The Western League was a class "A" league in 1951. There were three "AAA" leagues, two "AA" leagues and four "A" leagues in 1951.

Coin courtesy Dan Bretta

Western League 1951 Standings President: Senator Edwin C. Johnson
Standings	Wins	Losses	Games Back	Affiliation	Attendance	Manager
Omaha Cardinals	90	64	--	St. Louis Cardinals	162,247	George Kissell
Denver Bears	88	66	2	Boston Braves	424,065	Andy Cohen
Wichita Indians	84	68	5	Cleveland Indians	122,060	Joe Schultz
Sioux City Soos	77	71	10	New York Giants	104,247	Chuck Genovese
Des Moines Bruins	73	78	15 ½	Chicago Cubs	94,137	Alfred Todd
Pueblo Dodgers	74	80	16	Brooklyn Dodgers	104,254	James Biven
Colorado Springs SkySox	64	87	24 ½	Chicago White Sox	107,320	Skeeter Webb
Lincoln Athletics	57	93	31	Philadelphia Athletics	37,123	Frank Skaff
Sioux City beat Omaha 3 games to 1. Denver beat Wichita 3 games to 1. Sioux City beat Denver in the finals 3 games to 1.
BA: George Freese, Pueblo, .338 Runs: Ron Samford, Sioux City, 108 Hits: George Freese, Pueblo, 183 RBI's: George Freese, Pueblo, 106 HR's: Howard Roles, Des Moines, 32 Wins: ElRoy Face, Pueblo, 23 SO's: Willard Schmidt, Omaha, 202 ERA: Willard Schmidt, Omaha, 2.11

Frank Skaff managed the Lincoln team in 1951. The LaCrosse Wisconsin native played for Brooklyn in 1935 and Philadelphia (AL) in 1943. The team was a reflection of the Athletics mismangement in general and finished 31 games behind. They only managed 37,000 fans for the year making the team a double disaster.

Roster:
Tom Hamilton played first base for Lincoln in 1951. He started with Lincoln in 1950. The Altoona Kansas native averaged .261 in 103 games. He made it to the majors in 1952 and played through the 1953 season.

Ronald Gifford played second base for 18 games in 1951. He averaged .137.

Ed Boehm played in 151 games and averaged .243.

Robert Gardner averaged .274 in 145 games.

Tom Kirk averaged .280 in 113 games. He played for Lincoln from 1948-1951.

Wilber "Billy" Shantz was the unsung brother of Bobby. He played in the majors in 1954 with Philadelphia (AL), 1955 with Kansas City and in 1960 he had a one game appearance with the Yankees. He averaged .231 with Lincoln in 1951.

Donald Taylor averaged .259 in 137 games.

Spider Wilhelm averaged .278 in 108 games. He had a cup of coffee with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1953.

Vince Gohl had a 10-18 record.

Arnie Portocarrero was a 19 year old from New York city. He had a 12-18 record in 1951. He played in the majors with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1954, Kansas City in 1955-1957 and Baltimore in 1958-1960.

Dutch Romberger was 14-11 in 1951. Signed as a free agent in 1949, he had a cup of coffee with Philadelpia (AL) in 1954.

Elwood Carey had a 8-10 record playing for Lincoln and Pueblo in 1951.

Mason Bowes was a repeat all star for Lincoln in 1951. For the second year in a row he was second in complete games. He was present in 2001 to see the return of professional baseball to Lincoln when the Salt Dogs took the field.

Cy Buker played for 4 teams in 1951 and had a 2-6 record.

Tex Hoyle was 2-4 for the year.

Albert Busa was 0-4 as was Norman Kramer.

Western League All Stars 1951

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