Johnny Vergez

At spring training in 1931, legendary New York Giants manager John McGraw announced that he was moving longtime third baseman (and future Hall of Famer) Freddie Lindstrom to the outfield. Replacing Lindstrom was a young slugger named Johnny Vergez, whom the Giants had recently purchased from the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. McGraw pooh-poohed those who questioned the move. “Vergez looks good enough to play third base for us for some years,” he said.1

Vergez performed well in his rookie season and was also a key contributor on the Giants’ 1933 world championship club. However, injuries and personal tragedies derailed his once promising major league career.2  But Vergez’s failure to achieve big-league stardom had little impact on his popularity in the Oakland area. He was beloved there not only for his accomplishments as a player, manager, and coach but also for his endearing personality. “Vergez,” read one representative profile in the Oakland Tribune, “[is] just about one of the grandest fellows ever to wear a baseball uniform and spikes.”3 

***

Jean Louis (“Johnny”) Vergez was born in Oakland on July 9, 1906, to Gabriel and Thérèse (née Bondanave) Vergez, both immigrants from France. In French, the family name is pronounced “vehr-ZHAY” but in the U.S. it was Anglicized to rhyme with “Burgess.” When Johnny was three, the family moved to nearby Alameda, where Gabe and Therese operated a laundry.

An only child, Johnny preferred rugby as a boy, but his mother made him quit for fear of injury, so he focused on baseball. At Alameda High, he shared the infield with future big-leaguer Dick Bartell. The talented twosome led Alameda to the Northern California high school baseball championship in 1925, with Vergez delivering a key two-run single in a comeback victory over San Jose in the deciding game.4   

After graduating, Vergez worked in a freight handler’s office in San Francisco and played semipro baseball in Alameda on the side. He performed well at third base and received several offers from professional clubs. The right-handed batter and thrower signed with San Antonio in the Single-A Texas League but was relegated to the Terrell Terrors of the Class D Texas Association.5 At 5-feet-8 and weighing 165 pounds, the 19-year-old held his own against mostly older and bigger competition, hitting .266 with a team-high 19 home runs in 394 at-bats.

Vergez was surprised to learn in a newspaper article during the offseason that he had been sold to the Lincoln Links of the Class A Western League.6 He refused to sign, became a free agent, and was snapped up by the Oaks. Vergez spent all of 1927 and part of 1928 with the Oaks’ Ogden farm club before being recalled to Oakland in August. He made a good first impression: the Oakland Tribune called him “a real find” and predicted that in 1929 “he should be one of the best infielders in the league.” 7

Vergez exceeded even those rosy projections with a monster 1929 campaign, playing solid defense and setting an Oakland record with 46 home runs to accompany a .323 batting average. For his 23 rd birthday in July, local leaders organized a huge celebration that included a luncheon; a parade led by the Police and Firemen’s Band to Oaks Park; and a pre-game presentation of gifts by Alameda’s Mayor and “noted mermaids” Helen Zabriskie and Bunny Fergus. (Newspaper photos indicate that Zabriskie, at least, had feet, not fins).8

“Vergez has everything in his favor,” noted the Oakland Tribune. “He has a disposition that makes him popular with all he meets . . . He has the natural ability for a ballplayer, the type wanted by big-league scouts. But most of all. . . he is one of the most willing listeners of any young ballplayer that ever donned an Oakland uniform.”9 

Vergez had another outstanding campaign in 1930, hitting .307 with 29 homers. At season’s end, his teammates and local writers honored him as the Oaks’ most valuable player (he outpolled future Hall of Famer Ernie Lombardi).10 The Giants then purchased Vergez at the urging of scout Dick Kinsella.11

But for Johnny the real highlight of October 1930 was his marriage to Helen Porterfield of Oakland. The circumstances of their romance generated considerable press. When former Oaks shortstop Lyn Lary had been hospitalized with injuries from a spiking incident, Vergez and teammates Howard Craghead and Lou McEvoy were frequent visitors. There, “they became acquainted with three nurses, and the stage for Cupid’s triple play was set.”12  All three couples eventually married, with Vergez’s wedding occurring a few days after his sale to the Giants.

At spring camp in San Antonio, New York sportswriters reported regularly on McGraw’s plan to shift Lindstrom to the outfield and make Vergez the regular third baseman. He got off on the right foot by blasting a home run in his first appearance as a Giant in an exhibition game. The Brooklyn Times Union called it “an auspicious debut” and noted that Vergez “has plenty of heft for a little fellow.”13

McGraw was confident that his plan would help the club. “I’ve got an outfield that will work better than our outfield did last year,” he said. “And I think I’ve got a real third baseman in Vergez.”14

The Giants opened the season in Philadelphia: the Phillies’ starting shortstop was none other than Bartell, Johnny’s good friend and former high school teammate. Vergez drove in a run on a sacrifice fly against Philadelphia starter Hal Elliott in the fourth inning, then singled off Elliott in the seventh for his first major league hit. He finished his productive debut with two hits, a walk, a run scored, a stolen base, and two RBIs in the Giants’ 9-5 win.

Vergez registered his first homer in late April at home against the Phillies’ Clise Dudley. By early May he had four three-hit games to his credit and was batting .388, good for third-best in the league.15   His average was hovering around the .300 mark in late June when he had a series to remember against the eventual World Champion Cardinals. He blasted homers in each of the first three games of the four-game set, including a two-run shot off Hall of Famer Burleigh Grimes that put the Giants ahead to stay in the third game.

After tailing off a bit over the season’s final two months, Vergez finished his rookie campaign with a .278 average, 13 home runs, and 81 RBIs for the second-place Giants. There was no Rookie of the Year voting at that time, but Johnny received down-ballot support for Most Valuable Player, finishing in a tie for 23 rd place with none other than his pal Bartell.

In reviewing the 1931 season, the Brooklyn Eagle gushed that “(i)t has been many years since any young infielder has shown more real promise than did Johnny Vergez.” Despite such positive reviews, Vergez felt that the stress of winning the job in preseason and then solidifying his hold on it had sapped his strength and caused him to struggle late in the season. “I do not expect to have to undergo this strain next year and therefore I ought to do better,” he predicted.16   

In January 1932, the Oakland Tribune reported that Vergez had returned unsigned the contract offered by the Giants. The reason? The birth of Helen and Johnny’s first child, Johnny Jr. “I had to get more money,” Vergez said. “You see, I’ve three in my family now, and three can’t live as cheaply as two.” In a sign of how highly the Giants regarded him, club President Charles Stoneham quickly upped his offer, joking that “we’re taking an option on Johnny Jr. right now.”17

Sadly, the baby fell ill in March and died in early April.18  Vergez joined the team a week after the funeral and performed admirably on Opening Day, belting three hits including a home run in a 13-5 loss to Philadelphia at the Polo Grounds. But his numbers quickly declined as he bore the weight of his family’s loss. “(Johnny) brought his wife to New York and took an apartment,” the Oakland Tribune reported. “After every game he would hurry home to his wife. . . He couldn’t sleep at night, and he worried all day. . . His playing became so bad he was taken out of the line-up.”19 For the season he batted .261 with six home runs and 43 RBIs in 118 games.

During the offseason, Vergez partnered with Bartell to spearhead a charity game that pitted a team of Bay Area major leaguers against one made up of local minor leaguers.20  The fundraiser for local Elks clubs became an East Bay baseball tradition with which Vergez stayed involved for more than two decades as either a player or coach.

When the Giants sent Vergez their proposed contract for the 1933 season, he signed it and returned it with a note. “In view of the fact I was not so hot last year, I am more than satisfied with the fair way the club has treated me and will do anything I can to regain my form of 1931.”21 He lived up to his pledge. By the end of June, the Giants—by then managed by first baseman Bill Terry—led the National League and Vergez was hitting around .300 with good power.

On July 2, Vergez’s home run off Dizzy Dean in the second game of a doubleheader was the difference in a 1-0 defeat of the second-place Cardinals. “Hitting that home run,” he said, “was my golden moment.”22 It was also the 27th homer of Vergez’s career, all hit at home. As of 2026 this was still the longest such streak to start a career in major league history.23 The streak ended on July 13 in St. Louis, when Johnny blasted a two-strike homer off Tex Carleton to beat the Cardinals 3-2.

Vergez’s rebound from his poor 1932 season led the Oakland Tribune to observe that he was “being mentioned by eastern critics as the best third baseman in the senior league, a position held so long by Pie Traynor of the Pirates.”24

The positive developments for Vergez weren’t limited to the diamond. Helen was pregnant and had returned to California. She planned to have the baby at the hospital in Oakland where she had worked.

But the good news wouldn’t last. As the Brooklyn Times Union reported, “[a]ll the hard luck in the world seems to be heaped on Johnny’s shoulders.”25

On August 31, Vergez had a stomachache but still homered and singled in the Giants’ loss to the second-place Braves. “Not until he reached the clubhouse did he collapse on his stool, his head in his hands,” reported the Brooklyn Eagle. After the Braves’ team doctor examined him, “they rushed Vergez to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital . . . for the removal of what his doctors called a red-hot appendix.”26  The Giants’ slugging third baseman was done for the year.

Despite concern from the New York press corps that Vergez’s loss might doom the Giants’ pennant hopes, the club responded with four straight wins against the Braves to finish out the series, then posted two separate five-game winning streaks to secure the pennant. 

Meanwhile, Vergez was still recuperating on the East Coast when he learned that Helen had been rushed to the hospital for an emergency Caesarean section; that the couple’s infant daughter had died shortly after delivery; and that Helen had gone into shock and was critically ill. A few days later, with Johnny back in California and Helen recovering, press reports revealed that she’d nearly died from blood loss and that the attending physician had heroically given his own blood for a transfusion that saved her life.27 

As Vergez listened on the radio from the West Coast, the Giants defeated the Senators four games to two to win the World Championship.28  His fellow Californian Lefty O’Doul, who delivered a key pinch-hit two-run single for the Giants in Game Two, dedicated the hit to Johnny.

Despite having missed the season’s final month, Vergez slashed .271/.332/.448 with 16 homers and 72 RBIs. His slugging percentage and home run total were both second-highest on the club behind Mel Ott.

Vergez reported to camp in 1934 “gamely endeavoring to live down the death of his second baby, pluckily refusing to let fate throw him.”29  Unfortunately he injured his leg during spring training, and there was also speculation that he had never recovered completely from his appendix surgery.30  Whatever the reason, he was hitting well below .200 in mid-May when Terry replaced him in the starting lineup. He heated up temporarily in midsummer, raising his average to .250 and reclaiming his starting job, but then struggled again, ending the season with a .200 mark and seven homers in 320 at-bats.

Two new chapters in the long, intertwined history of Vergez and Bartell were added in the offseason. First, the Giants announced in November that they were trading Johnny (along with three other players and a reported $50,000 in cash) to the Philadelphia Phillies for his fellow Alamedan.31  A couple of weeks later, the two nearly perished together when, “[on] the return home after a weekend duck hunt. . . their car skidded off the levee on Bradford Island in the San Joaquin River. Both were rescued from the trapped car.”32

Vergez started at third for Philadelphia in 1935 and had an excellent year in the field, leading National League third basemen in putouts, double plays, and fielding percentage. At the plate he slashed .249/.312/.363 with nine homers and 63 RBIs, an improvement over his 1934 output but still well short of his 1933 numbers.

While Vergez got off to a solid start in 1936, at the end of April the Phillies obtained third baseman Pinky Whitney from the Boston Braves. Whitney took over the starting job, and a few weeks later the Phillies sold Vergez to St. Louis. After only eight games with the Cardinals, the club sent him to their Sacramento affiliate in the Pacific Coast League. Vergez was “a bit disappointed. . . but says that since he has to play in the minors he likes nothing better than being back in the Coast League.”33  

Though it wasn’t known at the time, Vergez’s major league career was over. He finished with a lifetime batting average of .255 to go with 52 home runs and 292 RBIs.

In February 1937, Johnny and Helen celebrated the best possible news: the birth in Oakland of a healthy baby daughter, Helen Sue.34  With his family doing well, Vergez put together two solid campaigns with Sacramento. He starred in the Solons’ championship run in the 1938 Shaughnessy playoffs, banging out a single, double, and triple in four at-bats as Sacramento swept a doubleheader against the San Francisco Seals to clinch the title.

That December, the Oaks—last place finishers in the PCL—announced they’d signed Vergez as their player-manager. “That makes me happier than anything that’s happened in a long time,” he said. “It has been my ambition for years to manage a ball club, and there is nowhere I would rather be than Oakland.”35

As a manager, Vergez displayed sensitivity in dealing with his players, an unusual trait for skippers of the time. When asked why he hadn’t benched an infielder for poor fielding, he replied that it was out of “consideration of a 19-year-old kid’s feelings,” and that he was “preparing a young and impressionable and easily upset boy for the next season.”36  With Vergez at the helm (and in the lineup, where he hit .287 and led the club in home runs with 12), the Oaks improved by 14 games and climbed out of the cellar.

The club improved even more dramatically in 1940, finishing in third place with 94 wins. The Associated Press named Vergez PCL Manager of the Year, noting that “he welded a lot of questionable material into a pennant contending outfit.”37  Johnny also appeared in 79 games and batted .270 with four home runs.

The Oaks regressed in 1941, finishing in a fifth-place tie, but that didn’t prevent supporters from organizing “Johnny Vergez Day” in September. Over 7,000 fans attended and cheered as Vergez was gifted a kitchen range, an outboard motor, a donkey, a pig, and (from Sacramento manager Pepper Martin) a goat.38  

As the ranks of players thinned during wartime, Vergez’s playing time increased in 1942. The 35-year-old appeared in 107 games and hit .263 in 335 at-bats while the Oaks finished in sixth place. In his finale as a player in 1943, he hit .189 in 75 games while leading the club as its manager to a 78-82 record, good for fifth place.

At the end of the 1943 campaign, longtime owner Vic Devincenzi sold his majority share in the Oaks. The new owners released Vergez and hired his former Philadelphia teammate, Dolph Camilli, to manage the club.  

Johnny wasn’t out of baseball for long; the Giants hired him as a West Coast scout in early 1944.39  He also began working as a tax preparer.40  Vergez also pursued some of his non-baseball-related sporting interests. He and Helen were “crack table tennis players;”41 he was a fine bowler; 42 and he was a passionate and talented golfer, performing well in local amateur championships.43

In February 1946, St. Mary’s College in nearby Moraga hired Vergez as their new baseball coach. The Oakland Tribune noted that his appointment would “meet with approval of every friend of the school and every friend of Vergez . . . and there are a heap of both.”44

In Vergez’s five years at the helm, the Gaels held their own against larger schools like the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford; and the University of California, Los Angeles. In his final coaching season, 1950, his tutelage helped a freshman shortstop from Alameda, Andy Carey, post outstanding numbers. When St. Mary’s decided to do away with the baseball program for financial reasons in 1951, Carey promptly signed with the Yankees. He went on to play 11 years in the major leagues and appeared in four World Series with the Bronx Bombers.

With his coaching positions eliminated, Vergez worked as a sales manager for an Oakland liquor distributor. He was also appointed to serve on the Alameda Golf Commission.45

One person who spent a lot of time on the golf course with Vergez was his godson, Bob Blanchard. “When I was in my teens [in the late 1950s], every Saturday morning he’d pick me up and we’d have breakfast at the golf course. Then I’d caddy for him and Dick Bartell and their friends.”46

Vergez retired and moved to Kelly Ridge, on the southern shore of Lake Oroville in northeastern California, in the early 1970s. “I like to fish and hunt and play golf and I’ve got it all right here in the backyard,” he said.47 

His granddaughter Janine Owen remembered fondly her family’s frequent trips to Kelly Ridge to see Johnny. “He would get his car washed every Sunday. We’d go with him and he’d take us out for donuts afterwards. He was such a sweet man.”48

Vergez was happy to share stories from his years in the game but was always modest about his accomplishments. “Grandpa’s baseball career gave us bragging rights when we were kids . . . I still brag about him!” said Owen. “But he didn’t brag at all. A lot of what I learned about him was from other people.”  Ultimately, she said, “his family was very much his focus—that and golf.”49

Vergez died on July 15, 1991, in Sacramento after undergoing surgery for an aneurysm.50  He was 85.

In 2021 Vergez was inducted posthumously into the Alameda High School Hall of Fame. Blanchard spoke at the induction ceremony because he wanted people to know something about the man he’d admired so much growing up. “I idolized him,” he said. “When you mentioned Johnny Vergez’s name, people’s eyes lit up. He was loved by everybody.”51

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Gregory H. Wolf and Rory Costello and checked for accuracy by SABR’s fact-checking team. Thanks also to Janine Owen and Bob Blanchard for sharing their memories.

Photo credit: Johnny Vergez, Trading Card Database.

Sources

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

Notes

1 Thomas Holmes, “Martin, Derringer, Vergez and Vosmik Were A-1 Freshmen,” Brooklyn Eagle, November 10, 1931: 27.

2 Eddie Murphy, “Eddie Murphy Says,” Oakland Tribune, June 15, 1936: 25.

3 Alan Ward, “On Second Thought,” Oakland Tribune, May 30, 1940: 10.

4 “Alameda Wins North Coast Diamond Title,” Oakland Tribune, May 27, 1925:  23.

5 Alan Ward, “Vergez, Oak Manager, Broke Into Game With San Antonio; Signed By Howard in ’27,” Oakland Tribune, March 1, 1939: 12.

6 Alan Ward, “Vergez Once ‘Signed’ Dick Bartell as Sandlot Teammate in Alameda,” Oakland Tribune, February 28, 1939: 13.

7 Eddie Murphy, “Veteran Hurlers Have a Poor Day on Coast League Mounds,” Oakland Tribune, August 23, 1928: 32.

8 Eddie Murphy, “Oaks Defeated as Vergez is Honored,” Oakland Tribune, July 10, 1929: 18.

9 “Vergez Makes Good After Hard Fight,” Oakland Tribune, August 26, 1929: 23.

10 Eddie Murphy, “John Vergez is Voted Most Valuable Oak, Oakland Tribune, October 14, 1930: 53.

11 Eddie Murphy, “Vergez Sold to New York Giants,” Oakland Tribune, October 9, 1930: 34. The sale price was not disclosed. Later, it was announced that the Oaks would also receive infielder Andy Reese from the Giants for compensation. See Eddie Murphy, “Oakland Club Looking for Good Year,” Oakland Tribune, January 1, 1931: 28.

12 “Lou McEvoy Is Married; Lary Denies Rumors,” Oakland Tribune, October 16, 1930: 29.

13 “Ott Smashes 2 Home Runs,” Brooklyn Times Union, March 12, 1931: 10.

14 John Foster, “Good Outfield And Vergez At Third Please Manager McGraw,” Yonkers Herald Statesman, March 16, 1931: 22.

15 Brooklyn Eagle, “Leading Hitters in Major Leagues,” May 6, 1931: 26.

16 Brooklyn Eagle, “McGraw Took Long Chance, But Vergez Made the Grade,” December 6, 1931: 19.

17 Oakland Tribune, “Johnny Vergez Gets Bigger Contract Day Son Is Born,” January 18, 1932: 3.

18 “John Vergez’ Son Dies; Funeral Set Tomorrow,” Oakland Tribune, April 4, 1932: 13.

19 Jack Cuddy, “Vergez’ Note Melts Heart of Tierney,” Oakland Tribune, January 25, 1933: 7.

20 “Majors Defeat Minors in Elks’ Charity Game,” Oakland Tribune, October 24, 1932: 11.

21 Cuddy, “Vergez’ Note Melts Heart of Tierney.”

22 Lee Susman, “Golden Moment,” Oakland Tribune, July 1, 1956: 53.

23 BR Bullpen, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Johnny_Vergez:  Accessed April 17, 2026.

24 “Armour’s Criticism Poor: Koenig Cub Spark Plug,” Oakland Tribune, July 25, 1933: 18.

25 Bud Nelson, “Improved Hitting of Ryan and Mancuso Should Help Giants,” Brooklyn Times Union, September 25, 1933: 11.

26 Harold C. Burr, “Vergez Goes ‘Blighty’ And Carries Pennant Hopes of Giants Away,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 1, 1933: 18.

27 “Mrs. Vergez May Recover Health,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 30, 1933: 4.

28 “Vergez Talks Tonight on World Series,” Oakland Tribune, October 12, 1933: 15.

29 Harold C. Burr, “Vergez Signs And Fills Out Giant Infield,” Brooklyn Eagle, February 2, 1934: 20.

30 “Hoodoo Continues to Dog Johnny Vergez of Giants,” San Bernardina County Sun, September 13, 1934: 8.

31 Jack Cuddy, “Giants Get Bartell for $100,000,” Oakland Tribune, November 1, 1934: 14. The article notes that the four players sent to the Phillies were valued at $50,000 and that New York also sent $50,000 in cash to the Phillies in the deal.

32 Art Cohn, “Johnny Vergez Will Manage Oaks!”, Oakland Tribune, November 10, 1938: 25.

33 Eddie Murphy, “Oaks Give Up Best Hitter to Newark,” Oakland Tribune, July 2, 1936: 31.

34 “Vergez Daddy of Baby Girl,” Oakland Tribune, February 10, 1937: 15.

35 Lee Dunbar, “Johnny Vergez, Former Oak, Signs As Club Playing Manager For 1939,” Oakland Tribune, December 14, 1938: 13.

36 Alan Ward, “On Second Thought,” Oakland Tribune, July 21, 1939: 27.

37 Russ Newland, “Christoff, Christopher Make A.P. All-Coast League Team,” Oakland Tribune, September 12, 1940: 33.

38 Alan Ward, “Oaks Split; Seattle Now Leads League,” Oakland Tribune, September 8, 1941:15.

39 “Honor Parade Planned,” Oakland Tribune, February 23, 1944: 10.

40 “Ball Stars Now Experts on Tax,” Oakland Tribune, February 8, 1944: 18.

41 Alan Ward, “The Street Corner,” Oakland Tribune, October 24, 1937: 13.

42 Alan Ward, “On Second Thought,” Oakland Tribune, March 7, 1941: 37.

43 See, for example, “Vergez to Face Ed Loustalot,” Oakland Tribune, October 6, 1943: 11. The Tribune carried many reports in the 1940’s, 1950’s, and 1960’s of Vergez’s success in local golf tournaments.

44 Lee Dunbar, “On the Level,” Oakland Tribune, February 12, 1946: 10.

45 “Vergez Picked for Golf Post,” Oakland Tribune, May 4, 1954: 42.

46 Author interview with Bob Blanchard, March 27, 2026 (hereafter “Blanchard interview.”)

47 Bill Talbitzer, “Johnny Vergez Slides Into New Life,” Sacramento Bee, July 21, 1974. (From Hall of Fame File—no page number).

48 Janine Owen, telephone interview with the author, November 13, 2025 (hereafter “Owen interview.”)

49 Owen interview.

50 “Former Giant Vergez dies,” USA Today Baseball Weekly, July 19-25, 1991. (From HOF File—no page number). Many references state that Vergez died in Davis, California; but according to USA Today Baseball Weekly and confirmed by Vergez’s granddaughter Janine Owen, he died at the University of California, Davis hospital located in Sacramento.

51 Blanchard interview.