I always had assumed that Minnie Minoso, who passed away on March 1st, was a member of the 1959 Chicago White Sox. The truth is, he was traded from Chicago to Cleveland for Early Wynn and Al Smith in the offseason of 1957. The team of that decade was the New York Yankees. But in 1959, they finished behind both Chicago and Cleveland. Minnie was close to playing in the World Series that year. Sadly, he never made it!
The Indians finished second that season, just five games back. They had an interesting team. They had a young Mudcat Grant, a rookie. They had Rocky Colavito as the league leader in home runs. They had wild and crazy Jimmy Piersall. And someone Piersall fought, Billy Martin. Minoso, though, was the only member of this team to hit .300!
Tito Francona did hit over .300 for Cleveland that year. Well over. He hit .363. But because he had lacked the requirements (502 plate appearances), he did not qualify. He had only 443. But still, he and Minoso were probably the two best offensive assets on the team, with Colavito a close third.
Colavito led the league in home runs with 42. Actually, only two players, Eddie Mathews and Ernie Banks, hit more home runs in the majors that year. But Rocky hit only .257, so that sort of is a damper in his value. Two pitchers, Jim Perry and Bobby Locke, hit over .300, if you can believe it!
Woodie Held, was once a New York Yankee like Billy Martin. But he was also the greatest slugging AL shortstop anyone had seen since Vern Stephens. 1959 was the second of four seasons that he would slug 20 home runs. He hit a career high 29 that season. But like Colavito, he average was low, .251.
Billy Martin got into only 73 games, but did hit .260, which was one of his highest averages. He added 9 home runs, which was not too far behind his two highest totals, 15 and 11, set some years back with the Yankees. Had he played more, he might well have exceeded those totals. As it was, he added 37 runs scored.
Cal McLish was the ace of the Indians staff, but his numbers were off from the previous year. Although he won 19 games in 1959, his ERA went from 2.99 to 3.63. He also allowed a league high 253 hits in only 235 1/3 innings. Gary Bell also had a high ERA, over four, but also posted a 16-11 record.
Jim Perry, the rookie (And brother of Gaylord!) was only 12-10, but his ERA was fantastic! It was 2.65, well above his career mark of 3.45. And Jim was on his way to 215 wins in his major league career.
Herb Score's career was thought to possibly be over after getting hit in the eye by Gil McDougald's line drive back on May 7th, 1957. His arm then failed him the next year, even after he somehow made it back to the mound. This, was what was the problem, Score would say in later years. The eye and the arm seemed fine through 14 decisions, as he was 9-5. But then he proceeded to lose his last six decisions. Despite ending the year 9-11 with a high ERA of 4.71, he was able to lead the league in two crucial categories. He allowed just 6.9 hits per nine innings. And he also averaged 8.2 strikeouts per nine, and that lead the league. Sadly, this would be as close as he'd get to getting back to his per-beaming form.
Mudcat Grant was 10-7, but like Bell, Score and Mike Garcia (Who was only 3-6), his ERA was over four. The team's problem was they lacked a true closer, as Bell and Dick Brodowksi tied for the team lead in saves with just five. Compare that to the Chicago White Sox, who got a league-leading 15 saves from Gerry Staley and Turk Lown. Ryne Duren of the third place Yankees got 14 himself. The Indians didn't really have anyone that came close to them (Although Brodowski had a low ERA).
The Indians themselves were up a half-game on July 26th, but then lost 4-0 to Boston the next day (Score taking the loss). They were still within a game of Chicago after Perry beat the Yankees on August 26th (Duren taking the loss, coincidentally). Then, Minoso's old team, the White Sox, swept 'em to end that! Chicago ended up clinching it, appropriately with a 4-2 win (Early Wynn the winning pitcher, who else?) over Cleveland on September 22nd.
References
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