1953 in baseball

Champions

Major League Baseball

Other champions

Winter Leagues

Awards and honors

Statistical leaders
  American League National League
TypeNameStatNameStat
AVGMickey Vernon WSH.337Carl Furillo BKN.344
HRAl Rosen CLE43Eddie Mathews MIL49
RBIAl Rosen CLE145Roy Campanella BKN143
WinsBob Porterfield WSH22Robin Roberts PHP &
Warren Spahn MIL		23
ERAEd Lopat NYY2.42Warren Spahn MIL2.10
KsBilly Pierce CHW186Robin Roberts PHP198

Major league baseball final standings

Events

January

February
  • February – Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch purchases the St. Louis Cardinals franchise, an ownership that would last until the start of 1996, when William DeWitt, Jr. took over. Sportsman's Park is renamed Busch Stadium.

March
  • March 13 – Boston Braves owner, Lou Perini, announced he was moving the team to Milwaukee, where the Braves had their top farm club, in time for the 1953 season.
  • March 28 – Jim Thorpe, famed American Indian athlete considered by many as the greatest athlete in recorded history, died in Lomita, California at the age of 64. A native of Prague, Oklahoma, Thorpe played six seasons of Major League Baseball between 1913 and 1919, mostly for the New York Giants, in addition to his Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon competition, while playing and coaching for a long time in the National Football League.[1]

April
  • April 13 – In Cincinnati over 30,000 see the Milwaukee Braves win their first game, 2–0, behind the pitching of Max Surkont
  • April 17 – New York Yankees Mickey Mantle hit the longest home run in Griffith Stadium history, a 565-feet shot off Washington Senators Chuck Stobbs. The Yankees win, 7–3.
  • April 29 – Joe Adcock of the Milwaukee Braves hits the first home run ever hit over the center field wall of the Polo Grounds. The shot, measured 475 feet, comes off Jim Hearn in the third inning of the Braves' 3–1 victory over the New York Giants.
  • April 30 – The Little-Bigger League changes its name to the Babe Ruth League.

May

June

July

August
  • August 30 – In game one of a doubleheader, Jim Pendleton hit three home runs, as the Milwaukee Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field, 19–4, while tying a major league record for the most home runs in a single game with eight, held by the New York Yankees since 1939. Besides, Pendleton became only the second rookie in history to hit three home runs in one game, joining his teammate Eddie Mathews, who dit it just a year earlier.[3] In the second of the twin bill, the Braves hit four more long balls and crushed again Pittsburgh, 11–5. Moreover, the 12 homers in a doubleheader shattered the previous mark of nine. This time, Mathews belted four dingers for the day, which gave him a National League-leading 43. Matthews would finish the season with 47 home runs, 30 of them on the road, setting also a major league record.[4] Previously, only the New York Yankees had ever hit more home runs in consecutive games, or in a doubleheader. The Yankees hit eight home runs in a 23–2 victory in the first game of a doubleheader, and five homers in a 10–0 win in the second game, played on June 28, 1939 against the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park.[5]

September
  • September 2 – The St. Louis Cardinals overcome a three-run inside-the-park home run by shortstop Ted Kazanski to beat the Philadelphia Phillies‚ 10–7. Rip Repulski hits his 20th home run of the season for St. Louis‚ breaking the team's rookie record set by Johnny Mize in 1936. The Cardinals hammer 10 hits off Phillies starter Robin Roberts to hand him his 12th loss.
  • September 12 – Carl Erskine defeats the Braves 5–2, as the Brooklyn Dodgers clinch the pennant earlier than any other team in history.
  • September 13 – Pitcher Bob Trice becomes the first black player in Philadelphia Athletics history.
  • September 14 – The New York Yankees clinch their 5th straight pennant with an 8–5 win over the Cleveland Indians. Second baseman Billy Martin has 4 RBIs.

October
  • October 5 – The New York Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4–3, in Game 6 of the World Series, to win their record-setting fifth consecutive World Championship and sixteenth overall, four games to two. Billy Martin was the star of the Series with a record-setting 12 hits, including the game-winning single in the bottom of the 9th of Game 6 to clinch the title.
  • October 7 – Bill Veeck, facing dwindling attendance and revenue, is forced to sell the St. Louis Browns to a Baltimore-based group led by attorney Clarence Miles and brewer Jerry Hoffberger. The Browns would move to Baltimore and be known as the Baltimore Orioles starting in the 1954 season.
  • October 28- After a dispute with Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, Dodgers announcer Red Barber resigns from his position and takes a job doing radio broadcast for the rival New York Yankees. Barber was upset that he could not get a higher fee from Gillette, who sponsored the T.V. broadcast of the 1953 World Series, and that O'Malley refused to support him.

November
  • November 9 – Reaffirming its earlier position, the United States Supreme Court rules, 7–2, that baseball is a sport and not a business and therefore not subject to antitrust laws. The ruling is made in a case involving New York Yankees minor league player George Toolson, who refused to move from Triple-A to Double-A.
  • November 10 – The New York Giants end their tour of Japan. It is reported that each Giants player received just $331 of the $3,000 they were promised.
  • November 24 – The Brooklyn Dodgers sign Walter Alston to a one-year pact as their manager for 1954. Alston will manage the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers over the next 23 seasons, winning 2,040 games and four World Championships.

December
  • December 1 – The Boston Red Sox trade for slugger Jackie Jensen, sending P Mickey McDermott and OF Tom Umphlett to the Washington Senators. Jensen will average 25 home runs a year for his seven seasons for Boston, lead the American League in RBI three times, and win the Most Valuable Player Award in 1958. A fear of flying will end his career prematurely.
  • December 9 – The U.S. Supreme Court upholds Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption and the reserve clause in Toolson v. New York Yankees, Inc.

Movies

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Deaths

January
  • January   1 – Doug McWeeny, 56, pitcher who played for the Chicago White Sox, Brooklyn Robins and Cincinnati Reds over seven seasons between 1921 and 1930.
  • January   2 – Harry Atkinson, 78, left fielder for the 1895 St. Louis Browns.
  • January   3 – Joe Houser, 61, pitcher who played for the Buffalo Buffeds of the outlaw Federal League in 1914.
  • January   3 – Chuck Workman, 37, right fielder and third baseman who played for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates in parts of four seasons spanning 1938–1946.
  • January   5 – Mike Cantwell, 58, pitcher who played with the New York Yankees in 1916 and for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1919 to 1920.
  • January   5 – Pete Lapan, 61, backup catcher for the Washington Senators in 1922 and 1923.
  • January   9 – Pat Carney, 76, pitcher who played from 1901 through 1904 for the Boston Beaneaters of the National League.
  • January 11 – Doc Moskiman, 73, first baseman and right fielder for the Boston Red Sox in its 1910 season, who also spent parts of 13 seasons playing minor-league and independent-league ball, pitching more often than not and obtaining considerably good results.[6]
  • January 14 – Charlie Small, 47, center fielder who played for the Boston Red Sox in its 1930 season.
  • January 15 – Carl East, 58, outfielder and pitcher who played with the St. Louis Browns in 1915 and for the Washington Senators in 1924.
  • January 21 – Lorenza Cobb, 64, Negro league baseball catcher who played for the Indianapolis ABCs, West Baden Sprudels, St. Louis Giants and Lincoln Giants over seven seasons spanning 1914–1920.
  • January 21 – José Rodríguez, 58, Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame infielder whose 18-year career in professional baseball included a stint with the New York Giants of the National League from 1917 to 1918.
  • January 24 – Ben Taylor, 64, National Baseball Hall of Fame player, manager, coach and umpire, who played for 24 different teams in Negro League Baseball between 1908 and 1941, being considered the best first baseman in black baseball prior to the arrival of Buck Leonard and one of the most productive players offensively, while collecting a .334 lifetime batting average and hitting over .300 in fifteen of his first sixteen years in baseball.[7][8]
  • January 27 – Merv Shea, 52, catcher who played for seven teams in a span of eleven seasons from 1927–1944, before becoming a long-time scout for the Chicago Cubs.
  • January 28 – Howie Haworth, 59, catcher who made seven game appearances for the Cleveland Indians in its 1915 season.
  • January 31 – Mike Handiboe, 65, backup outfielder for the 1911 New York Highlanders.

February

March

April
  • April   3 – Larry Benton, 55, pitcher who played for the Boston Braves, New York Giants and Cincinnati Reds over parts of thirteen seasons from 1923–1935, leading the National League with 25 wins and 28 complete games in 1928, and twice in W-L record from 1927 to 1928.
  • April   5 – Tex Erwin, 67, catcher who played with the Detroit Tigers in 1907, and for the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Superbas, Robins and Dodgers clubs in a span of five seasons from 1910–1914.
  • April   5 – Connie Walsh, 70, pitcher who appeared in one game for the Pittsburgh Pirates in its 1907 season.
  • April   5 – Herb Gorman, 28, first baseman who made a pinch-hit appearance for the 1952 St. Louis Cardinals
  • April 11 – Kid Nichols, Hall of Fame pitcher who posted 361 victories for the seventh most wins in Major League Baseball history, died in Kansas City, Missouri at the age of 79. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Nichols anchored the pitching staff of the Boston Beaneaters between 1890 and 1901, guiding Boston to five National League championships in his first nine seasons with the club. He surpassed the 30-victory plateau seven times from 1891–1894 and 1896–1898, as his career record shows that he hurled 20 or more wins in ten consecutive seasons from 1891–1994 and in 1904.[16] In addition, he remains as the youngest pitcher to reach the illustrious 300-win milestone, getting there months before his 31st birthday. His most productive season came in 1892, when he had a 35–16 record and won two games in the league's Championship Series as the Beaneaters defeated Cy Young and the Cleveland Spiders.[17] Nichols remained with Boston through 1901, when the team let him go in an effort to save money.[18] After a two-year lapse, he returned to the majors as manager and pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1904 to 1905 and ended his career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1905.[16] Overall, Nichols posted a 2.96 ERA, led the National league in wins for three straight years from 1896 to 1898, pitched more than 300 innings in every season but three and more than 400 five times while pitching 532 complete games and 48 shutouts in 562 starts,[16] and was never removed from a game for a relief hurler.[19] Besides, his record of seven seasons with 30 or more victories is a mark that is likely to stand forever, since the implementation of five-man rotations, pitch count and inning limits in modern baseball.[18]
  • April 14 – Roy Patterson, 77, Chicago White Sox pitcher best remembered for throwing the first pitch and recording the first win in the first official American League game on April 24, 1901, defeating the Cleveland Blues at Chicago's South Side Park, 8–2, while collecting an 81-72 career record and 2.75 ERA for Chicago in seven seasons from 1901–1907, including AL pennants in 1901 and 1906, though he did not pitch for the 1906 World Series champion White Sox team.[20]
  • April 16 – Sam Gray, 55, pitcher who played for the Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Browns over ten seasons from 1924 to 1933.
  • April 18 – Harry Niles, 72, outfielder and second baseman who played from 1906 through 1910 for the St. Louis Browns, New York Highlanders, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Naps.
  • April 18 – Cotton Tierney, 59, second baseman and third baseman who played from 1920 to 1925 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers, being honored by his great-great-nephew Jeff Euston, who created in 2005 a website named Cot's Baseball Contracts,[21] which track all salaries of MLB players, contracts, bonuses, service time and franchise values.
  • April 26 – Don Brennan, 49, who played for the New York Yankees, Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants in a span of five seasons from 1933–1937.
  • April 29 – Gene McAuliffe, 81, backup catcher for the 1904 Boston Beaneaters

May

June

July

August

September

October
  • October   5 – Rags Faircloth, 61, pitcher who made two appearances for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1919.
  • October 17 – Jim Delahanty, 74, one of five Delahanty brothers to play in the majors, a fine defensive second baseman who had a 13-year career with eight teams spanning 1901–1915, while batting a solid .283/.357/.373/.730 line and 1,159 hits in 1,186 career games.

November

December

Sources
  1. Jim Thorpe Is Dead On West Coast at 64. Article published at The New York Times on March 29, 1953. Retrieved on February 25, 2018.
  2. Ball, Bat and Bishop: the Origin of Ball Games. Henderson. by Robert W. (2001). University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-25-206992-5.
  3. Milwaukee Braves Heroes and Heartbreak. Povletich, William (2009). Wisconsin Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-0-87-020423-4
  4. August 30, 1953: Milwaukee Braves set National League home run record. Article and box scores published by SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on February 24, 2018.
  5. New York Yankees 10, Philadelphia Athletics 0 (2). Game Played on Wednesday, June 28, 1939 (D) at Shibe Park. Retrosheet box score. Retrieved on February 24, 2018.
  6. Doc Moskiman. Article written by Bill Nowlin. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 18, 2019.
  7. Ben Taylor. Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Retrieved on June 18, 2019.
  8. Ben Taylor. National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved on June 18, 2019.
  9. Clyde Milan. Article written by Tom Simon. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 19, 2019.
  10. Pitchers Stealing Home. Article written by Leonard Gettelson.SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 19, 2019.
  11. A thorough account of pitchers who have started both games of a doubleheader in the major leagues. Article written by J.G. Preston. Retrieved on June 19, 2019.
  12. May 2, 1917: Fred Toney and Reds prevail 1–0 in double no-hitter against Cubs' Hippo Vaughn. Article written by Mike Lynch. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 19, 2019.
  13. Fred Toney statistics and history. Retrosheet. Retrieved on June 19, 2019.
  14. Jim Thorpe Biography. Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved on June 19, 2019.
  15. Jim Thorpe (1887–1953). IMDb. Retrieved on June 19, 2019.
  16. Kid Nichols Statistics and History. Baseball Reference. Retrieved on February 24, 2018.
  17. 1892 Championship Series Boston Beaneaters over Cleveland Spiders (5–0–1). Baseball Reference. Retrieved on February 24, 2018.
  18. Kid Nichols Biography. Baseball Hall of Fame Official Website. Retrieved on February 24, 2018.
  19. Kid Nichols Obituary. The New York Times, Sunday, April 12th, 1953. Retrieved from The Deadball Era on February 24, 2018.
  20. Roy Patterson. Article written by Terry Bohn. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 21, 2019.
  21. Cot's Baseball Contracts. Baseball Prospectus. Retrieved on June 24, 2019.
  22. A thorough account of pitchers who have started both games of a doubleheader in the major leagues. Article by J.G. Preston. PrestonJG website. Retrieved on June 25, 2019.
  23. Sam Leever. Article written by Mark Armour. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 25, 2019.
  24. Ray Grimes. Article written by Bill Nowlin. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 25, 2019.
  25. Jesse Burkette batting and fielding statistics. Retrosheet. Retrieved on June 20, 2019.
  26. Jesse Burkett. Article written by David Jones. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on February 25, 2018.
  27. Year by Year Leaders for Batting Average / Batting Champions. Baseball Almanac. Retrieved on February 25, 2018.
  28. Arnold Rothstein and Baseball's 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Article written by David Pietrusza. Retrieved on June 25, 2019.
  29. Jim Tabor. Article written by Maurice Bouchard. Retrieved on June 25, 2019.
  30. Jack Pfiester. Article written by Stuart Schimler. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 26, 2019.
  31. Buck Herzog. Article written by Gabriel Schechter. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 26, 2019.
  32. Tom Dougherty. Batting and pitching statistics. Baseball Reference Retrieved on June 13, 2019.
  33. Billy Maharg. Article written by Bill Lamb. SABR BiographyProject. Retrieved on June 26, 2019.
  34. Ed Barrow. Article written by Daniel R. Levitt. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 27, 2019.
  35. Pinch Thomas. Article written by Joanne Hulbert. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 27, 2019.
  36. Patsy Donovan. Article written by David Jones. SABR Biography Project. Retrieved on June 27, 2019.
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