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 Owners
Approve Expansion
League to Add
Two Clubs in 1962
NEW YORK
(July 2) -- At a midseason summit at league headquarters in
Manhattan, UL owners voted 8-1 with one abstention in favor of enlarging the circuit to
12 teams in 1962. League president Timothy J. Smith welcomed
the vote, noting that the decision would accomodate the ever growing
pool of major league talent and introduce the thriving league two
new markets as it enters its second decade.
The vote came in the wake of last year's
rejection, after several owners raise concerns about the impact
expansion would have on their rosters. The United League used
its first expansion in 1955 to break baseball out of its Northeast
base, placing clubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco to make the
game bicoastal for the first time. Expansion owners Chris
McCreight and Mark Cooley chose the City of Angels and the City by
the Bay from a short list of six cities, setting up a West Coast
rivalry.
Owners were coy about which cities they favored for the
league's second expansion. The league has certified 13 cities
capable of supporting a UL franchise: Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo,
Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New
Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Toronto. Some cities,
like Boston, Denver, and Pittsburgh, have existing facilities, while
others, such as Atlanta and Toronto have pledged to build new
stadiums after they are awarded franchises. Three cities from
the 1955 short list (Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh) will
likely remain strong contenders for the 1962 clubs, as will Boston,
which was abandoned by the Cleveland Barons in 1958.
Smith didn't tip his hand as to what cities the owners
favored, but suggested that expanding the circuit into new frontiers
was still foremost on the minds of many owners, while others wished
to expand to large baseball-starved markets. "As always,
the owners will decide what is best for the league," Smith
said. "Where the owners take us, we will
follow."
 10-1,
But Falling Behind
Cleveland Hot,
But Brooklyn Scorching
CLEVELAND (July 16)
-- In a classic case of peaking at the wrong time, the Cleveland
Barons won 10 of 11 games but managed to fall a game behind in the
East Division race, as division leaders Brooklyn won 11 straight
games over the same period. The Barons won eight straigh from
July 4-12, including sweeps of St. Louis and Detroit, and then
bounced back to win a pair at Chicago after a 9-2 loss to Washington
on July 13. The Barons rotation was led by the two Billys--Pierce
and O'Dell. Pierce beat Detroit 10-3 with a seven-hitter
complete game on July 8, and four days later held the Monuments to
three hits while striking out 12 in 8 innings for a 6-3 win.
O'Dell won six of seven starts from June 7 to July 9 before taking
the Barons' only loss on the 13th.
Hal Jeffcoat leads the Cleveland offense with 16 RBI
and a .400 average in 11 games, and Eddie Mathews drove in 12 runs
in 11 games with a .405 average and .811 slugging percentage.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn surged to a league-best 12-game
winning streak--11 in July--with sweeps of Chicago, New York, and
Los Angeles, and two wins at Washington. Brooklyn pitchers
have held opponents to three runs or less in 9 of 11 games, with
three of four starters posting ERAs under 2.00 in July--Whitey Ford
1.53 in two starts, Bob Miller 1.62 in three starts, and Gene Conley
1.90 in three starts. Slugger Mickey Mantle--league leader in
home runs, RBI, and OPS--has slumped in July, hitting just .244, but
led the team with 11 RBI in 11 games.
 Zernial
Hits 300th Home Run
CHICAGO (July 14) -- Gus
Zernial joined the elite 300-homer club today with a two-run blast
off Jack Sanford in the second inning of a 6-5, 11-inning loss to
Cleveland. Zernial joins Ralph Kiner as the only player in UL
history to hit 300 round-trippers. Zernial, 36, is a two-time
home run champion, and set the league record with 46 clouts in 1957.
"Ozark Ike" began his major league career in
1949 with the Chicago AL club, and hit .280-29-93 with the Pale Hose
the year the former major leagues went belly up. Zernial was a
fourth round selection by the Boston Beacons in the UL's Initial
Draft, and clubbed 33 homers for 112 RBIs in his first UL season,
and 30 in the each of the next two seasons. Gus lost part of
1954 to injury and hit just 19 home runs in 126 games -- the only
time in his career he didn't finish in the top 10 in home
runs. He was traded to Chicago in 1955, where he emerged as
the league's top home run threat, pounding out 33, 39, and 46 in his
first three seasons. The Beaumont, Texas native cooled off in
1958, his worst season, hitting .238-26-88, but rebounded last year
with a .261-34-102 season.
Zernial trails Kiner by just 19 home runs and has been
closing the gap. Gus has hit 44 home runs since 1959, while
Kiner has just 22, allowing Zernial to close Kiner's lead from 41 to
19 home runs. Zernial is in the last year of a $9.1 million
contract and will likely become a free agent after this season.
The Colts have struggled of late. After a 17-9
June, the Horsies are 4-7 in July and six games behind first place
Louisville.
 Spiders
Keep Climbing
Hot Pitching
Lifts Team to .500
SAN FRANCISCO
(July 16) -- The San Francisco Spiders continued their slow climb up
the West Division standings in early July. The Spider started
the season in a free-fall, losing 26 of their first 38 games to fall
10 games back by May 16, when the rest of the division was clustered
within two games of the top. Since mid-May, the Arachnids are
33-19, and have climbed from fifth to third place, and sit just 6.5
games out of first place.
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