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Before being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942, Vern Bickford scuffled for the Class D Welch Miners in the Mountain State League. He returned to baseball three years later in 1948. He was born on August 17, 1920, in Hellier, Kentucky. While Vern was a child, the Bickfords moved to New Canton, Virginia, 60 miles northwest of Richmond in Central Virginia, where Vern captained the local high school baseball, football, and basketball teams. After high school, Vern played semipro ball for a briquette plant in Berwind, West Virginia. He signed with Gray’s team in 1939, and pitched in 10 games. Bickford struggled with his control during his four years with the Welch Miners before being drafted into the Army. He started in the Air Corps, and ultimately was transferred to the infantry. During the early years of the war, Vern spent little time playing baseball. It was later, while stationed in the Philippines, that he picked up the horsehide again, playing for the Leyte All-Stars and the Manila Dodgers. Vern spent the closing days of the war developing a slider and controlling his changeup. Vern returned to the States after the war as the property of the Boston Braves. He threw one game for Hartford in the Eastern League before joining the Jackson team in the Southeastern League. The following year, he went to Indianapolis, where a coin flip brought him to the attention of Braves owner Lou Perini. Perini selected Vern with his first choice, and sent the righty to the Braves’ farm club in Milwaukee. On September 5, 1947, Vern hurled eight hitless innings against Minneapolis before giving up a single to pinch-hitter. Five days later they brought Vern to Boston. He achieved an American boy’s dream on May 19, 1948. Nine years after signing his first professional contract, he started for the Boston Braves. Despite fighting a sore arm, he impressed not only the Braves fans; his bosses gave him a raise at the All-Star break. Bickford won 11 games in 22 starts in 1948 and none was more important than the September 26th game against the Giants before 31,172 fans at Braves Field when Vern won a 3-2 game to secure the franchise’s first pennant since 1914. Vern’s 11-5 record, his team-leading winning percentage of .688, and his 3.27 ERA were a big factor in the Braves’ success. He started Game Three in the World Series for the Braves after his team’s top twirlers, Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain, split the first two games. After two scoreless innings, the Indians scored an unearned run off Vern in the third. He gave up three hits and a walk in the fourth before manager Billy Southworth replaced him with Bill Voiselle. The Indians went on to a 2-0 win behind Gene Bearden. That was the end of Vern’s year as Southworth decided to start Voiselle in Game Six, which the Indians won, 4-3, and took the Series. In 1949 Bickford had 16 wins and 11 losses, though his ERA rose by almost a full run, to 4.25. He added an All Star Game appearance to his résumé as well. Braves ownership was still pleased with his performance; for the second straight year, the Braves gave Vern a raise during the season. Then, in 1950, Vern went from a reliable number three pitcher to one of the finest right-handers in the league. By August, baseball writers foresaw the possibility that the Braves trio of Spahn, Sain, and Bickford might win 20 games apiece. The difference for Vern in 1950, according to his manager, was control despite the fact that he was among the league-leaders in bases on balls for the second straight year. Along with his 10 wins by the middle of July, he was leading the league with 15 complete games. After 22 games, Vern had accumulated 169 innings. After Vern took a ball off his elbow during batting practice, he entered his August 11th start against the Dodgers surrounded by questions. Before more than 29,000 fans, Vern answered the first question by no-hitting a Brooklyn Dodgers lineup that featured Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, and Pee Wee Reese. With an assortment of curves, sliders, fastballs, and changeups, and “the precision of a master craftsman,” he kept the Dodgers off-balance for his 14th win of the year. The nighttime no-hitter was saved by a defensive gem when Willard Marshall caught a fly ball in short right-center field after colliding with Sam Jethroe and Roy Hartsfield. Twirling the franchise’s seventh no-hitter, Vern faced 30 batters and didn’t allow a runner to reach second until the ninth. In that inning, with two men on base and one out, he snapped off a curve to Snider, who bounced a grounder up the middle, where Buddy Kerr grabbed the ball, stepped on second, and threw to first baseman Earl Torgeson for the double play. The no-hitter gained Vern a certain level of celebrity, but he settled down and won five more games over the next month. Stuck on 19 wins, though, Vern failed six times to win number 20, finishing the season at 19-14 (Spahn won 21; Sain won 20). Bickford led the league with 27 complete games, 39 starts, 1,325 batters faced, and 311 2/3 innings pitched, and posted a 3.47 ERA. He even received MVP consideration, garnering four points in the balloting. Though he was the only one of the top three Braves hurlers who didn’t win 20 in 1950, Bickford got the ball for the season opener against the Giants in 1951– the first Braves pitcher not named Spahn or Sain to get an Opening Day start since the war. The year 1951 looked bright for Spahn, Sain, and Bickford after they combined for 60 wins, but only Spahn maintained that level of mastery. The Braves lost 4-0 in the opener. During that same month, Vern tangled in a classic pitchers’ duel with another no-hit club member, Ewell Blackwell of the Reds. Vern kept the Reds to two hits, but one of them was a home run by catcher Johnny Pramesa, giving Blackwell, who allowed just one hit, a 1-0 win. After becoming the first NL pitcher to win six games by the middle of May, Vern struggled and was injured on July 5th on the same day the Braves lost their other top righty, Johnny Sain, to injury. Vern pulled a muscle in his right shoulder and left after the fourth inning against the Phillies. After more than two weeks off, Bickford returned and was shelled for six runs by the Pirates, but won the game 11-6 to pick up his 10th win. He followed with a handful of inconsistent starts, and then lost nearly two months after breaking his right ring finger during a game of pepper at Wrigley Field. He threw three more times in September, allowing six hits and three runs in five relief innings. He finished the year at 11-9 with a 3.12 ERA, which was eighth best in the NL. Bickford’s 1952 campaign was plagued with inconsistency, injury, and strife. At the beginning of the year, he took part in the new medium of television. With Tommy Holmes, Spahn, and Bucky Walters, Vern was part of the Braves’ Baseball in Your Living Room on a Boston TV station, WNAC-TV, which provided baseball tips from the pros. Vern may have wondered if television was a safer bet after starting his 1952 season. His season didn’t get any better. He finished the 1952 campaign in August after a Willie Jones liner struck his pitching hand. Not realizing the extent of the injury, Vern pitched another 2 1/3 innings before leaving the game. X-rays showed he suffered a broken middle finger. He’d finished the year 7-12 (3.74). Shortly before spring training, his friend Earl Torgeson was traded to the Phillies as part of a four-team deal. Torgeson planned to fly to spring training in New Orleans, but he borrowed Vern’s car instead. The Torgesons made it safely to New Orleans, though the plane in which he planned to fly crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, killing 46 people. Bickford followed his disappointing 1952 season with another tough year, winning only two games while pitching mostly in relief for the Braves, now relocated in Milwaukee. After a difficult season, the Braves dealt him to the new Baltimore Orioles. With his baseball career behind him, Vern spent his remaining years as a car dealer, traveling salesman, and carpenter. He spent the last few months of his life fighting cancer. Vern Bickford died on in Richmond, Virginia at the age of 39, on May 6, 1960
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