Runs and Bases: the 1940's Part 2

[SWC75]

INTEGRATION

Jackie Robinson broke the color line after 60 years of baseball apartheid in 1947. But the integration of major league baseball was a process that just began with that. The last team to integrate was the Red Sox in 1959, a dozen years later. Even at that point there were still quotas: the second guy to be a roommate, the third guy to prove we aren’t prejudiced. What ultimately ended segregation was the need to win. Just as in the previous generation teams found they couldn’t win consistently without a home run hitter and then a farm system, now teams found they couldn’t win unless they were using the entire talent pool, not just part of it.

What helped this conclusion along is that the big league teams were skimming the top talent off the black talent pool. You wanted someone who would be an immediate and obvious asset to the team to win over teammates and the fans. (That doesn’t mean that they made the right choice in every case - see below). Bigots had to change their tune. Not only could black players play this game but they appeared to be excellent at it. If the Negro leagues had integrated and picked DiMaggio, Feller, Williams and Musial to be in their league, black fans would have said, “Gee, these white guys can sure play baseball!” So the new line for the bigot was to marvel at the “natural ability” of blacks and how the game was so easy for them, (this replacing allegations that they couldn’t play at all). Meanwhile white players had to make up for their talent gap by playing harder and smarter- and playing with injuries. Tony Oliva used to carry around a bottle with a bone spur that had been removed from his foot to show anyone who alleged that he didn’t play hurt.

Jackie Robinson was the focus of the racism of those who didn’t want to see the game integrated at all. Some of the bad guys:

- Clay Hopper, the manager at Montreal, asked "Mr. Rickey, do you really think a n-----'s a human being?” (He later decided he was and became a big supporter.)

- Dixie Walker, who circulated a petition among Brooklyn players saying ty would refuse to play with Robinson and wrote to Branch Rickey, asking to be traded. (He, too, supposedly changed his mind and claimed he was only concerned about the business in his hardware store back in Alabama.)

- Ben Chapman, manager of the Phillies, ordered his players to verbally abuse Robinson “to see if he could take it”: “during an early-season series in Brooklyn, the level of verbal abuse directed by Chapman and his players at Robinson reached such proportions that it made headlines in the New York and national press. Chapman instructed his pitchers, whenever they had a 3-0 count against Robinson, to bean him rather than walk him. Chapman's attempts to intimidate Robinson eventually backfired, with the Dodgers rallying behind him, and there was increased sympathy for him in many circles. The backlash against Chapman was so severe that he was asked to pose in a photograph with Robinson as a conciliatory gesture when the two teams next met in Philadelphia in May. This incident prompted Robinson's teammate Dixie Walker to comment, "I never thought I'd see old Ben eat like that." (Wikipedia) http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/42/cbjck.jpg

- Eddie Stanky, who lost his second base positon to Robinson, still confronted Chapman when Ben ordered the Phillies to try to intimidate Robinson. But when he became manager of the Cardinals, he ordered them to do the same thing. Some say it was even worse. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/jackie-robinson-life-pictures-gallery-1.1309045?pmSlide=1.1309030

- Jeff Heath of the Browns found himself a teammate of Negro League slugger Willaird Brown, who was looking for a big bat. He grabbed one Heath had discarded because the knob was cracked and used it to hit the first American League home run by a black player. Heath grabbed the bat and shattered it against the dugout wall.

- This was a decade earlier but it’s hard to ignore. “In 1938, Bob Elson interviewed Powell for a pregame show on WGN radio in Chicago. Elson asked Powell what he did as a policeman in Dayton, OH during the off-season. Powell said, "I crack n----rs on the head." For this, he received a 10-game suspension.” (BaseballReference.com)

Curt Flood described an incident that took place in 1956 in the Carolina League, a decade after Jackie Robinson reported to Hopper at Montreal. “Flood was assigned to Cincinnati’s team in High Point-Thomasville of the Class B Carolina League for 1956. He played well despite the subjugation of his humanity to the social mores of the times. He could not stay in the same accommodations as his white teammates; he could not eat in restaurants with his teammates and was forced instead to go to the back door for “service” or to wait on the team bus until a teammate brought him food. He could not use the restroom in the gas stations where the team bus stopped; instead the bus would stop on some deserted stretch of highway where Curt could disembark and “wet the rear wheel.” Fans around the league expressed their displeasure at the appearance of a black man on the diamond as well:

“One of my first and most enduring memories is of a large, loud cracker who installed himself and his four little boys in a front-row box and started yelling ‘black bastard’ at me. I noticed that he eyed the boys narrowly, as if to make sure that they were learning the correct intonation.”

His teammates and manager weren’t any more supportive. “Most of the players on my team were offended by my presence and would not even talk to me when we were off the field. The few who were more enlightened were afraid to antagonize the others. The manager, whose name mercifully escapes me, made clear his life was already sufficiently difficult without contributions from me. I was completely on my own.”

Flood’s acclimatization to his situation was difficult at first. It was not uncommon for him to return to his room late at night after a game and cry at the treatment he received. Thoughts of quitting entered his mind but, as he said later, “…What had started as a chance to test my baseball ability in a professional setting had become an obligation to measure myself as a man. These brutes were trying to destroy me. If they could make me collapse and quit, it would verify their preconceptions. And it would wreck my life. … Pride was my resource. I solved my problem by playing my guts out. … I completely wiped out that peckerwood league.”

In Ken Burns’ “Baseball” he further described an incident when he observed the clubhouse mam between games of a double-header removing his soiled uniform with a stick from the rest of the team’s uniforms and putting nit in a pile of its own for shipment to a laundry for ‘colored people’. He then put on a clean uniform and went out for the second game to a chorus of boos and invective. He broke down and cried but vowed not to let them defeat him. He wound up hitting .340 with 29 home runs and 18 steals. He had 128 RBIs and 133 runs scored. But they didn’t want him on their team.

Here is a list of the first players to integrate each team with comments on them and their careers:

DODGERS- 4/15/47, Jackie Robinson. If you don’t know about him, see the movie.

INDIANS 7/5/47, Larry Doby. A great player. He was a middle infielder in the Negro leagues but switched to center field when he joined the Indians because they already had Joe Gordon and Lou Boudreau, the best double play combination in the league. He was the best center fielder in the AL until Mickey Mantle came along. He has some of Mantle’s traits, just not quite as much. Bill James says he should have won MVP in 1952, when he led the league in homers, slugging percentage and runs scored. Bill Jenkinson credits Larry with two 500 foot homers, both at Griffith Stadium in Washington, which was in a black neighborhood with plenty of fans to cheer him on. The longest, 510 feet, was the longest home run in that ballpark until Mantle’s 565 foot shot two years later in 1953. “The man was genuinely powerful but he was also intense, honorable and principled.” But for years he was a forgotten pioneer. He was finally elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998, 36 years after Jackie Robinson, even though Doby integrated the American league three months after Robinson did. But he also outlived Jackie by 31 years. Not being the first may have bene a factor.

BROWNS 7/17/47 Hank Thompson. Hank came from the Kansas City Monarchs and was only with the Browns for a month before returning to them. Willard Brown joined the Browns two days alter but also didn’t last. Thompson returned to the majors with the Giants, whom he also integrated with Monte Irvin, (see below). Thompson had good power, hitting over 20 home runs three times. He also managed to hit .302 in 1953 but was a .267 hitter lifetime. He had a troubled life off the field, killing a man in 1948 but getting off for justifiable homicide but then being convicted twice for armed robbery after his career was over and dying of a heart attack at age 43.

GIANTS 7/8/49 Thompson and Monte Irvin. Irvin had been the favorite to integrate the big leagues but told branch Rickey that he didn’t feel he was in good enough shape after his military service to take on the job at that time. Etta Manley, the owner of his team, the Newark Eagles, also demanded to be compensated for losing his services so Rickey withdrew his offer. Irvin was a much bigger Negro league star than the other integrators, hitting .354 with power in a career that began when he was a teenager in 1938. Irvin signed with the Giants in 1949 and hit .373 with Jersey City of the International league. He went on to hit .293 in eight years with the Giants. His best year was 1951 when he hit .312 with 19 doubles, 11 triples and 24 home runs and led the league with 121 RBIs. That year he, Thompson and a rookie named Willie Mays became the first all-black outfield in the majors. Monte broke his leg after 46 games the next season but came back to hit .329 with 21 homers and 97 RBIs the next year. Monte was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1973 by the committee on Negro League players. He’s still going strong at age 95.

BRAVES 4/18/50 Sam Jethroe. Very fast, His nickname was “The Jet”. He won a couple of Negro League batting titles for the Cleveland Buckeyes, a couple of pennants and the 1945 Negro World Series. He stole 89 bases for the Montreal Royals in 1948, batting .326 and scoring 154 runs. But Branch Rickey sold his contract to the Braves for $150,000. He got two hits, including a home run in his first big league game. He led the NL in steals his first two years in the league and scored over 100 runs each time. He won rookie of the year as a 32 year old, (claiming to be 28). He developed vision problems in 1952, hitting only .232 and leading the league in errors. He spent the next six years playing productively with Toledo and Toronto in the high minors. Don Newcombe called him “The fastest human being I’ve ever seen”.

WHITE SOX 5/1/51 Minnie Minoso. His career began in 1946 with the New York Cubans of the Negro National League. It ended, at least on a consecutive basis, with the Union Laguna Algodoneros in the Mexican League in 1973. Bill Veeck brought him back to play in one game in 1976 and 1980 for the White Sox to extended his record for most decades played in the major leagues to four and then to five. He then played single games with St. Paul of the Northern League in 1985 and 1993 to further extend this record for professional baseball. He broke into the major leagues with the Indians in 1949, then was sent to San Diego of the PCL, for whom he hit .339 with 40 doubles, 20 triples and 20 homers in 1950. He stole 30 bases, drove in 115 runs and scored 130. Still another fast player, he was called “The Cuban Comet”. Minoso was batting .429 for the Indians, (in eight games), when the Indians traded his contract to the White Sox in 1951. He hit .324 for them, finishing the year at .326 with 14 triples, 31 steals and 112 runs scored. But he could hit for power, too, hitting over 20 home runs four times. He also batted over .300 nine times, batting .298 lifetime. He was a sort of “Willie Mays Junior” in his skills and his positive, happy image, even though Willie came along a bit after he did. Minnie was a double pioneer, being both black and Latin, (Minnie was from Cuba), and thus heralded two great streams of talent that would be coming into the major leagues in future years.

ATHLETICS 9/13/53 Going into the 1953 season only six big league teams had integrated- six years after Jackie Robinson. The Athletics were the next to do it with Bob Trice, a pitcher who’d pitched briefly for the Homestead Grays in 1948 without getting a decision, then made his way up through the minor leagues, winning 21 games for the A’s top farm club the year he was called up. Bob went 9-9 for the A’s over the next three years before returning to the minors. He wound up playing in Mexico. But, hey, the A’s got their feet wet!

CUBS 9/17/53 Ernie Banks integrated the Cubs and went on to become the face of the franchise. He’d spent two years in the Army after high school and then played for both the Kansas City Monarchs and the Harlem Globetrotters, hitting .347 for the Monarchs. He loved playing for them so much that he was reluctant to report to Chicago when the Cubs purchased his contract from them, (nice of them, rather than just taking him). The Cubs kept him in Chicago to keep Gene Baker company. Baker was actually the first black player signed by the Cubs but his debut was delayed by an injury. The new “companion” for Baker turned out to be the real gem. Banks hit 19 home runs his first full season but teammates Ralph Kiner and Hank Sauer convinced him to concentrate on power hitting and Ernie hit 44 home runs in 1955 and averaged 39 a year from 1955-62, winding up with 512 and winning MVP twice. Gene Baker played for the Cubs and Pirates from 1953-61 and hit .265 with 39 home runs- totally.

PIRATES 4/13/54 Integration really got some momentum in 1954 with four more teams. The Pirates and Cardinals played their first black players on opening day. Curt Roberts was 5-8 second baseman who hit .232 with one home run and 6 steals in 132 games. He did help the Pirates the next season by aiding the assimilation of Roberto Clemente because both were black and Roberts spoke Spanish. But Roberts was soon back in the minors, being replaced by Bill Mazeroski. Wikipedia: “It was thought that the racial pressure on Roberts was affecting his ability, so to help him, Dodgers second baseman Jackie Robinson wrote a letter to Roberts discussing how to handle his emotions and offering words of encouragement...Pittsburgh's main black newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier, protested that Roberts never had a real chance in the Majors. However Pirates general manager Joe L. Brown replied that Roberts was a "fine young man, but a marginal Major Leaguer" Roberts went on to a productive career in the high minors, including a four home run game against the Havana Sugar Kings for Columbus of the IL in 1956. He was killed in 1969 when hit by a car while changing a tire.

CARDINALS 4/13/54 Tom Alston was a tall, (6-5) first baseman. He’d hit .297 with 23 home runs for the San Diego Padres of the PCL in 1953 but he was major disappointment in St. Louis, where he hit only .246 with 4 home runs in 66 games. Most of the rest of his career was back in the minors where he hit .306 with 21 homers for Omaha in 1956. Wik8pedia: “Alston's career was handicapped by neurasthenia and other mental disorders which forced his hospitalization after his playing career was over.” Neuroathemia “denotes a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headaches, neuralgia and a depressed mood.”

REDS 4/17/54 The Reds integrated with both barrels with Nino Escalera and Chuck Harmon. Nino was from Puerto Rico, the birthplace of many future big-leaguers. Interestingly, he was in the Yankee’s farm system when the Reds obtained him: he might have integrated the Bronx Bombers. In 1953 Escalera hit .305 with 19 triples, 17 steals and scored 95 runs for Tulsa in the Texas League so the Reds gave him a shot. Unfortunately, Nino didn’t hit his weight (165 pounds), batting .159 and the Reds gave up on him after 73 games. He returned to the minors, being a regular in the International League fpr three different teams until 1962. The minors in those days weren’t just for prospects.

Chuck Harmon was one of three players who tried out for the Boston Celtics in 1950. He was cut. Chuck Cooper made the team and integrated the NBA, along with Nat Clifton and Earl Lloyd. He pinch-hit in the same game where Escalera formally integrated the Reds. Chuck proved to be a bit better, hitting .238 and then .253 the next season in a part item role. He, too returned to the high minors and played until 1961 for various teams in the IL, AA and PCL.

But Frank Robinson was on the way. He still stood out as a black player on the Reds when a group of them appeared on What’s My Line in 1956:

SENATORS 9/6/54 Carlos Paula integrated the team in our nation’s capital, 8 years before Bobby Mitchell integrated George Preston Marshall’s football team that played on the same field. Carlos was another Cuban . Carlos only hit .167 in 9 games that first year but came back to hit .299 in 115 games the next. Despite good size, (6-3 195), Carolos only hit 6 home runs and didn’t have a lot of speed. He also committed 10 errors in right field. He, too, spent most of the rest of his career in the high minors, including the Havana Sugar Canes . Someone started a rumor that he died in front of one of Castro’s firing squads but in fact he passed away in Miami in 1983.

YANKEES 4/14/55 The sport’s flagship franchise finally integrated in 1955, nine years after Jackie Robinson. They did it with a very good player, Elston Howard. Ellie, in stages, took over the catching form Yogi Berra and became the first black player to win AL MVP in 1963. He had no speed but managed to bat as high as .348 in 1961. Many people say that the fading of the Yankees from their dynasty status was the result of their unwillingness to use black players but, in fact they won 9 pennants in 10 years after Howard integrated them.

PHILLIES 4/22/57 The last National League team to integrate was in “The City of Brotherly Love”, where Ben Chapman had orchestrated some of the worst trash talking against Jackie Robinson. . John Kennedy, (no, not the future president, but I bet you figured that out) was with the Kansas City Monarchs, leading the Negro American League in hitting when the Phillies obtained his contract. He was used as a pinch-runner twice and then finally got to bat in a game. He was 0 for 2. And that was it. Kennedy was sent to the Carolina league and never made it out of the minors again. Some feel that the Phillies were actually integrated six days before when light-skinned Cuban Chico Fernandez was obtained from the Dodgers and played in a game 6 days before Kennedy. Fernandez had a much more substantial big league career, playing until 1963. The Phillies didn’t integrate their spring training facility until 1962.

TIGERS 6/6/58 The Tigers, Ty Cobb’s old club, finally integrated with Ossie Virgil in 1958. Virgil had broken in with the Giants in 1956. He was Dominican, again the harbingers of a wave of players from that nation, although he came of DeWitt Clinton high school in the Bronx. He hit .244 for the Tigers that year and .227 the next in a part-time role. He played for 6 major league teams and 9 minor league teams in a 16 year pro career. Afterwards, he was Dick Williams’ long-time third base coach. His son and namesake had a somewhat more successful 11 year major league career.

RED SOX 7/21/59 If you wonder why the Red Sox were so bad for so long, considered that they were the last major league team to integrate, more than 12 years after the Dodgers and when they did, they did it with Pumpsie Green, rather than Jackie Robinson. Ironically, Robinson, San Jethroe and anther Negro league player named Marvin Williams had tried out for the Red Sox back in 1945. Boston City Counselor Isadore Muchnick had pressured the Red Sox into holding the “try-out but Robinson later said that the players knew the Red Sox weren’t really interested in them. Tom Yawkey, asked to explain by they took so long to integrate, said that blacks didn’t want to play for the Red Sox. Yawkey may have been a reason why. He said “he didn’t have any feelings against African-American players himself and, in fact, he employed many of them on his estate in South Carolina” (From WUBR’s website, an 4/12/13 article by Shasha Pfeiffer). Another reason was Eddie Collins, the Red Sox GM, who, according to Howard Bryant, was prejudiced not only against blacks but also Jews and Catholics. Here is Bryant, talking about the Red Sox:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnXzVUI0fH4
Imagine what the Red Sox championship teams of recent years would have been like with Yawkey and Collins running the team.

Ah, yes, Pumpsie Green. His real name was Elijah but he was called Pumpsie from childhood. He came from an athletic family. His brother was Cornell Green, All-Pro quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys . He grew up in Richmond, California and was a fan of the Oakland Oaks, who had their own farm system. He signed with them and worked his way up in their system. The Red Sox actually purchased his contract back in 1955 but he remained in the minor leagues until 1959. He was hitting .320 for the Minneapolis Millers when they finally called him up. He started as a pinch-runner but wound up hitting .233 in 50 games and went onto a five season major league career, hitting .246 with below-average power and speed as a utility infielder before finishing up with the Mets in 1963. Aside from integrating the Red Sox, he’s most famous for this incident: “In 1962, after a weekend of humiliating losses to the New York Yankees, Green along with Gene Conley got off the bus in the middle of a traffic jam in the Bronx. They were not spotted until 3 days later by a New York Post sports reporter at the Idlewild International Airport trying to board a plane for Israel, with no passports or luggage.” (Wikipedia). The combination of that, his name, his mediocrity as a player and the fact that he was the last of the players who integrated a pre-expansion major league team has made him a figure of derision. But he was as good or better a player than Bob trice, Curt Roberts, Tom Alston, Nino Escalera, Chuck Harmon Carlos Paula, John Kennedy or Ozzie Virgil. It wasn’t his fault that the Red Sox waited so long or chose him rather than Jackie Robinson.

Integration wasn’t really complete until the 1960’s. By that time teams realized that you couldn’t win without using the entire talent pool and you had to go after the best players you could get, regardless of their ethnic background. Integration had three major impacts on the sport. It increased the talent level and brought some of the greatest players ever to play the game into the major leagues. Since the National League was ahead of the American league in integration, this swung the balance of power to them. It also motivated the National Leaguers to dominate the All-Star game for years, winning 19 of 20 from 1963-1982.

It also brought aggressive base-running back into baseball. With the coming of the Live Ball Era, the Major Leagues had tended toward “outside baseball”: have a couple of guys get on base, take no chances and hope somebody hits a three run homer. The Negro Leagues never stopped running. They also hit home runs, but they didn’t wait for them. Guys like Jackie Robinson, Sam Jethroe, Minnie Minoso and Willie Mays changed all that. Mays wasn’t the first 30-30 man in baseball, (Ken Williams of the Browns in 1922 was), but he made those numbers famous and established that as a statistical test of superstardom. It made for a more exciting and fun game to watch.

But the biggest impact was that baseball, the most democratic of sports, with everybody getting their turn at bat, was now fit to be the national sport of the most democratic of nations. In fact baseball, (sluggishly), led the nation forward into the civil rights era so that nation could live up to its stated values. That doesn’t excuse 60 years of apartheid but it helped create the eras that followed.

 

[SWC75]

RUNS AND BASES

1945 National League

Runs Produced
Dixie Walker BRO 218
Tommy Holmes BOS 214
Augie Galan, BRO 197
Buster Adams STL 191
Goody Rosen BRO 189
Phil Cavaretta CHI 185
Eddie Stanky BRO 166
Whitey Kurowski STL 165
Luis Olmo BRO 162
Andy Pafko CHI 162

Bases Produced
Tommy Holmes BOS 452
Augie Galan BRO 381
Stan Hack CHI 353
Dixie Walker BRO 347
Buster Adams STL 344
Eddie Stanky BRO 339
Phil Cavaretta CHI 335
Goody Rosen BRO 335
Johnny Barrett PIT 316
Luis Olmo BRO 308

1945 American League

Runs Produced
Nick Etten NY 170
George Stirnweiss NY 161
Roy Cullenbine DET 158
Vern Stephens STL 154
Joe Kuhel WAS 146
Rudy York DET 140
George Binks WAS 137
Bob Johnson BOS 133
Johnny Dickshot CHI 128
(yes there was a player named Johnny Dickshot:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Johnny_Dickshot )
Mickey Rocco CLE 127

Bases Produced
George Stirnweiss NY 412
Roy Cullenbine DET 353
Nick Etten NY 339
Vern Stephens STL 327
Wally Moses CHI 319
Rudy York DET 312
Eddie Lake BOS 309
Joe Kuhel WAS 302
Bob Johnson BOS 293
Oscar Grimes NY 276

1946 National league

Runs Produced
Enos Slaughter STL 212
Stan Musial STL 211
Dixie Walker BRO 187
Whitey Kurowski STL 179
Phil Cavaretta CHI 159
Tommy Holmes BOS 153
Pete Reiser BRO 137
Eddie Stanky BRO 134
Pee Wee Reese BRO 134
Elbie Fletcher PIT 134

Bases Produced
Stan Musial STL 446
Pete Reiser BRO 407
Enos Slaughter STL 361
Dixie Walker BRO 339
Eddie Stanky BRO 315
Whitey Kurowski STL 314
Phil Cavaretta CHI 312
Del Ennis PHI 306
Tommy Holmes BOS 306
Elbie Fletcher PIT 304

1946 American League

Runs Produced
Ted Williams BOS 227
Bobby Doerr BOS 193
Rudy York BOS 180
Hank Greenberg DET 174
Charlie Keller NY 169
Johnny Pesky BOS 168
Mickey Vernon WAS 165
Tommy Henrich NY 156
Stan Spence WAS 154
Joe DiMaggio NY 151

Bases Produced
Ted Williams BOS 499
Hank Greenberg DET 401
Charlie Keller NY 401
Mickey Vernon WAS 361
Stan Spence WAS 350
Rudy York BOS 342
Johnny Pesky BOS 339
Bobby Doerr BOS 335
Joe DiMaggio NY 317
Eddie Lake DET 317

1947 National League

Runs Produced
Johnny Mize NY 224
Ralph Kiner PIT 194
Stan Musial STL 189
Whitey Kurowski STL 185
Bob Elliott BOS 184
Enos Slaughter STL 176
Willard Marshall NY 173
Walker Cooper NY 166
Bobby Thomson NY 164
Dixie Walker BRO 162

Bases Produced
Ralph Kiner PIT 460
Johnny Mize NY 436
Willard Marshall NY 380
Stan Musial STL 380
Bob Elliott BOS 377
Whitey Kurowski STL 370
Jackie Robinson BRO 355
Dixie Walker BRO 329
Walker Cooper NY 328
Harry Walker PHI 326

1947 American League

Runs Produced
Ted Williams BOS 207
Tommy Henrich NY 191
Joe DiMaggio NY 174
George Kell DET 163
Bobby Doerr BOS 157
Mickey Vernon WAS 155
Sam Chapman PHI 153
Joe Gordon CLE 153
Billy Johnson NY 152
George McQuinn NY 151

Bases Produced
Ted Williams BOS 497
Joe Gordon NY 348
Joe DiMaggio NY 346
Tommy Henrich NY 341
Roy Cullenbine DET 336
Johnny Pesky BOS 334
Jeff Heath STL 328
Eddie Lake DET 325
George Kell DET 312
Stan Spence WAS 306

1948 National League

Runs Produced
Stan Musial STL 227
Johnny Mize NYG 195
Ralph Kiner PIT 187
Jackie Robinson BRO 181
Sid Gordon NY 177
Bob Elliott BOS 176
Enos Slaughter STL 170
Pee Wee Reese BRO 162
Whitey Lockman NY 158
Andy Pafko CHI 157

Bases Produced
Stan Musial STL 515
Johnny Mize NYG 414
Ralph Kiner PIT 409
Bob Elliott BOS 393
Sid Gordon NY 362
Del Ennis PHI 358
Enos Slaughter STL 343
Whitey Lockman NY 341
Jackie Robinson BRO 339
Andy Pafko CHI 336

1948 American League

Runs Produced
Joe DiMaggio NY 226
Ted Williams BOS 226
Vern Stephens BOS 222
Tommy Henrich NY 213
Dom DiMaggio BOS 205
Lou Boudreau BOS 204
Hank Majeski PHI 196
Joe Gordon CLE 188
Ken Keltner CLE 179
Bobby Doerr BOS 178

Bases Produced
Ted Williams BOS 443
Joe DiMaggio NY 423
Tommy Henrich BOS 404
Lou Boudreau CLE 400
Ken Keltner CLE 382
Vern Stephens BOS 377
Dom DiMaggio BOS 371
Joe Gordon CLE 361
Bob Dillinger STL 360
Bobby Doerr BOS 352

1949 National League

Runs Produced
Jackie Robinson BRO 230
Stan Musial STL 215
Pee Wee Reese BRO 189
Ralph Kiner PIT 189
Gil Hodges BRO 186
Carl Furillo BRO 183
Bobby Thomson NY 181
Del Ennis PHI 177
Enos Slaughter STL 175
Duke Snider BRO 169

Bases Produced
Stan Musial STL 492
Ralph Kiner PIT 484
Jackie Robinson BRO 436
Pee Wee Reese BRO 395
Bobby Thomson NY 386
Del Ennis PHI 381
Enos Slaughter STL 372
Gil Hodges BRO 346
Sid Gordon NY 343
Duke Snider BRO 340

1949 American League

Runs Produced
Ted Williams BOS 266
Vern Stephens BOS 233
Vic Wertz DET 209
Bobby Doerr BOS 182
Dom DiMaggio BOS 178
Johnny Pesky BOS 178
Sam Chapman PHI 173
Phil Rizzuto NY 170
Larry Doby CLE 167
Elmer Valo PHI 166

Bases Produced
Ted Williams BOS 531
Vern Stephens BOS 432
Eddie Joost PHI 389
Vic Wertz DET 365
Dom DiMaggio BOS 359
Larry Doby CLE 357
Elmer Valo PHI 354
Sam Chapman PHI 351
Bobby Doerr BOS 346
Cass Michaels CHI 342

CUMMULATIVE HISTORICAL RANKINGS
(10 points for finishing first in a league, 9 for second, 8 for third, etc.)

Runs Produced

Honus Wagner (1897-1917) 137
Ty Cobb (1905-1928) 126
Cap Anson (1871-1897) 119
Lou Gehrig (1923-1939) 111
Babe Ruth (1914-1935) 109

Sam Crawford (1899-1917) 96
Rogers Hornsby (1915-1937) 89
Mel Ott (1926-1947) 85
Tris Speaker (1907-1928) 81
Joe Medwick (1932-1948) 79

Ted Williams (1939-60) 78
Nap Lajoie (1896-1916) 77
King Kelly (1878-1893) 76
Hugh Duffy (1888-1906) 75
Eddie Collins (1906-1930) 74

Dan Brouthers (1879-1904) 73
Jimmie Foxx (1825-1945) 72
Joe DiMaggio (1936-51) 71
Sherry Magee (1904-1919) 68
Bobby Veach (1912-1925) 66

Charlie Gehringer (1924-42) 66
Jim O’Rourke (1872-1904) 64
Ed Delahanty (1888-1903) 60
Stan Musial (1941-63) 57
Johnny Mize (1939-53) 57

Bases Produced

Ty Cobb (1905-1928) 129
Babe Ruth(1914-1935) 125
Lou Gehrig (1923-1939) 120
Honus Wagner (1897-1917) 112
Tris Speaker(1907-1928) 110

Mel Ott (1926-1947) 107
Rogers Hornsby (1915-1937) 98
Jimmie Foxx (1925-45) 96
Cap Anson (1871-1897) 91
Billy Hamilton (1888-1901) 89

Eddie Collins (1906-1930) 89
Harry Stovey1880-1893) 88
Sam Crawford (1899-1917) 86
Dan Brouthers (1879-1904) 83
Ed Delahanty (1888-1903) 79

Ted Williams (1939-60) 78
Jim O’Rourke (1872-1904) 73
Max Carey (1910-1929) 73
Roger Conner (1880-1897) 70
Sherry Magee (1904-1919) 66

Johnny Mize (1936-53) 64
Jesse Burkett (1890-1905) 63
Joe Jackson (1908-1920) 62
Joe DiMaggio (1936-51) 61
George Burns (1911-1925) 61

Comment: At least there were some dents put in the standings in this half decade as Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize, Stan Musial and Ted Williams now show up in the all-time rankings. Ted made the most progress, zooming up to 11th in runs and 16th in bases with more than a decade to go. Stan is more than two great seasons behind Ted, (he’s just out of the top 25 in bases with 57 points), but he’ll play three years longer, with no further war service. Both will likely move into the 100 point area and contend for the top spot. Unfortunately, it’s about over for Joe, who has one more good season left and Johnny, who will be a part-time player in the 50’s. That’s when the first wave of post war heroes will enter the picture- star-quality players with uninterrupted, (with one notable exception), 20+ year careers that should really stir things up.

 

[SWC75]

THE PLAYERS

I was listening to a Mets game back in the 80’s when Tim McCarver announced that Mike Schmidt of the Phillies, who was at the plate, held the National league record for home run titles with 6. The man sitting next to Tim in the booth announced with some force “I hold the record for National League home run titles with 7!” That man was RALPH KINER. Mike later won a seventh title but Ralph’s titles came in a row. In the last 6 of them he led all of Major League baseball in home runs. If not for Jackie Robinson, his power hitting would have been the big story in baseball in the late 40’s, at least for an individual player.

Ralph was the fastest player in history to 300 home runs, (1087 games). When he retired, he’d hit a home run every 14.1 official at bats, a record topped only by Babe Ruth. When he hit 54 home runs in 1949 it was the most in the National League in the period 1931-97 and the most in the majors from 1939-60. It was thought at the time that he’d be the one to break Ruth’s record someday but that was a close as he came. Bill jenkinson rates him the #14 slugger of all time, (which seems to me to be a little low). Jenkinson’s rating may be due to Ralph’s abbreviated career or “Kiner’s Corner”- see below. In reality, the moving in of the fences just normalized the home run distance down the line from the original 360 to 330. The Pirates had been known as a good hitting team but not a home run hitting team over the year because of their ballpark and returned to that mode when Kiner’s Corner was eliminated. Previous Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss "hated cheap home runs and vowed he'd have none in his park". (Wikipedia)

Per Jenkinson, Ralph didn’t need Kiner’s Corner to hit home runs. On April 22, 1950, he hit one 520 feet “over the left field scoreboard and far into (Schenley) Park”. On May 8, 1949, he hit a 510 footer in Boston “far over left field scoreboard and railroad track”. His top ten longest shots include a 495 footer in Pittsburgh,” over the left center field walls and the trees”, a 485 footer in Chicago, “far over left center field bleachers”, a 480 footer in Pittsburgh, a 475 footer in Boston, two 475 footers in Boston and new York, 470 in Pittsburgh, 465 in Brooklyn and 465 in Pittsburgh. Several of the victims were noted pitchers: Warren Spahn, Don Newcombe, Sal Maglie, Ewell Blackwell and Jim Konstanty. Jenkinson constantly refers to him as “Mister Slug”. Somehow that doesn’t have quiet the ring of “The Sultan of Swat”. But Bill says Ralph had “one of the truly great power resumes in big-league history”.

The one Major League home run title he didn’t win in his first seven years was the first, when Hank Greenberg hit 44 homers for the Tigers. Ralph had only hit 23 while leading the NL, (he only batted .247). When Greenberg was surprisingly traded to the Pirates, they moved the left field fence in, creating an area mockingly called “Greenberg Gardens”. Ralph got off to a bad start and they were even going to send him back down to the minors but Hank convinced the Pirates to keep him with the big club. With the help of Hank, who became a life-long friend, hitting coach Honus Wagner and Greenberg Gardens, which became known as “Kiner’s Corner”, Ralph exploded to a .313 batting average, tied Johnny Mize for the home run crown with 51 and drove in 127 with 118 RBIs. He tied Mize again the next year with 40 homers, then had his huge 54 home run year when he hit .310 and had 127/116 in runs. He went 47-42-37 in the three following years.

Ralph had to wait until 1975, twenty years after his career ended, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Like every one of his generation, he missed some time due to the war: he flew missions in the Pacific searching for Japanese submarines. Due to what became a severe back problem, his career ended at age 33 and was limited before that. His reputation was limited because he played on the worst team in baseball at the time. The Pirates finished 7th or 8th six times during his career there. (They did have a winning season in 1948). He also ran afoul of Branch Rickey, who wanted to trade him but wasn’t allowed to and launched into a campaign to denigrate Kiner so he could trade, which he eventually did. Enos Slaughter, always jealous of other people getting attention, said that he could score on a fly ball to Kiner 30 feet behind third base. Bill James in his first Historical Baseball Abstract, answered: “great, Enos, but look at the facts. Slaughter’s career high in runs scored was 100 even. This included runs scored on a fly ball to Ralph Kiner, runs scored from first base on a single, all those flashy things. Kiner scored, in consecutive seasons, 118, 104, 116, 112 and 124. Who you gonna take? “ He rated Kiner the game’s #3 all-time left fielder in “peak value”.

By the time his new HBA came out 15 years later, James seemed to have soured a bit on Ralph, ranking him #18 overall among left fielders, opening with a quote form a journeyman pitcher named Art Williams who calls Kiner a “two-faced bastard” for complaining that players are brought up from the minors too early while hyping the Mets new prospects. Then comes a quote from umpire Harry Wendelstadt saying “one thing about Kiner, he’ll give you a nickel for a dime any day. That’s the kind of guy he is. The only guy worse than Kiner that’s been associated with baseball is Leo Durocher.” What prompted that comment is not explained. Then comes Rickey’s quote “Kiner has so many other weaknesses that if you had eight Ralph Kiners on an American Association team, it would finish last.” James comments “the quotes above are no doubt unfair but there are other’s like them.”

I’ve never heard them. The Ralph Kiner I listened to on so many Met’s broadcasts seemed very well liked by his colleagues and, upon his death, even a beloved figure. He was famous for his many malapropisms:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quokiner.shtml

I was listening when he said “Mets fans, today is Mother’s Day and on behalf of the Mets, I’d like to wish everyone out there a happy birthday”. But I was also listening when he made his many incisive comments about the action on the field or his many references to all the players he’d seen, played against and with and gotten to know over the years and how they compared to contemporary players. When you spend four decades in front of a microphone, some strange things are going to be recorded. But he was one of the bets broadcasters I ever heard.

And here’s some more quotes about him:

Marty Noble, in his obit at MLB.com: “"The gentle and princely presence of Ralph Kiner could turn a gathering of crooks, rogues and rascals into civil and gracious fellows. Mr. Kiner had that effect, the opposite of one bad apple.”

Bob Murphy: "A man impossible to dislike,"

Tim McCarver: "One wonderful man. Any group of people is better off if Ralph joins."

Frank Cashen: "Any group that includes Ralph would have to be a group of gentlemen."

Tom Seaver: "He (Ralph Kiner) was a jewel. He loved the game of baseball. He loved to see it played correctly and smartly. He loved to talk baseball. He deeply understood the game, especially hitting."

Warren Spahn: “Kiner can wipe out your lead with one swing”

Across Pennsylvania, the city of Philadelphia came up with its own post war slugger, DEL ENNIS. The Phillies were set to call him up in 1943 but the Navy did so instead. Ennis saw action in the Pacific as a signalman and also played a lot of service ball. The latter delayed his demobilization compared to others because battle citations we a big part of the point system. He had to miss 1946 spring training. Ben Chapman was reluctant to use him because he’d missed spring training but finally used him as pinch-hitter He hit a bases loaded double to beat the Pirates. Chapman then made him the starting left fielder, which he would be for the next decade, during which he hit 259 home runs. He had over 100 RBIS seven times, leading the league with 126 in 1950, the year the Phillies “Whiz Kids” won the pennant. Only Stan Musial had more RBIs during his career with the Phillies. He also batted over .300 thee times. Unlike Kiner, he was also a good outfielder with a strong throwing arm.

But this was Philadelphia. Wikipedia: “The story of Ennis and the abuse he endured from Philadelphia fans in eleven seasons has obscured his impressive statistics and also his memory. Off noted is the fans' animosity beginning with a slump year in 1951. Despite turning the record around later, the fans were merciless. As an example, in the second game of a doubleheader against the Cardinals on July 31, 1954, in the top of the third inning, Ennis dropped an outfield fly with the bases loaded and all three runners scored. As pitcher Steve Resnick later remarked, "We had a packed house and the fans start to boo him unmercifully. It was terrible. The next inning when he went out to left field they booed and booed and booed. They booed him when he ran off the field at the end of the inning. . . .Here he is a hometown guy and everything. . . . He came to bat in the last of the eighth inning with the score still tied and two outs. The fans just booed and booed and all our guys on the bench are just hotter than a pistol. We were ready to fight the thirty-some thousand." … On Ennis's best day as a Phil – when he hit three HRs and knocked in seven runs – he happened to pop out his fourth time up. "They booed the daylights out of me", he remembers.” Del was eventually traded to the Cardinals. “In his first game as a Cardinal at old Connie Mack Stadium, Ennis received a standing ovation from the fans who used to boo him as a Phillie.” That’s Philadelphia.

VERN STEPHENS was often called “Junior Stephens”, (his father was Vern Sr.) . He was also called “Buster” and Pop-up” Stephens. Stephens was contemporary of Hall of Fame shortstops Pee Wee Reese, Phil Rizzuto, Lou Boudreau and Johnny Pesky but isn’t in the Hall himself. In fact, when he first became eligible, he never got a single vote. This is strange because he may have been the best of the bunch. He came roaring up through the minors with 194 extra base hits, including 66 home runs in 1939-41. But he’d injured his knee and so flunked his Army physical, (twice)and spent the war playing for the St. Louis Browns. He was the star of their 1944 pennant winners, hitting .293 with 22 homers and 109 RBI. After the war, he was one of the players who signed with Jorge Pasquale’s Mexican league. This plus a 1945 hold out gave him something of a bad reputation in baseball’s front offices. He wound up with the Red Sox, where, hitting behind Ted Williams, and aiming at the Green Monster, he became and RBI machine. He had 137-159-144 in consecutive years from 1948-50. Essentially he became Williams’ Gehrig.

Incredibly, in 1950 he finished 25th in the MVP race behind Phil Rizzuto who won it with 66 RBIs, (both players scored 125 runs). Stephens’ career declined after that. Some have attributed it to a recurrence of his knee injury, which could be a serious thing in those days. Some have attributed it to heavy drinking and partying, something he had a reputation for but which Pesky, his Red Sox roommate, said was not that big a factor by that point in his career. Vern’s achievements have been denigrated by some because his accomplishments were either during the war or in Fenway Park. But his road numbers were good (1948-50 17 homers and 66 RBIs per year), and he should get some credit for getting the Browns into the World Series. The fact that Stephens died of a heart attack at age 48 and wasn’t around when his contemporaries were benefiting from Hall of Fame campaigns for them has caused him to be largely forgotten.

SABR: David “Halberstam writes of an encounter that supposedly occurred between Williams and Yankee pitcher Allie Reynolds at an All-Star game. Williams jokingly asked when Reynolds was going to start giving him some good pitches to hit. Reynolds countered with words to the effect "not as long as Stephens is hitting behind you." They add, “For ten years, Vern Stephens was one of the better players-offensively and defensively-in baseball. His record speaks for itself, and it speaks loudly. “

Another reason Stephens got all those RBIs was DOM DIMAGGIO, Boston’s centerfielder, who batted in front of Williams and had a lifetime on base percentage of .383. Dom scored over 100 runs six times for the Sox, including 384 runs scored in Stephens big period of 1948-50.Curt Gowdy, the Red Sox broadcaster from 1950-66, called Dom “the greatest student of the game I ever saw, except for Ted Williams”. Dom’s brother Joe called him the “the best defensive outfielder I’ve ever seen. “ He was one of three brothers who became major league center fielders, the other being Vince. Bill James has selected retroactive gold glove awards and gives Joe 8 of them, Dom 6 and Vince 4.

His career ended when he had an eye operation in 1953. He was able to come back but new Red Sox manager Lou Boudreau who was “in the process of not only destroying the Red Sox but rendering them unable to compete for years afterwards” per Bill James, replaced him in center field with Tommy Umphlett, (who lasted one year before being traded). Dom didn’t want to be a reserve so he retired. He became a multi-millionaire businessman and part-owner of the Boston Patriots.

Many think he should be in the Hall of Fame. A couple more years might have helped. But being in the show of both his brother and also his life-long friend Ted Williams hurt him, as did the fact that he just didn’t look like a baseball player at 5-9 168 with thick glasses:
http://cdn.doyouremember.com/wp-con...-dimaggio-zsports009631-dom-dimaggio-3193.jpg
But those with good vision could see that he was a very good player indeed.

One of the great player vs. player debates of the time was between Red Sox and Yankee fans, (naturally) over who was the best second baseman in the league, BOBBY DOERR or Joe Gordon. Doerr was still another Californian who came to the Red Sox in 1937 and, over 14 seasons, hit .288 with 223 home runs. In the Red Sox potent line-up he drove in over 100 runs six times, with a high of 120. In 1944, a season before spending a year in the Army, he hit a career high .325 and led the league in slugging percentage. He was also a superb fielder, once going 73 games and 414 chances without an error. When he retired his fielding percentage of .980 was the highest in history for a second baseman.

In 1946, the year of the only pennant the Red Sox won in that era, Babe Ruth said of him: "Doerr, and not Ted Williams, is the No. 1 player on the team. He rates the Most Valuable Player in the American League." Williams called him “the silent captain of the Red Sox”.

Bobby had a long career as a successful coach after his playing career and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1986. At age 96, he is its oldest living member and the last player still alive who played in the 1930’s.

JOE GORDON was called “Flash” after the comic book character. But it could describe his fielding style as well: he was known for making acrobatic plays and having great range. In eleven seasons he hit only .268 but hit 264 home runs, a huge amount for a middle infielder at the time. He was the first AL second baseman to hit 20+ homers in a season.

After the 1941 World Series, Joe McCarthy said "The greatest all-around ballplayer I ever saw, and I don't bar any of them, is Joe Gordon." He won the AL MVP in 1942 but had his best season for the 1948 World Series champion Indians, hitting 32 homers with 124 RBIs. He was one of those players who continued his career in the high minors after his big league career ended, leading the PCL in homers with 43 and RBIs with 136 for Sacramento in 1951 as player-manager. (He was a good strategy.) He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008 but, unfortunately had been dead for 30 years.

SABR has this story of when Larry Doby singed with the Indians: ”Indians manager Lou Boudreau, who at first thought the signing was a joke, met with Doby and introduced him to his new teammates. While most players were cordial, a handful refused to acknowledge Doby or even shake his hand. Doby's feeling of isolation continued after the team moved to the diamond to warm up before the start of the game. "I felt all alone. When we went out on the field to warm up, to play catch, you know the way we always did, no one asked me to play. I just stood there for minutes. It seemed like a long time," recalled Doby. "Then Joe Gordon yelled, 'Hey kid, come on. Throw with me.' That was it. Joe Gordon was a class guy. He'd been a Yankee and the others looked up to him. So when he reached out to me, it really helped."

There’s a section of the documentary “Baseball When It Was a Game in which Joe McCarthy is asked what he liked about Joe Gordon. He calls Joe over, (Tommy Henrich is telling the story), and asks him what his batting average is, how many home runs he has, etc. Joe doesn’t know. “That’s what I like about him. All he wants to do is win.”

So: who was better? In his first HBA, (1985), Bill James goes for Gordon, based on having better road numbers (Gordon .279, 134 homers, Doerr .261 with 78 homers) and better performance in MVP voting, (Doerr only made the top ten once, Gordon 5 times, including winning it in 1942). “I’m not belittling Doerr in any way: he was a great player, certainly greater than some are in the Hall of Fame…Under Definition C of a potential Hall of Famer- consistently near the bets in the league at his positon, Doerr clearly qualifies, an excellent offensive and defensive player from the day that he reached the majors until the day that he left.“ Somehow Doerr got in 22 years before Gordon did. It helps to keep on living so they can’t forget you.

From 1946-50, The Red Sox were 473-298. The Yankees were 473-297.