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Today Mark Kolier features another forgotten star from an earlier era, Vern Stephens. I was somewhat familiar with him from my work identifying ballplayers in the Leslie Jones Boston Public Library Baseball Collection, in which he showed up frequently. After reading Mark’s essay, I now know he was a much better ballplayer than I realized and certainly deserves consideration for the Hall of Fame. See if you agree. -GL

(In the featured photo above, we see Vern along with Red Sox teammates Ted Williams and Walt Dropo.)

Vern Stephens:

The Most Ignored Great Shortstop

When my son Gordon and I began our Almost Cooperstown podcast nearly four years ago, we set out to put nine players in the Hall of Fame who had not been elected. This was in our very first episode, and Gordon put out Vern Stephens, a player with whom I was completely unfamiliar. Since I consider myself a baseball history enthusiast (OK, nerd), I was actually a bit embarrassed. How could I have missed a player that had the career of Vernon Decatur Stephens? It’s not like I don’t pay attention to players who played in the 1940s and 1950s. Even obscure ones. 

Maybe it’s because he played 10 years for the mostly moribund St. Louis Browns who moved to Baltimore in 1954? The Browns did play the Cardinals in the 1944 World Series and Stephens was a big reason why they got there. Or maybe it’s because he played shortstop for the Boston Red Sox after Johnny Pesky was already there, (the BoSox moved Pesky to 3B). Pesky is not a Hall of Famer either but has a pole named after him at Fenway. Red Sox fans rarely mention Vern Stephens who played parts of five productive seasons for them.

 

Some of Vern’s exploits are legendary but forgotten legends!  Like the 159 RBIs he had for the Sox in 1949 (followed by his 144 in 1950). At Shortstop! Stephens received MVP votes for nine consecutive seasons. From The Athletic:

‘Before him, no shortstop had ever hit 25 homers in a season. Stephens did it three times, topping out in 1949 when he hit 39 homers and also led the league with 159 RBIs. He actually led the league in RBIs three times’.

Stephens hit 247 career home runs and drove in 1,174. He sported a .286 career batting average with an OBP of .355. One of my favorite stats is OPS+ which measures on-base plus slugging vs. other players that season. Stephens had a 119 OPS+ which is good for 13th all-time among shortstops playing 500 games. All the players above him are either Hall of Famers, a Negro League player Dick Lundy, who only played 548 games, Hanley Ramirez, Nomar Garciaparra, and active players Corey Seager (906 games at SS), Bo Bichette (528 games), and finally Carlos Correa, and Trea Turner, both of whom have played more than 1,000 major league games at shortstop. Vern Stephens played more than 1,300 games at shortstop.

So, it must be fielding, right? Wrong! His career dWAR is 9.1 which is very good but not great, and he played the latter part of his career at third base once the Red Sox traded for Hall of Famer Lou Boudreau. Imagine a team with Pesky, Boudreau, and Vern Stephens, all of whom were All-Star shortstops? Yet a team that could not even reach the World Series much less win it. Pesky only was an All-Star one season because Vern Stephens, Hall of Famers George Kell, and Al Rosen all were in the same league at the same time!

SABR member Mark Armour wrote a tidy biography of Vern Stephens.  Not only did I learn a lot, but it made me feel that Vern Stephens could have been Curly from Oklahama if his dad and the family picked up and moved to Long Beach, California when Vern was still a teenager. Vern Sr., Vern’s father (who also was a minor-league umpire) was born in what was then the ‘Oklahoma’ territory. Oklahoma became a state in 1907.

Future Hall of Famer Bob Lemon was a teammate of Stephens playing American Legion ball in 1936 in Southern California and knew Vern Stephens was a special player. Vern’s brother Harry was also a baseball player signing a contract with the Browns but fizzled out.

Maybe people forget about Vern Stephens because he didn’t look like a shortstop. He had a big and powerful upper body and did not move lithely as did most shortstops. But he had a terrific arm and fielded everything he was able to reach. Per Mark Armour’s article, his teammates were ‘in awe’ of Stephens but the Browns owner would not give a raise to the 1945 home run champion. Stephens held out and even accepted a deal to play in the Mexican League as one of the wealthy league owners started throwing money at major league players. But it was all a ploy that worked out in Stephens’ favor as the Browns eventually agreed to the whopping $17,500 contract Stephens asked for.

There’s also the issue that while Stephens was a full-time major leaguer at age 21 in 1942, his final year in Boston in 1952, one in which he was injured, was the beginning of what was a rapid decline. He had a decent 1954 season returning to the Browns now Orioles, but his career was done after the following season. Critics also noted that Stephens played during the WWII years, and this diminished Stephen’s accomplishments since some of the best major leaguers were serving their country.

There are 24 shortstops in the Hall of Fame. As far as positions go, it’s one of the better represented ones. Jimmy Rollins is on this year’s ballot and is questionable to receive the 5% of the votes he needs to remain on the ballot. Shockingly Vern Stephens never even appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot, although did appear on the Veteran’s Committee ballot one time.

Vern became a scratch golfer after his baseball career ended at age 36. Tragically Vern Stephens died on November 4, 1968, at age 48 while lifting heavy machinery for the company he was working for after his career ended. In case you’re wondering Vern Stephens still has and will always have my Hall of Fame vote!

Mark Kolier

About the Author: Mark Kolier along with his son Gordon co-hosts a baseball podcast called ‘Almost Cooperstown’. He also has written baseball-related articles that can be accessed on Medium.com and now Substack.com.

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Information: Mark Armour SABR biography of Vern Stephens.