| Cincinnati Redlegs | |
| Season: | 1957 |
| League: | National League |
| Ballpark: | Crosley Field |
| City: | Cincinnati |
| Owners: | Powel Crosley, Jr. |
| General Managers: | Gabe Paul |
| Managers: | Birdie Tebbetts |
| Television: | WLW (George Bryson) |
| Radio: | WKRC (Waite Hoyt, Jack Moran) |
The 1957 Cincinnati Redlegs season consisted of the Redlegs finishing in fourth place in the National League, with a record of 80–74, 15 games behind the NL and World Series Champion Milwaukee Braves. The Redlegs were managed by Birdie Tebbetts and played their home games at Crosley Field, where they attracted 1,070,850 fans, fourth in the eight-team league.[1]
Just as in the 1956 season, the Reds were once again in first place at mid-season when, fan voting for the 1957 All-Star Game starting players determined that no fewer than seven Redleg players (Ed Bailey, Johnny Temple, Roy McMillan, Don Hoak, Frank Robinson, Gus Bell and Wally Post) had been elected to start in the All-Star Game, a record that still stands. The only non-Redleg elected for the National League was St. Louis Cardinal first baseman Stan Musial, who had only narrowly beaten his Reds counterpart George Crowe. Although Cincinnati had the second-best offense in the majors (they would score 747 runs that year, surpassed only by Milwaukee), most baseball observers felt they obviously did not deserve seven starters in the All-Star Game.
An investigation was launched by Commissioner Ford Frick, which found that the majority of the ballots cast had come from Cincinnati; in fact, The Cincinnati Times-Star newspaper had printed up pre-marked ballots with the Cincinnati starting lineup on them, and distributed them with each day's paper to make it easy for Redlegs fans to vote often for their favorite players.[4] Meanwhile, Burger Beer, a Redlegs sponsor, had printed 250,000 similar ballots and distributed them to local bars, and stories emerged of bartenders refusing to serve alcohol to customers until they filled out a ballot.
Subsequently, Frick suspended fans' voting rights, and appointed Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves to substitute for Bell and Post. Bell was kept as a reserve (he would bat for Redlegs teammate Robinson in the seventh and slap a two-RBI double), while Post was injured and would have been unable to play in any event. Hoak and McMillan were each dismissed from the game after a single at-bat, in favour of future Hall of Famers Eddie Mathews and Ernie Banks, respectively. Temple batted twice before giving way to another future Cooperstown resident, Red Schoendienst. (Bailey caught the whole game, but was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the ninth.)
The Reds faltered after the All-Star break and dropped to fourth place in the season final standings.
| 1957 Cincinnati Redlegs | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roster | |||||||||
| Pitchers | CatchersInfielders | OutfieldersOther batters | ManagerCoaches | ||||||
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | 122 | 391 | 102 | .261 | 20 | 48 | ||
| 1B | 133 | 494 | 134 | .271 | 31 | 92 | ||
| 2B | 145 | 557 | 158 | .284 | 0 | 37 | ||
| SS | 151 | 448 | 122 | .272 | 1 | 55 | ||
| 3B | 149 | 529 | 155 | .293 | 19 | 89 | ||
| LF | 150 | 611 | 197 | .322 | 29 | 75 | ||
| CF | 121 | 510 | 149 | .292 | 13 | 61 | ||
| RF | 134 | 467 | 114 | .244 | 20 | 74 |
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | 205 | 58 | .283 | 14 | 39 | ||
| 74 | 190 | 47 | .247 | 16 | 40 | ||
| 69 | 127 | 34 | .268 | 6 | 21 | ||
| 67 | 124 | 32 | .258 | 4 | 13 | ||
| 33 | 107 | 28 | .262 | 4 | 9 | ||
| 73 | 99 | 30 | .303 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 67 | 90 | 19 | .211 | 5 | 11 | ||
| 21 | 34 | 9 | .265 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 4 | 12 | 1 | .083 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 29 | 10 | 2 | .200 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 3 | 3 | 1 | .333 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 5 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | 207.0 | 12 | 13 | 4.52 | 63 | ||
| 39 | 174.1 | 10 | 10 | 4.75 | 99 |
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49 | 250.1 | 16 | 13 | 3.52 | 121 | ||
| 43 | 148.1 | 7 | 9 | 4.31 | 73 | ||
| 46 | 146.0 | 8 | 11 | 5.05 | 99 | ||
| 33 | 87.2 | 3 | 0 | 6.47 | 45 | ||
| 15 | 43.1 | 3 | 2 | 5.19 | 18 | ||
| 9 | 27.1 | 1 | 2 | 5.93 | 9 | ||
| 5 | 16.0 | 0 | 1 | 6.19 | 13 | ||
| 3 | 10.0 | 0 | 1 | 4.50 | 6 | ||
| 2 | 8.1 | 0 | 1 | 2.16 | 6 |
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52 | 7 | 2 | 8 | 4.52 | 36 | ||
| 49 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 4.97 | 67 | ||
| 38 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4.76 | 37 | ||
| 8 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6.39 | 8 | ||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.25 | 3 | ||
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.59 | 4 |
See also: Minor League Baseball.
LEAGUE CO-CHAMPIONS: Graceville
Port Arthur franchise transferred to Temple, May 30, 1957, then folded, August 20; Clovis franchise folded, June 16; Hornell replaced disbanded Bradford franchise in mid-season and began play May 28[6]