Baseball Pitching Machines
The baseball pitching machines of the 1950s made an impact on the baseball world forever. For the National League, 1954 was the year of the return of Willie Mays and the baseball pitching machines. Six National Leaguers hit 40 or more home runs. Curiously, after the 40 club, the drop-off was precipitous, with only Stan Musial getting into the thirties in home runs, with 35. But the season belonged to Mays and the baseball pitching machines. Mays was back from two years in the Army. The Milwaukee Braves finished in third place. It would be three more years before the Braves took a pennant, but they were setting things in order.
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The Braves big man was Mathews with his 40 homers and 103 runs batted in. Behind Eddie was first baseman Joe Adcock, who clubbed 23 home runs, including nine at Ebbets Field. On the afternoon of July 31, Big Joe put on a truly devastating performance in Brooklyn. On that afternoon he became only the second National Leaguer since 1900 to hit four home runs in a nine-inning game. Joe also had a double, giving him a record 18 total bases and a record-tying five extra-base hits in one game. Adcock’s power display was no fluke. The year before, on April 29, he had become the first man ever to drive one into the center-field bleachers at the Polo Grounds, a belt of some 480 feet.
Diagram Of A Baseball Pitching Machine
Behind Mathews and Adcock, the Braves had shortstop Johnny Logan, catcher Del Crandall, and outfielders Bill Bruton, Andy Pafko, and young Hank Aaron, who broke in with 13 home runs and a .280 batting average. Warren Spahn won 21 games, making him a six-time 20-game winner, the first National League lefty ever to achieve that level. It was another Milwaukee pitcher who delivered the major leagues’ only no-hitter in 1954. Right-hander Jim Wilson had been languishing in the bullpen when a back injury suffered by pitcher Gene Conley put Wilson into the rotation. In his first start, on June 6, Jim pitched a shutout. That was but a warm-up for his big one on June 12, when he fired a no-hitter against the Phillies. For Wilson the achievement had a particular sweetness, for twice in previous years his career had been put in jeopardy when he was shot off the mound by line drives.
