1946 World Series

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The Pittsburgh Press (October 4, 1946)

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HUGHSON, POLLET MAY OPEN SERIES
Sox favored to take first in St. Louis

Boston well rested for Sunday battle

EN ROUTE TO ST. LOUIS (UP) – It’s all over, this wondering who will play in the World Series.

The happy St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox rolled westward today. And it appeared that Howie Pollet, a kid with a mighty left arm and Cecil (Tex) Hughson, a Texas rancher, would be the opposing hurlers when the delayed series opens Sunday at Sportsman’s Park.

It has been a long time coming, with the Red Sox having coasted along for three weeks waiting to see who their opponent would be.

2 straight for Cards

That issue wasn’t decided until yesterday when the Cards beat the Dodgers, 8-4, to win the National League pennant in baseball’s first post-season playoff. It was a best two-out-ot-three game affair and St. Louis finished it up in two straight.

With Hughson for the Bosox, the betting was 10 to 7 that Manager Joe Cronin’s American League champions would win the opening game. Pollet, should his aching shoulder respond to treatment so he will be able to start, would be a 5 to 6 underdog.

On the series, the betting was prohibitive, with the Sox 20 to 7 choices. If you liked the Cards, $5 would get you $11 should they come out in front in this best-four-out-of-seven series.

Sox pitchers rested

Neither Cronin nor Eddie Dyer, pilot of the newly crowned N.L. champions, would commit themselves definitely as to whom they would start in the first game. It was no problem with Cronin for his front-rank pitchers all were rested.

Dave (Boo) Ferris and Mickey Harris, along with Hughson, were fit and ready.

But in the Card camp, the pitching situation was anyone’s guess, including Dyer’s. His top rankers – Pollett, Harry (The Cat) Brecheen, Murry Dickson and George Munger – have been working day in and day out and were worn and tired after winning the most exciting pennant race in major league annals.

20-game winner

It looked, though, like Pollet, aching muscles and all, would be the opening day nominee for the Red Birds in their own nest. For the tall, slender southpaw from New Orleans hurled the opening game in the playoffs which broke the backs of the battling Dodgers.

The reasoning was that if he was good enough to do that – besides being the first left-hander since 1937 to win 20 games or more in a National League season – he rated the call.

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Flatbush fans mourn Schultz’s failure to hit

Brecheen fans him with bases loaded

NEW YORK (UP) – Brooklyn’s cup of grief overflowed today with “straight wry.”

There were a few faithful, willing to rally around the traditional Flatbush cry of “wait till next year,” but there were ever so many more who just couldn’t understand why Howie Schultz couldn’t have smacked that homer with the bases loaded yesterday in the dying moments of a dying cause.

It would have been a baseball miracle to be sure, but Dodger fans had come to expect the impossible in this year of years for Flatbush.

The fact that Relief Pitcher Harry (The Cat) Brecheen came in to strike out Eddie Stanky and Schultz to end the game and give the St. Louis Cards an 8-4 victory which put them into the World Series was what filled that cup of grief.

Faithful back 100-1 shot

For here were the Dodgers, 100-to-1 longshots to win in even the most conservative book, trying to win a ball game in which they had started the ninth inning behind, 8-1.

They hadn’t gotten a hit since the first inning off skinny Murry Dickson, and only one player had managed to hit a ball into the outfield.

Up came Augie Galan, a World Series veteran and a master of disregarding past performances.

Like the others, he had been unable to touch Dickson’s slinky curve but now he stepped into a pitch he liked ana sent it to right center for a double.

Ripple of applause

The 31,437 fans sent up a ripple of polite applause, glad for the gesture at least against the invincible Dickson.

Dixie Walker, the Dodger clutch man didn’t help matters any when he sent a toy fly to Terry Moore, but Rookie First Baseman Ed Stevens stirred a few hearts when he tripled to deep center to score Galan.

Carl Furillo aroused a few more with a single which scored Stevens.

Dickson just a guy

Then it became apparent that Dickson was no superman after all. He was just a good pitcher working the greatest game of his career and tiring pretty fast because of a bad cold.

He was rattled when he uncorked a wild pitch that sent Furillo to second and he even upset Cardinal Manager Eddie Dyer a little when he walked Peewee Reese.

Dyer, unwilling to surrender a pennant won innings ago, called on Brecheen and “The Cat” started out shakily by letting Rookie Bruce Edwards score Furillo with a single that sent Reese to third.

Cookie Lavagetto, pinch-hitting for Kid-Pitcher Harry Taylor walked to fill the bases and then Brecheen cut out the foolishness.

The next two batters were Stanky and Schultz, each representing the tying run at the plate.

Brecheen bears down

The lefthander from Broken Bow, Oklahoma, left the Dodgers broken and bowed by giving those two batters all he had. It was only a dream anyway, but a nice one while it lasted.

Through the night in the Flatbush bars and chowder houses folks kept bringing up the fact that Schultz had hit a homer in the first playoff game at St. Louis “so why couldn’t he do it again in Brooklyn?”

For the Cardinals, there were renewed hopes that they would go into the World Series against the Boston Red Sox at the peak of their efficiency, playing the kind of ball that had been expected of them when they left the post last spring as the shortest priced pennant favorite in major league history.

Of most importance was the fact that they were hitting again and that they were smacking the ball for extra bases. They collected four triples and two doubles and made 25 hits in all in the two unprecedented playoff games against Brooklyn.

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Durocher clings to beloved Bums

NEW YORK (UP) – Lippi Leo Durocher turned his back today on the best managerial job in baseball – with the New York Yankees – to remain as pilot of the Brooklyn Dodgers “until I die.”

Less than an hour after the St. Louis Cardinals had smashed his dream of another pennant for Brooklyn, Durocher confirmed his allegiance to President Branch Rickey of the Dodgers, for whom he had needled and cajoled a makeshift ball club almost into the World Series.

“I’m staying,” said the Lip. “Branch Rickey is the finest man in the world to work for. He’s been like a father to me since 1930 and I’d be happy to work for him until I die.”

Heartbroken over his team’s 8-4 defeat by the Cards in the final playoff game, Leo shut off the Dodger dressing room completely while his players dressed and heard private talks by Rickey and himself.

“They’re real champions,” Durocher said finally. “They did a heluva job for a bunch of old men and kids.

“The Cards had to go a long way to beat us. We just couldn’t make it, that’s all.”

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The Evening Star (October 5, 1946)

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Dimensions of parks will dictate Dyer’s pitching selections

By Francis E. Stann, Star staff correspondent

ST. LOUIS – As rabid St. Louis fans licked their wounds after a virtual free-for-all battle for World Series tickets and as victors and losers alike looked forward to tomorrow’s opening game between the Cardinals and Red Sox, Manager Eddie Dyer today disclosed that the dimensions of the respective ball parks will more or less dictate his starting pitchers.

At an early hour today Dyer refused to say definitely whether Howie Pollet, 25-year-old stylist and ace of his staff, or Harry (the Cat) Brecheen, 32-year-old “clutch” pitcher, would face the favored Red Sox in the curtain-raiser. Sometime today, Dyer promised, he will name his choice, admitting that if Pollet had not been bothered by a strained side the slender Louisiana southpaw would have been named outright.

“It’s going to be one or the other,” Dyer said last night. “I plan to use four starters – Pollet, Brecheen, George Munger and Murry Dickson. But they won’t necessarily be used in that order.

“I’m going to pitch my left-handers – Pollet and Brecheen – in St. Louis and my right-handers – Munger and Dickson – in Boston. We play percentage baseball. That, I figure, is our percentage.”

St. Louis fence invites Williams

Hie rival fields involved in the series differ sharply as concerns physical characteristics. The Cards, home park has a long left-field barrier, but a short right-field fence. In Boston there is a very short left field fence and a long right-field barrier.

Dyer unashamedly admits that he had Ted Williams in mind while planning his overall pitching program. On the time-honored theory that a left-handed pitcher is more inclined to bother a left-handed hitter, Dyer is going to use Pollet or Brecheen – or Brecheen or Pollet – tomorrow and Monday.

Not only Williams but Johnny Pesky, Wally Moses, Hal Wagner and other Red Sox have dumped home runs over St. Louis’ short stand in right field. On the other hand, Rudy York, Bobby Doerr, Pinky Higgins, Dom DiMaggio and other right-hand hitters have to poke a ball very hard to pull a pitch into the left-field bleachers here.

Hughson is Cronin’s favorite

In Boston, Williams is not regarded as so potent a home-run threat as Doerr, York or DiMaggio. Hence, Dyer plans to employ Munger and Dickson and take a chance on Rightfielder Enos Slaughter catching a long ball by Williams in Boston’s spacious rightfield – a ball that would be a home run in Sportsman’s Park.

Manager Joe Cronin and his Red Sox, who arrived here shortly after the Cards, are almost certain to open with Tex Hughson, their “stuff pitcher,” despite the fact that Dave Ferris has the better record of the pair on paper. Ferris undoubtedly will start the second game if the Sox lose the opener. If the Sox win, Cronin, who lacks depth in starting pitchers, may start Mickey Harris or Joe Dobson and gamble, saving Ferris for the Boston opener next Wednesday.

“Hughson,” said Cronin last week in Boston, “has been a real tough luck guy this season, but every time he had a hard assignment he delivered. I’ll use him whenever possible in a pinch.” And getting the jump on a rival in a World Series must be considered a “pinch.”

No ‘Boudreau shift’ for Dyer

Although managing in a league noted for radical departures from baseball, Dyer doesn’t intend to imitate Lou Boudreau’s celebrated shift when Williams comes to bat. That he made dear to newsmen en route from Brooklyn.

“We’ll play Williams as we would any other good pull-hitter,” Dyer said. “We’ll shade him to right field, of course, but we’re not going to have a left fielder playing deep short and everybody else toward his strength.”

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Win, Lose or Draw…
The return of the baseball special

By Francis E. Stann, Star staff correspondent

ST. LOUIS – That mobile symbol of the power and the glory of a prewar pennant winner, the special train, is bade on the American sporting scene. Peace, it’s wonderful – and the baseball specials are a little something extraordinary, too.

During the war years there were no special trains for ball clubs. They were lucky to get Pullman accommodations, let alone an entire train. Sometimes during the regular season they rode in coaches and sometimes they sat on their bags in the aisles. They stood in line with the common people, backs pressed against the hot metal bulk head of the kitchen, and waited for a seat in the diner.

This year the Cardinals and Red Sox have their own trains. They have drawing rooms, diners, lounge cars, bedrooms and plain sleeping cars. They had steaks, bonded spirits, all night service, a retinue of newspapermen and favored friends who’d all picked them to win “away last winter.” The specials stopped only to drop off press copy as they rolled from New York and Boston to St. Louis in near-record time for the railroads.

Cards wear their laurels gracefully

When the Cards’ train pulled out of New York one of the Red Birds’ yelled, “Ohio, there’s good news tonight!” in a ball player’s language that usually means a celebration and newspapermen who have traveled with freshly-crowned pennant winners in the past winked knowingly at each other and took cover because the athletes are notoriously poor tipplers, probably due to lack of practice, and before the ride is over they usually become very loud, clumsy and sometime argumentative, and the next day, when they step blearily off the train and a band in the station plays against the beat of throbbing heads it may be a welcoming band, but it is not welcome.

But on the Cards’ train it was comparatively quiet. They ate sirloins, drank beer, played cards, talked with the press and speculated for the first time on the World Series and the Red Sox. As the meal wore off and the brew wore on, they cut up a few touches, like autographing each other’s shirts, but even this was done on a practical note as they used only pencils. Shirts are too hard to come by these days.

A fast ball pitcher with a boiled potato

Most of the Cards lingered in the diner and Stan Musial, a quiet hero with an almost melancholy face, pulled out a mouth organ and began to play square-dance tunes and folk dances, and Dizzy Dean, wearing a white 10-gallon cowboy hat, led some singing.

Of the customary champagne there was none and so the binge was mild compared to some, as when players with flushed faces cut off neckties and ripped shirts. Nobody got hurt, physically or otherwise, as was not the case last year when Rudy York, then with Detroit, got his feelings injured while voluntarily entertaining his teammates in the diner. “Look at the big Injun,” cried Rudy, executing a joyous jig, and then out of a clear sky a fast-ball pitcher uncorked a pitch with a hot boiled potato and, plop, it became mashed on Rudy’s bald spot, made York mad and sent him looking for the guy who run it.

This wasn’t a wild party by any standard. Along about midnight a newspaperman who had written his stories, came into the diner and ordered a steak and when it came out, browned and sizzling, some of the players got ideas, devoured their second steaks of the evening and hit the sack.

Marion campaigns for Musial vs. Williams

The only campaigning of the night seemed to be done by Marty Marion, baseball’s Mr. Shortstop, who soberly insisted to newspapermen that Musial was a superior player to Ted Williams. And as most of the newspapermen were from Boston, they were in complete accord.

Eddie Dyer, a pleasant fellow from Louisiana, held informal court in his drawing room, answering some questions and parrying others. No, he said, no radical defense – such as the “Boudreau shift” – would be used in the series against Williams. Yes, he thought, the odds favoring the Red Sox were too top-heavy.

So when the Cards arrived late yesterday they had their ship trimmed and ready for action, as they have been since mid-April. There wasn’t a band in the world, including Ellington’s, that could have disturbed them as they disembarked.

In fact, there wasn’t a band, period.

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Truman won’t attend World Series games

President Truman will not attend the World Series, it was indicated at the White House today.

The president has been following the progress of the St. Louis Cardinals with interest, but Press Secretary Charles G. Ross said he did not think Mr. Truman would see any o the series games.

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The Pittsburgh Press (October 5, 1946)

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Cards, Bosox working out for series

Dyer and Cronin confident of victory

SERIES FACTS

ST. LOUIS (UP) – World Series facts and figures:

Participants: Boston Red Sox (AL) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (NL)

Series: Best four out of seven.

Site: October 6-7 Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis; October 9-10 and 11 (if necessary) Fenway Park, Boston; October 13-15 (if necessary) Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis.

Odds: Red Sox favored 7-20 for series and 5-11 in first game.

Starting time: 1:30 p.m. CST

Broadcast: Mutual

ST. LOUIS (UP) – Manager Eddie Dyer will send his tired and travel-worn St. Louis Cardinals into the first game of the delayed World Series here tomorrow, 7 to 20 underdogs.

Although they will open on their home grounds for the first two games of this best-four-out-of-seven series, the odds are against them because of the grueling drive which taxed their pitching staff to the breaking point.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox coasted along and waited at ease for whichever club was going to win the most dramatic pennant battle in history.

So it was a vital question once again whether a team which came home driving like the Cardinals could maintain the white-hot edge, or whether a club which idled to a pennant could regain its pea after slacking off.

Cards are loaded

Too tired?

Not so far as Dyer is concerned after winning the pennant as a freshman pilot.

“My ball club showed it had the stuff when we beat that great Brooklyn team,” Dyer drawled.

“Sure we’re tired but who wouldn’t be when you’ve been playing ball since April. The playing we did was good enough to win a pennant. We can rest after the series.”

Too relaxed?

You couldn’t sell that to the jovial, cigar-smoking Joe Cronin, whose Red Sox romped off with the American League flag.

“We’ve been playing the best we have in our League,” Cronin said, referring to the watchful-waiting series his club played against an All-Star team from his own circuit.

“We did pretty well, winning two out of three, and I don’t think the Cards can be much tougher. But we know we are in for a fight because St. Louis showed it had a real fighting ball club by beating those Dodgers.”

Both Cronin and Dyer scheduled workouts today at Sportsman’s Park which were expected to tell them much.

So far as the Cardinals were concerned, their major worry was the strained back muscle which has been hindering Southpaw Howie Pollet. He figures to be the key man in Dyer’s pitching plans if he is ready to go.

Stars recovered

The Red Sox were expected to be at full strength with both Ted Williams, recovering from an elbow injury and Dom DiMaggio ready to start in the opening game.

Williams, who was hit on the elbow by a Mickey Haeffner pitch in that post-season marking-time period, said he was set to go. And DiMaggio reported that a sore thumb was responding to treatment.

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Background of news –
Remember the 1903 Series?

By Bertram Benedict

The World’s Series beginning tomorrow is like the first World’s Series, played in 1903, in that the Boston team of the American League is in it. The National League contender this time, however, is St. Louis – not Pittsburgh.

The Boston Americans of 1903 weren’t the Red Sox, though. They were called the “Beaneaters” – and they won the series.

The National League, organized in 1876, was fora long time the only major league in baseball. The American League was formed to challenge it in 1899, establishing clubs in six of the eight National League cities.

For several years the two leagues raided each other’s clubs for players. In 1903 peace was established; a National Commission was created to control baseball, a series was arranged between the winners in each league to decide the baseball championship of the world.

It was ‘Pittsburg’ then

In 1903, Boston won easily in the American League with a final percentage of .660. Pittsburg (the name was then spelled without an “h” at the end) won just as easily in the National League, with a .650 percentage.

The Pittsburgh manager was Fred Clarke, who played left field and batted second; the Boston manager was Jimmie Collins, who played third base, and also batted second.

Each team had an outstanding player of all time. Honus Wagner was shortstop for Pittsburgh; he led the National League in batting that year with .362, but hit only .214 in the Series. Cy Young was the mainstay of the Boston pitching staff.

The 1903 Series was for five games out of nine; betting was even when it began. It opened in Boston, and Pittsburgh won by 7 to 3, with Philippe and Young the pitchers – in fact, with rain and railroad travel causing delays, these two did most of the pitching in the entire series.

Admission in Boston was 50 cents for the bleachers, $1 for the grandstand; in Pittsburgh, 50 cents for the bleachers, 76 cents for the grandstand, $1 for box seats.

No women in evidence

A photograph of the grandstand at the first game showed most of the men wearing derby hats, also “handlebar” mustaches extending to points due south of the ears. No women seemed to be present. Of course, no games were played on Sundays.

The series created little interest except in the two cities in which it was played; The New York Times gave each game about four inches of space, with headlines like: “Baseball for Championship.”

The attendance averaged 18,000 in each city, except for the last game, when threatening weather cut down the figure to 7,500. Boston won the second game, Pittsburgh the next two, Boston the next four.

The newspaper accounts seem incredibly stilted today How would you like to read about the 1946 series in language like the following? (no, it is not from the scholarly Boston Transcript of that era):

  • “Wagner made two awful lunges to hit the ball.”

  • “The Boston ‘rooters’ lost all control of themselves.”

  • “Parent singled to life, a splendid effort.”

  • “Three more good warn cheers came from the ‘rooters.’”

  • “Wagner went out to Daugherty, wherest the crowd waxed exceeding glad.”

  • “There was a scene of the utmost jubilation when the game ended (but) the Pittsburghs felt very badly indeed.”

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Blind veteran to ‘see’ series at St. Louis

HOUSTON, Texas (UP) – A blind war veteran, Herbert Solomon, is going to “see” the World Series.

A former peanut vender at Houston’s Buff Stadium and an admirer of Eddie Dyer, Solomon lost his sight when a German mortar shell exploded at his feet in France in 1944.

But, carrying a little portable radio, he’ll go to St. Louis today for the series. From the radio he’ll follow the game but he’ll get the atmosphere of the game through the cheers of the fans, the crack of the bat and the smell of popcorn.

Solomon was selected from eight Houston sightless veterans because of his loyalty to the Cards and friendship for Dyer, Card manager.