1952 in baseball

The following are the baseball events of the year 1952 throughout the world.

Champions

Major League Baseball

• World Series: New York Yankees over Brooklyn Dodgers (4-3)
• All-Star Game, July 8 at Shibe Park: National League, 3-2 (5 innings)

Other champions

• All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: South Bend Blue Sox
• College World Series: Holy Cross
• Japan Series: Yomiuri Giants over Nankai Hawks (4-2)
• Little League World Series: Norwalk National, Norwalk, Connecticut

Winter Leagues

• 1952 Caribbean Series: Senadores de San Juan
• Cuban League: Leones del Habana
• Dominican Republic League: Águilas Cibaeñas
• Mexican Pacific League: Tacuarineros de Culiacán
• Panamanian League: Carta Vieja Yankees
• Puerto Rican League: Senadores de San Juan
• Venezuelan League: Cervecería Caracas

Awards and honors

• MLB Most Valuable Player Award
  • Bobby Shantz, Philadelphia Athletics, P
  • Hank Sauer, Chicago Cubs, OF
• MLB Rookie of the Year Award
  • Harry Byrd, Philadelphia Athletics, P
  • Joe Black, Brooklyn Dodgers, P
• The Sporting News Player of the Year Award
  • Robin Roberts, Philadelphia Phillies
• The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award
  • Eddie Stanky, St. Louis Cardinals

MLB statistical leaders

Major league baseball final standings

Events

January–March

• January 31 – Harry Heilmann with 203 votes, and Paul Waner with 195, become the newest members of the Hall of Fame.
• 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 – Thomas Fine of Cuba's Leones de la Habana hurled 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.
• February 26 – Thomas Fine was three outs from consecutive no-hitters in the Caribbean Series, having allowed a single in the ninth inning to break it up, in an 11–3 Cuba's victory over Panama's Carta Vieja Yankees. His 17 consecutive hitless innings pitched record still as the longest in Series history.
• March 24 – St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Slaybaugh is hit in the left eye with a line drive, necessitating an operation to remove the eye. Slaybaugh will pitch briefly in the minors in 1953-54 and then retire.

April–June

• April 23 – Bob Cain and the St. Louis Browns defeat Bob Feller and the Cleveland Indians, 1–0, in a game in which both pitchers throw a one-hitter.
• April 30
  • Veteran Negro League 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.
  • Ted Williams hits a two run home run to break a 3-3 tie on "Ted Williams Day" at Fenway Park. It was Williams' final game of the season before his departure for the Korean War to serve as a Marine fighter pilot.
• May 5 – Mickey Mantle's father dies of Hodgkin's Disease, and Mantle will miss six games while attending the funeral and seeing to family matters in Oklahoma.
• May 13 – Ron Necciai of the Bristol Twins strikes out 27 batters while pitching a 7–0 no-hitter against the Welch Miners in an Appalachian League game. Four of the Welch hitters reach base on a walk, an error, a hit by pitch, and a passed ball charged to Twins' catcher Harry Dunlop on a swinging third strike. But 27 strikeouts are recorded on the night, including four in the ninth inning, as a result of Dunlop's miscue, while one batter is retired on a grounder in the second inning.
• May 15 – After pitching four no-hitters in the minors, 33-year-old Virgil Trucks of the Detroit Tigers pitches his first in the majors, a 1–0 blanking of the Washington Senators. Vic Wertz's two-out home run in the ninth inning off Bob Porterfield wins the game at Briggs Stadium.
• 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 29 – Boston Red Sox pitcher Mickey McDermott faces 27 batters and fire 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 the hit into a double.
• June 11 – Sammy White clouts a walk-off grand slam in the ninth inning off pitcher Satchel Paige to give the Boston Red Sox an 11–9 victory over the St. Louis Browns at Fenway Park.
• June 19 – Carl Erskine of the Brooklyn Dodgers tosses a 5–0 no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs at Ebbets Field. Erskine would pitch his second career no-hitter on May 12, 1956 against the New York Giants, 3–0, at Ebbets Field.
• June 25 – Chicago White Sox shortstop Chico Carrasquel fractures his little finger in a play‚ 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‚ the starting shortstop for the American League in the MLB All-Star Game, is a key damage component as the White Sox will finish in third place.

July–September

• July 8 – In a rain-shortened affair at Shibe Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies, the National League tops the American League, 3–2 (5 innings), in the All-Star Game. Jackie Robinson and Hank Sauer each homer for the NL.
• July 15
  • Detroit Tigers first baseman Walt Dropo collects seven consecutive hits over the course of doubleheader against the Washington Senators. Combined with the five consecutive hits he recorded on July 14, Dropo establishes the American League and Major League record for consecutive hits in consecutive plate appearances with twelve base hits.
  • Eddie Joost of the Philadelphia Athletics became the second player to hit a walk-off grand slam against St. Louis Browns pitcher Satchel Paige this season, in a 7–6 victory at Shibe Park (The first being the Boston Red Sox's Sammy White on June 11). Paige is the first pitcher in Major League history to surrender two walk-off homers in the same season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Other pitchers will join Paige in the coming years: Lindy McDaniel in 1963, Lee Smith in 1995 and Francisco Rodríguez in 2009.
• August 15 – Detroit Tigers pitcher Virgil Trucks pitches the second no-hitter of his Major League career, 1–0 over the New York Yankees.

October–December

• October 1 – In Game 1 of the World Series, the Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees, 4–2, at Ebbets Field behind relief ace Joe Black, who started only two games during the season.
• 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.
• November 12 – Bobby Shantz, who posted a 24-7 record with 152 strikeouts and a 2.48 ERA for the Philadelphia Athletics, is selected the AL Most Valuable Player by the Baseball Writers' Association of America and the AL Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News.
• November 22 – Philadelphia Athletics pitcher Harry Byrd, who won 15 games and posted and a 3.31 ERA, is selected American League Rookie of the Year. Byrd will be the last Athletics player to win the award until José Canseco in 1986.
• 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 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 executive 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.

Movies

• The Pride of St. Louis
• The Winning Team

Births

January–March

• January 7 – Doug Capilla
• January 14 – Terry Forster
• January 14 – Wayne Gross
• January 17 – Darrell Porter
• January 17 – Pete LaCock
• January 21 – Mike Krukow
• February 2 – Warren Brusstar
• February 3 – Fred Lynn
• February 14 – Will McEnaney
• February 16 – Barry Foote
• February 16 – Jerry Hairston, Sr.
• February 28 – Orlando Álvarez
• March 5 – Mike Squires
• March 20 – Rick Langford
• March 21 – Fernando Arroyo
• March 22 – Eric Rasmussen

April–June

• April 24 – Pat Zachry
• April 29 – Bob McClure
• April 29 – Ron Washington
• May 9 – Sam Mejías
• May 15 – Rick Waits
• May 17 – Porfi Altamirano
• May 19 – Dan Ford
• May 23 – Butch Metzger
• June 2 – Mike Davey
• June 13 – Ernie Whitt
• June 28 – Joe Sambito

July–September

• July 27 – Bump Wills
• July 27 – Rich Dauer
• July 30 – Mickey Mahler
• August 1 – Greg Gross
• August 2 – Lance Rautzhan
• August 3 – Bob Davidson
• August 6 – Mike Ivie
• August 16 – Al Holland
• August 19 – Tim Blackwell
• August 23 – Jerry White
• September 9 – Jerry Mumphrey
• September 18 – Sam Bowen
• September 23 – Dennis Lamp
• September 25 – Sal Butera

October–December

• October 1 – Bob Myrick
• October 18 – Allen Ripley
• October 18 – Jerry Royster
• October 20 – Dave Collins
• October 22 – Roy Smalley
• October 24 – Omar Moreno
• October 25 – Rowland Office
• October 27 – Bill Travers
• October 27 – Pete Vuckovich
• October 31 – Joe West
• November 4 – Doug Corbett
• November 8 – John Denny
• November 8 – Jerry Remy
• November 9 – Jim Riggleman
• November 16 – Glenn Burke
• November 17 – Dave Frost
• November 18 – Steve Henderson
• November 21 – Bill Almon
• December 1 – Dan Warthen
• December 6 – Chuck Baker
• December 21 – Joaquín Andújar
• December 27 – Craig Reynolds
• December 28 – Ray Knight
• December 28 – José Sosa
• December 29 – Dennis Werth

Deaths

• February 5 – Esty Chaney, 61, relief pitcher who played for the Boston Red Sox (1913) and Brooklyn Tip-Tops (1914)
• March 30 – Deacon Phillippe, 79, 6-time winner of 20 games, primarily with Pittsburgh; earned all three Pirate victories in 1903 World Series
• April 3 – Phenomenal Smith, 87, pitcher for eight seasons, 1884–1891.
• May 7 – Red Bluhm, 57, played for the Boston Red Sox in 1918
• June 17 – Al Atkinson, 91, pitched three seasons in the Majors and threw two no-hitters.
• July 3 – Fred Tenney, 80, first baseman for 17 years, primarily with Boston; batted .300 six times
• August 25 – Harry Maupin, 80, pitcher for two seasons, 1898–1899.
• August 30 – Arky Vaughan, 40, a drowning victim, 9-time All-Star shortstop who was named the NL's MVP in 1935 by The Sporting News; career .318 hitter led NL in runs, triples and walks three times each
• November 21 – Fred McMullin, 61, one of the eight White Sox players suspended for life for their part in the Black Sox scandal
• November 29 – Arlie Latham, 92, first player to play 1500 games at third base; among all-time top 10 in runs upon retirement
• December 29 – Bob Meinke, 65, appeared in two games for the Cincinnati Reds in 1910