1937 Philadelphia Athletics season

1937  Philadelphia Athletics
League	American League
Ballpark	Shibe Park
City	Philadelphia
Owners	Connie Mack and John Shibe
Managers	Connie Mack
Radio	WCAU (Bill Dyer, Roger Griswold)
←  1936 1938  →

The 1937 Philadelphia Athletics season involved the A's finishing seventh in the American League with a record of 54 wins and 97 losses.

Offseason

On January 11, 1937, at the club's annual meeting, John Shibe officially retired from the day-to-day operations of the Athletics, although he had not been with the team since August 1936. Connie Mack, the team's other principal owner, was elected club president. Shibe died on July 11, leaving Mack as sole owner of the team. ^[1]

Regular season

The Athletics had refused the American League's directives to add numbers to all player uniforms, and would not post visiting players' uniform numbers on the scoreboard. The team argued that they posted both teams' full lineups to the scoreboard, then the only ballpark to do so, making numbers superfluous. The team relented to its fans who wished to be able to identify pitchers warming up in the bullpens, and players during pregame practice. ^[2]

The club started to use uniform numbers during the 1937 season. They were the last team in the American League to do so. ^[3]

The Athletics set a Major League record which still stands for the fewest batters hit by a pitch in a season, with only 5. ^[4]

Season standings

v t e American League	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
New York Yankees	102	52	0.662	—	57–20	45–32
Detroit Tigers	89	65	0.578	13	49–28	40–37
Chicago White Sox	86	68	0.558	16	47–30	39–38
Cleveland Indians	83	71	0.539	19	50–28	33–43
Boston Red Sox	80	72	0.526	21	44–29	36–43
Washington Senators	73	80	0.477	28½	43–35	30–45
Philadelphia Athletics	54	97	0.358	46½	27–50	27–47
St. Louis Browns	46	108	0.299	56	25–51	21–57

Record vs. opponents

1937 American League record v t e Sources:
Team	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	NYY	PHA	SLB	WSH
Boston	—	10–12	11–11	12–10–1	7–15	17–3	15–7	8–14–1
Chicago	12–10	—	10–12	8–14	9–13	15–7	18–4	14–8
Cleveland	11–11	12–10	—	11–11	7–15–1	13–9	18–4–1	11–11
Detroit	10–12–1	14–8	11–11	—	9–13	14–8	15–7	16–6
New York	15–7	13–9	15–7–1	13–9	—	14–8	16–6–1	16–6–1
Philadelphia	3–17	7–15	9–13	8–14	8–14	—	11–11	8–13–3
St. Louis	7–15	4–18	4–18–1	7–15	6–16–1	11–11	—	7–15
Washington	14–8–1	8–14	11–11	6–16	6–16–1	13–8–3	15–7	—

Roster

1937 Philadelphia Athletics
Roster
Pitchers 26,41 Fred Archer 20 George Caster 18 Herman Fink 14,19,32 Randy Gumpert 61 Bill Kalfass 15 Harry Kelley 11 Lynn Nelson 17 Buck Ross 22 Eddie Smith 21 Bud Thomas 24 George Turbeville 19,25 Al Williams		Catchers  2 Earle Brucker 25 Bill Conroy  1 Frankie Hayes -- Hal Wagner Infielders  4 Wayne Ambler  4 Bill Cissell  3 Chubby Dean  8 Lou Finney 35 Gene Hasson 10 Warren Huston  6 Skeeter Newsome 19,26 Ace Parker 12 Rusty Peters  5 Billy Werber		Outfielders 10,42 Babe Barna 15 Jess Hill  7 Bob Johnson 92 Doyt Morris  9 Wally Moses 23 Jack Rothrock  8 Eddie Yount		Manager Connie Mack Coaches 29 Charlie Berry 28 Lena Blackburne 27 Earle Mack

Player stats

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	Earle Brucker	102	317	82	.259	6	37
1B	Chubby Dean	104	309	81	.262	2	31
2B	Rusty Peters	116	339	88	.260	3	43
SS	Skeeter Newsome	122	438	111	.253	1	30
3B	Billy Werber	128	493	144	.292	7	70
OF	Jess Hill	70	242	71	.293	1	37
OF	Wally Moses	154	649	208	.320	25	86
OF	Bob Johnson	138	477	146	.306	25	108

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 Finney	92	379	95	.251	1	20
Jack Rothrock	88	232	62	.267	0	21
Frankie Hayes	60	188	49	.261	10	38
Wayne Ambler	56	162	35	.216	0	11
Bill Cissell	34	117	31	.265	1	14
Gene Hasson	28	98	30	.306	3	14
Ace Parker	38	94	11	.117	2	13
Bill Conroy	26	60	12	.200	0	3
Warren Huston	38	54	7	.130	0	3
Babe Barna	14	36	14	.389	2	9
Doyt Morris	6	13	2	.154	0	0
Eddie Yount	4	7	2	.286	0	1
Hal Wagner	1	0	0	----	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
George Caster	34	231.2	12	19	4.43	100
Harry Kelley	41	205.0	13	21	5.36	68
Bud Thomas	35	169.2	8	15	4.99	54
Buck Ross	28	147.1	5	10	4.89	37

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
Eddie Smith	38	196.2	4	17	3.94	79
Al Williams	16	75.1	4	1	5.38	27
Bill Kalfass	3	12.0	1	0	3.00	9
Chubby Dean	2	9.0	1	0	4.00	4

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
George Turbeville	31	0	4	0	4.77	17
Lynn Nelson	30	4	9	2	5.90	49
Herman Fink	28	2	1	1	4.05	18
Randy Gumpert	10	0	0	0	12.00	5
Fred Archer	1	0	0	0	6.00	2

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball

Level	Team	League	Manager
A	Williamsport Grays	New York–Pennsylvania League	Ollie Marquardt
D	Federalsburg Athletics	Eastern Shore League	George Short

^[5]

References

1. Biography of John Shibe from the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society Archived October 12, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
2. "Number Mackmen for Identity's Sake; New scorecard at Shibe Park Certain to Make Fans Familiar with Men on Field". The Philadelphia Inquirer . Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 17, 1937. p. 20.
3. Ferraro, Michael X.; Veneziano, John (2007). Numbelievable!. Chicago: Triumph Books. p. 89. ISBN   978-1-57243-990-0.
4. "Hit By A Pitch Team Records". Baseball-Almanac.com. Retrieved May 14, 2012.
5. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007

External links

• 1937 Philadelphia Athletics team page at Baseball Reference
• 1937 Philadelphia Athletics team page at www.baseball-almanac.com