May 19, 1946: Mickey Vernon hits for cycle on his way to AL batting title

James Barton “Mickey” Vernon’s SABR biography notes that he was widely regarded as “the premier first baseman in the American League” in the 1940s and 1950s.1 His breakthrough season was 1946, when the 28-year-old Washington National won his first of two batting titles and was named to his first of seven AL All-Star teams.2

Vernon’s 1946 emergence, following two seasons missed for military service, was exemplified in a May 19 doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox. He bashed out six hits in nine at-bats in Washington’s sweep of the White Sox at Comiskey Park, including hitting for the cycle in the second game.

After reaching the majors with Washington in 1939 and holding down the Nationals’ first-base job from 1941 through 1943, Vernon spent the 1944 and 1945 seasons serving with the Navy in World War II. During that time, as the Washington Post reported in 1946, Vernon did play baseball “in Hawaii, on Guam, Saipan and at Ulithi.”3 Senators manager Ossie Bluege was told, “They can’t get the guy out. He’s the best hitter in the Pacific.”4

Vernon’s career batting average before the war was .275, but he was hitting .383 when the Nationals arrived in Chicago to begin a three-game, two-day series on May 19. In his most recent action, Vernon had gone 5-for-9 in a doubleheader split with the Cleveland Indians on May 17, extending his hitting streak to 15 games.5

As the Nationals and White Sox began their series, the 1946 season was about a month old. The Boston Red Sox won 21 of their first 24 games and never looked back. The other seven AL teams were playing for second place. Coming into the doubleheader, the Nationals had a record of 13-13-1 but were heating up; they had won five of their last seven games, all on the road. The White Sox had won just twice in their previous nine games, leading the Chicago Tribune to label them “the inadequate Chicago American League entry.”6

A Sunday crowd of 30,912 came through the turnstiles at Comiskey Park for the two games. The first game was a pitchers’ battle featuring Washington’s 35-year-old knuckleballer Roger Wolff and Chicago’s 45-year-old Ted Lyons. Vernon’s second homer of the year, a solo shot, gave the Nationals a 2-0 lead in the fourth, but the White Sox rallied to go ahead in the seventh. Trailing 3-2 in the top of the ninth, Washington scored twice on three hits, a walk, and an error, stealing the win from the White Sox, 4-3.7

The second game of the twin bill was described by the Chicago Tribune as a “routine White Sox fold-up.”8 Chicago managed just one run against the Nationals, and it came in the final frame.

Eddie Lopat started the nightcap for the White Sox. Through the first 25 games of the season, Lopat had the distinction of being the only Chicago pitcher with two victories. (The team had only nine wins at that point.) The southpaw was in his third season in the majors, all with the White Sox, and he sported a 2.54 earned-run average.

Opposing Lopat was another member of Washington’s cadre of knuckleballers, Johnny Niggeling.9 The 42-year-old right-hander had begun the season pitching from the bullpen for health reasons, but now he made his second start of the season. In search of his second win, he had a 1.50 ERA.10

The left-handed-batting Vernon tripled to start the top of the second in Game Two, giving him a 17-game hitting streak. Jeff Heath brought Vernon home on a single to center. In the bottom of the second, the White Sox loaded the bases with one out. Bob Kennedy and George Dickey singled, and Lopat drew a walk. Niggeling stranded them all, getting Don Kolloway to foul out to catcher Mike Guerra and Ralph Hodgin to fly out to center.

In the third inning, Lopat struck out Buddy Lewis and George Binks before Vernon singled into left field. Heath followed with a home run to deep right, his third of the season, and Washington led 3-0.

Niggeling “was in continual trouble”11 in the first three innings, allowing four hits and two bases on balls, but he settled down each time and stranded all six White Sox runners.

Washington struck again in the fourth. Cecil Travis led off with a single and advanced to second on Niggeling’s one-out single. Gil Torres lined a single into left, and Travis tallied the Nationals’ fourth run. After Lewis forced Torres at second, Binks reached on an infield single; Niggeling stayed at third, and the bases were loaded for Vernon. With a chance to blow the game wide open, Vernon struck out, ending the inning.

Lopat kept the Nationals from scoring in the next two frames, but Vernon opened the seventh inning with a blast over the right-field fence, his second home run of the day and third of the season. In four at-bats so far, he had singled, tripled, and homered.

Chicago’s five-run deficit seemed insurmountable, as Niggeling found his groove and shut down the White Sox batters. At one point he retired 16 batters in a row. After Taffy Wright singled to start the third, no one reached until Hodgin’s one-out walk in the bottom of the eighth.

Washington completed its scoring with two runs in the top of the ninth. With Lopat still pitching, Lewis singled and went to third on Vernon’s one-out double into right. The two-bagger completed the cycle for Vernon. This brought up Heath, who already had three runs batted in. Chicago catcher Dickey was charged with a passed ball, which allowed Lewis to score and Vernon to move to third. Heath then grounded to first baseman Jake Jones, who threw home as Vernon broke for the plate. Jones’s throw was wide, and Vernon scored on the error, his fourth run of the game.12

Niggeling lost his shutout in the bottom of the ninth. He retired Jones and Whitey Platt but Kennedy hit his first homer of the year, to deep left. Dickey grounded out to first to end the game. The final score was 7-1.

With the doubleheader sweep, the Nationals had won seven of nine games on their road trip.13 Niggeling earned the win, while Lopat was tagged with the loss, yielding seven runs (six earned) on 11 hits and three walks. Lopat spent 1947 with the White Sox, but is better known as one of the starting pitchers in the New York Yankees’ World Series run of five championships from 1949 to 1953.

Chicago’s “double failure,”14 combined with a doubleheader sweep by the last-place Athletics over the Browns, dropped the White Sox to within two games of last place in the American League. Four days later, on May 23, manager Jimmy Dykes resigned. Lyons – whose May 19 start was the final appearance of a 21-season big-league playing career, all of it with the White Sox – replaced him.15

Vernon’s “six safe swats in nine times at bat”16 zoomed him into the AL batting lead with an average of .411, with an OPS of 1.091. His hitting streak eventually reached 22 games (April 30 to May 26). In that stretch, he banged out 40 hits in 98 at-bats, including 17 extra-base hits.

When the 1946 season was done, the Nationals were in fourth place at 76-78-1. Vernon paced the AL in batting with a .353 average. He also led the majors with 51 doubles.17 It was the first time in his career he had batted over .300. His 207 hits were only one behind Boston’s Johnny Pesky for the AL lead.

According to his SABR biography, Vernon recalled, “I don’t know why I hit like that. The balls were just falling in for me.”18

Vernon was the first of just two players to hit for the cycle in 1946. The other was Boston’s Ted Williams, who accomplished the rare feat on July 21 against the Browns, en route to winning the AL’s Most Valuable Player Award. Vernon was the last member of Washington’s first AL franchise to hit for the cycle before the club became the Minnesota Twins in 1961.19 

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks John Fredland, Kurt Blumenau, and Gary Belleville for their insights and suggestions.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA194605192.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1946/B05192CHA1946.htm

Notes

1 Rich Westcott, “Mickey Vernon,” SABR Biography Project, accessed October 29, 2023.

2 Vernon won his second batting title in 1953, batting .337.

3 Shirley Povich, “This Morning With Shirley Povich,” Washington Post, May 20, 1946: 10.

4 “This Morning With Shirley Povich.”

5 The Nationals and Indians were supposed to play another game in Cleveland on May 18, but they postponed it because of a threatened railroad strike, allowing Washington to reach Chicago in time for the May 19 doubleheader. Burton Hawkins, “Nats Set to ‘Beat’ Rail Strike After Day Layoff,” Washington Sunday Star, May 19, 1946: B-1.

6 Edward Burns, “Senators Win 1st Game, 4-3, and Second, 7-1,” Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1946: 25.

7 It was Lyons’ 28th consecutive complete game, a streak dating to 1941. (Lyons served in the US Marine Corps in 1943, ’44, and ’45.)

8 Burns.

9 Two other members of the 1946 Nationals staff, left-hander Mickey Haefner and right-hander Dutch Leonard, also threw a knuckleball.

10 Niggeling had been hampered with preseason stomach ulcers and his poor health resurfaced in June, leading to poor performances on the mound. He was released by the Senators on June 25. After his release, Niggeling signed with the Boston Braves on July 1, appearing in eight games before requesting his release in September due to his poor condition.

11 Shirley Povich, “Vernon Stars as Nats Win Pair, 4-3, 7-1,” Washington Post, May 20, 1946: 1.

12 This account comes from Baseball-Reference. The Washington Post reported that Lewis scored on Vernon’s double and then Vernon scored on the passed ball. The Post did not explain how Vernon got to third, leading readers to believe Povich got it wrong. See Shirley Povich, “Vernon Stars as Nats Win Pair, 4-3, 7-1.”

13 The Nationals won the third game in the White Sox series, played on May 20, completing a sweep. They lost to the St. Louis Browns on May 22 and were rained out in St. Louis a day later, which made it an 8-3-1 road trip for Washington.

14 Burns, “Senators Win 1st Game, 4-3, and Second, 7-1.”

15 Under Lyons the White Sox posted winning records in August and September 1946 and finished the season in fifth place at 74-80-1.

16 Shirley Povich, “Vernon Stars as Nats Win Pair, 4-3, 7-1.”

17 The 1946 season was the first of three in which Vernon led in doubles. In both 1953 (43) and 1954 (33), he led the NL, while in 1946, Vernon led all batters in both leagues.

18 Westcott. Vernon posted a career-high .386 BAbip (batting average on balls in play), which led the AL.

19 The other Senators players to hit for the cycle were Otis Clymer (October 2, 1908, against the New York Highlanders), Goose Goslin (August 28, 1924, also against the Yankees), and Joe Cronin (September 2, 1929, against the Boston Red Sox). Cronin also hit for the cycle on August 2, 1940, playing for the Red Sox (against the Detroit Tigers). The Senators became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. Rod Carew was the first Twins player to hit for the cycle (May 20, 1970, against the Kansas City Royals).