1955 Washington Senators season

Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox baseball team season The 1955 Washington Senators season was the franchise's 55th in Major League Baseball. The Senators won 53 games, lost 101, and finished in eighth place in the American League. They were managed by Chuck Dressen and played home games at Griffith Stadium, where they draw 425,238 fans, eighth and last in the American League and 16th and last in MLB.

It was Dressen's first year as the Senators' manager, after Bucky Harris had led the 1954 club to a 66–88, sixth place finish. Dressen, 60, came to Washington two years removed from a highly successful three-year term as skipper of the Brooklyn Dodgers, where his teams finished in a dead heat for first in 1951 (losing the 1951 National League tie-breaker series on Bobby Thomson's famous home run), then won back-to-back NL titles in 1952 and 1953. But in each of the latter seasons, his Dodgers were defeated by the New York Yankees in the World Series, and when Dressen decided to demand a three-year contract to return to Brooklyn for 1954, his owner, Walter O'Malley, let his 1953 contract expire. Dressen spent 1954 managing Oakland in the highly competitive Pacific Coast League, and his return to the major leagues was viewed with anticipation by some observers.

His hiring was a departure for the Senators' management and ownership. He was the first manager outside the Washington team's "family" hired during Clark Griffith's presidency, which began in 1920. Through 1954, Griffith had appointed eight different men to manage his club (with one, Harris, serving three different terms), and all had been current or former Senator players. Dressen, as a veteran National Leaguer and a high profile manager with New York ties, broke that 35-season trend.

And, though no one knew it at the time, 1955 would be a milestone for baseball in Washington when it proved to be Griffith's last season as the club's president and chief stockholder. He died at age 85 on October 27, and his nephew Calvin, who succeeded him, would move the franchise to Minneapolis–Saint Paul as the Minnesota Twins after only five seasons as the Senators' president.

Offseason

• Prior to 1955 season: Choo-Choo Coleman was signed as an amateur free agent by the Senators.

Regular season

Notable transactions

• May 1955: Gus Keriazakos was traded by the Senators to the Kansas City Athletics for Al Sima.
• June 7, 1955: Jim Busby was traded by the Senators to the Chicago White Sox for Bob Chakales, Clint Courtney and Johnny Groth.

Roster

1955 Washington Senators
Roster
Pitchers 15 Ted Abernathy 16 Bob Chakales 21 Webbo Clarke 30,43 Bill Currie 16 Vince Gonzales 32 Dick Hyde 21 Mickey McDermott 27 Camilo Pascual 19 Bob Porterfield 28 Pedro Ramos 20 Johnny Schmitz 17 Spec Shea 24 Bunky Stewart 18 Chuck Stobbs 26 Dean Stone		Catchers 14 Clint Courtney 11 Bruce Edwards  8 Ed Fitz Gerald 29 Steve Korcheck  9 Bob Oldis Infielders 39 Julio Bécquer 34 Juan Delis 12 Harmon Killebrew 25 Bobby Kline 36 Tony Roig  5 Pete Runnels  6 Jerry Snyder 36 José Valdivielso  3 Mickey Vernon  1 Eddie Yost		Outfielders  4 Jim Busby  4 Johnny Groth 14 Jim Lemon 37 Ernie Oravetz 31 Carlos Paula 29 Jerry Schoonmaker  2 Roy Sievers 22 Tom Umphlett Other batters 35 Jesse Levan 35 Tom Wright		Manager  7 Chuck Dressen Coaches 54 Nick Altrock 53 Ellis Clary 52 Joe Fitzgerald 55 Joe Haynes 51 Cookie Lavagetto

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	Ed Fitz Gerald	74	236	56	.237	4	19
1B	Mickey Vernon	150	538	162	.301	14	85
2B	Pete Runnels	134	503	143	.284	2	49
SS		94	294	65	.221	2	28
3B	Eddie Yost	122	375	91	.243	7	48
LF	Roy Sievers	144	509	138	.271	25	106
CF	Tom Umphlett	110	323	70	.217	2	19
RF	Carlos Paula	115	351	105	.299	6	45

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
Ernie Oravetz	100	263	71	.270	0	25
	75	238	71	.298	2	30
	47	191	44	.230	6	14
Johnny Groth	63	183	40	.219	2	17
Bobby Kline	77	140	31	.221	0	9
Juan Delis	54	132	25	.189	0	11
Jerry Snyder	46	107	24	.224	0	5
Harmon Killebrew	38	80	16	.200	4	7
Bruce Edwards	30	57	10	.175	0	3
Tony Roig	29	57	13	.228	0	4
Jerry Schoonmaker	20	46	7	.152	1	4
Steve Korcheck	13	36	10	.278	0	2
Jim Lemon	10	25	5	.200	1	3
Jesse Levan	16	16	3	.188	1	4
Julio Bécquer	10	14	3	.214	0	1
Tom Wright	7	7	0	.000	0	0
Bob Oldis	6	6	0	.000	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
Bob Porterfield	30	178.0	10	17	4.45	74
Johnny Schmitz	32	165.0	7	10	3.71	49
Mickey McDermott	31	156.0	10	10	3.75	78

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
Dean Stone	43	180.0	6	13	4.15	84
Chuck Stobbs	41	140.1	4	14	5.00	60
Pedro Ramos	45	130.0	5	11	3.88	34
Camilo Pascual	43	129.0	2	12	6.14	82
	40	119.1	5	9	5.96	79
Webbo Clarke	7	21.1	0	0	4.64	9
Bunky Stewart	7	15.1	0	0	4.11	10

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
	29	2	3	0	5.27	28
Spec Shea	27	2	2	2	3.99	16
Bill Currie	3	0	0	0	12.46	2
Dick Hyde	3	0	0	0	4.50	1
	1	0	0	0	27.00	1
Bobby Kline	1	0	0	0	27.00	0

Award winners

All-Star Game

• Mickey Vernon, starter, first base

Farm system

Template:MLB Farm System LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Orlando

External links

• 1955 Washington Senators at Baseball-Reference
• 1955 Washington Senators team page at www.baseball-almanac.com
• 1955 Washington "Nationals" promotional film