April 14, 1945: Mel Ott breaks five of his own records on Opening Day with Giants

“In the first game of the new season, Manager Mel Ott of the Giants rang up six records.” — Walter Graham, Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, April 18, 19451

When newspapers reported that New York Giants player-manager Mel Ott broke six records in an 11-6 win over the Boston Braves on Opening Day 1945, it got the attention of the baseball community as an extraordinary day for the diminutive 36-year-old right fielder.

In fact, the 2-for-3 game at Boston’s Braves Field, including a single, double, two walks, one RBI, and three runs scored, was a routine performance for Ott. Because Ott already held many career National League batting marks, five of the “records” were merely increases of the Louisiana native’s own league-best totals. The sixth stemmed from his longevity as a Giants player.2

While Babe Ruth was famously setting major-league records for the New York Yankees in the American League, Ott was establishing his own collection of NL batting records across the Harlem River at the Polo Grounds. Since his debut at age 17 in 1926, the 5-foot-9, 170-pound slugger with a trademark leg-kick batting style had been piling up numbers in multiple offensive categories to become one of the game’s premier hitters.

Ott, who surprisingly never won the NL MVP Award,3 entered what turned out to be his last full season as a player in 1945 on top of post-1900 NL lifetime leaderboards in home runs (489), RBIs (1,777), extra-base hits (1,025), walks (1,629), total bases (4,087), runs (1,784), and what was known as “extra bases on long hits” (2,075).4

He had taken over the Giants’ managerial job in 1942 while still active as an outfielder full-time. His managerial record had not matched his success as a player. He enjoyed a credible third-place finish in his first campaign but plummeted to last in 1943 and fifth in 1944.

As with other major-league teams, the Giants’ roster had yet to see a significant return of players from military service during World War II.5 Their 1945 Opening Day lineup featured three relative graybeards in Ott, 37-year-old catcher Ernie Lombardi, and 37-year-old third baseman Phil Weintraub, alongside six teammates who averaged less than three years of prior major-league service.

Ott predicted the Giants would be among the top three teams in the league. “Judging by the predictions first division will be more crowded than a rush-hour subway. I figure we’ll be up there, perhaps in the first three,” he said.  “We have the same lineup, plus more pitching strength, our 1944 weakness.”6

Ott gave Bill Voiselle the assignment as his Opening Day starter. The 6-foot-4 right-hander, starting a Giants’ season opener for the second of four successive years, had been the team’s workhorse in 1944. He started 41 games and pitched 312⅔ innings, both tops in the league, while posting a 21-16 record.

Bob Coleman, a Deadball Era catcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cleveland Indians, was in his third year as Braves manager in 1944, when they finished in sixth place. His only returning starters from 1945 were left fielder Tommy Holmes and right fielder Chuck Workman. First baseman Joe Mack, whose professional career dated to 1935, was making his big-league debut at age 33. Rookie Steve Filipowicz was in the lineup in place of Joe Medwick who was out with a back injury.

Twenty-six-year-old righty Al Javery, who had a 10-19 record and 3.54 ERA in 1944, was Boston’s Opening Day starter for the fourth season in a row. Javery and Voiselle had opened the 1944 season against each other, with Voiselle taking the win.

A weather forecast for thunderstorms contributed to the low attendance of 5,021 for the Tuesday afternoon contest.7 It was the second-lowest Opening Day attendance for both leagues, ahead of only the St. Louis Browns.8  The Giants wasted no time getting on the scoreboard after Massachusetts Gov. Maurice Tobin threw out the ceremonial first ball.9 Johnny Rucker led off the game with a walk. Hausmann singled to send Rucker to third. Ott followed with a run-scoring flyout to center field.

The Braves tied the score in the second inning, when Voiselle loaded the bases with one out by yielding a single to Carden Gillenwater and a double to Eddie Joost and walking Phil Masi intentionally. Steve Shemo hit a grounder to first baseman Weintraub, who threw to second for a forceout. Gillenwater scored on the play.

In the third inning, the Giants broke the game open. Javery took his turn loading the bases on a ground-rule double by Hausmann, a walk to Ott, and a single by Filipowicz.  . Weintraub’s single scored Hausmann and Ott, and right-hander Johnny Hutchings replaced Javery with runners on first and third. After retiring Lombardi on a flyball, Hutchings gave up RBI singles to Buddy Kerr and Nap Reyes, making it 5-1.

The Braves got a run back in their half of the third when Voiselle gave up a double to Dick Culler and a run-scoring single by Holmes, his first of a majors-best 224 hits in 1945. Later in the inning, Holmes took third on Mack’s first big-league hit, a single to right, but Ott threw out Mack trying to take second, and Boston’s rally stalled.

New York again had a quick answer in the fourth. Ott got on base for the second time, with a single. He scored on Weintraub’s home run for a 7-2 lead.

Voiselle kept the Braves from scoring again through the eighth inning, even though he allowed runners to reach third base in the sixth and eighth.10

Ott’s second hit was a double off Tom Earley in the sixth, but he was left stranded. He got on base for the fourth time with a leadoff walk in the ninth off Charlie Cozart, who was making his major-league debut.11 Following Weintraub’s walk, Lombardi hit a three-run homer to deep left. Three consecutive singles by Reyes, Voiselle, and Rucker produced the Giants’ 11th run.12

Voiselle finally weakened in the ninth. Facing his 39th batter of the game in another workhorse outing, he gave up a three-run homer to Workman that landed in the bullpen in right field, scoring Culler and Holmes. Mack made it a two-hit debut game with a solo home run to the bullpen.13 It was now 11-6, and Ott turned to reliever Ace Adams to close out the Giants’ win.

Voiselle was not particularly efficient on the mound, giving up five earned runs on 12 hits (including two home runs and two doubles) and four walks. He struck out eight. Every Braves position player recorded a hit, including three by Joost.

The Braves used four pitchers, with starter Javery taking the loss. Boston native Earley, who had been discharged from the Navy two months earlier, turned in the Braves’ best performance by allowing only two hits in four innings.

Every Giants batter, including pitcher Voiselle, produced a hit, including four by Reyes and two each by Ott, Hausmann, and Weintraub. Weintraub’s four RBIs and Lombardi’s three led the Giants.

Ott’s double, RBI, three runs scored, and two walks added to his own records for those four categories, as well as “extra bases on long hits.” His 20th campaign with the Giants broke the record for most seasons with a single team, previously held by Chicago Cubs catcher Gabby Hartnett with 19.14

The 1945 Giants had a league-leading 25-7 record on May 26. But then they lost 19 of their next 24 and descended to fifth place by June 20. They ended the season in fifth place again, 19 games behind the pennant-winning Cubs. The Braves came in sixth, 30 games out.

Ott finished 1945 with a .308/.411/.499 slash line, 21 home runs, and 79 RBIs in 135 games. With his 500th career home run on August 1, he joined Ruth and Jimmie Foxx as only the third player to reach the milestone.

Ott focused on managing after the 1945 season. He hit his 511th – and final – homer on Opening Day 1946 but appeared in only 35 games that year, then just four in 1947.15 With the team playing below .500 in July 1948, Giants owner Horace Stoneham hesitantly felt the need to make a dramatic change with his popular manager. Ott resigned, ending his seven-season managerial tenure with a 464-530 mark, and was replaced by Leo Durocher.16

Acknowledgements

This article was fact-checked by Thomas Merrick and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BSN/BSN194504170.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1945/B04170BSN1945.htm

“Mel Ott Away to a Fine Start; Fans Are Glad,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Daily News, April 19, 1945: 16.

Notes 

1 Walter Graham, “Giants Win over Braves by 11-6 in NL Opener in Boston,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, April 18. 1945: 1.

2 Dick Young, “Giants Slam Braves, 11-6; Voiselle Rescued in 9th,” New York Daily News, April 18, 1945: C16.

3 Richard Cuicchi, “Analysis: A Retrospective Review of Mel Ott’s Disappointing MVP Results,” Crescent City Sports (https://crescentcitysports.com/analysis-a-retrospective-review-of-mel-otts-disappointing-mvp-results/), November 21, 2022. Accessed February 20, 2026.

4 “Extra bases on long hits” is not currently a common-reported statistic. It is not to be confused with the more traditional “extra base hits” stats (referred to as XBH by Baseball-Reference.com). “Extra bases on long hits” is calculated as the sum of one extra base for each double, two extra bases for each triple, and three extra bases for each home run. In Ott’s case, he had 928 doubles (464 extra bases), 72 triples (144 extra bases), and 489 home runs (1,467 extra bases) for a total of 2,075 to start the 1945 season.

5 The mass return from military service occurred a season later, in 1946.

6 Jack Hand,”Hurlers Boost Tiger Hopes for American Loop Pennant,” Long Branch (New Jersey) Daily Record, April 16, 1945: 7.

7 Melville Webb, “Giants Batter Tribal Hurlers for 11-6 Victory Before 5021,” Boston Globe, April 18, 1945: 11.

8 The Braves averaged 4,989 fans per home game that season, sixth in the eight-team NL.

9 Pre-game ceremonies also included a Marines squad from Charleston Navy Yard raising the flag in the bullpen and then lowering it to half-mast in memory of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died five days earlier on April 12. Ralph Wheeler, “Braves Beaten by Giants, 11-6,” Boston Herald, April 18, 1945:25.

10 Voiselle was wearing uniform number 17 in 1945. In 1947, after getting traded to the Braves, he changed his number to 96, in honor of his hometown, Ninety-Six, South Carolina.

11 The Braves had pinch-hit Tommy Nelson for Earley in the eighth. Nelson struck out in his first major-league at-bat. He had a 40-game big-league career with the Braves in 1945.

12 It was the first of five big-league appearances for Cozart, all with the 1945 Braves.

13 Mack’s big-league career consisted of 66 games with the 1945 Braves. He hit three home runs – all against the Giants.

14 An argument could be made that Ott’s outstanding career numbers were largely a result of accumulating the “counting” statistics (e g., runs, hits, walks, home runs, RBI, and total bases) over an extensive 22-year period. But a closer look at his career shows he was also highly productive in the “derived” stats, with a .304/.414./.533 BA/OBP/SLG, .947 OPS, 155 OPS+, and 111.0 WAR.

15 Ott’s NL record stood until 1966, when Willie Mays of the then-San Francisco Giants passed him.

16 Ironically, it was reported that Ott endorsed his Dodgers nemesis Durocher as his substitute to Stoneham. Alfred M. Martin, Mel Ott: The Gentle Giant, (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003), 65.