August 22, 1959: A time Ted Williams tipped his cap after hitting a home run

It was a Saturday afternoon in Detroit. Neither the fifth-place Detroit Tigers nor the sixth-place Boston Red Sox (tied with Kansas City) were in the hunt for the 1959 American League pennant, the Tigers being 13 games behind the first-place New York Yankees and the Red Sox 16½ games out of first. Both teams had a shot at fourth place, though, and at least some small share of the money then available to teams that finished in the top four slots.

Jimmy Dykes had taken over as Detroit manager in early May. Billy Jurges had taken over as Red Sox manager in early July.

Dykes started Don Mossi on the mound, and Jurges went with Frank Baumann.

The Red Sox managed to score once in the top of the first, but not through any heroics. Center fielder Jim Busby led off. He hit the ball to shortstop Rocky Bridges, who made an errant throw, allowing Busby to get all the way to second base. Pumpsie Green was playing in his 22nd game as a member of the Red Sox after breaking the franchise’s color line on July 21. He singled, and Busby moved to third. Ted Williams was up and hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Both Green and Williams were out, but Busby scored. It was, of course, neither an RBI for Williams nor an earned run charged to Mossi, who struck out Jackie Jensen for the third out.

The way the season had been going for Ted Williams (he’d been hitting .236 before the game), there was a real possibility this would be his last season–and his last game playing in Detroit, probably his favorite ballpark in which to hit, with 51 lifetime homers going into the game.

He may have harbored a bit of anticipatory nostalgia. Many of the fans knew this could be their last chance to see one of baseball’s greatest hitters. The Boston Herald’s Henry McKenna began his story about this day’s game by writing, “Retirement clouds may be swirling around the head of Ted Williams but No.9, who will be 41 next Sunday, still has a few sparks left in his booming bat.”1 He’d had the two previous days off, appearing only as a pinch-hitter.

Baumann got the first two outs, but then Boston’s shortstop, Don Buddin, duplicated the Bridges move, throwing the ball away and allowing the batter to reach second base. Baumann then hit center fielder Al Kaline with a pitch. Left fielder Charlie Maxwell popped up to Buddin.

Three Boston batters faced Mossi in the top of the second. All three of them hit fly balls to Tigers outfielders. Baumann got two fly balls, too, and then struck out catcher Lou Berberet.

Busby singled with two outs in the top of the third, then was caught stealing. Baumann struck out the side–Mossi, third baseman Eddie Yost, and first baseman Gail Harris.

In the Red Sox fourth inning, Pumpsie Green flied out to left field for the first out. Ted Williams swung at Mossi’s first pitch and hit a home run, “high up into the back of the second deck of seats in right field.”2

Joe Falls of the Detroit Times told the story in more detail:

“Mossi’s first serve was high and inside–a mistake–and the Williams bat came around in a flash. He connected solidly and the ball sailed majestically toward right field. It was a home run–no doubt of it, just a question how far it would go. It slammed into the 15th row of the upper deck, about 20 feet fair, and nearly knocked a seat from its hinges.

“As Williams circled the bases, the crowd of 8,632 groaned in dismay. Then, as if suddenly sensing the significance of the occasion–an artist at work for the last time–the fans arose and began to applaud warmly.

“Ted liked that. He was grinning as he crossed the plate and, wonder of wonders, doffed his cap before disappearing into the darkness of the dugout.

“For the moment, at least, the years of snarling, snapping and spitting at his public were forgotten. Ted Williams, the idol, the enigma, the man of moods, wore the cloak of humility.”3 

This homer was the 491st of Ted Williams’ career. It put him within two home runs of Lou Gehrig’s career total–though some tabulations at the time had Gehrig with 494. Gehrig ranked fourth all-time in home runs, behind only Babe Ruth (714), Jimmie Foxx (534), and Mel Ott (511). Williams was getting close, but home runs were coming few and far between. He hadn’t hit one for almost a month; his last one was hit in Kansas City on July 26. The Red Sox thus took a 2-1 lead. Jensen fouled out to first and third baseman Frank Malzone grounded out, third to first.

Right fielder Harvey Kuenn singled, but he was caught off first base when Kaline lined to right field–a ball that Jensen only caught one-handed, arm outstretched, running at a diagonal away from the plate and toward the foul line. He “wheeled and threw a strike to first base;”4 Jensen’s throw to Dick Gernert at first base doubled off Kuenn. Maxwell got a two-base hit, but second baseman Frank Bolling lined out to center field.

The fifth inning was something like the second inning, in that neither team got a man on base.

In the sixth, the Red Sox broke the game wide open, scoring five runs on five hits. Baumann led off and struck out. Busby doubled off the screen in left-center. Green was hit by a pitch. Williams singled to left-center and drove in Busby. Jensen singled and drove in Green. Gene Stephens came in as a pinch-runner for Williams. Malzone singled, and Stephens scored. In all three cases, the runner on first base had to hold up at second base while the runner on second was able to come around and score.

Dykes waved to the bullpen. Dave Sisler replaced Mossi. Gernert singled into center field off Sisler, and this time both runners scored, Jensen and Malzone. Sammy White popped up to second base, and Buddin grounded out, third to first. The Red Sox had a 7-0 lead.

Yost singled, Harris struck out, and Kuenn lined out to Baumann, who threw to first for another double play.

The Red Sox had batted around in the sixth, so Baumann led off again in the top of the seventh. He started off the inning the same way he had started off the sixth, striking out. This time, not much followed. Busby grounded out, short to first. Green drew a base on balls but was thrown out attempting to steal second base.

Maxwell was walked with one out, but Bolling hit into a 5-4-3 double play, and it was on to the eighth inning. Gene Stephens singled. The next three Red Sox made outs. The Tigers avoided being shut out, thanks to a parade of pinch-hitters. With one out, pinch-hitter Ted Lepcio singled. Johnny Groth pinch-hit for Sisler but grounded into a force play at second base. Yost singled, Groth going to second base. Gus Zernial pinch-hit for Harris, and he singled, too, driving in Groth from second–only because Groth ran through third-base coach Billy Hitchcock’s stop sign. Kuenn grounded out.

Jim Stump worked from the mound for Detroit in the top of the ninth. With one out, Buddin walked. Baumann sacrificed him to second, but Busby struck out.

Baumann retired the side in order in the bottom of the ninth. He had thrown a six-hit, 7-1 win for Boston, striking out eight and walking only one. Ted Williams’ solo home run in the fourth inning scored the second run of the game–the one needed to win the game.5

The Red Sox finished 1959 in fifth place, 19 games behind the pennant-winning Chicago White Sox and one game behind the fourth-place Tigers. Williams finished with a .254 batting average and 10 home runs, both career lows for a full season.6

Williams returned for his final season in 1960. He hit three home runs in Detroit during that season, giving him 55 lifetime homers at Briggs Stadium, his most in any visiting ballpark.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Harrison Golden and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Photo credit: Ted Williams, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and Bill Nowlin, 521: The Story of Ted Williams’ Home Runs (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Rounder Books, 2013).

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET195908220.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1959/B08220DET1959.htm

Notes

1 Henry McKenna, “Baumann Tames Tigers,” Boston Herald, August 23, 1959: 53.

2 Roger Birtwell, “Baumann Leads Sox Over Tigers,” Boston Globe, August 23, 1959: 65, 66.

3 Joe Falls, “Ted Hits 491st, Tigers Lose,” Detroit Times, August 23, 1959: 1-D.

4 Birtwell.

5 A “game-winning home run” is defined here as a home run that provides a game’s final margin of victory, giving the winning team at least one more run than the opposing team scored. For example, if a two-run homer increased a team’s lead from 2-1 to 4-1, and it went on to win 4-3, it qualifies as a game-winning home run. (This is different from the definition of “game-winning RBI” in baseball’s official statistics from 1980 through 1988, which counted as “game-winning” the RBI that provided a winning team the lead that it never relinquished.)

6 Williams hit only one home run in 1952, the year he returned to military service for the Korean War after appearing in just six games.