All-Time Indians: Vic Wertz

While many of the greatest Indians have been brought up through the farm system or acquired while young through signing or trade, Vic Wertz is a more traveled case. He began his career in 1942 when he was signed by the Tigers as a 17 year old amateur. After just one full season in the minors, Wertz was drafted into World War II and wouldn’t leave the Army until the Winter of 1949. Despite missing a large chunk of his younger years, Wertz debuted with the Tigers in 1947 and was an All-Star by 1949. As the starting right fielder, Wertz was selected for the All-Star games in 1951 and 1952 as well before being traded to the St. Louis Browns at the end of 1952 in an eight player deal. After finishing the 1952 campaign in St. Louis, Wertz would stay with the franchise for two full seasons before they became the Baltimore Orioles. During these first seven seasons, Wertz tallied 913 games, 129 home runs, 166 doubles, more than 500 runs and more than 600 RBI. Batting .285 and slugging .478, Wertz was as legitimate a power threat as existed in baseball.

After just 29 games in 1954, the newly named Orioles made a big mistake when they traded Wertz to the Indians for relief pitcher Bob Chakales. Chakales would end his career with a 4.54 ERA and played just part of a single season in Baltimore before being sent himself to the Chicago White Sox. Wertz, however, would be the final piece to the puzzle that pushed the Indians into the American League title. Despite never playing a game outside of the outfield in his career to this point, Wertz played in just five games in the outfield in 1954, moving permanently to first base. At the time, the Indians had an impressive duo in left and center in Al Smith and Larry Doby, but were stuck with the light hitting Bill Glynn at first base. After batting .243 with just three home runs in 147 games in 1953, Glynn hit .251 with five home runs in 111 in 1954. Playing where he was needed most, Wertz moved to first and smashed 15 home runs, knocked in 61 and scored 34 runs in 94 games.

The 1954 Indians were and remain the greatest regular season Cleveland baseball team in history, winning a record 111 games with another record .721 winning percent. The team easily surpassed the Yankees, who finished eight games back and moved on to play the New York Giants in the World Series. As heavy favorites, the Indians looked to be on track to win game one when Wertz smashed a long drive about 450 feet to center in a tie game with two runners on and none out. Racing into the depths of the Polo Grounds, Willie Mays made the only play known as “the catch” to this day. The Indians wouldn’t score that inning or again that game as the Giants won in extra innings. Three games later, despite Wertz batting .500 with four extra base hits and three RBI, the Indians were swept, leading to forty years without a play-off appearance.

Wertz began 1955 as the starting first baseman for the Tribe, but as he continued to bat around .250, the Indians signed free agent first baseman Ferris Fain in July. Fain had been a five time All-Star with Philadelphia and Chicago, but was in his final MLB season in 1955 and wouldn’t hit any better than Wertz, batting .254 with eight RBI in 56 games. With Fain on the roster, Wertz played outfield in six of his final seven games of the year before his season ended early on August 24th.

Fain was gone again in 1956 and Wertz was back as starter, slugging .509 with a career high 32 home runs and 106 RBI. This was a team with a lot of power, but no set up men, speed or high average hitters. Of those power hitters, Wertz was the best, out-slugging former AL MVP Al Rosen, future Hall of Famer Doby and Rocky Colavito. This was his first of two incredible seasons for Wertz and the reason he still today is one of the greatest first basemen in Indians history. After 106 RBI in 1955, he knocked in another 105 in 1956 making him one of just two batters, along with Colavito, to hit 100 RBI in a single season between 1955 and 1964. In 144 games that year, he batted .282 with 21 doubles and 28 home runs and was selected to his fourth and final All-Star game. At the age of 32, Wertz had posted his best season (2.7 WAR) since he was 26 with Detroit, posting numbers he would never reach again.

Wertz missed the first half of the 1958 season, starting at the end of July and would play just 25 games. While he was still a slugger (.512 slugging percent), GM Frank Lane was in the process of dismantling the franchise and Wertz was traded during the off-season to the Red Sox for Jim Piersall. Piersall would play three solid seasons for the Indians in the outfield, but Wertz wasn’t quite done yet. Although it took him another year to get back on track, he would have one more season in 1960 with 19 home runs and 103 RBI, adding 45 home runs and 238 more RBI before calling it quits after the 1963 season. He would return to Detroit for parts of two seasons during those years and finish his career in Minnesota.

While his best years were as a Tiger, Wertz still managed 91 home runs and 326 RBI in five injury marred seasons for the Tribe on his way to 266 home runs and 1,178 RBI overall. For his efforts, he was ultimately kept on the Hall of Fame ballot for nine years, but in 1978 was taken off after receiving just 1% of the vote. Following his playing career, Wertz took to charitable endeavors, particularly the Special Olympics, where he was an organizer. In 1983, just twenty years after he retired, Wertz died from complications during heart surgery at the age of 58.