Motor City Champs

by Scott Ferkovich

  Early in March, former Tigers skipper Bucky Harris, by then the new manager of the Boston Red Sox, created a stir. Detroit, he predicted in a newspaper interview, did not stand much of a chance in 1934. Said Cochrane in response, “I’m going to put that clipping on the bulletin board and have every one read and remember it. Harris and his Red Sox will be very much surprised when they meet us, for Harris is managing one team that we’re going to beat.”1

  One of the big questions of the spring was the pitching shoulder of Schoolboy Rowe. In order to strengthen it, he had spent the winter chopping wood at his Arkansas home. Cochrane had wanted him to travel up to Detroit for a physical, but later it was decided that Rowe would head directly down to Lakeland from Arkansas. Rowe was not a fan of the frosty temperatures of early spring in Detroit, having gotten a cold the first day he ever set foot in the city in April 1933. He insisted that his wintertime lumberjack routine had done the trick, and he did not need the attention of doctors.

  Once Rowe arrived in camp and began throwing, however, it became clear that not everything was okay. When pain flared up in his shoulder, Cochrane prescribed a few days of rest followed by calisthenics. Trainer Denny Carroll tried to massage out the kinks, but nothing worked. The young pitcher, whom Detroit was banking on so heavily to turn them into a contender in 1934, was finally sent to a specialist in Miami. The pain persisted. Cochrane hinted that Rowe might be forced to start the season at the Tigers’ Beaumont (Texas) farm club.

  Cochrane also had the pleasant problem of deciding who would bat cleanup: Greenberg or Goslin. After swinging the trade with the Senators back in December, Cochrane had intended to bat Goslin in the fourth slot. Greenberg, however, gained some bulk over the winter and began the spring by tearing the cover off the ball every day in practice. Whichever candidate won the cleanup duties, the other would bat fifth. The leadoff position was a battle between Billy Rogell, Pete Fox, or Gee Walker. Gehringer would bat second, while Cochrane would pencil himself in the third slot. Writer John Kieran called Gehringer a “practically perfect second baseman, except that he isn’t wired for sound. Charlie is one of those strong, silent men.”2

  Every spring has its promising young rookie, and 1934 was no exception for the Tigers. Herman “Flea” Clifton quickly earned the praise of both Cochrane and Navin. After a .301 season in the Texas League in 1933, the Tigers felt they had their third baseman of the future. When Cochrane was a member of the Athletics, he was never overly impressed with Detroit’s third baseman, Marv Owen, who he felt lacked aggressiveness. Clifton hustled all throughout camp, however, and Cochrane was eager to bring him north with the big club, even if only as a backup utility infielder.

  Once Grapefruit League competition got under way, the Tigers’ bats were cold. While that was not unusual for any team in the early spring exhibition season, Cochrane nevertheless told his men to take a day off and go fishing, in hopes that the relaxation would clear their heads. Greenberg, in particular, fell into a deep slump and was held hitless in four consecutive games. It even reached the point where Cochrane pondered starting 26-year-old Harry Davis at first base once the season opened. Davis was not known for his bat, and it looked like the first base position might be a weak one for Detroit, unless Greenberg began to hit consistently. The Tigers broke out of their offensive lethargy in a game against the Newark Bears, a 10–6 win in which Goslin and Marv Owen both homered. “The Tigers certainly seem to have found their batting eyes,” said the Free Press.3 Owen began fielding and hitting better as the spring wore on. That, coupled with the highly touted Clifton’s apparent inability to hit, made it look more and more as if Owen would retain his job at the hot corner.

  The Tigers arranged for Schoolboy Rowe to receive treatment from a bone specialist, which initially improved his condition. He threw off a mound in practice and looked strong, but the pain returned even worse following a bullpen session on March 26. An examining physician gave a diagnosis of torn muscles and advised Rowe to refrain from throwing a baseball for at least a month. This did not sit well with the young pitcher, who feared the long layoff would do more harm than good. Rowe went on record as saying he likely would not be physically able to pitch in 1934.4

  In a few days, however, he began throwing again on the side and reported no soreness. Cochrane may have harbored thoughts that Rowe’s issues were all in his head, that he was afraid of cutting loose for fear of re-injuring his shoulder. The pitcher made his spring debut on April 6 against the minor league Montreal Royals. “Pitching easily and making no effort to bear down,”5 he gave up only two scratch hits in three innings of work. It was Rowe’s first time facing live hitters since being shelved the previous July. Cochrane liked what he saw in the brief stint, however, calling Rowe’s fastball as good as Lefty Grove’s, his former Philadelphia batterymate.

  Two days later, the Tigers were trailing the Royals by a run with two outs in the ninth, when Owen’s homer tied it up. In the 12th inning, Elden Auker, who had come on in relief in the fifth, proclaimed as he strode to the plate, “This thing has gone far enough. I’m going to put one over the fence and end it.”6 Which he promptly did, picking up the win in the process. On April 10, Detroit broke out for 13 tallies against the Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association, with Goslin and Owen homering again. They racked up 18 runs against the Barons the next day; before the game was half over, Cochrane had pulled most of his starters.

  Rowe’s final exhibition appearance was against the Cincinnati Reds at Redland Field on April 15. He impressed Mark Koenig, the Reds’ third baseman and a former Tiger. After being tied in knots against Schoolboy, Koenig quipped, “Is that the guy that’s supposed to have a sore arm? Well, if he’s pitching with a sore arm I’ll pay $10 to watch him pitch when his arm is right. He’s got so much stuff out there now that you can’t see the ball.”7 It was a costly victory for the Tigers, however. Goslin suffered a “nose injury that is expected to keep him out of the opening game against the Chicago White Sox,” according to the Associated Press. “Bleeding profusely, Goslin was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital, where attendants said they did not believe his nose was fractured.”8

  In the end, Rowe would not be going to the minor leagues; Beaumont would have to wait. Cochrane wanted to keep a close eye on his young pitching prodigy. When the Tigers boarded a Chicago-bound train to begin the regular season, Schoolboy was with them.9

  To most prognosticators, the 1934 pennant race was going to be a case of déjà vu. The Washington Senators and New York Giants were both expected to make a return engagement to the World Series.

  It looked like a safe bet. Despite the loss of Goslin, Washington still could put some runs on the board. Joe Kuhel, Buddy Myer, Joe Cronin, and Heinie Manush led a potent offense, and the pitching staff of General Crowder, Earl Whitehill, and Lefty Stewart was strong. The Yankees, who still had the aging Babe Ruth in their stacked lineup, were viewed as the second-best team in the American League. Their mound corps, however, lacked the depth of years past; starters Lefty Gomez and Johnny Allen won 16 and 15 games, respectively, in 1933, but after that, there was a big drop-off. Wrote John Kieran, “Pitching will be important in the Bronx—If the Yankees get it.”10

  The most improved team figured to be the Boston Red Sox, who had acquired the great Lefty Grove from the Philadelphia Athletics in Connie Mack’s fire sale. In mid–March, however, the 34-year-old Grove complained of a dead arm. Conventional medical wisdom of the time traced the problem to his bad teeth. Grove visited a dentist, who discovered three abscessed molars. The teeth were pulled, and fans in Boston crossed their fingers and hoped for the best.

  As for the Tigers, most experts tabbed them for fourth. If Grove’s dead arm lingered, however, they could nudge Boston out for third place. Either way, nobody outside of Cochrane and Goslin gave them a shot at a pennant. An improved team, for sure, but not ready to play with the big boys just yet. “Mickey Cochrane, the fiery backstop,” one journalist wrote, “has steamed up Detroit fans as no
one has done since the heyday of Ty Cobb.”11

  “Detroit, on paper,” wrote H. G. Salsinger, “does not deserve better than third place but paper means nothing in actual competition, a fact that is given fresh proof nearly every season. To win the pennant of 1934 Detroit must not only get breaks in its own competition but it must have the benefit of breaks going against New York and Washington.”12 An Associated Press reporter noted, “Mickey Cochrane not only has electrified the Tigers with his aggressive spirit but has brought to Detroit the best catching in the league.”13

  Opening Day always dawns with fresh hope in every major league city. Wrote John Drebinger in the New York Times, “With a feeling of tenseness not at all surprising when it is recalled that six weeks of intensive training have just been completed in preparing for it, sixteen major league baseball clubs stand poised today to launch a new championship campaign. All appear strangely confident and, with an utter disregard for what the future may hold in store for them, all are fervently hoping for clear skies and a brilliant sun in order that the business at hand may be set in motion without delay.”14

  Grantland Rice, known as the “Dean of American Sportswriters,” penned this of the upcoming campaign: “The tumult and the shouting start, the captains and the camps are back, and there’ll be many a silent drama in the daily box scores for those who read between the lines.”15

  Paul Gallico admired what he viewed as the game’s pastoral niceties: “How soft and fragrant is the air and how green the grass. Is there a lovelier sight on a spring day than nine men spread out on a baseball field and the pitcher, all in white, making slow graceful motions? There is a sight for you.”16

  Baseball was back, but that was not the only good tidings in Detroit. On March 13, responding to Democratic President Roosevelt’s call for increased wages and shorter working hours, the Ford Motor Company announced it was bringing back the five-dollar-a-day minimum wage for production workers. Affecting nearly 33,000 factory employees in the Detroit area, the decision was hailed by Henry Ford, who expressed hope that other industries might see wage increases as well. At the same time, the Board of Directors of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce recommended reductions in workers’ average weekly hours from 40 to 36, with compensating wage increases. An editorial in the Detroit Free Press boasted: “Once more the automobile manufacturers of America are demonstrating their capacity for enlightened, broad gauge industrial leadership.”17

  Not all was rosy, however. The next day, the National Labor Relations Board met in Washington to take up the issue of labor problems in Detroit auto plants. The Board had reportedly received several thousand complaints of violations relating to hours of labor and wages. In an executive order, Roosevelt appointed General Hugh S. Johnson to take personal charge of the dispute in an effort to avert a general strike in the industry. After several days of contentious talks, Roosevelt finally stepped into the fray at the 11th hour. On March 20, he wired William Collins, organizer for the American Federation of Labor, all but demanding the postponement of a strike vote. Meeting with the President in the White House less than 24 hours later, eight auto industry executives voiced their discontent with the key point of a settlement plan submitted by Roosevelt: The recognition of the AFL unions. They also rejected the President’s call for new elections on worker representation in the auto plants, as well as the formation of an independent board to hear worker grievances. With the discussions going nowhere, the auto executives abruptly got up and walked out of the White House.

  That evening, the President made the drastic decision to resort to his licensing powers under the National Recovery Act to forestall a strike. The next day, following a five-hour meeting with Roosevelt at the Washington headquarters of the AFL, labor union representatives voted unanimously to hold in abeyance a threatened strike. More meetings ensued in the following days, and a settlement was reached on March 25. Both sides claimed victory: The factory workers by re-asserting their right to collectively bargain, and the manufacturers by having prevented the AFL from coming into a position where it could dominate the industry. Roosevelt, in a statement from the White House, expressed his hope that

  Out of this will come a new realization of the opportunities of capital and labor not only to compose their differences at the conference table and to recognize their respective rights and responsibilities, but also to establish a foundation on which they can co-operate on bettering the human relationships involved in any large industrial enterprise…. Only in this way can industry and its workers go forward with a united front in their assault on depression, and gain for both the desired benefits of continually better times.18

  Detroit Mayor Frank Couzens touted the labor peace as the first step in the city’s march toward economic revival. Charles Boyd, secretary of the Retail Merchants Association, declared, “The strike settlement undoubtedly was one of the most important things that has happened in Detroit in its process of recovery.”19

  As if on cue, the Detroit Board of Commerce in early April launched its “Speed Recovery Campaign,” an extravaganza of civic chest thumping meant to boost public morale. Art-deco posters were prominently displayed on streetcars and in shop and café windows, featuring the slogan “Let’s Know Detroit and its 2,494 Industries.” It was part of the “Exposition of Progress,” a citywide display of all things made in Detroit. It may be called the Motor City, proclaimed the chairman of the expo, but Detroit’s factories produced commodities essential and diverse. The list included airplane parts, boats (particularly all-steel pleasure craft), xylophones, artificial limbs, books, pins and roofing nails, cigars, cigar boxes, chewing tobacco, beer barrels, air conditioners (a nascent industry), carburetors, refrigerators, valves, oil burners, shoes, sealing wax, cement blocks, laundry bluing fabricators, cordless electric irons, cleaning products, asbestos pads for dining-room tables, and flags (all nations).

  Detroit made dental drills, fireplaces, locomotive wheels, laundry tubs, hair tonic, insecticide, bricks, fur clothing, neckties, bathing suits, corsets, bottle corks, talcum powder, perfume, bath salts, hair wavers, shaving cream, and bells. It also churned out electric sandwich machines, barbecues, stoves, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, sun lamps, elevators, jewelry, mail bags, razor strops, stained shingles, motion picture sound equipment, thermometers, purses, radios, scales, golf supplies, coat hangers, soda fountains, window shades, and caskets.

  The city counted 160 producers of foodstuff such as pie fillings, spices, candy, canned eggs, macaroni, Chinese noodles and dumplings, and fruit extracts. There were 66 dairy product companies, 35 makers of nonalcoholic beverages, 13 breweries, and one pretzel factory.

  Detroit also had one American League baseball team. The 1934 Tigers’ season got under way on Tuesday, April 17, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. “It will be Mickey Cochrane’s debut as a manager in charge of an American league competition,” wrote Ed Burns of the Chicago Tribune. “And the presence of Mickey has much to do with the glowing prophesies made for his ensemble. Maybe this optimism isn’t based on Mickey’s prospective managerial talents, about which little is known. But there is no speculation about what kind of a catcher this Cochrane is and his batting prowess is well known to one and all.”20 Most agreed that the Tigers would bang out their fair share of hits in 1934. Wrote M. F. Drukenbrod of the Detroit Free Press, “When we think of baseball, our mind generally runs to those long drives which crash against the fences or clear them. Pitching may be what some say it is—80 or 90 per cent of baseball—but we will also go for the slugging end. For that reason, until we are shown otherwise, we will continue to believe that the Tigers will be more dangerous this year than they have been for some time because of the presence of Cochrane and Goslin, and the extra base drives which will ring off their bats.”21

  Cochrane had seen a lot of Opening Days, and played in many World Series contests, but he was understandably nervous in the moments leading up to his first game as skipper. “‘Oh, oh’ he muttered grimly as he paced
up and down like a fidgety lion, ‘I’ll be glad when the first inning is over.’”22

  Firpo Marberry had the honor of starting and gave up only three runs before Elden Auker took over in the eighth inning. When Cochrane wrote out the lineup card, he had Jo-Jo White penciled in at left field, figuring Goslin wasn’t fully healed from his spring training nose mishap. Goslin, however, insisted he was okay to play and talked Cochrane into putting him in the cleanup spot. His nose did not affect his hitting as he banged out Detroit’s first hit of the season and scored two runs. Third baseman Marv Owen picked up where he left off in the spring, hitting a double and driving in three runs. A throng of 18,000 patrons, including baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, braved the chilly weather but went home disappointed. H. G. Salsinger of the Detroit News wrote, “Gordon Stanley Cochrane, the new Scotch-Irish-American manager of Detroit, made his debut as a major league pilot yesterday. He received an ovation when he made his appearance on the field, another ovation when he appeared at bat for the first time and a discreet silence when he left the field after the game, for Gordon Stanley Cochrane’s debut as a manager was marked by an 8 to 3 victory over the Chicago team…. The debut of Gordon Stanley Cochrane was a distinct success.”23

  Detroit took the next day’s contest, with Goslin and Walker both homering. Schoolboy Rowe was rocked in the rubber game, however, giving up six runs in less than three innings. Cochrane could not be faulted for wondering if perhaps he should have sent the kid to Beaumont coming out of spring training.