1959 Cincinnati Reds season

The 1959 Cincinnati Reds season consisted of the Reds finishing in a fifth-place tie with the Chicago Cubs in the National League standings, with a record of 74–80, 13 games behind the NL and World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

1959 Cincinnati Reds
League	National League
Ballpark	Crosley Field
City	Cincinnati
Owners	Powel Crosley Jr.
General managers	Gabe Paul
Managers	Mayo Smith, Fred Hutchinson
Television	WLW (George Bryson, Frank McCormick)
Radio	WKRC (Waite Hoyt, Jack Moran)
← 1958 Seasons 1960 →

Prior to the season the club, after calling themselves the Cincinnati Redlegs for the past six seasons, changed its nickname back to the Reds. The Reds played their home games at Crosley Field, where they attracted 801,298 fans, eighth and last in the Senior Circuit.^[1]

Offseason

• January 30, 1959: Smoky Burgess, Harvey Haddix and Don Hoak were traded by the Reds to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Whammy Douglas, Jim Pendleton, Frank Thomas, and John Powers.^[2]
• March 20, 1959: Eddie Miksis was released by the Reds.^[3]

Regular season

For the second consecutive season, the Reds played under two managers. Mayo Smith, hired during the previous off-season, managed the Reds to a 35–45 start, seventh in the eight-team league. He was replaced during the first All-Star break by Fred Hutchinson, manager of their Triple-A Seattle Rainiers affiliate, on July 9. Hutchinson then led Cincinnati to a 39–35 record the rest of the way.

Season standings

• v
• t
• e

National League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Los Angeles Dodgers	88	68	.564	—	46‍–‍32	42‍–‍36
Milwaukee Braves	86	70	.551	2	49‍–‍29	37‍–‍41
San Francisco Giants	83	71	.539	4	42‍–‍35	41‍–‍36
Pittsburgh Pirates	78	76	.506	9	47‍–‍30	31‍–‍46
Chicago Cubs	74	80	.481	13	38‍–‍39	36‍–‍41
Cincinnati Reds	74	80	.481	13	43‍–‍34	31‍–‍46
St. Louis Cardinals	71	83	.461	16	42‍–‍35	29‍–‍48
Philadelphia Phillies	64	90	.416	23	37‍–‍40	27‍–‍50

Record vs. opponents

1959 National League record v t e Sources:
Team	CHC	CIN	LAD	MIL	PHI	PIT	SF	STL
Chicago	—	9–13	11–11	10–12	10–12–1	12–10	12–10	10–12
Cincinnati	13–9	—	13–9	11–11	9–13	9–13	8–14	11–11
Los Angeles	11–11	9–13	—	14–10	17–5	11–11	14–8	12–10
Milwaukee	12–10	11–11	10–14	—	13–9	15–7–1	12–10	13–9
Philadelphia	12–10–1	13–9	5–17	9–13	—	9–13	9–13	7–15
Pittsburgh	10–12	13–9	11–11	7–15–1	13–9	—	10–12	14–8
San Francisco	10–12	14–8	8–14	10–12	13–9	12–10	—	16–6
St. Louis	12–10	11–11	10–12	9–13	15–7	8–14	6–16	—

Notable transactions

• May 1, 1959: Del Ennis was traded by the Reds to the Chicago White Sox for Lou Skizas and Don Rudolph.^[4]
• June 8, 1959: Hal Jeffcoat was traded by the Reds to the St. Louis Cardinals for Jim Brosnan.^[5]
• June 23, 1959: Walt Dropo was traded by the Reds to the Baltimore Orioles for Whitey Lockman.^[6]

Roster

1959 Cincinnati Reds
Roster
Pitchers 40 Tom Acker 47 Luis Arroyo 41 Jim Bailey 42 Jim Brosnan 32 Mike Cuellar 47 Jay Hook 42 Hal Jeffcoat 46 Brooks Lawrence 35 Bob Mabe 36 Don Newcombe 39 Joe Nuxhall 31 Jim O'Toole 32 Claude Osteen 43 Orlando Peña 37 Bob Purkey 47 Don Rudolph 44 Willard Schmidt		Catchers  6 Ed Bailey  9 Dutch Dotterer Infielders 18 Cliff Cook 18 Walt Dropo 17 Bobby Henrich 14,23 Willie Jones 10 Eddie Kasko 19 Whitey Lockman 11 Roy McMillan 20 Frank Robinson 16 Johnny Temple 15 Frank Thomas		Outfielders 25 Gus Bell 23 Del Ennis 22 Buddy Gilbert 24 Jerry Lynch 12 Jim Pendleton 28 Vada Pinson 27 John Powers 29 Pete Whisenant Other batters  8 Don Pavletich 22 Bob Thurman		Manager  1 Fred Hutchinson  1 Mayo Smith Coaches  2 Cot Deal (Pitching; after 8/4)  2 Clyde King (Pitching; through 8/3)  3 Wally Moses (Hitting & first base)  4 Reggie Otero (Third base)

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	Ed Bailey	121	379	100	.264	12	40
1B	Frank Robinson	146	540	168	.311	36	125
2B	Johnny Temple	149	598	186	.311	8	67
SS	Eddie Kasko	118	329	93	.283	2	31
3B	Willie Jones	72	233	58	.249	7	31
LF	Jerry Lynch	117	379	102	.269	17	58
CF	Vada Pinson	154	648	205	.316	20	84
RF	Gus Bell	148	580	170	.293	19	115

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
Frank Thomas	108	374	84	.225	12	47
Roy McMillan	79	246	65	.264	9	24
Dutch Dotterer	52	161	43	.267	2	17
Jim Pendleton	65	113	29	.257	3	9
Whitey Lockman	52	84	22	.262	0	7
Pete Whisenant	36	71	17	.239	5	11
John Powers	43	43	11	.256	2	4
Walt Dropo	26	39	4	.103	1	2
Cliff Cook	9	21	8	.381	0	5
Buddy Gilbert	7	20	3	.150	2	2
Del Ennis	5	12	4	.333	0	1
Bob Thurman	4	4	1	.250	0	2
Bobby Henrich	14	3	0	.000	0	0
Don Pavletich	1	0	0	----	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
Don Newcombe	30	222.0	13	8	3.16	100
Bob Purkey	38	218.0	13	18	4.25	78
Joe Nuxhall	28	131.2	9	9	4.24	75
Jim O'Toole	28	129.1	5	8	5.15	68
Jay Hook	17	79.0	5	5	5.13	37

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
Orlando Peña	46	136.0	5	9	4.76	76
Brooks Lawrence	43	128.1	7	12	4.77	64
Jim Brosnan	26	83.1	8	3	3.35	56
Jim Bailey	3	11.2	0	1	6.17	7

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 Acker	37	1	2	2	4.12	45
Willard Schmidt	36	3	2	0	3.95	40
Bob Mabe	18	4	2	3	5.46	8
Hal Jeffcoat	17	0	1	1	3.32	12
Luis Arroyo	10	1	0	0	3.95	8
Don Rudolph	5	0	0	0	4.91	8
Claude Osteen	2	0	0	0	7.04	3
Mike Cuellar	2	0	0	0	15.75	5

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Havana Sugar Kings	International League	Preston Gómez
AAA	Seattle Rainiers	Pacific Coast League	Fred Hutchinson and Alan Strange
AA	Nashville Vols	Southern Association	Dick Sisler
A	Savannah Reds	Sally League	Bob Wellman and Jack Cassini
B	Topeka Hawks	Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League	Johnny Vander Meer
C	Visalia Redlegs	California League	Dave Bristol
D	Palatka Redlegs	Florida State League	Clem Koshorek and Tony Pacheco
D	Geneva Redlegs	New York–Penn League	Reno DeBenedetti

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Havana^[7]