Wally Judnich

Who was Wally Judnich?

Walter Franklin Judnich was a center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for three different teams between 1940 and 1949. Listed at 6 ft 1 in, 205 lb, Judnich batted and threw left-handed. In baseball books, he is known indistinctly as Wally or Walt Judnich. A native of San Francisco, California, and graduate of Mission High School, Judnich entered the majors in 1940 with the St. Louis Browns, playing for them five years before joining the Cleveland Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Basically a contact, line-drive hitter, Judnich was a fine outfielder with a strong throwing arm. But he was one of many major leaguers who saw his baseball career truncated after his stint in the US Army Air Force during World War II. When he came back after discharge, he was 29 years old and no longer at the top of his game.

In his rookie season with the Browns, Judnich posted career-numbers in home runs, RBIs, and runs scored, while hitting a .303 batting average to become one of only seven players in the American League to reach the .300 mark in the season; ranking 6th behind Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Stan Spence, Joe Gordon and George Case, and surpassing Joe DiMaggio. After his heroics, Judnich was considered in the American League MVP vote.