Editing Vern Stephens (section)

==Baseball career==
[[File:Pitching in to stop the Axis short, shortstop Vernie Stephens 8b08245v (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Stephens working in a shipyard during [[World War II]].]]
Stephens was born in [[McAlister, New Mexico]] while his parents were en route from Oklahoma to California.<ref name="The Baseball Biography Project: Vern Stephens" /> He attended [[Long Beach Polytechnic High School]] in [[Long Beach, California]].<ref name="The Baseball Biography Project: Vern Stephens" />

One of the strongest-hitting shortstops in major league history, Stephens compiled a .286 [[batting average (baseball)|batting average]] with 247 [[home run]]s and 1,174 [[run batted in|RBI]] in 1,720 games. In 1944, Stephens led the American League with 109 runs batted in as he led the Browns to their first and only [[1944 World Series|World Series appearance]] in St. Louis. He also led the league with 24 home runs in 1945.

Amid a salary dispute with the Browns, Stephens signed a five-year contract with the [[Azules de Veracruz]] of the [[Mexican League]] in [[1946 Mexican League season|1946]]. He played in two games for Veracruz, with one single in eight at bats, before deciding to return to the United States; his father, a minor league umpire, and the Browns scout Jack Fournier drove down and brought him across the border. Stephens' departure infuriated Mexican League president (and Azules owner) [[Jorge Pasquel]], but it saved him from the five-year suspension that [[Commissioner of Baseball]] [[Happy Chandler]] levied on the other major leaguers who "jumped" to Mexico.

After the 1947 season, he was traded along with [[Jack Kramer (baseball)|Jack Kramer]] to the Boston Red Sox, but later, after a brief stint with the [[Chicago White Sox]], returned to the Browns in 1953, their last season in St. Louis. Stephens was the only member of the pennant-winning 1944 St. Louis Browns who played with the Baltimore Orioles when the Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954.

Stephens played five years with the Boston Red Sox from 1948 to 1952. [[Ted Williams]] said that he was the most effective of those who followed him in the batting order. In 1949, he batted in 159 runs (tied with Williams for the league lead) and hit 39 home runs, second only to Williams's 43. No other player in the American League had more than 24. Second baseman [[Bobby Doerr]], who was lionized in David Halberstam's book ''Summer of '49'', hit 18 home runs. 

In August 2008, he was named as one of the ten former players who began their careers before 1943 to be considered by the Veterans Committee for induction into the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]] in [[Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 2009|2009]]. He was not selected.