May 28, 1951: Willie Mays’s first National League hit is a towering homer

If you begin your National League career going hitless in three road games, you may as well go for broke and swing mightily early in your first home game. That’s what Willie Mays did against the Boston Braves on May 28, 1951, and beat writers for both teams chose their strongest adjectives to describe his contact with the pitch in question, which happened to be against another future Hall of Famer. He produced his team’s only run, but also figured in its subsequent failures on offense that night.1

In 1950 Mays hit .353 in 81 games for the Trenton Giants of the Class-B Interstate League, and to start the 1951 season he was promoted to the Minneapolis Millers of the Triple-A American Association. Before he was called up by the New York Giants for his debut, he batted a staggering .477 with 8 homers and 30 RBIs in 35 games. In fact, Mays left the Millers with a 16-game hitting streak in which he hit a blistering .569. Of his 41 hits during the streak, 17 were for extra bases.2

Mays said he and Millers teammate Ray Dandridge, another future Hall of Famer, were watching the movie Lightning Strikes Twice in Sioux City, Iowa, when a voice over the theater’s loudspeaker asked him to report to its office immediately. “I was shocked and thought real lightning had struck when I found Tommy (Tommy Heath, his manager) waiting. … He told me I was to come to New York and they had to get me on a plane as soon as possible,” Mays told Sam Lacy of the Afro-American a few days later. “Wasn’t scared at first, but it sure was a surprise.”3

Alas, his first three games in the National League were duds. He went hitless in 12 at-bats at Philadelphia before his home debut on Monday, May 28. “Phils’ pitchers gave him little in the way of ‘fat ones’ or even ‘good ones’ to swing at,” wrote an anonymous sportswriter with the Philadelphia Tribune (in 2022 the oldest continuously published African American newspaper in the country).4

Expectations for Mays were already very high. Probably by coincidence, on May 29, sports editor Zipp Newman of the Birmingham News (near the rookie’s hometown of Fairfield, Alabama) noted that “the Giants believe that if Mays can come through, he will be as big a drawing card as the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle.” Newman declared that Mays was “a better fielder than Mantle and scouts will tell you very quickly there isn’t a throwing arm in all baseball like Mays’.”5 Alvin Moses of the Atlanta Daily World, another African American paper, echoed the first of Newman’s points when he wrote that Mays “figures to bring out thousands of kids just as Mickey, Casey Stengel’s freshman, has done at Yankee Stadium.”6

After the futility Mays experienced in his first three games, a Philadelphia Tribune reporter worried aloud that the pressure might be too much. On a positive note, however, with the Giants he became one of “four Negro players, three of whom are regulars.” The other three weren’t named in that article, but were presumably third baseman Hank Thompson, outfielder-first baseman (and future Hall of Famer) Monte Irvin, and Cuban catcher Ray Noble. Black shortstop Artie Wilson had played his final game for the Giants on May 23 and was sent down to the minors to make room for the addition of Mays on May 24. Thompson and Irvin both started with Mays on May 28, and Noble pinch-hit. Despite the fact that Mays wasn’t cracking an all-White lineup, the Tribune reporter worried about the newcomer’s age and experience. “It may be that young Mays, he is only 20, will not be able to make the grade,” the writer observed. “He has only been in organized baseball 18 months.”7 Mays’ 20th birthday was May 6.

On the evening of May 28, the temperature was 68 degrees Fahrenheit at 6:00, and little more than a trace of rain fell in New York City that day.8 Boston’s record was 19-18 at the start of play, while the Giants began at 20-19. The attendance was 23,101.9

The starting pitcher for the Giants was Sheldon Jones, in his sixth season with the team. His two best years were in 1948 and 1949, when he went 16-8 and 15-12 respectively, with ERAs below 3.40.10 Jones struck out Boston’s leadoff hitter, Roy Hartsfield, but the third strike rolled about 10 feet from New York catcher Wes Westrum. He threw low to first baseman Whitey Lockman, who dropped the ball and was charged with an error. Willard Marshall tripled, and one out later Bob Elliott homered to drive in the second and third runs for the visitors. Jones retired two of the next three Braves to sidestep an additional threat.11

The Giants’ leadoff hitter, Eddie Stanky, drew a walk from Warren Spahn, who was well on his way to becoming the sixth-winningest pitcher of all time. Stanky was soon erased on a 3-6-3 double-play grounder hit by Lockman. Willie Mays thus batted with the bases empty. The relatively new Giant “was given a rousing welcome,” reported Hy Hurwitz in the Boston Globe. “He took a ball and then smashed a Spahn fast ball over the whole works in left which was [as] genuine a homer as they come.”12

By contrast, Henry McKenna of the Boston Herald wrote, “It appeared he hit a curve on a 3-1 pitch and thereafter he saw nothing but fast balls.”13 Mays himself told Dale Wright of the New York Amsterdam News, a Black paper, that it was an outside curve. “I can get more of them if National League pitchers don’t hand me too many passes,” Mays said. Well-known actress Laraine Day, wife of Giants manager Leo Durocher, gave Mays a nice wristwatch to welcome him to the club that day, and he reportedly earned a second one from a chewing gum company for the homer.14 In addition to curve vs. fastball, newspapers disagreed on whether Mays hit the sphere onto the left-field roof or over it, as both Boston sportswriters characterized it. For example, Joseph Sheehan of the New York Times wrote that the “towering poke landed atop the left-field roof.”15

Only one more runner scored that night. In the third inning, Jones gave up singles to the first two batters and was replaced by Al Gettel. The new pitcher got Elliott to ground into a double play, but the lead runner scored to make it 4-1. Elliott complained demonstrably about being called out at first to complete the double play, and umpire Lou Jorda ejected him.16

Gettel, who was primarily a starting pitcher with three American League teams from 1945 through 1948, finished the game for the Giants. He surrendered only two hits and a walk in his seven innings. Spahn hurled a complete game and scattered six more hits. The Braves were 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left four men on base. The Giants were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 teammates stranded on the basepaths. The game took 2:28 to complete.17

Jim McCulley of the New York Daily News summarized the Giants’ best chances against Spahn. With one out in the fourth, the Giants had two men on base, but “Irvin and Thompson failed to keep this threat alive,” McCulley wrote. “In the fifth, with one down, Stanky singled and, with two down, Mays drew a walk. But Spahn, who fanned eight, made Westrum his fourth straight strikeout victim at this point.”18

To begin the seventh inning, Durocher seemed close to pinch-hitting for his pitcher, but he didn’t. “Gettel fanned, then much to Durocher’s dismay, Stanky and Lockman followed with singles,” McCulley reported. “Spahn took care of this situation by striking out Mays and Westrum, the latter for the third straight time.”19 In the bottom of the ninth, Mays batted with two outs and Lockman on first base. He popped out to end the game.20

Hurwitz said Mays reacted quite negatively after whiffing but apparently didn’t direct hostility toward home-plate umpire Larry Goetz. “He was boiling mad at himself in the seventh” for not producing in that at-bat, Hurwitz observed. Mays hadn’t swung and missed, but rather “took a called third strike and jumped up and down in disgust.”21 After that first-inning blast for his first National League hit, he contributed only that walk among his four other plate appearances. (In fact, Mays went into a 0-for-13 slump after hitting his first homer as a Giant and began his career 1-for-26.) On defense he had one chance, a putout on a fly to begin the second inning.22

By winning, Boston improved to 20-18 and moved into a virtual tie with Chicago for third place in the eight-team National League. The Giants, at 20-20, were one game behind.23 As is widely known, the Giants ultimately won the pennant that season in an incredibly dramatic manner. But as for Willie Mays on May 28, 1951, it was one homer down, 659 to go in his National League career.

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/NY1/NY1195105280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1951/B05280NY11951.htm

NOTES

1  Back in 1948, Mays played for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League (NAL), which in 2020 became recognized by Major League Baseball as a major league. As of 2023 the Seamheads Negro Leagues database online shows Mays with no home runs with that team. However, newer research documents homers by Mays in at least two NAL regular-season games, according to Tom Thress, “Tracking Down Willie Mays’s 1948 Game Log,” Willie Mays: Five Tools, ed. by Bill Nowlin and Glen Sparks (Phoenix: SABR, 2023).

2  “Willie Mays, Miller Sensation Brought .477 Ave. to Giants,” The Sporting News, May 30, 1951: 6. This article also said Artie Wilson was sent down to Ottawa of the International League to create a roster spot for Mays.

3  Sam Lacy, “From A to Z,” Baltimore Afro-American, June 2, 1951: 17. Speaking of movies, in this column Mays credited footage of Joe DiMaggio with teaching him how to bat. (Mays credited his own father with teaching him how to catch a ball.)

4  “Mays Impresses as Philly Fans Get First Look,” Philadelphia Tribune, May 29, 1951: 11. For his minor-league stats in 1950 and 1951, see https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=mays–002wil.

5  Zipp Newman, “Dusting ’em off,” Birmingham News, May 29, 1951: 19.

6  Alvin Moses, “Beating the Gun,” Atlanta Daily World, May 30, 1951: 5. A colleague of Moses’ may have been among the very first sportswriters to predict superstardom for Mays, back in 1948: “Willie Howard Mays … is the wonder kid of the Negro American League. Nobody has voted him the find of the year, rookie of the year or most valuable player. … But in my book, he is the most promising youngster to play baseball at Rickwood Field since I’ve been around.” – Emory O. Jackson, “Hits and Bits,” Atlanta Daily World, October 15, 1948: 5.

7  “The Case of Willie Mays,” Philadelphia Tribune, June 2, 1951: 4. See Note 1 regarding Artie Wilson.

8  “Daily Almanac,” New York Daily News, May 28, 1951: 2. “Daily Almanac,” New York Daily News, May 29, 1951: 2.

9  Jim McCulley, “Braves Check Giants, 4-1; Mays Hits 1st HR,” New York Daily News, May 29, 1951: 46.

10 For the career stats of Sheldon Jones, see https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jonessh01.shtml.

11 Henry McKenna, “Spahn, Braves Defeat Giants, 4-1,” Boston Herald, May 29, 1951: 15.

12 Hy Hurwitz, “Spahn 7-Hitter, Elliott’s Homer Top Giants, 4-1,” Boston Globe, May 29, 1951: 1, 17.

13 McKenna.

14 Dale Wright, “Willie Mays Feels at Home in Polo Grounds,” New York Amsterdam News, June 2, 1951: 14.

15 Joseph M. Sheehan, “Braves Trip Giants at Polo Grounds; Dodgers Triumph; Yanks Bow,” New York Times, May 29, 1951: 29.

16 Sheehan.

17 For the baserunning stats, see https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NY1/NY1195105280.shtml. Career stats for Gettel and all the other players are readily available by clicking on their names in the two batting orders.

18 McCulley.

19 McCulley.

20 Sheehan.

21 Hurwitz.

22 Sheehan.

23 “Standings in the Major Leagues,” Boston Herald, May 29, 1951: 15. This daily’s standings were presented in a chart showing each team’s performance against all the other teams.