A Slam, a Scamper, and a Simpson

The third and last player to join the v16 Club was Preston Ward. A casual fan probably doesn’t recognize the name. Ward played for five teams over nine seasons mostly as a part-time corner infielder and outfielder. Whereas previous v30 inductees Dixie Walker and Earl Torgeson have sprawling biographies written by SABR contributors, no such bio has been written for Ward.

If you’re looking for raw-number (plate appearances, home runs, and WAR) modern equivalents to our inductees, Walker compares to Placido Polanco, Torgeson matches with Michael Brantley, while Ward is closest to Ben Gamel. But we will see that Preston Ward made the most of his opportunities along his path to the v16 Club.

Reloaded in Brooklyn

As Dixie Walker exited the Brooklyn Dodgers under less-than-ideal circumstances at the end of 1947, here came 20-year-old Preston Ward. He was the tenth youngest player to debut in 1948.

In his ninth career game, Ward hit his first career home run – a grand slam off the aged veteran Thornton Lee (who would only allow two more home runs before he retired).

LEDGER ONE: April 29, 1948 vs New York Giants

This would be Ward’s only home run in 162 plate appearances with the Dodgers. The entirely of his 1949 season was spent with the Dogders Double-A affiliate in Fort Worth where he put up a very respectable .303/.411/.465 slash line with 13 home runs.

Clearly this performance caught the eye of the Chicago Cubs, who purchased Ward’s contract in October 1949.

Home of the stockyards. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. The White Sox, the Cubs, Carl Sandberg.

Ward’s playing time with the Cubs in 1950 was split nearly 50/50 with Phil Cavarretta. In 80 games Ward hit six home runs that included four ledgers.

LEDGER TWO: April 18, 1950 at Cincinnati Reds

LEDGER THREE: May 6, 1950 vs Brooklyn Dodgers

LEDGER FOUR: May 12, 1950 vs Pittsburgh Pirates

LEDGER FIVE: May 20, 1950 at Philadelphia Phillies

Military service during the Korean War took Ward away from baseball for the 1951 and 1952 seasons. In 1953 he was back with the Cubs but displaced to the outfield in favor of Dee Fondy at first base. In 33 games with the Cubs Ward hit 4 home runs which included two more ledgers.

LEDGER SIX: April 22, 1953 vs Milwaukee Braves

LEDGER SEVEN: April 25, 1953 vs St. Louis Cardinals

Ward was now maxed out against the National League and would need to be moved to another NL team some time in the rest of his career to hit one against the Cubs.

360 Feet

Ward did not have to wait long for this move to happen. He was packaged with five other Cubs in a trade that famously sent the Pirates Ralph Kiner to the Cubs – while the Cubs were in Pittsburgh (and more specifically taking batting practice at Forbes Field). It’s also interesting to note that this is the second time penny-pinching Branch Rickey constructed a trade that sent a future v16 Club member to the Pirates.1

While it would have been a fantastic tidbit for Ward to homer the day he was traded, it didn’t happen (he went 1-for-4 that day, though). Ward needed twelve games before hitting one against the Cubs.

LEDGER EIGHT: September 2, 1953 vs Chicago Cubs

This is the first “missing” home run we’ve run across in members’ ledgers in that it doesn’t appear in Stathead’s event logs because the play-by-play account for the game is incomplete. Fortunately, we do know about this home run after a quick look at the box score on Retrosheet. And the home run is a doozy.

A grand slam inside-the-park home run! It wasn’t rare to pull off this feat, but it was uncommon. Stathead tells us it would have been the 75th home run of its kind since 1912 (but remember, this home run is not included in the logs as were several others in all likelihood).

But there’s another nugget in the play’s account. This home run happened in the bottom of the first against Cubs starter Tom Simpson. This was the only game that Simpson started in his career (which consisted of a single season with the Cubs). Tom Simpson holds the ALL-TIME record for most runs allowed (5) by a starter without recording an out in the only start of their career and Preston Ward accounted for four of them.

On to Cleveland

Ward was traded again in May 1956, this time to Cleveland. As August heated up, so did Ward with three ledgers in nine days.

LEDGER NINE: May 30, 1956 (Game 2) vs Chicago White Sox

LEDGER TEN: August 2, 1956 vs New York Yankees

LEDGER ELEVEN: August 7, 1956 at Detroit Tigers

LEDGER TWELVE: August 10, 1956 at Kansas City Athletics

Ward’s 1957 season was a complete wash, but he did most of what he needed to do in 1958 before being traded yet again.

LEDGER THIRTEEN: May 4, 1958 (Game 2) at Boston Red Sox

LEDGER FOURTEEN: June 14, 1958 at Washington Senators

On to Kansas City

A pre-61* Roger Maris was sent to Kansas City along with Ward at the trade deadline. Again, Ward waited until August to warm up to some ledgers.

LEDGER FIFTEEN: August 31, 1958 vs Cleveland Indians

LEDGER SIXTEEN: September 9, 1958 vs Baltimore Orioles

Even though Ward was only the third Club member, the threads between inductees kept coming. In this case, Arnie Portocarrero of the Orioles joined Ralph Branca in allowing two ledgers apiece to Club members with one being the v16 clincher.2

Ultimately, Preston Ward’s otherwise unassuming career was marked by something the others didn’t have. Call it luck or call it consistency, Ward made the most of his opportunities. Whereas both Walker and Torgeson had opponents that took 100+ plate appearances to ledger against, Ward never had more than 81. In Ward’s case the margins were much thinner and he still made the most of the chances he was given.