June 28, 1950: Ted Williams’s 23rd home run of the year wins game for Red Sox

In a three-game stretch in 1950, Boston Red Sox left fielder Ted Williams homered at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park on June 27, 28, and 29. His homer in this Wednesday night game on June 28 broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the eighth inning and won the game for the visiting Boston Red Sox over the Philadelphia Athletics.

The Red Sox were just coming off a stretch in which they had lost 11 of 13 games, from June 9 through June 22. They then won seven in a row; this was the sixth of the seven wins and the sixth win in a row under their new manager.

Steve O’Neill had been named the manager of the Red Sox, taking the place of Joe McCarthy. He’d managed his first game on June 23.1

Connie Mack was in his 50th and final season managing the Athletics. The 87-year-old Mack had managed them in every year of the team’s existence, 1901 through 1950.2

Mack’s choice to start was Lou Brissie. A 16-game winner the year before, Brissie came into the game with a very disappointing record of 2-11. His ERA was 4.60.  

Starting for the Red Sox was Ellis Kinder, who also had a losing record (5-7), with a very comparable 4.71 ERA.

It was Philadelphia that scored first.

Brissie didn’t let the ball leave the infield in the top of the first. Dom DiMaggio grounded out to first base, unassisted. Billy Goodman struck out, and Ted Williams grounded to the shortstop, Eddie Joost, who threw him out at first base.

Athletics right fielder Wally Moses singled with one out in the bottom of the inning. After getting the second out, Kinder walked center fielder Sam Chapman. First baseman Ferris Fain singled to right field, scoring Moses.

Brissie retired Boston, facing only three batters, in the top of the second inning. Vern Stephens hit a fly ball to center field, but the other two struck out and popped up foul to the catcher, Mike Guerra.

In the Athletics’ second, Kinder allowed a leadoff single and a walk, but the score remained 1-0.

In the top of the third inning, the Red Sox took a 2-1 lead. Right fielder Al Zarilla got on base with a walk. Boston catcher Birdie Tebbetts struck out and Kinder flied out to right field. Then Dom DiMaggio struck – a two-run home run onto the roof of the second deck in left field.3

The next two half-innings started with walks, too. In the bottom of the third, Kinder walked left fielder Elmer Valo. Chapman followed with a single and the A’s had runners on first and second with nobody out, but Fain flied out to center and Joost hit into a double play.

Williams walked in the top of the fourth. Stephens singled and the Red Sox likewise had two on, none out. Dropo flied out to right. Bobby Doerr popped up foul to the catcher. Zarilla flied out to right.

In the bottom of the fourth and the top of the fifth, no batters reached base. The A’s had some action on the basepaths in their fifth. With one out, Moses singled. Valo followed with a single, too, but DiMaggio’s throw from center field to Goodman at third got there in time to erase Moses. Valo stole second but Chapman flied out.

In the sixth, Brissie set down the Red Sox in order.  The Athletics then tied the game when Fain singled to center field and Joost hit a double down the left-field line. It was 2-2. Joost did move up to third on the second out, but Brissie grounded out for the third.

Both pitchers threw scoreless seventh innings. Zarilla and Tebbetts both hit two-out singles for Boston and Valo hit a two-out single for Philadelphia.

After seven innings complete, the Red Sox had but four hits off Brissie while the Athletics had nine off Kinder, but the game was still tied, 2-2.

In the top of the eighth, “Ted Williams belted one of the longest home runs of his life … a twisting smash just inside the foul line,” wrote the Boston Globe.4 Like his homer the day before, it landed on the roof of a house outside the park on 20th Street. It was fair by about five feet.5

It was a two-run homer, with Goodman on first base after he had hit a one-out single to center field. The next batter after Williams, Vern Stephens, homered, too, the ball striking the front of the left-field upper deck.6 It was his 17th home run. The score was 5-2, with Boston in the lead.

In the home eighth, Kinder retired the Athletics in order.

The Red Sox manufactured one more run in the top of the ninth. Zarilla drew a base on balls. Tebbetts popped up foul to catcher Guerra. Kinder sacrificed Zarilla to second with a well-placed bunt to Brissie. DiMaggio singled to center field and Zarilla scored. Goodman made the third out.

Kinder got through the bottom of the ninth, but the Athletics didn’t just roll over. Paul Lehner pinch-hit for Guerra. He flied out to center. Kermit Wahl pinch-hit for Brissie. He lifted a popup that was caught by Stephens at shortstop. But Bob Dillinger singled. With Moses batting, Dillinger took second base, due to what is now termed defensive indifference. Moses then singled for his third hit of the game, with Dillinger going to third base. Valo came to bat. He already had two hits in the game. He hit Kinder’s pitch well, to deep center field, but it was hauled in by DiMaggio, who ran it down going away from the plate. The game was over.

Both pitchers had thrown complete games. They had each walked three. Brissie had given up eight base hits, and Kinder 11, but the Red Sox had gotten more out of their eight than had the Athletics out of theirs. The A’s had one extra-base hit, Joost’s game-tying double in the sixth. The Red Sox had three home runs.

The Williams home run had been the hit that made the difference. It provided the Red Sox a 4-2 lead and ultimately gave the 6-2 game to the Red Sox, extending their streak of wins for their new manager.

The 43 home runs that Williams had hit in 1949 were his all-time high. He had hit his 23rd homer on July 22 that year. This home run was number 23 of 1950 – and it was still June.

Williams added number 24 the next day, June 29, while driving in six runs in Boston’s 22-14 win over the Athletics. It gave him 13 home runs in June. Had he not broken his elbow in the All-Star Game at Comiskey Park on July 11, he might well have hit at least 50 in ’50. He ended the season with 28 home runs in 89 games.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau 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/PHA/PHA195006280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1950/B06280PHA1950.htm

Notes

1 The day after this game, Shirley Povich wrote a column about O’Neill assuming the role. See Shirley Povich, “This Morning,” Washington Post, June 29, 1950: 19.

2 His managing skills may have been suboptimal. As noted in his SABR biography by Doug Skipper, “Mack endured lapses of memory, napped during games, and made bad coaching decisions that his assistants quietly reversed during the 1950 season.” Doug Skipper, “Connie Mack,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/connie-mack/. Accessed June 2025.

3 Will Cloney, “Three Sox Homers Beat A’s, 6-2,” Boston Herald, June 29, 1950: 36.

4 Hy Hurwitz, “Williams Homer Beats Athletics, 6-2; Red Sox Win Sixth Straight on Road,” Boston Globe, June 29, 1950: 27.

5 Cloney.

6 Cloney.