The Veeck Orchestra was considered in play, with any ball landing inside the chicken wire surrounding the band worth two bases.
Jackie Price actually played in seven games in 1946, hitting .231.
Price finished the 1946 season with the Indians but was let go as both player and comic in 1947, after he let a pair of boa constrictors loose on a train to observe the reaction of some lady bowlers aboard. The snakes were part of his act (he would wrap them around him and then play catch), but proved his undoing after the railroad complained to Veeck.
Veeck was more than willing to swipe good ideas as well as innovate them. For example, a man named Marsh Samuel, a PR type in Chicago, created a media guide for the 1946 White Sox that he distributed to the Windy City writers, a seventeen-page pamphlet with all the players’ and coaches’ pertinent information. Veeck loved the idea so much he hired Samuel away from Chicago to create a more lavish version for the Tribe.
Chapter 24: Lucky
A pitcher named Forrest “Lefty” Brewer parachuted into Normandy on D-day six years to the day after pitching a no-hitter in the Florida International League. He was killed later that afternoon, near Sainte-Mère-Église. In addition to Brewer and Pinder, a third minor leaguer was killed on D-day, Elmer Wright.
Nine former players were killed at the Battle of the Bulge, counting Hank Nowak. The others were Ernie Holbrook, Bill Hansen, Elmer Wachtler, Alan Lightner, Ernie Hrovatic, Paul Mellblom, George Meyer, and Lamar Zimmerman.
Six ex-players were killed at Iwo Jima, including Harry O’Neill and Jimmy Trimble. The others are Jack Lummus (who posthumously was given the Medal of Honor for storming three Japanese pillboxes by himself), Bob Holmes, James Stewart, and Frank Ciaffone.
Trimble may be better known as the prep-school lover of the late writer Gore Vidal. The two carried on a torrid homosexual affair while at St. Albans before Trimble shipped off for war, at least according to Vidal.
The typhoon off the Philippines was Typhoon Cobra, aka “Halsey’s Typhoon,” a major storm that sank three US destroyers in Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet, killing 790 sailors. Nine other ships were damaged and more than one hundred aircraft swept overboard. Admiral Chester Nimitz compared the destruction to that sustained in a major operation. Author Herman Wouk survived the storm and later evoked his memories of Cobra to describe the typhoon that strikes the USS Caine in his book The Caine Mutiny.
The military transport plane Jack Lohrke was kicked off crashed in Ohio.
Lohrke’s remarkable luck extended to his major league career, which was undistinguished except for 1951, when he was a reserve on the Miracle Giants.
Chapter 25: The Leo Beat
Durocher’s slur was translated as “Nice guys finish eighth” by Lou Effrat in the New York Times.
Mel Ott wasn’t that nice of a guy—about a month before Leo’s famous backhanded compliment, Ott became the first manager to be thrown out of both ends of a doubleheader. Proving his worth, the Giants lost both games to Pittsburgh.
Memphis Engelberg was considered the top handicapper in New York, and the city’s best bookmaker when such things were legal. He had the run of the Brooklyn clubhouse and would pick horses for Durocher, a fact that upset Rickey and Chandler. Durocher, in Nice Guys Finish Last, insists he didn’t know whether Engelberg ever bet on baseball.
Laraine Day played a nurse in the Dr. Kildare films, which included:
Dr. Kildare’s Victory
Dr. Kildare’s Wedding Day
The People vs. Dr. Kildare
Dr. Kildare’s Crisis
Dr. Kildare Goes Home
Dr. Kildare’s Strange Case
Calling Dr. Kildare
The Secret of Dr. Kildare
There were two others, Young Dr. Kildare and Interns Can’t Take Money, that Day did not appear in.
Durocher’s first wife, Grace Dozier, claimed during their divorce proceedings that Leo had hit her and tied her up with a bed sheet.
Durocher would eventually divorce Laraine Day too, as well as his third wife, Lynne Goldblatt.
The Washington Senators were the last holdout in sending their announcers on the road. Not until 1955 did Arch McDonald and crew travel with the team.
Charley Paddock was the first to be called the “Fastest Man Alive,” after he sprinted to two gold medals and a silver at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp. He went on to win silver at the 1924 Games in Paris, edging Eric Liddell of Chariots of Fire fame in the 200-meter dash.
Paddock and other statisticians may have been cheered by the unveiling of the first fully automatic digital computer system, ENIAC, at Harvard that summer.
Some Brooklyn fans fluent in Morse code would be able to hear the telegraph reports coming in and, in the few seconds before Barber’s call, would bet on the result with others in the bar, always collecting.
Dean was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1953, but his career statistics are relatively puny, winning only 150 games in his twelve seasons. From 1934–36, when he won 30, 38, and 24 games, he was the best pitcher in baseball, but he doesn’t have the longevity of most hurlers enshrined in Cooperstown. If his broadcasting is taken into account along with his playing, however, it’s a no-brainer.
Dizzy’s brother Paul made for a dominating brother act in 1934–35, when Paul won nineteen games in each season. But that was pretty much it for the younger Dean—he only won a dozen more games the rest of his career.
The TV tower added sixty-one feet to the Empire State Building, making the then-world’s tallest building 1,250 feet high.
Wanamaker’s wireless station was an important mode of communication in the early days of radio. News of the Titanic’s sinking was relayed to anxious crowds in New York City gathered outside the wireless station in 1912.
The plan had been for Chicago’s WBKB to televise the opening-day game at Wrigley Field, but interference from the Wrigley Field elevator system kiboshed the transmission.
Herman retired just in time to miss the Braves’ appearance in the 1948 World Series. Herman took the collar in the Fall Classic, losing all four Series he played in—three with the Cubs (1932, 1935, and 1938) and one with Brooklyn (1941).
Chapter 26: Red, Whitey, and “Four-Sack” Dusak
The Bikini “Able” test instantly killed a sizable portion of the animals left on board the naval ships that were in the harbor. The rest were destroyed in the “Baker” test three weeks later. Over the ensuing few years, there would be over twenty bombs exploded at Bikini, resulting in radiation exposure for inhabitants of nearby islands, an unlucky Japanese fishing boat that blundered into the area during one test in 1954, and the Bikini inhabitants, who were allowed back onto the island in 1957, only to be sickened at a rapid rate. As of this writing, the island remains uninhabitable.
Later in 1946, Klaus Fuchs and Johnny Von Neumann submitted a patent application for the first hydrogen bomb. One would imagine, in retrospect, that such a device would be immune from patent law due to state security, but apparently not.
A two-piece bathing suit named for the site of the Able test was all the rage on the runways of Paris in the spring of 1946. However, the “bikini” was banned in most places and wouldn’t hit US shores until the early 1960s.
For all his excellence and longevity, it’s fair to question Red Schoendienst’s qualifications for Cooperstown. His induction was strongly benefited by Stan Musial’s position on the Veterans Committee.
Elizabeth Avenue has been renamed Hall of Fame Place, and plaques mark the sidewalk outside the boyhood homes of Garagiola and Berra. Jack Buck, the Cardinals’ legendary longtime broadcaster, lived at the corner of Elizabeth and Macklind for a time while he was calling games.
There are also plaques for the five members of the 1950 World Cup team that stunned England. The Hill’s Italian influence made St. Louis one of the few soccer-mad cities in the United States.
Garagiola’s cuddly image as an NBC stalwart papered over his rather caustic time spent in baseb
all, where he never missed an opportunity to spike or taunt Jackie Robinson and was known for hard tags to the faces of enemy base runners. In 1970, he testified against Curt Flood and for the baseball owners in the landmark case that was the first step in erasing the Reserve Clause.
Ken Burkhart, the Cards pitcher who lent Garagiola his shoes, became an umpire and blew a famous call in the 1970 World Series. He got spun around and, with his back to the plate, called Cincinnati’s Bernie Carbo out at home despite the fact that Baltimore catcher Elrod Hendricks tagged Carbo with the glove while holding the ball with his other hand. The play tied the game at three; the Orioles went on to win 4–3 and the Series in five games.
Chapter 27: CPO Feller
Feller’s trip to the majors at such a young age was not without controversy. Cleveland general manager Cy Slapnicka forged transcripts and other paperwork in a transparent attempt to get Feller onto the Indians at age seventeen, in stark defiance of existing age rules. Commissioner Landis looked into the matter, but decided that since Feller (and his father) badly wanted to play for Cleveland, and since the Yankees and Tigers, Feller’s other suitors, were already too good, Rapid Robert would become Indians property.
Of Feller’s eighteen seasons, 1946 was almost certainly his finest. Besides his otherworldly strikeout total, he set career marks in ERA, innings, complete games, shutouts, K–BB ratio, and, funnily enough, saves, with four. Only in 1940 did he win more games, with twenty-seven to his twenty-six in ’46.
Those that use the 107.6 mph measurement for Feller’s 1946 fastball classify it as the second-fastest ever measured, behind a heater from Nolan Ryan clocked by similarly imprecise means at 108.1 mph (Ryan’s pitch was measured by lasers crossing home plate). Aroldis Chapman of the Reds threw a pitch measured at 105 mph in 2010, the fastest ever recognized by MLB.
Admiral Halsey’s command decisions of the carrier group that included Alabama at Leyte Gulf rank among the most controversial of the war. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was a last-ditch effort by the Japanese to repel General MacArthur’s Philippine landings. A feint to the north by the Japanese fleet suckered the overenthusiastic Halsey and his Task Force 34 (which included Alabama), leaving the landings unguarded. Fortunately for the Americans, a powerful flotilla of Imperial Fleet carriers and battleships was turned away by a small group of American light cruisers (designated as Taffy 3) and the powerful fog of war, which obscured the fact that a determined Japanese thrust at the critical moment would have resulted in catastrophe for the US landing forces.
Some names—familiar to American baseball fans—who have won the Sawamura Award: Hideo Nomo, Koji Uehara (twice), Daisuke Matsuzaka, Kei Igawa, Kenshin Kawakami, and Yu Darvish.
Bobby Doerr broke up a Feller no-hitter in the ninth inning of a game in 1939 as well.
Feller would go on to throw twelve one-hitters, a record that has since been matched by Nolan Ryan, who amassed seven no-hitters as well.
Years later, researchers for the Sporting News revised Waddell’s record upward, adding a pair of whiffs to give him 349 strikeouts.
The NL leader in strikeouts in 1946 was Johnny Schmitz of Chicago with 143. The colossal 213-strikeout difference is a major league record.
Surprisingly, Newhouser edged Feller in strikeouts per nine innings in 1946, 8.5 to 8.4. It was one of six categories in which Prince Hal paced the AL, including advanced numbers like ERA+, which adjusts for the home park. Feller led in ten, including walks allowed, shutouts (10), and complete games. Feller finished 36 of his 42 starts. Newhouser finished 29 of 34.
Feller was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility. Newhouser had to wait for thirty more years, 1992, until he was enshrined.
Amazingly for such a storied franchise, Newhouser is the sole Tigers pitcher enshrined in Cooperstown. Many would argue that Jack Morris, who starred for Detroit in the 1980s, should be in the Hall.
Koufax was bested by Nolan Ryan, who had 383 strikeouts for the 1973 California Angels. Randy Johnson had 372 and 364 whiffs in 1999 and 2001, respectively, and Ryan had 367 in 1974, so Waddell holds sixth place on the all-time list, and Feller seventh. This discounts a dozen seasons turned in by nineteenth-century pitchers.
Feller’s push for the record seemed to take something out of him. He never again threw as many as 200 strikeouts in a season.
Chapter 28: The Jewel of Pigtown
Hilda Chester’s unbridled enthusiasm is today saved for callers to sports talk radio, rather than actual paying customers at the ballpark. That must make the late Doris Bauer, aka “Doris from Rego Park,” an obsessed Mets fan whose late-night phone calls to WFAN in New York were a symphony of baseball expertise and coughing fits, the evolutionary Hilda Chester. Thank you for your time and courtesy, Doris.
Prior to “Dodgers,” the Brooklyn side was known as the “Grays,” the “Grooms,” the “Bridegrooms,” the “Superbas,” and the “Robins.” At all times the official name of the team was simply the Brooklyn Base Ball Club.
In another example of the popularity of the Dodgers in Brooklyn, a man named Robert Russell Bennett wrote an opera in 1941 about the team. There were four parts: Allegro con brio (Brooklyn Wins), Andante lamentosa (Brooklyn Loses), Scherzo (Larry MacPhail Tries to Give Cleveland the Brooklyn Bridge for Bob Feller), and Finale (The Giants Come to Town).
Reiser would go on to be a minor league manager after his playing days ended. Coincidentally, one of the teams he skippered was the Spokane Indians, rebuilt after the horrible tragedy at Snoqualmie Pass two decades earlier.
Thanks to excellent fielding from Dixie Walker and especially Carl Furillo, Abe Stark gave away very few suits. One he definitely did give was to Furillo, in gratitude. The only known player to have hit the sign on the fly was Mel Ott. The sign served its purpose—Stark’s name recognition was so high he was able to become Brooklyn Borough President from 1962–1970. There is an ice skating rink on Surf Avenue in Stark’s name.
Records are sketchy, but it appears the 1912 New York Giants inaugurated the separate admission doubleheader.
Bama Rowell was promised a free watch from Bulova for hitting the clock, but due to one snafu or another, he didn’t get it until forty-one years had gone by. Bama finally got his timepiece on a day thrown for him back in Citronelle, Alabama, in 1987.
Rowell was traded to the Dodgers two seasons later, part of a package that sent Eddie Stanky to Boston. After a mere eleven days as a Bum, Rowell was sold to the Phillies.
Chapter 29: Fighting Retreat
Here’s the full list of original player representatives. Each team could have had two reps apiece, but except for the Yankees and Browns, no AL team did.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
STL—Marty Marion, Terry Moore
BROOK—Augie Galan, Dixie Walker
CHI—Phil Cavarretta, Billy Jurges
BOS—Billy Herman, Bill Lee (not the Spaceman)
CIN—Joe Beggs, Bucky Walters
PHI—Roland Hemsley, Ry Hughes
NYG—Buddy Blattner, Hal Schumaker
PIT—Rip Sewell, Lee Handley
AMERICAN LEAGUE
NYY—Tommy Henrich, Johnny Murphy
STL—Johnny Berardino, Babe Dahlgren
BOS—Pinky Higgins
WAS—Bobo Newsom
DET—Hank Greenberg
CHI—Joe Kuhel
PHI—Gene Desautels
CLEV—Mel Harder
Today, the owners, who cannot take advantage of the players, instead take advantage of the fans and, often, the taxpayers.
Chapter 30: Here’s to You, Mrs. Robinson
In addition to Robinson, Wright, and Partlow, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella were signed to minor league contracts in 1946. Newk and Campy played for the Nashua Pride of the Class B New England League. There was little racial prejudice in the small town, and Nashua won the league championship, in no small part thanks to its Negro stars.
Jackie wasn’t the only pioneer in 1946. The Phillies hired
the first female scout, Edith Haughton, a former WAVE who grew up with the game. The Sporting News welcomed her with some backhanded misogyny—“Who knows more about human nature than the weaker sex?” the paper asked. “Whom does the male, ballplayer or banker, find it most difficult to fool? Who knows more about the workings of the male mind and that collection of oddments in the male cerebellum? In short, why not a female scout?”
Chapter 31: The Autumn of Their Discontent
Jim Bagby Jr., who pitched for Boston in 1946, was the son of Jim Bagby Sr., who pitched for the Indians from 1916–1922. He won thirty-one games in 1920 and helped the Tribe win the World Series over the Brooklyn Robins. That year, Bagby hit the first ever home run by a pitcher in the World Series, and was on the mound when Bill Wambsganss turned in an unassisted triple play, the only one in Series history.
Marty Marion hit a home run off Bagby that gave Tech High of Atlanta the 1934 Georgia State High School championship over Bagby’s Boys High.
Bobo Newsom is one of only two pitchers to amass over two hundred wins while sporting a losing record (211–222). He also set a record in 1938 for the highest ERA of any twenty-game winner, 5.08.
Newsom had talent, but was so annoying to teammates and management that he played for seventeen teams in his career and never was on the same team for more than two consecutive years. Eight times he was traded in midseason, as teams couldn’t wait to dump him. He got the nickname “Bobo” because that was what he called everyone he met.
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