April 17, 1952: Bobby Shantz smothers Yankees to start MVP campaign for Athletics

On the eve of the 1952 season, 26-year-old Bobby Shantz was already the Philadelphia Athletics’ southpaw ace. In 1951, his second full season in the major-league rotation, he had won 18 games, including 10 of his last 12, and had made the American League All-Star team. With an assortment of breaking balls, including a new knuckleball, Shantz entered the new season on a streak of three wins over the New York Yankees, who had just won their third of five consecutive World Series.1

In the second game of the infant season, Shantz took the mound against the Yankees, a day after the defending champions plastered the A’s for eight runs. This was not unexpected, for the Athletics had finished sixth in 1951 with a 70-84 record, 28 games behind New York. Now, in front of a crowd of 3,860 at Shibe Park, Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto opened the game with a double to left. But he stayed put as Shantz retired the next three batters without allowing the ball out of the infield.

Eddie Lopat, a crafty left-hander, started for the Yankees. Like Shantz, he was a 1951 AL All-Star and he carried a four-game win streak against the A’s, dating to August 1950.2 Lopat walked the leadoff batter, shortstop Eddie Joost. Joost had totaled walks in the triple digits in each of the previous five seasons and would end 1952 with his sixth and final 100-walk season. Reigning batting champion Ferris Fain followed with a popout to short and Elmer Valo flied out to center before Gus Zernial, who had led the American League with 33 home runs and 129 RBIs in 1951, singled to Rizzuto. Allie Clark flied out to left, ending the threat.

In the top of the second, the Yankees went ahead. After getting the first out, Shantz gave up another double, this time to first baseman Johnny Mize. Mize scored on Jerry Coleman’s single. Coleman was caught stealing by Philadelphia catcher Joe Tipton for the second out, and Yankees backup catcher Charlie Silvera, playing in place of an injured Yogi Berra, lined out to end the inning.3

For his part, Lopat retired the Athletics in order in the bottom half and singled to start the third. But he was quickly erased when Rizzuto grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Jackie Jensen grounded to second for the final out.

Philadelphia put its first run on the scoreboard in the third, when Valo singled in Joost from second with two outs. Zernial drew a walk before Clark again flied out to leave runners on first and second.

For the third time in four innings, Shantz allowed the leadoff batter to reach base, this time when 20-year-old Mickey Mantle, back from a serious knee injury in Game Two of the 1951 World Series, singled to center. Mantle was sacrificed to second, but went no farther as the next two batters flew out and popped out.

The Athletics struck again in the fourth, when second baseman Pete Suder singled with one out. He moved to second on Tipton’s groundout. Shantz, who carried a .206 career batting average into the game, brought Suder in with a single, giving himself a one-run lead to work with. Shantz would drive in 11 more runs over the rest of the season, his career-best mark.

Shantz continued to duck and weave through trouble in the fifth, walking Silvera and allowing a single to Rizzuto before getting the third out, keeping the score 2-1. In the sixth, New York left fielder Hank Bauer singled with two outs, but again Shantz kept the Yankees off the scoreboard, retiring Mize on a lineout to right field. A single by Silvera in the seventh was erased when Lopat hit into a 3-6-1 double play. Philadelphia’s offense proved even more quiescent, with no runner going farther than first base from the fifth inning through the seventh.

Both halves of the eighth provided a change of pace. For the only time in the game, Shantz retired the Yankees in order. Leading off the bottom half, Valo hit a low liner to right, which Mantle, as a “result of inexperience and the odd contour of the right field fence,” misplayed into a double, according to the New York Daily News.4???? Endnote? One of Shibe Park’s light towers was positioned directly behind the right-field fence, creating a small projection where the border came inward for about two feet before realigning.5 Mantle ran into this aberration while moving to make the catch. The ball hit the lower part of the 50-foot-high wall6 as Valo made his way to second.

The A’s played for one run, having Zernial sacrifice Valo to third. Clark failed to drive in the run when he grounded to third base for the second out, but Billy Hitchcock drove Valo home with a single to left.

Now working with an insurance run, Shantz retired Gil McDougald on strikes to lead off the top of the ninth. Bauer’s triple to right-center failed to stress the left-hander, who had been working from the stretch all afternoon. Shantz struck out Mize and retired Coleman on a fly ball to bring himself and the A’s their first win of the season.

Immediate reactions between victors and losers contrasted. Art Morrow of the Philadelphia Inquirer described the A’s as being “in a gay mood … as they took off for Boston.”7 Meanwhile Joe Trimble of the New York Daily News castigated the Yankees for failing two of manager Casey Stengel’s axioms: “Don’t make dumb plays and don’t get licked by a poor opponent.”8 Stengel himself was more placid, claiming that he “wasn’t too sore about being beaten by Shantz.”9

The papers had similarly contrasting depictions of Shantz. For Morrow he was “the Molecular Menace,” in reference to his stature of 5-feet-6-inches and 146 pounds, and praised his fielding, hitting, and pitching skills.10 Trimble simply referred to the southpaw as “the midget pitcher” to whom Lopat allowed the decisive hit.11

That “midget pitcher” went on to have the best season of his career in 1952, leading the American League in wins, winning percentage, wins above replacement, WHIP, and walks per nine. He completed 27 of his 33 starts. For his efforts in raising the Athletics above .500, Shantz earned the Most Valuable Player Award.

Neither pitcher nor team would repeat these achievements in 1953 or any following year. Shantz suffered a shoulder injury against the Boston Red Sox in May 1953 and had only one more year as an above-average starter, when he led the league in ERA for the Yankees in 1957.12 He did have a successful renaissance as one of the best relievers in baseball for the Yankees and several National League teams in the late 1950s and early ’60s before retiring after the 1964 season. Even through this shift in usage he remained acclaimed for his fielding prowess, winning eight straight Gold Gloves, including the very first awarded in 1957.

The Athletics, meanwhile, fell back into the basement in 1953, moved to Kansas City after 1954, and did not have another winning record until they moved to Oakland in 1968.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Bobby Shantz, Trading Card Database.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHA/PHA195204170.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1952/B04170PHA1952.htm

Notes

1 Mel Marmer, “Bobby Shantz,” SABR BioProject, accessed August 15, 2025. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bobby-shantz/; Dan Daniel, “Crippled Bombers Quickly Learn It’s a Different Season,” The Sporting News, April 30, 1952: 8.

2 Art Morrow, “A’s Conquer Yanks, 3-1, Behind Shantz,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 18, 1952: 39.

3 Daniel.

4 Joe Trimble, “Shantz Humbles Lopat as A’s Trim Yanks, 3-1,” New York Daily News, April 18, 1952: 70.

5 Trimble.

6 James Lincoln Ray, “Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium (Philadelphia), SABR Ballpark Project, accessed August 15, 2025. https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/connie-mack-stadium-philadelphia/.

7 Morrow.

8 Trimble.

9 Daniel.

10 Morrow, 38.

11 Trimble.

12 Marmer, “Bobby Shantz.”