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ON THIS DATE (July 9, 1946) ...
Shattering or equaling half-a-dozen All-Star
slugging records, grim, determined and unshaven Ted Williams of the
Red Sox led the American League to the most lopsided triumph of the
13-game series at flag-bedecked Fenway Park today. The final
score: Americans 12, Nationals 0. The incomparable Ted belted two
homers and two singles and drew a walk for a perfect day at bat.
Williams was fractious before the game about
the unfavorable things New York writers have been printing about him
recently. We knew he was going to do well. We admit now we couldn’t
have conceived the performance he was about to give. He scored the
first of his four runs (one All-Star record) in front of Keller’s
clout in the first inning. Deprived of a chance to duplicate his
demobilization of Passeau in the ninth inning at Detroit in 1941, Ted
took it out on Kirby Higbe. Up for the second time to start the
fourth, Ted lashed a Higbe curve half a dozen rows up in the dead
center field seats to make it 3-0 for his side.
The score was
5-0 following Stephen’s duckaway double and Higbe was still operating
when the Kid came up again in the fifth. He lashed Dodger Kirby’s
first serve -- a knuckler -- into right field a few feet in front of
the in-racing Dixie Walker for a run-producing single. That safety
ended Higbe’s tenure. With two out and nobody aboard in the seventh,
Williams ignited another two-run burst by singling off Phil
Cavarretta’s handcuffed glove.
Came the eighth
and Sewell was the fourth N.L. flinger. He had yielded one run on
singles by Snuffy Stirnweiss and Kramer (off the wall) followed by
Sam Chapman’s long fly. He then had introduced his “eephus” ball for
the first time. Stephens had blooped it past Cavarretta and to the
overracing Gustine for a single. Sewell then tossed the “eephus” ball
to Ted, who fouled it into the third base seats. Ripper slipped past
a fast one for strike two. He followed with an “eephus” way outside.
He came once again and too often. Pictures show the Kid actually
stepped out front of the batter’s box in his readiness. He times it
right into the waiting hands of Mickey Harris in the American League
(home) bullpen. With that unprecedented stroke which was the first
homer in history off Sewell’s invested delivery, Ted crashed the
record books a few more times. He took the lead in All-Star homers
with a total of three. He equaled Arky Vaughn’s 1941 showing of two
four-masters in a single engagement.
Ted’s five
RBI’s constituted another mark and his total of nine for All-Star
appearances gives him the overall lead in that sphere. His four hits,
which tied Joe Medwick’s two doubles and two singles in the 1937 fray
at Washington, also gave the Kid a .500 (7 for 14) All-Star average.
That shares Charley Gehringer’s mark in the All-Star books.
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