George Noga took over from Frank Parenti in 1958. He and Frank Parenti exchanged places. George managed the Dubuque Packers in 1956 and 57. He moved to Holdrege while Frank moved to Dubuque. George played in the minor leagues for eight years. He played for Griffin, Quincy, Colorado Springs and Memphis during his minor league days. In 1959 he managed Duluth/Superior in the Northern League then moved to Clinton for the 1960 season. In 1961 he returned to Nebraska to manage the Lincoln Chiefs in the class "B" III League. This was followed by stints in Sarasota, Middlesboro, Lynchburg, Indianapolis and Evansville.
The city continued to support the Sox but attendance did not reach earlier levels. The team drew 11,565 fans for the year. Air conditioning and the nationally televised game of the week took their toll as people chose to stay home and watch the game of the week on television instead of heading to the ballpark.
The team had 33 players in camp two days before the start of the season. George cut six players the day before the start of the season and a few more the next day to get down to the league limit.
Roster:
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Jerry McNertney was signed by the White Sox in 1958 as
an amateur free agent. The 21 year old from Boone Iowa attended Iowa State
and averaged .328 for
the Holdrege White Sox. He led the league in hits with 84. He was a good
all around athlete and held down the first base bag for the White Sox in
1958. In 1959 he played 14 games for Lincoln in the III league where he
averaged .289. He was promoted
to the major league White Sox in 1964 and played mainly as a catcher for
nine seasons.
Second base was split between Tom E. Brown who played in 37 games overall and averaged .293 and southpaw James Barillo , from Hornell NY, appeared in 40 games and averaged .200. Short stop chores were handled by 22 year old Ron Smith . He appeared in 61 games and averaged .258. He also had 13 steals for the year. The Elkhorn Wisconsin native played his college ball at Western Michigan University. Louis Rennau was at the hot corner and averaged .306 in 1958. |
Three players were behind the mask in 1958 for Holdrege. M. Allen
Shrader , from Eureka California, played in 48 games and
averaged .272. He started the year with Dubuque IA.
Robert
Ross was tried in 11 games and averaged .067 and
William Abraham was behind the mask in 13 games and played in 25
games total. He averaged .220 for 1958.
Outfield:
Paul Higgs was in the garden for 63 games in 1958 and
averaged .290. The 18 year old Miami native was considered to be a "sure
thing" by the Holdrege paper in 1958.
Southpaw Robert Gruber averaged .301 as
an outfield regular. Joseph Hennessey , of Hoboken NJ.,
averaged .255 in
51 games and John Eaker , a prospect from Mooresboro NC,
swung from the port side and
averaged .176 in 39 games.
Pitchers:
With a 63 game season it was pretty impressive that William
Hookes (Hooker) appeared in twenty games as a pitcher. He had a
2-3 record for the year. One paper spelled his last name as Hookes another
as Hooker. The 20 year old was from Blue Fields Nicaragua.
John Carter appeared in 15 games
and had a 4-3 record and Dennis Cavanaugh also appeared
in 15 games and managed a 3-6 record.
Winning pitchers included southpaw Charles Henderson
and Gerald Moeller who each
managed a 6-3 record.
Martin Nyquest was 3-2.
John Popierski was the Sox opening day pitcher. The 18 year old from Illinios was 4-1 in 11 appearances.
Others included Albert Filipovic 0-2, Tom Fischer 0-6 and Norman Shanahan 1-3.