Complete Games : 1953 National League Top 25

Finding the American or National League leader in virtually every hitting & pitching statistic is easy-to-do. Finding the top 25 players during any given season is far more challenging. Baseball Almanac has taken away that difficult problem and is pleased to present the data you requested:

"Maybe I missed my routine and my game so much that I was trying to rationalize reasons for getting it back. I wanted those 162 games. I wanted all the suspense of the playoff and home run races. And I honestly didn't believe baseball would bend far enough to allow the possibility of games in November. I was wrong. And baseball was right." - Paul White in USA Today Baseball Weekly (September 14, 2001)
 

1953 Complete Games Leaders

Top 25 in the National League

Robin Roberts 33 Philadelphia Phillies 1
Warren Spahn 24 Milwaukee Braves 2
Harvey Haddix 19 St. Louis Cardinals 3
Curt Simmons 19 Philadelphia Phillies  
Carl Erskine 16 Brooklyn Dodgers 5
Johnny Lindell 15 Pittsburgh Pirates 6
Philadelphia Phillies  
Ruben Gomez 13 New York Giants 7
Johnny Antonelli 11 Milwaukee Braves 8
Max Surkont 11 Milwaukee Braves  
Fred Baczewski 10 Chicago Cubs 10
Cincinnati Redlegs  
Murry Dickson 10 Pittsburgh Pirates  
Russ Meyer 10 Brooklyn Dodgers  
Vinegar Bend Mizell 10 St. Louis Cardinals  
Jerry Staley 10 St. Louis Cardinals  
Warren Hacker 9 Chicago Cubs 15
Billy Loes 9 Brooklyn Dodgers  
Sal Maglie 9 New York Giants  
Paul Minner 9 Chicago Cubs  
Ken Raffensberger 9 Cincinnati Redlegs  
Preacher Roe 9 Brooklyn Dodgers  
Bob Buhl 8 Milwaukee Braves 21
Bob Friend 8 Pittsburgh Pirates  
Bob Miller 8 Philadelphia Phillies  
Stu Miller 8 St. Louis Cardinals  
Bud Podbielan 8 Cincinnati Redlegs  



Future Hall of Famer Sammy Sosa is best known for wearing number twenty-one; however, when the young slugger played for the Chicago White Sox (1989-1991) he only wore number twenty-five.

Jose Cruz of the Houston Astros had his number twenty-five retired on October 3, 1992, and became the first Major League player with that particular retired number.

The first player from the Angels franchise (they were the California Angels at the time) to wear the number twenty-five was Bob Perry.