Atlanta Braves Franchise History: 1957 World Series

2 of 4

1957

The 57 season saw a changing of the guard. The Dodgers had three young pitchers – Don Drysdale (20), Johnny Podres (24) and Danny McDevitt (24) – and Jackie Robinson had retired. The Braves featured Spahn, Burdette and Bob Buhl who won 56 games out of there 99 starts.

Spahn was the no doubt ace. He pitched to a 2.69 ERA (130 ERA+) and 1.177 WHIP in 271 innings, threw 18 complete games and won 21 times. Buhl had the second best ERA (2.74) but his WHIP was 1.440 and today we know his FIP was 3.95. Burdette slotted in with a 3.72 ERA (3.83 FIP) and 1.243 WHIP. Most thought Burdette threw a spitter but no one ever caught him doctoring the in any way.

Most of you won’t have heard of the Braves manager Fred Haney but lineup featured some names you will know. They finished the season scoring 772 runs and allowed 613 with the NL championship hit coming off the bat of Hank Aaron.

Pos	Name	H	HR	RBI	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
C	Del Crandall	97	15	46	38	.253	.308	.410	.718	97
1B	Frank Torre*	99	5	40	19	.272	.339	.393	.732	103
2B	Red Schoendienst#	122	6	32	7	.310	.348	.434	.782	116
SS	Johnny Logan	135	10	49	49	.273	.319	.401	.720	98
3B	Eddie Mathews*	167	32	94	79	.292	.387	.540	.927	154
LF	Wes Covington*	93	21	65	44	.284	.339	.537	.875	138
CF	Bill Bruton*	85	5	30	35	.278	.317	.438	.755	107
RF	Hank Aaron	198	44	132	58	.322	.378	.600	.978	166
OF	Andy Pafko	61	8	27	22	.277	.308	.423	.730	100
1B	Joe Adcock	60	12	38	51	.287	.351	.541	.891	143
2B	Danny O’Connell	43	1	8	20	.235	.312	.311	.624	74
SS	Felix Mantilla	43	4	21	34	.236	.296	.363	.659	82
C	Del Rice	33	9	20	37	.229	.309	.438	.746	104
LF	Bobby Thomson	35	4	23	27	.236	.285	.392	.677	86
RF	Bob Hazle*	54	7	27	15	.403	.477	.649	1.126	209

The World Series

The Braves opponents in the World Series were the 98 Win Yankees led by future Hall of Fame Manager Casey Stengel. The Yankees pitching staff was thought to be one of the best around. Bobby Shantz had the league’s best ERA and Casey had the advantage of having a fist full of starters. Only two starters had ERAs over three and the team allowed only 534 runs that season.

Name	Age	W	L	ERA	GS	CG	SHO	IP	BB	SO	ERA+	FIP	WHIP
Tom Sturdivant	27	16	6	2.54	28	7	2	201.2	80	118	142	3.44	1.240
Johnny Kucks	24	8	10	3.56	23	4	1	179.1	59	78	101	3.65	1.271
Bob Turley	26	13	6	2.71	23	9	4	176.1	85	152	133	3.59	1.163
Bobby Shantz*	31	11	5	2.45	21	9	1	173.0	40	72	148	3.55	1.139
Don Larsen	27	10	4	3.74	20	4	1	139.2	87	81	97	4.28	1.432
Whitey Ford*	28	11	5	2.57	17	5	0	129.1	53	84	140	3.42	1.291

The lineup had a couple of hall of famers and plenty of extra base thunder.

Pos	Name	G	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
C	Yogi Berra*	134	14	2	24	82	57	24	.251	.329	.438	.767	109
1B	Bill Skowron	122	15	5	17	88	31	60	.304	.347	.470	.818	123
2B	Bobby Richardson	97	11	1	0	19	9	26	.256	.274	.298	.573	58
SS	Gil McDougald	141	25	9	13	62	59	71	.289	.362	.442	.804	120
3B	Andy Carey	85	6	5	6	33	15	42	.255	.309	.393	.701	92
LF	Elston Howard	110	13	4	8	44	16	43	.253	.283	.379	.663	81
CF	Mickey Mantle#	144	28	6	34	94	146	75	.365	.512	.665	1.177	221
RF	Hank Bauer	137	22	9	18	65	42	64	.259	.321	.455	.776	111
UT	Tony Kubek*	127	21	3	3	39	24	48	.297	.335	.381	.716	97
LF	Enos Slaughter*	96	7	1	5	34	40	19	.254	.369	.368	.737	104
UT	Harry Simpson*	75	7	3	7	39	19	36	.250	.307	.402	.709	94
2B	Jerry Coleman	72	7	2	2	12	20	21	.268	.354	.376	.730	101

In those days home field alternated between the leagues and in 1957 the AL had home field advantage. Game one saw a matchup of two future hall of fame lefties, Spahn and Whitey Ford.

The Yankees lost their big first baseman Bill Skowron in the third inning with back spasms and catcher/outfielder/first baseman Elston Howard took over. Through five innings the Braves left four men on base without scoring. The Yankees scored in the fifth and after they scored on off of Spahn in the sixth Haney brought in Ernie Johnson.

Johnson allowed one inherited runner to score on a squeeze play and the Yankees went on to win 3-1.

Home/Braves History