# 1955 Washington Senators season

The 1955 Washington Senators season was the franchise's 55th in Major League Baseball. The Senators won 53 games, lost 101, and finished in eighth place in the American League. They were managed by Chuck Dressen and played home games at Griffith Stadium, where they draw 425,238 fans, eighth and last in the American League and 16th and last in MLB.
It was Dressen's first year as the Senators' manager, after Bucky Harris had led the 1954 club to a 66–88, sixth place finish. Dressen, 60, came to Washington two years removed from a highly successful three-year term as skipper of the Brooklyn Dodgers, where his teams finished in a dead heat for first in 1951 (losing the 1951 National League tie-breaker series on Bobby Thomson's famous home run), then won back-to-back NL titles in 1952 and 1953. But in each of the latter seasons, his Dodgers were defeated by the New York Yankees in the World Series, and when Dressen decided to demand a three-year contract to return to Brooklyn for 1954, his owner, Walter O'Malley, let his 1953 contract expire. Dressen spent 1954 managing Oakland in the highly competitive Pacific Coast League, and his return to the major leagues was viewed with anticipation by some observers.
His hiring was a departure for the Senators' management and ownership. He was the first manager outside the Washington team's "family" hired during Clark Griffith's presidency, which began in 1920. Through 1954, Griffith had appointed eight different men to manage his club (with one, Harris, serving three different terms), and all had been current or former Senator players. Dressen, as a veteran National Leaguer and a high profile manager with New York ties, broke that 35-season trend.
And, though no one knew it at the time, 1955 would be a milestone for baseball in Washington when it proved to be Griffith's last season as the club's president and chief stockholder. He died at age 85 on October 27, and his nephew Calvin, who succeeded him, would move the franchise to Minneapolis–Saint Paul as the Minnesota Twins after only five seasons as the Senators' president.

## Offseason

* Prior to 1955 season: Choo-Choo Coleman was signed as an amateur free agent by the Senators.

## Regular season
### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| New York Yankees | 96 | 58 | .623 | — | 52‍–‍25 | 44‍–‍33 |
| Cleveland Indians | 93 | 61 | .604 | 3 | 49‍–‍28 | 44‍–‍33 |
| Chicago White Sox | 91 | 63 | .591 | 5 | 49‍–‍28 | 42‍–‍35 |
| Boston Red Sox | 84 | 70 | .545 | 12 | 47‍–‍31 | 37‍–‍39 |
| Detroit Tigers | 79 | 75 | .513 | 17 | 46‍–‍31 | 33‍–‍44 |
| Kansas City Athletics | 63 | 91 | .409 | 33 | 33‍–‍43 | 30‍–‍48 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 57 | 97 | .370 | 39 | 30‍–‍47 | 27‍–‍50 |
| Washington Senators | 53 | 101 | .344 | 43 | 28‍–‍49 | 25‍–‍52 |

### Record vs. opponents

1955 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BAL | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | KCA | NYY | WSH |
| Baltimore | — | 8–14 | 10–12–1 | 3–19 | 9–13 | 10–12–1 | 3–19 | 14–8 |
| Boston | 14–8 | — | 9–13 | 11–11 | 13–9 | 14–8 | 8–14 | 15–7 |
| Chicago | 12–10–1 | 13–9 | — | 10–12 | 14–8 | 14–8 | 11–11 | 17–5 |
| Cleveland | 19–3 | 11–11 | 12–10 | — | 12–10 | 17–5 | 13–9 | 9–13 |
| Detroit | 13–9 | 9–13 | 8–14 | 10–12 | — | 12–10 | 10–12 | 17–5 |
| Kansas City | 12–10–1 | 8–14 | 8–14 | 5–17 | 10–12 | — | 7–15 | 13–9 |
| New York | 19–3 | 14–8 | 11–11 | 9–13 | 12–10 | 15–7 | — | 16–6 |
| Washington | 8–14 | 7–15 | 5–17 | 13–9 | 5–17 | 9–13 | 6–16 | — |

### Notable transactions

* May 1955: Gus Keriazakos was traded by the Senators to the Kansas City Athletics for Al Sima.
* June 7, 1955: Jim Busby was traded by the Senators to the Chicago White Sox for Bob Chakales, Clint Courtney and Johnny Groth.

### Roster
## 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 | Ed Fitz Gerald | 74 | 236 | 56 | .237 | 4 | 19 |
| 1B | Mickey Vernon | 150 | 538 | 162 | .301 | 14 | 85 |
| 2B | Pete Runnels | 134 | 503 | 143 | .284 | 2 | 49 |
| SS | José Valdivielso | 94 | 294 | 65 | .221 | 2 | 28 |
| 3B | Eddie Yost | 122 | 375 | 91 | .243 | 7 | 48 |
| LF | Roy Sievers | 144 | 509 | 138 | .271 | 25 | 106 |
| CF | Tom Umphlett | 110 | 323 | 70 | .217 | 2 | 19 |
| RF | Carlos Paula | 115 | 351 | 105 | .299 | 6 | 45 |

#### 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 |
| Ernie Oravetz | 100 | 263 | 71 | .270 | 0 | 25 |
| Clint Courtney | 75 | 238 | 71 | .298 | 2 | 30 |
| Jim Busby | 47 | 191 | 44 | .230 | 6 | 14 |
| Johnny Groth | 63 | 183 | 40 | .219 | 2 | 17 |
| Bobby Kline | 77 | 140 | 31 | .221 | 0 | 9 |
| Juan Delis | 54 | 132 | 25 | .189 | 0 | 11 |
| Jerry Snyder | 46 | 107 | 24 | .224 | 0 | 5 |
| Harmon Killebrew | 38 | 80 | 16 | .200 | 4 | 7 |
| Bruce Edwards | 30 | 57 | 10 | .175 | 0 | 3 |
| Tony Roig | 29 | 57 | 13 | .228 | 0 | 4 |
| Jerry Schoonmaker | 20 | 46 | 7 | .152 | 1 | 4 |
| Steve Korcheck | 13 | 36 | 10 | .278 | 0 | 2 |
| Jim Lemon | 10 | 25 | 5 | .200 | 1 | 3 |
| Jesse Levan | 16 | 16 | 3 | .188 | 1 | 4 |
| Julio Bécquer | 10 | 14 | 3 | .214 | 0 | 1 |
| Tom Wright | 7 | 7 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |
| Bob Oldis | 6 | 6 | 0 | .000 | 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 |
| Bob Porterfield | 30 | 178.0 | 10 | 17 | 4.45 | 74 |
| Johnny Schmitz | 32 | 165.0 | 7 | 10 | 3.71 | 49 |
| Mickey McDermott | 31 | 156.0 | 10 | 10 | 3.75 | 78 |

#### 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 |
| Dean Stone | 43 | 180.0 | 6 | 13 | 4.15 | 84 |
| Chuck Stobbs | 41 | 140.1 | 4 | 14 | 5.00 | 60 |
| Pedro Ramos | 45 | 130.0 | 5 | 11 | 3.88 | 34 |
| Camilo Pascual | 43 | 129.0 | 2 | 12 | 6.14 | 82 |
| Ted Abernathy | 40 | 119.1 | 5 | 9 | 5.96 | 79 |
| Webbo Clarke | 7 | 21.1 | 0 | 0 | 4.64 | 9 |
| Bunky Stewart | 7 | 15.1 | 0 | 0 | 4.11 | 10 |

#### 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 |
| Bob Chakales | 29 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5.27 | 28 |
| Spec Shea | 27 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3.99 | 16 |
| Bill Currie | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12.46 | 2 |
| Dick Hyde | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.50 | 1 |
| Vince Gonzales | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27.00 | 1 |
| Bobby Kline | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27.00 | 0 |

## Award winners

All-Star Game
* Mickey Vernon, starter, first base

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AA | Chattanooga Lookouts | Southern Association | Cal Ermer |
| A | Charlotte Hornets | Sally League | Jimmy Bloodworth |
| B | Hagerstown Packets | Piedmont League | Johnny Welaj |
| B | Rock Hill Chiefs | Tri-State League | Buster Boguskie, Frank Colasinski and Pete Treece |
| D | Orlando C.B.s | Florida State League | Tommy O'Brien |
| D | Fulton Lookouts | KITTY League | Ned Waldrop, Sam Lamitina, Mel Simons and Bob Harmon |
| D | Erie Senators | PONY League | Ted Sepkowski |
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Orlando