Background
Joseph Michael Medwick was born on November 24, 1911 in Carteret, New Jersey. He was the son of Elizabeth and John Medwick. His parents were born and married in Hungary, and his father was a sawmill worker.
Joseph Michael Medwick was born on November 24, 1911 in Carteret, New Jersey. He was the son of Elizabeth and John Medwick. His parents were born and married in Hungary, and his father was a sawmill worker.
Medwick graduated from Carteret High School in 1930. He participated in several sports, but he showed great promise in baseball. He had offers for athletic scholarships from twenty-one colleges. Scouted by Pop Kelchner of the St. Louis Cardinals, he was signed by that National League team.
Medwick began his career in the Middle Atlantic League in 1930. He played under the name of Mickey King, wishing to preserve his amateur status because he hoped to play football at Notre Dame. After a successful season at Scottsdale, Pennsylvania, Medwick decided to concentrate on baseball. Medwick was sent up to the Texas League the next year, and while in Houston. Also, he was given the nickname of "Ducky, " which he always hated, preferring "Muscles" or "Mickey, " his name from childhood. In a 139-game season in Houston, Medwick hit 26 home runs and had 111 runs batted in. His popularity in Houston was demonstrated when he was chosen to throw out the first ball at the first all-star game ever held in the Houston Astrodome in 1968. Medwick joined the National League Cardinals in 1932 and played in their last twenty-six games that season. The following year, he became the regular left fielder for the team and joined a rowdy bunch that came to be called "the Gashouse Gang. " Medwick was a fierce competitor who hated to strike out or take a base on balls and became adept at hitting bad pitches. In his career, he averaged only 36 walks and 30 strikeouts per year.
He also belonged to a jug band called the Mudcatters, which included teammates Pepper Martin and the Dean brothers. In his first complete season with the Cardinals, Medwick hit . 306, and he continued to reach the . 300 mark for the next ten seasons. He committed only 7 errors that year, which became his career average. The Cardinals reached the World Series in 1934, and Medwick scored 110 runs and had 106 runs batted in. He led the league in triples and had his second year (of seven) with 40 or more doubles. In the last game of the World Series, Medwick caused a riot. He got into a fight in the sixth inning after a hard slide into the Tigers third baseman. Then, when he returned to his position in the outfield, the fans at Navin Field hurled newspapers, scorecards, fruit, and bottles at him for a half hour. Finally, Medwick was ordered out of the game after a conference with the commissioner of baseball, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. It is the only time a player has been thrown out of a World Series game for fighting. The next year, Medwick scored 132 runs and led the league with 126 runs batted in. In that year, Medwick hit a record-setting 64 doubles. He had hits on ten consecutive at-bats between July 19 and 21. He led the league in runs batted in that year and the following two. Only Rogers Hornsby had ever accomplished that feat before. In 1937, Medwick hit a career high of . 374 and led most other offensive categories as well.
In 1938, Medwick held out successfully for a $20, 000 contract and then went on to lead the league in doubles and in runs batted in. He hit . 322. That year, his friend and manager Frankie Frisch was fired. In 1939, his last full season with the St. Louis Cardinals, Medwick had over 200 hits for the fourth and last time. In 1940, Medwick was hitting . 304 through thirty-seven games, but the Cardinals traded him on June 12 to the Brooklyn Dodgers for $200, 000 and four players. The Cardinals management often traded players it believed were past their peak. Less than a week after the trade, he was struck in the head by a pitch from Bob Bowman, his former teammate, and knocked unconscious. In just four days Medwick was playing again. It has been said he was a more timid hitter after that incident. Yet he hit . 305 in the years following the beaning and averaged 44 doubles and 113 runs batted in. He also never struck out more than 36 times after 1940. The beaning incident and the beaning of young shortstop Pee Wee Reese led to the use of an insert in batting caps that eventually evolved into the batting helmet. In 1941, the Dodgers went to the World Series. Medwick's power declined that year, but he was fifth in the league in batting. In July 1943, Medwick's contract was sold to the Giants. His batting average that year was . 278. In 1944 his average rose to . 337, behind only Dixie Walker and Stan Musial, and he had 165 hits and 85 runs batted in. In 1945 he was traded to the Boston Braves, who released him before spring training in 1946. He was also dismissed by the St. Louis Browns after a brief tryout. He signed with the Dodgers on June 28 and hit over . 300 in 77 at-bats. After an episode in 1947 when he was signed by the New York Yankees and released in spring training, Medwick finished his major-league career with the Cardinals, averaging . 332 in his last three years in major-league baseball. He finished his career in the minor leagues as a player and a player-manager. His last season was 1952. He was appointed assistant baseball coach at St. Louis University and tutored there from 1961 to 1965. In 1968, he was appointed hitting instructor for the nine Cardinal minor-league teams. Medwick averaged 202 hits per season and had a . 324 lifetime batting average. He died in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Medwick led the league in fielding percentage, making only four errors, and he was named the most valuable player. He was the last National League player to win the Triple Crown. Medwick had a candy bar named after him. Medwick was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America in 1968. In January 2014, the Cardinals announced Medwick among 22 former players and personnel to be inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum for the inaugural class of 2014. Joseph Medwick Park along the banks of the Rahway River in Woodbridge Township and Carteret in Middlesex County, New Jersey is named in his honor.
Medwick's ferocity off the field was well known too, and he occasionally fought with teammates. Some referred to him as the "hot-tempered Hungarian. "
Medwick lived in St. Louis and ran his own insurance firm. He loved golf and was proud of the many trophies he won playing that game.
In the opinions of Ted Williams and Pie Traynor, Medwick was the second-greatest right-handed hitter who ever played the game, trailing only Rogers Hornsby. Medwick was anything but polite to the baseball writers who cast the votes for the Hall of Fame.
Baseball historian Bill James ranked him as the seventh-best left fielder who ever played.
Quotes from others about the person
A contemporary described his hitting as "like a man fighting with bumblebees. "
Baseball historian Bill James said "Medwick is the most aggressive physical player of his time. "
On August 24, 1936, Medwick married Isabelle Heutel; they had two children.
