RetroSimba

In a life tragically cut short, Mel Ott established the standard for power hitting in the National League and was an endearing role model to legions of baseball fans, including a young Stan Musial, for his humble, considerate manner.

On Nov. 21, 1958, Ott, 49, died in a New Orleans hospital from injuries suffered in a car accident a week earlier.

The sudden death of a popular baseball icon who represented vitality and decency stunned the nation.

Ott was the top slugger in the National League with the Giants from 1926-47. When his playing days ended, he was the National League career leader in home runs (511), RBI (1,860), extra-base hits (1,071), walks (1,708) and runs scored (1,859). Only Babe Ruth (714) and Jimmie Foxx (534) had hit more home runs. Ott had a career batting average of .304, with 2,876 hits, and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951.

His journey to the major leagues began in storybook fashion.

Bayou to Broadway

In 1925, Ott was a catcher for a New Orleans semipro team owned by lumber tycoon Harry Williams, a friend of Giants manager John McGraw. Williams recommended Ott to McGraw, who agreed to take a look at the prospect. Ott, 16, traveled alone to New York, arrived at the Polo Grounds carrying a straw suitcase after getting lost in the subway system and met McGraw, who took a liking to the well-mannered teen. After watching Ott crush the ball in batting practice, McGraw knew he had a special talent.

Ott debuted with the Giants in April 1926 and became a regular after the Giants traded right fielder George Harper to the Cardinals in May 1928.

Primarily an outfielder, Ott had a strong arm and “learned to play rebounds from the right field wall at the Polo Grounds with the precision of a billiard player,” The Sporting News observed.

A left-handed batter, he had a peculiar approach to hitting. As described by the New York Daily News, Ott “lifted his right leg from the ground completely, accentuating a bend in the knee, and swung as the leg came down again.”

At 5 feet 9, 170 pounds, Ott was not large, but he was, according to The Sporting News, “as solid as a piece of Louisiana cypress.” Ott led the National League in home runs six times, produced 100 RBI or more in eight consecutive seasons (1929-36), was a 12-time all-star, and helped the Giants win three pennants and a World Series title.

“One of the things that made him a great hitter was hard practice,” said teammate Lefty O’Doul. “We used to spend hours, just the two of us, practicing hitting the ball down the right field foul line. We got so we could keep it fair by a few inches.”

Gentle giant

On Oct. 3, 1930, Ott married Mildred Rosina Wattigny. Both were 21 and friends since childhood.

Ott and his road roommate, pitching ace Carl Hubbell, were the most popular Giants players. Ott was admired as much for his demeanor as for his skill.

“Even Brooklyn (Dodgers) fans used to applaud Mel Ott,” Sports Illustrated noted.

In his book “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” the Cardinals standout recalled Ott as “one of my early idols” during his boyhood in Donora, Pa.

“I liked his mannerisms and his manners,” Musial said.

A Sporting News editorial cited Ott as “a quiet, modest hero” and declared his “gentleness, kindness and good sportsmanship always set a fine example.”

Ott could be hard-driving “but had something in his personality beyond all this that endeared him to people,” Sports Illustrated noted. “He was boyish, mannerly square. He looked like the beau ideal of American youth: the rugged kid who could win ballgames but who would stand up when a woman came into the room.”

Not nice

Ott was player-manager of the Giants from 1942-47 and remained the manager in 1948 when he no longer was playing. However, his teams never won a pennant and in July 1948 the Giants fired Ott and replaced him with Leo Durocher, longtime manager of the archrival Dodgers and a man whose brash, confrontational style was the opposite of Ott’s.

Giants fans “hated the sight of me, hated my guts,” Durocher said in his autobiography.

As Dodgers manager, Durocher was talking to columnist Frank Graham of the New York Sun in the dugout before a game against the Giants when he motioned toward Ott and said, “Look over there. Do you know a nicer guy than their manager, Mel Ott? Or any of the other Giants? Why, they’re the nicest guys in the world. And where are they? In last place.”

Over time, the sentences got melded into one, and the term “Nice guys finish last” came to define Durocher and highlighted what he viewed as the difference between antagonists like him and gentlemen such as Ott.

Ott remained with the Giants, assisting his friend Hubbell, who was the club’s farm director. Ott managed the minor-league Oakland Oaks in 1951 and 1952. In 1956, he became a Tigers broadcaster.

The Tigers consulted with Ott on player personnel matters. After the 1958 season, Ott returned to his home in Metairie, La., and was in contact with Tigers general manager John McHale, who sought his advice on trade proposals. “In Mel’s three years in Detroit as radio and television announcer, we always regarded him as an extra coach,” McHale said.

Fatal accident

On Nov. 14, 1958, Mel and Mildred Ott went to the coastal town of Bay St. Louis, Miss., to check on a cottage they had purchased. After dinner at a restaurant, Mel drove their station wagon onto a fog-shrouded highway. Their vehicle collided head-on with a car driven by Leslie S. Curry Sr., 50, a carpenter, who was killed instantly. Curry, a married father of seven, was alone in the car.

Mel suffered fractures of both legs, a broken arm, six broken ribs and injuries to his head and kidneys, according to United Press International. Mildred suffered a severe concussion and also broke both legs, an arm and ribs. The Otts were taken to a hospital in Gulfport, Miss.

On Nov. 20, Mel was transferred to a New Orleans hospital because of kidney failure and underwent surgery that night. He died the next day, “a tragic end to an around-the-clock attempt by doctors to save his life,” United Press International reported. Cause of death was uremia, a kidney poisoning resulting from a damaged kidney.

Mildred Ott recovered and lived until 1999 when she was 90, according to the Web site MyHeritage.

Althea Curry sued Mel Ott’s estate for the wrongful death of her husband Leslie. A district court judge dismissed the complaint when evidence showed the left wheels of Curry’s car were across the center line on Ott’s side of the road. An appeals court upheld the ruling, saying the plaintiff failed to prove negligence on the part of Ott.