United League of American Base B

Erskine Out
"He'll Never Pitch Again," Doctors Say
CHICAGO (July 26) -- The Chicago Colts' luck went from bad to worse, as the defending West Division champions lost their righty ace late in the season for the second year in a row, only this time, Carl Erskine will not return. The 34-year-old righthander, who missed the final month and postseason last year to a strained elbow ligament, today tore the same ligament and will require major surgery. Team doctors told reporters "Oisk" isn't expected to pitch again in the major leagues.
Erskine, was a late draft pick in the 1951 Inaugural Draft, going to the Washington Monuments in the 26th round (201st overall). He spend two years in the minors and one year of military service in Korea before making his UL debut in 1954, going 14-13 with a 4.40 ERA, and helping the Monuments to their third consecutive league title. In 1955, the torch was passed from Stu Miller, the Mons' dominant ace of the early 50s, to Erskine, who helped extend Washington's success into the second half of the decade, including a fourth league title in 1956.
Oisk's glory years were 1955-58, a four-year stretch in which he compiled a 99-27 record and a 2.63 ERA. Erskine was a four-time All-Star three-time ERA champion, two-time wins champion, and won the Cy Young Award in 1958, when he went 26-3 with a 2.11 ERA and a 0.90 WHIP. His 2.11 ERA that year was a league record to that point, and has only been surpassed by two players: Gene Conley in 1959 (1.79), and Erskine himself in 1960 (2.10), the year he joined the Colts. In his final three seasons with Chicago, Erskine was 57-27 with a 2.49 ERA. The Anderson, Indiana native leaves the United League with the best lifetime ERA (2.80), the third most wins (184) and shutouts (29), and the fifth most complete games (139). Though never a dominant strikeout pitcher (he cracked the top 10 in K's just once), Erskine had impeccable control, issuing just 470 free passes in over 2,500 innings (1.67 per nine), and giving up fewer hits than innings in all but two of his nine seasons.

Two-Time MVP Kiner Retires; Batting Champ Minoso Calls It Quits
by Glen Reed

Two of the UL's greatest offensive players ended their careers in the nation's capitol a week apart in this, the summer of '62. Minoso and Kiner were dissimilar players--Kiner the UL's greatest slugger, and Minoso, the player with perhaps the UL's smoothest batting stroke--but are linked together for so many more reasons than their retirement.

Each spent their first seven years in the league with the same team until being traded for one another in 1958, though Minoso was promptly brought back to Brooklyn through free agency the following the year.

Minoso, born Saturnino Orestes Arrieta Armas, is best known for his classic swing, leading the diminutive native of Havana, Cuba to consecutive batting championships in 1955-56, as part of a three-year run (55-57) in which he hit above .350. Minoso led the league in OBP twice and finished in the top 10 eight consecutive years, as well as topping the OPS chart once and appearing on the leaderboard five other times. His name still appears in three places on the UL all-time single-season batting record book, including most runs scored, with a whopping 129 in 1957. And his career average of .325 topped the league for years, until being surpassed last season by long-time teammate Granny Hamner.

In addition to Minoso's individual accomplishments, it's worth noting that he hit in the coveted third spot in the order in a Brooklyn line-up that finished first or second in runs scored every one of his seasons with the team until his 1958 departure. Counting his partial 1958 season in Flatbush, Minoso played on five division winners and four Kaplan Cup holders.

But it was his exclusion from the 1961 World Series roster in favor of career minor leaguer Rip Repulski that signaled the beginning of the end of Minoso's illustrious career. Minnie spurned an offer to rejoin Brooklyn as a roving batting instructor in an attempt to extend his career by joining rival UL side Monuments in 1962. But at the age of 38 and finding himself an outsider to Washington's youth movement, the All-Star and Gold Glove left fielder elected to hang up his spikes.

Kiner arrived at the same destination as Minoso, but by a radically different route. Ralph is arguably the greatest power hitter in UL history, though he's been surpassed on the all-time home run and run batted in tables by the league's next generation of stars.

His accomplishments are legion, but there's perhaps one fact, or bunch of facts, I guess, that sum up his greatness, and it is this: For eight straight years from the league's inception in 1951 through his first year withBrooklyn, 1958, Kiner finished in the top ten in homers, ribs, runs, slugging, OBP, OPS, and walks. That's top ten in every category, every year. Looking at homers, he finished first or second every year but one. In regard to ribs, he finished first, second, or third every year but one. Incredibly, he led the league in walks every one of those years but one. Indeed, four years removed from his last full-time duty, Kiner still tops the all-time walks list, a hundred better than his nearest pursuer.

And one can't help but be impressed with the contents of this guy's trophy case--five all-star selections (his run from 1954-57 interrupted only by Minnie Minoso in 1955); the first ever two-time MVP; and lest you think Ralph's a one-dimensional poker, I refer you to his 1957 golden glove. In short, a deserving Player of the Decade.

But the one enduring frustration of Kiner's truly illustrious career was the elusiveness of a league title. He came tantalizingly close his first season, with Brad McNeely's Detroit Sound, finishing just three games back of inagural UL titelholders Maroons. he then endured some truly horrible seasons with the Sound, finishing last twice. But Kiner appeared to get his "get out of jail free card" with the trade to Brooklyn, who were looking for a right-handed power hitter in anticipation of facing Antonelli or Pierce in the upcoming World Series. But in the event, Kiner's two trips to the fall classic ended in heartbreak, none more bitter than the 1959 loss to Cinderella Spiders, which featured extra-inning losses at home in games six and seven, when only a single win was needed to bring Kiner his long-sought ring.

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