SPB-3 1956 Season              Status: Week 8

1953 Season leaders recap

Just a few mentions of leaders and such for the American League. The batting leaders in the A. L. were: Monte Irvin of the T-Bolts, who came on in this final week to pass Richie Ashburn of the Royal Giants by a slim 3 points .353 to 350. Gene Woodling, also of the R-Giants, whose season ended a few weeks early, topped the American League with a .455 on base mark. Eddie Mathews of the Larks won the HR and Slugging Race, with 44 circuit shots and a .609 slugging mark. Eddie also had a league leading 365 total bases. Brooklyn's Richie Ashburn easily led with 230 hits, way ahead of the 2nd man. Maumee's Jackie Jensen scored the most runs with 123 and led the league with an amazing 19 triples. Big Ted Kluszewski drove in 123 runners for the Muck Dogs, the A.L's top run producer. The Aces Stan the Man Musial hit 41 doubles, The Muckdogs Jim Junior Gilliam easily led in stolen bases with 24, and he drew the most bases on balls with 111. Finally the Larks Jim Busby was the surprising winner of the most game winning hits with 15, which narrowly surpassed Jackie Jensen of the Carp who had 14.

On the pitching side of things, Curt Simmons of the Larks captured the ERA title with a nice 2.41 mark. Carl Erskine of the T-Bolts, was the only 20 game winner finishing at 21-9. Carl also led the league with 201 strikeouts more than 40 over the 2nd place finisher. American League hitters were pretty much stymied by Bob Buhl of the Larks, as they only hit .217 against him. And the T-Bolts Eddie Lopat narrowly edged out Robin Roberts of the Muckdogs with an average walk rate of 1.7 compared to Roberts mark of 1.8. The Carps Bob Lemon led hurlers with 4 shutouts, and had the most CG's on the year with 19. A surprising leader in saves was the Larks Bob Hooper who saved 28 ballgames. Finally, Roberts did lead in innings logging just a tad over the 300 mark.

Here is the report on leading marks of the National Leaguers. The Hawks Red Schoendienst led all N.L. hitters with a .358 batting average and he had 224 hits which was also tops. The Tigers Ferris Fain had a .435 on base mark thanks to 128 walks, which also led the league. Duke Snider had 391 total bases, just missing the coveted 400 mark. The Hawks Mickey Vernon had 53 doubles and scored 143 runs. Another Hawk, Gus Zernial, drove in an astounding 173 runners! The Clowns Dee Fondy legged out 15 triples to lead N.L. hitters. The Stampers Pee Wee Reese led in stolen bases with 19. Finally, the Stampers Jackie Robinson edged Zernial of the Hawks in winning hits 17 to 16.

On the pitching side of things in the National League, the Blues amazing 43 year old Connie Marrero captured the ERA title with a fine 2.66 mark. Billy Pierce, ace of the Arsenal was the only 20 game winner, as he posted a great 23-8 mark on the year, and he struck out 220 batters to lead the league. He also paced N.L. hurlers with just a tad over 290 innings logged this year, while posting 16 complete games too. The Blues Wilmer Vinegar Bend Mizell was the hardest to get a hit from as he posted a .212 mark that just edged Pierce's .213 B.A. Mizell also had a stingy .294 slugging mark against him. Another Blue, Ken Raffensberger issued only 1.8 walks per nine to take that title. Chicago's lefty ace Warren Spahn threw 6 shutouts to lead N.L pitchers. And for relief honors the Blues Ellis Kinder logged 32 saves, barely beating out the Clowns Bob Keegan who saved 30 games.