It turned out to be one of the better-pitched games of the year on both sides. Lawson and Grove exchanged goose eggs until the bottom of the fifth inning. With the bases loaded and two down, Goslin rolled one down to first baseman Babe Dahlgren, who let the ball scoot under his legs for a two-run error. That was all that the side-arming Lawson needed in a five-hit shutout. Cochrane was thrilled with the pitching performance. “It looks like he will be able to go in there now and then and hold the opposition for a few innings and start a game once in a while if we need him.”15 Tigers coach Sam Perkins was even more effusive: “Relief pitcher, my eye! If that guy isn’t a starting pitcher, I’m crazy, and I’ve never been in a lunatic asylum in my life.”16
Lawson was not a complete unknown to Tigers fans. He was a September call-up back in 1933, but got into only four games. The seven-year veteran of the minor leagues did not have a whole lot of what scouts and coaches call “stuff.” Instead, he survived on guile and deception with his side-winding delivery. The stringbean Iowa farm boy was once described as “tall, debonair, and casual.”17 He displayed a certain sang-froid whenever he took the mound.
Detroit wrapped up its lengthy home stand with six games in four days against the Philadelphia Athletics. The Bengals won five, benefitting again from back-to-back shutouts by Rowe and Lawson in the final two. The Tigers’ lead in the American League was a comfortable nine games, but they were going to need every bit of cushion they could get: Of their final 24 games of the season, only five would be at Navin Field.
Hank Greenberg had continued his rampage, with a 1.127 OPS in the dog days of August. In a 13–3 Detroit win at St. Louis at the end of the month, he blasted home run number 35 and drove in five runs. Elden Auker notched his 14th victory. The Tigers took two of three from the Browns and then headed right back home for a Labor Day doubleheader against Chicago. It was a highly unusual morning-afternoon affair, something not seen at Navin Field since 1930. In the a.m. contest, the Sox plated a run off Schoolboy Rowe in the sixth inning, ending his scoreless-innings streak at 24. Not limiting his heroics to the mound, Rowe put a charge into the 31,000-strong breakfast crowd by launching a two-run homer “into the auto park across the fence from the left-field wall.”18 Goslin tallied his 100th RBI in the 6–1 Tigers win. In the lunchtime game, Fox homered and drove in four runs, Auker tossed a seven-hitter, and Detroit prevailed, 5–0.
The Tigers then embarked on their final eastern swing of the summer, a 15-game, four-city trek that began with a doubleheader at Shibe Park on September 7. Despite not having his best stuff, Bridges won his 19th in the opener, while Auker was lights out in the second game. The submariner carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning, but a leadoff double by Jimmie Foxx broke the spell. Even Athletics fans had wanted to witness history. As Foxx stood on second after his hit, the Shibe Park crowd “booed, hissed and jeered him, and hundreds walked out of the park,” reported the Detroit News.19 It was a 15–1 drubbing that featured 20 hits by the Tigers. Baseball fans in the Motor City could not be faulted for wondering if perhaps the American League pennant was all but wrapped up. With the Yankees splitting their own twin bill against Cleveland, Detroit’s lead stood at 10½ games.
Even Cochrane was not immune to speculation. “If we win in our league and the Cards win in theirs, then I believe we’ll take ’em.” Indeed, the first-place Cardinals looked to be in perfect position for their second consecutive National League pennant. “Our team will be less jittery than it was last year, and the pitching should be better. I think, on the whole, the Tigers are a better team than they were a year ago. I think they are good enough to beat the Cards.” Black Mike quickly added, “But remember I said we’ve got to win in the American League first.”20 Frank Navin, meanwhile, wanted his ballpark to be ready in case the Tigers repeated as champions. As he had done in 1934, he arranged for the construction of temporary bleachers along the left-field wall, capable of squeezing in an additional 15,000 to 20,000 fans for the World Series.
As for the ballpark’s infield, it was in terrible shape, and not just from the normal wear and tear of a 154-game baseball season. Since June, Navin Field had hosted nightly performances of “Opera Under the Stars,” put on by a local theatrical company. The stage, assembled and torn down every evening, extended roughly from dugout to dugout, resulting in dead, patchy spots on the turf. Players had complained about its rough state, so finally Frank Navin ordered head groundskeeper Neal Conway to re-sod the entire infield. If another World Series was in store, Navin Field would have to look its best.
While the pennant was not yet secured, one scribe quipped that Tigers fans themselves were preparing projectiles should there be another cause for near rioting in the World Series. “There is a big run on apples, tomatoes, potatoes and turnips. There is no demand for spinach and such, because how can you throw spinach?”21
Chapter Fourteen
The Cubs Blow In
In the face of escalating American unease about the likelihood of war, at the end of August President Roosevelt signed a neutrality resolution to calm the fears of isolationists. “The policy of the Government,” he declared, “is definitely committed to the maintenance of peace and the avoidance of any entanglements which would lead us into conflict. At the same time it is the policy of the Government by every peaceful means and without entanglement to cooperate with other similarly-minded governments to promote peace.”1 Violence hit close to home just over a week later: The country was stunned at the news that Huey Long, the controversial populist senator from Louisiana, was shot to death at the state capital building.
As pennant fever gripped Detroit, big changes were under way for the city’s Brush Park neighborhood. The former enclave of Detroit’s moneyed elite had fallen on hard times over the years. Once-grand brick mansions, long converted to rooming houses, sat decaying. With an eye to the future, the city earmarked a section of Brush Park for a massive slum clearance. Rising in its place would be the massive Brewster-Douglass project, the nation’s first federally funded public housing development primarily for low-income African Americans. The first week of September, Eleanor Roosevelt arrived in town for a ceremony marking the demolition of the first dilapidated house. Hundreds more structures were on the docket for destruction. Taking one look at the run-down area, the First Lady deemed it a sore spot that must be eradicated. She predicted that Brewster-Douglass, ambitious in scope, would mean a great deal to the city and the country as a whole.
It was not the only sign of revival. Woodward Avenue, the main artery that split the city into east and west, had oozed class in its glory days. The past couple of decades, however, had seen it slowly overrun by “flea circuses and pitchmen.”2 The recent completion of a much-heralded widening of the thoroughfare promised to usher in a new business boom. Woodward had nearly approached functional obsolescence at only 66 feet across at its narrowest points. The addition of multiple lanes more than doubled the street’s width. Almost ten years in planning and construction, the expansion had cost nearly $12,000,000. On September 20, the roadway’s grand “re-opening” was marked by a spectacular parade called the “Pageant of Progress,” a hopeful harbinger of prosperity. At 7 p.m., President Roosevelt flipped a ceremonial switch in his home in Hyde Park, New York, turning on the new lighting system that bathed Woodward in brilliance before 300,000 awed Detroiters. In a speech, Highway Commissioner Murray D. Van Wagoner touted the possibilities. “More than 100 years ago, your forefathers dared dream this dream. Much has happened since then. Detroit has grown to be one of the great cities of the Country…. It is estimated that $100,000,000 in new business places will fringe one of the finest pieces of pavement in Michigan.”3
Further east in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, heavyweight boxer Joe Louis took a break from a short workout at his training headquarters. He fielded questions from reporters about his upcoming fight with Max Baer. It was not always easy for Louis to find a few moments of downtime, what with the crowds of autograph seekers who descended dai
ly on the camp. Today, however, had a light schedule. Tomorrow he would get in the ring with his sparring partners, and again over the weekend. The main event with Baer would not be until September 24. Louis, however, felt like he was ready.
“I’ll fight him like I’ve fought every one,” he remarked with insouciance as he strolled around the grounds. “I’m not going to back away.” Louis did not want to talk about the fight, however. Instead, his mind was on the Tigers. Born in Alabama in 1914, he was only 12 years old when his family joined the Great Migration of African Americans seeking better prospects in Detroit and other Northern cities. The man known as the “Brown Bomber” was a Tigers fan through and through. “They’re just about in, I guess. I’m going to see them play the Yankees Thursday in New York. I think the Cubs will be the team they’ll have to lick in the World Series.”4
Just a couple of months ago, most observers would have called Louis cuckoo for his Cubs prophecy. On July 5, Chicago had been in fourth place, 10½ games behind the Giants. At that point, manager Gabby Hartnett’s team went on an extraordinary 24–3 run to pull within a half-game of the top spot. As August turned to September, the Cubs were still 2½ back, but they once again refused to lose. By the time Louis made his prediction, Chicago was breathing down the necks of first-place St. Louis. A 13–3 drubbing of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Wrigley Field on September 12 gave the Cubs nine consecutive victories. A mere game separated them from the Cardinals, themselves winners of ten of 12. Chicago made it ten in a row the following afternoon, while at Sportsman’s Park the Cards lost to the Giants in extra innings, 13–10, with Dizzy Dean taking the loss in relief. The Cubs’ record stood at 89–52, only percentage points behind the Cardinals at 87–50.
Things were not as tight in the American League. After losing three of four in Washington, however, the Tigers’ lead had shrunk to 7½ games. Looming next on the schedule were five games in the Bronx. The Yankees were sizzling, having won 12 of their last 15.
Elden Auker and Red Ruffing squared off in the first game on September 12. The Yankees’ righty held the Tigers’ bats in check for most of the afternoon, but Greenberg’s RBI triple in the eighth, followed by a home run by Goslin, put the Tigers up, 5–4. Tony Lazzeri’s pinch-hit RBI single scored Earle Combs to tie it in the bottom half of the inning. In the Detroit ninth, Owen led off with a triple against reliever Johnny Broaca. Auker was allowed to hit, but could only pop up to third for the first out. Jo-Jo White delivered the big blow, a home run that put the Tigers up by a deuce. It was only his second round-tripper of 1935. Detroit hung on to win it, with Auker getting credit for his 17th victory.
During batting practice the next day, Cochrane and a sharply dressed Joe Louis were all smiles as they posed for photographers, exchanging mock slugs. The Tigers played the role of heavyweights that afternoon, relentlessly attacking the Yanks’ Lefty Gomez. Greenberg’s three-run homer in the eighth inning was the blow that broke the game open, while Schoolboy Rowe survived a pair of blasts by Gehrig in the 13–5 win.
The two teams then split a doubleheader, including another outstanding effort by Roxie Lawson, who won his third game. After getting off to such a promising start when the season began, Lawson had become the odd man out on the staff, despite being virtually the only left-handed starter available to Cochrane. In the Sunday finale, Joe Sullivan took the mound for his first start in nearly three months. He failed to make the most of it. The Yanks lit him up for six runs in less than five innings of work in a Detroit loss. By taking three of the five games at Yankee Stadium, however, the Tigers had seemingly withstood New York’s final challenge. When Tommy Bridges won his 20th game on September 16 in Boston, Detroit’s lead stood at 9½ with 12 games left to play.
The following afternoon, the Red Sox held on to beat Detroit, 5–4, with Wes Ferrell going all the way for win number 24. Ferrell, a good hitting pitcher, stuck it to the Tigers again the following afternoon. Coming in to pinch-hit with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a 3–3 tie, Ferrell singled off starter Schoolboy Rowe to win it. In the getaway game, Lefty Grove garnered his 19th win, outdueling General Crowder, 4–1. It was the end of a trying trip to Boston. Wrote Iffy the Dopester, “By the time [the Tigers] escape from Massachusetts and get back to the red flares and skyrockets of old Detroit’s celebration, they will be so full of baked beans, tripe, scrapple, clams and lobsters the Tiger snarl will be a bi-carb wheeze.”5
The Tigers briefly detoured to Detroit for their final three regular-season home games. Hundreds of fans greeted them as their train arrived at Michigan Central Depot. “At least half of the fans at the station were women,” clucked the Detroit News.6 The team swept a doubleheader against the Browns on September 21, including the pennant-clincher in the second game. Elden Auker, celebrating his 25th birthday, tossed a six-hit gem in the 1–0 victory that captured Detroit’s second consecutive American League title.
Detroit News writer George W. Stark’s account of the final moment evocatively portrays the outburst of delight.
As the long shadows fell across the brilliant green outfield, the square-jawed, angular Auker hurled a third strike past Ed Coleman of the Browns and it was that very pitch that struck the proper statistical note. It signified the Tigers were in, definitely and mathematically. So, come on you Cubs! Or you Cardinals! Catcher Ray Hayworth, having received that third strike, politely passed the pellet back to pitcher Auker, who grinned happily and stuck the ball in his hip pocket to bear in triumph to Mrs. Auker, who will place it among her souvenirs. For with that ball all proceedings in the pursuit of the American League pennant of 1935 were, to all intents and purposes, over. Auker then loped into the dugout, pursued by his chattering teammates and some thousands of hysterical fans. Many thousands were at Navin Field and they proceeded, after properly serenading their heroes, to go their diverse ways, many of them doubtless to carry on their private celebrations into the night.7
Later, a festive banquet was held in honor of Frank Navin and Walter Briggs, lasting well into the early hours of the morning. Nearly 100,000 revelers jammed the downtown streets the day after the game as Hudson’s department store, in a replay of 1934, unfurled a massive, six-story-high victory banner over its main entrance. “Champions, Detroit is Proud of You,” it proclaimed, with a cartoon image of a smiling, crouching Tiger. On hand were Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, along with Cochrane and his five-year-old daughter, Joan. The manager elicited a delighted roar from the crowd when he shouted that the Tigers “would be the next world champions.”8
An unknown St. Louis Brown by the name of Earl Caldwell held the Tigers to only three hits in the Navin Field season finale. It was a tough, 1–0 loss for Rowe, who turned in a pearl of his own, giving up four singles, no walks, and striking out ten. Another sellout crowd gave the Tigers a final 1935 attendance of 1,034,929, which led the American League for the second straight year. It was only the second time the franchise had topped a million customers, and the first since 1924. Before the Tigers left for Cleveland and Chicago to close out the campaign, the city honored them with a parade. Riding at the head of a procession that began downtown before crawling along Michigan Avenue toward Navin Field, the players were feted with blaring bands and shrieking sirens. Once at the ballpark, they were presented with congratulatory gifts.
Forced to throw underhand because of a college football injury, Elden Auker won 77 games in six seasons with Detroit (courtesy Ernie Harwell Sports Collection, Detroit Public Library).
Iffy the Dopester praised the Tigers, indeed the national pastime itself, for injecting pride and joy into the hearts of Detroiters, two emotions that had been in short supply. “And in our darkest hours of despair when it seemed that our grandest dreams had been in vain, when our beloved Detroit was being advertised as a city of mushroom growth, a flash in the pan, a city that was—when our enemies, not only around the world, but within our gates, were denouncing us, vilifying our leaders, there came again the call of baseball.”9
With
the pennant wrapped up, the Tigers took their figurative foot off the gas pedal, losing six of their final seven games. The Yankees, meanwhile, closed their season with an 8–1 run, a case of too little too late. Detroit finished at 93–60, three games ahead of New York. While the Tigers were getting shelled, 14–7, before a handful of fans at League Park in Cleveland on September 24, Joe Louis was slugging his way to a knockout of Max Baer before a crowd of over 90,000 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Back in Detroit, a giant neon sign atop the Garfield Building flashed round-by-round results of the fight to the masses huddled below on Woodward Avenue. For his 12 minutes of work that night, Louis earned just over $200,000. Only hours earlier, the Brown Bomber had exchanged nuptials with a Chicago stenographer named Marva Trotter. In the words of Paul Gallico, “[Louis] went from tenderness to terror, and there is no figuring, or knowing or even believing a man like that. He was supposed to fight Max Baer on his wedding night, but it was no fight, the four rounds that it went. It was a public pole axing. He smashed Baer bloody. He smashed Baer dizzy. He smashed him into the ground, and when he arose, he followed him coolly and smashed him down again.”10
For the second straight year, the Tigers led the major leagues in batting average (.290), OPS (.801), and runs scored (918). Once again, their dynamic infield got most of the accolades. Greenberg continued his ascension, topping all of baseball in home runs (36), total bases (389), and runs batted in (168). He hit .382 with two outs and runners in scoring position. Gehringer was a model of consistency, leading the club in batting at .330 and in WAR with 7.8. Cochrane played in the fewest games of his career to that point (115), but he was the perfect number-two hitter all season long, drawing 96 walks to boost his on-base percentage to .452. Curiously, Black Mike hit only .271 at Navin Field, but stung the ball at a .365 clip on the road. Rogell scored 90 runs, and Owen overcame his dreadful start to hit .287 with 44 RBI in the second half. In the outfield, Goslin drove in 111, and Pete Fox’s .513 slugging percentage was the second highest on the team behind Greenberg. Gee Walker batted .300 for the second time in his career, picking up the slack when Jo-Jo White struggled early.
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