September 26, 1954: Willie Mays says ‘hey’ to the National League batting title

Teammates Willie Mays and Don Mueller battled it out for the 1954 batting title. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

Willie Mays, the “Say Hey Kid,” made a big splash in his 1951 debut season with the New York Giants and was named the National League Rookie of the Year. After Mays played in 34 games in 1952, Uncle Sam drafted him into the Army to serve during the Korean War, which caused him to miss the remainder of 1952 and all of 1953. Mays returned with a vengeance in 1954 and became “the year’s most publicized player” as he slashed and dashed his way to the NL batting championship and the first of two career MVP awards.1 Mays also did his best impression of Ted Williams by going 3-for-4 at the plate on the final day of the regular season to claim the batting crown.

Although Williams had aimed to keep his batting average above .400 to claim his first AL batting title, rather than stave off two challengers as Mays was doing, there were interesting similarities between the two players and their feats. Williams, too, played the last two games of 1941 in Philadelphia, where the Red Sox were at Shibe Park to take on the Athletics in a doubleheader on September 28. Williams followed a 4-for-5 performance in the first game with a 2-for-3 batting line in the second and finished the season at .406. Mays had only a single game to play for the Giants against the Phillies at the renamed Connie Mack Stadium. In half the number of games, Mays finished with half the number of hits (he also walked once) in half the number of at-bats as Williams had in 1941, and his .345 average beat out teammate Don Mueller’s .342 and the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Duke Snider’s .341 marks.2

The Giants already had the NL pennant wrapped up and the Phillies were jockeying for fourth place at best; thus, only 7,992 fans attended.3 In addition to Mays and Mueller competing for an individual honor, Phillies ace Robin Roberts took the mound to try to earn a major-league-best 24th win; as it turned out, he settled for the leading the NL with 23 victories, which tied him with Cleveland Indians hurlers Bob Lemon and Early Wynn for the major-league lead.

Johnny Antonelli, whom the Giants had acquired from the Milwaukee Braves before the season and who had won 21 games, was on the hill for New York, though only for the first two innings. He and Roberts put zeros on the scoreboard during those frames, although there was excitement in the top of the first inning. Mueller hit a two-out single and Dusty Rhodes followed with a base hit to left field. Mueller became reckless and tried to take an extra base but was gunned down by left fielder Mel Clark at third to end the Giants’ early scoring attempt.

Mays led off the top of the second inning with his first hit of the game, a single to left field. He advanced to second when Phillies first baseman Johnny Wyrostek booted Hank Thompson’s grounder and then went to third on Davey Williams’s groundout to second baseman Granny Hamner. However, that was as far as Mays got as Roberts struck out Wes Westrum and retired Antonelli on a fly ball to right field.

Jim Hearn took over the mound duties from Antonelli, who had completed his “final world series tune-up,”4 in the bottom of the third and continued to match goose eggs with Roberts until the bottom of the fifth. During that interval, Mays registered his only out in the game by grounding to Hamner in the top of the fourth.

In the bottom of the fifth, Roberts was determined to help his own cause and banged out a leadoff double. Richie Ashburn followed with a single to right field, but Roberts held up at third base. With runners on the corners, Clark hit into a double play and Roberts scored for a 1-0 Phillies lead. Hearn then walked Smoky Burgess but retired Hamner to end the inning.

Hearn ran into further trouble the next inning, and Roberts again was involved in the scoring as he tried to hit and to pitch his team to victory. Bobby Morgan knocked a one-out single to left field, and Willie Jones followed with a double that put two Phillies in scoring position. Giants manager Leo Durocher had Hearn issue an intentional walk to Wyrostek that loaded the bases for Roberts. The Phillies pitcher laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt that drove in Morgan and advanced Jones and Wyrostek. Durocher ordered another intentional walk, this time to the dangerous Ashburn; once again, the bases were filled with Phillies. Hearn escaped further damage by retiring Clark on a fly to Mueller in right field for the third out.

Philadelphia’s 2-0 lead turned out to be short-lived as Mays stepped to the fore in the top of the seventh and banged out a leadoff triple. The three-bagger was the Giants’ first hit since Mays’ second-inning single, and the New Yorkers had managed only one additional baserunner in the interim – Thompson, who had walked in the fourth

This time, Thompson grounded out to Wyrostek at first, and Mays ran home for New York’s first tally. After Williams and Westrum hit back-to-back singles, with Williams advancing to third on Westrum’s hit, Joe Garagiola pinch-hit for Hearn and lofted a sacrifice fly to right field that drove in Williams to tie the game, 2-2. Whitey Lockman then worked a walk from Roberts, but the Phillies’ stalwart ace retired Billy Gardner to preserve the tie for the moment.

Marv Grissom became the Giants’ third pitcher of the day in the bottom of the seventh, and he threw two uneventful innings. Roberts allowed doubles to Mays in the top of the eighth – his third hit of the game – and to Garagiola in the ninth but kept the Giants from scoring any additional runs.

After lifting Grissom for a pinch-hitter in the top of the ninth, Durocher sent Al Worthington to the hill to continue the duel with Roberts in the bottom of the inning. Worthington flirted with trouble, but a little strategy and a bit of luck sent the ballgame into extra innings. Worthington walked Ashburn to lead off the ninth, and Ashburn advanced to second on Clark’s sacrifice. Durocher ordered an intentional walk to Burgess, and Hamner flied out to center with neither runner being able to advance. Worthington then walked Del Ennis, and Durocher pulled the hurler in favor of George Spencer, who retired Morgan for the third out.

Mueller led off the 10th with a double off Roberts, and Mays drew an intentional walk that put runners on first and second with one out. Roberts bore down and got the two outs he needed to keep the game going. After Spencer worked around two bases on balls (one intentional) in the bottom of the frame, it was time for the Giants to end the game and the regular season.

Garagiola hit a one-out double in the top of the 11th – his second of the game – and the next batter, Lockman, drew the seventh intentional walk of the game (four by the Giants’ hurlers and three by Roberts). This time, the free pass backfired as Gardner lashed a single to left that brought Garagiola home for a 3-2 New York advantage. Roberts retired Mueller and Rhodes, but the handwriting for a Philadelphia defeat was now on the wall. Spencer surrendered a leadoff walk to Burgess in the bottom of the frame, but Hamner hit into a double play, and Ennis popped out to end the game.

The Giants finished with a 97-57 record, and “wondrous Willie,” as the Philadelphia Inquirer dubbed him, won the NL batting championship.5 In an interesting quirk that coincided with Mays’ accomplishment, Ted Williams had finished the season with an identical .345 batting average that was the highest in the AL, but he had too few at-bats to qualify for the official title.6 Before Mays learned that he had also garnered his first MVP award, he etched his name into baseball lore with a play in World Series Game One that will forever be known simply as “The Catch.” Mays’ unbelievable running catch of Cleveland Indians batter Vic Wertz’s deep drive, and his throw that held Larry Doby at third base, propelled the Giants to an upset in the game and the Series against a powerful Cleveland squad that had won 111 games in the AL that season.

SOURCES

The author consulted baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org for the box score and play-by-play of the game as well as for team standings, player statistics, and awards.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI195409260.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1954/B09260PHI1954.htm

NOTES

1  United Press, “‘Hey’ Kid Bat King/Williams’ .345 Tops for Americans But –,” Pasadena Independent, September 27, 1954: 17.

2  Mueller went 2-for-6 for the Giants against the Phillies while Snider was 0-for-3 for the Dodgers against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field on the final day of the season.

3  Although the Phillies lost to the Giants, they finished in fourth place, one game ahead of the Cincinnati Reds, after the Reds lost their finale to the Chicago Cubs.

4  “Mays Wins Batting Title as Giants Defeat Phils; Dodgers Topple Pirates/Roberts is Loser in 11 Innings, 3-2,” New York Times, September 27, 1954: 25.

5  Ryan Baumgartner, “Mays Wins Bat Title as Phils Lose to Giants, 3-2, Take Fourth,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 1954: 21.

6  A minimum of 400 at-bats was required to qualify for the batting title, and Williams finished with 386. Cleveland’s Bobby Avila, who batted .341 over 555 at-bats, was the official AL batting champion in 1954.