1956 Cincinnati Redlegs season

The 1956 Cincinnati Redlegs season consisted of the Redlegs finishing in third place in the National League with a record of 91–63, two games behind the NL Champion Brooklyn Dodgers. The Redlegs were managed by Birdie Tebbetts and played their home games at Crosley Field, where they drew 1,125,928 fans, third-most in their league.

Offseason

November 28, 1955: Hobie Landrith was traded by the Redlegs to the Chicago Cubs for Hal Jeffcoat.
January 31, 1956: Jackie Collum was traded by the Redlegs to the St. Louis Cardinals for Brooks Lawrence and Sonny Senerchia.
Prior to 1956 season: Joe Azcue was signed as an amateur free agent by the Redlegs.

Regular season

The Redlegs were in first place at mid-season and stayed in the pennant race until the last day of the season, ending up with a 91–63 record, two games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers. For his efforts, the Baseball Writers' Association of America voted Birdie Tebbetts as the 1956 Manager of the Year.
The 1956 Redlegs tied the National League and MLB record for home runs in a season, hitting 221 over 155 regular-season games. Three Redlegs hit more than 35 homers, with Frank Robinson establishing a record for rookies; Wally Post and Ted Kluszewski were the others. Gus Bell and Ed Bailey came within reach of the 30-home-run mark, Bailey in only 383 at bats. The mark stood until, when the New York Yankees hit 240 homers in the first year of the modern 162-game schedule.
On Sunday, June 24, following a doubleheader sweep of the Brooklyn Dodgers, eleven Redlegs players appeared on the panel quiz show What's My Line?.

Notable transactions

April 1, 1956: Jim Pearce was assigned by the Redlegs to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Player stats

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		118	383	115	.300	28	75
1B		138	517	156	.302	35	102
2B		154	632	180	.285	2	41
SS		150	479	126	.263	3	62
3B		130	407	104	.256	15	66
LF		152	572	166	.290	38	83
CF		150	603	176	.292	29	84
RF		143	539	134	.249	36	83

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
	90	229	63	.275	12	39
	77	144	36	.250	10	23
	77	140	34	.243	0	16
	80	139	41	.295	8	22
	40	53	12	.226	2	5
	71	19	4	.211	0	1
	10	17	4	.235	1	2
	18	11	1	.091	0	0
	5	7	3	.429	0	2
	7	5	1	.200	0	0
	13	4	0	.000	0	0
	3	2	0	.000	0	0
	7	2	0	.000	0	0
	5	1	0	.000	0	0
	1	0	0	----	0	0
	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
	37	211.0	12	11	4.09	86
	44	200.2	13	11	3.72	120
	8	34.2	2	3	5.19	16

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
	49	218.2	19	10	3.99	96
	45	177.2	11	11	4.05	86
	38	171.0	8	2	3.84	55
	29	83.2	4	3	2.37	54
	19	69.1	3	0	1.95	47
	11	27.0	2	4	4.67	4
	6	19.0	0	1	6.63	10

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
	64	14	5	17	3.40	17
	32	3	2	2	4.52	27
	2	0	0	0	12.00	1
	1	0	0	0	18.00	0
	1	0	0	0	0.00	1

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Douglas