July 19, 1940: Yankees’ backup backstop Buddy Rosar hits for the cycle

The New York Yankees entered 1940 as baseball’s first-ever defending four-time World Series champions. They struggled during the season’s first half, however, losing eight straight games in May and going 1-8-1 in a 10-game stretch in June.

After the games on July 16, the Yankees were stuck in fourth place, 5½ games behind the American League-leading Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians, with the Boston Red Sox in third. In fact, the closest New York had been to the top spot since early May was 3½ games.

The Yankees began a critical three-game series against Cleveland at Yankee Stadium. The Indians were on an Eastern road swing: Philadelphia, Washington, New York, and Boston. They had swept three games from the Philadelphia Athletics, then lost three in a row to the Washington Senators.

New York ran Cleveland’s losing streak to five by winning the first two games of the series. Monte Pearson outdueled 21-year-old Indians ace Bob Feller in the 13-inning opener,1 with the winning run scoring on Bill Dickey’s single. In the series’ second game, backup catcher Buddy Rosar hit a first-inning grand slam against lefty Al Milnar, propelling the Yankees to a 9-6 victory that knocked the Indians out of first place.

Rosar, a Buffalo, New York, native, had signed with the Yankees out of high school in 1934. He worked his way up through the minors, spending 1937 and 1938 with the Newark Bears. In 91 games in 1938, Rosar hit 15 homers, drove in 79 runs, and batted .387 (with a 1.080 OPS). He joined the Yankees the following spring. The Sporting News identified Rosar, teammate Charlie Keller, and Boston’s Ted Williams as part of a group of 1939 first-year players “expected to set new standards for rookies.”2

The Yankees, however, already had perennial All-Star Dickey at catcher, and Rosar played in just 35 games in 1939.3 In 1940 he began receiving more playing time before a hand injury on May 20 sidelined him for 25 games. Once he returned, on June 16, Rosar was consistent at the plate; his batting average stayed around the .300 mark, and his slugging percentage jumped from .333 before the injury to .471 on July 18 (a span of 16 games). He regularly replaced Dickey behind the plate, especially when opponents had a left-handed starter.4

A Friday afternoon crowd of 12,151 turned out for the final game of the series, played on July 19. With left-hander Al Smith on the mound for Cleveland, Rosar was back in the lineup, batting fifth.

New York’s Lefty Gomez made his fourth start of the season. He had earned the win on Opening Day, but then missed the next 2½ months with shoulder stiffness. This was his third start since rejoining the Yankees in early July. For the Indians, fellow lefty Smith, who had signed with Cleveland after spending six seasons in the National League with the New York Giants and Philadelphia Phillies, was making his 12th start of the season and searching for his 10th win. He had won four of his last five decisions and had beaten the Yankees twice in three decisions.

The Cincinnati Enquirer summed up the game with, “The roar of the onrushing Yankee machine sounded louder and louder today as the champions pulverized the Cleveland Indians.”5 The pulverization began in the bottom of the first inning. Frankie Crosetti drew a walk. Red Rolfe hit a grounder to third baseman Ken Keltner, who muffed the play, and New York had two men on with no outs. They both scored on Tommy Henrich’s double into right field.

After Joe DiMaggio flied out, Rosar crushed an RBI triple to left. Joe Gordon followed with his 11th home run of the season, making the score 5-0. He had been given the green light, swinging on a 3-and-0 pitch.6

Like Rosar, Yankees manager Joe McCarthy also deployed righty-swinging journeyman Buster Mills against left-handed pitching.7 Mills – playing left field and batting .429 as a reserve – tripled to left, prompting Indians manager Ossie Vitt to make a pitching change. Joe Dobson relieved Smith. The first batter he faced was Babe Dahlgren, who “slapped one into the stands”8 for his seventh homer and New York’s seventh run of the inning. By the time Crosetti struck out looking for the final out in the first, 10 New Yorkers had batted and the Yankees were a single shy of a team cycle in the inning.

The barrage continued in the second. Cleveland’s third pitcher, right-hander Johnny Humphries, was now on the mound. A single by Rosar coupled with two walks loaded the bases. Mills lined a double to left, plating all three runners. The Yankees had built a 10-0 lead.

Gomez ran into trouble in the top of the third. Ben Chapman walked and Roy Weatherly singled. Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch. Lou Boudreau fouled out, but Hal Trosky crushed a pitch into the right-field bullpen for a three-run homer, his 19th home run of the year.

In the fourth inning, Gomez retired the first two batters he faced before Chapman singled. Then, Gomez “caught a terrific drive off Roy Weatherly’s bat on the heel of his hurling hand.”9 He had to be assisted from the field and was taken to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, where X-rays revealed no fracture.10 With runners at first and second, right-hander Johnny Murphy replaced Gomez. He was greeted by Boudreau with a triple to deep center, making it a 10-5 ballgame.

The Yankees responded in the bottom of the inning. DiMaggio, the reigning AL batting champion and Most Valuable Player, led off with a single, extending his hitting streak to 14 games.11 Rosar followed with his fourth home run of the season and second in two games. Two outs later, Dahlgren homered again. It was his second multi-homer game of the season.

New York was not done scoring. Rosar led off the bottom of the sixth with a double, giving him a cycle. Successive groundouts by Gordon and Mills moved Rosar around the bases, tallying the Yankees’ 14th run. In the bottom of the eighth, the home team loaded the bases on a single by Henrich and walks to Rosar and Mills. Dahlgren’s infield single plated Henrich, but that’s all the Yankees would score.

After yielding the triple in the fourth frame, Murphy settled into a rhythm, scattering three base hits in the final five-plus innings. The last of those hits happened in the ninth inning, when Weatherly led off with a double to left. He went to third on a groundout by Beau Bell and scored on another groundout by Trosky. Jeff Heath flied out to end the game, and the Yankees had swept the Indians.

New York tallied 15 runs on 13 hits, with four of those being home runs. This was their highest run total to this point of the season.12 The four round-trippers added to the Yankees’ impressive total, giving them 88 home runs through 81 games.13 The unfortunate cost was the loss of pitcher Gomez, who injured his throwing hand. The newspapers speculated that it could be weeks before Gomez pitched again. In fact, Gomez made just five more appearances the rest of the season.14

Rosar had a 4-for-4 performance with a walk, scoring four times and driving in three runs. He had figured in every scoring inning. Dahlgren was 3-for-4 with two homers and four RBIs. Mills also knocked in four runs. When reporters asked McCarthy before the game “how he liked the recent revival of the club,” he responded, “Well, we’re getting more runs.”15 This proved to be prophetic in the rout.

Weatherly had three of Cleveland’s 10 hits and scored half of the Indians’ runs. Trosky had four RBIs. Despite not making it through the fourth inning, Gomez was awarded the win in accordance with baseball’s rules in 1940; it was his third victory of the season.16 Smith’s record fell to 9-3.

Rosar’s feat marked just the seventh time in major-league history that a catcher had hit for the cycle, with his performance coming just a month after Harry Danning of the New York Giants hit for the cycle against the Pittsburgh Pirates.17 As of the 2023 season, the list has grown to 16 occurrences, with Rosar remaining the only Yankees catcher with a cycle.18

It was the fourth of six cycles in the major leagues in 1940.19 Gordon hit for the cycle against the Red Sox on September 8, making it the only season in which two Yankees hit for the cycle.20 Overall, Rosar’s feat marked the ninth time in Yankees history that a player hit for the cycle.

The 1940 Yankees were 51-32 after the All-Star break but could not catch the Indians and Tigers. Detroit captured the pennant, finishing one game ahead of Cleveland and three above New York.

Rosar remained a Yankee through 1942, the year he was selected for his first of five All-Star teams. He played in 988 games for the Yankees, Indians, Athletics, and Red Sox and retired after the 1951 season.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks John Fredland for his insights and suggestions. This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Trading Card Database. 

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, MLB.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA194007190.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1940/B07190NYA1940.htm

Notes

1 Both pitchers went the distance. In this game, Pearson, who had a 4-0 record and a 1.01 ERA in four World Series starts from 1936 through 1939, tore a ligament in his left shoulder, leading to the end of his career in 1941.

2 “Younger Generation Coming Up,” The Sporting News, April 27, 1939: 4. Taken from David E. Skelton, “Buddy Rosar,” SABR Biography Project.

3 Rosar started 27 games behind the plate in 1939. He sometimes entered games as either a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner, and he had 43 total appearances for the season.

4 Joseph Wancho, “Bill Dickey,” SABR Biography Project.

5 “Watch ’em!,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 20, 1940: 12.

6 James P. Dawson, “Seven Runs in First Mark 15-6 Triumph,” New York Times, July 20, 1940: 10.

7 Rosar was also in the lineup for these games against left-handed pitchers.

8 Harry Forbes, “Yankees Club Tribe, 15-6; Cycle for Rosar,” New York Daily News, July 20, 1940: 163.

9 “Watch ’em!” The New York Times reported that the ball hit Gomez’s left wrist. See Dawson.

10 Dawson.

11 DiMaggio’s hitting streak reached 23 games (Game 2 on July 4 to July 30). He also had a 15-game hitting streak from May 21 to June 4. DiMaggio led the AL in batting average in both 1939 (.381) and 1940 (.352).

12 On August 13, 1940, the Yankees swept the Boston Red Sox in a doubleheader, with scores of 9-1 and 19-8. They also scored 15 runs against the Indians on August 22 (also at Yankee Stadium) and 16 runs against the Detroit Tigers on September 14.

13 For the season, the Yankees hit a league-leading 155 home runs, led by DiMaggio’s 31 and Gordon’s 30.

14 Four of these appearances were in relief. His only start (August 3 against the Indians) lasted just one inning, as he allowed four earned runs on six hits in a 5-1 loss.

15 Forbes.

16 Prior to 1950, official scorers had the discretion to award wins, under certain circumstances, to starting pitchers who did not complete five innings. One exception to the five-inning requirement was for pitchers who left the game because of an injury. A 2013 Baseball Research Journal article identified two injury-exception wins for Gomez during his major-league career. Frank Vaccaro, “Origins of the Modern Pitching Win,” Baseball Research Journal, Vol. 42, No. 1 (SABR, 2013): 50-62.

17 The first seven catchers to hit for the cycle in the majors are Lave Cross (Philadelphia Phillies, April 24, 1894), Chief Meyers (New York Giants, June 10, 1912), Ray Schalk (Chicago White Sox, June 27, 1922), Mickey Cochrane (Philadelphia Athletics, July 22, 1932, and August 2, 1933), Harry Danning (New York Giants, June 15, 1940), and Rosar.

18 After Rosar, the catchers who have hit for the cycle are Bill Salkeld (Pittsburgh Pirates, August 4, 1945), Randy Hundley (Chicago Cubs, August 11, 1966), Charlie Moore (Milwaukee Brewers, October 1, 1980), Carlton Fisk (Chicago White Sox, May 16, 1984), Rich Gedman (Boston Red Sox, September 18, 1985), Jason Kendall (Pittsburgh Pirates, May 19, 2000), Chad Moeller (Milwaukee Brewers, April 27, 2004), Bengie Molina (Texas Rangers, July 16, 2010), and J.T. Realmuto (Philadelphia Phillies, June 12, 2023).

19 The players who hit for the cycle in 1940 are Harry Craft (Cincinnati Reds, June 8), Harry Danning (New York Giants, June 15), Johnny Mize (St. Louis Cardinals, July 13), Rosar, Joe Cronin, (Boston Red Sox, August 2, his second career cycle), and Joe Gordon (New York Yankees, September 8).

20 Through the 2022 regular season.