The Fabulous ’50s

Robin Roberts had three seasons in the top 10, including the top two, to lead major league pitchers in the 1950s, and for four straight seasons he led the National League.

Duke Snider led major league hitters in the 1950s with three seasons in the top 10 in the author's point system that rewards top-five finishes in 12 categories.

By Phil Ellenbecker

  Looking for something to do amid the idleness of my unemployment, I decided to undertake an unscientific “study” of Major League Baseball in the 1950s to determine the best players of the decade and the best individual seasons by those players.

  The “study” conducted of pulling out a Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia and looking over the listing of league leaders in several categories for each year.  The top five were listed in some instances, the top four in others – don’t ask me how that line was drawn. The major categories almost all included the top five. In a couple instances just the top three were listed. I think large number of players tied had something to do with less than four, and space limitations came into play. I gave five points for the top ranking, four for second and so on down. Where just four were listed, it went 5-4-3-2. If there was a tie, I divided the total number of points between the rankings by the number of players who were tied. Example: Three players tied for second – 4+3+2=9 divided by 3=3 points for each player.

  The categories: offense -- batting average, total bases, hits, runs, slugging average, RBIs, walks, doubles, homers, steals, homer-percentage, triples; defense – winning percentage, saves, hits/nine innings/, strikeouts/nine innings, ERA, strikeouts, shutouts, innings pitched, wins, complete games, walks/nine innings, games pitched.

  What I came up with I think gives a fairly representative presentation of the top players and seasons. There are enough categories included to give a balance between the counting stats that reward durability and reliability, and the rate stats that address pure performance. Offense takes in power, speed, batting eye and contact; pitching -- power, control, durability and dominance (i.e., shutouts).   Mind you, the numbers, other than the rankings I assigned, don’t matter here, just how the players ranked in comparison with their peers. Which I think is the best way to rate players, how they rate relative to others. The 56 homers Mickey Mantle hit in 1956 don’t matter any more than the 32 Larry Doby hit  in 1952 and ’54; they were simply the best over their peers in that particular year in that particular category.

  This was a fun project to do, as I delved year by year into players legendary, familiar, surprising and unfamiliar; reading history unfold and feeling a true sense of who stood out and who didn’t.

Top 10 pitching seasons

1, Robin Roberts, 1952, 31

2, Robin Roberts, 1954, 30                                                                                                                         3 (tie). Johnny Antonelli, 1954, and Bobby Shantz, 1952, 29 ½

5 (tie). Billy Pierce, 1953, and Robin Roberts, 1953, 28

7 (tie). Warren Spahn, 1952, Allie Reynolds, 1952, Robin Roberts, 1953, and Warren Spahn 1958, 27

Top 10 batting seasons

1, Mickey Mantle, 1956, 44

2. Willie Mays, 1955, 40                                                                                                                                     

3. Al Rosen, 1953, 36

4. Duke Snider, 1954, 33 ½

5 (tie). Ernie Banks, 1958, and Hank Aaron, 1959, 34

7. Duke Snider, 1953, 33 ½

8, Hank Aaron, 1957, 33

9. Ralph Kiner, 1951, 32 ½

10. Duke Snider, 1956, 32
Among my admittedly nonauthoritative observations and conclusions:

n  As much as we make of batting titles, or  used to, batting average among the categories has the least do with overall batting excellence. Oftentimes people who would appear on the batting average list wouldn’t appear elsewhere or rarely elsewhere.

n  Robin Roberts was definitely the most dominant pitcher of the 1950s by these metrics, compiling the most points in the National League in four consecutive seasons,  1952-1955. He also had the top point totals, with 31 in 1952 and 30 in 1954. Warren Spahn was the only other pitcher in either league make the top 10 more than once, tied for seventh in 1952 and 1958. And the pitching was far more dominant in the early ’50s, with only two seasons in the top 10 from 1955 on.

Mickey Mantle had the best season among major league hitters in the 1950s according the author's point system. He also topped American League hitters in four straight seasons.

n  Somewhat surprisingly, Duke Snider had the most top-10 seasons among the batters with three, in 1953, 1954 and 1956. This gives Snider some ballast in the argument that he was in the same class, at least offensively, as Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, the other two New York center fielders of the decade included in the trio (“Willie, Mickey and the Duke,” in song) that Big Apple fans compared and constrasted and argued about during this time. Mays and Mantle had only one top-10 season apiece. However, those were the top seasons of the decade, Mantle topping the list with 44 in his 1956 Triple Crown year and Mays second at 40 in 1955, one year after winning the NL MVP award. (Mays was fourth in ’55 MVP voting although his ’55 was better by this system than his ’54, when he scored 29). Hank Aaron was the only other player in the top 10 more than once, in 1957 and 1958. Which tells you a lot about why the Milwaukee Braves reached the World Series both those years and nearly won both of them.

n  Roberts’ point total led the NL four straight years, 1952-55. Spain had second-most NL-leading seasons among pitchers with three. Snider led the league most among batters with three, followed by Ralph Kiner and Aaron with two apiece.

n  Starting in 1955, Mantle led AL batters for four straights seasons

, tying with Williams for first in 1957. Williams was the other multiple league leader in the AL with two. Among the pitchers, 10 different pitchers topped the standings in the decade.