1952 – Enos Slaughter of the Cardinals walks twice in the 5th inning. Teammate Stan Musial chips in with a home run and a double in the inning, as St. Louis scores 11 runs against Dave Koslo. The Giants pitcher loses the game 14 – 4, his first loss to St. Louis after 13 straight victories since June 11, 1950.
1952 – Bob Elliott of the Giants is tossed from the Cardinal game for protesting a strike two call and his replacement, Bobby Hofman, is also thrown out for arguing the third strike of the same at-bat.
Sal Maglie heads for the visitors clubhouse at Sportsman’s Park after being pinch hit for in the 6th inning on 6/2/52 with the Giants trailing St. Louis 5-4. The Cards held the one-run lead, handing Sal his first loss after 9 straight victories.
Giant reliever Hoyt Wilhelm homers in his first major league at-bat, a fourth-inning blast off Dick Hoover in the team’s 9-5 victory over Boston at the Polo Grounds. During the next 21 years, covering 1070 games and 432 official at-bats, the knuckle-balling future Hall of Fame hurler will never homer again.
Stealing considerable thunder from Brooklyn’s victorious home opener, a 7 – 6, 12-inning triumph, Willie Mays makes the catch he’ll later call his greatest. The Associated Press reports: “Willie Mays, army-bound centerfielder of the New York Giants, astounded an opening day crowd of 31,032 fans at Ebbets Field with a sensational catch of a drive by Bobby Morgan in the 7th inning.” With two out, two on and the Dodgers down by one, “the sophomore star made a diving, sliding catch of a sinking liner near the left centerfield wall that robbed Morgan of a potential triple.” Unfortunately for Mays, Ebbets Field’s Little League dimensions afford little leeway for such hijinks. “I go and catch the ball in the air,” Mays recalls 45 years later. “I’m in the air, like this, parallel. I catch the ball, I hit the fence. Ebbets Field was so short that if you run anywhere you’re going to hit a fence. So I catch the fence, knock myself out.” “As he lay motionless,” reports the New York Times, “players of both sides rushed to his aid. All, that is, but the three Dodgers on the bases, who continued their wild dash for the plate, only to learn Willie had held on to the ball for the third out.” Willie’s impression is that the first player to reach his side has a somewhat less altruistic agenda. “The first guy that I saw – there were two guys – when I open my eyes, was Leo Durocher and Jackie Robinson. And I’m saying to myself, ‘Why is Jackie out here?’ Jackie came to see if I caught the ball, and Leo came to see about me.”
On April 2, 1952, New York Giants star Monte Irvin breaks his ankle sliding into third base during an exhibition game against the Cleveland Indians. The injury will force the slugging outfielder to miss most of the 1952 season.
The New York Yankees took the AL pennant by five games over Cleveland in 1951. Meanwhile, in the National League, the Dodgers had a 13-game lead in August before the Giants rattled off 16 straight victories to catch Brooklyn in the last week of the season, and the two teams finished tied at 96 wins….
1951 – The Baseball Writers Association of America name Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees as American league Rookie of the Year. The Chicago White Sox object to McDougald’s accolade, offering the statistical accomplishments of their superlative rookie, Minnie Miñoso.
1951 – Hank Bauer’s bases-loaded triple in Game 6 of the World Series propels the New York Yankees to a 4 – 3 win over the New York Giants and their third straight Series victory.
In the opening game of the World Series, the first all-black outfield in major league history makes its appearance when Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, and Hank Thompson take the field for the Giants at Yankee Stadium. Leo Durocher, in a curious move, replaces the previously injured outfielder Don Mueller in right field with Hank Thompson, a third baseman by trade, and uses veteran outfielder Bobby Thomson at the hot corner.