# 1959 Kansas City Athletics season

The 1959 Kansas City Athletics season was the fifth for the franchise in Kansas City, and its 59th overall. It involved the A's finishing seventh in the American League with a record of 66 wins and 88 losses, 28 games behind the AL Champion Chicago White Sox.

## Offseason

* October 2, 1958: Chico Carrasquel was traded by the Athletics to the Baltimore Orioles for Dick Williams.

## Regular season
### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| Chicago White Sox | 94 | 60 | .610 | — | 47‍–‍30 | 47‍–‍30 |
| Cleveland Indians | 89 | 65 | .578 | 5 | 43‍–‍34 | 46‍–‍31 |
| New York Yankees | 79 | 75 | .513 | 15 | 40‍–‍37 | 39‍–‍38 |
| Detroit Tigers | 76 | 78 | .494 | 18 | 41‍–‍36 | 35‍–‍42 |
| Boston Red Sox | 75 | 79 | .487 | 19 | 43‍–‍34 | 32‍–‍45 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 74 | 80 | .481 | 20 | 38‍–‍39 | 36‍–‍41 |
| Kansas City Athletics | 66 | 88 | .429 | 28 | 37‍–‍40 | 29‍–‍48 |
| Washington Senators | 63 | 91 | .409 | 31 | 34‍–‍43 | 29‍–‍48 |

### Record vs. opponents

1959 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BAL | BOS | CHW | CLE | DET | KCA | NYY | WSH |
| Baltimore | — | 8–14 | 11–11–1 | 10–12 | 13–9 | 8–14 | 12–10 | 12–10 |
| Boston | 14–8 | — | 8–14 | 8–14 | 11–11 | 11–11 | 13–9 | 10–12 |
| Chicago | 11–11–1 | 14–8 | — | 15–7 | 13–9 | 12–10 | 13–9–1 | 16–6 |
| Cleveland | 12–10 | 14–8 | 7–15 | — | 14–8 | 15–7 | 11–11 | 16–6 |
| Detroit | 9–13 | 11–11 | 9–13 | 8–14 | — | 15–7 | 14–8 | 10–12 |
| Kansas City | 14–8 | 11–11 | 10–12 | 7–15 | 7–15 | — | 5–17 | 12–10 |
| New York | 10–12 | 9–13 | 9–13–1 | 11–11 | 8–14 | 17–5 | — | 15–7 |
| Washington | 10–12 | 12–10 | 6–16 | 6–16 | 12–10 | 10–12 | 7–15 | — |

### Notable transactions

* May 2, 1959: Harry Simpson was traded by the Athletics to the Chicago White Sox for Ray Boone.
* May 26, 1959: Ralph Terry and Héctor López were traded by the Athletics to the New York Yankees for Johnny Kucks, Tom Sturdivant, and Jerry Lumpe.
* August 20, 1959: Ray Boone was selected off waivers from the Athletics by the Milwaukee Braves.
* August 20, 1959: Ray Jablonski was selected off waivers by the Athletics from the St. Louis Cardinals.

### Roster
## Player stats

* = Indicates team leader

### Batting
#### Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Avg. | Player | G | AB | R | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| C | Frank House | 98 | 347 | 32 | 82 | .236 | 1 | 30 |
| 1B | Kent Hadley | 113 | 288 | 40 | 73 | .253 | 10 | 39 |
| 2B | Jerry Lumpe | 108 | 403 | 47 | 98 | .243 | 3 | 28 |
| 3B | Dick Williams | 130 | 488 | 72 | 130 | .266 | 16 | 75 |
| SS | Joe DeMaestri | 118 | 352 | 31 | 86 | .244 | 6 | 34 |
| LF | Bob Cerv | 125 | 463 | 61 | 132 | .285 | 20 | 87 |
| CF | Bill Tuttle | 126 | 463 | 74 | 139 | .300 | 7 | 43 |
| RF | Roger Maris | 122 | 433 | 69 | 118 | .273 | 16 | 72 |

#### Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Player | G | AB | R | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| Hal Smith | 108 | 292 | 36 | 84 | .288 | 5 | 31 |
| Russ Snyder | 73 | 243 | 41 | 76 | .313 | 3 | 21 |
| Wayne Terwilliger | 74 | 180 | 27 | 48 | .267 | 2 | 18 |
| Harry Chiti | 55 | 162 | 20 | 44 | .272 | 5 | 25 |
| Héctor López | 35 | 135 | 22 | 38 | .281 | 6 | 24 |
| Ray Boone | 61 | 132 | 19 | 36 | .273 | 2 | 12 |
| Whitey Herzog | 38 | 123 | 25 | 36 | .293 | 1 | 9 |
| Preston Ward | 58 | 109 | 8 | 27 | .248 | 2 | 19 |
| Zeke Bella | 47 | 82 | 10 | 17 | .207 | 1 | 9 |
| Lou Klimchock | 17 | 66 | 10 | 18 | .273 | 4 | 13 |
| Ray Jablonski | 25 | 65 | 4 | 17 | .262 | 2 | 8 |
| Joe Morgan | 20 | 21 | 2 | 4 | .190 | 0 | 3 |
| Harry Simpson | 8 | 14 | 1 | 4 | .286 | 1 | 2 |
| Tom Carroll | 14 | 7 | 1 | 1 | .143 | 0 | 1 |
| Bob Martyn | 1 | 1 | 0 | 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 |
| Bud Daley | 39 | 216.1 | 16 | 13 | 3.16 | 125 |
| Ned Garver | 32 | 201.0 | 10 | 13 | 3.71 | 61 |
| Ray Herbert | 37 | 183.2 | 11 | 11 | 4.85 | 99 |
| Johnny Kucks | 33 | 151.1 | 8 | 11 | 3.87 | 51 |
| Ralph Terry | 9 | 46.1 | 2 | 4 | 5.24 | 35 |
| Ken Johnson | 2 | 11.0 | 1 | 1 | 4.09 | 8 |

#### 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 |
| Bob Grim | 40 | 125.1 | 6 | 10 | 4.09 | 65 |
| John Tsitouris | 24 | 83.1 | 4 | 3 | 4.97 | 50 |
| Rip Coleman | 29 | 81.0 | 2 | 10 | 4.56 | 54 |
| Howie Reed | 6 | 20.2 | 0 | 3 | 7.40 | 11 |
| Al Grunwald | 6 | 11.1 | 0 | 1 | 7.94 | 9 |

#### 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 |
| Tom Sturdivant | 36 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 4.65 | 57 |
| Murry Dickson | 38 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4.94 | 36 |
| Russ Meyer | 18 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.50 | 10 |
| Tom Gorman | 17 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7.08 | 9 |
| Dick Tomanek | 16 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6.53 | 13 |
| Marty Kutyna | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | 1 |
| Evans Killeen | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.76 | 1 |
| Mark Freeman | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.82 | 1 |
| George Brunet | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11.57 | 7 |

## Awards and honors

* All-Star Game
** Roger Maris appeared in his first All-Star Game

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AAA | Portland Beavers | Pacific Coast League | Tommy Heath |
| AA | Shreveport Sports | Southern Association | Les Peden |
| A | Albany Senators | Eastern League | Al Evans |
| B | Sioux City Soos | Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League | Billy Capps |
| C | Pocatello Athletics | Pioneer League | Tommy Giordano |
| D | Grand Island Athletics | Nebraska State League | Art Mazmanian |
| D | Olean Athletics | New York–Penn League | Bill Robertson |
| D | Plainview Athletics | Sophomore League | Bobby Hofman |