February 6 – The Cleveland Indians sign veteran outfielder Pete Reiser as a free agent. Reiser, 32, was a National Leaguebatting and stolen base champion and a "five-tool" star for the pre-World War IIBrooklyn Dodgers, but a plethora of serious injuries—shoulder separations, broken bones (including a skull fracture), and concussions, most of them sustained when he ran fearlessly into outfield walls in pursuit of fly balls—has wrecked his career. Released in November 1951 by the Pittsburgh Pirates, his third NL team, Reiser will hit only .136 in 34 games for Cleveland in 1952, most of them as a pinch hitter, through July 5 in what is his last year as an active player.
February 16 – Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, 77, retires after 40 years as a major league player and coach. He receives a pension from the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he spent most of those years.
February 21 & 26 – Thomas Fine of Cuba's Leones de la Habana hurls the first no-hitter in Caribbean Series history, a 1–0 masterpiece against Al Papai and Venezuela's Cervecería Caracas. Through 2013, it has been the only no-hitter pitched in Series history. Five days later, Fine is only three outs from consecutive no-hitters before he allows a single in the ninth inning of the Habana club's 11–3 victory over Panama's Carta Vieja Yankees. Fine's 17 consecutive hitless innings pitched record remains the longest in Caribbean Series history.
March
March 1 – With the opening of spring training, MLB umpires are sent to the 16 clubs' camps to warn players against fraternizing with fans and opposing players. League presidents institute fines of $5 (initial offense) and $25 (repeat offenses) for violation of the rule. The warning, which is chiefly to combat gambling on game outcomes, is instituted in the wake of the 1951–1952 college basketball "point-shaving" scandal.
March 20 – Philadelphia Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer, who took a hard line with his players by imposing an "austerity program" at the club's spring training camp—banning wives, automobiles, clubhouse card games, and golf (among other things), and enforcing a strict curfew—is so pleased by the Phils' improved performance that he relaxes some (though not all) of the restrictions he had implemented. However, the club gets off to a sluggish 4–7 April start and Sawyer will resign before June is out.
April
April 1 – The 59-year-old Pacific Coast League begins its 180-game regular season as a member of an experimental level within Minor League Baseball called the "Open Classification." Elevated from Triple-A status, the PCL's "Open" designation marks its first step in a bid to become the third major league. In addition, the ability of MLB teams to draft PCL players is restricted, and member clubs are discouraged from signing working agreements with big-league "parent" organizations.
April 19 – In their second meeting of 1952, the Brooklyn Dodgers gain their second straight victory over the arch-rival New York Giants, 11–6, backed by five Brooklyn home runs. Ralph Branca earns the complete-game triumph; it's the first time he's faced the Giants since giving up the pennant-deciding "Shot Heard 'Round the World" home run to Bobby Thomson on October 3, 1951. Thomson goes hitless in four at bats, with one base on balls, today.
Veteran Negro leagues catcher Quincy Trouppe makes his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians. At 39 years of age, he is one of the oldest rookies in major league history. Three days later, Trouppe is behind the plate when relief pitcher Toothpick Sam Jones enters the game, forming the first black battery in American League history.
In the seventh inning at Fenway Park, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox hits a game-winning, two-run home run off Dizzy Trout of the Detroit Tigers to break a 3–3 tie on "Ted Williams Day." It is Williams' final game of the season before he departs for the Korean War to serve as a Marine fighter pilot. He plays only six contests in 1952 and goes four-for-ten, with today's blast his only home run of the campaign.
May 9 – The White Sox score three runs in the top of the 16th inning, then hold the Detroit Tigers off the scoreboard in the home half to claim an 8–5 win at Briggs Stadium. Future Hall-of-Famer Minnie Miñoso's triple is the key blow in the ChiSox' triumph.
May 21 – At Ebbets Field, the Brooklyn Dodgers set a Major League record by scoring 15 runs in the first inning of a 19–1 pounding of the Cincinnati Reds. All nine Dodgers in the starting lineup both score a run and bat in a run in that first inning.
May 28 – New York Giants sophomore centerfielder Willie Mays goes hitless in four at bats, dropping his 1952 batting average to .236 in 34 games. But his Giants defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers 6–2 at Ebbets Field, improving their record to 26–8 (.765) and they extend their lead over Brooklyn to 2½ games. After Mays is called into Korean War military service the following day, the Giants will finish second in 1952 and fifth in 1953 before Mays' return to baseball in 1954.
May 29 – Boston Red Sox pitcher Mickey McDermott faces 27 batters and fires a one-hitter to beat the Washington Senators, 1–0, at Fenway Park. Mel Hoderlein's fourth-inning single is the only Washington hit and he is thrown out while trying to stretch his single into a double.
The last-place Pittsburgh Pirates split their twin bill with the St. Louis Cardinals at Forbes Field, improving their season mark to 9–33 (.214). En route to a 42–112 final record, the Bucs have already endured losing streaks of ten, eight and six games.
Rogers Hornsby's second tour of duty as dugout boss of the St. Louis Browns ends after only 51 games (and only 22 victories), when owner Bill Veeck replaces him with player-managerMarty Marion. The Browns' players celebrate the firing by presenting Veeck with a trophy after tonight's 7–4 victory over the Boston Red Sox to thank the owner for "emancipating" them from the irascible Hornsby's reign.
Future Hall-of-fame southpaw Warren Spahn throws a 15-inning complete game at Braves Field, but loses to the visiting Chicago Cubs, 3–1. Future pitcher (then outfielder) Hal Jeffcoat has the Cubs' game-winning hit, a two-run triple.
June 16 – Colorful, well-traveled, 44-year-old right-hander Bobo Newsom changes uniforms for the final time, when he's released by the Washington Senators and signed by the Philadelphia Athletics. Since he first arrived in the majors in 1929, Newsom has pitched for nine different franchises, playing multiple stints for four of them (the Senators and Athletics included). Retrosheet and Baseball Reference[1] list 23 different transactions over Newsom's long career, which will finally end in November 1953 with him posting a 211–222 record in 600 MLB games, including three 20-victory and three 20-loss seasons.
June 20 – In a night game at Sportsman's Park, the St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators play to an 18-inning, 5–5 tie before a curfew halts the game. Satchel Paige of the Browns, age 46, throws ten shutout innings in relief. Each team has 14 hits. While the statistics will count for the players, the game will have to be replayed from scratch.
June 25 – At Comiskey Park, Chicago White SoxshortstopChico Carrasquel fractures his little finger during a 9–6 loss to the Washington Senators‚ which drops Chicago four games out of first place. Carrasquel will reinjure it on July 9 and be out of the lineup until August 19. The injury to Carrasquel will prove to be a key factor in the team's disappointing third-place finish. The White Sox will reacquire slick-fielding shortstop Willy Miranda from the Browns on June 28—thirteen days after they traded him—in an effort to plug the gap.
July 1 – After 18 innings of play, the Cleveland Indians and visiting St. Louis Browns remain knotted 2–2. Then, in the top off the 19th, the Browns break through to take a 3–2 lead on Jim Delsing's RBI single. But in the bottom of the 19th, the Indians re-tie the game on Al Rosen's double, then win it 4–3 on recently acquired Hank Majeski's pinch single. The decisions go to two notable pitchers: the winner, left-hander Lou Brissie, is a World War II combat veteran who wears a brace to support his badly wounded left leg; the loser, eventual Baseball Hall of FamerSatchel Page, is a 46-year-old veteran of the Negro leagues. Brissie throws ten innings of one-run relief, while Paige goes 102⁄3 and allows just two runs on eight hits and eight bases on balls.[2]
July 4
The standings at the end of today's holiday doubleheaders, which mark the midpoint of the MLB season, show the arch-rival Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants again battling for supremacy of the National League, with Brooklyn (49–21) three games in front of the Giants (46–24). In the American League, the New York Yankees (43–28) hold a 2½-game advantage over the Chicago White Sox (43–33).
Not even two years removed from battling for the 1950 AL pennant, the Detroit Tigers (23–49) languish in last place in the Junior Circuit, 20½ games behind the Yankees. In response, the Tigers fire manager Red Rolfe, and replace him with an active player, 32-year-old pitcher Fred Hutchinson, who has won 95 games for Detroit over his nine years with the team. The move launches Hutchinson's 12-year career as a big-league skipper, which will include recognition as MLB Manager of the Year (1957) and a National League pennant-winning season (1961).
July 19 – Joe Reliford, the 12-year-old batboy for the Fitzgerald Pioneers of the Class DGeorgia State League, is allowed by the home-plate umpire to pinch hit in an official game; Fitzgerald is trailing 13–0 in the eighth inning at the time. After grounding out sharply to third base, Reliford plays an inning of defense in centerfield. He becomes the youngest player to ever appear in Minor League Baseball, and also breaks the color line in the segregated GSL. In the aftermath of his appearance, the league fires the umpire, Fitzgerald's manager is suspended for five games, and Reliford is relieved of his batboy job.[3]
July 23 – The Washington Senators, one of the surprise teams of the American League, win their ninth game of their last 11 with a 16-inning, 5–2 triumph over the Detroit Tigers at Briggs Stadium. Starting pitcher Spec Shea allows only one earned run over 14 frames before he's relieved by eventual winner Sandy Consuegra. Washington is now 50–40, in third place and only 5½ games behind the New York Yankees.
August 3 – The woeful (28–76) Pittsburgh Pirates deal the second-place New York Giants a shocking Sunday doubleheader setback at the Polo Grounds, taking the twin bill by scores of 7–0 and 10–8 (six innings, called due to darkness). Pittsburgh's winning pitchers, Murry Dickson and Howie Pollet, are both veterans of the St. Louis Cardinals' contending teams of the 1940s. The two losses, coupled with Brooklyn's doubleheader sweep of the Chicago Cubs, drop the Giants (60–37) to 6½ games behind the front-running Dodgers.
August 5 – Hall-of-Fame hitter Rogers Hornsby, whose departure from the St. Louis Browns' managerial job in June was controversially celebrated by his former players, gets another chance to manage in the major leagues. The Cincinnati Reds, who are 42–61 and seventh in the National League, name Hornsby, 56, the replacement for former skipper Luke Sewell, who was fired July 30. Hornsby, considered the greatest right-handed hitter in NL history (.358 lifetime batting average), coaxes the 1952 Reds to a 27–24 record through season's end. Cincinnati will be the seventh and final stop in Hornsby's MLB managerial career.
August 8 – United States Air ForceMajorBob Neighbors, a former shortstop who played six pro seasons (1936–1941)—including seven September 1939 games with the St. Louis Browns—before becoming a USAAF pilot during World War II, does not return from a bombing mission during the Korean War. Missing and presumed killed in action, Neighbors, 34, is believed to be the only MLB player who lost his life during the Korean conflict.[4] (See Deaths entry for this date below.)
August 10 – In his first MLB appearance, 20-year-old minor-league phenom Ron Necciai, called up by the Pittsburgh Pirates, gives up five runs in the top of the first inning to the Chicago Cubs before settling down to work six full frames. He's tagged with seven earned runs and the 9–5 loss. Necciai had gained fame May 13 by striking out 27 batters in a nine-inning game in the Class DAppalachian League, and 281 hitters in only 169 innings pitched through August 1952. He will win only one of seven MLB decisions in 12 appearances, then, plagued by ulcers, be out of baseball by 1956.[5]
August 15 – Tigers pitcher Virgil Trucks fires his second no-hitter of the season, a 1–0 shutout over the host New York Yankees. Previously, Trucks held the Washington Senators without a hit on May 15. Trucks is one of five pitchers to throw two no-hitters in a season, being the others Johnny Vander Meer (1938), Allie Reynolds (1951), Nolan Ryan (1973) and Roy Halladay (2010, with one of his no-hitters coming in the postseason).[6] Hurling for the 50–104, cellar-dwelling 1952 Tigers, Trucks will post a career-worst 5–19 won–lost record, but two of his five victories will be no-hitters.
August 16 – In a game that lasts only 61⁄3 innings before it's halted by rain, the Brooklyn Dodgers pile up 15 runs and 15 hits, put up "crooked numbers" in four innings, and blank the visiting Philadelphia Phillies, 15–0.
August 23 – The New York Yankees break a virtual tie for first place with the visiting Indians when Vic Raschi outduels future Hall-of-FamerEarly Wynn 1–0. Joe Collins provides the Yanks' run with a fourth-inning double and Raschi improves his record to 15–3. The following day, the Bombers increase their margin to two games when they defeat Detroit 4–2 and Cleveland loses a marathon, 16-inning contest to Washington, 9–8.
September 13 – Buffalo Bisons outfielder Frank Carswell wins the International League batting title with a .344 average, leading also the league with 30 home runs while driving in 101 runs and slugging .587.[7]
September 16 – In the American League's second-longest contest of 1952, the Chicago White Sox outlast the Boston Red Sox 4–3 in 17 innings. The Bosox are in the midst of a horrific 7–20 month of September that drops them two games under .500 by season's end.
September 21
Mired in the midst of a ten-game losing streak, the seventh-place Boston Braves drop their final home game, 8–2, to the visiting, pennant-bound Brooklyn Dodgers to fall to a 63–85 mark. The contest is witnessed by 8,822 fans at Braves Field, bringing the year's attendance to 281,278—by far the fewest in the majors (and over 237,000 fans fewer than the next-worst team, the St. Louis Browns). Few know it today, but those fans have seen the last National League game to be played in Boston: the Braves will abruptly relocate to Milwaukee in the midst of spring training in 1953.
The Hollywood Stars win the 1952 Pacific Coast League title in the PCL's first season at the "Open Classification" level. One of two clubs in Los Angeles, the Stars finish third in attendance, behind the league-leading Angels and the Portland Beavers. Its "Open" designation, intended to help the PCL attain major-league status, will last through 1957, when the Dodgers and Giants invade California.
September 23 – The Brooklyn Dodgers (95–54) clinch their ninth-ever National League championship (since 1890), coming back from a 4–1 deficit to edge the Philadelphia Phillies 5–4 in the first game of an Ebbets Field double-header. Johnny Rutherford is the unsung hero, throwing a complete game in what will be his final regular-season MLB appearance.
At Ebbets Field, rookie third baseman Eddie Mathews of the Boston Braves slugs three home runs in his club's penultimate game, leading Boston to an 11–3 victory. Mathews, 21, will earn a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame, belting 512 career homers in a 17-year career; he will also be known as the only man to play for the Braves in Boston (1952), Milwaukee (1953–1965) and Atlanta (1966).
Billy Meyer, manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates since 1948, announces he will retire after the season "for a healthier job." Meyer, 59, won the 1948The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award, but his 1952 team is on the verge of a 42–112 debacle. He remains with the Pirates as a scout until his 1957 death, with the team retiring his uniform #1 in 1954.
October 7 – The New York Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4–2, in the decisive Game 7 of the World Series to win their fourth straight World Championship title – tying the mark they set between 1936 and 1939 and fifteenth overall. Billy Martin saves the day by snaring a two-out, bases-loaded infield pop off the bat of Jackie Robinson. Gil Hodges goes hitless again and is 0-for-21 in the Series. This is the Yankees' third defeat of the Dodgers in six years.
October 15 – The Boston Red Sox remove player-managerLou Boudreau from their active roster, enabling him to better focus on his managerial duties. Boudreau will remain at the Bosox' helm for two more seasons. His unconditional release ends the playing career of the former star shortstop and playing skipper of the Cleveland Indians, a future Baseball Hall of Famer.
November 28 – International League president Frank Shaughnessy reveals plans to form two new major leagues by merging the top teams in the American Association and the top teams from the IL. Shaughnessy thinks that in five to six years, Major League Baseball will elevate these two leagues, along with the Pacific Coast League, which nearly has MLB status now.
November 30 – On a local New York TV program, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers charges that the New York Yankees management is racist for its failure to bring up a black player. Yankees executive George Weiss denies the allegations.
December
December 2 – The Pittsburgh Pirates draft relief pitcher Elroy Face from the Montreal Royals, the top minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers. During a 15-year career with the Pirates, Face will lead the National League in saves three times and will be a three-time All-Star, as well as his amazing 18 relief wins in 1959 remains a major league record.
Brooklyn Dodgers' vice president Buzzie Bavasi dismisses the New York Yankees' reaction to the Jackie Robinson racism charges. Commissioner Ford Frick plans no action against Robinson. Two days earlier, Robinson had called the Yankees a racist organization for its failure to promote a black player to the parent club.
January 8 – Art Evans, 40, pitcher for the 1932 Chicago White Sox.
January 10 – Bones Ely, 88, one of the top defensive shortstops of his generation and also a versatile two-way player, whose 19-season professional career included stints with eight major league teams in three different leagues in a span of fourteen seasons between 1884 and 1902.[8]
Walter O. Briggs Sr., 74, industrialist and co-owner of the Detroit Tigers from 1919 to 1935, and sole owner from 1935 until his death.
Solly Salisbury, 75, pitcher who played in 1902 with the Philadelphia Phillies.
January 20 – Ollie Pickering, 81, outfielder for six major league clubs in three different leagues between 1896 and 1908, who entered the record books as the first ever batter in American League history, when he faced Chicago White Sox pitcher Roy Patterson as a member of the Cleveland Blues on April 24, 1901.[9][10]
January 24
Ángel Aragón, 61, third baseman for the New York Yankees in three seasons from 1914 to 1917, who was also the first Cuban and Latin American player to wear a Yankees uniform.[11]
March 20 – Harry Bay, 74, outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds and the Cleveland Bronchos and Naps in a span of eight seasons from 1901 to 1908, who led the American League in stolen bases in 1903 and 1904.
Deacon Phillippe, 79, pitcher who played for the Louisville Colonels in 1899 and for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1900 through 1911, whose 13-season career was highlighted by pitching a no-hitter in his seventh career game with the Colonels, winning four National League pennants and the 1909 World Series with the Pirates, while winning three games of the 1903 World Series against the eventual champions Boston Americans, and prevailing in a pitching duel with Cy Young in Game 1 of the best-of-nine series, as his five decisions in the World Series are still a record for a pitcher.[13]
May 1 – Ernie Johnson, 64, middle infielder and third baseman whose 10-year career included stints with four teams from 1912 to 1925, being also a contributor to the 1923 World Series Champion Yankees, slashing .297/.333/.385 for the club in the regular season, and scoring the series-deciding run as a pinch runner in Game 6 against the New York Giants.
Red Dooin, 72, catcher (1902–1914) and player-manager (1910–1914) for the Philadelphia Phillies who caught 1,219 games for the team and posted a record of 392–370 (.514) as its skipper; also played for the Cincinnati Reds (1915) and New York Giants (1915–1916).
July 3 – Fred Tenney, 80, first baseman and manager whose career lasted 17 seasons from 1894 to 1911, who was ranked behind only Hal Chase among first basemen of the Deadball Era, being also considered the originator of the 3-6-3 double play, while leading the National League in putouts in 1905 and 1907–1908 as well as in assists each year from 1901 through 1907, setting a major-league record with 152 in 1905 that lasted until Mickey Vernon topped it in 1949, hitting over .300 seven times and retiring with a .294/.371/.358 slash line, including 2,231 hits, 1,134 runs scored and 688 runs batted in.[16]
July 11 – Dutch Leonard, 60, left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers over eleven seasons from 1913 to 1925, who earned two World Series rings with Boston in 1915 and 1916, while leading the major leagues with an earned run average of 0.96 in 1914, setting a modern-era season record that still stands.[17]
August 8 – Bob Neighbors, 34, shortstop for the 1939 St. Louis Browns, who later served as a pilot in the Korean War and was shot down, making him the most recent major leaguer to be killed in battle.[19]
August 30 – Arky Vaughan, 40, Hall of Fame and nine-time All-Star shortstop, who hit .300 or better in each of his first 10 major league seasons, all with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1932 to 1941, winning the National League batting crown with a .385 average in 1935, while leading the league in runs and triples three years apiece, as well as stolen bases once; died tragically when a sudden storm capsized his fishing boat on Lost Lake, near his Northern California home.[20]
September 8 – Ed Hearne, 64, shortstop who played briefly with the Boston Red Sox in 1910.
September 13 – Al Clauss, 61, pitcher for the 1913 Detroit Tigers.
September 16 – Earl Sheely, 59, first baseman who posted a .300 batting average with the Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Braves in nine seasons between 1921 and 1931, serving later as a scout for the Boston Red Sox and general manager for the Triple-A Seattle Rainiers, earning a Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame induction for his contributions to the league over the years.[21]
October 8 – Joe Adams, 74, pitcher for the 1902 St. Louis Cardinals, who later became a successful manager in the minor leagues, being a mentor for future Hall of Famers Frank Chance and Ray Schalk, among others, while earning the nickname of Godfather of the Eastern Illinois League, according to the 1908 Spalding Guide.[22]
October 11 – Roy Beecher, 68, pitcher for the New York Giants from 1907 to 1908.
October 14 – Jim Banning, 87, 19th century catcher who played for the Washington Nationals of the National League in parts of two seasonsd from 1888 to 1889.
October 17 – Vince Shields, 51, Canadian pitcher for the 1924 St. Louis Cardinals.
October 22 – Howard McGraner, 63, pitcher who played with the Cincinnati Reds in 1912.
October 26
Tom Angley, 48, backup catcher for the Chicago Cubs in its 1929 season.
Mike Murphy, 64, catcher who played with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1912 and for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1916.
December 6 – Don Hurst, 47, first baseman who played from 1928 through 1934 for the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs, leading the National League with 143 RBI in 1932.
^Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles (2007). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. p. 466. ISBN 978-1-932391-17-6.
