Sunday, May 1, 2011

April Standings Entering May - Dodgers/Giants at Ebbets Field

Entering May, the Pacific Coast League had already completed more than 30 games, while the Major Leagues had played only a maximum of with Detroit having completed 8 games due to rainouts etc.


The PCL standings through April 30 were:
Portland      21 12
Oakland      17 15
Sacramento 18 16
LA              17 16
Seattle         17 16
Hollywood   14 17
San Diego    14 17
San Francisco 12 31

Hollywood will be hosting Oakland for a series this week, while the Angels will be travelling to San Francisco for a series with the Seals.

Meanwhile, in the Big Leagues the standings are as follows:

National League
Boston      10   5
St. Louis     6   3
Brooklyn     8  5
Philadelphia 7  6
Chicago      5   5
Pittsburgh   5   5
Cincinnati   4   7
New York 3 12

American League
Cleveland    7   3
Washington 7   3
New York  8   4
Boston        7   4
Chicago      6   4
Detroit        3   5
St. Louis     4   8
Philadelphia 1 12

On April 30, 1951 the only game scheduled was at Ebbets Field. The Giants beat the Dodgers 8-5 in front of 33,962 fans. The game took 3 hours and 10 minutes to play. The Dodgers used a total of 6 pitchers and needed 3 pitchers just to get out of the first inning, the Giants scoring 6 runs in the first and 2 more in the second.

The reason that there was only one game on April 30th is that it was a Monday. The Dodgers and Giants were completing a 3 game series that ran Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

To give you an idea of the importance of the Dodger-Giant rivalry in New York in the 1950s, the Dodgers averaged 28,000 for the 3 game series against the Giants at Ebbets Field in April. For the rest of their home games in April they averaged about 17,000. The Giants averaged about 12,000 for their home games in April at the Polo Grounds against the Braves, but 32,000 for the Dodgers. The capacity of the Polo Grounds was about 55,000 and Ebbets Field about 32,000.

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