# 1956 Kansas City Athletics season

The 1956 Kansas City Athletics season, the team's 56th in the American League and second in Kansas City, involved the A's finishing eighth in the American League with a record of 52 wins and 102 losses, 45 games behind the World Series champion New York Yankees.

## Offseason

* March 2, 1956: Tommy Lasorda was purchased by the Athletics from the Brooklyn Dodgers.

## Regular season
### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| New York Yankees | 97 | 57 | .630 | — | 49‍–‍28 | 48‍–‍29 |
| Cleveland Indians | 88 | 66 | .571 | 9 | 46‍–‍31 | 42‍–‍35 |
| Chicago White Sox | 85 | 69 | .552 | 12 | 46‍–‍31 | 39‍–‍38 |
| Boston Red Sox | 84 | 70 | .545 | 13 | 43‍–‍34 | 41‍–‍36 |
| Detroit Tigers | 82 | 72 | .532 | 15 | 37‍–‍40 | 45‍–‍32 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 69 | 85 | .448 | 28 | 41‍–‍36 | 28‍–‍49 |
| Washington Senators | 59 | 95 | .383 | 38 | 32‍–‍45 | 27‍–‍50 |
| Kansas City Athletics | 52 | 102 | .338 | 45 | 22‍–‍55 | 30‍–‍47 |

### Record vs. opponents

1956 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BAL | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | KCA | NYY | WSH |
| Baltimore | — | 6–16 | 9–13 | 5–17 | 13–9 | 15–7 | 9–13 | 12–10 |
| Boston | 16–6 | — | 14–8 | 13–9–1 | 12–10 | 12–10 | 8–14 | 9–13 |
| Chicago | 13–9 | 8–14 | — | 15–7 | 13–9 | 14–8 | 9–13 | 13–9 |
| Cleveland | 17–5 | 9–13–1 | 7–15 | — | 11–11 | 17–5 | 10–12 | 17–5 |
| Detroit | 9–13 | 10–12 | 9–13 | 11–11 | — | 16–6 | 12–10 | 15–7–1 |
| Kansas City | 7–15 | 10–12 | 8–14 | 5–17 | 6–16 | — | 4–18 | 12–10 |
| New York | 13–9 | 14–8 | 13–9 | 12–10 | 10–12 | 18–4 | — | 17–5 |
| Washington | 10–12 | 13–9 | 9–13 | 5–17 | 7–15–1 | 10–12 | 5–17 | — |

### Notable transactions

* April 16, 1956: Lee Wheat, Tom Saffell and cash were traded by the Athletics to the Brooklyn Dodgers for Tim Thompson.
* April 16, 1956: Johnny Groth was purchased by the Athletics from the Washington Senators.
* May 1956: Marion Fricano and $60,000 were traded by the Athletics to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Jack Crimian.
* June 14, 1956: Moe Burtschy, Bill Renna and cash were traded by the Athletics to the New York Yankees for Lou Skizas and Eddie Robinson.
* July 11, 1956: Tommy Lasorda was traded by the Athletics to the New York Yankees for Wally Burnette.
* August 17, 1956: Joe Ginsberg was traded by the Athletics to the Baltimore Orioles for Hal Smith.
* August 25, 1956: Enos Slaughter was selected off waivers from the Athletics by the New York Yankees.

### Roster
## Player stats

* = Indicates team leader

### 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 | Tim Thompson | 92 | 268 | 73 | .272 | 1 | 27 |
| 1B | Vic Power | 127 | 530 | 164 | .309 | 14 | 63 |
| 2B | Jim Finigan | 91 | 250 | 54 | .216 | 2 | 21 |
| SS | Joe DeMaestri | 133 | 434 | 101 | .233 | 6 | 39 |
| 3B | Héctor López | 151 | 561 | 153 | .273 | 18 | 69 |
| LF | Gus Zernial | 109 | 272 | 61 | .224 | 16 | 44 |
| CF | Al Pilarcik | 69 | 239 | 60 | .251 | 4 | 22 |
| RF | Harry Simpson | 141 | 543 | 159 | .293 | 21 | 105 |

#### 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 |
| Lou Skizas | 83 | 297 | 94 | .316 | 11 | 39 |
| Johnny Groth | 95 | 244 | 63 | .258 | 5 | 37 |
| Enos Slaughter | 91 | 223 | 62 | .278 | 2 | 23 |
| Joe Ginsberg | 71 | 195 | 48 | .246 | 1 | 12 |
| Eddie Robinson | 75 | 172 | 34 | .198 | 2 | 12 |
| Hal Smith | 37 | 142 | 39 | .275 | 2 | 24 |
| Clete Boyer | 67 | 129 | 28 | .217 | 1 | 4 |
| Mike Baxes | 73 | 106 | 24 | .226 | 1 | 5 |
| Spook Jacobs | 32 | 97 | 21 | .216 | 0 | 5 |
| Rance Pless | 48 | 85 | 23 | .271 | 0 | 9 |
| Bill Renna | 33 | 48 | 13 | .271 | 2 | 5 |
| Jim Pisoni | 10 | 30 | 8 | .267 | 2 | 5 |
| Joe Astroth | 8 | 13 | 1 | .077 | 0 | 0 |
| Elmer Valo | 9 | 9 | 2 | .222 | 0 | 2 |
| Dave Melton | 3 | 3 | 1 | .333 | 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 |
| Art Ditmar | 44 | 254.1 | 12 | 22 | 4.42 | 126 |
| Wally Burnette | 18 | 121.1 | 6 | 8 | 2.89 | 54 |
| Lou Kretlow | 25 | 118.2 | 4 | 9 | 5.31 | 61 |
| Alex Kellner | 20 | 91.2 | 7 | 4 | 4.32 | 44 |
| Glenn Cox | 3 | 23.1 | 0 | 2 | 4.24 | 6 |
| Walt Craddock | 2 | 9.1 | 0 | 2 | 6.75 | 8 |
| Carl Duser | 2 | 6.0 | 1 | 1 | 9.00 | 5 |

#### 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 |
| Tom Gorman | 52 | 171.1 | 9 | 10 | 3.83 | 56 |
| Troy Herriage | 31 | 103.0 | 1 | 13 | 6.64 | 59 |
| Jack McMahan | 23 | 61.2 | 0 | 5 | 4.82 | 13 |
| Tommy Lasorda | 18 | 45.1 | 0 | 4 | 6.15 | 28 |
| José Santiago | 9 | 21.2 | 1 | 2 | 8.31 | 9 |
| Art Ceccarelli | 3 | 10.0 | 0 | 1 | 7.20 | 2 |
| George Brunet | 6 | 9.0 | 0 | 0 | 7.00 | 5 |
| Arnie Portocarrero | 3 | 8.0 | 0 | 1 | 10.13 | 2 |

#### 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 |
| Bobby Shantz | 45 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 4.35 | 67 |
| Jack Crimian | 54 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 5.51 | 59 |
| Bill Harrington | 23 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6.45 | 14 |
| Moe Burtschy | 21 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3.95 | 18 |
| Bob Spicer | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19.29 | 0 |
| Bill Bradford | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | 0 |

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AAA | Columbus Jets | International League | Nick Cullop |
| A | Columbia Gems | Sally League | Hank Biasatti |
| B | Abilene Blue Sox | Big State League | Al Evans |
| C | Crowley Millers | Evangeline League | Vince Plumbo |
| C | Pocatello Bannocks | Pioneer League | Joe Lutz and Lou Stringer |
| D | Fitzgerald A's | Georgia–Florida League | Red Treadway |
| D | Grand Island Athletics | Nebraska State League | Art Mazmanian |
| D | Seminole Oilers | Sooner State League | Burl Storie |
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Seminole