1937 Philadelphia Athletics
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkShibe Park
CityPhiladelphia
OwnersConnie Mack and John Shibe
ManagersConnie Mack
RadioWCAU
(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

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

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
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 Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

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 MLB season by team
Oakland Athletics
Categories