When Al Rosen nearly won the triple crown: former Indians third baseman led American League with 43 homers and 145 RBI, but finished second in batting race with .336 average in 1953 - Close But No Cigar

Baseball Digest, March, 2002 by Bob Dolgan

NO CLEVELAND BASEBALL PLAYER has ever won the American League Triple Crown--leading the league in home runs, runs batted in and batting average in the same season.

Third baseman Al Rosen came closest. In 1953, he won the league homer title with 43 and the RBI crown with 145. His batting average of .336 was a percentage point behind Washington's Mickey Vernon, with the race determined on Rosen's final at-bat of the season.

Some gamesmanship was involved on the part of both teams as Vernon won out.

The game itself meant nothing. New York had already wrapped up the pennant. The Indians had clinched second place.

The big story was Rosen's Triple Crown bid. The muscular 175-pound slugger, who had his sleeves cut short, trailed Vernon by three points, .336 to .333, entering the season's final game at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium against Detroit, Manager Al Lopez moved Rosen up from his usual cleanup spot to leadoff to give him every possible chance to hit.

"I was leading most of the season," recalled Vernon, 83, from his Pennsylvania home. "But Al got hot and started getting two or three hits in nearly every game for the last two weeks."

The Indians kept the crowd of 9,579 informed of Vernon's adventures-in his game against Philadelphia, announcing what he did in each trip to the plate. Vernon, an excellent hitter who had won the 1946 batting title with a .353 mark, rapped two singles in four at-bats against Joe Coleman, including a bunt.

Rosen beat out a bunt and a grounder and belted a ground-rule double in his first four attempts against former teammate Al Aber, who pitched the distance in a 7-3 Detroit win. But he was still a shade behind Vernon.

ONE MORE SHOT

It was questionable whether Rosen would get another chance to hit. He was the fourth hitter in the ninth inning, so one man had to get on base. With one out, catcher Joe Ginsberg walked. Cleveland Plain Dealer writer Harry Jones, who covered the game, said the pass by Aber was "more or less intentional." Pitcher Art Houtteman then struck out deliberately to make sure he would not hit into a double play. That gave Rosen another opportunity.

He needed a hit to overtake Vernon. "Aber suddenly got very wild;" Rosen, 76, recalled from California. "A base on balls wouldn't have done me any good. He just couldn't get the ball over the plate. I kept fouling off bad pitches."

Finally, Rosen hit a slow grounder toward Detroit third baseman Gerry Priddy and raced as hard as he could for first. It looked as though he beat the throw. The crowd yelled gleefully. Jack Graney, working his final Indians game on radio, said Rosen had the hit.

Even Priddy said: "I thought he beat it out."

But umpire Hank Soar called him out.

"Everybody on the bench thought I was safe," Rosen said.

Lopez came out to argue, but Rosen called him off. "I was out, Al," he said.

"I tried to leap to first base," Rosen remembered. "But I did a quick step and missed the bag." Game reports said he brushed his spikes across the back of the base.

If Rosen had been called safe, he would have finished with an average of .3372, a speck of resin dust better than Vernon's .3371. As it was, Rosen's final average was .3355, which rounded out to .336.

PALS HELP

In Washington, the Senators knew Rosen had made an out in his last at-bat. Vernon was still ahead. The Senators conspired to make sure he didn't have to bat again. Mickey Grasso doubled and let himself get picked off. Then Keith "Kite" Thomas singled and was out when he ran leisurely to second.

"I think those things happened," said Vernon, confirming the plays.

"Mickey didn't have anything to do with it," said Rosen, who later became president of the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants.

The Senators could have saved themselves the trouble. If Vernon had gone hitless in another trip, he still would have finished ahead of Rosen, .3366 to .3355. Vernon wound up 205-for-608 and Rosen was 201-for-599.

Rosen missed joining the 12 players who won the Triple Crown in the 1900s. Napoleon Lajoie, Ty Cobb, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams (twice), Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson and Carl Yastrzemski did it in the A.L. and Rogers Hornsby (twice), Heinie Zimmerman, Chuck Klein and Joe Medwick did it in the N.L. All but Zimmerman are Hall of Famers.

MVP AWARD

Rosen had one consolation. He was voted the A.L.'s most valuable player that year, the first to be elected unanimously. He also led the league in slugging, total bases and runs in one of the greatest seasons a Cleveland player ever had.

Rosen started out even hotter the next year. He was hitting .372 and leading the league with 11 homers and 44 RBI in 35 games. At 30, he was just getting into the superstar class when he was injured while being a team man.

Lopez wanted to get Rudy Regalado, the spring sensation, into the lineup. Regalado could only play third base, so Lopez asked Rosen to move to first, which he did.

"Can you imagine asking the MVP to move over to a strange position today?" Rosen exclaimed.

The switch turned into a disaster. On May 25 in Chicago, the White Sox's Jungle Jim Rivera hit a shot toward the neophyte first baseman. Ferris Fain, who was on first, screened the ball and Rosen was hit on the right index finger. It was broken.