Bob Feller’s impressions of Robinson were formed during barnstorming tours, when Jackie hit Feller with relative ease. It should be noted that the off-season tours were a major source of added income for Feller, and the breaking of the color line directly affected his bottom line. So Feller had a fiduciary incentive to knock Robinson, feeble as the effort was.
Robinson’s press nickname while with the Honolulu Bears was the “Century Express,” in honor of the $100 per game he received to play. The team was awful, winning only two games in 1941. Robinson played quarterback as well as halfback, and returned punts. He sprained an ankle early in the season and was hampered throughout the campaign. Only 550 fans attended his last game in the islands, a 19–13 loss to the Healanis.
Jackie was still at sea aboard the Lurline when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The windows were immediately painted black, and the passengers ordered to don lifejackets. Robinson reportedly refused to wear his.
Robinson applied to Officers Candidate School early on, but his application, along with those of many other blacks, was lost in the bureaucracy for three months. Joe Louis then was transferred to Fort Riley for a short stay. The blacks at the base told him about the delay, and after a couple of well-placed phone calls, Robinson and several other blacks were allowed into the program. Jackie graduated in January 1943 as a second lieutenant.
Robinson’s signing by Rickey remains controversial in the context of the Negro Leagues. Rickey refused to compensate the Monarchs for stealing their gate attraction, secure in the knowledge that there would be little in the way of legal action. After all, the Negro Leagues could hardly sue to keep a black man out of the major leagues. “Rickey raped us,” said Effa Manley, the owner of the Newark Eagles, with characteristic bluntness. “He had us over a barrel, and he knew it.” By contrast, the New York Giants paid Manley for the rights to sign Monte Irvin, as did Bill Veeck and the Indians for Irvin’s teammate in Newark, Larry Doby.
Irvin had the audacity to ask for a percentage of his sale price, $5,000, which got him nothing except bad press.
Chapter 8: Reality Check
Daytona, already more enlightened racially thanks to Mary McLeod Bethune, began dismantling Jim Crow in the wake of Robinson’s training camp. In 1948, the city’s well-known Peabody Auditorium would be desegregated, and the famous beach itself would follow suit in 1955.
Sanford, Florida, would return to the civil rights foreground in early 2012, when an unarmed black teenager named Trayvon Martin was shot to death by a neighborhood watchman, mainly because he felt the hooded sweatshirt Martin was wearing looked suspicious.
On October 12, 1945, two weeks before Robinson’s signing with Montreal, a black man named Jesse James Payne was accused of raping a white girl, kidnapped from jail, and lynched in Madison, Florida.
Paul Derringer carried two nicknames—“Oom Paul,” for his size (6'3" and well over two hundred pounds), and “Dude,” for his nattiness. He was said to change clothes five times a day. Derringer won 223 games with the Cards and Reds, but was best known for duking it out with just about anyone, including a conventioneer in a New York hotel. Worst was the occasion when he underwent surgery and, upon coming to, coldcocked the nurse standing over him.
Chapter 9: The Most Interesting Man in the World
The player Danny Gardella scared witless from the balcony of the hotel was fellow Giant-turned-Mexican jumper Nap Reyes.
The fabled toreador Manolete was renowned in Spain and Mexico for his preternatural ability to stand nearly stock-still and yet manage to evade the onrushing bull. But his luck in the ring ran out a little over a year after Danny Gardella saw him at dinner. He was gored in August 1947 in a ring in Andalusia. Generalissimo Franco ordered three days of national mourning out of respect for Manolete’s greatness.
Sal “the Barber” Maglie owed his future success in the majors to his days in Mexico. Through endless practice he discovered a curveball he could make snap even in the altitude. By the time he was pitching at sea level in New York for the Giants, his curve was the most fearsome in the league. Maglie also learned the finer points of pitching from his manager, former Cincinnati Reds great Dolf Luque.
Alejandro Carrasquel was the uncle of the better-known Chico Carrasquel, the shortstop from Venezuela who played for four different AL teams in the 1950s.
Even with Vern Stephens back in the fold, the Browns would finish 66–88–2, in seventh place, a full thirty-eight games behind Boston.
Tommy Henrich was at the plate in Game Four of the 1941 Series when Owen missed the third strike from Hugh Casey. Two were out and no one on in the ninth, and the Dodgers led 4–3. After Henrich reached on the passed ball, Joe DiMaggio singled, and King Kong Keller blasted a two-run double to right. After a walk, Joe Gordon hit another two-run double, and the Yankees won 7–4 to take a 3–1 lead in the Series. The next day, the Brooklyn Eagle ran a headline with the enduring phrase, “Wait Till Next Year.”
Ironically, Owen had set an NL record for handling 476 chances without an error in 1941.
Phil Rizzuto recovered from his malaria-stricken 1946 season, regained his stamina, and won the 1950 MVP Award.
Chapter 10: Opening Day
Truman joins Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan as presidents who may have been natural left-handers, but were taught at an early age to use their right hand. In recent years, four holders of the top job, including Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, are southpaws.
Mel Ott is one of baseball’s more underrated superstars. Along with his 511 homers, he hit .304 for his career, with a .947 OPS. Between 1937 and 1966, Ott was the all-time leader in home runs in the NL, until Willie Mays passed him en route to 660. The year 1946 saw the first season since 1928 that Ott did not lead the Giants in homers. Of Mel Ott’s 511 home runs, 323 were hit at the Polo Grounds. That is the record for most round-trippers hit at any single park.
Ott’s home run total, astounding as it was, may have been severely handicapped by the NL baseball, which in the decade before the war was far less tightly wound and much less springy than its AL counterpart. In the span 1931–41, the AL averaged about 20 percent more dingers than the NL per year, and one year, there were 40 percent more. Starting in 1946, baseball adopted a more uniform specification for its baseballs, and the stark power contrast fell away.
The best hitter in the NL annually receives the Mel Ott Award, a testament to his brilliance at the plate.
Unfortunately, Ott wasn’t nearly as stellar a manager. His career record was 464–530, and the Giants finished no higher than third on his watch.
Dorothy Lamour was one of World War II’s most popular pinup girls, along with Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, and Lana Turner. She was also a critical figure in the war bond tours that raised considerable money for the war effort. She is considered responsible for some $21 million in war bonds sales.
Trygve Lie was the first Secretary-General of the United Nations. The world body met from March until August of ’46 at Hunter College on Park Avenue in New York City while a more permanent building was being erected along the East River.
Chapter 11: Jackie’s Debut
The fact that Robinson’s first official game in Organized Baseball took place in Jersey City is commemorated by a bronze statue at the PATH Station in Journal Square.
The McAlpin Hotel is now a condo complex called the Herald Towers.
Wendell Willkie wrote One World after he traveled the globe in 1941, after being easily beaten by FDR in the 1940 presidential election. Roosevelt brought the defeated Willkie into his cabinet in a political maneuver, but when One World, in which he urged America to adopt a “world government,” was published, the president dumped Willkie. The book was a major success, but Willkie never held political office.
Baz O’Meara is legendary in Canada for being the man who bestowed the nickname “the Rocket” on the great Montreal Canadiens forward Maurice Richard.
Mickey Grasso would become Jersey City�
�s regular catcher in 1946, playing eighty-seven games, but wasn’t yet on the Little Giants on April 18.
In left field for Jersey City, however, was someone who would become quite famous in baseball annals, if not quite as fabled as Jackie Robinson—Bobby Thomson.
Robinson’s declaration that “God has been good to us today” after the opener against Jersey City ironically calls to mind Confederate general Stonewall Jackson’s words after the Battle of Antietam—“God has been good to us this day.”
Chapter 12: Trial by Fury
Head’s new son was named Rickey, in honor of Head’s boss.
Head is part of the “All Body Parts Team,” which also consists of Rollie Fingers, Barry Foote, Elroy Face, Dave Brain, Ricky Bones, and Harry Cheek.
Fluoroscopy is similar to X-ray technology, except that physicians use it to gain real-time looks at moving images from inside the body, rather than static ones.
Famous members of Murder, Incorporated included Albert “The Mad Hatter” Anastasia, Abe “Kid Twist” Reles, and of course, Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky. The trials that broke the murder-for-hire syndicate mostly took place in the early 1940s.
Durocher was probably unable to stand a fair trial in Brooklyn—he was far too popular in the borough. An example—he once slugged a Giants player named Zeke Bonura during a brawl, and was fined $25 for it. The Ebbets Field faithful not only took up a collection and paid the fine for Leo, but the plan was to change it into pennies and and throw it on the field so league officials would have to pick them up. Cooler heads prevailed, however, and the fine was paid the conventional way.
If Slaughter’s hustle sounds familiar, it’s because the man later synonymous with all-out effort, Pete Rose, was inspired by Country. “I used to watch the Reds games on television,” said Charley Hustle in 1963. “One day, the Reds were playing the Cardinals. Slaughter drew a walk and ran hard to first base. I decided right then and there that was what I was going to do as long as I played ball.”
Slaughter himself got a less-lethal dose of the rabbit fever that killed his father, laying him up for weeks.
Chapter 13: Those Splendid Sox
The man who mixed the color scheme for the “Green Monster” was a veteran of Normandy and Purple Heart-winner named Emil Disario. He worked for the misleadingly named California Pain Company and experimented with various hues until settling on the green that still covers the left field wall. His daughter, Christine, claims credit for suggesting the nickname “Green Monster.” Disario died days before Fenway Park’s centennial celebration in 2012.
For many years the John Fitzgerald Expressway, part of Interstate 93, was an elevated road that passed through Boston. It was held up by green-colored girders and was known as “Boston’s Other Green Monster.” It moved underground during the (endless) construction project known as the “Big Dig.”
Pesky hit only seventeen homers in his long career, so they are not difficult to isolate.
Pesky’s Pole is 302 feet down the right field line at Fenway, at least according to the number stenciled on the wall. However, aerial photography has shown the pole to be only 295 feet from home.
Bobby Doerr’s sister Dorothy was a heck of a ballplayer as well, playing on an all-girls team that “beat all the boys teams,” according to Bobby.
The WAVES were a volunteer unit of women serving in the navy: “Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.” They were actually in the service and held rank, although the word “emergency” meant that the enlistment only was good through the war—once it ended, the women returned to civilian life. The army version of a distaff service, the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) began as an auxiliary adjunct and not a part of the army itself (it was originally WAAC, Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps). In 1943, the army brought the ladies into the fold.
Eddie Pellagrini would be traded in 1947, part of a package that brought Vern Stephens, erstwhile Mexican Leaguer, to Boston.
Chapter 14: Baseball for the One Percent
The Congressional Medal of Honor winner who threw out the initial postwar first pitch at Yankee Stadium was Hulon Whittington of Jamaica, New York. His citation for the Medal of Honor reads as follows:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. On the night of 29 July 1944, near Grimesnil, France, during an enemy armored attack, Sgt. Whittington, a squad leader, assumed command of his platoon when the platoon leader and platoon sergeant became missing in action. He reorganized the defense and, under fire, courageously crawled between gun positions to check the actions of his men. When the advancing enemy attempted to penetrate a roadblock, Sgt. Whittington, completely disregarding intense enemy action, mounted a tank and by shouting through the turret, directed it into position to fire pointblank at the leading Mark V German tank. The destruction of this vehicle blocked all movement of the remaining enemy column consisting of over 100 vehicles of a Panzer unit. The blocked vehicles were then destroyed by handgrenades, bazooka, tank, and artillery fire and large numbers of enemy personnel were wiped out by a bold and resolute bayonet charge inspired by Sgt. Whittington. When the medical aid man had become a casualty, Sgt. Whittington personally administered first aid to his wounded men. The dynamic leadership, the inspiring example, and the dauntless courage of Sgt. Whittington, above and beyond the call of duty, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service.
Here was the breathless ad copy for the Yankees’ home opener that ran in many of the local papers on the morning of April 19:
Baseball experts are saying the 1946 Yankees pack the greatest wallop of any team in either major league. Come out to the Stadium opener today and see the team which broke all Spring Training attendance records!
Henry Kaiser was best known in 1946 for transforming shipbuilding during the war, thanks to his decision to weld instead of rivet the steel hulls together. Later Kaiser would become an automobile, aluminum, and steel magnate. Today he is a household name thanks to Kaiser Permanente, the first-ever health-maintenance organization, which he began in 1945.
Tiny Bonham was well known for exercising with an iron ball the size of a baseball. He used it to make the real thing feel light, in the manner of a hitter swinging two bats in the on-deck circle. Mariano Rivera, the Yankees immortal closer, uses a similar device.
Chapter 15: Casualties
Pteromerhanophobia is the scientific term for the fear of flying.
The C-54 United Mainliner the Yankees used to fly from city to city declined rapidly, and there were several near-crashes in 1947. A team insurrection was narrowly headed off by manager Bucky Harris and Joe DiMaggio, who in essence told his teammates to suck it up.
Shepard is not to be confused with Pete Gray, the one-armed outfielder who played for the St. Louis Browns in 1945 and came to symbolize the “anything goes” level of play during the war years.
Shepard was reunited with Dr. Loidl, who saved his life in Germany, thanks to an Englishman named Jamie Brundell. Brundell had met Dr. Loidl while on vacation in Hungary in 1992. The German had asked if Brundell could help him find the identity of the American he had saved back in 1944. After a few phone calls, Brundell contacted Shepard, and a meeting in Vienna was arranged. Shepard and Loidl went to the farmhouse where the two encountered each other during the war. When Loidl put his arm around Shepard, the former player thought, “By God, those are the same arms that pulled me out of the cockpit,” according to an interview he gave the Los Angeles Times. “It was a very strange feeling, and I really broke down.” The reunification was captured by This Week in Baseball, which aired a segment on Shepard’s story.
Catfish Metkovich (real name: George) never lived down the injury that gave him his nickname. Casey Stengel never let him forget it, bellowing in his presence, “We got a first baseman who gets attacked by a catfish!” Metkovich had some Stengel-esque moments of his own. Once, during a trying day in the field at first base, he yelled at the nearby umpire, “Don’t just st
and there—get a glove and give me a hand!”
Soon after Spahn returned from the service, his stuff was being talked about across the National League. One Philadelphia writer transcribed a conversation he overheard between Phillies manager Ben Chapman, Phils outfielder Del Ennis, and Giants first baseman Johnny Mize:
Chapman: “Spahn has one of the greatest overhand curves I’ve ever seen.”
Ennis: “Never mind the curve. What I have to watch for is the change of pace he throws. I swing at it before it is halfway to the plate.”
Mize: “The curve and change of pace are all right, but it’s that fastball. It does tricks as it reaches the plate.”
Spahn teamed with fellow pitcher Johnny Sain to form a fabled pitching duo in Boston. Their lack of help on the staff was the impetus for the phrase “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain,” a rhyme first credited to Gerry Hern of the Boston Post. There was more to it than just the one line:
First we’ll use Spahn, then we’ll use Sain
Then an off day, followed by rain
Back will come Spahn, followed by Sain
And followed, we hope, by two days of rain.
One wounded player who didn’t make it back until 1947 was Lou Brissie. Fighting with the 88th Infantry Division (the “Blue Devils”) near Florence, Italy, Corporal Brissie was severely wounded on December 7, 1944, three years to the day after Pearl Harbor. A 170mm German artillery shell exploded near him, breaking both his feet and his left tibia and shinbone, and riddling his shoulder, hands, and legs with shrapnel. Brissie doggedly fought off doctors who wanted to amputate his leg, shouting, “I’m a ballplayer! You’ve got to find another way!”
The Victory Season Page 43