July 9, 1938: Phillies’ Claude Passeau endures marathon to edge the Dodgers

The game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers on July 9, 1938, may have gone completely unnoticed, except for the fact that Claude Passeau pitched all 16 innings for the Phillies. Only 1,277 fans showed up for the contest between the eighth-place Phillies and seventh-place Dodgers that had little significance for the two second-division teams. When it came to personal-best games, Passeau’s impressive complete-game performance in the Phillies’ win was surpassed only by his one-hit shutout for the Chicago Cubs in the 1945 World Series.

The contest between the two hapless teams was only the fourth game the Phillies played at Shibe Park. Their former home ballpark, the Baker Bowl which was built in 1887, was closed at the end of June, and the Phillies began sharing Shibe with the Philadelphia A’s.

Phillies manager Jimmie Wilson gave Passeau his third start of the month. The Mississippi native, one of the workhorses on the staff of the recurrently weak team, had been the winning pitcher in the Phillies’ first win in Shibe Park, the second game of a doubleheader against the Boston Bees1 on July 4. Passeau had recorded double-digit losses in the two previous seasons.

One of the primary reasons the Phillies were in last place was their woeful offense. They tied the Bees for lowest slugging percentage in the league. They had hit only 28 home runs before this game and would hit only 40 for the season, with Chuck Klein accounting for eight. For the season, the Phillies would score an average of nearly two runs per game less than they allowed.

Brooklyn was managed by former Dodgers pitcher Burleigh Grimes, who was in his second season at the helm. They weren’t as terrible as the Phillies, but still occupied seventh place, 16 games behind the league-leading New York Giants.

Grimes gave the starting nod to Freddie Fitzsimmons, a 36-year-old in the twilight of a productive career. He had won three of his last four starts.

The Phillies wasted no time getting on the board when they scored a run in the bottom of the first inning. Buck Jordan singled and Morrie Arnovich doubled him home.

Between the first and second innings, the Dodgers lost the services of manager Grimes, who was ejected from the game by umpire Dolly Stark for arguing a disputed call.2

In the third inning, Hersh Martin doubled for the Phillies and advanced to third when Arnovich reached base on an error by Dodgers catcher Merv Shea. Klein’s fly ball to center scored Martin.

The Dodgers evened the score in the top of the fourth inning when Cookie Lavagetto’s single drove in Buddy Hassett and Dolph Camilli.

The fifth inning saw both teams put up single runs. The Dodgers scored when Goody Rosen singled, Johnny Hudson reached base on an error, and Hassett hit a run-scoring single. The Phillies countered with their run stemming from four singles. After the second single, the Dodgers appeared to have the situation under control when Klein flied out to center and Jordan was called out for leaving second base too soon. But Pinky Whitney followed with the third single of the inning. Grimes replaced Fitzsimmons with Luke Hamlin, who yielded a single to George Scharein, scoring Arnovich. The game was tied again, 3-3.

Except for a threat by the Dodgers in the eighth frame, Passeau and Hamlin settled into a pattern of uncontested innings from the sixth inning through the 11th.

In the top of the 12th inning, the Dodgers mounted another threat to break the tie. Leo Durocher led off with a single, then was forced out at second on Shea’s groundball. Hamlin singled, but Passeau managed to get out of the inning without allowing a score.

Both teams had chances to break the deadlock in the 13th inning. In the Dodgers’ half, Hassett singled and advanced to third base on Ernie Koy’s single. With one out, Lavagetto hit a sharp liner back through the middle, which Passeau speared and doubled off Hassett. After leading off the Phillies’ bottom of the inning, Klein doubled. Del Young ran for him. After a walk to Whitney, Scharein’s bunt attempt was fielded by third baseman Lavagetto, who recorded an unassisted out to get Young at third. Bill Atwood grounded out to Lavagetto, with Whitney and Scharein advancing. Passeau, who had already stroked three singles, failed to bring home the winning run as he struck out to end the inning.

Undeterred by their previous attempts to break the tie in the 8th, 12th, and 13 th innings, the Dodgers once more got two runners on base in the 14th before Passeau buckled down again to retire them without a run.

Hamlin held the Phillies from scoring in the 15th inning after allowing two runners. Passeau retired the side in the top of the 16th, including the 62nd batter he faced in the game.

Heinie Mueller tripled to lead off the bottom of the 16th inning. After Hamlin loaded the bases with intentional walks to Martin and Phil Weintraub, Arnovich hit a walk-off single to win the game for the Phillies, 4-3.

Passeau, who picked up his third win within the first nine days of July, remarkably didn’t serve up any extra-base knocks among the 12 hits he allowed. After he gave up his last run in the fifth inning, he rose to the occasion each time the Dodgers threatened to score. All eight of his strikeouts came after the sixth inning.3 Only two of the five walks he issued came after the fourth.

Fitzsimmons gave up 10 hits in his 4⅔ innings, while Hamlin gave up nine hits and four walks in his long relief effort of 10⅓ innings.

Arnovich was the hitting star for the Phillies, getting three hits and two RBIs. Passeau didn’t do badly at the plate either, with a 3-for-7 game. Hassett’s three hits were the most for the Dodgers.

Passeau’s 16 innings were the most by a major-league pitcher in 1938. (The Yankees’ Spud Chandler had a 15-inning victory on July 31.) Passeau finished the season with his third consecutive losing record (11-18), as the Phillies posted one of the most disastrous seasons in history with only 45 wins. Consequently, attendance at Phillies games for the season was a paltry 166,111, last among National League teams. (The Phillies would repeat their meager 45 wins in 1939.)

Fortunately for Passeau, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs on May 29, 1939, where he enjoyed a significant turnaround in his career. With the Phillies, his ERA was 4.15 and his WHIP was 1.474; with the Cubs he posted an ERA of 2.96 and WHIP of 1.250. His winning percentage increased from .409 to .569, including a 20-win season in 1940. Passeau was one of the Cubs’ pitching stars on the 1945 NL pennant-winning team.

Passeau became a dominant pitcher without the use of a true fastball. He was often accused of throwing a spitter and once had to appear before Commissioner Kenesaw Landis to answer questions about claims that he used the illegal pitch.4

Durocher took over as Dodgers player-manager in 1939 and helped them become a perennial first-division club, including a National League pennant in 1941, their first since 1920.

The Phillies suffered losing seasons until 1949, when they finished third in the National League. In 1950 they captured their first pennant since 1915.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cites in the Notes, the author consulted:

baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHl/PHH93807090.shtml.

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1938/B07090PHI1938.htm.

Westcott, Rich, and Frank Bilovsky. The New Phillies Encyclopedia (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), 311.

“Phillies Nose Out Dodgers in 16th,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 10, 1938: S1.

NOTES

1 The Boston Braves were called the Bees from 1936 to 1941.

2 Bill McCullough. “Phillies Down Flock in 16th by 4-3 Count,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 10, 1938: D1.

3 There is a discrepancy between the Philadelphia Inquirer game account and Baseball-Reference box score regarding the number of strikeouts by Passeau in the game. The Philadelphia Inquirer box score shows 7 strikeouts, while Baseball-Reference shows 8 strikeouts.

4 Herb Fagen, “Claude Passeau: He Usually Finished What He Started,” Baseball Digest, December 1995: 84.