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1957 Cincinnati Redlegs season

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1957 Cincinnati Redlegs
LeagueNational League
BallparkCrosley Field
CityCincinnati
OwnersPowel Crosley, Jr.
General managersGabe Paul
ManagersBirdie Tebbetts
TelevisionWLW
(George Bryson)
RadioWKRC
(Waite Hoyt, Jack Moran)
← 1956
1958 →

The 1957 Cincinnati Redlegs season consisted of the Redlegs finishing in fourth place in the National League, with a record of 80–74, 15 games behind the NL and World Series Champion Milwaukee Braves. The Redlegs were managed by Birdie Tebbetts and played their home games at Crosley Field, where they attracted 1,070,850 fans, fourth in the eight-team league.[1]

Offseason

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Regular season

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Just as in the 1956 season, the Reds were once again in first place at mid-season when, fan voting for the 1957 All-Star Game starting players determined that no fewer than seven Redleg players (Ed Bailey, Johnny Temple, Roy McMillan, Don Hoak, Frank Robinson, Gus Bell and Wally Post) had been elected to start in the All-Star Game, a record that still stands. The only non-Redleg elected for the National League was St. Louis Cardinal first baseman Stan Musial, who had only narrowly beaten his Reds counterpart George Crowe. Although Cincinnati had the second-best offense in the majors (they would score 747 runs that year, surpassed only by Milwaukee), most baseball observers felt they obviously did not deserve seven starters in the All-Star Game.

An investigation was launched by Commissioner Ford Frick, which found that the majority of the ballots cast had come from Cincinnati; in fact, The Cincinnati Times-Star newspaper had printed up pre-marked ballots with the Cincinnati starting lineup on them, and distributed them with each day's paper to make it easy for Redlegs fans to vote often for their favorite players.[4] Meanwhile, Burger Beer, a Redlegs sponsor, had printed 250,000 similar ballots and distributed them to local bars, and stories emerged of bartenders refusing to serve alcohol to customers until they filled out a ballot.

Subsequently, Frick suspended fans' voting rights, and appointed Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves to substitute for Bell and Post. Bell was kept as a reserve (he would bat for Redlegs teammate Robinson in the seventh and slap a two-RBI double), while Post was injured and would have been unable to play in any event. Hoak and McMillan were each dismissed from the game after a single at-bat, in favour of future Hall of Famers Eddie Mathews and Ernie Banks, respectively. Temple batted twice before giving way to another future Cooperstown resident, Red Schoendienst. (Bailey caught the whole game, but was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the ninth.)

The Reds faltered after the All-Star break and dropped to fourth place in the season final standings.

Season standings

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National League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Milwaukee Braves 95 59 .617 45‍–‍32 50‍–‍27
St. Louis Cardinals 87 67 .565 8 42‍–‍35 45‍–‍32
Brooklyn Dodgers 84 70 .545 11 43‍–‍34 41‍–‍36
Cincinnati Redlegs 80 74 .519 15 45‍–‍32 35‍–‍42
Philadelphia Phillies 77 77 .500 18 38‍–‍39 39‍–‍38
New York Giants 69 85 .448 26 37‍–‍40 32‍–‍45
Pittsburgh Pirates 62 92 .403 33 36‍–‍41 26‍–‍51
Chicago Cubs 62 92 .403 33 31‍–‍46 31‍–‍46

Record vs. opponents

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Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team BRO CHC CIN MIL NYG PHI PIT STL
Brooklyn 17–5 12–10 10–12 12–10 9–13 12–10 12–10
Chicago 5–17 7–15 9–13 9–13 8–14–1 12–10–1 12–10
Cincinnati 10–12 15–7 4–18 12–10 16–6 14–8 9–13
Milwaukee 12–10 13–9 18–4 13–9 12–10–1 16–6 11–11
New York 10–12 13–9 10–12 9–13 10–12 9–13 8–14
Philadelphia 13–9 14–8–1 6–16 10–12–1 12–10 13–9 9–13
Pittsburgh 10–12 10–12–1 8–14 6–16 13–9 9–13 6–16
St. Louis 10–12 10–12 13–9 11–11 14–8 13–9 16–6


Notable transactions

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Roster

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1957 Cincinnati Redlegs
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Ed Bailey 122 391 102 .261 20 48
1B George Crowe 133 494 134 .271 31 92
2B Johnny Temple 145 557 158 .284 0 37
SS Roy McMillan 151 448 122 .272 1 55
3B Don Hoak 149 529 155 .293 19 89
LF Frank Robinson 150 611 197 .322 29 75
CF Gus Bell 121 510 149 .292 13 61
RF Wally Post 134 467 114 .244 20 74

Other batters

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Smoky Burgess 90 205 58 .283 14 39
Bob Thurman 74 190 47 .247 16 40
Ted Kluszewski 69 127 34 .268 6 21
Jerry Lynch 67 124 32 .258 4 13
Joe Taylor 33 107 28 .262 4 9
Alex Grammas 73 99 30 .303 0 8
Pete Whisenant 67 90 19 .211 5 11
Art Schult 21 34 9 .265 0 4
Dutch Dotterer 4 12 1 .083 0 2
Bobby Henrich 29 10 2 .200 0 1
Curt Flood 3 3 1 .333 1 1
Rocky Bridges 5 1 0 .000 0 0
Bobby Durnbaugh 2 1 0 .000 0 0
Don Pavletich 1 1 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Hal Jeffcoat 37 207.0 12 13 4.52 63
Joe Nuxhall 39 174.1 10 10 4.75 99

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Brooks Lawrence 49 250.1 16 13 3.52 121
Don Gross 43 148.1 7 9 4.31 73
Johnny Klippstein 46 146.0 8 11 5.05 99
Art Fowler 33 87.2 3 0 6.47 45
Warren Hacker 15 43.1 3 2 5.19 18
Vicente Amor 9 27.1 1 2 5.93 9
Bud Podbielan 5 16.0 0 1 6.19 13
Jay Hook 3 10.0 0 1 4.50 6
Charlie Rabe 2 8.1 0 1 2.16 6

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Hersh Freeman 52 7 2 8 4.52 36
Tom Acker 49 10 5 4 4.97 67
Raúl Sánchez 38 3 2 5 4.76 37
Bill Kennedy 8 0 2 3 6.39 8
Claude Osteen 3 0 0 0 2.25 3
Dave Skaugstad 2 0 0 0 1.59 4

Farm system

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Level Team League Manager
Open Seattle Rainiers Pacific Coast League Lefty O'Doul
AAA Havana Sugar Kings International League Nap Reyes
AA Nashville Vols Southern Association Dick Sisler
A Savannah Redlegs Sally League Jimmy Brown
B Port Arthur/Temple Redlegs Big State League Al Barillari
B Wenatchee Chiefs Northwest League Don Lundberg and Bert Haas
B Clovis Pioneers Southwestern League Bert Haas
C Visalia Redlegs California League Bruce Edwards
C Wausau Lumberjacks Northern League Walt Novick
D Graceville Oilers Alabama–Florida League Bob Wellman and Charley Grant
D Palatka Redlegs Florida State League Johnny Vander Meer
D Hornell Redlegs New York–Penn League Dave Bristol

LEAGUE CO-CHAMPIONS: Graceville
Port Arthur franchise transferred to Temple, May 30, 1957, then folded, August 20; Clovis franchise folded, June 16; Hornell replaced disbanded Bradford franchise in mid-season and began play May 28
[6]

References

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  1. ^ Baseball Reference: 1957 MLB Attendance & Team Age
  2. ^ Ray Jablonski at Baseball-Reference
  3. ^ Maury Wills at Baseball-Reference
  4. ^ Wulf, Steve (June 29, 2015). "The stuff of legends: In 1957, Cincinnati fans stacked the All-Star team too". ESPN.
  5. ^ Warren Hacker at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
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