Williams always on after time off

Ted Williams always had a knack for coming back with a bang for the Boston Red Sox after time off, whether because of injury, illness, a war or just the off-season. An example was Sept. 14, 1950, when in his first start back after missing two months with a busted elbow, he went 4-for-6  in a 12-9 victory over the St. Louis Browns.

By Phil Ellenbecker

  John Updike, in his classic baseball story "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu," about Ted Williams' final game, wrote: "Williams is the classic ballplayer of the game on a hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill."
  I don't know hot it was, it wasn't August, but I think a game Ted Williams played on Sept. 15, 1950, meets that description.

  Only 1,910 fans were on hand that Friday afternoon at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis to watch Teddy Ballgame go 4-for-6 with three RBIs, two runs scored and a homer as his Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Browns 12-9.

  The Browns were on their way to a seventh-place finish in the American League that season and they only averaged 3,340 fans a game, last in the league, so the smattering that showed up wasn't too surprising. Six years removed from their first and only American League pennant, such had the following for the Browns waned that it took them playing a midget in 1951 and using a legendary pitcher in his mid-40s, Satchel Paige, to drum up interest in their final years before they moved to Baltimore in 1954.

  But make no mistake, because of the presence of Williams, Sept. 15, 1950, was a special day, and a lot was at stake for him. It was a special day because of what he did and when it came.

  Williams was making just his fourth appearance and his first start in more than three months -- since he'd shattered his elbow making a diving catch at the All-Star Game on July 11. He'd drawn two walks and singled in a run as a pinch hitter in three games earlier in the week. Then he emphatically declared himself back with his Friday performance.

 But then, this was just part of what became a pattern of Williams rising to the occasion after he'd spent time off -- because of injury, illness, a war or the off-season. Other examples:

 --In 1954, he missed the first month of the regular season because of a broken collarbone suffered in his first spring workout when he fell trying to catch a fly ball. In his first starts back May 15 he went 8-for-9 with two homers, seven RBIs and three runs scored in Boston's Sunday doubleheader loss to Detroit.

 (Ironically, Williams, never known as a proficient or dedicated defensive player, missed significant action in both '50 and '54 when he was injured while trying to make a fielding play.)  

 --In 1957, after he hadn’t played since Sept. 1, he went on a streak in which he reached base 16 consecutive times from Sept. 17-Sept. 23. He hit home runs in his first four official at-bats starting off the streak.  Williams had been plagued by a chest cold that kept him in bed until Sept. 9.  

  --In 1946, after missing three full seasons because he was in the service during World War II, he homered in his second at-bat on Opening Day.

  --Speaking of Opening Day, Williams hit safely in 13 of 14 Opening Day games, with a .444 average and .880 slugging average, three homers, seven doubles, a triple, 14 RBIs and 13 runs scored. On his final Opening Day in 1960, he homered in his first at-bat.

  Williams' feats in 1957 and on Opening Days are covered elsewhere in this blog at https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5021738065653311661&pli=1#editor/target=post;postID=5629622216634602183;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=51;src=postname and at https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5021738065653311661&pli=1#editor/target=post;postID=5523375228163578369;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname .

  In this entry we'll take a closer look at what he did upon his returns in 1950 and 1954.

1950

  Coming back from his busted elbow, the Red Sox eased Williams back into the lineup, but Williams hadn't eased off in making pitchers work. In his first at-bat since the July 11 All-Star Game, pinch hitting for pitcher Mickey McDermott on Sept. 7, Williams drew a walk from the New York Yankees' Tom Ferrick, then was replaced on the bases by Jimmy Piersall, making his major league debut. He didn't play in a Saturday doubleheader, then pinch hit again, walked again and Piersall ran for him again in the eighth inning Sept. 10 against the Philadelphia Athletics. Piersall came around to score on a three-run double by Tom Wright that snapped a 2-2 tie in a 6-2 victory.

  Williams doubled in a run in the eighth inning off the St. Louis Browns' Dick Starr when he pinch hit again Sept. 14, after taking another game off. Fred Hatfield ran for him this time. St. Louis won the game 6-3.

  Williams reassumed his regular left field spot the next day and had his aforementioned 4-for-6 game in Boston's 12-9 victory.

  After grounding out, singling and flying out his first three times up, Williams busted out with a three-run homer off Don Johnson in the sixth. His 26th homer of the year gave the Red Sox a 5-2 lead. He singled his final times up in the eighth and ninth, scoring on a Vern Stephens' single in the eighth to give the Red Sox an 11-8 lead. That made it seven times reaching base in his first nine times up coming back from injury.

  Williams went on to finish the season hitting .317 with 28 homers and 97 RBIs, career lows to date in average and RBIs, but his homers were still good enough for sixth in the league despite the time missed. Nevertheless ..

  "The year 1950 might have been on tap to become his best ever," wrote Bill Nowlin in his Society for American Baseball Research biography. At the All-Star break Williams had been tied for the league lead in homers with 25 and RBIs with 83.

  As for the Red Sox, his absence might have cost them a pennant. As it was, they came in third with a 94-60 record, four games back of the Yankees and one behind Detroit.

Harry Agganis, right, shares a moment with Boston Red Sox teammate Ted Williams at a banquet. Five times Agganis scored on hits by Williams as Teddy Ballgame went 8-for-9 in a doubleheader loss May 14, 1954. This was Williams' first full-time action of the seaaon after he broke a collarbone in spring training. Agganis' career came to a tragic end next year when he died of a pulmonary embolism June 26 at age 26. 

 1954 

  Williams, after missing the first month with the broken collarbone, was back into the fray a little more quickly than in 1950, but he still came off the bench before taking his place in the lineup, going 0-for-2 in a 2-1 loss May 15 at Detroit. He flied out as a pinch hitter in the seventh, took his place in left field and then grounded out with two out and nobody on for the final out of the game.

  The next day in Detroit, 42,957 showed up for the Sunday twin bill at Briggs Stadium, 9,459 less than capacity and what would be the Tigers' sixth-highest attendance for the season. They were treated to a full dose of Teddy Ballgame, plus a pair of nail-biting ballgames, both won by the hometown team.

  Williams went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored as Detroit took the first game 7-6. He was even better but still not enough in the nightcap -- 5-for-5 with two homers, a double, five RBIs and two runs scored in a 9-8 setback that took 14 innings. It was the third and what would be the final five-hit game of his career, and his second 5-for-5.

  Williams capped his day in grand style by belting a two-run homer in the eighth of the nightcap off Ray Herbert with Harry Agganis aboard, giving the Red Sox an 8-7 lead. Williams was then replaced in left field by Charlie Maxwell, who moved over from right. A Michigan native, Maxwell became known as "Sunday Charlie" for his exploits on the Sabbath when he joined the Tigers. (But on this day he was Sorry Charlie, as he went 1-for-6.)

  Williams had tied the game at 6-6 two innings earlier when he singled in Agganis. He'd given Boston a 3-2 lead when he led off the third with a homer, and then singled in the fourth.

  Agganis scored the first of his three runs via a Williams hit in the first when Ted singled him in, making the score 2-0 Boston.

  (Agganis was in his rookie year, but his career was cut tragically short next year when he came down with pneumonia and died of a pulmonary embolism June 26 at age 26. Known as "The Golden Greek," he is a New England legend, having grown up in Lynn, Massachusetts, and starring in football as a two-way threat at Boston University.)

  The Tigers sent the game into extra innings with a run in the bottom of the ninth and won it in the 14th on Ray Boone's homer.

  With his three runs in the second game, Agganis scored five times on the day on Williams hits, as he crossed the plate on Ted singles in the third and seventh innings of the opener. Agganis' tally in the third started a four-run rally that gave Boston a 4-2 lead. He made it 5-3 in the seventh in the 6-3 win.

  Williams singled in the second and grounded out back to the pitcher in the fifth.

  He finished the season with a .345 average, 29 homers (second in the league) and 89 RBIs (ninth).  

  Williams would have won the batting title but fell 14 at-bats short of having the requisite 400 to qualify. Not only did the month off at the beginning hurt him, so did his league-leading 136 walks, as this was before total plate appearances were used to figure the batting champ. (Bobby Avila won the crown with a .341 average.)

  Unlike in 1951, Williams' absence didn't Boston's pennant chances, as the Red Sox finished 69-85, 42 off the blistering 111 wins of Cleveland. The win total was Boston's lowest between 1933 and 1960, Ted's final year.

 After the 1954 season, Williams said he was retiring in what may have been a strategic move in a divorce. He did not make a start in the 1955 season until May 28 but he was far from through, winning his fifth and sixth batting titles in 1957 and '58.

Sources:

Ted Williams career (with links to daily breakdowns by year): https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/W/Pwillt103.htm

Sept. 15, 1950: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1950/B09150SLA1950.htm

May 16, 1954: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1954/B05161DET1954.htm and https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1954/B05162DET1954.htm

Ted Williams biography: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/35baa190

Harry Agganis biography: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/69d56ecd
Additional background came from various sources on the Retrosheet and Society for American Baseball Research's Biography Project and Games Project websites, as well as baseballreference.com