There’s nothing like a double play to crush a rally and demoralize the team at bat. In 1950, the first year the Giants had Stanky at second and Dark at short, the Giants completed 181 double plays in 154 games, close to the-then National League record and one more every two games than the prior year’s infield. Stanky was as adept at demoralizing the team at bat when he was in the field, as he was at demoralizing the team in the field when he was at bat.
It wasn’t just the number of double plays, but his methods of making them. Most double plays start with a ground ball to the shortstop, who flips it to the second baseman, who pivots and throws to first. If a fast ground ball was hit to Dark with men at first and second, he’d flip the ball to Stanky, but instead of throwing to first, Stanky would glance at the runner who’d just left second to run to third. If that runner took a turn at third, Stanky would snap a throw there, catch him off base and complete the double play that way. Instead of a man on third with two out, the team at bat had a man on first with two out. The man caught off base was embarrassed, the coach was embarrassed, the manager was angry, his team felt stupid and slow. The formerly gentlemanly home-run-hitting Giants felt fast and smart.
Another Stanky specialty were infield pop flies with a man on first and none or one out. He’d watch to see whether the batter who’d hit the pop up was walking back to his team’s dugout in disgust or loafing his way to first base. If so, Stanky would let the ball drop, scoop it up as it hit the ground, and throw to first. Whitey Lockman would tag the man on first and then step on first for yet another demoralizing Stanky Ball double play.
Opposing teams objected when Stanky started doing that and a special addendum had to be written into the rulebook saying, that if the infielder touched the ball before it hit the ground the batter was out, but if the ball hit the ground before the fielder touched it, the practice was permitted. Stanky did a variant of that practice on soft line drives. He’d make a “best efforts” attempt to catch it, but only succeed in knocking it down. Then he’d snatch it up, flip it to Dark who’d relay it to first for still one more unorthodox double play. Or if there were a fast man on first and a slow runner at bat, Stanky would do it again, knock it down, flip to Dark, get the fast runner off the bases and decrease the opposing team’s chances of scoring. Classic Stanky Ball--get on base and score any way you could; prevent the other team from getting on base and scoring any way you could.
Stanky was and always will be most notorious for the rule change caused by his actions in four games played during August 1950, his first year with the formerly gentlemanly Giants. The Giants were playing in Boston, when Bob Elliott, Boston’s third baseman came to bat. Elliott spent fifteen years in the big leagues, got over two thousand hits and in 1947 was voted MVP. He’d played alongside Stanky and Dark in the Boston infield for two years prior to their being traded to the Giants. They’d won a pennant together and played in the World Series together.
Al Barlick, one of only eight umpires elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame, was umpiring second base and standing in a line directly behind the pitcher that made it difficult for Bob Elliott to see the ball as it left the pitcher’s hand. Elliott called time and explained his difficulty to Barlick. Barlick moved away, but Stanky’s eyes lit up. Before the next pitch, he moved to a place directly behind Dave Koslo, the Giant pitcher, in line with where Barlick had been interfering with Elliott’s vision but fifteen steps closer to Elliott. To enhance the effect, he began waving his arms to mirror Koslo’s pitching motion. Elliott struck out; Stanky had developed a new infuriating weapon.
Two days later, the Giants traveled to Philadelphia to play against the Phillies who with Robin Roberts, Curt Simmons, Jim Konstanty, Richie Ashburn, Del Ennis, Dick Sisler and Eddie Waitkus, won the pennant that year. There were bad feelings between the Phillies and Giants. Eddie Sawyer, Philly manager had accused Giant pitchers of trying to hit Philly batters. Giant manager, Leo Durocher had accused Andy Seminick, Philadelphia’s tough, powerful catcher of blocking home plate and trying to injure Giant base runners.
Sal Maglie, the Giants’ most hated pitcher—nicknamed Sal the Barber because he threw the ball so close to batters' chins—was pitching. In the eighth inning, after three double plays, the Giants were winning 3-1 and Andy Seminick came to bat. Seminick, an ex-coal miner, son of a coal miner, like Stanky, had grown up in tough blue-collar Pennsylvania, but outside Pittsburgh rather than inside Philadelphia. Stanky stood in front of second, right behind the pitcher's mound, and began swinging his arms in time with Maglie’s throwing motion. Seminick complained to Barlick, the same umpire who’d been umpiring second base in Boston. Barlick said he couldn’t do anything; Stanky wasn’t breaking any rule.
Maglie had shaved Seminick’s chin with pitches in previous games. In return, Seminick had deliberately bunted down the first base line to get Maglie to field the bunt so he could smash into him. Maglie never took the bait, but now, to punish Seminick for past sins and for complaining about Stanky, Maglie aimed at Seminick’s ribs and hit him on the left elbow with his fastball.
Seminick, tough, stoic, said nothing at the time, but after the Giants won the game his elbow began to swell and as it swelled, his arm darkened, and by the time he got home, his arm was black and blue and Seminick was furious. He stayed awake all night plotting his revenge.
The following day was Kiddies’ Day at Shibe Park. The stands were filled with baseball-loving, hero-worshipping children. On Seminick's first at bat, Stanky moved in front of second base and swung his arms just as he had in Boston when Bob Elliott was at bat, but Seminick walked. The next batter singled to left and Seminick rounded second and went to third where Hank Thompson was waiting for the throw from the outfield. Seminick smashed his forearm into Thompson’s mouth, not only knocking Thompson unconscious, but knocking out several of his teeth and forcing him out of the game.
When Seminick came to bat two innings later, he was a marked man. Stanky stood at second base, right behind pitcher Kramer, rotating his arms in time with Kramer’s throwing motion and adding jumping jacks to his routine. On the next pitch, Seminick swung and let go of his bat. The bat just missed Kramer’s head, and flew at Stanky, standing right behind him. The umpire, Lon Warneke, an All-Star game pitcher, who’d won 192 games for the Cubs and Cardinals, called time and threw Stanky out of the game.
Durocher protested the game, and minutes later when Seminick slid into second with his spikes high, Bill Rigney who’d replaced Stanky at second, got into a fight with Seminick who was much too strong for him. Over the ensuing half hour, the Kiddies’ Day crowd was treated to a Giants/Phillies mixed martial arts free-for-all complete with tackles, takedowns, punches, kicks and duels with baseball bats.
The result was yet another Stanky-inspired amendment to the rules of baseball, forbidding a fielder to stand in the batter’s line of vision, and try to distract him.
In addition to all their double plays, on September first 1951, Stanky and Dark combined on a triple play on a fifth inning line drive hit by Dodger Hall of Fame shortstop, Pee Wee Reese. That was the year the Giants were thirteen and a half games behind the Dodgers on August 11th and began gaining on them day by day. The Giant win on September first cut the dwindling Dodger lead to six games. They finished the year tied for first place.
To decide the National League championship, they played a three game series. They split the first two games and in the third game at the Polo Grounds, the Dodgers scored three runs in the eighth inning and were ahead 4-1. In the last half of the ninth, Dark scored on Lockman’s double and then with two men on base, Bobby Thomson hit his “shot heard round the world” home run and the Giants won the game, the playoffs and the National League pennant.
Thomson was the biggest hero of that most memorable of all baseball pennant races. Monte Irvin was close behind, as were pitchers Larry Jansen, Sal Maglie and Jim Hearn. But faithful old Giant fans, whose team had not won a championship since 1937, will always remember that on August 12th, Eddie Stanky returned to the Giant lineup after an injury that had kept him off second base for a week. In the doubleheader the Giants played and won that day, Stanky walked five times and helped start his team on a Stanky-Ball streak in which they won the next fourteen, and thirty-seven of the last forty-four games to finish the season tied with the Dodgers for first place.
Baseball record books are filled with statistics on home runs, runs batted in, errors, double plays, earned run averages and so forth, but there’s nothing on the intangible factors. For example, Chicago traded Eddie Stanky to the Dodgers in 1944. He played fifty-eight games at second base. The Dodgers finished seventh. The following year, 1945, Stanky became the Dodgers’ regular second baseman. The Dodgers rose to third. In 1946, they finished second: in 1947, the Dodgers won the pennant.
In 1947, Boston finished third in the National League. In 1948 the Dodgers traded Stanky to Boston. With Stanky at second, Boston won the pennant and the Dodgers dropped to third. In 1949 the Giants finished fifth. After the season, the Braves traded Stanky to the Giants. In 1950, with Stanky at second, the Giants finished third and the Braves dropped to fourth. In 1951 the Giants won the pennant, the Dodgers finished second, the Braves finished fourth. Thus, from 1945 through 1951, putting Stanky at second base was baseball’s magic bullet, but there are no stats on Most Times Turned Second-Rate Team Into Pennant Winner; no stats on Most Games Won By Out-Thinking, Out-Hustling or Demoralizing Opposing Team; no stats on Most Games Won That Opposing Team Deserved To Win.
Yet another uncollected stat is Most Changes To Rule Book Prompted By Actions of a Single Player:
Stanky prompted amendment (a) to Rule 7.10 which reads, “A runner is not permitted to take a flying start from a position in back of his base.“
He prompted amendment (l) to Rule 6.05 on intentionally dropped infield flies, which reads, “In this situation, the batter is not out if the infielder permits the ball to drop untouched to the ground.”
He prompted amendment (b) to Rule 6.02 which reads in part, “Once a batter has taken his position in the batter’s box, he shall not be permitted to step out of the batter’s box in order to use the resin or the pine tar rag… Umpires will not call “Time” at the request of the batter or any member of his team once the pitcher has started his windup or has come to a set position even though the batter claims “dust in his eyes,” “steamed glasses,” “didn’t get the sign” or for any other cause.”
And he prompted amendment Section 4.06 (b) No fielder shall take a position in the batter’s line of vision, and with deliberate unsportsmanlike intent, act in a manner to distract the batter.”
Off the field, Stanky (R.I.P. 1999) was known to be a highly moral and religious family man. It’s easy to imagine him explaining to St. Peter that he never meant to be unsportsmanlike, that he was just trying to win a ballgame.
Herb L
oldtimewriter.com
