July 10, 1945: Red Sox beat Braves in Boston’s ‘All-Star Replacement Game’ in 1945

Fenway Park in Boston was supposed to host the 1945 All-Star Game on July 10, but it was canceled on February 21 after the Office of Defense Transportation asked the American and National Leagues to curtail travel by 25 percent as part of the war effort during World War II.1 As NL President Ford Frick explained, “Doing away with the All-Star Game saves half a million miles of railroad use.”2 Whether there would be a 1945 World Series in October was still up in the air, pending developments in the ongoing war.

In late April, the two leagues announced that during the three-day period set aside in July clubs would play interleague games to raise money for the Red Cross and the National War Fund.3 The AL and NL teams in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia would play each other. The New York Yankees and Giants also would play, and the other eight teams were matched for minimal travel. The idea for these replacement games had reportedly come from Boston Post sportswriter Jack Malaney.4

When the war in the European Theater ended on May 8, with Germany surrendering to the Allies, there was some talk of flying major-league players to Nuremberg to play an exhibition all-star game before as many as 120,000 troops.5 Because the war in the Pacific continued until August, the Nuremberg plan was scrapped. The benefit games, however, went ahead – all played at night except in Boston, where neither Fenway Park nor the Braves’ Braves Field had lighting permitting night baseball.

At midseason, both Boston teams could still harbor legitimate pennant hopes – and were almost identically positioned. Through Sunday, July 8, the Red Sox (37-35) were in fifth place but only 6½ games behind the league-leading Detroit Tigers. The Braves were 36-36, in sixth place and seven behind the Chicago Cubs. Bob Coleman managed the Braves and Joe Cronin the Red Sox.

Rookie Dave “Boo” Ferriss was the starting pitcher for the Red Sox, and there were hopes that he would pitch ambidextrously, a talent he possessed but had not employed in professional ball. Going into the game, he was slated to pitch three innings – the first two right-handed and the third inning left-handed – but the Boston Globe reported, “Ferriss himself is a bit dubious about it, and it is not certain that he will.”6 In the season’s first half, his won-lost record was 14-2 with a 2.11 earned-run average.

One of the batters he was due to face was Tommy Holmes, who was riding a 37-game hitting streak and leading both leagues in batting with a .401 average.

There was another notable matchup possible in the “All-Star Replacement Game.” Braves pitcher Jim Tobin might find himself pitching – for the first time in Organized Baseball – to his younger brother, Jackie Tobin, who played third base for the Red Sox.7

Commissioner Albert “Happy” Chandler was present for the game. There were bands from the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard performing beforehand, with a Marine Corps drum major. Former ballplayer and comedian Al Schacht also entertained the crowd. The game drew 22,809 paid customers, and 846 servicemen were welcomed without charge. More than $70,000 was raised for the War Fund.

Those hoping to see Ferriss throw shutout ball and Holmes get a base hit were satisfied. Ferriss threw three scoreless innings and Holmes singled his third time at bat, in the top of the sixth.8 It was hit off Red Sox reliever Randy Heflin, “a sharp single left on the first ball pitched.”9

Ferriss threw right-handed exclusively when “his superiors decided it would be better not to hippodrome. This pleased Ferriss, who feared fans might think he was showing off.”10

The Red Sox took an early lead they never relinquished. As the Globe noted, “It wasn’t much of a ball game because Al Javery started.”11 That wasn’t meant to be unkind. Worcester native Javery had enjoyed some decent seasons with the Braves but was 1-2 (7.03) in 1945 and hadn’t started a game since May 31, when he had lasted but one-third of an inning.

In this July start, he walked four Red Sox batters in the second inning, leading to two runs. First baseman Dolph Camilli (playing his first game of 1945 in Boston) led off with a walk. Center fielder Leon Culberson singled to center, Camilli going first to third. Camilli scored on Jackie Tobin’s fly ball to center. Javery then walked catcher Bob Garbark, Ferriss, and shortstop Skeeter Newsome, which forced in Culberson.

Ferriss retired the side in order in the first inning but gave up successive one-out singles to catcher Phil Masi and center fielder Carden Gillenwater in the second before getting first baseman Vince Shupe to hit into a double play. In the third, Ferriss once more retired the side in order.

The Red Sox added two more runs in the third inning, this time on three singles in a row, by right fielder George Metkovich, left fielder Bob Johnson, and Camilli, followed by a sacrifice by Culberson and a run-producing groundout by Tobin.

The Red Sox made it 6-0 in the sixth. Pitcher Johnny Hutchings had thrown a scoreless fourth for the Braves and Jim Tobin a scoreless fifth. The two Tobins faced off in the sixth, with Jackie hitting a “single to center that was almost as slow as the knuckle-ball Big Jim had thrown him.”12 The hit was “a high bounder which bounced over Jim’s head and over second.”13 Red Sox catcher Fred Walters doubled low off the left-field wall and Heflin singled.

Jackie had swung at both of brother Jim’s first two pitches, but razzed him later on after getting the base hit off him: “My 55-year-old mother can throw harder than Jim.”14

The one run the Braves scored was in the top of the seventh. Clem Hausmann was pitching for the Red Sox. Medwick doubled off him and second baseman Frank Drews singled him home.

The Red Sox responded with a seventh run in the seventh – Metkovich homered into the right-field visitors bullpen off the Braves’ Ira Hutchinson – and an eighth run in the eighth on a single by Hausmann and a double off the wall down the left-field line by second baseman Ben Steiner.

The phrase used in the July 11 headline in the Globe was “Jersey Street Mob Bludgeons Gaffney Gang.” It referred to the location of Fenway Park on Jersey Street, and Braves Field, located less than a mile away on Gaffney Street.

Both clubs fell out of the race in the second half. The 1945 Red Sox finished in seventh place with a record of 71-83, 17½ games behind the Tigers. They won the AL pennant in 1946. The 1945 Braves finished in sixth with a record of 67-85, 30 games behind the Cubs. In 1948 they won the NL pennant. Neither team prevailed in their respective postwar World Series appearances. Moving to Milwaukee, the Braves won the Series in 1957 and then again in 1995 and 2021 when they were the Atlanta Braves. The Red Sox didn’t win a World Series again until 2004.

Tommy Holmes finished 1945 batting .352, second in the league, but leading the majors in hits (224), doubles (47), homers (28), and OPS (.997). He was 0-for-4 in the first game of the July 12 doubleheader, his hitting streak ending at 37.

Ferriss finished 21-10 (2.96 ERA) but had even a better year in wins and losses in his sophomore season – 25-6 in 1946 (3.25). He was listed as the winning pitcher in this game.

The 1946 All-Star Game was played at Fenway Park. The American League prevailed, 12-0. 

Other 1945 War Fund Games

The seven games played in 1945 were:

Box scores for all these games, and an accompanying article appeared in The Sporting News. Detroit and Pittsburgh did not play, because the Office of Defense Transportation did not give permission for the Tigers to travel to Pittsburgh.15

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Dave Ferriss, Trading Card Database.

Sources

There was good coverage in the Boston newspapers, but no links are available to Baseball-Reference.com or Retrosheet.org, because this was an exhibition game.

Notes

1 Associated Press, “Majors’ 1945 All-Star Game Ruled Out,” Chicago Tribune, February 22, 1945: 19.

2 Dan Daniel, “22-Man Squads Likely, With 4-F’s Included,” The Sporting News, March 1, 1945: 2.

3 United Press, “Benefit Games for All-Star Dates Carded,” Washington Post, April 25, 1945: 10. The Greater Boston United War Fund was the designated beneficiary for the game in Boston.

4 Oscar K. Ruhl, “Inter-League War Fund Games Raised $245,000,” The Sporting News, July 19, 1945: 11.

5 “All-Star Baseball for ETO GI’s Asked,” New York Times, June 2, 1945: 20.

6 Ferriss said, “I’d hate to make a fool of myself before so many people.” Roger Birtwell, “Ferriss Faces Braves Today,” Boston Globe, July 10, 1945: 5. Ferriss never did pitch left-handed in the majors.

7 There was a considerable age difference between the brothers: Jim was born in 1912 and Jackie in 1921.

8 Arthur Sampson, “Sox Beat Tribe, 8-1; Fund Gets $74,000,” Boston Herald, July 11, 1945; 1. 

9 Harold Kaese, “Sox Defeat Braves, 8 to 1,” Boston Globe, July 11, 1945: 6.

10 Kaese.

11 Kaese.

12 Kaese.

13 Sampson.

14 Hy Hurwitz, “’Ma Can Throw Harder!’” Boston Globe, July 11, 1945: 6.

15 Ruhl. Brooklyn had been permitted to play in Washington. The game there featured one-legged war veteran Bert Shepard, who threw the first four innings and was the winning pitcher. In the St. Louis game, Browns manager Luke Sewell used a different pitcher for each of the nine innings and they allowed only two hits.