A pitcher with a losing record and a batter with a bad back provided a winning combination for the St. Louis Browns in their World Series debut.
On Oct. 4, 1944, Denny Galehouse outdueled Cardinals ace Mort Cooper and George McQuinn hit a two-run home run in the Browns’ 2-1 victory in Game 1 of the World Series at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis.
The American League champion Browns, appearing in their only World Series, defied convention all season and did so again against the three-time defending National League champion Cardinals.
Browns manager Luke Sewell bypassed his ace, Nelson Potter, and started Galehouse (9-10) against Cooper (22-7). Galehouse was the first pitcher with a losing season record to start Game 1 of a World Series, The Sporting News reported.
McQuinn, the Browns’ first baseman, was another unexpected standout. He suffered from sciatica and needed to be rested for a stretch of games in early September when his chronic back pain became severe, according to United Press.
McQuinn “rarely gets a good night’s rest,” The Sporting News reported. “He has difficulty in sleeping because if he lies for several hours in one position the back becomes pinched and exceedingly painful.”
Given opportunities on baseball’s biggest stage, though, Galehouse and McQuinn delivered grand performances.
Duty calls
Galehouse, a right-hander, pitched for the Indians and Red Sox before being sent to the Browns in December 1940. Like his Browns teammate, outfielder Chet Laabs, Galehouse was too old for military service in World War II but the Army sent him to work in a plant in 1944 when he was 32.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Galehouse was working fulltime at a rubber factory in the Akron-Youngstown region of northeast Ohio in 1944. In May, the Browns arranged for Galehouse to travel by train from Ohio for Sunday games.
Galehouse pitched in three Sunday games in May and three Sunday games in June, losing three decisions, before he got an indefinite leave of absence from the war plant. He became a fulltime member of the Browns’ starting rotation on July 24.
After the Browns clinched the pennant on the last day of the regular season, most expected Sewell to select Potter (19-7) to be the Game 1 World Series starter. Instead, Sewell opted for Galehouse, who in September had a 1.92 ERA in 56.1 innings pitched. Galehouse allowed one earned run in his last three regular-season starts, covering 23 innings.
Sewell hoped his hot starter would win Game 1 and Potter would follow suit in Game 2.
The strategy almost worked.
Great escape
Galehouse got out of an early jam in Game 1 with the help of a questionable decision by Cardinals manager Billy Southworth, who took the bat out of Stan Musial’s hands.
With the game scoreless, Johnny Hopp led off the bottom of the third inning with a single for the Cardinals. Ray Sanders followed with a sinking liner. Right fielder Gene Moore, trying to make a backhand grab, got his glove on the ball, but couldn’t hold it. Hopp, waiting to see whether Moore would catch the ball, advanced only to second on Sanders’ single.
Musial, who batted .347 with 94 RBI during the regular season, stepped to the plate with runners on first and second, none out. After fouling off a pitch from Galehouse, Musial was given the bunt sign. He sacrificed successfully, moving Hopp to third and Sanders to second, but Southworth deprived the Cardinals’ best hitter of a chance to deliver a big blow.
The next batter, Walker Cooper, was walked intentionally, loading the bases with one out for Whitey Kurowski.
After getting two strikes on Kurowski, Galehouse noticed the Cardinals’ batter “was protecting the far side of the plate,” the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported. Galehouse threw a slider inside and Kurowski swung at it and missed for the second out. Next, Danny Litwhiler hit into a force play at third, enabling Galehouse and the Browns to escape the inning unscathed.
Grantland Rice, writing for the North American Newspaper Alliance, said Galehouse possessed a “stout right arm, cool head and scrappy heart.”
“Galehouse looked cooler than a slice of cucumber on ice,” wrote Rice.
Mighty McQuinn
With two outs in the fourth, Cooper gave up his first hit, a single by Moore.
Up next was McQuinn, a left-handed batter.
McQuinn, 34, hit 11 home runs during the season, but only one after Aug. 13.
With the count 1-and-0, Cooper threw him a fastball. “One of his low, fast ones _ almost too low for me,” McQuinn said to the St. Louis Star-Times.
McQuinn swung and “caught it just right,” he told United Press.
“The noise that followed sounded like the shot from a big gun,” Grantland Rice observed.
McQuinn’s rising line drive headed toward a right-field screen that extended from the wall to the pavilion roof.
“I was a bit worried at first (the ball) wasn’t quite high enough,” McQuinn said to the Globe-Democrat.
According to the Star-Times, “the ball cleared the pavilion roof by no more than a foot or so” for a home run and a 2-0 Browns lead.
St. Louis showdown
Cooper went seven innings, allowing only the two hits, and Blix Donnelly held the Browns hitless over the last two innings.
In the bottom of the ninth, Marty Marion led off with a drive to left-center for the Cardinals. Center fielder Mike Kreevich tried to make a shoestring catch, but barely missed, and Marion had a double.
Galehouse got Augie Bergamo to ground out to second, advancing Marion to third.
Ken O’Dea, batting for Donnelly, battled Galehouse, fouling off six pitches, before he flied out to deep center. Marion scored on the sacrifice fly, moving the Cardinals to within a run at 2-1, but the bases were empty with two outs.
The drama ended when Hopp flied out to right-center. Boxscore
“We were lucky,” Sewell said to the Post-Dispatch. “We had the breaks and I freely admit it. You have to be lucky to win when a pitcher holds you to two hits.”
Said Southworth: “We had everything that usually wins ballgames for you. You couldn’t have asked for better pitching than we got.”
The Browns’ mojo nearly held up in Game 2. Potter limited the Cardinals to two unearned runs, but Donnelly pitched four scoreless innings in relief of Max Lanier and the Cardinals won, 3-2, in 11 innings.
After the clubs split Games 3 and 4, Cooper got his revenge, striking out 12 and beating Galehouse with a 2-0 shutout in Game 5.
Needing one more win for the crown, the Cardinals got it, beating the Browns, 3-1, in Game 6.
RetroSimba 
Thank you for showing these articles on the Browns. Not too many people probably know all that they had to deal with en route to the AL pennant. What would today’s players union think of ballplayers working full time jobs and then rushing off in time to play ball on the weekend. The 22 k’s that Galehouse and Cooper produced in game 5 was a record that stood till game 1 of the ’63 series. The Cardinals took a page out the Browns play book when they started Anthony Reyes in game 1 in the 2006 series. Galehouse tells a pretty cool story about how he didn’ t find out he was going to pitch the one game playoff against the Indians in ’48 till he walked into the clubhouse the morning of the game.
I did not know the combined strikeout total for Denny Galehouse and Mort Cooper in Game 5 was a record until 1963. Good job digging that out. Also, good comparison of Galehouse to 2006 Cardinals Game 1 starter Anthony Reyes. I love how history really does repeat.