Tommy Henrich played on four Yankees Championship teams and was known for being a clutch hitter. Whether that’s true or not (it’s probably not, that title is just the kind of thing that winds up sticking around forever once you do it a few times) there are other, more important and frankly more interesting things to remember about Old Reliable.
Henrich was originally signed by the Cleveland Indians in 1934. In 1937 he wrote to Kennesaw Mountain Landis requesting that the Commissioner’s Office declare him to be a free agent on the grounds that the Indians were illegally concealing him in their farm system (this was pretty common-place and part of why the Rule V draft later came into effect). Landis complied and five days later he was signed by the Yankees.
He played in Newark for the start of the 1937 season and joined the Yankees in after he played in 25 games and posted a .440 average. He stuck in the Bronx after that though not initially as a full-time player the Yankees had something of a logjam in the outfield after bringing up Charlie Keller. He took over in right full-time for George Selkirk in 1941.
Like many players his career took a significant hit from serving in the military during World War II. He joined the Coast Guard and lost three seasons of his prime.
As I mentioned, Henrich is primarily remembered as a clutch hitter but that is underplaying his ability. With all the stars the Yankees have had in their history and since we are 60 years removed from his last game in pinstripes it’s easy to forget that he was just a plain old good hitter. He finished up his career with a .282/.382/.491 line good for a 132 OPS+. Here are his career stats, year by year:
| Year | G | PA | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1937 | 67 | 242 | 66 | 14 | 5 | 8 | 35 | 17 | .320 | .419 | .553 | .972 | 142 |
| 1938 | 131 | 575 | 127 | 24 | 7 | 22 | 92 | 32 | .270 | .391 | .490 | .882 | 119 |
| 1939 | 99 | 406 | 96 | 18 | 4 | 9 | 51 | 23 | .277 | .371 | .429 | .800 | 105 |
| 1940 | 90 | 346 | 90 | 28 | 5 | 10 | 48 | 30 | .307 | .408 | .539 | .947 | 147 |
| 1941 | 144 | 632 | 149 | 27 | 5 | 31 | 81 | 40 | .277 | .377 | .519 | .895 | 136 |
| 1942 | 127 | 555 | 129 | 30 | 5 | 13 | 58 | 42 | .267 | .352 | .431 | .782 | 121 |
| Did not play –served in the Coast Guard | |||||||||||||
| 1946 | 150 | 671 | 142 | 25 | 4 | 19 | 87 | 63 | .251 | .358 | .411 | .769 | 113 |
| 1947 | 142 | 629 | 158 | 35 | 13 | 16 | 71 | 54 | .287 | .372 | .485 | .857 | 138 |
| 1948 | 146 | 673 | 181 | 42 | 14 | 25 | 76 | 42 | .308 | .391 | .554 | .945 | 151 |
| 1949 | 115 | 502 | 118 | 20 | 3 | 24 | 86 | 34 | .287 | .416 | .526 | .942 | 148 |
| 1950 | 73 | 178 | 41 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 27 | 6 | .272 | .382 | .536 | .918 | 136 |
| Career | 1284 | 5409 | 1297 | 269 | 73 | 183 | 712 | 383 | .282 | .382 | .491 | .873 | 132 |
He was released after the 1950 season (during which he was a part-time player if the line above didn’t give it away) and retired from his playing career.
History is littered with players like Henrich who were very, very good but not good enough to be legendary or excellent or great. We can’t remember them all, but Yankees fans should make sure not to forget Old Reliable. He may have earned the nickname because he “always” came through with a clutch hit but I think its more appropriately applied to his consistently very good hitting.
