August 27, 1951: Del Wilber is an unlikely one-man show for Phillies

Del Wilber’s game on August 27, 1951, could easily rank among the most memorable of his life. After bringing his newborn daughter, Cynthia, home from the hospital earlier in the day, he smacked three solo home runs to account for all of the Phillies’ runs in a 3-0 victory over Cincinnati. Batting eighth in the lineup, Wilber was as unlikely a player as anyone to go on a homer spree. A career role player, he hit only 19 home runs during his eight major-league seasons.

Philadelphia claimed Wilber after St. Louis left him unprotected following his 1950 season with Triple-A Rochester. He replaced Stan Lopata as the Phillies backup in 1951. Wilber split time that season with Andy Seminick, and played the most games in one season (84) during his career.

Wilber began his professional career as a 19-year-old in 1938. He missed four full playing seasons (1942-1945) while in the military during World War II. He made his major-league debut on April 21, 1946, with the St. Louis Cardinals. By the time he was acquired by the Phillies in 1951, Wilber had played in only 84 games for the Cardinals, and had never hit a major-league home run.

The Phillies were coming off their pennant-winning season in 1950, when they were known as the Whiz Kids for the improbable championship season by the team that averaged only 26 years of age.

Coming into the doubleheader on August 27 the Phillies were in fourth place, a distant 18 games behind the first-place Brooklyn Dodgers. Seminick was the catcher in the Phillies’ win in the first game of the doubleheader, a 2-0 victory on Bill Nicholson majestic homer that exited the stadium in left field and landed on the roof of a house and disappeared down a chimney.1

Wilber, 6-feet-3 and 200 pounds, drew the starting assignment behind the plate in the second game. Years later he recalled, “I was sicker than a mule that day. I had a bad, bad cold. I sat in the dugout between innings with a big jacket on and that was August! I never took my chest protector off, I just slipped a jacket on over it and stood there like a guy with malaria or pneumonia or something.”2

Lefty Ken Johnson was Wilber’s batterymate. Johnson, 28, had pitched sparingly during the first half of the season, but had a 4-4 record coming into the game, including two shutouts. The Phillies lineup also included outfielder Tommy Brown, a member of the three-homer club whose feat occurred a year earlier with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Veteran left-hander Ken Raffensberger, 12-16 for the sixth-place Reds, got the starting nod from manager Luke Sewell.

Neither team generated a threat during the first 2½ innings. Then in the bottom of the third, Wilber led off with his fifth home run of the season and his career.

In the top of the fifth inning, the Reds mounted their best offensive effort of the game, but came up short. With two outs, singles by Bobby Adams and Connie Ryan and a walk to Joe Adcock loaded the bases. However, Johnson retired Ted Kluszewski with a groundout to shortstop Granny Hamner.

Wilber led off the bottom of the fifth with his second home run. It was the only multihomer game of his career.

Aside from Wilber’s home runs, the most excitement of the night was provided by the Phillies’ Hamner in the bottom of the sixth inning. After Willie Jones doubled with two outs, Hamner hit a slow roller to third baseman Adams, who fielded the ball cleanly but made a low throw to first baseman Kluszewski. Hamner appeared to beat the throw, and Kluszewski was pulled off the bag for good measure. However, umpire Frank Dascoli signaled Hamner out. The ump ejected Hamner for his choice words during the ensuing argument. It was the first career ejection for Hamner.3

In the bottom of the seventh, Wilber delivered one more contribution to the excitement of the game when he slammed his third consecutive solo homer of the game. The 400-foot blast landed on the roof in left field. All three were hit off Raffensberger, who served up his 26th, 27 th, and 28th circuit blasts of the season. It was the third time in the season he had given up three homers in a game.

Johnson continued to hold the Reds scoreless, and the Phillies wound up with their second victory of the day, 3-0. He pitched his third complete-game shutout of the season in gaining his fifth victory.

The contest was a good indicator of how Raffensberger’s season would end up. He took his 17th loss of the season and finished the season tied with teammate Willie Ramsdell and Paul Minner of the Cubs for the most losses in the National League. Raffensberger finished the year with the third-most home runs allowed (29), following Murry Dickson (32) and Preacher Roe (30).

Wilber’s explanation for his outstanding performance was simple: “I was loose – in other words I had no tensions that night. I was too sick.” He said he didn’t really realize what had happened until the game was over. When he got home, his wife said she had heard about it on the radio.4

Aware that he had a chance the next day to tie a major-league record of four consecutive home runs, Wilber wasn’t originally slated by manager Eddie Sawyer to be in the starting lineup. However, starting catcher Seminick came up sick before the game, and Wilber was inserted into the lineup in his place. In his first time at bat, Wilber struck out. Seminick later acknowledged he faked his illness so that Wilber would have an opportunity to tie the home-run record.5

At the time Wilber was only the sixth Phillies player to hit three solo home runs in a game. It was the first time a Phillies batter had hit three home runs in three consecutive at-bats since Johnny Moore accomplished the feat on July 22, 1936. Other Phillies who had slugged three homers in a game were Butch Henline (1922), Cy Williams (1923), and Seminick (1949), while Chuck Klein hit four against Pittsburgh in a 10-inning game on July 10, 1936.6

Wilber doesn’t hold the record for fewest career home runs by players with three-homer games. That distinction belongs to Merv Connors who hit three on September 17, 1938. Connors managed to hit only eight home runs during his two-year career. Some of baseball’s sluggers who never hit as many as three homers in a game include Rafael Palmeiro, Fred McGriff, and Frank Howard.7

The 1951 season was the best of Wilber’s career. He had career highs in home runs (8), RBIs (34), and batting average (.278). He was traded to the Boston Red Sox the next season, and he finished his major-league playing career in 1954 with the Red Sox.

After his playing days, Wilber spent 15 seasons as a minor-league manager, and was a coach for the Chicago White Sox, Washington Senators, and Texas Rangers.

Wilber was noted for his postgame hobby of painting baseballs for winning pitchers on his team. His artistic handiwork typically captured the game’s details, as well as something personal about the player. He would then cover them with fingernail polish, so the balls could be preserved as keepsakes.8 The three-homer game would have been a great occasion for Wilber to decorate a ball for himself.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the following:

baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI195108272.shtml.

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1951/B08272PHI1951.htm.

Smith, Lou. “All Scoring Is on Home Runs,” Cincinnati Enquirer, August 28, 1951: 18.

NOTES

1 Stan Baumgartner, “Phils Defeat Reds, 2-0, 3-0: Wilber Hits 3 HRs, Nicholson Raps One,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 28, 1951: 30.

2 Cynthia Wilber, For Love of the Game (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1992), 242.

3 Baumgartner.

4 Baumgartner.

5 Baumgartner.

6 Baumgartner.

7 Olsen, Tim. “King for a Day,” Baseball Digest, June 2003: 70-74.

8 Frank Yeutter. “Phils’ Wilber-Masked Artist,” Baseball Digest, August, 1951: 89.