Vic Raschi
Victor John Angelo Raschi was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. Nicknamed "the Springfield Rifle", he was one of the top pitchers for the New York Yankees in the late 1940s and early 1950s, forming the "Big Three" of the Yankees' pitching staff. He also pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Athletics.
From 1946 to 1953, Raschi won 120 games for the Yankees while losing 50, a.706 winning percentage. He pitched in three straight All-Star Games from 1948 to 1950, and a fourth in 1952. Raschi led the American League in won/lost percentage in 1950 and in strikeouts in 1951. From 1949 through 1951, he won exactly 21 games a year, ranking second in the AL in wins in 1950 and 1951. After pitching in relief for the Yankees in the 1947 World Series, Raschi won five World Series in a row with the ballclub from 1949 to 1953, pitching a shutout in Game 1 of the 1950 World Series. Later in his career, as a pitcher with the Cardinals, he allowed Hank Aaron's first MLB career hit and first MLB career home run. In the remaining two years of his career, with the Cardinals and Athletics, Raschi won only 12 games while losing 16.
Early life
Born March 28, 1919, in West Springfield, Massachusetts, Victor John Angelo Raschi was one of four children of Massimino and Eugizia Raschi. Massimino worked for a local railroad as a carpenter, and the family moved to Springfield when Raschi was just an infant. At Springfield Tech High School, Raschi excelled in baseball, football, and basketball. Gene McCann, a scout for the New York Yankees became interested in him as a high school freshman, but Raschi wished to attend college upon graduating. The Yankees decided to pay for him to go to college in return for the first chance to sign him. In 1938, he started attending the College of William and Mary. Before he graduated, the Yankees had him begin pitching minor league baseball for them in 1941, though Raschi would continue to take classes at William and Mary during his offseasons.Minor league career and military service
Raschi started his professional career with the Amsterdam Rugmakers of the Class C Canadian–American League in 1941. Making 17 appearances for them, he posted a 10–6 record in 142 innings pitched. His 3.68 earned run average ranked fourth in the league among pitchers who worked at least 140 innings. He also appeared in 17 games in 1942 for the Class B Norfolk Tars of the Piedmont League, working 113 innings. Though he posted a 4–10 record, his ERA was 2.71, which Lawrence Baldassaro of the Society for American Baseball Research called "impressive." However, Raschi's career was placed on hold with the onset of World War II.For the next three years, Raschi served in the United States Army Air Corps as a physical education instructor. The war also forced him to postpone his college studies. He returned to baseball in 1946 with the Binghamton Triplets of the Class A Eastern League. He had a 10–10 record for them, posting a 3.16 ERA and finishing second in the league with 160 strikeouts. Later in the year, he appeared in five games for the Newark Bears of the Class AAA International League, posting a 1–2 record. In September, he was promoted to the Yankees for the first time.
New York Yankees (1946–1953)
1946
Raschi's debut for New York came on September 23, 1946. Facing the Philadelphia Athletics, he struck out eight and allowed six runs, but the Yankees scored nine, giving him the win. He made one other start six days later, also a complete game against the Athletics, in which he allowed one run in a two-run triumph in Game 2 of a doubleheader.1947
Hoping to remain with the Yankees for 1947, Raschi was very disappointed when he was sent to the Class AAA Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League to start the season. He initially refused to report, but when he finally did join the team, manager Jim Turner helped him become a better pitcher. With Portland, Raschi posted an 8–2 record and a 2.75 ERA in 85 innings pitched.In July, an injury to Spud Chandler and the trade of Mel Queen left the Yankees in need of a pitcher for a July 13 doubleheader. Yankee manager Bucky Harris phoned Turner on the 10th, and after Raschi made a start in San Diego that evening, Turner asked him if he could be ready to pitch again three days later. Raschi agreed, then found out his next start would be for the Yankees. Pitching the second game of the doubleheader, he gave up three runs in innings as the Yankees defeated the Chicago White Sox by a score of 6–4. On July 18, he allowed six hits in a complete game, 7–2 victory over the Cleveland Indians, the last of a 19-game winning streak for New York. Facing the Indians again in the second game of an August 7 doubleheader, he threw a three-hit shutout. He won his first six decisions of 1947 before suffering his first loss in a game that biographer Lawrence Baldassaro called "one of his best outings of the year." For 10 innings, he held the Boston Red Sox scoreless, but the Yankees also failed to score, and Raschi took the loss when he allowed three runs in the 11th. On September 14, he defeated the St. Louis Browns; the win meant the Yankees would at least tie for the AL pennant. In 15 games, he had a 7–2 record, a 3.87 ERA, 51 strikeouts, 38 walks, and 89 hits allowed in innings for the pennant-winning Yankees. He pitched twice in relief in the 1947 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, allowing two hits and a run in of an inning in Game 3 and throwing a scoreless inning in Game 6. Both were losses, but the Yankees defeated Brooklyn in seven games, making Raschi a World Series champion for the first time.
1948
Raschi started the 1948 season with the Yankees; after losing his first start, he won nine decisions in a row. He shut out Philadelphia on May 14, allowing just three hits. On June 2, he threw a shutout against the Detroit Tigers, singling against Art Houtteman and scoring the only run of the game when Johnny Lindell drove him in with a double. He threw a second consecutive shutout in Game 2 of a doubleheader against the Browns on June 6, holding St. Louis to three hits. Selected to his first All-Star Game in 1948, Raschi earned the win after pitching three scoreless innings and driving in the winning run with a two-RBI single against Johnny Schmitz. Facing the Indians on August 7, he threw a four-hit shutout in front of 66,693 fans at Cleveland Stadium in a game that drew the Yankees within half a game of the AL lead. He was 17–5 with a 3.31 ERA after holding the Athletics to four hits in a shutout on August 22, but he posted an ERA of 6.00 in his final 11 games as the Yankees finished in third place. Raschi had a 19–8 record and a 3.84 ERA, ranking among the AL leaders in wins, winning percentage, strikeouts, and shutouts. He finished 11th in AL Most Valuable Player voting.1949
Facing the Washington Senators in his first start of 1949 on April 20, Raschi held them to three hits in a 3–0 victory. On May 18, Raschi allowed just two hits in a shutout of the defending champion Indians. Against the White Sox on June 1, he limited Chicago to three hits in a 3–0 shutout victory. At midseason, he was selected to the All-Star Game, throwing three scoreless innings in the AL's 11–7 win. He was 15–3 with a 2.55 ERA through July 21, but he went 2–6 over his next 10 games, posting a 5.58 ERA from that date through the end of August. On August 4, he pitched 11 innings against the Tigers, allowing three runs in 3–2 loss. He had a 3.30 ERA in September, though, losing once in five decisions. In 1949, the pennant race between the Yankees and the Red Sox came down to the final day of the season, October 2 at Yankee Stadium. Pitching for New York, Raschi held the Red Sox scoreless for eight innings, clinging to a one-run lead until the Yankees scored four runs in the eighth. He gave up three runs in the ninth but persevered, retiring Birdie Tebbetts on a pop fly to end the game as the Yankees prevailed by a score of 5–3. Thirty-nine years later, this game was considered by pitching coach Turner to be his favorite of Raschi's performances. Raschi went 21–10 in 1949, finishing among the AL leaders in wins, winning percentage, ERA, and strikeouts. He led the AL with 37 starts. For the second year in a row, he finished 11th in AL MVP voting.Against the Dodgers in the 1949 World Series, Raschi made two starts. He threw a complete Game 2, with an RBI single by Gil Hodges accounting for the only run. However, the Yankees lost 1–0. Manager Casey Stengel said afterwards, "Raschi pitched a good game; good enough to win if we got some runs." Raschi allowed six runs over innings in Game 5 but earned the win, clinching the series victory for the Yankees. "It would have been nice to be around at the finish," Raschi said, "but I have no complaints as long as we won. That's the important thing."
1950
An arm injury suffered on May 13, 1950, caused Raschi to miss a few days, but he returned on May 22 to pitch a complete game five-hitter against the Indians as the Yankees won 5–2, continuing a seven-game winning streak. In the first game of a June 11 doubleheader, he held the Browns to three hits in a 1–0 victory. He started the All-Star Game for the first time in 1950, allowing two runs in three innings, though he got a no decision in the AL's 4–3 loss. Facing Feller on August 4, he pitched a three-hit shutout in a 1–0 victory over the Indians, as 66,743 fans turned out to see the night game at Cleveland Stadium. Five days later, he had a perfect game going against the Red Sox until Billy Goodman got a single with two outs in the seventh; Raschi held Boston to three hits and one run in a 2–1 victory. After losing on August 13, Raschi never lost a game again during the regular season, winning each of his next six starts and eight of 10 games overall. On August 29, he hit his first career home run, then pitched all 10 innings of a 6–5 victory over the Indians. In one of the August games against Cleveland, he collided with Indians catcher Jim Hegan at home plate, tearing cartilage in his right knee. The Yankees kept the injury a secret, as the injury limited Raschi's range; after the 1951 season, he would have surgery to remove the cartilage. He finished 1950 with a 21–8 record and a 4.00 ERA, leading the AL in winning percentage, ranking second in wins, and ranking third in strikeouts. In MVP voting, he finished seventh.With the Yankees AL champions again, Stengel picked Raschi to start Game 1 of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. During the first inning, he injured his knee while fielding a bunt off the bat of Richie Ashburn and almost had to leave the game, but the knee stopped hurting, allowing him to finish. He did not allow a hit until the fifth inning and allowed just two in a 1–0 shutout of the Phillies. "I mixed up pretty good," Raschi described his performance. "Feeling the way I did, I went along using sliders and fast balls, but it was my fast ball that won for me." It was his only start of the series, which New York won four games to none.