May 26, 1957: Millers rally from 8 runs down to sweep Wichita

Hard-changing Minneapolis pulled to within a half-game game of first-place Wichita by sweeping the Braves in a doubleheader at Metropolitan Stadium on May 26.

It was a spring day in name only as the cold rain and wind held the crowd down to 2,359.

In the first game, Wichita, the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Braves, struck first and often, scoring eight runs in the first inning against Gene Bearden and Joe Shipley. Shipley calmed down and shut down the Braves after the first inning. He also led a comeback with his bat.

Wichita’s Joe Koppe led off the game with a walk. After Harry Hanebrink doubled to right field, Ray Shearer struck out. Wes Covington’s wind-blown double to right field scoring the two runners. Bobby Malkmus homered to left field, making it 4-0. A triple by Bob Talbot and the second two-run homer of the inning, this one by Earl Hersh, made the score 6-0 and finished off Bearden. Minneapolis manager Red Davis summoned Shipley into the game and, at first, he poured kerosene on the fire. After getting Mike Roarke for the second out of the inning, he walked pitcher Bob Trowbridge and gave up a single to Koppe. Hanebrink’s second double of the inning brought Trowbridge home, and Shearer singled Koppe home with Wichita’s final tally.

Minneapolis, the top farm club of the New York Giants, started to chip away at the lead in the bottom of the second inning. With Bob Schmidt and Jim Davenport on base, Shipley came to the plate and homered off Trowbridge. An inning later, Bill Taylor singled and came home on Schmidt’s homer. Later in the third inning, Shipley singled Eddie Bressoud home to make the score 8-6, and Trowbridge was finished for the day.

Wichita manager Ben Geraghty brought in Bobby Ross, who retired the side without any further scoring. But Minneapolis tied the game in the fourth inning. With Taylor at bat, catcher Roarke was unable to handle strike three and Taylor raced to first base. He was forced at second by Orlando Cepeda, who came home on Schmidt’s second homer in as many innings.

Shipley and Ross then got down to business and there was no scoring from the fifth inning through the ninth. However, each team did threaten. In the sixth inning, Henry Thompson of the Millers tried to score from first on a double by Taylor but was thrown out at home when Koppe at shortstop relayed center fielder Talbot’s throw to catcher Roarke. In the ninth, Wichita seemed to have an opportunity when Talbot doubled to right field with Malkmus on first base. Malkmus rounded third and tried to score but was gunned down as Thompson’s throw was relayed to catcher Schmidt by Wayne Terwilliger.

“It was so cold and rainy in the outfield I wanted to end it. I hit the first pitch; I think it was supposed to be a breaking ball, but it was up high.” — Minneapolis outfielder Don Grate2

The game went into extra innings. Shipley put up another goose egg in the top of the 10th and the Millers came to bat. Ross retired Davenport and Carlos Paula, batting for Shipley. Up stepped Don Grate, who was cold and wanted to go to the warmer confines of the clubhouse. He settled the encounter with a homer on the first pitch.

The win went to Shipley and was his third of the season against no losses. The 22-year-old appeared in 18 games with Minneapolis, only three as a starter, going 4-1, before being optioned to Springfield of the Class A Eastern League on June 21. With Springfield he started 16 of his 17 appearances and went 5-8. Over the next three seasons he was up and down between the Giants and the minors, getting into 26 games without a decision. In 1961 and 1962 he bounced around the minor leagues, briefly getting back to the majors with the White Sox in 1963, going 0-1 in three appearances.

Ross took the loss, bringing his record to 1-2. His career in Organized Baseball had begun at the tender age of 16 in 1945. Like Shipley, he was in the big leagues for just a short while, pitching parts of three seasons and going 0-2 in 20 games. By 1957 he was no longer a prospect. He finished the season with a 2-6 record at Wichita. Three years later, he was out of baseball.

In the second game, the Millers again came from behind to win the seven-inning game, getting their first hits and scoring two runs in the last of the seventh to win 2-1 against Wichita’s Joey Jay, who had pitched a perfect game through six innings.

Minneapolis manager Davis was a career minor leaguer, except for 21 games at third base with the New York Giants in 1941. He broke in with Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in the Class D Pennsylvania State Association in 1935 and was still playing minor-league ball in 1954. He had become a player manager in 1949 and was still at it in 1976, putting together a won-lost record of 1,927-1,845.

Wichita manager Ben Geraghty began his professional career at the major-league level, playing for the Dodgers right out of Villanova University in 1936. An infielder, he played parts of three seasons in the majors. He was with Spokane on June 24, 1946, when a life-changing moment occurred. The team bus was involved in a horrific crash that killed nine members of the team. Geraghty was named the team manager, replacing Mel Cole, who had perished in the crash.

SABR biographer Rory Costello tells us, “In the disaster’s aftermath, he developed unusual psychological gifts, rooted in his trauma. ‘This deepened perception was what made Ben Geraghty a great manager and a great man,’ [Pat] Jordan wrote [in A False Spring].” His best year as a manager was 1953, when he led a Jacksonville team that included 19-year-old Hank Aaron to a 93-44 record in the South Atlantic League. But the cost of Geraghty’s success was high. “To remain a manager, he had to do what scared him most – continue to ride buses.” In May 1959, a bus brought him to Minneapolis. A heart attack killed him in 1963, aged just 50.3

Sharing the sports page in the Minneapolis Star that evening in May was a story that would have a far more significant on several of the players in the games played on May 26. It was reported that the New York Giants would move to San Francisco, the Brooklyn Dodgers would move to Los Angeles, and the Cincinnati Reds would move to New York.4 Although the Reds stayed put, the other moves did take place.

In 1958 three Millers players who spent the 1957 season in Minneapolis would take the field in San Francisco on Opening Day.

Bob Schmidt, who homered twice in the win over Wichita and had nine homers at Metropolitan Stadium in 1957, was behind the plate for the Giants and played three full seasons in San Francisco. In 1961 he was traded to Cincinnati for Ed Bailey. Later in his career, he was with Washington and on June 1, 1962, returned to Metropolitan Stadium and homered off Jim Kaat.

Jim Davenport, who went 1-for-5, was anchored at third base for 13 seasons. In his best season, 1962, he batted .297, was named to the All-Star team, and won a Gold Glove as the Giants played in the World Series for the first time since moving to San Francisco.

Although Orlando Cepeda went 0-for-5 against Wichita, he did hit 14 homers at Metropolitan Stadium in 1957. He went on to a great major-league career. He was the National League’s Rookie of the Year in 1958, was chosen for the National League All-Star team in seven seasons, and in his MVP season of 1967 led the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series championship. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.

Of the Wichita players, perhaps Covington had the most noteworthy career. He had first played with the Braves in 1956, batting .283 in 75 games. In 1957 he got off to a terrible start with Milwaukee. The Braves had no room for him in their outfield, and he was batting .143 in limited pinch-hitting opportunities. On May 12 he was sent to Wichita and, after batting .265 in 32 games, returned to Milwaukee. He played 11 major-league seasons, his best year being with the Philadelphia Phillies, with whom he batted .303 with 17 homers and 64 RBIs in 1963.

The Millers, after getting to within a half-game of the league lead, were not able to sustain the momentum. However, Red Davis’s squad finished third in the standings and advanced to the league playoffs. They were swept by the Denver Bears in four games.

The next season, 1958, the Giants moved their Triple-A team to Phoenix, and Minneapolis became the home of the Boston Red Sox Triple-A affiliate for three seasons.

Sources

In addition to Baseball-Reference.com, the author used the sources cited in the notes and the following:

Briere, Tom. “Millers Beat Wichita 9-8, 2-1; Half Game Out of First,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, May 27, 1957: 28.

Notes

1 Bob Beebe, “Shipley Hero; Millers Near Top in Fantastic Twin Bill,” Minneapolis Star, May 27, 1957: 17B.

2 “Chilled Grate Turns on ‘Heat’ for Victory,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, May 27, 1957: 28.

3 Rory Costello, “Ben Geraghty,” SABR BioProject.

4 “N.L. Airs Three-Club Shift on Tuesday?” Minneapolis Star, May 27, 1957: 28.