Baseball...numbers, stories and analysis: August 2019

1949…The Streak, Ruth and the Natural

There was a lot of subtext to the 1949 season. While seemingly innocuous, some events left lasting impressions upon the game.

DiMaggio and his record hitting streak that still stands to this day is one of them. Not Joe. Dom DiMaggio hit in thirty-four consecutive games, which to this day, remains the Red Sox team record. And while Joe’s record pf fifty-six may never be broken, Dom’s streak wasn’t equaled in the American League until Paul Molitor hit in thirty-nine straight in 1987.

In the thirty-fifth game, Dom was hitless going into his last at bat against the Yankees. He hit a sinking low line-drive that was a sure hit, save for a fantastic shoestring catch by…his brother Joe.

The most surreal incident of the season occurred in Chicago in mid-June. The Phillies were visiting and had taken a game from the Cubs and had returned to their hotel to prepare for dinner and a night on the town.

Phiilies first-baseman Eddie Waitkus received a note from an admiring fan, a young lady, who invited him up to her room in the same hotel in which the team was staying. After dinner, Eddie went to the room, and knocked on the door. A young blond woman opened the door, and Eddie entered the room and quickly took a seat.

That was not the plan at all.

The young woman, an emotionally disturbed lady, had planned on stabbing Mr. Waitkus to death, and then taking her own life with a gun. Eddie ruined those plans by briskly walking past her and sitting down.

Ruth Ann Steinhagen then improvised and took out the gun, a .22 caliber rifle, and shot Eddie in the chest. He was critically wounded. She called down to the front desk to report the shooting, and she was found cradling Eddie’s head in her lap as he passed in and out of consciousness.

Young Miss Steinhagen became enamored of Mr. Waitkus while he played for the Chicago Cubs. Her ability to see him play in her hometown added to her obsession. And obsessed she was.

Knowing that Eddie’s family was of Lithuanian heritage, she went out and learned the language. Knowing that Eddie was born in Boston, she began to eat baked beans at every meal. Knowing that Eddie wore the uniform number 36, she began to buy music and books that were produced in 1936.

But her infatuations were not anything new to her family. She had other obsessions about actor Alan Ladd and long deceased composer Franz Liszt. But Eddie was closer, more accessible.

Ruth reportedly had a complete breakdown in December 1948. She recovered, but complained to her mother, as recently as a week before the shooting, about a “funny feeling” in the back of her head. But no one could imagine what she was preparing to do.

Eddie Waitkus was severely injured. The bullet had entered the left side of his chest, but luckily missed his heart. The surgery was very dangerous, and Eddie reportedly almost died on the operating table several times before the bullet could be removed.

Amazingly, he made a full recovery, and was not only able to return to baseball, he was able to play in each of the Phillies’ one hundred and fifty-four games in 1950, en route to the National League pennant.

Ruth Ann Steinhagen never stood trial. She was diagnosed with a multiple personality disorder and was institutionalized. She was released after three years and was declared “cured”. Eddie never formally pressed charges, preferring to ‘forget the whole incident’.

Eddie physically recovered, but was mentally scarred, understandably. He was very uncomfortable meeting new people and was eventually treated for alcoholism.

But the story doesn’t end there.

Bernard Malamud, a short story writer from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, used parts of this story, along with another ballplayer involved shooting from 1932 involving Billy Jurges of the Cubs, into his debut novel “The Natural” which was published in 1952.

Baseball, as an entity, was flourishing in 1949. Apart from the two major leagues, there were by my count, 442 teams playing in 61 different minor leagues. Some of the talent, especially in lower classifications, was far from top notch. But there were still some performances of note.

Again, by my count, there were ninety-seven pitchers that won twenty or more games. Of those ninety-seven, teammates Thomas Graham (20-18) and Edward Albrecht (29-12 with 30 complete games) combined to win forty-nine of the Pine Bluff Cardinals seventy-two wins (68.1%) in the Cotton States League.

Dan Bankhead of the Montreal Royals (International League) went 20-6, and also batted .323 on the season.

Rene Solis of the Miami Sun Sox of the Florida International League went 20-9, and posted an Earned Run Average of 1.53, which was good enough for second in the league.

Melvin Fisher of the Florence Steelers of the Tri-State League went 27-12, pitching in 55 games and completing 25.

Bob Snyder, of the Vancouver Capilanos in the Western International League, went 22-11 while posting a whopping 5.81 Earned Run Average.

Carl Wallgast, of the Geneva Red Birds in the Alabama State League, went 22-7 and posted a 1.89 Earned Run Average.

Vincent Gohl of the Tarboro A’s in the Coastal Plain League went 21-4 with a miniscule 1.27 Earned Run Average.

Stanley Karpinski of the St. Augustine Saints of the Florida State League went 29-5 with a 1.56 Earned Run Average.

But the best minor league pitching performance appears to have been by Lynn Southworth of the High Point-Thomasville Hi-Toms of the North Carolina State League. He finished the season with a 21-1 record, edging out Edward Varhely of the Stroudsburg Poconos of the North Atlantic League, he finished up with a 20-2 record. And Orie Arntza of the Albany Senators of the eastern League, who finished at 25-2.

Other pitchers that won twenty-five or more games include Ed Neville of the Durham Bulls of the Carolina League (25-10), Conrado Marrero of the Havana Cubans of the Florida International League (25-8), Earl Escalante of the Bakersfield Indians in the Carolina League (28-9), Walley Gaddis of the Daytona Beach Islanders in the Florida State League (25-8), George Fultz of the Gainesville G-men, also of the Florida State League (25-12), Michael Rossi of the Vidalia-Lyons Twins in the Georgia State League (25-13), and Frank Wilson of the Harlan Smokies in the Mountain States League (27-8).

With that number of successful pitchers, one might assume that hitting in the minor leagues was not good. To the contrary…fifteen players hit .400 or better, including three in the Tobacco State League.

Joseph Roseberry of the Smithfield-Selma Leafs finished at .4086 to edge out Hargrove Davis of the Fayetteville Scotties, who finished at .4082. Roseberry’s teammate Richard Woodard finished in third, with a .400 average.

The Far West League also had a close race, with Louis Vezlich splitting time between the Vallejo Chiefs and the Santa Rosa Cats, compiling a .408 average to beat Ray Perry of the Redding Browns, and his .404 average.

And Roberto Fernandez of the Abeline Blue Sox hit .408 to beat out Pud Miller of the Lamesa Lobos, who hit .404, for the West Texas-New Mexico League batting title.

By far, the top hitting performance belonged to Frank Saucier of the Wichita Falls Spudders of the Big State League. He finished up with a .446 batting average. Saucier played just three minor league seasons and combined to hit .380 over that span. He did earn a call-up to the St. Louis Browns in 1951, where he batted .071 in fourteen games.

Saucier was injured in 1951, and then served two years in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. He returned to school after his service was over and earned a degree in math and physics from Westminster College in Missouri. The baseball stadium there is named “Frank Saucier Field” in his honor. Ironically, his given name is Francis Field Saucier.

Baseball trivia fans should know the name Frank Saucier well. He was the batter replaced by pinch-hitter Eddie Gaedel in a publicity stunt by Browns’ owner Bill Veeck.

Other .400 hitters in the minor leagues include: Robert Montag of the Pawtucket Slaters in the New England League (.423), John Temple of the Ogden Reds in the Pioneer League (.400), Forrest Kennedy of the Riverside Dons in the Sunset League (.411), Willie Kerr of the Pulaski Counts in the Appalachian League (.401), Jim Stoyle of the Sparta Saints in the Georgia State League (.400), William Hart of the Cairo Dodgers in the Kitty League (Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee) (.404) and Carl Miller of the Lincolnton Cardinals in the Western Carolina League (.404)

Other notable items from the minor league world of 1949:

Frank Wilson of the Harlan Smokies (Mountain States League) won four games in two days against the Morristown Red Sox.

The Bluefield Blue-Grays of the Appalachian League won thirty-four consecutive home games.

Portland Beavers pitcher Ad Liska went 4-11 on the season. Strangely, all four of his victories came at the expense of the Oakland Oaks.

And the Waco Pirates (Big State League) had their incredible record of scoring a run in two-hundred fifty-nine consecutive games snapped by the Texarkana Bears. Joe Budny pitched a two-hit 3-0 shutout to end the streak.

Across the majors, the offense again outpaced the pitching. Combined hitting scores ranked 14.1% higher than the pitching. The American League accumulated a 19% advantage over their pitching and averaged 4.6% better than the National League hitters.

Here are those rankings, offense first:

National League	American League
Dodgers	Red Sox
Cardinals	Yankees
Giants	Tigers

And the pitching rankings:

Cardinals	Yankees
Dodgers	Indians
Phillies	Red Sox

The overall power rankings were:

Yankees	World Series Champion
Dodgers	National League Champions
Red Sox	2^nd in AL, 1 game behind
Cardinals	2^nd in AL, 1 game behind
Indians	3^rd in AL, 8 games behind

In the major leagues, the pennant race was hotly contested all season, with the championship of each league won by a one game margin over the runners up.

The Brooklyn Dodgers were pre-season favorites in the National League and carried that throughout the season and into the Fall Classic. The Cleveland Indians were the American League pre-season favorites, and that didn’t work out too well for them. They struggled, and finished the season in third place, behind the surprising Yankees.

The Yankees, under their first-year manager Casey Stengel, who was hired away from the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League, navigated themselves through an injury plagued season to best the Red Sox by a game, and go on to win the World Series.

The injury bug struck the Yankees hard and heavy. Joe DiMaggio, who prior to the season signed the first ever six-figure contract in baseball history, was the most significant player to lose time. He was having issues with a heel spur which wasn’t responding to treatment, and necessitated surgery to repair. He missed the first sixty-five games of the season. And in September, during the heat of the pennant race, he missed some time while recuperating from pneumonia.

As the injuries piled up, the Yankees scrambled to find healthy players to fill roster spots, using thirty-seven players on the season. Even going so far as making a deal with the cross-town (really cross-river) New York Giants for their star first-baseman Johnny Mize. Mize played in just thirteen games with the Yankees, as he too was injured for a while.

The final weekend of the season had the underdog Yankees facing the heavily favored Red Sox, who were managed by former Yankee manager Joe McCarthy. The Yankees won the final two games to beat the Sox for the pennant. Some hypothesize that this series, and subsequent heartbreak for the Sox, is what sparked the long running rivalry between these two teams.

There is a story that at the season’s end, a deal was in place that would send Ted Williams to the Yankees, bringing his left-handed bat to their short porch in right-field, in exchange for Joe DiMaggio, bringing his right-handed bat to Fenway, with the Green Monster a prime target for right-handed hitters, not to mention the 460 foot power ally in left-center in the Bronx. (Many baseball people have often wondered how much bigger the career numbers for those two superstars would have been if they played in each other’s home park)

The deal never came to fruition, as apparently, the Yankees would not include young catcher Yogi Berra in the deal as the Sox demended.

The Yankees went on to win the World Series in five games over the Brooklyn Dodgers, who held off the Cardinals to win the National League by a one game margin.

Of interest in the Series was that Tommy Henrich hit a homer in the first game, off of Don Newcombe. The Yankees won by a 1-0 score. Henrich became just the second player to homer for the only run of a World Series game. The first? His manager Casey Stengel, who homered of Sad Sam Jones in the third game of the 1923 Series.

Other events and items of note for the 1949 season…

The Chicago Cubs hit two grand slam home runs in the same week…both hit by outfielder Andy Pafko, and both feature the same runners on base: Roy Smalley, Phil Cavaretta and Hank Sauer.

Both Philadelphia teams finished over .500 for the season. This was the first time since 1913 that both teams had a winning season in the same year.

Phillies rookie Eddie Sanicki earned three hits in thirteen at-bats, but each of those hits was a homer. Which gave him a .231 batting average, but a .923 slugging percentage.

A’s outfielder Elmer Valo became the first American League hitter with two bases loaded triples in the same game.

In Boston, Red Sox pitchers Ellis Kinder and Mel Parnell would each win twenty games. This would be the last time that two Red Sox pitchers would win twenty games in the same season.

Ted “The Thumper” Williams would collect 194 hits, the most he would get in a season. Surprisingly, Teddy Ballgame never made 200 his in a season.

Giants pitcher Dave Koslo became the first Earned Run Average leader to have not pitched a shutout.

Wally Westlake of the Pirates became the first National Leaguer to hit for the cycle in two consecutive seasons.

Teammate Ralph Kiner hit a record sixteen homers in the month of September, a record that was equaled by Richie Sexson in 2001.

Cleveland outfielder Dale Mitchell hit twenty-three triples and would be the last in the American League to hit twenty until George Brett’s twenty in 1979.

Tiger third-baseman George Kell finished with the second fewest strikeouts by the batting champion in the American League.

Pee Wee Reese, of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was the last National League shortstop to walk 100 times in a season.

And teammate Don Newcombe became the first player in Major League history to make an All-Star team after starting the season in the minor leagues.

Now to the statistical review. We’ll begin with the National League pitching. The initial top ten rankings are as follows:

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA	Svs
Preacher Roe	Dodgers	15-6	2.79	1
Jack Banta	Dodgers	10-6	3.37	3
Howie Pollett	Cardinals	20-9	2.77	1
Warren Spahn	Braves	21-14	3.07	0
Ken Heintzelman	Phillies	17-10	3.02	0
Russ Meyer	Phillies	17-8	3.08	1
Dave Koslo	Giants	11-14	2.50	4
Don Newcombe	Dodgers	17-8	3.17	1
Harry Brecheen	Cardinals	14-11	3.35	1
Ken Raffensberger	Reds	18-17	3.39	0

And compared to their own team performances, we get this list:

Ken Raffensberger	Above
Warren Spahn	Above
Preacher Roe	Above
Jack Banta	Above
Bob Rush	Cubs	10-18	4.07	4
Don Newcombe	Above
Johnny Schmitz	Cubs	11-13	4.35	3
Dave Koslo	Above
Monk Dubiel	Cubs	6-9	4.14	4
Eddie Erautt	Reds	411	3.36	1

Bringing our top ten pitching performances for the National League to this top ten list:

Warren Spahn	7^th in MVP vote
Preacher Roe	16^th in MVP vote
Jack Banta	No votes
Ken Raffensberger	19^th in MVP vote (tied)
Howie Pollett	11^th in MVP vote (tied)
Ken Heintzelman	9^th in MVP vote
Don Newcombe	8^th in MVP vote
Dave Koslo	No votes
Russ Meyer	19^th in MVP vote (tied)
Harry Brecheen	No votes

Note that there was still no individual post-season pitching award voting.

On to the American League pitchers, where our initial top ten list is:

Mel Parnell	Red Sox	25-7	2.77	2
Bob Lemon	Indians	22-10	2.99	1
Virgil Trucks	Tigers	19-11	2.81	4
Al Benton	Indians	9-6	2.12	10
Fred Hutchinson	Tigers	15-7	2.96	1
Joe Page	Yankees	13-8	2.59	27
Ellis Kinder	Red Sox	23-6	3.36	4
Mike Garcia	Indians	14-5	2.50	3
Vic Raschi	Yankees	21-10	3.34	0
Eddie Lopat	Yankees	15-10	3.26	1

And then compared to their team performances, we get this next list:

Ned Garver	Browns	12-17	3.98	3
Ray Scarborough	White Sox	13-11	4.60	0
Mel Parnell	Above
Bill Wight	White Sox	15-13	3.31	1
Tom Ferrick	Browns	6-4	3.88	6
Mickey Haefner	Senators	9-11	4.40	1
Virgil Trucks	Above
Alex Kellner	A’s	20-12	3.75	1
Randy Gumpert	White Sox	13-16	3.81	1
Sid Hudson	Senators	8-17	4.22	1

And that brings our overall top American League pitchers to this:

Mel Parnell	4^th in MVP
Bob Lemon	9^th in MVP
Virgil Trucks	22^nd in MVP
Fred Hutchinson	No votes
Ellis Kinder	5^th in MVP
Al Benton	No votes
Mike Garcia	No votes
Joe Page	3^rd in MVP
Bill Wight	No votes
Vic Raschi	11^th in MVP

Then to the hitters, leading off with the National League top ten initial list:

Hitter	Team	HR	RBI	AVG	RCG
Jackie Robinson	Dodgers	16	124	.342	1.47
Stan Musial	Cardinals	36	123	.338	1.37
Ralph Kiner	Pirates	54	127	.310	1.24
Carl Furillo	Dodgers	18	106	.322	1.29
Hank Sauer	Reds/Cubs	31	99	.275	1.08
Enos Slaughter	Cardinals	13	96	.336	1.16
Del Ennis	Phillies	25	110	.302	1.15
Bobby Thompson	Giants	27	109	3.09	1.16
Pee Wee Reese	Dodgers	16	73	.279	1.22
Roy Campanella	Dodgers	22	82	.287	0.96

Then when compared to their team’s performance, we get this list:

Ralph Kiner	Above
Hank Sauer	Above
Stan Musial	Above
Del Ennis	Above
Andy Seminick	Phillies	24	68	.243	0.88
Andy Pafko	Cubs	18	69	.281	0.90
Jackie Robinson	Above
Walker Cooper	Giants/Reds	20	83	.258	0.90
Wally Westlake	Pirates	23	104	.282	1.07
Bobby Thompson	Above

That then brings us to this finalized top ten National League hitters:

Stan Musial	2^nd in MVP vote
Ralph Kiner	4^th in MVP vote
Jackie Robinson	National League MVP
Hank Sauer	19^th in MVP vote (tied)
Del Ennis	13^th in MVP vote
Carl Furillo	6^th in MVP vote
Enos Slaughter	3^rd in MVP vote
Bobby Thompson	No votes
Andy Seminick	No votes
Wally Westlake	No votes

To the American League, where our initial top ten list is:

Ted Williams	Red Sox	43	159	.343	1.72
Vern Stephens	Red Sox	39	159	.290	1.50
Tommy Henrich	Yankees	24	85	.287	1.31
Bobby Doerr	Red Sox	18	109	.309	1.31
Vic Wertz	Tigers	20	133	.304	1.35
Eddie Joost	A’s	23	81	.263	1.29
Yogi Berra	Yankees	20	91	.277	1.12
Johnny Growth	Tigers	11	73	.293	1.18
Dom DiMaggio	Red Sox	8	60	.307	1.23
George Kell	Tigers	3	59	.343	1.14

And against their team averages, we get this list:

Ted Williams	Above
Roy Sievers	Browns	16	91	.306	1.14
Larry Doby	Indians	24	85	.280	1.14
Eddie Joost	Above
Vic Wertz	Above
Tommy Henrich	Above
Vern Stephens	Above
Johnny Groth	Above
Cass Michaels	Senators	6	83	.308	0.97
George Kell	Above

Which brings our overall top ten American League performances to:

Ted Williams	American League MVP
Vern Stephens	7^th in MVP vote
Tommy Henrich	6^th in MVP vote
Vic Wertz	10^th in MVP vote
Eddie Joost	13^th in MVP vote
Bobby Doerr	No votes
Roy Sievers	18^th in MVP vote
Yogi Berra	15^th in MVP vote
Johnny Growth	No votes
Larry Doby	No votes

In the overall rankings, the topo five players in each league were hitters. So, I will add the top pitcher to the bottom of each list. Those mythical post-season awards votes would tally as follows:

National League