1957 Chicago White Sox Replay.
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September 13. Game 139.
The Sox are unable to clinch a share of the Division title on this day, as the Yankees prevail 3-2. The Yankees built an early 3-0 lead off Billy Pierce, with RBI singles from Hank Bauer, Gil McDougald, and Mickey Mantle. Whitey Ford went the distance for the Bombers, giving up 6 hits and striking out 7 batters. Both Chicago runs came in the 8th inning on a homer by Walt Dropo.
The Sox will try again tomorrow to clinch a share of the division. They will send Dick Donovan to the mound. The Yanks will counter with Tom Sturdivant.
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September 14. Game 140.
(Okay…I’ve got to check my math a little closer next time.) With their 4-1 victory in game 140 over the Yankees, the White Sox have clinched the American League Pennant (not just a share of it)
Dick Donovan went the distance for the Sox, giving up just 4 hits. The Yankees run came on an RBI triple by Elston Howard.
The White Sox runs came on a 2-run double by Sherm Lollar, an RBI single by Jim Landis. Jim Rivera provided the 4th run on a solo homer.
The season series between the White Sox and the Yankees is now complete, and it was dominated by Chicago. The Sox won 16 of the 22 meetings between the two teams, and outscored the Yankees by a 98-57 margin.
In 1957, it was the Yankees that dominated, winning 14 games against 8 losses. The Yankees outscored the Sox 99-83 in 1957. The 8 game swing matches the margin by which the Yankees won the division in 1957.
The Sox will now have 14 games to get tuned up for the World Series. They head to Washington to take on the Senators.
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Thanks for the note Quinn. I certainly didn’t expect the Sox to do as well as they did in this replay. I’ve been able to stay really close to actual pitching usage…so It’s not because I’ve overused the top arms for the Sox. The Yankees really under-performed in the head-to-head match-ups with Chicago.
Did the Yanks win the division in your BBW Replay? By how much?
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September 19 Update. Four more games in the book after the Sox clinched the Pennant. They split a pair of games with both the Senators and the Orioles.
Match-ups between the Sox and both the Senators and Orioles are in the books now.
Chicago took 16 of the 22 games against Washington in the replay. They outscored the Senators 136-59. Roy Sievers was the top batter for the Senators against Chicago. He hit .302 in 86 at bats, collecting 5 doubles, 1, triple, and 7 homers.
In 1957, the Sox actually did better against the Senators than they did in the replay. They went 17-5 against Washington in 1957, outscoring them 141-85.
The Sox went 13-9 against Baltimore, outscoring the Orioles by a 106 - 77 margin. Bob Nieman was one of the top hitters for the O’s. He collected 16 hits including 2 triples and 2 homers, while driving in 8 runs.
In 1957, the Sox took 12 games against 10 losses versus Baltimore. The Sox outscored the Orioles by a 77-57 margin.
Next up for the White Sox is 3 games in Cleveland against the Tribe.
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September 22 Update. The Sox take 2 of 3 from Cleveland
Game 1: White Sox 7 Indians 4. Minnie Minoso hits a 3-run homer (10) and Ron Jackson drives in a pair of runs for the Sox. Dick Donovan (20-5) goes 8 innings to join the 20-win club, and Gerry Staley works the 9th for the save, his 19th of the year. Vic Wertz and Rocky Colavito each hit 2-run homers for Cleveland.
Game 2: White Sox 3 Indians 0. Barry Latman (1-0) goes the distance and shuts out Cleveland on 4 hits. Ron Jackson goes 3 for 4 with a homer (1) to lead the way for Chicago. Dick Brown goes 2 for 4 with a double in the loss.
Game 3: Indians 7 White Sox 5. Dixie Howell takes the loss, giving up 6 runs in relief of Billy Pierce. Rocky Colavito goes 2 for 4 with 3 RBI to lead the way for Cleveland. Ron Jackson drives in 3 runs for the Sox.
The White Sox finish up the road portion of their schedule with a pair of games in Kansas City against the Athletics.
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September 24th Update. Sox split a pair of games with the Athletics.
In game 1, Alex Kellner shut the Sox out on 5 hits as the A’s won 5-0. Sherm Lollar had Chicago’s only extra base hit, a double. Bob Keegan (9-4) took the loss, giving up 3 runs on 7 hits in 4 innings of work. Woodie Held and Bob Martyn each drove in a pair of runs for Kansas City in the win.
In the second game, Bill Fischer (9-5) took a 1-hit shutout into the 9th inning, but lost the shutout with 2 outs, with the Sox holding on for a 4-1 win. Gus Zernial drove in the lone Kansas City run. Sammy Esposito went 3 for 5 with a double for Chicago.
The season series between Chicago and Kansas City is complete. The Sox took the season series 13 games to 9, outscoring the A’s 97 - 88. Gus Zernial was the top offensive performer for Kansas City in the series. He collected 23 hits in 85 at bats, include 7 doubles and 7 homers while driving in 19 runs.
In 1957, the White Sox took the season series from the A’s 14 games to 8. The Sox outscored Kansas City 101 to 72.
The White Sox now return home for the final 2 series of the season. First up is a pair of games against the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers are in 5th place in the AL, with a record of 74-75.
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September 26 update. The Sox have crossed the 100-win threshold with a pair of wins over the Tigers, each by a score of 3-2.
In the first game, Jim Derrington exited after surrendering a run in 3 innings, but the Sox got solid pen work from four relievers, with Gerry Staley recording the last 2 outs for a save. Nellie Fox went 3 for 3 with 2 RBI to lead Chicago. Ray Boone homered in the loss for Detroit.
In the second game, Bill Fischer also left after 3 innings of work, but Don Rudolph followed with 6 innings of shutout relief to earn the win. Walt Dropo drove in a pair of runs for the Sox, and Earl Battey homered. Al Kaline accounted for both Detroit runs with a homer.
The Sox outscored the Tigers by a 79-68 margin in the replay, winning 14 of the 22 matchups. Frank Bolling was a top offensive performer for the Tigers, hitting .325 in 77 at-bats, with 5 doubles, a homer and 8 runs driven in.
In 1957, the Sox scored 105 runs against Detroit while surrendering 86 runs. The two teams split the 22 games in 1957.
The Sox close out the regular season with 3 games against the Cleveland Indians.
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The White Sox wrap up the regular season by taking 2 of 3 from the Indians, ending the season with 103 Wins and 51 Losses. They won the Division by 13 games over the Yankees.
Finals Standings:
For Reference here are the actual standings from 1957:
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Here is a pitcher by pitcher comparison of their replay stats versus actual 1957 stats:
Overall, I’m very satisfied with how the usage worked out with Jim Wilson being the only pitcher to significantly exceed his actual innings pitched.
While Gerry Staley (Az) did not exceed his actual innings, I did deploy him differently than he was used in 1957. In actuality, he was often deployed for multiple innings to replace an ineffective starter. I tended to use him as more of a traditional modern relief pitcher, deploying him in high leverage situations…but still using him for multiple innings many times.
It was the pitchers that fueled the Sox +13 game swing in the replay, as they prevented runs much better than the actual 1957 team did.
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Batter by Batter comparison between replay and Actual Stats:
As usual, batting average comes out a little low, but extra base hit totals, walks, and stolen bases all came out right in line with 1957 actuals.
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Impressive results, the most important indicator of the offense (runs) was just about on target. I played the the 57 season for awhile on BBW and the White Sox gave the Yanks all kinds of problems…