In his first 17 games with the Clowns, Henry Aaron batted a robust .427 with five home runs and 26 RBIs. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

Yes, the team known by many as the Indianapolis Clowns was known as the Buffalo Clowns when they played at Offermann Stadium, which was quite often as interest in the Negro Leagues declined.

For many years, Negro League teams had been coming to play in Buffalo. The Homestead Grays sojourned there for at least one series each season, and the fans thrilled to the home-run hitting of Josh Gibson, who hit seven homers there between 1938 and 1946. Twice, he hit two in a game.

But the Homestead Grays were a memory by 1952, and the Buffalo fans most often welcomed the Clowns with King Tut, Spec Bebop, and a cast of players, some bound for the major leagues.

The 1952 Negro American League was the only Negro major league left standing, and there were six teams in the league. Two of those teams were the Memphis Red Sox and the Clowns. Calling them the Indianapolis Clowns was somewhat pointless as they, as of May 25, 1952, had yet to play a game in Indianapolis. (They did play a game there on June 10, 1952.)

On May 25, 1952, Memphis and the Clowns faced off at Offerman Stadium. The announced crowd at Offermann Park was 1,800.

They had come to see King Tut. They got to see King Henry, an 18-year-old kid from Mobile, Alabama.

The pitchers in the first game were Jim Cohen for the Clowns and lefty Isiah Harris for Goose Curry’s Memphis Red Sox. Memphis kept things close due in large part to a three-run homer in the sixth inning by catcher Casey Jones.1 It was his second homer at Offermann Park and the first since August 7, 1947. But Henry Aaron went 4-for-5 as the Clowns won, 6-4.

In the nightcap, Ted Richardson pitched for the Clowns and yielded only two hits in an 11-0 shutout. It was his first shutout of the season. Marshall Bridges was the losing pitcher. Shortstop Felix “Manuel” Valdez collected the only two hits for Memphis.

Home runs sailed out of Offermann Park over the years, and May 25, 1952, was no exception. There were four homers in all during the doubleheader. In the second game, Aaron, the Clowns shortstop, went 3-for-4 with an opposite-field homer that sailed over the right-field wall. Jimmy Wilkes and Richardson also hit home runs. In less than two decades, more than 70 homers by upward of 50 players sailed out of Offermann Stadium in fewer than 40 Negro League contests.

As noted by Joseph Overfield in his essay for the 1979 Baseball Research Journal, “Offermann Stadium was always known as a hitter’s park. Its foul line dimensions (297 to right and 321 feet to left) were not nearly as those at (other ballparks). What made it a hitter’s paradise, particularly if you were righthanded, was the short distance to left center (346 feet) and the prevailing Jetstream, as the players called it, which traditionally helped every ball hit in that direction.”2

There was little mention of the games, aside from the scores, in the Buffalo newspapers. On June 2 the first articles began to appear in the Black weeklies. Actually, there was only one article – one that that was reprinted in about six Black weeklies. That article did not even let us know how many RBIs were produced by Aaron’s seven hits. It did not indicate if there were any errors or double plays in the game.

The double victory raised the Clowns’ record to 11-3 and moved Buster Haywood’s team into first place, ahead of Buck O’Neil’s Kansas City Monarchs, who faded as the season went on. The Clowns finished the first half of the season in first place and posted a 44-30 record for the full season. Birmingham, which finished at 51-36, had the best record in the second half. By this point, there was no formal Negro League World Series, but the two teams squared off in an 18-game postseason barnstorming tour.

Most of the men who played in the doubleheader were not destined for the major leagues, although a few played in the affiliated minor leagues.

Ted Richardson, the winner of the second game. pitched for the East in the annual East-West Game in 1952 and posted a 12-5 won-lost record in 1952. He made it to the minor leagues in 1956. In 1957 he became the first Black player to appear with the Durham Bulls of the Carolina League. One of his finest efforts came about a week after the game in Buffalo. On June 2, in Wichita, he came into the game in relief in the second inning and pitched the remaining 12⅔ innings in a Clowns win, striking out 21 batters.3

Wilkes and Cohen also were named to the East team in the East-West Game in 1952, but Cohen did not pitch. For Cohen, who was in his fifth season with the Clowns, 1952 was his last season. He finished with a 9-6 record.4 Wilkes began his career as a 19-year-old, with the Newark Eagles in 1945. He moved with them to Houston in 1949. He signed with the Brooklyn organization in 1950 and spent two years in the minors before joining the Clowns in 1952, and led the league in stolen bases with 49 and batted .325. A year later, he signed with the Brantford Red Sox in Canada’s Inter-County League and played for another 11 seasons.5

Isiah Harris, losing pitcher in the first game, continued hurling for Memphis and in three consecutive years (1953-1955) represented his team in the annual East-West All Star Game. He never played in AL/NL affiliated baseball.

Casey Jones, who had homered in the first game, was a long-term catcher in the Negro Leagues. He began his career with Memphis in 1943 and displayed a bit of power with them, hitting five homers at their home park, Martin Stadium, and four home runs at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field. He stayed with the Red Sox through 1955, having appeared in East-West games in 1950 and 1951. He never played affiliated baseball.

Valdez, whose Negro League career consisted of two seasons with Memphis, was gone after the 1952 season. He started for the West in the 1952 East-West Game. In 1953 he went to the minor leagues, where he spent three seasons, mostly with Decatur in the Mississippi-Ohio Valley League.

Marshall Bridges, who lost the second game of the doubleheader, was on a path that took him to the big leagues. He signed with the New York Giants in 1953 and, after six minor-league stops, made his debut with the Cardinals in 1959. His best major-league season was in 1962, when he went 8-4 with 18 saves for the New York Yankees. When he received his World Series ring in 1962, it was the 10th time, including every season from 1954 through 1962, that a Black player was on the World Series-winning team.

Manager Albert Elliot “Buster” Haywood was with the Clowns when they were the Miami Ethiopian Clowns in 1940. At that time, the box scores featured the players’ nicknames and not their real names. He was known as Khora. A good player in his own right, he was named to the East-West All-Star Games in 1946, 1951, and 1953. He led the Clowns to first place in the Negro American League from 1950 through 1952. He left the Clowns after the 1953 season and finished with Memphis in 1954 at the age of 44.6

Manager Homer “Goose” Curry of the Memphis Red Sox made his Negro League debut in 1928 with Chattanooga and had his first stint as a manager in 1932. A career .300 hitter, he batted .286 in 1952, playing 22 league games at the age of 47. He continued at the helm of the Red Sox through 1956, at which time he was 51.7

Aaron’s home run was his fifth since joining the Clowns, and he was on every team’s radar. Including exhibitions, he had played 35 games with the Clowns, and his 7-for-9 on May 25 took his batting average to .427. His last games with the Clowns were in Chicago on June 8 and Indianapolis on June 10. He joined the Braves organization during the second week of June.

Aaron made his first appearance with Class-C Eau Claire in a doubleheader on June 16. In his debut, an Eau Claire loss, he went 1-for-4 with a double and had an RBI. In the second game, an Eau Claire win, he went 2-for-4 with another double and a pair of RBIs. In the field, he flashed his glove at shortstop, initiating a game-ending double play.8

He batted .336 in 87 games with Eau Claire and returned to the Clowns after his minor-league season was complete, appearing with them in the barnstorming series against Birmingham. Details are not easily accessible, but sources say he batted .4029 during those games, homering at least once, at Knoxville on September 19. The homer was one of six in a game in which Indianapolis defeated Birmingham, 16-10.10

If one were to include his six documented Negro League homers, his 31 minor-league homers, and his 755 major-league homers, the reality would set in that Aaron amassed 792 homers during his remarkable career.

The Clowns continued in the Negro American League through 1954, after which they became a full-time barnstorming entity with the focus more on clowning, and they continued to play for another 30 years.

At the time of the May 25 game, a fair number of the 1,800 in attendance were major-league scouts, and the consensus was that “with a little polish, (Aaron) should break into the major leagues.”11 Two years later, Aaron was 32 games into his rookie season with the Milwaukee Braves. He went on to a spectacular AL/NL career that lasted through 1976 and sent him to the Hall of Fame. By then, the Negro Leagues and Offermann Stadium were distant memories.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources shown in the notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, Seamheads.com, and the Center for Negro League Baseball Research.

NOTES

1  “Baseball News,” Macon (Georgia) News, June 2, 1952: 10.

2  Joseph Overfield, “Offermann Stadium in Buffalo: Hitters Welcome, Pitchers Beware,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, 1979.

3  Pete Lightner, “Clowns Win Long Game,” Wichita Eagle, June 3, 1952: 11.

4  “Final Batting and Pitching Records of Players in Two Negro Leagues,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 13, 1952: 26.

5  Bob Lemoine, “Jimmy Wilkes,” in SABR BioProject.

6  Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, “Albert Haywood,” in SABR BioProject.

7  Bill Johnson, “Homer ‘Goose’ Curry,” in SABR BioProject.

8  “Bears Split Pair with Duluth,” Eau Claire (Wisconsin) Leader, June 17, 1952: 10.

9  “Clowns Beat Barons, Claim Series Crown,” Kansas City Call, October 17, 1952: 12.

10  “Rookie Leads Clown Victory,” Knoxville News-Sentinel, September 20. 1952: 6.

11  “Baseball News,” Macon News, June 2, 1952: 10.

Aaron and Ted Williams at Fenway Park on July 22, 1957, for an exhibition game to benefit the Jimmy Fund. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

On April 1, 1953, an exhibition game between the Boston Red Sox and the Jacksonville Braves offered those in attendance an interesting look at both the past and the future of the national pastime. The Red Sox, whose star outfielder Ted Williams was just about to undertake his sixth of 39 combat missions with the Marine Corps in Korea, were wrapping up their spring-training efforts with a series of exhibition games. With Opening Day just over two weeks away, they were making final decisions about the roster they would use to open the regular season on April 16 in Philadelphia against the Athletics before launching the home season in Boston’s hallowed Fenway Park with a doubleheader against the Washington Senators on April 20.

The game between the Red Sox and the Jacksonville Braves, the Milwaukee Braves’ minor-league affiliate in the Class-A South Atlantic League, commonly known as the Sally League, offered a look at one of that era’s most respected ballplayers, Red Sox center fielder Dom DiMaggio, Williams’s longtime outfield partner and the youngest of the three DiMaggio brothers after Vince and Joe. The trio combined to play 34 seasons in the major leagues.

It was first start of the spring season for Dom, who had been dealing with an eye ailment. The Braves, meanwhile, featured a 19-year-old second baseman, Henry Aaron, who would enjoy a glorious major-league career but on this day hoped to meet the challenges of big-league pitching.

The game was played before a reported crowd of 2,995 at Durkee Field in Jacksonville, on a day in which the temperatures climbed into the 80s.1 However unintentionally, the contest offered a clear picture of the different talent levels that existed between the major leagues and those on minor-league clubs, like the Sally League Braves, where the roster was composed of former big leaguers whose best days were behind them, young ballplayers who hoped to earn a major-league job, and life-long minor leaguers who loved the game but had neither the talent nor the luck to play at the highest level.

Indeed, that talent gap was evident from the start as the Red Sox jumped on Jacksonville starter Vince DiLorenzo for four runs in the top of the first. But that was only the beginning. While pounding out a total of 15 hits, the Red Sox scored an additional run in the fourth and two in the fifth off DiLorenzo, who gave way to Tom Horton in the sixth inning. Horton, though, could not stop the Red Sox barrage. The Red Sox scored three runs in the sixth. another three in the eighth and one in the ninth to bring their total to 14.2

The Red Sox offensive effort showcased the full range of the team’s talent. In addition to veteran catcher Gus Niarhos knocking out three hits, veteran third baseman George Kell drove in three runs and first baseman Dick Gernert doubled and singled while driving in two runs and scoring three. Young outfielder Jimmy Piersall had two hits, a walk, and a sacrifice bunt on the way to scoring four runs – two by stealing home.3

Dom DiMaggio, a seven-time All-Star, showed no ill effects of his late start and worked Braves pitching for an early walk before finishing his four-inning stint with a line-drive home run over the right-field fence. The four-bagger for a hitter known more for his consistency than his power seemed to indicate that his eye ailment was not a problem. Indeed, the Boston Globe headline accompanying the game report was headlined, “DiMag Homers, Looms as Starter,” while a subheadline proclaimed, “Boudreau Expects Veteran to Be Ready.”4

By contrast, with the exception of Aaron, the Braves were overmatched against Red Sox ace Mel Parnell. Coming off a 1952 campaign in which he had gone just 12-12 after having won 18 in 1950 and 1951 as well as 25 in 1949, Parnell cruised through the Braves lineup and shut out the young Jacksonville team over seven innings. He struck out five while giving up only five hits, all singles, in the longest spring outing of any Red Sox hurler.5 However, Aaron stroked two singles off the veteran southpaw.6 Even more impressively, Aaron, who had hit .336 with 9 home runs, 61 runs batted in, and 25 stolen bases in just 87 games for Class-C Eau Claire the previous season to earn a promotion to Jacksonville, saved the Braves from being shut out when he launched a 400-foot solo home run over the right-center-field fence off Red Sox right-hander Ike Delock in the eighth inning.7 But that blast, an enduring memory for the fans who witnessed it and would follow Aaron’s future career with interest, only left the score at 14-1.

Indeed, in ways that few observers of the April Fool’s Day rout could have imagined, the game marked an intersection of the careers of two of baseball’s most respected figures. Aaron’s home run, an effort that certainly caught the attention of those in attendance, could later be seen as a harbinger of what was to come for one of the game’s greatest power hitters, one whose consistency over more than two decades – as an outfielder and first baseman, not a second baseman in the majors – eventually put him at the top of the all-time home-run list when he retired. By contrast, although Dom DiMaggio’s home run was somewhat unusual – he hit only 87 in his 11-year big-league career while batting .298 – it did seem to indicate that the eye ailments that had delayed his spring-training debut were behind him and he was ready for another season.8

In fact, however, it proved to be a more of a last hurrah, for as the team headed farther north, Lou Boudreau, in his second year as manager but having retired as a player, determined that DiMaggio would no longer be the team’s starting center fielder. The proud DiMaggio, an All-Star in each of the previous three seasons, opted to retire rather than serve as a backup. Consequently, on May 12, 1953, after appearing in only three games and getting one hit in three at-bats, with his final appearance coming on May 9, the 36-year-old DiMaggio, the bespectacled Little Professor, announced his retirement, making clear that his eyes were not an issue, but that he “prefer[red] to turn [his] interests elsewhere rather than be a hanger-on.”9

Meanwhile, Aaron went on to have a spectacular 1953 season, leading Jacksonville to the Sally League pennant and earning the circuit’s MVP Award. He earned a spot on Milwaukee’s Opening Day roster in 1954.

In the end it was a game like many, one that reflected a number of the different strands that run through baseball. At the same time, there was no small irony in the Red Sox’ choice of the Braves as an opponent given that the 1953 Jacksonville club was integrating the Deep South-based Sally League. Indeed, six years after Jackie Robinson had broken the color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Henry Aaron, Felix Mantilla, and Horace Garner were pioneering the effort in the league that many observers “considered to be the most hostile league for blacks in the minor-league system.”10 The Red Sox themselves remained all White, only adding a Black player, Pumpsie Green, to their roster in 1959, the last major-league team to do so.11

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Baseball-Reference.com.

NOTES

1  “Jacksonville, FL Weather History,” April 1, 1953, Weather Underground; https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/fl/jacksonville/KJAX/date/1953-4-1.

2  F.C. Matzek, “Red Sox Display Their Wares on Jacksonville, Win 14-1,” Providence Journal, April 2, 1953: 9.

3  Matzek.

4  Hy Hurwitz, “DiMag Homers, Looms as Starter,” Boston Globe, April 2, 1953: 9.

5  Matzek.

6  Matzek.

7  Arthur Sampson, “Red Sox Romp with Jacksonville, 14-1,” Boston Herald, April 2, 1953: 16.

8  “Red Sox Romp, 14-1; DiMag Homers,” Boston Daily Record, April 2, 1953: 19.

9  “Dom DiMaggio of Red Sox Retires Rather Than Become ‘Hanger-On’; Last of Three Brothers to See Action in Majors Ends Play – White Sox Get Consuegra,” New York Times, May 13, 1953: 36.

10  Howard Bryant, The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron (New York: Anchor Books, 2011), 50.

11  Bill Nowlin, “Pumpsie Green,” SABR BioProject. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/pumpsie-green/. For further information, see Glenn Stout, “Tryout and Fallout: Race, Jackie Robinson and the Red Sox,” glennstout.com; https://glennstout.com/tryout-and-fallout-race-jackie-robinson-and-the-red-sox/. The article appears in Bill Nowlin, ed., Pumpsie and Progress – The Red Sox, Race, and Redemption (Burlington, Massachusetts: Rounder Books, 2010).

Aaron broke Ruth’s record of 714 home runs on April 8, 1974, against the Los Angeles Dodgers and finished his career two years later with 755 home runs — it held until Barry Bonds hit his 756th in 2007. Bonds as of 2020 holds the career record with 762, though it’s tainted because of the steroid controversy.1 Bud Selig was Major League Baseball’s commissioner when Bonds broke the record — acting commissioner from 1992 to 1998 and commissioner from 1998 to 2015 — but despite MLB’s official noting of Bonds as the home-run leader, he has affirmed, on occasion, Aaron to be the legitimate owner of the record.

During a 2019 radio interview on The Dan Patrick Show to promote his book For the Good of the Game, Selig — who had a personal connection to Aaron generated by his ownership stake in the Milwaukee Braves that he sold when the team moved to Atlanta after the 1965 season — declared his affinity for Aaron.2 They reunited in the mid-1970s when Selig signed him to the Milwaukee Brewers, the successors to the one-season Seattle Pilots (1969).3

On April 23, 1954, Aaron’s home-run journey began in a 14-inning bout against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The rookie outfielder went 3-for-7; bashed a solo home run in the sixth inning; and scored an insurance run when a pinch-hit single by Jim Pendleton with the bases loaded sent Andy Pafko and the rookie across Busch Stadium’s home plate in the top of the 14th.

Milwaukee’s first-inning confrontation against Cardinals hurler Vic Raschi resulted in four hits and one run. Danny O’Connell and Eddie Mathews singled after the leadoff hitter, second baseman Jack Dittmer, lined out to left fielder Rip Repulski. Cleanup hitter Joe Adcock flied to 1954 Rookie of the Year Wally Moon, then Pafko singled to load the bases and Aaron singled home O’Connell. Raschi ended the barrage when Johnny Logan hit a pop fly to second baseman, team favorite, and future Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst.

Gene Conley, a rookie right-hander on a Braves pitching staff4 that included aces Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette, went 14-9 in 1954; began the game with walks to Repulski and Moon; and got a chance to help his cause by fielding a Schoendienst grounder and cutting off Repulski at third base. Stan Musial singled to score Moon and Schoendienst, the latter because of an error by Aaron.

The score stayed at 2-1 until the bottom of the third, when the Cardinals added two runs in an inning that had a little bit of everything. Moon singled and stole second base. (He tallied 18 steals for the season.) After striking out Schoendienst, Conley intentionally walked Musial and picked off Moon. Third baseman Ray Jablonski – not a power hitter but a solid batsman who hit .296 and had 104 RBIs in 1954 — banged one of his 12 home runs for the season to make the score 4-1. Conley escaped further damage with a 6-3 grounder by Tom Alston.

The Braves crept toward the Cardinals in the top of the fourth with Logan’s solo homer. Cardinals bats were quiet in their half of the fourth; one fly out, two strikeouts.

Conley and Raschi kept each other’s squads in run stagnation for the fifth inning, then Aaron hit his first major-league homer, a one-out solo shot in the top of the sixth. Raschi retired Logan and Braves backstop Del Crandall, both on 6-3 plays.

In the bottom of the sixth, Conley retired Musial on a grounder to Logan, walked Jablonski, and ended the inning with a 1-6-3 double play grounder by Alston.

Until the top of the ninth, the score was 4-3. Sibby Sisti scored from second on Dittmer’s single; Crandall had doubled and left the game for pinch-runner Sisti.

Cardinals skipper Eddie Stanky tried three pinch-hitters in the bottom of the ninth: Frazier for Sal Yvars; Hemus for Alex Grammas; and Tom Burgess for Raschi. The farthest one of them got was Alston singling and stealing second.

Neither St. Louis nor Milwaukee broke the 4-4 tie until the top of the 13th, when Milwaukee catcher Charlie White hit a solo home run off the Cardinals’ Cot Deal. Moon knocked one of his nine triples for the season and scored on Schoendienst’s sacrifice fly; the rookie ended the day going 5-for-5.

The Braves went ahead for good in the top of the 14th. Pafko and Aaron each singled, then Logan was safe on Cardinals shortstop Solly Hemus’s second error of the game. Pendleton batted for Milwaukee pitcher David Jolly and his bases-loaded single “broke up the wearisome struggle,”5 wrote Bob Wolf in the Milwaukee Journal.

St. Louis sent five hurlers to the mound for the game: Raschi, Al Brazle, Cot Deal, Joe Presko, and Royce Lint; the Braves, four: Conley, Ernie Johnson, Jolly, Ray Crone.

Two days before Aaron bashed his first home run, a newspaper article indicated a combination of nonchalance and confidence in the rookie. “On the way north this spring we were playing somebody with a pitcher he’d batted against last year,” said Braves manager Charlie Grimm. “The boys were asking Henry if he’d had any trouble hitting this guy last year. ‘Naw,’ he tells ’em, I hit him in my sleep’ and I’ll bet he doesn’t even know the guy’s name.”6

Aaron played in 122 games and hit .280 during his rookie season; he placed fourth in the National League Rookie of the Year voting. Power was not apparent — he hit 13 home runs. When Aaron broke Ruth’s record, Atlanta Braves manager and former teammate Eddie Mathews recalled the 1954 season: “He hit everything, pitches up, down, inside, outside. What an aggressive hitter he was. He knew then he was something special, but it would be a lie to say we knew he might break Babe Ruth’s record someday.”7

Sources

The author used Baseball Reference and Retrosheet for box scores and play-by-play information.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN195404230.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1954/B04230SLN1954.htm

Notes

1 This article was written in 2020.

2 The Dan Patrick Show, AT&T Sports Networks, Premiere Radio Networks; Jared Schwartz, “Bud Selig Says Hank Aaron, Not Barry Bonds, Is True Home Run King,” New York Post, July 17, 2019.

3 Aaron spent the last two years of his career (1975 and 1976) in Milwaukee.

4 Conley played in four games for the Braves in 1952, not enough to qualify for rookie status.

5 Bob Wolf, “Pendleton’s Pinch Hit in 14th Gives Braves 7 to 5 Victory,” Milwaukee Journal, April 24, 1954: 9.

6 Associated Press, “Pitchers Don’t Awe Henry Aaron; He Doesn’t Even Know Their Names,” Janesville (Wisconsin) Daily Gazette,” April 21, 1954: 16.

7 Eddie Mathews, “Just Amazing: That’s All Mathews Can Say About Aaron’s No. 715,” Atlanta Constitution, April 9, 1974: 58.

Hank Aaron was batting just .242 when he enjoyed his breakout 5-for-6 game as a Braves rookie. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

It was less than two weeks into the 1954 season and 20-year-old Milwaukee Braves rookie Henry Aaron was in danger of being relegated to the bench. Aaron wasn’t even supposed to be on the Braves roster in the first place. Those who saw him play in spring training were impressed but thought he was too young and would probably need at least another year of seasoning in the minor leagues.

He made the team after veteran outfielder Bobby Thompson fractured his ankle during spring training. After he started the season with five hits in 26 plate appearances, the Braves were prepared to bench Aaron.1 The only thing keeping him in the lineup was that regular center fielder Billy Bruton had been out sick with a virus infection. (Bruton would miss the last two weeks of April.) Braves manager Charlie Grimm was even ready to move Eddie Mathews from third base to fill the gap in the outfield if Aaron couldn’t. Aaron had three hits, including his first career home run, during the Braves’ April 23 game, but after a hitless game the next day, his batting average sat at .242. That rate wouldn’t cut it for a team looking to compete for a National League pennant, so the Braves were ready to bench Aaron, and maybe even send him back to the minors. His breakout game on April 25 reversed that inclination.

The Sunday game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis (formerly Sportsman’s Park) was the rubber match of a three-game series between the Braves and the Cardinals. Warren Spahn, who already had two victories in the short season and six straight wins dating back to 1953, started for Milwaukee. Cardinals skipper Eddie Stanky countered with Stu Miller, who was making his first official start of the season.2 With their ace on the mound, Milwaukee must have felt good about their chances as the game got underway at 1:50 P.M. But the 16,684 St. Louis fans in attendance were surely pleased when the home team struck first. After both teams went hitless in the first inning, Stan Musial singled to start the bottom half of the second. He advanced to third on a single by third baseman Ray Jablonski, and later came around to score when Alex Grammas singled with the bases loaded.

The Braves did not score their first run of the game until the fifth inning. After grounding out in the second inning, Aaron led off the fifth by driving a pitch off Miller into the left-field bleachers to tie the game at one run each. It was the second home run for both Aaron’s season and his career. Johnny Logan batted after Aaron and singled, then stole second base.3 The Braves took the lead when Danny O’Connell hit a bloop single to drive in Logan. Milwaukee scored again in the sixth frame to take a 3-1 lead. The lead was short-lived; St. Louis came back in the bottom of that inning with four runs, knocking Spahn out of the game and ending his streak of complete games at seven. Ray Crone replaced him and allowed one more run to score before the inning ended.

The Braves were in the hole 5-3 headed into the seventh inning and fell behind further in the bottom of the inning when Musial homered off Crone to make the score 6-3.4 But the Braves began to chip away at the lead in the eighth inning. After Andy Pafko led off the inning with a single, Aaron hit his second single of the game to advance him to third. (He also singled in the sixth inning to put Pafko in scoring position.) Pafko marched home when Logan hit a sacrifice fly. After the Cardinals failed to score in their half of the eighth inning, the Braves started the ninth frame down 6-4. With one out, O’Connell tripled to put himself in scoring position. Mathews didn’t take a chance of leaving O’Connell stranded; he hit a game-tying home run off reliever Al Brazle that left the ballpark and landed on Grand Boulevard. The Cardinals again went scoreless in the ninth and the game was sent into extra innings. St. Louis already had two extra-inning losses against Milwaukee and now the Cardinals feared another one might be eminent.

Neither team could plate any runs in the 10th or 11th despite having runners on base in each inning. Aaron started the 10th inning with a single for his fourth hit of the game, surpassing his career high of three hits from two days earlier. Logan attempted to move Aaron to second base with a sacrifice bunt, but in one of those odd plays of baseball, his bunt bounced off the ground, came straight back up and hit his bat in fair territory. Logan was called out for batter’s interference, and Aaron was sent back to first base. Crandall followed him and was even less effective; he hit into a 1-4-3 double play to end the inning. The Braves tried the same game plan in the 12th inning. Aaron again singled, his fifth hit of the game, and this time Logan was able to successfully lay down a bunt single that advanced Aaron to second base. Crandall, however, again hit into an inning-ending double play.

If the Cardinals were going to win this game, they needed to do it soon. By the 12th inning, the team had used nearly everyone on its roster. Stanky ultimately used 20 out his 25 players in the game, including sending out pitcher Harvey Haddix to pinch-run back in the 10th inning. After Alex Grammas was nicked by a pitch by Braves reliever Chet Nichols, Stanky exhausted the bench, outside of pitchers, and called on Tom Burgess to pinch-hit for pitcher Joe Presko with one out. Burgess flied out for the second out of the inning, but he at least avoided hitting into a double play, which allowed the Cardinals to get back to the top of the lineup. Rip Repulski hit a grounder to Mathews, who booted the ball, and Repulski reached first on the error. Mathews had started the game in left field, but when Jim Pendleton pinch-hit for second baseman Jack Dittmer in the sixth inning, it set off a domino effect of position shifting that placed Mathews at third and Pendleton in left field.

With Grammas on second and Repulski on first, Cardinals rookie Wally Moon chopped a swinging bunt single and loaded the bases. Veteran Red Schoendienst followed with a two-out fly ball. St. Louis sportswriter Bob Broeg detailed the play that came next: “There was a groan [from the crowd] when Red’s best was a high fly to left-center, a ball either Pendleton or [center fielder] Pafko … could have caught.”5 There was a moment of hesitation as both players tried to determine who should make the play. Each advanced toward the fly before Pendleton ultimately called off Pafko and made the catch. The ball fell into Pendleton’s mitt for the third out, but as Broeg witnessed, “As [Pendleton] took a second stride, the ball trickled back through his glove and down onto the grass.”6 The Braves considered the ball to be caught and began walking off the field for their turn to bat in the 13th inning. The Cardinals runners momentarily froze on the basepaths and looked for umpire Al Barlick to signal the official call on the catch. Barlick signaled that the ball was still in play, and Grammas dashed home with the winning run.

Anyone wearing a Braves jersey rushed to Barlick or the nearest umpire they could find and “beefed”7 that Pendleton had held the ball long enough for it to be considered caught. But the umpiring crew could not be swayed, and the Cardinals won the game, 7-6. Barlick later explained the call. “There is no such thing as a momentary catch or momentary possession of the ball,” he declared.8 Joe Presko was awarded his first win of the season after pitching the final two innings. The Braves’ record dropped to 4-5, and Chet Nichols had been saddled with three of those losses.

The game may have ended with a dark cloud for Braves fans, but there was a bright silver lining to it. With his 5-for-6 performance that day, Aaron answered any questions the Braves may have had about him being ready for the major leagues. The focus in the next day’s newspapers was Pendleton’s muffed catch to end the game, but the Milwaukee Journal also noted that “[a]lmost unnoticed in the light of other happenings was an impressive batting show by Henry Aaron.”9 The rookie was said to have a new lease on life after boosting his average almost 100 points – from .242 to .333. “Hammerin’ Hank,” as he came to be known, earned his spot in the Braves starting lineup during that April 25 game, and he held onto it for over 20 years.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted newspapers.com, baseball-reference.com, genealogybank.com, and the SABR biography of Henry Aaron by Bill Johnson.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN195404250.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1954/B04250SLN1954.htm

NOTES

1  “Error for Logan After 52 Chances,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 25, 1954: 19.

2  Miller had started the second game of a doubleheader on April 19 in Chicago, but the game was called on account of darkness after two innings.

3  It had no impact on the game, but after Logan’s stolen base there was an amusing event when home-plate umpire Augie Donatelli ruled that a pitch by Miller grazed Crandall’s cap. The Cardinals argued that the pitch missed him. They may have had a case; as Crandall made his way to first base he was rubbing his right hand.

4  Musial could be considered the hitting star of the game. He went 4-for-6 with a double and home run, scored three runs, and had one RBI. The game started a stretch in which he raised his batting average from .250 to .400 at one point, and it did not sink below .350 until June 23.

5  Bob Broeg, “Birds Nip Braves in 12th With Bit O’Luck,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 26, 1954: 30.

6  Broeg

7  Broeg

8  Lou Chapman, “Pendleton Insists Catch Legal, But Grimm Agrees with Ump,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 26, 1954: 17.

9  Bob Wolf, “Braves’ Two Errors in 12th Give Cardinals 7-6 Victory,” Milwaukee Journal, April 26, 1954: 35.

Henry Aaron’s first game-winning home run came against the Chicago Cubs. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

After finishing his opening month in the big leagues batting .333, Henry Aaron slumped to a mere .182 in the first half of May. While Aaron sat on the bench over the weekend against the Pittsburgh Pirates and in both games of a doubleheader against the New York Giants, Jim Pendleton struggled in his place.1 On this day, Aaron hit his first career game-winning home run and propelled the Milwaukee Braves to a 6-4 win over the Chicago Cubs.

The 1954 season was a watershed one for Aaron. In spring training the Braves were playing the Yankees in St. Petersburg when Bobby Thomson, who famously hit the Shot Heard Round the World for the New York Giants in 1951, fractured his ankle sliding into second base. His injury opened the door for Aaron to start in left field under manager Charlie Grimm.2 The 20-year-old slugger was promoted from Class-A Jacksonville, where he hit .362 and collected 125 RBIs,3 to the major leagues.4

On the mound for the Braves was right-handed pitcher Gene Conley. Conley came into this game with a 2-1 record that featured two complete-game wins against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 5 and against the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field on May 11. In his last game, against the New York Giants on May 16 at the Polo Grounds, he pitched 8⅓ innings, allowed two earned runs, and stuck out three batters in the Braves’ 3-2 win in 10 innings.

Facing Conley was another right-hander, Johnny Klippstein, who was 2-2 and coming off a complete-game victory against the Giants on May 15.

The Braves struck first in the top of the second with a leadoff single by Andy Pafko. Joe Adcock tripled to left-center field to bring home the first run of the game. Johnny Logan hit the first of three Braves home runs in the game to make it 3-0 Milwaukee.

Conley did not allow a Cubs hit through three innings, but was greeted with a leadoff home run from Dee Fondy in the fourth inning, his fifth of the season.5 With one out, Ralph Kiner added another Chicago run with a solo round-tripper, cutting the Braves lead to 3-2. Randy Jackson, batting behind Kiner, almost tied the game with a drive to deep center field, but Bill Bruton snagged the ball right at the wall.6

The score remained at 3-2 until Del Crandall hit a leadoff home run in the top of the seventh, giving the Braves a 4-2 lead.

In the bottom half, the Cubs tied the game. Jackson led off with a double. Ernie Banks singled to left to bring him home and reached second when Aaron bobbled the ball in left field. After Joe Garagiola moved Banks to third on a groundout to second. Manager Stan Hack sent up Bill Serena to pinch-hit for outfielder Luis Márquez. Serena lifted a fly ball to first baseman Adcock, who made the catch just past the infield. Banks broke for home and caught Adcock off guard, beating the throw and tying the score, 4-4, to the delight of most of the 6,179 spectators. Serena’s popup went into the scorebooks as a sacrifice fly.7

After Adcock led off the top of the eighth with a single, Hack went to his bullpen and brought in right-handed reliever Hal Jeffcoat. Jeffcoat retired Logan on a force out at second, which brought up Aaron. Until this point of the game, Aaron was 1-for-3 with a first-inning single but was looking to atone for his critical seventh-inning fielding error. With one swing of the bat, he more than made up for the error. Aaron drove a Jeffcoat pitch over the wall onto Waveland Avenue to give the Braves a 6-4 lead.8

The Cubs attempted a rally in the bottom of the ninth. With right-hander Dave Jolly on in relief, Jackson walked to lead off the inning.9 Banks was retired on a fly ball to right, but Jolly issued another walk to Garagiola. Walker Cooper pinch-hit for Bob Talbot and flied out to center field.10 Hack summoned another pinch-hitter, Steve Bilko, to bat for Jeffcoat. Bilko reached base on Jolly’s third walk of the inning.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Jolly got Frank Baumholtz to fly out to center field and end the game.

Despite hitting his first game-winning home run, Aaron was not satisfied. After the game, the rookie outfielder said he was still tight at the plate. “I still don’t feel right up there. I’m too tight and my timing isn’t just right,” he complained.11 Ray Crone, whose locker was next to Aaron’s, told him, “As long as you keep hitting homers that way, Henry, you can be as tight as you like.”12

Aaron went on to bat .280 for the season with 13 home runs and finished fourth in the National League Rookie of the Year voting.13 But his season came to an end in early September at Crosley Field in Cincinnati when he, as Thomson had done, fractured his ankle sliding into third base.14

The Braves finished the 1954 season with an 89-65 record, third in the National League behind the Giants and Dodgers. The Cubs came in at 64-90, seventh in the National League and 11 games above the 101-loss Pittsburgh Pirates. It was Chicago’s first of three consecutive losing seasons under manager Stan Hack.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to Ken Keltner SABR Chapter president Dennis Degenhardt for locating the Milwaukee Journal and Sentinel articles.

SOURCES

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN195405210.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1954/B05210CHN1954.htm

NOTES

1  Sam Levy, “Hank Aaron Decides He Will Swing More,” Milwaukee Journal, May 22, 1954: 8.

2  Hank Aaron and Lonnie Wheeler, I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (New York: Harper Perennial, 1991), 124-125, Kindle.

3  Aaron and Wheeler, 106, Kindle.

4  Lou Chapman, “‘Tight’ Aaron Tagged Braves’ Payoff Blow,” Milwaukee Sentinel, May 22, 1954: 4, 2.

5  Edward Prell, “Aaron’s Homer Off Jeffcoat in 8th Wins for Braves,” Chicago Tribune, May 22, 1954: 2, 1.

6  Prell, 2, 3.

7  Bob Wolf, “Conley Wins, Jolly ‘Saves’” Milwaukee Journal, May 22, 1954: 8.

8  Wolf.

9  Jolly had relieved Conley with two outs in the top of the eighth.

10  This was Cooper’s first plate appearance with the Cubs. At 39 years old, he was acquired by the Cubs from the Pittsburgh Pirates for the $10,000 waiver price; “Cubs Acquire Walker Cooper From Pirates,” Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1954: 4, 3.

11  “Braves Hope Hank Aaron Will Continue ‘Tight’ at the Plate.” Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent, May 22, 1954: 20.

12  “Braves Hope Hank Aaron Will Continue ‘Tight’ at the Plate.”

13  Bill Johnson, “Henry Aaron,” SABR BioProject, accessed June 14, 2025.

14  Aaron and Wheeler, I Had a Hammer, 135, Kindle.

Henry Aaron reached the 100-RBI milestone in 11 seasons and retired with the all-time mark of 2,297. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

For much of his early career, due in part to his natural shyness and not playing in a media center like New York, Henry Aaron seemed to fly under the radar. One of his greatest records, which still stood as of 2025, also seems to go unnoticed. Aaron holds the all-time major-league record for career RBIs at 2,297. Even Aaron was surprised by the lack of attention the milestone received when he broke Babe Ruth’s record (2,214) in May 1975, just over a year after breaking Ruth’s home-run record. “It seemed a little cockeyed to me that the RBI record would change hands so quietly after all the hullabaloo over my 715th home run,” commented Aaron in his autobiography, I Had a Hammer.1

Aaron had more than 100 RBIs in 11 seasons during his 23-year career. The first time he reached the milestone was in 1955, his second season with the Milwaukee Braves. In a classic Aaron understatement, and also reflecting his humility, he commented, “By 1955, I had begun to figure out major league pitching, and one of the things I figured out was that I’d have to do a lot more figuring before I’d be in the class of Stan Musial or Eddie Mathews or Willie Mays.”2

Aaron drove in his 100th run of 1955 on Sunday afternoon, September 4, against the Cincinnati Redlegs (Cincinnati was referred to as the Redlegs from 1953 to 1958) at Milwaukee’s County Stadium. Three days earlier, Aaron, who had knocked in 69 runs as a rookie in 1954, had recorded his 97th RBI of the season in a loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Braves were second in the National League (74-61) but 14 games behind the first-place Dodgers; the Redlegs were in fifth (67-72), 23 games out.

After a scoreless top of the first, controversy developed in the bottom half of the opening frame. Bill Bruton led off with a single against Redlegs righty Johnny Klippstein. Milwaukee second baseman Danny O’Connell followed with a grounder up the middle. Cincinnati shortstop Roy McMillan and Bruton arrived at the bag at the same time. Bruton appeared to stumble over McMillan’s feet as the shortstop attempted to field the grounder. The ball deflected off McMillan’s glove and both runners were safe. Reds manager Birdie Tebbetts argued with second-base umpire Augie Donatelli for seven minutes claiming runner interference, but to no avail. The Redlegs played the game under protest.3

Cincinnati nearly got out of the first-inning jam when Eddie Mathews struck out and Bruton was caught trying to steal third. With two outs and a man on first, Aaron, batting cleanup, hit his 26th home run of the season. The two-run blast off Klippstein raised his RBI total to 99 and gave Milwaukee a 2-0 lead.4

Cincinnati cut the lead in half in the second. Center fielder Gus Bell led off with a double off Milwaukee starter Chet Nichols. A McMillan single with two outs drove in Bell.

It was still 2-1 in the bottom of the third. Bruton tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by O’Connell. With the bases empty, Mathews connected on his 36th home run of the season to push the Braves’ lead to three runs at 4-1.5

The score remained unchanged until the bottom of the sixth inning. Jackie Collum had replaced Klippstein in the fourth, and now Joe Black was in for his second inning of relief.

Aaron stepped up to the plate to lead off the inning. He launched his second home run of the game, into the left-field bleachers,6 his 27th of the season, which gave him 100 RBIs for the first time in his career. Not bad for an “unconscious hitter,” the moniker some humorists hung on Aaron because of his loose and unconcerned appearance at the plate.7

The game’s final tally came in the top of the eighth inning on a solo home run by the Redlegs’ Wally Post, his 35th homer, which also gave him 100 runs batted in.8 Post’s home run also set a new team home-run mark for Cincinnati. With 14 games remaining on the schedule, the Redlegs’ total of 167 topped the team’s previous record of 166 for one season, set in 1953.9

After surrendering a leadoff single to McMillan to start the top of the ninth, Nichols got the next three Cincinnati batters to pop up, ending his complete-game victory and securing his ninth win of the season.

Aaron’s RBI achievement was itself secured two days later when National League President Warren Giles rejected Tebbetts’ protest of the first-inning play involving Bruton and McMillan, saying that the umpires’ decision could not be grounds for protest.10

Four of Milwaukee’s five runs against the Redlegs came on home runs by Aaron and Mathews. The home-run exploits of the youthful teammates Aaron (age 21) and Mathews (23) inspired Milwaukee Sentinel columnist Lou Chapman to describe them in the next day’s edition as the “Murderous Duo.” He speculated, “They may never approach the brilliant batting heroics of the most famous duet in baseball history – the late Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. But before they’re through, Eddie and Hank could easily rate as the most fearsome twosome on the diamond.”11 Chapman’s analysis proved prophetic. Aaron and Mathews hit 863 home runs as teammates, surpassing Ruth and Gehrig.

Aaron finished his sophomore season boasting a .314 batting average, 27 home runs, and 106 runs batted in. He was selected to the first of a major-league-record 25 All-Star Games. After the 1955 season, Aaron joined Joe Black, who gave up the home run that got him to 100 RBIs, on one of the best all-Black barnstorming teams ever assembled. The roster also included legends Willie Mays, Don Newcombe, and Ernie Banks.12

In January 1956 the Milwaukee chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America hosted a banquet at which Aaron was honored as the Braves’ Most Valuable Player, even over Mathews, who hit 41 home runs and had 101 RBIs. The Sporting News reported, “Aaron, who rarely shows emotion of any kind, admitted he was ‘thrilled’ by the honor.”13

In the 1980s Arby’s fast-food chain introduced the Arby’s RBI Award. Aaron had peripheral involvement with the award since he was the career leader in RBIs and the owner of three Arby’s franchises in the Milwaukee area. As stated in Howard Bryant’s Aaron biography, The Last Hero, “The RBI award was a lesser award, a trinket few paid much attention to.”14

By the turn of the century, Arby’s was no longer the official fast food of major-league baseball and the Arby’s RBI Award was also no more. In 1999, the 25th anniversary of Aaron breaking Babe Ruth’s home-run record, Commissioner Bud Selig announced the Hank Aaron Award, honoring the best hitter in each league. Aaron was ecstatic.15

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and the box scores noted below.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1955/B09040MLN1955.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MLN/MLN195509040.shtml

NOTES

1  Hank Aaron and Lonnie Wheeler, I Had A Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991), 106.

2  I Had A Hammer, 294.

3  “Braves Whip Redlegs Under Protest, 5 to 2,” Chicago Tribune, September 5, 1955: 62.

4  “Aaron Hits Two as Braves Win,” Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), September 5, 1955: 29.

5  Bill Ford, “Braves Use Homers to Defeat Reds, 5-2,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 5, 1955: 39.

6  Bill Ford, “Birdie Names Nuxhall to Oppose Cardinals,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 5, 1955: 65.

7  Lou Chapman, “Aaron, Mathews Murderous Duo,” Milwaukee Sentinel, September 5, 1955: 6.

8  Ford, “Braves Use Homers to Defeat Reds, 5-2.”

9  Tom Swope, “Reds Set New Homer Mark,” Cincinnati Post, September 5, 1955: 38.

10  “Giles Rejects Tebbets’ (sic) Protest,” Kenosha (Wisconsin) News, September 7, 1955: 11.

11  Chapman, “Aaron, Mathews Murderous Duo.”

12  Howard Bryant, The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron (New York: Random House, 2010), 120-121.

13  The Last Hero, 113.

14  The Last Hero, 473.

15  The Last Hero, 473.

Four weeks into the 1956 season, the follow-up to his sophomore-year breakout, Henry Aaron struggled to keep his batting average above .200. But a surge in the second half of May redirected him toward his first career batting title. Aaron was at his best on May 22, with four hits, including a home run, in the Milwaukee Braves’ 7-3 win over the defending World Series champion Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.

Aaron became the Braves’ regular right fielder in 1955 and finished fifth in the National League with a .314 batting average. His 37 doubles paced the NL, and he was selected as an All-Star for the first of 21 consecutive seasons.

His horizons seemed even brighter in 1956, especially after he hit .370 with seven home runs in 108 at-bats during the exhibition season.1 This included battering the Dodgers at a .552 clip in nine preseason games.2 “Aaron, undoubtably the best 22-year-old outfielder in the business, may also add the batting title,” remarked the Milwaukee Sentinel on season’s eve. “The young man is little short of terrific, and he is improving.”3

Aaron had two hits, including a home run off Bob Rush, in Milwaukee’s season-opening shutout of the Chicago Cubs.4 But a 4-for-31 slide dropped his average to .167 by the time the Braves began a five-stop road trip on May 11.

Hall of Famer Paul Waner, Milwaukee’s batting coach, suggested that Aaron’s struggles resulted from lunging at the ball,5 but Aaron himself fingered the early-season weather.

From April 23 through May 10, an 18-day span, the Braves played just five games. Foul weather rendered Milwaukee idle for seven straight days in late April and washed out nine games of a scheduled 13-game homestand.6

Even when it was dry enough for baseball, the Braves endured temperatures in the 40s, or even the 30s.7

“It’s the bad weather,” Alabama native Aaron said in early May. “I’m not used to it, and I just can’t get loose up there. I feel tight around the shoulders when I swing.”8

When the Braves went on the road, their schedule proceeded with fewer interruptions, and Aaron began to hit. By May 22, as Milwaukee opened a scheduled two-game series in Brooklyn, the final stop on the road trip, Aaron had hit safely in nine straight starts and eight games in a row, and his batting average was .282.

“I got an ultimatum from my wife by mail,” he remarked as his average climbed during the road swing. “She wrote I’d better be hitting .300 by the time we get back to Milwaukee. If I don’t, she won’t let me in the house. She really means it, too.”9

Two starts removed from no-hitting the New York Giants on May 12, 29-year-old Dodgers right-hander Carl Erskine faced the Braves on Tuesday night. Brooklyn and Milwaukee trailed the first-place St. Louis Cardinals by half a game.

During exhibition play, Aaron had homered off Erskine – on a pitch at eye level.10

“Aaron doesn’t come to the ballpark looking for a base on balls,” Erskine had noted. “He’ll swing at anything he thinks he can hit, and a pitcher gets nowhere going outside the range of his bat.”11

Aaron started the scoring at Ebbets Field, leading off the second inning by pulling Erskine’s 2-and-2 pitch into the lower deck of the left-field stands.12 His fourth homer of the season gave Milwaukee a 1-0 lead.

Right-hander Bob Buhl’s strikeout of Gil Hodges had stranded two Dodgers in the first inning, but Brooklyn threatened again in the third, as Jim Gilliam singled with one out and took third on Pee Wee Reese’s single.

Duke Snider grounded to first baseman Frank Torre and Gilliam broke for home. Torre – a 24-year-old Brooklyn native appearing in his ninth major-league game, starting in place of .197-hitting Joe Adcock13 – threw to catcher Del Crandall. Trapped in a rundown, Gilliam was tagged out by third baseman Eddie Mathews.

Roy Campanella followed with a sharply-hit single to left. Reese tried to score from second, but Bobby Thomson, five years removed from his pennant-winning home run against Brooklyn as a member of the Giants, fired home to throw out Reese and keep the Braves ahead.14

Milwaukee answered Brooklyn’s near-misses by increasing its lead in the fourth, and Aaron was in the middle of the rally. His one-out single pushed shortstop Johnny Logan, who had led off with a single, to second. Thomson’s single scored Logan to make it 2-0, Braves.

Just three major-league teams hit more doubles than the Dodgers in 1956,15 and only the Cincinnati Redlegs and New York Yankees outhomered them.16 In the middle innings, however, Buhl consistently denied Brooklyn a potentially game-changing big hit. Jackie Robinson’s single and Sandy Amoros’s walk set up Carl Furillo with two runners on base in the fourth, but the veteran right fielder – hitless in 17 at-bats – grounded into a double play.

Campanella broke up the shutout in the fifth with a two-out RBI single off second baseman Danny O’Connell’s glove before Hodges’ fly out left runners at the corners.17 In the sixth, Robinson walked and Amoros sacrificed to put the potential tying run on second, but Torre reached over the railing in foul territory to catch Furillo’s popup.18 Dodgers manager Walter Alston sent up Randy Jackson to bat for Erskine, and Jackson grounded to O’Connell to end the inning.

Brooklyn reliever Clem Labine owned a 0.87 ERA in his first 12 appearances of the season, and Alston brought him in to keep the score close. Labine was on the verge of completing the seventh on seven pitches, with a groundout, a strikeout, and O’Connell’s routine-seeming grounder to first baseman Hodges. “His curve was snapping, and he looked like the Labine who had gone through eight straight relief chores without allowing a score,” observed the New York Daily News.19

But Hodges, playing back for a big hop, had a surprise smaller bounce hit off him for an inning-prolonging error, and Labine’s first two pitches to Logan missed the strike zone.20 The Braves’ shortstop drove the next offering off the façade of the upper stands in left field, giving Milwaukee a 4-1 lead with his third homer of the season.21 The next batter, Mathews, pulled a home run, his fifth, over the screen and inside the foul pole in right field.22

Aaron, who had singled in the fifth, continued the extra-base parade with a double into the right-field corner.23 It was Aaron’s seventh career game with four or more hits, including a five-hit performance in his ninth big-league game in April 1954.24 He moved to third on a wild pitch, but Thomson took a called third strike to end the inning.

Milwaukee center fielder Bill Bruton leaped against the wall in left-center to haul in Campanella’s two-out bid for an extra-base hit with Snider on first and two outs in the seventh,25 and the Braves poured it on in the top of the eighth. Three straight doubles – by Bruton, Torre, and Crandall – produced two more Milwaukee runs, making it a 7-1 game.

The Dodgers turned the scoreboard more respectable in their half of the eighth, finally unleashing their extra-base swings and animating the heretofore silent crowd.26 Hodges bounced a double into the left-field stands and scored one out later on Amoros’s first-pitch homer over the right-field screen and onto Bedford Avenue.27 After Milwaukee manager Charlie Grimm replaced Buhl with Dave Jolly, Furillo snapped his 0-for-19 drought with a double off the right-field wall.28

Alston then pinch-hit pitcher Don Newcombe for reliever Ed Roebuck – provoking what the New York Times described as a “storm of cheers” from the crowd of 18,60429 – and, after Newcombe walked, used another pitcher, 19-year-old rookie Don Drysdale, to pinch-run.30 The Braves snuffed out the rally by turning Gilliam’s grounder to Logan into an inning-ending double play; Torre completed the twin killing with what the Milwaukee Sentinel called “a fancy grab … of a wide, low throw.”31

Aaron had a chance at a five-hit game. Facing another young Dodgers pitcher in the ninth, 20-year-old lefty Sandy Koufax, however, he popped up to Reese at short.32 Jolly closed out Brooklyn in the ninth for a 7-3 win, as Bruton backed up against the fence to snag Hodges’ drive for the game-clinching out.33

The road trip’s final game was rained out, but Aaron’s 4-for-5 night in Brooklyn meant that he pulled into Milwaukee’s North Western train station with a .313 batting average.34 His fortunes waxed and waned until another tear – hitting .419 in 41 games from June 26 through August 7 – launched him unmistakably to the top of the league’s batting class.

He finished the season with a .328 batting average – nine points higher than runner-up Bill Virdon, who split the season between the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates.35 Aaron’s 200 hits led the majors, and his 34 doubles were best in the NL.36 The Braves held first place as late as the season’s final Friday, before the Dodgers overtook them to win the NL pennant by a game.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited 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/BRO/BRO195605220.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1956/B05220BRO1956.htm

NOTES

1 “Braves Batting,” Milwaukee Journal, April 16, 1956: 2, 9.

2 Aaron was 1-for-3 with a home run against Brooklyn in Miami on March 12; 2-for-4 in Miami on March 13; 3-for-3 in Bradenton, Florida, on March 15; 0-for-1 in Jacksonville on April 3; 2-for-4 with a home run and a double in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, on April 4; 2-for-4 with a home run on April 5 in New Orleans; 2-for-2 with a double on April 7 in Knoxville; 1-for-4 on April 8 in Nashville; and 3-for-4 on April 9 in Louisville. Red Thisted, “Braves Get Only 2 Hits, Bow to Dodgers, 5-2,” Milwaukee Sentinel, March 13, 1956: 2, 3; Red Thisted, “Braves Romp Over Dodgers,” Milwaukee Sentinel, March 14, 1956: 2, 3; Red Thisted, “Braves Dump Dodgers Again,” Milwaukee Sentinel, March 16, 1956: 2, 3; Red Thisted, “Dodgers’ Big Bats Beat Braves, 6 to 3,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 4, 1956: 2, 4; Bob Wolf, “Braves Turn Back Dodgers in 10 Inning Tussle, 7 to 5: Aaron, Logan Prove Heroes,” Milwaukee Journal, April 5, 1956: 2, 15; Red Thisted, “Reliefer [sic] Murff Halts Bums,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 6, 1956: 2, 4; Red Thisted, “Spahn Sharp, But Bums Blast Johnson to Win,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 8, 1956: 1-C; Bob Wolf, “Bats of Aaron And Crandall Pace Braves to 8-4 Victory: Henry Passes .400 Average,” Milwaukee Journal, April 10, 1956: 2, 13.

3 Red Thisted, “Bums Choice Again; Braves Top Threat,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 15, 1956: 2-C.

4 Lou Chapman, “Excited About Homer? Not Our Henry!,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 18, 1956: 2, 6.

5 Associated Press, “Paul Waner Isn’t Worried About Aaron’s Hit Slump,” Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Northwestern, May 16, 1956: 19.

6 Red Thisted, “Idle Braves Move Back Into 1st Place; It’s Still Spahn Facing Cards Today,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 30, 1956: 2, 3; Bob Wolf, “Braves May Play Tonight, Because They’re Not Here,” Milwaukee Journal, May 11, 1956: 2, 15.

7 Red Thisted, “Idle Braves Move Back Into 1st Place; It’s Still Spahn Facing Cards Today,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 30, 1956: 2, 3; The temperature dropped to 38 degrees during the Braves’ Opening Day game at Milwaukee’s County Stadium, with “mixed rain and snow.” Doyle K. Getter, “The Fans Get Chilled And So Do the Cubs: 39,766 Endure Wintry Wind, Rain and Even Snow to See Braves Win Opener,” Milwaukee Journal, April 18, 1956: 1. The Braves’ home games against the Cardinals on April 30 and the Giants on May 4 were described as being played in 40-degree weather. Bob Broeg, “Redbirds Take Lead; Three Pitchers Join in Blanking Braves,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 1, 1956: 4B; Associated Press, “Braves Forge 3-2 Win in 10th Frame,” Racine (Wisconsin) Journal-Times, May 5, 1956: 12.

8 Lou Chapman, “Aaron Needs Heat Tonic,” Milwaukee Sentinel, May 3, 1956: 2, 4.

9 Lou Chapman, “Eastern Tour Cures Aaron,” Milwaukee Sentinel, May 19, 1956: 2, 3.

10 Thisted, “Reliefer [sic] Murff Halts Bums”; Lou Chapman, “Mossi Startled as Aaron Connects,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 16, 1956: 1-C.

11 Chapman, “Mossi Startled as Aaron Connects.”

12 Dick Young, “Braves Top Flock, 7-3; Rout Erskine,” New York Daily News, May 23, 1956: 72. This article uses pitch data collected by Dodgers statistician Allan Roth, as found in Baseball-Reference.com’s play-by-play of this game. “Data Coverage,” Baseball-Reference.com, accessed November 14, 2025, https://www.baseball-reference.com/about/coverage.shtml.

13 Associated Press, “Adcock Will Ride Bench in Brooklyn,” La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune, May 22, 1956: 19. Adcock went on to attain career highs in home runs (38) and OPS (.934) in 1956. He finished 11th in the NL MVP voting.

14 Roscoe McGowen, “Logan, Mathews, Aaron Connect as Braves Subdue Brooks, 7 to 3,” New York Times, May 23, 1956: 23.

15 Topping the Dodgers’ 212 doubles were the Boston Red Sox (261), Cardinals (234), and White Sox (218). Coincidentally, the Braves also hit 212 doubles.

16 Cincinnati hit 221 home runs, tying the record set by the 1947 Giants. The Yankees hit 190 and the Dodgers hit 179. The Braves were fourth with 177.

17 Young, “Braves Top Flock, 7-3; Rout Erskine.”

18 Red Thisted, “Burdette to Close Braves’ Trip Today Against Craig,” Milwaukee Sentinel, May 23, 1956: 2, 5.

19 Young, “Braves Top Flock, 7-3; Rout Erskine.”

20 Young, “Braves Top Flock, 7-3; Rout Erskine.”

21 Young, “Braves Top Flock, 7-3; Rout Erskine.”

22 Young, “Braves Top Flock, 7-3; Rout Erskine”; Roscoe McGowen, “Logan, Mathews, Aaron Connect as Braves Subdue Brooks, 7 to 3,” New York Times, May 23, 1956: 23.

23 McGowen, “Logan, Mathews, Aaron Connect as Braves Subdue Brooks, 7 to 3.”

24 Aaron was 5-for-5 with a home run in the Braves’ 12-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on April 25, 1954. He had three career five-hit games and 46 four-hit games.

25 Young, “Braves Top Flock, 7-3; Rout Erskine”; Red Thisted, “Braves Bomb Dodgers,” Milwaukee Sentinel, May 23, 1956: 2, 4.

26 McGowen, “Logan, Mathews, Aaron Connect as Braves Subdue Brooks, 7 to 3.”

27 McGowen, “Logan, Mathews, Aaron Connect as Braves Subdue Brooks, 7 to 3.”

28 Young, “Braves Top Flock, 7-3; Rout Erskine.”

29 McGowen, “Logan, Mathews, Aaron Connect as Braves Subdue Brooks, 7 to 3.” Newcombe pinch-hit 106 times in his 10-season National and American League career, batting .227 with 10 RBIs.

30 Drysdale had pitched in four games previously, including three starts. He had beaten the Philadelphia Phillies with a complete game in his first big-league start on April 23. He appeared as a pinch-runner five times in his 14-season major-league career.

31 Thisted, “Braves Bomb Dodgers.”

32 Aaron hit .362 in 116 lifetime at-bats against Koufax, with 7 home runs and a 1.077 OPS.

33 Thisted, “Braves Bomb Dodgers.”

34 Thisted, “Burdette to Close Braves’ Trip Today Against Craig.”

35 Virdon was traded from St. Louis to Pittsburgh for Bobby Del Greco and Dick Littlefield in May 1956.

36 Aaron won his second batting title in 1959, when he hit .355.

Henry Aaron won his first of two batting titles in 1956 with a .328 mark. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

After falling behind the Brooklyn Dodgers, 2-0, the Milwaukee Braves came back to win, 3-2, in 10 innings. This victory gave the Braves a four-game sweep of the defending World Series champions.1

Joe Adcock tied the score in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run home run, while Henry Aaron knocked in the game-winning run in the 10th with his fourth single of the game. Aaron’s four hits in five at-bats raised his batting average to .323, highest on the Braves. Adcock had now hit home runs in five consecutive games.

After the win, the Braves led the second-place Cincinnati Reds (losers of three straight) by two games and the Dodgers (losers of five straight) by 4½ games.2

Brooklyn’s starting pitcher, 39-year old Sal Maglie, “Brooklyn’s elder stateman,” was staked to a 2-0 lead through the first seven innings.3 Duke Snider started the scoring by homering over the right-field screen in the first inning off Braves starting pitcher. Gene Conley. It was Snider’s 20th home run of the season. Carl Furillo made the score 2-0 when he hit his eighth home run, to left, in the fourth.4

The Dodgers loaded the bases in the fifth inning but could not score. Jim Gilliam singled to left field but was forced out on a fielder’s choice by Sandy Amoros. Amoros stole second base, Snider walked, and Pee Wee Reese singled to load the bases. Rocky Nelson hit a groundball to Adcock, who threw to Del Rice at home plate to force out Amoros. The inning ended when Furillo hit a long liner to Aaron.5

The Dodgers threatened to score in the seventh and eighth innings with runners on first and third in both innings. Double plays started by Danny O’Connell in the seventh and Eddie Mathews in the eighth bailed out Conley each time.6

Maglie kept the Braves off-balance for the first six innings of the ballgame as the Braves managed only three singles off him, two by Aaron and one by Mathews. His pitches changed speed and often came inside to the Braves batters. At one point, after Johnny Logan was unsuccessful with a sacrifice bunt, the next pitch came inside to the Braves shortstop. Adcock, who had considerable success against Dodgers pitching this year, was sent to the ground on Maglie’s first pitch to him.7 In 17 games against the Dodgers in 1956, Adcock mauled their pitching with a .421 batting average, a 1.158 slugging average, 13 home runs, and 23 RBIs.

However, the Braves broke through in the seventh inning. The first two hitters, Aaron and Wes Covington, hit deep fly balls to center field for outs. Bill Bruton singled to center and the next batter, Adcock, was accompanied to home plate by a loud ovation from the County Stadium crowd of 39,105. He hit Maglie’s first pitch over the left-field fence, 370 feet from home plate.8 In his game story, New York sportswriter Dick Young asked, “Do you think, maybe, that the Dodger catchers are telling Joe Adcock what pitch is coming?” To this point in the season, half of Adcock’s 16 home runs had come against the Dodgers.9

Each team had scoring opportunities in the next two innings. Furillo and Rube Walker each singled in the Dodgers’ eighth inning but Chico Fernández grounded into a double play started by Mathews.

Maglie walked Conley on four pitches to open the eighth inning. In the last game he pitched, Maglie walked three that cost the Dodgers the ballgame. Manager Walter Alston wasn’t waiting for three walks this time: He replaced Maglie with Clem Labine.10 Maglie was extremely unhappy at being removed from the game.11 Conley moved to second on a single by O’Connell, but Logan hit into a double play and Mathews flied out to end the inning.12

Conley opened the top of the ninth by striking out Labine. After Gilliam singled, Conley struck out the next two batters, including Snider on three swings, to end the inning.13

Aaron led off the ninth inning with his third single of the game and moved to second base when Covington hit into a fielder’s choice. Bruton was intentionally walked and Labine walked Adcock to load the bases. Frank Torre, pinch-hitting for Rice, hit a short fly that kept Aaron at third and Chuck Tanner, pinch-hitting for Conley, dribbled the first pitch to Gilliam for the third out.14

Ernie Johnson relieved Conley in the 10th inning but quickly got himself into trouble. Two infield hits and an intentional walk loaded the bases with two outs. Don Newcombe, pinch-hitting for Labine, grounded out.15

Don Bessent replaced Labine in the bottom of the 10th. The first batter, O’Connell, flied out to left field. Logan doubled to left field and Mathews was intentionally walked. Aaron, with three singles in four at-bats, hit a liner down the right-field line. After it landed foul by two feet, Aaron returned to the batter’s box, shaking his head.16

Aaron hit the next pitch to left-center field for his fourth hit of the day.17 As Logan ran for third, he slipped and fell. But Aaron’s well-placed hit gave Logan time to get up and run for home with the winning run.18

Johnson, who recorded his second win in two days, improved to 3-2 for the season. The losing pitcher, Bessent, dropped to 0-2.

Aaron said his three days off around the All-Star Game gave him the rest he needed. For the first time in his career, he was concerned about his hitting when he started the season batting .167 as of May 8 after the first 11 games of the season. “You get a couple of homers and start going for them all the time. Pretty soon you’re in a slump,” he said. “That’s how it was with me. Right now, I’m just swinging for those hits – and I feel real good up there.”19

Fred Haney, the Braves manager, who took over from Charlie Grimm the previous month, felt the Braves could compete for the pennant “if our hitting comes up to its potential.” The Braves were in fifth place when he was named manager. Under Haney, they now had a 21-8 record, which included an 11-game winning streak.20

After losing four straight games to the Braves, the Dodgers appeared stunned as they left the County Stadium visitors clubhouse.21 Some writers questioned whether old age had caught up with the team. 22

The crowd of 39,105 at the game raised the three-day series total to 120,392.23 (The teams played a doubleheader on July 13.)

The 22-year-old Aaron led the National League in the following offensive categories in 1956, his third year in the league:

• 200 hits (the first of two times leading the league)
• 34 doubles (the second of four times leading the league)
• .328 batting average (the first of two times leading the league)
• 340 total bases (the first of eight times leading the league)

Throughout his 23-year career, Aaron had numerous game-winning walk-off hits, nine of which were home runs. The first and most significant of them came on September 23, 1957 off Billy Muffett of the St. Louis Cardinals. This home run clinched the Braves’ first National League pennant. The last came in 1976, his final season in baseball, as a 42-year-old designated hitter for the Milwaukee Brewers.

The conclusion of the 1956 season was not kind to the Braves. They finished in second place, one game behind the Dodgers, while the Reds finished in third place, two games behind Brooklyn.

SOURCES

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MLN/MLN195607140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1956/B07140MLN1956.htm

NOTES

1  Don C. Trenary, “Braves Beat Dodgers, 3-2; Sweep Four Games,” Milwaukee Journal, July 15, 1956: 49.

2  Red Thisted, “Braves Nip Bums in 10th for Sweep,” Milwaukee Sentinel Extra, July 15, 1956: 17.

3  Trenary.

4  Dick Young, “Joe-the-Jinx at It Again: Brooks Lose in the 10th, 3-2,” New York Daily News, July 15, 1956: 342.

5  Roscoe McGowen, “Braves Down Brooks, 3-2, in 10th as Adcock Excels,” New York Times, July 15, 1956: 136.

6  Thisted, “Braves Nip Bums in 10th for Sweep.”

7  Trenary, “Braves Beat Dodgers, 3-2; Sweep Four Games.”

8  Trenary.

9  Young. Seven of the others came against the Chicago Cubs.

10  Young, “Joe-the-Jinx at It Again.”

11  McGowen, “Braves Down Brooks, 3-2, in 10th.”

12  Trenary.

13  Trenary.

14  Thisted.

15  Trenary.

16  Trenary.

17  Trenary.

18  Young.

19  Lou Chapman, “Bums Can’t Cool Braves’ Man of the Hour,” Milwaukee Sentinel Extra, July 15, 1956: 18.

20  “Boys Have Done It All, Not Me – Haney,” Milwaukee Sentinel, July 15, 1956: 18.

21  Chapman, 17.

22  Bob Wolf, “Decline of Brooklyn Empire Evident in Four Straight Defeats by Braves,” Milwaukee Journal, July 15, 1956: 45.

23  Associated Press-United Press, “Braves Take Four Straight to Crush Dodgers in Series,” Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), July 15, 1956: 45.

The Braves’ move from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953, the major-leagues’ first franchise relocation in 50 years, installed a rival just 90 miles north of Wrigley Field. The timing was terrible for the Cubs; their new neighbor ascended to dominance in the National League while the Cubs were stranded near the cellar. By 1957, the Braves’ lowest finish since their move was third place, while the Cubs’ best showing was sixth.

When the teams met at Wrigley Field for a Labor Day doubleheader on September 2, 1957, Fred Haney’s Braves (79-49) were perched atop the National League while Bob Scheffing’s Cubs (49-77) were struggling to stay out of last place. A more competitive matchup pitted Henry Aaron against Ernie Banks in the NL home-run race. Both players had entered the league around the same time and become their franchise’s first African-American stars. Both were known for their understated demeanors and explosive bats. Aaron had created some distance between the two in the season’s home-run race so far, leading 38 to 30 (with Brooklyn’s Duke Snider at 34), but Banks was within reach.

The doubleheader drew a holiday crowd of over 34,000, the largest in the majors that day and the biggest at Wrigley Field in weeks.2 Lew Burdette (14-7) took the mound for the Braves in Game One, while the Cubs sent out Bob Rush (4-13). The Braves bolted out of the starting blocks. On the second pitch of the game, Red Schoendienst smacked a double, then scored when Frank Torre reached base on a throwing error.3 Two batters in, it was 1-0.

After Aaron walked, Wes Covington singled to score Torre. That brought up Bob Hazle. Summoned from Triple-A Wichita in late July after an injury to Bill Bruton, the rookie outfielder inexplicably unleashed 34 hits for a .507 batting average after one month, earning the nickname Hurricane Hazle. Author Howard Bryant called it the “greatest five-week show in the history of baseball,”4 and Hazle kept it going at Wrigley Field with a double that brought home Aaron. Next up was Félix Mantilla, Aaron’s longtime roommate and the godfather of his daughter.5 Mantilla singled and Covington scored.

The game “became a debacle in the opening inning,” wrote the Chicago Tribune.6 After four runs and just one out, Rush was done for the day. In came Bob Anderson, who gave up a two-run single to Del Crandall. The score was 6-0 after half an inning.

The Cubs got one back in the first on a solo home run by Bob Speake. But in the top of the second, Eddie Mathews drove a ball into the ivy for an RBI triple and came home on Covington’s sacrifice fly to make it 8-1.7

Still, the Cubs, as the Tribune put it, “kept up their fruitless chase.”8 Dale Long led off the bottom of the second with a base hit. Banks came up and belted the ball over the left-field wall to make it 8-3.

But things disintegrated for the Cubs with two outs in the top of the third. Schoendienst singled, Torre was hit by a pitch, and Mathews walked to load the bases for Aaron. This was Aaron’s dream scenario – it was why he batted cleanup, why he preferred strategic singles over swinging for the fences, and why he would ultimately finish as baseball’s all-time RBI leader. Aaron shot a single into center field, bringing in two, to give the Braves double digits in runs in less than three innings. Covington followed with a three-run homer, and the Braves led by a football score of 13-3.

The Cubs were getting shelled, but they kept pounding away with their bats. In the bottom of the third, Walt “Moose” Moryn, Banks, and Cal Neeman hit RBI singles, bouncing Burdette. The bad news for Burdette was that he allowed six runs and failed to finish the third inning. The good news was that his team had furnished the comfiest of cushions: a seven-run lead. Ernie Johnson came on in relief and gave up a double to Jerry Kindall that brought in Banks. After three innings it was Braves 13, Cubs 7. By the standards of this game, it qualified as a close margin.

In the fourth inning the Braves set the table once again for Aaron, with the top three hitters in the lineup reaching base with two outs. Aaron delivered again, knocking a base hit to right field, scoring two more to make it 15-7 Braves.

Each side endured their first scoreless half inning. Then Banks came to bat in the bottom of the fifth and blasted another home run, a solo shot to the left-field seats.

In Aaron’s next at-bat, only two runners were aboard this time. Aaron clobbered a double to score them both for his fifth and sixth RBIs of the game.9 Covington immediately tied the mark by batting in Aaron to reach six RBIs himself. After six innings, the score was 18-8.

After stabilizing things on the mound for the Braves, Johnson added to the runs pouring in on offense. When Mantilla led off the seventh with a single and advanced on a wild pitch, Johnson came up and lashed a single to drive in Mantilla. The Braves had tied a Milwaukee-era team record with their 19th run of the game. They broke it the next inning, when Aaron reached on an error and came home on a double by the red-hot Hazle, who bashed his fourth hit and third double of the day. Hazle scored on a single by Crandall, and the Braves led 21-8.

The Cubs had one last offensive gasp left: an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth by Bobby Adams and an RBI single by Chuck Tanner. Banks came up with two on and two out, but grounded out to Mathews at third. The Cubs had reached double digits too – their most prodigious output in over two months – and yet trailed by a gaping margin, 21-10.

The Braves placed one last exclamation point on the game in the top of the ninth. Torre led off with his fourth hit, a triple off new Cubs hurler Elmer Singleton. Mathews followed by launching a home run to make it 23-10.

Singleton set down the next three Braves in order, as did Johnson with the Cubs. The shootout was over.

The Braves had erupted for 23 runs, 26 hits (also a Milwaukee record), and 43 total bases.10 Every Brave in the lineup – plus the reliever, Johnson – had at least two hits, and six players had at least three. Torre reached base seven straight times and tied a modern major-league record by scoring six runs.11

The Braves finished Labor Day with a far quieter three-hit shutout by Bob Trowbridge. The doubleheader sweep, paired with two losses by second-place St. Louis, expanded the Braves’ pennant lead to 8½ games.

Aaron’s RBI barrage announced that after a tepid August, his bat was back. Down the September stretch, Bryant wrote, Aaron “took hold of the pennant” and “wrestled it to the ground.”12

While Braves vs. Cubs was no contest, the home-run race between Aaron and Banks tightened up. Banks’s two long balls on Labor Day gave him 32 for the season, inching him closer to Aaron’s 38. Banks would finish the season just one back of Aaron’s 44. The following year, Banks would lap the field with 47 home runs and pluck the NL MVP crown from Aaron, the first of an unprecedented two straight MVPs for Mr. Cub.

This article appears in “Wrigley Field: The Friendly Confines at Clark and Addison” (SABR, 2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. To read more stories from this book online, click here.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN195709021.shtml

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1957/B09021CHN1957.htm

Notes

1 Cubs vice president David Holland would soon outline a sobering five-point rebuilding plan: All the Cubs needed was a second baseman, a third baseman, a center fielder, a catcher, and a left-handed pitcher. See James Enright, “Holland Posts 5-Point List of Cubs’ Needs,” The Sporting News, September 11, 1957: 47.

2 “Braves Take 2; Lead 8½ Games,” Boston Globe, September 3, 1957: 15.

3 Irving Vaughan, “Braves Whip Cubs, 23-10, 4-0,” Chicago Tribune, September 3, 1957: 58.

4 Howard Bryant, The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron (New York: Anchor Books, 2010), 199.

5 Hank Aaron and Lonnie Wheeler, I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), 124.

6 Vaughan, “Braves Whip Cubs.”

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Bob Wolf, “Braves Clear Path to Pennant With Bats Instead of Pitching,” The Sporting News, September 11, 1957: 9.

11 Keith Sutton, “185 Runs Scored on Labor Day Only Six Shy of Majors’ Mark,” The Sporting News, September 11, 1957: 31.

12 Bryant, 202.

“No more had the radio announcer said ‘Home Run!’ than the din began, than there were hoots and long solid roars.  Here and there were heard squeals, shouts, laughter.”2 So wrote Harry Pease in the Milwaukee Journal after the Braves brought the National League pennant to Milwaukee, propelled by an 11th-inning homer by Hank Aaron.

It had been five years since the Braves had played their last game in Boston and received a warm welcome in Milwaukee. They finished above .500 in each of their first four seasons in Milwaukee and they never finished lower than third place. As August roared into September in 1957, the Braves were on a pace to set an all-time attendance record and win their first pennant in their new hometown.

A 10-game winning streak from August 4 through August 15 had propelled them to an eight-game lead over their nearest rival. Then, after seeing St. Louis close the gap to 2½ games on September 15, the Braves had reeled off another six straight. They were on the verge of a champagne-popping experience when they took the field at Milwaukee on September 23 to face the fading Cardinals. The magic number was two.

The fans poured through the turnstiles and their numbers reached 40,926. The count may have been higher had not the chilly weather deterred some folks from attending. Those who braved the 49-degree temperature as the game began would cheer the home team lustily. Braves manager Fred Haney gave the ball to Lew Burdette. Burdette’s record coming into the game was 16-9. The Cardinals’ dream of extending the 1957 campaign hinged largely on the left arm of Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell. Mizell had won at least 10 games in each of his first three seasons with the Cardinals, but 1957 was an offyear. He brought a record of 8-10 into the game, and his ERA stood at 3.70.  However, he had won his previous three decisions.

The game was scoreless as the Braves came to bat in the bottom of the second inning. Singles by Aaron and Joe Adcock put runners on first and second with none out. Andy Pafko was up in an obvious bunting situation. On the first pitch, Pafko did not show bunt and took the pitch. On the next pitch, he laid down a beautiful bunt that Mizell was unable to field cleanly. Pafko was credited with a single, and the bases were loaded.3 Wes Covington sent a fly ball to center field and Aaron retreated to third base to tag up. Then center fielder Wally Moon dropped the ball. Aaron scored easily and Covington reached safely. The bases remained full. Cards manager Fred Hutchinson brought in pitcher Larry Jackson, who stranded the three runners. The Braves took a 1-0 lead to the third inning. 

Jackson and Burdette hurled goose eggs at each other over the next three innings.  In the top of the sixth, it was the Cardinals’ turn to mount a rally. A single by Moon, a double by Stan Musial, and an intentional pass to Irv Noren loaded the bases with one out. Lew Burdette was on the verge of escaping without damage after Del Ennis popped up for the second out of the inning. But Alvin Dark’s grounder up the middle eluded Burdette for a single that scored two runs.  The Cardinals had a 2-1 lead. Burdette avoided further damage, getting Hobie Landrith to ground out.

Jackson, usually a starter, was in his sixth inning of relief work when the Braves came to the plate in the seventh inning. Red Schoendienst, who had come to the Braves from the New York Giants earlier in the season, opened the inning with a single up the middle, just out of Jackson’s reach.  Johnny Logan’s bunt advanced Red to second base and he scored on a double off the bat of Eddie Mathews.  It was Mathews’ 28th double and 94th RBI of the season. There was no further scoring as Jackson, after issuing an intentional pass to Aaron, induced Adcock to hit into an inning-ending double play.

For the next two innings zeros filled the scoreboard, although the Cardinals threatened in the eighth. Moon walked to lead off the inning and advanced to third base on a single by Musial. Dick Schofield ran for Musial and the stage was set for Irv Noren.  His grounder to short took a bad hop, but Logan corralled the ball and his throw home nipped Moon as he tried to score. Burdette got the next two batters on grounders and the score remained knotted.

Through nine innings, Burdette allowed only two runs and scattered nine hits. Jackson gave way to Billy Muffett in the ninth inning and Muffett extended the game to extra innings, setting down the Braves in order in his first inning of relief.

Burdette, showing no signs of weakness, pitched a scoreless top of the 10th inning. In the bottom of the inning, the Braves mounted a threat. The bases were loaded with one out and Burdette, with his .151 batting average was due up. He had singled earlier but Haney elected to send up left-handed-hitting Frank Torre to face the right-handed Muffett. Torre grounded into a 3-2-3 double play and the game went on. The Cardinals were still alive.

Gene Conley entered the game for the Braves to pitch the 11th inning. Conley had originally signed with the Braves when they were in Boston was one of six members of the 1957 team who had played for both the Boston and Milwaukee Braves. Conley saw three batters in the top of the 11th inning and retired them all. Muffett took the mound for his third inning of relief. With one out, Logan singled to center field and he was still on first base after Mathews flied out to center field.  Up stepped Hammerin’ Hank.

Three hours and 33 minutes had elapsed since Lew Burdette had thrown the first pitch of the game. Aaron sent Muffett’s first delivery skyward toward deepest center field and Moon gave chase, leaping as high as he could, but to no avail. The ball came down into the hands of Hubert Davis, who was among a cluster of fans standing beyond the fence.4 Coincidentally, the temperature on the field was the same as the number on Aaron’s back — 44. Aaron’s 109th career homer was his 43rd of the season, and after he circled the bases the Braves were on their way to the World Series to face the Yankees.

Doyle Getter of the Milwaukee Journal looked on as “(h)ats and scorecards and streamers and torn-up paper were thrown into the air. The din was so loud you couldn’t hear the person standing next to you. Fans jumped up and down and screamed. The entire Braves’ dugout poured out onto the field and mobbed Aaron as he reached home plate.  He was swallowed in a swirling, pounding mass of delirious players and coaches.”5

Andy Pafko’s wife was keeping score and once the bedlam died down made her final notes of the evening.  “Won pennant, 4-2, Conley, winning pitcher.”6 The win brought Conley’s record for the season to 9-9.  Muffett’s record went to 3-2.

The Braves took their celebration to the Wisconsin Club and lingered until 5:00 A.M. The uproar in the streets, mostly spontaneous, continued until close to 4:00 A.M. Only seven arrests were made — three for drunkenness and four for disorderly conduct. The next day, District Judge Robert Hansen handed out suspended sentences to all who came before him, including the three arrested for drunkenness.  “Any Milwaukeean ought to be forgiven, because last night was a night to celebrate.”7

Other Sources

Google News Archive

Newspapers.com

Notes

1 Doyle Getter, “The Ending is Dramatic:  Home Run in by Aaron 11th Inning beats St. Louis Team,” Milwaukee Journal, September 24, 1957: 20.

2 Harry Pease, “Beeps, Blasts, and Roars Share Downtown Areas,” Milwaukee Journal, September 24, 1957: 1.

3 Wolf, Bob. “Aaron’s Mighty Home Run Spells out ‘Pennant’: Historic Hit Beats Cards,” Milwaukee Journal, September 24, 1957: part 2, 18.

4 Getter: 20.

5 Getter: 1.

6 Getter: 20.

7 Pease.