

3B: Banks-chi 5, Post-cin 5

SB: Mays-ny 15, Gilliam-brk 8, Bell-cin 7, Robinson-brk 7

GIDP: Jablonski-cin 7, Bell-cin 6, Jones-phi 6, Williams-brk 6

ERRORS: Banks-chi 10, Blasingame-stl 10

Paul Schaal Award "hopefuls": (The PS Award goes to the last position player with a team from opening day to not have a hit.) Cimoli-brk 0-for-1, Gorbous-phi 0-6, Wilson-ny 0-1, Kindall-chi 0-5. Wilson will be traded to the AL eventually. If the award is not yet "won" by then, he will be disqualified.

See you in June!