Along the way to a 5-4 record in 84⅓ innings in 1945, Maglie picked up the August 23 Sporting News “Player of the Week” award, aided by guidance from Giants pitching coach Dolf Luque.2 Maglie then followed Luque, a fixture in Cuban baseball, to the island for more tutoring that winter. Pitching in Cuba, Maglie encountered Mexican baseball magnate Bernardo Pasquel.3

Pasquel tried to entice Maglie to pitch in Mexico in 1946 for $7,500 although the right-hander had already signed a Giants contract for the same amount. “The bonus wasn’t large enough to make me throw over the big leagues and play ball under conditions I knew nothing about,” Maglie remembered.4

When Maglie reported to 1946 Giants spring training, Ott greeted him enthusiastically, “then forgot about him.”5 Meanwhile, Pasquel and his brother Jorge continued to doggedly pursue Maglie. Frustrated by the dismissive treatment he received in spring training, Maglie ultimately signed a lucrative contract with the Pasquels to play in Mexico.6 But he had cast a significant lot — as one of 13 major-league “jumpers” to Mexico, Maglie was banned from Organized Baseball for five years.7

Maglie pitched under Luque’s useful tutelage in Mexico for the 1946 and 1947 seasons and emerged “a grim, tough, ruthless competitor unfazed by weather, taunts, or pressure.”8 From Luque, Maglie learned to rely on his devastating curveball, mixing in pedestrian fastballs, many of them high and tight, to intimidate hitters. Those fastballs, often “so close to batters’ heads that it seemed to shave their chins, [ultimately] gain[ed] him the memorable nickname ‘Sal the Barber.’”9 Disenchanted with Mexico after 194710 but still banned, he played with a barnstorming team assembled by fellow jumper Max Lanier until the autumn of 1948 and in 1949 with the Drummondville (Quebec) Cubs in the Canadian Provincial League. There, he had a “sensational season,” leading the team to a first-place finish in the league’s regular season and the league championship in two rounds of playoffs.11

Lawsuits challenging the Mexican ban motivated Organized Baseball give the banned players early amnesty for the 1950 season.12 Under the reserve clause, Maglie was still obligated to play for the Giants or nowhere else in Organized Baseball. “Sal’s departure from the Giants had caused only a small stir, and his return caused even less.”13 Maglie signed a 1950 contract for a reported $10,000 and encountered a new manager, Leo Durocher. Although Durocher greeted Maglie cordially in spring training and complimented him on his physical condition, “I had the feeling they weren’t counting on me. They were taking a look just because they owned me,” was Maglie’s assessment.14 But, “I’ll pitch my arm off just to show the Giants how glad I am to be back. If Leo has four good starters and I can help him in relief, that’ll be fine.”15

On the Giants’ arrival at camp in Phoenix in late February 1950, the local paper reported that Durocher was “proud of his pitchers,” but listed Maglie as the sixth of six “other possibilities” for the fifth spot in the rotation.16 By mid-April, though, he was assured of at least a bullpen role. Durocher told writers, “Maglie has good control, especially of his breaking stuff.”17 Two days later Durocher was calling Maglie his “No. 1 relief pitcher.”18

More than four years after he had thrown his last major-league pitch, on September 30, 1945, Sal Maglie was back in the majors. He was now 33 years old but had learned a lot about the vicissitudes of life — and pitching — in the interim.

The Giants opened their schedule at the Polo Grounds against the Boston Braves on Tuesday afternoon, April 18. The Braves were two years removed from a World Series loss. They were coming off a fourth-place finish in 1949 and still had their formidable lefty-righty starting pitching duo of Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain, bolstered by Vern Bickford.19 Spahn got the Opening Day start against the Giants’ ace, Larry Jansen. A festive Opening Day crowd of 32,441 saw Manhattan Borough President Robert F. Wagner Jr. toss the ceremonial first pitch. “Hordes of distinguished people [were] in the box seats, but none [brought] more hallowed memories than loyal regulars Mrs. John McGraw and Mrs. Christy Mathewson.” Actress Laraine Day, Durocher’s wife, was also on hand “as regular telecaster with a pregame feature over WPIX.”20

Jansen breezed through the Braves in the top of the first, including a strikeout of the Braves’ “$150,000 rookie wonder,” Sam Jethroe.21 The Giants got Jansen a run in their first — Eddie Stanky walked, Whitey Lockman flied out, Bobby Thomson singled in front of the plate as Stanky moved to second base, and Don Mueller singled to right-center to bring Stanky home.22

The Braves went down in order in their second as Jansen recorded two more strikeouts. But he quickly lost his slim lead in the third. Del Crandall greeted him with a popfly single, the Braves’ first hit. Former Giant Buddy Kerr tripled him home to tie the game; Spahn helped his own cause with a groundout to the right side that scored Kerr. The Braves now led, 2-1.

New York got a leadoff home run from Hank Thompson in the fourth inning to forge a 2-2 tie. Jansen, though, imploded in the fifth. He allowed a single, a walk, and a run-scoring single, then a fly out that plated another run. His day was finished by Bob Elliott‘s two-run homer. The Boston lead had bloomed to 6-2.

Maglie’s formal return to Organized Baseball began when Durocher summoned him in relief. Jansen had managed one out. Four runs were already in, but the bases were clear. Maglie had predictable jitters and walked Sid Gordon on four pitches, then yielded consecutive singles to Earl Torgeson and Crandall, bringing home the fifth run of the inning. He did, though, get Kerr to hit into an around-the-horn double play to end the carnage.

With the Giants now trailing, 7-2, Stanky drew another walk leading off the sixth inning. Lockman followed with a home run to reduce the deficit to three runs. Maglie took the mound needing a shutdown inning. He didn’t get it — Spahn led off with a single before Connie Ryan, next up, drilled a home run to restore Boston’s five-run margin at 9-4. Maglie negotiated the rest of the half-inning without further damage. His lineup spot was due up forth as the Giants batted. The first two batters reached safely, but rookie first baseman Jack Harshman bounced into a double play and Jack Maguire, pinch-hitting for Maglie with a runner on third base, flied out.

Maglie’s post-ban debut was in the books — an ugly line of three earned runs yielded over 1⅔ innings on four hits and two walks. His earned-run average was 16.20. “Maglie discovered quickly that he was not pitching in the Mexican League anymore.”23

Boston added two more runs off Kirby Higbe in the eighth to coast to an 11-4 win for Spahn.

Although “slouching in the bullpen”24 after his inauspicious return, Maglie picked up a relief win on May 6. He had nicely whittled his ERA to 3.27 by June 25, when Durocher entrusted him with a start against Cincinnati. He went six innings in a 6-4 loss and was back in the bullpen until July 21. Durocher started him against the Cardinals in St. Louis, and Maglie responded with a gutty seven-hitter as the Giants won, 5-4, in 11 innings.

That effort turned Maglie’s 1950 season around and prompted the Cardinals’ Stan Musial to ask, “Where have you been keeping that guy? He’s got the best curveball I’ve ever seen.”25 After July 21 through the end of the season Maglie started 15 more games, completed 12, and went 13-1 with a 2.51 ERA. The string included five shutouts, four of them in succession between August 26 and September 9.26 Those dominant starts helped Maglie finish the season at 18-4. His .818 winning percentage, 2.71 ERA, and five shutouts led all National League pitchers.

Maglie’s return season had started with the shakiest of outings. But by September 17, a crowd of 21,892 celebrated Sal Maglie Day at the Polo Grounds before a game against the Cardinals.27 He was indeed back.

Acknowledgments

As the Notes throughout this account indicate, Judith Testa‘s meticulously researched 2007 biography of Sal Maglie was especially helpful. Her work aided me greatly in distilling Maglie’s decision to forgo Organized Baseball for Mexico in 1947, the impact of Dolf Luque on his career, Maglie’s restorative 1949 season in Canada, and the details of his re-signing and spring training with the 1950 Giants.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the Baseball Cube.com website. My SABR colleague Carl Riechers helped confirm details of the 1933 National League consecutive scoreless innings streak Sal Maglie threatened 17 years later.

Notes

1 Judith Testa, Sal Maglie: Baseball’s Demon Barber (De Kalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007), 37.

2 Testa, 39. See: “Player of the Week — Sal Maglie,” The Sporting News, August 23, 1950: 15.

3 Testa, 49.

4 Testa, 49.

5 Testa, 51.

6 Judith Testa’s efforts to definitively determine the contract terms rely primarily on Maglie’s recollections in the early 1950s. The best reconstruction is that the contract that resulted in Maglie’s leaving the Giants in 1946 was for a $5,000 bonus, a salary of $15,000 for the season, a “fashionable fully-furnished apartment,” and $1,000 in travel expenses to be shared with fellow Giants signees George Hausmann and Roy Zimmerman. Testa, 55-59, 61.

7 “13 Jumping Beans Placed On O.B. Ineligible List,” The Sporting News, May 16, 1946: 5. Five players from the minor leagues were also banned for playing in Mexico in 1946. See: July 10, 2004 SABR-L post by Merritt Clifton.

8 Testa, 80.

9 Judith Testa, “Sal Maglie,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, sabr.org, accessed April 22, 2020. The nickname may well have been introduced to the public by sportswriter Jim McCulley in July 1950. “Sal, or the Barber, as his intimates call him,” he wrote in a story about the start in St. Louis that turned Maglie’s season around. Jim McCulley, “Jinxed Maglie Tackles Cardinals as Starter,” New York Daily News, July 22, 1950: 29. By August McCulley was routinely referring to Maglie as “the Barber” in game stories. The nickname caught on with other writers. See: Bob Wilson, “Sport Talk,” Knoxville (Tennessee) News-Sentinel, May 20, 1952: 16.

10 Just as he had in the 1945-46 Organized Baseball offseason, Maglie pitched in Cuba in the winters of 1946-47 and 1947-48 before pitching in Mexico in the summer. The Mexican League folded in September 1948. But “before the [winter, 1947-48] Cuban season ended, Sal knew he would not return to Mexico.” Testa, 82-83.

11 Testa, 90.

12 Dan Daniel, “Last of Legal Threats to Game Cleared Away,” The Sporting News, October 19, 1949: 2.

13 Testa, 105.

14 Testa, 106.

15 Testa, 107-108.

16 Arnott Duncan, “Tight Defense May Help Loss of Homer Clan,” Arizona Republic (Phoenix), February 28, 1950: 21.

17 Jim McCulley, “Jansen to Hurl Opener for Giants vs. Braves,” New York Daily News, April 15, 1950: 65.

18 Jim McCulley, “Tribe Beats Giants, 2-1,” New York Daily News, April 17, 1950: 76.

19 Between them, Spahn (39), Sain (37), and Bickford (39) started 115 of Boston’s 154 games in 1950, and accounted for 77 complete games.

20 Hy Turkin, “Giants Not Same (to Durocher),” New York Daily News, April 19, 1950: 97.

21 Turkin. Jackie Robinson had integrated the major leagues in 1947 while Maglie was playing in Mexico. Jethroe, 31, was originally signed by the Dodgers from the Negro American League Cleveland Buckeyes in July 1948. He played for Brooklyn’s top-level Montreal farm club in 1948 and 1949. The Braves acquired Jethroe’s rights for “a large undisclosed sum” and three players on October 4, 1949. United Press, “Dodgers Get Three for Jethroe Deal,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 5, 1949: 26. He was 33 and the first to cross the color line with a Boston team when he debuted with the Braves in this game. See also: Bill Nowlin, “How Sam Jethroe Was Received in Boston,” National Pastime Museum, March 24, 2016, accessed April 19, 2020, thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/how-sam-jethroe-was-received-boston.

22 Second baseman Stanky and his double-play partner Alvin Dark were brand-new Giants. New York acquired them from Boston for four players on December 14, 1949. They helped make the 1950 Giants what Durocher called “my kind of team.” Turkin.

23 Testa, 108, quoting sportswriter Jim McCulley of the New York Daily News.

24 Testa, 108.

25 Testa, 115, quoting Russ Hodges and Al Hirshberg in My Giants (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co., 1963), 84. Musial could afford to be magnanimous; he was hitting .348 going into the game and had three of the Cardinals’ seven hits.

26 Maglie pitched 45 consecutive scoreless innings. It started with a relief appearance on August 23 and ended on September 13 when Gus Bell of the Pirates hit a 257-foot home run off the right-field foul pole at the Polo Grounds in the seventh inning. Testa, 120. At the time, Maglie was four outs from tying Giants legend Carl Hubbell‘s National League record set in 1933 for 46⅓ consecutive scoreless innings and was one inning short of Doc White‘s 1904 major-league record of five consecutive shutouts. Joseph M. Sheehan, “Maglie’s Scoreless String Ended,” New York Times, September 14, 1950: 42. (Hubbell’s streak included partial innings in the first and last games, which covered July 13 through August 1, 1933, as well as an 8⅓-inning relief appearance on July 19. Some reference sources state Hubbell’s consecutive scoreless innings streak to be 45⅓ innings. The partial-inning outs from the first and last games total another full inning and make Hubbell’s accurate consecutive innings streak 46⅓ innings.)

27 Jim McCulley, “Giants Rally in Ninth to Shade Cards, 7-6,” New York Daily News, September 18, 1950: 59. Judith Testa records in Maglie’s biography that “more than 1,000 residents of Niagara Falls [Maglie’s home town] came to the Polo Grounds,” and “the pitcher received a new car, a $2,500 war bond and a variety of other gifts from his friends and neighbors, a radio from his teammates, and a wristwatch from fans in the Polo Grounds bleachers.” Testa, 122.

It is hard on the fans too, especially if the player has been a solid performer. Hard to say good-bye to their heroes whom they have cheered for over a decade. Gave them thrills and made plays that were told and retold for generations.

The player who was facing these realities as the 1940s wound down was Cleveland Indians third baseman Ken Keltner. The Milwaukee native had been in the lineup since 1938, and the Indians’ fan base was used to seeing his fine defense and solid work with the bat.

Magic moments on both sides of the ball had ensured Keltner’s place in Cleveland’s baseball lore. He was at third on July 17, 1941, making two spectacular plays against Joe DiMaggio when the Indians snapped the game’s longest hitting streak. With the Indians and Boston Red Sox in a winner-take-all playoff for the American League pennant on October 4, 1948, his three-run home run put his team ahead to stay in their 8-3 win, giving Cleveland its first flag in 28 years.

Keltner had the most productive season of his career in 1948. At age 32, he batted .297, setting career highs in home runs (31) and RBIs (131) to power the Indians to their second-ever pennant and eventually, a World Series championship. But an injury to his left leg kept Keltner out of the lineup for a good portion of the next season, limiting him to a career-low 67 starts at third base in 1949.

Al Rosen was breathing down Keltner’s neck. The hard-hitting Rosen had accomplished just about all he could on the minor-league level. He was easily one of the top players in the minors, no matter which league. But Rosen could not compete with Keltner on defense, and even though he was called up at the end of the 1947 and 1948 seasons, he demonstrated little potential to manager Lou Boudreau. Rosen broke spring training with the Indians in 1949 but was sent down to Triple-A San Diego in July when he failed to produce consistent numbers.

Hank Greenberg was Cleveland’s new general manager in 1950, having been promoted from farm director three seasons after retiring as an active player. No fan of the aging players, including Keltner, Greenberg was in favor of a youth movement. “Ken Keltner, our regular third baseman, was getting old; he couldn’t play anymore in my opinion,” Greenberg wrote in his autobiography. “All Keltner could do was drink and smoke with the rest of the boys, like Joe Gordon and Lou Boudreau. He had no discipline whatsoever.”1

It was especially tough on Boudreau, who as the team’s manager and shortstop, had played side-by-side with Keltner since 1940. Additionally, they were good friends. As Greenberg was no fan of Keltner’s, Boudreau was not hopping on Rosen’s bandwagon. “I kept Keltner around this long because Rosen has looked as bad or worse,” said Boudreau. “Maybe Rosen will perk up now that he knows the job is his until he plays himself off it. I don’t know how long I can go with Rosen. If he hits, then maybe I can overlook his poor fielding.”2  

The drama was put to an end when Keltner was released on April 12, making it official that Rosen was the starting third baseman. Keltner was signed by Boston two days later. He headed out of the Indians’ clubhouse to meet his new teammates.3   

On April 18 Cleveland opened the 1950 season at home against the Detroit Tigers. Rosen found his name written in the manager’s lineup card, batting seventh.

The pitching matchup for the lid-lifter was Fred Hutchinson (15-7, 2.96 ERA in 1949) for the Tigers and Bob Lemon (22-10, 2.99 ERA) for the Indians. A large crowd of 65,744 made its way to Cleveland Stadium for the 3:00 P.M. start. The weather forecast was for temperatures reaching 60 to 65 degrees with a threat of showers. Cleveland Mayor Thomas Burke threw out the ceremonial first pitch, then cleared the slab for Lemon. Both teams were hoping to improve on their 1949 showings, when Cleveland (89-65) and Detroit (87-67) finished in third and fourth place respectively in the AL standings behind the World Series champion New York Yankees.

It appeared as if the throng at the Lakeside ballpark might be in for a laugher. In the bottom of the first inning, Dale Mitchell led off with a single and jogged home when Larry Doby smashed a home run into the right-field seats. The 360-foot blast was enough of a lead for Lemon, who set down the next 10 Detroit batters in a row.

Rosen led off the second frame for the Indians and grounded out to third base. It would have been hard to ignore the “We want Keltner … We want Keltner” chants that rained down from the rafters. Never mind that Keltner had signed with the Red Sox, and now he could not be there, no matter how much the fans wanted him.       

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Rosen and Jim Hegan were both retired on fly outs. But the Indians added to their advantage when Lemon, Mitchell, Doby, and Mickey Vernon plated two more runs on four straight singles, pushing the lead to 4-0.

Detroit finally got to Lemon in the top of the sixth inning. With one away, Jerry Priddy singled to center field and moved to third base when George Kell followed with a double to right. Vic Wertz collected the Tigers’ first RBI of the season when he grounded out to second base and Priddy scored. Detroit moved a run closer in the seventh. With one away, Aaron Robinson blasted a home run over the right-field fence to make the score, 4-2, Cleveland.

The wheels came off the Indians’ defense in the eighth, allowing the Tigers to take the lead. Lemon started the inning by walking Priddy. After Kell was retired on a fly ball, Wertz doubled to left field and Priddy scored. Pat Mullin grounded out to second, advancing Wertz to third. He scored the tying run when second baseman Gordon muffed Johnny Groth’s groundball.

Instead of Lemon and the Indians being out of the inning, the floodgates were opened for Detroit. Dick Kryhoski doubled to left field to plate Groth. Robinson was given a free pass to put runners on first and second with two outs and the pitcher due up. But Hutchinson ruined that strategy when he singled to center to knock in Kryhoski for a 6-4 lead. Lemon, who was relieved at that point in favor of Jesse Flores, was charged with four runs, though only one was earned.

But Detroit’s lead was short-lived. Boudreau led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a single. In stepped Rosen. The 26-year-old rookie had two strikes before connecting for a home run to the seats in left field. The score was now tied at 6-6. Hutchinson was headed to the showers and Detroit manager Red Rolfe brought in Art Houtteman from the bullpen. Although Cleveland was able to get two more men on base, including Mitchell’s double for his fifth hit of the day, Houtteman shut the door and kept the scored tied.

The game went into extra innings, tied at 6-all. In the top of the 10th, with one out, Kryhoski singled and Robinson reached on an error by first baseman Vernon. Rolfe was pushing all the buttons from the dugout as Paul Campbell ran for Robinson while Charlie Keller was called on to hit for Houtteman. Flores walked Keller as well and the Tigers had the bases loaded with one out. Johnny Lipon came to bat and lifted a fly ball to left. Kryhoski scored after the catch and Detroit led, 7-6.

Rolfe brought in right-handed Paul Calvert to shut the door on the Tribe. Which he did to preserve the victory for the visitors.

It was not an ideal start of the season for Lemon, who gave up six runs – three earned – over 7⅔ innings and squandered a four-run lead. Still, he finished 1950 with a career-high 23 wins and was fifth in the American League MVP voting, as the Indians came in fourth, six games behind the Yankees.

Hutchinson was also less than stellar on Opening Day, going seven innings and giving up six runs (all earned) and 13 hits. Like Lemon, better days were ahead: he had a 17-8 record in 1950, helping the Tigers to a second-place finish, three games behind New York.

Rosen was happy about his big blast to tie the game. But his glee did not last. “It felt great at the time,” said Rosen, “but they don’t mean a thing if you don’t win.”4 Rosen smacked 37 home runs in his rookie season in 1950. It was an AL rookie record that stood until 1987 when Mark McGwire topped it with 49 round-trippers. He held down third in Cleveland through 1956, earning MVP honors in 1953 and – combined with Keltner – giving the Indians sustained excellence at the hot corner for a decade and a half.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

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/CLE/CLE195004180.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1950/B04180CLE1950.htm  

Notes

1 Hank Greenberg with Ira Berkow, Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life (New York: Random House, 1989), 221.

2 Jim Schlemmer, “Keltner Released; Rosen to Open Up at 3d,” Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal, April 12, 1950: 33-34.

3 Keltner played in 13 games in Boston, batting .321, but was released on June 6, finding little opportunity on a roster whose third-base options also included veteran Johnny Pesky and eventual 1950 AL batting champion Billy Goodman. “Keltner, .321, Let Go, Hose 1 Under Limit,” Boston Globe, June 7, 1950. Keltner wrapped up his professional career in 1951 with the Pacific Coast League’s Sacramento Solons, who were led by player-manager Joe Gordon, his former Indians teammate.

4 Charles Heaton, “Rookie’s Elation Is Dampened by Indians’ Setback,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 19, 1950: 26.

While the Yankees won the World Series in 1947, and again in 1949, frustration was mounting for the Red Sox. In 1946 Boston lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in Game Seven.1 In 1948 they lost a one-game playoff for the pennant to the Cleveland Indians. Then came the crushing loss to the Yankees in 1949 that ended Boston’s season with the “taste of ashes.”2 With the Red Sox favored to win the pennant in 1950,3 Opening Day against the Yankees took on an importance well beyond that of an ordinary regular-season game.

The “furor” surrounding the game was as if the season was “already coming to a close with the pennant [about to be] decided.”4 As Arthur Daley wrote in the New York Times, “[m]ost of the experts are … agreed that the Yanks can repeat as champions only in the tightest kind of pennant race. But most of them also are agreed that the Red Sox are the only contenders with a chance of blowing the race wide apart as they run off and hide from all rivals.”5 In words that would prove prophetic, Daley wrote that “[t]he pennant could be lost here and now,” observing that a one-sided result could have a disproportionate impact on the pennant race.6

Thus, on a bright and warm afternoon, Fenway Park was filled with a record Opening Day crowd of 31,822. Before the game, the commissioner of baseball, A.B. “Happy” Chandler, presented Ted Williams with the 1949 AL MVP Award.7 The governor of Massachusetts, Paul Dever, threw out the first ball.

The Yankees were managed by Casey Stengel.8 Stengel was following in the footsteps of Joe McCarthy, who led the Yankees from 1931 to 1946, winning eight pennants and seven World Series in 16 seasons.9 As if there was not enough drama for Opening Day, McCarthy was now the manager of the Red Sox, having become their skipper at the start of the 1948 season.10

The Red Sox lineup featured two future Hall of Famers, Williams and Bobby Doerr, together with Dom DiMaggio,11 Al Zarilla, Billy Goodman, Vern Stephens, and Johnny Pesky. With starting catcher Birdie Tebbetts and his backup, Buddy Rosar, both injured, Boston started Matt Batts behind the plate. On the mound was the ace of the staff, Mel Parnell, who had led the AL in both wins and ERA in 1949 (25-7, 2.77).

The Yankees had three future Hall of Famers in their lineup — Joe DiMaggio,12 Phil Rizzuto, and Yogi Berra — together with “Old Reliable,” 37-year-old Tommy Henrich, Hank Bauer, Jerry Coleman, Billy Johnson, and Johnny Lindell. On the mound was their ace, Allie Reynolds, 17-6 in 1949.

The Boston fans were roaring early as the Red Sox scored three times in the first. After making it 4-0 in the second, Boston chased Reynolds in the fourth, scoring five runs, including a two-run home run by Goodman. Things were looking awfully good for the Red Sox as they led 9-0 after four innings.

New York’s slumbering bats woke up in the sixth, when they scored four against Parnell, closing the gap to 9-4. Parnell pitched a scoreless seventh and when Boston added an insurance run in the bottom of the frame, the game looked pretty much over with the Red Sox leading 10-4.13

Then came the Yankees eighth. With two on and one out, a Yankees rookie named Billy Martin came to the plate.14 The 21-year-old Martin had entered the game after Coleman was removed for a pinch-hitter. Billy “The Kid” was now batting for the first time in his major-league career — and he doubled off the left-field wall, driving in a run.15 Stengel then sent future Hall of Famer Johnny Mize up to pinch-hit. The 37-year-old Mize, in his first full season with the Yankees, doubled, scoring two, and suddenly it was 10-7.16 Jackie Jensen, making his major-league debut, ran for Mize.17

McCarthy had now seen enough of the tiring Parnell, and Walt Masterson came in to face Rizzuto, who made the first out. Then the onslaught resumed. Henrich tripled to right, making it 10-8. With Masterson throwing from the right side, Stengel put lefty-swinging Gene Woodling up to bat for Bauer. After a wild pitch made it 10-9, Woodling walked and DiMaggio singled, putting runners on first and second. That was it for Masterson as lefty Earl Johnson took the mound to face the lefty hitting Berra. Berra’s infield single loaded the bases. Right-hander Al Papai then came in to face the righty-hitting Johnson.18 Johnson singled to left, scoring two, and incredibly the Yankees had taken the lead, 11-10. After Lindell walked, Martin got his second hit of the inning and of his career, driving in two more runs.19 Charley Schanz,20 the fifth Boston pitcher of the inning,21 relieved Papai and ended the inning, but not before the Yankees had scored nine runs on eight hits and taken a 13-10 lead in “an explosion that all but leveled Bunker Hill.”22

Joe Page — whom the Boston Herald described as “Stengel’s meal ticket”23 — pitched two perfect innings to close out the game for the Yankees, who scored two more in the ninth to make the final score 15-10.

The implications of the stunning Yankees comeback were readily apparent. The Boston Herald remarked how the season “started where the 1949 campaign ended — in deep gloom.”24 The let- down “was as shocking, if not quite so painful” as the collapse “against the same opponent on the final two days of the last season.”25 The New York Times observed how the Red Sox “opened the season with a grand flourish … but the Yankees almost closed it on the spot.”26 The Boston Traveler blared that the “Yankees Feel Psychologically Set,” stating that if the Yankees “win the American League pennant — and now they are supremely confident that they will — and if the Red Sox don’t win the pennant — and nobody’s sure that they will — the opening game of the American League season will have settled the pennant race.”27 The Red Sox were a “crestfallen” team, “shaken right down the line.”28 Before the game the Red Sox players voted to bar the press from their dressing room.29 As one Boston writer put it, instead of keeping the press out of the locker room, “they should have barred their own pitchers.”30

The next day, the Yankees and Red Sox split a doubleheader.31 The Yankees went on to win 98 games and the pennant. The Red Sox made it to first place in May, slumped to fourth for much of the season, and finished strong, ending up in third place, four games behind the Yankees.32 They scored a franchise-record 1,207 runs in 1950, but their 94 wins saw them finish behind both the Yankees and the 95-win Detroit Tigers.

The Yankees won the World Series in 1950 and again in ’51, ’52, and ’53. From 1954 through 1964, they won nine more pennants and four more World Series.33 The Red Sox finished third again in 1951, this time 11 games out. For the next 15 seasons, they never finished higher than third, were never closer than 12 games out of first and finished sixth or lower eight times. Finally, in the “Impossible Dream” season of 1967, the Red Sox won the pennant but lost in the World Series. The Yankees, of course, kept on winning championships and the Red Sox did not win one until 2004. Looking back at the hopes and dreams that the Red Sox had on Opening Day 1950, after having come so close to the pennant in both 1948 and 1949, one has to wonder how the Red Sox would have fared that season — and how baseball history might have been different — if they had not sustained that dispiriting 15-10 loss to the Yankees on Opening Day.

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/BOS/BOS195004180.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1950/B04180BOS1950.htm

Notes

1 Game Seven of the 1946 World Series is long remembered for Enos “Country” Slaughter’s “Mad Dash” to home that beat the Red Sox. The Red Sox had not won a World Series since 1918 and, prior to 1946, had gone 27 years without coming even remotely close to a pennant. In contrast, from 1921 through 1949, the Yankees won 16 pennants and 12 World Series.

2 David Halberstam, The Summer of ’49 (New York: Harper Perennial, 2006) 285. Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, immortalized the 1949 pennant race in his book. That season, with the pennant in their grasp, the Red Sox blew a four-run lead in the first of their two final games against the Yankees and lost the pennant on the last day of the season. The Yankees went on to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series.

3 Carl Felker, “Experts Strong for Dodgers, Red Sox,” The Sporting News, April 19, 1950.

4 John Drebinger, “Bombers to Clash with Red Sox in Inaugural Contest at Boston,” New York Times, April 18, 1950.

5 Arthur Daley, “Sports of the Times,” New York Times, April 18, 1950.

6 Arthur Daley, “Sports of the Times.”

7 In 1949 Williams came within one hit of winning his third Triple Crown. He won the Triple Crown in 1942 and 1947. In 1949 he led the league in HRs (43) and RBIs (159) while batting .343, losing the batting title to Detroit’s George Kell on the final day of the season when he finished with a BA of .3427 to Kell’s .3429. From 1901 through 2019, there have been only 15 Triple Crown seasons in baseball history. Besides Williams, only Rogers Hornsby had two such seasons. Williams also was, as of 2020, the last player to hit .400 in a season, having hit .406 in 1941.

8 Stengel was in his second season as Yankees manager. He began his managerial career with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1934. After three seasons managing the Dodgers, Stengel took over the reins of the National League Boston Bees (later Braves), managing them from 1938 through 1943. In nine years as a manager in Brooklyn and Boston, none of Stengel’s teams finished out of the second division. With the Yankees, Stengel won 10 pennants and seven World Series in 12 seasons. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a manager in 1966.

9 McCarthy’s tenure as Yankees manager ended during the 1946 season. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a manager in 1957.

10 It was reported that McCarthy’s critics “say that he has never won a close pennant race” and that was why the opening series with the Yankees was “tremendously important. With a rapid getaway Boston might whisk out of sight. With another sorry start by the Red Sox it could very well be that Stengel will again be taking the bows.” Arthur Daley, “Sports of the Times.”  

11 Dom was Joe’s younger brother. He played 11 seasons, all with the Red Sox, and had a lifetime batting average of .298.

12 At age 35, the Yankee Clipper was coming off an injury-plagued season that had limited him to 76 games in 1949. A three time AL MVP, DiMaggio had won the award in 1947, led the league in HRs and RBIs in 1948, and hit .346 in 1949.

13 The margin would have been even greater if not for a “breath taking,” “electrifying” seventh-inning catch by Joe DiMaggio near the right-center-field bullpen with the bases loaded and two out, on a drive hit by Batts. John Drebinger, “Bombers Win, 15-10, With Late Uprising,” New York Times, April 19, 1950.

14 The Providence Journal referred to him as “Al Martin” (his given name was Alfred Manuel Martin). F.C. Matzek, “Yanks Come From Behind, Whip Sox in Opener, 15-10,” Providence Journal, April 19, 1950. The Boston Globe referred to him as Billy Martin, exclaiming that “Stengel’s Rookie Protégé, Martin, Sparks Big Rally.” Hy Hurwitz, “Sox Start Fast, Blow 9-Run Lead to Champs,” Boston Globe, April 19, 1950.

15 Martin would go on to have an 11-year playing career in the majors. He played with the Yankees until he was traded during the 1957 season. Martin later returned to the Yankees as their manager in 1975. He was fired during the 1978 season but returned to manage the club in 1979, before being fired again during that season. He returned in 1983 for his third stint as manager and was fired yet again, returned again in 1985, fired again, and then came back for a short-lived fifth managerial stint in 1988.

16 After six seasons with the Cardinals and five with the Giants, Mize was sold by the Giants to the Yankees in August 1949.

17 Jensen, 23 years old, was a top Yankees prospect who was traded to Washington early in the 1952 season. After the 1953 season, Washington traded him to the Red Sox, with whom his career took off. Playing for Boston from 1954 through 1959, Jensen led the AL in RBIs three times, was a two-time All-Star, and was the AL MVP in 1958.

18 It was Papai’s Red Sox debut. He had been acquired on waivers from the St. Louis Browns after the 1949 season.

19 The Boston Globe noted that “Martin achieved some sort of baseball history” by getting two hits and three RBIs in a single inning, in his first two at-bats in the major leagues. After the game, Stengel “confessed” that he considered pulling Martin for a pinch-hitter the second time through the lineup, stating that “the kid came through for me so I let him bat a second time. He’s only 21. … I know that the Red Sox didn’t know how to pitch to him.” Hy Hurwitz.

20 Schanz was making his Red Sox debut. After pitching for the Phillies from 1944 through 1947, Schanz pitched in the minors in 1948 and 1949.

21 Boston’s use of five pitchers in a single inning tied the then major-league record. Hy Hurwitz.

22 Drebinger, “Bombers Win 15-10, With Late Uprising.”

23 Arthur Sampson, “No Relief, Hose Blow Game to Yanks, 15-10,” Boston Herald, April 19, 1950. Page was nicknamed “Fireman” in an era when the role of specialist relief pitchers was first evolving. He pitched for the Yankees from 1944 through 1950, with 76 career saves and the most saves in the AL in 1947 and 1949.

24 Sampson.

25 Sampson.

26 Drebinger, “Bombers Win 15-10 With Late Uprising.”

27 Arthur Siegel, “Yankees Feel Psychologically Set,” Boston Traveler, April 19, 1950.

28 Siegel.

29 Jerry Nason, “Compromise Needed Between Sox, Writers; Ban Penalizes Readers,” Boston Globe, April 19, 1950.

30 Siegel. Another Boston writer had his own tongue-in-cheek commentary, stating: “The Red Sox may be able to ban baseball writers from their dressing room, but they still haven’t found a way to keep the New York Yankees from crossing home plate, a little matter which would seem to be more important.” Joe Looney, “Closed Door Policy Backfires,” Boston Herald, April 19, 1950.

31 Boston won the first game, 6-3, and the Yankees took the nightcap, 16-7.

32 Detroit finished second, three games out of first.

33 Stengel managed the Yankees through 1960 before being replaced by Ralph Houk (1961-63). Yogi Berra managed the Yankees for one season (1964).

It was a “sticky, gray day and the sun never did break through the heavy haze,” according to Tommy Holmes of the

Fans were treated to the playing of the Police and Firemen’s Band, and also a performance of “The Fightin’ Phils” by the Elliott Lawrence orchestra. The Marine color guard hoisted the American flag during the National Anthem, and wounded World War I veteran Si Rappaport threw out the first pitch from his wheelchair.7

Robin Roberts was making his first Opening Day start for the Phillies, after finishing 15-15 in 1949. He was opposed by the Dodgers’ Don Newcombe, who was already considered one of the top pitchers in the league after a 17-8 rookie season in 1949.

The Phillies came out fired up from the very beginning. In the bottom of the first, Richie Ashburn singled and scored on Granny Hamner’s double. As the next batter made his way to the plate, the crowd rose in a standing ovation. It was Eddie Waitkus, taking his first at-bat since tragedy struck the previous June. While in Chicago, Waitkus had received a message that a Ruth Anne Burns wanted to speak on an urgent matter with him in her hotel room. When Waitkus arrived, she shot him in the stomach with a .22-caliber rifle. Her real name was Ruth Ann Steinhagen; she was a Chicago-area obsessed fan who had been stalking Waitkus.8 The shooting is believed to have inspired author Bernard Malamud to write his famous novel The Natural, which was later made into a motion picture. Glad to be alive and able to swing a bat, Waitkus made an out to the shortstop. Del Ennis lined a doubled to left, scoring Hamner, and the Phillies led 2-0 after one inning. The exciting opening to the game “turned bedecked Shibe Park into a roaring amphitheater of appreciation and expectation,” wrote Stan Baumgartner of the Philadelphia Inquirer.9

In the second inning, back-to-back doubles by Mike Goliat and Andy Seminick made the score 3-0 Phillies, and Don Newcombe was driven from the game. “Newcombe attempted to hurl his first opening day game in organized ball, but [Dodgers manager Burt] Shotton might just as well have brought the groundskeeper over from Ebbets Field and started him,” wrote Burr.10

Carl Erskine came in to pitch for Brooklyn, and quickly got two men out. However, a single by Hamner scored Seminick, and then singles by Waitkus and Ennis scored Hamner. “Before today’s opening battle,” wrote Roscoe McGowen in the New York Times, “Manager Burt Shotton of the Dodgers had an upset stomach. Before anybody was out in the Phils’ second inning, he must have had a wrecked nervous system.”11

Once the dust had settled, the Phillies had a 5-0 lead going into the third inning. “We had already scored five runs off Newcombe in the opener by the time Jackie Robinson came up to the plate for his first time,” Seminick recalled. “Jackie said to me, ‘What do you guys think you’re going to do, win the pennant?’ I said, ‘Yessir, we’re going to do it this year. You bet.’”12

The Phillies struck again in the bottom of the third. Pat McGlothin was now pitching for the Dodgers. He allowed back-to-back singles by Dick Sisler and Mike Goliat, and then McGlothin balked, sending runners to second and third. A sacrifice fly by Roberts scored Sisler, and a Hamner single scored Goliat. The Phillies pushed their lead to 7-0.

With one out in the fourth, Willie “Puddin’ Head” Jones singled and went to second on another balk by McGlothin. A single by Goliat scored Jones, and the Phillies led 8-0. That would be all of their scoring until the bottom of the eighth when Waitkus’s single off Clem Labine scored Ashburn for their ninth run.

The Dodgers were overmatched by Roberts on this day, never even getting a runner to second base until a seventh-inning double by Robinson, who took third on Goliat’s muff of the relay throw. Robinson scored on Carl Furillo’s single for the lone Dodger run. Gil Hodges reached with a single, and Roy Campanella reached on an error by Jones to load the bases, the first Dodgers threat of the day. While still leading 8-1, the Phillies bullpen got active for the first time, and “Branch Rickey, Dodger boss who had sat dejectedly for six innings in his box near the Brooklyn bench, began to puff vigorously at his cigar,” Baumgartner observed.13

However, pinch-hitter Gene Hermanski hit a hot shot back to the mound. Roberts quickly knocked it down, threw out the runner coming home, and Seminick threw Hermanski out at first, completing the double play and ending the rally.

All told, the Phillies carved out a 16-hit attack against five Brooklyn pitchers. Roberts was the only Philly batter not to get a hit, yet he still drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. He threw 119 pitches in the complete-game victory, giving up just the one run, scattering seven hits, striking out four, and allowing only one walk. He was consistent all day, with a nearly equal total of fly ball (12) and groundball (11) outs. Roberts “stood like a Rock of Gibraltar, turning back Brooklyn with his fine pitching and equally brilliant fielding,” wrote Baumgartner.14

Roberts remembered years later, “The first game was significant to me not only because it was my first opening day start but because I had not yet beat the Dodgers.”15 Roberts had been 0-3 against the Dodgers with an 8.79 ERA in 1949 and 0-5 lifetime.

Waitkus went 3-for-5 with an RBI in his return to the game. “I was scared to death,” he said after the game. “One of two [hits] were lucky ones, but I’d rather be lucky than good.”16

While Waitkus was returning to the game, another man was in his first ever game with the Dodgers. A 22-year-old Vin Scully was in the Dodgers radio booth for the very first time, calling the action for the team he would cover over the next 67 years.17

This article appears in “The Whiz Kids Take the Pennant: The 1950 Philadelphia Phillies” (SABR, 2018), edited by C. Paul Rogers III and Bill Nowlin. Click here to read more stories from this book at the SABR Games Project.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the text, the author wishes to thank the Newspaper and Microfilm Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia for research assistance.

Notes

1 Tommy Holmes, “The Dodgers Open in Deep Distress,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 19, 1950.

2 John Theodore. Baseball’s Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), 70.

3 Ibid.

4 Holmes. As best as can be determined by the author, “rinky-dinks” in this era most likely referred to the red-and-white “Rinky Dink Surf Board Skateboard” popular at the time. The Dictionary of American Slang by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1975) describes the word’s origin as “carnival use.”

5 Harold C. Burr, “Barney a Big Leaguer Again for Two Innings,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 19, 1950.

6 Cited in Lyle Spatz, “Jackie Robinson on Opening Day, 1947-1956,” in Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports, and the American Dream, eds. Joseph Dorison and Joram Warmund (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1998), 137.

7 Stan Baumgartner, “Phils Rout Dodgers, 9-1, in Opener; A’s Bow 8-7,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 1, 1950: 47.

8 C. Paul Rogers III, “Eddie Waitkus,” in Van Lingle Mungo ed. Bill Nowlin (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2014); Nook E-book edition. Steinhagen was declared insane and sentenced to the Kankakee State Hospital, while Waitkus rehabbed. The incident was said to have inspired Bernard Malamud’s baseball novel The Natural, which was also made into a movie of the same name in 1984, starring Robert Redford.

9 Baumgartner: 1.

10 Harold C. Burr, “Daylight Spring Tilts Pay Phils Dividends,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 19, 1950.

11 Roscoe McGowen, “Roberts Defeats Brooklyn, 9 to 1,” New York Times, April 19, 1950: 39.

12 Robin Roberts and C. Paul Rogers III, The Whiz Kids and the 1950 Pennant (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), 219.

13 Baumgartner: 47.

14 Ibid.

15 Roberts and Rogers, 218.

16 Theodore, 71.

17 The Brooklyn Eagle on April 18, 1950, lists Scully announcing on WMGM with Red Barber and Connie Desmond.

“Normal” was a remarkable feat considering where Waitkus had been just 10 months before. His life had hung in the balance. June 14, 1949, had started out as an excellent day. The Phillies were in Chicago to play the Cubs. Eddie scored twice in the Phillies’ 9-2 win. He was batting a career-high .306 and the Phillies were legitimate contenders for the pennant for the first time in decades.

Waitkus had a few drinks with his Philly pals after the game, then took a cab back to the Edgewater Beach Hotel. A bellhop handed Waitkus a note from a lady named Ruth Anne Burns. She had an urgent matter to speak with Waitkus about. He didn’t know Burns, but the clerk said she was from Portland Street in Boston, where Eddie grew up. He called her room around 11 P.M. She invited him to her room at 11:30 and he sat down on a chair. “I have a surprise for you,” she told him. “You are not going to bother me anymore.” She pulled out a .22-caliber rifle and shot Waitkus in the abdomen. The shooting is believed to have inspired author Bernard Malamud to write his famous novel The Natural, which was later made into a motion picture with Waitkus as the model for the Roy Hobbs character.

Waitkus slumped to the floor and she called the front desk, confessing what she had done. Her real name was really Ruth Ann Steinhagen, and her trial became one of the earliest sensational stories of a “stalker.” She had become obsessed with Waitkus when he played for the Cubs and was devastated when he was traded to the Phillies. “I used to go to all the ballgames just to watch him,” she wrote to a psychologist after being ruled insane. “We used to wait for them to come out of the clubhouse after the game, and all the time I was watching him, I was building in my mind the idea of killing him. As time went on, I just became nuttier and nuttier about the guy. I knew I would never get to know him in a normal way, so I kept thinking, I will never get him, and if I can’t have him, nobody else can. Then I decided I would kill him.”2

Waitkus was taken to Chicago’s Masonic Hospital with life-threatening injuries. The bullet had pierced a lung and lodged near his spine. He survived four operations, and the road to recovery began. “I wouldn’t want to go through that again,” Waitkus said about the rehab. “Six days a week for four months. That’s a lot of calisthenics.”3

Now Waitkus was back on Opening Day with the Phillies. It was a bright day for him, but a “sticky, gray day and the sun never did break through the heavy haze,” wrote Tommy Holmes in the Brooklyn Eagle.4 A crowd of 29,074 arrived at Shibe Park for Opening Day 1950. The city bustled with excitement and “lines of traffic from every direction were jammed and tangled,” reported Philadelphia’s Evening Bulletin.5 Fans were treated to the playing of the Police and Firemen’s Band, and also a performance of “The Fightin’ Phils” by the Elliott Lawrence orchestra. The Marine color guard hoisted the American flag during the National Anthem, and wounded World War I veteran Si Rappaport threw out the first pitch from his wheelchair.6

Robin Roberts was making his first Opening Day start for the Phillies after finishing 15-15 in 1949. He was opposed by the Dodgers’ Don Newcombe, who was already considered one of the top pitchers in the league after a 17-8 rookie season in 1949.7 A 22-year-old Vin Scully was in the Dodgers radio booth for the very first time, calling the action for the team he would cover over the next 67 years.8

In the bottom of the first, Richie Ashburn singled and scored on Granny Hamner’s double. The crowd rose in a standing ovation as Waitkus made his way to the plate. There were no heroics in his first at-bat as he made an out to the shortstop. Del Ennis doubled to left, scoring Hamner, and the Phillies led 2-0. The exciting opening to the game “turned bedecked Shibe Park into a roaring amphitheater of appreciation and expectation,” wrote Stan Baumgartner in the Philadelphia Inquirer.9

In the second inning, back-to-back doubles by Mike Goliat and Andy Seminick made the score 3-0 Phillies, and Newcombe was driven from the game. “[Dodgers manager Burt] Shotton might just as well have brought the groundskeeper over from Ebbets Field and started him,” wrote Burr.10 Carl Erskine came in to pitch for Brooklyn. A single by Hamner scored Seminick, and then Waitkus got his first milestone hit to prove he really was back. It was a line-drive single to center that sent Hamner to third. A single by Ennis scored Hamner. “Before today’s opening battle,” wrote Roscoe McGowen in the New York Times, “Manager Burt Shotton of the Dodgers had an upset stomach. Before anybody was out in the Phils’ second inning, he must have had a wrecked nervous system.”11 Once the dust had settled, the Phillies had a 5-0 lead. As Jackie Robinson came to the plate he asked Seminick,“What do you guys think you’re going to do, win the pennant?” “Yessir, we’re going to do it this year. You bet.”12 It was that kind of miraculous year for the Phillies.

In the third, Pat McGlothin was pitching for the Dodgers. He allowed back-to-back singles by Dick Sisler and Goliat, then balked to send runners to second and third. A fly ball by Roberts scored Sisler, and a single by Hamner scored Goliat. The Phillies pushed their lead to 7-0.

With one out in the fourth, Willie “Puddin’ Head” Jones singled and went to second on another balk by McGlothin. Goliat’s single scored Jones, and the Phillies led, 8-0. That would be all of their scoring until the bottom of the eighth, when returning hero Waitkus singled off Clem Labine to score Ashburn.

The Dodgers never got a runner to second base until a seventh-inning double by Robinson, who took third on Goliat’s muff of the relay throw and scored on Carl Furillo’s single. Gil Hodges singled and Roy Campanella reached on an error by Jones to load the bases. The Phillies had an 8-1 advantage but their bullpen got active for the first time, and “Branch Rickey, Dodger boss, began to puff vigorously at his cigar.”13 However, pinch-hitter Gene Hermanski bounced back to the box for an inning-ending double play. That was all she wrote. Roberts breezed through the eighth and ninth.

Roberts threw 119 pitches in the complete-game victory, scattering seven hits. “The first game was significant to me not only because it was my first Opening Day start but because I had not yet beat the Dodgers,” he said in his autobiography.14 Roberts had been 0-3 against the Dodgers in 1949 with an 8.79 ERA, and 0-5 lifetime. Meanwhile, the Phillies carved out 16 hits, but none of them bigger than those from Eddie Waitkus, who went 3-for-5 with an RBI in his return to the game.

“I was scared to death,” Waitkus said after the game. “One of two [hits] were lucky ones, but I’d rather be lucky than good.”15

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author wishes to thank the Newspaper and Microfilm Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia for research assistance.

Notes

1 Jack Hand (Associated Press), “From Death Bed Back to First Base, That’s Ed Waitkus’ Story,” Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer, April 2, 1950: 18-B.

2 Bruce Weber, “Ruth Ann Steinhagen Is Dead at 83; Shot a Ballplayer,” New York Times, March 23, 2013: 22.

3 Hand.

4 Tommy Holmes, “The Dodgers Open in Deep Distress,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 19, 1950: 21.

5 John Theodore. Baseball’s Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), 70.

6 Stan Baumgartner, “Phils Rout Dodgers, 9-1, in Opener; A’s Bow 8-7,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 1, 1950: 47.

7 Newcombe was voted Rookie of the Year in 1949.

8 The Brooklyn Eagle on April 18, 1950, lists Scully announcing on WMGM with Red Barber and Connie Desmond.

9 Baumgartner: 1.

10 Harold C. Burr, “Daylight Spring Tilts Pay Phils Dividends,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 19, 1950: 21.

11 Roscoe McGowen, “Roberts Defeats Brooklyn, 9 to 1,” New York Times, April 19, 1950: 39.

12 Robin Roberts and C. Paul Rogers III, The Whiz Kids and the 1950 Pennant (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), 219.

13 Baumgartner: 47.

14 Roberts and Rogers, 218.

15 Theodore, 1.

The season was almost as young as could be on April 19, though. Joe McCarthy was the Red Sox manager as the 1950 campaign got underway. Joe Dobson was his starter for the 10:00 A.M. first game. Yankees manager Casey Stengel started Vic Raschi. Dobson had been with the Red Sox since 1941, and in the four postwar years had averaged more than 15 wins a season. Raschi was a native of Western Massachusetts. He had been 21-10 in 1949, his first full season with the Yankees. He had beaten the Red Sox four times, including the showdown for the pennant on the last day of the regular season.

Phil Rizzuto led off the game for the Yankees and the New York shortstop drew a walk. First baseman Tommy Henrich made an out and left fielder Gene Woodling grounded into a 6-3 double play.

The Red Sox pounced on Raschi for two quick runs in the first. With one out, third baseman Johnny Pesky singled and left fielder Ted Williams walked. Shortstop Vern Stephens (who had shared the league RBI title with Williams in 1949, both of them driving in 159 runs), drove in his third run of the 1950 season with a single that scored Pesky. Raschi struck out right fielder Al Zarilla, but Bobby Doerr, the second baseman, singled and drove in Williams.  

Neither side got a runner on base in the second inning.

The Red Sox got two more runs in the bottom of the third. Raschi had walked in the top of the inning, the only Yankee to reach base. Pesky walked for Boston, leading off the third. It was a chilly morning game (the Red Sox typically play their Patriots Day games in the morning) and Williams followed the walk with his first home run of the year, one that was “well stroked because it had to soar through a stiff east wind before it dropped into the Yankees bullpen.”1 The Boston Globe characterized it as “a towering, well-belted blast.”2 The next three batters all made outs, but the Red Sox had a 4-0 advantage.

Dobson retired the three Yankees he faced in the fourth—Henrich and Woodling made outs and he struck out Joe DiMaggio.  

First baseman Billy Goodman singled for the Red Sox in the bottom of the fourth, as did catcher Matt Batts. Dobson bunted to advance the runners but reached base safely himself. With the bases loaded, Dom DiMaggio hit into a 5-4-3 double play, but the fifth Red Sox run scored. Pesky walked. So did Williams, which loaded the bases again. And then Vern Stephens walked, too, forcing in Batts and giving the Red Sox a 6-0 lead. Zarilla took a called third strike.

The Yankees had been held hitless for the first four innings but scored in the top of the fifth, twice. Catcher Yogi Berra singled to lead off. Third baseman Bobby Brown made an out but Berra took second, then scored on a single by right fielder Cliff Mapes. After a second out, Raschi was due up, but Stengel thought it time to make a move and had Dick Wakefield pinch-hit. The move paid off. Wakefield singled and scored Mapes, cutting the deficit to 6-2. And while Raschi had given up six runs, the two Yankees relievers who followed didn’t give up any. Rizzuto made the third out.

Duane Pillette was New York’s new pitcher. He was spared a run when, after Batts hit a two-out single, Dobson doubled, but Batts was out on a relay to the plate, Joe DiMaggio to Rizzuto to Berra.

In the sixth New York got another run. Woodling singled to left field and was able to reach second base on an error by Ted Williams. After a second out, Berra doubled and Woodling scored.

The Red Sox again mounted a threat against Pillette. Dom DiMaggio singled. So did Pesky. And Williams walked. The bases were loaded with nobody out. Stephens flied out to shallow center. Zarilla was called out on strikes again. (Zarilla was 0-for-5 in the game, making outs while a total of 10 Red Sox runners were on the basepaths.) Doerr hit a fly ball to right field. The score remained 6-3, Red Sox—as it did the rest of the game.

After allowing the New Yorkers the three runs he had, “Dobson deftly regained his grip”3 and allowed just one lone single in the final three innings.

Stengel tried a couple of pinch-hitters in the seventh, Jim Delsing, who got that single, and Johnny Mize, but nothing came of it.

Don Johnson pitched for the Yankees in the seventh. He retired the side.

After the Yankees went down in order in the eighth, Pesky walked and Stephens singled for the Red Sox, but neither scored. It was Pesky’s third walk. With a pair of singles as well, he had reached base five times in five plate appearances.

Dobson also set down the Yankees in order in the ninth.

Raschi recovered well and led the American League in winning percentage in 1950, going 21-8 despite an earned-run average that was on the nose at 4.00.

The first game drew 25,425. The 3:00 P.M. afternoon game drew even more—a near-capacity 32,860. The second game saw Boston hop out to a 3-0 lead in the very first inning, but it was a one-sided affair from that point on. The Yankees got 16 runs on 15 hits and an extraordinary 13 bases on balls. The Red Sox totaled seven runs, on 10 hits. The game was called after eight innings due to encroaching darkness.

After three games, the Yankees had scored 34 runs off Red Sox pitching, prompting Arthur Siegel of the Boston Traveler to remind the Red Sox that the word “relief” was defined in part as meaning “removal in whole or part of pain grief, care, anxiety… or anything distressing or burdensome.”4 The Globe’s Harold Kaese titled a brief column “Cheer Up, Fans: Chisox, Browns, Nats Are Coming.”5

Dobson’s game was the one bright light. He had thrown a six-hitter for his (and his team’s) first win of the season.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Len Levin.

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/BOS/BOS195004191.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1950/B04191BOS1950.htm

Notes

1 Arthur Sampson, “Sox Win, 6-3; Yanks, 16-7,” Boston Herald, April 20, 1950: 26. The first morning Patriots Day played by the franchise was in 1903. Since 1960, the major-league schedule had always had the Red Sox playing at home, and in the morning. For a look at the Patriots Day tradition, see Bill Nowlin, Red Sox Threads (Burlington, Massachusetts: Rounder Books, 2008), 289-290.

2 Hy Hurwitz, “Sox Slugged by Yanks, 16-7, After Dobson Hurls 6-3 Win,” Boston Globe, April 20, 1950: 1, 12.

3 John Drebinger,” Yanks Chase Kinder and Gain Even Break with Red Sox,” New York Times, April 20, 1950: 40.

4 Arthur Siegel, “AL Lights Rule Gave Sox’ Relief Hurlers Relief,” Boston Traveler, April 20, 1950: 26.

5 Harold Kaese, “Cheer Up, Fans: Chisox, Browns, Nats Are Coming,” Boston Globe, April 20, 1950: 1.

More than nine years before Pumpsie Green first played for the Boston Red Sox – the last team in baseball to desegregate – Sam Jethroe played for Boston’s first major-league team, the Boston Braves. Jethroe’s first two games were on the road, against the Giants at the Polo Grounds, on April 18 and 19, 1950. He was 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs in his big-league debut.

His first appearance in Boston was in a City Series exhibition game at Braves Field on April 15. He went 2-for-4, scored one run, and drove in one run. He also played in the next day’s game at Fenway Park, in a game – albeit an exhibition game – at the same park and on the fifth anniversary of the April 16, 1945 date when he and Jackie Robinson and Marvin Williams had tried out for the Red Sox in 1945.1

Jethroe’s first regular-season game in Boston came on April 21. Considering that Jethroe playing at Braves Field represented the first integration of either of Boston’s two teams, there was very little mention of race in the Boston newspapers leading up to the game.2 The Boston Post devoted a preview to the team’s home opener on April 21, but it contained just two sentences referring to Jethroe, neither of them noting his race. The Boston Herald‘s preview just noted, “Sid Gordon … Sam Jethroe, and Willard Marshall in the outfield.” The Boston Globe had a 20-paragraph story by Clif Keane on how the rookie Jethroe’s home run in New York had dispelled some of his butterflies; there was not a word hinting at race. Nor did Harold Kaese’s preview. The Globe‘s Jack Barry mentioned Jethroe in passing as “the Negro star.” And the Boston Traveler suggested that “Sam Jethroe’s Boston debut in a championship game vies for attention at the Braves opener with the return of Eddie Waitkus to major league action.”3 In the eighth paragraph, the Traveler noted that Jethroe was “the first Negro Boston regular.”

Braves Field fans were excited to get a look at “Jet-Propelled Jethroe” – in 1949, he had set an International League record with 89 stolen bases for Montreal.

Manager Billy Southworth selected Vern Bickford as his starting pitcher for the April 21 game. The Braves had won the pennant in 1948, but plunged to a 75-79 fourth-place finish in 1949, 22 games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers. Southworth was, of course, hoping for a better showing in 1950 and the Braves had won both games against the Giants. The visiting Philadelphia Phillies were on the rise. Eddie Sawyer had taken over as skipper for the last third of the 1948 season, which had seen them 66-88, in sixth place. In 1949 they’d climbed over the Braves into third place, six games ahead of them in National League standings. The Phillies were 1-1 coming into Boston. Sawyer started lefty Ken Heintzelman.

Phils leadoff batter Richie Ashburn singled to center and then Granny Hamner singled on a roller to third base. After Eddie Waitkus fouled out to the catcher, Del Ennis “plunked a single into short right”4 and both baserunners advanced two bases, Ashburn scoring. Willie Jones flied out to second, but Dick Sisler drove in Hamner with a single to right, getting cut down himself for the third out while trying to take second base. Still, the Phillies had a quick 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the inning the Braves couldn’t get the ball out of the infield, going down 1-2-3.

After the first inning, Bickford settled down and allowed only three more hits in the game. He didn’t walk a batter until the eighth – a walk that doesn’t show up in any box scores.

The Braves scored one run in the bottom of the second, thanks to a walk worked by Sid Gordon and then a two-out balk that moved him to second. Del Crandall struck a “clean single to center,”5 and it was Phillies 2, Braves 1.

In the bottom of the fifth the Braves got one more, tying the game. With one out, Crandall singled over the second-base bag and into center field, and shortstop Buddy Kerr doubled him home with a drive off the fence in left field, even taking third on Hamner’s errant throw to the plate – but there he languished.

The Phils failed to score in the top of the eighth. In the bottom of the inning, with the Braves’ Connie Ryan at the plate pinch-hitting for Bickford, and with a 3-and-2 count on him, play was halted by plate umpire Lon Warneke. It had been raining for an inning and a half. After a 44-minute delay, removing the infield tarpaulin deposited “hundreds of gallons of water in short right field”6 and the grounds were deemed too soggy for the game to continue. The score reverted to where it had stood at the end of seven and the game went into the books a 2-2 tie. Thus, the batter Bickford had walked in the top of the eighth was no longer part of the official record.

After the game, fellow pitcher Warren Spahn lamented, referring to the back-to-back complete-game wins that he and Johnny Sain had in the season’s first two games, “Bick pitched a much better game than Sain or I and gets no credit for it. Except from the fans, teammates, writers, and Southworth.”7 Jethroe had been 1-for-3, a single with two outs in the third inning, thrown out trying to stretch it to a double. The hit was noted by the several Boston dailies, but no particular crowd reaction was reported. Heintzelman had given up only five hits – Jethroe’s, the two by Crandall, Kerr’s double, and a single by Bickford to open the third (he was shortly erased on a double-play ball hit by Ryan). In the seventh Bickford slashed a line drive down the left-field line, but it was about 12 inches foul – and he wound up popping up to second baseman Mike Goliat.

There had been a bit of thunder and lightning and even a very brief snow flurry at one point. The threatening weather had kept the paid crowd to 7,308, though the Post estimated that over 10,000 in all came to Braves Field, what with all the various dignitaries. Governor Paul A. Dever had thrown out the first pitch. Mayor John B. Hynes was there, as well as the governors of Rhode Island and New Hampshire. A contingent of Marines saw to the raising of the flag, and the music was provided not by The Three Troubadours, who had previously regaled Braves fans, but by John Kiley playing an electric organ that had been installed “in the photographers’ cage under the third-base roof.”8

The game itself was replayed at a later time and did not go into the books as a tie, but all individual stats remain a part of baseball’s historical record.

Not one of the game stories in Boston’s three newspapers mentioned Jethroe’s race.

In 1950 Jethroe led the league with 35 stolen bases, more than double those of second-place finisher Pee Wee Reese. He scored an even 100 runs and won the National League Rookie of the Year award.

This article appeared in “Braves Field: Memorable Moments at Boston’s Lost Diamond” (SABR, 2015), edited by Bill Nowlin and Bob Brady. To read more articles from this book, click here. 

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, box scores for this game can be seen on baseball-reference.com, and retrosheet.org at:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BSN/BSN195004210.shtml

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1950/B04210BSN1950.htm

Notes

The 1950 season was Connie Mack’s 50th year as manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, and before the game against the Boston Red Sox at Shibe Park on Saturday April 22, Mack was honored during a ceremony at home plate.

Much later – 3 hours and 44 minutes later, to be exact – pinch-hitter Paul Lehner ended a long afternoon at the ballpark when he homered off Boston’s Ellis Kinder in the 15th inning to give Philadelphia a 6-5 win over Boston before what was left of the 6,977 spectators who had braved the chill of the late April afternoon.

The Red Sox had staked starting pitcher Chuck Stobbs to an early lead. A two-run double by Vern Stephens highlighted a three-run first inning. Philadelphia starter Alex Kellner, in his first start of the young season, didn’t help his cause by walking the first two batters he faced – Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky. The bases were loaded when Billy Goodman beat out a bunt. DiMaggio and Pesky came home on Stephens’ double to right field. Kellner’s wild pitch allowed Goodman to come home with Boston’s third run. Two innings later, Stephens singled and scored on Al Zarilla’s double off the right-field wall. Manager Mack was not tempted to remove Kellner, who had won 20 games the season before, and in time (much time), Mack would be rewarded for keeping Kellner on the mound.

Stobbs weakened in the fourth inning and the A’s got back in the game, scoring three runs. A walk to Sam Chapman was followed by a double by Bob Dillinger. On Dillinger’s double, Boston’s right fielder, Zarilla, attempting a shoestring catch, injured his shoulder. He was tended to by the team trainer and stayed in the game. Elmer Valo’s grounder to second baseman Bobby Doerr scored Chapman; a single by Pete Suder scored Dillinger; and singles by Kellner and Eddie Joost moved Suder around the bases to score the third run of the inning.

Ferris Fain of the Athletics tied the game at 4-4 with a fifth-inning solo homer, his first of the season. The Red Sox recaptured the lead in the seventh inning, scoring a run on a single by Tommy O’Brien after two-out walks to Stephens and Doerr.

Stobbs pitched into the eighth inning. After retiring the first two batters, he gave up a single to Mike Guerra. Mack did not opt to pinch hit for Kellner, and Alex singled to left field (his second single of the day), knocking Stobbs out of the game. Walt Masterson took over on the mound and the first batter he faced, Joost, hit his third single of the afternoon to tie the game. Masterson averted further damage when Barney McCosky grounded out to end the inning.

There was no scoring in the ninth inning and the game went into extra innings. Ellis Kinder came into pitch for Boston in the 10th and retired the Athletics in order. He was coming off a 1949 season during which he went a career best 23-6 with six shutouts. The appearance was his second of the season. Three days earlier, he had been hit hard by the Yankees, surrendering eight runs before leaving in the sixth inning. Kellner and Kinder hurled zeros at each other through the 14th inning. Kellner’s zeros were with an exclamation point. After walking Tommy O’Brien in the 10th, he retired the next 12 batters. He had strong support in the field from first baseman Ferris Fain, who grabbed a hard liner off the bat of Johnny Pesky in the 11th and ran toward the stands along the right-field line to haul in a foul ball hit by Matt Batts in the 13th. DiMaggio reached on a bad-hop single past shortstop Joost to start the 14th inning but went no farther as Kellner retired Pesky, Goodman, and Stephens.

The home team had chances to win the game in innings 12 through 14, but they were lost opportunities. Fain walked to open the 12th, but was thrown out trying to steal second base. In the 13th, the A’s wasted a one-out double by Mike Guerra. And in the 14th, after Kinder walked three batters to load the bases, Guerra’s fly ball to center field frustrated the A’s chances.

Kellner was ultimately rewarded for his shutout efforts over the last eight innings. As the southpaw returned to the dugout after the 10th and each subsequent inning, manager Mack would say, “How do you feel?” After completing the top of the 14th, Kellner admitted, “I feel a little tired, but I’d like to try it some more.” Mack responded, “This will have to be your last inning.”1 In the top of the 15th inning, the Red Sox had runners on the corners after singles by Tommy O’Brien and Matt Batts, but Kellner retired Kinder on a grounder when Boston manager Joe McCarthy elected not to use a pinch-hitter.

In the bottom of the 15th inning, with not much daylight remaining, manager Connie Mack felt that his pitcher had pitched long enough. Kellner was scheduled to lead off the inning and Mack sent up the lefty-swinging Paul Lehner to bat for the pitcher. Lehner had been acquired along with Bob Dillinger by the A’s in an offseason trade with the St. Louis Browns, and his appearance on April 22 was his first at-bat of the season. Kinder began his sixth inning of relief for the Red Sox. Lehner swung wildly and missed Kinder’s first offering. He then took a ball before putting a stop to the festivities with a home run over the 50-foot wall in right field.

Kellner, who allowed 12 hits, struck out eight and walked an equal number, was credited with a complete-game win, the first complete game hurled against the Red Sox in 1950. It was his first win of the season and would rank as one of his best efforts in a season in which he went a disappointing 8-20.

The 35-year-old Kinder, with the loss, went to 0-2. He started 23 times and was brought in to relieve on 25 occasions. He went 14-12 with 9 saves.

Red Sox starter Chuck Stobbs had been a football and baseball star in Norfolk, Virginia, before signing with Boston for a bonus in 1947. The bonus rule at the time mandated that he be moved up to the majors after one minor-league season. After spending 1948 on the bench, he went 11-6 in 1949. He would go on to a 12-7 record in 1950.

Lehner’s game-winner launched what was to be his best major-league season. He played in 114 games for the Athletics, batting .309 with 9 homers and 52 RBIs.

On this day, part of the story was about someone who didn’t play. The Red Sox played the game without Ted Williams. Williams, after playing the first three games of the season, was missing his second straight game. He had taken ill with a severe cold during the Patriots Day double-header on April 19 and missed five games before returning to the lineup on April 26. During the first three games of his absence, Tommy O’Brien, who had two hits on April 22, filled in in left field. The hits on April 22 were O’Brien’s last as a member of the Red Sox. On May 8 he was traded to Washington, where his career ended less than a week later.

Both managers were in the last year of their Hall of Fame careers. Boston manager Joe McCarthy was replaced by Steve O’Neill after starting the season 31-28. The Red Sox had been in contention until the final weekend of the 1949 season and, at the time of McCarthy’s dismissal in 1950, had lost five games in a row, seen their record slip to 31-28, and dropped to fourth place, 9½ games behind the league-leading Tigers. It would be a frustrating season for Boston. They were without Williams for almost two months after he injured himself running into a wall at the All-Star Game. Nevertheless, the Red Sox mounted a late-season rally and finished in third place, four games behind the Yankees, who repeated as American League champions.

After the April 22 game, the 87-year-old Mack was honored at a formal dinner in Philadelphia. Unfortunately for Mack and the A’s, the season would be a year of disappointment: the team finished in the cellar with a 52-102 record. It was 19 years since their last trip to the World Series, and the season was Mack’s last as the manager of the team. Jimmy Dykes succeeded him in 1951. Mack stayed on as owner through the 1954 season, after which the team was sold and moved to Kansas City.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and the following:

Associated Press. “A’s Pinch Home Run Beats Red Sox, 6-5,” Palm Beach Post, April 23, 1950: 19.

Costello, Ed. “A’s Triumph 6-5 in 15th; Lehner Hits Pinch Homer to Top Hose,” Boston Sunday Herald, April 23, 1950: 53-54.

Hurwitz, Hy. “A’s Beat Red Sox , 6-5, on Lehner’s Pinch Homer in 15th,” Boston Globe, April 23, 1950: 47.

Morrow, Art. “A’s Top Bosox, 6-5, on Lehner’s Pinch Homer in 15th,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 23, 1950: 1S-2S.

NOTES

1 Roger Birtwell, “Kellner Protected by Connie’s Memory,” Boston Globe, April 23, 1950: 47.

The 1950 Red Sox, however, hold the AL record for the most runs scored in a season during home games – 625. Fenway Park was clearly the place they most loved to play in that year.1 The season started with an Opening Day loss to the ultimate pennant-winning New York Yankees, who scored 15 runs. The Red Sox, in defeat, nonetheless scored 10.2

On April 30 Boston hosted the Philadelphia Athletics for two. They’d split a doubleheader in Philadelphia one week earlier, the Red Sox losing the first but winning the second, 12-2, in a game called after just six innings.

With a 4-6 record through 10 games, the A’s had come to town. The Red Sox won on April 28, 4-1. The April 29 game was postponed because of rain. Manager Joe McCarthy had Joe Dobson start for the Red Sox on April 30. Dobson gave up a harmless single in the top of the first inning. Earle Mack managed the three games in Boston in place of his father, Connie Mack, who was laid up with digestive problems.3 He started Dick Fowler. It didn’t go well. Dom DiMaggiowalked and Johnny Pesky tripled. Ted Williams singled in Pesky and when Vern Stephens hit a two-run homer into the left-field screen,4 It was 4-0 after one.

After two outs in the bottom of the second, DiMaggio and Pesky both walked and Williams hit a three-run homer over the Red Sox bullpen in right field. It was 7-0.

Philadelphia failed to score in the third; Fowler was pinch-hit for. Harry Byrd took over as pitcher. He allowed a double, but no runs. It remained 7-0 after three. Philadelphia failed to score in the top of the fourth.

Byrd never got anyone out in the bottom of the fourth, and his replacement, Joe Coleman, got only one man out. The inning started with Joe Dobson singling to left field. DiMaggio then drew another walk. Pesky singled to center, scoring Dobson. Ted Williams followed with another three-run homer. After Stephens walked, Bobby Doerr homered. It was 13-0. That was enough for Earle Mack, and that’s when Coleman was called in.

Al Zarilla welcomed the new reliever with a single to left field. Billy Goodman then singled to center field. So did Birdie Tebbetts, his single scoring Zarilla. Dobson sacrificed so both Goodman and Tebbetts could advance a base – and then DiMaggio doubled them both in. Pesky drew a walk. The only out Coleman recorded was one made intentionally, the sacrifice bunt. Mack waved in Bobby Shantz to face Ted Williams. A base on balls loaded the bases. Stephens hit the ball back to Shantz, who committed an error, two runs scoring. DiMaggio scored the 17th run of the game and Pesky scored the 18th. Bobby Doerr then grounded into a 4-6-3 double play and the inning was over.

In the fourth inning, the Red Sox reportedly set a major-league record by having each of the first nine batters score in order.5

Neither side scored in the fifth, sixth, or seventh – though the Athletics loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the seventh. Dobson induced a flyout to shallow right field and then a 5-4-3 double play. His shutout remained intact.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Red Sox added a final punctuation point of sorts: one more run. DiMaggio doubled, took third on a groundout, and scored on an error by the shortstop.

Dobson set down the side in order 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth and had himself a five-hit, 19-0 shutout. The Red Sox had scored all their runs in eight innings. Dobson had walked two and struck out two. Two of the five hits belonged to Elmer Valo, the star of the game on offense for Philadelphia.

Everyone in the Red Sox lineup, including the pitcher, had at least one hit. It could be argued that Doerr was the goat of the Sox, given that he was 1-for-6 and had hit into that double play in the fourth, and made the last out of the sixth and the eighth. But any day a player hits a two-run homer isn’t too bad a day. Pesky, Williams, and Zarilla each had three hits. For Ted Williams, it was his first day back after three during which he was ill and in bed. Williams had seven RBIs (this was the season he had 83 RBIs by the All-Star break, only to break his arm in the game and fall three short of 100 by season’s end.) DiMaggio scored five runs in the game. Pesky scored four.

There was another game to play this Sunday afternoon. The first game, even with all the runs, had taken only 2:11 to play.

The Red Sox scored the first five runs in the second game, Doerr driving in the first two. Through the bottom of the fourth, they were leading in runs scored on the day, 24-0. But the Athletics scored three times off starter Chuck Stobbs in the top of the fifth and added another run in the seventh. Stobbs helped his own cause, driving in a sixth run and giving the Red Sox a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the seventh.

The Athletics again climbed within a run, scoring once in the eighth. When Stobbs gave up a single in the top of the ninth, McCarthy brought in Al Papai. He secured three outs and Boston eked out a 6-5 win. The only Red Sox regular not to have a hit in the second game was Stephens, who drew three walks. The game lasted nine minutes longer than the first game, requiring 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete.

The doubleheader sweep made in 14 wins in a row for the Red Sox over the Athletics at Fenway Park. They were now 7-6 through April. Fowler’s personal record against Boston dropped to 3-16. Both Fowler and Coleman were known to have been battling sore arms. Attendance was 34,697. “The customers loved the massacre,” wrote Hy Hurwitz in the Boston Globe, “but it was pitiful to watch a couple of one time good pitchers like Dick Fowler and Joe Coleman get walloped.”6

The 1950 season was a remarkable one – there were 34 games in which the Red Sox scored 10 or more runs. There were two stretches in which they won three consecutive games with at least 10 runs in each game (June 23-25, 35 runs total, and August 16-17, 33 runs total), and one in which they scored 10 or more runs in four consecutive games (June 2-5, 51 runs total.) After the June 2-5 stretch, they lost a game, 8-4, but then put up back-to-back wins of 20-4 and then 29-4, making for an overall seven-day span (June 2-8) in which Boston scored an astonishing 104 runs.

Just five years later, Herb Score and the Cleveland Indians shut out the Red Sox by the same margin, 19-0, on May 18, 1955.

Sources

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

Notes

1 The 1996 Colorado Rockies hold the major-league record for most runs scored in a season at home: 658.

2 The next day, the Red Sox scored 13 more runs, but they split that Patriots Day doubleheader with a 6-3 win and then suffered another Yankees onslaught,16-7.

3 Norman Macht, The Grand Old Man of Baseball: Connie Mack in His Final Years, 1932-1956 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015), 460. Connie Mack had spent two days in his Boston hotel room before returning by train to Philadelphia in advance of the team. Associated Press, “Connie Expected to Take Over Team Soon,” Boston Globe, May 1, 1950: 6.

4 Joe McHenry, “Sox Swamp A’s, 19-0, Then Eke Out 6-5 Triumph,” Providence Journal, May 1, 1950: 8.

5 Fred Foye, “Ted Says, ‘I’ve No Zest’; Pesky Replies, ‘Your [sic] Best,’” Boston Traveler, May 1, 1950: 33.

6 Hy Hurwitz, “Sox Club Lame-Armed A’S Hurlers, 19-0; Win Nightcap, 6-5; Ted Hits 2 Homers,” Boston Globe, May 1, 1950: 6.

Cardinals management had other concerns than the weather. The St. Louis Browns, who owned Sportsman’s Park, were suing the Cardinals, the Browns’ tenants, for violating the terms of their lease. In 1948, after Sam Breadon sold the team to Fred Saigh and Robert Hannegan, the club’s lease on Sportsman’s Park was assigned within the Cardinals ownership and the Browns contended that they should have been informed. “While the primary objective of the suit ostensibly was to eject the Cardinals from the park, actually the Browns appeared more interested in getting what they termed more reasonable rental,” The Sporting News opined. “The Cardinals pay $35,000 annual rental and the clubs share alike on maintenance, which amounted to about $130,000 (in 1949). The Browns, pointing to the larger crowds of the Cardinals, have argued that maintenance costs should be on a per capita basis.”1 The Cardinals who missed the pennant by just one game in 1949, drew 1,430,676 spectators to Sportsman’s Park that year, while the seventh-place Browns drew only 270,936. A judgment in the case was close at hand.

Cardinals manager Eddie Dyer’s squad entered the game shorthanded. Stan Musial, although in uniform, was not available to play, having twisted his knee rounding first a few days earlier in Pittsburgh. The Cardinals were also without ailing veteran shortstop Marty Marion, who made his 1950 debut the next day. For Cubs manager Frankie Frisch, injuries were not the main concern — the weatherman was. The Cubs had had more postponements (five — four due to rain, one due to cold) than games played, and with three scheduled offdays for travel in the early-season schedule, Frisch’s men had played only one game since April 22. “It’s a treat to hear Frisch moan about the way in which his boys are losing the benefits of their spring training toil,” wrote Irving Vaughan in the April 28 Chicago Tribune. “Having his lads eat themselves out of shape for the lack of exercise is only part of the manager’s concern about the series of delays. Spring postponements make for summer double headers and the bargain bills burn up pitching in a hurry. Frisch isn’t sure that he has a staff able to absorb, without distress, even a normal diet of one game per diem. But he’s hoping.”2

Somehow the baseball gods relented, and 9,645 people headed to Sportsman’s Park to see Harry “The Cat” Brecheen, two years removed from leading the league in ERA, make his second start of the season against Johnny Schmitz for the 3-1 Cubs. Brecheen’s first start of the season, on April 21,was a 2-0 complete-game loss to the Cubs, although he gave up just three hits (two of them triples) and two walks while striking out seven. Cubs hurler Schmitz wasn’t as sharp as Brecheen in his 1950 debut, getting the decision but allowing five runs and a dozen hits over eight innings in a 9-6 win in their season opener at Cincinnati. Schmitz was trying to bounce back after a subpar 1949 season, which saw his win total drop from 18 to 11 (he lost 13 games both seasons) and his ERA rise from 2.64 in 1948 to 4.35 in 1949. It wasn’t Schmitz’s turn in the rotation, but Frisch decided to go with him over Bob Rush, who was scheduled to start on the 29th before the rains came.3

Once the game started, Brecheen didn’t need the help from the Cardinals’ missing stars. After an uneventful first inning, the Cubs had a chance to scratch out a run in the second. Andy Pafko led off with a single but was thrown out by Enos Slaughter trying to make third on Bill Serena’s hit. Hal Jeffcoat then grounded out to short to end the uprising.

The Cubs threatened again in the third, this time with a two-out rally. Leadoff man Wayne Terwilliger singled off Brecheen and stole second. Bob Borkowski was beaned by Brecheen on an errant throw after he laid down a bunt, and the Cubs had men at first and third. But Brecheen escaped trouble by getting Preston Ward to ground to short. The Cubs had no more baserunners until the 10th inning. Brecheen was perfect from the fourth through the ninth, striking out four during that span.

Schmitz was every bit Brecheen’s equal on this cold April day. He walked one in each of the first two innings without harm, and didn’t give up a hit until Johnny Blatnik reached with a two-out single in the fourth. The Cardinals saw their first runner in scoring position in the fifth on a leadoff double by Del Rice. The catcher made it to third after a long fly to center by Eddie Miller, but was left stranded as Schmitz got Brecheen to ground out to the mound, and Tommy Glaviano to ground to shortstop. The Cardinals got a two-out single from Steve Bilko in the sixth, but Schmitz retired every batter from then until the fateful 13th. Slaughter nearly had extra bases in the ninth, but a diving catch by Jeffcoat saved Schmitz’s streak.

That was not the last of the excitement, though, as the Cubs had great opportunities in the 10th and 12th to take the game’s first lead. In the 10th Chicago got its first hit since the third on Pafko’s leadoff double, but his attempt to advance to third on Roy Smalley’s fly ball was denied by center fielder Chuck Diering’s throw to Glaviano, then Serena struck out. In the 12th the Cubs put a runner on third on a leadoff hit by Wayne Terwilliger, a sacrifice, and a groundout. After giving Pafko an intentional walk, Brecheen fanned Smalley, the pitcher’s eighth and final strikeout of the game.

The proceedings ended shortly thereafter. Brecheen breezed through the 13th with a 1-2-3 inning, bringing up the bottom of the order for the Cardinals. Schmitz retired Red Schoendienst for his 20th consecutive out. Del Rice ended the streak — and the game. After fouling off the first pitch, he put a charge into Schmitz’s next offering, smashing a low line drive into the pavilion near the 405-foot mark.4 It was Rice’s first homer of the campaign and the only walk-off home run of his career, and it put an end to one of the better pitching duels witnessed at Sportsman’s Park. “That was a big game for us fellas,” Dyer said after the game. “Beating Schmitz without a Musial, Marion or (Ted) Wilks is good any time.”5 On a day tailor-made for pitching, the pitchers did not disappoint. Hard-luck loser Schmitz scattered four hits and two walks, and lowered his ERA by nearly 3 runs. Brecheen showed his mettle in getting out of several jams, and also retired 19 consecutive Cubs.

The next day, Judge Robert L. Aronson ruled in favor of the Cardinals in the suit by the Browns. “In sustaining the Cardinals’ contention,” Judge Aronson said, “We have concluded that the merger agreement was not a violation of the non-assignment clause of the lease of 1937. Therefore, the plaintiff had no valid basis for a declaration of forfeiture thus no valid basis for institution of this suit in ejectment.”6This may have been the final push that sent the Browns to Baltimore four years later.

This article appears in “Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis: Home of the Browns and Cardinals at Grand and Dodier” (SABR, 2017), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. Click here to read more articles from this book online.

Sources

Wolf, Gregory H. “Harry Brecheen,” in Bill Nowlin, ed., Van Lingle Mungo – The Man, The Song, the Players (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2014).

Also, in addition to the sources listed in the notes, the author accessed Retorsheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, SABR’s BioProject via SABR.org, The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record, the St. Louis Post Dispatch via newspapers.com, and the Chicago Tribune archive.

Notes

1 The Sporting News, May 10, 1950: 11.

2 Chicago Tribune, April 28, 1950: Part 3, page 1.

3 Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1950: Part 2, page 2.

4 St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 1, 1950: 16.

5 Ibid.

6 St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 1, 1950: 1.