1958 Baseball Season

 

Session 5:

 

Highland led the league with 100 wins and cruised to the Dean Division title by 14 games over the emerging Surf City Beach Boys.  Defending Champion Philadelphia held off Pittsburgh by four games in the Presley Division as the Vikings posted their first winning season of the season.  Crimson and Mars Hill jockeyed for first place in the Brando Division throughout the season until Crimson caught fire at the end and pulled away by three games.

 

Pittsburgh's Bob Skinner (.351) defeated Meadville's Ted Williams (..350) for the batting crown by the narrowest of margins.  Philadelphia's Mickey Mantle blasted his 60th home run of the season against Wexford's Stan Williams and comfortably led Lansing's Roy Sievers (51) for the home run crown.  Mantle also led in RBI (153), Runs Scored (150) and Slugging Percentage (.679).  Calumet's Stan Musial led in doubles (53), Meadville's Bill Virdon led in triples (18) and Calumet's Luis Aparicio led in Stolen Bases with 40.  Pittsburgh's Rich Ashburn led the league in hits (219) and was one of five players to top the 200 hit mark for the season. 

 

Meadville's Warren Spahn (24-8) tied with Philadelphia's John Antonelli (24-10) for most wins this season with only Highland's Dick Donovan (21-12) and  Philly's Paul Foytack (21-10) joining them in the 20 game win circle.  While Spahn (7) led the league in shutouts, it was Crimson's Whitey Ford (2.14) who took the ERA crown.   Spahn did best Ford in complete games (21 vs. 20) for the season and led in Innings Pitched (291.1).   Mars Hill's Toothpick Sam Jones lead the league with 247 strikeouts.

 

Final Stats can be found in the links at left.

 

Highlights for this round were two more no hitters and a 14 run explosion by Philadelphia in the bottom of the eight inning to wrench victory from a stunned Meadville team.  Crimson's Whitey Ford put his name into serious consideration for the Cy Young Award with a no-hitter against the Meadville Eagles (bad month for Meadville) on September 6th.  It marked his second no-hitter of the season.  Philadelphia's Frank Sullivan silenced the Sh-Booms of Calumet on September 20 to become the sixth no-hitter recorded by 3RBL pitchers this season.

 

 

 

Post Season:

 

The Highland Flyers flew through the post season tournament winning eight of the nine games they played to capture the 3RBL58 Championship.

 

Powered by the hitting of Wes Covington and Joe Cunningham, the team averaged just under seven runs scored per game to ably support their pitching.  And what a staff performance it was!  The Flyers staff allowed 2.89 runs per game.  Led by the righty-lefty combo of Dick Donovan (3-0 1.33 with three CGs) and Billy Pierce (3-0. 2.82 and 1 CG) they were rarely challenged and when they were Fireman of the Year Dick Hyde (1-0-1 0.00 ERA) was untouchable. 

 

Highland swept passed the Pittsburgh Vikings in the opening round of the tournament while Crimson was dispatching 3RBL57 champion Philadelphia is a similar fashion.  Highland then split the first tow games at home against Crimson but it was they who caught fire on the road and swept Crimson to douse the Fire's upset hopes trailing for only a short time in the opening game on the road.

 

Post season box scores and game scripts are shown at left.