MICKEY VERNON

By Paul Wysard

Stats from www.baseball-reference.com

This two-time AL batting champion specialized in stroking line drives from chalk to chalk and into all corners.  The seven-year gap between hitting titles (1946 & '53) ties legendary shortstop Luke Appling (1936 & '43) as the second widest ever.  Ted Williams (1948 & '57) is first. Respected baseball historian Bill James has rated Vernon at # 23 on the list of the best first basemen, and following are some other views of the career over the years.

1. A Young Fan in the 1940s
When this contributor was 10 years old, into Major League baseball for the first time, subtlety and nuance within the game were not yet understood or appreciated.  The important aspects were:  Who had the highest batting average?  Who hit the most homeruns?  Who were the 20-game winners?  And so, in 1946, one of my first heroes was Mickey Vernon, AL batting champ at - wow! - .353.  What was also special was that he was not a Yankee or a Dodger or a Cardinal and that he was not on a pennant-winner, as stars Williams and Musial and DiMaggio had been.  He played for the 4th-place Washington Senators, about whom I knew little other than they were not supposed to be very good, but that a great pitcher named Walter Johnson had been a "Nat."

There was an older father of a friend down the street, a retired Army officer, who always had a copy of The Sporting News at hand and who knew all the teams and players and pennant races.  He would talk about the game for as much and as long as his son and friends wanted.

   "Is Mickey Vernon a star?" I asked one day.

   "Yes," the old man replied, " but it's different."

   "Why? What does that mean?"

   "Well, he doesn't play in New York or Boston.  That's where the most people are and that's where many important newspapers are printed. Mr. Williams has trouble with reporters and Mr. DiMaggio doesn't, but either way, they're written about all the time and thousands of people read about them.  That's not so with Vernon in Washington, especially this year, when the folks there are more interested in politics."

   "Oh. . . and, gee, Mickey had 51 doubles!"

   OPS was an unused statistic in the 1940s, and Vernon was not a power-hitting first baseman along the lines of Mize and Greenberg and York, but his number in that area in that year was just over .900, very respectable even 60 years later, when his position is expected to produce at least that much.  He hit 8 homers in that title year; today 35 or 40 are a must.  It was a remarkable season for him.

   Imagine, then, the disappointment over the next two campaigns when Vernon's averages dropped to .265 and then to a nightmarish .242. The OPS declined over 200 points to under .700 in 1948.  There were no injuries in those years, and Vernon had not discussed this very-apparent slump in articles and interviews.  Was he finished as a player at 30?

2. A Somewhat Older Fan in the 1950s
Mentioned many times in TDA articles has been Branch Rickey's credo: "Trade a man JUST BEFORE his skills decline."  Whether or not the Senators subscribed to that tendency is not clear, but they chose to trade Vernon to the Cleveland Indians prior to the 1949 season.  The Ohio Tribe had just won it all, but were willing to part with Eddie Robinson, a first baseman with more power and three years younger, in exchange for Vernon.  Both players performed as hoped for their new clubs -- just about .290, 18, 80 in each case. Robinson went on to have three even better years for the White Sox in the early '50s, but the compelling aspect of Vernon's work (for our purposes here) was the dramatic increase in homeruns, which were essentially doubled from previous highs.  Years later, he said that many of the long balls he hit in the Capitol's Griffith Stadium would have gone out elsewhere.  A modest, team player, he essentially was hinting that he could have ALWAYS been at the 20-homer level had he played elsewhere earlier, although he never, ever, complained about playing conditions in Washington.  And yet there is much to support the idea of power arriving in one's 30s, because when he returned by trade to the Senators, he hit 10, then 15, then 20 homeruns in 1952-54.  In 1956, he spent a season in Boston, with fellow close-to-40 Ted Williams, and the two old-timers combined for .327, 39 homers and 166 RBI. Of his 172 career homers, well over one-half were hit after the age of 33.

   But Vernon's finest year was 1953.  Along with his AL-leading .337, he reached career highs in RBI (115), runs scored (101), and once again was tops in doubles (43).  All of that, however, was accompanied by controversy.  Indian third baseman Al Rosen, with whom Vernon had played briefly in 1950, was poised to seize the Triple Crown.  Some players of the time have told of an intense desire to prevent that through a Vernon batting title. Vernon has said nothing about it, but two Senators have claimed they purposely made outs in front of their teammate on the last inning of the last day, which preserved  the .337 against Rosen's .336.  If true, it was neither the first nor last time such plots have been successfully hatched.  A superb season in any case.

3. Looking Back a Half-Century Later
Many older fans, such as this contributor/observer, constantly seek comparisons as we watch players today and remember predecessors from yesterday.  A conviction here was that John Olerud was a reincarnation of Mickey Vernon.  Both were tall, left-handed both ways, and very smooth and smart around first base. Primarily line-drive hitters to all corners and gaps, both could also fist the little flares over the heads of shortstops and third basemen to earn themselves another hit along the roads to well over 2,000.  Both were patient in the batter's box, with little fussing and fidgeting followed by a successful stroke at an attractive pitch.  The past tense is in force here because Vernon, of course, is long retired, and Olerud is winding down  his career as a part-timer for the Red Sox.

   It would be perhaps rewarding, and certainly interesting, if the comparitive theory was acceptable.  It is not.  Although the similarities reviewed above exist, in addition to a high .280s career average in each case,  these two players exhibit very significant differences.  Olerud is a much bigger man, at 6'5", 220, while Vernon, in his playing days, was 6'2", 185, fairly tall for the times, but not at all huge by modern criteria. The temptation to meld these two performers is enhanced by their attainment of more than .350 in a season through the "all-fields" hitting style featuring more than 50 doubles. The congruity ends there.

   Mickey Vernon could RUN --- 120 career triples and 137 career steals.  Olerud, in contrast, has reached only about 10% of those totals in all of the years he has played.  Olerud's power is much more evident.; as this is written, he hit two more homers to close in on 250, while Vernon finished at 172. 

   If we wish to play the comparitive game --- and we are not compelled to do so --- which players today might be viewed as similar to Vernon? This contributor suggests two:  One is the Braves' Adam LaRoche, with his still, simple swing, and the other is the Twins' Justin Morneau, who could hit like Vernon if he would be more selective.  In any case, those youngsters face a long road ahead if they are to match or exceed the accomplishments of Vernon --- one of the game's pillars.

4. The Early Years
Born and raised in the greater Philadelphia area, Vernon was a high school star and talented enough to play in an industrial league, many of which dotted the country in the mid- and late-1930s.  Villanova wanted him and came through with a baseball scholarship for his freshman year.  His frosh coach also managed Easton(Md.) in the Class D Eastern Shore League, and convinced the young player to sign on for the summer of 1937.  A .287 mark, coupled with fine fielding in 83 games, caught the eyes of the Senators and they took on his contract.  The next few years reflected the advancement of a typical prospect in those days as Vernon began his long career.

1937    Easton      Eastern Shore League    Class D
1938   Greenville(S.C.) SAL"Sally"League  Class B
1939   Springfield(MA)   Eastern League     Class A
1939    Washington    AL    (.257 in 76 games)
1940    Jersey City    International League    Class AAA
1940    Washingon     AL  (September call-up)
 

   In 1941, after tastes of the Majors mixed with the varying minor league experiences, Vernon took over at first base for the parent club.  1941 was a special year, with several younger players making their marks alongside the stars of the day --- DiMaggio, Williams, Feller, Keller, Doerr, and Joe Gordon.  Vernon was among the better newcomers, although not technically a Rookie, with a batting line of  .291, 9, 93. Except for two years of World War II military service, he would be a regular at his post in the AL through age 38 in 1956.

5. Vernon talks about Vernon
     In 2001, Jim Sargent interviewed the old-timer for a fine article in Baseball Digest.    The following quotes are shared through the courtesy of that writer and story.

   On the gap between batting titles and a couple of off-years in the late 1940s:  
Sure, I was hitting the ball sharply back in '46, but you can hit it hard all season and not do a thing if you're unlucky enough to be hitting it right at somebody... When you see the ball dropping just inside the foul lines instead of just outside them, or when you see fielders just missing balls instead of catching them, you know it's luck that helps your average.

  On being sent down at the start of 1940:
I was leading the Eastern League in hitting when they called me up and I hated to go back (the next year) to the minors, but Jersey City was the best thing that could have happened to me... There were guys on the way up and guys on the way down. So it was a good experience for me.  

  On being traded to Boston at age 38:
Boston was all right. The weather was good (and) you could stay stronger longer.  I liked it (and)   Mr. Yawkey was a great guy to play for.  But it was too late in my career to get sent up there.  I wished I had gone up there ten years earlier.

  On special thrills:
In the spring of 1954, President Eisenhower came out to the ballpark to present the silver bat to me.  I think that's the only time a President made that presentation to a batting champion.

Beating out Ted Williams (in 1946) for the batting title (.353 to .342).

     The man who ranks third, all-time, in games played at first base with 2,237, was also a virtual "lifer" in the sport, spending 51 years on and near professional diamonds.  After putting aside his glove, he managed in the Majors, in the Pacific Coast League, and in the International   League.  He coached in St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Kansas City,  Los Angeles, and Montreal.  Finally, he served the Yankee organization as a minor league hitting instructor and scout before retiring in 1987.

     The game would mean less to many of us without without having seen, and now remembering, the contributions of Mickey Vernon.        

Games - 2,409
Runs - 1,195  
Hits - 2,495   
RBI - 1,311    
Home Runs - 172  
Steals - 37      
Average - .286