1944 World Series

[NormanStewart]

Browns eye second win over Cards

Redbirds send Lanier against Potter after losing opener, 2–1
By Leo H. Petersen, United Press sports editor

Probable lineup

Browns	Cardinals
Gutteridge, 2B	Bergamo, LF
Kreevich, CF	Hopp, CF
Laabs, LF	Sanders, 1B
Stephens, SS	Musial, RF
Moore, RF	W. Cooper, C
Christman, 3B	Marion, SS
Hayworth, C	Verban, 2B
Potter, P	Lanier, P

Umpires: Sears and Dunn (NL), McGowan and Pipgras (AL).

Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis, Missouri –
The St. Louis Browns, hoping to duplicate the feat of another American League hitless wonder team a generation ago, sent Nelson Potter, a 19-gamer winner, to the mound today in an effort to make it two straight over the Cardinals in their first intracity World Series.

Manager Billy “The Kid” Southworth, trying to rally his Redbirds and even the series, chose Max Lanier, a husky lefthander who has been having arm and back trouble, for his club’s hurling chores. He won 17 games until injuries plagued him late in the season.

The Browns, American League orphans for 42 years, played the kind of ball in the opening game yesterday which characterized Fielder Jones and his Chicago White Sox back in 1906. Manager Luke Sewell’s team got only two hits off Big Mort Cooper, the Cardinal’s fastball artist, but one of them was George McQuinn’s home run with a man on base and it was all the margin Dennis Galehouse needed to win, 2–1.

Recall ‘hitless wonders’

Like the White Sox of that other era, the Browns have been short on hitting all year long, but their pitching and fielding was good enough to bring them their first American League pennant and they carried the momentum of that last-ditch stretch drive in which they nosed out the Detroit Tigers by one game into the World Series.

Just like yesterday, the crowd was slow in coming into flag-bedecked Sportsman’s Park. Not even the bleacher seats were filled two hours before game time when the Cardinals began their batting practice.

It was an ideal baseball day with a hot October sun drying up the puddles which a heavy rain last night left on the playing field.

Litwhiler benched

Southworth announced during batting drill that he was benching Danny Litwhiler, his regular leftfielder because of his bad knee, for Augie Bergamo, a rookie. The substitution also changed the Cardinal batting order with Bergamo in the leadoff spot instead of Centerfielder Johnny Hopp.

The Cards were hitting the ball much sharper in their workout and began rattling the fences with line drives.

There were about 10,000 in the park when the Browns began their hitting drill. There were a few scattered cheers, but otherwise the crowd was undemonstrative.

Potter Browns’ ace pitcher

Potter has been pretty much of a baseball traveler until this season. After the Cards let him go, he went back to the majors via the Philadelphia Athletics and, after he was found wanting by no less a judge of baseball talent than old Connie Mack, was picked up by the Browns. It proved to be a gilt-edged pickup. He won 19 games this year to head Sewell’s staff and lost only seven. he won 13 of the 15 starts he made for Sewell after returning from a 10-day suspension for throwing spitballs.

McQuinn’s homer spoils Cooper’s two-hitter

The power that won yesterday’s game for Denny Galehouse came from the Browns only two lefthanded hitters – Gene Moore and George McQuinn – and Southworth figured that Lanier may be the man to tackle them at the table.

Gaslehouse allowed seven hits against the two that Cooper yielded, but that extra mileage the Browns received at the plate was the difference. McQuinn had hit only 11 homers all year and his 11th iced the first game of the crucial Yankee series.

Galehouse, who did not begin taking a regular turn in the box until mid-season because his war plant kept him busy every day except Sunday, turned in a pitching masterpiece. He battled his way out of trouble in the early innings and then shut the scoring door when the Cards made a last ditch stand in the ninth.

Cooper loses another heartbreaker

When the Cards finally broke through his fast low ball and change of pace pitching in the ninth to score their single run and break his streak of scoreless innings at 21 – he had won one of the important Yankee games, 2–0, and had shut out Boston for four innings in another – he had enough left to retire the Cardinals one run short.

It was another heartbreaking defeat for Big Mort when facing American League hitters. His homerun ball plagued him in two All-Star appearances and three previous World Series defeats before he served that “fat” one to McQuinn yesterday.

But the Cardinals were not downhearted. Southworth was sure Lanier would square that account this afternoon and, as Pepper Martin, the old Wild Horse of the Osage, pointed out, the Cardinals lost the first game in 1942 when they eventually defeated the Yankees.

[NormanStewart]

No parades, no burning, but lots of ducats –
Othman: This is sad World Series for ticket scalpers

By Frederick C. Othman, United Press staff writer

St. Louis, Missouri –
The saddest gents in all St. Louis today are those dirty bums, those lowdown crooks, those thieving racketeers in the checkered coats, the ticket speculators. They got what was coming to ‘em.

As of now, a few hours before the second game between the Cardinals and the Browns, the shifty-eyed ones with the pockets full of ducats are going bankrupt. One of ‘em grabbed me and wouldn’t let go and finally said he’d sell me a ticket for today’s game for less than it cost at the box office. Last week he was peddling the same seat for $35. Yesterday he was asking $10. Today he was begging for anything and it serves him right, according to police, who have been chasing him and his pals from Grand Avenue to 12th Street and back again.

Face the facts

We might as well face the facts. This World Series is no sellout. Maybe there isn’t enough bunting downtown; there isn’t any. Maybe there haven’t been enough parades; I haven’t seen one. Or maybe the series has been oversold and the fans are afraid to buck the ticket office.

Truth is that 33,242 patrons, including Mrs. Mary Ott and Harry S. Thobe, saw the first game in a ballpark designed to pack in 40,000 customers. Mrs. Ott, the only lady baseball fan who can neigh like a horse, paid her way in and got her money’s worth. You should have heard her; she sounded like the animal tent of a circus just before its collapse in a cyclone.

Thobe, the liveliest bricklayer that Oxford, Ohio, ever produced, sneaked in behind a truck of bottled beer, but he gave value received. He wore one red shoe and one white one, carried a red parasol and sported a wing collar and a crimson necktie. He danced on the infield for free to the tunes of a sour-sounding band and announced that the Yankees were the only baseballers who did not make him welcome.

Yankees too dignified

“They are very dignified,” Thobe said. “They always chase me out because I make too much noise.”

So all right. That leaves us with Game No. 2, and at this writing there are seats for sale and not much of a line at the bleachers window, or the pavilion wicket, either.

One of the difficulties, of course, is that everybody loves everybody at this ball game and you miss most of the fun unless you’ve got a team to hate. How can a loyal St. Louis fan deliver raspberries to the Cards? Or scream down curses on the Browns?

‘Ain’t no fun’

All he can do is sit there quietly, chewing deluxe 15-cent hot dogs and cheering both sides equally. No matter what happens. St. Louis wins and that, according to Mrs. Ott, a hefty lady in a speckled dress, ain’t no fun.

The situation’s got her down. If only Detroit had come to town, she said dreamily, she could have put some steam behind those neighs. She could have made uncomplimentary noises such as nobody ever heard before. For weeks she’s been practicing, sotto voce, in her bath.

Now look. It just ain’t right and you can take that from Mrs. Ott.

[NormanStewart]

Clutch hitter –
McQuinn beats handicaps

St. Louis, Missouri (UP) –
Six weeks ago, Manager Luke Sewell, trying to win his first pennant – and incidentally the St. Louis Browns’ first American League title – was wondering whether he would have to finish out the season with Mike Chartak, a parttime outfielder, at first base.

Today, he was mighty happy that he didn’t have to. Not that he has anything against Chartak, but any manager would be glad to have George McQuinn’s flashy fielding and clutch hitting.

At that time there was doubt whether McQuinn would be able to finish out the season. He was troubled with sciatica and then came the news that his brother was missing in action. He has gone down in the Atlantic.

McQuinn rested

That news, together with sciatica, was too much for McQuinn. Sewell “rested” him for several days, using Chartak, like McQuinn a fugitive from the New York Yankee farm system, at first base.

But, as the season drew toward a close, Sewell called on McQuinn again. And he produced. In one of those four highly important games with the Yankees he hit his eleventh home run of the season and it won a game the Brownies had to win to stay in the running for the American League pennant.

They went on and won it – and today they were off to a winging start in the World Series – thanks to 33-year-old George McQuinn.

All year long McQuinn has been helping Luke’s pitchers out of touch spots with his fielding. He was his usual self in that department yesterday and for good measure, he added his bat.

Hits payoff blow

He struck the payoff blow – a home run in the rightfield pavilion. It came with Gene Moore, who had singled, on base and that made the difference between the final score of the Browns 2 and the Cards 1.

“It was a low fast one,” McQuinn said, “I didn’t hit it particularly hard, but I caught it just right.”

So did one of 33,000 fans sitting in the pavilion. The blow cost big Mort Cooper, the fastball hurler of the Redbirds will testify that McQuinn has the right idea. It cost him a two-hit ball game and the extra mileage on that second hit was the difference.

[NormanStewart]

Fits ‘poor man’s’ series –
Williams: Underprivileged Brownies make two hits go long way

By Joe Williams

St. Louis, Missouri –
A 33-year-old righthander, Dennis Galehouse, who has never pitched better than .500 baseball at any time since he has been in the big leagues, pitched the Browns to victory in the opening game of the poor man’s World Series. The circumstances of the pitcher’s background somehow made this a fitting start.

It was also fitting that the Browns, appearing in the series for the first time in history, and never too well-heeled in any department, made only two hits, yet these, accounting for two runs, proved sufficient to turn back their city rivals, the supposedly much more trenchant Cardinals. This was their way of showing the underprivileged can make a little go a long way.

One of these hits was a home run by George McQuinn which barely reached the rooftop in right field. Two were out at the time and Gene Moore was on first by virtue of a single. McQuinn hit the second pitch, a fast ball, letter high and, as the game was played, this proved to be the payoff. McQuinn, incidentally, is a Yankee discard and it was not surprising he applied the familiar Yankee technique.

Junior Loop jinxes Cooper

Once again Morton Cooper was the victim of an American League assault, Cooper is one of the most able pitchers the game has seen in a generation, In the National League he is feared and respected, a routine 20-game winner; but when he faces an American League entry something happens to him and generally it is not for the best. Only once has he won from the younger league. In all his other starts, in the series and the All-Star games, he has met with failure.

Even when he has all his stuff, which is considerable, Cooper manages to throw one pitch which costs him the ball game. It is usually a homerun pitch, as was the case, in yesterday’s opener. He had pitched three hitless innings and had got the first two hitters in the fourth when Moore broke the spell with a single and McQuinn followed with a homer. That was all the hitting the Browns did all afternoon.

One indiscreet, or unlucky, pitch had ruined an otherwise splendid pitching performance.

Recall ‘hitless wonders’

Cooper was taken out in the eighth for reasons of strategy, so-called, and Blix Donnelly (really, that’s what he calls himself) did not permit another Brownie to reach first base. The Browns are properly called the modern hitless wonders. A week azo they took a key game from Hank Borowy of the Yankees on two hits. They seem to have taken up where the White Sox hitless wonders of 1906 left off and it was the White Sox, as your granddad will tell you, who upended Frank Chance’s great Chicago Cubs in the series, and the Cubs were thought to tower above the White Sox in much the same way the dope describes the Browns’ situation, or did before this series started.

The Cardinals had nine men left on the bases, which is proof enough they had ample scoring possibilities. That they were unable to capitalize on these possibilities was due to the resolute and knowhow pitching of the veteran Galehouse, who was at his best in the clutches, unflustered and markedly self-reliant.

The Cardinals’ most inviting chance came in the third when Hopp and Sanders led off with singles and Musial advanced the runners via a sacrifice bunt. This brought Walker Cooper to the plate and Galehouse deliberately walked him to fill the bases. Then he fanned the long-hitting Kurowski and beguiled Litwhiler into an infield out.

Passes through trial

This was the most trying situation Galehouse faced all during the game but, once past it, he handled the power-packed Cardinals’ batting order with authority. It was the first World Series game he ever pitched, but he has been around so long he knows all the answers: which probably explains why the Browns manager, in a surprise move, handed him the all-important starting assignment.

As for the Browns, they were in the ball game for only one inning, the fourth, in which they got their two runs. At all other times, they looked completely helpless and the innocent bystander found himself wondering how they ever succeeded in winning those four straight from the Yankees. Actually, a base on balls was an explosive rally for them. Three Brownies walked and they, aside from Moore and McQuinn who made the hits, were the only ones to reach first base. They weren’t hitting any loud cuts either. Most of them rolled to the infield or fanned.

[NormanStewart]

Game 2

Thursday, October 5, 1944 2:00 pm (CT) at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, Missouri

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	R	H	E
St. Louis Browns (1-1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	7	4
St. Louis Cardinals (1-1)	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	7	0

St. Louis Browns (AL):

Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	AVG
Gutteridge, 2B	4	0	0	0	1	2	.000
Kreevich, CF	5	0	2	0	0	0	.222
Laabs, LF	4	0	0	0	0	3	.000
Zarilla, PH-LF	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Stephens, SS	5	0	0	0	0	2	.000
McQuinn, 1B	2	0	1	0	3	1	.400
Christman, 3B	5	0	0	0	0	2	.000
Moore, RF	5	1	2	0	0	1	.375
Hayworth, C	5	1	1	1	0	1	.125
Potter, P	2	0	0	0	1	0	.000
Mancuso, PH	1	0	1	1	0	0	1.000
Shirley, PR	0	0	0	0	0	0
Muncrief, P	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Totals	40	2	7	2	4	13	.175

2B: R. Hayworth (1, off Lanier); M. Kreevich (1, off Lanier); G. McQuinn (1, off Donnelly)
IBB: G. McQuinn (1, by Donnelly)
TB: M. Kreevich 3; G. McQuinn 2; R. Hayworth 2; G. Moore 2; F. Mancuso
RBI: R. Hayworth (1); F. Mancuso (1)
2-Out RBI: F. Mancuso; R. Hayworth
With RISP: 1 for 6
Team LOB: 9

Fielding
DP: 2 (Stephens to Gutteridge; Stephens to Gutteridge to McQuinn)
E: D. Gutteridge (1); M. Christman (1); N. Potter 2 (2)

St. Louis Cardinals (NL):

Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	AVG
Bergamo, LF	5	0	0	1	0	3	.000
Hopp, CF	5	0	0	0	0	2	.100
Musial, RF	5	0	1	0	0	0	.250
W. Cooper, C	4	0	1	0	0	0	.143
Sanders, 1B	3	2	1	0	2	1	.333
Kurowski, 3B	4	0	2	0	0	0	.375
Marion, SS	3	0	0	0	2	0	.286
Verban, 2B	3	1	1	1	1	0	.400
O’Dea, PH	1	0	1	1	0	0	.500
Lanier, P	2	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Donnelly, P	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Totals	36	3	7	3	5	7	.194

2B: W. Cooper (1, off Potter); W. Kurowski (1, off Potter)
SH: M. Lanier (1, off Potter); W. Cooper (1, off Muncrief); W. Kurowski (1, off Muncrief)
IBB: M. Marion 2 (2, 1 by Potter, 1 by Muncrief); R. Sanders (1, by Muncrief)
TB: W. Kurowski 3; W. Cooper 2; S. Musial; K. O’Dea; E. Verban; R. Sanders
GIDP: W. Cooper (1)
RBI: K. O‘Dea (2); A. Bergamo (1); E. Verban (1)
With RISP: 1 for 12
Team LOB: 10

St. Louis Browns

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	cWPA	acLI	RE24
Potter	6	4	2	0	2	3	0	0.00	26	61			0.015	0.97	0.45%	49.84	0.9
Muncrief, L (0-1)	4.1	3	1	1	3	4	0	2.08	18		0	0	0.097	2.40	2.74%	123.14	0.5
Team Totals	10.1	7	3	1	5	7	0	0.87	44	61	0	0	0.112	1.56	3.19%	79.83	1.5

St. Louis Cardinals

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	cWPA	acLI	RE24
Lanier	7	5	2	2	3	6	0	2.57	29	62			-0.031	1.04	-1.57%	53.16	0.8
Donnelly, W (1-0)	4	2	0	0	1	7	0	0.00	15		1	0	0.644	2.41	18.82%	123.86	2.6
Team Totals	11	7	2	2	4	13	0	1.64	44	62	1	0	0.613	1.50	17.25%	77.26	3.4

Max Lanier faced 1 batter in the 8th inning.

Balks: None
WP: None
HBP: None
IBB: B. Donnelly (1; G. McQuinn); N. Potter (1; M. Marion); B. Muncrief 2 (2; R. Sanders, M. Marion)
Pickoffs: None
Umpires: HP - McGowan, 1B - Dunn, 2B - Pipgras, 3B - Sears
Time of Game: 2:32
Attendance: 35,076

[NormanStewart]

Game 3

The Pittsburgh Press (October 6, 1944)

Cards lead 1–0 in third game

Nationals score in first on error and hit

St. Louis, Missouri (UP) –
The Cardinals were leading the Browns, 1–0, in the third inning of the third game of the All-St. Louis World Series today. Both teams were anxious to gain the edge which, for nine times in the last 10 years, has decided the pennant winner in the third game.

The Cards scored in the first on an error and a hit.

Laabs benched

To offset lefthanded pitching which plagued the Browns yesterday, Manager Luke Sewell benched Leftfielder Chet Laabs for Allen Zarilla who was dropped to the sixth notch in the batting order. Gene Moore took the third spot, the others moving up.

Just before game time, Pilot Billy Southworth of the Cardinals decided on Danny Litwhiler, slugging leftfielder, in place of Augie Bergamo.

Cards score one

The Cards led off with a run in the first inning when, after Danny Litwhiler flied out, Stephens let Johnny Hopp’s smash go through him for a two-base error. Walker Cooper singled Hopp home after Musial had popped out. Then Sanders walked and with two on Jack Kramer snuffed the threat by striking out Whitey Kurowski.

The Browns went out in order. Gutteridge struck out, Kreevich fouled out to Sanders and Moore grounded out. Verban to Sanders.

Marion fanned to start the Cards second inning. Verban fouled out to Catcher Hayworth and Wilks also struck out.

The Browns muffed a load of scoring opportunities in their half of the second. Wilks walked both Stephens and McQuinn to open the inning. Zarilla, however, flied to Musial in short right, the runners holding their bases. Christman forced McQuinn at third. Wilks then loaded the bases by walking Hayworth, but then struck out Kramer on a high fast ball.

In the Cards’ third, Litwhiler bounced out, Kramer to McQuinn; Hopp grounded out to McQuinn at first. Musial singled over second but W. Cooper flied out to Kreevich.

GAME IMCOMPLETE AT PRESS TIME.

[NormanStewart]

Series rivals clash in key contest

Cards bank on Wilks against Kramer in battle to gain edge
By Leo H. Petersen, United Press sports editor

Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis, Missouri –
A hot October sun, sending the temperature into the 80’s, beat down on Sportsman’s Park today as the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns, all even at one game each, met in the third game of the World Series.

Manager Billy Southworth sent his rookie ace Ted Wilks, who won 17 games while losing only four in his first season in the majors, against Jack Kramer, Pilot Luke Sewell’s nominee.

The heat changed the pre-game odds because Kramer has been a “cold weather” pitcher. Most of his 17 victories came during the cool days of May, June and September and most of his 13 defeats on the hot days of July and August.

Odds favor Cards

The odds on the Cards dropped from 3–5 to 2–5 and increased on the Browns from 7–5 to 8–5.

It was the first World Series experience for both Wilks and Kramer and they were meeting in the critical third game. Nine times in the past 10 years, the club which won the third game went on to take the series.

Fans gathered slowly in the park on hour and a half before game time and practically all of them were in the unreserved bleacher and pavilion seats. There were still plenty of seats available however, and it promised to be another bad day for the ticket scalpers. Neither the first game, won by the Browns, nor the second contest won by the Cardinals, drew capacity houses.

The Browns became the home club for today’s game. The Cardinals will be hosts for the sixth and seventh, if that many are necessary to decide the best four out of seven games series.

Browns kick away second game, 3–2

The Browns kicked away the second game yesterday, 3–2, in 11 innings after winning the opener Wednesday, 2–1. It was the first extra-inning World Series game since the New York Yankees defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 7–4, in 10 innings in 1938.

Sewell shot with his ace, Nelson Potter, in an effort to make it two in a row over their intracity rivals and without three early inning errors would have won, 2–0, over the regulation distance.

Potter was not charged with the defeat, but he had only himself to blame for sending the game into overtime. He had been taken out for a pinch-hitter in the seventh and his relief, Bob Muncrief, was on the mound.

Potter’s errors hurt

After turning back the National League champions for two innings, he yielded a single to Emil Verban, one of the Cardinals’ weakest hitters, to open the third. Then Max Lanier, the starting Cardinal pitcher, trying to sacrifice, popped a fly which dropped at Potter’s feet and which the Brownie pitcher did not pick up in time. And when he did pick it up, he threw wildly past first for two errors on the same play and, instead of having a man on second with one out there were men on third and first with none out. Verban scored an unearned run as Augie Bergamo grounded out.

Potter also set up the second unearned run scored by the Cards in the fourth, but it was his pitching, and not his fielding, this time. With one man out he walked Ray Sanders. Sanders went to second on George Kurowski’s single, and the bases were filled when Mark Christman, Brownie Third-baseman, fumbled Martin Marion’s sure double-play ground ball. Sanders scored after Verban flied out.

Sylvester “Blix” Donnelly turned in one of the best jobs of relief pitching ever seen in a World Series to turn the Browns back.

O’Dea’s hit wins

He received his reward in the 11th when Ken O’Dea broke up the game with a single to right. The Cards’ second-string catcher was batting for Verban and the blow scored Ray Sanders, who singled and had been sacrificed to second.

[NormanStewart]

Thought waves echo –
Williams: Brain trusters dominate second game of series

By Joe Williams

St. Louis, Missouri –
The brain trusters took over the second game of the World Series. Both Prof. Southworth of the Cardinals and Prof. Sewell of the Browns went in excessively for heavy thought waves. There were times when the action of the brain cells was audible all over the park. There has been nothing like it since Tunney addressed Yale on the relative values of the left hook and the Greek root.

In the end Prof. Southworth, who went through the Sorbonne, Harvard and MIT, being a magazine salesman at the time, was the victor. It turned out to be something he had eaten; for breakfast the professor had brains and eggs. “That’s the secret of my academic success,” he admitted, “that, and listening to the quiz kids.” Probably correct, too.

Juggling starts early

The two professors started the game by juggling their lineups and for reasons only the scientific mind would be able to comprehend, although Prof. Southworth, an old vaudeville fan, is known to be personally fond of juggling. As the game progressed, they rushed in pinch-hitters, even pinch-runners. Four times they ordered hitters purposely passed, probably a record.

In order to get the full flavor of this, the purposely passing of a hitter, you must at least suspect the rudiments of masterminding. You must realize deep and searching thinking is taking place, out of which may come, in some indirect way, a formula to revolutionize the American way of life, or at any rate the contemporary system of playing the daily double.

Example: Prof. Sewell ordered Shortstop Marion passed in the sixth. Two were out and a Cardinal runner was on second. The next hitter, Second-baseman Verban, popped out. A clear triumph for masterminding.

Sewell outguessed

Another example: It’s the eleventh inning and the score is tired at 2–0, there’s a Cardinal runner on second, one is out and this here Marion comes up again (incidentally, in the three times they did pitch to him he didn’t get the ball beyond the infield). Well, Prof. Sewell once more orders him passed to get to Verban, but the young man never reached the plate. Prof. Southworth was doing some masterminding of his own; he sent Ken O’Dea in to pinch-hit instead, and this gentleman promptly came through with the whack that decided the exciting game.

Apparently, Prof. Sewell had ignored the possibility his scholarly via-a-vis would cross him by calling on a hitter other than Verban, and a lefthanded hitter (as O’Dea is), at that. Prof. Sewell’s pitcher was a righthander and Marion, purposely passed, is a righthanded hitter. In such circumstances, the percentage is supposed to ride with the righthanded pitcher and this certainly was no time to add to his burden.

So, the second guessers were saying today Prof. Sewell masterminded himself out of the ball game, yet the essential facts are infield errors actually beat the Browns. Even so, maybe there should be a law against thinking on the ball field. Or any place else for that matter. It doesn’t seem to improve things, does it?

[NormanStewart]

Landis hears World Series in hospital bed

Chicago, Illinois (UP) –
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, High Commissioner of Baseball, had to substitute a bedside radio at St. Luke’s Hospital for a box seat at St. Louis for the World Series this year.

The 77-year-old baseball czars physician said today that Landis heard the first two series games on the radio and “appeared to enjoy them very much.”

He was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital for a bad cold and a needed rest, and was forced to miss a series for the first time since he became commissioner in 1920.

[NormanStewart]

Game 3

Friday, October 6, 1944 2:00 pm (CT) at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, Missouri

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
St. Louis Browns (2-1)	0	0	4	0	0	0	2	0	X	6	8	2
St. Louis Cardinals (1-2)	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	7	0

St. Louis Browns (AL):

Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	AVG
Gutteridge, 2B	4	1	1	0	0	2	.083
Kreevich, CF	4	0	0	0	0	0	.154
Moore, RF	4	1	1	0	0	0	.333
Stephens, SS	2	2	1	0	2	0	.100
McQuinn, 1B	3	1	3	2	1	0	.625
Zarilla, LF	4	1	1	1	0	1	.200
Christman, 3B	4	0	1	1	0	0	.083
Hayworth, C	2	0	0	0	2	0	.100
Kramer, P	4	0	0	0	0	2	.000
Totals	31	6	8	4	5	5	.258

2B: D. Gutteridge (1, off Jurisich); G. McQuinn (2, off Jurisich).
IBB: R. Hayworth (1, by Schmidt).
TB: G. McQuinn 4; D. Gutteridge 2; G. Moore; M. Christman; V. Stephens; A. Zarilla.
GIDP: A. Zarilla (1).
RBI: G. McQuinn 2 (4); A. Zarilla (1); M. Christman (1).
2-Out RBI: G. McQuinn 2; M. Christman; A. Zarilla
Team LOB: 6
With RISP: 3 for 10

Fielding
E: V. Stephens (1); D. Gutteridge (2)

St. Louis Cardinals (NL):

Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	AVG
Litwhiler, LF	5	0	0	0	0	2	.000
Hopp, CF	4	1	1	0	0	1	.143
Musial, RF	5	0	1	0	0	0	.250
W. Cooper, C	4	0	1	0	0	0	.143
Sanders, 1B	3	2	1	0	2	1	.333
Kurowski, 3B	4	0	2	0	0	0	.375
Marion, SS	3	0	0	0	2	0	.286
Verban, 2B	3	1	1	1	1	0	.400
O’Dea, PH	1	0	1	1	0	0	.500
Lanier, P	2	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Donnelly, P	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Totals	36	3	7	3	5	7	.194

2B: W. Cooper (2, off Kramer).
TB: W. Cooper 3; M. Marion 2; J. Hopp; S. Musial; R. Sanders
RBI: W. Cooper (1); M. Marion (1)
2-Out RBI: W. Cooper
Team LOB: 8
With RISP: 2 for 8

Fielding
DP: 1 (Marion to Sanders)
PB: W. Cooper (1)

St. Louis Browns

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	cWPA	acLI	RE24
Kramer, W (1-0)	9	7	2	0	2	10	0	0.00	37	77			0.198	0.84	7.06%	52.50	2.4
Team Totals	9	7	2	0	2	10	0	0.00	37	77			0.198	0.84	7.06%	52.50	2.4

St. Louis Cardinals

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	cWPA	acLI	RE24
Wilks, L (0-1)	2.2	5	4	4	3	3	0	13.50	16	32			-0.2431	1.44	-8.11%	90.26	-2.1
Schmidt	3.1	1	0	0	1	1	0	0.00	11		2	1	0.013	0.57	0.45%	36.02	1.0
Jurisich	0.2	2	2	2	1	0	0	27.00	5		0	0	-0.080	0.52	-2.75%	32.79	-1.9
Byerly	1.1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.00	4		1	0	0.008	0.07	0.26%	4.71	0.8
Team Totals	8	8	6	6	5	5	0	6.75	36	32	3	1	-0.302	0.89	-10.15%	55.66	-2.1

Balks: None
WP: F. Schmidt (1)
HBP: None
IBB: F. Schmidt (1; R. Hayworth)
Pickoffs: None
Umpires: HP - Dunn, 1B - Pipgras, 2B - Sears, 3B - McGowan
Time of Game: 2:19
Attendance: 34,737

[NormanStewart]

Background of news –
America’s national game

By Bertram Benedict

The 1944 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns rounds out a full century in which baseball has been played according to accepted rules. Such rules were first published at 1845, although the game had been played for a few years previously.

In 1907, a committee of eminent baseball authorities was created to investigate the history of America’s national game. The committee reported that the game developed, not so much from the old English game of Rounders, as from the purely American games of One Old Cat, Two Old Cat, Three Old Cat, and (especially) Four Old Cat. These developed into a game known an Town Ball, which gradually became the modern game of baseball.

However, other authorities believe that the 1907 committee was overanxious to deny a foreign origin for the game. Most Englishmen seeing baseball for the first time explain, “Why, it’s like Rounders!”

Rules drawn up in 1845

In Town Ball, the bases or posts were at first in the form of a square had become a diamond. The year previously., the diagram now used for bases and players’ conditions had been driven up by Col. Abner Doubleday.

In the rules set out in 1845, the first side to score 21 runs was the winner. A batter was out if his hit was caught on the first bounce, or if he was struck while between bases by a ball thrown by an opponent.

The first record of a game dates from 1846. Uniforms appeared in 1849. It was not until 1883 that umpires were paid for their services. In fact, no salaries were paid players until after the Civil War. For a long time, there was a limit only on the diameter of the bat, not on its length. The pitcher was allowed to take a number of steps, as in cricket, before delivering the ball.

After the Civil War, players began to receive money. The first team of full-time professionals was organized in 1869. It often made more than 100 runs in a game. With the advent of professionalism came the use of gloves, and of masks and breast pads for the catchers, also the extensive use of curve balls by pitchers.

Professionals resented

For a time, amateurs resented the professionalization of the game, and a line was drawn between amateurs and professionals, as in tennis today. Four of the early professional teams had names which survived into the modern baseball era – the Red Stockings of Cincinnati, the Athletics of Philadelphia, the White Stockings of Chicago, the Nationals of Washington.

From 1870 to 1875, the game became corrupted with rowdyism and bribery, and popular interest in it died out. To replace the game on a firm and popular basis, the National League was formed in 1876; it calls itself the oldest body of organized sports in the United States.

The present membership of the National League dates from 1900, when it was reduced from 12 clubs to eight. In the same year, the National League was challenged by the American League, formed from the old Western League. Peace between the two major leagues was achieved in 1903, and the World Series was initiated in 1905 (the winners in the two leagues had played against each other in 1903, but not in 1904).

[NormanStewart]

Game 4

Radio broadcast of the game (MBS):

---

The Pittsburgh Press (October 7, 1944)

Browns hold 2–1 edge in Series

St. Louis, Missouri (UP) –
The St. Louis Browns, holding a 2–1 edge, picked on Sigmund Jakucki, big righthander, to pitch them to another triumph today in the “streetcar” World Series with their intracity opponents, the St. Louis Cardinals.

Manager Luke Sewell’s hurling choice for the fourth game won 13 and lost nine the past season, his first in the major leagues.

Southpaw Harry Brecheen, who won 16 and lost five games in the regular season, was Manager Billy Southworth’s choice to bring the Cardinals back on an equal footing with the American Leaguers.

Jack Kramer, Browns’ righthander, held the Cards to seven scattered hits yesterday as his teammates shelled Ted Wilks from the box in the third inning and went on to notch a 6–2 triumph.

[NormanStewart]

Brecheen Cards’ hope to even Series

Browns name Jakucki to increase 2–1 edge; Birds drop 6–2 battle
By Leo H. Petersen, United Press sports editor

St. Louis, Missouri –
A streamlined lefthander and a big, loose-jointed righthander picked up from baseball’s bargain drew the starting assignments today for the fourth game of the World Series with the underdog Browns holding a 2–1 edge over their intracity rivals, the Cardinals.

Southpaw Harry Brecheen was the choice of Manager Billy Southworth in an attempt to get his National League champions back on an equal footing while Luke Sewell of the Browns called on Sigmund Jakucki, whom he rescued from the highways which lead to baseball obscurity.

Brecheen won 16 games while losing only five this year and Jakucki’s record for his first major league season was 13 and nine.

Clear, cool weather prevailed today as the Browns and Cardinals prepared to take the field. The forecast was for fair and cooler today and tonight, with fair and continued cool Sunday.

Jakucki semi-pro

Harry came up with the Cardinals last year from Columbus of the American Association, while the easygoing, good-natured Jakucki was playing semi-pro ball when the Browns picked him up. He probably never would have received a major league opportunity had not the war drained the ranks of professional baseball players.

When Brecheen was poison to the National League, Jakucki was doing better than all right in the junior circuit but he had one weakness which kept him from being one of the leading hurlers. That was his home-run ball. But when his control is gilt-edged he has a low slider that gives batters plenty of trouble.

Kramer stops Cards

Jack Kramer handcuffed the Cards yesterday with seven scattered hits as Sewell’s “Hitless Wonders” put on one of their best displays of what little batting power they possess. The Browns, long on pitching and fielding, needed help from their weakest department to win the third game of the series, 6–2, for the fielding which stood them in such good stead during their stretch drive for the pennant, bogged down once more.

Infield errors gave the Cardinals two unearned runs, but the Browns more than made up for that when they shelled Ted Wilks, Southworth’s rookie star, from the box in the third inning.

Wilks was coasting along under a 1–0 lead and, although troubled by wildness, had pitched no-hit ball for the first two and two-thirds innings. But with two men down in the third, the veteran Gene Moore broke the spell with a single. Before the inning was over, the Browns were leading 4–1 as Vernon Stephens, George McQuinn, Al Zarilla and Mark Christman followed with singles and Fred Schmidt, who relieved Wilks after Christman’s hit, contributed a wild pitch.

Browns rally

The run the Brownies gave the Cards on a second error in the seventh was more than discounted when they used doubles by Don Gutteridge and McQuinn, a walk to Stephens and a passed ball by the Cardinals catcher, Walker Cooper, to score two more tallies.

It was more of a margin than Kramer needed. Although he weakened in the late innings, he always had enough reserve.

His performance added to a remarkable World Series pitching record. In three games the Brown hurlers have allowed the Cardinals only one earned run.

Despite their victory in the third game – the winner of which has gone on to win the series nine times in the last 10 years – the Browns were still quoted as underdogs. The Cards were listed at 4–5 while the Browns were rated at even money. For the fourth game, the Cards were favored 11–20 while the Browns were held at 8–5.

[NormanStewart]

Kramer glad that he saved his strikeouts

St. Louis, Missouri (Up) –
The Browns, underdogs in the World Series to everybody but themselves, trotted into their hot stuffy dressing room beneath the grandstand of Sportsman’s Park yesterday as if they knew all the time they were going to win the third game.

“It was a cinch, they chorused in their usual cocky manner. “We finally got our bats working.”

Jack Kramer, the best-looking guy in the room, came in for most of the plaudits.

Manager Luke Sewell said:

He had a rough ball game, but he showed plenty of heart and pulled through.

When I went out to talk to him in the eighth inning after the Cards put men on second and third with only one down, he told me he still had his stuff. That was enough for me. I just sat down on the bench while he proved it.

Kramer was laconic:

I kept throwing ‘em in with everything I had. This is the first time all year I got ten strikeouts. I’m mighty glad I saved ‘em up.

First Baseman George McQuinn, who spearheaded the Browns’ attack with three hits and a walk, was grinning from ear to ear. “I like that National League pitching,” he said. “I could hit anything they threw up there.”

Al Zarilla, who replaced Chet Laabs in left field yesterday, was optimistic:

The boys who haven’t been hitting started today and I look for them to continue, the law of averages is on our side now.

[NormanStewart]

Game 4

Saturday, October 7, 1944 2:00 pm (CT) at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, Missouri

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
St. Louis Browns (2-2)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	9	1
St. Louis Cardinals (2-2)	2	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	5	12	0

St. Louis Browns (AL):

Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	AVG
Gutteridge, 2B	4	0	2	0	1	1	.188
Kreevich, CF	5	0	1	0	0	0	.167
Moore, RF	3	1	0	0	1	1	.267
Stephens, SS	4	0	1	0	0	0	.143
Laabs, LF	4	0	2	0	0	0	.167
McQuinn, 1B	3	0	1	0	1	0	.545
Christman, 3B	4	0	1	0	0	2	.125
Hayworth, C	2	0	0	0	0	0	.083
Mancuso, C	2	0	1	0	0	0	.667
Jakucki, P	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clary, PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Hollingsworth, P	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Byrnes, PH	0	0	0	0	0	0
Shirley, P	0	0	0	0	0	0
Turner, PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	34	1	9	0	4	4	.265

2B: C. Laabs (1, off Brecheen)
TB: C. Laabs 3; D. Gutteridge 2; F. Mancuso; G. McQuinn; M. Christman; V. Stephens; M. Kreevich
GIDP: R. Hayworth (1); C. Laabs (1)
With RISP: 0 for 5
Team LOB: 10

Fielding
E: D. Gutteridge (3)
Outfield Assists: M. Kreevich (D. Litwhiler at 2nd base); M. Kreevich (W. Cooper at home plate)

St. Louis Cardinals (NL):

Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	AVG
Litwhiler, LF	4	1	2	0	1	1	.182
Hopp, CF	5	1	2	0	0	1	.211
Musial, RF	4	2	3	2	1	0	.375
W. Cooper, C	4	0	2	1	1	0	.333
Sanders, 1B	5	1	1	0	0	1	.286
Kurowski, 3B	4	0	0	0	0	1	.188
Marion, SS	4	0	1	1	0	1	.333
Verban, 2B	4	0	1	0	0	0	.273
Brecheen, P	4	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Totals	38	5	12	4	3	6	.316

2B: M. Marion (3, off Hollingsworth); S. Musial (1, off Hollingsworth)
3B: W. Cooper (1, off Shirley)
HR: S. Musial (1, off Jakucki, 1st inn, 1 on, 1 out to Deep RF)
IBB: W. Cooper (2, by Hollingsworth)
TB: S. Musial 7; W. Cooper 4; M. Marion 2; J. Hopp 2; D. Litwhiler 2; E. Verban; R. Sanders
RBI: S. Musial 2 (2); M. Marion (2); W. Cooper (2)
2-Out RBI: W. Cooper
With RISP: 1 for 8
Team LOB: 9

Fielding
DP: 2 (Marion to Verban to Sanders; Kurowski to Verban to Sanders)

St. Louis Browns

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	cWPA	acLI	RE24
Jakucki, L (0-1)	3	5	4	3	0	4	1	9.00	15	39			-0.246	0.71	-10.36%	45.63	-2.5
Hollingsworth	4	5	1	1	2	1	0	2.25	18		0	0	0.017	0.22	0.71%	14.19	0.9
Shirley	2	2	0	0	1	1	0	0.00	8		0	0	0.007	0.05	0.28%	3.31	1.0
Team Totals	9	12	5	4	3	6	1	4.00	41	39	0	0	-0.222	0.36	-9.37%	23.57	-0.6

St. Louis Cardinals

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	cWPA	acLI	RE24
Brecheen, W (1-0)	9	9	1	1	4	4	0	1.00	38	65			0.278	0.64	11.68%	41.17	3.4
Team Totals	9	9	1	1	4	4	0	1.00	38	65			0.278	0.64	11.68%	41.17	3.4

Balks: None
WP: None
HBP: None
IBB: A. Hollingsworth (1; W. Cooper)
Pickoffs: None
Umpires: HP - Pipgras, 1B - Sears, 2B - McGowan, 3B - Dunn
Time of Game: 2:22
Attendance: 35,455

[NormanStewart]

The Pittsburgh Press (October 8, 1944)

Cards win, 5–1, to even Series

The National League Cards defeated the American League Browns 5–1 yesterday afternoon to knot the game count at 2–0 in the All-St. Louis World Series. The teams play again this afternoon.

[NormanStewart]

Cards defeat Browns, 5–1, even Series count

Musial clouts homer for two runs in first inning to decide win

Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis, Missouri (UP) – (Oct. 7)
The St. Louis Cardinals exploded some of the hitting power which enabled them to coast to the National League pennant to defeat the Browns, 5–1, today and even the World Series at two games each.

A 12-hit attack against three Brown pitchers, which included a first-inning home run by Stan Musial, gave the Cardinals the fourth game before the largest crowd of the Series – 35,455.

Harry Brecheen, streamlined Cardinal southpaw, yielded nine hits to the American League champions but kept them well scattered and did not permit a run until the eighth inning when his mates had already given him a five-run margin.

Homer clear pavilion

The game was only eight minutes and 12 pitches old when it was decided.

Sigmund “Jack” Jakucki, Browns righthander, struck out the first man to face him, but then was touched for a single by Johnny Hopp. Musial, a World Series bust in 1942 and again in 1943, caught hold of Jakucki’s first pitch, a high, hard one, and drove it over the rightfield pavilion roof for all the runs Brecheen needed.

The Cards doubled their margin in the third when infield hits by Danny Litwhiler and Musial, a single by Catcher Walker Cooper and an error by Don Gutteridge gave them two more tallies.

Jakucki was taken out for a pinch-hitter in the third and his relief, Southpaw Al Hollingsworth, yielded the final Cardinals run in the sixth on Ray Sanders’ single and Martin Marion’s double.

Browns threaten often

Although they threatened to break through in almost every inning, the Browns did not score until the eighth. They had a promising rally going when Martin Marion came up with a good stop on Chet Laabs’ grounder and turned it into a double play to snuff out the hopes of the American League champions.

Gene Moore had walked to open the eighth and went to third when Vernon Stephens singled. That was the setup when Laabs came to bat. The double play resulted in the only Browns run, Stephens scoring.

They made a dying gesture in the ninth but were retired with two men on and two out.

[NormanStewart]

Game 5

Game 5

Sunday, October 8, 1944 2:00 pm (CT) at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, Missouri

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
St. Louis Browns (2-3)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	1
St. Louis Cardinals (3-2)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	2	6	1

St. Louis Browns (AL):

Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	AVG
Gutteridge, 2B	2	0	0	0	1	0	.167
Baker, PH-2B	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Kreevich, CF	4	0	2	0	0	1	.227
Moore, RF	4	0	0	0	0	2	.211
Stephens, SS	4	0	3	0	0	0	.278
McQuinn, 1B	3	0	0	0	1	1	.429
Zarilla, LF	4	0	0	0	0	2	.111
Christman, 3B	3	0	0	0	0	1	.105
Byrnes, PH	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Hayworth, C	3	0	1	0	0	0	.133
Laabs, PH	1	0	0	0	0	1	.154
Galehouse, P	3	0	1	0	0	1	.200
Chartak, PH	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
Totals	34	0	7	0	2	12	.206

2B: M. Kreevich (2, off Cooper); V. Stephens (1, off Cooper)
TB: V. Stephens 4; M. Kreevich 3; D. Galehouse; R. Hayworth
With RISP: 0 for 8
Team LOB: 9

Fielding
DP: 1 (Stephens to McQuinn)
E: V. Stephens (2)

St. Louis Cardinals (NL):

Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	AVG
Litwhiler, LF	4	1	2	1	0	1	.267
Hopp, CF	4	0	0	0	0	3	.174
Musial, RF	3	0	1	0	1	0	.368
W. Cooper, C	4	0	0	0	0	2	.263
Sanders, 1B	4	1	1	1	0	2	.278
Kurowski, 3B	4	0	1	0	0	1	.200
Marion, SS	4	0	0	0	0	1	.263
Verban, 2B	3	0	1	0	0	0	.286
O’Dea, PH	1	0	1	1	0	0	.500
M. Cooper, P	2	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	32	2	6	2	1	10	.188

2B: D. Litwhiler (1, off Galehouse); S. Musial (2, off Galehouse)
HR: R. Sanders (1, off Galehouse, 6th inn, 0 on, 2 outs to Deep RF); D. Litwhiler (1, off Galehouse, 8th inn, 0 on, 0 outs to Deep CF-RF)
SH: M. Cooper (1, off Galehouse)
TB: D. Litwhiler 6; R. Sanders 4; S. Musial 2; W. Kurowski; E. Verban
GIDP: M. Cooper (1)
RBI: R. Sanders (1); D. Litwhiler (1)
2-Out RBI: R. Sanders
With RISP: 0 for 7
Team LOB: 5

Fielding
E: S. Musial (1)

St. Louis Browns

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	cWPA	acLI	RE24
Galehouse, L (1-1)	9	6	2	2	1	10	2	1.50	34	76			0.144	0.98	5.41%	81.29	2.4
Team Totals	9	6	2	2	1	10	2	2.00	34	76			0.144	0.98	5.41%	81.29	2.4

St. Louis Cardinals

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	cWPA	acLI	RE24
Cooper, W (1-1)	9	7	0	0	2	12	0	1.13	36	83			0.644	1.57	32.38%	129.75	4.4
Team Totals	9	7	0	0	2	12	0	0.00	36	83			0.644	1.57	32.38%	129.75	4.4

Balks: None
WP: None
HBP: None
IBB: None
Pickoffs: None
Umpires: HP - Sears, 1B - Pipgras, 2B - Dunn, 3B - McGowan
Time of Game: 2:04
Attendance: 36,568

[NormanStewart]

Game 6

Radio broadcast of the game (MBS):

---

The Pittsburgh Press (October 8, 1944)

Browns lead in sixth game

Chet Laabs triples, McQuinn scores him

Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis, Missouri (UP) –
The American League Browns, battling hard to keep their World Series chances alive, led the National League Cardinals, 1 –0, in the third inning of the sixth game this afternoon. A triple by Chet Laabs with George McQuinn’s single, produced the only run of the game thus far in the second inning.

Lefty Max Lanier was on the mound for the Cards, who needed only one more victory to win the championship. Opposing him was Browns’ star righthander, Nels Potter.

Lanier and Potter had met before, in the second game of the series, but neither finished. Lanier went out in the eighth and Potter in the seventh. Blix Donnelly was the eventual winner for the National Leaguers with Bob Muncrief, the loser, in an 11-inning battle.

Sanders raced over to the temporary boxes behind first base to reach for Don Gutteridge’s foul as the Browns came to bat in the opening inning, and Lanier took care of the next two batters – striking out Mike Kreevich and Gene Moore, the latter taking the third strike with his bat on his shoulder.

Litwhiler fans

Potter fanned Litwhiler, the first Cardinal to come to the plate. Johnny Hopp then popped to Gutteridge and Stan Musial was thrown out by Gutteridge.

The Browns opened the scoring in the top half of the second when, after Stephens had struck out, Chet Laabs tripled to the wall in right center and raced home when George McQuinn followed with a single over second. Christman sent a high fly to Hopp in center and Hayworth went out the same way to end the inning and send the American Leaguers away to a 1–0 lead.

Walker Cooper’s bid for a hit in the Cards’ second was turned into a putout by Stephens’ leaping one-hand catch. Sanders popped to Gutteridge. Kurowski bashed a single off Christman’s glove, but was trapped off first on Potter’s snap throw with Marion batting and was retired. Potter to McQuinn to Gutteridge to Potter.

Potter fans

Lanier had fanned Potter and forced Guttridge to foul to Musial in the rightfield bullpen in the Browns’ third before Kreevich lined a sharp two-bagger to left center, the second extra*-base hit off the Cards’ lefthander. Lanier pitched cautiously to Moore and walked him, then Stephens nipped the rally by forcing Moore, Marty Marion to Verban.

In the Cardinal half, Emil Verban singled after Christman had tossed out Marion. Lasnier came through with a hit to short center, Verban stopping at second.

Potter then struck out Litwhiler and Hopp to retire the side.

GAME INCOMPLETE AT EDITION TIME.

[NormanStewart]

Cards choose Lanier to clinch Series

Browns delegate Potter to ward off defeat in last-ditch sixth tilt
By Leo R. Petersen, United Press staff writer

Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis, Missouri –
Manager Billy Southworth of the St. Louis Cardinals sent Max Lanier, his star lefthander, to the mound today in an attempt to close out the first All-St. Louis World Series in six games just before the Cardinals, host team for the sixth game, began their batting drill. Lanier told his boss that he was “fit and ready.”

Nelson Potter, ace of Luke Sewell’s staff, carried the Browns’ hope of evening the series at three games each. Potter and Lanier met in the second game but neither was involved in the decision which the Cardinals took, 3–2, in 11 innings.

The sun broke through heavy clouds shortly before noon, but it was topcoat weather and the absence of lines outside the ticket windows led speculators to offer reserved grandstand and box seats at cost.

Cooper strikes out 12 to win, 2–0

But Mort Cooper finally got his blasting fast ball zipping over the corners yesterday as the Cards won, 2–0, to take the lead in the series for the first time and cut down 12 Brown batters on strikes.

His opponent, Denny Galehouse, who had beaten Cooper in the first game, 2–1, was almost as good, fanning 10, but he threw home run balls to Ray Sanders in the sixth inning and Danny Litwhiler in the eighth and that was the difference.

Their strikeout total of 22 set a new World Series record. The former mark for a single game was 21, made in the 1906 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox and tied in 1929 when Howard Ehmke of the Philadelphia Athletics set the World Series record for strikeouts in a single game, 13, while his opponent, Charlie Root, was setting down eight.

The 22 strikeouts yesterday also set a new mark for five games, the total being 78 against the former mark of 77 made in the 1929 World Series.

Cooper throttles Browns

Cooper, whose homerun ball has ruined him in three of his five World Series starts and two appearances against the American League in the All-Star game, kept the Browns throttled and wound up the game by fanning three pinch-hitters in the ninth. Only once was he in serious trouble – in the sixth inning when the Browns filled the bases with only one out – but his high, hard one pulled him through as both Al Zarilla and Mark Christman were called out on strikes.

Except for the fat ones he served up to Sanders and Litwhiler, Galehouse matched Cooper pitch for pitch but those home runs brought about his downfall, just like a homer by George McQuinn, with a man on base, had beaten Cooper on a two-hit performance in the opening game of the series.

The largest crowd of the series, 36,368, saw the Cardinals start off as though they were going to break the game open in the first inning when Litwhiler doubled. But Galehouse’s strikeout pitching pulled him out of that spot. He was sailing alone smoothly when Sanders came up with two men out in the sixth. Sanders worked the count to three and one and hit the next pitch over the right field pavilion roof.

Knew it was a homer

“I was behind on him and had to come down with the pitch,” Galehouse said in the clubhouse after the game. “I knew when he hit it that it was going out of the park.”

Both Galehouse and Sewell felt, however, that Litwhiler’s drive onto the pavilion seats would have been caught had not the wind swerved it over.

He allowed seven hits, one more than Galehouse, with Vernon Stephens getting three of them, but his control was perfect and his fast ball never had more zip.

The betting commissioners withdrew all prices on the series with the Cardinals needing but one victory and quoted the National League champions as 11–20 to take the sixth game if Lanier pitches. The Browns were short enders at 8–3.