Vic Wertz was from Reading, Pennsylvania. He starred for the Gregg Post in American Legion ball and at Reading High School, both of which won state championships when he played for them. In 1941 he signed with Detroit, because he had been a fan of the Tigers ever since their World Series victory over the Cubs in 1935.

Vic was not a power hitter in high school nor in his early days as a professional. He was a pitcher and fleet-footed outfielder. He debuted with Winston-Salem (Piedmont League) and the next season, he was at Buffalo (International League), where he played in 18 games before he was drafted into the Army.

Vic spent the next three years with the 81st Infantry Division, including 22 months in the Pacific. He did not see combat, but played quite a bit of baseball. He returned to Buffalo in 1946, bigger, stronger, and hit .301 with 19 home runs.

In 1947 he made the Tigers roster for the first time and batted .288 with six home runs. On September 14th at Washington, he hit for the cycle in a 16-6 Tigers victory.

The next season in a similar role he started all 155 games for the Tigers. In 1949 he broke out with 20 home runs, 133 runs batted in (third in the league), and a .304 batting average. His breakout performance earned him his first All-Star Game.

Having broken through, he remained a productive slugger for several years. He had another big season in 1950, clubbing 27 home runs while driving home 133 runs. In 1951 he again hit 27 home runs, and started the All-Star Game for the American League.

In 1951 he was sent to the St. Louis Browns as part of an eight-player deal. There he hit .346 in the last six weeks, and in 1953 he was the Browns’ best hitter for the last-place squad.

The Browns became the Baltimore Orioles in 1954, and Vic was their right fielder. He hit poorly for the club in 29 games and was traded to the Indians. This was a dramatic change of fortune for Vic, as Cleveland was in the midst of a great season, one in which they would set the American League record with 111 wins.

The Indians were not in need of outfielders, so a short time after he arrived, manager Al Lopez asked him to try first base where he would play for the rest of his career.

When the Indians faced off against the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series, the odds-makers favored the Indians because of their gaudy won-lost record. But it was the Giants who won the World Series in four straight games.

In the biggest baseball game of his life, the opening contest, Vic hit a 420-foot triple to right, a 400-foot double to left-center, and two line singles, while driving in all of his team’s runs. In his other at-bat, with two runners on in a tie game in the eighth inning, he crushed a 450-foot line drive to the outer reaches of the Polo Grounds, well over the head of the center fielder, Willie Mays.

And run the ball down Willie did, sprinting with his back to the plate toward the faraway bleachers and catching the ball like a football wide receiver. For Willie Mays, “The Catch” became one of the central stories in a career filled with amazing deeds.

But it also became the central story in Vic's career, who spent much of the remainder of his life talking about his long out. Were it not for Mays’ sensational play, Vic would have registered the first five-hit game in World Series history, a feat later accomplished only by Paul Molitor, in 1982. But when people recall the 1954 World Series, and Vic’s notable though ultimately losing role in it, only one play comes to mind.

Vic entered 1955 rejuvenated, a key member of a great team but he had a very difficult year. He had a sprained neck, and in early summer jammed his thumb, before being hit with a more serious ailment in August.

He played a game before being struck with what was thought to be a 48-hour virus, but when his temperature soared and severe pain set in the next night, he was hospitalized and diagnosed with polio. Fortunately for him, his was non-paralytic, though still serious.

He was in bed for weeks before he began to walk again, exhausted after just a few steps. He slowly began to gain both strength and weight and by late winter was exercising, and somehow showed up at spring training determined to get his job back.

In 1956, Vic miraculously took his place in the Indians’ Opening Day lineup, fully recovered. Though often rested as a precaution, he played 136 games and belted a career-high 32 home runs and then had a very similar season in 1957.

He was 32, but showed no signs of slowing down as a middle-of-the-order slugger. He had another injury the next spring while sliding into second base in a spring game, and fractured his ankle. He came back four months later but mainly pinch-hitting. Though the ankle healed, the Indians now had Vic Power at first base, leading them to trade Vic to the Red Sox for Jimmy Piersall.

In 1959, Vic played part-time for the Sox, hitting .275 with seven home runs, but was a more regular player again in 1960, responding with 19 home runs and 103 RBIs, his fifth 100-RBI season. He started just 110 times at first base, but also finished 10-for-18 as a pinch-hitter, including a grand slam, one of three grand slams he hit that season, of the ten he'd hit in his career.

The 36-year-old slowed down a bit in 1961, hitting 11 home runs in 99 games and losing most of time at first-base to Pete Runnels. In September the Red Sox sold him in a waiver deal to the Tigers, where it had all begun.

Vic Wertz died in 1983, just 58 years old, while undergoing heart surgery at a Detroit hospital. He had suffered a heart attack the day before, his second in less than a month.