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| Ned Garver had 20 of the St. Louis Browns' 52 victories in 1951. He became the first hurler to reach the 20-win plateau for a last-place team since Hollis "Sloppy" Thurston for the Chicago White Sox in 1924. (New York Times Photo) |
I can't help it, this is how my devious mind works. But when I hear the name Ned Garver, I can't help thinking of Fred Garvin, a character Dan Aykroyd played on "Saturday Night Live" in the late 1970s.
Yes, we're talking about Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute.
Now, I'm not accusing Ned of any nefarious activity, but in a way you could compare the work he did on the pitching mound for the St. Louis Browns in the early 1950s with that of a prostitute. A thankless job, maybe, but Garver went about his profession in an earnest way, much like a working woman. He worked hard for his money.
And in the process he won 20 games in 1951 -- for a team that won 52 games and lost 102, 46 games behind the New York Yankees and 10 behind the next-nearest team in the American League. Steve Carlton is renowned for winning 27 games for the 1972 Philadelphia Phillies, who won 59. That's 46 percent of his team's victories. Garver can't match that, only winning 39 percent, but his is still a notable feat, perhaps the only notable feat for the 1951 Browns besides sending a midget up to bat.
Garver's grit earned him second place in voting for the American League MVP in a close vote behind Yogi Berra. Garver also finished second in the AL and led all AL pitchers in WAR, the modern-day metric that calculates the number of wins a player provides his team compared with a replacement-level player (wins above replacement).
Winning 20 games for the 1951 Browns, the fourth-most victories in the AL that year, was not going to be easy no matter how Garver went about it. But to say it was an uphill battle would be an understatement.
One day into the 1951 season, the 5-foot-10, 160-pound fourth-year right-hander had an 0-1 record and a 32.50 ERA. That dubious number is courtesy of the six runs he gave up, all earned, in 1 2/3 innings against the Chicago White Sox on April 17, before all of 5,660 fans who showed up for Opening Day at St. Louis' Sportsman's Park to see the Brownies get thumped 17-3. (Garver was the Browns' Opening Day starter for four straight years.)
As he did all season, Garver didn't let the initial setback faze him. Four days later in Cleveland, he tossed a complete game five-hitter as St. Louis won 9-1. And Garver's ERA dropped to 5.91.
And so he proceeded to plug away, through the sometimes bitter but ultimately a sweet ending, as he picked up his 20th win on the final day of the season.
For the most part, it was Garver's game to win or lose all season long. Of his 30 starts, he went the distance in 24 of them, leading the American League in complete games for the second straight season.
By May 7, Garver's ERA had dropped to 3.69, and for the rest of the season he kept it between 3.60 and 4.85, finishing at 3.73 to go with his 20-12 record in 246 innings.
He put together winning streaks of three early, four and three in midseason in a stretch where he went 7-1, and four at the end.
Garver's record was sitting at 12-4 on July 15, but he went 4-8 over his next eight decisions to fall to 16-12. Then came his closing push.
Garver won a 3-2 decision in 10 innings at Washington on Sept. 18, scattering nine hits, and four days later threw a seven-hitter at the White Sox as the Browns won 5-1 in Chicago.
Garver moved within one of the magic 20-win number Sept. 26 as he beat Detroit 7-1 at Sportman's, again on a seven-hitter.
Garver ended the season the way he began it, pitching at home against the Chicago White Sox, only this time with far better results as the Browns won 9-5. Garver survived 11 hits and two walks as the ChiSox left nine men on base.
A crowd of 14,771 showed up at Sportman's Park that day, the Browns' third-highest attendance of the season. So good times were had by all as Ned went out like a lion.
But as good as he was late, Garver was downight dominant from July 1 through July 20. In four straight complete games he allowed only one earned run each time out for a 1.11 ERA.
He began the stretch with his low-hit game of the season, a two-hitter, as St. Louis beat Chicago 3-1 at Comiskey Park on July 1. Garver was coming back after missing two weeks with arm tenderness.
Only a 1-0 loss to the New York Yankees on July 20 kept Garver from putting together his second four-game winning streak in nine decisions.
The Yankees, who were in the middle of a record five-year streak of winning the World Series, won on Bobby Brown's eighth-inning single that drove in Tom Morgan, who pitched a shutout to finally stop Garver.
The Browns drew 15,212 that day to Sportsman's, their second-highest crowd of the season. Their highest was the 18,369 on hand Aug. 18 for the Browns' celebration of the 50th anniversary of the American League. That was also the day Bill Veeck, in the most famous publicity stunt the maverick owner ever put on, trotted out midget Eddie Gaedel to lead off the second game of a doubleheader.
Garver happened to start the first game that day, dropping a 5-2 decision to Detroit. So the Browns' three biggest crowds of the season showed up to watch their most distinguished performer.
While Garver was mowing 'em down in July, he was rewarded by getting the start for the American League in the All-Star Game in Detroit on July 10. And he was as just as successful against the NL's best as against his regular-season AL foes in the only All-Star appearance of his career, allowing one hit and one unearned run in three innings. The NL won the game 8-3.
Before his July 1-July 20 hot streak, Garver was almost as masterful from May 27 through June 5, allowing only four earned runs in three complete-game starts for a 1.33 ERA as he went 3-0. He threw his only shutout of the year June 1, stifling Boston 4-0 on eight hits. Six-time batting champion and lifetime .344 hitter Ted Williams was 1-for-4 against Garver. Williams hit .416 lifetime against Garver but could only muster .294 (5-for-17) in 1951.
Garver's command of his slider no doubt helped him tame Williams.
"Ted Williams always said that he could not pick up the spin from my slider," Garver said in an article by
Gregory H. Wolf for the Society for American Baseball Research's Biography Project. "That pitch made the difference in my major-league career.”
Not nearly so dominant but still victorious June 10, Garver gave up a whopping 18 hits but went the distance and won his fourth straight as the Browns outlasted Washington 10-9. He was rocked again June 16 by Boston, giving up 10 runs and three homers in seven innings as the Red Sox won 10-5.
But in his next start Garver was sharp again with his two-hitter, and off on another roll.
As can be seen by the scores of the June 10 and season-ending games, the Browns, despite their dismal record, weren't always guilty of nonsupport behind Garver. They scored in double digits behind him in three games and averaged 4.7 runs a game, better than their overall average of 4.0 that was last in the American League. However, they averaged only 2.0 in Garver's 12 losses.
When it came to going for 20 wins on Sept. 30, Garver showed the perseverance and resourcefulness that had carried him all season. Starting on three days rest for the third straight start, he looked shaky early, giving up two runs apiece in the third and fourth innings, but he held the White Sox to one run over the final five innings.
He also helped himself by going 2-for-4 at bat with his first homer of the season, snapping a 4-4 tie. Garver batted a career-high .305 (29-for-95) with nine RBIs in ’51. Yes, it was a career year for him all around.
Garver also got plenty of other help as the Browns rapped out 13 hits, led by Fred Marsh who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and a two-run homer. St. Louis scored two runs apiece in four separate innings.
The turnout of 14,771 that Sunday for their third-highest crowd of the season was almost four times the Browns' average attendance, and they saw an eyeful. Besides Garver getting his 20th and the Browns getting some runs, Veeck treated the crowd to a pregame basketball contest between the Harlem Globetrotters and a team made up of former college stars and Browns players, on a court set up in the infield between second and third base. After that, one of the basketball players, accomplished accordionist Tony Lavelli, gave a pregame concert.
And showing his ever-present sense of humor, Veeck, who'd bought the Browns in July 1951, rearranged the outfield flags depicting the position of all eight AL teams, so that the Browns sat on top, in first place.
Garver, who won two games in relief in 1951, became the first hurler to reach the 20-win plateau for a last-place team since Hollis “Sloppy” Thurston of the Chicago White Sox in 1924. Others who've done it are Howard Ehmke (Boston Red Sox, 1923), Carlton and Nolan Ryan (California, 1974). Garver remains the only live-ball era pitcher to win 20 games on a club that lost 100 or more.
He was also the first Browns pitcher to win 20 games since Bobo Newsom in 1938.
Garver was considered one of the game's great sportsmen, always likable, approachable and good-natured, but the 1951 MVP vote stuck in his craw. Berra the Yankee had 184 balloting points to 157 for Garver. Those two along with Allie Reynolds, another Yankee, tied for most first-place votes with six, but Garver got only two second-place votes.
"I was called by The Associated Press in Cleveland," Garver said. "I was told that I won the night before the award was announced. The Associated Press congratulated me for being the MVP. The next morning they called me again and told me they were sorry, but I didn't win the award after all. Apparently, New York writers left me off the ballot entirely. I don't have any bitterness toward baseball except for this."
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| St. Louis Browns pitcher Ned Garver presents a trophy on behalf of his teammates to team president Bill Veeck, center, a few hours after Veeck fired unpopular Rogers Hornsby as manager. The trophy bears the inscription, "To Bill Veeck: For the greatest play since the Emancipation Proclamation. June 10, 1952. From the Players of the St. Louis Browns." (AP photo) |
“I was a sinker-slider ball pitcher,” he told Wolf. “I accidentally developed the slider playing catch in St. Louis. I had good control and could throw from different spots — sidearm or overhand. I already had a curveball and a sinker. All of a sudden I threw a slider. I could feel it when it left my hand. I threw the ball again with the same pressure from my finger, and that son-of-a-biscuit moved."
Garver, whose previous high in wins had been 13 in 1950, never had it quite so good after 1951, although he had his moments and reached double figures in wins eight of his 14 years. Bothered by arm and neck woes, he slipped to 8-10 in 1952, although he had a lower ERA, 3.60, than in '51.
Besides the injuries, Garver also had to adjust to a new manager. Zachary Taylor, who Garver credited with being a big influence on his development -- "like a father to me" -- had been replaced by Rogers Hornsby. Hornsby may be the greatest right-handed hitter in the game's history. But he was never known as Mr. Personality.
"(Hornsby didn't help) your attitude, confidence (or) your approach to hitters," Garver said. "Good God, I played for (him) in 1952, and he didn't even know your name."
Once in a hotel elevator, Hornsby derided Garver for walking the opposing pitcher in the game that day. The problem was Clint Fannin, not Garver, was the guilty party.
Hornsby lasted only 51 games before Veeck gave him the boot. When Veeck got rid of the Rajah on June 8, the relieved and excited players presented their owner with a 3-foot trophy they had inscribed, “To Bill Veeck: For the greatest play since the Emancipation Proclamation.” Pitcher Gene Bearden said, “They ought to declare a national holiday in St. Louis.”
Garver never won more than 14 games in a season after '51 as arm and leg problems continued to plague him. It also didn't help that of the four teams he played for, only the Tigers in 1955 had a winning season.
Garver finished his career with a 129-157 record and a 3.73 ERA.
A farm boy from Ney, Ohio (population 300) born on Christmas Day in 1925, he retired to the Ney area and continued to build on farming investments he'd made through the years while also working for a local meat packing company.
Garver died Feb. 26, 2017, at age 91. An entirely honorable life. An entirely honorable baseball career. But boy, did he do some dirty work, in an entirely honorable way, for the St. Louis Browns in 1951.
Sources:
Ned Garver's 1951 pitching log: https://www.retrosheet.
Article on Garver's 20th win: https://sabr.org/
Garver biography: https://sabr.org/
Additional background came from various sources on the Retrosheet and Society for American Baseball Research's Biography Project websites, as well as baseballreference.com.
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