Feller was coming off his second dominant season, having gone 24-9 in 1939 for the third-place Cleveland Indians. They had, however, finished 20½ games in arrears of the powerful New York Yankees, who had blown away the rest of the league with 106 wins. The White Sox had finished fourth, two games back of the Indians, and both squads had high hopes for 1940.

The unseasonably cold day, even for Chicago, held the Opening Day crowd down to just over 14,000. Three of them, however, were Feller’s father, Bill; his mother, Lena; and his sister, Marguerite, who had all traveled from Van Meter, Iowa, to take in the first game of the season.

Feller didn’t feel particularly sharp warming up and wondered how the strong wind blowing in from center field would affect his curveball.1

He began by retiring leadoff hitter Bob Kennedy on a fly to right and then sandwiched a walk between two strikeouts to retire the side. The second inning proved more problematic. With one out, Taft Wright, who was something of a Feller nemesis, hit a fly ball to Roy Weatherly in center field that Weatherly dropped. The official scorer, Ed Burns of the Chicago Tribune, took a moment or two before ruling an error.2 Feller struck out the next batter, but then issued consecutive walks to Mike Tresh and opposing pitcher Edgar Smith to load the bases with two outs. He then bore down to strike out Kennedy and escape the jam.

The weather was making it difficult for Feller to grip his curveball, and after the second inning he threw almost all fastballs. Joe Kuhel led off the third with a walk and stole second. Feller managed the first two outs on a flyball to right and a popup to first, bringing the dangerous Luke Appling to the plate. Appling connected solidly, driving a hard, low line drive to right field. But Ben Chapman, covering ground quickly, made a nice running catch to end the inning.

Meanwhile, the Indians had managed only an infield single and a couple of walks against Edgar Smith, a southpaw who had engaged in several duels against Feller in previous seasons. In the top of the fourth, however, Indians first baseman Hal Trosky smashed a mighty blast to right field that the wind knocked down enough for Taft Wright to catch against the fence. Jeff Heath followed with a single through the left side of the infield, and with two outs catcher Rollie Hemsley lined a long drive over Wright’s head in right. Hemsley rumbled into third with a triple, scoring Heath for what would be the only run of the game.3

Feller had by now found his rhythm and after his walk to Kuhel he retired 20 White Sox in a row. Other than Appling’s liner, the only other hard-hit ball was a similar line drive by Wright in the fourth, also run down by Chapman in right field. In the eighth second baseman Ray Mack made a nice play on a slow roller to nip the speedy pinch-hitter Larry Rosenthal by a step.4

Feller already had three one-hitters in his three-plus years in the big leagues and the crowd was by now hoping this would be the day he broke through, even against the home team. By the eighth inning the fans were standing, rooting for Feller to complete his gem, and in the ninth they were in an uproar. He managed to give them plenty of drama, beginning by running the count to Mike Kreevich to 2-and-2 before retiring him on a popup to second baseman Mack. Moose Solters was next and Feller retired him on the third pitch on a routine groundout to shortstop Lou Boudreau. Now only “Old Aches and Pains” Luke Appling stood between Feller and immortality. Appling was known for his bat control and his penchant for fouling off pitches. With two strikes, he fouled off four Feller fastballs before working a 10-pitch walk to become the first White Sox baserunner since the third inning.5

The free pass brought Taft Wright to the plate. Feller threw ball one and then, on the second pitch, Wright hit a screaming groundball to the left of second baseman Mack. He managed to lunge and knock it down with his glove hand, get up and retrieve it on the grass with his bare hand, and throw a perfect peg to Trosky at first to nail the speedy Wright by a half-step. Just like that, the game was over and Feller had his first no-hitter. His teammates rushed to congratulate him, shaking his hand and slapping him on the back, while leading him through the fans, who were racing onto the field.6

Surprisingly, Feller’s first no-hitter wasn’t one of his most dominating performances. He struck out eight, modest by his standards, and allowed five walks. After the game, his catcher, Hemsley, said, “I’ve seen Bob better, but he was plenty good enough.”7

For his part, Feller thought his stuff was “just about normal.” He related that he tired in the fourth, but got his second wind the next inning.8

The next day the Indians returned to Cleveland by train and an estimated 7,000 greeted them at Union Terminal. The throng included Mayor Harold Burton, a uniformed band, and Cleveland immortal Tris Speaker. The next day an article ran in a local paper about 8-year-old Paul Hauschultz, a huge Indians fan who had been in the hospital with spinal meningitis, a mastoid infection, and streptococcus for about a month. The article mentioned how much he’d improved while listening on the radio to Feller’s no-hitter. As a result, Feller surprised the youngster with a visit in the hospital, armed with a ball signed by the entire team and another signed by himself.9 According to Feller’s 1990 memoir, the youngster was able to go home that afternoon.10

The Indians soon found themselves in a tight pennant race with the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees. Their season, and Feller’s, however, was tainted by a June player revolt against their caustic manager, Oscar Vitt. A number of Indians, Feller among them, went to Alva Bradley, the owner of the club, to try to get Vitt fired. Bradley refused but when the press got wind of the attempted revolt, they dubbed the team “the Crybabies.”11 Even with all the drama, the Indians led the league much of the first half of the season and finished in second place, just a game behind the Tigers.

Feller would go on to have a gargantuan season, winning 27 games and leading the league in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, earned-run average, games started, and complete games while tying for the lead in shutouts. He finished second in the MVP voting to Hank Greenberg, but was voted the American League Player of the Year by the Sporting News.

This article was published in SABR’s “No-Hitters” (2017), edited by Bill Nowlin. To read more Games Project stories from this book, click here.

Sources

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA194004160.shtml

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1940/B04160CHA1940.htm

Notes

1 Bob Feller, Strikeout Story – Bob Feller (New York: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1947), 175.

2 Feller, Strikeout Story, 176.

3 Gordon Cobbledick, “Feller Hurls No-Hitter to Win, 1 to 0, Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 17, 1940: 21.

4 Charles Bartlett, “Indians Put on a Big Celebration After No-Hitter,” Chicago Tribune, April 17, 1940: 27.

5 Cobbledick, 1. In his second autobiography, published in 1990, Feller claimed that after Appling fouled off four or five straight 2-and-2 pitches, he threw two fastballs outside on purpose to in effect intentionally walk him and get him out of the way. Bob Feller with Bill Gilbert, Now Pitching – Bob Feller (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1990), 96; Bob Feller with Burton Rocks, Bob Feller’s Little Black Book of Baseball Wisdom (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001), 29.

6 Cobbledick, 21.

7 John Sickels, Bob Feller – Ace of the Greatest Generation (Dulles, Virginia: Brassey’s, Inc., 2004), 91.

8 Bartlett, 25.

9 John Phillips, The Crybaby Indians of 1940 (Cabin John, Maryland: Capital, 1990), 5; Sickels, 91.

10 Feller with Gilbert, 97.

11 Franklin Lewis, The Cleveland Indians (New York: G.P. Putman’s Sons, 1949, reprinted by Kent State University Press, 2006), 206-13; Phillips, 26-32.

Reese’s major-league tenure involved only the Dodgers. The journey began after two seasons with his hometown Colonels, for whom he batted .277 and .279 in 1938 and ’39. Reese became team captain of the Brooklyn nine;3 appeared in seven World Series; fielded the last out of the Dodgers’ only World Series championship in Brooklyn; and made 10 All-Star Game appearances.

It began on April 23, 1940.

Dodgers player-manager Leo Durocher took himself out of the lineup for that day’s game against the Boston Bees because he “couldn’t throw without wincing from pain,” reported the Brooklyn Citizen.4 Whether it was replacing the skipper at shortstop or playing in front of more than 13,000 fans at Ebbets Field for his major-league debut, nerves appeared to affect the 5-foot-10 shortstop nicknamed after the pee wee shooter because of his childhood prowess with marbles, not his physical stature. Reese handled his first chance without aplomb and threw the ball wide, then bobbled another grounder.5 But his offensive performance in the Dodgers’ 8-3 victory was formidable: 1-for-3; one walk; two runs scored; and one RBI.

Dickens might have called the reporting “a tale of two newspapers” and begun his account: “It was the best of Pee Wee. It was the worst of Pee Wee.” The Brooklyn Eagle praised: “Peewee [sic] Reese in his first National League start fielded brilliantly in spite of one low throw.”6

The Bees scored all their runs in the first inning when right fielder Max West bashed a three-run homer to score center fielder Bob Loane (double) and first baseman Buddy Hassett (single).

Bees pitcher Nick Strincevich allowed one Dodger to reach first base in the bottom of the first when he walked left fielder Joe Vosmik. In the bottom of the second, the Dodgers pounded the right-hander for five runs. The barrage commenced with first sacker Dolph Camilli, a Brooklyn favorite who batted .287 in 1940. Camilli doubled, right fielder Roy Cullenbine got a base on balls, and backstop Herman Franks hit his only home run of the year. Strincevich walked Reese, who got to second safely when Dodgers pitcher Tex Carleton grounded out 1-6-3. Center fielder and leadoff batter Charlie Gilbert knocked in the rookie shortstop with a two-run blast.

The Dodgers’ output sent Bees skipper Casey Stengel looking for relief; he replaced Strincevich with Dick Errickson.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Dodgers amplified the scoreboard when Reese singled home Franks, who had doubled. An error by the Bees catcher, future Hall of Famer Al Lopez, sent Reese to second and Gilbert repeated his second-inning feat with another two-run bash.

With the Dodgers up 8-3, Stengel sent Al Javery to replace Errickson in the seventh inning; Javery held the Dodgers scoreless for the remainder of the game. Carleton went all nine innings for the Dodgers.

Reese’s performance foreshadowed his rookie-season performance — he played in 84 games and hit .272. A broken heel bone sent Reese to the bench for a few weeks, otherwise it’s likely that he would have seen action in at least 100 games. The following year, he became a starter and never played in fewer than 140 games from 1941 to 1956. His playing time tailed off for the last two years of his career — 103 games in 1957; 59 games in 1958.

Durocher had spotted Reese’s potential during the Kentuckian’s first spring training. When Dodgers general manager Larry MacPhail emphasized that the 34-year-old Durocher should continue playing shortstop for “another two or three years,” the latter balked. “Sure I could,” said the iconic Leo the Lip in his 1975 autobiography, Nice Guys Finish Last. “I could also see balls going by me by a yard that I used to get like nothing.”7 Durocher recounted his explanation to MacPhail: “We’re talking about something I know a little about, Larry. Reese would be in front of those balls, waiting. What we got here is a diamond that you found in Africa. What we got to do is polish the diamond up, and he is going to be as good a shortstop as they ever heard of in the major leagues.”8

Publicly, Durocher lauded the newcomer: “[H]e’s the greatest prospect I’ve seen in 15 years. Hell, maybe he’s the best I’ve ever seen.”9 Reese’s contribution went beyond his career stats — leading the NL in runs scored once; leading the majors in stolen bases once; 2,170 hits; .269 batting average — when his talent for leadership emerged. Reese became the team’s captain in 1949; it was his role for the rest of his career. Before the team’s first season in Los Angeles, 1958, teammate Duke Snider said, “Pee Wee holds the team together — real steady and cool out there, and that’s what you need. The team just seems to play better ball with him in the lineup.”10

Reese’s guidance extended into retirement as an unofficial spokesman during a tragedy in the Dodgers’ circle. When Roger Kahn, author of The Boys of Summer and former Dodgers beat writer for the New York Herald Tribune, suffered the horror of his 22-year-old son dying from heroin in 1987, the former shortstop called up the chronicler.

“Do you remember that I was the captain of the team?”

“Of course,” responded Kahn.

“Well, I just want to say for all the fellers, we are very, very sorry.”11

Reese might have worn a Boston Red Sox uniform that April day in 1940 had Joe Cronin selected him; Cronin managed the Red Sox when Reese became available. There was speculation about the skipper protecting his job because he played shortstop while managing the team. But Cronin said, “Reese is a sensational fielder. There’s no doubt about that, but the big question is: Can he hit? I couldn’t see him playing shortstop for the Red Sox unless he can hit. We preferred to take our chances on DiMaggio, who’s the same type of player as Reese, but whose record indicates he’ll hit better than Pee-wee [sic].”12

Reese was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984. Illness prevented Cronin, a 1956 inductee, from attending the ceremony. But Reese brought things full circle in his speech when he wished Cronin well.13

Sources

The author used Baseball Reference and Retrosheet for box scores and play-by-play information.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO194004230.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1940/B04230BRO1940.htm

Notes

1 Tommy Fitzgerald, “Brooklyn in $75,000 Deal for Reese, Who ‘Didn’t Want to Be a Dodger,’” The Sporting News, July 27, 1939: 2.

2 Fitzgerald. During World War II, Reese served in the US Navy and played on teams at Norfolk Naval Station and in the Pacific Theater. So he did not play professional baseball for three seasons. “Pee Wee Reese,” Baseball in Wartime, https://baseballinwartime.com/player_biographies/reese_peewee.htm.

3 Associated Press, “Reese to Captain Brooklyn Dodgers,” Syracuse Post-Standard, February 3, 1949: 11.

4 Lee Scott, “Rookies Herman Franks and Charley Gilbert New Idols of Brooklyn Fans,” Brooklyn Citizen, April 24, 1940: 10.

5 Scott.

6 “There’s Power Plus in Those New Dodgers!,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 24, 1940: 15.

7 Leo Durocher with Ed Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975), 133.

8 Durocher with Linn, 133-134.

9 Dillon Graham (Associated Press), “Durocher Is No. 1 Booster of Kid Who’d Bench Him,” Kingston (New York) Daily Freeman, March 22, 1940: 15.

10 Frank Finch, “Here’s the Pitch,” Los Angeles Times, January 8, 1958: 62.

11 Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer (New York: HarperCollins, 1972; Harper Perennial Modern Classics Edition, 2006), 454. Citation refers to the Harper Perennial edition.

12 United Press, “Cronin Doubted Reese Could Hit for Boston,” New York Daily News, March 31, 1940: 262.

13 Pee Wee Reese, Hall of Fame Induction Speech, Cooperstown, New York, August 12, 1984.

Widely considered washed up, Carleton got a new lease on his baseball life when Brewers owner Henry Bendinger arranged a tryout with the Brooklyn Dodgers in spring training in 1940, and sold his contract conditionally. Few expected Carleton to stick with skipper Leo Durocher’s club, but the Lip, who had been Carleton’s teammate with the Redbirds, knew the pitcher’s competitive spirit. Carleton looked fresh and rejuvenated in camp. His fastballs popped and his curves dropped, and the rugged Texan, who some detractors claimed “lacked real grit,” secured a spot in the starting rotation on the majors’ oldest staff.1 In his first start, Carleton tossed a complete game to defeat the Boston Braves, 8-3, at Ebbets Field on April 23. A week later, the Dodgers were in Cincinnati to kick off a three-game series with the reigning NL pennant-winners.2 The talk of the baseball, the Dodgers had won eight consecutive games to start the season, just one short of the big-league record set by the New York Giants in 1918. But naysayers also noted that all of Brooklyn’s wins came against teams from the second division the previous year. Manager Bill “Deacon” McKechnie’s Reds (6-2), in second place, two games behind “Dem Bums,” would prove to be a serious challenge. Carleton also aimed to avenge his personal nemesis. In 1938 the Reds scorched him for 46 hits and 29 runs (24 earned) in just 28⅔ innings, and defeated the Cubs all seven times Carleton faced them. (He lost two decisions in four starts.)

Through four innings Carleton did not give the impression that he had a date with history. He walked the first batter he faced, Bill Werber, and also survived some sloppy infield play. In the second, 21-year-old rookie Pee Wee Reese fumbled Harry Craft’s one-out grounder for an error. Second baseman Pete Coscarart scooped up Frank McCormick’s grounder but threw wildly to first sacker Dolph Camili, enabling the rambling 6-foot-4 cleanup hitter to ramble to the keystone sack. In the third Carleton issued a one-out walk to Werber, who was subsequently gunned down by Herman Franks attempting to steal second, ending the frame. (Franks was making just his ninth big-league start and fifth for the Dodgers.) Brooklyn still looked shaky in the fourth. With one out and Frank McCormick on first courtesy of third baseman Cookie Lavagetto’s errant throw to first (the Dodgers’ third and final defensive miscue), former MVP Ernie Lombardi connected for a mammoth shot, sending the crowd of 10,544 at Crosley Field on a Tuesday afternoon into a collective cheer. But the ball curved foul and rocketed over the fence in right field and onto the street. Knowing that he escaped a mistake, Carleton retired “Schnozz” on a popup to center and Craft on a liner to left.

Cincinnati’s 36-year-old right-hander, Milkman Jim Turner, matched Carleton’s zeros through four frames. He escaped a jam in the fourth with one out and Coscarart and Lavagetto occupying the first two stations via singles. Turner was a reclamation project of sorts, and there was no better place to be than under the aegis of McKechnie, regarded as a genius with pitchers. Turner had debuted with the Deacon’s Boston Braves in 1937, winning 20 games and leading the league in ERA (2.38), complete games (24), and shutouts (five, tied with teammate Lou Fette and Cincinnati’s Lee Grissom), but arm problems reduced him to a 4-11 slate two years later. Acquired in the offseason, Turner was making his first start for the Reds.

Known for his control, Turner had an unexpected bout of wildness in the fifth. He issued a leadoff walk to Franks, and to Carleton two batters later. Dixie Walker hit what sportswriter Lou Smith of the Cincinnati Enquirer considered a tailor-made double-play grounder to second baseman Lonnie Frey. Frey stepped on the bag to force Carleton.3 However, the slow-footed pitcher’s late slide made it difficult for Frey to make the pivot throw to first, and Walker was safe. The next batter, Coscarart, deposited Turner’s first pitch over the fence for a three-run homer. It proved to be the Dodgers’ last hit until Lavagetto led off the ninth with the club’s fifth and final safety, off newly inserted reliever Whitey Moore.

The remainder of the game showcased Carleton, who retired the last 17 batters he faced, and the Dodgers flychasers. The first of several defensive gems took place with one out in the sixth when right fielder Roy Cullenbine robbed Frey of a possible extra-base hit. Racing full speed to the fence, Cullenbine made what the Enquirer described as a “sensational one-handed leaping catch.”4 It was left fielder Joe Vosmik’s turn for the highlight reel in the seventh. “[W]ith shoulder blades pressing against the left-field wall,” according to sportswriter Tommy Holmes of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Vosmik snared Frank McCormick’s deep blast.5

“It wasn’t until I walked out there in the eighth inning,” said Carleton, “that I realized how close I was to a no-hitter.6 He had kept the Reds off-balance with a steady diet of fastballs, sinkers, and curves. With two outs in the eighth, aging slugger Wally Berger, a former All-Star with McKechnie’s Braves, pinch-hit for Turner, drawing a hefty round of boos from the home crowd. Everyone likes an underdog on the verge of history, even if he is your opponent. Roscoe McGowen, sportswriter for the New York Times, noted that “disaster almost followed” when Carleton called for Berger’s popup in front of the mound; however, Franks barreled in and caught the ball as the two players collided.7

There was “unbelievable drama packed into the last few minutes,” opined the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.8 Werber, whose eighth-inning home run the previous night gave the Reds a thrilling 3-2 victory over Pittsburgh, grounded weakly to third. Frey then belted a fly to deep right field that Cullenbine caught effortlessly just short of the screen. Two-time All-Star Ival Goodman connected squarely on Carleton’s 1-and-1 offering. The bat made a “vicious ping-g-g-g,” wrote Tommy Holmes, the sound of a solid hit.9 The ball curved a bit on its way to center field, but Dixie Walker “didn’t hardly have to move,” wrote the Enquirer, to snare what newspapers considered the hardest-hit ball of the game.10 “I’m glad he hit it well,” admitted Carleton. “If he hadn’t, the ball would have dropped.”11

After 1 hour and 47 minutes of playing time, Carleton ecstatically threw his glove high into the balmy, 70-degree, springtime air. “[He] sank to his knees,” said the Enquirer of the emotional scene, “and looked as though he raised his eyes to the heavens.”12 After a few seconds, Carleton raced to Walker in center field, but was mobbed by teammates before he reached second base.

“I really felt that I could snap that ball in there today,” Carleton said. “It was a sidearm fast ball that I used most of the time, especially against right-handed hitters.”13 In fashioning the last of 16 career shutouts, Carleton walked two and struck out four. “My curve was breaking perfectly,” he added, noting that he threw only about 15 of them, and mixed in an occasional screwball, too.14 Carleton had one other no-hitter in professional baseball to his credit. In 1929 he held the Toronto Maple Leafs hitless as a member of the Rochester Red Wings in the International League. Carleton’s “super-thrilling effort” (in the words of Lou Smith) against the Reds was the Dodgers’ first no-hitter since Dazzy Vance turned the trick against the Philadelphia Phillies on September 13, 1925, at Ebbets Field.15 [Vance’s masterpiece was tarnished by two Brooklyn errors that led to one run.

There was no fairy-tale ending for Carleton, as his arm pain reappeared soon after his no-hitter. He struggled as a starter, was moved to the bullpen, and won only six games to finish his career with a 100-76 record. Carleton’s counterpart on his historic day, Jim Turner, enjoyed a brief renaissance under McKechnie’s watchful eye. He went 14-7 and finished fourth in the NL in ERA (2.89) as a once-a-week hurler.

This article was published in “Cincinnati’s Crosley Field: A Gem in the Queen City” (SABR, 2018), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. To read more articles from this book at the SABR Games Project, click here.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, the SABR Minor Leagues Database, accessed online at Baseball-Reference.com, SABR.org, and The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN194004300.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1940/B04300CIN1940.htm

Notes

1 “Walters to Face Rampaging Dodgers; Hugh Casey Likely to Be His Opponent,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 1, 1940: 18.

2 Inclement weather canceled the third game.

3 Lou Smith, “Redlegs Victims of No-Hit Contest,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 1, 1940: 1.

4 “Walters to Face Rampaging Dodgers.”

5 Tommy Holmes, “Carleton’s No-Hitter Replete With Drama,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 1, 1940: 15.

6 Joe Garretson Jr., “Started Counting in the Eighth,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 1, 1940: 18.

7 Roscoe McGowen, “Carleton Pitches No-Hit Shut-Out as Dodgers Tie Big League Record,” New York Times, May 1, 1940: 33.

8 “Carleton’s No-Hitter Replete With Drama.”

9 Ibid.

10 “Walters to Face Rampaging Dodgers.”

11 Tommy Holmes, “No-Hitter Spurs Dodgers in Drive for Record Today,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 1, 1940: 1.

12 “Walters to Face Rampaging Dodgers.”

13 “No-Hitter Spurs Dodgers.”

14 “Tex Speaks Up,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 1, 1940: 18.

15 Smith.

In contrast, the Brooklyn Dodgers broke fast from the gate, winning their first nine games before finally losing 9-2 to the Reds. The Dodgers thus headed for St. Louis for a three-game series with the Cardinals with a record of 9-1 and sitting atop the National League standings.

Arriving in the Gateway City by airplane, only the fourth major-league team after the Reds, Cardinals, and Red Sox to fly, the Dodgers showed the stuff of a first-place ballclub by rallying for four runs in the ninth to take the series opener. 9-6, and followed with a 6-2 victory to raise their record to 11-1, while the Cardinals dropped into last place.

“Quite as shocking as the Dodgers’ electrifying start,” wrote one syndicated scribe, “is the utter collapse of the St. Louis Cardinals, the team experts picked to dethrone the Cincinnati Reds.”1

It certainly didn’t help that the Cards’ slick-fielding rookie shortstop, Marty Marion, injured a knee in the first game of the series and would be on crutches for the rest of the month, or that All-Star center fielder Terry Moore had sprained his shoulder making a diving catch in the same game and would miss the next seven games.

Despite the Cardinals’ 5-10 record, there were some signs of life on the team. Catcher Don Padgett was hitting .349 and had driven in a team-high nine runs. Right fielder Enos Slaughter was hitting .377, second highest among NL batsmen, and left fielder Joe “Ducky” Medwick was not far behind at .353. A lack of other baserunners, though, had limited the pair to only three RBIs each.

Dodgers player-manager Leo Durocher wasn’t counting the Cardinals out just yet.

“The Cards have plenty of power and they’ll get going. They’re a better ballclub than they’ve shown. They gotta be. Mize, Medwick, Padgett, Slaughter — say, that’s a murderer’s row for you.”2

Nobody could have anticipated, however, the explosion of offense from the St. Louis lineup in the third and final game of the series.

Only 2,298 faithful fans were on hand at Sportsman’s Park on a mild Tuesday afternoon to witness the fireworks. St. Louis skipper Ray Blades sent veteran Lon Warneke (0-2) to the mound, while Durocher tabbed Hugh Casey (2-1) to start for Brooklyn.

With Marion out of commission, the Cardinals had an infield problem. Blades put second baseman Stu Martin at third base — a position he had never played before in Organized Baseball — moved third sacker Jimmy Brown to shortstop, inserted untested rookie utilityman Eddie Lake at second base, and hoped this would do.

It was Padgett who started the Cards’ long-ball frenzy by homering off Casey in the second inning. Brown followed with a triple, but was caught in a rundown and tagged out when the next batter, Johnny Hopp, bounced one to Dodgers third baseman Cookie Lavagetto.

Lake poled his first career homer to lead off the third inning for St. Louis. Martin then singled. Slaughter tripled, scoring Martin, and Medwick singled, scoring Slaughter. Johnny Mize then deposited his fourth home run of the season in the right-field seats to make it 6-0 in favor of the Cardinals.

The Dodgers continued to do little of anything at the plate, and Hugh Casey returned to the mound for the fourth inning. “Let me keep pitching,” Casey implored Durocher, “I need the work.”3 Durocher did make one change, sitting himself down and sending 21-year-old rookie Pee Wee Reese in to take his place at shortstop. In the inning, Stu Martin took Casey deep for another Cardinals home run and a 7-0 lead.

Warneke, coasting on a two-hit shutout, retired the Dodgers in order in the fifth and sixth innings, and the Cardinals struck again in the bottom of each frame with an RBI double by Hopp and a two-run double by Lake in the fifth, and a two-run homer by Medwick and a run-scoring fly ball by Brown in the sixth that put St. Louis up 13-0.

The Dodgers finally showed some life in the eighth when Reese led off with a single and Dixie Walker, hitting for the battered Casey, singled Reese to third. After Charlie Gilbert popped out to third, Pete Coscarart grounded to Brown at short, who flipped to Lake at second for the force out, as Reese scored the first Brooklyn run. Jimmy Ripple and Johnny Hudson, spelling Lavagetto at third base, each singled, allowing Coscarart to score, before Babe Phelps flied out to center to end the inning.

Left-hander Max Macon, who had come up with the Cardinals in 1938, took the mound for Brooklyn in the bottom of the eighth. Hugh Casey had pitched seven innings and been pounded for 15 hits, including five home runs, and 13 runs, an ignominious pitching line that would remain unmatched by another major-league starter for more than 70 years.

He asked to stay in there,” said Durocher. “He hadn’t had much work, and as long as the game was gone, I let him continue.”4

The removal of Casey did nothing to cool the Cardinals’ hot bats. With one out, Mize slugged his second homer of the game. After another out, Joe Orengo, hitting for Brown, singled and stole second. Hopp singled, scoring Orengo for the Cardinals’ 15th run. Warneke got in on the action, stroking a double to score Hopp. Lake then clubbed his second homer of the game, a two-run shot that made it 18-2. Macon finally induced Martin to hit a grounder to Dolph Camilli at first, who stepped on the bag to retire the side.

It wasn’t the Cardinals’ feats at the plate that drew the loudest ovation of the afternoon, however. A great cheer arose from the stands when Bill DeLancey strode from the home dugout in the top of the ninth inning to replace Don Padgett as catcher. The Cardinals’ receiver from the world champion “Gas House Gang” of 1934 had been forced to retire after the 1935 season after contracting tuberculosis.

The Cardinals established a Class-D farm team in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1937 and hired the convalescing DeLancey as its manager. He led the Albuquerque Cardinals to two Arizona-Texas League championships and regained enough strength to return to the field for brief periods as a player — nine games in 1938 and 19 games in 1939. By 1940, his health had improved to the point that he was able to return to the big league Cardinals as the team’s third-string catcher. As DeLancey took the field, it marked his first time on a major-league diamond in nearly five years. DeLancey would only play 15 games in 1940 before retiring a second time, eventually succumbing to his illness on November 28, 1946, his 35th birthday.

With Warneke still on the mound, Camilli hit a foul in back of third that Martin caught for the first out. Roy Cullenbine singled, but Reese flied out to left. Max Macon, left in to bat for himself, poked a single, advancing Cullenbine to second. Warneke then fanned Gilbert for the final out.

In the 18-2 pounding of the Dodgers, the Cardinals shattered two batting records and tied another. The team’s 49 total bases topped the NL mark of 47 established by the Giants in 1931. Their seven total homers tied a NL record shared by five others and fell one short of the major-league record of eight set on June 28, 1939, by the New York Yankees in a game against the Philadelphia Athletics. The Cardinals’ 13 extra-base hits tied the modern major-league record held by the Tigers and matched twice before by the Cardinals.

Not to be overlooked was the fine pitching performance of Lon Warneke, who pitched shutout ball for seven innings, weakening only in the eighth when he was reached for four of the nine hits he allowed in the game and the Dodgers’ only two runs.

As for Hugh Casey, as a Brooklyn sportswriter put it, “There is no pitcher on the club who hates losing worse than [Casey] and he can get downright mean about it. He gave the Redbird sluggers something to remember him by. One by one they hit the dirt and he actually did hit three of them — Padgett, Mize, and Slaughter. Padgett and Mize had previously hit homers off Casey but Slaughter’s worst offense was a triple.”5

This article appears in “Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis: Home of the Browns and Cardinals at Grand and Dodier” (SABR, 2017), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. Click here to read more articles from this book online.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author also consulted:

Decatur (Illinois) Herald.

New York Times.

St. Louis Star-Times.

The Sporting News.

Baseball Reference.com.

Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 George Kirksey, “Collapse of Cards Stuns Baseball World,” Daily Times (New Philadelphia, Ohio), May 3, 1940: 7.

2 “Lippy Leo Respects Bill Terry’s Pitcher,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 7, 1940: 12.

3 Tommy Holmes, “Dodgers Relax After Pinning Back of Ears,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 8, 1940: 17.

4 “Casey Wanted to Stay In,” The Sporting News, May 16, 1940: 1.

5 Holmes.

The game was not originally scheduled for this day, but Ohio River flooding postponed the initial contest. With both teams having the day open and headed east anyway, the league rescheduled the game for 3:00 P.M., but apparently failed to inform the umpires. When game time arrived with no umpires present, frantic phone calls began. Umpire Larry Goetz, who lived in Cincinnati, was located, and he made it to the ballpark for a 3:29 first pitch. Those lost 29 minutes would matter. Goetz worked behind the plate, with Cardinals pitcher Lon Warneke officiating at third base and Reds coach Jimmie Wilson at first base.

Reds manager Bill McKechnie originally planned to start Bucky Walters, but changed his mind an hour before game time. Seeking to work a southpaw into his righty-heavy rotation,2 McKechnie handed the ball to Johnny Vander Meer for his first action of the season. Mort Cooper started for the Cardinals. The 27-year-old right-hander was two years away from becoming a wartime ace with St. Louis. He had struggled so far, entering the game 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA after four appearances.  

After a scoreless first inning, Johnny Mize opened the scoring when he led off the second inning with a line shot over the center-field fence for a 1-0 lead. After Pepper Martin’s grounder back to Vander Meer, the Reds pitcher walked Don Padgett and Joe Orengo. Vander Meer struck out Cooper for the second out but surrendered his third pass of the inning to Jimmy Brown. With the bases loaded, Stu Martin sent a line drive into center field. Unlike Mize’s hit, Martin’s did not have the distance and Harry Craft made the catch. After the game, Craft revealed that he twisted his knee on the play.3 While he finished the game, Craft would sit out almost two weeks.

The Cardinals increased their lead in the top of the third. With one out and Joe Medwick on first base, Mize blasted Vander Meer’s pitch halfway up the right-field bleachers for a 3-0 lead. Vander Meer gave another walk, this time to Pepper Martin. After Padgett popped up to second baseman Lonny Frey, Martin accounted for the final out when he was thrown out by Ernie Lombardi attempting to steal second base.

Eddie Joost opened the Reds’ third with a groundout to second baseman Brown. Vander Meer followed with a single to center field, and the Reds pitcher crossed the plate on Billy Werber’s double into left field. Werber advanced to third on Frey’s fly ball to Pepper Martin, and dashed home on Cooper’s wild pitch with Ival Goodman batting. Left fielder Medwick collected Goodman’s fly ball to end the inning with the Cardinals’ lead reduced to 3-2.

Orengo opened the Cardinals’ fourth with a high fly ball that “sailed majestically”4 over the center-field fence and out of the park. Cooper singled and Vander Meer’s day ended with the Reds trailing 4-2. McKechnie opted for right-hander Johnny Hutchings. The Reds reliever got into the action immediately when he fielded Brown’s sacrifice bunt for the first out. Stu Martin’s groundout to Frey advanced the Cardinals pitcher to third base. Slaughter could not bring home Cooper as his liner toward Joost made it no farther than the shortstop’s glove.

The Reds tied the game in the fourth inning. Frank McCormick and Lombardi hit back-to-back singles to start the inning. Craft doubled to left field to score Frank McCormick, and Lombardi stopped at third. Mike McCormick lifted a fly ball to Medwick that scored Lombardi and brought the Reds even. Craft remained at second, but received company on the bases when Joost walked. Cooper’s quick reaction stopped the Reds’ threat when he nabbed Hutchings’ line drive and “whirled around after grabbing the ball and whipped it to Brown to double Craft off second.”5 The call at second was close, but the double play ended the inning.

Medwick popped up to Frank McCormick in foul ground to start the fifth, but Hutchings’ control issues cost the Reds. He walked Mize, who advanced to second on a wild pitch with Pepper Martin batting. Pepper flied to out Goodman in right field for the second out, but Hutchings walked Padgett and gave up a run-scoring double to Orengo. Mize’s run put the Cardinals ahead 5-4.

The Reds broke out the bats in the home half of the inning. Werber hit his second double of the game, and Frey’s sacrifice bunt moved him to third. Goodman’s fly ball to Slaughter in right field scored Werber to tie the game. Cooper’s fastball struck Frank McCormick’s left forearm to keep the inning alive. Lombardi’s double deep into left field allowed the big first baseman to lumber home from first base. With Cincinnati now ahead 6-5, Cardinals manager Ray Blades brought in Curt Davis to replace Cooper. Davis started inauspiciously by walking Craft and giving up a hit to Mike McCormick that plated Lombardi for a 7-5 score. Joost received an intentional pass to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Johnny Rizzo, who joined the Reds on May 8, popped up to end the inning.

Elmer Riddle replaced Hutchings on the mound for the sixth and soon surrendered the lead. Brown and Stu Martin singled to begin the inning, and they moved into scoring position on Slaughter’s sacrifice. Medwick doubled to right field to score the pair, tying the game at 7-7. After Riddle intentionally walked Mize, Milt Shoffner entered the game and got the Reds out of inning without further damage. In the home half, Davis allowed a leadoff double to Werber and a single to Frey before Clyde Shoun replaced him. The Cardinals swingman induced a double-play ball from Goodman and a grounder from Frank McCormick to keep the score tied.

After a slugfest through six innings, Shoffner and Shoun turned the game into a pitchers’ duel that extended into extra frames. While no runs were scored as the game stretched toward dusk, one notable event was Werber’s double in the eighth inning. That two-bagger was his fourth of the game, allowing Werber to tie a major-league record he already shared with 16 others.

In the 13th inning, Mize achieved his own milestone with his two-out home run off Shoffner into the bleachers. That home run, Mize’s third of the game, allowed the Cardinals slugger to break the NL record he had shared with George Kelly for the most three-homer games. This was the third time Mize managed that feat.

Shoun took an 8-7 lead into the bottom of the inning. Craft and Mike McCormick each grounded out to shortstop Orengo. McKechnie called on Willard Hershberger to pinch-hit for Joost, and the Reds’ backup backstop doubled to right field. McKechnie made further moves to tie the game. Lee Gamble ran for Hershberger at second base, and pitcher Bucky Walters pinch-hit for Shoffner. The game appeared over when Walters struck out; however, the ball got by catcher Bill DeLancey6 and rolled into the Cardinals dugout. Gamble scampered to third as Walters alertly claimed first base. Blades brought in veteran Jack Russell to end the rally, but Werber smashed his first pitch into left field for a single. Gamble scored to tie the game, 8-8. Frey’s fly to Pepper Martin sent the game into the 14th.

There would not be a 15th inning, but not because the deadlock was broken. Against Joe Beggs, the Cardinals managed only three groundouts. The Reds could do no better than fly balls to each of the Cardinals outfielders. With the game even at 8-8, umpire Goetz could see no way forward in the darkness, and he called the game shortly after 7:00 P.M.. A timely start might have allowed another inning or two. Although Mize’s and Werber’s feats entered the record books and Shoun and Shoffner pitched well in extended relief roles, neither their heroics nor their teammates’ efforts could break the tie. The two teams packed up and headed east on a special train designed to prevent any fraternizing.7 August 11 was established as the date for the replay of this makeup game.

This article was published in “Cincinnati’s Crosley Field: A Gem in the Queen City” (SABR, 2018), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. To read more articles from this book at the SABR Games Project, click here.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted baseball-reference.com, retrosheet.org, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Sporting News, May 16, 1940.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN194005130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1940/B05130CIN1940.htm

Notes

1 Lou Smith, “Reds, Cards Battle Fourteen Innings to Tie,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 13, 1940: 11.

2 “Werber Ties Record for Doubles With Four Consecutive Two-Baggers,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 13, 1940: 12.

3 “Notes,” The Sporting News, May 23, 1940: 8.

4 “Werber Ties Record”: 12.

5 “Werber Ties Record”: 11.

6 DeLancey entered the game in the bottom of the ninth.

7 “Werber Ties Record”: 12.

The Elite (pronounced “ee-light”4) Giants were the defending champions of the Negro National League, having defeated the Grays in the 1939 championship series. The game of May 18 was the fourth league game of the 1940 season for each team and their first meeting since the 1939 playoffs. It was originally scheduled as a home game for the Pittsburgh-based Grays5 but was moved to Harrisburg. (The Grays were expanding their base eastward and would play an equal number of home games in Pittsburgh and Washington during the 1940 season.6)

The starting pitchers were Willie Hubert, a right-hander for the Elite Giants, and J.C. Hamilton, a southpaw for the Grays. The pitchers were handicapped because the new Island Park did not yet have a pitcher’s mound, and so the pitchers faced the batters on a level playing field.7

Catching for the Elite Giants was Roy Campanella, an 18-year-old prodigy who had been tutored by the legendary receiver Biz Mackey. The Grays hoped for the return of their superstar catcher, Josh Gibson, who had recently jumped to the Mexican League. Filling in for him was a 23-year-old backstop, Ziggy Marcell.8

Each team was guided by a savvy, 34-year-old playing manager, third baseman Felton Snow for the Elite Giants and left fielder Vic Harris for the Grays. The Elite Giants were known for their defense: Henry Kimbro in center field, Red Moore at first base, Sammy T. Hughes at second base, and Pee Wee Butts at shortstop were among the finest fielders in Negro baseball. The Grays featured speed in their lineup: Right fielder David “Speed” Whatley, center fielder Jerry Benjamin, second baseman Lick Carlisle, and shortstop Jelly Jackson were among the fastest baserunners in Negro baseball.

The most feared hitter on either team was the Grays’ Buck Leonard, a 32-year-old first baseman known as “the black Lou Gehrig,” and he gave his team an early lead with a first-inning two-run homer, a long drive over the center-field fence.

Doubles by Bill Perkins and Norman Robinson gave the Elite Giants a run in the top of the second. In the bottom of the third, Whatley doubled and Hubert committed an error attempting to field Benjamin’s sacrifice bunt. A double by Howard Easterling followed, and the Grays had two more runs.

Young Campanella hit a solo homer in the top of the fifth, but the Grays got the run back in the bottom half on singles by Harris and Leonard and an error by Robinson in right field.

Trailing 5-2, the Elite Giants rallied in the top of the seventh. Singles by Perkins, Snow, and Robinson, and Campanella’s second home run put them ahead, 6-5. But the lead was short-lived, as Harris clubbed a two-run homer in the bottom half and the Grays were back on top, 7-6.

“With a number of home runs and foul balls out of the park,” the umpires ran out of baseballs, and the game was delayed until more balls could be located.9

Jimmy Hicks, a right-handed fireballer dubbed “the Bob Feller of colored baseball,”10  entered the game for the Grays in the top of the eighth inning. He walked Hughes, the first man up. Perkins then singled, sending Hughes to third, and Hughes came home on Snow’s infield out to tie the score.

Moore, a left-handed batter, stepped to the plate, and Harris brought in southpaw Edsall Walker to face him. Snow countered by sending the right-handed George Scales to pinch-hit for Moore. A 39-year-old coach and utilityman,11  Scales slugged the first pitch from Walker over the right-center-field fence for a two-run homer, giving the Elite Giants a 9-7 lead.

Woody Williams, a southpaw,12  was called on to close out the game in the bottom of the ninth. The first batter, Benjamin, smacked a home run, but Williams fanned Harris, Leonard, and Easterling in succession to end the game. The final score was Baltimore Elite Giants 9, Homestead Grays 8.

The teams combined for six home runs in the seesaw battle. The Harrisburg Evening News praised the fielding of first baseman Leonard and shortstops Butts and Jackson.13

Epilogue

Several more Negro League games were played at Island Park in 1940, including a rematch of the Elite Giants and Grays on July 12, a night game won by the Elite Giants, 18-7. Campanella and Leonard homered in the contest.14  But the Grays captured the 1940 pennant by a slim margin over the second-place Elite Giants.15

“Roy Campanella, brilliant young Baltimore catcher … has been mentioned frequently for a tryout in the majors,” reported the Pittsburgh Courier on August 15, 1942. Campanella made his major-league debut at age 26 on April 20, 1948, with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.

On June 6, 1940, the Chester (Pennsylvania) Times said, “If Buck Leonard was not unfortunately handicapped by a mere matter of skin pigmentation he would be commanding a salary today comparable to such stars as Joe DiMaggio, Jimmy Foxx, Bill Dickey, etc.” Leonard was 39 years old when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, and never played in the major leagues. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.

Baseball on City Island remained a popular tradition in Harrisburg. In 2016 the Harrisburg Senators of the Eastern League played home games on the island at FNB Field.

• Related link: View stats from the 1940 Negro National League season at the Seamheads.com Negro Leagues Database

Sources

The author relied on the game accounts given in the May 25, 1940, issue of the Afro-American, a Baltimore newspaper, and the May 20, 1940, issue of the Harrisburg Evening News. Where there were discrepancies, preference was given to the more detailed account in the Afro-American.

Background information about the players was obtained from James A. Riley’s Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1994) and from Seamheads.com.

Notes

For nearly 15 minutes 25,562 excitedly impatient fans had been shouting and clapping their hands in unison. The claps turned to applause when St. Louis Mayor Bernard Dickmann finally emerged from the dugout, strode to a microphone behind home plate, and formally welcomed the crowd to the night’s special event.

Hosting chores were then turned over to St. Louis Browns’ President Don Barnes, who introduced a handful of dignitaries, including AL President Will Harridge. Finally, Kenesaw M. Landis, commissioner of baseball, was invited to press a button wired into the ballpark’s electrical system, and, to an audible gasp from the crowd, 764 1,500-watt bulbs on eight steel towers and 250 additional lights installed in the pavilion, bleachers, and other public areas burst into brilliance, illuminating every corner of Sportsman’s Park.

Less than one year earlier, Browns vice president and general manager Bill DeWitt had made clear the club’s opposition to introducing night baseball in St. Louis.

“Our main object right now,” said DeWitt, “is to get a winning ballclub. It’s next to impossible to sell a tailender to the public, nights or afternoons. I’m positive on that point. We’re tailenders now and I doubt that we’d increase our patronage at night in sufficient numbers to meet the cost of installing lights.”1

But the numbers from elsewhere in the major leagues were hard to ignore. While the Browns drew an average of 2,480 to 11 home games against the White Sox in 1939, the White Sox drew 30,000 in their one night game against the Browns in Chicago.2 In 11 games with the Indians in St. Louis, the average crowd numbered 1,050; the Browns played before 16,467 in one night game in Cleveland.3 Even the seventh-place Athletics could boast of hosting 120,000 fans for their seven night games in Philadelphia, nearly equaling the Browns’ total home attendance of 109,000 for the entire 1939 season.4

The basic plans required to install lights at Sportsman’s Park were already in hand. Blueprints had been drawn up in 1937, but a dispute over how the cost was to be split between the Browns and the Cardinals and which team would get to play the first game under the lights caused the project to be put aside.

Faced with the box-office numbers from around the league, resistance to night baseball within the financially strapped Browns organization crumbled, and on January 18, 1940, the club’s board of directors unanimously approved the installation of lights at Sportsman’s Park at a cost of $174,000,5 contingent on half of the tab being paid by the tenant St. Louis Cardinals. Cardinals owner Sam Breadon gave the project his approval the following day.

Estimates were that the construction of light towers and installation of lights would take less than four months. By agreement between the two clubs, the Browns would host the first night game, against the Indians on May 24, while the Cardinals would make their nighttime debut against the Brooklyn Dodgers on June 4. With only one minor setback – a wind and rain storm on May 14 that tore a light reflector from one of the towers, sending it crashing into the seats as spectators for a Browns-Yankees game, just postponed, were leaving the grandstand – the project was completed on schedule.

Devoted fans and the curious began to file into Sportsman’s Park on the evening of the 24th as early as 5:00 P.M. The lights were turned on at 7:45 to allow the Browns and the Indians to take fielding practice, after which the lights were extinguished in preparation for the scheduled ceremonies.

By game time, 24,827 cash customers and 735 pass-gate attendants filled the stands, the largest turnout for the Browns since a June 1928 game that brought Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees to town.

“It was carnival time in North St. Louis,” one observer said in describing the scene in and around the ballpark. “The neighborhood was lighted up like downtown, but the lights were brighter. Night baseball became a debutante in a bright, gleaming dress.

“Sportsman’s Park’s neighbors entered into the spirit of the occasion. They sat on their porches and watched the lights go on, and thrilled to the roar of the crowd that cheered the Browns and the Indians.”6

Starting that night for Browns was Elden Auker, winner of three of his first five decisions for the 11-15 club. Auker, a submarine hurler who had won 15 and 18 games for the 1934-1935 pennant-winning Detroit Tigers, had been acquired by St. Louis after an unhappy 9-10 season in Boston in which he had feuded on and off with Red Sox manager Joe Cronin.

Tapped for 18-10 Cleveland was 21-year-old fireballing sensation Bob Feller. Feller had galvanized the baseball world by tossing a 1-0 no-hitter against the White Sox on Opening Day, and owned a 5-2 record, a stingy 2.56 ERA, and 51 strikeouts in 59⅔ innings coming into the game.

Auker got off to a good start, retiring the Indians in order in the first inning. Feller, on the other hand, found himself in trouble right away, walking leadoff hitter Alan “Inky” Strange and allowing Walt Judnich to drive a pitch off the screen in right field for a double. After George McQuinn went down swinging, Rip Radcliff, hitting .391 overall and .477 over his last 10 games on his way to a .342 season, was given an intentional pass. With the bases now loaded, Feller fanned Chet Laabs on three straight pitches. But third baseman Ken Keltner booted a hard-hit grounder off the bat of Harlond Clift, and Strange sprinted home with the first run of the game.

Auker continued to make short work of the Indians, retiring three straight in the second and the first two hitters in the third before Feller, catching an outside curveball, drove the ball into the lower deck of the right-field pavilion, tying the game with his first major-league home run.

Cleveland snapped the tie in the fourth inning when Jeff Heath knocked a double off the wall in left-center and scored on a single to left by Rollie Hemsley. Rookie Ray Mack, who had been made the Tribe’s regular second baseman after brief stints with the club in 1938 and 1939, and who was pacing the club in the early going with a .340 average, looped a double to right, scoring Hemsley with an insurance run to make it 3-1.

The Browns managed only three more hits off Feller between the second and seventh innings, but broke through again in the eighth. McQuinn opened with a single to left before taking off on Radcliff’s third hit of the night, a double to left-center. Taking a wide turn around third, McQuinn collided with an Associated Press photographer but managed to untangle himself from the unlucky lensman and scattered camera parts to score without a play being made.

With Radcliff representing the tying run on second and one out, Laabs bunted up the third-base line. Feller pounced on the ball and tossed it to Keltner, who scrambled back to third to make the tag on a sliding Radcliff. Clift then flied to center, and Laabs was thrown out on an attempted steal of second, Hemsley to shortstop Lou Boudreau.

Auker disposed of the Indians in order in the ninth and Feller finished off the Browns in the same manner to end the game.

Feller struck out nine in going the distance, scattering seven hits and walking only two, for his sixth victory of what would be a career-high 27 for the season. Feller won the “triple crown” of pitching in 1940, leading the AL in wins, strikeouts, and ERA, as well as in games pitched, starts, complete games, shutouts, and innings pitched.

Auker took a hard-luck loss, hurling nine innings and surrendering nine hits and three runs while striking out six.

The outcome of the game may have been a disappointment to 25,000-plus Browns fans, but the reviews of the game under the lights were nonetheless excellent.

“After the Browns’ last batter had been retired,” the sports editor of the St. Louis Star-Times wrote the following day, “the huge crowd moved toward the exit gates, everyone voicing the sentiment of Mr. Baseball Fan of 1940 – that night baseball in the majors is here to stay.”7

This article appears in “Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis: Home of the Browns and Cardinals at Grand and Dodier” (SABR, 2017), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. Click here to read more articles from this book online.

Photo Caption

Construction on Sportsman’s Park was finished in 1909. It served as the home park for the Browns until 1953 and for the Cardinals from July 1, 1920, until May 8, 1966. (National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York)

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the notes, the author also consulted:

Akron Beacon-Journal.

Cincinnati Enquirer.

Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Freeport (Illinois) Journal-Standard.

New York Times.

Sandusky (Ohio) Star-Journal.

The Sporting News.

Notes

1 Sid Keener, “Sid Keener’s Column,” St. Louis Star-Times, June 8, 1939: 30.

2 Sid Keener, “Sid Keener’s Column,” St Louis Star-Times, January 23, 1940: 16.

3 Ibid.

4 E.G. Brands, “St. Louis Greets Nocturnal Ball With Third Largest Attendance in the Browns’ History,” The Sporting News, May 30, 1940: 5.

5 Robert Morrison, “Sportsman’s Park to Have ‘Best Lighting in World,’” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 22, 1940: 14.

6 James Toomey, “North St. Louis Finds It Likes Night Baseball – Even Outside Park,” St. Louis Star-Times, May 25, 1940: 6.

7 Sid Keener, “Sid Keener’s Column,” St Louis Star-Times, May 25, 1940: 6.

Paul Derringer

The struggles he experienced in 1940 were different, though. By that time, Derringer had established himself as one of the best “money” pitchers in the game, a three-time All-Star who had won 20-plus games in three different seasons.1 The previous season, Derringer was 25-7 with a 2.93 ERA, a season in which he walked only 35 batters in 301 innings –  and, incredibly, 24 of those walks were intentional.2 He seemed to be on top of his game.

By late May of 1940, however, Derringer’s critics began “whisper(ing) that the big fellow had lost his grip and was beginning to slip.”3 In the four starts preceding his outing against the Cardinals on May 26, Derringer was 1-3 with a 7.33 ERA and had “been hit freely in both.”4 Around Cincinnati, the pitcher was called overweight, and was accused of being a “Night Club Romeo” as an explanation for his struggles.5

More than Derringer’s reputation was on the line as St. Louis invaded the Queen City on May 26. The Reds, defending champions of the National League, entered the day in a virtual tie with Brooklyn for first place in the NL, though the Dodgers led Cincinnati by mere percentage points. The Reds would also be facing the Cardinals on that day; St. Louis was considered by most observers to be the odds-on favorites to capture the NL pennant in 1940.6

Nearly 20,000 spectators,7 including politicians of all stripes,8 came out to Crosley Field on that bright afternoon, but the game wasn’t necessarily the main event. The Reds had planned a pregame extravaganza to honor the 1939 club and raise the city’s first National League pennant in two decades. A number of guests of honor were present.

The ceremony began with the introduction of 21 elderly fans, guests of Reds general manager Warren Giles, who were described as “the only known survivors in this vicinity of those who saw the undefeated Red Stockings of 1869 in action.”9 A lighthearted moment occurred as the old-timers – each wearing a small pennant reading “I saw the Reds of 1869” – walked onto the Crosley Field turf.10 Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis – at the tender age of 74 himself – received an ovation for leaping athletically over the railing behind first base so that he could make his way across the field to shake the hands of the guests from 1869.11

The Reds players who remained from the 1939 club, along with manager Bill McKechnie and his coaches, then carried an enormous pennant reading “National League Champions 1939” to the flagpole in center field. Legendary groundskeeper Matty Schwab raised the flag as a band played “The Seven Hills of Cincinnati.”12 As the players made their way back to the dugout to begin the game, the band performed a boisterous rendition of “Happy Days Are Here Again.”13

Very quickly, the happy days were lost in the glory of the current version of the Reds, who – behind the blazing fastball of Derringer – showed Reds fans that they should be considered contenders for a second consecutive pennant.14

With one away in the top of the first, Cardinals third baseman Stu Martin connected for a seeing-eye single up the middle, just past the reach of Reds second sacker Lonnie Frey.15 The next hitter, Enos Slaughter, connected on a short fly to left field; Cincinnati’s Johnny Rizzo dove for the ball, but it popped out of his glove. Rizzo injured his shoulder – he would be forced to leave the game – but he recovered in time to force Martin at second.16 It was a hint of things to come, as no Cardinal was able to reach second base all day.

Meanwhile, the Reds dented the plate early against Cardinals starter Mort Cooper. Nearly a decade later, Cooper’s brother Walker would set a Reds record with 10 RBIs in a game,17 but on this day, big brother Mort was almost a footnote to an outstanding performance by the Redlegs. Billy Werber, third baseman and the leader of Cincinnati’s “Jungle Cat” infield, lifted a pop fly behind second base. St. Louis’s rookie second baseman Eddie Lake slipped as he went back, and the ball landed safely for a single.18

Frey then ripped a single to right field, advancing Werber to third.19 He scored one batter later on a fielder’s choice, then Frey scored on a single to left field. At the end of one inning, the Reds had grabbed a 2-0 lead.

After that lone single in the first, Derringer settled in. He walked one batter in the second inning, but then proceeded to retire 20 of the next 21 Cardinals hitters, the only exception being Johnny Mize, the league’s reigning home-run and batting-average king, who reached on an error by Frey in the fourth inning.²⁰

Derringer was famous for his high leg-kick and his fastball – not to mention an occasional knuckleball21 — but he mixed in a changeup along with a number of fabulous curves on the corners of the plate.22 He struck out seven hitters, and observers noted that the Cardinals made decent contact with only four pitches all day long.23

In the fourth inning, Derringer helped his own cause by singling in Harry Craft, who had reached on an infield single. Legendary catcher Ernie Lombardi drove in the game’s final run one inning later, with a single to left field.

Though this was just the 30th game played by the Reds this early in the season, Reds fans were engaged in that traditional baseball activity: scoreboard-watching. Late in the game, a score was posted on the scoreboard that showed the Dodgers – who maintained that slim margin over the Reds in the NL standings – losing 3-1 to the Phillies after eight innings. Moments later, the crowd issued a collective groan when the score was changed to reflect the fact that Brooklyn was actually leading 2-1 in extra innings. To the dismay of the Cincinnati partisans, there had been an error in the initial telegraph report.24

Meanwhile, Derringer walked the first hitter of the ninth – only the fourth baserunner he had permitted all day – but made quick work of Martin, Slaughter, and Joe Medwick (the latter two future Hall of Famers) to preserve a 4-0 victory and permit the Reds to keep pace with Brooklyn.

Derringer was exuberant after the game. “Never felt better and never had more stuff on the ball,” he told Cincinnati Enquirer sportswriter Lou Smith after the game.25 The win launched Derringer back into his customary environs at the top of the National League pitching heap; he won each of his next five starts, posting an ERA of 0.83 over that span. By the end of season Derringer had again won 20 games and was named to his fourth All-Star team.26 That’s how you answer your critics.

Perhaps more importantly, the win was the sixth in seven games against the preseason favorite Cardinals. The Reds went on to win nine of their next 11 games to take control of the NL pennant race. When the dust settled on the season, Cincinnati had captured its second consecutive league championship by a full 12 games over the Dodgers. St. Louis finished a distant third.

Cincinnati would go on to win the 1940 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, the club’s first Series championship since 1919. In Game Seven, the Reds squeaked by with a 2-1 victory. Paul Derringer got the win in that contest, pitching a complete game without surrendering a single earned run.

This article was published in “Cincinnati’s Crosley Field: A Gem in the Queen City” (SABR, 2018), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. To read more articles from this book at the SABR Games Project, click here.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the notes, the author consulted:

Baseball-Reference.com.

SABR.org.

Notes

1 Bob Hertzel, Cincinnati Reds Scrapbook (Jordon & Co., 1982), 92.

2 Ibid.

3 Tom Swope, “Hopes of Reds Go Up Along With ’39 Flag,” The Sporting News, May 30, 1940: 2.

4 Ibid.

5 Lou Smith, “Derringer Hurls One-Hitter as Redlegs Shut Out Cards,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 27, 1940: 1.

6 Lou Smith, “Reds to Play Two at Buc Park Today,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 27, 1940: 10.

7 The actual attendance was 19,490.

8 “Hopes of Reds.”

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 “Reds to Play Two at Buc Park Today.”

12 Smittie’s Band had the honors. Ibid.

13 “Hopes of Reds.”

14 Ibid.

15 “Derringer Hurls One-Hitter.”

16 “Reds to Play Two at Buc Park Today.”

17 July 6, 1949.

18 “Derringer Hurls One-Hitter.”

19 Ibid.

20 Mize was unable to collect a single hit in the entire series, dropping his batting average a full 25 points. “Reds to Play Two at Buc Park Today.”

21 Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: The Free Press, 2001), 864.

22 “Derringer Hurls One-Hitter.”

23 Ibid.

24 “Reds to Play Two at Buc Park Today.”

25 Ibid.

26 Derringer would make six National League All-Star rosters in his 10-year Cincinnati career.

A crowd of 8,855 entered Wrigley Field that Saturday to watch the skidding Dodgers (21-10, two games behind Cincinnati), and Cubs (18-19, eight games back). It was the Dodgers’ Tex Carleton on the mound, fresh off a no-hitter, going for Brooklyn. He would roll through the early frames, going up 3-0 against the Cubs’ Ken Raffensberger. The sixth inning saw the Cubs tie the game, 3-3. It remained stalled at 3-3 into extra innings.

With two out and no one on in the top of the 12th inning, the Cubs pitcher, right-handed-throwing Texan Jake Mooty, delivered a pitch to Reese. Reese lost sight of the pitch among the white shirts worn by spectators in the center-field bleachers. The white ball struck Reese just behind his unprotected ear, dropping him limp on his back. The Dodgers dugout quickly sprinted to tend to the likable shortstop.2

Conscious but disoriented, Reese was put on a stretcher and ambulanced to nearby Illinois Masonic Hospital. Reese mentor and Dodgers manager Leo Durocher pinch-ran and took his place at shortstop. But the Dodgers’ spirit was deflated and the first Cub to bat in the bottom half, former Dodger Al Todd, hit a 400-foot home run to win the game.

There was a Sunday doubleheader the next day, but the Dodgers were more concerned about the results at the hospital. Reese was their promising new 20-year-old shortstop coming at a high cost of $75,000. Reese had the skills and the demeanor to lead the Dodgers franchise into the future. Larry MacPhail, Brooklyn’s general manager, took a big risk with Reese. The Boston Red Sox has seen him as so important that they bought the Louisville Colonels team to ensure that they got him. But now he was a Dodger and the seasoned baseball man MacPhail called him “the most instinctive baserunner I have ever seen.”3

Reese spent 10 days at the Chicago hospital before spending more time back home in Louisville recuperating from the “severe concussion.”4 The day after Reese was pegged, the Chicago Tribune reported that 23-year-old Lyle Neuman of Wilmot, Wisconsin, had died days after getting beaned in a Wisconsin Rural League game.5 Reese returned on June 21 to hit a single, double, and triple. Neuman could not.

To make matters worse, three days before Reese’s return, his teammate Joe Medwick was knocked unconscious at Ebbets Field from a blatant beaning by Bob Bowman to finish an argument that began at a hotel.6 The constant baseball visionary MacPhail took note. Although there had been flirtations with designing batters’ helmets since Ray Chapman’s death in 1920, baseball leaders and players were still hesitant regarding the idea.

On June 29 NL President Ford Frick and other league brass met in St. Louis to discuss the increasing problem, citing the Reese and Medwick incidents. These head injuries became a rallying point for McPhail and Frick to “galvanize the targeted development of protective headgear.”7 MacPhail partnered with orthopedist Dr. George E. Bennett of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

The 1941 season saw the Brooklyn Dodgers utilize an early form of the batting helmet with Reese and Medwick the first users. Dubbed a “beanball hat,”8 it was a regular baseball cap with plastic plates sewn into the side interiors. It earned the praise of MacPhail, who in 1941 called it “the biggest thing that has happened to the game since night baseball — which he also helped create. By the end of the 1941 season, four teams had adapted the new gear.9

In June 1941, with the Reese scare still fresh in Brooklyn, the New York Daily News penned a letter to Cubs owner Philip Wrigley in Chicago demanding that he do something to assist the batters’ vision at Wrigley Field.10 The letter cited the most recent victim of the “white shirt problem,” Cubs All-Star Hank Leiber who was severely injured at Wrigley on June 24 from a Cliff Melton pitch — lost in the shirts as usual. Chester Smith of the Pittsburgh Press passionately expanded upon it, calling it “one of the most unusual letters ever written to a club owner.”11

Smith added, “For years now, both Cubs and visiting players have complained of poor visibility by the low bleachers. It is the worst background for judging a pitched ball in the majors. Lieber didn’t see the pitch that hit him until the last second. Even the umpire, Babe Pinelli, lost sight of the pitch. Lost it because the ball came out of the shimmer of the white shirts of fans seated in those bleachers in direct line of home plate. Pee Wee Reese suffered the same experience last year when felled by Jake Mooty.”12 Smith’s article was accompanied by a cartoon captioned, “Ahh Forbes Field. You never get beaned at this park!”13

With the “White Shirt Problem” now exposed, it would pick up steam. Research indicates that complaints from National League players about the batting background at Wrigley increased with regularity as the 1940s moved on, and especially as baseball normalized after World War II. When Boston Brave Tommy Holmes’s 37-game hit streak in 1945 was broken at Wrigley Field, he said, “[L]ooking out into that white background was tough. A couple of [Hank] Wyse’s pitches were at my chin before I knew it.”14

Although reluctant, Cubs owner Wrigley started to experiment, eventually adding a shade screen for right-handed hitters to the center-field bleachers during the 1947 season.15 Likely due to the increased criticism received around the 1947 All-Star Game at Wrigley Field,16 a cartoon poking fun at the Cubs’ “much discussed white shirts” appeared in the Boston Globe in June 1947.17 After the All-Star Game, with American Leaguers now stepping in at Wrigley, Joe DiMaggio said, “It’s bad, they really ought to do something about it.”18 Detroit Tiger George Kell said, “It’s rough.”19

In 1951 Cardinals manager Ed Stanky demanded that the center-field bleachers (1,200 seats) be roped off while his team was there.20 That process finally became permanent for the 1952 season,21 due part to efforts by Hank Sauer22 and Ralph Kiner23 among others. Sauer would ignite at Wrigley to win the 1952 NL Most Valuable Player Award, perhaps aided by the new hitter’s advantage. The bleacher seats would remain in place to be used for Chicago Bears games until the 1970s, but were fenced off during baseball season. The space would eventually be converted into green juniper shrubbery in 1997.

Baseball, with its spirit largely based on tradition, can be slow to change. This 1940 game and its one errant pitch served as a catalyst toward providing momentum to solve one of the game’s safety issues and give one of its parks some much needed refining.

Sources

https://baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN194006010.shtml

https://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1940/B06010CHN1940.htm

Shea, Stuart. The Long Life and Contentious Times of the Friendly Confines (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014).

Spatz, Lyle, ed. The Team that Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press/SABR), 2012.

Notes

1 Hy Turkin, “Cubs Beat Dodgers 4-3; Pee Wee Reese Beaned,” New York Daily News, June 2, 1940: 79.

2 Tommy Holmes, “Reese in Hospital, Injured as Dodgers Bow to Cubs,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 2, 1940: 1C.

3 Tommy Fitzgerald, “Brooklyn in $75,000 Deal for Reese, Who ‘Didn’t Want to Be a Dodger.’” The Sporting News, July 27, 1939.

4 Irving Vaughn, “Todd Breaks Up Dodger Opener, 4-3; Reese Hurt,” Chicago Tribune, June 2, 1940: Section 2, 2. “Pee Wee Reese Quits Hospital, Returns Home,” Chicago Tribune, June 11, 1940: 23.

5 “Kenosha Ball Player Dies; Beaned in Game,” Chicago Tribune, June 2, 1940: Section 2, 1.

6 “Dodgers Seek Ban on Bowman as His Pitch Fells Joe Medwick,” Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1940: 23.

7 “The Neurosurgeon as Baseball Fan and Inventor: Walter Dandy and the Batter’s Helmet,” in Neurosurgeon FOCUS 2015, Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston.

8 Bob Hurte, “The Story of the Beanball Hat,” Seamheads.com, February 22, 2013, seamheads.com/blog/2013/02/22/the-story-of-the-beanball-hat/. Accessed May 21, 2019.

9 “The neurosurgeon.”

10 “N.Y. Writers Give Wrigley Bean Ball Tip,” Chicago Tribune, June 26, 1941: 19.

11 Chester L. Smith, “The Village Smithy — ‘Bean Ball’ Parks Are Menace to Players,” Pittsburgh Press, June 28, 1941: 7.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 Jerry Liska, “Cubs Park Is ‘Hardest,’ Says Tommy Holmes,” Allentown (Pennsylvania) Morning Call, July 15, 1945: 9.

15 “Wrigley Field Experiment,” Decatur (Illinois) Daily Review, July 23, 1947: 8.

16 Harold C. Burr, “Batting Background Plays Villain Role,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 3 1947: 23.

17 Gene Mack, “Wrigley Field, Scene of All-Star Game,” (cartoon), Boston Globe, July 9, 1947: 14.

18 “Pitches Resemble those Discs with Blackie and Hal on Hill,” Syracuse Post-Standard, July 7, 1947: 15.

19 Ibid.

20 Sauer Big Reason for ChiCubs Pace,” Wilmington (Delaware) Morning News, June 10, 1952: 24.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid.

23 Al Yellon, “A History of Wrigley Field Changes,” bleedcubbieblue.com/2013/4/15/4226660/wrigley-field-renovations-history, accessed April 26, 2019.

The Cincinnati Enquirer ran two large front-page headlines the next day. The first announced a French retreat during World War II in Europe. Immediately below, the second read, “Our Lads Annihilate Brooklyn, 23 To 2.”3 According to the New York Times, the Dodgers “permitted the Reds, whom they bounced out of first place yesterday, to tumble them right back into the second spot.”4 The Dodgers entered the game with a six-game winning streak, but that ended abruptly. In the Reds’ bombardment of the Dodgers, left fielder Harry Craft became the fifth batter in Cincinnati history to hit for the cycle.5

Derringer took the hill for the hometown Reds looking for his fourth consecutive triumph. He was opposed by Brooklyn’s Freddie Fitzsimmons, who was seeking his fifth straight victory. Fitzsimmons didn’t even make it long enough to get an at-bat; he allowed five earned runs in the first two innings and was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the top of the third. Dixie Walker reached on an error by Lonny Frey to start the game, but Derringer then put the Dodgers down in order.

In the bottom of the first, Frey made up for his fielding miscue and “started the avalanche of Redleg hits and runs in the opening round with a long swat into the right-field bleachers.”6 It was his third home run of the season. An inning later, the fireworks really started. Lombardi and Johnny Rizzo each singled, Craft doubled them both home, and Billy Myers doubled to score Craft. Derringer struck out, but Frey doubled in the fourth run of the inning.

In the third, with Carl Doyle now pitching for Brooklyn, McCormick walked and took third on a single by Lombardi. McCormick scored and Lombardi took second on Doyle’s wild pitch with Rizzo batting. Rizzo popped out but Craft’s triple drove in Lombardi. Derringer, batting .098 entering the game, singled and Craft scored. Suddenly Cincinnati had an 8-0 lead. 

In no time at all, the Reds were batting in the bottom of the fourth. After Frey’s error to start the game, Derringer had retired all of Brooklyn’s batters, and he had a no-hitter going. The Reds added a run on a single by McCormick and an RBI double by Lombardi. Rizzo walked and Craft singled, but both died on base as Doyle retired the Reds.

Brooklyn’s bats finally had some life in the fifth. The Dodgers got two runs on a single by Cookie Lavagetto and doubles by Dolph Camilli and pitcher Doyle. Cincinnati responded with an outburst in the bottom of the inning, with the first four batters reaching on singles. With two runs in, one out and runners on the corners, Craft blasted a home run to complete the cycle. Myers was hit by a pitch, was sacrificed to second by Derringer, and was driven home on a single by Billy Werber. The Reds had sent 10 men to bat, as “they wheeled their Big Berthas into position again to score six times on as many hits, a walk, and a hit batsman.”7

Cincinnati scored four more in the sixth. Nine men batted. Four singles, a walk, and a hit batsman (Craft) accounted for the action. Now it was 19-2, and even though it was the sixth inning, every Reds batter had already had at least five plate appearances.

Van Lingle Mungo relieved Doyle to start the seventh inning (after pinch-hitting in the top of the inning). A Cincinnati runner had crossed the plate in every one of the first six innings. In the seventh Mungo shut them out, although the Reds left the bases loaded. Craft drew a walk to continue his perfect on-base percentage. However, Cincinnati proved “that they don’t play favorites on their good days by blasting Mungo for four more runs”8 in the eighth, getting another single by Craft and a home run by Rizzo. After eight innings, the home team had scored 23 runs and had left 15 runners on base. “The devastating Redleg blitzkrieg, the biggest of the 1940 major league season,”9 was five runs and six hits shy of the major-league record for most runs and hits in a game.

In the blowout, the Reds had sent 62 batters to the plate. Four players (Frey, McCormick, Lombardi, and Craft) had at least four hits. Seven players scored at least two runs each. As a team, Cincinnati hit 27-for-51 (a .529 clip), coaxed six walks, and had four hit batsmen. There was also a sacrifice. Craft reached base all seven times he batted.

Derringer pitched a complete game, facing 36 Brooklyn swingers, allowing two earned runs on seven hits (three doubles and four singles). He struck out six and walked one. He blanked Brooklyn through the first four and the last four innings.

In the other dugout, the Dodgers hurlers allowed six walks in addition to the 27 hits (19 singles, five doubles, a triple, and two home runs). Doyle started the bottom of the third and was left on the mound by manager Leo Durocher for four innings. He was touched for 14 runs on 16 hits. The recap in the New York Times mentioned that in his first three innings Doyle “allowed twelve hits, made two wild pitches, walked three men and hit three because of his frequent ‘duster’ pitches.”10  In the colorful sportswriting lingo of the time, Lou Smith of the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote, “Along with being knocked slightly whacky, Doyle also did quite a job of plunking our boys with the stitched onion.”11  He tied a modern record for hitting batsmen, previously shared by four pitchers.12  His 14 earned runs allowed are second for most allowed by a Dodgers pitcher in a game.

Craft, 25 and in his fourth season in the majors, hit only five triples and six home runs in 115 games in 1940. However, his triple in this game was his third in his last four games, and his home run was his second in two games. His 5-for-5 outburst raised his batting average from .264 to .289, and his slugging percentage from .438 to .497. (He ended the season with a .244 batting average.) Craft’s teammate Frey was a triple shy of the cycle. Craft was the first of six major leaguers to hit for the cycle in 1940, the most in a single season since 1933, when eight men did it.13

Brooklyn rebounded to win five of its next six games, including three against the Reds, but Cincinnati spent only eight days in second place, going 71-40 during the remainder of the season. Brooklyn (88-65) finished second, 12 games behind the pennant- and World Series-winning Cincinnati Reds.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, mlb.com, and retrosheet.org. 

Notes

1 Lou Smith, “Our Lads Annihilate Brooklyn, 23 To 2,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 9, 1940: 1.

2 Derringer earned the victory in the 1940 All-Star Game as the National League defeated the American League, 4-0.

3 Smith.

4 Roscoe McGowen, “Reds, on 27 Blows, Rout Dodgers, 23-2; Regain First Place,” New York Times, June 9, 1940: S1.

5 Prior to Craft, Cincinnati batters who hit for the cycle were John Reilly (August 6, 1890), Tom Parrott (September 28, 1894), Mike Mitchell (August 19, 1911), and Heinie Groh (July 5, 1915). After Craft, it was another 19 seasons before Frank Robinson became the sixth Reds player to hit for the cycle (May 2, 1959). Eric Davis is the seventh and, as of 2016, last Cincinnati cycle hitter (June 2, 1989).

6 Smith.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 McGowen.

11 Smith.

12 McGowen. As of the 2016 season, 20 pitchers shared the record of hitting four batters in a game.

13 Over 12 days in 1933, three Philadelphia Athletics hit for the cycle: Mickey Cochrane (August 2), Pinky Higgins (August 6), and Jimmie Foxx (August 14).