July 8, 1962: Stan Musial homers in four consecutive at-bats vs. Mets

A Sunday afternoon crowd of 12,460 came to watch an aging superstar and the St. Louis Cardinals take on the New York Mets in the final game of a four-game series at the Polo Grounds. The Mets had taken the first two games of the series and the Cardinals won the third.

The temperature reached 93 degrees, 10 degrees warmer than the average temperature for July 8. The wind was out of the south-southwest blowing at 10-15 MPH.1

The Cardinals entered play in fifth place with a record of 46-38, 9½ games behind the front-running San Francisco Giants. The Mets were in the middle of the franchise’s dismal inaugural season and started play in last place, 31 games off the pace with a record of 23-58.

Twenty-six-year-old right-hander Bob Gibson started for the Cardinals. The 1957 graduate of Creighton University was 9-6 with a 3.20 ERA. He was opposed by right-hander Jay Hook, who was drafted from the Cincinnati Reds in the 1961 expansion draft. He was 6-8 with a 5.70 ERA and had only lasted two-thirds of an inning in his previous start.

The game started with back-to-back comebackers to Hook by Curt Flood and Julian Javier and it seemed the Mets were going to have an easy first inning. Bill White spoiled this plan when he hit a home run to deep right field. It was White’s 15th home run of the season, and the Cardinals took a 1-0 lead. That brought Stan Musial, the aging superstar, to the plate.

Musial entered the game with a .325 batting average, 9 home runs, and 37 RBIs, representing a resurgence for the seven-time batting champion, who had not hit .300 since 1958. A day earlier he hit an eighth-inning, game-winning home run in game two of a doubleheader off right-hander Craig Anderson to give the Cardinals a 3-2 victory. The solo home run to deep right field came in Musial’s last at-bat of the day. 

Picking up where he left off a day earlier, Musial followed White’s home run with a blast of his own to right field. It was Musial’s 10th home run of the season and gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead. Hook struck out third baseman Ken Boyer to end the inning. Gibson retired the Mets in the top of the first, giving up only a walk to Gene Woodling.

Hook retired the Cardinals in order in the top of the second and Gibson navigated his way out of trouble when the Mets put runners on second and third with two outs in the bottom of the inning.

Gibson dispelled any notion that the game might be developing into a pitchers’ duel when he led off the third inning with a home run to left.  It was Gibson’s first homer of the season and the second of his 24 career home runs. 

Flood followed Gibson’s blast with a single to left and proceeded to steal second base. He moved to third on Javier’s fly out to center field. White struck out and Musial followed with a walk.2 With runners on first and third, Boyer came to the plate and drove in Flood with an infield single to shortstop. Carl Sawatski grounded out to third to end the inning. The Cardinals were now leading 4-0.

Gibson walked Richie Ashburn and hit Rod Kanehl to start the bottom of the third. Woodling grounded back to the mound, moving Ashburn and Kanehl up a base. Gibson then retired Frank Thomas on a popout to first and Sammy Taylor on a liner to second to end the inning. 

The Mets melted down defensively in the top of the fourth. With one out, Dal Maxvill reached when Mets shortstop Felix Mantilla threw wild to first base; Maxvill reached second. Gibson hit an infield single to third and Maxvill scored on third baseman Thomas’s throwing error that allowed Gibson to reach second. Javier grounded out to third, advancing Gibson to second. Thomas made his second error of the inning (and the Mets’ third) on a groundball off the bat of Javier. Gibson scored to increase the Cardinals’ lead to 6-0 as Javier took second. White’s double to left-center drove in Javier, and Musial followed with his second home run of the day, to deep right, to give the Cardinals a 9-0 lead. All five Cardinal runs in the inning were unearned.

Marv Throneberry led off the bottom of the fourth with a single to left field before Gibson retired the next three batters to keep the Mets scoreless. 

Left-hander Willard Hunter relieved Hook in the top of the fifth. The Mets had acquired Hunter on May 25 as a player to be named later in a trade made with the Los Angeles Dodgers the previous December. Hunter, who was making his eighth appearance of the season for the Mets and was 1-4 with a gaudy 8.83 ERA, retired the Cardinals in order in the fifth.

The score remained 9-0 until the top of the seventh. Musial, who had hit a home run in each of his three previous at-bats, led off the inning with a home run to right field, his third of the day and fourth in as many at-bats over the past two days, tying a major-league record.3 The moment was extra-special for Musial as his wife, Lil, and daughter Janet were in first-row box seats. Musial remembered the “warm glow” he felt as he stepped on home plate after the homer.4 (Lil was not in attendance the only other time he hit three home runs in a game.5)

Musial first hit a trio of homers in the first game of a doubleheader against the New York Giants at Busch Stadium on May 2, 1954.6 At 41 years and 229 days old, Musial became the oldest major leaguer with a three-homer game.7

Boyer followed with a single to center but was stranded at first after Hunter retired the next three Cardinals. The score was now 10-0. 

Gibson walked center fielder Joe Christopher and pinch-hitter Gil Hodges to lead off the bottom of the seventh. However, just as he had in previous innings, he kept the Mets off the scoreboard, this time retiring Ashburn, Kanehl, and Woodling. 

Former Cardinal Bob Miller came in to pitch the eighth inning after Hunter was lifted for Hodges in the bottom of the seventh. The right-handed Miller was winless (0-7) with a 4.94 ERA. With one out, Flood singled to center, his third hit of the game. After Javier struck out for the second out, Fred Whitfield, who had replaced White at first base in the bottom of the fourth, hit a two-run homer to left that extended the Cardinals lead to 12-0. Musial came to the plate with a chance to hit his fourth home run of the game and fifth in a row. He struck out on a pitch in the dirt but reached first when the ball eluded the catcher.8 Bobby Smith came in to run for Musial. Miller then struck out Boyer to end the inning.

In an interview after the game, Musial acknowledged that he knew had a chance at history. “I heard the public address announcer tell the crowd I had four in a row when I came up in the eighth. But I really couldn’t get too worked up about it,” he said.9

Gibson retired the Mets in order in the bottom of the eighth before the Cardinals added three more runs in the top of the ninth. With one out, Charlie James tripled to left-center and Julio Gotay, who had replaced Maxvill at short, was hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners for Gibson, who singled to center, scoring James and moving Gotay to second. Flood reached on an error by second baseman Kanehl that allowed Gotay to score the Cardinals’ 14th run. Whitfield’s single to left drove in Gibson to make the score 15-0. Smith ended the inning with a fly out to left.

The only question remaining was whether Gibson would shut out the Mets. Mantilla tripled to left-center to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Christopher grounded out to second to score the Mets’ lone run. Cliff Cook pinch-hit for Miller and struck out, then Ashburn ended the game with a fly out to center. 

Gibson improved his record to 10-6, lowered his ERA to 3.05, and was named to his first All-Star team. Hook took the loss and dropped to 6-9. The time of the game was 2 hours 47 minutes.

Afterward, a throng of Little Leaguers chanted, “We want Stan.”10 After obliging his young fans with autographs, Musial and his family went to Washington, where he played in his 19th All-Star Game and met President John F. Kennedy.11

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author relied on Baseball-reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN196207080.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1962/B07080NYN1962.htm

Photo credit: Stan Musial, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Notes

1 “New York City, NY Weather History: July 8, 1962,” retrieved on September 2, 2023, from www.wunderground.com/history/daily/KLGA/date/1962-7-8.

2 Because walks are not at-bats, Musial’s streak of consecutive at-bats with a home run remained intact.

3 As of 2024 a player has hit home runs in four consecutive at-bats 36 times. Six players have accomplished the feat in one game, 27 have done it over two games, two did it over three games, and Ted Williams did it over four games. Two players have done it twice, Ralph Kiner (both times in two games) and Mike Schmidt (once in one game and once in two games). Mickey Mantle accomplished the feat two days before Musial. Reggie Jackson is the only player to do it in postseason play, in the 1977 World Series.

4 James N. Giglio. Musial: From Stash to Stan the Man (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2001), 260-261.

5 Joseph Stanton, Baseball’s All-time Greatest Hitters: Stan Musial (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2007), 100.

6 Musial hit two more in game two of the doubleheader, becoming the first player in baseball history to collect five home runs in a doubleheader. The feat has been matched only once since, in 1972 by the San Diego Padres’ Nate Colbert.

7 “Stan Musial Stats.” Baseball Almanac, retrieved on September 3, 2023, from www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=musiast01. As of the 2024 season, Musial was still the oldest major leaguer with a three-homer game.

8 Jack Herman, “Stan Hits 3 Homers in 15-1 Romp,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 9, 1962: 19.

9 “Mighty Musial Fans in Bid for 5 Homers in a Row,” Troy (New York) Times Record, July 9, 1962: 30.

10 Herman.

11 Giglio, 261.