Kearney Memorial Field Photo courtesy Eliza Portrait Design Photography Studio

Games were played at Memorial Field . Randy Gumpert returned as the manager for this short season league in 1958. Randy had a long major league career stretching from the 30's to the 50's. The Yankees ran through 36 players during the 60 game season. Eighteen of the players were pitchers. Most of the players were in their teens with Jeff Zegel being the youngest at 17 years old and the oldest was 22 years old.

Horace Clarke and Pete Mikkelsen were the only players from the team to make it to the major leagues.

Roster:

Horace Clarke was signed by the Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1958. The 18 year old from the Virgin Islands had a tough time in his first year of professional ball averaging .225 in 54 games. He improved each year and in 1961 led the Eastern League with 40 steals. in 1962 he batted .300 for Amarillo in the "AA" Texas League and in 1964 he was a .299 hitter with Richmond. He made his major league debut in 1965 and played with the Yankees for nine years. The Baseball in the Virgin Islands site has a great biography of him with pictures.

Edmond Gary was an 18 year old from Jackson Mississippi. He averaged .309 in 57 games. He played mainly in the outfield and played minor league ball through the 1963 season.

Douglas Backhaus played in 27 games and averaged .180.

Jerry Brannon was one of the old men on the team at 22 years old. He played in 17 games and averaged .357.

Walter Cammarata averaged .216 in 40 games. He played for six different minor league teams and played through the 1962 season.

Joseph Brockhoff was another 22 year old rookie in 1958. He averaged .130 in 20 games.

Benjamin Brown swung from the port side and averaged .298 in 41 games. He also played a few games for Yakima in 1958.

Gary Cowan had one hit in nine games.

Bernard Cushing averaged .235 in 29 games.

Ralph DiMeglio averaged .245 in 33 games.

James Danko had 3 hits in 10 games and Harold Francis had 2 hits in 10 games.

Frederick Izzolo averaged .274 in 58 games.

Joseph Maggio averaged. 270 in 46 games.

John McVey averaged .159 in 26 games.

Pitchers:

Pete Mikkelsen was an 18 year old who signed with the Yanks in 1958. He appeared in 16 games for the Kearney Yankees and was 0-4. He also appeared in 6 games for Auburn in the New York Penn league. In 1959 he had a 9-9 record with Auburn and played in 5 games for Modesto. In 1960 he played for Fargo-Moorhead in the class "C" Northern League and had a 13-10 record. He moved through "A" ball and "AA" ball playing for Binghamton. Amarillo and Augusta. He made it to the major league Yankees in 1964 where he was 7-4 for the year. He played a total of nine years for five different teams mainly as a reliever.

George Alexander had a 0-4 record for Kearney. In 1959 he played for Auburn and had an 8-7 record. His last year in organized ball was in 1961 where he was 0-1 pitching for Modesto.

Eloy Allen was 0-0 with Kearney and 0-1 for St. Petersburg in 1958. He was 0-2 for Fort Walton Beach in 1961.

Robert Averette played for Kearney and St. Petersburg in 1958. The 18 year old was 1-1 for Kearney.

James Barker played in 3 games in 1958.

Lawrence DelMargo was 7-3 in 15 games for Kearney in 1958. The 19 year old played through the 1963 season in the minor leagues.

Lyle Dorsey was 1-0 in his only appearance.

Andrew Haufman was 4-2 in 11 appearances.

Ambrose Macias was 6-1 in 12 appearances.

John Major was 3-4 for Kearney and 0-3 for St. Petersburg in 1958.

Charles Reidell was 2-2 in 1958. The 19 year old was 2-4 for Auburn also.

Ernesto Riusech was 0-0 in 5 games in his only year of professional ball.

George Robey was 3-1 and appeared in 17 games.

John Sanders was 0-2.

Thomas Scheuerman was 1-0.

was 2-6 in 12 appearances.

Glenn Snow was 1-0.

Jeff Zegel was a 17 year old who appeared in 11 games and was 1-0. He played minor league ball through the 1960 season.

Nebraska State League Standings 1958

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