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United
League of
American Base Ball Clubs
est.
1951
LEAGUE
FILE (4/3) ·
HEADLINES
· NEWS
LOG · TRANSACTIONS ·
INJURIES ·
FINANCES
STANDINGS ·
BOX
SCORES · SCHEDULE ·
BATTING ·
PITCHING ·
FIELDING · LEADERS
LEAGUE
RULES · TEAM INFO ·
ROSTERS ·
FREE
AGENTS · TOP
PROSPECTS · TOP
FARMS
TOP
PERFORMANCES ·
RECORD
BOOK · PAST
LEADERS · CAREER
LEADERS
BEGINNINGS ·
CITIES ·
BALLPARKS ·
PLAYER PHOTOS
TOTAL UL
· 1951 ·
1952 · 1953 ·
1954 ·
1955 ·
1956
DRAFTS
4/5 (Season Preview)
· 4/17
· 5/1
· 5/16
· 6/1 ·
6/15 ·
7/5
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Race
Tight at Midsummer Break
"Baby Joe"
Untouchable as Colts Win 8 Straight
CHICAGO (July 1) --
The Midsummer Break came at the most inopportune time for the Chicago
Colts. The circuit's hottest team, the Colts are riding an
eight-game winning streak into the five-day hiatus. "You hate
to have a break when you are as hot as we've been," Horsie skipper
Lance Mueller said, after Whitey Ford shut down San Francisco 2-1 in the
last game of the first half. The streak pulled Chicago within two
games of first place, as both St. Louis and Washington stumbled to the
first half finish line.
Chicago's biggest strength has been its starting
rotation. Mueller added veteran ace Robin Roberts (7-4, 3.10) and
rookie phenom Don Drysdale (8-5, 3.35) to complement stellar southpaw
Whitey Ford, who was a leading Cy Young candidate last year (24-3,
2.89). But going into the second half, the story at Wrigley Field is
"Baby Joe". Joe Presko, a 26-year-old former New York
Gotham, has pitched three complete games without an earned run.
Presko shut out Brooklyn on five hits June 16; beat Lousville 10-2 on
Friday the 23rd, allowing two unearned runs; and shut out San Francisco
9-0 with a four-hit gem. Presko is 6-1 with a microscopic 1.76 ERA
in his last seven starts.
The Colts outscored their opponents 49-15 runs during the win
streak, the highlight of which was a three-game sweep of Washington.
Bobby Thomson had three hits, including a two-run home run in a 4-2 win on
Sunday the 25th, as Robin Roberts beat Larry Jansen. On Monday, the
Colts overcame a pair of Willie Mays home runs to win 7-5. Yogi
Berra's three-run blast off Carl Erskine broke open a tie ballgame in the
seventh. Johnny Pesky was the hero in Tuesday's series finale,
singling home Bill Virdon to break a 3-3 tie with two outs in the bottom
of the ninth. Earlier, Berra hit a two-run double to erase Mays'
two-run homer.
Mays Batter of the
Month, But Mons Falter
WASHINGTON
(July 1) -- Willie Mays hit a league-high 10 home runs in the month of
June, driving in 21 runs with a .371 batting average to take BOM honors
for the second time in his career. Mays, 24, was coming off one of
the worst months of his career. In May he batted just .219 with a
.709 OPS, well below his career average of .860. The "Say Hey
Kid" punctuated his hot June with back-to-back two-HR games on June
26 and 27. Mays was 6-for-10 with 7 RBIs in the three-game set with
Chicago. Unfortunately for Washington, the Colts swept, helping St.
Louis to grab first place on the last day before the midsummer hiatus.
Washington took a half-game lead into the final first half
game on June 29, but lost the game and the league lead, when Brooklyn
rallied for a 6-3 win at Griffith Stadium. Washington scored three
runs off Gene Conley in the first inning with three hits, a walk, and an
error, but wouldn't score again, as Conley settled down and the defending
champs chipped away at the Monuments' lead with two runs in the fourth and
another in the seventh to tie the game. Conley himself led off the
eighth with a base hit and scored on Minnie Minoso's go-ahead
single. Then Granny Hamner and Sandy Amoros hit back-to-back RBI
singles in the ninth, giving closer Hoyt Wilhelm insurance runs for his
20th save. Wilhelm extended his shutout streak to 35 games and 39.2
innings.
Meanwhile in Detroit, St. Louis grabbed first place as "Sad Sam"
Zoldak held the Sound to seven hits. Del Crandall's 4-for-5 led a
15-hit Maroon attack. Zoldak's win was the 12th of the year and his
fifth in a row, which includes three games without an earned run
allowed. The 1951 Cy Young winner won Pitcher of the Month for June
with a 5-1 record and 1.63 ERA. Zoldak, Billy Pierce, and
"Naugatuck" Shea combined for a 12-4 record and 2.37 ERA in 19
June starts. The Maroons edged into first place by winning three
straight, including a fiery 6-4 contest against Boston on June 26 in which
managers Timothy Smith and Charlie Qualls were both ejected.
The second half is shaping up to be the best pennant race in
the league's history, though we've all heard that song before. On
June 1, 7.5 games separated the top four teams. A month later they
were just 4.5 games apart, and just two games separated the top three
teams. Fourth-place Brooklyn had the best record in June
(16-9). Chicago was 16-10 , St. Louis 15-11, and Washington 14-14.
League
Announces Two Rule Changes
Reserve Rule
Reduced, Draft Lottery Shrunk
AVALON, Calif.
(July 3) -- The league unveiled a pair of rule modifications at the
midsummer meetings on Santa Catalina Island today. First, reserve
rule limiting the number of contracts each club may automatically renew
was reduced from 50% to 40%. The move represents the latest
concession to the ever more powerful players' union, which claims that the
change will move player salaries closer to their fair market values.
The owners were quick to respond that the UL contract system rewards
players handsomely for contract renewals, pointing out that a five-year
renewal mandates a doubling of salary.
The other change was a refinement to the Rookie draft
lottery. The present system, a carryover from the pre-expansion
years, involves the bottom eight teams in a random lottery to determine
the order of Rookie draft picks. Recently, however, several owners
have questioned the fairness of the system, so today league president
Timothy J. Smith announced that only teams finishing in the bottom half of
the league (presently five teams) would be involved in the lottery.
The new lottery allocations have yet to be determined, but are expected to
"strongly favor" the bottommost teams, as before. The
original draft lottery involved just the bottom three teams, but was later
expanded to encompass the whole league, albeit with very small lotto
allocations for the top teams.
Both changes will go into effect in 1957.
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