1943 World Series

12

The Village Smithy

By Chester L. Smith, sports editor

New York –
Maybe the critics and the money-changers are right about the World Series, but Joe Blow and his gang around the corner cigar store don’t think so. The great minds had made the Yankees a 6–5 favorite over the Cardinals as the opening game was run off today, but nobody seems to be paying much attention to them. There was rebellion in the street over these figures, and Yankee money was as scarce as No. 18 coupons. So, for that matter, was ready cash to back the Cards. It was one of those situations that is difficult to explain, unless the folks who fancy the American League Bombers are still suffering from the shock they received last October when the young and inhibitionless Redbirds took the Yanks apart and exposed them as being humans who can throw the ball away and strike out like the rest of the race.

No matter which club wins the series or how easy the victory is accomplished, it will always be a mystery why the National Leaguers went on the field at the Stadium this afternoon on the underside of the betting. Just on the face of it, they shaped up as a club that could repeat. They outhit the Yanks over the season and outpitched them, too. They can run and their defense doesn’t suffer by comparison. And don’t let anybody tell you they weren’t up against equally tough opposition all summer. Neither league was up to par, but the competition in the old wheel was as stiff as any Joe McCarthy’s outfit had to sweep aside.

It’s no secret how the Cards finished so far out in front. They won the close ones and they could also stand up and slug it out with anybody who liked it that way. The case of the Bostin Braves is typical. Your agent fell in with Casey Stengel in Chicago over the past weekend, and his tribute to the champions was grudgingly given but nonetheless sincere. Casey said:

We had good luck with nearly everybody but St. Louis. The Cubs – the Pirates – the Giants – Brooklyn – we either finished ahead of them for the season or got no worse than a tie. But the Cards – ouch! They licked us 17 in a row. They beat us when we were up and murdered us when we were down. No matter what we threw at ‘em, it wasn’t quite good enough.

It was the same story last year with the Yankees. They weren’t quite good enough. They were always within arm’s length of getting the upper hand, but the Southworths had that extra oomph to stay a stride ahead. In the opening game of the 1942 Series, Mort Cooper was knocked out and the Yanks went into the last of the ninth with a 7–0 shutout. At that moment, you would have sold the Cards down the river for a smoked herring, but they fell on Charlie Ruffing, batted him to the showers and had four runs over the plate and the bases full when Stan Musial made the final out. The Yanks didn’t know it, but that was their finish. The National Leaguers had discovered they weren’t being hexed by black magic and there was nothing wrong that a few base hits wouldn’t remedy.

The games were all close. Johnny Beazley won the second to tie the Series, 4–3, weathering a three-run New York rally in the eighth; Ernie White threw a shutout in the third with only one run to work on until the ninth; there was a three-run difference in the fourth battle and the tally in the fifth and last was 4–2. It couldn’t be said that the Yankees collapsed; it was simply that their best fell a trifle short.

Granting that Yank pitching has the edge on paper, it is also true that the Cardinals, as a team, are 30 points stronger at the plate, have three .300 hitters to one for New York.

The sharps were saying today that there are a trio of key players who can make or break St. Louis.

One is Stan Musial. His better-than-.350 batting average has been the clincher for more victories than Billy Southworth can count on all his fingers and toes. If he keeps up the pace in the Series, he can be counted on to account for one or two runs per game, perhaps more, but should he drop into a slump, the result could be disastrous.

The second man who isn’t expendable is Walker Cooper, generally rated the top catcher in the game. Cooper was a fireball last year, not only at the plate but in the skillful manner that he handled the young pitchers and kept baserunners hugging the bags. As in Musial’s case, he could make or break the club, depending on how he goes.

Walker’s brother, Morton, is No. 3. After the miserable luck he has had against American League batters, St. Louis strategy has to be built on the basis that he will fail once more – but suppose he doesn’t? One game on the winning side for Cooper, the wise heads say, could turn the whole Series, while two might make it a walk-away.

We’ll be knowing more about it during the next three days, but that price of 6–5 still looks cockeyed.

13

Williams: Yankees may alter plan of defense against Cards

By Joe Williams

New York –
It must be that the OWI hasn’t though of it yet. How else can you explain the department’s failure to capitalize on the presence of Mr. Nick Etten and Mr. Danny Litwhiler in the World Series?

Here are two conspicuous representatives of the underprivileged, fugitives from the famished Phillies, wearing white ties and tails, munching daintily on caviar and exchanging polite chitchat with the royalty of the sport.

Isn’t this what Henry Throttlebottom Wallace has been striving for? Isn’t it a realistic working of the Rooseveltian credo of spread the wealth, equality for all and see what the boys in the backroom will have?

A year ago, both Mr. Etten and Mr. Litwhiler were running errands and doing other odd jobs for the Phillies under the oppressive capitalistic system of baseball. Today, Mr. Etten finds himself at first base for the Yankees, Mr. Litwhiler in left field for the Cardinals.

If the OWI should take the stand that this would happen only under the benevolent guidance of the New Deal, it would take much doing to come up with the convincing rebuttal.

It’s the war!

The answer probably is that anything can happen in a world war. Certainly, it was strange to find the Yankees, of all clubs, dealing with the Phillies. It so happened they needed a first baseman, and the Phillies had one to sell. As a matter of fact, they offered the Yankees Mr. Litwhiler too, but he was rejected.

And this prompts the shuddery thought: What if Mr. Litwhiler should turn out to be the difference in the Series? What if it should be his bat that influences the payoff? It could happen. The fates have a dizzy way of spinning their wheels at times.

Incidentally, what used to be the one spot the Yankees never had to worry about first base, has become in recent years one of their most vexing problems.

Change of plan

Last year, the Yankees outfielders tried to cut down the runner going from first to third. They didn’t have much success. They lost the decision six or seven times, Meanwhile, the fellow who hit the ball galloped to second and thus was a potential scorer himself. It is discouraging enough to lose the far runner, but when you wind up giving the hitter an extra base you are inviting disaster. This technique of defense, as much as any other factor, contributed to the Yankees’ defeat.

Our intuition tells us it will be different this time. Except in obvious circumstances, the Yankee outfielders will try for the guy going to second. They aren’t going to set up any more runs than they can help. Revised conditions in the outfield dictate a more conservative policy anyhow. The Yankees throwing arms aren’t what they used to be, and all reports indicate nothing has happened to the speed of the Cardinals. They are still the swifties.

14

The Pittsburgh Press (October 6, 1943)

Lanier’s pitching, fielding lapses give Yanks opener

Wild pitch, dropped ball, failure to cover first all prove costly to Cards
By Jack Cuddy, United Press staff writer

worldseriesbomber
Fortress over World Series brought the possibility today of protests to Army authorities. Low-flying Army planes, like this one, soared over Yankee Stadium at the opening of the Series yesterday – at one time holding up the game – and aroused the ire of New York’s Mayor La Guardia, who threatened to have the pilots grounded.

New York –
The New York Yankees, before a near-record crowd of 68,676 fans, got the jump on the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1943 World Series at Yankee Stadium yesterday by winning the first game, 4–2, mainly because of an error and a wild pitch by lefty Max Lanier.

Lanier, the Cards’ ace southpaw, who yielded seven hits to the American League champions during the seven innings he pitched, made his costly bobbles in the fourth and sixth frames that led to his club’s defeat – a defeat that ended the Redbirds’ string of four straight victories in last year’s five-game championship series.

Stocky Lanier of the jerky, monkey-motion windup, set the stage for two unearned Yankee runs in the fourth inning when he raced to cover first base and dropped Lou Klein’s throw of Frank Crosetti’s grounder from second. Crosetti, the Yankees shortstop, then stole second, and was safe on catcher Walker Cooper’s rather high throw. Billy Johnson, Yankees third baseman, bunted safely for a single, then Charlie “King Kong” Keller, Yankees slugging left fielder, hit into a double play as Crosetti scored from third with the Yanks’ first unearned run – a tally that tied the count at 1–1, as the Cards had scored once in the second inning.

Gordon clots home run

But the Yankees fourth session was not yet ended, although it would have been except for Lanier’s error. Joe Gordon, New York second baseman who was the goat of last year’s World Series, stepped up to the plate and slammed the ball into the lower left field stands for a home run that put the American League pennant winners ahead, 2–1. Trigger Joe connected with this four-bagger when the count on him was three balls and one strike. It sank into the lower stands, just to the left of the 402-foot sign. The crowd gave Gordon a frenzied ovation.

Catcher Bill Dickey, the oldest player on the Yankees squad and their best current hitter, was the next man up. He flied to shortstop Slats Marion.

Undaunted by this bad break in the fourth inning, the Cardinals – eager, fast-stepping youngsters – evened the count at 2–2 in the next inning, the fifth. But bad luck again descended upon Lanier and his Redbirds in the sixth, when southpaw Max made his costly wild pitch.

Wild pitch loses for Cards

Crosetti and Johnson, of the Yanks, had gained second and first base, respectively, by virtue of their singles, and Keller had flied out, when the wild pitch came – the unfortunate heave that lose the game.

Joe Gordon was at bat. Whether memories of Gordon’s home run in his previous trip to the plate made Lanier nervous, or whether it was merely a slip, is problematical. Lanier threw one of his low balls, but it was too low. A groan went up from St. Louis fans as the ball struck the tip of home plate and bounced into the air over catcher Cooper’s head. Cooper, keeping his mask on, started running to his left, but the ball bounced back of him to the right, and it was some time before he located the ball.

Meanwhile, Crosetti was speeding home from second base and he scored standing up. Johnson advanced from first to third. Gordon, who may or may not have been the innocent cause of the wild pitch, fanned. Then Bill Dickey singled to center, scoring Johnson with the Yanks’ fourth tally of the day, wrapping up their victory.

Chandler achieves first win

Debs Garms was sent in to pinch hit for Lanier at the opening of the eighth inning. Then Harry Brecheen, another southpaw, took over the Cardinals mound. The Yanks got a total of eight hits off both flingers.

Meanwhile, the Cards garnered only seven off Spurgeon “Spud” Chandler, the Yankees righthander, who achieved his first World Series victory in his third attempt. Each club turned in two errors. Chandler, of the corn-tussle hair, pitched an excellent game, keeping his hits well separated and bearing down in the clutches.

The Cards opened their scoring in the second inning when Marion doubled off first baseman Nick Etten’s glove, scoring Walk Cooper, who had singled and been advanced by Whitey Kurowski’s sacrifice and Danny Litwhiler’s walk. Had Etten not tried for Marion’s drive, the ball might have gone foul – it was so close to the line and rising as Etten deflected it.

The other Cardinals marker came in the fifth inning when Lanier’s single drove home Sanders, who got on base through Etten’s error. Etten thought Sanders was out at first base on Gordon’s throw of his grounder from second. But umpire Beans Reardon called him safe just as Etten started to throw the ball up to catcher Bill Dickey. Surprised at the umpire’s decision, Etten twisted back as he threw and the ball went wild, permitting Sanders to gallop down to second. Sanders advanced to third after Litwhiler’s fly to center. Marion was thrown out, then Lanier’s single brought Sanders home for the Cards’ final tally.

The crowd of 68,676 in the huge bunting-festooned stadium approached the record single-game Series crowd of 69,902 which attended the fourth game of last year’s Series – a Sunday contest.

15

Game 2

CARDS BEAT YANKS IN SECOND GAME, 4–3
Mort Cooper stops foe in first victory

Marion and Sanders hit home runs to help Redbird cause

New York (UP) –
Mort Cooper, his heart heavy because his father died early this morning in Independence, Missouri, pitched one of the best games of his Major League career in Yankee Stadium here today as the Cardinals defeated the Yankees, in the second game to even the World Series at 1–1.

The final score was 4–3.

It was Cooper’s first World Series victory and his first triumph against American League competition, he having failed in two attempts against the Yanks in last year’s Series and in the last two All-Star Games.

Ernie Bonham, who like Cooper is a “fork ball” specialist, gave Mort strong argument most of the way but the blows that cost him the game were home run drives by Marty Marion and Ray Sanders. Marion’s was the first hit of the game in the third inning and Sanders hit his four-baser in the fourth with one on to climax a three-run rally.

A shadow was cast over the second game, which was felt by every fan in the big stadium. This was due to the sudden death of Robert Cooper, father of the famed brother battery of the Cardinals, Mort and Walker, who were working today.

Both Bonham and Cooper were in complete control in the first inning, each setting down the batters in order. They followed a similar pattern in the second, too, when each walked a man with two out and then proceeded to get the next batter.

Marty Marion, Cards’ great shortstop, broke the hitless and runless string in the third, when he hit Bonham’s first pitch for a home run into the stands.

Sanders hits homer

In the fourth, Stan Musial dropped a solid single into right and moved to second on Walker Cooper’s sacrifice. Whitey Kurowski scored Stan with a single into center. Sanders then hit a home run over the wall in right, scoring Kurowski ahead of him. Bud Metheny went way back, got his hand on the ball but couldn’t hold it as he fell, after making a great try.

The Yanks’ first hit came in the fourth when Frankie Crosetti attempted to bunt and pushed a single into right field. He moved to third on Bill Johnson’s solid single to center. Charlie Keller flied to center and Crosetti scored after the catch.

Bonham fans three

Bonham gave a great exhibition of pitching in the top of the sixth when he struck out the side.

In the Yankees’ half, Crosetti opened up with a single. Metheny was sent to first when umpire Beans Reardon agreed with his claim that Walker Cooper had tipped his bat. It was scored as an error for Cooper. Johnson hit into a double play with Crosetti going to third. Keller flied out to end the threat.

Bonham was removed for a pinch hitter in the eighth and Johnny Murphy, the Yanks’ great relief pitcher, went to the mound in the ninth. Murphy walked the first batter and allowed one hit, but the Cards were unable to push over a run.

16

Game 2

Wednesday, October 6, 1943 1:30 pm (ET) at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
St. Louis 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 4 7 2
New York 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 3 6 0

St. Louis Cardinals (NL):

AB R H PO A E
Klein, 2b 4 0 1 4 4 0
Walker, cf 5 0 1 5 0 1
Musial, rf 4 1 1 2 0 0
W. Cooper, c 3 0 1 5 0 1
Kurowski, 3b 4 1 1 0 1 0
Sanders, 1b 3 1 1 8 0 0
Litwhiler, lf 3 0 0 3 0 0
Marion, ss 3 1 1 0 3 0
M. Cooper, p 3 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 32 4 7 27 8 2

New York Yankees (AL):

AB R H PO A E
Crosetti, ss 4 1 2 2 2 0
Metheny, rf 3 0 0 2 0 0
Johnson, 3b 4 1 2 0 1 0
Keller, lf 4 1 1 3 0 0
Dickey, c 3 0 0 9 2 0
Etten, 1b 4 0 0 4 0 0
Gordon, 2b 4 0 1 4 0 0
Stainback, cf 3 0 0 3 0 0
Bonham, p 2 0 0 0 0 0
Weatherly, ph 1 0 0 0 0 0
Murphy, p 0 0 0 0 1 0
Totals 32 3 6 27 6 0

WP: Mort Cooper (1–0)
LP: Tiny Bonham (0–1)

HR:

  • STL: Marty Marion (1), Ray Sanders (1)
  • NYY: None

Attendance: 68,578

17

Play-by-play of second game

Yankee Stadium, New York – (special)
The following is the play-by-play account of the second game of the World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees:

First inning

CARDINALS: Klein flied to Metheny in short right field. Walker was called out on strikes. Musial flied high to Stainback. No runs, no hits, none left.

YANKEES: Crosetti rolled out. Marion to Sanders. Klein threw out Metheny. Johnson lined to Klein. No runs, no hits, none left.

Second inning

CARDINALS: Walker Cooper popped to Crosetti. Kurowski put up a vehement protest over a second called strike and then went down swinging. Sanders walked. Litwhiler popped to Gordon on the grass in short right field. No runs, no hits, one left.

YANKEES: Keller flied high to Walker. Dickey also flied to Walker. Etten missed a three-and-two pitch. No runs, no runs, none left.

Third inning

CARDINALS: Marion hit the first ball into the lower left field stands for a home run. The drive was fair by only a few feet. M. Cooper was given a great ovation as was his brother Walker when he went to bat. Mort flied to Keller. Klein popped to Gordon behind second base. Walker grounded out. Crosetti to Etten. One run, one hit, none left.

YANKEES: Gordon struck out, going for a low curve. Klein made a leaping catch of Stainback’s liner. Bonham bounced out, Kurowski to Sanders. No runs, no hits, none left.

Fourth inning

CARDINALS: Musial socked Bonham’s first offering over second base for a single. W. Cooper laid down a sacrifice. Dickey to Etten. Kurowski singled to center, scoring Musial. Sanders walloped a home run into the lower right field stands, scoring Kurowski ahead of him, giving the Cards a 4–0 lead. The ball barely cleared Metheny’s outstretched arms. Litwhiler went down swinging. Marion was given a big cheer when he came to bat. He flied to Metheny along the right field foul line. Three runs, three hits, none left.

YANKEES: Crosetti popped a single over first for the Yanks’ first hit. Metheny flied deep to Walker. Johnson banjo single to center sent Crosetti to third. Walker fumbled the ball momentarily but recovered in time to keep the runners from advancing. Keller flied to Walker in short center and Crosetti scored on a daring dash from third. Dickey flied to Litwhiler on the left field foul line. One run, two hits, one left.

Fifth inning

CARDINALS: Mort Cooper fanned. After getting a strike on Klein, Bonham gave him four balls. Walker beat out a slow roller toward first, beating Dickey’s throw by a step. Klein going to second. Musial flied deep to Keller. W. Cooper lined to Gordon. No runs, one hit, two left.

YANKEES: Etten lined to Musial who had to move only a couple of steps. Gordon singled to left center and when Walker fumbled the ball, he went to second, just sliding in ahead of the throw. It was an error for Walker, who made a nice running catch in left center. Bonham grounded out. Marion to Sanders. No runs, one hit, one error, one left.

Sixth inning

CARDINALS: Kurowski took a half-swing on a third strike and was ruled out by Reardon. Sanders fanned on four pitches and Litwhiler did likewise. No runs, no hits, none left.

YANKEES: Crosetti singled past Marion into center. Metheny was awarded first base when Reardon ruled W. Cooper had tipped his bat. Johnson grounded into a fast double play. Marion to Klein to Sanders, as Crosetti took third. Keller flied to Musial along the right field foul line. No runs, one hit, one error, one left.

Seventh inning

CARDINALS: Marion walked on five pitches. Marion stole second as Mort Cooper fanned on a three-and-two pitch. Klein’s hot bounder was taken by Crosetti, who threw him out while holding Marion on second. Walker hit to Johnson and Marion was run down between second and third. Johnson to Gordon. No runs, no hits, one left.

YANKEES: M. Cooper lost Dickey after running the count to three and two. Etten flied to Litwhiler in short left. Gordon lined to Litwhiler. Stainback fanned on three pitches. No runs, no hits, one left.

Eighth inning

CARDINALS: Musial hoisted to Stainback. W. Cooper beat out a high bounder to Johnson for a single. Kurowski struck out for the third time on three pitches. Sanders flied to Keller in short left. No runs, one hit, one left.

YANKEES: Weatherly, a left-handed hitter, batted for Bonham and fouled to Sanders. Crosetti was called out on strikes. Metheny rolled out. Klein to Sanders. No runs no hits, none left.

Ninth inning

CARDINALS: Murphy went to the mound for New York. Litwhiler walked after working the count to three and two. Marion tried to sacrifice but forced Litwhiler at second. Murphy to Crosetti. M. Cooper sacrificed. Dickey to Etten. Klein beat out a high bounder to Johnson for a single. Marion going to third. Walker hoisted to Stainback. No runs, one hit, two left.

YANKEES: Johnson doubled to left center. Keller lined a 425-foot triple past Litwhiler, scoring Johnson and making the score 3–2. Dickey lined to Klein. Etten grounded out. Klein to Sanders. Keller scoring and making the score 4–3. Gordon fouled to W. Cooper. Two runs, two hits, none left.

18

Coopers vow ‘to win this one for Pop’

Independence, Missouri (UP) –
Robert Cooper, 58, father of the famous St. Louis Cardinals brother battery – the man who encouraged his sons in their boyhood years to stick with baseball – died unexpectedly about 4:30 a.m. today at his home here.

Upon being informed of their father’s death, the Coopers left for the Yankee Stadium vowing “to win this one for Pop.”

Cooper’s death was apparently due to a heart ailment, from which he had suffered several years although he had been in better health this last summer than for some time. It was believed excitement over the Series was a contributing cause.

His body, partly dressed, was found on the living room floor by his wife. Members of the family said he had been extremely excited about yesterday’s game and had read and reread last night’s papers before he went to bed about 10 o’clock.

He had been a rural mail carrier nearly 40 years. He and his youngest son, Sam, had planned to go to St. Louis Saturday for the final games of the Series.

The “old man,” as the boys affectionately called him, furnished their incentive to play ball and to play it well.

In their first game with the Atherton, Missouri, grade school team, the father, Robert Cooper, lined up the players on the team in which two other brothers, R. J. and Jimmy, now in the Navy, participated.

Admitting in later years that he lacked baseball “savvy,” the elder Cooper started Walker on the mound and big Morton behind the bat. That was the first and last time they played that way.

In about the third inning, Walker pitched a low curve and Morton, always effervescent, tried to catch it before the batter swung at it. Morton nearly got his brains bashed out and ran out to his father, coaching on third base protesting.

The next inning found Morton on the mound and Walker behind the bat and from then on out they were an unbeatable combination.

Cooper Sr. would comb the area for sandlot teams that the boys might play and would collect $50 or $75 to bet on the outcome, “winner take all.”

One story that Morton liked to tell about his father, concerned the day all of the brothers seemed to be in a hitting slump.

Roaring down from the third base coaching spot, Cooper Sr. yelled at the brothers on the bench:

Every last one of you gets a home run today or you don’t get a bite of supper.

Morton said:

Hell, we had to come through after that. I think we all got at least one and the final score was about 23–0.

19

Williams: Who’s to blame, Cooper or Lanier?

By Joe Williams

New York –
You never can tell about a World Series. You may remember we were talking about catchers the other day. We were saying nobody ever paid any attention to the catchers, they were always talking about the hitters and the pitchers. And we pointed out that every once in a while, a catcher might have a chance to decide a Series this way or that.

Well, it’s a question today whether Walker Cooper, the catcher of the Cardinals, gave the opening game of the World Series to the Yankees or whether the pitcher, Max Lanier, did.

All that is known for sure is that the vital pitch was a bad pitch. It was the pitch that put the Yankees ahead, and they stayed ahead.

Should Cooper, now called the greatest catcher in baseball, have stopped the ball, even admitting it was a bad pitch, or–?

Your guess is as good as ours.

As it turns out, we saw it wrong at a quick glance. We thought the ball hit the face of the rubberized plate and bounced high in the air. Cooper himself says it didn’t. He says it hit his glove, bounced and then everything turned black.

Here’s setting

The situation was this: This score was tied at 2–2 going into a sixth inning. Crosetti opened with a scratch hit through third. The rookie, Johnson, did the same, through short. Keller, pulling for the stands, went out meekly to right. This brought Gordon up.

Gordon had already hit a home run off Lanier and the Cardinals pitcher was pitching carefully to him.

In between his pitches to Gordon, Lanier dropped one of his low ones in the dirt. His curveball had gone too deep.

This had happened before. It had happened in the fifth inning when John Lindell, a wartime replacement for DiMaggio, had swung for the third strike that had come mockingly out of the dirt. Cooper hadn’t been able to hold on to that one either, but the circumstances were such that he was able to get a putout at first, Lindell being Lindell.

But nobody in the huge crowd in the stadium knew this next pitch to Gordon was going to be the tell, and least of all Cooper.

Looking back on it, it is really funny. The Cardinals are supposed to go from first to third on the mere suggestion of a hit. In this case, the pitch in the dirt, Crosetti came all the way from second to home – and he’s an old man – and Johnson, the kid, rushed from first to third, and a minute later scored on a Dickey’s blooper to the outfield.

Who was to blame?

That was the ball game. Who was to blame? The pitcher who threw the ball in the dirt, or the catcher who failed to stop it? To repeat, your guess is as good as ours.

All we know is that an amusing incident developed. Cooper doesn’t yet know where the ball went. He was so bewildered he didn’t even take off his mask. What happened was that the ball hit his glove and bounced high in the air, and went searchingly here and there, an adventurous little thing.

And all the while Art Fletcher, highest-priced third base coach in the history of baseball, was waving Crosetti home with the run that was to win the game for the Yankees.

It reminded you of another time in another World Series when this same Mr. Fletcher was waving Yankees runners home. This was the time when Lombardi of the Cincinnati Reds was knocked out at the plate and the ball wasn’t three feet from his reach and he just lay there and, or so it seemed, thousands and thousands of Yankees trampled over his agonized bosom to score runs.

So many things can happen to catchers in the World Series; and the things that can happen can be both good and bad, we all remember the time Mickey Owen, of the Dodgers, dropped a third strike which gave the Yankees the break they needed in the Series two years ago. And if our memory is long enough, we will recall the time Hank Gowdy stepped into his mask and lost a foul ball that helped Washington beat the Giants.

And certainly, we must all remember the time Mickey Cochrane dived across the plate to smother a wild pitch at a critical moment. There was a runner on third and none out at the time, and it was the ninth inning and the Series was in the balance. The Tigers against the Cubs it was. That diving catch was the Series payoff. The runner on third never scored.

20

The Village Smithy

By Chester L. Smith, sports editor

New York –
Up to this moment, it’s easy to pick the winner of the World Series.

The answer is nobody is going to win it. The Cardinals can’t, unless they snap out of the St. Louis Blues rhythm they have shown so far; the Yankees can’t if the Cardinals don’t hand it to them, and that patient old codger, Mr. Paying Patron, Esq., is going to take an unmerciful licking if he has to put down his good money to look at the sort of baseball he got for his dollar yesterday.

A young lady with two pennants, a souvenir program, the remnants of a hot dog on the lapel of her nifty sports jacket and the stub for a box seat, battled into the subway at the Stadium after the Yanks had taken No. 1 by 4–2 yesterday and delivered a brief but pointed oration to a group of strangers.

She exclaimed:

That was the worst exhibition of the national pastime I have ever seen.

…and while it wasn’t that bad, it was a long way from being good. The Cardinals didn’t seem to want the Yankees to lose and there were times when the Bombers appeared to be cherishing a great love for their enemies from the National League.

As of noon today, the Series is exactly where it was a year ago – the Yanks are one game up. And there is one conclusion that might be drawn from what went on in the Bronx. Joe Gordon is “hot,” and this could very well be the difference in the final analysis. When Joseph, who was distinctly off when these same teams met a year ago, has his motors purring and is on the beam, he’s as great a second baseman as ever lived. Yesterday, as a starter, he produced a 400-foot home run to put the Yanks ahead at one stage of the game and equaled the World Series record for assists – eight – at his position. At least three of his stops were the kind that bring you out of your seat with your hair standing on end.

Smiling Will Terry, the ex-Giant, who is experting over a typewriter for a Memphis paper, described Gordon’s work as one of the finest individual performances the Series has ever witnessed. He should know, for man and boy, he has been in plenty of them himself and looked at a good many more.

But the rest of it was pretty awful. There were four hits out of 15 that weren’t distinctly black market – Gordon’s jackpot smash, a smoking single to left by Mr. Spud Chandler, and drives to right by Ray Sanders and Stan Musial. The one that carried the most authority was Musial’s, in the eighth. The Donora Dandy had been easy for Chandler on his first three trips and must have been mad about it, for his clothesline to Tut Stainback was so hard that Walker, who was on first, was unable to get past second before the ball was returned to the infield – and the Cardinals second-sacker is about as fast as they come.

If the same game had been put on by the Phillies and Braves in late August, the customers would have walked out and gone home to supper after the sixth.

Among those who failed to displace the mental or mechanical agility generally associated with a contest for the championship of the world were Walker Cooper, the Redbirds’ master catcher, of all people, and Brother Nicholas “Tanglefoot” Etten, the Yankees first baseman. In the latter’s case, there may be some excuse, for Nick has never been known as an athlete who had aspirations to steal the title from Hal Chase, Lou Gehrig or Lefty Grimm, but the experts were at a loss to explain what happened to Cooper. They preferred to say he was merely having a bad day and await further developments.

Cooper and Max Lanier teamed with Klein to award the Yanks their first run in the fourth. Frankie Crosetti opened the inning by rolling to Klein, who made a brilliant stop and throw, only to have Lanier drop the ball after he had Crosetti retired. With Billy Johnson at the plate, Crosetti headed for second and Cooper rifled a peg 10 feet over the bag which would have meant an extra base had it not been for good backing up by Harry Walker in center field. Johnson then bunted to Sanders, and, when Klein stood rooted in his tracks instead of covering first, all hands were safe. The run came over when Charlie Keller grounded into a double play. Gordon, who shouldn’t have batted in that inning at all, followed with his home run and the American Leaguers were in the lead.

Etten’s “skull,” which gave the Cardinals the opening to tie the score in the fifth, was a classic. Sanders drove what looked like a certain base hit close to second, but Gordon made a storybook stop and throw that failed to get the runner only because the toss had to be made off balance. Sanders was clearly safe and umpire Beans Reardon ruled it that way. But Etten thought it was a putout and gleefully whipped the ball to Bill Dickey. But Dickey wasn’t looking and, when he did realize what had happened, the best he could do was cuff down the horsehide with his gloved hand and start chasing it. Sanders was anchored on second long before Dickey and the ball had been reunited and might have made third if he had not been so surprised. Lanier’s blooping hit into short center completed the damage.

In the clubhouse, after the game, a much-chastened Yankees first baseman swore he was “goin’ to let the umpires make the decisions after this.”

There was a good deal more shoddy play that won’t show up in the box score, but maybe we should let bygones be bygones. They can hardly be so bad again.

It was Lanier’s wild pitch in the sixth, allowing Crosetti to come in from second and Johnson to scramble from first to third, that eventually brought the downfall of the champions, and here too, it is likely that Gordon was the man behind the gun. He was at bat when lefty Max Lanier caromed a sharp-breaking curve off the plate. It bounced high and crazily into the air and before Walker Cooper could get the scent and track down the ball, the parade was on.

As Gordon told about it later, Lanier was shying away from throwing him a fast ball. Joe said:

I had hit his fast one into the stands and I could see he wasn’t going to give me another chance, so I guess when he had two strikes on me, he decided to come in with his “hook” and put too much stuff on it.

Whatever happened, it was a fitting way for the Cardinals to lose such a crazy-quilt game. What’s more, Chandler deserved to win, and if the Yanks couldn’t do it for him, the National Leaguers showed an excellent appreciation of their sense of values by taking matters in their own hands.

22

The Pittsburgh Press (October 7, 1943)

Mort Cooper’s ‘win for Pop’ ties Series

Home runs by Marion, Sanders help send Bonham down to defeat
By Jack Cuddy, United Press staff writer

New York –
Two boys from Missouri – Mort and Walker Cooper – with the sadness of their father’s death tugging in their hearts, went out before nearly 70,000 sympathetic fans in Yankee Stadium yesterday and “won a ball game for Pop” and the St. Louis Cardinals over the New York Yankees in the second game of the 1943 World Series.

The score, if it matters was 4–3, evening up the 1943 classic.

What did matter was the way that famous brother battery – Mort, the pitcher, and Walker, the catcher – played their hearts out, and carried on despite the sudden death of their father, Robert, at Independence, Missouri, yesterday morning. The Cooper boys had the 68,578 fans with them all the way.

Won it for ‘Pop’

Big, brown-haired Mort, the Cardinals’ ace right-handed pitcher, said before the game:

We’ll win this one for Pop. He’d want it that way.

And win it they did, with Mort pitching to his catcher brother, as he registered his first World Series mound victory – and also his first pitching victory against the American League – in five tries, three World Series Games and two All-Star Games.

While Mort was limiting the Yanks to six hits, with his fastball flinging, his Cardinals mates garnered seven off Ernie Bonham, big Yankee right-hander, and Fireman Johnny Murphy, who relieved him in the ninth. Two of those hits were home runs.

Marion, Sanders clout homers

Slats Marion, the Cards’ elongated shortstop who had hit but one home run all season, slammed Bonham’s first pitch of the third inning into the lower left field stand, just a couple feet inside the foul pole, for a four-bagger. The next circuit drive came in the fourth inning when first baseman Ray Sanders blasted the ball into the lower right stands, the ball barely clearing Bud Metheny’s reaching hands. Bud fell backwards over the stands rail when he failed to grab the ball.

This homer drove in Whitey Kurowski, the third baseman who had singled earlier. The blow brought that inning’s accomplishments to three tallies because, earlier in the season, Stan Musial had singled and had been advanced to second by Walker Cooper’s sacrifice. Kurowski’s single brought him home.

The fans, who gave the Cooper brothers great ovations every time they came to bat, thought in the last inning that the rallying Yanks might deprive them of victory. The Yanks made a great try. They had registered one run in the fourth inning, but in the ninth they added two more and threatened to walk off with victory.

Gordon ends rally

Third baseman Billy Johnson opened the ninth by doubling to left. Charlie Keller, slugging left fielder, hammered the ball to the center field fence for a triple, scoring Johnson. Bill Dickey lined to second baseman Lou Klein. Nick Etten went out. Klein to Sanders. Keller scoring. Then Joe Gordon, a hero of Tuesday’s Yankee victory, fouled to Walker Cooper for the final cut.

The Yanks, who had gone into yesterday’s game, 9–5, favorites, couldn’t garner a tally until the Cards had a 4–0 lead on them going into the last half of the fourth. Then singles by Frank Crosetti and Billy Johnson and Keller’s long fly to center, let Crosetti come in with one marker.

It was a more spiritedly-contested game than Tuesday’s and the brand of ball was superior, although again the Cards were charged with two errors.

Walker Cooper will remain with the team today to do the catching. Mort left last night for their home in Independence, Missouri.

Other players who have performed in World Series after the death of close relatives were Rogers Hornsby in the Cardinal-Yankee Series of 1926, after his mother died; Alvin Crowder in the Detroit-Cubs classic of 1935 after the death of his father, and Bobo Newsom in the Detroit-Cincinnati engagement of 1940, after his father’s death.

23

Game 3

Radio broadcast of the game (MBS):

24

The Village Smithy

By Chester L. Smith, sports editor

New York –
Before a World Series ball was pitched. Billy Southworth said that all the Cardinals had to do to stop the Yankees again was win at least one game here at the Stadium. So Willyum can roll back to St. Louis tonight and sleep early. No matter what happens today, he has the game he wanted.

Then, there’s another reason why the little skipper of the Redbirds can throw away his insomnia pills. We’re speaking now about Morton Cooper, the guy who could win 20 games or more over the season but was a pushover for American League batters. The Yanks murdered him twice last year and he was a duck on a pond in the All-Star Game last July, but yesterday, under singularly trying circumstances. Mort went down the line with the Bombers and held them to six hits to rack up his first Series victory. They say that once you can corner a gremlin and pin back his ears, your troubles are over, and it’s a fair enough guess that Cooper will pitch and win another game before the Series is over. He knows now the deck isn’t stacked against him, and all he has to do is keep plunking the ball into Brother Walker’s glove as he did before a jammed house yesterday up in the Bronx.

Morton Cooper did more than beat the Yanks. He scotched a batch of rumors that had been kicking around for the past week, the most vicious of which had concerned his relations with Southworth. Mort, they said, was sulking because he hadn’t drawn the assignment in the opening game, and the back fence gossips added that the affair had torn the team apart. Another favorite with the up-the-sleeve spies had him afflicted with a sore arm that would keep him out of the Series, but Southworth admitted last night that Cooper could have pitched on Tuesday as well as yesterday and had, in fact, warmed up for 20 minutes Sunday in preparation.

Billy declared:

I just had a hunch on Max Lanier and played it. There was nothing wrong with Mort and never has been.

And if you could have seen the way the Cardinals swarmed around the tall Missourian after the final putout yesterday, thumping him on the back and pumping his hand, you wouldn’t have given much for the suspicion that there was mutiny in the ranks. They all but carried him to the clubhouse, while Brother Walker, who had gobbled up Joe Gordon’s high foul to end the game, got his share of the impromptu celebration.

It must have been a nerve-wracking day for the Cooper boys. Their father, a rural mail carrier in Independence, Missouri, died suddenly yesterday morning and the word came to Walker in a telephone call from an older brother, Robert, who lives in St. Louis, an hour or two before noon. Manager Southworth immediately called the brothers to his room.

He told them:

You make the decision if you want to pitch. Mort, you can. If you don’t, it’s all right with me.

Morton replied that his father had been their best rooter. He told Southworth:

I think maybe I’d like to pitch.

…and Billy nodded agreement.

Mort left last night for his home. Walker, who broke down and cried on the bench before the game, will fly West immediately after this afternoon’s game.

Cooper might have put over a 4–1 decision on the American Leaguers except for a freakish Yank hit and a fuzzy but of fielding by Danny Litwhiler in the ninth. Frankie Crosetti, who was first up in the bottom half of the fourth, bunted a pop fly that dropped behind Ray Sanders for a single. Bud Metheny flied to center, but Billy Johnson laced a hit over second to put Crosetti on third and when Charlie Keller flied to Harry Walker, Crosetti scored, although it would have been close had the throw been better.

Again in the ninth, after Johnson had doubled to left-center, Keller lashed a long hit to left. Litwhiler, perhaps confused by the strong sun and the fact that in the Stadium the ball comes out of deep shade in midafternoon, failed to get a good start, and it went over his head and rolled to the bleaches for a triple. Johnson crossed the plate and so did Keller while Lou Klein was throwing out Nick Etten, and thus the score was 4–3, even when it didn’t appear to be that close from the way the game was played.

Unlike the opener, yesterday’s match bore the championship stamp from beginning to end. Both Cooper and Ernie Bonham had pitching “it,” but the latter’s two shaky innings proved the deciding factor, perhaps it is unfair to Bonham to say that the third was a bad round, because only four batters came to the plate, but Marty Marion, first to face him, unloaded a home run into the left field stands and that was damage enough. Marion had missed a four-baser by not more than three feet the day before, but there was no question where this one was going from the instant it left his bat. Incidentally, the skinny shortstop equaled his season’s record for homers. He now has two for 1943, but he couldn’t have picked a more appropriate time to double his output.

The Cards really laid the wood to Bonham the next inning. Stan Musial opened with his second hit of the Series, a line single to center that would have taken the pitcher’s cap with it, if it had been a few feet lower. A sacrifice by Walker Cooper and Whitey Kurowski’s smash ferried Musial in and Sanders, who is rapidly becoming the hittingest of all the Cardinals, swept a homer into the right field stands.

For a fleeting second it looked as though the historic episode of the 1925 Series between the Pirates and the Washington Senators might be duplicated. That, you may recall, was Sam Rice’s disputed catch of Earl Smith’s drive, in Washington. Rice tumbled into the low stands in right and came up with the ball. Umpire Cy Rigler allowing the putout, although the Pirates always claimed it was not caught. Yesterday, Metheny leaped high for Sanders’ hit and fell partway into the crowd over the wall. Not until he recovered his balance could it been seen from the infield that he hadn’t snagged the agate.

The Yanks were favored with one good break that undoubtedly cut down the St. Louis run total. With Klein on second and Walker on first in the fifth, and two out, Walker Cooper blazed a line drive to Gordon’s right – at least it would have been to his right under normal circumstances, but Klein had broken for third on the pitch and Gordon, sensing a double steal, was tearing toward the bag to cover. All he had to do was put up his hands in self-defense and make the catch, ending the inning. It cost the Cardinals a sure run.

Cooper had a nervous inning, too, in the sixth when, following a hit by Crosetti, Brother Walker tipped Metheny’s bat and Bud was awarded first base by umpire Beans Reardon. Two on and nobody out, but Marion, Klein and Sanders came through with a glittering double play on Johnson’s bounder and Big Mort was in the clear.

25

Williams: Southworth was smoke-screening for Cooper never looked better

By Joe Williams

New York –
The big guy came through in the big moment. We are referring to Mort Cooper, the Cardinals pitcher.

And he came through under very trying circumstances.

First off, his manager had lost confidence in him. To make it so much worse, his dad died some hours before he went to the mound. Third: This was the game the National League champs had to win to stay in the Series.

It must be assured the big moon-faced fellow went to the mound with a heavy heart and you want to keep in mind he was pitching to his brother.

You probably will be reading today about the masterminding of his manager, Billy Southworth.

Forget it. There was only one reason Southworth didn’t start Cooper against the Yankees in the first game. He was afraid to.

And he had reason to be afraid: Cooper started twice against the Yankees last fall and was knocked out twice. What’s more, he had started twice in All-Star Games against American League hitting and failed to survive.

Quits on Cooper

It was on the occasion of the last All-Star Game that Southworth said:

He’s still my pitcher. If we get into the World Series, he’ll start for me.

All of a sudden Southworth quit on Cooper. He went into one of those vague Rickey-like St. Louis smokescreens which apparently are designed to kid people, in short, a white lie.

Southworth tried to lead everybody to believe Cooper had a sore arm. On top of that, he was sick, or so it was stated.

In the light of what happened yesterday when the Cardinals, back of Cooper’s superlative pitching, even the Series, this was strictly a gag – any anything Southworth tries to tell anybody today here in New York must be laughed off.

It must be laughed off for several reasons, the most important of which is that Cooper never looked better, and it is not in the book that a pitcher gets over a sore arm and incidental ailments overnight.

The obvious answer is that Southworth quit on Cooper, whose record tells you he is the Cardinals’ best pitcher.

There was only one reason Southworth didn’t start him in the opening game and that was he lacked confidence in him.

Why Lanier started

You read so much about masterminding in baseball, particularly in a World Series.

The Yankees’ extra-base power, for example, is left-handed. In the great wisdom of the dugout, the circumstances must call for a left-handed pitcher. This explains why Southworth started Max Lanier in the first game. It so happened Lanier was beaten. It also explains why Southworth didn’t start Cooper, a right-hander. It will never be explained why Southworth tried to kid people. Perhaps it’s the Rickey training. In any event, we will know him from now on.

Even Cooper was mystified. Our Mr. Joe King asked him about his mystical sore arm. All Cooper could remember was that he had had it rubbed down. He explained:

I don’t know where it’s sore, but they worked on it.

It is so easy to see what happened. Southworth was getting himself off a spot. If Cooper was beaten – well, he never could beat AL hitting anyway. If Cooper won – well, he took the big generous chance. What price masterminding?

Cooper complete master

As things worked out, Cooper took complete charge pf the ball game. He didn’t surprise any of us who knew he was a truly great pitcher. It was just one of those things that the AL hitters always clubbed him around. His day was sure to come.

One pitch made him stand out with gallantry and courage. It came in the fourth inning. The Yankees had Crosetti and Johnson on base. The score was 4–0 against them.

Keller, the Yankees’ siege gunner, was at bat. There was only one out.

Cooper pitched carefully to him. It didn’t look as if he wanted any part of them. The count got to be three balls and nothing.

One of the press box pundits commented:

That Southworth was right. This Cooper doesn’t like it.

The big pitch

But posterity the count was worked to three and two. The next pitch had to be the big pitch. It would have been so easy to waste the next one, to make it an obvious hall.

Cooper didn’t. He came in there with a low sweeping curve that clipped the corner of the plate. Keller didn’t like it, but he had to swing. He got just a piece of the ball. It drifted languidly to center field and a run came in. the run meant something only in mathematics. If the Yankees were to win, a lot of runs had to come over. This had to be a real big inning. It wasn’t, and that was the ball game. What happened later meant not very much.

And thus it was that the greatest pitcher in the National League, the pitcher who had just received news of his dad’s death, the pitcher who had to know his own manager had given up on him, the pitcher who must have given some thought to the jinx which supposedly kept him from winning against AL pitching – thus it was that Mort Cooper scored one of the greatest pitching victories in the history of the World Series.

Sometime today we must remind ourselves to ask Mr. Southworth what he thinks about masterminding.

26

YANKEES DEFEAT CARDS, 6–2
Bombers’ late drive brings Borowy win

Pitcher scores first run after doubling in sixth inning

New York (UP) –
Hank Borowy, big Yankee right-hander bested Alpha Brazle, rookie southpaw of the Cardinals at Yankee Stadium today as the Yankees won the third game of the World Series to take a 2–1 lead in the fall classic as the tea, moved on to St. Louis to resume play Sunday.

The final score was 6–2.

The paid attendance, 69,990, was the largest crowd ever to witness a World Series game.

Borowy was in trouble in the first inning when Harry Walker doubled to left and Stan Musial walked, but Walker Cooper hit into a double play.

Tuck Stainback, first up for the Yankees, hit Al Brazle’s first pitch for a single to right. Frankie Crosetti sacrificed. Billy Johnson grounded to Marty Marion who threw to third and got Stainback. Charlie Keller fanned for the third out.

Fielding sensational

Sensational catches by Charlie Keller and Danny Litwhiler in the second inning highlighted the play and, in the third, Harry Walker raced far back into right center to haul down a drive by Johnny Lindell.

The Cards staged a rally in the fourth that was good for two runs. San Musial singled to left and went to third on Whitey Kurowski’s hit to left, which Whitey stretched into a double with a great headfirst slide into second. Ray Sanders was given an intentional pass to fill the bases. Danny Litwhiler singled sharply to left scoring Musial and Kurowski. Litwhiler went to second on the throw-in and Marty Marion was passed to fill the bases again. Brazle’s infield fly accounted for the second out and Lou Klein grounded out to end the inning.

Marion let a grounder go through his legs in the fourth for an error but made amends immediately by starting a fast double play.

Borowy got the Yanks’ third hit in the sixth when the ball bounced into the stands in right for a double. Musial took Stainback’s foul and Borowy went to third. Crosetti’s pop into short left was taken by Litwhiler. Kurowski fumbled Johnson’s trickler and Borowy scored the Yanks’ first run.

Errors help Yanks

Lindell singled to center in the last of the eighth and made second when Walker fumbled the ball. George Stirnweiss made his World Series debut as pinch hitter for Borowy. He hit to Sanders who threw to Kurowski in time to get Lindell, but the Yankee outfielder crashed into Whitey at third and the Cards third-sacker dropped the ball. Stainback fired to short left and Lindell held third, but Stirnweiss took second after the catch.

Crosetti received an intentional pass to fill the bases. Lindell, Stirnweiss and Crosetti scored on Johnson’s triple, a line drive to the fence in left center. Keller walked on four pitches. Brazle was relieved by Howard Krist. Gordon singled to left, scoring Johnson and putting Keller on second. Harry Brecheen was called in to pitch. Dickey’s hit struck Gordon, putting him out, and Keller was forced to stay on second. Etten got his first hit of the Series, a single to right, scoring Keller, but dickey was caught going into third.

Johnny Murphy was the Yankees pitcher in the ninth and Ken O’Dea was sent up to bat for Kurowski who was shaken up in the collision at third base. O’Dea flied out. Sanders flied out to Lindell. Litwhiler fanned to end the game.

27

Game 3

Thursday, October 7, 1943 1:30 pm (ET) at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
St. Louis 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 6 4
New York 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 5 X 6 8 0

St. Louis Cardinals (NL):

AB R H PO A E
Klein, 2b 4 0 0 2 2 0
Walker, cf 4 0 1 1 0 0
Musial, rf 3 1 1 1 1 0
W. Cooper, c 4 0 1 4 1 1
Kurowski, 3b 3 1 1 2 2 2
O’Dea 1 0 0 0 0 0
Sanders, 1b 3 0 0 8 2 0
Litwhiler, lf 4 0 2 3 0 0
Marion, ss 2 0 0 2 4 1
Brazle, p 3 0 0 1 2 0
Krist, p 0 0 0 0 0 0
Brecheen, p 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 31 2 6 24 14 4

New York Yankees (AL):

AB R H PO A E
Stainback, cf 4 0 1 1 0 0
Crosetti, ss 2 1 0 2 4 0
Johnson, 3b 4 1 1 0 1 0
Keller, lf 3 1 0 2 0 0
Gordon, 2b 4 0 1 3 2 0
Dickey, c 4 0 2 6 1 0
Etten, 1b 4 0 1 9 1 0
Lindell, rf 3 1 1 2 0 0
Borowy, p 2 1 1 2 0 0
Stirnweiss, ph 1 1 0 0 0 0
Murphy, p 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 31 6 8 27 9 0

WP: Hank Borowy (1–0)
LP: Al Brazle (0–1)
Sv: Johnny Murphy (1)

Attendance: 69,990

28

World Series play-by-play

Yankee Stadium, New York – (special)
The following is the play-by-play account of the Game 1 of the World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees follows:

First inning

CARDINALS: Klein flied to Stainback in short center. Walker doubled down the left field foul line, sliding into second to beat Keller’s fast return. Musial walked on five pitches. Walker Cooper grounded into a fast double play. Crosetti to Gordon to Etten. No runs, one hit, one left.

YANKEES: Stainback singled down the left field foul line. Crosetti laid down a sacrifice bunt to the left of the mound and was tossed out. Brazle to Klein, who covered first, as Stainback took second. Johnson grounded sharply to Marion and his throw to Kurowski got Stainback at third, while Johnson was safe at first. Keller fanned. No runs, one hit, one left.

Second inning

CARDINALS: Kurowski fouled to Dickey. Sanders fanned on three pitches. Litwhiler lined a single off Borowy’s knee. Although it was a hot smash. Borowy did not appear to be injured. Keller leaned over the left field boxes to catch Marion’s long foul.

YANKEES: Litwhiler came in fast and made a spectacular shoestring catch of Gordon’s liner. Dickey rolled out to Klein. Kurowski came in fast for Etten’s bounder and threw him out. No runs, no hits, none left.

Third inning

CARDINALS: Brazle struck out on three pitches. Klein bunted toward first and was tossed out. Borowy to Etten. Walker skied to Lindell. No runs, no hits, none left.

YANKEES: Lindell sent Walker back for his long fly. Borowy, after hitting several fouls, struck out but had to be thrown out. W. Cooper to Sanders. Stainback bounced out. Marion to Sanders. No runs, no hits, none left.

Fourth inning

CARDINALS: Musial lined between short and third for a single. Walker Cooper, after attempting a bunt, popped to Crosetti between the mound and second base. Kurowski lined a double down the left field foul line. Musial holding up at third. Sanders was given an intentional walk, filling the bases. Litwhiler lined a single to left scoring Musial and Kurowski and putting Sanders on third. Litwhiler went on to second on Keller’s throw to the plate. Marion was given an intentional pass, again filling the bases. Brazle fouled to Etten near first base. Klein bounced out, Crosetti to Etten. Two runs, three hits, three left.

YANKEES: Crosetti was safe when Marion let his roller get through him for an error. Johnson grounded into a double play. Marion to Klein to Sanders. Keller hit to the mound and was tossed out by Brazle. No runs, n0 hits, none left.

Fifth inning

CARDINALS: Walker bunted a pop fly which Borowy took. Musial’s hopper was taken by Crosetti. Walker Cooper bounced out. Johnson to Etten. No runs, no hits, none left.

YANKEES: Gordon bounced out Kurowski to Sanders. Dickey lined a single over Klein’s head into right. Etten popped to Marion in short center. Lindell took a third strike, a change of pace slow ball. No runs, one hit, none left.

Sixth inning

CARDINALS: Kurowski broke his bat as he popped to Etten. Gordon made a great stop of Sanders’ grounder and threw him out. Litwhiler went down swinging. No runs, no hits, none left.

YANKEES: Borowy got a ground-rule double when his drive bounced into the lower left field stands. Musial made a running catch of Stainback’s foul to right; Borowy going to third after the catch. Crosetti flied to Litwhiler in short left; Borowy holding third. Kurowski fumbled Johnson’s grounder, Borowy scoring and Johnson being safe at first. Keller grounded to Marion, who stepped on second to force Johnson. One run, one hit, one left.

Seventh inning

CARDINALS: Marion fanned. Brazle grounded out. Crosetti to Etten. Klein bounced out. Crosetti to Etten. No runs, no hits, none left.

YANKEES: Gordon grounded out. Marion to Sanders. Dickey rolled out. Sanders to Brazle, who covered first. Etten struck out. No runs, no hits, none left.

Eighth inning

CARDINALS: Walker popped to Etten in back of first. Musial hoisted to Keller. W. Cooper lined a single to right. W. Cooper died stealing. No runs, one hit, none left.

YANKEES: Lindell singled to center and continued to second when Walker fumbled the ball. Stirnweiss batted for Borowy. Sanders picked up his bunt and threw to Kurowski in an attempt to get Lindell at third, but Kurowski dropped the ball for an error. Stainback flied to Litwhiler in short left. When Litwhiler threw to the plate, Stirnweiss moved to second. Crosetti was given an intentional pass, filling the bases. Johnson tripled past Walker, scoring Lindell, Stirnweiss and Crosetti and giving the Yanks a 3–1 lead. Keller walked on four straight pitches. Krist replaced Brazle on the mound. Gordon singled past Kurowski, scoring Johnson. Keller stopped at second. Brecheen replaced Krist on the mound. Dickey was given a single when his hot smash hit Gordon. Gordon being ruled out, the putout going to Sanders. Keller held second. Etten lined a single to right, scoring Keller with the Yanks’ sixth run, but Dickey was out trying for third. Musial, W. Cooper to Kurowski. Five runs, five hits, two errors, one left.

Ninth inning

CARDINALS: Mummy went to the mound for New York. O’Dea batted for Kurowski and popped to Gordon. Sanders flied deep to Lindell. Litwhiler went down swinging. No runs, no hits, none left.

YANKEES: Unplayed.

29

Carroll: Yanks now 3–4

St. Louis, Missouri (UP) –
James Carroll, St. Louis odds maker, still held the New York Yankees as the favorites to win the World Series, despite the fact that St. Louis yesterday tied the classic at one game apiece with its victory. Carroll quoted his prices as 3–4 on the Yanks and 11–10 on the Cards.

30

The Pittsburgh Press (October 8, 1943)

Vital hot corner plays give Yanks third

Lindell’s slide into Kurowski turning point; Whitey drops ball and parade is on

New York (UP) –
Third base certainly has become the “hot corner” of the current World Series, with attention focused upon rookie Billy Johnson of the Yanks and Whitey Kurowski of the Cards.

As the teams travel to St. Louis today, sandy-haired, moon-faced Johnson is being measured for a hero’s laurel wreath; whereas blond Kurowski – the lad who wore the wreath after last year’s classic – is the leading candidate for goat horns.

Johnson, a middle-sized chap of 25 from Montclair, New Jersey, tops the Series batting with .417, after making five hits, driving in three runs, and scoring three runs in 12 trips to the plate during the three games. Moreover, he has fielded flawlessly.

Johnson’s triple decides

In yesterday’s contest, Billy stepped up to the plate, with the bases loaded, in the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium before the largest crowd in Series history and slammed the ball to deep left center for a triple that rang up three tallies. This blow won the game, although the New Yorkers triumphed, 6–2, in what many experts regard as the classic’s “crucial” contest.

Coincidentally, 25-year-old Kurowski of Reading, Pennsylvania, was a principal in setting the stage for Johnson’s triple with his second error of the day. It worked out like this:

Johnny Lindell started the Yanks’ eighth inning rally with a single; he continued to second on Harry Walker’s error. Snuffy Stirnweiss, a pinch hitter, was safe at first on a fielder’s choice when the Cards’ first sacker, Ray Sackers, tried to nail Lindell at third.

Knock breath out of Kurowski

Kurowski received the throw all right, but he dropped the ball when big Lindell crashed into him in a desperate slide for the bag. The impact knocked the breath out of Kurowski and sent him sprawling. Umpire Beans Reardon ruled Lindell “safe.”

At the time of Whitey’s error, the Cards were leading, 2–1. It was the turning point of the game. Had Kurowski held the ball, Lindell would have been out. The next man up, Tuck Stainback, fouled out. With two out, no pass would have been issued to Frank Crosetti. Meanwhile, the Cards’ rookie southpaw, Alpha Brazle, probably would have maintained his poise and control; he might have got Crosetti out, ending the inning without a run. Instead, five tallies came in before the Yanks were retired.

Kurowski already had contributed to a Yankee tally in the sixth inning when he bobbled Rival Johnson’s grounder and permitted Hank Borowy to score from third.

Poor Whitey, who decided the 1942 World Series with a home run in the fifth game after winning a previous contest in that classic with a triple, has hit only .200 in the current Series. He has made two hits in 10 tries and driven in one run.

But Whitey and his mates are fighting mad over the Lindell incident. Kurowski is out to redeem himself. Watch that hot corner!

Series resumed Sunday

The train bearing the clubs west was due to arrive in St. Louis late today. But because this year’s Series schedule was made out to fit wartime transportation needs, Saturday will be an off day.

The fifth game will be played Monday, with the sixth, if necessary, scheduled for Tuesday. If a seventh game is needed, there will be an off day for ticket sales and the concluding contest will be played Thursday.

Thus far, it has been one of the richest Series on record. Yesterday’s receipts at New York were only $40 short of the all-time single game record. But the attendance and gate will be lower in St. Louis, for Sportsman’s Park has a capacity of only 35,000, compared with Yankee Stadium’s 72,000.

31

Redbirds confident of victory at home

New York (UP) –
The St. Louis Cardinals, who yesterday blew up in the eight inning and lost the third game of the 1943 World Series, carried their jitters with them to the dressing room, but it didn’t worry manager Billy Southworth.

He said:

They’ve got the batting power and pitching ability to come through and the story’ll be different when they get in St. Louis.

Al Brazle was confident, too, that the story will be different later in the Series. Brazle who was pulled out by Southworth in the eighth inning, said he had never pitched better baseball in his life.

Brazle wants another run

He said:

All I want is one more crack at ‘em.

Brazle, who had been with the minor leaguers for the last eight years and joined the Cards two and a half months ago, obviously was bidding for another try when the Series continues Sunday in St. Louis.

All concerned were philosophical on the crouching slide made into third by the Yanks’ right fielder, John Lindell, which started the rally leading to the winning score of the American League champs – and injured third baseman Kurowski of the Cards.

Manager Joe McCarthy said:

Hell, baseball’s no pink tea. Lindell was coming in there and he was coming in high. It just happened, that’s all.

Lindell recalled that his jaw struck Kurowski, and the latter said his neck was snapped back in some manner.

McCarthy chooses Russo

McCarthy was his old self in the dressing room – resuming his customary task of doping out victories for the Yanks. It was different atmosphere than prevailed Wednesday after the Cards took the second game of the Series.

Marse Joe said:

If you want to know whom I’m going to start in St. Louis, it’s Russo. That is, if I don’t change my mind, and if I do, I’ll go with Spud Chandler.

Southworth said he did not yet know whom he will start for the Cards.

McCarthy whistled when he was told the attendance of 69,990 had broken the previous record of 69,902 registered last year, but he brushed aside friends congratulating him.

Waving toward the showers, he said:

Congratulate the boys out there.

He paid tribute to Hank Borowy’s pitching, asking the crowd in his stuffy little office if Hank didn’t “really pitch a ball game?”

Bill the Kid Southworth was his usual subdued, polite self in the Cards’ dressing room.

He said:

That’s the way it is with baseball. If there weren’t errors, they could throw away the rulebooks.

32

The Pittsburgh Press (October 9, 1943)

Veterans Crosetti, Dickey show fine form for Yanks

By Walter Byers, United Press staff writer

St. Louis, Missouri –
In few World Series has the contrast of youth and age been so vividly portrayed as in this year’s autumnal classic. The Yankees, only two games shy of their 10th World Championship, to date have capitalized on their experience, while the Cardinals have blundered with the nervousness of youth’s inexperience.

Two of New York’s coolest and canniest veterans have been Frank Crosetti, once replaced by young Phil Rizzuto as Yankees shortstop, and Bill Dickey, the old Arkansas traveler. Crosetti, at the age of 33, took over his old position again this year when Rizzuto joined the Navy and is playing in his sixth World Series. The veteran Italian is probably the Series’ biggest and most pleasant surprise. While handling 17 fielding chances, Crosetti has made

Dickey, who tied Babe Ruth’s World Series record for playing with one club when he performed in one club when he performed in the third game last Thursday, will be playing his 37th Series game tomorrow.

Although the big Yankees catcher doesn’t hit as hard or run as fast as he once did, Dickey is still the incomparable Dickey. He has played errorless baseball and is hitting .273 for three games.

What ‘freshmen’ are doing

Contrasted to the oldsters, here’s what some of the “freshmen” have accomplished to date while making their debut in baseball’s “party of the year.”

Bill Johnson (Yankees third baseman who is generally considered 1943’s “rookie of the year”) has a .417 average to date, accented by his base-clearing triple in the eighth inning of the third game, scored three runs and made five hits, has handled five fielding chances in flawless fashion and has been one of the Series’ outstanding players.

Danny Litwhiler (Cardinals outfielder who came from Philadelphia in mid-season to get his first World Series opportunity) robbed Nick Etten of a possible hit for the last putout of the first game, failed to hit safely until the third game when he broke in with two singles to drive in both Cardinals runs, stole a hit from Joe Gordon in the second inning of the third game with a one-handed shoestring catch, has handled nine outputs without an error.

Nick Etten (former Philadelphian who took over Yankees first base when Babe Dahlgren was demoted) has driven in two runs, has generally been the Yankees’ biggest offensive disappointment, and has successfully executed 25 fielding plays with only one error – a mental lapse in the fifth inning of the first game which eventually permitted the Cards to tie the score.

Alpha Brazle (rookie southpaw from Cortez, Colorado, who jumped from Sacramento to the Cardinals as a replacement for Howard Pollet) charged with three Yankees-earned runs and loss of the third game, for seven innings pitched three-hit ball and permitted one unearned run until the Cardinals defense fell apart in the big Yankees eighth.

Debut as outfielder

John Lindell (who advanced from Kansas City to the New York parent club as a pitcher and is making his debut in the Yankees outfield) scored a run in the third game while picking up his first hit of the Series, yielded his place to Bud Metheny in the second game after starting in the series opener, has handled five putouts without an error, and was the chief cause for Whitey Kurowski’s fumble, which ignited the Yankees’ game-winning eighth inning of the third contest.

Lou Klein (Cardinals second baseman who is replacing Jimmy Brown in this year’s champion) has made two hits in 12 appearances, participated in three double plays and has handled 15 fielding chances, making only one error when he booted a grounder in the first game.