Bobby Bivins
by Martín Abresch
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Prior to October 7, 1953, Bobby Bivins’s career had been forgettable. When he retired from baseball on October 25, 1953, he retired as a legend.
Bivins was a typical backup catcher. In nine years with the Traders, he’d accumulated just 875 plate appearances. Over half of those came in his one season as a starter—his rookie season of 1944. Chicago’s primary catcher, Cash Bailey, was serving in World War II, and Bivins was one of several fill-ins used by the Traders. He was a good but not great defender, and his bat was nothing special. In 511 plate appearances, he hit .225 with four home runs and 54 RBIs.
The Traders won their division and played the New York Knickerbockers in the World Series. Looking back ten years later, that 1944 World Series seems to foreshadow 1953. In Game Two, with Chicago trailing in the ninth, Bivins hit a two-run home run to tie the game. Chicago won the game, 5-4, in 10 innings. In Game Four, Bivins hit another two-run home run. Chicago won that game, 4-3, in 11 innings. Those would be the only two games that Chicago would win. New York won the series in six.
Despite his postseason dingers, it was no surprise when, in 1945, Chicago handed the starting job to another catcher, Chief Paine. In 1946, Cash Bailey returned. In 1947, Chicago pulled off a big deal with San Francisco, acquiring 26-year-old Billy Hall for Cash Bailey and four other players. Hall was in the middle of proving himself to be one of the best catchers ever to play the game. Chief Paine became the first-choice backup, and Bivins was relegated to third-string catcher.
The late-1940s Chicago Traders became one of the most impressive dynasties in baseball history. They won their division five years in a row (1947-51), they won 100+ games five seasons straight (1948-52), and they won three World Series in a row (1947-49). Bivins played very little, and he was not given a single postseason at-bat.
After years of patience and trying to work his way back into the show, Bivins was given some regular at-bats in 1953. Unfortunately, he didn’t do much with them. In 124 plate appearances, he hit .173. Bivins decided to retire at season’s end.
On October 7, 1953, in the second game of the NBL Championship Series, a tap off the bat of Bluebird Tuck Wilson rolled out in front of home plate. Billy Hall fielded it, threw cleanly to first for the out, and doubled over in pain. He’d pulled a muscle in his back, and he would be unable to play for two weeks. The Traders had just lost one of their best players, and replacing him was Bivins, a man with a .211 lifetime batting average. Across Chicago, hearts sank.
In his first at-bat, in the middle of a rally, Bivins singled. He didn’t drive in a run and he wouldn’t score, but he kept the inning alive so that the next hitter, Melbourne Trench, could drive in a run. In his second at-bat, Bivins walked. In his third, he hit a solo home run.
In Game Three, Bivins hit from the eighth spot and went 2-for-4 with a triple. He went 0-for-4 in Game Four, the only game Chicago would lose in the series. In the clinching Game Five, Bivins hit an RBI single in the first inning and drew two walks, including one in a six-run 12th inning.
In the World Series against Boston, Chicago lost the first three games. For his part, Bivins had one single in three at-bats in each of the three games. One of those singles drove in a run, but otherwise they didn’t affect the game much. Still, Bivins was batting .364 in the postseason, with a home run and three RBIs.
Chicago was one loss from elimination. No team had ever come back from an 0-3 deficit. The Traders needed a hero to save them. On October 19, Bobby Bivins stepped forward.
In the second inning, with one on, Bivins tripled. Chicago took a 2-1 lead in the game. He led off the fourth with a single but didn’t score. In the sixth he doubled, but he was stranded again. In the eighth, with the game tied at three, Bivins hit a three-run home run. Bobby Bivins had just hit for the cycle and given his team the lead in a must-win game.
His hot bat was finally moved forward in the lineup. Bivins batted out of the six spot. In Game Five, he went 0-for-4, but Dave Keen pitched a shutout, and the Traders were halfway through with their comeback.
In Game Six, Bivins led off the fifth with a walk and came around to score Chicago’s first run of the game. In the seventh, he singled and then scored on Bob Miller’s three-run home run—a home run that gave the Traders the lead.
In the deciding Game Seven, Bivins singled in his first at-bat and later scored on a Bob Miller double. That double tied the game, 3-3. Bivins singled again in the fourth, but was stranded there. In the sixth, he laid down a sac bunt and moved Gene Lusk to second base. The following two batters grounded out. In the eighth, with the score tied 4-4, Bivins lined a home run to left field. Chicago had the lead with three outs to go.
Now it would be nice for the story if that’s where it ended, but there was one last twist to the game. Tom Dillard homered for Boston with two outs in the ninth, giving Terrier fans one last ray of hope, but the Traders won it in the bottom of the ninth without the help of Bivins. Pinch-hitter Hub Anderson walked, moved to second base on a sac bunt, and scored the Series-winning run when Dave Currier singled.
But in another way, it’s rather appropriate that Anderson and Currier joined Bevins as heroes. Anderson, the pinch-hitter, was 0-for-5 in the playoffs before drawing that walk. Dave Currier was only in the game because he came on in the top half of the inning as a defensive replacement for Melbourne Trench. You’d be hard pressed to find a trio of less likely heroes.
Bobby Bivins went 16-for-36 in the 1953 postseason, good for a .444 batting average. He drew five walks and reached base more than 50% of the time. He hit one double, two triples, and three home runs, giving him a slugging percentage of .833. He scored seven runs and drove in eight. He hit for the cycle, and he won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award.
On October 7, 1953, Bobby Bivins was a no-name backup filling in for a legendary player. On October 25, 1953, the day after Chicago won the World Series, Bobby Bivins retired as a legend himself.