Two Little Missing Home Runs

 OK, so this is a story about two little home runs that went missing somewhere along the long line of box scores that, well, let's just say, aren't always perfect. Bear with me. This story takes a bit of a winding course. 

To set the stage: my work concerns the old American Association (1902-1962). A year ago I started developing a database for the home runs of each team for their single-season franchise maximum number. So for example, Milwaukee hit 163 homers in 1936, the most they ever hit in their 50-year history. The story of Milwaukee's 1936 season appeared in the spring edition of my publication, the American Association Almanac. 

The problem with such a database is its accuracy, esp. with regard to completeness. In the case of my St. Paul database for the Saints, the team total for their franchise-high season was 173, but I came up with 171. I isolated the player home runs and compared each total with what was officially recorded on baseball-reference. 

My database was short one home run for Ted Bartz and Dick Williams (the former Boston manager). I have now found the missing home runs for these two players. What is interesting is HOW I found them. As I said, the story is a long one, but suffice it to say the covid lockdown didn't help. 

I wanted access to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, because that newspaper's archive is not found online. Finally this past week I was able to get into the library and went through every home game's box scores using the microfilm at the vast Wilson Library in Minneapolis. No luck. Came home and tried several different approaches. The one that finally worked was to rely on game accounts rather than box scores. 

It worked...but in a round-about way. In the case of Bartz, I found his missing homer while looking for one of Williams' homers, in the Toledo Blade (online). Then this morning I found the missing Williams homer after spending last night listing each game he appeared in, then tabulating any run he scored. This was my pathway to success.

I simply got lucky...in both instances. They say you create your own luck. The effort I put into finding each of these "missing" home runs warranted a little luck. This morning I'm feeling quite lucky. See the attached for the Indianapolis Star box score (online) providing the game report directly alongside the errant box score for the contest played July 18, 1954 at St. Paul's Lexington Park against the Indianapolis Indians (that season's pennant winner).

The first image is for game 1 of the Indians/Saints doubleheader in which Williams hit the home run in question. Note it is not credited in the summary portion of the box score. The second image shows the text of the game account describing the home run, without which no one would have known when, or even if, Williams homered. As the game account indicates, this was his first American Association home run, and he went on to contribute five more to the St. Paul long ball cache that year.

The work finding each home run for the eight original American Association teams is now complete, but the work of telling the story for each team is just beginning. 

The results of the second phase of my work for each team's franchise record season will be published in October 2021 and will cover 1954 St. Paul, 1954 Toledo, 1955 Louisville and 1955 Minneapolis. Anyone interested in subscribing to the American Association Almanac can contact me at rex457@gmail.com.