Victor Woodrow Wertz (February 9, 1925 – July 7, 1983) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

. He had a 17-year

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) career from 1947 to 1963. Wertz played for the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

, St. Louis Browns / Baltimore Orioles,

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. Since , the team ...

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

, and

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

; all teams within the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

Career

Wertz was signed as a free agent by the Detroit Tigers in 1942, then played in their

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nort ...

system until making his major league debut in 1947. He

hit for the cycle Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust or HIT, a fictional organization ...

on September 14, 1947, while in his rookie season with Detroit. Wertz 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 second best in the AL. For his career, Wertz hit 266 home runs and 1,178 RBIs with a .469 career slugging average and a .364 career on-base percentage. Wertz was elected to the American League

All-Star An all-star team is a group of people all having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and has been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry. Sports "All-star" as a sport ...

team four times (1949, 1951, 1952 and 1957). He missed part of the 1955 season when stricken with a nonparalytic form of

polio Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...

, but returned in 1956. Wertz started 1954 as a member of the newly formed

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...

, which had moved from St. Louis, where they had played as the Browns. The Orioles played in the then mammoth Memorial Stadium, which frustrated the power-hitting left-handed batter. On June 1, 1954, he was traded by the Baltimore Orioles to the Cleveland Indians for RHP

Bob Chakales Robert Edwards Chakales ha-kuh'-les(August 10, 1927 – February 18, 2010) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball who played with four clubs between the 1951 and 1957 seasons. Listed at 6'1", 185 lb., Chakales batted and threw rig ...

. When Wertz was traded, he was hitting only .202 with one home run after 29 games. He immediately became the starting first baseman for the Indians, replacing Bill Glynn, who held down the position the previous year. In the

1954 World Series The 1954 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1954 season. The 51st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the National League champion New York Giants against the America ...

, Wertz hit a long fly ball

Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (May 6, 1931 – June 18, 2024), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid", was an American professional baseball center fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of ...

caught, known as "

The Catch The Catch may refer to: Film and television *The Catch (American TV series), ''The Catch'' (American TV series), a 2016–2017 American mystery series *The Catch (British TV series), ''The Catch'' (British TV series), a 2023 British family drama ...

". It went over to dead center of the

Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 to 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built for the ...

in New York, and a sportswriter said, "It would have been a home run in any other park, including

Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...

." After he retired from playing, Wertz kept a photo of "The Catch" in his office at his beer distribution company and explained he had no negative feelings about being remembered for hitting a deep fly out. "I'm very proud that I'm associated with it," Wertz told UPI in 1979. "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 Field at the Berks County Youth Recreation Facility in Pennsylvania is named in his honor. The field was dedicated on April 19, 2013.

Personal life

Wertz was a

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

veteran. During and after his baseball career, Wertz worked in the Detroit area beer distribution business . When he retired to

Mount Clemens, Michigan Mount Clemens is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 15,697 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the county seat, seat of government of Macomb County, Michigan, Macomb County and part of the Metro Detroit, Det ...

, he formed "Wertz Warriors", a group of sportsmen who raised funds for the

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 172 countries. Special Ol ...

Winter Games. He was the founder of an 800-mile

snowmobile A snowmobile, also known as a snowmachine (chiefly Alaskan), motor sled (chiefly Canadian), motor sledge, skimobile, snow scooter, or simply a sled is a motorized vehicle designed for winter travel and recreation on snow. Their engines normally ...

endurance ride, run annually in Michigan starting in 1982 to benefit the Special Olympics. Wertz died during heart surgery at Detroit's

Harper Hospital Harper University Hospital is one of eight hospitals and institutes that compose the Detroit Medical Center. Harper offers services in a broad range of clinical areas, including cardiology, neurology, neurosurgery, organ transplant, plastic sur ...

on the morning of July 7, 1983. Surgeons were performing a

coronary bypass Coronary artery bypass surgery, also known as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG, pronounced "cabbage"), is a surgical procedure to treat coronary artery disease (CAD), the buildup of plaques in the arteries of the heart. It can relieve chest p ...

and replacing a valve in his heart after he had suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

the previous day. He is buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in

Southfield, Michigan Southfield is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Southfield borders Detroit to the north, roughly northwest of downtown Downtown Detroit, Detroit. As of the 2020 Uni ...

References

External links

Vic Wertz
at SABR (Baseball BioProject) * : {{DEFAULTSORT:Wertz, Vic 1925 births 1983 deaths American League All-Stars American military personnel of World War II Baltimore Orioles players Baseball players from York, Pennsylvania Boston Red Sox players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Cleveland Indians players Detroit Tigers players Detroit Tigers scouts Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball right fielders Minnesota Twins players St. Louis Browns players 20th-century American sportsmen Winston-Salem Twins players

Career

Personal life

See also

References

Further reading

External links