Who's For Real? (The NL Race 60 Years Ago)

If, as mentioned in my previous post, the long baseball season is best thought of as a marathon rather than a sprint, while the Yankees had taken an early lead in the race and were determined to stay ahead of the pack in the American League, the National League runners were bunched at the front and maneuvering for position. Unlike the previous year, when the 1955 Dodgers won 20 of their first 22 games to take a commanding lead in the race that they would never come close to relinquishing, at the close of the day on May 27, 1956, the St. Louis Cardinals had a one game lead over the Milwaukee Braves, the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates were 2½ out, and the defending-World Series-champion Brooklyn Dodgers were in fifth place, 3 games behind the front runner. Which of those teams were for real?

Who's For Real? The NL Race 60 Years Ago

It is often the case in marathon runs that many who lead early invariably fade as the long grueling race drags interminably on and on and on and on precisely because they are not elite competitors. If they don't drop out relatively soon, there is always a heartbreak hill beckoning in the stretch drive. 

The Cardinals, who swept their Sunday doubleheader against the Cubs on May 27, were one such team. They now had 22 wins, the most in the league, and second to the Yankees' 24 for the most in major league baseball, but aside from perhaps their die-hard and hence ever-optimistic fans, nobody expected them to hang around in the pennant race. At least not for long. 

The Cardinals had finished seventh in 1955—"the best seventh-place team in the history of the National League," according to Sports Illustrated—and were said in SI's preseason prognostications to "definitely be on the way up in 1956," but in the end were nonetheless projected to be just a seventh place club, again. They had the veteran Stan Musial, still great after all these years (his rookie season was 1942), as well as Red Schoendienst, a Hall of Fame second baseman, and the 1954 Rookie of the Year, Wally Moon. SI was also high on the return of pitcher Vinegar Bend Mizell, back from two years fulfilling his Selective Service obligations. 

And indeed, after their Sunday doubleheader sweep, second-game-winner Mizell was 4-2, Moon was batting .347, and Musial was batting .293 and with 7 RBIs for the day had increased his total to 33 on his way to leading the league with 109. No mention in the SI article was made of third baseman Ken Boyer, who had hit .264 with 18 home runs in his rookie season the year before, but he had as much as anyone to do with the Cardinals' red hot start. Starting in every game, his batting average was exactly .500 ten games into the season. He was down to .406 on May 18 and now his average stood at .353. Boyer had just hit his 10th home run of the season in the nightcap and now had 35 RBIs in the Cardinals' first 35 games.

But the Cardinals were not an elite team, and one month later had dropped to fourth place, barely over .500, and within two months were out of the pennant race entirely. St. Louis wound up doing better than SI expected, however, finishing fourth.

The Pirates had won 6 of their last 7, but that wasn't fooling anybody about their competitiveness, probably not even in Pittsburgh. SI had said in its preseason preview that they were in "danger of developing a last-place complex." That's where they had finished the four previous years, the last three under Fred Haney, who was fired for his efforts and was now a coach for the Braves. 

Pittsburgh was thought likely to finish in the basement once again. It turns out they did better than that—but not anywhere near the front of the pack as they were on May 27, one-fifth of the way into the marathon. They continued to run with the leaders until mid June, then went into a tailspin with 17 losses in 21 games on their way to finishing . . . next to last.

Losing on Saturday and Sunday in Milwaukee, and having now lost five of the seven games they had played against the Braves—a legitimate contender—so far in 1956, the Reds also seemed to be pretenders. Because their pitching was considered "nightmarishly uncertain" and their bench "substandard," Cincinnati was said by SI before the season to be "lucky" if they were to "finish higher than fifth," notwithstanding their exceptional hitting. 

While in most races those who are not recognized as elite competitors ultimately fall by the wayside, usually sooner than later, the 1956 Reds proved to be an unexpectedly resilient runner who would stay with the two leaders of the pack to the very end of the grueling marathon that is the major league season. 

And the presumptive leaders of the pack? They were the Braves and the Dodgers. Milwaukee was in second place with a 16-9 record, compared to the Cardinals' 22-13, but actually had the higher winning percentage. They had played 10 fewer games than St. Louis, seven fewer than Cincinnati, and six fewer than Brooklyn because rain had washed out so many of their games early in the season. 

As tightly bunched as the front runners were, the Braves looked to be the team in the best position to burst into the lead whenever, as was certain to happen, reality caught up with the Cardinals. For Milwaukee, it was 25 games down and 154 to go. They looked to have more stamina to run the distance than the Dodgers, who were now 17-14, if for no other reason than eight of Brooklyn's core players—pitcher Sal Maglie (39), Robinson and Reese (both 37), Campanella and Furillo (both 34), Hodges (32), and third baseman Randy Jackson and Newcombe (both 30)—were no longer twenty-something.

Batting 8th for the New York Yankees, the Pitcher ... (60 Years Ago in 1956)

It's often said that the baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. After having set the pace out front of everybody else since just the fourth game of the year, the Yankees awoke in Cleveland on May 16, 1956, preparing to play they 27th game of the season—the equivalent of 4.5 miles into a 26-mile marathon—to find that the Indians were now running beside them in the race. True, it was early, but the Yankees definitely preferred that their arch rival since the 1951 season be running behind them, rather than running even. Casey Stengel's starting line-up for the game was quite unorthodox; he had the pitcher bat eighth and his weak-hitting shortstop, Phil Rizzuto, ninth—not so unusual today, perhaps, but in the 1950s it certainly was.

60 Years Ago (1956): Batting 8th for the New York Yankees, the Pitcher . . .

The Indians pulled into a first-place tie with the Yankees in both teams' previous game when left fielder Al Smith led off the last of the ninth with a game-winning, walk-off home run off Johnny Kucks to break a 2-2 tie. Both Yankee runs came on home runs, back-to-back off Cleveland ace Bob Lemon in the fourth by Gil McDougald and Mickey Mantle. For Mantle, it was his 12th of the year, and he now had 26 RBIs in the Yankees' first 26 games. Many had predicted the Mick would have an unbelievable year. They were proving right on that one.

Anyway, Stengel had hard-throwing southpaw Mickey McDermott take the mound for the Yankees in their next game against the Indians. In 1949 McDermott had been a hot-shot prospect for the Red Sox. but he was hardly as disciplined at his craft as, say, his teammate Ted Williams was at his, and never lived up to expectations. He had become a journeyman pitcher. When the Yankees acquired McDermott before the start of the 1956 season, it was primarily to provide pitching depth should something happen to one of their core starting pitchers. He was making his fourth start of the year with a record of 1-2. He was the losing pitcher in his previous start six days before, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings when Cleveland was in New York.

What was unusual about this start was not that Stengel started him opposite Cleveland right-hander Mike Garcia, a very good pitcher in his own right, in a game against the club the Yankees considered to be their principal rival for the pennant, even though Whitey Ford, his ace, was sufficiently rested. No, what was unusual was that McDermott was batting eighth in the line-up and shortstop Phil Rizzuto ninth.

By now, eight years into the Stengel era, if there was any lesson learned about Casey as a manager, it was that he was nothing if not unconventional—from his incessant platooning of players, to his constant manipulation of who batted where in the line-up in any given game, to his frequent in-game position-player substitutions. But there was always a method to his madness that he never tired of explaining, although his explanations usually needed explanation.

In the 1950s, the pitcher always batted ninth. The pitcher was presumed to be the weakest hitter in the line-up, and that's just the way it was. It didn't matter, for example, that a pitcher like Brooklyn's Don Newcombe was a damn-good hitter who hit .271 in his career, had 15 career home runs, drove in 108 runs, and was frequently used as a pinch hitter; in the 294 games Big Newk was the starting pitcher in his major league career, not once did he ever bat anywhere but in the No. 9 spot. 

To the Ole Perfessor, that didn't necessarily make sense. Sometimes, which was rarely, his pitcher was not necessarily the weakest bat in the line-up. If the ninth spot was for the weakest hitter, and that hitter happened to be a position player, maybe the pitcher should bat eighth instead. Casey experimented extensively with that concept the previous year in 1955.

Of the 2,474 starting line-ups that were made out by the managers of the 16 major league teams in 1955, only 15 had the pitcher not bat last. All 15 of those line-ups were written out by Casey Stengel. Tommy Byrne batted eighth in 8 of the 22 games he started and seventh in 3 other starts in 1955, and Don Larsen eighth in 4 of his 13 starts. That was perfectly logical to Casey because the three position players who batted ninth in those 15 games—infielders Rizzuto, Billy Hunter, and Jerry Coleman—were all light-weight hitters in slumps, and both Byrne and Larsen were very good hitters for pitchers. Byrne finished his major league career with 14 home runs and a .238 average. Larsen also had 14 homers in his big league career, while batting .242. 

The game in Cleveland on May 16 was the first time Stengel had his pitcher bat eighth in 1956. McDermott was a good hitter, and not just with the faint praise of "for a pitcher." He was a good hitter, who had hit .281 in his six years in Boston and who would retire with a lifetime .252 average, with 9 homers and 24 RBIs. He was 2-for-7 for a .286 average so far in the season, including 1-for-2 as a pinch hitter. Phil Rizzuto, meanwhile, was still looking for his first hit.

Rizzuto was no longer the Yankee shortstop. In the not too distant past he had been the shortstop cornerstone of the five (pennants)-and-five (World Championships)-in-five (years) Yankee teams from 1949 to 1953. Those years, the Scooter batted first or second in Stengel's line-up. But now he was 38 years old, at the end of his career, and the 25th guy on the club instead of a core regular. On this day, Rizzuto was starting for only the third time all year. He had also played in four games as a late-inning defensive replacement. He was hitless in six at bats.

As it happened, Rizzuto went 1-for-4 to bring his average up to .100 and drove in the Yankees' 3rd run of the game with a sacrifice squeeze bunt. McDermott lasted only 3.1 innings, giving up just one run even though he allowed four walks and three hits. He went hitless in his two at bats. Mantle had a 3-for-4 day to raise his average to exactly .400, including his 13th home run in the seventh to finish off the scoring in the Yankees' 4-1 win. Did I mention many predicted the Mick would have an unbelievable year?

The Yankees were now 17-10 and back in first place all alone, one game ahead of Cleveland and 1½ up on Chicago, their next stop for three games. It was 27 games down and 127 to go. The Yankees never again in 1956 had to look anywhere but down to see how any other team was doing.

As for the pitcher-batting-eighth gambit, of the 2,492 starting line-ups written by managers during the 1956 season (including 4 games that ended as ties because of weather), the pitcher batted 9th in 2,489 of them. On May 9, the White Sox batted pitcher Dick Donovan eighth and struggling rookie Luis Aparicio ninth; then came the game McDermott started against the Indians, and finally on June 3 against Detroit, Stengel batted starting pitcher Larsen eighth and third baseman Jerry Coleman ninth. Coleman had just 1 hit in 10 at bats at the time and was making just his second start of the season.  

BTW: Don Larsen was batting ninth on October 8, 1956, when he pitched his perfect game in the World Series. 

Aparicio's 1st of 506 (The AL Race, 60 Years Ago)

On May 5, 1956, Luis Aparicio stole the first base of his major league career. The highly-touted 22-year-old rookie shortstop did so as a pinch runner, however, because he had been temporarily benched by Chicago White Sox manager Marty Marion to get his head straight after struggling at the plate in his first eight major league games. As we all know, Luis Aparicio went on to become a Hall of Fame shortstop perhaps most renown for ... the art of the steal.

Aparicio's 1st of 506

Following literally in the footsteps of Chico Carrasquel, the White Sox shortstop from 1950 to 1955, Luis Aparicio was the second in a line of athletic, nimble, great-glove, dynamic arm, dazzling defensive shortstops from Venezuela. Both were in the first wave of players from the Caribbean Basin. That wave was a consequence of integration that gained momentum with the success of the White Sox' Minnie Minoso, a black Hispanic from Cuba, who was one of the game's the best players in the first half of the 1950s. And it was not just black Hispanic ballplayers who benefited from this unprecedented major league attention, but white Hispanics as well.

Baseball was popular in Venezuela too, but Cuba and Puerto Rico were the first Caribbean targets of big league scouts because their leagues were well known—including by major leaguers who played in them during the winter off-season. In 1950, Carrasquel became just the third Venezuelan to play in the big leagues; Aparicio was the seventh. The son of a legendary shortstop in Venezuelan baseball history after whom he was named, Luis Aparicio was signed by the White Sox as a 19-year-old in 1954 on the recommendation of Carrasquel.  

By 1956, after just two years in the minor leagues, Aparicio was deemed ready to take over at shortstop in Chicago. As the Sports Illustrated preview for the 1956 season put it, "he looked so good in the minors, the Sox were willing to trade away Carrasquel." His baseball attributes? "Slick defense, fair hitter, a whiz on the bases."

Aparicio was in Marty Marion's opening day line-up, batting eighth against the Cleveland Indians, to whom Carrasquel was traded so Luis could take over at short. He went 1-for-3. Aparicio went 1-for-3 the next game, too, but was hitless in his next 12 at bats before getting a single in his second at bat against the Orioles on May 1. When his turn came to lead off the ninth inning of a tie game, Marion removed him for a pinch hitter. Aparicio was batting .150, had yet to score a run, nor had he stolen any bases. There were no problems with his defense, however; he had made just one error so far in 20 chances through Chicago's first seven games.

Back in the starting line-up the next game, Chicago's eighth of the season on May 3, Aparicio was once again hitless in three at bats, although he did score his first run after reaching on an error. Once again Marion took him out for a pinch hitter in the late innings, this time with a runner on base and the White Sox trailing the Senators by three runs in the eighth. Aparicio's average now down to .130, Marion benched his rookie shortstop each of the next two games.

Aparicio did not get into the game in the White Sox' 5-2 win in Washington on May 4. The next day the Sox were trailing the Senators by a single run, 3-2, when pinch-hitter Bob Nieman led off with a single. With the tying run at first, Marion sent in the speedy Aparicio as a pinch runner. Washington pitcher Chuck Stobbs was a southpaw, and so had the advantage on being able to look directly at Aparicio as he came set. There was a fly ball out to left. Another to right. Aparicio was still sizing up Stobbs from first. Then he stole second base. A popup to third ended the scoring opportunity, and Aparicio finished the game at shortstop. But he had his first major league stolen base.

The Chicago White Sox lost that day, leaving them with a 6-4 record in third place, 2 games behind the first-place Yankees and half-a-game back of the Indians. It was 10 games down and 144 to go for the Chicago White Sox; Aparicio would be the starting shortstop in 143 of them.

Back in the starting line-up the next day, Aparicio went 2-for-4 against the Yankees. That was the start of a 10-game hitting streak that brought his batting average up to .264. On May 20, he was hitting .292.  Aparicio finished the season batting .266 with 21 steals in 25 attempts. He was named the American League's 1956 Rookie of the Year, with 22 out of a possible 24 first-place votes.

Luis Aparicio was at the leading edge of a return to prominence of the stolen base in an era where power was the name of the game. His 21 steals in 1956 were the first of 506 in his career. It was also the first of nine consecutive years he led the league in steals. That's something no other player has ever done. Not Ty Cobb; he led the league just six times in stolen bases. Not Maury Wills, the NL leader in steals six straight seasons from 1960 to 1965. Not Lou Brock—winner of eight NL stolen base titles in nine years between 1966 and 1974, four times in a row, twice. Not even Rickey Henderson, who led the AL seven straight times from 1980 to 1986, and 12 times overall.

Fifth Game of the '56 Season (60 Years Ago): Yankees Move Into First For Good

It was a wild one at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, April 21, 1956. The Yankees blew an early 8-0 lead against the Red Sox, then had to come from behind, trailing 10-9, to snatch their fourth victory in five games. This early in the season, the standings didn't necessarily mean anything—certainly not with 149 games still to play—but their victory combined with the White Sox' loss put the Yankees into first place by half a game. Although there would be one day in May when they had to share top billing, the New York Yankees were never not first in the American League the remainder of the 1956 season.

FIFTH GAME OF THE '56 SEASON (SIXTY YEAR AGO):
YANKEES MOVE INTO FIRST FOR GOOD

The Yankees started the season by winning two of three in Washington and taking the first of a three-game set against the Boston Red Sox in their first home series of the year. The Chicago White Sox, along with the Milwaukee Braves in the National League, were the only undefeated teams going into just the fifth day of the schedule, both with 3-0 records, while the Yankees were 3-1. Whitey Ford had just pitched a five-hit complete game in the Yankees' first home game, with Mickey Mantle hitting his 3rd home run of the year and driving in four runs to pace the Bronx Bombers to a 7-1 victory over Boston.

Wasting no time in their determination to beat up on the Red Sox, the Yankees also made very clear to right-hander George Susce that he was not a "Yankee Killer" despite his success against them as a rookie the previous year. Susce pitched in five games against the Yankees in his first big-league season in 1955, all but the last in relief, giving up just 2 earned runs on 14 hits in 19.1 innings for an anti-Yankee ERA of 0.93. His one decision against the Yankees came in his only start against them, an 8-1 complete-game victory in the last game of the season. 

If Susce thought he might build on that making his first start in the 1956 campaign, the Yankees rudely reminded him why they were the Bronx Bombers. Yogi Berra doubled to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the last of the first, then scored on Joe Collins's single. In the second, Hank Bauer hit a 2-run home run, Mantle hit a 2-run home run, the Yankees now led 6-0, and Susce retired to the showers having pitched just one-and-a-third innings. The Yankees scored a pair of unearned runs in the third and Bob Turley, who was 17-13 in his first year in New York in 1955, had a comfortable, two-grand-slams-ahead 8-0 lead.

They were still coasting with an 8-0 lead in the fifth when Turley gave up a two-run homer to Faye Throneberry and a solo blast to Mickey Vernon. The Yankees made it 9-3 in the sixth, and then the Red Sox unloaded for 4 in the seventh and 3 in the eighth on home runs by Jimmy Piersall and backup catcher Pete Daley off reliever Jim Konstanty to improbably take a 10-9 lead.

That lasted … not at all. Berra immediately tied the score by leading off the Yankee eighth with a home run, and before the inning was over the Yankees henpecked the Red Sox for four more runs to make the final score, New York 14, Boston 10.

With the White Sox crushed by the Kansas City Athletics, 15-1, the Yankees were now in first place by half-a-game over both clubs. In their first five games, the Yankees had scored 43 runs. The Red Sox, with 31 runs, were the closest major league team in terms of offensive productivity. The Yankees had hit 8 home runs and were batting .303 as a team.

And as many were projecting, Mickey Mantle looked like he might have a truly outstanding season. He was batting .444 with a league-leading 4 home runs and 11 runs batted in—all in just five games. And Yogi Berra was pretty impressive, too, hitting .467 with 2 home runs and 9 RBIs.

But of course, it was still far too early in the season to draw any conclusions. The Yankees still had 149 games to go, including all 22 against both of their would-be competitors for the pennant—the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. Still, Casey Stengel ... he who had endless things to say ... sure wasn't complaining about how things so far were going.

Status of Integration in the American League on Opening Day, 1956 (60 Years Ago)

In contrast to the National League, where 29 black players were on the rosters of seven of the eight NL clubs at the start of the 1956 season, there were only 11 blacks who made the opening day roster on just five of the eight teams in the American League. Six were in the starting line-up in the first game on the schedule on April 17—Larry Doby and Minnie Minoso for the White Sox, Al Smith for the Indians, Vic Power and Harry Simpson for the Athletics, and Elston Howard for the Yankees. 

STATE OF INTEGRATION IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE ON OPENING DAY APRIL 17, 1956 (SIXTY YEAR AGO)

By now it was accepted that there was no going back on the integration of major league baseball. The "great experiment"—to use historian Jules Tygiel's phrase to describe Branch Rickey's signing Jackie Robinson to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers—had proven a resounding success. Robinson and the first wave of elite black players who followed him demonstrated they were every bit as good as the best white players. Although most clubs in both leagues initially took a let's-wait-and-see attitude, the National League was more proactive in signing and promoting black players. 

Resistance might have been futile, but resistance there was in the AL outside of a handful of ball clubs. The American League had two enduring black stars of its own during the breadth of Jackie Robinson's career—Larry Doby in Cleveland and Minnie Minoso in Chicago—but was much slower to integrate at the big-league level. 

Just three American League clubs started the 1956 season with as many as two black players on their roster and two other clubs began the season with just one black player, which meant that ten years into the Jackie Robinson era, three AL teams were all-white as they took the field for the first time in 1956. In the National League, six of the eight clubs had at least three black players on their opening-day roster—including the Reds with seven, the Dodgers with six, and the Cubs with five. 

And whereas the National League had two high-profile black rookie players who were expected to be—and indeed were—in their team's opening-day starting line-up in 1956, Cincinnati's Frank Robinson and Brooklyn's Charlie Neal, the American League had none who were first-time rookies on their roster, let alone starting the first game of the year. Of the four black players who were September call-ups in the American League in 1955, only Earl Battey went north with his team, and he played in just four games for the White Sox—the last on May 8—before being sent down. And while the National League had more than a handful of dynamic, young black players starring for their teams, several of whom were superstars like Mays, Aaron, and Banks, the American League had . . . none; established veterans Doby and Minoso were both at least 30. 

The two American League teams that had been most enlightened about integration since early in the Jackie Robinson era—the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox—faced off against each other on opening day. The White Sox had the most black players to start the season of any AL team—four, with Doby, whom they acquired in an off-season trade from the Indians; Minoso; Connie Johnson, a pitcher; and Battey. Well-established as elite players, Doby (batting third in center field) and Minoso (batting fifth in left field) were in the starting line-up. Minoso scored the first run of the game after his single started a two-out rally in the fourth and went 1-for-4 in Chicago's 2-1 victory. Doby, hitless in three at bats in his first game against his old team, walked in his first plate appearance in a White Sox uniform.

Having traded Doby, the Indians now had just one black player on their roster—right fielder Al Smith in his fourth year with Cleveland. Batting third in the opening day line-up, Smith got Cleveland's first hit of the season with a first-inning single off Chicago ace Billy Pierce and went 1-for-4 on the day.

The Kansas City Athletics were the only other American League team to start the season with three black players on the roster, two of whom—first baseman Vic Power batting lead-off and center fielder Harry Simpson batting clean-up—started on opening day. Power was beginning his third-big league season, and Simpson had played three years in Cleveland from 1951 to 1953, was demoted to the minor leagues in 1954, and been traded to KC early in the 1955 season. The third black player on KC's opening day roster was their starting third baseman Hector Lopez, who did not play in either of the first two games, but started 144 of the Athletics' 154 games in 1956.

KC's opponent on opening day, who they beat 2-1, were the Detroit Tigers, who along with the Boston Red Sox were the two American League holdouts against integrating at the major league level. The Tigers did not field a black player until 1958 and the Red Sox not until 1959. 

The Red Sox were up against the Baltimore Orioles, who began the season with two black players on their roster—Bob Boyd and David Pope—neither of whom started on opening day, although both pinch hit in the ninth inning. Both had prior major league experience, but not as core regulars. Until an injury sidelined him for almost three months, however, the left-handed Boyd was used in a three-player, two-position platoon at the beginning of the season, alternating at first base with the right-handed Gus Triandos, who was an everyday player platooning with Hal Smith behind the plate; in effect, the left-handed-batting first baseman Boyd was platooned with the right-handed-batting catcher Smith. 

The Washington Senators also opened the 1956 campaign without any black players on their roster. Carlos Paula, who integrated the Senators in September 1954 and played all of the 1955 season with them, rejoined the team in mid-May. He would be the only black to play for the Senators in 1956. After hitting just .188 in 33 games, mostly as a defensive replacement, Paula was back in the minor leagues by July, never again to resurface in the majors, and the 1956 Senators were back to no black players for the rest of the year. 

Of historical note, none of the four blacks who had played so far for the Washington Senators were African American. Paula and Juan Delis, who also spent all of 1955 in Washington but was not invited back, were both from Cuba, and 1955 September call-ups Webbo Clark and Julio Becquer were from Panama and Cuba.

The Senators hosted the New York Yankees on opening day. One of the clubs most staunchly opposed to integration, the Yankees had long taken the so-called principled position of refusing to be pressured into promoting the black players in their stellar minor league season—who had once included Vic Power—just for the sake of appearances. It wasn't until 1955, eight years after Jackie Robinson made his debut over in Brooklyn, that the Yankees finally put a black player on their roster. That was Elston Howard, who stayed all year and played 97 games in his rookie season with 10 home runs, 43 RBIs, and a .290 batting average. The Yankees did not call up another black player all that season.

Nor did they in 1956, when Howard was once again the only black player in New York pinstripes the entire year. Howard was in the starting line-up on opening day and had one hit in five trips to the plate. His lead-off single in the sixth with the Yankees ahead of the Senators, 4-2, started a 4-run rally that was capped by Mickey Mantle's 3-run home run. 

Mantle was 2-for-3 on opening day, with two home runs and four runs batted in. That was nothing. Reigning AL Most Valuable Player Yogi Berra went 4-for-4 with a home run and 5 RBIs as the Yankees clobbered the Senators, 10-4. With one game down and 153 to go, the New York Yankees had set the tone for the American League in 1956.

The following is a link to the status of integration in the American League in 1955:

http://brysholm.blogspot.com/2015/04/opening-day-60-years-ago-status-report.html

   

Status of Integration in the National League on Opening Day 1956

Exactly nine years and two days after his major league debut in 1947, Jackie Robinson made the first play of the 1956 season for the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day, April 17, fielding a ground ball hit to third by the Phillies' Richie Ashburn and throwing him out at first. At the beginning of the 10th year of the Jackie Robinson era of integration in major league baseball, 65 blacks—almost all African-American—had so far played in the big leagues. All five rookies on opening day rosters who had yet to play a major league game were on National League teams, including Frank Robinson. 

The 1956 season began with 29 black players on the opening day rosters of seven of the eight National League teams; only the Philadelphia Phillies had still not integrated their roster. Fourteen black players were in their team's opening day starting line-up. All eight clubs played their first game on April 17.

STATUS OF INTEGRATION IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE ON OPENING DAY APRIL 17, 1956 (SIXTY YEAR AGO)

With seven players, the Cincinnati Reds had more black players on their roster than any other major league team to open the 1956 season. The most talked about were right-hander Brooks Lawrence, acquired in an off-season trade with the Cardinals, and highly-touted rookie outfielder Frank Robinson. Questions about Lawrence focused on whether he could recapture what he had going for him in his impressive 15-6 debut for the Cardinals in 1954 after being a bust in 1955 and being sent to the minor leagues in August. Questions about Robinson were about whether he would really be as good as he gave every indication of being.

On opening day, Frank Robinson made a very strong case that indeed he would be. Robinson was the only one of the Reds' seven black players to start on opening day, batting seventh in left field. Facing the Cardinals' Vinegar Bend Mizell, Robinson hit a ground-rule double in his first major league at bat in the second and singled in his next at bat in the fourth. After hitting into a force-out in the sixth, Robinson was intentionally walked with runners on second and third with two outs to load the bases in a tie game in the eighth; the Cardinals, it seemed, preferred to pitch to veteran, light-hitting shortstop Roy McMillan, who had doubled to tie the game after Robinson's single in the fourth, rather than have to deal with the rookie who was now 2-for-3 in his big-league career. Good move. McMillan fouled out to end the threat and Stan Musial hit a two-run home-run in the ninth that decided the game.

Of historical note, not only was Frank Robinson back in the line-up for the second game of the season—he would start in 150 of the Reds' 155 games in 1956—but Cincinnati started a black pitcher in their next game, rookie southpaw Pat Scantlebury, who gave up 4 runs in 5 innings. He was relieved by Joe Black, an African-American pitcher who was NL Rookie of the Year in 1952 as a stellar relief pitcher for the Dodgers, and Lawrence, called in to pitch in the tenth, got the win when Cincinnati scored in the bottom of the inning. Scantlebury pitched poorly in his next start, however, appeared in four games in relief, and spent the rest of the year with the Reds' Triple-A club in Havana. 

With Lawrence no longer on the team, the St. Louis Cardinals had just one black player on their opening day roster—back-up first baseman Tom Alston. Alston integrated the Cardinals in 1954, was their starting first baseman the first two months of that season, spent the rest of his rookie season with Triple-A Rochester, and virtually all of 1955 in the minor leagues. He would do the same in 1956, playing just three games as a late-inning defensive replacement before being demoted at the end of April. That left St. Louis without any blacks on their roster until outfielder Charlie Peete was called up in mid-July after having hit .350 in 116 games for the Cardinals' Double-A team in Omaha.

The Chicago Cubs started the 1956 season with five black players on their roster. Second baseman Gene Baker batting second, shortstop Ernie Banks batting clean-up, and veteran Monte Irvin, acquired from the Giants, batting sixth in left field were in their starting line-up for the first game of the season.

The Cubs' opening day opponents were the Milwaukee Braves, starting the season with five black players in their dugout. Hank Aaron, batting fourth, in right field and Billy Bruton, the center fielder batting seventh, started on opening day. In the the Braves' 6-0 home victory over the Cubs, Aaron went 2-for-3, driving in the first run of the game with a single and adding a home run. Bruton went 1-for-4 with a triple that finished off Cubs' starter Bob Rush in the seventh.

The Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Giants, who met at the Polo Grounds on opening day, both had three black players on their rosters. Roberto Clemente, after hitting .255 for the Pirates in his rookie season the year before, batted third and was 0-for-4 in the game. Willie Mays in center field batting third and third baseman Hank Thompson, batting fifth, played key roles in the Giants' game-winning eighth-inning rally to break a 2-2 tie. Mays doubled with a runner on first for his only hit of the day, putting runners on second and third to start the inning. After an intentional walk to load the bases, Thompson's flyout to center drove in the tie-breaking run, the throw to the plate on which Mays moved up to third. 

More dramatically, with now one out, Willie Mays being Willie Mays took off for the plate on the next play—a grounder to short—as soon as the throw was released to first base. He was ruled safe when the catcher, in his haste to make the tag, dropped the relay from first baseman Dale Long. Mays's aggressive pursuit of the run providing the Giants with a 4-2 lead was crucial because Long hit a home run in the ninth to make the final score 4-3.

Finally, the Philadelphia Phillies, whose vicious verbal assaults on Jackie Robinson in his rookie season live on in infamy, including in popular culture (see the movie, 42), were in Ebbets Field for opening day. The Phillies were the only National League team—and one of just three big leagues teams, along with the Tigers and Red Sox—that had refused to integrate, even though it was clear by now that there was no going back to segregated major league baseball. 

While the Phillies had no blacks in their dugout—and would not all season—the Brooklyn Dodgers opened with five of their six black players in the starting line-up. Their ace, Don Newcombe, took the mound, against Philadelphia ace Robin Roberts; Jim Gilliam was in left field batting first; catcher Roy Campanella was the clean-up hitter; Jackie Robinson was at third base batting sixth; and Charlie Neal was at second base batting eighth in his major league debut. Sandy Amoros, a left-handed hitter who had platooned in left field the previous year—and who made the catch that saved Game 7 for the 1955 World Champion Dodgers—was on the bench. It looked likely that Amoros would spend most of the season coming off the bench because the Dodgers had decided to move the switch-hitting Gilliam from second base to play left field every day so that rookie prospect Neal could play second.

The Dodgers lost their first game in defense of their 1955 championship. But Gilliam went 1-for-2 with an inside-the-park home run into the left-center field gap off Roberts; Campanella went 2-for-4 and also tagged Roberts for a home run; Neal went 0-for-4 in his first game; and Jackie went 0-for-3 in what would be the last opening day of his career, with a sacrifice fly. Newcombe's second-inning double gave the Dodgers a brief lead, but while his bat was willing, his pitching stuff proved weak as he gave up 5 runs on 5 hits in 4.2 innings and took the loss. He would lose only six more times all year.
  
One game down with 153 to go, the Dodgers were not in first place—after having been there all year in 1955.

The following are links to my posts on the status of integration in the National League on opening day in 1955:

http://brysholm.blogspot.com/2015/04/60-years-ago-opening-day-1955mr-cub.html

http://brysholm.blogspot.com/2015/04/opening-day-60-years-ago-status-report_12.html

http://brysholm.blogspot.com/2015/04/opening-day-60-years-ago-status-report_12.html

Interview on Beyond the Game About Major League Integration

April 15 is the anniversary of Jackie Robinson's major league debut in 1947. In February, I appeared on the White Plains Community Media program Beyond the Game hosted by John Vorperian to discuss my recent book, The Golden Era of Major League Baseball: A Time of Transition and Integration (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). 

Our discussion focused on the historical arc of integration in major league baseball, including the struggles of black players with more average major-league ability than the likes of Robinson, Doby, Irvin, Minoso, Mays, Aaron, and Banks--elite players all who were the trailblazers in integration--for the opportunity to compete with white players of comparable ability for starting positions, may the best player win. Other topics in the interview included player-managers and the 1964 Phillies collapse.

http://wpcommunitymedia.org/beyond-the-game/02032016-1086

OR:

http://wpcommunitymedia.org/community/beyond-the-game#!mm-75298