1958 in baseball

Champions

Major League Baseball

Other champions

Winter Leagues

Awards and honors

MLB statistical leaders

  American League National League
TypeNameStatNameStat
AVGTed Williams BOS.328Richie Ashburn PHI.350
HRMickey Mantle NY42Ernie Banks CHC47
RBIJackie Jensen BOS122Ernie Banks CHC129
WinsBob Turley NY21Bob Friend PIT
Warren Spahn MIL
22
ERAWhitey Ford NY2.01Stu Miller SF2.47

Major league baseball final standings

Events

January

  • January 21 – For one season, the Philadelphia Phillies held an exclusive National League Television deal in New York City. As baseball in New York City was still reeling over the loss of their teams the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants, fans were able to see the Phillies on WOR television for half of their games (77 games).
  • January 28 – Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella suffers a broken neck in an early morning auto accident on Long Island. His spinal column is nearly severed and his legs are permanently paralyzed. Campanella will never play for the Dodgers after their move to Los Angeles, although a newspaper story (showing a picture of him wearing a Brooklyn cap) describes him as being of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

February

  • February 4 – The Baseball Hall of Fame fails to elect any new members for the first time since 1950.
  • February 6 – Ted Williams signs a one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox. Reports on the worth of the contract estimate from $135,000 to $150,000. Either way, Williams becomes the highest paid player in major league history.

April

May

June

July

August

  • August 14 – Vic Power of the Cleveland Indians steals home twice during a ten-inning, 10–9 win over the Detroit Tigers. Power's second swipe of home is the game-winner, as he steals only one other base all season long. Accomplished numerous times during the deadball era, no player other than Power has twice stolen home in a game since the 1927 season.
  • August 23 – At Yankee Stadium, Nellie Fox of the Chicago White Sox strikes out against Whitey Ford in the first inning of the White Sox' 7–1 victory over the New York Yankees. The strikeout ends Fox's streak of 98 consecutive games without striking out; he had last struck out on May 16 against Dick Tomanek of the Cleveland Indians.

September

  • September 13 – Milwaukee Braves ace Warren Spahn became the first left handed pitcher to win twenty or more games, nine times, after beating the St. Louis Cardinals 8–2. Previously, Eddie Plank and Lefty Grove each won twenty or more games, eight times.
  • September 14 – The New York Yankees sweep a doubleheader against the Kansas City Athletics, 5–3 and 12–7 (14 innings), clinching their fourth straight American League pennant.
  • September 20 – At Memorial Stadium, Hoyt Wilhelm of the Baltimore Orioles no-hits the New York Yankees 1–0, striking out eight along the way. It is the first no-hitter since the franchise's move to Baltimore. Wilhelm had pitched exclusively in relief prior to this season; this was only his ninth career start.
  • September 21 – The Milwaukee Braves clinch their second consecutive National League pennant with a 6–5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds, thus ensuring a Yankees-Braves World Series for the second straight year.

October

November

  • November 12 – New York Yankees pitcher Bob Turley, who posted a 21–7 record with 168 strikeouts and a 2.97 earned run average, is named the MLB Cy Young Award. With only one award given for the two leagues, Turley gathers five votes to four for the previous winner, Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves, who went 22–11 with 150 SO and a 3.07 ERA.
  • November 25 – Chicago Cubs slugger Ernie Banks, who hit a .313 average with 47 home runs and 129 RBI, is named National League MVP. Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants is the runner-up, after going .347, 29, 96.
  • November 26 – Boston Red Sox outfielder Jackie Jensen, who hit .286 with 31 home runs and 122 RBI, is named American League MVP, winning over New York Yankees pitcher Bob Turley (21–7, 2.94 ERA), and Cleveland Indians outfielder Rocky Colavito (.303, 41, 113).
  • November 28 :
    • The American League announces that its Opening Day will be April 9 making it earliest date ever to open the junior circuit's regular season.
    • The Boston Red Sox sign teenage sensation Carl Yastrzemski to a reported bonus of $100,000. The future Hall of Famer will make his major league debut with Boston in the 1961 season.
  • November 30 – Italian baseball commissioner Prince Borghese visits the United States to seek aid in organizing Italian teams.

December

Movies

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Deaths

January

February

March

  • March   9 – Skel Roach, 86, German-born pitcher for the Chicago Orphans during the 1899 season, who also spent nine seasons in the Minors Leagues between 1895 and 1905, and was hired as baseball coach by the University of Michigan in 1903.[5]
  • March 10 – Leon Cadore, 68, starting pitcher for the Brooklyn Robins, Chicago White Sox and New York Giants over ten seasons from 1915–1924, who shares an MLB record for the most innings pitched in a single game while pitching for Brooklyn in 1920, when he joined fellow Boston Braves starter Joe Oeschger to pitch 26 innings without relief, which eventually ended in darkness and a 1–1 tie.[6]
  • March 10 – Earl Williams, 55, backup catcher for the 1928 Boston Braves.
  • March 17 – Bob Blewett, 80, pitcher who played with the New York Giants in its 1902 season.
  • March 20 – Gene Dale, 68, who pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds in a span of four seasons from 1911–1916.
  • March 23 – Harry Kelley, pitcher who played for the Washington Senators and Philadelphia Athletics in part of six seasons between 1925 and 1939.
  • March 25 – Al Shaw, 84, English-born catcher who played for the Detroit Tigers, Boston Americans, Chicago White Sox and Boston Doves, in part of four seasons spanning 1901–1909.
  • March 25 – Clarence Kraft, 70, first baseman who appeared in three games for the Boston Braves in the 1914 season.
  • March 28 – Chuck Klein, 53, Hall of Fame slugging right fielder and two-time All-Star, primarily with the Philadelphia Phillies, who collected a career .320 batting average with 300 home runs and 1,201 runs batted in and is the only player in 20th century to collect 200 or more hits in each of his first five full MLB seasons, while winning the National League MVP award in 1932 and a Triple Crown in 1933, to accompany his four home run titles, four home runs in one game, two RBI titles, a stolen base title and leading in runs scored three years in a row, setting a modern National League record with 158 runs in 1930 and leading all outfielders in assists three times, establishing in 1930 a Major League record for outfield assists with 44 which, like his runs scored mark, this record still stands as of the 2017 season.[7]
  • March 28 – Gus Thompson, 80, who pitched with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1903 and for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1906.
  • March 29 – Jimmy Archer, 74, Irish-born catcher who spent his career with six different teams, primarily for the Chicago Cubs from 1909 through 1917.

April

May

  • May   3 – Al Maul, 92, 19th century pitcher who played for ten different clubs over 15 seasons spanning 1884–1901, compiling an 84–80 career record in 188 games, while leading the National Leaque with a 2.45 earned run average in the 1895 season.
  • May 14 – Billy Clingman, 88, 19th century third baseman and shortstop who played for seven teams in a span of ten seasons from 1890–1903.
  • May 20 – Frank Bird, 89, 19th century catcher who played in 1892 for the St. Louis Browns of the National League.
  • May 20 – Cotton Minahan, 75, pitcher for the 1907 Cincinnati Reds.
  • May 28 – Kid Nance, 81, outfielder who played with the Louisville Colonels of the National League from 1897–1898, and then for the Detroit Tigers of the American League in 1901.
  • May 26 – Dwight Wertz, shortstop for the 1914 Buffalo Buffeds of the outlaw Federal League, who was better known for his professional American football career in the Ohio League over three seasons between 1912 and 1914, where he won three consecutive championship titles while playing for different teams.

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

  • December   4 – Red Murray, 74, right fielder for three National League clubs from 1906–1917, whose combination of power, fielding and speed on the bases guided the New York Giants to three pennants from 1911–1913, while leading all outfielders in assists in 1909 and 1910, becoming the only outfielder in the modern era to accumulate more than 100 assists during the period of 1907 to 1910, and also one of only three players in the same period to finish twice among the top five in home runs and stolen bases during the same season (1908–1909), joining Honus Wagner (1907–1908) and Ty Cobb (1909–1910).[19]
  • December   8 – Bernie Friberg, 59, valuable utility man who was able to play all nine defensive positions in a 14-season career for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox between 1919 and 1933.
  • December   8 – Tris Speaker, 70, Hall of Fame center fielder highly regarded for both his batting and his fielding in a 22-year career, who earned American League MVP honors in 1912 and led the Boston Red Sox to a World Series title, then another World Series title in 1915, also carrying the Cleveland Indians to its first World Series championship in 1920 as a player/manager, while compiling 3,514 hits and posting a .345 career average –sixth on the all-time list– including 792 doubles –a career record that nobody has surpassed–, and leading the league in putouts seven times and in double plays six times, as his career totals in both categories are still major-league records at his position.[20]
  • December   9 – Rube Vickers, 80, pitcher who played from 1902 through 1909 for the Brooklyn Superbas, Cincinnati Reds, and Philadelphia Athletics.
  • December 10 – Cozy Dolan, 68, who came up as a pitcher in 1895 and returned as mainly an outfielder and first baseman in the early 1900s, while playing for the Cincinnati Red, New York Highlanders, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Giants.
  • December 15 – Harry Heitmann, 62, pitcher for the 1918 Brookyn Robins.
  • December 16 – Les Scarsella, 45, first baseman and left fielder who played with the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Bees in part of four seasons between 1935 and 1940.
  • December 24 – Jim Boyle, 54, catcher for the New York Giants, who has the distinction of having one of the shortest known Major League Baseball careers, while catching for only one inning in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 20, 1926, without registering an at bat appearance.
  • December 30 – Jim Hickman, 66, backup outfielder for the Baltimore Terrapins and Brooklyn Robins in four seasons from 1915–1919.
  • December 30 – Glenn Spencer, 53, pitcher who played from 1928 to 1933 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Giants.
  • December 31 – Jack Doyle, 89, Irish-born first baseman whose solid 17-year playing career includes a National League Championship with the Baltimore Orioles in 1896 and two stints as manager of the New York Giants in 1895 and the Washington Senators in 1898, while leading the National League first basemen with 96 assists in 1900 and 1.418 putouts in 1903, and collecting a career slash line of .299/.351/.385 with 971 runs batted in and 518 stolen bases in 1,569 games.[21]

Sources

  1. Eddie Matthews – 1958 Batting Gamelog. Baseball Reference. Retrieved on January 20, 2018.
  2. Hunter goes to Indians for Chico. Google News. Retrieved on March 10, 2018.
  3. Baseball Nicknames: Mysterious Walker. Major Smolinski Website. Retrieved on June 27, 2019.
  4. Elmer Jacobs. Profile. The Baseball Cube. Retrieved on June 28, 2019.
  5. Skel Roach. Article by John F. Green. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved of March 13, 2018.
  6. Boston Braves 1, Brooklyn Robins 1. Game Played on Saturday, May 1, 1920 (D) at Braves Field. Retrosheet box score. Retrieved of March 13, 2018.
  7. Chuck Klein biography. Baseball Hall of Fame website. Retrieved of March 12, 2018.
  8. George Boehler. Batting and Pitching statistics. The Baseball Cube. Retrieved on June 29, 2019.
  9. James, Bill (1985). The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. Villard Books. ISBN 0-394-53713-0
  10. Ike Boone. Article written by Bill Nowlin. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 30. 2019.
  11. Ike Boone. Pacific Coast League Oficcial Website. MiLB.com. Retrieved on June 30. 2019.
  12. George Quellich - International League Hall of Fame Inductee - 2008. MiLB Documents. Retrieved on July 1, 2019.
  13. Jean Dubuc. Article written by Tom Simon and Guy Waterman. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on July 1, 2019.
  14. Frank Demaree. Article written by Tom Crisp. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on July 1, 2019.
  15. Red Killefer. Article written by Charlie Weatherby. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on July 2, 2019.
  16. Snuffy Stirnweiss. Article written by Rob Edelman. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on July 2, 2019.
  17. Mort Cooper. Article written by Gregory H. Wolf. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on July 5, 2019.
  18. Mel Ott. Article written by Fred Stein. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on July 5, 2019.
  19. Red Murray. Article by Cappy Gagnon. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on March 13, 2018.
  20. Tris Speaker. Article by Don Jensen. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on March 12, 2018.
  21. Jack Doyle. Article by Lyle Spatz. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on March 13, 2018.
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