We were in the seventh grade when the Cleveland Indians third baseman Al Rosen lost the 1953 batting title to the Washington Senators Mickey Vernon by 0.0011 points.
Since he led the league in home runs and RBI, it cost him the Triple Crown.
Boy, were we confused.
Then my friend, who was the best math student in the class, explained that a batting average is calculated to three decimal places, or the nearest thousandth of a point.
So far so good.
She went on to show us how a batting average could be expressed to the nearest ten-thousandth of a point.
Mickey Vernon batted .337 and Rosen hit .336.
Rosen's last at-bat of the season might have turned out differently if he had touched first base. He had seemingly beaten out a slow ground ball to third base, a hit which would have resulted in his winning the Triple Crown, but umpire Hank Soar called him out.
When reporters questioned the veteran umpire, he said that Rosen had missed first. Rosen agreed.
There was an interesting development in Vernon's last game against the Philadelphia Athletics.
Mickey Grasso hit a one-out double, bringing up Keith Thomas. Vernon batted after Thomas.
Grasso was picked off second for the second out.
Thomas singled, but he was thrown out at second attempting to stretch the hit into a double. The game was over and Vernon never batted, thus maintaining his .337 average.
The next season was one of the best in Cleveland Indians history. The Indians took the 1954 pennant, winning 111 games, which broke the 1927 New York Yankees' American League record of 110, but the Indians had a first-base problem.
Manager Al Lopez asked Rosen to move temporarily from third base to first until the Tribe could trade for a first baseman. Lopez also wanted to give highly regarded rookie third baseman Rudy Regalado more playing time.
The Indians obtained Vic Wertz from the Baltimore Orioles in June, but it was too late for Rosen.
Chicago White Sox outfielder Jim Rivera hit a line drive that broke Rosen's right index finger. He rested for a few days but returned too soon.
It might have cost him his career because he was never the same hitter.
Years later, Rosen said: "Today they would have sent me to the hospital, X-rayed me and put me on the disabled list ... I was equally at fault. I wanted to play."
Rosen spent his entire 10-year career in Cleveland, a city that he loved. He expressed his feeling to writer Bill Lubinger in 2010.
"Cleveland was great for me. I loved every minute of it. During my baseball career I was received warmly and with only laudatory manners. It was just great ... I was just very happy there. My family was happy. We still have relatives there, and my boys still keep in touch with some of their old friends."
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