September 2, 1960: Like father, like son: Ted Williams homers off both Thornton Lee and Don Lee

The Friday of Labor Day weekend in 1960 wasn’t a good day for Boston Red Sox fans, what with the Washington Senators sweeping the doubleheader, 5-1 in the opener and a come-from-behind 3-2 win in the second game. Washington’s Jim Lemon homered in each game, a key home run each time. Ted Williams homered, too, accounting for Boston’s one and only run in the first game.

All in all, not a good day for Red Sox fans – except for those who are baseball trivia buffs.

Name the only father-and-son combination against which any major leaguer ever homered? Thornton Lee of the Chicago White Sox, back in Ted Williams’s rookie year, surrendered homer number 28 to Williams on September 17, 1939. Don Lee of the Senators – born in 1934, the second season of Thornton Lee’s 16-season major-league career – coughed up number 517 almost exactly 21 years later, in the first game of the September 2 doubleheader. The 1960 home-run ball landed in the Red Sox bullpen at Fenway Park, on the center-field side of the pen.

It was an afternoon twin bill at Fenway Park. Frank Sullivan was the Red Sox starter. He was having a rough year, coming into the game with a record of 5-14 for a Boston team that finished in seventh place. This game didn’t start off any better for him. The second batter he faced, center fielder Dan Dobbek, hit a solo home run into the right-field seats. The fourth batter he faced – left fielder Lemon – hit a solo home run to left field. In between, left fielder Ted Williams, reported the Boston Herald, “backhanded a … liner” hit by Harmon Killebrew, an “exceptional play” that kept Washington from scoring even more runs.1

The 2-0 lead proved to be enough to win the game, but first Don Lee (who came into the game 6-4, with a 3.72 ERA) still had to secure 27 outs. He got the first three when he struck out shortstop Pumpsie Green and center fielder Carroll Hardy, and then got Ted Williams to ground out to first base, unassisted.

Sullivan retired the side in order in the second. Lee let two reach base in Boston’s half – walking Vic Wertz and allowing a two-out infield single to Pete Runnels. Lou Clinton grounded out to end the inning.

The Senators added a run in the top of the third. Dobbek reached on an infield single and Killebrew doubled to center field, driving Dobbek home. Lee retired the three Boston batters he faced in the bottom of the third.

In the fourth, a one-out single by Washington third baseman Reno Bertoia started a sequence that saw him steal second after there were two outs, and make it to third base on a throwing error by catcher Russ Nixon. Then Sullivan threw a wild pitch, Bertoia scored, and it was 4-0, Senators.

Williams led off the bottom of the fourth and flied out to right field. The next three batters all singled, but the team didn’t score. Nixon was thrown out by Lemon, 7-2-4, when he overran second base. Runnels flied out.

In the fifth, Willie Tasby pinch-hit for Sullivan and flied out. Jerry Casale took over for the Red Sox in relief. He pitched the sixth and seventh innings, giving up just one hit, a single.

In the bottom of the seventh, Rip Repulski pinch-hit for Casale. There were two outs. He worked a walk, but advanced no farther.

Chet Nichols pitched the final two innings for Boston. He struck out the first two batters he faced, walked right fielder Bob Allison, then got Bertoia to ground out.  

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Hardy grounded out, third to first. Ted Williams hit a home run into the “center field half of the Red Sox bullpen in right center.”2 It spoiled Lee’s shutout but got him in the trivia books. Wertz lined out, Nixon singled, and Frank Malzone grounded the ball right back to the pitcher.

In the ninth, Nichols got an out, gave up a single to Billy Consolo, struck out Lee, gave up a single to Billy Gardner, and then gave up an RBI single to Dobbek. That made it 5-1, Senators.

Runnels led off with a single in the bottom of the ninth, but Lee put the next three batters away and the game was over. It was the first complete game of Lee’s career. In a nine-season career with five teams, he had a 40-44 lifetime record and 13 complete games.

The Senators won the second game too, 3-2, twice overcoming one-run Red Sox leads. At the end of the day, Washington was still in fourth place. Boston remained in seventh place, 21 games out of first. The game drew 26,817, which brought Red Sox season home attendance to over 1 million.

In addition to pitching, the father/son team of “Lefty” (Thornton) and Don combined in another baseball activity. Both served as scouts for the St. Louis Cardinals, Don Lee taking the southern part of Arizona and his dad taking Phoenix and north. If one saw a decent prospect, the other would come and check him out.

Don Lee remembered pitching to Ted Williams:

The first time I became aware that there was a trivia question was in Springfield [Illinois] when they announced during the seventh inning that Ted Williams had hit home runs off a father-son combination, and that one of the people was in the stands tonight. I thought to myself, “Gee, I wonder who that could be” – and then they announced that it was me!

Dad pitched against a lot of great ballplayers. And so did I, which is one of the things I hold very high. All the people who are in the Hall of Fame on Daddy’s side and my side of the game – not too many families get to pitch against so many great ballplayers. I would like to own that lineup if I could put it on the field today.

Daddy told me that Ted Williams was the best left-handed hitter that he’d ever faced. I talked to Ted on numerous occasions my first year in the big leagues. I remember one time when I was in Detroit. We got rained out and I was in the parking lot and we were both waiting for cabs and I talked to him for a good half-hour. He was very nice and he was also very complimentary of Daddy. I’ve read a couple of articles where he said that Daddy was the best left-handed pitcher he ever faced. Of course, he said that a lot [meaning, about a lot of pitchers].

There was just something about him that when he got into the batter’s box he never took his eyes off you. I pitched against him in Washington when I was a Senator that year. The first time I faced him, he hit four balls so hard right at our second baseman that the last time up that kid was in the outfield grass. Of course, Ted had a bit of a temper and he would throw a few choice words out and throw the bat and all this kind of stuff. I never said anything to him. My dad told me, “When you pitch to Ted Williams, you never throw him the same pitch twice.” I said, “Well, I’ll remember that.”  

One time I threw him three changeups in a row, which Daddy said never do, and he broke his bat on home plate because he stood and took it. He looked at me and I thought to myself, “Don’t you ever throw him another one!”

You tried doing these different little things – in fact, if memory serves me, that was the only hit he ever got off me. He hit this home run, though, and boy, it was a blast. It was in Fenway Park over the bullpen and it was a slider. Two balls and no strikes. I didn’t get it in far enough.

He rounded first base and he said to me as he rounded the bag – I was looking right at him – he says, “Take that, you son-of-a-bitch! One off your old man and one off you, and I’m gonna quit.” That’s what he said. He ran around the bases and I never forgot that.3

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Victoria Monte and copy-edited by Len Levin.

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/BOS196009021.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/B09021BOS1960.htm

Notes

1 Bud Collins, “Nats Sweep Sox, 5-1, 3-2,” Boston Herald, September 3, 1960: 13, 14.

2 Roger Birtwell, “Sox Drop 2 to Senators,” Boston Globe, September 3, 1960: 13.

3 Jim Prime and Bill Nowlin, Ted Williams: The Pursuit of Perfection (New York: Sports Publishing, 2002), 204.