Pitchers' Day--September 25, 1956 (Sixty Years Ago)

On September 25, 1956, with less than a week left before the regular season ended, Cleveland's Early Wynn beat Kansas City for his 20th win. That had no bearing on the American League pennant race since the Yankees had already officially punched their ticket to the Fall Classic. But in a game that did have significant pennant-race implications, Milwaukee's Warren Spahn won his 20th beating Cincinnati, a pretender that had become a real contender. That kept the Braves on top of the National League and all but officially eliminated the Reds from contention. Oh, and Sal Maglie's 12th win of the year kept the Dodgers within half-a-game of the Braves. But Maglie's 12th wasn't just any win. It was a no-hitter.

Pitchers' Day

(60 Years Ago, September 25, 1956)

In the bottom of the 10th on September 25, rookie Rocky Colavito made a 20-game winner of Cleveland starter Early Wynn with his 21st home run against the KC Athletics. For Wynn it was his fourth 20-win season in six years going back to 1951.  

Wynn's win, however, did not come in the heat of a pennant race since the Cleveland Indians had been officially eliminated nine days earlier when they split a doubleheader with the Yankees. They won their next six games. The fourth of those wins was a 5-hit shutout by Wynn's mound mate, Bob Lemon, on September 19, which made him the second pitcher in the American League, after Chicago's Billy Pierce on September 13, to win 20 games in 1956. Four days after Lemon's shutout, Detroit's Frank Lary ended the Indians' 6-game winning streak with his 20th win of the season.

So, Early Wynn was the fourth American League pitcher to join the 1956 chapter of the 20-win club. The next day, he and Lemon were joined in the 20-win club by their teammate, Cleveland's phenomenal southpaw, Herb Score. It was the third time in six years that the Indians' staff featured three 20-game winners; Bob Feller, Mike Garcia, and Wynn did it for Cleveland in 1951, and Wynn, Garcia, and Lemon in 1952. No other team had as many as three 20-game winners in a single season since the 1931 Philadelphia Athletics with Lefty Grove, George Earnshaw, and Rube Walberg.

Meanwhile, over in the National League, it was 150 games down and just 4 to go when Warren Spahn took the mound at Cincinnati's Crosley Field on September 25, 1956. Not only was he going for his 20th win, which would make for seven 20-win seasons so far in his career, but more importantly, his Braves had the slimmest of leads in a taut three-team pennant race—half a game up on the Dodgers and just 1½ ahead of the Reds. 

Once again for the Redlegs, another critical game. They had won six straight since four consecutive losses—two to the Dodgers and two to the Phillies (discussed in the two previous posts)—had seemed to put an end to their pennant ambitions. But Cincinnati didn't fold; instead they picked up three games in the standings. But they had also played 151 games and were down to their final 3. Lose this game, and they would need to win both of their remaining games against the Cubs in Chicago while hoping that the Braves lost all of their final three games against the Cardinals and that the Dodgers won no more than one of their remaining games.

Larry Jansen started for the Reds. Once a premier pitcher for the New York Giants from 1947 to 1951, he was back in the minor leagues in 1955 trying to recover from arm problems. Signed by the Reds before the '56 season started, Jansen pitched for Seattle in the Pacific Coast League before being called up in August to help with the pitching. He won his first two starts—both complete-game victories—but was 0-2 with an 8.40 earned run average since then, dating back to August 24. He had given up 8 runs in his last 10 innings. Reds ace Brooks Lawrence, meanwhile, had not pitched since working in his seventh game in eight days five days before.

Perhaps Cincinnati manager Birdie Tebbetts should have tried Lawrence. Jansen got just 4 outs and gave up 3 runs before he was shown to the showers. After three innings, the Braves led, 6-1. Lawrence pitched two shutout innings later in the game. Spahn was efficient—9 innings, 6 hits, 1 walk, just 2 strikeouts—on his way to becoming the National League's second 20-game in 1956, more than a month after Don Newcombe had won his 20th. 

It was also a very good day on the mound for the Dodgers' Sal Maglie. He didn't win his 20th. It was only his 12th win of the year. Not only did he not give up any runs, Maglie also didn't give up any hits. Like Spahn in winning his 20th, Maglie was efficient on the mound, striking out three, walking two, and hitting one, and, of course, no hits.

Maglie took the mound knowing this was a crucial game. Since Carl Furillo's walk-off homer to beat Brooks Lawrence eight days earlier, the Dodgers had lost four of six. If he could pitch his team to a victory and Milwaukee lost, Brooklyn could end the day in first place. The other way around, they'd be 1½ back.

Maglie retired the first eight Phillies he faced before walking the opposing pitcher. The Phillies did not have another base runner until Willie Jones walked to lead off the 8th. He was wiped out in a double play. Maglie also hit Richie Ashburn with a pitch with two outs in the 9th, then got Marv Blaylock to ground out to second to end the game. Roy Campanella's 2-run homer in the 2nd was all that Maglie needed in what was, in the end, a 5-0 Dodgers win to stay within a half-game of the Braves. 

It was now 150 games down and just 4 to go for the 1956 Brooklyn Dodgers. With one game left against the fifth-place Phillies, who were 69-81 after being no-hit, and three with the sixth-place Pirates, who were 66-85, while the Braves would be up against a better team—the 74-76 fourth-place Cardinals—Brooklyn, with the same number of losses and one fewer victory than Milwaukee, was in a good position to make up the difference and try to defend their 1955 World Series championship against the Yankees.

Final '56 Showdown, Braves at Dodgers (60 Years Ago, Sept 11 & 12, 1956)

The 1956 Milwaukee Braves came to Brooklyn for one final series with the Dodgers on September 11 and 12, sixty years ago, with a slim one-game lead and the season winding down to just 17 games remaining for both. For the Dodgers, who were last in first place (tied) way back on May 20, this was a critical series, and they had their two aces in line in their effort to send the Braves out of town in second place. Don Newcombe, already with 23 wins, was to pitch the second game. Pitching the first game would be Sal Maglie. The Dodgers surely would not have been in contention without Big Newk's extraordinary season. But just as certainly, they would not have been in contention without Maglie, who once upon a time—when he was younger and a Giant—was a despised arch-enemy.

Final '56 Showdown, Braves at Dodgers
(60 Years Ago, September 11 & 12, 1956)

At 39 years old, Sal Maglie was thought to be over the hill as the 1956 season got underway. After pitching just five innings in two games for the Cleveland Indians through the first four weeks of the season, the Dodgers paid a nominal sum to procure his services. They were 12-9 at the time, the season was still young, and there was no compelling reason why they would need Sal Maglie, but the Dodgers knew exactly what they were doing. They had a history with Sal Maglie. It was not a pleasant one for them, which was precisely why they wanted him.

Sal Maglie had been a nasty thorn in their side pitching for their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, through the first half of the 1950s. Nicknamed "The Barber" for his aggressiveness in giving close shaves to opposing batters, Maglie's high-and-tight reportoire provoked numerous contretemps, as in players-on-the-field confrontations (ugly words, pushing, shoving, sometimes worse), with Dodgers batters taking exception to his pitching philosophy. 

When he walked into the Dodgers' clubhouse for the first time in mid-May, Maglie had a career record of 104 wins and 48 losses. More than a fifth of his wins were against Brooklyn; he had beaten the Dodgers 23 times as a hated Giant and lost to them just 11 times. He had thrown more innings against the Dodgers (302) than against any other team, and Maglie pitches had hit 8 Brooklyn batters—a modest number, given both his reputation and the ferocity of the two teams' rivalry. 

And the Dodgers no doubt had painful memories of his 5-1 record against them in 1951—a year that lives in Brooklyn infamy because of the huge August lead they blew and Bobby Thomson's "Giants win the pennant! Giants win the pennant!" home run. Maglie started that game for the Giants, and would have been the losing pitcher, but for that home run. Three of Maglie's 8 wins during the Giants' miracle surge to the pennant in August and September to force a playoff series for the pennant came against the Dodgers. He was 23-6 in 1951, which turned out to be the only 20-win season he'd have in his career.

Since coming to the Dodgers, Maglie was giving the Ebbets faithful lots of love, not hate. His first victory for the Dodgers came on June 5 when he shutout the Braves in Milwaukee on 3 hits. He had made three starts against them since then, all without a decision, but pitched well. As he took the home-town mound in the top of the 1st against the Braves on September 11, 1956, Maglie's record stood at 9-4, he had won 7 of his last 8 decisions, and his earned run average in his 11 starts in that time was 2.33. Against the Braves, Maglie was only 1-0 in four starts, but he had given up just 7 earned runs on 20 hits in 29⅓ innings for a 2.15 ERA.

Maglie gave up solo home runs to Eddie Mathews in the 2nd and Joe Adcock in the 9th. They were the only two runs the Braves scored. Maglie's single in the 3rd off Braves' starter Bob Buhl gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead, and in the 8th, Jackie Robinson, still a menace on the bases at 37, scored from second base when, reacting to Jackie's dancing off the bag, reliever Ernie Johnson's pickoff attempt went awry, and Gil Hodges followed with a homer of his own. The Dodgers and Braves were now tied for first place.

The next day, it was a matchup of each team's pitcher with the most wins. For the Dodgers, Newcombe took the mound with a 23-6 record; Newk was 13-1 with a 2.18 ERA in his 16 starts since July 4th. For the Braves, it was Lew Burdette, who was 18-9 and had a 2.37 earned run average so far for the year. Burdette was 6-3 with a 1.55 ERA in 9 starts since July 5. 

Both had a terrible day. Burdette failed to make it out of the 1st inning, giving up 3 runs, and Newcombe, after having retired the side in order in the first and now with a 3-0 lead, could not get a single batter out in the second. He left after giving up a walk, a pair of singles, and a triple that tied the score, and Bill Bruton, the guy who hit the triple, scored after he left. The Dodgers, trailing 7-4 in the 7th, scored three times to tie the game, but the Braves won in the 8th on a single by Hank Aaron, a walk, and an RBI single by Bruton. 

Milwaukee left Brooklyn with the same one-game advantage they came to Ebbets Field with. At the close of the day on September 12, 1956, for both the Braves, at 84-55, and the Dodgers, at 83-56, it was 139 games down and 15 to go. It was also 139 down and 15 to go for the Cincinnati Redlegs, who were still hanging around at 3 games behind. The Dodgers had two games left against the Reds at home. The Braves had just one left against the Reds, in Cincinnati. For the Braves and the Dodgers, their season series was over—Milwaukee had won 12, Brooklyn 10—unless, of course, a playoff between them would be required should they have identical records at the end of the 154-game schedule.

Maglie might come in handy then.

POSTSCRIPT:

In case you were wondering why Braves' ace Warren Spahn was not lined up to start in this all important series . . . It was because the Dodgers totally owned Warren Spahn. Since 1948, Spahn was 6-18 in 27 starts against Brooklyn. He did not pitch a single inning against them in 1955. In 1956, the Braves decided to see if maybe a year of not pitching at all to Brooklyn batters might have made a difference and gave Spahn a start against them on June 5 in Milwaukee. The Dodger curse plaguing the great Spahn continued; he gave up 2 runs on 4 hits while getting just 4 outs before being removed from the game. He did not get another chance against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

For more on Warren Spahn's troubles with the Dodgers, see the following post on Baseball Historical Insight from July 21, 2015 (last year), "No Spahn Sighting in Brooklyn" (: http://brysholm.blogspot.com/2015/07/60-years-ago-no-spahn-sighting-in.html

For the '56 Braves, Change Was Looking Good (Status of NL Race, July 26, 1956)

The Braves crushed the Giants, 11-0, on July 26, 1956, to take a 5½-game lead in the National League. Their lackluster beginning behind them, the 1956 Milwaukee Braves were now threatening to do to the National League what the Yankees were doing in the American—run away with the pennant. Led by a scorching hot Hank Aaron, the Braves had won 15 of their 17 games since the All-Star break, and they were now 32-10 (.762) since Fred Haney replaced Charlie Grimm as manager on June 17.

For the '56 Braves, Change Was Looking Good 
(NL Race, 60 Years Ago)

Sometimes change is good, even if—in the case of major league baseball, for example—there is no intrinsic evidence one way or the other that one manager (in this case, Fred Haney) is better than another (Charlie Grimm). In fact, neither man(ager) would go down in history as one of the game's top-flight managers. 

Although Grimm did win three pennants with the Cubs (1932, 1935, and 1945—since which the Cubs have not been back to the World Series), there was a sense that his mid-1930s Cubs could have been more successful than they were (and not just in the World Series). And although Haney would eventually lead the Braves to two pennants and win a World Series, his reputation has not lived down the widespread perception that he managed to manage the Braves out of a third straight pennant in 1959.

Even though they had been swamped by the Brooklyn juggernaut of 1955, the Braves were considered one of the best teams in baseball going into the 1956 season, and certain to give the Dodgers a run for their money. Whether Grimm's managerial talents or style were at fault, or not, the Braves' getting off to a 24-22 start was definitely disappointing for the quality team they had, and so he paid the price. More importantly, no sooner had Haney taken over than the Braves got hot, as in really hot, winning their first 11 games under their new manager. At the All-Star break, in what was developing into a very competitive National League pennant race, the Braves were second to the Reds, down by a game-and-a-half, and the Dodgers were third, half a game back of Milwaukee.

The Braves' first four games after the break were at home against the Dodgers. Since these were the two clubs everyone expected to battle it out for the right to play the Yankees in the World Series—which seemed safe to say, since the Yankees had command of the American League race—this series would be a marker of where the two clubs stood. By winning all four, the Braves sent a clear message they intended to be top dog, and if any other NL team was going to the World Series, they were going to have to go through Milwaukee first. 

Their fourth win in the series, on July 14, came in dramatic fashion. Joe Adcock erased a 2-0 Brooklyn lead by tagging Sal Maglie for a two-run homer in the seventh. (The Dodgers had acquired Maglie from Cleveland in mid-May. He may have been 39 years old, but Maglie was a tough-minded veteran who knew what he was doing on the mound. His first victory for the Dodgers was a three-hit shutout against the Braves in Milwaukee back on June 4.) Back to the July 14 game. The clubs battled into extra innings after Adcock's homer, whereupon Hank Aaron's one-out single with runners on first and second in the bottom of the 10th inning for a walk-off win completed the Braves' four-game sweep of the Dodgers.

Hank Aaron was just getting started. At the All-Star break, the Braves' young phenom was batting .309 with 9 homers and 40 runs batted in. After going 3-for-5, including his 15th home run of the year, and driving in 4 runs in Milwaukee's 11-0 clobbering of the last-place Giants on July 26, in the 17 games since the break, Aaron hit .452 with 18 RBIs. He had hit in all but one game since the break and had 12 multi-hit games.Twelve of his 33 hits were for extra bases, including 5 home runs. Aaron was now leading the league with a .340 batting average.

The Braves as a team were revving on all cylinders coming out of the All-Star break. In their 17 games after the season resumed, they scored 115 runs, whacked 29 home runs, and batted .292. On the pitching side, they gave up 58 runs and limited opposing batters to a .264 average. Warren Spahn, just 7-7 at the break, had complete-game victories in all three of his starts since then, giving up just 8 runs.

As they left New York City after their victory on July 26 for two games in Philadelphia with a record of 56-32, it was 88 games down for the 1956 Milwaukee Braves and 66 to go. Their lead was now 5½ games over the second-place Redlegs and 6 over the Dodgers. On Monday they would be returning to New York, this time to the borough of Brooklyn, for four games with the Dodgers.

The last time they were in Brooklyn, the Braves came to town having lost 10 of their last 15 games, and Charlie Grimm was the man(ager) in charge. After dropping the first two of four at Ebbets Field, they left with Fred Haney running the show. Change was good.