One of baseball's best clutch hitters (yes, despite the claims of some "experts," clutch hitters do exist), he pinch hit in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 1949 World Series with the score 1-1 and the bases loaded. He singled to drive in two runs, Jerry Coleman followed with a single to score the Yankees' third run of the inning and the team from the Bronx held on for a 4-3 win over Brooklyn to clinch its twelfth World Championship.
Yankees' co-owners Dan Topping and Del Webb met with Giants' owner Horace C. Stoneham on August 22, 1949. Afterwards, Giants' secretary Eddie Brannick announced that his team had obtained waivers on thirty six year old first baseman Johnny Mize and had sold him (actually, his contract) to the New York Yankees for an undisclosed amount of cash (which turned out to be $40,000).
Johnny Mize played for the Yankees from 1949 through 1953 when they won five straight World Championships. Manager Casey Stengel used Mize primarily as a pinch hitter but in his five year tenure Mize often played first base and in 1951 he played ninety three games at the initial sack, sharing the duties with Joe Collins.
In 1947 Mize tied Ralph Kiner for the National League home run championship with fifty one and the duo tied for lead again in 1948 when each hit forty. Now we must step back for a minute to gain some perspective.
In 1947, the Giants set a major league baseball team record by hitting an incredible two hundred and twenty one home runs, led by Mize's fifty one. The Pirates, with Kiner hitting fifty one, were second with one hundred and fifty six home runs. The only other National League team to hit over one hundred home runs was St. Louis. In the American League, Ted Williams led with thirty two home runs and no other American League player hit as many as thirty. The Yankees led the league with one hundred and fifteen home runs.
