Saturday, August 1, 1953
NORTH ISLAND DIVISIONS HONOR 1953 MVPS AND GOLD GLOVERS
Year four has come and gone in the North Island First and Second Divisions... the leagues honored the Most Valuable Players and Golden Glove winners... New Yerby's fine center fielder Dave Holcomb nabbed the North Island First Division Most Valuable Player trophy and Theodore shortstop Elliott James was named the North Island Second Division MVP.
HOLCOMB LED YANKEES TO FIRST NIRL FIRST DIVISION FLAG, SNAGS MVP TROPHY
At age 25 Dave Holcomb batted .353 for the year, played in all 20 games with 30 hits, 4 doubles, 2 homers, drove in 12 runs, scored 12 times and he stole 8 bases... he had the fifth-best batting average in the league... Holcomb also played very well in the outfield with a .985 fielding percentage... he was an important cog in the New Yerby's first-ever pennant-winning season... the Yankees finished the year with a 13-7 record, 2 games better than runners-up Joliet and Stockdale with 11-9 marks.
The Joliet Green Giants had three of their players picked for the 1953 NIRL First Division Golden Glove Team.
NIRL First Division League Leaderboard
Wafford's Chase Hibbard was the top hitter in the NIRL First League with a .417 BA.
Andy Kessler of Stockdale socked the most hits with 31.
It was Charley Blackburn scoring the most runs... he scored 20 for Stockdale.
Coy Baker of Dutton had the most doubles with 7.
4 players, John Diamond (Jackson), Sonny Malinowski (New Yerby), Billy Mann (Jackson) and Edward Nolan (Jackson) topped the NIRL First with 2 triples.
The home-run leader was Mike Sawyer of Dutton with 6.
Andy Kessler drove in the most runs with 19.
The top base stealer was Tuck Thompson of Dutton with 10.
Leading the league with bases on balls was Joliet's Tim Lytle with 16.
Posting the most victories in the NIRL First Division was Mario Vespucci of the Joliet Green Giants... he went 9-3 this season with a 3.27 ERA.
The best ERA belonged to John Metz of the New Yerby Yankees with a 2.61 ERA.
And the strikeout king was Jalen McCoy of the Jackson Jackalopes with 141.