On august 15, 1954 at Ebbets Field Gil Hodges hits his 200th career homerun. His blast came in the 5th off Al Corwin in 9-4 Dodger victory. The last HR of his career was #370, which put him tenth on the all-time list and first among all right-handers in the history of the National League….
Brooklyn defeats Giant stalwart Sal Maglie in Ebbets Field, roughing him up for six runs on 11 hits. Since coming into the National League in 1945, the “Barber” had recorded 10 straight victories in the Brooklyn ballpark.
In the first game of a doubleheader, Giants right fielder Don Mueller hits for the cycle in the team’s 13-7 victory over the Pirates at the Polo Grounds. ‘Mandrake the Magician,’ who homers in his final at-bat to complete the deed, will be the only major leaguer to accomplish the feat this season.
On May 2, 1954, Now you know why they call Stan Musial Stan the Man. No other hitter in major league history ever hit five home runs in one day. Only nine days ago Musial was bumping along at .250. gripped by the same slump that tortured him| last spring. Now he is hitting .400…
Willie Mays, who missed nearly two seasons due to military service, homers in his first game back, a sixth-inning blast off Carl Erskine that will prove to be the difference in the Giants’ 4-3 Opening Day victory over Brooklyn. The 22 year-old center fielder’s prodigious poke may have traveled over 600 feet if it had not been impeded by the upper left-field stands at the Polo Grounds.
In a six-player trade, the Braves deal a pair of southpaws, Johnny Antonelli and Don Liddle, catcher Ebba St. Claire as well as shortstop Billy Klaus to the Giants in exchange for playoff hero Bobby Thomson and backstop Sammy Calderone. Milwaukee’s new outfielder will break his ankle in an exhibition game and will appear in only 43 games, while Johnny Antonelli posts a 21-7 record, leading the league with an ERA of 2.30 for his new team in New York.
With Giants manager Leo Durocher yelling “stick it in his ear”, Ruben Gomez hits Carl Furillo, the National League’s leading hitter, on the wrist by a pitch. After taking first base, the Dodgers right fielder bolts into the opposing dugout to choke ‘Leo the Lip’, but in the melee, the knuckle on his little finger is fractured, putting an end to his season.
The Giants’ Whitey Lockman leads off the game with a home run for the second day in a row, as the Giants whip the Braves, 7 – 5.
Giant rookie Al Worthington throws a four-hitter, blanking the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, 6-0. The whitewashing, which halts Brooklyn’s record NL streak of homering in 24 consecutive games and marks the only game this season the team will not a score, makes the 24 year-old right-hander the first National League freshman this century to throw consecutive shutouts at the start of a career, a feat that Karl Spooner will also match next season.
On April 29, 1953, Joe Adcock of the Milwaukee Braves becomes the first major league player to blast a home run into the center-field bleachers at the Polo Grounds. Adcock’s titanic shot against the New York Giants travels an estimated 475 feet, helping the Braves beat the Giants 3-2. Adcock’s blast was off Jim Hearn…