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 Joe Medwick Photo Gallery
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We’re Contacted by Relative of Joe “Ducky” Medwick!

As I’ve said many times, we always love it when we’re contacted by a relative of a former ball player. It makes no difference if the player was a star or a sub. Anyone who makes it to the Big Show is special in our eyes. But when the player is a Hall of Famer, as in this case, it makes it even more special.

My essay on Joe “Ducky” Medwick last week really touched a nerve. It’s now been seen by over 3.1 million Facebook users, received over 6.4K “likes,” and generated hundreds of comments. In the essay, I highlighted Joe’s outstanding Hall of Fame stats, so today it’ll just suffice to say that in his 17-year career, he hit .325, with a .363 on-base percentage, and a .505 slugging average. He won both the National League MVP and Triple Crown awards in 1937, still the last National Leaguer to win the Triple Crown. His 64 doubles in 1936 remain the National League record.

One comment on Facebook caught my attention:

“Why in the name of Cardinal Baseball has St. Louis not retired his #7? This is a travesty to Cardinal Baseball history!!! Come on Cardinals!!!!”

I noticed this comment was posted by “Lee Medwick.” That name, of course, set off my hair-triggered baseball alarm bells. I immediately send “Lee Medwick” a message: “Are you related to Joe Medwick?” Within minutes, I received this reply:

“Yes I am! I’ve been fighting this battle with the Cardinals for over 40 years!!…To this day I believe that the Cardinals have screwed him by not retiring his number!”

This confirmation that I was indeed in contact with a Medwick relative led to a spirited phone conversation. It didn’t take much prompting from me. Lee was more than willing to open up about the man he knew as “Uncle Joe.” Lee’s dad and Joe were first cousins, making Joe Medwick and Lee Medwick, “first cousins once removed.” I had a good laugh, near the end of our conversation, when Lee informed me that, being a lifelong Cardinals fan, “You’re the only Cub fan I like.”

What struck me right away was that Lee never tried to “sugar-coat” his feelings about Uncle Joe. He confirmed that he had a big ego and had earned a well-deserved reputation for self-promotion to go with a hot-headed nature:

“He wasn’t always the best teammate, but he was such a great hitter, you loved having him on your team. But if you were on the opposing team, you hated him. Joe played not to make friends, but to win games, and that over-rode everything else.”

He quickly added he didn’t mean this criticism to be all negative:

“It was just that Joe always gave 100 percent whenever he put on the uniform and had no patience for those who didn’t play as hard as he did. He would always say: ‘If you go 0-for-5 or 5-for-5, look yourself in the mirror, did you give 100 percent?’ ”

Lee added that Joe had a keen sense of humor and was actually a shrewd businessman—having successfully run a brewery.  Lee considered him smart, if not overly intelligent: “Let’s just say his batting average was higher than his I.Q.”

With his surly disposition, he was known to take out his wrath on teammates or even reporters when the need arose:

“I can’t remember which of the old timers told me a story about Joe having problems with the Dean brothers after he had misjudged a fly ball costing three runs for Paul Dean. One or the other of them got nasty about it so, Joe grabbed a bat and told them he was going to separate them once and for all. The other great story was about a writer named Kupcinet [probably Irv Kupcinet] that apparently did not like him and repeatedly wrote some bad things. The story goes that he and Joe happened to enter the same elevator, with Kupcinet coming out with a broken jaw.”

Joe was the son of Hungarian immigrants whose family tradition, according to Lee, was always that “your children should do better than you.” He was a standout athlete at his Carteret, New Jersey high school, starring in football, basketball, baseball, and track:

“There was nothing he couldn’t do. At one point he was recruited by Knute Rockne to play football at Notre Dame, but baseball was his first love. He signed with the Cardinals organization as an 18-year-old in 1930 right out of high school.”

And yes, Lee confirmed that he hated the nickname “Ducky,” preferring one he considered much more appropriate: “Muscles.” Just to add insult to injury, “Ducky Wucky” is engraved into this Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown.  

I asked Lee if he remembered Joe commenting about former players. He said Joe never really called anyone out. He had only good things to say about Jackie Robinson and others he knew in the game:

“Jackie was a great player. He could play any position except pitcher and catcher. He should be in the Hall of Fame just for what he went through went he broke in.”

He respected Ty Cobb as someone who played the game as hard as he did. Rogers Hornsby was the greatest player he ever saw. Bob Gibson was the nicest guy off the field, but “stay away on the days he’s pitching.” About Josh Gibson, Joe said he was a great hitter, one of the best ever, adding: “The ball got small real quick whenever he hit it.”

However, he was not pleased with Judge Landis who took him out of the decisive Game Seven of the 1934 World Series “for his own safety.” Tiger fans were incensed after Joe slide hard into Marv Owen at third with spikes high. “He’d spike his own grandmother if he felt it would help the team.” Fisticuffs nearly broke out, but neither player was ejected. “Joe offered a handshake to Owen, but it was refused.” After the altercation, Joe returned to his position in left field. Irate Tiger fans pelted him with fruits and vegetables, along with a few bottles. As Lee recalled:

“I remember Joe saying that Landis prevented him from setting World Series records for hits and games. The game was already out of reach with the Cardinals winning 7-0. When asked about the incident after the game, Joe replied, ‘I knew why they threw me out. What I don’t understand is why they brought vegetables to the ballpark in the first place.’ ”

Regarding the infamous beaning by Cardinal pitcher Bob Bowman, which Lee thought was intentional, Joe surprisingly said this:

“No direct threat had been made to me. I saw the ball leave his hand, but that’s the last I saw of it.”

Continuing in the Medwick family tradition, Lee Medwick was also an outstanding athlete in high school (wrestling and baseball), and later at the University of Alabama where he played varsity baseball for coach Joe Sewell, himself a Hall of Famer. Sewell has the distinction of being the toughest player in major league history to strike out. Lee had plenty of funny stories about his years playing for Coach Sewell, whose southern accent Lee described as “so thick “you could cut it with a pocket knife.” He had been a teammate of both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and a roommate of Gehrig: “He was even nicer than his image.” He also mentioned that Babe Ruth, early in his career, “had a cannon of an arm and could run.”

Sewell had mentioned to Lee he was on first base when Babe Ruth hit his famed “Called Shot” in Game Three of the 1932 World Series. With this bird’s eye view, Sewell claimed Ruth did not call the shot, but rather was pointing to Cub players in the dugout. Keep in mind that Sewell, according to Lee, was famous for saying, “Never let the facts get in the way of a good legend.”

With his famous last name, Lee was an easy target for the quick-witted, caustic Joe Sewell. One time Coach Sewell asked Lee why he was not buttoning the top button of his uniform jersey. Lee made the mistake of replying that it was because his idol, Mickey Mantle, didn’t do it. Talk about “teeing one up!” Sewell had a ready response:

“Lee, let me tell you…you’re no Mickey Mantle. Button your shirt. Tell me you’re actually not as dumb as you look.”

Needless to say, Lee followed orders and quickly buttoned his shirt. Another time, Coach Sewell made it clear what to expect whenever you had a 3-0 count:

“Don’t even look to me for a sign. Take the pitch. If Jesus Christ was batting, I’d give him the take sign, so what do you think I’d be giving you?”

As far as the Cardinals not retiring Joe Medwick’s uniform Number 7, Lee has a valid point. Lee—who considers Joe the heart and soul of the Gashouse Gang, the most famous team in Cardinal history—thinks it may have had something to do with lingering negative feelings toward Joe due to his constant contract negotiation squabbles. Or possibly the fact that Joe was “competitive to the point of combativeness.” One year penurious Branch Rickey wanted to dock him $5,000, which Joe resented. Lee thinks Joe may have actually shoved Branch Rickey during the dispute. Could the negative feelings still persist over 80 years later? 

The contrast between the way the Cardinals have treated Gashouse Gang teammates Dizzy Dean and Joe Medwick is very telling. Dean, whose number has long since been retired, is regarded as a Cardinal folk hero, although he was no angel himself. Anyone who has read The Gashouse Gang by John Heidenry knows that, for Branch Rickey, dealing with Dizzy Dean was no picnic (read my review here). But just a few years ago, the Cardinals held Dizzy Dean Day at Busch Stadium where the entire extended Dean family were guests of honor. No such accolades have ever been shown to Joe Medwick.

In more recent years, they offered to retire the uniform number—along with induction into the Cardinal’s Hall of Fame—of 2011 World Series hero David Freese who played only five years for the Cardinals. Freese refused these honors, saying he was unworthy. By contrast, Joe Medwick played 11 years for the Cardinals, was also a World Series hero, and is one of their all-time greatest hitters. A recent article posted by the Online Book of Baseball ranked Medwick as Number Five in their list of the Top Ten greatest Cardinal hitters, ahead of Hall of Famers Enos Slaughter, Jim Bottomly, and Lou Brock. 

Of the position players whose numbers have been retired by the Cardinals, an interesting comparison can be made between Enos Slaughter during his 13 years with the Cardinals and Medwick’s 11. In many important offensive categories, Medwick has the advantage. This isn’t to imply that Enos Slaughter isn’t deserving of the honor, but why one but not the other?

Average: Medwick .335, Slaughter .305; Home runs: 152/146; Doubles: 377/ 366; Slugging: .545/.463; OPS: .917/.847; OPS+: 143/126.   

In closing, Lee recalled a few other noteworthy remarks by Joe Medwick:

During his 1944 audience with Pope Pius X, Joe introduced himself by saying: “Your holiness, I’m Joe Medwick. I used to be a Cardinal too.”

An emotional Joe Medwick said at his long-overdue Hall of Fame induction ceremony: “This was the longest slump of my career. I had gone 0-for-20 before, but never 0-for-20 years.”

Lee remembered Joe saying he loved the Cardinals and it was always a mystery to him why he was traded to the Dodgers on June 12, 1940.

Even though, for some reason, his uniform Number 7 has not been retired, Joe was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1968. He was one of 22 former Cardinals selected for the 2014 Cardinals Hall of Fame inaugural class. In addition, Joseph Medwick Park in Carteret, New Jersey is named in his honor.

We thank Lee Medwick for sharing some interesting remembrances today about “Uncle Joe,” the great Cardinal Hall of Famer, Joe Medwick. 

Gary Livacari 

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