The favored Yankees, with Triple Crown winner Mickey Mantle, underachieved by six games. Their 91 replay wins were more than any other AL team won during the real ’56 season, but was good enough only for third in the replay, as Chicago and Cleveland improved. Mantle and cleanup hitter Yogi Berra were seldom hot at the same time. Berra was awful on both sides of the plate in the first half, when he made 13 of his astonishing 23 errors, many on misplayed bunts. He finished on a 13-game hitting streak to close at .300-20-92, but Mantle finished the season feebly, in a six-week slump that saw him go from Triple Crown candidate to .318-42-115, which was ninth in batting, second in home runs and fourth in RBIs.

           

            Mantle had been hitting .354 in mid-August, and had led the league in homers and was one behind in the RBI race on Aug. 30. His league-high 142 walks, 23 of them intentional, had much to do with this, and also with Mantle finishing first in runs (131), second to Al Kaline in total bases and second to Ted Williams in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, total average and runs created.

 

            It was this type of season for the Yankees: Whitey Ford, in search of his 16^th win on Aug. 31, held a 3-2 lead with two out in the 8^th when Washington’s Eddie Yost came up with the bases loaded. Yost’s fly ball could have been caught by LF Enos Slaughter or CF Mantle. But they collided and Yost circled the bases for an inside-park grand slam that won the game, 6-3.

 

            We didn’t have a pennant race until Sept. 2, when Cleveland completed a four-game sweep at Comiskey Park to draw within four games of the White Sox. The Sox were wire-to-wire winners, starting 13-1 and 31-9 as lefty Billy Pierce began the season 10-0. Chicago was an unbeatable 72-30 on Aug. 8 and came home at 101-53. Its 16-game improvement over the real ’56 made it the only team to be more than +/- seven games compared to actual.

 

            Thank Minnie Minoso, who hit .334 with 117 runs, 108 RBIs, 30 doubles, 16 triples, 18 homers, 16 stolen bases, 91 walks and 25 times hit by a pitch. Sherm Lollar hit .327, Larry Doby drove in 108 runs and ERA leader Dick Donovan (2.29) joined Pierce as 20-game winners.

 

            MVP/Cy Young Herb Score and surprising HR/RBI leader Vic Wertz (.302-46-134) led Cleveland to 95 wins, a seven-game improvement, and second place. At the All-Star break, Wertz was .301-23-57. One month later on Aug. 14, he was .315-36-103.

 

            Score achieved his league-best 25^th win and 300^th strikeout in the most unusual way. He need only to beat last-place Kansas City – a team Cleveland had drummed 17 times in 21 tries – and record five strikeouts in his final start Sept. 26. Instead, Score was battered for 12 hits and 8 runs, while striking out three. He lost. Three days later, he relieved Art Houtteman for five innings and took a 3-2 lead into the ninth. He got his 300^th K that inning. But Kaline then drilled his 34^th home run to tie the game. In the bottom of the ninth, Score got the victory when Gold Glove-RF Kaline flat out dropped a two-out fly that scored the winning run.

 

            The Tribe won the season’s other oddest game, a 1-0 triumph in 22 innings at Yankee Stadium on May 8. Cleveland’s Early Wynn and New York’s Johnny Kucks each pitched 11 scoreless innings. The Yanks had an excellent chance to win in the 9th, when Billy Martin led off with a double. But Mantle popped out to 3B and Berra’s single advanced Martin only to third with one out. Bill Skowron lifted a potential sacrifice fly to CF. But Jim Busby, playing in, had a shorter throw to nail Martin and Cleveland catcher Jim Hegan successfully blocked the plate to prevent the run. The winning hit was a single by Rudy Regalado, who had only two RBIs in the real ’56, during Tom Morgan’s fifth inning of relief.

 

            Some shutouts weren’t so dramatic. Chicago thumped Washington 19-0 on Sept. 16. Three days later, Cleveland humiliated the A’s in KC, 20-0.

 

            No one threw a no-hitter. But we had seven one-hitters, one by Score and one by Wynn, and three by righty Dave Sisler, who overachieved gloriously at 11-4, 2.45 for 77-77 Boston. The Red Sox’ Ted Williams (.374-31-105) won the batting title and teammate Mickey Vernon was runner-up at .345.

           

            Fourth-place Detroit (78-76) had by far the best offense (884 runs). Kaline led the AL with 212 hits and 376 total bases, was sixth in batting average (.332) and home runs (34), second in RBIs (127) and second in runs (122). Tiger teammates Harvey Kuenn and Ray Boone were 3-4 in batting average (.336 and .334) and Kuenn had the season’s longest hitting streak (24 games). Tiger Charley Maxwell, fourth in homers with 36, batted .303 and non-qualifier Red Wilson hit .305, giving Detroit five regulars at .303 or better. Still, Detroit’s two actual 20-game winners, Frank Lary and Billy Hoeft, settled for 15 each and neither was above .500.