Wygant enjoyed a road trip for the ages

From Bob and Bing to Harold and Kumar, the idea of going on the road almost always conjures up images of good times and memorable moments. But whether you're heading to Zanzibar, Morocco or simply in search of a White Castle, there are few sojourns that compare to the one Al Wygant took in May of 1956.

The sweet-swinging Wygant had what could easily be termed the most successful road trip ever ventured, and he never once had to leave the country or go in search of questionable burgers. Wygant, playing in the Class A Western League under his given name of Weygandt, turned a 10-game road trip into one of the most memorable stretches ever recorded in professional baseball.

The Topeka Hawks first baseman hit .568 (21-for-37) during the trip, connecting for 14 homers and driving in 30 runs. Wygant had 10 homers over four games at one point, and he finished the trip with 21 runs scored, cramming what some would gladly take for a season into less than two weeks.

"I have no idea what was happening," Wygant said. "If I had a clue, I would have done it before and after. The pitchers were just throwing the ball where I was swinging. While it was going on, I basically said, 'Enjoy it while you can, because it's not going to last forever.' I had never gotten that hot before. But doesn't everyone have hot streaks? I've just lived on that particular one for 52 years."

What's so unusual about Wygant's streak is that it simply came out of nowhere. A Yankees farmhand, he'd been a decent ballplayer in his previous five Minor League seasons, spraying the ball to all fields rather than displaying much power. And even then, he hadn't been spraying the ball all that well at the start of '56, having been mired in a 1-for-22 slump prior to getting hot. He also hadn't homered since Opening Day, when he sent one out on the first pitch he saw that season.

"When I started playing pro ball [in 1951], [the Yankees] wanted you to pull everything," Wygant said. "I wasn't a pull hitter. I liked to go with the pitch. It screwed up my batting pretty good. But Lou Gehrig had played first base for the Yankees and they wanted everyone to pull the ball. It wasn't until '56 that I started pulling the ball. You did the best you could with what you had."

According to The Sporting News, Wygant approached Topeka manager Buddy Bates just before the road trip, telling him that he hoped the trip would be the panacea for what ailed him. Did it ever. Armed with a better understanding of his new batting stance and free from the pressures of playing at home, everything came together on that trip, the highlight of which was a four-game stretch against Amarillo and Albuquerque.

Wygant's barrage began May 13 in a Sunday doubleheader against Amarillo, during which he connected for five homers and a double while driving in 11 runs. He hit two in the first game and three in the second, highlighting an explosion that saw the Hawks and the Gold Sox combine for 52 runs on 59 hits, 13 of which were homers.

Wygant then hit three homers Monday night against Amarillo before the Hawks traveled to Albuquerque, where he would hit two more homers Tuesday night. The headline in The Albuquerque Tribune on Wednesday morning read "Stop Weygandt is Dukes' Cry." Well, the Dukes did stop the home-run barrage Wednesday night, but by then Wygant had sealed his place in Western League history. He raised his average on the trip from .296 to .406.

"I don't really think about it," Wygant said last month just days before the 52nd anniversary of his accomplishment. "I was just doing what I was doing and I would have done it more if I could have. The thing that stands out the most was that I was very lucky.

"I never really gave myself any particular credit for doing something outstanding. I enjoyed it, but I knew it was going to end, and so be it. It's like getting a hole-in-one. It's more luck than anything else. You don't take extra credit for it. Just look at the number of times you fail."

Life Magazine showed up that Tuesday evening, having flown a photographer in from California to get some pictures of Wygant. The photographer got to Albuquerque in time to snap Wygant hitting the 10th homer.

The road trip proved to be the high-water mark of what would be Wygant's career season. The Yankees, despite having tried to rid themselves of Wygant via waivers in the weeks before the outburst, acknowledged his accomplishment, sort of, but told him it wouldn't make much difference in terms of his future with the club.

"I got two telegrams from Lee McPhail, who was the Yankees farm director," Wygant said. "The first one said 'Don't report [to New York]' and the second one said 'Don't forget.' That was the total of my recognition."

The Hawks held "Al Weygandt Night" when the club returned from the road trip. The largest crowd of the season -- 4,164 -- came out as the club bestowed its first baseman with a bevy of gifts.

Wygant finished the season with a career-high 49 homers and a .304 batting average. But even he was eclipsed when it came time to hand out trophies at season's end. Dick Stuart, the future Dr. Strangeglove, destroyed Western League pitching that year, connecting for 66 homers while driving in 158 runs, leaving Wygant's two weeks in May as nothing more than an interesting footnote to the season.

Promotions to the Eastern League and Southern Association followed, but by 1958 Wygant was back in the Western League. He retired after '58, never again capturing the magic he had in those 10 games -- well, at least not that kind of magic. Wygant, who was a University of Michigan graduate, became a psychologist and later a magician after retiring from baseball.

"I went into the entertainment field and did a nightclub act for 26 years," Wygant said. "I hold a record in the entertainment field. In 26 years, I was never invited back to a place where I did a show."

Wygant is retired and living in Arkansas, where he occasionally serves as a rules official for the United States Golf Association and the local PGA chapter.

"I've led a good life and done a lot of different things," he said. "I've never had the burning need to be the best at anything I've done, but I've always enjoyed what I was doing at the time I was doing it. I don't live in the past, though, and I don't live too far in the future."