Western League (1900–1958): Difference between revisions

|{{nowrap|Edwin C. Johnson (1947–1955)}}

| singlescountry = United States

| classification = [[Class A (baseball)|Class A]]<br>[[Class B (baseball)|Class B]]<br>[[Class D (baseball)|Class D]]

The '''Western League''' was the name of several leagues in American [[minorsports league baseball]].s First, itsin [[WesternMinor League (U.S. baseball)|earliest progenitor]], which existed from 1885 to 1899, was the predecessor of the [[American League]]. Later, during the 20th century, there were four incarnations of the Western League, including a [[Western League (baseball, 1939-41)|Class D]] loop, formerly the [[Nebraska State League]], that played from 1939 to 1941, and an [[Western Baseball League|independent]] loop (outside of "organized baseball") that began play in [[Western Baseball League|1995]]. This article, however, concentrates on the Western Leagues that playedoperated from 1900 to 1937 and from 1947 to 1958.

The league's longest-serving franchise was located in [[Des Moines, Iowa]], which joined the WL in 1900 and played continuously through 1937, when the league shut down during the [[Great Depression]]. Des Moines then rejoined the reborn Western circuit when [[Colorado]] [[United States Senator|Senator]] [[Edwin C. Johnson]] from [[Colorado]] founded it in 1947; this team, a [[Chicago Cubs]] affiliate called the ''[[Des Moines Bruins]]'', then played for the final 12 years of the league's

Minor Leagueleague baseball went unclassified through 1901. From 1902 until 1911, Class A was the highest level in the minor leagues. In 1912, a new top tier, Class AA, was created; in 1936, a second tier, Class A1, came into being. One year later, the existing Western League disbanded after it ended the 1937 season with only five teams, the [[Rock Island Islanders]], disbanded on July 7. Then, in 1946, the Class AA leagues were renamed AAA, and the A1 loops were renamed AA. Thus the Western League – whose clubs were actually located in the Great Plains, Rocky Mountain States, the Upper Midwest and the Upper Southwest – was a top-level minor league until 1911, then two levels below [[Major League Baseball]] through 1935, and three steps removed in 1936–37 and when it was revived in [[1947 in sports|1947]] during the post-war minor league baseball boom. For several years in the 1910s, the Western League champion played a postseason series against the champion of the Class AA American Association for supremacy of the central states.

===1900-1958===

*[[Bartlesville BronchosBroncs]] {{small|(1933)}}

*[[Council Bluffs Rails]] {{small|(1935)}}

*[[Denver Bears]] {{small|(1900)}}; [[Denver Grizzlies (baseball)|Denver Grizzlies]] {{small|(1901-1912)}}; Denver Bears {{small|(1913-1917, 1922-1932)}}, {{small|(1941)}}, {{small|(1947–1954)}}

*[[Pueblo Indians (baseball)|Pueblo Indians]] {{small|(1900, 1905-1909, 1911)}}; [[Pueblo Steelworkers]] {{small|(1928-1929)}}; [[Pueblo Braves]] {{small|(1930-1932)}}; [[Pueblo Rollers]] {{small|(1941)}}; [[Pueblo Dodgers]] {{small|(1947–1958)}}

==1900- to 1936 Yearstandings by& Yearstatistics==

The new Western League formed as a Class B league in 1900. Charter teams were the: [[Denver Grizzlies (baseball)|Denver Grizzlies]], [[Des Moines Hawkeyes]], [[Omaha Omahogs]], [[Pueblo Indians (baseball)|Pueblo Indians]], [[Sioux City Cornhuskers]] and [[St. Joseph Saints]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/league.cgi?id=bc55b9c1|title=1900 Western League|website=Baseball-Reference.com}}</ref>

|[[Colorado Springs Millionaires]]s||63–75

The St. Joseph team moved to the [[Western Association]]. A new team in [[Lincoln, Nebraska]], formed and joined the League.

|[[Topeka Kaw-nees]] /<br />[[Hutchinson Salt Packers]]||37–31

|[[Hutchinson Salt Packers]] / <br/>[[Oklahoma City Oklahomans]]||

|[[Hutchinson Wheatshockers]] /<br/>[[Bartlesville BroncosBroncs]]||[[Detroit Tigers]]|||51–70

|[[Omaha Packers]] / <br />[[Council Bluffs Rails]]|| |||55–46

|[[Omaha Robin Hoods]] /<br />[[Rock Island RocksIslanders]]|| |||62–64

==1939- to 1941 Yearstandings by& yearstatistics==

'''1939 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague'''<br>

|[[Sioux Falls Canaries]]||66||52||.559||8-.5||[[ Ralph Brandon]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||63||52||.548||10.0|| [[Pete Monahan]]

|[[Lincoln Links]] ||64||55||.538||11.0|| [[Pug Griffin]]

|[[Mitchell Kernels]]||49||69||.415||25-.5||[[Red Davis]] (8/1) / [[Charles Moglia]]

||[[Worthington Cardinals]] ||36||81||.308||38.5||[[Joe McDermott (scout)|Joe McDermott]]

'''Playoffs''': Sioux City 3 games, Norfolk 2; Lincoln 3 games, Sioux Falls 2<br />

|[[ Howard Conners]] ||Sioux Falls ||BA||.365||||[[Ox Miller]]|| Lincoln||W||21

|[[ Wendell Finders]] ||Norfolk||Hits||167|||| [[Ox Miller]]||Lincoln ||SO||208

|[[Bob Dillinger]]||Lincoln||Runs||139||||[[ Lawrence Kempe]] ||Sioux Falls ||ERA||3.02

|[[Ted Kakaloris]] ||Lincoln||RBI||114||||[[ Leonard Bobeck]] || Norfolk ||PCT||.864 19-3

|[[William Morgan (baseball)|William Morgan]]||Norfolk||HR||17

'''1940 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague'''<br>

|[[Sioux Falls Canaries]]||59||58||.504||16-.5||[[Robert Fenner]]

|[[Worthington Cardinals]]||50||59||.459||21-.5|| [[Ray Martin (manager)|Ray Martin]] /[[George Payne (baseball)|George Payne]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]] /<br /> [[Mitchell Kernels]] #||44||70||.386||30.0|| [[Jimmy Zinn]] / [[Ed Grayston]]

<nowiki>#</nowiki> Sioux City moved to Mitchell July 24.<br />

The league played four quarters. Norfolk won the first, second and fourth quarters, while Sioux Falls won the third quarter.<br />

|[[Johnny Lucas (baseball)|Johnny Lucas]]||Worthington ||BA||.356||||[[Frank Wagner]] || Sioux Falls||W||17

|[[ Leo Bohanan]] ||Sioux Falls||Hits||158|||| [[Frank Wagner]]||Sioux Falls||SO||193

|[[ Robert Duby]] ||Norfolk||Runs||112||||[[Fred Whalen]]||Norfolk||ERA||1.36

|[[ Fred Schenk]] ||Norfolk||RBI||97||||[[Fred Whalen]]||Norfolk||PCT||.786 11-3

|[[ Russell Burns]] ||Norfolk||HR||17

'''1941 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague'''<br>

|[[Cheyenne Indians]]||59||44||.573||2-.5||[[John Kerr (baseball)|John Kerr]]

|[[Sioux City Cowboys]]||54||56||.491||11.0|| [[Richard Tichacek]]

|[[Pueblo Rollers]] ||52||54||.491||11.0|| [[Pug Griffin]]

|[[Sioux Falls Canaries]]||51||56||.477||12-.5||[[ Robert Fenner]] /[[ Tony Koenig]]

||[[Denver Bears]] ||42||68||.382||23.0||[[Cobe Jones]]

'''Playoffs''': Norfolk 3 games, Sioux City 2; Pueblo 3 games, Cheyenne 1<br />

|[[Bernard Steele]] ||Pueblo ||BA||.383||||[[George Milstead]]|| Cheyenne||W||19

|[[ Bernard Steele]] ||Pueblo||Hits||158|||| [[Robert Bergen]]||Pueblo||SO||183

|[[ Bernard Steele]] ||Pueblo||Runs||88||||[[Frank Wagner]]||Sioux Falls ||ERA||2.15

|[[ Frank Bocek]]||Norfolk||RBI||92||||[[George Milstead]]||Cheyenne ||PCT||.792 19-5

|[[ Mel Bergman]] ||Cheyenne||HR||10

The League did not operate from 1942 - 1946. It returned in 1947 and regained its Class A Status."><ref name="autoencyc">{{Citecite book web|urltitle=https://www.baseballThe Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball |editor1-reference.com/bullpen/Western_Leaguefirst=Lloyd |titleeditor1-last=WesternJohnson League|editor2-first=Miles |editor2-last=Wolff BR|edition=Third |publisher=[[Baseball America]] |date=2007 Bullpen|websiteisbn=www.baseball978-reference.com1932391176}}</ref>

==1947- to 1958 Yearstandings by& yearstatistics==

|[[Des Moines Bruins]]||72||52||.591||4.5-||152,027||[[Jim Keesey]]

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||70||58||.547||10.0||80,163|| '''[[Walter Alston]]'''

|[[Omaha Cardinals]]||67||62||.519||13-.5||138,308|| [[Ollie Vanek]]

|[[Denver Bears]]||54||75||.419||26-.5||124,923||[[Marty McManus]]

|[[Lincoln Athletics]]||38||89||.299||41-.5||43,464||[[Ham Schulte]] / [[Tom Oliver]]

'''Playoffs''': Sioux City 3 games, Omaha 1; Pueblo 3 games, Des Moines 1<br />

|[[Preston Ward]]||Pueblo||Runs||120||||[[ Herb Chmiel]]||Des Moines||ERA||2.23

|[[Preston Ward]]||Pueblo||RBI||121||||[[Herb Chmiel]]||Des Moines||PCT||.778 14-4

'''1948 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague'''<br>

|[[Denver Bears]]||70||67||.511||4-.5||283,377||[[Mike Gazella]]

|[[Lincoln Athletics]]||69||68||.504||5-.5||127,462|| [[Jimmie DeShong]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||69||68||.504||5-.5||112,381|| [[Joe Becker (baseball)|Joe Becker]]

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||69||70||.496||6-.5||116,304||[[John Fitzpatrick (baseball)|John Fitzpatrick]]

|[[Omaha Cardinals]]||62||78||.443||14.0||147,130||[[Ollie Vanek]]

'''Playoffs''': Lincoln 3 games, Des Moines 2; Sioux City 3 games, Denver 2. Lincoln defeated Sioux City 6-0 for third place.<br />

|'''[[Nellie Fox]]'''||Lincoln||Hits||179||||[[Tony Jacobs]]|| Des Moines ||ERA||2.72

'''1949 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague'''<br>

|[[Denver Bears]]||71||68||.511||3-.5||463,039||[[Mike Gazella]] / [[<br />Bill DeCarlo]] / [[Earle Browne]]

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||71||68||.511||3-.5||138,726|| [[Ray Hathaway]]

|[[Des Moines Bruins]]||70||70||.500||5.5||210,204|| [[Stan Hack]]

|[[Omaha Cardinals]]||68||71||.489||6-.5||277,370||[[Cedric Durst]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||63||76||.453||11-.5||125,356||[[Don Ramsay (baseball)|Don Ramsay]]

'''Playoffs''': Denver defeated Pueblo 5-3 for second place. Des Moines 3 games, Lincoln 1; Pueblo 3 games, Denver 1<br />

|[[ Victor Marasco]] ||Pueblo ||BA||.330||||[[Earl Stabelfeld]]||Des Moines||W||17

|[[Fred Richards (baseball)|Fred Richards]]||Des Moines||Hits||178||||[[Walter Cox (baseball)|Walter Cox]]||Sioux City||W||17

'''1950 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague'''<br>

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||89||65||.578||3-.5||463,039||[[Hugh Poland (baseball)|Hugh Poland]]

|[[Des Moines Bruins]]||84||70||.545||12.0||147,549|| [[Charlie Root]]

|[[Wichita Indians (baseball)|Wichita Indians]]||77||77||.500||19.0||126,729||[[Joe Schultz (schuljo05)Jr.|Joe Schultz]]

|[[Denver Bears]]||75||79||.487||21.0||379,180||[[Earl Browne]]

|[[Colorado Springs Sky Sox]]||72||82||.468||24.0||107,264||[[Buddy Hassett]]

|[[Lincoln Athletics]]||69||85||.448||27.0|| 68,884||[[Jimmie DeShong]]

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||54||100||.351||42.0|| 91,299||[[Ray Hathaway]]

'''Playoffs''': Wichita 3 games, Omaha 0; Sioux City 3 games, Des Moines 2<br />

|[[Bill Taylor (baseball)|Bill Taylor]]||Sioux City ||BA||.346||||[[Bob Mahoney (baseball)|Bob Mahoney]]||Omaha ||W||20

|[[Danny Holden]]||Denver||Runs||131|||| [[Bob Mahoney (baseball)|Bob Mahoney]]||Omaha ||SO||162

'''1951 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague''''<br>

|[[Denver Bears]]||88||66||.571||2.0||424,065||[[Andy Cohen]]

|[[Wichita Indians (baseball)|Wichita Indians]]||84||68||.553||5.0||122,060|| [[Joe Schultz (schuljo05)Jr.
|Joe Schultz]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||77||71||.520||10.0||104,247||[[Frank Genovese]]

|[[Des Moines Bruins]]||73||78||.483||15-.5||94,137||[[Al Todd]]

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||74||80||.481||16.5||104,254||[[Jim Biven]]

|[[Colorado Springs Sky Sox]]||64||87||.424||24-.5||107,320||[[Skeeter Webb]] / [[Otto Denning]]

|[[Lincoln Athletics]]||57||93||.380||31.5||37,123||[[Frank Skaff]]

'''Playoffs''': Sioux City 3 games, Omaha 1; Denver 3 games, Wichita 1<br />

|[[George Freese]]||Pueblo ||BA||.338||||[[ElRoyElroy Face]]||Pueblo ||W||23

'''1952 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague''''<br>

|[[Colorado Springs Sky Sox]]||87||67||.565||1.0||170,041||[[Don Gutteridge]]

|[[Omaha Cardinals]]||86||68||.558||2.0||137,378|| [[George Kissell]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||83||71||.539||5.0||103,004||[[Ray Mueller]]

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||81||73||.526||7.0||122,746||[[Bill McCahan]]

|[[Wichita Indians (baseball)|Wichita Indians]]||67||87||.435||21.0||116,703||[[Ralph Winegarner]]

|[[Lincoln Athletics]]||67||87||.435||21.0||61,483||[[Les Bell]]

|[[Des Moines Bruins]]||57||97||.370||31.0||62,597||[[Harry Strohm]]

'''Finals''': Denver 3 games, Omaha 0.

'''1953 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague''''<br>

|[[Denver Bears]]||94||60||.610||1.0||322,128||[[Andy Cohen]]

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||78||77||.503||17-.5||103,878|| [[George Pfister]]

|[[Des Moines Bruins]]||77||78||497||18-.5||98,972||[[Kemp Wicker]] /[[Bruce Edwards (baseball)|Bruce Edwards]]

|[[Omaha Cardinals]]||74||80||.481||21.0||115,512||[[George Kissell]]

|[[Lincoln Chiefs]]||71||83||.461||24.0||87,615||[[Lou Finney]] /[[Walt Linden]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||70||84||.455||25.0||45,412||[[Ray Mueller]]

|[[Wichita Indians (baseball)|Wichita Indians]]||58||96||.377||37.0||68,683||[[George Hausmann]] / [[Mark Christman]]

'''Playoffs''': Des Moines 3 games, Colorado Springs 1; Denver 3 games, Pueblo 0<br />

'''1954 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague''''<br>

|[[Des Moines Bruins]]||88||66||.571||8.0||113,691||[[Les Peden]]

|[[Omaha Cardinals]]||83||68||.550||11-.5||150,131|| [[Ferrell Anderson]]

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||79||74||.516||16-.5||80,768||[[Goldie Holt]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||78||75||.510||17-.5||69,333||[[Dave Garcia]]

|[[Wichita Indians (baseball)|Wichita Indians]]||76||77||.497||19-.5||87,854||[[Herb Brett]] /[[Les Layton]]

|[[Lincoln Chiefs]]||62||88||.413||32.0||80,660||[[Whitey Wietelmann]] / [[Glenn McQuillen]]

|[[Colorado Springs Sky Sox|Colorado Springs]]||48||104||.316||47.0||59,606||[[Mickey Livingston]] /<br /> [[Bud Stewart]] / [[Al Jacinto]]

'''Playoffs''': Denver 3 games, Pueblo 1; Des Moines 3 games, Omaha 1<br />

'''1955 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague''''<br>

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||79||71||.527||2.0||73,941||[[Goldie Holt]]

|[[Wichita Indians (baseball)|Wichita Indians]]||78||73||.517||3-.5||94,862|| [[Bud Bates]]

|[[Des Moines Bruins]]||77||74||.510||4-.5||88,181||[[Les Peden]] /[[Pepper Martin]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||69||81||.460||12.0||62,902||[[John Davenport (baseball)|John Davenport]]

|[[Lincoln Chiefs]]||67||83||.447||14.0||90,024||[[Bill Burwell]]

'''Playoffs''': Des Moines 3 games, Colorado Springs 1; Wichita 3 games, Pueblo 2. Wichita defeated Des Moines in a one-game playoff for third place.<br />

'''1956 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague'''<br>

|[[Lincoln Chiefs]]||84||54||.609||2-.5||92,554||[[Larry Shepard]]

|[[Des Moines Bruins]]||72||67||.518||15.0||67,973|| [[Lou Klein]]

|[[Topeka Hawks]]||70||68||.507||16-.5||103,938||[[Bud Bates]]

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||68||70||.493||18-.5||51,496||[[Ray Hathaway]]

|[[Colorado Springs Sky Sox]]||66||72||.478||20-.5||59,282||[[Jack Conway (baseball)|Jack Conway]]

|[[Albuquerque Dukes]]||59||81||.421||28-.5||94,176||[[Bob Swift]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||49||91||.350||38-.5||40,734||[[Hal Olt]] / [[Bob Clear]]

'''1957 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague'''<br>

|[[Amarillo Gold Sox]]||97||57||.630||1.0||102,210||[[Eddie Bockman]]

|[[Topeka Hawks]]||87||64||.576||9-.5||88, 014|| [[Red Smith (baseball coach)|Red Smith]] / [[Bill Dossey]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||71||82||.464||26-.5||46,851||[[Ken Landenberger]]

|[[Colorado Springs Sky Sox]]||68||86||.442||30.5||45,184||[[Ira Hutchinson]]

|[[Albuquerque Dukes]]||66||88||.429||32.0||92,236||[[Nick Cullop (culloni02)|Nick Cullop]] / [[Hal Toso]]

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||66||88||.429||32.0||40,887||[[Ray Hathaway]]

|[[Des Moines Demons]]||60||92||.395||37.0||79,965||[[Lou Stringer]] / [[Hersh Martin]]

|}Playoff: No Playoffs held.

'''1958 TeamWestern StatisticsLeague'''<br>

|[[Amarillo Gold Sox]]||84||63||.571||3.0||85,931||[[Eddie Bockman]] / [[Gale Pringle]]

|[[Lincoln Chiefs]]||75||71||.514||11-.5||67,604|| [[Monty Basgall]]

|[[Pueblo Dodgers]]||73||74||.497||14.0||39,179||[[Ray Mueller]]

|[[Albuquerque Dukes]]||71||75||.486||15-.5||81,702||[[Jimmy Brown (baseball)|Jimmy Brown]]

|[[Sioux City Soos]]||69||77||.473||17-.5||55,921||[[Rocky Tedesco]] / [[Ted Shandor]]

|[[Topeka Hawks]]||65||82||.442||22.0||43,686||[[George McQuinn]]

|[[Des Moines Bruins]]||61||83||.424||24-.5||35,039||[[Roy Hartsfield]]

Playoff: No Playoffs held.

|}<ref name="autoencyc"/>

The Western League was the topic of the book ''The Western League: A Baseball History, 1885 through 1999'' (2002, McFarland Publishing) by [[W. C. Madden]] & Patrick J. Stewart. The {{ISBN|0786410035}}.<ref>{{Cite book|isbn=0786410035|title=The Western League: A Baseball History, 1885 through 1999|last1=Madden|first1=W. C.|last2=Stewart|first2=Patrick J.|date=11 April 2002}}</ref>