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Victor Woodrow Wertz (February 9, 1925 – July 7, 1983) was an American professional baseball first baseman and outfielder. He had a 17-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career from 1947 to 1963. Wertz played for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns / Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, and Minnesota Twins; all teams within the American League. After having contracted polio in August 1955, ending his season and putting his future in jeopardy, Wertz returned in 1956 to hit 32 home runs and receive the Comeback Player of the Year award. He was involved in one of the most famous World Series plays in MLB history when Willie Mays made a spectacular catch of his over 400 ft fly ball to center field in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, known as "The Catch".
In 1942, the Tigers assigned the 17-year old Wertz to the Winston-Salem Twins of the Class B Piedmont League. He had a .239 batting average in 63 games. In 1943, he had played in only 18 games, with 18 at bats, for the Double-A Buffalo Bisons before being inducted into the Army. After his military service, Wertz returned to the Tigers system for the 1946 season, and was assigned to the Bisons again, now a Triple-A team in the International League. Wertz had a .301 batting average, with 19 Home run, 91 runs batted in (RBI), 75 runs scored and an .882 OPS (on-base plus slugging). He played as an outfielder in 128 of his 139 games played. He had the sixth highest batting average in the International League among hitters with more than 400 at bats (Jackie Robinson leading the league at .349), was seventh in home runs and eighth in RBI.
In 1948, Wertz started 97 of his 119 games in the Tigers' outfield. He hit .248, with seven home runs, 67 RBI and 49 runs scored. His breakout season for the Tigers came in 1949, the first year he was selected to play in the All-Star Game. He tied for the American League (AL) lead in games played with Vern Stephens and Ted Williams (155). Wertz hit .304, with 20 home runs, a career-high 133 RBI (third best in the AL behind Stevens and Williams), 96 runs scored (ninth best in the AL) and an .851 OPS. He was tenth in the AL's 1949 Most Valuable Player voting.
In 1950, Wertz hit .308, with 27 home runs, 123 RBI, 99 runs scored, a career high 91 base on balls, and a career-high .941 OPS. He tied a Major League record that season by hitting home runs in five consecutive games. He was again 10th in AL Most Valuable Player voting. In 1950, Wertz lost some playing time in spring training and during the season to lower leg injuries resulting from foul balls he hit into his own lower legs and feet. He began the practice of wearing Shin guard to protect himself from this recurrent problem, and continued to do so throughout his career. The shin guard never caused him any trouble until the 1954 World Series where it encumbered his ability to take an extra base.
In 1951, he made the AL All-Star team for the second time. He hit .285, with 27 home runs, 94 RBI, 86 runs scored and an .894 OPS. He made the AL All-Star team again in 1952, but missed three weeks of play with a pulled muscle. On August 14, 1952, the Tigers traded Wertz, Dick Littlefield, Marlin Stuart and Don Lenhardt to the St. Louis Browns for Jim Delsing, Ned Garver, Dave Madison and Bud Black.
The key to the trade for the Tigers was pitcher Garver, who had won 20 games in 1951, but was pitching with a sore arm in 1952. Although the trade deadline had passed, because the Browns were in seventh place and the Tigers in eighth (last) place, Browns owner Bill Veeck and Tigers general manager Charlie Gehringer could use the waiver process to effect the trade. Wertz was hitting .246, with 17 home runs and 51 RBI in only 285 at bats when he was traded. Garver pitched in only one game for the Tigers in 1952, but from 1953 to 1955 he went 37–38 on Tigers teams that had only one winning season.
Wertz started 1954 as a member of the newly formed Baltimore Orioles. He started in right field for the Orioles in their first home game in Baltimore. The Orioles played in the then mammoth Memorial Stadium, which frustrated the power-hitting left-handed batter. On June 1, 1954, he was traded by the Baltimore Orioles to the Cleveland Indians for right-handed pitcher Bob Chakales. When Wertz was traded, he was hitting only .202 with one home run after 29 games, and was demoted from being a starter. The Baltimore fans came to jeer him harshly, and he described being traded to the Indians as "'just like a pardon from the governor'".
The Indians were swept by the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series. Wertz, however, hit .500 during the World Series, and had the most hits of any player in that series (8); including two doubles, a triple, a home run, three RBI and two runs scored. Wertz is not remembered for his offensive performance in the series; but rather for an out he made at a critical juncture in Game 1. Wertz hit a long fly ball that Hall of Fame center fielder Willie Mays caught, that came to be known as "The Catch". Wertz's fly ball went over to dead center of the Polo Grounds in New York, and a sportswriter said, "It would have been a home run in any other park, including Yellowstone."
"The Catch" is generally considered one of the greatest defensive plays in World Series history. After he retired from playing, Wertz kept a photo of "The Catch" in his office at his beer distribution company and explained he had no negative feelings about being remembered for hitting a deep fly out. "I'm very proud that I'm remembered in connection with it. . . . I look at it this way: If it had been a home run or a triple would people have remembered it. Not very likely", Wertz told United Press International (UPI) in 1979. He is also reported as saying, "I look at it this way: If that ball Willie caught had been a home run or a triple, how many people would've remembered me? Not many. This way, everybody who meets me for the first time always identifies me with Willie's catch, and that makes me feel good."
In 1957, still exclusively playing first base, Wertz hit .282, with 28 home runs, 105 RBI, 84 runs scored and an .857 OPS. He was named to the AL All-Star team for the fourth (and final) time, where he went 1-for-2 with an RBI. He was sixth in the 1957 AL Most Valuable Player voting. He broke his ankle 25 games into the 1958 season with Cleveland, and missed the remainder of the season, batting .279 in only 43 at bats on the year. In December 1958, Cleveland traded Wertz and Gary Geiger to the Boston Red Sox for Jimmy Piersall.
During his 473 career games in Cleveland, over five seasons, he hit .270, with 91 home runs, 326 RBI and an .848 OPS.
In 1961, Wertz started 82 games at first base for the Red Sox. He suffered a rib injury that caused him to miss playing time. He was hitting .262, with 11 home runs and 59 RBI when the Red Sox traded the 36-year old Wertz to the Tigers on September 8, 1961. At the time, the Tigers were in second place in the American League, 10 games behind the New York Yankees. Wertz only appeared in eight games for the Tigers, with six at bats that season for the Tigers. The Tigers won 101 games, but finished second to the Yankees 109 wins.
In 1962, Wertz appeared in 72 games for the Tigers, but was a starter in only 14. He hit .324, with five home runs and 18 RBI in 105 at bats that season. As a pinch hitter in 1962, he hit .321 with three home runs. In 1963, the Tigers intended to use him primarily as a pinch hitter, while playing a backup role to first baseman Norm Cash. However, the Tigers released Wertz in early May 1963, and he was signed by the Minnesota Twins in mid-June.
He finished his final Major League season with the Twins, batting .136 in 44 at bats, with three home runs and seven RBI. At the end of July 1963, Wertz announced he would be retiring at the end of the season. He hit pinch hit home runs on July 3 and August 23, and his other home run came as a starter on June 28 (one of only five games he started that season). The Twins released him in October 1963.
Wertz was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame on November 5, 1977. He was inducted into the Ohio Baseball Sports Hall of Fame in October 1980, and the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame on May 25, 1983, less than two months before his unexpected death. He was inducted into the York County (Pennsylvania) Hall of Fame in 1981.
Vic Wertz Field at the Berks County Youth Recreation Facility in Pennsylvania is named in his honor. The field was dedicated on April 19, 2013. Wertz was honored by the Orioles at a game on September 13, 1991.
During and after his baseball career, Wertz worked in the Detroit area beer distribution business. He began in the business after his wife and he became friends with Baltimore Orioles owner Jerold Hoffberger and his wife. Hoffberger was president of National Bohemian Beer, who asked Wertz to work for Hoffberger's brewery. Even after Wertz was traded to Cleveland, Hoffberger still offered Wertz distribution rights in Mt. Clemens, Michigan. In the Winter of 1955, Wertz purchased the Maple Leaf Springs beer distributorship in Mt. Clemens. It had six employees at the time, and sold fewer than 100,000 cases of beer in his first year of ownership. By 1983, the year of Wertz's death, the company had become the Vic Wertz Distributing Company, doing $20 million of business annually, with 102 employees.
Wertz also collected automobiles and had 1936, 1952 and 1955 Roll Royce cars, and a 1955 Ford Thunderbird at the time of his death.
When he retired to Mount Clemens, he formed "Wertz Warriors", a group of sportsmen who raised funds for the Special Olympics Winter Games. He was the founder of an 800-mile snowmobile endurance ride, run annually in Michigan starting in 1982 to benefit the Special Olympics. He held an annual golf outing that raised $350,000 for the Boys Club over three years.
Wertz died during Cardiac surgery at Detroit's Harper Hospital on the morning of July 7, 1983. Surgeons were performing a coronary bypass and replacing a valve in his heart after he had suffered a heart attack the previous day. He had suffered an even earlier heart attack on June 23, 1983, the same day the Detroit Free Press published a biographical article on Wertz focusing on his business and philanthropical work in the Detroit area. He had been residing at Grosse Point Farms at the time of his death. He is buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan. Willie Mays, who had played golf relatively recently with Wertz and was shocked by his death, said "'I'm very sorry that a very good friend of mine died'".
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