1930 found the Springfield Senators needing a good swift kick to get out of 7th place.
They would be kicked into 5th by Pete Susko who was everything you could
ever want in a ballplayer as he hit .389 with 31 2B, 17 3B and 4 HR. Susko was
so good in fact, that he would only get 370 At Bats and 88 games in, before being
taken by the Class A Birmingham Barons. Despite the fact that he was en route
to a 50 2B, 28 3B, 7 HR .389 season breaking nearly all the records |
of this ballpark... he would wind up not taking over any of them. This is
perhaps why Springfield remained in 5th place and didn't make it to the tops of
the league. Even with Susko's loss however, there was some tremendous hitting
behind Vern Blenkiron (30 2B, 7 3B, 6 HR, .345) Jim Hamby (26 2B, .332), Len Koenecke
(10 HR, .349) and Bill Mizeur (29 2B, 12 3B, 11 HR, .344). So how did a
team this strong wind up 8 games under .500. A lot of it had to do with ERA's.
Bill Swift and his 3.78 Earned Run Average proved how good of a hitting team this
was, as just under 4 runs given up per game was good enough for a 17-7 record.
After that pitchers ERA's dropped well into the 5's, the 6's and even into the
8's. |