Walt Masterson

From SoSH

Walt Masterson

Born:	Tuesday Jun 22 1920
Birthplace:	Philadelphia PA USA
Hometown:
Height:	6 ' 2
Weight:	189
Bats:	Right
Throws:	Right
Drafted:
College:
High School:	Philadelphia (PA) North Catholic
Other Teams:	Washington Senators (1939-42, 1945-49, 1952-53); Detroit Tigers (1956)
Years with Boston:	1949-52

1 Overall Career
2 Post-Retirement Years
3 Masterson's Moments in the Sun
4 Trivia
5 Transactions
6 External Links

[edit]

Overall Career

Walter Edward Masterson III was born June 22, 1920, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Armed with one of the better fastballs in baseball, he made the all-star team twice, in 1947 and 1948, and was the American League's starting pitcher in the 1948 game. In 14 seasons he compiled a 78-100 record with a 4.15 ERA. At times Masterson could be dominant, evidenced by his 15 career shutouts. However control issues plagued him over most of his career, as he walked 886 batters while only striking out 815.

Walt was a standout basketball player at Northeast Catholic High School. He played one season of varsity baseball, and was signed by the Senators in 1938 as a 17-year-old.

He began the 1939 season with the Senators' Piedmont League farm team in Charlotte, and won two games after being called up to the majors, where he made his debut May 8 in a 6-2 loss to the Indians in Cleveland. He struggled in 1940, logging a 3-13 record in his first full season with the Senators. Hoping to improve his control, he started wearing eyeglasses.

Masterson cleans his spectacles during the first of three stints with the Senators

During spring training in Orlando prior to the 1941 season, owner Clark Griffith had some advice for his young hurler, as reported by the Washington Post:

"The first thing I want you to do is junk that slow curve you were throwing last year," said Griffith, draping a paternal arm across the young man's shoulder. "It's no good. You can't get it across the plate and when you do, it's so slow that the batter can take a hitch in his swing and murder it."

Masterson went 4-3 in 1941 and 5-9 in 1942 before military service interrupted his career. He spent the next three years serving aboard US Navy submarines in the Pacific theater during World War II, returning to the majors in late in the 1945 season.

Masterson toiled inconsistently for the struggling Senators for the next three years, but often rose to the challenge, Post sportswriter Shirley Povich noted in 1949:

"There is no question, though, of his stomach for the battle. Too many times he has nursed slender leads all the way to get [the Senators] home, and rarely did he miss a turn against the tough clubs, New York, Boston and Cleveland."

Despite the difficult years in Washington, Masterson maintained a sunny disposition, according to Senators' broadcaster Bob Wolff:

"He was always cheerful, always had a big smile and was fun to be around. I remember Walt wore dark glasses on the mound, so he could see a runner edging off first but the runner couldn't see him watching. He had a great pickoff move — he called it his jitterbug step. No, he wasn't a big winner, but there weren't any big winners in Washington in those days."

Masterson was always hoping to one day be traded to a team capable of giving him healthier offensive support, according to his son, Walter E. "Skip" Masterson IV. The Red Sox and New York Yankees showed interest, and were impressed "with his ability to beat them both and envisioned him as a big winner on a better club," reported Povich in the Post.

The Red Sox acquired him in June 1949, and he promptly learned to throw a slider from an unlikely teacher, slugger Ted Williams. The future Hall of Famer became Masterson's close friend and Boston neighbor.

Masterson played with the Red Sox until 1953, when he was traded back to the Senators. He retired at the end of that season, although he came back briefly with the Detroit Tigers in 1956.

[edit]

Post-Retirement Years

Masterson's 1952 Bowman card.

In 1972, Ted Williams, then managing the Texas Rangers, hired him as the team's pitching coach.

In 1980 and 1981, he was head baseball coach at George Mason University, succeeding program founder Hap Spuhler, and compiling a 33-43-1 record over his two seasons. He then quit abruptly, as recalled by Bill Brown, Masterson's assistant coach and now his long-tenured successor with the Patriots:

"He stood up to leave the office one day, and I said, 'See you tomorrow.' He said, 'Nope, you won't see me tomorrow — this is it, I'm going home.' He just got mad at somebody or something and left."

"It's funny. Walt used to tell his players, 'When emotion walks in the door, logic walks out,' and he meant it. But he was an impulsive guy himself."

In retirement, Masterson was a co-founder and longtime member of the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association and was involved with developing baseball's pension plan. He lived on a farm in northern Virginia until moving to North Carolina in 1993.

Jim Hannan, who pitched in the majors and also one of the alumni association founders, said that at times Masterson was misunderstood:

"Walt had a very good sense of humor, but sometimes he came on a little strong. He would speak out on something he felt deeply about, and some people thought he was angry. He wasn't — just very intense."

Masterson died of a stroke April 5, 2008, at Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC. He was 87.

[edit]

Masterson's Moments in the Sun

When Masterson originally tried out for high school baseball as a shortstop, he didn't make the team. But when the head coach later needed a pickup team to scrimmage with the varsity squad, he put Walt on the mound. The hard-throwing righthander threw a no-hitter, and was promptly added to the team.
In his first game back from World War II, on September 13, 1945, Masterson out-dueled Cleveland Indians great Bob Feller with a two-hit, 1-0 shutout at Griffith Stadium in Washington. The win drew the Senators to within a half-game of the first place Detroit Tigers, but they would lose 6 of their last 10 games (including 3 of 5 to Detroit) to lose the pennant by 1.5 games .
Masterson pitched arguably the best game of his career on June 8, 1947, in Chicago, when he held the White Sox scoreless for 16 innings. In the 17th inning he yielded to reliever Early Wynn, who got credit for the victory when the Senators scored the game's only run in the 18th. "Masterson was something out of this world," the Post said the next day. In the 16 innings he was on the mound, he gave up only six hits -- all of them singles -- while striking out seven batters and walking six, two intentionally. Walt would finish the season with a career-high 12 wins and 135 strikeouts along with a 3.13 ERA.
On July 2, 1948, the Senators beat the Yankees‚ 2-1‚ in 12 innings as Walt Masterson allows 3 hits and goes the distance for the victory. It was his first win in more than a month and his 6th of the season.
On July 13, 1948, AL manager Bucky Harris chose Masterson to start for the American League in the All-Star Game at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. In the first, he surrendered a two-run homer to Stan Musial that scored Richie Ashburn, but got out of the inning without further damage despite a single and a walk to Johnny Mize and Enos Slaughter. Walt retired the side in order in the second, including a strikeout of Pee Wee Reese, and avoided more trouble in the third after two more hits by Musial and Slaughter. He was pinch-hit for in the last of the third by Micky Vernon and did not figure in the decision, a 5-2 comeback win by the AL. Masterson would only win two more games the rest of the season.
Masterson steals the only base of his career and the first by a Red Sox pitcher in 1950 as he pitches Boston to a 4-3 win over the Senators on August 10.
On September 9, 1950, the Red Sox pull to within 1.5 games of first place as they sweep the A's in a doubleheader. Masterson wins the nightcap, 11-3, behind second-inning homers by Al Zarilla, Vern Stephens and Bobby Doerr.
Though he won the game 8-2, Walt gave up four straight hits to his former Sox teammate Walt Dropo in the opener of a doubleheader against the Tigers in Detroit. Dropo would get 4 more hits in the nightcap to tie Joe Cronin's AL record of 13 hits in three games.

[edit]

Trivia

Like most major leaguers of his era, Masterson had a second job in the offseason. He was a national sales manager for a golf shoe manufacturer and later a national sales manager for a Kansas-based company that sold flour in bulk to bakeries.
Late in life, Walt became almost obsessed with kinesiology and trying to teach youngsters how they could become better athletes.

[edit]

Transactions

June 13, 1949: Traded by the Washington Senators to the Boston Red Sox for Sam Mele and Mickey Harris.
June 10, 1952: Traded by the Boston Red Sox with Randy Gumpert to the Washington Senators for Sid Hudson.
April 30, 1956: Released by the Washington Senators.
May 11, 1956: Signed as a Free Agent with the Detroit Tigers.
October 22, 1956: Released by the Detroit Tigers.

[edit]