Dick Wakefield

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Wakefield was the son of Howard Wakefield, who was a major league catcher from 1905 to 1907.

The scouts started taking notice of Wakefield when he was in high school in Chicago.

He recalled: "I was a Skinny kid who could hit."

Richard Cummings Wakefield (May 6, 1921 – August 25, 1985) was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball for 9 seasons with the Detroit Tigers (1941, 1943–1944, 1946–1949), New York Yankees (1950), and New York Giants (1952).

Wakefield was a 6 foot, 4 inch, player who threw right-handed and batted left-handed.

In his one season playing for the Wolverines, Wakefield hit for average (.372) and power (9 home runs), as he led the team to a 24–8 record and its first Big Ten Conference baseball crown since 1936.

Wakefield attended the University of Michigan where he played only one season, 1941, with the Michigan Wolverines baseball team.

In the summer of 1941, Wakefield was a hot prospect who was invited for tryouts with Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit.

Wakefield later recalled that his "criterion" in choosing the right team was "the highest offer."

A photograph of a smiling Wakefield holding multiple "big league offers" is available from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Legendary Tigers scout, Wish Egan, persuaded Detroit owner, Walter O. Briggs, Sr. to give Wakefield a $52,000 signing ($0 today) bonus and a car.

Wakefield was the first of the "Bonus Babies", and his bonus was "more than the aggregate amount that the entire starting lineup for many major league teams earned in a season."

From the beginning, Wakefield felt that he was treated unfairly by sportswriters, many of whom he recalled made only $8,000 a year.

"Most of the resentment came from the newspapers. Fifty-two thousand was a sockful of money in 1941 and the papers made a big deal of it. They were writing about me every day."

Wakefield brought some of the negative publicity on himself, as he developed a reputation for flaunting his money and not working as hard as other players.

After receiving his bonus, he walked into a car dealership and bought a new Lincoln Zephyr even though he did not know how to drive.

When he was threatened with a $25 fine for walking with his spikes in the locker room, he "peeled off the money for the fine while still walking."

A 20-year-old Wakefield signed with the Tigers in June 1941 and played in his first major league game that same month, on June 26, 1941.

Wakefield went 1-for-7 in a brief stint in the big leagues.

He spent the 1942 season playing with the Beaumont Exporters, where he was named Most Valuable Player of the Texas League.

At age 22, he was the starting left fielder for the American League in the All Star Game and had 2 hits, including a double off Mort Cooper (the National League's MVP in 1942) to drive in Ken Keltner for the game-winning run.

Wakefield returned to the Tigers in 1943 and had a tremendous rookie season.

He led the American League in 1943 with 200 hits, 38 doubles, and 633 at-bats, finished 2nd in the batting race behind Luke Appling with a .316 batting average, and was among the league leaders with 275 total bases (2nd in the AL), 91 runs (3rd in the AL), 53 extra base hits (4th in the AL), a .434 slugging percentage (5th in the AL), and a .377 on-base percentage (6th in the AL).

As a rookie, Wakefield placed 6th in the 1943 American League Most Valuable Player voting, and Wakefield appeared to be on his way to a tremendous career.

In October 1943, Wakefield entered the U.S. Navy as an aviation cadet and was discharged in July 1944, when the cadet program was discontinued.

They bet $1,000 on each statistic, with Wakefield losing on all three bets, as his post-war performance never returned to its 1943–1944 levels.

Upon his discharge from the Navy, Wakefield rejoined the Tigers in mid-July 1944 and went on a tear, hitting .355 in 78 games and collecting an OPS score of 1.040.

Wakefield was recalled up for service to the Navy in November 1944 and remained in the service until January 1946.

In all, Wakefield missed half of the 1944 season and the entire 1945 seasons to military service.

While in the service, Wakefield met Ted Williams in Hawaii and bet him that he would top him in home runs, RBIs, and batting average when the war ended.

Wakefield returned to the Tigers in 1946 but never regained the batting stroke of earlier years.

From 1946 to 1948, Wakefield consistently batted between .268 and .283 and never again managed more than 106 hits or played in more than 112 games.

Even as his batting average declined, Wakefield remained a favorite of the owner's wife, Mrs. Briggs, whom Wakefield called "Ma".

Mrs. Briggs would sometimes pick up Wakefield in her limousine on the way to the ballpark.

In one history of the Tigers, Wakefield was described as follows: "Clearly out of the control of managers, disliked by his fellow players, and criticized in the press, Wakefield was an untouchable for many years because of his relationship with the Briggs family."

After Wakefield's batting average fell to .206 in 1949, even his relationship with Mrs. Briggs could not save him.

Wakefield was traded to the New York Yankees in December 1949 for Dick Kryhoski.

By the time he left Detroit, he had clearly worn out his welcome.

Time magazine reported shortly after the trade: "Wakefield has been successful only at driving his bosses to distraction. His teammates put him down as lazy and self-centered."

After the trade was announced, Wakefield wrote a three-page letter to the press, announcing that "he was genuinely sorry for his sins in Detroit."