Vic wertz 1954 world series

MLB Stats for Vic Wertz

Victor Woodrow Wertz was a Major League Baseball player with the Detroit Tigers (1947-1952, 1961-1963), St. Louis Browns (1952-1953), Baltimore Orioles (1954), Cleveland Indians (1954-1958), Boston Red Sox (1959-1961), and Minnesota Twins (1963). Vic, his nickname, is the answer to a very popular trivia question ... When Willie Mays made "The Catch," who was the hitter?

During the 1954 World Series, Vic Wertz hit a long fly ball—over 400 feet. One sportswriter quipped, "It would have been a home run in any other park, including Yellowstone." Willie Mays made "The Catch" of that fly ball over his shoulder in dead center of the Polo Grounds, an iconic moment in baseball history. How did Vic feel about being "the out" that day?

"I'm very proud that I'm associated with it. I look at it this way: If that ball Willie caught had been a home run or a triple, how many people would've remembered me? Not many. This way, everybody who meets me for the first time always identifies me with Willie's catch, and that makes me feel good."

Vic Wertz & Willie

Vic Wertz

Birthdate2/9/1925
Death Date7/7/1983
Debut Year1947
Year of Induction
Teams Browns, Indians, Orioles, Red Sox, Tigers, Twins
Positions First Base, Right Field

Vic Wertz is a four-time all star who finished in the American League’s top ten in homers seven times; he received MVP votes in five seasons.

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Vic Wertz was a reliable slugger who played for four teams in his 17-year career

Vic Wertz played Major League Baseball from 1947-1963 splitting time between first base and field. He slugged 20 or more homers six times and drove in 100 or more runs in five seasons. Wertz’s debut came on April 15, 1947, the same day Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Wertz recorded t

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Vic Wertz played Major League Baseball from 1947-1963 splitting time between first base and field. He slugged 20 or more homers six times and drove in 100 or more runs in five seasons.

Wertz’s debut came on April 15, 1947, the same day Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Wertz rec

Vic Wertz

In the biggest baseball game of his life, the opening contest of the 1954 World Series, Vic Wertz hit a 420-foot triple to right, a 400-foot double to left-center, and two line singles, while driving in all of his team’s runs. In his other at-bat, with two runners on in a tie game in the eighth inning, he crushed a 450-foot line drive to the outer reaches of the Polo Grounds, well over the head of the opposing center fielder. Unfortunately for Wertz and his Cleveland Indians, the opposing center fielder was Willie Mays, perhaps the only man in baseball history who could have run the ball down. And run the ball down Mays did, sprinting with his back to the plate toward the faraway bleachers and catching the ball like a football wide receiver hauling in a long pass.

For Willie Mays, “The Catch” became one of the central stories in a career filled with amazing deeds. But it also became the central story in the career of Wertz, a very good ballplayer who spent much of the remainder of his life talking about his long out. Were it not for Mays’s sensational play, Wertz wou

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