JACKIE JENSEN: FENWAY PARK SPECIAL
An Excerpt From The Book "The Boston Red Sox"
"After his Philadelphia Eagles had defeated the Chicago Cardinals in snowswept Shibe Park on a December Sunday in 1948, Earle (Greasy) Neale was receiving congratulations from his friends. After a bitter disappointment the previous year, Greasy's Eagles had finally won the National Football League championship.
One of his friends, with a whimsical turn of mind, said, 'Well, all you have to do now to complete the cycle, Greasy, is to ride the winner of the Kentucky Derby.
That was a remark, even at a victory celebration, which took a bit of explaining. It developed that the friend was struck with the unusualness of Neale's achievements. As a college football coach, he had gone to the Rose Bowl with Washington and Jefferson to play a scoreless with the University of California on January 1, 1922. As a professional baseball player, he had starred for the Cincinnati Reds when they defeated the Chicago White Sox in the 1919 World Series.
Thus, Neale participated in three of the biggest sports events of the nation- World Series, Rose Bowl and professional football championship. It was a unique distinction until Jack Eugene Jensen came along. From the same University of California, Jensen played fullback in a Rose Bowl game, losing to Northwestern, 20-14; was named All-America, has been in a World Series and the baseball All-Star Game. Furthermore, he married an Olympic diving champion, the pretty Zoe Ann Olsen. It looks as though Jackie has Neale topped.
Jensen was signed, at a $75,000 bonus, by Brick Laws of the Oakland club in 1949 and then sold to the Yankees. The tag on Jackie then was that he was then 'a few years away.' His baseball experience was limited but all scouting reports agreed that the husky blond had all the potential. The Yankees, with a wealth of outfield material, couldn't wait for the arrival of Jensen and traded him to Washington for Irv Noren. It is a safe bet you couldn't have traded Noren for Jensen a few years later.
It has taken time but Jensen now seems to be living up to the original scouting reports on his power. In his three seasons at Boston, Jensen has become a great run producer and home run threat. His right-handed hitting talents were lost in the wide open spaces of Washington's Griffith Stadium but he finds the left field wall of Fenway Park inviting.
General Manager Joe Cronin was looking for home runs when he traded Maury McDermott and Tom Umphlett to the Senators for Jensen. A right-handed batter who can stroke the left field wall has been one of the Red Sox objectives. Some players for whom they traded, notably Junior Stephens, delivered but many were flops. They were so anxious to hit the fence, they couldn't even hit the ball.
Jensen definitely is not in the flop category. In his first three years with the Red Sox, he hit 71 home runs and batted in 330 runs, tying for the American League's top RBI total in 1955 with 116. Any player who averages almost 25 home runs a year and 100-plus RBIs is a big shot, even in these days of rock'n roll baseball. That Jensen finds Fenway Park tailor-made there is no doubt, but he was showing power with the Senators, power it was obvious that would be more impressive in a ball park of less ample proportions than Griffith Stadium.
Not many first-flight football players have made the grade in baseball. Fordham's Frank Frisch was one, but the majority, going all the way back to Jim Thorpe, have found baseball too difficult. The explanation used to be that it was some mysterious ailment called 'football legs' but actually it was far simpler than that. Some football players, Frisch, Sam Chapman, Riggs Stephenson and Jensen, for instance, could play baseball and others couldn't. The percentage of first-flight football players who failed in baseball is no greater than that of basketball of ping-pong players.
Jensen, just 30, can have several productive years in baseball yet. It is probable that when he retires from athletics, more people will refer to him as 'Jackie Jensen, the ex-Red Sox slugger' then as Jackie Jensen 'the former All-America football player.'
For the second time in his baseball career, Jensen finds himself a member of a distinguished outfield trio, lining up with Ted Williams and Jim Piersall with the Red Sox. On Opening Day, 1951, he played in the Yankee outfield with Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. It was Mickey's first major league game and it prompted one press box filbert to remark that the Yankee outfield 'had 17 years of major league experience, 16 of which belong to DiMaggio.' Even that was an oversimplification, for while it was the Yankee Clipper's 1,621st major league game and Mantle's first, it was only Jensen's 46th.
Jensen was sent down to the Yankee farm at Kansas City for part of that 1951 season and then shortly after the 1951 season was traded to Washington. It was with the Senators that Jackie got the chance to play every day, something he had been denied at New York. And he has been a regular ever since.
Whatever hangover from football Jensen bought into baseball, he didn't bring any 'football legs.' Jackie has good speed, both in the field and on the bases. He led the American League with 22 stolen bases in 1954, his first year with Boston.
One day at spring training at St. Petersburg in 1952, a photographer received a request from a national magazine to do a cover picture on Jackie and his wife and baby daughter, Jan. The picture was to be taken at the swimming pool of the Tides Hotel, out on the beach. Getting the time off from practice for Jensen took a bit of doing, for Manager Stengel was a stickler for punctuality at workouts. And he had a reason to look with a jaundiced eye on any extracurricular picture-taking.
The day before a television crew had 'borrowed' Billy Martin to make some slides into second base. The Yankee infielder was only too happy to oblige since the film was for his old friend, Joe DiMaggio, who was launching himself as a television commentator that year, after retiring from baseball.
Martin entered into the project with enthusiasm and made several hair-raising slides. The only trouble was that after the last of these slides, he didn't get up. A broken ankle was the result and he spent most of the rest of the training season and part of the regular season on crutches.
When the reporter from the magazine asked to have Jensen excused for the purpose of poolside pictures with his wife and daughter, Casey fixed him with a cold eye.
'Y'know what happened to that boy (Martin) yesterday, doncha?' asked Stengel, then proceeded to answer his own question. 'Broke his leg, that's what he did. Now, supposin' this boy goes and drowns? Is your magazine gonna give me someone to play the outfield in place of him? That spaghetti ain't sendin' me no second baseman.'
Stengel's last remark was rather baffling, as so many of his remarks are, but it developed, under cross-examination, that the television show of DiMaggio's was being sponsored by a macaroni company.
The reporter knew Casey long enough to know that if you waited him out, he'd be reasonable, however much he might grumble in the beginning. Reluctantly, Casey gave his permission.
'I'll tell you what though,' said Casey in parting. 'I want to stand by the side of the pool while they're taking the pictures. And if you see my fella (Jensen) having any difficulty like drowin' or anything like that, I want you to help out. I ain't askin' you to dive in, cause the water's probably cold no matter what the Chamber of Commerce tells you. But I do think the least you could do if he's in trouble is holler for help.'
The permission was granted and the photogenic family made a lovely cover for the magazine. The only hitch was by the time it was used, Jensen had been traded to Washington.
Jensen is articulate and mixes well but reservedly with the press, although he is by no means a publicity seeker. He has a quiet sense of humor which he demonstrated one night in 1955 at Yankee Stadium. It was in mid-August and the Bronx ballpark was packed with 61,628 fans, many of them from New England. Ted Williams was in the batting cage and Jensen was standing outside, chatting with Arthur Daley, sports columnist of the New York Times and Pulitzer prize winner.
Williams belted three balls practically out of sight into the right field stands and as he left the batting cage, the packed house gave him a thunderous ovation. Jensen went into the cage while the cheers for Ted continued. 'See, Arthur,' said Jackie to Daley, 'they still remember me.'
Jensen was seriously considering quitting baseball after the 1953 season with Washington. He felt that he wasn't making good and that he should protect his wife and family, a son Jon having been born to go along with daughter Jan. Jackie felt that he could land a good job in Oakland, that baseball wasn't his dish of tea.
Then it was that he got a call from Cronin. Joe told him the Red Sox had traded for him and were expecting him to help the club. Jensen didn't react immediately and Cronin had to use all of his Irish blarney to sell him. Cronin pointed out that Fenway Park was made to order for him, that this was his chance to cash in on his potential. He even added that there was to be a $1,000 boost over his Washington salary.
Still Jensen wasn't convinced. He talked it over with his wife and she told him, 'If you quit, I don't think you'll be proud of it later.' The upstart was that Jensen agreed to the Boston terms.
When the 1954 season opened, and for a long time after that, Jensen wasn't so sure he'd made the right decision. He was slow getting started and found batting behind Williams a strain. Ted was on base so often, with walks and base hits, that Jackie constantly found himself under pressure.
A friendship sprung up between Ted and Jackie. Williams gave him tips on batting and suddenly Jensen exploded. Ted was no longer being walked intentionally to get at Jensen because Jensen had suddenly become dynamite.
When the season was over, he was voted the most valuable player on the Red Sox and he also won the Ted Williams trophy. His disappointments with the Yankees and Washington were forgotten. There was no talk of quitting that winter. The All-America had it made.
'Even business in the restaurant picked up,' says Jackie. He and Boots Erb, who had played in the backfield with him for California, operate a 200-capacity dining room in Oakland, the Bow and Bells. As is the case with any restaurant operated by a ball player, the cash registers clink in direct proportion to his batting average. And the registers have been singing a merry tune ever since Jackie decided to accept the Red Sox offer."
-Tom Meany, Baseball Digest, June 1957
"Jackie really caught fire last spring to become the RBI king of the Red Sox squad. In addition, he was the A.L. top triple belter and swiped 11 bases. It was nothing new to Jackie to steal bases since he was No. 1 in that department in the American League in '54 with 22 pilfers.
At the University of California, he was a great All-American football back."
-1957 Topps No. 220
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