On the day he secured his sixth National League batting title, Stan Musial learned he should stick to hitting instead of pitching.
Musial pitched for the only time in a big-league game on Sept. 28, 1952, in the Cardinals’ season finale against the Cubs at St. Louis.
He threw one pitch to one batter, his closest pursuer for the batting title, Cubs outfielder Frankie Baumholtz, then returned to the outfield.
Musial’s pitching appearance was prearranged by the Cardinals, who hoped it would generate interest in a game with nothing at stake in the standings.
Instead, the stunt was an embarrassment to Musial.
Show time
The Cardinals (88-65) entered the final day of the 1952 season in third place in the National League and the Cubs (76-77) were in fifth. Regardless of the outcome in the season finale, both teams were assured of finishing in those spots in the standings.
On the morning of the final game, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Musial would pitch that Sunday afternoon, but only to Baumholtz. Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky told the newspaper Musial would pitch at least once to Baumholtz.
According to The Sporting News, the Cardinals received permission from National League president Warren Giles for Musial to pitch against Baumholtz.
In his book, “Stan Musial: The Man’s Own Story,” Musial said he “was persuaded” to pitch to Baumholtz “as a box office promotion.”
Musial entered the game with a league-leading .336 batting average. Baumholtz was second at .326. According to the Post-Dispatch, it remained mathematically possible for Baumholtz to surpass Musial for the batting title. For that to happen, Baumholtz would have to go 5-for-5 in the finale and Musial would need to go hitless in at least four at-bats.
If Baumholtz went 5-for-5, he’d finish with a batting average of .334. If Musial went 0-for-4 or 0-for-5, he’d finish at .333.
Though the odds were stacked against Baumholtz overtaking Musial, the Cardinals thought having Musial pitch to him would make it more intriguing.
On the mound
Musial began his professional career as a left-handed pitcher in the Cardinals’ system. After pitching two seasons (1938-39) for Williamson (W.Va.), Musial pitched for another Class D farm, the Daytona Beach (Fla.) Islanders, in 1940.
Musial was 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA for Daytona Beach. On days he didn’t pitch, he often played the outfield. In August 1940, he was playing center field against Orlando when he damaged his left shoulder trying to catch a sinking line drive.
The injury ended Musial’s pitching career. Moved fulltime to the outfield in 1941, Musial, 20, rose through the farm system, impressing with his hitting, and reached the majors with the Cardinals in September that year.
Eleven years later, he was asked to give pitching another try in order to end Frankie Baumholtz’s last-gasp bid to snatch the batting crown from him.
Having regrets
A crowd of 17,422 gathered at Sportsman’s Park for the 1952 season finale. Rookie left-hander Harvey Haddix was the Cardinals’ starting pitcher. Musial began the game in center field.
Haddix walked the Cubs’ leadoff batter, Tommy Brown. Then, with Baumholtz coming up, Musial went to pitch, Haddix moved to right field, and Hal Rice shifted from right to center.
“Musial took only a couple of pitches for warmup,” the Post-Dispatch reported.
In his autobiography, Musial said, “I didn’t relish the contrived show. I didn’t like it particularly because the one batter I’d face would be Baumholtz. I didn’t want to give any impression I might be trying to show him up.”
As Musial warmed up, Cubs manager Phil Cavarretta said to Baumholtz, “They’re trying to make a fool of you, Frank,” Baumholtz told author Danny Peary for the book “We Played the Game.”
Baumholtz said he replied, “I don’t think so. I think it’s just a gimmick to get a lot of people in the stands to watch two also-rans on the last day of the season.”
Send in the clowns
Baumholtz was strictly a left-handed batter, but he stood in from the right side to face Musial. Baumholtz never had batted right-handed. According to The Sporting News, Baumholtz made the switch as a gesture of sportsmanship because he “refused to try for a cheap hit” against the National League batting leader posing as a pitcher.
Or, as the St. Louis Globe-Democrat put it, “Baumholtz didn’t want to get something for nothing.”
Musial threw Baumholtz a fastball, the Post-Dispatch reported. In describing the pitch in his book, Musial said, “I flipped the ball.”
Baumholtz “met the ball squarely and it bounced on a big hop” to third baseman Solly Hemus, the Post-Dispatch reported. “Figuring on a double play, Hemus fumbled the ball. He then threw late and wide to first, and Brown took third.”
As United Press noted, “Baumholtz was safe on an error on what should have been a double play ball.”
Reaching on an error made Baumholtz 0-for-1 for the game and virtually eliminated his chance of overtaking Musial for the batting crown.
“I’m not proud of that circus,” Musial said in his autobiography.
After the Baumholtz at-bat, Musial, Haddix and Rice returned to their original positions. Haddix got the next batter, Bill Serena, to ground into a double play, but Brown scored from third for a 1-0 Cubs lead.
When Musial batted in the third inning, Cubs starter Paul Minner “tried to tease him with a slow underhand toss but it was wide of the plate,” the Globe-Democrat reported. On a curve, Musial fouled out to the catcher.
In the ninth, Musial lined a 3-and-2 pitch from Minner to left for a single. In going 1-for-3 in the game, Musial finished the season with a .336 batting average.
Baumholtz went 1-for-4 _ his hit was a bunt single in the sixth _ and placed second in the batting race at .325.
Haddix pitched eight innings and allowed three runs. Minner pitched a shutout in a 3-0 Cubs victory. Boxscore
Higher standards
In the seven seasons in which he won batting titles, Musial’s .336 mark in 1952 was his lowest. It also was the lowest figure by a NL batting leader since Ernie Lombardi of the Reds hit .330 in 1942.
“I had a bad year,” Musial said to the Globe-Democrat. “I wish I could have done better. My timing was off during the season.”
Yep, it was terrible. In addition to winning the batting crown, Musial, 31, led the National League in slugging percentage (.538), hits (194), total bases (311) and doubles (42) in 1952.
In his autobiography, Musial said he was “most disappointed” in his RBI total of 91 in 1952. It was the only time in a 10-year stretch from 1948-57 that Musial didn’t drive in 100 runs in a season.
RetroSimba 
Stan was a great guy, one year I was sitting on the top row next to the Press Box entrance in St. Pete and Jack Buck came ans sat be me, what a great peson he was, then Muial walked up tp get in the press box and shook my hand.
Wow! How fortunate. Thanks for sharing that marvelous experience.
Didn’t know about this. It’s funny. You had Stan Musial making his only appearance as a pitcher. Frankie Baumholtz batting right-handed for the first time in his career. And you had Solly Hemus making only his second start as a third baseman that year. I feel that it’s important too mention that Frankie Baumholtz had nearly 5 years of his baseball career put on hold because of military service. Finally, how many players in today’s game would love to have the “bad year” that Stan Musial had in 1952!!
Thanks, Phillip. It always pleases me when I am able to offer new information to a baseball fan and researcher as knowledgeable as you are.
If only they had bobble heads then they could’ve just given some of them away instead of embarrassing their greatest player.
Good line, Ken.
Bill Veeck still was running the St. Louis Browns then. The Cardinals may have been the better team, but Veeck was far ahead of them in promotions.
Hello—so I am trying to figure this out.
As Musial came in only to face one batter, Baumholtz, and the player who scored was not Baumholtz….
Officially, what is Stan’s career ERA called? One source told me it’s considered “undefined” (zero divided by zero). Would that be correct?
How is it displayed in the record books? It would seem for Musial to be the only “pitcher” to have accomplished this.
Thanks for your interest, Christopher.
Yes, according to two accurate baseball record sources _ baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org _ Stan’s career ERA is undefined. The one batter he faced reached on an error and did not score. In the record books, Stan’s ERA is shown as a blank.
The run in the inning was charged to starter Harvey Haddix. He walked leadoff batter Tommy Brown, who scored. The run charged to Haddix was unearned because of Frankie Baumholtz reaching on an error.
Thank you, Simba. That info was hard to find. Musial’s stats would drive any mathematician up the wall.