September 17, 1953: Ted Williams gets pitch he wanted, wins game for the Red Sox

There were only six games left to play for the Boston Red Sox in the 1953 season, and the standings were pretty well fixed. The visiting Detroit Tigers were in sixth place, and the Philadelphia Athletics only a few games behind them, but the Tigers had no chance to move up. The Red Sox were firmly fixed in fourth place. It was conceivable they might have moved up or fallen back, but only if they won or lost every game and the team above or below them won or lost them all.

There were, though, still games to play and crowds to either please or disappoint. The September 17 crowd was small, though. The official attendance was a Fenway Park season low of 2,272; the Ladies Day promotion on that Thursday afternoon drew another 304.1

Boston manager Lou Boudreau started Sid Hudson, who allowed just a two-out single to third baseman Ray Boone in the top of the first. After 10 seasons with the Washington Nationals, starting in 1940, Hudson was in his second season with the Red Sox, and he had a 5-9 record.

Detroit manager Fred Hutchinson’s choice for starting pitcher was Ned Garver. Garver had been a 20-game winner with the last-place St. Louis Browns in 1951. He’d been traded to the Tigers in 1952 and was enjoying an 11-10 record in his first full year with Detroit. Garver set down the first three Red Sox batters he faced.

The Tigers got a run off Hudson on the top of the second. First baseman—and former Red Sox player until a mid-1952 trade—Walt Dropo singled off shortstop Milt Bolling’s glove into left field. Tigers right fielder Bud Souchock doubled to center past Tommy Umphlett, driving Dropo in. Hudson got outs from the next three batters. The second of the three was 18-year-old center fielder Al Kaline, making only his second major-league start. He grounded out, second to first.

The 1-0 score stood until the eighth inning.

There were opportunities for both teams. Former Tiger George Kell singled for the Red Sox in the bottom of the second, then ran to second base on a wild pitch, but a couple of fly balls and a strikeout saw him still at second base when the inning ended.

Billy Goodman doubled for Boston with two outs in the third. He, also, stayed at second base.

Souchock singled off Hudson with two outs in the top of the fourth but advanced no further.

Catcher Sammy White led off the Boston half of the fifth with a single to left field. Umphlett singled to center and White reached second base. Bolling was batting when Garver let fly a wild pitch. Both baserunners moved up, but Bolling flied out for the first out. Hudson flied out to left field – a ball that looked like a home run “until a strong breeze got hold of the ball,” observed the Boston Daily Record.2 Bob Nieman caught it; his throw to second was fast enough to double off Umphlett, and White’s crossing the plate didn’t count.

Boone singled with one out in the top of the sixth, but Nieman hit into a 6-4-3 double play. For the Red Sox in the sixth, Goodman singled to right. He was sacrificed to second by Jimmy Piersall, but Ted Williams fouled out to the catcher and Kell lined out to short.

Each side had but one baserunner left on in the seventh: Dropo drawing a walk for the Tigers (Souchock reached on a force play in which Dropo was retired) and Umphlett reaching on an error for the Red Sox. The score still stood at 1-0 after seven full innings.

Retiring all three batters, Hudson kept the ball in the infield in the eighth. The Tigers carried their 1-0 lead to the bottom of the eighth.

Garver got the first two Red Sox batters to fly out, then Piersall singled to center field.

Ted Williams was bothered by a stiff neck. He had flied out to left, fouled out to third base, and fouled out behind the plate to the catcher. This time, as the Detroit Times reported, he slammed Garver’s pitch “far and high into the eighteenth row of the right-field stands.”3 A man in a brown suit caught the ball. It was a two-run homer that put the Red Sox in the lead for the first time in the game. 

Williams said, “It was a slider, but I don’t think that Ned got it where he wanted to. This one was over the plate. The two he got me out on were almost on my fists.”4 He added, “The home run was just lucky.”5

Remarkably, Garver was trying to walk Williams at the time. He talked about it afterward. The count was 3-and-1 and he didn’t want to come in with anything good, figuring he’d take his chances. “I’m going to put him on base and pitch to George Kell. … I just threw it in there plenty bad [very high and inside, and not a strike], and Williams stepped back and hit that sucker for a home run. … I’m trying to walk him and he hits a home run to make it 2-1 and win the ballgame.”6

Of course, he hadn’t won the ballgame yet.

After the home run, Kell bunted to third base for a single. First baseman Dick Gernert walked. Sammy White was up. A wild pitch allowed Kell and Goodman to move to third and to second. White walked. The bases were loaded and the Red Sox hoped for an insurance run or two, but Umphlett grounded to Boone, whose throw forced White at second base.

Three outs from victory, Ellis Kinder came on in relief of Hudson. It was his 67th appearance of the 1953 season, breaking Ed Walsh’s 45-year-old American League record set in 1908.

“Watch that wind and get on your horse,” the 39-year-old Kinder told Piersall as he ran in from the bullpen.7 All three Detroit batters hit fly balls to the outfield – one to center and then two to right field, both of which were hauled in by Piersall but only after running both down.

The 2-1 Red Sox win was in the books. Williams had 13 home runs on the season, one more or less every six at-bats since he’d returned from Korea. 

Williams hit 10 home runs off Garver over the years.8 This was his 337th career home run. The ones he’d hit off Garver were Nos. 213, 245, 272, 282, 337, 375, 385, 422, 436, and 459.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Photo credit: Ted Williams, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS195309170.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1953/B09170BOS1953.htm

Notes

1 F. C. Matzek, “Kinder Sets American League Pitching Mark; Ted Connects Again,” Providence Journal, September 18, 1953: 11.

2 Joe Cashman, “Ted’s 13th HR Trips Tigers, 2-1,” Boston Daily Record, September 18, 1953: 29.

3 Leo Macdonell, “Tigers Back in Town for Last Home Stand,” Detroit Times, September 18, 1953: 25. The Globe put it at 15 rows up, in Section 2. And the Detroit Free Press said it was 20 rows.

4 Hy Hurwitz, “Williams’ 2-Run Homer in 8th Beats Tigers for Sox,” Boston Globe, September 18, 1953: 14.

5 Mike Gillooly, “Ted Hides Behind Kinder,” Boston American, September 18, 1953: 46.

6 Dave Heller, Facing Ted Williams (New York: Sports Publishing, 2013), 63, 64.

7 Ed Costello, “Sox Shade Tigers, 2-1, on Ted’s Homer,” Boston Herald, September 18, 1953: 21.

8 Williams also hit 10 homers off Bob Feller. The only pitcher who gave up more was Virgil Trucks, off whom he hit 12.