A teenage Willie Mays with the Birmingham Black Barons. Mays’ father did not allow him to join the Black Barons full-time in 1948 until school was over at the end of May. (Courtesy of Memphis Public Library)

On Saturday, September 11, 1948, Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, hosted Game One of the Negro American League Championship Series between the Birmingham Black Barons and the Kansas City Monarchs. The series featured a matchup between first-year managers and was expected to be a hotly contested because both teams had “plenty of hitting, power, pitching and fielding.”1

Birmingham was managed by player-manager Piper Davis. The Black Barons had won the championship of the first half of the NAL and finished with a league-best record of 63-28-2 (.692).2

The Black Barons’ powerful offense included shortstop Artie Wilson, who won the league batting title with a sizzling .433 average; Davis, who primarily played second base and batted .393; and right fielder Ed Steele, who hit .357 with 3 home runs. Rookie Willie Mays, who was just 17 years old, became the team’s center fielder after regular starter Norman Robinson broke his ankle, and hit .262.3 The club also had a solid pitching staff led by Jimmie Newberry (14-5, 2.18 ERA), Bill Powell (11-3, 3.30), Bill Greason (6-4, 3.30), and Alonzo Perry (10-2, 4.73).4

Their counterparts from Kansas City had won the second-half championship of the NAL and finished with a record of 67-34-3 (.663). The Monarchs were managed by player-manager Buck O’Neil and had an intimidating lineup of their own with perhaps the best-hitting outfield in the NAL. The Monarchs were led by center fielder Willard Brown, who hit .408 and crushed 7 home runs; Hank Thompson in right field, who hit .337 with 5 homers and 12 steals; and left fielder Johnie Scott, who batted .300. Another outfielder, 19-year-old rookie Elston Howard, would later gain fame as a catcher with the New York Yankees.

The Monarchs’ pitching staff was every bit as good as Birmingham’s. It was led by Jim LaMarque (15-5, 1.96 ERA), Ford Smith (10-5, 2.64), Gene Collins (9-3, 2.23), and Gene Richardson (5-6, 4.40).5

Future Hall of Fame pitcher Hilton Smith was 41 years old. Depending on the source, he may have had a terrible season or an above-average one. According to the Howe News Bureau, Smith posted a 1-2 record in the NAL with an ERA of 8.02 in 46 innings pitched. Though Seamheads seems to contradict Howe, showing Smith with a 4-2 record and a 3.96 ERA in 62⅔ innings, baseball historian Gary Ashwill explains that the Seamheads numbers include seven regular-season games against NAL teams (in which Smith went 2-2 with a 5.92 ERA in 38 IP), along with four appearances in interleague games against NNL teams, in which he was 2-0 with a 2.10 ERA in 25⅔ IP).

According to Ashwill: “It looks like he had some good performances in interleague games that didn’t count in the official NAL stats, plus a few bad innings against NAL opponents that were counted in official league stats, but that are not represented in our statistics because no box scores were published.” If the interleague games with box scores included in Smith’s Seamheads totals are added to Howe’s official NAL statistics, Smith finished either 3-2 or 4-2 with a 5.90 ERA in 71⅔ IP against major Negro League teams in the 1948 regular season.”6

In Game One, Davis handed the ball to his reliable right-hander, Powell, while O’Neil countered with left-hander LaMarque, who had a reputation as a soft-tosser with pinpoint control.7 A reported crowd of 5,300 passed through the turnstiles to see the Saturday night game.8 After four innings, the game was scoreless but hardly a pitchers’ duel as the teams had already combined to strand 12 baserunners.

The Monarchs squandered their best early opportunity to score when shortstop Gene Baker led off the game with a walk and Herb Souell singled. Facing an early deficit and with their run-producers, Thompson, Brown, and Howard, coming up, Powell settled down and recorded three straight outs, although the details of how he escaped the inning are lost to history.

Birmingham’s hitters were even more frustrated early in the game as LaMarque proved easy to hit but difficult to score against. The Black Barons stranded two baserunners in each of the first four innings. In the bottom of the fifth, they finally broke through.

Davis and Mays opened the inning with singles. Steele reached on an error by pitcher LaMarque to load the bases. The pitcher began to struggle with his control. He walked left fielder Jim Zapp and then hit catcher Pepper Bassett with a pitch. With the Black Barons now leading, 2-0, with no outs and the bases still loaded, first baseman Joe Scott hit into a force, and Steele was thrown out at home. LaMarque was able to record the second out of the inning against the next batter, Powell. However, leadoff hitter Wilson got a base hit, scoring Zapp. The Monarchs then got out of the inning but trailed, 3-0.

Kansas City immediately stormed back, scoring three runs in the top of the sixth to tie the score.9 Thompson opened the frame with a walk. Needing to give his team a spark, he stole second. With one out, Howard singled, moving Thompson to third. After Monarchs’ first baseman Tom Cooper made an out, second baseman Curtis Roberts singled, scoring Thompson and moving Howard to third. Roberts made a heads-up play by hustling into second as the ball was thrown to third. Catcher Earl Taborn followed with a single to score Howard and Roberts and tie the game, 3-3. Powell got LaMarque for the final out, but the damage was done.

The Black Barons threatened again in the sixth and seventh innings but again stranded runners and the game remained tied. But in the top of the eighth, the Monarchs’ Brown hit a leadoff single and ratcheted up the pressure on the Black Barons’ defense by stealing second. Howard’s single moved him to third. After an out, Roberts singled again, driving in Thompson to give the Monarchs a 4-3 advantage. But with two on and only one out, the Monarchs failed to add to their lead as Powell induced back-to-back outs from Taborn and LaMarque.

Birmingham failed to score in the bottom of the eighth, and Powell recorded three straight outs in the top of the ninth. Birmingham’s Bassett opened the bottom of the ninth with a double. Manager Davis replaced his slow-footed 37-year-old catcher with a pinch-runner, second baseman Wiley Griggs. The move paid off when Greason, pinch-hitting for Powell, singled and drove home Griggs to tie the game, 4-4. However, the Black Barons’ threat soon ended and the game went into extra innings.

Griggs remained in the game at second in place of the versatile Davis, who moved behind the plate with Bassett out of the game. Greason stayed in the game to pitch and breezed through the Monarchs’ order in the 10th. The Black Barons also couldn’t score in the frame and the game remained tied.

In the 11th, Newberry relieved Greason. Roberts reached on an error but the crafty left-hander picked him off and the threat soon ended. In the bottom of the inning, O’Neil removed LaMarque and brought Richardson into the game. Scott led off with a single. After Newberry popped out, Wilson walked. Richardson then uncorked a wild pitch and both runners moved up. Richardson then walked John Britton to fill the bases with one out. The next batter, Davis, popped up to second.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Mays came to the plate. The Black Barons had already stranded a whopping 20 or 21 runners to just 8 for Kansas City.10 Mays was unfazed and ended the game with a sharp single to second, which scored Scott. Author John Klima described the moment in Willie’s Boys:

“It didn’t matter how you pitched to Mays because he didn’t care. He hit like he was trying to hurt someone. This time, Mays hit a full-count pitch hard behind second base. Roberts was extraordinarily fast, so he was able to scramble to his right to knock down the drive as he slid on the seat of his pants. He stopped the ball but could not control it. When he saw Mays dashing down the first base line with the hat flying off his head, he knew he had no chance to stop Scott, who charged home with the winning run in Birmingham’s dramatic 5-4 victory.

“The Black Barons streamed from their dugout and surrounded Mays on the infield grass, celebrating the child, who basked in the moment.”11

Davis led the Black Barons with four hits, while Wilson had three. Four other players (Mays, Bassett, Powell, and Scott) contributed two hits each. Powell struck out eight over his nine innings pitched and Newberry was credited with the win.

Howard led the Monarchs with three hits, while Brown and Cooper added two hits each. LaMarque struck out 8 in 10 innings pitched and Richardson got the loss.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the box score and play-by-play of the game presented by Retrosheet. This piece mostly uses official NAL pitching statistics compiled by the Howe News Bureau, as they cover more games than Seamheads, which includes only games for which box scores could be found.12

https://retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1948/B09110BIR1948.htm

NOTES

1  “Kansas City Ready for Black Barons Play-Off,” Birmingham Weekly Review, September 11, 1948: 7.

2  William J. Plott, Black Baseball’s Last Team Standing: The Birmingham Black Barons, 1919-1962 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2019), 180.

3  https://seamheads.com/NegroLgs/team.php?yearID=1948&teamID=BBB&LGOrd=3. Except as noted, most of the statistics in this biography are from Seamheads or Retrosheet.org.

4  Official Negro American League Statistics for 1948, compiled by the Howe News Bureau (Chicago).

5  Official Negro American League Statistics for 1948, compiled by the Howe News Bureau.

6  Email from Gary Ashwill, February 14, 2023.

7  John Klima, Willie’s Boys (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009), 154.

8  “Birmingham Grabs First 2 Games in Playoff Series,” Chicago Defender, September 18, 1948: 11; “Repeats Over Monarchs,” Kansas City Times, September 13, 1948: 15.

9  “Birmingham Grabs First 2 Games in Playoff Series.”

10 “Birmingham Grabs First 2 Games in Playoff Series.” The newspaper reported 20 runners; Retrosheet shows 21.

11 Klima, 158.

12 According to Gary Ashwill, “Seamheads statistics and the official Howe News data are not directly comparable, as Seamheads is based only on games for which box scores were published at the time (roughly half of Negro league games in the 1940s), and Seamheads regular season statistics include official NAL games as well as two categories of games that were not counted in the official numbers: unofficial games against NAL opponents, and interleague games against NNL teams. The Howe News Bureau statistics, by contrast, cover only official NAL regular season games, though they are more complete than Seamheads numbers in that category, as they include many games for which box scores were not published at the time.” Email from Gary Ashwill, February 14, 2023.

A teenage Willie Mays with the Birmingham Black Barons. Mays’ father did not allow him to join the Black Barons full-time in 1948 until school was over at the end of May. (Courtesy of Memphis Public Library)

The Birmingham Black Barons and the Kansas City Monarchs met at Rickwood Field for Game Two of the Negro American League Championship Series on September 12, 1948. Birmingham won the first game, 5-4, in 11 innings the previous day.

For Game Two, Monarchs manager Buck O’Neil started a 29-year-old right-hander Ford Smith, who had won 10 games during the season and posted a 2.64 ERA. Birmingham’s Piper Davis gave the nod to right-hander Alonzo Perry, a 26-year-old who had also won 10 games, but whose 4.73 ERA was significantly higher than Smith’s.

Sunday games were always popular in Birmingham, and 8,000 fans poured into Rickwood to witness the matchup.1 Unlike the previous game, which had been scoreless through four innings, both teams scored early in this one. Artie Wilson led off the bottom of the first with a triple and John Britton drove him in, giving Birmingham an early 1-0 lead.

In the top of the second, the Monarchs’ bats came alive. Willard Brown opened with a single to left and advanced to third on an error by Jim Zapp. Another error, this one by third baseman Britton, allowed the next hitter, Johnie Scott, to reach first as Brown scored the tying run. Elston Howard then walked. After Gene Baker made an out, Curtis Roberts walked, and the bases were loaded. After another out, Herb Souell singled to bring home Scott and Howard. O’Neil made the last out of the inning, but the Monarchs led, 3-1.

In the fourth inning, Gene Baker homered over the left-field fence to increase Kansas City’s lead to 4-1. Willie Mays, who drove home the winning run in Game One, singled in the bottom of the inning and was on base with two outs when Davis stepped to the plate. With the Black Barons’ hopes beginning to fade, “Davis hit one of the longest balls in Rickwood history … a terrific drive well above the right end of the 33 foot scoreboard which is 381 feet from home plate.”2 The home run cut the deficit to 4-3.

Davis was not only having a big series as a hitter. As Birmingham’s manager, he had already made several key decisions to help his team win Game One. Before the top of the fifth started, he knew he had to make a decision. Perry had struggled during his four innings on the mound. Although he had stuck out five, his performance was uneven as he had walked four, given up three hits, and surrendered four runs. Davis had no choice but to replace him.

Davis called on 23-year-old right-hander Bill Greason. Greason had pinch-hit the previous day and had already pitched one inning in the series.3 He immediately rewarded Davis for his decision by recording two outs, setting down Buck O’Neil and Hank Thompson. Brown, however, hit a home run to left field; and Greason gave up consecutive singles to Scott and Howard. With two on and two out, Greason retired Baker to end the fifth inning, but the Monarchs had padded their lead to 5-3.

Neither team scored over the next two innings, though both threatened. In the bottom of the sixth, Mays led off with a walk, but Ed Steele grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. In the top of the seventh, Thompson walked with one out but was caught trying to steal second base.

The Monarchs had an even better chance to score when Howard doubled to open the eighth, He was left stranded at second, though, after Greason retired the next three batters. In the bottom of the inning, the Black Barons scored a run on consecutive singles by Britton, Mays, and Steele. However, after loading the bases with one out, neither Pepper Bassett nor Jim Zapp could get a hit, and the Monarchs clung to a 5-4 lead.

The Monarchs failed to score in the top of the ninth as Greason hung tough. In the bottom of the inning, Wilson hit a one-out double and made it to third on Britton’s groundout. With two outs, Mays hit a double to right that scored Wilson and tied the game at 5-5.4 For the second day in a row, the teams played extra innings.

In the 10th inning, Greason flirted with trouble. Scott led off with a walk but Greason picked him off. Greason got Howard out, but Baker singled and advanced to second on an error by Britton. Roberts singled to right, but Steele’s throw to Bassett caught him at the plate and kept the score tied.

In the bottom of the 10th, Souell’s error at third allowed Davis to reach first. Scott moved him to second on a well-executed bunt down the third-base line. Catcher Bassett, who had been involved in arguably the biggest defensive play of the game in the previous inning, singled to score Davis. The Black Barons won, 6-5.

Wilson, Mays, and Davis proved to be a three-headed monster: Each had three hits. Despite his somewhat rocky start, Greason scattered eight hits over seven innings in a gutsy performance, allowing only one run and gaining the win. Brown led the Monarchs with three hits and Howard and Baker had two hits each. Ford Smith gave up 14 hits and walked three over 9⅓ innings and took the loss.

The best-of-seven championship series continued with Birmingham winning, 4-3, in Memphis on September 15. The Monarchs won Game Four, 3-1, at Blues Stadium in Kansas City on the 19th. The teams played a 3-3 tie on the 20th with the game called because of rain in the sixth inning. The Monarchs won, 5-4, on September 21 and again, 5-3, on the 22nd. The deciding game was also in Kansas City, on September 26. Behind the three-hit pitching of Bill Greason, Birmingham won, 5-1, and celebrated a championship.

A teenage Willie Mays with the Birmingham Black Barons. Mays’ father did not allow him to join the Black Barons full-time in 1948 until school was over at the end of May. (Courtesy of Memphis Public Library)

Willie Mays had three hits, Ray Dandridge had four, and Hoyt Wilhelm threw seven shutout innings as the Minneapolis Millers defeated the Columbus Red Birds, 11-0, in the Millers’ home opener of the 1951 American Association season. Dubbed the “Black Mush Bowl,” the game was played in rain-soaked conditions in front of 6,477 fans.1 Included in the crowd was Max Levy, who had attended every Millers Opening Day since 1902.2

Newspapers across the country ran articles about Mays’ arrival with the Millers after he played in 1950 for the Trenton Giants of the Interstate League. This from the Capital Journal of Salem, Oregon: “American Association fans are already tabbing Willie Mays, 19-year-old center fielder at Minneapolis, as the league’s brightest prospect this season. He has a great arm and can run like the Dickens.”3

From the Birmingham News: “Willie Mays, Former Black Baron, hit 10 for 21 for Minneapolis – six of the blows going for extra bases, three doubles, one triple and two home runs. Mays was a natural ball player from the first day he showed up at Rickwood while a student at Parker High School.”4 And from the Black Dispatch of Oklahoma City: “… and Willie can do everything an outfielder is supposed to do. Only his lack of experience is holding him back. That would be terrific – seeing this young colored star, trained by the Giants coming up to the Polo Grounds. He’s be sensational and a whale of a drawing card.”5

Recognition for Mays continued at Nicollet Park as the Millers players walked from the dressing room under the right-field stands to the dugout. Ray Dandridge, the veteran third baseman nicknamed Old Bow Legs, preceded Mays from the dressing room, and the early-arriving fans in the stands applauded him. Dandridge, in turn, tipped his cap. Shortly after, Mays left the dressing room and also received applause from the fans. A Minneapolis Morning Tribune writer noted, “The customers wanted to let Mays know they had heard about him.”6

Before his team even came to bat, Mays gave Millers fans a thrilling demonstration of his baseball skills when he ran to deep center field, 435 feet from home plate, and caught Vern Benson’s long drive7 against the flagpole.8 According to one fan’s reminiscence of this play decades later, there were less than two outs and the Red Birds had a runner on third. When Mays made the catch, the runner tagged and ran for home. Mays’ throw from center field bounced once before it was caught by the catcher. The baserunner, who was halfway to home, stopped and ran back to third, where he slid to avoid being tagged out.9

The Millers put across a trio of runs in the bottom of the first. The leadoff hitter, Pete Milne, walked and two batters later Mays singled to center. With two outs in the inning, Milne and Mays both scored when Dandridge singled to left. The Red Birds pitcher, Herb Moford, walked the next three hitters, Davey Williams (his first of four walks in the game), John Kropf, and Jake Early, to force in Dandridge with the final run of the inning.10

Dandridge opened the bottom of the fourth with a single and Williams walked. One out later, Early walked to load the bases. The next hitter, the ninth hitter in the batting order, was pitcher Wilhelm. In the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, Halsey Hall wrote, “Mr. Wilhelm, who has sometimes been known to ‘pull’ a ball as far as second, didn’t bother about it this time and sliced a runaway double to right.” Wilhelm’s hit scored two runs. A third run scored when Milne singled to center, and a force out by Rudy Rufer scored the fourth run of the inning.11

The second Red Birds pitcher of the game, Maurice Garlock, gave up the final Miller runs in the sixth inning. Dandridge led off with a home run, for which he was given a watch by the National Jewelry Company after the game for hitting the first Millers homer of the season in Nicollet Park. After Williams walked and Kropf doubled, Early homered over Nicollet Avenue to score the final three runs of the game for the Millers.12

Before the start of the seventh inning, the lights at Nicollet Park were turned on – a first in the history of Nicollet Park for an afternoon game, according to Millers business manager George Brophy.13 Wilhelm struck out light-hitting Howie Phillips in the top of the seventh with the bases loaded to end the half-inning. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh and Dandridge on first base, umpire Pat Padden finally called the game due to field conditions described as abominable and a “bowl of soup.”14

Mays finished the game going 3-for-5 with a double and one run scored. Dandridge went 4-for-5 with a home run, three runs scored, and three runs batted in.15 Catcher Jake Early said “[T]he secret of Hoyt’s success was not better stuff but better control than in previous starts.16 Wilhelm gave up five hits and walked two in seven innings.17

The next day in the Minneapolis Star, columnist Charles Johnson wrote that the Red Birds weren’t upset about the soggy field conditions until they fell behind after the first inning. “Then they acted like a lot of mistreated corner lot ball players who apparently didn’t realize yet (sic) gate receipts make possible their salaries. Crowds in the minor leagues of 6,500 paid aren’t every day happenings.”18

After the game, Mays described it as “just another game.” He added, “I didn’t go for power today. I just wanted hits. How can you miss with such grand fans? There is no strain in playing in front of people like you.” Asked how difficult it was to play center field in Nicollet Park, Mays said, “The right field fence is so close you don’t get a chance to run to your left. Outside of that, it’s no different.”19

To another writer, Mays complained that he didn’t lift one over the short right-field fence. “That fence, that fence, said gentleman Willie in a high-pitcher voice in the club house.” First baseman Mike Natisin told Willie to “forget the fence” and added, “It’s been there sixty years and it’ll probably be there sixty more years.”20

Millers manager Heath was effusive in his praise of Mays: “That’s the way Mays has played all year. You think the boy isn’t that good, but he comes up with impossible plays every day. He does something to help us win every game. He can hit, throw and run. What more can you ask? The boy is the greatest prospect I have ever seen.”21

Slightly over three weeks later, on May 25, Mays’ time with the Millers came to an end when he was called up to the New York Giants. He was batting a robust .477 (71-for-149) with a .524 on-base percentage. During his time in Minneapolis, the Millers went 21-14, which was good for third place in the eight-team American Association.22 After May 25 and without Mays in the lineup, the Millers went 56-61 to finish in fifth place at 77-75. Two days later, Horace Stoneham, owner of the Giants, arranged to have a letter to Miller fans printed in a Sunday newspaper explaining why Mays was called up to the Giants after playing only 25 games with the Millers. Mays’ “record of performance” is why he was entitled to the promotion, explained Stoneham in the letter.23

PHOTO CREDIT

If you begin your National League career going hitless in three road games, you may as well go for broke and swing mightily early in your first home game. That’s what Willie Mays did against the Boston Braves on May 28, 1951, and beat writers for both teams chose their strongest adjectives to describe his contact with the pitch in question, which happened to be against another future Hall of Famer. He produced his team’s only run, but also figured in its subsequent failures on offense that night.1

In 1950 Mays hit .353 in 81 games for the Trenton Giants of the Class-B Interstate League, and to start the 1951 season he was promoted to the Minneapolis Millers of the Triple-A American Association. Before he was called up by the New York Giants for his debut, he batted a staggering .477 with 8 homers and 30 RBIs in 35 games. In fact, Mays left the Millers with a 16-game hitting streak in which he hit a blistering .569. Of his 41 hits during the streak, 17 were for extra bases.2

Mays said he and Millers teammate Ray Dandridge, another future Hall of Famer, were watching the movie Lightning Strikes Twice in Sioux City, Iowa, when a voice over the theater’s loudspeaker asked him to report to its office immediately. “I was shocked and thought real lightning had struck when I found Tommy (Tommy Heath, his manager) waiting. … He told me I was to come to New York and they had to get me on a plane as soon as possible,” Mays told Sam Lacy of the Afro-American a few days later. “Wasn’t scared at first, but it sure was a surprise.”3

Alas, his first three games in the National League were duds. He went hitless in 12 at-bats at Philadelphia before his home debut on Monday, May 28. “Phils’ pitchers gave him little in the way of ‘fat ones’ or even ‘good ones’ to swing at,” wrote an anonymous sportswriter with the Philadelphia Tribune (in 2022 the oldest continuously published African American newspaper in the country).4

Expectations for Mays were already very high. Probably by coincidence, on May 29, sports editor Zipp Newman of the Birmingham News (near the rookie’s hometown of Fairfield, Alabama) noted that “the Giants believe that if Mays can come through, he will be as big a drawing card as the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle.” Newman declared that Mays was “a better fielder than Mantle and scouts will tell you very quickly there isn’t a throwing arm in all baseball like Mays’.”5 Alvin Moses of the Atlanta Daily World, another African American paper, echoed the first of Newman’s points when he wrote that Mays “figures to bring out thousands of kids just as Mickey, Casey Stengel’s freshman, has done at Yankee Stadium.”6

After the futility Mays experienced in his first three games, a Philadelphia Tribune reporter worried aloud that the pressure might be too much. On a positive note, however, with the Giants he became one of “four Negro players, three of whom are regulars.” The other three weren’t named in that article, but were presumably third baseman Hank Thompson, outfielder-first baseman (and future Hall of Famer) Monte Irvin, and Cuban catcher Ray Noble. Black shortstop Artie Wilson had played his final game for the Giants on May 23 and was sent down to the minors to make room for the addition of Mays on May 24. Thompson and Irvin both started with Mays on May 28, and Noble pinch-hit. Despite the fact that Mays wasn’t cracking an all-White lineup, the Tribune reporter worried about the newcomer’s age and experience. “It may be that young Mays, he is only 20, will not be able to make the grade,” the writer observed. “He has only been in organized baseball 18 months.”7 Mays’ 20th birthday was May 6.

On the evening of May 28, the temperature was 68 degrees Fahrenheit at 6:00, and little more than a trace of rain fell in New York City that day.8 Boston’s record was 19-18 at the start of play, while the Giants began at 20-19. The attendance was 23,101.9

The starting pitcher for the Giants was Sheldon Jones, in his sixth season with the team. His two best years were in 1948 and 1949, when he went 16-8 and 15-12 respectively, with ERAs below 3.40.10 Jones struck out Boston’s leadoff hitter, Roy Hartsfield, but the third strike rolled about 10 feet from New York catcher Wes Westrum. He threw low to first baseman Whitey Lockman, who dropped the ball and was charged with an error. Willard Marshall tripled, and one out later Bob Elliott homered to drive in the second and third runs for the visitors. Jones retired two of the next three Braves to sidestep an additional threat.11

The Giants’ leadoff hitter, Eddie Stanky, drew a walk from Warren Spahn, who was well on his way to becoming the sixth-winningest pitcher of all time. Stanky was soon erased on a 3-6-3 double-play grounder hit by Lockman. Willie Mays thus batted with the bases empty. The relatively new Giant “was given a rousing welcome,” reported Hy Hurwitz in the Boston Globe. “He took a ball and then smashed a Spahn fast ball over the whole works in left which was [as] genuine a homer as they come.”12

By contrast, Henry McKenna of the Boston Herald wrote, “It appeared he hit a curve on a 3-1 pitch and thereafter he saw nothing but fast balls.”13 Mays himself told Dale Wright of the New York Amsterdam News, a Black paper, that it was an outside curve. “I can get more of them if National League pitchers don’t hand me too many passes,” Mays said. Well-known actress Laraine Day, wife of Giants manager Leo Durocher, gave Mays a nice wristwatch to welcome him to the club that day, and he reportedly earned a second one from a chewing gum company for the homer.14 In addition to curve vs. fastball, newspapers disagreed on whether Mays hit the sphere onto the left-field roof or over it, as both Boston sportswriters characterized it. For example, Joseph Sheehan of the New York Times wrote that the “towering poke landed atop the left-field roof.”15

Only one more runner scored that night. In the third inning, Jones gave up singles to the first two batters and was replaced by Al Gettel. The new pitcher got Elliott to ground into a double play, but the lead runner scored to make it 4-1. Elliott complained demonstrably about being called out at first to complete the double play, and umpire Lou Jorda ejected him.16

Gettel, who was primarily a starting pitcher with three American League teams from 1945 through 1948, finished the game for the Giants. He surrendered only two hits and a walk in his seven innings. Spahn hurled a complete game and scattered six more hits. The Braves were 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left four men on base. The Giants were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 teammates stranded on the basepaths. The game took 2:28 to complete.17

Jim McCulley of the New York Daily News summarized the Giants’ best chances against Spahn. With one out in the fourth, the Giants had two men on base, but “Irvin and Thompson failed to keep this threat alive,” McCulley wrote. “In the fifth, with one down, Stanky singled and, with two down, Mays drew a walk. But Spahn, who fanned eight, made Westrum his fourth straight strikeout victim at this point.”18

To begin the seventh inning, Durocher seemed close to pinch-hitting for his pitcher, but he didn’t. “Gettel fanned, then much to Durocher’s dismay, Stanky and Lockman followed with singles,” McCulley reported. “Spahn took care of this situation by striking out Mays and Westrum, the latter for the third straight time.”19 In the bottom of the ninth, Mays batted with two outs and Lockman on first base. He popped out to end the game.20

Hurwitz said Mays reacted quite negatively after whiffing but apparently didn’t direct hostility toward home-plate umpire Larry Goetz. “He was boiling mad at himself in the seventh” for not producing in that at-bat, Hurwitz observed. Mays hadn’t swung and missed, but rather “took a called third strike and jumped up and down in disgust.”21 After that first-inning blast for his first National League hit, he contributed only that walk among his four other plate appearances. (In fact, Mays went into a 0-for-13 slump after hitting his first homer as a Giant and began his career 1-for-26.) On defense he had one chance, a putout on a fly to begin the second inning.22

By winning, Boston improved to 20-18 and moved into a virtual tie with Chicago for third place in the eight-team National League. The Giants, at 20-20, were one game behind.23 As is widely known, the Giants ultimately won the pennant that season in an incredibly dramatic manner. But as for Willie Mays on May 28, 1951, it was one homer down, 659 to go in his National League career.

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/NY1/NY1195105280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1951/B05280NY11951.htm

NOTES

1  Back in 1948, Mays played for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League (NAL), which in 2020 became recognized by Major League Baseball as a major league. As of 2023 the Seamheads Negro Leagues database online shows Mays with no home runs with that team. However, newer research documents homers by Mays in at least two NAL regular-season games, according to Tom Thress, “Tracking Down Willie Mays’s 1948 Game Log,” Willie Mays: Five Tools, ed. by Bill Nowlin and Glen Sparks (Phoenix: SABR, 2023).

2  “Willie Mays, Miller Sensation Brought .477 Ave. to Giants,” The Sporting News, May 30, 1951: 6. This article also said Artie Wilson was sent down to Ottawa of the International League to create a roster spot for Mays.

3  Sam Lacy, “From A to Z,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 2, 1951: 17. Speaking of movies, in this column Mays credited footage of Joe DiMaggio with teaching him how to bat. (Mays credited his own father with teaching him how to catch a ball.)

4  “Mays Impresses as Philly Fans Get First Look,” Philadelphia Tribune, May 29, 1951: 11. For his minor-league stats in 1950 and 1951, see https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=mays–002wil.

5  Zipp Newman, “Dusting ’em off,” Birmingham News, May 29, 1951: 19.

6  Alvin Moses, “Beating the Gun,” Atlanta Daily World, May 30, 1951: 5. A colleague of Moses’ may have been among the very first sportswriters to predict superstardom for Mays, back in 1948: “Willie Howard Mays … is the wonder kid of the Negro American League. Nobody has voted him the find of the year, rookie of the year or most valuable player. … But in my book, he is the most promising youngster to play baseball at Rickwood Field since I’ve been around.” – Emory O. Jackson, “Hits and Bits,” Atlanta Daily World, October 15, 1948: 5.

7  “The Case of Willie Mays,” Philadelphia Tribune, June 2, 1951: 4. See Note 1 regarding Artie Wilson.

8  “Daily Almanac,” New York Daily News, May 28, 1951: 2. “Daily Almanac,” New York Daily News, May 29, 1951: 2.

9  Jim McCulley, “Braves Check Giants, 4-1; Mays Hits 1st HR,” New York Daily News, May 29, 1951: 46.

10 For the career stats of Sheldon Jones, see https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jonessh01.shtml.

11 Henry McKenna, “Spahn, Braves Defeat Giants, 4-1,” Boston Herald, May 29, 1951: 15.

12 Hy Hurwitz, “Spahn 7-Hitter, Elliott’s Homer Top Giants, 4-1,” Boston Globe, May 29, 1951: 1, 17.

13 McKenna.

14 Dale Wright, “Willie Mays Feels at Home in Polo Grounds,” New York Amsterdam News, June 2, 1951: 14.

15 Joseph M. Sheehan, “Braves Trip Giants at Polo Grounds; Dodgers Triumph; Yanks Bow,” New York Times, May 29, 1951: 29.

16 Sheehan.

17 For the baserunning stats, see https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NY1/NY1195105280.shtml. Career stats for Gettel and all the other players are readily available by clicking on their names in the two batting orders.

18 McCulley.

19 McCulley.

20 Sheehan.

21 Hurwitz.

22 Sheehan.

23 “Standings in the Major Leagues,” Boston Herald, May 29, 1951: 15. This daily’s standings were presented in a chart showing each team’s performance against all the other teams.

New York Giants fans loved Willie Mays, the exciting young outfielder who could do it all. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

Willie Mays Sprinted deep into the Polo Grounds outfield to make his memorable over-the-shoulder catch of a Vic Wertz fly ball in Game One of the 1954 World Series. As soon as the ball settled into his glove more than 400 feet from home plate, Mays whirled around and threw a dart into the infield. Larry Doby, the lead runner for the Cleveland Indians, ran to third base but did not score, while Al Rosen stayed at first.1

Gayle Talbot called the catch “truly amazing.”2 New York Giants manager Leo Durocher said, “It was great. The wind was blowing, he had his back to the diamond, and I don’t know how [sic] if he can do that.”3 Broadcaster Jack Brickhouse described the robbery as “an optical illusion.”4

Today, The Catch, as many insist it be spelled, is the stuff of legend, and footage of the play is available on YouTube and other social media channels. But was it really the greatest catch of Mays’ incredible career? Vin Scully said that Mays made an even better one more than two years earlier, and the Say Hey Kid agreed.

The Giants were playing their fiercest rival, the Brooklyn Dodgers, at Ebbets Field on April 18, 1952. A crowd of 31,032 filed into the cozy ballpark on Sullivan Place. The host Dodgers had a record of 3-0 after sweeping their opening road series against the Boston Braves. The Giants, meanwhile, opened at home against the Philadelphia Phillies and split a two-game set.

Brooklyn manager Charlie Dressen named 25-year-old right-hander Clem Labine as his starting pitcher. Durocher countered with 31-year-old righty Jim Hearn, the one-time St. Louis Cardinal.

New York took an early lead with a big first inning. Labine failed to retire even a single batter. Davey Williams led off with a double and scored on Al Dark’s base hit. Bobby Thomson’s single put runners on first and second. With Hank Thompson batting, Labine uncorked a wild pitch that veered far enough from catcher Roy Campanella for Dark to score and Thomson to advance one base. Hank Thompson grounded an RBI single to right field.

After Mays walked, Labine’s day was done. Dressen called on Carl Erskine to provide some relief. The first batter “Oisk” faced, Don Mueller, struck out swinging. Whitey Lockman and Wes Westrum followed with RBI singles, and New York took a 5-0 lead.

Brooklyn got one run back in the bottom of the first when Campanella singled home Billy Cox, who had lined a one-out triple.

The Dodgers scored three more times in the second. Andy Pafko drew a leadoff walk and Gil Hodges singled. Carl Furillo followed with an RBI base hit but was thrown out trying to stretch his single into a double. Hearn left the game after walking Erskine.

Durocher summoned Hoyt Wilhelm from the bullpen. The knuckleball pitcher from North Carolina was making his big-league debut at the age of 29. He went on to pitch 21 seasons and earn a spot in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Nicknamed “Old Sarge,” Wilhelm served in World War II and was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. He taught himself the knuckleball while still in high school.

Brooklyn shortstop Pee Wee Reese, the first batter Wilhelm faced, drove a pitch deep enough into center field for Hodges to tag and trot home. Cox’s double advanced Erskine to third. Wilhelm, maybe with some first-game jitters, walked Jackie Robinson and, with Campanella batting, threw a wild pitch that scored Erskine. Wilhelm’s shaky debut concluded after he walked Campanella. Dave Koslo entered the game with two outs. Duke Snider, Brooklyn’s reliable slugger, ended the rally by grounding out. New York led, 5-4.

The game settled down after that early action. Neither team scored over the next four innings. Brooklyn put runners on first and third with one out in the sixth, but Koslo got Robinson to hit into a double play.

New York scored once in the seventh after Erskine loaded the bases with two out and Don Mueller at bat. This time, it was the Brooklyn pitcher’s turn to uncork a wild pitch, the third of the game. Thomson, who started the rally with a two-out walk, ran safely home.

Pafko narrowed the Giants’ lead with his two-out solo home run in the bottom of the seventh. Brooklyn had acquired the hard-hitting outfielder from the Chicago Cubs in June 1951, and the new Dodger hit 18 homers in just 84 games. After Pafko’s big hit, Hodges singled and Furillo drew a walk. Dressen sent Bobby Morgan, a second-year infielder, to pinch-hit for Erskine.

Morgan ripped a liner into left-center-field and Mays began his sprint toward the wall. According to a reporter from Baltimore’s Afro-American, “[I]t was doubtful that anyone in the park, even the most optimistic of the Giant rooters, entertained a hope that (Mays) would catch it.”5

Mays “grabbed Morgan’s blast with a desperation lunge.”6 Dick Young wrote that Mays made “another one of his description-defying catches.” The second-year player “left his feet. He actually bounced, crashed into the wall on the first hop, and rolled over on his back. But he held the ball.”7 Young’s colleague at the New York Daily News, Dana Mozley, insisted “Willie Mays just had no right” to catch Morgan’s liner.8

Brooklyn’s new pitcher, Billy Loes, retired the Giants one-two-three in the top of the eighth. In the bottom half, with George Spencer now on the mound for New York, Robinson homered to tie the score, 6-6.

Neither team mounted much of a threat over the next 3½ innings. The Giants managed two singles, one in the ninth and one in the 10th, while the Dodgers were held hitless. Pafko led off the bottom of the 12th and drove a Spencer pitch over the right-field fence to give Brooklyn a 7-6 victory. “This one disappeared amid the advertising signs and chicken wire at the far end of the scoreboard,” wrote the Brooklyn Eagle’s Harold C. Burr.9 Spencer’s won-lost record fell to 0-2; Loes went to 1-0.

After the game, the talk turned more to Mays’ catch than Pafko’s heroics. “The greatest catch I ever saw in my life,” Reese said. “He came with it. I know that. There’s no argument. It was in his glove when he turned over, and Thomson went over and picked it out.”10

According to Burr, “It looked as if the best Willie could do with the drive was to hold it to the double.”11 Morgan, still in disbelief after being robbed of extra bases, said, “I guess he must have caught it. You could have knocked me over with a feather when the ump waved me out. I was going for three for sure when I saw him on the ground.”12 Durocher called the catch “great, great, the greatest.”13

In between sips from his soft drink, Mays told reporters, “I didn’t think I had a chance at all to get it. It was sinking fast and seemed to be curving away. But I stayed with it and got it on the dive – with both hands together. Slid along the ground and got shaken up, that’s all. Little bruise here on my right side.”14

Compare those comments to the ones that Mays made after he snagged Wertz’s drive. In 1954, Mays shrugged off any praise directed at him for that catch. “I had that ball all the way,” he said. “There was nothing too hard about that one. … That catch today, you should never miss those kind.”15

In an interview decades later, Mays said, “In my mind, I was always going to catch the ball. It was just a matter of how I’m going to get the ball back to the infield. I think I was more proud of the throw than I was of the catch. … I think a lot of people saw it in the World Series. They picked that catch as the catch of the century.”16

Mays celebrated his 85th birthday on May 6, 2016. On that day, Scully was in the early months of his 67th and final season broadcasting Dodgers games. He told his television audience, “I was privileged to see Willie make the greatest catch of his career, and he agrees with me that it was.”

Scully said that as soon as Morgan hit the ball “you knew it was an extra-base hit. Everyone knew that except Willie.” Scully described how Mays ran and leapt parallel to the ground “like an arrow” to snare the ball. Mays hit the gravel warning track and “bounced headfirst into the concrete wall.” He rolled onto his back but held on to the ball. “That,” Scully said, “was the greatest single play I’ve ever seen.”17

In 2020 Mays wrote the book 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid, with John Shea. He tells readers, “That (the catch off Morgan) was a good catch, better than the World Series catch. I believe my best catch.”18

SOURCES

In addition to the specific sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for general player, team, and season data and the box scores for this game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO195204180.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1952/B04180BRO1952.htm

NOTES

1  Sal Maglie started Game One for the Giants against the Indians and allowed two runs over seven-plus innings. He allowed two runners in the eighth and made way for reliever Don Liddle, who gave up the fly ball to Vic Wertz. Giants manager Leo Durocher lifted Liddle and brought in Marv Grissom. Grissom walked Dale Mitchell to load the bases but struck out Dave Pope and got Jim Hegan to fly out. New York won the game, 5-2, and swept the World Series.

2  Gayle Talbot, “Dusty Rhodes’ Homer Big Blow, But Mays’ Catch Saved Giants,” Elmira (New York) Star-Gazette, September 30, 1954: 40.

3  Ted Smits, “Wasn’t Trying for a Homer, Confesses Giants Hero Rhodes,” Elmira (New York) Advertiser, September 30, 1954: 11.

4  James S. Hirsch, Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend (New York: Scribner, 2010), 195.

5  Hirsch, 149.

6  Dick Young, “Flock Nips Giants in 12th, 7-6.” New York Daily News, April 19, 1952: 140.

7  “Flock Nips Giants in 12th, 7-6.” New York Daily News, April 19, 1952: 143.

8  Dana Mozley, “Mays’ Catch Greatest, Dodgers, Giants Agree,” New York Daily News, April 19, 1952: 28.

9  Harold C. Burr, “Pafko’s Bat Can Spell Pennant for Flock,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 19, 1952: 6.

10 Mozley.

11 Burr, “Pafko’s Bat Can Spell Pennant for Flock.”

12 Burr, “Mays’ Catch Greatest, Dodgers, Giants Agree.”

13 Burr, “Mays’ Catch Greatest, Dodgers, Giants Agree.”

14 Burr, “Mays’ Catch Greatest, Dodgers, Giants Agree.”

15 Jim McCulley, “Mays Catch Saves Game; Indians Blame Wind,” New York Daily News, September 30, 1954: 81.

16 Willie Mays reflects on “The Catch” in 1954 World Series – YouTube

17 Vin Scully tells great Willie Mays story on the Giants legend’s 85th birthday | FOX Sports.

18 Willie Mays with John Shea, 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid (New York: St. Martin’s, 2020), 90.

Willie Mays missed nearly two full seasons due to military service. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

An Alabama Draft board summoned Willie Mays almost immediately after his debut season with the New York Giants in 1951, triggering a conscription process, necessitated by America’s military intervention in Korea, that dragged through the winter and into the early weeks of the 1952 season. With orders finally in hand and his Army swearing-in two days away, Mays flashed the star quality about to be absent from the majors for nearly two seasons, as he connected on a home run and two doubles in the Giants’ 3-0 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field on May 27.

Joining the Giants from the American Association’s Minneapolis Millers five weeks into the 1951 season, Mays – manager Leo Durocher’s starter in center field from day one – sparked New York to an improbable pennant,1 anchored the first all-Black outfield in a formerly segregated major league,2 and received National League Rookie of the Year honors.3 At age 20, his future appeared bright.

But world events slowed his rise. North Korea had invaded South Korea in June 1950, and the United States, spearheading the United Nations’ military response, was inducting young men into its armed forces. America’s conscription laws subjected men aged 18½ through 25 to 24-month service terms.4

On October 12, two days after the Giants’ loss to the New York Yankees in the 1951 World Series, the New York Daily News reported that Mays had been classified “1-A” – “eligible for military service” – by his hometown draft board in Alabama.5 “The day I got home [after the 1951 season] the mail brought a letter to me from the Selective Service Board,” Mays noted in his autobiography. “I was told to report to my draft board … within ten days.”6

Seven months of uncertainty – spanning the offseason and spilling into the 1952 schedule – followed. Mays, who had graduated in the top half of his high-school class, made unwelcome headlines in October for failing a written Army aptitude test.7 He was not accepted for duty until he passed the test in mid-January of 1952.8

The draft board had already met its quota of inductees for February, which pushed Mays’ departure into the spring.9 He requested a hardship deferment, asserting that his baseball income was needed to support four of his siblings,10 but officials denied it on April 10 and set a May 17 induction date.11

Induction was delayed once again to transfer his files to a draft board in New York.12 Finally, on May 21, Mays received orders to report to the Army on May 29.13

Against this backdrop, Mays – who missed a week of spring training in March after what the newspapers called “minor surgery”14 – struggled on the field, batting only .161 in 17 games from April 22 through the first game of a May 16 doubleheader. Durocher dropped Mays from fifth to seventh in the order for several games, then alternated him between fifth and sixth, depending on whether a righty or lefty started against New York. The Giants also were without Mays’ mentor, 1951 NL RBI king Monte Irvin, who had broken his ankle in a spring-training game.15

Still, their bid to repeat as NL champs rolled on. A 4-2 win over the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds on May 26 gave the Giants a 24-8 record and a half-game advantage over Brooklyn for first place in the league.16

The action moved to Ebbets Field on May 27 for the middle game of the crosstown series, expected to be Mays’ next-to-last appearance before he left for the Army. With righty Ben Wade on the mound for Brooklyn, Mays, who had played every inning of every game in center, batted sixth.

New York’s starter, 35-year-old right-hander Sal Maglie, had been integral to the Giants’ early success. He entered with wins in all eight of his starts in 1952 and an 11-decision winning streak dating to September 1951.17 The unblemished stretch included a two-hit shutout of the Dodgers on April 20.18

Wade – in a major-league rotation for the first time at age 29 after wartime Army service and nine seasons in the minors19 – had been on the losing side of Maglie’s April shutout. He fanned three Giants in the first inning of the rematch, working around Whitey Lockman’s bad-hop single off Pee Wee Reese’s chest at short and catching Bobby Thomson and Hank Thompson looking at fastballs on the outside corner for the final two outs.

But Don Mueller opened the second by driving his fifth homer of the season over the scoreboard in right-center, giving the Giants a 1-0 lead.

Mays followed with a drive near the wall in right. Carl Furillo went back and, as Dick Young reported in the New York Daily News, “backed to the scoreboard, reached high, and got his glove on the ball. But at that precise moment, Carl brushed the scoreboard and couldn’t hold the pill.”20 Mays stopped at second with a double.

Alvin Dark hit a liner toward short. Reese, Young observed, “[took] his eye off the ball for a split second size-up of his chances of doubling Mays off second,” and the ball hit off Reese’s glove.21

As Reese retrieved the ball from the edge of the grass, Mays disregarded Durocher’s stop sign at third and headed home. Reese fired to Rube Walker, who tagged Mays out, holding on despite Mays’ knee accidentally striking him in the face.22

Mays did produce a run in the fourth, clubbing a two-out solo homer to right. It was his fourth home run of the season, and the Giants led, 2-0.

In the meantime, Maglie again held the upper hand over Brooklyn. Through four innings, the home team was hitless and no Dodger had reached second base. Several Dodgers, including Jackie Robinson, asked home-plate umpire Dusty Boggess to inspect the ball for illegal substances – a frequent allegation against Maglie23 – but Boggess found nothing improper.

Furillo ended Maglie’s no-hit string by singling to lead off the fifth. One out later, Walker hit a grounder between first and second. Davey Williams ranged far to his left, fielded it, and threw to Maglie covering first for the out.24 Furillo took second, but Maglie fanned Wade to strand him there.

Brooklyn stirred again with two outs in the sixth. Duke Snider walked on a full-count pitch. After a strike, Robinson again made his case to Boggess, who threw the ball out.

Robinson singled on the next pitch. Snider went to third, giving Brooklyn two runners on base for what turned out to be the only time of the game, but Andy Pafko’s popup to Williams ended the inning.

Another potential Dodgers’ rally fizzled in the seventh. After Furillo walked to lead off the inning, Thompson made a leaping catch of Gil Hodges’ fly ball near the stands in left, and Williams turned Walker’s grounder into a double play.

By then, Mays had recorded his third opposite-field extra-base hit of the game, a one-out double to right in the seventh. He advanced no farther than second, but the Giants added an unearned run in the ninth off reliever Johnny Rutherford. Reese committed his second error of the game, as Dark’s grounder went through his legs, allowing Mueller, who had singled and taken second on Mays’ groundout, to score from second.

Robinson doubled to open the ninth, but Maglie retired the next three Dodgers to cap the four-hit shutout and extend his winning streak.25

A day later, Mays went hitless as Durocher’s team completed the three-game sweep.26 Ebbets Field cheered its foe, sending Mays off with what the New York Daily News characterized as “a farewell that was tinged with more affection than any Giant has been accorded in Brooklyn since King Carl Hubbell’s bow out.”27

“The New York Giants won the ball game … but in the process lost the guy who is probably the best young ball player to come up to the majors in the past ten years, Willie Mays,” added the Pittsburgh Courier’s Wendell Smith.28

Mays reported for the Army on May 29, bound for training in New Jersey, then duty at Fort Eustis, Virginia.29

Famed sportswriter Grantland Rice devoted his syndicated column to Mays that week. “No young ballplayer has shown greater promise in recent years,” Rice wrote. “His day isn’t over. He has time enough for baseball when he leaves the Army, around [age] 23.”30

Mays’ 1952 season went into the books with a .236 batting average and four homers in 34 games. Without him, the ’52 Giants lost eight of their next 10 games and fell out of first place to stay. They finished second in the NL, 4½ games behind the Dodgers; they were fifth in 1953.

Mays twice requested hardship release from the Army but was denied both times.31 He remained in uniform until March 1, 1954 – eight months after the armistice ending the Korean War – when he received his honorable discharge and returned to the Giants.32

While playing for a service team at Fort Eustis, he developed what soon became his trademark “basket catch” and hungered for a return to major-league competition.33

“[W]hen I left for the Army, the Giants had been a first-place club,” Mays recalled in his autobiography. “While I was away, they were little more than mediocre. I planned to turn this around right away.”34

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author thanks Gary Belleville for his comments on an earlier version of this article.

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. The author also reviewed game coverage in the Brooklyn Eagle, New York Daily News, and New York Times newspapers.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO195205270.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1952/B05270BRO1952.htm

NOTES

1  When Mays debuted with the Giants on May 25, they were in fifth place, 4½ games behind the Dodgers. They trailed the Dodgers by 13 games on August 11 before winning 37 of their final 44 regular-season games to force a three-game playoff for the pennant. They won the pennant on Bobby Thomson’s dramatic ninth-inning homer in Game Three of the tiebreaker. John Drebinger, “Giants Capture Pennant, Beating Dodgers 5-4 in 9th on Thomson’s Three-Run Homer,” New York Times, October 4, 1951: 1.

2  In Game One of the 1951 World Series, the Giants started Mays in center, Monte Irvin in left, and Hank Thompson in right. American Negro Press, “All-Sepia Outfield May Be Key to Indian Win: Pope Joins Doby, Smith in Outfield,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 21, 1954: 21.

3  “Mays, Mac Win Rookie Awards,” New York Daily News, November 16, 1951: 21C.

4  Harold B. Hinton, “Draft-U.M.T. Bill Signed by Truman,” New York Times, June 20, 1951: 1.

5  Joe Trimble, “Reynolds and Raschi Face Operations Next Week,” New York Daily News, October 12, 1951: C22.

6  Willie Mays with Lou Sahadi, Say Hey: The Autobiography of Willie Mays (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), 99.

7  “Army ‘Releases’ Mays: He Flunks Aptitude Test,” New York Daily News, October 30, 1951: 72. Mays biographer Mary Kay Linge suggests the draft board believed Mays had failed the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) on purpose. Mary Kay Linge, Willie Mays: A Biography (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 2005), 48.

8  “Army Passes Mays; Reports in March,” New York Daily News, January 17, 1952: C20.

9  According to the New York Daily News, an Army public information officer “said that normally Mays would be ordered to report in 21 days but would be delayed because of a full quota from the [local draft] board.” “Army Passes Mays; Reports in March.”

10 Hyman C. Turkin, “Mays May Escape Army Draft,” New York Daily News, April 8, 1952: 60.

11 “Mays No Hardship Case, Joins the Army May 17,” New York Daily News, April 11, 1952: 61. “I … did not qualify for either of the two requirements the Army had established for consideration as a hardship case,” Mays indicated in his autobiography. “Either you had to be a married man with a child, or you had to be living in the home looking after the people you claimed as dependents. That … I was helping my mother and four of my nine stepbrothers and sisters out didn’t count. Nor did the fact that my stepfather was out of a job.” Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 100.

12 This delay was reported on the eve of Mays’ expected departure. Newspaper coverage on May 15 still asserted that “Mays reports to the Army following tomorrow’s [May 16] game.” Dana Mozley, “Delay Mays’ Induction Month,” New York Daily News, May 16, 1952: 21C; Associated Press, “21 Players, Including Stan Rojek, Shipped to Minor Leagues,” Buffalo Evening News, May 15, 1952: IV, 52.

13 Jim McCulley, “Diamond Dust – Army Takes Mays May 29,” New York Daily News, May 22, 1952: 94.

14 Jim McCulley, “Indians’ Triple Play Aids Bob; Giants Beaten,” New York Daily News, March 31, 1952: C20.

15 Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 100.

16 Jim McCulley, “Giants Hurdle Dodgers, 4-2; Bob Homers Before 40,456,” New York Daily News, May 27, 1952: 72.

17 Jim McCulley, “Maglie Tops Braves 5-3, for 8 in a Row,” New York Daily News, May 24, 1952: 28.

18 Dick Young, “Maglie 2-Hitter Halts Flock: Williams, Thompson HRs Air Giant Ace,” New York Daily News, April 21, 1952: 46.

19 Tommy Holmes, “Wade Must Wait for the Big Day,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 17, 1952: 19.

20 Dick Young, “Sal Blanks Dodgers 3-0, for 9th in Row,” New York Daily News, May 28, 1952: 80.

21 Young, “Sal Blanks Dodgers 3-0, for 9th in Row.”

22 Walker was in the lineup for Roy Campanella, sidelined with a broken thumb. “Diamond Dust – Loes Flock’s Last Resort,” New York Daily News, May 28, 1952: 87.

23 Dana Mozley, “Brooks Charge ‘Spitter’; Just Their Sweat: Sal,” New York Daily News, May 28, 1952: 80.

24 The 24-year-old Williams was new in the Giants’ lineup in 1952, having replaced veteran second baseman Eddie Stanky, who was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in the offseason. “Davey Williams has been the best possible replacement for Ed Stanky, the loss of whom was going to be the ruination during the Winter of the Giants,” the Brooklyn Eagle concluded. Harold C. Burr, “Maglie’s Razor Gives Us Barber’s Itch,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 28, 1952: 17.

25 Maglie’s winning streak ended in his next start, a 5-4 loss to the Cardinals on June 2. He finished 1952 with an 18-8 record and made the NL All-Star team.

26 Dick Young, “Hearn 4-Hits Flock, Giants Sweep, 6-2,” New York Daily News, May 29, 1952: C20.

27 Hall of Famer Hubbell pitched for the Giants from 1928 through 1943. Hyman C. Turkin, “Lip Gives Army-Bound Willie a 5-Star Rating,” New York Daily News, May 29, 1952: C20.

28 Wendell Smith, “Wendell Smith’s Sports Beat,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 7, 1952: 12.

29 “Recruit Mays,” New York Daily News, May 30, 1952: 42; “Everyone Hated to See Willie Go,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 7, 1952: 14.

30 Grantland Rice, “Baseball Will Miss Willie,” Birmingham News, May 28, 1952: 31.

31 Mays first requested a hardship release in January 1953, which the Army denied in March. On April 11, 1953, Mays’ mother, Annie Satterwhite, died during childbirth at age 37. Mays again asked for his release, but the Army declined to release him. Dana Mozley, “Mays May,” New York Daily News, January 13, 1953: C24; Associated Press, “Army Won’t Let Mays Play for Giants in ’53,” New York Daily News, March 17, 1953: 52; Associated Press, “Mays Home for Mother’s Funeral,” New York Daily News, April 16, 1953: 97; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 101.

32 “Mays on the Way,” New York Daily News, March 2, 1954: C20.

33 Willie Mays and John Shea, 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2020), 72-77.

34 Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 103. Mays earned NL MVP honors in his 1954 return to the Giants, leading New York to a World Series sweep of the Cleveland Indians.

Willie Mays topped the National League in slugging percentage five times. (Photo: National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

In 1954, few teams needed a player to return from military service during the Korean War as much as the Giants needed Willie Mays. In 1951, though he had played in only 121 games, Mays was the National League Rookie of the Year on a team that made it to the World Series, finishing the regular season with a 98-59 record and a .624 winning percentage. During the games Mays played, the Giants were 81-40 (.669). In games without him, the team lost more than they won, their record 17-19.

In 1952 Mays was able to play in 34 games from April 16 to May 28 before he had to report to the US Army induction center in New York City on May 29.1 The Giants finished in second place with a 92-62 record. In his games, the Giants were 26-8, their .765 winning percentage 170 points higher than their season’s winning percentage of .597.

Without Mays in 1953, the Giants fell to fifth place, winning only 70 of their 155 games, their fewest wins since 1946. (They lost 84 games and had one tie.) They were not the same team without the Say Hey Kid.2

During spring training in 1954,3 manager Leo Durocher told the team that Mays was “that rare kind of player who can single-handedly lead us to the pennant,” and added, “This is like getting us a twenty-game winner.”4 And shortstop Alvin Dark predicted, also while the team was in Phoenix, Arizona, “We’re going to be a much better team this year with Willie Mays back from the Army.”5

While in the Army, Mays stayed in shape. “Willie came out of the Army bigger and stronger than when he had reported for duty,”6 and though he was “stronger,” he was also leaner. “‘All his baby fat was gone,’ recalled outfielder Monte Irvin. ‘Not that there was a lot of it to begin with.’”7

“The Army’s daily regimen of calisthenics, running, and baseball had kept Willie in superb condition,” according to Allen Barra, author of Mickey and Willie.8

On Tuesday, April 13, the Giants began their season in the Polo Grounds against the Dodgers, Sal Maglie facing Carl Erskine. Dick Young wrote, “Giant fans have been saying that ‘Mays is the difference,’ and that’s exactly what Wondrous Willie was” in a 4-3 Giants win.9

In Mays’ second Opening Day game, he played center field and batted fifth. The teams went back and forth into the sixth. In the top half of that inning, Mays’ miscue on Gil Hodges’ sacrifice fly – Mays made a poor throw to the plate – allowed Duke Snider to score and tie the game. But as luck would have it, Mays led off the bottom of the sixth and, on Erskine’s first pitch, atoned for his failure to prevent Snider from scoring, smacking it out of the park, his 425-foot shot clinching the win for the Polo Grounders.10 Dick Young called the game a “stomach-bubbling scrap.”11

It was both Mays’ first hit of the season and his first homer since May 27, 1952. The future superstar had gotten off to a slow start and was batting just .247 through his first 20 games. He also started slowly in 1952 and hit just .211 through 20 games.

In 1954 over his next 20 games, Mays hit .420 with 9 homers and 24 runs batted in, more than doubling his production.

Mays more than met the high expectations of Giants fans in a game again the Philadelphia Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium on May 24. He put together his first game with two homers, three hits, and four RBIs. Mays was one of only three National League players to do that in 1954 and the only Giant.12

The game started with the Giants in fourth place, two games behind the league-leading Milwaukee Braves. The Phillies’ Murry Dickson got the game rolling by striking out Whitey Lockman. Al Dark flied out to center. Hank Thompson singled. Monte Irvin flied out.

In the bottom of the first, Maglie allowed one batter, Earl Torgeson, to reach first, on a walk. Dickson retired the side one-two-three in the second, striking out Mays, batting sixth.

In the Phillies’ half of the second inning, Smoky Burgess doubled with two outs but was left stranded after Ted Kazanski grounded out. Dickson continued to dominate the New York batters in the top of the third. He got three batters to ground out and walked Maglie.

The Phillies stirred fans’ attention in the bottom of the third. After Maglie walked Willie Jones, Richie Ashburn singled. Torgeson, a left-handed batter, doubled, plating both Jones and Ashburn, in a play that brought fans to the edge of their seats “when Henry Thompson let Mays’ throw [to third] get away for an error,”13 and Torgeson hurried to third. (Thompson was given the error, not Mays.) Del Ennis hit a fly ball to “deep centerfield.”14 As soon as Mays caught it, Torgeson tagged up and ran for home, but Mays’ throw nailed him at the plate.

The Giants scored a run in the fourth. With two outs, Don Mueller hit a grounder to second. Granny Hamner threw wildly to first, and Mueller reached second base. Mays stepped into the batter’s box for the second time, the first with a runner on base. He singled to center, driving in Mueller, and advanced to second on Ashburn’s “poor throw to the plate.”15 But Davey Williams’s groundout ended the inning.

The Phillies increased their lead by two in the bottom of the fifth, although Kazanski’s single was the team’s only base hit, putting them ahead 4-1. Philadelphia benefited from two intentional walks, a Maglie error, and a passed ball.

“As the encounter moved into the seventh, Sal Maglie was trailing Murry Dickson, 4 to 1, and the crowd of 7,899 regarded this one as in the bag for [Phillies manager] Steve O’Neill,” wrote the New York Times’s John Drebinger.16 But it wasn’t. In the Giants’ seventh, Mays hit his ninth homer of the season and got his second RBI of the game. Ray Katt’s double and a single by Dusty Rhodes narrowed the Phillies’ lead to one run.

Two extra-base hits changed the game in the eighth. With two outs, Mueller doubled. Then, Mays hit the game-winning homer on a 2-1 count, the ball landing on the left-field roof. The four-bagger resulted in two more RBIs, giving Mays four RBIs in a game for the fourth time in his career.

Knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm sealed the Giants’ 5-4 win in the bottom of the ninth. All three batters he faced grounded out to shortstop.

It was the first game in Mays’ career in which he slammed two homers, got three hits, and had four RBIs.

The Giants finished the season 97-57, five games ahead of the Dodgers and 27 wins more than their 1953 total. The preseason predictions of both Durocher and Dark came true. In fact, New York won the pennant and swept the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. Mays, the 1954 National League Most Valuable Player, batted .286 against Cleveland pitching and made maybe the most famous catch in Series history.

Fans cheered on their hero during his great 1954 MVP season. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)

SOURCES

In addition to the specific sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for player, team, and season data.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI195405240.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1954/B05240PHI1954.htm

NOTES

1  “Willie Mays Through the Years,” USA Today, May 6, 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/sports/mlb/2020/05/06/hall-famer-willie-mays-through-years/5173358002/.

2  Larry Schwartz, “The Say Hey Kid,” ESPN.com, accessed July 11, 2022. https://www.espn.com/sportscentury/features/00215053.html.

3  Mays arrived in the Giants’ spring-training camp on March 2, 1954. Bill Madden, 1954 (Boston: Da Capo Press, 2014), 47.

4  Madden, 39.

5  Jim McCulley, “Giants Future Depends on Williams, Says Dark,” New York Daily News, May 25, 1954: C20.

6  Allen Barra, Mickey and Willie (New York, Crown, 2013), 200.

7  Barra, 201.

8  Barra, 201.

9  Dick Young, “Mays’ 425-Ft. HR Nips Flock, 4-3, New York Daily News, April 14, 1954: C20.

10 Jack Hand (Associated Press), “Giants Whip Brooklyn’s Erskine on Mays’ 435 Foot Circuit Clout, 4-3,” San Francisco Examiner, April 14, 1954: 37.

11 Young, “Mays’ 425-Ft. HR.”

12 https://stathead.com/tiny/KSh60.

13 John Drebinger, “Polo Grounders Rally to Win, 5-4,” New York Times, May 25, 1954: 30

14 Stan Baumgartner, “Willie’s 2d Clout with One on in 8th Wins Game,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 25, 1954: 28.

15 McCulley, “Giants Future.” As a center fielder, Ashburn had a great glove but not “a strong throwing arm.” – Walter Bingham, “A Long Career of Short Base Hits,” Sports Illustrated, March 23, 1959, https://vault.si.com/vault/1959/03/23/a-long-career-of-short-base-hits.

16 Drebinger.

Teammates Willie Mays and Don Mueller battled it out for the 1954 batting title. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

Willie Mays, the “Say Hey Kid,” made a big splash in his 1951 debut season with the New York Giants and was named the National League Rookie of the Year. After Mays played in 34 games in 1952, Uncle Sam drafted him into the Army to serve during the Korean War, which caused him to miss the remainder of 1952 and all of 1953. Mays returned with a vengeance in 1954 and became “the year’s most publicized player” as he slashed and dashed his way to the NL batting championship and the first of two career MVP awards.1 Mays also did his best impression of Ted Williams by going 3-for-4 at the plate on the final day of the regular season to claim the batting crown.

Although Williams had aimed to keep his batting average above .400 to claim his first AL batting title, rather than stave off two challengers as Mays was doing, there were interesting similarities between the two players and their feats. Williams, too, played the last two games of 1941 in Philadelphia, where the Red Sox were at Shibe Park to take on the Athletics in a doubleheader on September 28. Williams followed a 4-for-5 performance in the first game with a 2-for-3 batting line in the second and finished the season at .406. Mays had only a single game to play for the Giants against the Phillies at the renamed Connie Mack Stadium. In half the number of games, Mays finished with half the number of hits (he also walked once) in half the number of at-bats as Williams had in 1941, and his .345 average beat out teammate Don Mueller’s .342 and the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Duke Snider’s .341 marks.2

The Giants already had the NL pennant wrapped up and the Phillies were jockeying for fourth place at best; thus, only 7,992 fans attended.3 In addition to Mays and Mueller competing for an individual honor, Phillies ace Robin Roberts took the mound to try to earn a major-league-best 24th win; as it turned out, he settled for the leading the NL with 23 victories, which tied him with Cleveland Indians hurlers Bob Lemon and Early Wynn for the major-league lead.

Johnny Antonelli, whom the Giants had acquired from the Milwaukee Braves before the season and who had won 21 games, was on the hill for New York, though only for the first two innings. He and Roberts put zeros on the scoreboard during those frames, although there was excitement in the top of the first inning. Mueller hit a two-out single and Dusty Rhodes followed with a base hit to left field. Mueller became reckless and tried to take an extra base but was gunned down by left fielder Mel Clark at third to end the Giants’ early scoring attempt.

Mays led off the top of the second inning with his first hit of the game, a single to left field. He advanced to second when Phillies first baseman Johnny Wyrostek booted Hank Thompson’s grounder and then went to third on Davey Williams’s groundout to second baseman Granny Hamner. However, that was as far as Mays got as Roberts struck out Wes Westrum and retired Antonelli on a fly ball to right field.

Jim Hearn took over the mound duties from Antonelli, who had completed his “final world series tune-up,”4 in the bottom of the third and continued to match goose eggs with Roberts until the bottom of the fifth. During that interval, Mays registered his only out in the game by grounding to Hamner in the top of the fourth.

In the bottom of the fifth, Roberts was determined to help his own cause and banged out a leadoff double. Richie Ashburn followed with a single to right field, but Roberts held up at third base. With runners on the corners, Clark hit into a double play and Roberts scored for a 1-0 Phillies lead. Hearn then walked Smoky Burgess but retired Hamner to end the inning.

Hearn ran into further trouble the next inning, and Roberts again was involved in the scoring as he tried to hit and to pitch his team to victory. Bobby Morgan knocked a one-out single to left field, and Willie Jones followed with a double that put two Phillies in scoring position. Giants manager Leo Durocher had Hearn issue an intentional walk to Wyrostek that loaded the bases for Roberts. The Phillies pitcher laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt that drove in Morgan and advanced Jones and Wyrostek. Durocher ordered another intentional walk, this time to the dangerous Ashburn; once again, the bases were filled with Phillies. Hearn escaped further damage by retiring Clark on a fly to Mueller in right field for the third out.

Philadelphia’s 2-0 lead turned out to be short-lived as Mays stepped to the fore in the top of the seventh and banged out a leadoff triple. The three-bagger was the Giants’ first hit since Mays’ second-inning single, and the New Yorkers had managed only one additional baserunner in the interim – Thompson, who had walked in the fourth

This time, Thompson grounded out to Wyrostek at first, and Mays ran home for New York’s first tally. After Williams and Westrum hit back-to-back singles, with Williams advancing to third on Westrum’s hit, Joe Garagiola pinch-hit for Hearn and lofted a sacrifice fly to right field that drove in Williams to tie the game, 2-2. Whitey Lockman then worked a walk from Roberts, but the Phillies’ stalwart ace retired Billy Gardner to preserve the tie for the moment.

Marv Grissom became the Giants’ third pitcher of the day in the bottom of the seventh, and he threw two uneventful innings. Roberts allowed doubles to Mays in the top of the eighth – his third hit of the game – and to Garagiola in the ninth but kept the Giants from scoring any additional runs.

After lifting Grissom for a pinch-hitter in the top of the ninth, Durocher sent Al Worthington to the hill to continue the duel with Roberts in the bottom of the inning. Worthington flirted with trouble, but a little strategy and a bit of luck sent the ballgame into extra innings. Worthington walked Ashburn to lead off the ninth, and Ashburn advanced to second on Clark’s sacrifice. Durocher ordered an intentional walk to Burgess, and Hamner flied out to center with neither runner being able to advance. Worthington then walked Del Ennis, and Durocher pulled the hurler in favor of George Spencer, who retired Morgan for the third out.

Mueller led off the 10th with a double off Roberts, and Mays drew an intentional walk that put runners on first and second with one out. Roberts bore down and got the two outs he needed to keep the game going. After Spencer worked around two bases on balls (one intentional) in the bottom of the frame, it was time for the Giants to end the game and the regular season.

Garagiola hit a one-out double in the top of the 11th – his second of the game – and the next batter, Lockman, drew the seventh intentional walk of the game (four by the Giants’ hurlers and three by Roberts). This time, the free pass backfired as Gardner lashed a single to left that brought Garagiola home for a 3-2 New York advantage. Roberts retired Mueller and Rhodes, but the handwriting for a Philadelphia defeat was now on the wall. Spencer surrendered a leadoff walk to Burgess in the bottom of the frame, but Hamner hit into a double play, and Ennis popped out to end the game.

The Giants finished with a 97-57 record, and “wondrous Willie,” as the Philadelphia Inquirer dubbed him, won the NL batting championship.5 In an interesting quirk that coincided with Mays’ accomplishment, Ted Williams had finished the season with an identical .345 batting average that was the highest in the AL, but he had too few at-bats to qualify for the official title.6 Before Mays learned that he had also garnered his first MVP award, he etched his name into baseball lore with a play in World Series Game One that will forever be known simply as “The Catch.” Mays’ unbelievable running catch of Cleveland Indians batter Vic Wertz’s deep drive, and his throw that held Larry Doby at third base, propelled the Giants to an upset in the game and the Series against a powerful Cleveland squad that had won 111 games in the AL that season.

SOURCES

The author consulted baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org for the box score and play-by-play of the game as well as for team standings, player statistics, and awards.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI195409260.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1954/B09260PHI1954.htm

NOTES

1  United Press, “‘Hey’ Kid Bat King/Williams’ .345 Tops for Americans But –,” Pasadena Independent, September 27, 1954: 17.

2  Mueller went 2-for-6 for the Giants against the Phillies while Snider was 0-for-3 for the Dodgers against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field on the final day of the season.

3  Although the Phillies lost to the Giants, they finished in fourth place, one game ahead of the Cincinnati Reds, after the Reds lost their finale to the Chicago Cubs.

4  “Mays Wins Batting Title as Giants Defeat Phils; Dodgers Topple Pirates/Roberts is Loser in 11 Innings, 3-2,” New York Times, September 27, 1954: 25.

5  Ryan Baumgartner, “Mays Wins Bat Title as Phils Lose to Giants, 3-2, Take Fourth,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 1954: 21.

6  A minimum of 400 at-bats was required to qualify for the batting title, and Williams finished with 386. Cleveland’s Bobby Avila, who batted .341 over 555 at-bats, was the official AL batting champion in 1954.