RetroSimba

Mort Cooper, usually outstanding for the 1942 Cardinals, uncharacteristically experienced double disappointments in two of his most high-profile starts that year.

Cooper earned 22 wins and pitched 10 shutouts for the Cardinals in 1942, but he also started and lost both the All-Star Game and Game 1 of the World Series.

Cooper, 29, a right-hander, was 22-7 with a 1.78 ERA and 22 complete games for the 1942 Cardinals. During one stretch, he won nine consecutive decisions, including five by shutouts. Dodgers manager Leo Durocher chose Cooper to start the All-Star Game for the National League on July 6, 1942, at the Polo Grounds in New York.

Cooper and his brother, Cardinals catcher Walker Cooper, formed the first brother battery to start an All-Star Game.

The game was scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. but was delayed more than 30 minutes because of storms. Mort Cooper, who had completed his warmups, told the United Press wire service the delay hurt him and he didn’t find his command until the third inning.

Lou Boudreau, the Indians shortstop and American League leadoff batter, drove Cooper’s second pitch of the game 260 feet into the upper deck in left for a home run. Boudreau said the home run provided “one of the biggest thrills I ever had in baseball.”

The next batter, Yankees right fielder Tommy Henrich, lined a 3-and-2 pitch. The ball landed in a pool of water in the outfield, enabling Henrich to stretch a single into a double.

After Cooper retired the American League’s two marquee players, left fielder Ted Williams of the Red Sox and center fielder Joe DiMaggio of the Yankees, Tigers first baseman Rudy York delivered a key blow. A right-handed batter, York swung late at a high fastball and “the result,” The Sporting News reported, “was something like a slice in golf.”

The ball carried toward the short right-field stands and stayed in fair territory as it landed over the fence for a two-run home run and a 3-0 American League lead. “On most any other big-league field,” The Sporting News reported, “the homer would have sliced foul.”

York swung so late at the 1-and-1 pitch “I thought I already had that one in my glove,” Walker Cooper said.

“I walloped it,” York said. “I thought at first it was going foul, but what a kick I got out of it when I saw the ball plump into the lower-right stands, well inside the foul line.”

Cooper pitched three innings, yielding four hits and three runs. The American League won, 3-1. Boxscore

Behind the pitching of Cooper and rookie Johnny Beazley (a 21-game winner), the 1942 Cardinals won 106 games and finished two ahead of the second-place Dodgers. Cooper was selected by manager Billy Southworth to start Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees on Sept. 30 at St. Louis.

Cooper gave up five runs, 10 hits and three walks in 7.2 innings and took the loss in a 7-4 Yankees victory.

Batting fourth, DiMaggio singled and scored in the fourth, drove in a run in the fifth and singled and scored in the eighth, igniting a three-run inning versus Cooper. Boxscore

“I hadn’t pitched in a week and my control was off,” Cooper said to the Associated Press. “Pitched too high. They didn’t hit my fastball at all. It was my curve.”

Cooper started Game 4 at Yankee Stadium and surrendered five runs in 5.1 innings. Max Lanier got the win in relief in a 9-6 Cardinals triumph. Boxscore

Sporting News columnist Dan Daniel called Cooper an “emphatic flop,” who was “too tired to show at his best.”

It ended well, though, for Cooper and the Cardinals. St. Louis won the championship in five games. Cooper won the 1942 National League Most Valuable Player Award winner and he again topped 20 wins in both 1943 and 1944, helping the Cardinals to two more pennants.

Previously: How Mort Cooper pitched two straight 1-hitters for Cardinals