Vic Wertz

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Vic Wertz

Right Fielder/First Baseman

Born: February 9, 1925
Died: July 7, 1983 (aged 58)
Batted: Left	Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 15, 1947 for the Detroit Tigers
Final game
September 19, 1963 for the Minnesota Twins
Career statistics
AVG	.277
Home Runs	266
RBIs	1,178
Teams
Detroit Tigers (1947-1952) St. Louis Browns/Baltimore Orioles (1952-1954) Cleveland Indians (1954-1958) Boston Red Sox (1959-1961) Detroit Tigers (1961-1963) Minnesota Twins (1963)
Career highlights and awards
American League All Star, 1959, 1951, 1952, 1957 Top 10 in American League MVP voting, 1949, 1950, 1956, 1957 Six 20-home run seasons, 1949-1952, 1956-1957 Five 100-RBI seaons, 1949-1950, 1956-1957, 1960

Victor Woodrow Wertz (February 9, 1925 – July 7, 1983) was a Major League Baseball first baseman and outfielder. He had a seventeen year career from 1947 to 1963. He was signed as a free agent by the Detroit Tigers in 1942 and played for the Tigers, St. Louis Browns, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins, all of the American League.

One of the most feared hitters in the American League throughout the 1950s, he finished in the Top 15 in MVP voting five times: 1949 (10th), 1950 (10th), 1956 (9th), 1957 (6th), and 1960 (14th).

Wertz was among the Top 10 in the American League in Home Runs in 1949 (20), 1950 (27), 1951 (27), 1952 (23), 1953 (19), 1956 (32), and 1957 (28). His 1956 total of 32 Home Runs was 2nd best in the AL. For his career, he hit 266 Home Runs and 1,178 RBIs with a .469 career slugging average and a .364 career on base percentage.

He was elected to the American League All-Star team four times (1949, 1951, 1952 and 1957). He missed part of the 1955 season when stricken with a nonparalytic form of polio but returned in 1956.

In one of the most famous plays in baseball history, Vic Wertz hit the long fly ball that Willie Mays caught in the 1954 World Series (see The Catch). It went over 450 feet to dead center of the Polo Grounds in New York, and a sportswriter said, "It would have been a home run in any other park, including Yellowstone."

He was a World War II veteran, worked in the Detroit area beer distribution business during and after his baseball career, was known for his extreme baldness, and was very well liked by fans because of his winning personality.