Willie Mays and Ted Williams Face Off

There were the All-Star Games, of course, and the two faced each other once in each of the years from 1954 through 1960. Ted Williams was at the end of his career and Willie Mays starting his. The first game in which Mays played was 1954. Williams, back from missing most of two years in Korea, resumed his own All-Star Game career that same year. Over the nine games, Williams was 3-for-19 with four runs scored and two RBIs (both in 1956), while Mays was 9-for-23, with nine runs scored and four RBIs.

All told, in 19 All-Star Games, Williams hit .304, with 10 runs scored, four homers, and 12 RBIs (four in 1941 and five in 1946). Mays played in 24 All-Star Games, with a .307 batting average, 20 runs scored, with three homers and nine RBIs.

Williams holds the record for most RBIs in All-Star Game history, with 12. (He also holds the records for bases on balls, with 11.) Mays holds the record for the most base hits in All-Star Game history, with 23. He also holds record for the most extra-base hits (8), most triples (3), most total bases (40), most stolen bases (6), and most runs scored (20).1

There were two games in which they each played with their own teams – the Red Sox for Williams and the Giants for Mays – in head-to-head competition. They were exhibition games in June 1951. The first was on June 11 at the Polo Grounds in New York, a benefit game for the National Amputation Foundation. Roger Bowman pitched for the Giants, giving up a run in the second on hits by Williams and Bobby Doerr. Mays homered off Red Sox starter Paul Hinrichs in the bottom of the second, helping the Giants build a 3-1 lead. Boston took a 4-3 lead in the eighth, Buddy Rosar’s two-run pinch-hit single giving them the lead. They added a fifth run in the ninth when Johnny Pesky singled, Clyde Vollmer walked, and Williams singled off the right-field wall. The final was 5-3, Red Sox.

The second matchup was two weeks later on June 25 at Boston’s Fenway Park, and the Giants turned the tide, beating the home team Red Sox, 5-4, in a benefit for the New England Hospitalized Veterans Fund. Monte Irvin homered after Mays had singled, for two runs in the second. Bobb Thompson twice singled in a run. Williams had won a home-run-hitting contest before the game, beating out teammates Doerr, Vollmer, and Vern Stephens, and Giants Irvin, Mays, and Henry Thompson. (Doerr had won the contest in the Polo Grounds.) Williams batted just once in the game, 1-for-1 with a single. Mays was 2-for-2 with the single and a later double.

BILL NOWLIN pretty much only saw American League games while growing up in the Boston area, so never saw Willie Mays play. He does wish the Red Sox had signed Mays when they had the opportunity, but there are a lot of things to regret from that era. He has worked as a political science professor, cofounded the Rounder Records label, and has written or edited a lot of books and articles about baseball.

 

SOURCES

Boston Herald, New York Times, Springfield Union, and baseball-almanac.com.

 

NOTES

1  Mays is tied with Stan Musial for the most extra-base hits and most total bases, and tied with Brooks Robinson for most triples.