June 3, 1954: Thompson, Mays power Giants over Cardinals with five-homer barrage

On the first Thursday of June in 1954, it seemed that everyone in the National League was in contention for the pennant. Just 4½ games separated seven teams. Only the eighth-place Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t have a shot.

Because of rainouts in Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and Chicago, the game between the New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium was the NL’s only contest on June 3, a night after rain had washed out the first game of the scheduled two-game set. New York entered in a tie with the Philadelphia Phillies for third place, 1½ games behind the league-leading Brooklyn Dodgers. The Cardinals were in fifth place, 2½ games out of first.

It turned out to be a landmark night for a Giant who had played at Busch Stadium as a member of the Negro American League’s Kansas City Monarchs before breaking the color barrier for both a National and an American League club. New York third baseman Hank Thompson – in 1947 the first Black player in a box score for St. Louis Browns, then two years later the first for the Giants – unloaded on three home runs and drove in eight runs.

Willie Mays, back on the field in 1954 after missing a season and a half for Army service, added two late-inning home runs as New York rallied for a 13-8 win.

With 7,694 spectators looking on, Gerry Staley (3-5) was the starting pitcher for the Cardinals, and the Giants reached him for a pair of runs in the first inning.

The 28-year-old Thompson, returning from a 10-day layoff caused by a cracked kneecap on May 25, homered with Al Dark, who had singled, on base to give the Giants an early 2-0 lead.

Giants starter Sal Maglie had come into the game with a 5-3 record but was not around for long. The Cardinals scored a pair of runs in their half of the first to tie the game. Center fielder Wally Moon – headed for NL Rookie of the Year honors – singled and was sent home by a triple off the bat of Red Schoendienst. Schoendienst scored when Stan Musial grounded out.

In the second inning, the Cardinals battered Maglie for four more runs. Bill Sarni started the rally with a double and Staley walked. A double by Moon scored both baserunners, and after Schoendienst grounded out, Musial stepped up to the plate.

On May 2, during the Giants’ most recent visit to Busch Stadium, Musial had become the first major leaguer to hit five home runs in a doubleheader. This time, he homered again, his 15th of the season, extending the Cardinals’ lead to 6-2.

Maglie was replaced by Windy McCall. The Giants starter had lasted only 1⅔ innings. He was charged with five hits and six runs.

In the top of the third, Thompson slugged his second homer of the game, a three-run shot off Staley. Whitey Lockman and Dark, each of whom had walked, also came home and the Giants pulled to within one run.

Schoendienst hit his second triple of the game with one out in the fourth. After Musial reached on a walk, Giants manager Leo Durocher changed pitchers. Marv Grissom took over mound duties from McCall, but Ray Jablonski singled home Schoendienst to extend the Cardinals’ lead to 7-5.

Thompson’s third homer in as many at-bats tied the game 7-7 in the fifth and gave him nine round-trippers for the season. For the third time, Dark was on base when Thompson homered. This time the Giants shortstop, who went 4-for-4 with a walk, had singled. Thompson had driven in all seven Giants runs with his three homers.

Staley was removed for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the fifth inning and Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky called on reliever Joe Presko in the sixth. Mays, hitless in his first two at-bats, greeted Presko with a double but was left at second.

The game was still tied when the Giants batted in the seventh. Dark led off with a double, and Stanky decided to bypass the red-hot Thompson with an intentional walk.

Presko retired Monte Irvin and Don Mueller, which brought Mays, batting sixth in the order, to the plate. Mays unloaded on a three-run homer, his 15th of the season, to give the Giants a 10-7 lead.

In the eighth inning, the Giants tacked on a run, their only run not produced by a homer. With two down, Dark doubled for the second time and scored on a single by Thompson, his eighth RBI of the game.

Meanwhile, Grissom, making good use of his screwball, held the Cardinals hitless and scoreless until the eighth inning, when St. Louis broke through to cut the deficit to 11-8. Schoendienst walked, advanced to second base on a single by Musial, and scored on a single by Jablonski.

With runners on first and second and none out, St. Louis had the tying run in the plate. But Grissom retired first baseman Tom Alston – who in April had become the first Black player in Cardinals franchise history and in May had battered the Giants for seven hits, a home run, and seven RBIs in a three-game series at Busch Stadium – and set down Rip Repulski and pinch-hitter Solly Hemus to preserve the lead.1

New York capped off the scoring against Al Brazle in the ninth. After Mueller singled, Mays hit his 16th homer, tying him for the league lead with Chicago’s Hank Sauer.

After the game, Mays said, “I needed those two blows to keep up with Sauer.”2 Mays went 3-for-5 to raise his average to .337 and extend his hitting streak to 10 games. During the 10 games, in which he had gone 23-for-40, he had hit eight home runs and raised his average by 77 points.3

The teams collectively banged out 27 base hits. The Cardinals were not able to fully capitalize on their 13 hits, leaving 13 runners on base. The Giants stranded only five.

The win went to Grissom, who improved his record to 3-1. He went on to win six of seven decisions in June, registering a 1.21 ERA in 29⅔ innings. (In four other outings that month, he was retroactively credited with saves.) For the season, Grissom was 10-7 with 17 saves and a 2.35 ERA. He was named to the All-Star team for the first and only time in his career.

The loss went to Presko, who became the pitcher of record with Mays’ three-run homer in the seventh inning. He went on to post a 4-9 record in 1954 with a 6.91 ERA.

It was a career night for Thompson. He had played at Busch Stadium – then known as Sportsman’s Park – with the Kansas City Monarchs during the 1946, 1947, and 1948 Negro American League seasons. In one of those games, on August 17, 1948, Thompson had homered for the Monarchs against the Chicago American Giants.4

During Thompson’s 27-game American League stint with the Browns in 1947, he played in 12 home games at Sportsman’s Park, batting .282 (11-for-39) with no home runs. As a Giant from 1949 through 1956, Thompson hit 10 home runs at Busch Stadium/Sportsman’s Park, making him the only player to homer there in both the Negro Leagues and a formerly segregated major league.

Thompson, whose average jumped 25 points that night, finished 1954 with career highs in doubles (18) and homers (26) to go along with 86 RBIs. The Giants won the NL pennant with a 97-57 record, five games ahead of the second-place Dodgers, and swept the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. Thompson batted .364 in the World Series and drew seven walks, setting a record for a four-game series.5

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mark Richard and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the following:

Drebinger, John. “Thompson, Mays Pace 13-8 Victory: Henry Hits 3 Homers in Row, Willie 2 – They Bat in All Giant Runs at St. Louis,” New York Times, June 4, 1954: 30.

McCulley, Jim. “Giants Win, 13-8; Hank Hits 3,” New York Daily News, June 4, 1954: 68.

Phlegar, Ben (Associated Press). “Thompson Hits 3 Homers, Mays 2 as Giants Defeat Cardinals,” Ithaca (New York) Journal, June 4, 1954: 14.

Rennie, Rud. “Thompson Hits 3 Blasts, Giants Beat Cards, 13-8,” New York Herald Tribune, June 4, 1954: 19.

Richman, Milton (United Press). “Thompson, Mays Don’t Think 13 Is Unlucky,” Austin Statesman, June 4, 1954: A22.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN195406030.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1954/B06030SLN1954.htm

Notes

1 Alston had batted .301 with 22 RBIs while playing in all 31 of St. Louis’s games in May 1954. He hit .181 in June and was sent to the minors for the rest of the season. After 1954, Alston appeared in only 25 major-league games, all with the Cardinals.

2 Dent McSkimming, “Even Roberts Looks Good After Homer-Happy Giants Depart: Thompson Wallops 3, Mays 2 Off Cards,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 4, 1954: 6C.

3 Although his hitting streak ended the next night, he had an 11-game streak later in June, another 10-game streak in early July, a 21-game streak from July 27 through August 20, and a 16-game streak in late August/early September..

4 Retrosheet.org.

5 As of the end of 2022, Thompson still held the record for the most walks in a four-game World Series. Jim Wynn held the record for the most walks in a four-game postseason series. He walked nine times for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1974 National League Championship Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.