Who Was: Vic Wertz
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by user LouGehrig
Who Was: Vic Wertz
By Harold Friend
On August 6, 1954, the first place Cleveland Indians had 73-32 won-lost record (.695), but despite their blistering pace, the Indians' lead over the Yankees, who were attempting to win their sixth consecutive pennant, was a razor thin 1 1/2 games. The Indians were doing it with pitching. Their five starters all were having outstanding seasons. Bob Lemon and Early Wynn would each win 23 games, Mike Garcia would win 19 and lead the league in ERA, former Tiger Art Houtteman would win 15 games, Rapid Robert Feller would go 13-3, and the bullpen duo of righty Ray Narleski and lefty Don Mossi would save what had to be saved. Pitching wins games, but pitchers need runs. Recognizing that fact, on June 1, the Indians acquired left handed hitting outfielder Victor Woodrow Wertz from the Baltimore Orioles. Although Wertz had never played first base in the majors, Indians' manager Al Lopez decided that he would be his first baseman. It was a good move.
Wertz was having a sub par season with the Birds from Baltimore, batting only .202 with 1 home run in 29 games, but Wertz was a powerful batter who was only twenty nine years old. He had hit 19 home runs the previous season for the Orioles in Memorial Stadium, which was a pitcher's park, and had four consecutive seasons (1949-1952) in which he hit 20 or more home runs. To put those numbers in perspective, in 1952, Wertz' 23 home runs were only 9 fewer than league leader Larry Doby's 32.
Vic Wertz made his major league debut in 1947 with the Detroit Tigers. He joined a team that included future Hall of Famers George Kell and Hal Newhouser, as well as standouts Hoot Evers, Birdie Tebbets, Virgil Trucks, and Dizzy Trout. Wertz saw a lot of playing time for the Tigers, who finished second that season, 12 games behind the Yankees. He hit .288, but with only 6 home runs in 102 games as the team's fourth outfielder. The following season, Wertz suffered the sophomore jinx, hitting only .248 with 7 home runs, but then his career took off, as he averaged 24 home runs a season for the next four years. One game that Wertz remembered until his dying day was the day his home run was the only Tigers' hit off Bob Lemon in a 2-1 loss on May 29, 1951.
Wertz made his Cleveland Indians' debut on June 2 as an unsuccessful pinch hitter in an 8-7 Cleveland victory against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. An interesting sidelight to the game is that Yankees' manager Casey Stengel relieved starter Allie Reynolds after eight innings, a move that was questioned because after a shaky start, Reynolds had settled down to hurl four consecutive scoreless frames. The Yankees scored seven runs in the first inning and were held hitless for the next nine as the Indians finally tied the game in the ninth and then won it in the tenth on a two out Al Smith home run.
The Indians set an American League record in 1954 by winning 111 games, one more than the 1927 Yankees. The 2001 Seattle Mariners won 116, but unlike the 1954 Indians and the 1927 Yankees, the Mariners played 162 games and lost 46 for a .716 percentage. The 1954 Indians played .721 ball, losing only 43 games, so although the Mariners won more games, the Indians won a greater percent of their games.
Wertz had a good second half of the season for the Indians, hitting .275 with 14 home runs in only 295 at bats, as the Indians ended the Yankees pennant streak at five. The Tribe, however, was not finished with New York. The Giants won the National League pennant.
The World Series opened at the Polo Grounds on September 29. Remember, teams played 154 game schedule and a playoff occurred only if there were a tie for the pennant, which explains the "early" World Series starting date. Bob Lemon started for the Indians, opposed by the Giants' Sal Maglie. It was a memorable game for Vic Wertz, but one that he would not remember fondly despite getting four hits. He might have had five, which would have made all the difference in the world.
In the top of the first, Maglie was uncharacteristically wild, missing badly with his first three deliveries and then plunking lead off hitter Al Smith in his side, bringing American League batting champ Bobby Avila to the plate. Maglie missed with his first delivery to Avila and then finally fired a strike. Bobby lined Maglie's third pitch into right field for a clean single that right fielder Don Mueller fumbled for an error, allowing Smith to race to third. With Indians on the corners and no outs, Maglie settled down to retire Larry Doby and Al Rosen on infield pop ups. There were still runners on first and third, but now with two down.
Vic Wertz was the hitter. Maglie checked the runners on first and third and delivered. Wertz hit a line drive to deep right center field, over Don Mueller's head. The ball caromed off the wall and by the time Willie Mays caught up to Wertz' drive, the Indians led, 2-0 with Wertz on third. Maglie retired Dave Philley to retire the side and although no one knew it, the Indians were finished scoring.
The Giants tied the game in the third with the type rally that used to be the way teams usually scored before the Earl Weaver approach of going for the three run home run was embraced by most modern managers. Whitey Lockman led off with a single to right against Lemon and Al Dark hit a hard ground ball past the mound, over second, into center for a base hit, moving Lockman to third. Don Mueller, whose .342 season's batting average was second only to Willie Mays' league leading .345, hit a ground ball to second. Bobby Avila got the force out on Dark for the first out as Lockman scored the first Giants' run. Lemon then walked Mays, moving Mueller to second with the potential tying run. Henry Thompson, a powerful left handed hitter, tied the game with a hard single to right, moving Mays to third. With runners on first and third with only one out, it seemed as if the Giants would go ahead, but Lemon fanned Monte Irvin and got Davey Williams on a ground out.
Lemon and Maglie exchanged zeroes as the Indians came to bat in the eighth. What an inning. Larry Doby led off with a walk against Maglie. Al Rosen followed with hard single off shortstop Al Dark's bare hand, giving the Tribe runners on first and second with no outs. Vic Wertz, who already had three hits, was the batter.
Giants' manager Leo Durocher had seen enough of Maglie. He brought in left hander Don Liddle to face Wertz. The count went to two balls and one strike. What followed is now referred to simply as "The Catch."
Liddle delivered to the left handed hitter and Wertz connected. He sent a towering drive to deep center fielder, well over the head of Willie Mays. Willie turned his back to home plate as he raced the baseball and made a magnificent over the shoulder catch to rob Wertz of at least a double, maybe a triple, and the Indians of at least one run and maybe two. Doby tagged up after the catch, moving to third, but instead of taking the lead, the Indians were still tied with runners on first and third and one out. Wertz had hit the ball well over 400 feet and all he had to show for it was moving Doby from second to third.
Durocher took out Liddle, who after the game, joked that "Hey, I got my man," and brought in the veteran Marv Grissom to face Hank Majeski, who had been announced as a pinch hitter for the switch hitting Dave Philley. When Grissom was announced, Indians' manager Al Lopez countered with left handed hitter Dale Mitchell, who would become famous as the pinch hitter who struck out against Don Larsen in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. This time, Mitchell walked to load the bases with Indians and one out.
Weak hitting shortstop George Strickland was the scheduled batter, but Lopez pinch hit with lefty batter Dave Pope. In one of the game's pivotal points, Grissom got Pope on a called third strike. Jim Hegan could manage only a routine fly ball and the game remained tied. Instead of being remembered as the hitter whose hit won the first game of the 1954 World Series, Vic Wertz would be remembered as the hitting the ball that led to the greatest catch in World Series history.
The Giants won in the tenth inning when pinch hitter Dusty Rhodes hit what the newspapers referred to as "a lazy pop up down the right field line" that reached the stands, barely 270 feet away, for a three run home run off Bob Lemon, who pitched the complete game.
Vic Wertz had gotten his fourth hit of the game when he led off the Indians' tenth with a double. He was taken out for a pinch runner as the Indians again failed to score with a runner on third and less than two outs. In the bottom of the inning, Rhodes hit his "blast." Vic Wertz hits a 425 shot and is retired while Dusty Rhodes hits a short fly 271 feet to right field and is a hero. As the old baseball axiom says, "It ain't how you hit 'em. It's where you hit 'em."
Vic Wertz had his best two seasons with the Indians when he hit .264 with 32 home runs in 1956 and .282 with 28 home runs in 1957. The Yankees won the pennant each of those seasons, as well as in 1955 and 1958. Now, while winning 9 pennants in 10 seasons is great, if the Indians hadn't stopped them in 1954, the Yankees would have won an incredible 10 consecutive American League pennants from 1949-1958.
On December 2, 1958, Vic Wertz was traded to Boston along with Gary Geiger for Jimmy Piersall, and in 1960, in a park not friendly to left handed pull hitters, he managed 19 home runs and 103 RBIs. It was the fifth time in his career in which he had at least 100 RBIs.
On September 8, 1961, Wertz was claimed off waivers by his first team, the Tigers, who were involved in a pennant race with the Yankees, although by September 8, the Yankees had established a commanding lead over the slumping Tigers. Vic was released by the Tigers in 1963, picked up by the Twins, and was released by the Twins on October 15, 1963. He was a powerful hitter, a good fielder, and is remembered for something that someone else accomplished.
References:
Dean, Bill. “Catching Up With Vic Wertz’s 1954 World Series Drive: Willie Mays’ Catch of Cleveland Slugger’s Deep Fly Was Outstanding Regardless of How Far the Ball Actually Traveled.” Baseball Digest. October 2005.
Drebinger, John. “Giants Win in 10th From Indians, 5-2, On Rhodes Homer; Wertz Gets 4 Hits.” New York Times 30 September 1954: 1.
Sheehan, Joseph M. “Yankees Bow to Indians in Tenth; Avila 4-Bagger Ties Score in Ninth.” New York Times 3 June 1954: 33.
“Vic Wertz.” Baseball-Reference. <http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/wertzvi01.shtml>
