At a critical point in a game against the Cardinals, Reds manager Birdie Tebbetts determined bold action was required.
With Stan Musial at the plate, Tebbetts yanked the Reds’ shortstop from the game and went with an alignment of four outfielders.
Tebbetts’ surprise move became the talk of baseball. According to The Sporting News, it was “probably the first four-man outfield formation of its kind ever used in the major leagues.”
Long wait
On May 22, 1954, a Saturday night at St. Louis, the Reds led, 4-2, in the bottom of the eighth when Red Schoendienst singled with two outs against Art Fowler, a 31-year-old rookie who used a quick pitch to keep the Cardinals off stride.
The Cincinnati Enquirer described Fowler as “an old head who knows all the tricks and has all the pitches. He has a fine sense of speeds and seldom makes two pitches alike to a batter.”
Fowler spent 10 seasons in the minors before getting his chance with the 1954 Reds. In explaining why it took him so long to reach the majors, he told the Dayton Journal Herald, “For nine years, I had no ambition whatsoever.”
Decision time
After Schoendienst reached first, up next was Musial, who’d singled twice against Fowler in the game. Musial was perhaps the National League’s best and hottest hitter. He batted .333 in April 1954, and did even better the next month. On May 2, Musial slugged five home runs in a doubleheader against the Giants. In the opener of the Reds series, he belted a grand slam versus Frank Smith. Musial would hit .390 in May 1954.
Knowing Musial was the biggest threat to the Reds’ lead, Tebbetts acted to foil him. Tebbetts, 41, was in his first year as a big-league manager, but he had spent 14 seasons as a catcher in the American League, playing for the likes of managers Mickey Cochrane, Joe Cronin, Joe McCarthy and Al Lopez.
When the Reds hired Tebbetts after he had one season as a manager in the minors, Si Burick of the Dayton Daily News described him as “a gambling type” who will “take advantage of every angle and thinks of everything.”
Tebbetts removed shortstop Roy McMillan from the game and replaced him with a fourth outfielder, speedy rookie Nino Escalera.
A month earlier, Escalera and teammate Chuck Harmon made their big-league debuts in back-to-back pinch-hit appearances, integrating the Reds seven years after Jackie Robinson entered the majors. Escalera was a Puerto Rican of African descent and Harmon was an African-American. Boxscore
Plot development
Escalera positioned himself in right-center, joining an outfield of left fielder Jim Greengrass, center fielder Gus Bell and right fielder Wally Post. The shortstop position was vacant.
“Birdie’s defensive formation against Musial was not something he thought up on the spot,” The Cincinnati Post noted. “For three weeks previous, Birdie talked to his infielders, pitchers, catchers and Nino Escalera about plans for devising shifts against certain dangerous hitters to prevent them from wrecking games for the Reds. Musial happened to be the first one against whom a radical shift was employed. When Birdie sprang it, he probably became the first in major-league history to use this exact sort of a switch in the positions of his players.”
Tebbetts told The Cincinnati Post, “By having the three regular outfielders play their normal positions with Escalera protecting right-center field, we attempted to eliminate the possibility of Musial (hitting) a double or triple, which would score Schoendienst and also put Musial in position to score the tying run.”
As Tebbetts noted to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “He’d have a hell of a time getting a ball between those four outfielders spaced so evenly apart.”
Also, if Musial lined a ball against the concrete wall in right or right-center, a fourth outfielder likely would retrieve it on the carom before Musial could advance past first, Tebbetts said.
“With only three outfielders playing for us, the ball might rebound for a double or triple,” Tebbetts told The Sporting News. “I figured that if he did line a ball against the wall, our right fielder, or our right-center fielder, or our center fielder could recover the ball quickly enough to keep Stan from getting more than a single.”
In addition, Tebbetts told The Sporting News, “I had our third baseman, Chuck Harmon, stay close to third to protect the foul line and reduce Musial’s chances of hitting a double past third.”
Tebbetts was unconcerned about Musial trying to push a pitch through the vacated shortstop position for a base hit. “If he should single through our unprotected shortstop position, that would be all right,” Tebbetts said to The Sporting News. “We still would not be in as much danger of losing as if he bounced a double or triple off the fence.”
If Musial opted to try for a single through the shortstop hole, Ray Jablonski would bat with the tying run on first, but Tebbetts said he wasn’t worried about that. “Not because I don’t think Jablonski isn’t a good hitter, but because he’s still not Musial,” Tebbetts told the Post-Dispatch.
Swing shift
All of the maneuvering didn’t matter because Musial struck out swinging to end the threat. According to the Post-Dispatch, Musial was trying to belt a pitch onto the pavilion roof in right for a two-run homer that would tie the score.
“He had to,” Tebbetts said to the St. Louis newspaper. “That’s what they pay him $80,000 a year for _ to go for the long hit in a tight spot. Since I couldn’t play a man on the roof, I did the next best thing by adding a fourth outfielder to prevent the only other kind of hit that would have bothered me _ a double that would have put the tying run in scoring position.”
In the ninth, Tebbetts sent Rocky Bridges in to play shortstop and Escalera was taken out of the game. Fowler retired the Cardinals in order to complete the win. Boxscore
Asked about what would happen if the Reds tried the same alignment against him again, Musial smiled and replied to the Post-Dispatch, “We’ll see. Maybe they’re underestimating Jablonski.”
Tebbetts’ tactic brought him national attention. The Cincinnati Post reported “the most talked about play in baseball today is Tebbetts’ four-man outfield.” The Cincinnati Enquirer called it “one of the most surprising defensive moves in the history of the game.”
The next day, May 23, the Cardinals used an exaggerated shift against the Reds’ Gus Bell, moving fielders to the right side, but he crossed them up with a double to left.
During the 1954 season, the Cardinals shifted heavily toward the right side, leaving only one infielder on the third base side, for Bell and the Braves’ Eddie Matthews. They shifted fielders to the other side for the Cubs’ right-handed sluggers, Ralph Kiner and Hank Sauer. All four consistently beat the shifts by hitting opposite-field doubles and singles. For the 1954 season against the Cardinals, Bell hit .320; Mathews, .304; Kiner, .282; and Sauer, .314.
Postscript
Tebbetts did not try a four-man outfield again in 1954. One of his favorite ploys was to call for sacrifice bunts with one out. He did that 38 times in 1954 and 14 of those paid off, with the next batter driving in the runner from scoring position with two outs.
Tebbetts went on to manage 11 years in the majors with the Reds, Braves and Indians. In 1956, Bob Burnes of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat rated Tebbetts the best manager in the National League “by several thousand miles.” In the book “We Played the Game,” Art Fowler said, “Birdie was the best manager I ever played for.”
Fowler, whose older brother Jesse pitched for the 1924 Cardinals, had three consecutive double-digit win seasons (1954-56) for the Reds. He became the pitching coach on most of the big-league clubs managed by Billy Martin.
The 1954 season was the only one for Nino Escalera in the majors.
Stan Musial finished the 1954 season with a batting mark of .330, including .344 versus the Reds. He hit .353 for his career against Art Fowler.
That’s wild. I’ve never heard of a position player being used for one AB. Personally I think it seems a little gimmicky and bush league but I suppose that’s what makes baseball great.
Also, I was just thinking this move could backfire in later innings by having an inferior SS out there, but I suppose it’s worth the risk if it’s only for one inning and you could possibly be facing the bottom part of the STL lineup anyway. Sometimes I wish modern teams would do everything they can to hold a lead instead of throwing a guy in there “who needs work.” 3 walks and a wild pitch later you feel cheated for investing 2 1/2 hours for nada just so Joe Blow AAAA could prove what everyone but the manager and the pitching coach already knew. .
I appreciate the insights, Gary, and I appreciate you sending me the cool Warhol-like image of Stan Musial that I used with the posting.
There’s a lot of baseball history in this post with individuals like Birdie Tebbetts, Art Fowler and Stan Musial. By today’s standards it almost sounds humorous of a batter overcoming the shift by hitting to the opposite field or laying down a bunt. Today, along with the occasional homerun, there would be a ton of strikeouts and flyballs hit to a perfectly positioned defensive player. I can’t help but make a comment about Birdie Tebbetts’ tendency to employ the sacrifice bunt. The 1954 Reds were by no means a great team. And yet, they had more one run wins and walk off wins than any other NL team. In looking over their boxscores for that year I came across a game against the Cardinals on August 14th. The Reds won a 6-5 game in ten innings in which they scored two runs including the winning run due to a sacrifice bunt. Thanks for another great post.
You picked up on the stuff I hoped you would, and I enjoyed your reactions and insights, Phillip. Thanks for the good info you provided about Birdie Tebbetts’ 1954 Reds leading the league in one-run wins and walkoff wins, plus how they beat the Cardinals on Aug. 14.
Here’s a Birdie Tebbetts story you might enjoy from 1956 Reds pitcher Johnny Klippstein in the book “We Played the Game:”
“At the beginning of the (1956) season, Tebbetts had a pitchers’ meeting and told us, ‘They bum-rapped our staff. All you guys would run through the wall for me and do anything to win. We’ve got a good pitching staff, so don’t believe what you read.’ That was great to hear. What we didn’t know is that two weeks later he called in the hitters and said, ‘Boys, you know what kind of pitching staff we have. We’ve got to score a whole lot of runs.’ He was a good psychologist because we finished only two games behind the Dodgers, despite having a mediocre pitching staff. Like all the pitchers, I benefitted from our offense.”
8/31/90 at Shea, same situation but it’s bottom 9th and Don Robinson, as colorful a guy as Fowler (don’t know if he drank) has a 3-1 lead, two out,bases empty. Magadan singles, bringing up Jefferies as the tying run. Roger Craig fails to employ a 4th outfielder, and just as Birdie might have feared, Jefferies bounces it off the right center filed wall, scoring the famously slow Magadan. Craig brings in Bedrosian, and has him walk Strawberry, putting the winning run on base. Ralph Kiner says in 1950 Eddie Dyer did the same thing against the Pirates, got burned and was “fired the next day” (don’t know if he got that last right). Then McReynolds and Hojo single to win it.
Thank you for the details on the Giants-Mets game in 1990. Wild stuff.
“Everything happened so fast,” Don Robinson told the San Francisco Examiner. “One minute, I’m out there with two outs and no one on base. The next thing I knew, I’m back in the clubhouse and it was over.”
Giants second baseman Robby Thompson took the throw from the outfield on Gregg Jefferies’ double but elected not to throw home _ much to the relief of the aforementioned slow-footed Dave Magadan, who told the Examiner that a good throw from Thompson would have nailed him at the plate for the third out. “Thank God he didn’t throw the ball,” Magadan told the newspaper. Thompson said he held the ball because he didn’t want Jefferies (the potential tying run) to advance to third. “I had to keep the tying run at second,” Thompson said to the Examiner.
Roger Craig said he ordered Steve Bedrosian to walk Darryl Strawberry intentionally rather than risk having him hit a walkoff home run. “He’s hitting a hell of a lot better than McReynolds,” Craig told the Examiner.
The single by Kevin McReynolds, scoring Jefferies, was a grounder on a 1-and-2 pitch that barely eluded the shortstop. Then Howard Johnson hit a pop-up that plopped fair near the line, just before right fielder Mike Kingery could get there, driving in the game-winning run.
“It was kind of hard to believe, the whole thing,” Magadan told the Examiner. “Robinson was in total control. I mean, I was overmatched in all my at-bats.”
Here is the boxscore: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1990/B08310NYN1990.htm
A 31-year old rookie in Fowler is an absolute inspiration! I wish I threw left handed and had mastered a knuckleball. I might go to spring training somewhere and ask for a tryout, an older rookie than Satchel Paige!
I like the innovation that Tebbetts tried. I’m reminded of that classic scene in the original Bad News Bears movie, “The Carl Paranski Shift.”
There’s something fascinating in what was said about Fowler that he “seldom makes two pitches alike to a batter.” That’s what makes both a great rock concert and the experience of hitting though it must be frustrating for the batter to never know. Such great pitcher thought and memory must go in to that, keeping it all interesting.
I wonder how much a shift impacted the psychology of batters like maybe the Green Monster does? It’s been a joy thus far this season to watch new Brewers lead off hitter Brice Turang slash the ball to all fields.
What a wonderfully original thought you offered on how a mix of pitches (or songs) makes both a great rock concert and a challenging hitting experience.
Art Fowler pitched for the 1951 Milwaukee Brewers when they were a Boston Braves farm club (managed by Charlie Grimm) and was 4-7 with a 5.31 ERA. Three years later, he was in the majors.
Here’s a story I think you’ll like that Art Fowler told in the book “We Played the Game:”
“Birdie Tebbetts never drank until he started managing. We were in Pittsburgh one night and Joe Nuxhall, Gus Bell and Wally Post and I were in a bar, drinking. It was getting to be closing time. We had been due back at the hotel at 1;30. Gus, Nuxhall and Wally suddenly ran out the back door. I didn’t run. I just sat there drinking. Someone came up behind me and said, ‘Gentleman, I’ll buy you a beer.’ It was Tebbetts. The next day he says he caught four players drinking past curfew. He fined Nuxhall, Bell and Post $100 apiece. He said, ‘But I ain’t going to fine that motherf– drunk who was with them because he didn’t run.’ ”
Thanks for the hilarious story Mark and great to hear about another minor league Brewer’s player. It inspired me to read more about the Brewers. I discovered that they initially built County Stadium for those Brewers but then word came that the Braves were coming to town.
First of all, Stan the Man may be the most underrated player in baseball history; Eddie Mathews doesn’t get a much notice as he deserves, either. Thanks for pointing out that hitters beat the shift by hitting opposite field singles and doubles. That’s how you handle the shift. There should be no need for a rule outlawing the shift.
I agree with every word you wrote.