July 9, 1952: York White Roses shock St. Louis Browns in rainy exhibition game

When Pat Gosney shipped off for US Army duty in the summer of 1952, he left with a good story to tell his buddies: Just before entering military service, he’d pitched a three-hit shutout against a major-league team.

The story came with a few caveats, which Gosney no doubt admitted by and by. The shutout had spanned only five innings due to inclement weather. It was pitched against the St. Louis Browns, a chronic American League doormat. And it came in an exhibition game that Gosney pitched for the York White Roses, the Browns’ Class B farm team in York, Pennsylvania.1

The game of July 9, 1952 – played in a steady rain at York’s Memorial Stadium, on a night when other games in the area were postponed – might have been one of the least pleasant experiences in the history of major-vs.-minor exhibitions. But Gosney, his teammates, and 2,519 drenched fans would attest that a win over the big boys is a win.

Bill Veeck’s cash-strapped Browns squeezed six exhibitions into their offdays in 1952, more than any other major-league team.2 Some of the exhibitions were played by “skeleton teams” of second-stringers. The Browns squad that beat a semipro team in Dayton, Ohio, on June 13 did not include Satchel Paige, Ned Garver, Tommy Byrne, Bob Cain, Clint Courtney, Jim Delsing, Earl Harrist, Fred Marsh, Duane Pillette, or player-manager Marty Marion.3

The Browns team that came to York on July 9 didn’t include Garver or Paige, the latter of whom had been a nonplaying member of the AL roster at the previous night’s All-Star Game.4 But Marion was in the dugout and many of the team’s regular-season starters were in the lineup, including Courtney, Delsing, Joe DeMaestri, Dick Kryhoski, Jim Rivera, and Bobby Young, along with veteran backups Al Zarilla and Cass Michaels.

The start went to 33-year-old right-hander Ken Holcombe, picked up on waivers from the Chicago White Sox on June 16. In seven starts for the White Sox, Holcombe compiled an unpromising 0-5 record and a 6.17 ERA. He’d made eight appearances with the Browns, all but one in relief, and had an 0-1 record and a 2.25 ERA.

The Browns had begun the season 22-29 under manager Rogers Hornsby, an unpopular martinet whose firing on June 10 inspired players to give owner Veeck a loving cup in gratitude. Marion hadn’t sparked any improvement. As of July 9, the team sat in seventh place with a 32-45 record,5 14½ games behind the eventual World Series champion New York Yankees. The Browns had lost seven straight games heading into the All-Star break.

The White Roses, meanwhile, occupied sixth place in the eight-team Interstate League with a record of 35-35, nine games behind the first-place Hagerstown (Maryland) Braves.6 Manager Jimmie Crandall had played 11 seasons in the minors and would manage 11 there as well, with some of them overlapping. A two-month stint as a coach with the 1953 Browns was his only major-league experience.

Only three members of the York team reached the majors, and just one played in the exhibition against St. Louis – 18-year-old rookie right fielder Tito Francona.7 Francona hit just .227 in 80 games in 1952. Four seasons later, he returned from a two-year stint in the Army and made the Baltimore Orioles out of spring training, beginning a 15-season major-league career.8

Gosney, a strapping 20-year-old right-hander in his third pro season, was about to go home to Washington state for his own Army induction.9 He’d posted a 5-5 record and a 3.21 ERA in 17 games, including 12 starts. In 101 innings, he’d walked 81 batters and struck out 82, also throwing 12 wild pitches.

Whether Gosney would get to make his going-away start was highly doubtful. On July 8, rain limited the All-Star Game in Philadelphia – about 90 miles from York – to five innings and washed out all scheduled Interstate League games, including York’s game against Lancaster.10 Conditions were even worse on July 9, as rain put paid to Interstate League games in Harrisburg and Sunbury, Pennsylvania; International League games in Syracuse and Baltimore; and the entire Eastern League schedule.11

Although playing conditions in York were described as “hazardous,” the Browns agreed to take the field.12 By one newspaper’s telling, Marion surveyed the crowd of more than 2,500 fans and declared that, since the fans were committed enough to attend, the Browns would go ahead and play. “Certainly the weather did not merit the staging of the game,” the newspaper added.13

Each team wasted a baserunner in the first inning. The Browns’ Rivera walked and stole second but was stranded when Kryhoski struck out. Roses shortstop Curly Holtzapple, a York native, drew a leadoff walk, but the next two batters grounded into a double play and flied out.14

The umpiring crew stopped the game for rain in the top of the second inning. After a half-hour delay – and, apparently, little improvement in conditions – the teams opted to press on.15 Again each team wasted a runner in the second: The Browns’ Delsing singled, Roses left fielder Don Smith tripled. Rivera drew another fruitless walk in the third.16

The well-soaked fans finally saw a run in the bottom of the third. Francona boomed a leadoff triple to deep center field. One out later, Holtzapple capitalized with a single to right field, scoring Francona and giving York a 1-0 lead.17

The fourth inning was chiefly notable18 for the arrival of a new Browns pitcher, 27-year-old lefty Bob Cain, who typically worked as a starter. Over the full season, all but two of his 29 appearances were starts. He entered with a 6-4 record and a 4.14 ERA in major-league action. One season earlier, while pitching for the Detroit Tigers, Cain had attained baseball trivia fame when he pitched to 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel, pinch-hitting for the Browns as a publicity stunt. Cain walked Gaedel on four pitches.

In the fifth, the Browns threatened to spoil the Roses’ pending upset. DeMaestri doubled, Cain collected an infield hit, and Young walked, loading the bases with none out. Gosney rose to the moment, getting the next batter, Rivera, to ground into a force at home plate.19 Zarilla then grounded back to the mound. Gosney fired to catcher Harry Hill for the force at home, and Hill relayed to first baseman Rollie Stuckmeyer for the inning-ending 1-2-3 double play.20

The Roses clinched their win with a rally in the bottom half. Gosney doubled and moved to third on Holtzapple’s single; Holtzapple took second on Rivera’s throw home. Center fielder Juan Senties drilled a single through the box into center field, scoring both runners. Two walks and a force play at the plate left the bases loaded with one out. Smith’s groundout to short scored the third and final run of the frame, giving York a 4-0 lead.21

In the top of the sixth, the Browns nicked Gosney for two singles; saw him pick the lead runner off second; then collected another walk. It was all for naught, as the umpires22 stopped the game at that point – this time for good. The official score reverted to the end of the fifth inning, giving Gosney a three-hit, 4-0 victory and saddling Holcombe with the loss.23

In its game roundup, the York Dispatch singled out three other contributors to the victory – head groundskeepers Harry Messersmith, Dick May, and Eli Wagner, whose crew had battled throughout the day and night to make the field playable. “Abundant tribute must be paid to the brilliant work of the local ground crew,” the paper reported.24

York ended the season in third place with a 74-62 record,25 12½ games behind first-place Hagerstown, which eliminated the Roses in the semifinals of the Interstate League’s four-team Shaughnessy-style playoff. The Browns finished in seventh place in the AL with a 64-90 record,26 31 games behind the Yankees. They played one more season in St. Louis before moving to Baltimore and becoming the Orioles for the 1954 season.

As for Gosney, he returned to pro baseball in 1954 to find that his control had deserted him. At Double-A San Antonio, he walked 58 batters in 51 innings en route to a 6.88 ERA. In his final season in 1957, he walked 50 batters in 36 innings at Class B Wenatchee. After leaving baseball, Gosney worked for the Olympia Brewing Company, then spent 35 years as a longshoreman. He died on June 24, 2011, at age 79.27

Acknowledgments

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

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the specific sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for general player, team, and season data.

Neither Baseball-Reference nor Retrosheet provides box scores of exhibition games, but the July 10, 1952, edition of the York (Pennsylvania) Dispatch published a box score.

Image of 1957 Topps card #184 downloaded from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 At the time, Class B was the fourth-lowest of six levels of affiliated minor leagues. (From highest class to lowest, they were Triple A, Double A, A, B, C, and D.)

2 Based on the listing of in-season exhibition games between 1921 and 2012, compiled by SABR member Walter LeConte and others, and hosted at Retrosheet.org as of January 2025, https://www.retrosheet.org/InSeasonExhibitionGames1921-2012.htm.

3 Coach Bill Norman served as manager as the “Browns” beat the Moraine Products team, 6-0. Lefty McFadden, “Browns’ ‘Skeletons’ Win Here, but Draw Only 1,219,” Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, June 14, 1952: 6.

4 News accounts did not give a reason why Garver wasn’t there, but pregame coverage indicated that his absence was known and announced in advance. “York Roses Oppose St. Louis Tonight,” York (Pennsylvania) Dispatch, July 9, 1952: 16. The next day’s starting pitcher is sometimes excused from exhibitions, but Duane Pillette, not Garver, started the Browns’ next game on July 10 against the New York Yankees.

5 And one tie.

6 “How They Stand,” York Dispatch, July 9, 1952: 16.

7 The other two were 30-year-old catcher Gene Crumling, who had played six games for the 1945 St. Louis Cardinals, and 20-year-old pitcher Chuck Locke, who appeared in two games for the 1955 Baltimore Orioles.

8 Joseph Wancho, “Tito Francona,” SABR Biography Project, accessed January 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Tito-Francona/.

9 “York Roses Oppose St. Louis Tonight.” Baseball-Reference lists Gosney’s height as 6-feet-2 and his weight as 222 pounds.

10 “York Roses Oppose St. Louis Tonight”; “Baseball Summary,” York Dispatch, July 9, 1952: 16. The July 8 York-Lancaster game was to have featured an appearance by well-traveled baseball clown and former Cleveland Indians coach Max Patkin.

11 “The Scoreboard,” York (Pennsylvania) Gazette and Daily, July 10, 1952: 24. In 1952, the Eastern League was a Class A loop with seven of its eight teams based in New York state or Pennsylvania. (The Hartford, Connecticut, Chiefs were the exception.)

12 “Fan Fare,” York Dispatch, July 10, 1952: 34.

13 “Fan Fare”; “White Roses Upset St. Louis Browns,” York Dispatch, July 10, 1952: 30.

14 “White Roses Upset St. Louis Browns.”

15 “York Roses Down St. Louis by 4-0,” York Gazette and Daily, July 10, 1952: 24.

16 “White Roses Upset St. Louis Browns.”

17 “White Roses Upset St. Louis Browns.”

18 Neither York newspaper noted any newsworthy events in the fourth inning of play, and there was no scoring. (Two St. Louis papers, the Post-Dispatch and Globe-Democrat, ran brief Associated Press accounts of the game.)

19 Game accounts in the York newspapers do not specify which York infielder handled this fielding chance.

20 “White Roses Upset St. Louis Browns”; “York Roses Down St. Louis by 4-0.”

21 “White Roses Upset St. Louis Browns”; “York Roses Down St. Louis by 4-0.”

22 The umpires are identified in the box score as “Jackson, Tuleya and Border.” A search of The Sporting News umpire cards (hosted by Retrosheet) in January 2025 found no cards for umpires of this name in the Interstate League; they might have been local amateur umps.

23 “White Roses Upset St. Louis Browns”; “York Roses Down St. Louis by 4-0.”

24 “White Roses Upset St. Louis Browns.”

25 And one tie.

26 And one tie.

27 “Pat Gosney,” Olympia (Washington) Olympian, June 28, 2011: A5.