RetroSimba

Why Pepper Martin made comeback with Cardinals at 40

October 14, 2019 by retrosimba

(Updated Aug. 8, 2025)

Pepper Martin interrupted a successful stint as a manager to return to the Cardinals as a player and help them get to another World Series.

In 1943, Martin managed in the Cardinals’ farm system for the third consecutive year. After the season, while in St. Louis to interview for a radio sports announcer job, Martin met with Cardinals owner Sam Breadon, who was looking for players to replace those called to serve in the military during World War II.

Accepting Breadon’s offer to come back to the Cardinals, Martin, 40, was a utility player for them in 1944 and contributed to a successful run to a third consecutive National League pennant.

With mission accomplished, Martin sought to resume his managing career and the Cardinals obliged by giving him his unconditional release in October 1944.

Spice to the lineup

When Martin was an infant in Temple, Oklahoma, he’d nap on a sack in the cotton fields while his family harvested the crop, according to Wilbur Adams of the Sacramento Bee. Martin was 6 when the family moved to Oklahoma City.

“Ever since I was old enough to handle a baseball, I loved the game,” Martin recalled in a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

When Martin was 9, he worked a newspaper route in Oklahoma City. “I’d get up at 3:30 every morning to get the Daily Oklahoman to the homes of my readers,” Martin said to the St. Louis Star and Times, “but before I delivered a single paper I used to sit down under a street corner lamp and study the box scores of the major leagues. In winter, I’d read the gossip of the hot stove league.”

Martin told the Inquirer, “The Red Sox were going great in those days and they were my favorite team. I had a pretty good memory as a kid and I knew by heart the averages of pretty nearly every big leaguer. I saved enough out of my earnings as a newsboy to buy my first glove and I had it stuck in my back pocket wherever I went and whatever I did. Not so many kids in my neighborhood had gloves, and owning that mitt gave me almost as much happiness as would a couple of home runs in a World Series game.”

While playing for a minor-league team in Texas when he was 21, Martin was signed by Cardinals scout Charley Barrett.

Martin debuted with the Cardinals in 1928. With his aggressive, fun-loving style of play, he was a prominent part of the Cardinals clubs of the 1930s. Martin and his pal, pitcher Dizzy Dean, symbolized the spirit of the group known as the Gashouse Gang. Dean “was just a big-hearted old country boy, from a cotton patch, like myself,” Martin said to The Sporting News. “So I guess that’s why I liked old Diz.”

An outfielder and third baseman nicknamed “Wild Horse of the Osage,” Martin led the National League in stolen bases three times and scored more than 120 runs in a season three times.

As a third baseman, Martin “introduced a style of play all his own,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Martin described his approach to fielding groundballs as “stop it with your chest, then throw them out.”

In the 1931 World Series against the Athletics, Martin had an on-base percentage of .538, producing 12 hits and two walks in 26 plate appearances, and swiped five bases. He batted .355 and scored eight runs in the 1934 World Series versus the Tigers. “Pepper always was fighting to win, trying for that extra base or an impossible chance, no matter whether his team was miles ahead or furlongs behind,” The Sporting News noted in an editorial.

After the 1940 season, Martin became a player-manager in the Cardinals’ farm system. His Sacramento teams finished 102-75 in 1941 and 105-73 in 1942.

In 1943, Martin took over a Rochester team which finished 59-93 the year before and helped it improve to 74-78. One of his best Rochester players was shortstop Red Schoendienst.

Martin batted .280 for Rochester and “was the best outfielder on the club,” Sam Breadon said. “He could outrun any man on the club on the bases.”

Slow to age

Martin told the Associated Press he was offered a radio sports broadcasting job for 1944 but after talking with Breadon decided to play instead.

Breadon told the Post-Dispatch, “I asked him how he would like to play with the Cardinals and he shot back, ‘I sure would.’ ”

Though he was 40, Martin insisted his age was 10 because his birthday was Feb. 29, a date which appears on the calendar only once every four years.

“He still has his old-time sparkle and speed,” said Cardinals manager Billy Southworth. “I think he will help a lot.”

Said Martin: “I’ll play any time and place they need me.”

Teaching by example

Martin played in 40 games, 29 as an outfielder, for the 1944 Cardinals, and had an on-base percentage of .386. He finished with a flourish, producing five hits, including a home run, in the last eight at-bats of his big-league career.

He also was a mentor who “sold the Cardinals’ rookies on his undying spirit,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

After the Cardinals won the 1944 Word Series championship against the Browns, Martin asked for his release so he could “negotiate for any coaching or managerial post he wants,” the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported.

Breadon mailed him the release on Oct. 13, 1944, and Martin received it on Oct. 16. “We hate to let him go, but he wants it that way,” Breadon said.

San Diego, an unaffiliated minor-league team in the Pacific Coast League, needed a manager and identified two finalists, Martin and Casey Stengel. Martin got the job and Stengel went to manage the Yankees’ farm club at Kansas City.

Martin managed 14 seasons in the minors and had an overall record of 1,083-910.

Posted in Hitters | 4 Comments »

Why Enos Slaughter was baseball’s ageless country boy

October 12, 2019 by retrosimba

At 43, Enos Slaughter, the oldest active player in the big leagues in 1959, still had the skills to be considered a difference maker to a team in a pennant race.

Slaughter, who began his big-league career with the Cardinals in 1938 and became one of their all-time best, played his last game in the majors for the Braves in 1959.

The Braves acquired Slaughter from the Yankees on Sept. 11, 1959, because they thought he could provide an edge in their pursuit of a third consecutive National League championship.

Though the Braves barely missed out, tying for first place before losing to the Dodgers in a playoff, Slaughter helped them win a pivotal regular-season game.

On Oct. 13, 1959, the Braves released Slaughter, ending a prolific major-league career. Slaughter, who batted .300 with 2,383 hits, 1,304 RBI and a .382 on-base percentage, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

That’s a winner

An outfielder who batted left-handed, Slaughter developed a reputation for his all-out hustle. His daring dash from first base to home plate on a hit by Harry Walker provided the winning run for the Cardinals in Game 7 of the 1946 World Series against the Red Sox.

Slaughter played for the Cardinals from 1938 to 1942, spent three years in military service during World War II and returned to play for the Cardinals from 1946-53. He batted .305 with 2,064 hits in his 13 seasons with St. Louis.

In 1954, the Cardinals wanted to open an outfield spot for rookie Wally Moon. In spring training, shortly before his 38th birthday, Slaughter was traded by the Cardinals to the Yankees. In two stints with the Yankees, before and after being sent to the Athletics, Slaughter became a valuable role player and trusted favorite of manager Casey Stengel.

“Slaughter is really one of the most remarkable ballplayers I’ve ever known,” Stengel said to The Sporting News.

After playing in two World Series (1942 and 1946) for the Cardinals, Slaughter played in three World Series (1956, 1957 and 1958) for the Yankees.

Pitchers, beware

Considering his age, some were surprised the Yankees brought back Slaughter in 1959, but Stengel said, “Enos was my best pinch-hitter last year. We’re not carrying him for charity. He earns his pay.”

On May 16, 1959, in a game against the White Sox, Slaughter had a stolen base, becoming one of the oldest players to achieve the feat. Boxscore

Six of his first 11 hits for the season were home runs. On July 4, 1959, Slaughter, after pinch-running for a gimpy Mickey Mantle, hit a three-run home run against Pedro Ramos of the Senators. Boxscore Two weeks later, on July 19, 1959, he hit a pair of two-run home runs, one against Barry Latman and the other off Ray Moore, versus the White Sox. Latman was not quite 2 years old when Slaughter debuted with the 1938 Cardinals. Boxscore.

The Yankees, who won nine of 10 American League pennants between 1949 and 1958, had an off year in 1959. Trailing the first-place White Sox by 16.5 games after play on Sept. 10, 1959, the Yankees were ready to shake up the roster. Slaughter, batting .172, was placed on waivers and claimed by the Braves.

Slaughter displayed “a black scowl” as he packed his gear before departing Yankee Stadium for Milwaukee, according to New York Herald Tribune columnist Red Smith.

“This is an unusual fellow, a professional and a tough one,” Smith wrote. “He eats tobacco and he spits and he wants pitchers dead.”

The Hustler

In joining the Braves, Slaughter was reunited with a former Cardinals teammate, second baseman Red Schoendienst.

“I feel that my eyes are as good as ever and my legs are good,” Slaughter said. “I’ll keep on playing as long as they’ll let me.”

In his Braves debut on Sept. 13, 1959, his first National League game since 1953 with the Cardinals, Slaughter batted for infielder Felix Mantilla and singled to center against the Reds’ Bob Purkey. Boxscore

Three days later, on Sept. 16, 1959, the Braves opened a key series against the Giants at San Francisco. The Giants were in first place, two games ahead of the Braves and Dodgers.

Braves manager Fred Haney gave Slaughter the start in left field and batted him fifth in a lineup featuring fellow future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews.

The Braves won, 2-0, behind the pitching of Lew Burdette. Slaughter figured in both runs.

In the fourth, with one on and one out, Slaughter coaxed a walk from Sam Jones, advancing Joe Adcock to second base. After Bobby Avila struck out, Del Crandall singled, scoring Adcock. In the eighth, Slaughter’s two-out single scored Aaron from second. Boxscore

“We hoped he would win just one game for us and he did,” Braves executive Birdie Tebbetts said. “Unfortunately, one wasn’t quite enough.”

The Braves and Dodgers finished the regular-season schedule tied for first place with 86-68 records. In a subsequent best-of-three playoff, the Dodgers won the first two games and advanced to the World Series.

On Nov. 9, 1959, a month after the Braves released him, Slaughter was named player-manager of the Houston Buffs, a farm club of the Cubs.

Buffs president Marty Marion, Slaughter’s former Cardinals teammate, said, “The Chicago Cubs thought it was tremendous. They are happy to have their young players in Slaughter’s hands.”

The Associated Press referred to Slaughter as “baseball’s ageless country boy.”

“I’ll never be too old to learn,” Slaughter said. “I’ll listen to the rawest rookie about things that might help him or me.”

The top prospects on the Cubs’ Houston farm club were a pair of future Hall of Famers, third baseman Ron Santo and outfielder Billy Williams.

Slaughter managed Houston to an 83-71 record in 1960. He managed the Raleigh Capitals, a farm club of the fledgling Mets, in 1961.

In December 1961, a 20-year-old Reds prospect, Pete Rose, impressed observers with his aggressive approach in the Florida Instructional League. Asked how he developed his style of play, Rose, who would come to be known as “Charlie Hustle,” said, “I remember seeing Enos Slaughter play against the Reds on television. He ran to first after getting a walk. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Posted in Games, Hitters, Trades | 4 Comments »

How Harry Caray got bounced from Cardinals booth

October 9, 2019 by retrosimba

Harry Caray built a broadcast career in St. Louis based on baseball and beer, but his relationship with the Anheuser-Busch brewery became as flat as a cup of Budweiser left outside in the summer sun.

On Oct. 9, 1969, Caray, the voice of the Cardinals for 25 years, was fired by the sponsor of the broadcasts, Anheuser-Busch.

Caray said he wasn’t told why he was fired.

Cardinals owner Gussie Busch, president of Anheuser-Busch, said the brewery’s marketing department recommended Caray’s dismissal.

In his 1989 book, “Holy Cow,” Caray scoffed at widespread speculation his departure came because he was having an affair with the wife of an Anheuser-Busch executive.

“At first, these rumors annoyed me,” Caray said. “Then they began to amuse me. They actually made me feel kind of good. I mean, let’s face it … I wore glasses as thick as the bottom of Bud bottles, and as much as I hate to say it, I was never confused with Robert Redford.”

Wild about Harry

In 1945, Caray, a St. Louis native, began broadcasting Cardinals games on radio station WIL. Griesedieck Brothers Brewery was the sponsor. Caray and former Cardinals manager Gabby Street formed the broadcast team.

Cardinals games also were broadcast on two other radio stations then. Johnny O’Hara and former Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean called the games on KWK. On KMOX, the broadcast team was France Laux and Ray Schmidt.

Caray’s colorful broadcasting style made him popular. In 1947, the Cardinals chose Griesedieck Brothers Brewery as the exclusive broadcast sponsor and Caray’s career soared.

In his book “That’s a Winner,” Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck said, “In the Midwest, no announcer has been more revered or respected than Harry. He told it like he thought it was, and that’s different from telling it like it is. He never hesitated to give his opinion … He had the guts to do it. That was his style.”

In February 1953, Anheuser-Busch purchased the Cardinals and took over sponsorship of the broadcasts. Caray went from pitching Griesedieck Brothers beer to advertising Anheuser-Busch products.

Anheuser-Busch sales increased, and Caray and Gussie Busch became pals.

“Harry and Gussie Busch were close friends,” said Buck. “They used to drink and play cards at Busch’s home at Grant’s Farm.”

Said Caray: “Gussie and I rarely talked about baseball. Ours was not a business relationship. It was social.”

When Caray was struck by a car and severely injured in November 1968, Busch gave him use of a Florida beach house to recuperate during the winter. Caray made a triumphant return to the broadcast booth in the Cardinals’ 1969 opener.

Trouble brewing

A few months into the season, speculation about Caray’s job status became a hot topic in St. Louis. In August 1969, Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he was offered a five-year contract for “excellent money” to join KMOX.

Prince decided to stay with the Pirates’ broadcast team, but Caray was worried. Gossip about Caray’s alleged womanizing was rampant, so he met with Gussie Busch to talk about it. In his book, Caray said Busch laughed and told him, “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

In September 1969, before he went on a trip to Europe, Busch told Caray “to keep his mouth shut” about his concerns until Busch returned, Buck said.

On Sept. 20, 1969, the Cardinals, whose hopes of qualifying for the postseason were fading, played the Cubs in Chicago when a journalist informed Caray of a report saying he would be fired. During the game broadcast, Caray told his audience, “The Cardinals are about to be eliminated and apparently so am I.”

According to Buck, Busch was livid with Caray for making the remark and for disobeying his edict to stay mum.

The ax falls

On Oct. 2, 1969, before the Cardinals played their season finale at St. Louis, Caray said he approached Buck, his broadcast partner since 1954, and asked him, “Do you know something I should know?”

Caray said Buck revealed he had been asked by Anheuser-Busch publicist Al Fleishman and KMOX general manager Robert Hyland to recruit other broadcasters. In his book, Caray said he and Fleishman “had been enemies for decades” and Fleishman wanted Caray fired.

A week later, Caray was at the Cinema Bar in downtown St. Louis on a Thursday afternoon when the bartender told him he had a phone call. An Anheuser-Busch advertising executive, who knew Caray’s hangouts, was on the line. The ad man informed Caray, 55, he was fired and Buck would replace him as head of the Cardinals broadcast team.

“I’m bruised, I’m hurt and I feel badly about it,” Caray said to the Post-Dispatch.

Caray also was miffed he didn’t hear about the decision from Gussie Busch. “You’d think after 25 years they would at least call me in and talk to me face to face about this,” said Caray.

Buck said, “I had nothing to do” with the decision to fire Caray.

“I always wanted to be No. 1 on the broadcast team,” Buck told the Post-Dispatch, “but not at the expense of Harry or anyone else.”

Special order

On his way home, Caray stopped at Busch’s Grove restaurant in the suburb of Ladue _ despite its name, the restaurant wasn’t affiliated with Anheuser-Busch _ and “decided to get some revenge,” he said.

Caray ordered a Schlitz, a beer made by an Anheuser-Busch rival. The restaurant didn’t carry the brand, so the bartender went across the street to a liquor store and bought cans of Schlitz.

As news photographers and television cameramen arrived, Caray posed with a can of Schlitz in his hand and “drew applause from a large number of patrons,” the Associated Press reported.

The bartender made several runs to the liquor store to stock up on Schlitz because customers kept ordering the beer in support of Caray, according to the Associated Press.

“I thought it was funny at the time because I was angry and hurt,” Caray said. “It seemed like the right gesture to make, but now I realize it was petty.”

After former players Bill White and Elston Howard each rejected a chance to join Buck in the Cardinals booth, Jim Woods, who did Pirates games with Bob Prince, was hired to be Buck’s broadcast partner.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Reds were interested in Caray. Their general manager, Bob Howsam, was the Cardinals’ general manager from August 1964 to January 1967. “You know Harry and I are good friends,” Howsam said.

Instead, Caray joined the Athletics broadcast team in 1970. He left after one season, went to the White Sox and capped his career with the Cubs, for whom he hawked Budweiser with the line, “I’m a Cubs fan and a Bud man.” Video

Posted in Broadcasters, Executives | 14 Comments »

Curt Flood fought for freedom after trade by Cardinals

October 6, 2019 by retrosimba

(Updated June 18, 2020)

Center fielder Curt Flood wasn’t bluffing when he said he’d rather quit playing than accept a trade.

In October 1969, the Cardinals dealt Flood, catcher Tim McCarver, pitcher Joe Hoerner and outfielder Byron Browne to the Phillies for first baseman Richie Allen, pitcher Jerry Johnson and infielder Cookie Rojas.

“I wasn’t surprised to see Richie go to St. Louis,” Cardinals first baseman Bill White told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “but I was very surprised to see Flood leave St. Louis.”

When informed of the trade on the morning of Oct. 8, 1969, Flood, who had been with the Cardinals since 1957, turned to a companion and said, “There ain’t no way I’m going to pack up and move 12 years of my life away from here. No way at all.”

In his 1971 book, “The Way It is,” Flood said, “I took it personally. I felt unjustly cast out.”

Flood issued a statement to the media, saying he would retire and focus on being a portrait artist and operating a photo studio in St. Louis.

Baseball’s establishment didn’t take Flood’s intentions seriously, figuring the retirement plan was a ploy to get the Phillies to offer him an increase on his $90,000 yearly salary. Orioles scout Frank Lane, the former Cardinals general manager, told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Unless Curt Flood is better than Rembrandt, he’ll be playing for Philadelphia.”

Flood, though, was offended by baseball’s reserve clause, which bound a player to a team and deprived him of the right to determine where to work. He said baseball officials “were entirely incapable of understanding that a basic principle of human life was involved.”

Two months after the trade, Flood announced he would challenge the reserve clause in court. He lost his case, but his legal fight led to an arbitrator’s 1976 ruling establishing free agency.

Shakeup in St. Louis

Flood and McCarver were core players for the 1960s Cardinals, who won three National League pennants and two World Series titles. In October 1969, they were deemed expendable for different reasons.

Flood created hard feelings with Cardinals owner Gussie Busch in contract negotiations before the 1969 season. Flood wanted a $100,000 salary. “I would not consider taking even $99,999,” Flood told The Sporting News, and Busch viewed the ultimatum as disrespect. (Flood got $90,000 instead.) During spring training, the Cardinals offered to trade Flood and Orlando Cepeda to the Braves for Felipe Alou and Joe Torre, the Atlanta Constitution reported, but the Braves wouldn’t part with Alou and the clubs settled for a swap of Cepeda for Torre.

Though Flood hit .285 with 31 doubles in 1969 and won his seventh consecutive Gold Glove Award, the rift between he and Busch remained.

McCarver, who debuted with the Cardinals at age 17 in 1959, batted .260 with 27 doubles in 1969, but had trouble throwing out runners. McCarver allowed the most stolen bases, 64, of any National League catcher in 1969.

“There is nothing wrong with my arm,” McCarver said. “My technique got fouled up this season because I was pressing.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports editor Bob Broeg noted, “If he can cut down wasted motion behind the plate and get the ball away more quickly, he might reduce the high rate of stolen bases charged against him.”

With catching prospect Ted Simmons waiting for playing time, the Cardinals were willing to part with McCarver.

In his 1994 book “Stranger to the Game,” Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson said, “I was sickened by the thought of Flood and McCarver leaving us. Those two guys struck right at the heart of what the Cardinals had been all about for the past decade. I loved the Cardinals, was proud to be one, and recognized that Curt Flood and Tim McCarver were two of the biggest reasons why. With them gone, being a Cardinal would never mean quite the same thing.”

Power outage

The 1969 Cardinals ranked 10th in the 12-team National League in runs scored _ ahead of only the expansion clubs, the Expos and Padres _ and last in home runs.

General manager Bing Devine was determined to acquire a run producer and targeted Allen, 27, who hit 32 home runs in 118 games for the 1969 Phillies.

The risk was Allen had a reputation as a malcontent. The Phillies suspended him for 29 games in 1969 after he failed to show for a June doubleheader.

Allen said Phillies officials “treat you like cattle” and he wanted out of Philadelphia.

In an editorial, the Philadelphia Inquirer was glad to see him go, saying, “If Richie Allen had been traded for the St. Louis bat boy, it would have been a fair exchange.”

Unfazed, Devine said, “We acquired him for hitting and power. The image of our club needed changing in that respect. We wanted someone who could help with runs and power production. Allen was the best available hitter of this type.”

Said Allen: “I’m not going to worry about hitting home runs. I won’t have to. All I can see right now is Lou Brock standing on second base after stealing about 60 or 70 bases.”

Right or wrong

Devine’s first trade after he became Cardinals general manager in 1957 was to acquire Flood from the Reds. Flood was 19 then and the notion of challenging baseball’s reserve clause “did not even occur to me,” he said in his book. “If it had, I would not have dared to act on it.”

Twelve years later, he was better positioned to oppose a trade.

“I refused to accept it,” Flood said. “It violated the logic and integrity of my existence. I was not a consignment of goods. I was a man, the rightful proprietor of my own person and my own talents.”

After Flood announced his intention to retire, he traveled to Denmark. Phillies general manager John Quinn contacted him by phone and got Flood to agree to defer a final decision until they had a chance to meet.

Phillies manager Frank Lucchesi said, “I’m sure once he gets over the shock of being traded, he’ll want to play.”

Flood and Quinn met in St. Louis and again in New York. Flood said the Phillies offered him a $100,000 salary for 1970, but he told Quinn, “It may be time for me to make my break with baseball.”

Changes in attitudes

On Dec. 24, 1969, Flood sent a letter to baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, informing him he wanted to be declared free to negotiate with any team. Kuhn rejected the proposal, citing the reserve clause.

With the support of the players’ union, Flood announced on Dec. 29, 1969, he would file a lawsuit, challenging the reserve clause.

To make up for the loss of Flood, the Cardinals likely planned to send third baseman Mike Shannon to the Phillies to complete the deal. When a kidney ailment put Shannon’s playing career in jeopardy, the Phillies agreed instead to accept two prospects, Willie Montanez and Jim Browning.

Flood attempted a comeback with the Senators in 1971 but gave up after appearing in 13 regular-season games.

Years later, Flood said of his challenge to the reserve clause, “I look back on what I did as a contribution.”

Devine was among those whose perspectives were changed.

“The players had no control over their careers,” Devine said. “It’s opposed to what the Constitution stands for _ freedom.”

Flood “was a good person with strong beliefs and the character to act on them,” Devine concluded.

Posted in Trades | 9 Comments »

Browns vs. Cardinals: An unordinary World Series opener

October 4, 2019 by retrosimba

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.

Posted in Games, Hitters, Opponents, Pitchers | 2 Comments »

The day the St. Louis Browns became league champions

October 1, 2019 by retrosimba

Chet Laabs produced pipes to help win a war and home runs to help win a pennant.

On Oct. 1, 1944, Laabs hit a pair of two-run home runs, powering the St. Louis Browns to a 5-2 victory over the Yankees and clinching the club’s lone American League championship.

The Browns went on to play the Cardinals in the only all-St. Louis World Series.

Laabs was an unlikely hero, even for the Browns, who were described by the New York Daily News as “a ragbag ball team pieced together from remnants shed away by the rest of the circuit.”

A right-handed batter, Laabs, 32, had hit three home runs during the 1944 season before he slugged two in the pennant-clinching season finale.

His home run production was limited because when the season began he was working in a factory instead of in a ballpark.

Hard labor

Laabs began his major league career with the Tigers in 1937 and was traded to the Browns in 1939.

A 5-foot-8 outfielder, he hit 27 home runs for the Browns in 1942 and 17 the next season.

Laabs “derives tremendous power from muscular wrists and forearms,” the New York Daily News explained.

In February 1944, Laabs passed his Army induction physical, but his military service was deferred because he was older than 26. The Army put him to work in a fulltime defense job at a St. Louis plant, making pipes for construction of nuclear weapons used in World War II.

Because of the war work, Laabs missed spring training and wasn’t with the club when it won nine of its first 10 games to start the season.

In May, the Browns arranged for Laabs to play on weekends and in selected night games after his shift at the pipe plant, “but many times he was unable to even take part in batting practice” because the day job “kept him busy until a few moments before game time,” the St. Louis Star-Times reported.

Laabs appeared in his first game for the 1944 Browns on May 24. He returned fulltime to baseball in late June, but struggled. Laabs batted .133 in May, .154 in June, .239 in July and .172 in August. He hit a home run on May 30, didn’t hit another until July 18 and went two more months before hitting his third homer on Sept. 25.

The Star-Times called Laabs “the big bust of the Browns’ attack.”

Down to the wire

September was a good month for Laabs and the Browns. He batted .304 in September and the Browns went on a tear at the end of the month, winning 10 of their last 11 September games.

On the morning of Oct. 1, the last day of the 1944 regular season, the Browns and Tigers both had 88-65 records and were tied for first place. The Tigers were to finish at home against the Senators and the Browns had a game at home versus the Yankees.

At Detroit, the Senators’ knuckleball specialist, Dutch Leonard, was matched against the Tigers’ 27-game winner, Dizzy Trout.

At St. Louis, the largest home crowd in Browns history, 37,815, packed Sportsman’s Park for the Sunday afternoon game, looking for the hometown club to complete a four-game sweep of the defending champion Yankees.

The starting pitchers were the Yankees’ Mel Queen, a hard-throwing rookie, versus the Browns’ 35-year-old Sig Jakucki, a hard-drinking brawler.

In the minors, Jakucki beaned Cardinals prospect Johnny Keane, the future manager, and fractured his skull.

Jakucki made his big-league debut with the Browns in 1936 and didn’t return to the majors for eight years. The New York Daily News described him as “a tough solider who has rambled around the world, working his way by playing semipro baseball,” preferring “hoboing around the globe to playing in the big leagues.”

Jakucki was pitching for a shipyard team in Houston when the Browns rediscovered him and coaxed him back.

Going deep

Queen held the Browns hitless in the first three innings and the Yankees went ahead, 2-0. Browns batters treated Queen’s deliveries “as gently as if he were a lady,” the Star-Times noted.

Mike Kreevich got the Browns’ first hit, a line single to left, to lead off the fourth. Laabs came up next. According to the Star-Times, “There had even been a bit of booing when Laabs was announced as the starting left fielder.”

Undaunted, Laabs “cracked a fastball high into the left-field bleachers, the ball almost reaching the refreshment stand at the top,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Soon after Laabs’ longball tied the score at 2-2, the Sportsman’s Park scoreboard posted the final from Detroit, a 4-1 Senators victory. According to the Post-Dispatch, “the big crowd went wild, the cheering lasting for about five minutes.”

The Tigers’ loss meant the Browns would win the pennant if they beat the Yankees.

In the fifth, Kreevich singled with two outs and Laabs launched a slow curve from Queen 400 feet into the seats in left-center, giving the Browns a 4-2 lead.

Vern Stephens extended the lead to 5-2 with a solo home run against reliever Hank Borowy in the eighth.

Jakucki held the Yankees scoreless over the last six innings, completing the win. Boxscore

“His slider had plenty of sail and his curve was breaking fast and sharp,” Browns catcher Red Hayworth told United Press.

St. Louis showcase

In the victorious Browns clubhouse, “while his teammates sang, laughed, danced, kissed one another, Chet sat silently in front of his locker, wiping a towel across his brow,” the Star-Times observed. “He looked at the floor as if in a daze, as if he wondered if it were true.”

Asked about his home runs, Laabs said, “I think I hit the first one just a little bit harder. There was nothing to it.”

Billy Southworth, manager of the National League champion Cardinals, said he was “delighted” for the Browns and looked forward to the entire World Series being played in St. Louis.

“It’s going to be a nice family party,” Southworth said to the Post-Dispatch. “We won’t have to catch any trains or worry about hotel reservations or baggage. What’s more important, St. Louis can show the world that it can put on a World Series on its own.”

The Browns (89-65) were matched against a Cardinals club (105-49) which ran away with its third consecutive National League pennant, clinching the title on Sept. 21 and finishing 14.5 games ahead of the second-place Pirates.

The Browns won two of the first three World Series games before the Cardinals won the last three in a row. Jakucki started and lost Game 4, allowing four runs in three innings. Laabs had three hits in 15 World Series at-bats and no RBI.

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