Champions
Major League Baseball World Series: New York Yankees over Brooklyn Dodgers (4–3) All-Star Game, July 8 at Shibe Park: National League, 3–2 (5 innings)
Other champions All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: South Bend Blue Sox College World Series: Holy Cross Japan Series: Yomiuri Giants over Nankai Hawks (4–2) Little League World Series: Norwalk National, Norwalk, Connecticut Winter Leagues 1952 Caribbean Series: Senadores de San Juan Cuban League: Leones del Habana Dominican Republic League: Águilas Cibaeñas Mexican Pacific League: Tacuarineros de Culiacán Panamanian League: Carta Vieja Yankees Puerto Rican League: Senadores de San Juan Venezuelan League: Cervecería Caracas
Awards and honors Baseball Hall of Fame Harry Heilmann Paul Waner MLB Most Valuable Player Award Hank Sauer (CHC, National) Bobby Shantz (PHA, American) MLB Rookie of the Year Award Joe Black (BRO, National) Harry Byrd (PHA, American) The Sporting News Player of the Year Award Robin Roberts (PHI) The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award Robin Roberts (PHI, National) Bobby Shantz (CLE, American) The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award Joe Black (BRO, National) Clint Courtney (SLB, American) The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award Eddie Stanky (STL)
Statistical leaders American LeagueNational League Stat Player Total Player Total AVG Ferris Fain (PHA) .327 Stan Musial (STL) .336 HR Larry Doby (CLE) 32 Ralph Kiner (PIT)Hank Sauer (CHC) 37 RBI Al Rosen (CLE) 105 Hank Sauer (CHC) 121 W Bobby Shantz (PHA) 24 Robin Roberts (PHI) 28 ERA Allie Reynolds (NYY) 2.06 Hoyt Wilhelm (NYG) 2.43 K Allie Reynolds (NYY) 160 Warren Spahn (BSN) 183
Major league baseball final standings American League final standings
National League final standings
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League final standings RankTeamWLPct.GB1 Fort Wayne Daisies 67 42 .613 —2 South Bend Blue Sox 64 45 .587 33 Rockford Peaches 55 54 .505 104 Grand Rapids Chicks 50 60 .455 17½5 Kalamazoo Lassies 49 60 .450 186 Battle Creek Belles 43 67 .344 24
Nippon Professional Baseball final standings Central League final standings Central League G W L T Pct. GBYomiuri Giants 120 83 37 0 .692 —Osaka Tigers 120 79 40 1 .664 3.5Nagoya Dragons 120 75 43 2 .636 7.0Taiyo Whales 120 58 62 0 .483 25.0Kokutetsu Swallows 120 50 70 0 .417 33.0Hiroshima Carp 120 37 80 3 .316 44.5Shochiku Robins 120 34 84 2 .288 48.0
Pacific League final standings Pacific League G W L T Pct. GBNankai Hawks 121 76 44 1 .633 —Mainichi Orions 120 75 45 0 .625 1.0Nishitetsu Lions 120 67 52 1 .563 8.5Daiei Stars 121 55 65 1 .458 21.0Hankyu Braves 108 49 58 1 .458 20.5Tokyu Flyers 108 49 59 0 .454 21.0Kintetsu Pearls 108 30 78 0 .278 40.0
Events January
January 3 – The Chicago Cubs purchase the contract of 34-year-old knuckleballer Willie Ramsdell from the Cincinnati Reds. With his 17 losses in , Ramsdell tied for the National League lead in that dubious category with Paul Minner (Cubs) and Ken Raffensberger (Reds). January 16 – The Boston Braves release outfielder–manager Tommy Holmes, 34, from his players' contract. He had batted only .172 in 1951 in 32 games, mostly as a pinch hitter. January 31 – Harry Heilmann with 203 votes, and Paul Waner with 195, become the newest members of the Hall of Fame.
February February 6 – The Cleveland Indians sign veteran outfielder Pete Reiser as a free agent. Reiser, 32, was a National League batting and stolen base champion and a "five-tool" star for the pre-World War II Brooklyn Dodgers, but a plethora of serious injuries—shoulder separations, broken bones (including a skull fracture), and concussions, most of them sustained when he ran fearlessly into outfield walls in pursuit of fly balls—has wrecked his career. Released in November 1951 by the Pittsburgh Pirates, his third NL team, Reiser will hit only .136 in 34 games for Cleveland in 1952, most of them as a pinch hitter, through July 5 in what is his last year as an active player. February 14 – The St. Louis Browns and Detroit Tigers make a seven-player trade, in which the Browns send left-handed pitcher Dick Littlefield, catcher Matt Batts, first baseman Ben Taylor and outfielder Cliff Mapes to Detroit for southpaws Bob Cain and Gene Bearden and first baseman Dick Kryhoski. Ironically, in Cain the Browns obtain the Tiger pitcher who faced , Eddie Gaedel in Bill Veeck's legendary stunt on August 19, 1951. February 16 – Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, 77, retires after 40 years as a major league player and coach. He receives a pension from the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he spent most of those years. February 21 & 26 – Thomas Fine of Cuba's Leones de la Habana hurls the first no-hitter in Caribbean Series history, a 1–0 masterpiece against Al Papai and Venezuela's Cervecería Caracas. Through 2013, it has been the only no-hitter pitched in Series history. Five days later, Fine is only three outs from consecutive no-hitters before he allows a single in the ninth inning of the Habana club's 11–3 victory over Panama's Carta Vieja Yankees. Fine's 17 consecutive hitless innings pitched record remains the longest in Caribbean Series history.
March March 1 – With the opening of spring training, MLB umpires are sent to the 16 clubs' camps to warn players against fraternizing with fans and opposing players. League presidents institute fines of $5 (initial offense) and $25 (repeat offenses) for violation of the rule. The warning, which is chiefly to combat gambling on game outcomes, is instituted in the wake of the 1951–1952 college basketball "point-shaving" scandal. March 20 – Philadelphia Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer, who took a hard line with his players by imposing an "austerity program" at the club's spring training camp—banning wives, automobiles, clubhouse card games, and golf (among other things), and enforcing a strict curfew—is so pleased by the Phils' improved performance that he relaxes some (though not all) of the restrictions he had implemented. However, the club gets off to a sluggish 4–7 April start and Sawyer will resign before June is out. March 24 – The Chicago White Sox deal third baseman Bob Dillinger, 33, a .306 lifetime hitter and three-time American League stolen base leader, but frequently scorned as an indifferent fielder, to the Sacramento Solons of the Pacific Coast League for a player to be named later and $10,000. He never plays in the major leagues again.
April April 1 – The 49-year-old Pacific Coast League begins its 180-game regular season as a member of an experimental level within Minor League Baseball called the "Open Classification." Elevated from Triple-A status, the PCL's "Open" designation marks its first step in a bid to become the third major league. In addition, the ability of MLB teams to draft PCL players is restricted, and member clubs are discouraged from signing working agreements with big-league "parent" organizations. April 4 – Pitcher Dave Hoskins, a 34-year-old veteran of the Chicago American Giants and Homestead Grays of the Negro leagues, becomes the first Black player in the Double-A Texas League when he takes the mound for the Dallas Eagles. Enduring death threats and Jim Crow laws during the season, Hoskins will post a 22–10 (2.12) record, leading the Dallas franchise to its first TL pennant since 1936. April 8 – The Boston Braves trade stalwart veteran third baseman Bob Elliott to the New York Giants for pitcher Sheldon Jones and $50,000. Known in Boston as "Mister Team" and 's National League MVP, Elliott, 35, is one of the few remaining members of the 1948 NL champion Braves. April 19 – In their second meeting of 1952, the Brooklyn Dodgers gain their second straight victory over the arch-rival New York Giants, 11–6, backed by five Brooklyn home runs. Despite giving up four homers today, Ralph Branca earns the complete-game triumph; it's the first time he's faced the Giants since giving up the pennant-deciding "Shot Heard 'Round the World" home run to Bobby Thomson on October 3, 1951. Thomson goes hitless in four at bats, with one base on balls, today."Brooklyn Dodgers 11, New York Giants 6." Retrosheet box score (April 19, 1952). April 22 – At Crosley Field, three members of the St. Louis Cardinals are ejected, including manager Eddie Stanky, in a 2–1 loss to the home-standing Cincinnati Reds. Stanky's third-inning eviction features a shoving match with home plate umpire Scotty Robb. NL president Warren Giles, present in the stands, rules two weeks later that Robb instigated the physical contact, issues a reprimand, and fines the umpire—and triggers Robb's immediate resignation. April 23 – Bob Cain and the St. Louis Browns defeat Bob Feller and the Cleveland Indians, 1–0, in a game in which both pitchers throw a one-hitter. This was only the second double one-hitter in the modern era (since ). April 29 – At Shibe Park, third baseman Al Rosen of the Cleveland Indians socks three home runs and drives in seven and his club lashes 25 hits in all—an MLB high for 1951—as Cleveland thrashes the Philadelphia Athletics, 21–9."Top Team Performances of 1951." Retrosheet. April 30 Veteran Negro leagues catcher Quincy Trouppe makes his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians. At 39 years of age, he is one of the oldest rookies in major league history. Three days later, Trouppe is behind the plate when relief pitcher Toothpick Sam Jones enters the game, forming the first black battery in American League history. In the seventh inning at Fenway Park, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox hits a game-winning, two-run home run off Dizzy Trout of the Detroit Tigers to break a 3–3 tie on "Ted Williams Day." It is Williams' final game of the season before he departs for the Korean War to serve as a Marine fighter pilot. He plays only six contests in 1952 and goes four-for-ten, with today's blast his only home run of the campaign.
May May 3 The New York Yankees acquire outfielder Irv Noren and shortstop Tom Upton from the Washington Senators for pitcher Spec Shea, infielder Jerry Snyder, and outfielders Jackie Jensen and Archie Wilson. Noren becomes a valuable lefthanded-swinging outfielder in Casey Stengel's "platoon" system. Jensen gets to play regularly in his 1½ years as Washington's starting right fielder before he's traded to the Boston Red Sox after the campaign. The Senators also trade outfielder Sam Mele to the Chicago White Sox for infielder Mel Hoderlein and outfielder Jim Busby. May 9 – The White Sox score three runs in the top of the 16th inning, then hold the Detroit Tigers off the scoreboard in the home half to claim an 8–5 win at Briggs Stadium. Future Hall-of-Famer Minnie Miñoso's triple is the key blow in the ChiSox' triumph.
May 13 – Ron Necciai of the Class-D Bristol Twins strikes out 27 batters while firing a 7–0, nine-inning no-hit victory against the Welch Miners in an Appalachian League game. Four of the Welch hitters reach base on a walk, an error, a hit by pitch, and a passed ball charged to Twins' catcher Harry Dunlop on a swinging third strike. But 27 strikeouts are recorded on the night, including four in the ninth inning, as a result of Dunlop's miscue, while one batter is retired on a grounder in the second inning. May 15 – After pitching four no-hitters in the minors, 33-year-old Virgil Trucks of the Detroit Tigers pitches his first in the majors, a 1–0 blanking of the Washington Senators. Vic Wertz's two-out home run in the ninth inning off Bob Porterfield wins the game at Briggs Stadium. May 21 – At Ebbets Field, the Brooklyn Dodgers set a Major League record by scoring 15 runs in the first inning of a 19–1 pounding of the Cincinnati Reds. All nine Dodgers in the starting lineup both score a run and bat in a run in that first inning. May 23 – The Cincinnati Reds trade left-hander Kent Peterson and outfielder Johnny Wyrostek to the Philadelphia Phillies for pitcher Bubba Church.