May 30, 1952: Athletics ace Bobby Shantz stymies Yankees for 14 innings

by SEarly in the 1952 season, the Philadelphia Athletics were struggling against the three-time defending World Series champion New York Yankees. The Yankees’ 3-2 win over the Athletics on May 29, in the opener of a two-day, three-game series at Yankee Stadium, was their fifth over Philadelphia in six games. Yogi Berra scored the winning run on first baseman Billy Hitchcock’s eighth-inning error.

The A’s only win over the Yankees in that span was a 3-1 victory on April 17 in Philadelphia, behind 26-year-old left-hander Bobby Shantz’s complete game. It was Shantz’s first outing in 1952 and his first win. He faced the Yankees again four days later in the Bronx but left that game in the seventh with the Yankees ahead 5-1. He hadn’t lost a game since, running his record to 7-1.

The season before, neither the A’s nor Shantz had been easy for the Yankees to beat. The Athletics had won nine games against the Yankees, more than anyone but the Boston Red Sox (11) and Detroit Tigers (10). And no pitcher had beaten them more than Bobby Shantz, who was 4-2 against the Yankees that season, his win total tying Mel Parnell of the Red Sox and Virgil Trucks of the Tigers.

Shantz’s victories included a 4-1 complete game as the 1951 season was coming to a close on September 26. It was the final meeting that season between the American League rivals.

Though the Athletics ended 1951 in sixth place, 28 games behind the Yankees, they seemed to figure out how to beat them as the season progressed, winning three out of their final four games against the New Yorkers and six of their last nine.

After their May 29 game in 1952, the fourth-place Yankees were 3½ games behind the first-place Cleveland Indians. The Athletics were seventh, eight games out.

Shantz had an 8-14 record with a 4.61 ERA in 1950, his sophomore season, but he improved in 1951. The New York Times wrote that Shantz “became a star in the last part of the 1951 season when he turned a first-half 7-6 won-lost record into a final mark of 18-10.”1

In 1952, Shantz’s fourth season in the majors, he got off to a great start, winning seven of his first eight starts before facing the Yankees on May 30 in the first game of a twin bill. In those eight games, he faced 267 batters, struck out 37, walked just 16, and gave up only 13 earned runs2 with a 1.70 ERA.

Only two American and National League pitchers were shorter than 5-feet-7 in 1952. One was Shantz, who was 5-feet-6. (The other was Washington Nationals right-hander Connie Marrero, who was 5-feet-5.3)

Opposing Shantz on May 30 was 6-foot-1 right-hander Tom Morgan, who had celebrated his 22nd birthday 10 days earlier. Morgan was the youngest pitcher to play in a game for the Yankees that season, per Baseball Reference. In 1950 he had gone 17-8 with Binghamton in the Class A Eastern League. He spent most of 1951 in the majors, finishing with a 9-3 record and a 3.68 ERA. Morgan had not pitched against the Athletics yet in the 1952 season. But in 1951 he faced them five times. His ERA was 7.30 with an 0-2 record.

More than 30,000 watched Morgan make his fourth start of the season, 20 days after he pitched just two innings in his previous appearance, an 18-3 Yankees win over the Red Sox, when a “blister and a sore fingernail” forced him to exit the game early.4 In his first three 1952 starts, he had a 2.65 ERA.

After striking out the first batter on May 30, Morgan retired Elmer Valo and Dave Philley on groundouts.

Mickey Mantle led off the Yankees’ first turn at the plate by flying out to center field.5 Phil Rizzuto – like Shantz, 5-feet-6 – popped out to short, and Hank Bauer struck out.

With two outs in the second inning, Hitchcock singled, but Skeeter Kell struck out, Morgan’s third strikeout of the game.

After Berra singled in the bottom of the second, Johnny Mize reached first on Hank Majeski’s error at third base. Then, with two on, Irv Noren walked, loading the bases. But Billy Martin struck out, and Morgan bounced the ball back to Shantz, who tossed him out at first.

To start the third, Joe Astroth singled. Shantz’s sacrifice advanced Astroth to second, but the next two batters stranded Astroth.

Mantle homered to deep left in the bottom of the third, a blast that the New York Daily News described as “a lusty rap deep into the lower leftfield seats.” It was only the third homer off Shantz all season and Mantle’s third. Rizzuto struck out, Shantz’s fourth. Bauer walked. Berra’s grounder to Shantz resulted in a 1-6-3 double play.6

After Morgan set down the side one-two-three in the Athletics’ fourth, the Yankees threatened again. McDougald walked. Johnny Mize flied out to left. Noren doubled, McDougald reaching third. The Athletics intentionally walked Martin to fill the bases for the second time. Shantz fanned Morgan and then ended the fourth by, per the Philadelphia Inquirer, “blazing a third strike past Mantle.”7

In the top of the fifth, Hitchcock singled for the second time. Morgan then was involved in all three outs without striking out a batter.8 Hitchcock reached second on Kell’s groundout to Morgan. Astroth popped out to the pitcher. Shantz tapped the ball to Morgan.

To start the seventh, Gus Zernial singled. Two outs later, Kell’s double to left plated the Athletics’ first run. Shantz, a right-handed batter who entered the game hitting .292 with a .458 slugging percentage,9 had a chance to put the Athletics ahead, but second baseman Martin caught his line drive for the third out.

Mantle – a .346/.370/.769 (1.140 OPS) hitter in 27 plate appearances against Shantz in 1952 – singled with one out in the seventh and advanced to second on Rizzuto’s groundout. Shantz intentionally walked Bauer. Berra’s grounder to second ended the inning.

In the Philadelphia eighth, Valo singled. Kite Thomas ran for him. Dave Philley’s groundout advanced Thomas to second. Morgan intentionally walked Zernial. Majeski hit a foul popout caught by Rizzuto.

Both teams’ offenses remained quiet until the bottom of the 10th, when Bauer singled and was sacrificed to second by Berra. McDougald received an intentional walk, the Yankees’ third. Mize flied out to right – but Bauer stayed on second. Noren grounded out to third, ending the inning.

In the top of the 11th, the A’s had one baserunner on Zernial’s single. Then Shantz retired the Yankees one-two-three.

In the 12th, the Yankees made their first error. Mantle’s miscue on a fly ball allowed Astroth to reach first. Shantz sacrificed Astroth to second. Eddie Joost walked. Morgan struck out rookie Thomas. Dave Philley was retired to end the inning.

In inning 13, despite one-out singles by Majeski and Hitchcock – his third, which resulted in runners on first and third – the A’s could not take the lead.

In the Yankees half, Shantz hit another batter, Mize, and Joe Collins pinch-ran. Bob Cerv struck out. Martin hit a two-out single to left, but, as the New York Daily News reported, “Collins was cut down at third on Zernial’s good peg.”10

Finally, the A’s went ahead in the 14th. Shantz, leading off the inning, hit the ball to left, but Bauer caught his “drive that almost fell into the stands.”11 Joost and Sherry Robertson walked, Robertson on a full count. Yankees manager Casey Stengel replaced Morgan with righty Jim McDonald, who had not pitched in 20 days.12 Philley singled to center, scoring Joost. Zernial walked, loading the bases. Majeski hit a line drive to short. Rizzuto caught it and threw to second for a double play.

In the Yankees’ final turn at the plate, pitcher Johnny Sain hit for McDonald and grounded out to right field.13 Mickey Mantle hit a “450-foot blast”14 to left that was ruled a ground-rule double. It was his third hit of the game. The New York Times said that “[if] Mantle’s last-round drive had been a bit higher, there is no telling how much longer the game would have continued.”15 Rizzuto flied out to center. Bauer flied out to left, ending the marathon opener, giving Shantz his eighth win and enabling him to avenge his only loss.

The game lasted 3 hours and 44 minutes. The Athletics left 15 men on base, the Yankees 14.

Shantz pitched 14 innings and faced 57 batters, striking out 11. All three were highs for his 15-season big-league career. It was only the second time he had double-digit strikeouts; the other was July 14, 1950, when he struck out 10 St. Louis Browns batters in the second game of a twin bill. He never struck out more than 10 in a game again.16 It was the best start in Shantz’s career, as indicated by his Game Score of 94.

Morgan pitched 13 1/3 innings, which turned out to be the most of his 12-season major-league career.

The Athletics won the second game of the doubleheader, 4-2. At day’s end, the Yankees dropped to fifth place in the AL, replaced in the fourth spot by the White Sox, but they went on to win their fourth consecutive World Series title. Philadelphia finished fourth in the AL at 79-75-1. Just as they did in 1951, the Athletics won 9 of 22 games against the Yankees in 1952.

In the remainder of the ’52 season, Shantz finished with a major-league-leading 8.8 WAR, league-leading 24 wins and 1.048 WHIP, and a .774 winning percentage. His achievements won him the American League MVP award, his 280 vote points almost 100 more than those for Allie Reynolds.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Bobby Shantz, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, screwball.ai, FanGraphs.com, and Retrosheet.org for player, team, and season data. Research help was also received from Dan Birken, Bryan Walko, and Tom Thress.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA195205301.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1952/B05301NYA1952.htm

Notes

1 “Athletics’ Shantz Breaks Left Wrist,” New York Times, September 24, 1952: 42.

2 Shantz gave up six of the 13 earned runs in the May 4, 1952, game against the Detroit Tigers.

3 In 1952 Marrero was 11-8 with the Washington Nationals in 22 starts with a 2.88 ERA. In his rookie season of 1950, he was 39 years old. Born in Cuba, from 1947 to 1949 he pitched for Washington’s affiliate, the Havana Cubans, in the Florida International League (Class C). They played their home games in Havana.

4 Joe Trimble, “Yanks 11-Run Inning Razes Bosox, 18-3,” New York Daily News, May 11, 1952: 88.

5 In the game, Mickey Mantle played right field, the position he played in all but two games in 1951, his rookie season. But for the bulk of the 1952 season (121 games), he played center field.

6 Joe Trimble, “A’s Drop Yankees, 2-1 in 14th and 4-2,” New York Daily News, May 31, 1952: 84, 87.

7 Art Morrow, “Shantz Goes Route, Takes Opener in 14,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 31, 1952: 13, 14.

8 In the 1952 season a pitcher made all three outs in an inning – getting either an assist or putout in each at-bat and excluding strikeouts – just 20 times. I found the information in the Retrosheet file “1952plays.”

9 Bobby Shantz hit .250 in 1951.

10 Joe Trimble, “A’s Drop Yankees, 2-1 in 14th and 4-2.”

11 Art Morrow, “Shantz Goes Route, Takes Opener in 14.”

12 McDonald may have missed the 20 days because of a finger problem. Bill Nowlin wrote in his SABR biography of McDonald that McDonald “would have pitched more but for an infected finger he suffered during spring training, which set him back and seemed to keep him out of sync.” Bill Nowlin, “Jim McDonald,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/jim-mcdonald-2/. Accessed September 2025.

13 Allie Clark played right field in the bottom of the 14th, replacing Sherry Robertson, who pinch-hit for right fielder Kite Thomas in the top half of the inning. What makes the play more surprising was that, as Clark told his SABR biographer in 2011, “I was never a regular [in the major leagues]. I didn’t throw very well.” Rick Malwitz, “Allie Clark,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Allie-Clark/. Accessed September 2025.

14 Art Morrow, “Shantz Goes Route, Takes Opener in 14.” “The ball bounced off the bleacher ledge and hopped wildly over the screen into the stands. The Yank outfielder slowed to a trot and rounded the bases.” But the Athletics protested the umpires’ decision. “They quickly conceded that under the rules, Mantle was only entitled to a double, and ordered him to return to second base.”  

15 Louis Effrat, “Athletics Trip Bombers, 2-1, 4-2, Shantz Taking 14-Inning Opener,” New York Times, May 31, 1952: 20. Mantle’s hit had bounced off the “auxiliary scoreboard” and “into the bleachers.” “It is logical to assume,” Effrat wrote, “that if the ball had caromed in any other direction, an inside-the-park homer would have resulted.”

16 His seven walks were the second most of his career as of the May 30, 1952, game – he walked nine in a 1955 game – and the three intentional passes were a career high.