United League of American Base Ball Clubs          est. 1951
 
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Breaking Away
Mons, Maroons Break from the Pack
WASHINGTON (Sept. 1) -- Washington and St. Louis had their best fortnight of the season, pulling away from pretenders Brooklyn and Chicago to make the final month of the 1956 pennant race a two-team affair.  Washington is 11-1 in their last 12 games, including a important 3-1 series win over the Maroons that extended their lead to 4.5 games.  After splitting the first two games, Washington took the last two of the Griffith Stadium showdown.  Carl "Oisk" Erskine held the Maroons to four hits and Hank Thompson homered in Monday's (8/28) 2-1 win.  The next day, St. Louis' Russ "Rowdy" Meyer allowed just six hits, but was beaten by Stu Miller, who whiffed 11in an eight-hit 3-1 win.  [The two clubs will next meet in the final week of the season, for a six-game home-and-home series that could determine the pennant.]
      The Monuments are 29-12 since being swept by the Gothams at Yankee Stadium July 13-15.  The key to their hot streak, as usual, has been their phenomenal pitching.  Carl Erskine (19-9, 2.37)was the Pitcher of the month in August, with a 5-0 record and microscopic 0.68 ERA.  Erskine is 10-0, 1.69 in his last 12 starts.  His last loss was on July 13, at which point only five games separated Washington from the next three teams.  Today they lead St. Louis by 4.5, and have put a dozen games between themselves and the next closest teams.  Erskine's 10-0 surge has made him a leading contender for this year's Cy Young Award.  "Oisk" boasts the league's best ERA an Ratio, and is tied for third in wins.
   Another hot pitcher is Stu Miller, who got off to a slow start following a year off recovering from a ruptured disk.  Miller was 4-4, 4.07 in his first 10 starts.  He is 7-1, 2.43 in his last 10, and has been particularly hot in his last three, shutting out San Francisco on two hits on Aug. 20, beating Detroit 3-2 on the 24th, and edging the Maroons 3-1 with his second highest strikeout total of the year on the 29th.  Third starter Warren Hacker (19-7, 3.73) has won four starts in a row and seven of his last nine, including a three-hit gem in a 12-1 win over Los Angeles Aug. 21.  And Dave Koslo (12-5, 2.89), sharing the #4 slot with Larry Jansen, was 4-0 with a 1.69 ERA in four August starts.
   Overall, the Washington staff was 19-8 with a 2.23 ERA in August.  So dominant was their pitching that the Mons' were still .500 (6-6) in games in which they scored three runs or less.

Rotation Decimation 
With Five Pitchers on DL, Maroons Stay Close
ST. LOUIS (Sept. 1) -- The depth of the St. Louis Maroons' pitching is being tested -- to the extreme.  Recent injuries to lefty Paul Minner and ace Billy Pierce have reduced manager Timothy J. Smith's starting staff to the simple formula of Spec Shea plus whoever else is healthy.  For his part, "Naugatuck" has responded superbly, winning two of his last three starts and nearly no-hitting Boston at Fenway (again) on Aug. 19.  [The last two no-hit bids were both at Fenway Park, as was Tom Gorman's 1954 no-hitter.]
   The St. Louis Maroons are hot.  But not hot enough to keep pace with the torrid Washington Monuments.  The Dark Reds won eight straight games Aug. 9-17 and are 16-5 in their last 21 games.  The problem is, Washington is 14-6 in that same period, so even in their hottest three-week stretch of the season, St. Louis was only able to shave 1.5 games off the six-game deficit that prevailed on Aug. 9.
   Whether the Maroons have what it takes to close the gap with Washington is doubtful.  Injuries to ace Billy Pierce (21-9, 3.07) and Paul Minner (3-2, 3.36) have further attrited an already decimated starting rotation.  Minner, himself a replacement for the injured Sam Zoldak, suffered an inflamed bicep tendon Aug. 24, which will bench him for three weeks, and Pierce will miss at least two starts with a tender elbow.  Sam Zoldak (18-5, 2.58) and Bob Keegan (8-7, 4.27) are already shelved for the season, as is minor leaguer Ned Garver (7-5, 3.47 with AAA St. Paul), who had a rotator cuff injury in June.  In all, five starting pitchers are presently injured, forcing the likes of Dick Donovan, Russ Meyer, and Bob Buhl into the rotation.
   Unlike Washington, the Maroons have mostly been getting it done at the dish.  They averaged 7.1 runs per game during their win streak.  Vern Stephens co-led the league with 22 RBI in August, and four players combined for 69 RBI (Stephens, Stan Musial, Luis Aparicio, and Dick Kokos).  Ironically, the Maroons haven't been hitting particularly well for average (only Musial and Del Crandall hit over .300 in August) or power (Musial and Hector Lopez had four August home runs, no other player had more than two).  But Musial had nine doubles and 14 walks.  Kokos had half-again as many walks as hit (22 walks, 15 hits), raising his anemic .176 batting average to a .345 OBP.  Aparicio drove in 16 runs in August, despite hitting .226 and batting eighth in three-fourth of his games.  Aparicio has been sharing leadoff duties with newly acquired centerfielder Bill Bruton, who had a noteworthy first month in maroon and cream.  Bruton hit .283 in 27 games, walking nine times for a .385 on-base percentage.  He also swiped 10 bases in 11 tries, which helped him score 20 runs.  

Ernie Banks: Batter of the Month(s)
CHICAGO (Sept. 1) -- For the second month in a row, Chicago Colts shortstop Ernie Banks was named Batter of the Month.  Banks is just the fourth player to win multiple BOMs in the same season, and just the second to win back-to-back awards.  Banks hit .346 in August, with seven home runs and 22 RBI -- tied for the lead in RBI and just one homer behind San Francisco's Vic Wertz.  Highlights include August 12 (4-5, 2 HR, 5 RBI), August 18 (3-4, HR), and August 29 (3-4, HR).  Banks was especially hot against Detroit pitchers.  In six August games with the Sound, Banks hit .464 (13-28) with 4 HR and 11 RBI.
   Banks cooled off (a little) in August.  His averaged dropped nearly 50 points (from .393 to .346) and his OPS dropped by 44 points (from 1.137 to 1.093).  Banks has posted a 1+ OPS for three runs in a row.  In 68 games since June 1, Banks is hitting .364-19-59 with a 1.107 OPS.
   Only his tepid first two months is keeping "Mr. Colt" from serious MVP contention.  Banks hit .282 and drove in just 24 runs in his first 50 games.  But since then, he's maintaining an RBI-per game pace and has been slowing climbing the batting charts throughout the summer.  What's more, history is on his side.  The only other player to win back-to-back Batter of the Months was St. Louis slugger Stan Musial, who did it in July and August 1954 en route to his MVP.  Banks (.330-27-83) presently ranks third in OPS (.985), sixth in batting and home runs, and seventh in RBIs.  
   For the record, the other players to win multiple BOMs in one season were Ralph Kiner (May and August 1953), and Minnie Minoso (April and June 1955).

Wilhelm's Streak Ends
Brooklyn closer Hoyt Wilhelm's phenomenal streak of consecutive innings without an earned run came to an end on Aug. 4, when Louisville's Billy Klaus singled home Ed Bailey in the bottom of the ninth to tied the game 5-5.  Brooklyn won the game with a five-run tenth.  Wilhelm's last earned run crossed the plate on Aug. 24 last year.  Ironically the Superbas also won that game by five runs in ten innings.  Since that night in St. Louis nearly a year ago, Wilhelm pitched 52.0 innings in 46 games without allowing a single earned run.  Wilhelm is second all-time with 157 career saves, but has never finished higher than third.  His 34 saves this season is one behind Washington's Ted Abernathy.

Another Outlaw Wins Pitching Honor
LOS ANGELES (Aug. 28) -- Los Angeles pitcher Johnny Kucks won Player of the Week on August 28.  The 23-year-old rookie was 2-0 with a 2.87 ERA in two starts, and struck out 12 in 15.2 innings.  Kucks' big game was the Aug. 27 five-hit shutout of Brooklyn.  It was the Hoboken, N.J. native's second shutout in four weeks; he blanked Boston on four hits on Aug. 4.  The Outlaws swept Brooklyn in a four-game series at the Coliseum Aug. 26-29.  Daryl Spencer and Willie Jones each had three hits in Saturday's 8-4 win.  Clemente and Campanella homered in Kucks' 4-0 shutout win.  L.A. rallied in the ninth from 3-1 behind on Gene Hermanski's two-run homer and Cal Abrams' game-winning triple.  And in the finale, Campanella was 3-for-4, Dale Long homered, and Curt Simmons held the Bas to six hits for a 4-2 win.  Kucks (12-16, 5.57) was the second Outlaw pitcher to win an award this season.  Ray Herbert (11-13, 3.65) was August's Pitcher of the Month.

Richie Swipes Three for Landmark
BROOKLYN (Aug. 23) -- Richie Ashburn stole three bases today, tying a United League record, to become the second player in league history to steal 250 bases.  Ashburn, who led the league with a league-record 71 swipes in 1954, has stolen at least 40 bases in each of his five UL seasons (he missed 1952 to military service).  He trails only Louisville's Jackie Jensen (282) on the all-time stolen base list.