While visiting Jim Saska’s place after the Chicagoland APBA Tournament, I spotted this 1956 Gino Cimoli card. Cimoli was a first-year player with the Dodgers at the time and had a pretty rough start.
Looking at Cimoli’s stats, the first thing that popped out at me was his usage. He was used in 73 games but only accumulated 38 plate appearances. I checked his 1956 game log and sure enough, he was brought in as a pinch runner 12 times.
When Gino did bat in 1956 though, he wasn’t too successful. He was 4 for 36 for a .111 average. He doubled once and stole one base with one walk.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 Totals | 73 | 4 | 38 | 36 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 8 | .111 | .135 | .139 |
Cimoli is another one of those batters that makes it easy to make an APBA card. That is, he has exactly 36 plate appearances, one for each result number on the card. He hit one double so he received one 6. He stole one base so he gets one 11.
Cimoli struck out eight times and received six 13s. We all know that strikeouts can occur via strikeout ratings as well as the 12 with a runner on second base so this might give some clue on how APBA rates 13s with batters.
Ugly numbers: 55-16, 11-8, 25-40
“They set all the records and we won the game.”
Gino Cimoli after World Series Game 7 in 1960
Gino Cimoli did go on to have a pretty decent 10-year career with the Dodgers, Athletics as well as four other teams. He made the All-Star team in 1957 and led the league with 15 triples in 1962. Cimoli was on the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates team that defeated the New York Yankees in seven games.
