1955 Dodgers - The Best 54 Game Start
EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN - June 12, 1955
The Sports Time Traveler is following the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers day-by-day.
It’s been an incredible start to the season here in 1955 for this Dodgers’ team that was viewed as “over the hill” by baseball experts. The Dodgers have never won a World Series, and they recently lost the World Series to the Yankees in 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953. They also lost heartbreaking close pennant races in 1950 and 1951.
Their time to win it all had seemed to close last year in 1954, when they finished 5 games behind the Willie Mays’ led New York Giants.
But lo and behold the Dodgers this year raced out to a 22 - 2 start at the beginning of this year. After a mediocre 6 - 8 stretch, they’ve now piled on 14 wins in their last 16 games.
That puts their record as of this morning at 42 - 12.
NOTE from the present time
I interrupt this article to inform you that the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers record of 42 - 12 is something special. In the past 70 years, no team has had a better 54 game start than the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers.
Now back to 1955
Newking ‘Em
There are many players responsible for the Dodgers’ remarkable success this year. Perhaps none more than the resurgence of starting pitcher Don Newcombe. Newcombe, the Dodgers ace starter in 1949 - 1951, was a big question mark coming into this season. He had not been the same since missing the entire 1952 and 1953 seasons in the military. But Newcombe has been perfect this year. This week he raised his record to a perfect 10 - 0, making him one of the only starting pitchers ever to achieve that mark.
Newcombe is pitching so efficiently that he needed just 91 pitches to beat the Reds in his last outing.
Newcombe is also having a sensational season at the plate. He’s batting .400 with 4 home runs. In the victory over the Reds this week, Newk singled and scored the Dodgers’ first run. Then later he doubled to drive in a run. Newk pretty much beat the Reds all by himself as he directly responsible for 2 of the 3 Dodgers’ runs, while holding Cincinnati to a single run on a ball that was crushed by Ted Kluszewski.
Joseph Sheehan in the New York Times pointed out that, “Not many ball players reach this stage of the season with a pitching percentage of 1.000 and a batting average of .400.
It’s very likely no one else has ever done that.
Campy is Crushing It!
Another major reason for the Dodgers’ brilliant start is the return of catcher Roy Campanella to MVP-like play. After winning the MVP in 1951 and 1953, last year Campy battled a season long hand injury, and hit a career low .207. At 33 years old, many felt Campy might never regain his form. But Campy, who hit home runs in each of the past 2 games, now has an MVP worthy batting line:
19 HRs (1st in NL)
58 RBIs (2nd in NL)
.332 Avg. (3rd in NL)
The Duke
If you noticed that Campy is 2nd in the NL in RBIs, it’s because Dodgers’ centerfielder, Duke Snider is 1st. The Duke has 60 RBIs through 54 games. Snider’s batting line looks similar to Campy’s.
And Duke has made many fine catches in centerfield as well. He’s currently outpacing his fellow centerfielders in New York in every category.
Take a look at this comparison between Willie, Mickey and the Duke:
Starting Pitching
Another piece of the puzzle for the 1955 Dodgers has been the other 3 starters in the 4 man rotation besides Newcombe. Carl Erskine, Billy Loes and Johnny Podres have given 2nd year manager Walt Alston consistent quality starts. Just take a look at their last 4 outings of the quartet:
Podres threw a 5 hit shutout to improve his record to 6 - 3
Newcombe pitched a 4 hit complete game victory to get to 10 - 0
Erskine fired a 4 hit shutout to boost his record to 8 - 2
Loes tossed a complete game 5 hitter to get to 7 - 2
Mysteriously Missing
There’s one thing that is absent from all of this - the fans.
Ebbets Field has been incredibly empty on weekdays. This past Tuesday afternoon’s game had paid attendance of just 4,481.
And there has not been a single sellout on the weekends all season.
Regarding the poor fan support, the June 1st New York Daily News had this note about a comment made by the Dodgers’ owner, “Walter O’Malley drops subtle hints aimed at consumer complacency, ‘There’s a very important election being held in Los Angeles. It’s on a bond issue for the purpose of spending 4.5 million dollars on a ballpark to seat 63,000.”
The Sports Time Traveler will continue following the 1955 Dodgers and report to you when there is something so compelling I just have to share it.