1956 Fantasy Astrology Recap
View the 1956 FABL Lineups Here!
One thing that stands out about the FABL-leading 1956 Sagittarius Archers – aside from Al Kaline’s team-leading 2,552 fantasy points and 16.7 points-per-game average – is that their starting roster includes four former Negro League players. Not only that, but outfielders Minnie Minoso (2,335 / 15.5), Larry Doby (1,957 / 14.0) and Harry Simpson (1,915 / 13.6), and pitcher Sam Jones (1,248 / 37.6) all broke into the AL/NL hierarchy with the Cleveland Indians. It’s curious that despite the club’s racist mascot and moniker, they seemed to be at the forefront in terms of recruiting Black and Latin players.
Another curiosity of Sagittarius in 1956 is the points-per-game average of pitching leader Bob Friend (2,373 / 48.4). Some quick math shows that the Pirates ace started 42 games, one of only five pitchers to start as many since the 1910s (the others being Wilbur Wood, Phil Niekro, Mickey Lolich, and Jack Sanford). Sticking with pitchers, Gemini had the top two hurlers in the game, including the winner of the real-life NL Cy Young and MVP awards Don Newcombe (2,907 / 76.5), and the Rookie of the Year winner from the previous season, Herb Score (2,839 / 81.1). I had these two share the Positive Polarity Cy Young Award, just like I did in the Negative Polarity between Taurus Warren Spahn (2,754 / 70.6) and Capricorn Early Wynn (2,704 / 71.2).
Taurus once again won the Earth Division thanks to NP MVP Willie Mays (2,617 / 17.2). However, the Say Hey Kid could not compete with Libra center fielder Mickey Mantle (3,177 / 21.2), who also won the first of two consecutive real-life AL MVP’s on the strength of a 52-homer season. Despite Mantle’s heroics, Libra was once again foiled by Aquarius in the Air Division. Henry Aaron (2,338 / 15.3) and Ernie Banks (1,991 / 14.3) were at it again, and they were joined by Positive RoY Bill White (1,576 / 11.4). White played exclusively at first base for the New York Giants in ’56, but he has enough experience in center field to justify my cheating him there for positional eligibility purposes.
Scorpio once again won the Water Division, with pitcher Lew Burdette (2,425 / 62.2) and first base/outfield Stan Musial (2,326 / 14.9) in the lead. Of the three awards that I haven’t yet covered, NP RoY Frank Robinson (2,371 / 15.6) was the best of the bunch, even if he didn’t quite measure up to his Virgo sign-mate Duke Snider (2,512 / 16.6) in fantasy points. The top relievers in each Polarity play for signs that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel: Clem Labine (1,560 / 25.2) would be first in line to close games for Leo, while Hersh Freeman (1,495 / 23.4) would handle the ninth inning for the Cancer Crabs.
