1949 Boston Red Sox Replay

SEASON IN REVIEW

It was certainly a successful and exciting season for the 1949 Boston Red Sox. The club won the American League pennant, with a record of 100-55, for a winning percentage of .645. They finished 5.5 games ahead of the New York Yankees.

In first place for most of the year, the Red Sox relied on terrific offense,(4 of the 8 regulars hit over .300), solid defense and great pitching from the starting rotation, but it was Ted Williams who was the face of the franchise.

Williams had one of the greatest individual seasons in Stratball. He set five new single season records along the way and led the club in at least eight offensive categories. Williams batted .366(record), hit 50 homeruns(only the second player to top fifty); scored 134 runs(record); drove in 152 runs(record), had 196 hits and drew 124 walks(record). He also set a mark for five straight games with at least one home run. Williams had a slash line of .366/.484/.709.(previous high slash line was ’49 Kiner with .332/.432/.698.)

He was a unanimous choice for Most Valuable Player.

Next to Williams, most other season marks pale, but Vern Stephens had a fine year as well. His slash line was .306/.402./.563. He led the club in doubles with 31 and finished second to Williams in homers with 33. He also has 114 runs batted in.

Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky set the table at the top of the lineup. Dom hit .316/.391/.418. In a year which didn’t see many stolen bases, he had seven to top the team.

Pesky, who batted second most of the year, hit .315/.425/419. Bobby Doerr, Al Zarilla and Billy Goodman all played solid ball. Goodman started off like a house afire, but dropped off considerably, finishing with a .281 average. He did however, hit seven triples.

There were two major injuries. Al Zarilla and Birdie Tebbetts both missed 15 games each. Tebbetts was easily the most disappointing from an offensive standpoint. He batted just .214, with 8 homeruns and 40 rbi’s.

On the slab, Mel Parnell was the unquestioned ace. He finished with a record of 23-7, just one win behind ’83 Jack Morris for the single season wins mark. His ERA was 2.61, the only pitcher under 3.00. He led the team in complete games and shutouts, with 12 and 3 respectively.

The rest of the starting rotation finished up thusly: Ellis Kinder 13-6 3.54; Mickey McDermott 14-12 4.18 (led in strikeouts with 143). Kinder and McDermott’s bugaboo was giving up homeruns. Kiner allowed 20 gopher balls, McDermott, 18; Joe Dobson went 8-6 3.35. All four starters finished with a positive strikeout to walk ratio.

If there was an Achilles heel on the team, it was the bullpen. Every member of the group had more walks than strikeouts, save for Chuck Stobbs. He and Walt Masterson got the bulk of the spot starts, with Stobbs going 7-2 3.53 and Masterson 9-2 3.15.

Tex Hughson and Earl Johnson had subpar seasons. Hughson had the only losing mark at 5-6 with a 4.90 ERA. While Johnson managed to finish above .500 at 4-3, his ERA was a ghastly 6.73. It got so that Johnson was seldom used in a high leverage situation.

Frank Quinn, like Billy Goodman on offense, started off red hot, winning his first six decisions, but had a rougher second half. He ended up with a record of 11-7 and an ERA of 3.54. Jack Kramer was 6-4 4.74 to round out the pitching staff.