Jeff Heath - Washington Senators and St. Louis Browns

Washington Senators and St. Louis Browns

In 1946, Senators' President Clark Griffith agreed to send outfielder George Case to Cleveland in exchange for Heath. Of the trade, Griffith said, "We've sacrificed plenty of speed for a man of tremendous hitting power." During spring training, the addition of Heath led to the Senators being described as a "dark horse." The Associated Press continued:

"Heath's performance may be the key to the Senators' fate. The husky Canadian is the kind of slugger Washington was crying for last fall. He can break up a ball game with one mighty swish of his bat but, to put it mildly, there always has been an uncertain quality about him. Big Jeff was dissatisfied in Cleveland, didn't like the ballpark, didn't like the management, didn't like anything. Still, he has been a most valuable hitter, perhaps one of the best in the game when he is settled down to business."

But Heath would appear in just 48 games with the Senators. He finished with the team hitting .283 with four home runs and 27 RBIs, his last game on 15 June before he was traded to the St. Louis Browns in mid-June for Al LaMacchia and Joe Grace. In his first game with the Browns on 17 June he went 1-for-3 with one RBI. The Browns, who were 23–32 at the time Heath joined the club, finished the 1946 season 66–88. Heath finished with 12 home runs and 57 RBIs in 86 games with the Browns.

Again, the Heath tendency for resentment and trouble led to the Browns trade. Washington had a utility infielder, Sherry Robertson, who was married to a niece of owner Clark Griffith. During games, Heath would ride Robertson on the bench calling him "owner's pet," in references to the possibility that Robertson was only on the team due to that relationship. And the possibility that Robertson was better paid than Heath. This was the subject of a column in the Washington Post after Heath was gone by long time sports writer Shirley Povich who hated to see the Heath bat leave Washington.

The Browns were the second team in the AL to add black players to their roster after the Indians signed Larry Doby in July 1947. Willard Brown and Hank Thompson were teammates of Heath's during the 1947 season, but Heath was described as committing a "petulant display of prejudice" towards Brown after Brown hit a home run with one of Heath's old bats. Brown preferred to use a heavy bat and did not bring his own after being told by the Browns the team would supply him with bats. Brown found one of Heath's damaged bats and applied tape to the affix the knob to the end of the bat. When he tried to use the bat during a game, the umpire told him he could not use the bat with tape applied so Brown discarded the loose fragments of the bat and proceeded to hit a home run during the at-bat. When he returned to the dugout, however, Heath destroyed the bat when he hit it against the dugout wall.

Heath had a career-high 27 home runs during the 1947 season but the Browns finished in eighth and last place in the AL. In the Browns' final game, Heath was already in the clubhouse showers when it was his turn to bat in the ninth inning. Upon the conclusion of the season, Browns management was looking to overhaul the team roster. Browns General Manager Bill DeWitt tried to shop Heath to a National League team rather than leave him in the AL. On 4 December it was announced the Boston Braves of the National League had acquired Heath.