Guardians' Austin Hedges in company of rare 1941 MLB history

Guardians' Austin Hedges in company of rare 1941 MLB history originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

It's a good time to be Austin Hedges.

For starters, he got engaged after the Cleveland Guardians' win on Sunday. But on the field, things are great, too.

His bat is actually doing some damage for the first time in a long time, and his impact behind the plate is being felt in a huge way.

The stat that sums that up is this: The Guardians are 8-0 when Hedges starts at catcher this season. When he doesn't, they're 5-11.

According to MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince, that's the second-longest undefeated streak by a Cleveland catcher to start a season.

The record was a remarkable 15-0 start by Gene Desautels in 1941.

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First time hearing about Gene Desautels? Can't blame you.

He wasn't exactly a storied player. He was a career .233 hitter with 469 MLB hits in 13 seasons between Cleveland, Boston, Detroit and the Philadelphia Athletics. He did miss the 1944 season while serving during World War II.

That 1941 season with Cleveland featured just a .201 average in Desautels' age-34 campaign, but those Indians simply kept winning every time he played.