1946 World Series

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MANY SERIES RECORDS SHATTER
Harry Brecheen becomes first southpaw to win three games

Seven new marks established as St. Louis Cardinals capture 1946 World Series from Boston Red Sox

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 15 (AP) – When Harry (The Cat) Brecheen choked off the Boston Red Sox Tuesday in the seventh and final game of the 1946 World Series, the slight, St. Louis Cardinal southpaw became the first lefthander in World Series history to win three games in one series.

Eight righthanders had turned the trick in the years since 1903 when the first series was played but it was up to The Cat to set a record for lefties.

He shut the Boston Red Sox with four hits in the second game and then came back to hurl a 4-1 verdict over the American League sluggers Sunday before being called in to relieve Murry Dickson in the eighth and go on to triumph.

The eight righthanders who previously reigned alone in this department of the World Series pitching are: Christy Mathewson, with three shutouts in 1905; Jack Coombs; Urban Faber; Baba Adam; Joe Wood; Charles (Deacon) Phillippe; Bill Dinneen and Stanley Coveleskie. Coveleskie did it in 1920, the last to unfurl such mound ability in a series until Tuesday.

Other new records set in the 1946 series:

  • Most hits by both clubs in one game, 29 (Cardinals 20 and Red Sox nine, October 10).

  • Three outfield assists on throws to the plate in one game by both clubs (Slaughter of Cardinals, DiMaggio and Williams of Red Sox; fourth game October 10).

  • Two outfield assists in one inning by one team (DiMaggio and Williams; fifth inning, fourth game October 10).

  • Three players on one team making four hits each in one game (Slaughter, Kurowski and Garagiola of the Cardinals; fourth game, October 10).

  • Four players making four hits each in one game, both clubs (Slaughter, Kurowski and Garagiola of the Cardinals and Moses of Red Sox; fourth game, October 10).

  • Most assists by a second baseman in a seven-game series (Doerr of Red Sox, 31, old record 28 by Stanley Harris of Washington in 1924).

  • Third baseman starting most double plays in a game (Kurowski of Cardinals, 2; sixth game, October 13)

Records tied:

  • Most pitchers used in one game, one club (Red Sox, 6; fourth game, October 10)

  • Most runs scored in one game (Slaughter, 4; fourth game, October 10)

  • Most times at bat in one inning (Slaughter, 2; ninth inning, fourth game, October 10).

  • Most assists by second baseman in a game (Doerr of Red Sox, 8; third game, October 9).

  • Most players used by one club in one game (18 by Red Sox; fourth game, October 10).

  • All starting nine players hitting safely in one game (Cardinals; fourth game, October 10).

  • Most players used in a seven-game series (Red Sox, 26, tying mark set by Detroit Tigers in 1945).

  • Most times at bat in a nine-inning game (Slaughter and Schoendienst, six times up; fourth game, October 10).

  • Most hits in a nine-inning game (Cardinals, 20, in fourth game October 10, tying mark set by New York Giants, October 7, 1921).

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Play by play

First inning

RED SOX: Moses singled to center. Pesky singled over second base sending Moses to third. DiMaggio flied to deep right field, Moses scoring easily after the catch as Musial cut off Slaughter’s throw-in. Pesky held first. Williams flied deep to Moore in straight center. Schoendienst took York’s pop fly. One run, two hits, no errors, one left.

CARDINALS: Schoendienst drilled a single to left and when Williams momentarily bobbled the ball Schoendienst tried to make second but was out, Williams to Pesky. Schoendienst slid in head first. York came in and took Moore’s pop. Musial lined a double over third base. Slaughter watched a third strike breeze by. No runs, two hits, no errors, one left.

Second inning

RED SOX: Doerr beat out a high bounder to Kurowski and ran to second when Kurowski’s throw to first was low and bounced away from Musial. Doerr was credited with a single and Kurowski with an error. Higgins bounced out, Schoendienst to Musial, sending Doerr to third. H. Wagner raised a fly to Walker in short left and Doerr was forced to hold third when Walker threw hurriedly plate-ward. Walker raced toward the left field corner and made an over-the-shoulder catch of Ferriss’ long drive. No runs, one hit, one error, one left.

CARDINALS: Kurowski doubled to left-center. DiMaggio’s fine backhanded stop prevented a triple. Garagiola rolled out, Doerr to York. Kurowski stopped at third. Walker lined to Williams in left-center, Kurowski racing in from third after the catch as Williams was off balance after hauling down the rising liner. The tally tied the score at 1-1. Marion bounced out, Doerr to York. One run, one hit, no errors, none left.

Third inning

RED SOX: Moses fouled out to Kurowski. Schoendienst threw out Pesky. DiMaggio went down on strikes. No runs, no hits, no errors, none left.

CARDINALS: Dickson went down swinging. Pesky threw out Schoendienst. Moore flied to Williams. No runs, no hits, no errors, none left.

Fourth inning

RED SOX: Walker raced into center field to make a running catch of Williams’ long curving fly. After catching the ball Walker collided with Moore but held on to the ball. York struck out. Doerr flied to Slaughter who raced back almost to the right-center field wall to make the catch. No runs, no hits, no errors, none left.

CARDINALS: Musial walked. Pesky took Slaughter’s foul fly. Kurowski flied deep to Moses. Garagiola rolled out, Doerr to York. No runs, no hits, no errors, one left.

Fifth inning

RED SOX: Moore made a spectacular backhanded running catch of Higgins’ blazing liner which was headed for the left-center field wall. It was by far the best fielding play of the series. H. Wagner fouled out to Kurowski. Ferriss bounded out Dickson to Musial. No runs, no hits, no errors, none left.

CARDINALS: Walter singled into centerfield. Marion sacrificed, York throwing to Doerr at first for the out. Dickson dumped a double over third scoring Walker to put the Cardinals ahead, 2-1. Schoendienst smashed a liner over second base for a single scoring Dickson. Moore singled into centerfield sending Schoendienst to second. Joe Dobson, winner of the fifth game of the series, went in to pitch for the Red Sox. Musial bounced out, Doerr to York, advancing both runners. Slaughter was purposely passed filling the bases. Higgins backed up for Kurowski’s bouncer and whipped to Doerr at second to force Slaughter. Two runs, four hits, no errors, three left.

Sixth inning

RED SOX: Moses bounced out to Musial. Pesky lined out. Dickson issued his first walk when he passed DiMaggio on five pitches. Williams sent a skyscraper to right field where Slaughter made the catch. No runs, no hits, no errors, one left.

CARDS: Garagiola struck out swinging at a three and two pitch. Walker walked on four straight pitches. Doerr threw out Marion, Walker taking second. Dickson received a great hand from the crowd as he came to bat and hit the first pitch on one bounce to Doerr who easily threw him out at first. No runs, no hits, no errors, one left.

Seventh inning

RED SOX: York struck out going down swinging for the second straight time. Doerr flied to Moore who stood in his tracks to make the catch. Marion scooped up Higgins’ grounder on two bounces and tossed him out at first. It was the shortstop’s first chance of the game. No runs, no hits, no errors, none left.

CARDINALS: Schoendienst missed a three and two pitch to become Dobson’s second strikeout victim. Doerr collided with Moses going after Moore’s fly in short right field but held on to the ball for the out. Doerr limped around for several moments, apparently having suffered a spike wound in his collision with Moses but continued in the game. Dobson’s knocked down Musial’s hot smash back to the box and tossed to first for an easy out. No runs, no hits, no errors, none left.

Eighth inning

RED SOX: Rip Russell, a righthanded hitter, batted for H. Wagner, who went hitless in 13 official trips to the plate in the series. Russell took a ball, then lined a single over second base into center field. It was Russell’s second successful pinch-hit appearance. Harry Brecheen and George Munger, a lefthander and righthander respectively, began warming up in the Cardinal Bullpen. George Metkovich, a lefthander hitter, batted for Dobson. Metkovich doubled down the left field foul line and Russell slow rounding second base, had to hold up at third. Brecheen who won two of the three Cardinal games, replaced Dickson on the mound. Apparently unheeding umpire Hubbard’s call, the lefthander had to be personally escorted by the umpire from the Bullpen. Bob Klinger, a righthander, and Johnson started warming up in the Red Sox Bullpen. Brecheen struck out Moses on three pitches as Moses watched a screwball cut the outside corner for the third strike. Slaughter came in fast to catch Pesky’s low liner and held the runners on their bases with a throw to the infield which was cut off by Musial. Howie Pollett, a Southpaw, joined Munger in the Cardinal Bullpen. DiMaggio doubled off the right centerfield wall scoring Russell and Metkovich tying the score at 3-3. DiMaggio twisted his right ankle rounding first base and Leon Culberson was sent in to run for him. Garagiola split the third finger of his right hand on a foul tip off Williams’ bat. Del Rice replaced Garagiola behind the plate for the Cardinals. Schoendienst ran out towering fly close to the foul line. Two runs, three hits, no errors, one left.

CARDINALS: Culberson replaced DiMaggio in center field. Roy Partee went behind the bat, and Bob Klinger went to the mound for the Red Sox. It was announced that DiMaggio had pulled a muscle in his right leg while running out his double in the top of the eighth inning. Slaughter took a ball, then reached out and slapped a single over second base into center field. Kurowski attempted to sacrifice but bunted a little pop fly between the mound and first base which Klinger caught, and Slaughter had to scamper back to first to avoid being doubled up. Williams loped back to the left field wall to get under and catch Rice’s long high-fly. Walker doubled over Pesky’s head and Slaughter continued around third and scored ahead of the relay from Culberson to Pesky to Partee. Apparently never dreaming that Slaughter would slide for home, Pesky hesitated with the ball long enough for Slaughter to slide past his frenzied delayed throw to the plate. Walker was credited with a run batted in. Earl Johnson, a Southpaw, replaced Klinger on the mound for the Red Sox. Brecheen bounced out – Doerr to York. One run, two hits, no errors, two left.

Ninth inning

RED SOX: York bounced a single past Kurowski into left field. Paul Campbell ran for York. Doerr dropped a single into short left, Campbell stopping at second. Higgins attempted to sacrifice but forced Doerr at second, Kurowski to Marion. The shortstop’s attempt for a double play barely missed as Higgins beat his relay to first while Campbell advanced to third. Doerr apparently still bothered by the injury suffered in his collision with Moses earlier in the game, limped off the field. Partee fouled to Musial near the boxes between first and home and the runners were forced to hold their bases. Tom McBride, a righthanded hitter, batted for Johnson. McBride rolled to Schoendienst who fielded the ball near second base and tossed underhand to Marion, forcing Higgins at second to end the game and the series. No runs, two hits, no errors, two left.

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And so to bed

Shortly after the Boston Red Sox dropped the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals yesterday afternoon, W. J. “Red” Gore, a local taxi driver, appeared at the counter of a Wilmington wholesale food store.

“I want a case of Boston baked beans,” he ordered.

He got the beans, took them to the express office, and put the following address on the case: Boston Red Sox, Boston, Massachusetts.

Inside the case he put a note stipulating that two cans be given to Ted Williams, the Sox’s American League batting champion.

Commented “Red” with a perfectly straight face: “What vitamines did this year for the Cards, these beans might do next year for the Sox.”

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St. Louis Post-Dispatch (October 16, 1946)

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Triumphant roar throughout city hails Cardinal series victory

Wild celebrations marked by ‘snowstorm’ of paper, confetti downtown – many impromptu parades

Still exuberant, St. Louisans returned to work today after a boisterous celebration of the Cardinal victory over the Boston Red Sox yesterday, bringing the home team its sixth world championship.

Immediately after “Pinky” Higgins was forced out at second base in the ninth inning at Sportsman’s Park, ending the battle, office workers began throwing confetti, scarce toilet paper, bills of lading and old letters out windows of downtown office buildings.

Parts of Olive Street and Washington avenues were soon ankle deep in paper. Confetti swirled down and caught on streetcar wires. For a brief time, a paper snowstorm enveloped pedestrians. Bits of cotton and woolen scraps went sailing out the windows of wholesale clothing houses on Washington Avenue. Adding machine and ticker tape added to the blizzard.

Soon jalopies with signs chalked on their sider began appearing in downtown streets, “Cards Washed Boston’s Sox” and “Cards Had a Boston Tea Party” were the messages carried by a group of teenagers in an old machine. Horns blared, weary policemen fought to keep traffic orderly, and pennants waved as celebrants began buying souvenirs from vendors on street corners.

Boys in woolen underwear

Boys in woolen underwear, garnished with green confetti, rode down Washington Avenue in another jalopy waving big balloons and yelling.

At the ball park, when the game ended with two Red Sox stranded on the bases, the ecstatic Cardinals hoisted their winning pitcher, Harry (The Cat) Brecheen to their shoulders and almost smothered him. Fans rushed out and half carried Brecheen and his teammates to the dugout.

Hundreds of seat cushions were thrown to the field from the stands. Excited fans rang cowbells, beat on drums and yelled themselves hoarse. A man in right field beat two cowbells against the pavilion wall and, through a megaphone, shouted to the departing spectators about the great performance by the Cardinals.

Thousands of fans poured out on the field but Andy Frain’s vigilant guards kept them off the infield, even though the season was now over. Several fans wanted to pry home plate off the field but a stubborn guard refused to permit it.

Scorecards, scraps of paper and confetti littered the field. Joe Cronin, manager of the defeated Red Sox, inched his way through the crowd around the Cardinal dugout to offer his congratulations to the winning team. Two fans patted Cronin on the back.

Bobbysoxers and autograph collectors waited patiently on Spring Avenue for the victorious players to appear. As he left the park, “Whitey” Kurowski was kissed soundly by a woman fan.

Many leaving the ball park joyfully discussed the fate of gamblers, who had been sure of a Boston victory. “I’d hate to be Jimmy Carroll (the betting commissioner),” one said. “Don’t worry about him,” another replied, “I’ll bet he hedged.”

A survey indicated only a few bookmakers actually lost money on the series. Betting Commissioner Carroll in East St. Louis reported that he “about broke even.” An associate said that if Boston had won, “he would have made money.”

Only the smaller bookmakers appeared to have lost. All through the series, odds favored Boston because all the “smart, big money” in the East was bet on Boston. Odds when the series opened were 7 to 20 on Boston ($20 bet wins $7) and on the Cardinals 11 to 5 ($5 bet wins $11). Before yesterday’s game, odds had narrowed to 13 to 20 on the Sox and 13 to 10 on the Cardinals.

In East St. Louis, two handbooks reported they broke even and one reported a slight loss. Bookmakers explained that when bets are even, they make the odds 5 to 6 and take your choice, in order to insure a safety margin for themselves.

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$1,052,900 receipts for World Series after paying taxes

$3757 apiece for Cards, $2052 for Red Sox – 7-game attendance 250,071

World Series gross receipts were $1,294,662; the net, after taxes, $1,052,900, it was announced today. The Cardinals paid $155,916 in federal, state and city taxes and Boston paid $85,846 in federal taxes.

On a $6.25 grandstand ticket, actual admission cost was $6. The 20 percent federal amusement tax added $1, 2 percent state sales tax added 10 cents and 3 percent city license fee added 15 cents to the final charge.

Each Cardinal player received $3757 as his share of the receipts. Each Boston player got $2052. Players share only in 60 percent of the gross receipts of the first four games. The Cardinals and Sox split $212,898, with $127,739 lo the winners.

A $175,000 radio broadcasting fee, normally added to the players’ shares, was withheld and is expected to be placed in a players’ pension fund.

Total attendance at seven games was 250,071. Players’ shares, split 34 ways for the Cardinals, were the lowest since 1918.

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Sixth world title another chapter in legend of Cardinal daring

Slaughter’s run to certain death is winning gamble; Brecheen and Walker also heroes of epic finish
By J. Roy Stockton, sports editor of the Post-Dispatch

Eddie Dyer’s Cardinals are champions of the world, the sixth team to win baseball’s highest honors under the ownership of Sam Breadon, and in the 1946 victory, as in other years of cash and glory, speed, during and the ability to wage an uphill fight have been important.

Spectators in the grandstand, keyed to a nervous, heart-testing pitch through inning after inning of exciting thrills, thought Coach Miguel Angel Gonzalez was sending Enos Slaughter to certain death in the eighth inning of the seventh and final game of the big baseball show. Leon Culberson had fielded Harry Walker’s double with neatness and dispatch and had relayed the ball to Johnny Pesky. Pesky was not too far back on the grass. He had the ball as Slaughter rounded third.

Clearly among the cheers could be heard a roar of anger as Gonzalez waved Slaughter toward the plate. Enos was going to be a dead duck.

Gonzalez redeemed

But the long chance paid off and no lynching parties were looking for the good Senor Gonzalez last night. No, the grandstand managers didn’t think Slaughter ought to try to score and Shortstop Johnny Pesky had sized up the situation, too. He didn’t think Slaughter would try to score. And in that moment of surprise Pesky hesitated. He had dropped his arms and was moving in to take charge of a situation he thought would include a Slaughter on third base. And before he could readjust himself, before he could cock his arm, Slaughter had the advantage. In his surprise Pesky didn’t put enough on his throw, the ball sagged on its way to the plate and the hard-running Slaughter, sliding the last 20 feet, skidded over the plate with the run that made the Redbirds champions once more.

That’s Cardinal baseball whether you like it or not and apparently the fans like it. More than a million have paid at Sportsman’s Park this season to see Dyer’s Redbirds run and slide and take chances and come from behind. They have seen them thrown out, too. The crowd at the final game saw Schoendienst thrown out in the first inning, on the first Redbird play on the offense. Red singled to left and when Manager Dyer saw Ted Williams fumble momentarily, he sent Schoendienst on to second. Williams made a fine throw and Schoendienst was out. But safe or out the Cardinals will take the chances and it must be good baseball. It won the world championship for them, whereas the Red Sox, who played it extremely safe in their eighth and ninth innings, merely finished second in the blue-chip struggle.

Outfield distinguished

It was a great finish to a series that was a little on the drab side in the early stages. From the first inning, when the Red Sox scored a run because a double play grounder took a weird hop past the glove of Marty Marion, until Schoendienst threw to Marion for a force play that ended the struggle, it was anybody’s contest, with thrill following thrill.

Each inning, too, it seemed, had the roll of those who won the game, you’d have to read the batting order. Terry Moore made a great catch in center field, and Harry Walker was high on the list of heroes, with his two important hits, a single that started a two-run fifth inning rally and his double that drove in the winning run. Yes, the outfield distinguished itself.

Harry Brecheen was the winning pitcher, stopping the Red Sox in the last two innings. But Murry Dickson served brilliantly, too. For seven innings he turned back the toughest Boston hitters and had it not been for that weird bounce in the first inning, he would have had a shutout until the eighth.

Two pinch-hitters caused Murry’s difficulties in the eighth inning. Glen Russell batted for Hal Wagner and singled and Metkovich batted for Joe Dobson and doubled. With runners on second and third Manager Dyer didn’t hesitate, Dickson didn’t want to leave the game. But Dyer had decided that he was going to win or lose with his best. Brecheen had beaten the Red Sox twice. Brecheen had told Dyer before the game that he would be ready if needed.

The Cat stays in

Brecheen did a fine job of relieving. He struck out Wally Moses and then retired Pesky on a fly to Slaughter. Enos was playing despite a painful right elbow, hit by a pitched ball in the final game at Boston. But the Sox played it safe. Russell didn’t try to score after that fly. However, Dom DiMaggio whacked a double against the right field wall and two runs crossed the plate to tie the score.

Brecheen was in trouble in the ninth inning, too, when York and Doerr singled. But Dyer stayed with Brecheen and the Cat came through for him,

Dyer, a pennant winner in his first year as a major league manager, joins a long line of field directors who have piloted Sam Breadon’s athletes to fame and cash. Rogers Hornsby started the parade back in 1926, Bill McKechnie won in 1928, Gabby Street in 1930 and 1931, Frankie Frisch in 1934 and Billy Southworth in 1942, 1943 and 1944. Dyer is No. 5 in the world title parade, as Hornsby, Street, Frisch and Southworth managed world champions. Southworth, whose Redbirds defeated the Yankees in 1942 and the Browns in 1944, is the only manager ever to score two victories in the October competition with the American League.

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Singin’ Sam warbles happy tune, calls ’46 greatest year of all

By W. J. McGoogan

“And we’ll win it again next year,” Sam Breadon, president of the Cardinals, said defiantly with a belligerent look in his eyes during the celebration at Cardinal headquarters last night.

“I never had anything in my baseball history which gave me the thrill that I got out of winning this world championship,” Breadon went on.

You reminded him that you’d heard him say the same thing in each of the six years that the Cardinals had won baseball’s highest honors in the past 20 years.

“Maybe so,” replied the Redbirds’ owner again, “but I mean it. This was the best.”

And how about next year? Leo Durocher, manager of the Dodgers, has already promised the Brooklyn fans the National League pennant in four or five of the next five or six years. How about that?

No sale – pennant or club

“Well, we’ll just have to wait and see,” said Breadon. “Durocher also said that his club would win this year. But they didn’t, maybe he’ll be just as wrong in the next few years.”

And there’s always the matter of selling the Cardinals to interest Breadon. How about that?

“I can still say no to that question,” Sam said. “They’re always selling the ball club. You know that since 1935 when Lou Wentz was going to buy it, there have been plenty of others. But they never come out and make a concrete offer to me.”

About that time somebody suggested some Irish songs for which Sam is a sucker. He led in his Bleecker Street tenor in singing “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” and a few other songs along the same line. But he never missed a cue with his questioners until long past midnight when, the celebration over, he walked away into the night with the assertion that he would “by golly” drive home.

Not, however, before he said: “Dyer? Sure he’ll be the manager next year. He has a contract and, besides, he did a great job this season and he’s been a great friend of mine.”

Loaf? Ask the Red Sox

And Eddie is happy in his job, too.

“I know that a lot of the fellas thought we were loafing this year,” said the Cardinal manager earlier, toweling himself after a shower, “and that’s all right what they say about me. But when they say anything about my ball club they’re not being fair. The boys have hustled all season long.

“Take Slaughter, Musial and others, They’ve told me ‘Skip, my chief ambition is to play every inning of every ball game.’ And Pollet. He lost a tough 4-hit game in Brooklyn one night and the next afternoon he came past the dugout and said ‘Skip, if you need me for a few innings today, I’ll be ready.’ Now how can anybody say ball players like that are loafing?

“Why wouldn’t they take into consideration the fact that Terry Moore had to be used sparingly all year because of his leg injuries? And further that we lost three fine ball players to Mexico in Max Lanier, Fred Martin and Lou Klein? That’s the chief reason we didn’t win sooner and by a larger margin.”

Reminded that he and Joe Cronin, manager of the Red Sox, should be highly commended for the way they had treated newspaper men, whose duty it is to go into the clubhouses after each game, Eddie replied:

“I’ve known you for 25 years and any time you catch me getting out of line, I wish you would, as a friend, tell me. We know the difficulties you guys have and we always want to help.”

Cronin praises outfield

And over on the side of the losing Boston club, Cronin walked into the dressing room, with a stricken look on his handsome face. He visited the Cardinal clubhouse first to offer his congratulations to winners, then went to his own locker to dress for the train.

“I give all the credit for the Cardinal victory to the fine defensive play of their outfield,” he said. “Slaughter, Walker and Moore were all great. They made impossible catches and they stopped us every time we seemingly were started.”

Asked if, perhaps, winning the pennant early didn’t take the edge off the Red Sox, Joe reflected a moment, then said: “Well, it didn’t help us any. But I’m not offering that as an alibi.”

As the Red Sox trouped into their dressing room, they were a grim bunch of athletes. There was not a smile among them until Don Gutteridge same along. And he had a grin. And you remembered other days with other teams when the going was awfully rough, but that Gutteridge always had a grin. You can’t get him down. So he grinned. A little.

Ted Williams meditates

Ted Williams sat for a long time before his locker before taking off his uniform. He really was dejected.

Commissioner Happy Chandler came in and made every effort to cut the gloom, but all he got out of Williams was: “I never missed so many balls in my life. I’ve never did any drinking, but tonight I’ll get drunk.”

Whereupon he reached for a bottle of coke.

Larry Woodall, grand old coach of the Red Sox, took the defeat in stride and remarked that “it had been a great series from the spectators’ standpoint and I’m sure everybody liked the games.”

Casualty department store

Dom DiMaggio walked out of the shower room, pleased with his game-tying double despite the club’s logs and explained that he had hit a fine screw ball with a count of three balls and one strike on him.

“Had Brecheen thrown the fastball, I think I would have taken it,” DiMaggio said, “but I was set for the screwball and when it came along, I whacked it.”

DiMaggio pulled a muscle in his leg but said there was nothing wrong except a severe charley horse and that he knew everything would be all right.

Joe Garagiola, meanwhile, was in the Cardinal clubhouse receiving ministrations from Doc Weaver, the Cardinal trainer, for the injury suffered when he was hit by a foul tip from the bat of Ted Williams. Dr. Robert F. Hyland, club surgeon, said today X-rays disclosed a fracture of the tip bone of the finger next to the little finger on his right hand.

Remember?

Perhaps visiting writers now will forget the seventh game of the world series in 1931, between the Cardinals and Athletics, which failed to draw more than 21,000 people, in view of the tremendous crowd in Sportsman’s Park yesterday when 36,143 crowded in to see the series final.

For all those years all you’ve heard around the circuit was that St. Louis couldn’t draw for a seventh Series game. Explanations meant nothing, but now they probably know that the open date before the final game is a big help.

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Editorial: Poor Boston!

For the Cabots and the Lowells Boston may be “the hub of the universe,” but for the St. Louis Cardinals it is just a whistle stop. Breathing fire and brimstone, Ted Williams, the “second Ty Cobb,” “Boo” Ferriss, the undefeatable, and the rest of the glamorous crew bore down from haughty New England to put the Gas House Gang in their place, and incidentally win for Boston its first world series pennant in 28 years.

But alas, poor Yawkey, and alas, poor York! The vista of the years will tell how much longer they will have to wait. Forever, presumably, if the Redbirds keep the stout fighting heart they showed in this campaign.

The Cardinals were never ahead in the series until the end of the fifth inning of the seventh game – and they had to win the game again after the Red Sox came back and tied the score in the eighth.

And finally the winning score was tallied for the very reason that boys from Boston underestimated their opposition. Taking the relay from the outfield, Pesky never thought Enos Slaughter would dare try to make it home. It took Pesky a minor fraction of a split second to see what was happening, and then the throw home was too late.

It is just as well the series is over. Even the seasoned fan can take only so much excitement. That history-making catch of Terry Moore’s, when he thrust out his glove and took the ball while running full tilt; the winning run by Slaughter; “Cat” Brecheen’s work in pulling out of the tight places – when will there be another world series final like yesterday’s?

When? Why, every St. Louisan knows it will happen again whenever the Cardinals need to extend themselves that much to take the pennant.

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The Evening Star (October 16, 1946)

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Slaughter No. 1 thief in stolen World Series; Pesky proves ‘goat’

Cardinal ace’s hustle in final game caps fine performance
By Jack Hand, Associated Press sports writer

ST. LOUIS (AP) – The Gas House Gang spirit still lives in the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, who have stolen the 1946 series from the favored Boston Red Sox on the sheer hustle of Enos Slaughter.

The score was tied at 3-3 in the eighth inning of yesterday’s decisive seventh game and the full pressure of baseball’s 16th million-dollar series was riding heavily on every pitch when Harry Walker lined a base hit into left center. “Eno,” who had singled to open the inning, catapulted off first base, rounded second and headed for third while Leon Culberson retrieved the ball and made a quick relay to Shortstop Johnny Pesky.

Making the full sweep at third while Coach Mike Gonzalez flapped the come-on sign like an excited mother hen, Slaughter lit out for the plate.

Pesky’s peg too late

Pesky, apparently not expecting that sort of daring base-running, had dropped his arm halfway, watching Walker run toward second, before he realized Slaughter was hot-footing home with the tie-breaking run. His peg to Roy Partee was too late as Slaughter topped off his magnificent heads-up running with a fine slide that scored a run worth $3,757.04 to each Cardinal share holder.

Harry Brecheen, making a relief appearance when Murry Dickson weakened, clung grimly to the 4-3 margin through a threatening ninth to become a three-game winner. Not since 1920 when Stanley Coveleskie whipped Brooklyn three times to give Cleveland the title, had any hurler picked up three victories in a single series.

Oddly enough, a two-run double by Dom DiMaggio that almost lost the game, actually gave Brecheen his chance to get into the record books.

Dickson, like Brecheen a pint-sized workman, had handcuffed the Bostons for six innings after giving up a run in the first on singles by Wally Moses and Johnny Pesky, followed by DiMaggio’s run-scoring fly to Slaughter. After Bobby Doerr led off the second with a scratch single. Dickson did not allow a base hit until the eighth when two pinch-hitters drove him from the box.

Russell’s single starts rally

Rip Russell, hitting for Catcher Hal Wagner, started it with a single and moved to third when George Metkovich, batting for Relief Pitcher Joe Dobson, doubled.

Although Manager Eddie Dyer knew Brecheen was weary from a full nine-inning victory Sunday, he had faith in the little left-hander to subdue this sudden threat. After striking out Wally Moses and taking Pesky on a fly, Brecheen yielded the tying runs on DiMaggio’s two-bagger.

Gone was the two-run edge that Dyer had been coddling since his Cardinals knocked Dave Ferris out of the box in a two-run fifth inning. Instead, the score was knotted, with a man on second and the “mighty” Ted Williams at bat. Brecheen dug in and forced the kid to loft a high pop to Red Schoendienst.

After Slaughter’s brilliant base running on top of Walker’s double, Brecheen once more had the series in his hip pocket, but this most thrilling of any closing game in several years was not over yet.

Successive singles by Rudy York and the troublesome Doerr created a delicate ninth-inning situation. But Pinky Higgins forced Doerr at second, Roy Partee popped to Stan Musial and the game ended when Pinch Hitter Tom McBride bounced to Schoendienst for a series-clinching force of Higgins at second base.

Jubilant celebration

The pitching mound was the scene of a jubilant Cardinal celebration as his mates lifted Brecheen on their shoulders. It was a great moment, too, in Cardinal history, the fourth straight time they had won out in a seven-game series and their sixth triumph in all.

For Boston, defeat was doubly bitter because of the knowledge they were the first Red Sox club ever to lose a World Series after they had made a show of the rest of the American League in coasting to a pennant by a 12-game margin. Boston also had been made 7-20 series favorites by the odds makers.

In a sense it was a personal triumph for Dyer, the soft-spoken Texan who was lured back to baseball from the oil business by his wife.

But more than that personal triumph for Dyer, whose team had overcome a 7½-game Brooklyn lead on July 2 finally to tie for the National League flag and win the playoff, it was an inspiring example of team success.

.320 mark for Slaughter

Slaughter, the best player in the series in this book, summed it up before the season ended when he said, “There’s only one thing to playing ball. That’s hustle… the only way I know to play.”

Slaughter hit .320, tied a record with four hits in Boston and took care of the final victory despite a painfully swollen right elbow that almost forced him out of the lineup for the last two games.

Pesky probably will wear the goat’s horns because he committed four of his team’s 10 errors, hit only .233 and cost the Sox the final game by his moment of hesitation in relaying Culberson’s peg to the plate.

The 36,143 last-day sellout at Sportsman’s Park boosted the series over the million mark at $1,052,920, not counting the $175,000 for radio rights which ordinarily is split up among the players. It is being held in escrow to be used in the proposed player pension fund.

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Win, Lose or Draw…
The world championship; it was in the Cards

By Francis E. Stann, Star staff correspondent

ST. LOUIS – If there have been any gamer ball clubs than the champion St. Louis Cardinals this bureau never has seen one. In the first place they can’t come any gamer, any grittier. Better, yes, but not gamer.

Here is a team picked almost unanimously to win the National League pennant last spring. The stars of the Redbirds were coming home from the service to roost … Beazley … Moore … Musial … Munger … Lanier … Grodznicki and the rest. Then, out of nowhere, sprung the Brooklyn Dodgers to take a seven-game lead.

The Cards were in trouble, deep trouble. Grodznicki returned shot up. He had been a paratrooper and was too crippled to pitch. Lanier jumped to the Mexican League. Beazley came back with a bad arm, Moore with a bad knee, Munger too late to help in the final drive. But the Cardinals overcame the lead, anyway, and beat the Dodgers in the most thrilling finish in series history and today, because they don’t know how and when to quit, they are world champions.

There have been very few clubs like the Cardinals. They go down but they keep getting up. It’s like trying to sink a cork in a bathtub. The moment you let go they’re up again, ready for more.

Redbirds whittled ‘big three’ down to size

The Cards won the series from the Boston Red Sox chiefly because they never gave up. Rudy York belted them one on the whiskers in the first game when his 10th-inning homer beat them, 3-2. He beat the Cards’ No. 1 pitcher, Howie Pollet, too.

York hit them again in the third game with another home run and then in the fifth game Joe Dobson, a journeyman pitcher, beat them with four hits and beat Pollet, too. But that’s all you can do is beat the Cards; you never can discourage them.

The Cards are world champions because they remained loose, too. “Loose” is a term which means relaxed, yet alert. And another reason they won is because they were strangely unawed and recklessly smart in pitching to Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky, Boston’s so-called “big three.” They made a .200 hitter out of Williams, who drove across only one run during the entire seven-game series. They made a .200 hitter out of Pesky who drove across no runs and scored only two. They made a .222 hitter out of DiMaggio, who didn’t knock across a run until the eighth inning yesterday.

Hospital cases won series for the Birds

The Red Sox, taken aback, stayed in the series only help came from unexpected sources, like York and Wally Moses, who nearly are washed up. With the Cards whipping their Tex Hughson, Mickey Harris and, finally, driving Dave Ferriss to cover the Red Sox were demoralized completely. All this and stopping Williams, DiMaggio and Pesky, too!

The Cards were a great team to watch. They went into the series battered, bruised and weary, but, withal, determined. Moore, who makes miraculous catches, was playing on a knee that shortly will be split open by a surgeon in the hope of prolonging the career of one of the great fly-chasers of all time. Marty Marion has been playing with a sacroiliac disturbance that pains him whenever he stretches for a ground ball. Slaughter, easily the best outfielder of the series, played the last two games against his doctor’s orders.

“There’s a man who may be ending his playing days,” said Dr. Robert Hyland, famous surgeon, in admiration when Slaughter insisted on returning to the line-up after being hit on his throwing arm by Dobson last week. Instead, Slaughter won the series by his base running yesterday and will be back next year.

Pollet pitched twice with a bad side and only time will tell at what price. A 20-year-old catcher named Joe Garagiola, an admitted busher and hero-worshipper, caught most of the series and cried bitterly when he finally was led off the field yesterday with a smashed toe and a split hand. He batted .316 in his first series.

The Cat prowled and had many lives

But the big man of the series was the little man, meaning Harry (The Cat) Brecheen. He weighs 155 pounds and 150 pounds of him must be heart.

It was The Cat who pulled the Cards to 1-1 games after Pollet was beaten. It was The Cat who tied up the series 3-3 and yesterday it was The Cat who won it after an even smaller teammate, Murry Dickson, had pitched his heart out for seven innings.

The Card pitchers are remarkable. Except for George Munger, they all seem to be little Bill Johnstons, Albie Booths, Joie Rays. They’re like the wild horses of the West, small, wiry, tough. Brecheen relieved Dickson yesterday in the eighth inning, when the Sox tied the score, and ne had precisely nothing on the ball, which was to be expected after only one day of rest. But he won, which recalls Manager Eddie Dyer’s prophetic words of the night before.

“I’ll have Brecheen ready,” said Dyer. “He won’t have his stuff, but he’ll have his heart and that’s enough for me.”

It was too much for the Red Sox!

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Pesky’s lapse recalls 1940 Bartell pause which cost series

ST. LOUIS (AP) – When Johnny Pesky dozed with the ball after taking Leon Culberson’s throw from centerfield on Harry Walker’s hit and allowed Enos Slaughter to score the winning run in the eighth inning of the World Series’ deciding game, observers were reminded of a similar situation in the 1940 series.

Dick Bartell of the Detroit Tigers made a similar pause in relaying the ball to the plate in that series and Frank McCormick scored the run that gave the Cincinnati Reds the world championship in seven games.

The same Miguel Gonzales, who was charged with poor coaching when he waved two Cardinal base runners home, from third in the fourth game which resulted in both being caught, was one of the heroes of the deciding game when he kept waving Slaughter home, although it appeared he would be cut down at the plate.

Yesterday’s finale marked the only time in this series that the team which scored first failed to win the game.

Although the Red Sox were beaten, they had the satisfaction of having the number one hit collector in Bobby Doerr, whose 9 safeties in 22 at bats gave him a .409 average. Harry Walker, Cards’ outfielder, owned the best average with .412 and drove in the most runs, 6, one more than Boston’s Rudy York.

Capt. Terry Moore of the Cardinals will undergo an operation next week for removal of a troublesome cartilage from his left knee. Meanwhile, a one-legged Moore remained incomparable as he demonstrated by his back-handed catch of Pinky Higgins’ bid for a triple starting the Red Sox half of the fifth inning.

Betting circles reported only a heavy flow of Boston money on the seventh game kept bookmakers in these parts from taking their worst beating since Black Gold handed them a trimming in the 1924 Kentucky Derby. After Boston won the opening game a $1 bet on the Cards would get you $3.50 and the Redbirds found some loyal supporters.

The Cardinals split their $127,739.32 cut of the series receipts 34 ways, giving each member $3,757.04. The Red Sox sliced the losers portion of $85,159.55 into 41½ shares amounting to $2,052.03 for each player getting a full cut.

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Brecheen is first lefthander to win three series victories

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Harry (the Cat) Brecheen’s season record of 15 won and as many lost was strictly on the mediocre side, but the Cardinals’ clutch-pitching southpaw today held a World Series record that probably never will be surpassed.

In coming through triumphantly with his courageous relief hurling job against the Red Sox in the seventh game of the classic yesterday, the hungry-looking portsider from Oklahoma became the first lefthander in baseball’s annals to record three World Series victories and the ninth hurler to accomplish the feat.

The slim Cardinal with the ice in his veins was the first pitcher to turn in the trick since Stanley Coveleskie cooled off the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1920 with a trio of mound masterpieces.

Other chucking craftsmen to rack up three in one series were Christy Mathewson, with three shutouts in 1905: Jack Coombs, Urban Faber, Babe Adams, Joe Wood, Charles (Deacon) Phillippe and Bill Dineen.

While the series’ pitching was excellent on the whole, one important batting standard was bettered, thanks to the Cardinals’ stick spree in the fourth game. In that contest the Redbirds collected 20 hits to tie the figure established for a nine-inning contest by the New York Giants in 1921. With the addition of Boston’s nine safeties for that game, the two teams shared in the new record of 29 hits for a single game.

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Cards’ owner prizes 1946 victory more than all others

ST. LOUIS (AP) – “Singin’ Sam” Breadon, 70-year-old white-haired president of the Cardinals, was the happiest man in baseball today, with a world championship which he prized more than all five previously won by his teams since 1926.

This is why:

Because his beloved Cardinals entered the series with the Red Sox undervalued underdogs: because of their achievement in bowling over the Brooklyn Dodgers in the National League playoff, and their tremendous, unconquerable team spirit.

“I got more satisfaction out of winning this series than the other five combined,” Breadon said.

“Those Cardinals who conquered the Red Sox have guts … they never quit … never knew when they were licked. I may have owned better ball clubs, but certainly never a gamer one.”

Breadon is an amazing character and one of baseball’s shrewdest operators. At the age of 70 he could pass for 50. He has never experienced a pain or a headache, reads without glasses, worked his head off in directing the Cardinals’ business management and tires out his colleagues in doing it.

A remarkable success in operating the team, Breadon first invested $200 in the Cardinals when they were in financial distress in 1917. Today he owns 77 percent of the stock and probably will gross an estimated $1,500,000 this year as a result of the record-breaking attendance during the season, together with the sale of five players and the share of World Series and playoff receipts.

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Red Sox without alibi, Williams says, praising Cards’ spirit

By Ted Williams

ST. LOUIS – I knew that seventh game of the World Series was going to be a whale of a ball game. It was, every bit of the way. But I hardly thought we would wind up wailing.

The reporters were held out of our dressing room for five minutes after the game. If they had been allowed in, they wouldn’t have had any quotes. None of us felt like talking. We wanted this game more than any other we’ve played. What can we say except that we were beaten by a very good ball club.

When the series started, I said the Cardinals had a good team. I said they would give us a battle. After all they have two arms, two legs and two eyes apiece like we. Their arms, legs and eyes were better than ours over the seven games.

I’ve never known at team that had more fight than the Cardinals. We got the jump on them yesterday, but they came back to take the lead. Then we tied it up and they bounced off the deck again. That Slaughter murdered us with his feet as well as his bat. He ran like a scared rabbit to score the winning run.

Brecheen was the big hero of the series. I think his mere presence on the field inspired the Cardinals.

I’m glad it’s all over. Now I can go hunting and fishing. But there’s something I’ll steer clear of. It will be wildcats in the fields and catfish in the streams. Brother, keep those cats away from my path and my peepers.

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Wife’s insistence brought Dyer back into baseball

ST. LOUIS (AP) – If the flags are flying in Houston, Texas, today for Eddie Dyer’s Cardinals, hoist another banner on a high staff for Mrs. D.

It was Geraldine Dyer who persuaded her husband to leave his oil business and take Sam Breadon’s offer to manage the Redbirds for 1946.

“Now see here,” she told Eddie. “You’ve held yearly every kind of job in the Cardinals’ organization. They’re asking you to take a tough one this time. If you don’t, they’ll say you are running away from it.”

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Editorial: Experts confounded

The baseball “experts” who figured that the 1947 World Series would be an anticlimax to the National League playoff between the Cardinals and the Dodgers are a discredited lot today. Their predictions were as phony as those long odds which backed the Boston Red Sox to beat the St. Louis Cards for the world championship.

The outcome of the series was not the only upset to upset the experts. There was the failure of the much-discussed Ted Williams to live up to his reputation as a long-distance slugger. Ted’s final chance to overcome the jinx which kept him from getting anything better than a single came to him in the hair-raising eighth inning, when he went to bat with one man on base and two men out. He popped out. They will be talking and writing about Ted Williams for a long time to come. And there was that twenty-hit barrage unloosed by the Cardinals in tying the World Series record for most hits per game. There was also the three-game victory achievement of the little-publicized St. Louis pitcher, Brecheen. Even those who feared that weather would interfere with the late-season series were wrong.

Clinging to the sports spotlight after football already had sought to claim the stage, baseball has bowed out in a manner befitting the great American pastime. Football now can have full sway, which means another fertile field for the inevitable and incorrigible experts. Already they are at work. Now take the Redskins – but, experts or no experts, most of us would rather see the Redskins take the Boston Yanks next Sunday.

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Oshkosh Daily Northwestern (October 16, 1946)

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Editorial: Cardinals come up from behind

At last, after a long and hard uphill fight against what originally seemed like odds impossible to overcome, the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League won the World Series in a finish that was one of the most spectacular in the modern history of the great American sport of baseball.

The victory they grasped yesterday in the seventh and final clash with the erstwhile invincible Boston Red Sox of the American League came at the very point where it was nobody’s game and the crowd was dizzy over the possibilities. But the Cards were equal to the ticklish occasion and they proved that they had a great defense combination that could not be beaten. Boston failed to put in the base hits when they were needed and it must have been tough for them to lose, after deadlocking the score in the top half of the eighth inning. No wonder Joe Cronin had tears in his eyes and Eddie Dyer was jubilant, when the two managers met after the contest, with the latter receiving the congratulations of the former.

It was a great day for Enos Slaughter, Terry Moore, Harry Walker and Harry Brecheen, the latter of “screwball” fame. And it was a day of sadness for gangling Ted Williams, the batting hero of the Red Sox, for his record of no hits in the crucial event made him a pathetic figure. His batting slump in the World Series was in sharp contract with his performances in the American League schedule and it will be hard for him to forget that he got only five singles in 25 times up to bat. Dom DiMaggio of the Red Sox was in the limelight for driving in all of Boston’s runs.

A lot of money must have changed hands as a result of the series, for Boston was picked for a comparatively easy win at high odds at the beginning. But the Cards never gave up and made it a real nip and tuck affair, to develop one of the longest and closest struggles of the kind in baseball history.

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Reno Evening Gazette (October 16, 1946)

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Editorial: They earned the crown

We apologize to those doughty St. Louis Cardinals for having suggested that they were no match for the Boston Red Sox. We are ready to do penance in sackcloth and ashes, along with all the other “experts” who intimated that Ted Williams’ big bat could not be silenced and that the Cardinals would be taken for a ride on the Boston “Ferriss wheel.”

On paper, the Red Sox were invincible. They excelled their National League “cousins” in practically every department of the national pastime.

But the (we) prophets ignored one vital element in the paper evaluations of the Cardinals – the fighting heart that often carries the weaker on to victory over “invincibles.” We see it every Saturday on one or more college gridirons, and it has upset “dope buckets” many times before in World Series battles.

The Cardinals never led their American League rivals in the “games won” column of the series until yesterday, and that was the one that counted. Three times they came from behind to knot the count. They labored under a one-run deficit yesterday until the second inning. A less stout-hearted team would have weakened after the Red Sox tied the score in the eighth, but they came back to score a run and a world series championship.

That is the stuff of which champions are made, and the diadem symbolic of the baseball world championship rests deservedly upon the brows of the St. Louis Cardinals.

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The Wilmington Morning Star (October 17, 1946)

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Choosing World Series’ goat faces baseball sport scribe

By Whitney Martin

NEW YORK, Oct. 16 (AP) – While the winning players in a World Series are tooting their horns there always some member of the losing team wearing them, so there will be a lot of speculation as to which of the Boston Red Sox conceivably might be termed the goat of the 1946 event.

Some critics might pin the label on Ted Williams, but we don’t string along with that. It’s true that much was expected of the gangly guy. He was doped (not literally, of course) to be the power of the Boston attack.

He wasn’t, but this doesn’t make him a goat in our book. When a man, through circumstances beyond his control, can’t come through, he can’t be blamed. The Cardinal pitchers were the circumstances beyond Ted’s control. In the field he played heads-up ball, was not guilty of any mental lapses. You can’t pin the horns on some body for physical inability to do something, and Ted just wasn’t physically able to hit the ball consistently.

Some critics might name Johnny Pesky for the doubtful honor of wearing the head spears. It was Johnny’s slight hesitation on the relay of Leon Culbertson’s throw from center field after Harry Walker’s hit that permitted Enos Slaughter to score from first base in the eighth inning of the final game, the run proving the victory margin.

It’s entirely possible Pesky just couldn’t conceive anyone having the sheer gall to try to score from first on such a hit, which we saw only as a clean single, although Walker was credited with a double. He probably thought Slaughter was bluffing when he rounded third and was going to try to nip him there when he hustled back. By that time he saw the runner meant to go all the way it was too late, as Slaughter actually outraced the ball to the plate. We never saw a ball player run so fast.

Had Slaughter held up at third, and Pesky’s throw there caught him as he returned to the bag, Pesky’s play would have been considered smart. Slaughter didn’t stop, so Pesky is the fall guy.

Heroes were provided in dozen lots during the series. There is Slaughter of course, who in addition to his great gallop fielded and threw amazingly and was the Cardinals’ power at the plate. There was Harry Brecheen, with his triple triumph. There was Terry Moore, playing on a painfully crippled leg and providing the two outstanding catches of the series.

Heroes don’t necessarily have to be on the winning team. Large Rudy York rates some acclaim. He won two games for the Red Sox with rousing home runs. And there was the unheralded Joe Dobson going the route on the mound and beating the Cards when he was considered a very doubtful starter.

All in all, the series was in the nature of an exoneration of National League baseball, which many critics after the All-Star game, had indicated was strictly Class C compared with the American League brand. Figuring that the Cardinals, who beat a team which made a travesty of the American League race, were carried right down to a playoff for their league championship by the Brooklyn Dodgers, the overall strength of the senior circuit seems quite adequate.

That the National League relies chiefly on defense also is open to question, although it is admitted the Cardinals were sensational on defense all through the series. That really was quite a defense they showed in getting 20 hits in one game against the Red Sox. You might as well say Babe Ruth was famous for his defensive home runs.

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Editorial: The World Series

The St. Louis Cardinals’ victory in the World Series leaves Boston Red Sox fans in a sorrowful mood, from which they can rally by considering that their favorites made a heroic effort against physical handicaps which left several members of the club below par performance and that victory was determined only in the eighth inning of the seventh game.

It was no push-over for the Cardinals. And truth to tell, in view of the magnificent burst the Cardinals made toward the close of the regular season to win the National League pennant, it is doubtful if any aggregation of baseball’s great picked from all other players in both major leagues could have stemmed their winning streak.

What is especially impressive, we believe, to all fans who must be content to take their baseball vicariously is that the great American pastime enjoyed a particularly good playing season despite a dearth of stellar youngsters and the defection of established stars who deserted to Mexico.

Come wars and domestic economic turmoil, baseball survives in its finest form. This fact outweighs the jubilation and the disappointment of supporters of either team, as the case may be, in the outcome of the World Series.