August 12, 1946: Stan Musial’s third straight 4-hit game raises batting average to .375

After being instrumental in the St. Louis Cardinals winning the World Series in 1942 and 1944 – with a third National League pennant in between – burgeoning star outfielder Stan Musial enlisted in the US Navy and did not play during the 1945 season.

Musial was honorably discharged on March 1, 1946, and reported to the Cardinals’ spring-training camp in St. Petersburg, Florida. The 25-year-old began his fourth full season in the major leagues playing left field.1 But on June 7, he was moved to first base in place of rookie Dick Sisler, who was off to a slow start offensively and was sidelined with a minor injury.2

At the time of the position switch, Musial ranked third in the NL with a .337 batting average and fourth with 27 RBIs.3 He had turned down overtures from the Mexican League to leave the Cardinals for “luscious cash offerings.”4 The Cardinals, under first-year manager Eddie Dyer, owned a 25-18 record and were in second place, 4½ games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers.

St. Louis spent most of the season in second place and resided there on August 12 for the start of a three-game series with the defending NL champion Chicago Cubs5 at Wrigley Field that wrapped up a 20-game, 23-day road trip.

Musial was red hot, having gone 4-for-5 in both games of a doubleheader sweep of the Cincinnati Reds (15-4 and 7-3) at Crosley Field the previous day. Among his eight hits were a double, triple, and home run.

In the opener against the Cubs, Musial recorded his third straight four-hit game in a 5-0 Cardinals victory. Batting third in the lineup, the sweet-swinging lefty with the corkscrew stance:

• Singled to left in the first inning against Claude Passeau.
• Doubled to right in the third against Emil Kush, driving in Al Brazle.
• Singled to right in the fifth against Kush, later scoring.
• Singled to right in the seventh against Kush, driving in Harry Walker.

The four-hit performance was Musial’s seventh of the season and the 22nd of his young career, to go with a five-hit game against the New York Giants on July 21, 1943.6

Musial extended his hitting streak to seven games, during which he got 20 hits in 30 at-bats, including 11 in his past 12. At day’s end, he led all NL batters with a .375 batting average, .587 slugging percentage, 158 hits, 33 doubles, 13 triples, and 85 runs. He ranked second with a .439 on-base percentage and third with 74 RBIs.7

Sportswriters were comparing Musial with Boston Red Sox star left fielder Ted Williams, who also returned to the majors in 1946 after serving a three-year hitch in the Marine Corps. In his St. Louis Globe Democrat column on August 13, Bob Burnes observed: “Williams is completely a pull hitter. … Musial is not. He can pull one if he wants to but just let the defensive team over-shift on him and he’ll punch one to left center or down the left-field foul line.”8

Fred Lieb wrote in the August 21 issue of The Sporting News: “Ted hits a longer ball, but when Stan swivels his famous wrists, hits rattle off the fences like machine-gun bullets.”9

The win over the Cubs was the Cardinals’ fifth in a row and ninth in 11 games after they went 2-5 to begin the excursion that took them completely around the NL: New York, Boston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Chicago. With its 64-41 record, St. Louis trailed the Dodgers (66-42) by a half-game. The Cubs were in third place, nine games out.

“So it can be seen that the Cardinals perform as Musial does,” Burnes wrote on August 13. “When he slumped during the first part of the current trip, everyone slumped right along with him and the Birds lost ground. Stan snapped out of it about half way along in the journey and since then the Birds have been winning and picking up ground on the Dodgers.”10

Against the Cubs, Musial co-starred with Brazle, the Cardinals’ starting pitcher, who authored a three-hit shutout to improve his record to 4-8. He walked one batter and induced two double plays while facing just 29 batters and allowing only two runners to reach second base. The left-handed sinkerballer recorded 21 groundball outs. It was Brazle’s second whitewash of the road trip (also at Boston on July 28) and began a stretch of eight wins in 10 decisions to finish the season. The 32-year-old left-hander debuted in 1943 and then missed the ensuing two seasons while serving in the US Army.

With 19 putouts and one assist, Musial came close to the record of 22 total chances by a first baseman in a nine-inning game.11

The Cardinals scored three runs in the third inning. Marty Marion led off with a single off the glove of Passeau, and the Cubs’ starting pitcher aggravated a back ailment on the play and had to leave the game. Kush relieved for Chicago. Brazle singled, advancing Marion to second, and Red Schoendienst sacrificed the runners to second and third. Walker drove in Marion with a single to center, and Musial’s double plated Brazle and moved Walker to third. Enos Slaughter was walked intentionally to load the bases, and Whitey Kurowski lined a sacrifice fly to center to bring Walker home.

Musial’s fifth-inning single came with two outs and was followed by Slaughter’s infield hit. Catcher Mickey Livingston attempted to pick off Musial at second base but his throw missed the mark and second baseman Don Johnson’s subsequent throw trying to get Musial at third sailed awry, allowing Musial to score.

A two-out, seventh-inning double by Walker and Musial’s RBI single capped the scoring in a game that took 1 hour and 34 minutes to complete before 28,254 Monday afternoon spectators.

In the final two games against the Cubs,12 Musial went 1-for-4 and 2-for-5, finishing the final nine games of the road trip 23-for-39 (.590 batting average) as the Cardinals won seven games. At this point in his career, he had not yet been christened “The Man.” That would come in mid-September by Brooklyn fans at Ebbets Field during Musial’s season-long 14-game hitting streak from September 6-19, crowned by a 5-for-5 performance (three singles and two doubles) in Boston against the Braves.13

On August 22 the Cardinals moved into a first-place tie with the Dodgers, and the two teams were neck and neck for the rest of the season. Both finished with 96-58 records, necessitating a best-of-three tiebreaker to determine the league champion. St. Louis won the first two games (4-2 and 8-4) to capture its fourth pennant in five seasons. The Cubs finished third at 82-71. From 1942 to 1946, the Cardinals averaged 102 wins per season.

The Cardinals won a thrilling seven-game World Series over Williams14 and the Red Sox by virtue of Slaughter’s famed “Mad Dash” to score the winning run in the deciding game.15 For Musial, his fourth postseason appearance would be the last of his 22-year playing career. St. Louis next appeared in the fall classic in 1964, the year after Musial retired.16

Musial was named the 1946 NL Most Valuable Player after leading the league with a .365 batting average, .587 slugging percentage, 228 hits, 50 doubles, 20 triples, 366 total bases, and 124 runs while playing in all 156 games. He was third with 103 RBIs and tied for fifth with 16 home runs. Musial received 22 of 24 possible first-place votes and amassed 319 points to easily outdistance Brooklyn right fielder Dixie Walker, who had 159 points. Slaughter, the Cardinals’ right fielder, received the other two first-place votes and finished third in the balloting with 144 points.

Musial previously was the MVP in 1943 and was honored again in 194817 en route to becoming the greatest – and most popular – player in Cardinals history, being called “baseball’s perfect warrior” and “baseball’s perfect knight” by Commissioner Ford C. Frick,18 and earning first-ballot election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.19 The 24-time All-Star concluded his career with a .331 batting average and 3,630 hits (1,815 at home and 1,815 on the road).

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and the box scores.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN194608120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1946/B08120CHN1946.htm

Photo credit: Stan Musial, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Musial played left field in 1942 and primarily right field in 1943 and 1944.

2 Sisler was batting .268 with one home run and 24 RBIs. A hand injury forced him out of the lineup for a few games in early June. Harry Walker played first base from June 2 to 6 before Musial took over the position. Erv Dusak assumed Musial’s spot in left field.

3 In the 1946 All-Star Game at Fenway Park in Boston, Musial started in left field.

4 Robert L. Burnes, “Musial Definitely Turns Down Mexican Offer,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 7, 1946: 17. Musial was offered a five-year, $125,000 contract plus a $50,000 signing bonus from the Mexican League. He initially was making $13,500 with the Cardinals in 1946 and was later given a $5,000 raise. St. Louis pitchers Max Lanier and Fred Martin and infielder Lou Klein did jump to the Mexican League.

5 The Cubs finished three games ahead of the second-place Cardinals.

6 Musial finished his career with 59 four-hit games and eight five-hit games.

7 St. Louis right fielder Enos Slaughter led the NL with 88 RBIs, while Brooklyn right fielder Dixie Walker was second with 84.

8 Robert L. Burnes, “The Bench Warmer,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 13, 1946: 15.

9 Frederick G. Lieb, “Redbird Flyer Whistling for Flag Stop,” The Sporting News, August 21, 1946: 7.

10 “The Bench Warmer.”

11 The total of 22 chances had been accomplished nine times previously.

12 The Cubs won 1-0 on August 13 and St. Louis won 6-4 on August 14.

13 In a September 20, 1946, article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bob Broeg credited Brooklyn fans with calling Musial “The Man” during the September 12-14 series. Broeg wrote: “[T]he appearance at the plate of the Cardinals’ apple-cheeked first baseman frequently brought from several sections of the Ebbets Field stands a distinct: ‘O-O-h, here comes The Man again.’ Not that man, but THE man.”

14 The 28-year-old Williams was the American League Most Valuable Player in 1946 after batting .342 with 37 doubles, 8 triples, 38 home runs, and 123 RBIs – with a .497 on-base percentage and .667 slugging percentage.

15 Musial batted .222 (6-for-27) with four RBIs in the World Series, while Williams batted .200 (5-for-25) with one RBI.

16 Musial was a vice president of the Cardinals from 1963 to 1966, then assumed the role of general manager for one season (1967). The Cardinals were World Series champions in 1964 and 1967.

17 The Cardinals won five MVP awards in seven years from 1942 to 1948: pitcher Mort Cooper (1942); Musial (1943, 1946, and 1948); and shortstop Marty Marion (1944). Over the course of his career, Musial finished second for the award four times (1949, 1950, 1951, and 1957) and in the top 10 a total of 14 times.

18 Frick said these words the day Musial retired: September. 29, 1963.

19 Musial was named on 93.2 percent of the Hall of Fame ballots (317 of 340).