Joseph Michael Medwick (November 24, 1911 – March 21, 1975), nicknamed "Ducky", was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
player in
Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between...
. A
left fielderA left fielder , is an outfielder in the sport of baseball who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound...
for the
St. Louis CardinalsThe St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball...
during the "
Gashouse GangThe Gashouse Gang was a nickname applied to the St. Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball team of .The Cardinals, by most accounts, earned this nickname from the team's generally very shabby appearance and rough-and-tumble tactics...
" era of the 1930s, he also played for the
Brooklyn DodgersThe Los Angeles Dodgers are a Major League Baseball team based in Los Angeles, California, USA. The team is in the Western Division of the National League. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming the Brooklyn...
(1940-43, '46),
New York GiantsThe San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California who currently play in the National League West Division. One of the oldest baseball teams, the Giants hold the honor of having won the most games of any team in the history of baseball...
(1943-45), and
Boston BravesThe Atlanta Braves are a professional baseball team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Braves are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From to the present, the Braves have played in Turner Field....
(1945). He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the
Baseball Writers Association of AmericaThe Baseball Writers' Association of America is a professional association for baseball journalists writing for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying Web sites. The BBWAA was founded in 1908 to improve working conditions for sportswriters in the early part of the 20th century...
in 1968, receiving 84.81% of the votes.
Medwick was born to
HungarianHungarians are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 10 million Hungarians in Hungary . Hungarians were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium...
immigrants and grew up in
Carteret, New JerseyCarteret is a borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 20,709.What is now Carteret was originally created as the borough of Roosevelt on April 11, 1906, from portions of Woodbridge Township, based on the results of a...
.
Joseph Michael Medwick (November 24, 1911 – March 21, 1975), nicknamed "Ducky", was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
player in
Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between...
. A
left fielderA left fielder , is an outfielder in the sport of baseball who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound...
for the
St. Louis CardinalsThe St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball...
during the "
Gashouse GangThe Gashouse Gang was a nickname applied to the St. Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball team of .The Cardinals, by most accounts, earned this nickname from the team's generally very shabby appearance and rough-and-tumble tactics...
" era of the 1930s, he also played for the
Brooklyn DodgersThe Los Angeles Dodgers are a Major League Baseball team based in Los Angeles, California, USA. The team is in the Western Division of the National League. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming the Brooklyn...
(1940-43, '46),
New York GiantsThe San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California who currently play in the National League West Division. One of the oldest baseball teams, the Giants hold the honor of having won the most games of any team in the history of baseball...
(1943-45), and
Boston BravesThe Atlanta Braves are a professional baseball team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Braves are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From to the present, the Braves have played in Turner Field....
(1945). He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the
Baseball Writers Association of AmericaThe Baseball Writers' Association of America is a professional association for baseball journalists writing for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying Web sites. The BBWAA was founded in 1908 to improve working conditions for sportswriters in the early part of the 20th century...
in 1968, receiving 84.81% of the votes.
Medwick was born to
HungarianHungarians are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 10 million Hungarians in Hungary . Hungarians were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium...
immigrants and grew up in
Carteret, New JerseyCarteret is a borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 20,709.What is now Carteret was originally created as the borough of Roosevelt on April 11, 1906, from portions of Woodbridge Township, based on the results of a...
. He made his debut with the Cardinals in 1932. Fans nicknamed him "Ducky" and "Ducky Wucky" because of his waddle, but his build led to the nickname of "Muscles," which meant that none of his teammates dared to use the name "Ducky" to his face. His hard-charging style of play got him pulled out of the seventh game of the
1934 World SeriesThe 1934 World Series matched the St. Louis Cardinals against the Detroit Tigers, with the Cardinals' "Gashouse Gang" winning in seven games for their third championship in nine years....
by Commissioner
Kenesaw Mountain LandisKenesaw Mountain Landis was an American jurist who served as a federal judge from 1905 to 1922, and subsequently as the first commissioner of organized baseball, including both the American and National leagues and the governing body of minor league baseball, the National Association of...
, when
Detroit TigersThe Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team based in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in . The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant 10 times...
fans started pelting him with garbage after he slid hard into third base on a triple. (
Audio) Landis also ordered Tigers third baseman
Marv OwenMarvin James Owen was an American third baseman in Major League Baseball. He played nine seasons in the American League with the Detroit Tigers , Chicago White Sox , and Boston Red Sox ....
, into whom Medwick had slid, benched.
A ten-time
All-StarThe Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also popularly known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers...
, he played for seventeen seasons, finishing with a lifetime .324
batting averageBatting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball measuring the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters, respectively. The two statistics are related, in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages....
. He won the
National League Triple CrownIn baseball, the Triple Crown refers to:#A batter who leads the league in three major categories -- home runs, runs batted in, and batting average....
and the NL
Most Valuable PlayerThe Most Valuable Player Award is an annual award given to one outstanding player in each league of Major League Baseball...
in 1937, remaining the last National League player to win a triple crown. Medwick holds the major league record for consecutive seasons with 40 or more doubles, set from 1933 through 1939.
Medwick helped lead the Dodgers to a pennant in 1941, but had lost much of his dominance after being nearly killed by a beanball thrown at him by a former Cardinal teammate six days after his 1940 trade. He eventually returned to St. Louis to finish his career with the Cardinals in 1947 and 1948.
During a USO tour by a number of players in 1944, Medwick was among several individuals given an audience by
Pope Pius XIIPope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as the 260th Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
. Upon being asked by the Pope what his vocation was, Medwick replied, "Your Holiness, I'm Joe Medwick. I, too, used to be a Cardinal."
Medwick died of a
heart attackMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart, causing some heart cells to die...
in
St. Petersburg, FloridaSt. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The city is known as a vacation destination for North American and European vacationers. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 248,232. As of 2006, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 248,098. The 2007...
at age 63.
Medwick was one of three players born in
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
to be elected to the Hall of Fame, and one of five to have attended school in the state—in each case, the only one from the central part of the state. At Number 79, he was the highest-ranking New Jersey native to have made
The Sporting News list of Baseball's Greatest PlayersIn 1998, The Sporting News compiled a list of Baseball's Greatest Players. A committee of twelve Sporting News editors reviewed the players to determine a master list. Then, each editor was asked to pick his/her Top 10, without rankings. Those players receiving the most votes were ranked in the...
in 1999. That same year, he was nominated as a finalist for the
Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between...
All-Century Team.
He was elected New Jersey athlete of the century at century's end.
See also
External links