1952 in baseball
The following are the baseball events of the year 1952 throughout the world.
Champions
Major League Baseball
Other champions
Awards and honors
MLB statistical leaders
Major league baseball final standings
American League final standings
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National League final standings
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Events
January–March
- January 31 – Harry Heilmann with 203 votes, and Paul Waner with 195, become the newest members of the Hall of Fame.
- February 16 – Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, 77, retires after 40 years as a major league player and coach. He receives a pension from the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he spent most of those years.
- February 21 – Thomas Fine of Cuba's Leones de la Habana hurled the first no-hitter in Caribbean Series history, a 1–0 masterpiece against Al Papai and Venezuela's Cervecería Caracas. Through 2013, it has been the only no-hitter pitched in Series history.
- February 26 – Thomas Fine was three outs from consecutive no-hitters in the Caribbean Series, having allowed a single in the ninth inning to break it up, in an 11–3 Cuba's victory over Panama's Carta Vieja Yankees. His 17 consecutive hitless innings pitched record still as the longest in Series history.
- March 24 – St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Slaybaugh is hit in the left eye with a line drive, necessitating an operation to remove the eye. Slaybaugh will pitch briefly in the minors in 1953-54 and then retire.
April–June
- April 23 – Bob Cain and the St. Louis Browns defeat Bob Feller and the Cleveland Indians, 1–0, in a game in which both pitchers throw a one-hitter.
- April 30
- Veteran Negro League catcher Quincy Trouppe makes his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians. At 39 years of age, he is one of the oldest rookies in major league history. Three days later, Trouppe is behind the plate when relief pitcher Toothpick Sam Jones enters the game, forming the first black battery in American League history.
- Ted Williams hits a two run home run to break a 3-3 tie on "Ted Williams Day" at Fenway Park. It was Williams' final game of the season before his departure for the Korean War to serve as a Marine fighter pilot.
- May 5 – Mickey Mantle's father dies of Hodgkin's Disease, and Mantle will miss six games while attending the funeral and seeing to family matters in Oklahoma.
- May 13 – Ron Necciai of the Bristol Twins strikes out 27 batters while pitching a 7–0 no-hitter against the Welch Miners in an Appalachian League game. Four of the Welch hitters reach base on a walk, an error, a hit by pitch, and a passed ball charged to Twins' catcher Harry Dunlop on a swinging third strike. But 27 strikeouts are recorded on the night, including four in the ninth inning, as a result of Dunlop's miscue, while one batter is retired on a grounder in the second inning.
- May 15 – After pitching four no-hitters in the minors, 33-year-old Virgil Trucks of the Detroit Tigers pitches his first in the majors, a 1–0 blanking of the Washington Senators. Vic Wertz's two-out home run in the ninth inning off Bob Porterfield wins the game at Briggs Stadium.
- May 21 – At Ebbets Field, the Brooklyn Dodgers set a Major League record by scoring 15 runs in the first inning of a 19-1 pounding of the Cincinnati Reds. All nine Dodgers in the starting lineup both score a run and bat in a run in that first inning.
- May 29 – Boston Red Sox pitcher Mickey McDermott faces 27 batters and fire a one-hitter to beat the Washington Senators, 1–0, at Fenway Park. Mel Hoderlein's fourth-inning single is the only Washington hit and he is thrown out while trying to stretch the hit into a double.
- June 11 – Sammy White clouts a walk-off grand slam in the ninth inning off pitcher Satchel Paige to give the Boston Red Sox an 11–9 victory over the St. Louis Browns at Fenway Park.
- June 19 – Carl Erskine of the Brooklyn Dodgers tosses a 5–0 no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs at Ebbets Field. Erskine would pitch his second career no-hitter on May 12, 1956 against the New York Giants, 3–0, at Ebbets Field.
- June 25 – Chicago White Sox shortstop Chico Carrasquel fractures his little finger in a play‚ which drops Chicago four games out of first place. Carrasquel will reinjure it on July 9 and be out of the lineup until August 19. The injury to Carrasquel‚ the starting shortstop for the American League in the MLB All-Star Game, is a key damage component as the White Sox will finish in third place.
July–September
October–December
- October 1 – In Game 1 of the World Series, the Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees, 4–2, at Ebbets Field behind relief ace Joe Black, who started only two games during the season.
- October 7 – The New York Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4–2, in the decisive Game 7 of the World Series to win their fourth straight World Championship title – tying the mark they set between 1936 and 1939 and fifteenth overall. Billy Martin saves the day by snaring a two-out, bases-loaded infield pop off the bat of Jackie Robinson. Gil Hodges goes hitless again and is 0-for-21 in the Series. This is the Yankees' third defeat of the Dodgers in six years.
- November 12 – Bobby Shantz, who posted a 24-7 record with 152 strikeouts and a 2.48 ERA for the Philadelphia Athletics, is selected the AL Most Valuable Player by the Baseball Writers' Association of America and the AL Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News.
- November 22 – Philadelphia Athletics pitcher Harry Byrd, who won 15 games and posted and a 3.31 ERA, is selected American League Rookie of the Year. Byrd will be the last Athletics player to win the award until José Canseco in 1986.
- November 28 – International League President Frank Shaughnessy reveals plans to form two new major leagues by merging the top teams in the American Association and the top teams from the IL. Shaughnessy thinks that in five to six years, Major League Baseball will elevate these two leagues, along with the Pacific Coast League, which nearly has MLB status now.
- November 30 – On a local New York TV program, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers charges that the New York Yankees management is racist for its failure to bring up a black player. Yankees executive George Weiss denies the allegations.
- December 2:
Movies
Births
January–March
April–June
July–September
October–December
Deaths
- February 5 – Esty Chaney, 61, relief pitcher who played for the Boston Red Sox (1913) and Brooklyn Tip-Tops (1914)
- March 30 – Deacon Phillippe, 79, 6-time winner of 20 games, primarily with Pittsburgh; earned all three Pirate victories in 1903 World Series
- April 3 – Phenomenal Smith, 87, pitcher for eight seasons, 1884–1891.
- May 7 – Red Bluhm, 57, played for the Boston Red Sox in 1918
- June 17 – Al Atkinson, 91, pitched three seasons in the Majors and threw two no-hitters.
- July 3 – Fred Tenney, 80, first baseman for 17 years, primarily with Boston; batted .300 six times
- August 25 – Harry Maupin, 80, pitcher for two seasons, 1898–1899.
- August 30 – Arky Vaughan, 40, a drowning victim, 9-time All-Star shortstop who was named the NL's MVP in 1935 by The Sporting News; career .318 hitter led NL in runs, triples and walks three times each
- November 21 – Fred McMullin, 61, one of the eight White Sox players suspended for life for their part in the Black Sox scandal
- November 29 – Arlie Latham, 92, first player to play 1500 games at third base; among all-time top 10 in runs upon retirement
- December 29 – Bob Meinke, 65, appeared in two games for the Cincinnati Reds in 1910