1955 Washington Senators season

The 1955 Washington Senators season was the franchise's 55th in Major League Baseball. The Senators won 53 games, lost 101, and finished in eighth place in the American League. They were managed by Chuck Dressen and played home games at Griffith Stadium, where they draw 425,238 fans, eighth and last in the American League and 16th and last in MLB.[1]

1955 Washington Senators
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkGriffith Stadium
CityWashington, D.C.
OwnersClark Griffith (majority owner)
ManagersChuck Dressen
TelevisionWTTG
RadioWWDC (FM)
(Arch McDonald, Bob Wolff, Les Sands)
← 1954 Seasons 1956 →

It was Dressen's first year as the Senators' manager, after Bucky Harris had led the 1954 club to a 66–88, sixth place finish. Dressen, 60, came to Washington two years removed from a highly successful three-year term as skipper of the Brooklyn Dodgers, where his teams finished in a dead heat for first in 1951 (losing the 1951 National League tie-breaker series on Bobby Thomson's famous home run), then won back-to-back NL titles in 1952 and 1953. But in each of the latter seasons, his Dodgers were defeated by the New York Yankees in the World Series, and when Dressen decided to demand a three-year contract to return to Brooklyn for 1954, his owner, Walter O'Malley, let his 1953 contract expire. Dressen spent 1954 managing Oakland in the highly competitive Pacific Coast League, and his return to the major leagues was viewed with anticipation by some observers.[2]

His hiring was a departure for the Senators' management and ownership. He was the first manager outside the Washington team's "family" hired during Clark Griffith's presidency, which began in 1920. Through 1954, Griffith had appointed eight different men to manage his club (with one, Harris, serving three different terms), and all had been current or former Senator players. Dressen, as a veteran National Leaguer and a high profile manager with New York ties, broke that 35-season trend.

And, though no one knew it at the time, 1955 would be a milestone for baseball in Washington when it proved to be Griffith's last season as the club's president and chief stockholder. He died at age 85 on October 27, and his nephew Calvin, who succeeded him, would move the franchise to Minneapolis–Saint Paul as the Minnesota Twins after only five seasons as the Senators' president.

Offseason

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Regular season

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Season standings

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American League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 96 58 .623 52‍–‍25 44‍–‍33
Cleveland Indians 93 61 .604 3 49‍–‍28 44‍–‍33
Chicago White Sox 91 63 .591 5 49‍–‍28 42‍–‍35
Boston Red Sox 84 70 .545 12 47‍–‍31 37‍–‍39
Detroit Tigers 79 75 .513 17 46‍–‍31 33‍–‍44
Kansas City Athletics 63 91 .409 33 33‍–‍43 30‍–‍48
Baltimore Orioles 57 97 .370 39 30‍–‍47 27‍–‍50
Washington Senators 53 101 .344 43 28‍–‍49 25‍–‍52

Record vs. opponents

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Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KCA NYY WSH
Baltimore 8–14 10–12–1 3–19 9–13 10–12–1 3–19 14–8
Boston 14–8 9–13 11–11 13–9 14–8 8–14 15–7
Chicago 12–10–1 13–9 10–12 14–8 14–8 11–11 17–5
Cleveland 19–3 11–11 12–10 12–10 17–5 13–9 9–13
Detroit 13–9 9–13 8–14 10–12 12–10 10–12 17–5
Kansas City 12–10–1 8–14 8–14 5–17 10–12 7–15 13–9
New York 19–3 14–8 11–11 9–13 12–10 15–7 16–6
Washington 8–14 7–15 5–17 13–9 5–17 9–13 6–16


Notable transactions

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Roster

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1955 Washington Senators
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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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 Ed Fitz Gerald 74 236 56 .237 4 19
1B Mickey Vernon 150 538 162 .301 14 85
2B Pete Runnels 134 503 143 .284 2 49
SS José Valdivielso 94 294 65 .221 2 28
3B Eddie Yost 122 375 91 .243 7 48
LF Roy Sievers 144 509 138 .271 25 106
CF Tom Umphlett 110 323 70 .217 2 19
RF Carlos Paula 115 351 105 .299 6 45

Other batters

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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
Ernie Oravetz 100 263 71 .270 0 25
Clint Courtney 75 238 71 .298 2 30
Jim Busby 47 191 44 .230 6 14
Johnny Groth 63 183 40 .219 2 17
Bobby Kline 77 140 31 .221 0 9
Juan Delis 54 132 25 .189 0 11
Jerry Snyder 46 107 24 .224 0 5
Harmon Killebrew 38 80 16 .200 4 7
Bruce Edwards 30 57 10 .175 0 3
Tony Roig 29 57 13 .228 0 4
Jerry Schoonmaker 20 46 7 .152 1 4
Steve Korcheck 13 36 10 .278 0 2
Jim Lemon 10 25 5 .200 1 3
Jesse Levan 16 16 3 .188 1 4
Julio Bécquer 10 14 3 .214 0 1
Tom Wright 7 7 0 .000 0 0
Bob Oldis 6 6 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Bob Porterfield 30 178.0 10 17 4.45 74
Johnny Schmitz 32 165.0 7 10 3.71 49
Mickey McDermott 31 156.0 10 10 3.75 78

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Dean Stone 43 180.0 6 13 4.15 84
Chuck Stobbs 41 140.1 4 14 5.00 60
Pedro Ramos 45 130.0 5 11 3.88 34
Camilo Pascual 43 129.0 2 12 6.14 82
Ted Abernathy 40 119.1 5 9 5.96 79
Webbo Clarke 7 21.1 0 0 4.64 9
Bunky Stewart 7 15.1 0 0 4.11 10

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Bob Chakales 29 2 3 0 5.27 28
Spec Shea 27 2 2 2 3.99 16
Bill Currie 3 0 0 0 12.46 2
Dick Hyde 3 0 0 0 4.50 1
Vince Gonzales 1 0 0 0 27.00 1
Bobby Kline 1 0 0 0 27.00 0

Award winners

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All-Star Game

  • Mickey Vernon, starter, first base

[6]

Farm system

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Level Team League Manager
AA Chattanooga Lookouts Southern Association Cal Ermer
A Charlotte Hornets Sally League Jimmy Bloodworth
B Hagerstown Packets Piedmont League Johnny Welaj
B Rock Hill Chiefs Tri-State League Buster Boguskie, Frank Colasinski
and Pete Treece
D Orlando C.B.s Florida State League Tommy O'Brien
D Fulton Lookouts KITTY League Ned Waldrop, Sam Lamitina,
Mel Simons and Bob Harmon
D Erie Senators PONY League Ted Sepkowski

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Orlando

References

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  1. ^ Baseball Reference: 1955 Miscellaneous Team Information
  2. ^ Povich, Shirley, "Schemeboat on the Potomac", Baseball Digest, May 1955
  3. ^ Choo Choo Coleman page at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ Al Sima page at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ Bob Chakales page at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ "1955 All-Star Game".
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