War Memorial Stadium... "The Rockpile" Peter Outerbridge located in Buffalo New York Former home of the Buffalo Bisons! |
Pancho Herrera brought a hot bat to the Bisons in 1962, slamming 25 2B, 32 HR and
108 RBI while batting .295. He was joined by John Herrnstein (30 2B, 7 3B, 23
HR, 84 RBI, .293), Bob Lipiski (12 2B, 19 HR, .253), Danny Cater (21 2B, 7 3B,
12 HR, .288), Wally Shannon (12 HR, .294) and the future Managing trio of Jim Frey
(18 2B, 16 HR, .270), Lee Elia (16 HR, .236), and Bobby Wine (.242). 'On Sept.
20, 1930 at Offerman Stadium, lefty Dave Danforth, the Baltimore dentist often
accused of "treating" baseballs, struck out 20 Rochester Red Wings, to set
an International League record. On Aug. 10, 1962 at War Memorial Stadium, lefty
Bob Veale of the Columbus Jets broke that record, setting down 22 Bison batters
on strikes. Ironically, he was removed for a pinch hitter in the 10th and was
not even the winning pitcher. The 22 "Ks" by Veale was a sign of the weakness
of the Buffalo Club, which hit a lot of home runs, but which lacked consistency
at the plate. The pitching staff was a disaster"*Buffalo Bisons. Bobby Locke 10-8,
4.43; and Dick Ricketts (10-7, 2.85) were the only pitchers to hit the
10 win mark and Bill Smith 7-1. 2.40 was excellent but was promoted after only
10 games. the rest of the staff ranged from the mid-4’s to the high 5.00’s in
ERA. Ferguson Jenkins stopped in for 2 games as well. "As Farrell's team dropped
from third to sixth, attendance followed right along, tumbling 45,000 to 214,134.
Despite the drop in attendance, a profit of $16,959 was realized. But all
was not rosy. Cy Kritzer wrote in the Buffalo Evening News: "The big problem
is to restore the image that the Bisons are community-owned. It may be too late
to restore baseball to what we knew from 1956 to 1960." His appraisal of the situation
was right on target". *Buffalo Bisons |