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1953 BOSTON RED SOX
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There was a lot of news in the winter before the start of the 1953 season. Ted Williams arrived in Korea for combat duty on February 4th. On February 10th, Vern Stephens was traded to the Chicago White Sox for pitchers Hal Brown, Marv Grissom and Bill Kennedy. The advent of more and more games being shown on television, meant fewer people would be attending baseball games. Joe Cronin worked behind the scenes with radio and television stations along with advertisers, to work out the problems that were going to come up. Some rule changes came about in 1953. The rule not charging a time at bat on a sacrifice fly was reinstated. Deemed as dangerous, another rule prohibited players from leaving their gloves on the field when they came in to bat. And another rule change made players wait until the ball was caught, before tagging up and advancing on a fly ball. But the big news happened when the Boston Braves decided to move to Milwaukee. Braves owner Lou Perini saw the writing on the wall. He estimated that staying in Boston would cost him $1 million per year. These were the days before television contracts. Boston could not support two teams at the gate, and his was not the better of the two. Over the winter Perini developed a secret plan to move the team, an act that had been unheard of in baseball. But with airplane travel replacing days on the road via the railroad, it was now possible to move a team away from the east coast. So on March 18th, after receiving unanimous league approval, Perini took the Braves and left forever to Milwaukee. There the Braves had their AAA affiliate, Milwaukee Brewers, also owned by Perini and a brand new County Stadium waiting for them, totally financed by taxpayer dollars. Boston now was a one team city and totally belonged to the Boston Red Sox. With less pressure because the Sox were in a rebuilding phase, manager Lou Boudreau continued to play his kids. Sophomores Sammy White and Dick Gernert held their positions at catcher and first base. Milt Bolling took the shortstop job vacated by the Vern Stephens trade. Sammy White demonstrated that he could lead his pitching staff. In a spring exhibition game with the Philles, he challenged their whole bench when they got on a Sox pitcher for hitting a batter. Jimmy Piersall arrived in camp, ready to play. He joked with his teammates and quickly lived up to the expectations placed on him the previous spring. He took over in right field and Tom Umphlett replaced Dom DiMaggio in center, after Dom developed an eye infection which required a stay in the hospital. On April 11th, the Milwaukee Braves returned to Boston to play in, what was once called the "City Series", and were beaten by the Red Sox, 4 to 1.
There would be no Opening Day at Fenway on April 14th against Washington. Five inches of snow fell on Boston, cancelling everything.
Milt Bolling was the star of the Sox opener in Philadelphia on April 16th. He went 4-for-5 and George Kell did likewise, as the Sox pummeled the A's for 19 hits and an 11 to 6 victory. In the Sox second game with the A's on April 17th, Sammy White again displayed his toughness, when he decked Allie Clark in a home plate collision. In the Fenway opener on April 20th, Dick Gernert hit three home runs, a single and a double in a doubleheader sweep of the Washington Nationals, 4 to 2 and 11 to 4. On April 22nd, Clyde Vollmer was sold to the Washington Nationals. On April 25th, against the A's at Fenway, George Kell was instrumental in a 4-3 comeback win. His two-run double gave the Sox the tying and winning runs in the fifth inning. It was his eight straight game, hitting safely. Mickey McDermott shut out the Tigers 2-0, in Detroit, allowing only three hits on April 28th. Kell (.457 BA) took the American League lead in batting, getting four hits and Mel Parnell won his third straight, as the Red Sox battered six Tiger pitchers for 17 hits and a 10-4 victory on April 29th. White also had four hits and knocked in half the Sox runs with a homer and three singles.
In Cleveland on May 1st, the Sox youngsters backed the pitching of veteran hurler, Marv Grissom beating the Indians 8 to 1. Grissom held the Tribe to four hits. Behind Hal Brown the Sox beat the Indians again on May 2nd, 5 to 1. Brown pitched a shut out into the ninth inning against Bob Feller. In St. Louis the Sox split a doubleheader on May 3rd. The first game saw the Sox batter five Browns' pitchers for 17 hits and a 14 to 5 win. Tom Umphlett had four hits and George Kell (.400 BA) had two. Pitcher Sid Hudson had three hits and drove in three runs. Mel Parnell won again in Chicago on May 5th, 5 to 1. Parnell gave up just five hits while Jimmy Piersall got three for the Sox. The Sox had won six of eight on the road and were 2 1/2 games behind as they returned home to face the Yankees. They beat the Yanks, 2 to 1, on Billy Goodman's walk-off homer in the first game on May 8th, but the Sox lost the next two games. On May 10th, Goodman got embroiled in an arguement with an umpire over a close call. He was so enraged that he had to be restrained by Jimmy Piersall, who wrapped his arms around Goodman and physically had to carry him off the field. As a result of Piersall's bear hug, Goodman had injured his ribs and was out for a month. On May 12th, after having returned from his vision problem, Dom DiMaggio having not played an inning because of the excellent play of his replacement in center field rookie Tom Umphlett, realizing he was being eased out and announced his retirement. Many speculated that the All Star centerfielder and player representative might someday replace Lou Boudreau as manager. And so, Dom DiMaggio finished his career with a .298 batting average, 1680 hits, 1046 runs and 618 RBIs. With the retirement of his brother from the Yankees, for the first time since 1935, no DiMaggio was on a major league roster. Floyd Baker was purchased from Washington on May 12th. Marv Grissom held the White Sox to four hits, shutting them out, 3-0, on April 13th. Milt Bolling's homer gave him all the runs he needed. Jimmy Piersall's 11th inning two-out single drove home Ted Lepcio with the run that gave the Red Sox a 5-4 triumph over the Indians on May 14th. A couple of balks helped make possible the Sox third straight win over Cleveland. The Indians actually balked themselves out of the game. On May 16th, Mickey McDermott struck out 10 Indian batters and held them to two soft singles in winning 1-0. George Kell's sixth inning home run was all the Red Sox needed. In the eighth inning of a game with the St. Louis Browns on May 19th, Milt Bolling got a base hit off Satchel Paige that drove home the winning run in a 4-3 victory. The Sox split a doubleheader with the Browns, the next day, May 20th. After losing the opener, Ellis Kinder saved the second game for Mel Parnell by pitching 2 2/3 shutout innings, winning 8 to 5, and allowing just one batter to reach base. Then on May 22nd, the Red Sox swept a tight doubleheader from the Athletics by identical scores of 3 to 2, winning both games with strong finishes. George Kell brought in two of the three runs in the opener and his eighth inning single scored Jimmy Piersall with the game winner. In the second game, the Sox tied it up at 2-2 in the ninth inning. Then in the 12th inning, Hoot Evers opened with a walk and Kell drew another walk, Sammy White ended it with a slashing double to left center, as Evers flashed across the plate with the winning run. The Sox took 9-of 15 at the Fenway homestand and took to the road, still 2 1/2 games behind, just as they started. They started by losing 2-of-3 to the Yankees in New York. But on May 25th, in a marathon game that took a record 3 hours and 52 minutes to play, the Sox and Yankees battled in the longest nine inning game ever played in the majors. Thirty two players were put on the field, 19 by the Yankees and 13 by the Sox. Ten different pitchers were used, who gave up a total of 33 hits. The Sox won, 14-10 and pitcher Mickey McDermott banged out four straight hits, drove in two runs and scored three times. The Sox finished the month of May by losing 4 of the 5 games they played against Washington. They were a .500 team at 21-21, and eight games behind the Yankees in 5th place.
The Sox scored three runs in the ninth inning, beating the Indians, in Cleveland, 4 to 3, on June 3rd. Sammy White provided the key hit when he singled in two runs after George Kell doubled down the first base line. The Sox moved into Detroit and then St. Louis where they feasted on the two lower tier teams, winning 7-of-8. On June 6th they swept a doubleheader from the Tigers. Willard Nixon pitched a six-hitter in the first game, 6 to 2, and Mel Parnell tossed his best game of the year so far in the nite cap, shutting out Detroit, 1-0. Floyd Baker was brilliant in the field and knocked in the winning run.
Hal Brown homered, singled and doubled the next game, beating the Tigers 4 to 1, on June 7th. He gave up eight hits, but only one run, in his first complete game victory of the season. Ellis Kinder squelched another threat to get his seventh save on June 9th, allowing the Sox to hold on and beat the Browns 6 to 5. Gene Stephens and Hoot Evers both homered to give the Red Sox a four run lead up until the eighth inning. On June 10th, Jimmy Piersall, who had been the only Sox player to play in every game, set a team record by going 6-for-6, in the first game of a doubleheader against the Browns. He flied out in his first at bat of the nite cap. The Sox swept the Browns, 11 to 2 and 3 to 2. The Sox continued the next day, June 11th, when Willard Nixon pitched a four hit shutout, beating the Browns 7-0. They next went to Chicago and racked up their fifth straight win, and ninth of 12 on the road, on June 12th. Ellis Kinder came in again in the eighth inning to save Hal Brown after he was tagged for a double and a triple, to preserve a 4 to 3 victory. But the Sox lost the next three in Chicago and returned home 13 1/2 games out of first place. The Red Sox continued to be a slugging-and-slump team. On the road trip they went through 22 innings without scoring a run. Then against the Tigers at Fenway, they scored 40 runs and knocked out 47 hits in two games. On June 17th, the Sox blasted the Tigers 17-1. Tom Umphlett had four hits, Sammy White had three, Billy Goodman had two doubles and a single and Dick Gernert blasted two home runs. A 17 run inning on June 18th, was included in a game that the Sox won 23-3. White became the first player ever to score three runs in one inning of that game. Gernert conributed a home run and four RBIs in the inning. Goodman was 4-for-4 in the game and White added four more hits, while Umphlett and Gene Stephens each collected three.
Billy Goodman (.354 BA) was leading the American League batting race with seven straight hits in the Detroit series. Then against the Browns on June 19th, he got three hits in four times up, to extend a 15-game hitting streak. In 17 times at bat, he had reached safely 15 times. Mel Parnell pitched and batted the Sox to a 4-2 win against the Browns on June 20th. He drove home two runs in the fourth inning to break a 2-2 deadlock and cruised after that. Tom Umphlett had three more hits in this game. Hal Brown next spun a three-hitter in beating the Browns 3-1, in the first game of a June 21st doubleheader. Willard Nixon beat the Cleveland Indians, 6 to 4, in the first game of a doubleheader on June 23rd. It was his fourth consecutive complete game victory. In the second game, Milt Bolling doubled home George Kell in the 10th inning for a walk-off 2 to 1 victory. From June 17th thru June 25th, Tom Umphlett had gone 20-for-40 and his .327 batting average led the American League. On June 30th, Sammy White parked a low outside pitch high into the left field screen, giving the Red Sox a come-from-behind 5 to 4 victory over the Yankees.
The next day, July 6th, the Sox moved down to Washington where Ike Delock beat the Nats, 2 to 1. A pinch hit single in the 9th inning by Ted Lepcio, scored Jimmy Piersall for the difference. Hal Brown continued with a 2-0, four hit shutout in Washington on July 7th. On July 9th, Parnell tossed another shutout in New York, blanking the Yankees for a second straight time, 4 to 0. Gernert blasted a three run homer toi give the Sox all the runs they needed. After the 4-1 road trip, the Sox returned to Fenway and beat the Athletics with a walk-off base-on-balls on July 10th. Jimmy Piersall's 9th inning homer had tied the game and Piersall took four straight balls, with the bases loaded, to bring home Dick Gernert with the winning run, in the 12th inning and a 3-2 victory. The Red Sox snatched the next game on July 11th, in the 9th inning when Tom Umphlett slid across the plate foir a 4 to 3 win. It happened as secondbaseman Cass Michaels got tangled up with Sox first base coach, Del Baker, after pitcher Carl Shieb overthrew the bag and Michaels was attemping to retrieve the ball. Del Wilber batted home six runs on July 12th to split a doubleheader with the A's, 4 to 1. He cleared the bases in the third inning with the double and then tied the knot with a three-run homer in the seventh. At the All Star break, the Sox had won six of seven games but were still eleven games out. George Kell led the American League batting race with a .3293 BA. Percentage points behind him was Goodman with a .3292 BA. Gernert's 17 HRs was five behind Al Rosen, in the A.L. home run derby.
In Korea, Captain Ted Williams had seen the right wing of his Panther jet smashed by anti-aircraft flak while flying a mission over Chinnampo on the west coast of North Korea. It was the second time his jet had been struck. Then in February, he was struck again and had to make a dead stick landing of his flaming F-9 Panther jet and jump out of it before it exploded. After flying thirty nine missions, crash-landing once, and taking on anti-aircraft fire, Ted was mustered out of the service in July because of a recurring ear infection. Billy Goodman was named the starting secondbaseman for the American League All Stars. Sammy White and George Kell were also named as All Stars, with manager Lou Boudreau added to Casey Stengel's coaching staff. In Cincinnati, after Ted threw out the ceremonial first pitch, he watched from the dugout, as the National League All Stars beat their American League counterparts, 5 to 1. Goodman went 0-for-2 with a walk and was caught stealing. Kell pinch hit in the eighth inning and flew out. After the break, the Sox swept the Tigers three games in Detroit. Gene Stephens and Jimmy Piersall cracked home runs to produce all the Sox runs in a 3-2 win on July 16th. Milt Bolling's home run the next game led to another 3 to 2 decision over the Tigers. In the final game of the Detroit series on July 18th, the Sox entered the ninth inning down 3-0. The Sox scored five runs led by Hoot Evers who blasted a three run homer that tied things up. Then Sammy White connected with a two run home run to give the Sox a 5 to 3 win. In Cleveland, on July 19th, excellent defensive plays by Jimmy Piersall, who was quickly becoming one of the top defensive outfielders in the majors, plus a clutch three-run homer by George Kell led the Sox to a doubleheader sweep. Mickey McDermott tossed a one-hit, 2-0 shutout in the first game and Mel Parnell won his 14th game in the 7-5 nite cap. In Chicago on July 22nd, Parnell allowed the White Sox just four hits, but Virgil Trucks out-pitched him and beat him, 1 to 0.
On July 23rd, Hoot Evers went on a batting spree, hitting two doubles and a homer. Jimmy Piersall made another spectacular catch and hit a clutch triple that gave the Red Sox a 4-2 victory. The win was the 10th for Hal Brown. Mickey McDermott picked up his 10th win the next day, July 24th, in a doubleheader sweep of the Browns. McDermott and Bill Henry each pitched shutouts, while George Kell increased his league-leading batting average to .325. Johnny Lipon's ninth inning squeeze bunt scored Tom Umphlett from third base to beat the Browns, 7 to 6 on July 25th. Umphlett had doubled home Sammy White to tie the game to start the inning. Next, in St. Louis the Sox and Browns split a July 26th doubleheader. White and Billy Goodman both homered in the opener, which the Sox won 7 to 5. The Sox concluded their road trip going 10-2 and were in third place, 7 1/2 games behind, when they returned to Fenway.
But back at home the Sox then lost seven straight games and fell back to 13 games out. Finally, on August 4th, they got back in the win column, beating the Browns, 6 to 2. They had to stage a five-run eighth inning and come from behind to do it. A bases-loaded pinch hit double by Floyd Baker broke up the tie game. Ben Flowers got the ball and in his first major league start, shut out St. Louis 5 to 0 on August 5th. Ted Williams made his return to the Red Sox on August 6th as a pinch hitter. At thirty-four many wondered what he had left in the tank. Mel Parnell was much sharper with his bat, than with his arm on August 7th. He drove in three runs but struggled on the mound, having to turn things over to Ellis Kinder who pitched three shutout innings, to get Parnell his 15th win. On August 8th, the Sox eeked out a 5-to-4 thriller over the Indians. Sammy White and Tom Umphlett delivered clutch hits and Jimmy Piersall prevented Cleveland from scoring on a couple of occasions. But it was Sid Hudson who nursed a one run advantage thru numerous threats, to get the win. The homestand however was disasterous, as the Red Sox lost six games in the standings and were 13 1/2 games out when they took to the road.
Sammy White's bat and some excellent relief pitching work, carried the Sox to a doubleheader sweep in Philly, on August 11th. White knocked out six hits, driving in the winning run in each of the games, 7 to 6 and 7 to 5. Mickey McDermott earned his 12th victory on August 12th, by beating the A's in Philly in 10 innings, 3 to 2. He helped himself with his bat, banging out two singles, one of which came in the 10th inning and scoring the winning run on a single by Hoot Evers. Back at Fenway, in his first start on August 16th, Ted Williams went 2-for-3, slashing a double and a 420 ft homer into the center field bleachers during the second game of a doubleheader against Washington, which the Sox lost, after winning the opener. Mickey McDermott stifled the A's, 2 to 1, to win on August 18th. Jimmy Piersall's double brought home the game winning run in the third inning. On August 19th, Ted homered with a man on, in the seventh inning, for a 6 to 4 game-winner in Philly. In Washington, on August 21st, Ted had four consecutive hits, one a game-tying homer and another a game-winning single, in the second game of a doubleheader which the Sox won, 7 to 3. The next day on August 22nd, he drove in two runs for another win, 4 to 3. He had personally accounted for the last three Sox wins. His batting average was .484 in 25 at bats, with 11 RBIs, and five homers since his return. Karl Olson was a late-game replacement for Ted on August 23rd in Washington. He doubled home Jimmy Piersall and gave the Sox a 5 to 4 victory over the Nats. That came after Ted had blasted a home run, that tied the game in the seventh inning. Piersall's run producing triple in the eighth inning, bought the Red Sox a 4-3 win against the White Sox in Chicago on August 28th. In the final game of August in Cleveland, Ted slammed the game-winning homer to give Mickey McDermott a 6 to 4 victory and his 15th win. The Sox however had fallen back in the standings, in fourth place, 15 1/2 games behind.
Dick Gernert's 19th homer helped Mel Parnell win his 18th game, beating the Tigers in Detroit on September 2nd. The Sox and A's squared off in a doubleheader in Philadelphia, on September 6th. The Sox won both games, 8 to 4 and 4-0. Mickey McDermott allowed six hit in the shuting out Philly for his 16th win. Back at Fenway the Sox and Yankees split a doubleheader on September 7th. Ted led the charge in the first game, with a home run for a 7 to 4 victory and Mel Parnell's 19th win. Johnny Lipon, batting .214, was waived and sold to the Browns on September 8th for $10K.
Then on September 10th, Ted clouted two homers and knocked in four runs, leading to a 14-4 roast of the White Sox at Fenway. McDermott won his 17th and also banged out three hits. When Ellis Kinder came in to pitch, he set an American League record with his 64th appearance. Kinder picked up a victory on September 12th, when Billy Goodman banged a single in the 12th inning that brought home Sammy White, who had led off the inning with a double, with the winning run, 7 to 6. On September 13th, White made an unassisted doubleplay, a rare feat for a catcher. On September 17th, the Sox were losing to the Detroit Tigers, 1-0 in the eighth inning. Sid Hudson was in a pitchers' duel with Ned Garver up til then. Ted told Hudson not to worry, because he would hit one of Garver's sliders out of the park in his next at bat. True to his word, Ted belted a home run with Piersall aboard in the bottom of the eighth into the bleachers. Ellis Kinder got three fly balls in the ninth inning to get the save and Hudson got a 2 to 1 victory. Since the All Star game, one of the brightest spots in the Sox lineup was Jimmy Piersall. Piersall had batted .345 since then and had been giving one of the greatest exhibitions of defensive outfielding since Harry Hooper. On September 19th, Piersall started his seventh doubleplay of the season from rightfield. It helped Mel Parnell win his 20th game, shutting out the Yankees, 5 to 0. In spite of the strong second half of the season by Ted Williams, the Sox were only able to play .500 ball and finished in fourth place, 16 games behind the Yankees. Ted chalked up a .407 average in 91 at-bats, with 13 HRs and 34 RBIs for the rest of the season. His OBP was .509 and his sluggining percentage was .901 ... He at first was bitter about losing so many prime years to the military, but it evolved into a sense of pride as he got older. A part of the Red Sox inheritance, with the departure of the Braves, was the "Jimmy Fund" the team's primary charity, that funded cancer treatment for children. Ted took the charity under his wing. He visited the kids in hosptal frequently and helped in numerous fund raising efforts. With the retirement of Bobby Doerr, Billy Goodman bacame the full time secondbaseman for the first time in his career, led the team with 161 hits and batted .313 in spite of his injuries, tying Minnie Minoso for the batting crown. Dick Gernert (.253 BA) had 21 HRs with 71 RBIs. And George Kell led the offense with 141 hits, 41 doubles, 73 RBIs, a career-high 12 home runs and a .307 BA. Sammy White (.273 BA) matured into a fine big-league catcher and Jimmy Piersall had 159 hits (.272 BA) coming back strong. But the rest of the young players were only average at the plate and ultimately held the team back. Milt Bolling batted .263 with an OBP of .318 and a slugging percentage of .353 ... In a late July game, Bolling caught his spikes sliding into second and tore ligaments in his ankle. He returned too soon and not putting full weight on his bad ankle affected his throwing motion. He had 23 errors in 109 games, placing him last in the American League in fielding percentage for shortstops. Centerfielder Tom Umphlett played in 137 games, with a .283 batting average, driving in 59 runs. Paced by 38 year old, Ellis Kinder's 27 saves and 1.85 ERA, the Sox pitching was surprisingly strong. Kinder pitched in 69 games, breaking the record set by Ed Walsh in 1908. He batted .379 and was voted the team's Most Valuable Player, as he had two years before. Starters Mickey McDermott was 18-10 with a 3.01 ERA, but off the field, lost his temper and swore at a woman outside the ball park, who happened to be Jean Yawkey. Mel Parnell went 21-8 with a 3.06 ERA, shutting out the Yankees four times. Hal Brown won seven straight games and compiled an 11-6 record, but with an ugly 4.65 ERA. He also batted .293, fourth best among big league pitchers. Although they were never in the pennant race, their improved finish prompted Tom Yawkey and Joe Cronin to give Lou Boudreau a two year contract extension.
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