1957 Washington Senators season

The 1957 Washington Senators won 55 games and lost 99 in their 57th year in the American League, and finished in eighth place, attracting 457,079 spectators to Griffith Stadium, last in the major leagues. Chuck Dressen began the year as their manager, but after the Senators dropped 16 of their first 20 games, Dressen was replaced by Cookie Lavagetto on May 7. Lavagetto, a longtime aide to Dressen, went 51–83 for the rest of the year, but would remain at the club's helm into June 1961, its first season as the Minnesota Twins.

1957 Washington Senators
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkGriffith Stadium
CityWashington, D.C.
OwnersCalvin Griffith (majority owner, with Thelma Griffith Haynes)
General managersCalvin Griffith
ManagersChuck Dressen and Cookie Lavagetto
TelevisionWTTG
RadioWWDC (FM)
(Chuck Thompson, Bob Wolff)
← 1956 Seasons 1958 →

The 1957 Senators set an MLB record which still stands for the fewest stolen bases by a team in a season, with only 13.[1] Washington left fielder Roy Sievers set a new team record with 42 home runs to the lead the Junior Circuit, as he benefited from Griffith Stadium's shorter dimensions in left and left-center field, which had been implemented before the 1956 campaign.

The 1957 season also marked the first time that Washington's American League franchise had used Senators as its official nickname since 1904. For 52 years (1905–1956), the team called itself the Nationals, with Senators as an unofficial, but widely used, secondary appellation. From 1957 on, headline writers and baseball journalists would continue to use Nats as an accepted alternative name for both this Senators franchise and its expansion-era successor, the Senators of 1961–1971, until the "new Senators" relocated to Dallas–Fort Worth after the 1971 campaign. Since 2005, the Nationals name is the official identity of Washington's National League franchise formerly called the Montreal Expos.

Offseason

edit

Regular season

edit

Season standings

edit
American League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 98 56 .636 48‍–‍29 50‍–‍27
Chicago White Sox 90 64 .584 8 45‍–‍32 45‍–‍32
Boston Red Sox 82 72 .532 16 44‍–‍33 38‍–‍39
Detroit Tigers 78 76 .506 20 45‍–‍32 33‍–‍44
Baltimore Orioles 76 76 .500 21 42‍–‍33 34‍–‍43
Cleveland Indians 76 77 .497 21½ 40‍–‍37 36‍–‍40
Kansas City Athletics 59 94 .386 38½ 37‍–‍40 22‍–‍54
Washington Senators 55 99 .357 43 28‍–‍49 27‍–‍50

Record vs. opponents

edit

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KCA NYY WSH
Baltimore 8–14 10–12–1 9–12 9–13 16–5–1 9–13 15–7
Boston 14–8 8–14 12–10 10–12 16–6 8–14 14–8
Chicago 12–10–1 14–8 14–8 11–11 14–8 8–14 17–5
Cleveland 12–9 10–12 8–14 11–11 11–11 9–13 15–7
Detroit 13–9 12–10 11–11 11–11 8–14 10–12 13–9
Kansas City 5–16–1 6–16 8–14 11–11 14–8 3–19 12–10
New York 13–9 14–8 14–8 13–9 12–10 19–3 13–9
Washington 7–15 8–14 5–17 7–15 9–13 10–12 9–13


Opening Day lineup

edit

Notable transactions

edit

Roster

edit
1957 Washington Senators
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats

edit

Batting

edit

Starters by position

edit

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 Lou Berberet 99 264 69 .261 7 36
1B Pete Runnels 134 473 109 .230 2 35
2B Herb Plews 104 329 89 .271 1 26
SS Rocky Bridges 120 391 89 .228 3 47
3B Eddie Yost 110 414 104 .251 9 38
LF Roy Sievers 152 572 172 .301 42 114
CF Bob Usher 96 295 77 .261 5 27
RF Jim Lemon 137 518 147 .284 17 64

Other batters

edit

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
Milt Bolling 91 277 63 .227 4 19
Art Schult 77 247 65 .263 4 35
Clint Courtney 91 232 62 .267 6 27
Faye Throneberry 68 195 36 .185 2 12
Julio Bécquer 105 186 42 .226 2 22
Ed Fitz Gerald 45 125 34 .272 1 13
Jerry Snyder 42 93 14 .151 1 4
Whitey Herzog 36 78 13 .167 0 4
Neil Chrisley 26 51 8 .157 0 3
Lyle Luttrell 19 45 9 .200 0 5
Harmon Killebrew 9 31 9 .290 2 5
Jerry Schoonmaker 30 23 2 .087 0 0
Karl Olson 8 12 2 .167 0 0
Dick Tettelbach 9 11 2 .182 0 1

Pitching

edit

Starting pitchers

edit

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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Pedro Ramos 43 231.0 12 16 4.79 91
Chuck Stobbs 42 211.2 8 20 5.36 114
Camilo Pascual 29 175.2 8 17 4.10 113
Russ Kemmerer 39 172.1 7 11 4.96 81
Hal Griggs 2 13.2 0 1 3.29 12

Other pitchers

edit

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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Tex Clevenger 52 139.2 7 6 4.19 75
Ted Abernathy 26 85.0 2 10 6.78 50
Jim Heise 8 19.0 0 3 8.05 8
Bob Chakales 4 18.1 0 1 5.40 12
Bob Wiesler 3 16.1 1 1 4.41 9
Ralph Lumenti 3 9.1 0 1 6.75 8
Don Minnick 2 9.1 0 1 4.82 7
Garland Shifflett 6 8.0 0 0 10.13 2

Relief pitchers

edit

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

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Bud Byerly 47 6 6 6 3.13 39
Dick Hyde 52 4 3 1 4.12 46
Evelio Hernández 14 0 0 0 4.25 15
Joe Black 7 0 1 0 7.11 2
Dick Brodowski 6 0 1 0 11.12 4
Dean Stone 3 0 0 0 8.10 3

Farm system

edit
Level Team League Manager
AA Chattanooga Lookouts Southern Association Cal Ermer
A Charlotte Hornets Sally League Gene Verble
B Kinston Eagles/Wilson Tobs Carolina League Pete Suder
B Midland/Lamesa Indians Southwestern League Johnny Welaj and Hank O'Neal
C Missoula Timberjacks Pioneer League Jack McKeon
D Fort Walton Beach Jets Alabama–Florida League Neal Cobb
D Superior Senators Nebraska State League Ray Baker
D Elmira Pioneers New York–Penn League Bill Brightwell

Kinston franchise transferred to Wilson and renamed, May 11, 1957; Midland franchise transferred to Lamesa, August 1, 1957

Notes

edit
  1. ^ "Stolen Bases: Single Season Team Records". baseball-almanac.com. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
  2. ^ Choo Choo Coleman page at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ Faye Throneberry page at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ Jim Kaat page at Baseball Reference

References

edit