Photograph from the Utah State Historical Society, courtesy of Fred Sagebaum In 1951, the Philadelphia Phillies signed the Bees up to be their Rookie League entry. The PDC would bring future Phillies pitcher Bob Greenwood to the team, who would single-handedly lead the team back to 1st place again with a 21-7, 3.30 record. The move also brought future Phillies RF Bob Bowman (9 2B, 9 HR, .270) to Derks Field, along with Gordon Hernandez (21 2B, 14 3B, 8 HR, .290) and Ted Hesse (32 2B, |
7 3B, .321). While there was still no championship in sight... the Bees' 84-52
record was certainly impressive enough. After an off year in 1953, the Bees
rebounded again going 69-62 behind the excellent pitching of Clyde DeWitt (19-8,
3.25) and Burt Barkelew (12-3, 2.58) as well as the hitting prowess of future
St. Louis Cardinals SS Lee Tate (.281) and the monster year of slugger John
Moskus (23 2B, 9 3B, 28 HR, .317). The Bees were back in the playoffs and this
time, with the tremendous seasons of Clyde DeWitt and John Moskus pushing them
forwards... they were able to finally secure their first championship season for
new Derks Field. As good as they were in 1953, they were even better in 1954,
securing 1st place yet again, this time behind the power hitting of Svend Jessen
(21 2B, 25 HR, .293) and the fantastic season that John Turk put together (25
2B, 14 HR, .369). Louis Shade meanwhile was excellent going 17-8, 4.01 while
Burt Barkelew returned to go 16-6, 3.39. The Bees easily beat their record from
the previous season, going 78-53 on the year, and were greedily pushing forward
to the final round of the playoffs, hoping to bring even more gold home
to gold home to Derks Field. |