|
Ford
Wins Eight Straight
 Brooklyn
Wins 100 Games Again
BROOKLYN
(Sept. 15) -- Whitey Ford won eight straight starts from Aug. 10,
compiling a 1.29 ERA and striking out 72 batters in 70
innings. Ford, 31, is 23-5 in 30 starts with a 2.99 ERA and
ranks second in wins and tied for fifth in strikeouts. The
Superbas are 23-3 since losing three of four games in mid-August,
and are cruising toward their fourth straight East Division
title. The Bas need only go .500 in their last 12 games to
break last season's UL record 105 wins.
Center fielder Mickey Mantle, in his first full season
in Brooklyn, is threatening the league home run record, sitting on
43, four shy of Gus Zernial's 1957 record. "The Commerce
Comet" currently leads the league in home runs, RBIs, and OPS,
and is a strong candidate to win his second MVP award, having won in
1953 as a 20-year-old Boston Beacons phenom.
The Superbas have won eight straight games, allowing
two runs or fewer in each game and outscoring opponents 52-8.
 A
“3” Grows In Brooklyn
by Charlie
Qualls
BROOKLYN (Sept.
1) -- No matter how the postseason plays out, “3” is the magic
number for the Brooklyn Superbas. Either they will bring home
their third league crown, or suffer their third straight World
Series loss to the supposedly weaker Western champs. It
appears that Brooklyn will once again face the Louisville Colonels,
who embarrassed them two years ago with a 4-1 World Series cakewalk.
This year, Brooklyn squeaked out an 8-6 season series win versus the
Colonels, but they know all bets are off when power lefties Johnny
Antonelli and Lou Brissie (both former Superbas) beat down the mound
in a short series. Luckily for Brooklyn, "Postseason
Superba Killer" Bob Porterfield has not been invited to the
dance.
But the number “4” can’t be ignored either, as in the starting
rotation. While GM Glen Reed was home celebrating the arrival
of the fourth member of his clan, his Superbas were coasting to
their fourth straight 99 or more win season. Brooklyn found a
mildly surprising threat in the new look Cleveland Barons, but
shrugged it off handily with what may be the best rotation in UL
history: The Brooks are a Brevin’s breath away from posting four
20 game winners. In any event, the rotation of Conley, Ford,
Burdette and Miller have thus far combined for an unreal ERA of 2.81
-- all landing in the top seven in ERA. Which means, even
without the League’s top ranked offense behind them, they would
still be a Foursome to be reckoned with. The bullpen has
been a mere formality this season, as the starters combined for
49(!) complete games. However, Closer Hoyt Wilhelm has been superb
(when occasionally needed), nabbing 21 saves, a 5-1 record and his
second career sub 2.00 ERA.
On the offensive side of the street, look for the Superbas to put up
more of a fight in the rematch as Mickey Mantle seems to have
rediscovered his MVP stroke in his new Big Apple home.
Two-time MVP Granny Hamner throws his enormous bat into the fray as
well. Outfielder Frank Thomas rounds out this mighty trio as
one of the league’s premier sluggers. But Louisville’s
offense is not far behind, brandishing their own power trips in
Aaron, Skowron and Kaline. Aaron’s advantage over Mantle in
batting and steals may make him the main candidate to rob the Mick
of his second MVP award. In any case, it should be a fun
series to watch.
 Gibbon
Shines in NYC Lights
by Shawn
Martin
NEW YORK (Sept.
1) – In a season filled with so many low notes for the New York
Gothams, one of the few positives has been the pitching of
rookie Joe Gibbon, NY’s 1st round draft pick in 1960. Until
he went down with an injured elbow in August, Gibbon had quietly
stepped into the #2 pitcher role, compiling a solid 13-5 W/L record
with a 3.05 ERA for a team 10 games under .500. There has even
been talk of his stats being good enough to win the Rookie of the
Year. “Joe’s really been the lone bright spot on this
pitching staff”, GM Shawn Martin stated, “He goes out there and
really battles for us. You can tell he’s the type of guy
that wants to win so badly when he begs us to put him in on three
days rest, and hell, even on his off-days he wants to go in
there.”
A 25
year-old native of Hickory, MS, and a product of the University of
Mississippi (where he was an All-American basketball star), the
6’4” Gibbon was selected #3 overall in this season’s rookie
entry draft, a pick that was scrutinized by many baseball media
pundits in New York. “We knew that selecting Joe at #3
would be a controversial decision.” Martin said, “But after
meeting with him, and re-evaluating our team’s needs, we realized
that he would fit in very nicely with the set of arms and
personalities we already had. Playing half our games in Yankee
Stadium required us to obtain a dominant lefty starter, and after
monitoring what Juan Pizarro was getting in Free Agency offers, we
realized that we would be better served by drafting a rook and
developing him ourselves.” Gibbon did not even start the
year in AAA, like most young pitchers do, as he made the major
league squad after a remarkably successful Spring Training.
Being a tall, young single male college grad in
New York City
can be interesting enough, but for a Mississippian like Gibbon, it
has been a culture shock to the extreme. “I don’t think
I’d ever even been out of the Southern part of the
U.S.
before this year,” he told us, “But now, I’m having drinks
with Steve Allen and smoking cigs with Jim Arness in
Times Square
like its no big deal. It’s really been unbelievable; I’ve
had such a great time, even with the injury.” Gibbon
suffered a fractured elbow during an August 18 game in
San Francisco
, where he slipped during his follow-through after a pitch to Frank
Bolling. “Man, it was such a freaky thing. I just kind
of lost my footing, twisted around and stopped my fall with my arm.
Stupid thing to do, but it was my first reaction to slipping.”
After evaluating the extent of the injury (which has been deemed to
be non-career threatening), GM Martin decided to pull the plug on
Joe’s 1960, placing him on the PUP (physically unable to perform)
list for the rest of the year. “We didn’t want to risk any
additional damage to his arm by throwing him back out there in a
garbage year,” Martin said in a statement, “The risk was just
too high for a kid with so much talent.” And for a kid with
so much talent, 1961 could be even better for him.
|
