During the spring of 1950, the world champion St.Louis Browns were looking to make it a three-peat, something that only one team had ever done, the 1906-09 Philadelphia Athletics. Something happened on the way there. The Browns collapsed at the opening bell and finished April 8.5 games behind the front running Chicago White Sox. St.Louis never recovered, on the other hand, the Pale Hose ended up dominating the AL so much that they ran off to an 11 game lead by Labor Day and clinched the title with over two weeks remaining. Behind the hitting of Stan Musial (league leading .335 average) and the junior circuit's MVP, Eddie Robinson (.334-29-121) and the pitching of Bob Feller (21 wins), Chicago coasted through the remaining month of the season. The Washington Senators finished in 2nd place, a very distant 17 games behind, got there thanks to the hitting of Al Rosen (.263-26-95) and the pitching of Mike Garcia (19 wins, 3.05 era). The Indians, led by rookie Mickey Mantle (.266-13-62) and Phil Cavarretta (.259-18-76) at the plate and Lou Brissie (19 wins, 3.49 era), ended up in 3rd place, 20 games behind.
The race in the National League was much different. The defending NL champs, the Brooklyn Dodgers, took the early lead after the first month but started faltering and the New York Giants took advantage by grabbing the lead. It became a three team race as Labor Day came around with St.Louis and Cincinnati hot on New York's heels. With less than half a week remaining, the Cardinals continued to push the Giants until the Giants were able to clinch the NL title on the next-to-last day of the season. New York was led by the mighty bats of Roy Campanella (.288-18-84) and Tommy Henrich (.258-21-92) and the arm of Chet Nichols (16 wins, 3.09 era). The St.Louis Cardinals finished a single game behind thanks to the hitting of Joe DiMaggio (.280-23-97) and rookie Gil McDougal (.299-17-90). The Cincinnati Reds ended in 3rd place, 4 games behind the Giants, behind the hitting of Larry Doby (.286-26-97) and the pitching of Mel Parnell (15 wins, 3.79 era, 108 strikeouts).
The World Series proved to be anticlimatic as the White Sox continued their dominating season by defeating the Giants, 4 games to 1. Two of those games went by way of extra innings as Chicago won game 3, 4-3, in 12 innings and game 4, 4-3, in 19 innings, the longest game in World Series history.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Chicago 98 56 .636 -- New York 85 69 .552 --
Washington 81 73 .526 17 St.Louis 84 70 .545 1
Cleveland 78 76 .506 20 Cincinnati 81 73 .526 4
Philadelphia 77 77 .500 21 Brooklyn 78 76 .506 7
Detroit 76 78 .494 22 Pittsburgh 76 78 .494 9
St.Louis 72 82 .468 26 Philadelphia 75 79 .487 10
New York 71 83 .461 27 Chicago 70 84 .455 15
Boston 63 91 .409 35 Boston 67 87 .435 18
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
S.Musial,CHI .335 T.Williams,BRO .332
E.Robinson,CHI .334 Y.Berra,PHI .316
B.Goodman,NY .332 E.Slaughter,NY .312
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
G.Hodges,PHI 34 R.Kiner,PIT 48
V.Stephens,DET 32 T.Williams,BRO 37
G.Zernial,NY 30 S.Gordon,PIT 29
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
E.Robinson,CHI 121 R.Kiner,PIT 117
B.Elliott,CHI 119 D.Ennis,BOS 114
G.Zernial,NY 117 S.Gordon,PIT 112
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
S.Musial,CHI 116 M.Minoso,PIT 128
E.Joost,WAS 104 T.Williams,BRO 119
P.Reese,STL 104 R.Kiner,PIT 113
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
J.Collins,STL 22 M.Minoso,PIT 43
D.DiMaggio,DET 17 R.Ashburn,BOS 19
B.Avila,CHI 16 R.Jackson,BRO 17
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
T.Poholsky,CHI 2.57 B.Feller,STL 3.08
M.Garcia,WAS 3.05 C.Nichols,NY 3.09
E.Wynn,WAS 3.13 P.Roe,BOS 3.19
Wins W Wins W
W.Spahn,CHI 21 F.Hutchinson,PIT 22
L.Brissie,CLE 19 R.Meyer,STL 18
M.Garcia,WAS 19 R.Roberts,PHI 17
Saves SV Saves SV
F.Martin,WAS 21 H.Eisenstat,PHI 20
F.Caligiuri,PHI 18 D.Matthewson,CIN 17
B.Donovan,STL 18 J.Salveson,CHI 15
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
L.Jansen,CLE 181 B.Kuzava,CHI 175
W.Ford,NY 180 M.McDermott,STL 157
W.Spahn,CHI 176 R.Roberts,PHI 156
1950 World Series
Game #1
New York (N) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 - 6 10 0
Chicago (A) 0 0 0 1 0 4 0 1 1 - 7 10 1
J.Rigney, J.Flores (8), R.Barrett (9) and R.Campanella
A.Donald, B.Fleming (8) and P.Gillespie
WP - B.Fleming (1-0)
LP - R.Barrett (0-1)
HR - NY: R.Campanella (1) CHI: Gearhart (1)
Game #2
New York (N) 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 - 4 15 0
Chicago (A) 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 - 3 9 2
B.Pierce, R.Barrett (8) and R.Campanella
E.Lopat, F.LaManna (9) and P.Gillesple
WP - B.Pierce (1-0)
LP - E.Lopat (0-1)
SV - R.Barrett (1)
HR - none
Game #3
Chicago (A) 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 4 11 0
New York (N) 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 11 1
W.Spahn, E.Blackwell (11) and P.Gillespie
C.Nichols, B.Byerly (9), R.Barrett (12) and R.Campanella
WP - E.Blackwell (1-0)
LP - P.Barrett (0-1)
HR - CHA: S.Musial (1) NY: N.James (1)
Game #4
Chicago (A) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 - 4 14 1
New York (N) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 - 3 10 1
A.Donald, E.Blackwell (10), B.Fleming (12), F.LaManna (16) and P.Gillespie,
B.Edwards (10)
J.Rigney, R.Barrett (11), B.Byerly (12), J.Flores (15) and R.Campanella
WP - F.LaManna (1-0)
LP - J.Flores (0-2)
HR - NY: R.Campanella (2)
Game #5
Chicago (A) 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 5 12 2
New York (N) 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 4 0
E.Lopat and P.Gillespie
B.Pierce, R.Barrett (8) and R.Campanella
WP - E.Lopat (1-1)
LP - B.Pierce (1-1)
HR - NY: R.Campanella (3) CHI: B.Avila (1)
Philadelphia Phillies
Code:
Philadelphia Phillies Leaders
Year: 1950
Batting Average
.316 Y.Berra
.299 E.Torgeson
.294 T.Holmes
.292 R.Sievers
.275 G.Woodling
Home Runs
25 Y.Berra
22 E.Torgeson
17 D.Litwhiler
15 T.Holmes
13 W.Westlake
Runs Batted In
82 R.Sievers
78 E.Torgeson
77 Y.Berra
63 D.Litwhiler
58 T.Holmes
Runs Scored
87 E.Torgeson
81 R.Sievers
69 Y.Berra
68 T.Holmes
68 G.Woodling
Stolen Bases
22 G.Woodling
7 E.Torgeson
4 Y.Berra
2 J.Grant
2 R.Smalley
Wins
17 R.Roberts
12 B.Lemon
11 N.Garver
9 D.Conger
7 H.Perkowski
Saves
20 H.Eisenstat
3 D.Conger
3 C.Lambert
Earned Run Average
3.32 D.Conger
3.80 R.Roberts
4.21 N.Garver
4.35 B.Lemon
Strikeouts
156 R.Roberts
114 B.Lemon
70 C.Simmons
69 N.Garver
60 D.Conger