1956 Kansas City Athletics season

1956 Kansas City Athletics
League	American League
Ballpark	Municipal Stadium
City	Kansas City, Missouri
Owners	Arnold Johnson
Managers	Lou Boudreau
Radio	KMBC (Merle Harmon, Larry Ray)
← 1955 1957 →

The 1956 Kansas City Athletics season, the team's 56th in the American League and second in Kansas City, involved the A's finishing eighth in the American League with a record of 52 wins and 102 losses, 45 games behind the World Series champion New York Yankees.

Offseason

• March 2, 1956: Tommy Lasorda was purchased by the Athletics from the Brooklyn Dodgers.^[1]

Regular season

Season standings

v t e American League	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
New York Yankees	97	57	0.630	—	49–28	48–29
Cleveland Indians	88	66	0.571	9	46–31	42–35
Chicago White Sox	85	69	0.552	12	46–31	39–38
Boston Red Sox	84	70	0.545	13	43–34	41–36
Detroit Tigers	82	72	0.532	15	37–40	45–32
Baltimore Orioles	69	85	0.448	28	41–36	28–49
Washington Senators	59	95	0.383	38	32–45	27–50
Kansas City Athletics	52	102	0.338	45	22–55	30–47

Record vs. opponents

1956 American League record v t e Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team	BAL	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	KCA	NYY	WSH
Baltimore	—	6–16	9–13	5–17	13–9	15–7	9–13	12–10
Boston	16–6	—	14–8	13–9–1	12–10	12–10	8–14	9–13
Chicago	13–9	8–14	—	15–7	13–9	14–8	9–13	13–9
Cleveland	17–5	9–13–1	7–15	—	11–11	17–5	10–12	17–5
Detroit	9–13	10–12	9–13	11–11	—	16–6	12–10	15–7–1
Kansas City	7–15	10–12	8–14	5–17	6–16	—	4–18	12–10
New York	13–9	14–8	13–9	12–10	10–12	18–4	—	17–5
Washington	10–12	13–9	9–13	5–17	7–15–1	10–12	5–17	—

Notable transactions

• April 16, 1956: Lee Wheat, Tom Saffell and cash were traded by the Athletics to the Brooklyn Dodgers for Tim Thompson.^[2]
• April 16, 1956: Johnny Groth was purchased by the Athletics from the Washington Senators.^[3]
• May 1956: Marion Fricano and $60,000 were traded by the Athletics to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Jack Crimian.^[4]
• June 14, 1956: Moe Burtschy, Bill Renna and cash were traded by the Athletics to the New York Yankees for Lou Skizas and Eddie Robinson.^[5]
• July 11, 1956: Tommy Lasorda was traded by the Athletics to the New York Yankees for Wally Burnette.^[1]
• August 17, 1956: Joe Ginsberg was traded by the Athletics to the Baltimore Orioles for Hal Smith.^[6]
• August 25, 1956: Enos Slaughter was selected off waivers from the Athletics by the New York Yankees.^[7]

Roster

1956 Kansas City Athletics
Roster
Pitchers 14 Bill Bradford 9,53 George Brunet 23 Wally Burnette 36 Moe Burtschy 19 Art Ceccarelli 16 Glenn Cox 15 Walt Craddock 24 Jack Crimian 28 Art Ditmar 39 Carl Duser 37 Tom Gorman 26 Bill Harrington 17 Troy Herriage 20 Alex Kellner 18,23 Lou Kretlow 23 Tommy Lasorda 14 Jack McMahan 25 Arnie Portocarrero 26,34 José Santiago 21 Bobby Shantz 19 Bob Spicer		Catchers 11 Joe Astroth  9 Joe Ginsberg 32 Hal Smith 22 Tim Thompson Infielders  1 Mike Baxes 12 Clete Boyer  2 Joe DeMaestri  4 Jim Finigan  6 Spook Jacobs 10 Héctor López  8 Rance Pless  7 Vic Power 25 Eddie Robinson		Outfielders 39 Johnny Groth 31 Dave Melton  6 Al Pilarcik 36 Jim Pisoni 34 Bill Renna 38 Harry Simpson 35 Lou Skizas 33 Enos Slaughter 35 Elmer Valo 30 Gus Zernial		Manager  5 Lou Boudreau Coaches 41 Harry Craft 42 Ski Melillo 40 George Susce

Player stats

= Indicates team leader

Batting

Starters by position

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	Tim Thompson	92	268	73	.272	1	27
1B	Vic Power	127	530	164	.309	14	63
2B	Jim Finigan	91	250	54	.216	2	21
SS	Joe DeMaestri	133	434	101	.233	6	39
3B	Héctor López	151	561	153	.273	18	69
LF	Gus Zernial	109	272	61	.224	16	44
CF	Al Pilarcik	69	239	60	.251	4	22
RF	Harry Simpson	141	543	159	.293	21	105

^[8]

Other batters

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
Lou Skizas	83	297	94	.316	11	39
Johnny Groth	95	244	63	.258	5	37
Enos Slaughter	91	223	62	.278	2	23
Joe Ginsberg	71	195	48	.246	1	12
Eddie Robinson	75	172	34	.198	2	12
Hal Smith	37	142	39	.275	2	24
Clete Boyer	67	129	28	.217	1	4
Mike Baxes	73	106	24	.226	1	5
Spook Jacobs	32	97	21	.216	0	5
Rance Pless	48	85	23	.271	0	9
Bill Renna	33	48	13	.271	2	5
Jim Pisoni	10	30	8	.267	2	5
Joe Astroth	8	13	1	.077	0	0
Elmer Valo	9	9	2	.222	0	2
Dave Melton	3	3	1	.333	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Art Ditmar	44	254.1	12	22	4.42	126
Wally Burnette	18	121.1	6	8	2.89	54
Lou Kretlow	25	118.2	4	9	5.31	61
Alex Kellner	20	91.2	7	4	4.32	44
Glenn Cox	3	23.1	0	2	4.24	6
Walt Craddock	2	9.1	0	2	6.75	8
Carl Duser	2	6.0	1	1	9.00	5

Other pitchers

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

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Tom Gorman	52	171.1	9	10	3.83	56
Troy Herriage	31	103.0	1	13	6.64	59
Jack McMahan	23	61.2	0	5	4.82	13
Tommy Lasorda	18	45.1	0	4	6.15	28
José Santiago	9	21.2	1	2	8.31	9
Art Ceccarelli	3	10.0	0	1	7.20	2
George Brunet	6	9.0	0	0	7.00	5
Arnie Portocarrero	3	8.0	0	1	10.13	2

Relief pitchers

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

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Bobby Shantz	45	2	7	9	4.35	67
Jack Crimian	54	4	8	3	5.51	59
Bill Harrington	23	2	2	1	6.45	14
Moe Burtschy	21	3	1	0	3.95	18
Bob Spicer	2	0	0	0	19.29	0
Bill Bradford	1	0	0	0	9.00	0

Farm system

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Columbus Jets	International League	Nick Cullop
A	Columbia Gems	Sally League	Hank Biasatti
B	Abilene Blue Sox	Big State League	Al Evans
C	Crowley Millers	Evangeline League	Vince Plumbo
C	Pocatello Bannocks	Pioneer League	Joe Lutz and Lou Stringer
D	Fitzgerald A's	Georgia–Florida League	Red Treadway
D	Grand Island Athletics	Nebraska State League	Art Mazmanian
D	Seminole Oilers	Sooner State League	Burl Storie

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Seminole

References

External links

• 1956 Kansas City Athletics team page at Baseball Reference
• 1956 Kansas City Athletics team page at www.baseball-almanac.com