September 23, 1942: Larry French nearly perfect, as patriotic Dodgers collect scrap metal, keep pennant hopes alive

On September 23, 1942 – a little more than nine months after the United States’ entry into the Second World War – the Brooklyn Dodgers offered free admission to anyone bringing 10 pounds of scrap metal to its afternoon game against the Philadelphia Phillies.1 The patriotic promotion was a success: About 150 tons of metal were stacked outside Ebbets Field, and 8,476 donors went through the turnstiles free of charge.2

After settling into their seats, the crowd watched Dodgers left-hander Larry French come within a bad-hop single of throwing a perfect game. French – in the final start of his 14-season career – faced only 27 Phillies, shutting them out, 6-0, to keep Brooklyn’s fading pennant hopes alive.

French was among the best National League pitchers of the 1930s. His 156 wins with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1930-34) and Chicago Cubs (1935-39) trailed only Carl Hubbell’s 188 wins for the New York Giants among NL pitchers. French never won 20 games, but he won 18 three times and 17 twice. French added to his laurels by sharing the NL lead in shutouts in 1935 and 1936.

An injured thumb in 19413 sent French’s record tumbling to 5-14; the Cubs concluded that he was washed up at age 33 and placed him on waivers. Brooklyn took a flyer, signing French on August 19 and using him in relief six times on its way to the NL pennant. French pitched twice more in the 1941 World Series – the third time (twice with the Cubs) he had reached the fall classic.

The Dodgers appeared to be headed for another pennant in 1942; they topped the NL from April 19 to September 12, and by August 4 had established a 10-game lead over the second-place St. Louis Cardinals. French helped build the lead; he started and relieved, and – employing a recently mastered knuckleball – won his first 10 decisions.

But from August 5 through September 22, St. Louis won 40 of 49 games, including 5 of 6 against Brooklyn. The Dodgers had continued playing well (26-20), but those head-to-head losses to St. Louis, coupled with the Cardinals’ dizzying .816 pace, proved to be too much. When Brooklyn suffered a five-game losing skid from September 10 to 13, it dropped to second place, and still remained there, 2½ games behind the high-flying Cardinals.

The Dodgers needed to beat the Phillies, a team that had piled up 104 losses and clinched their fifth consecutive last-place finish. Brooklyn had only five games remaining; St. Louis, four. If the Dodgers kept winning and the Cardinals faltered, Brooklyn could still pass St. Louis, or at least gain a tie, forcing a playoff.

French (13-4) started for the first time since the Pirates knocked him from the game in the first inning on August 30. Since then, manager Leo Durocher had been using him strictly in relief.

Rube Melton, the 25-year-old Phillies starter, carried a 9-18 mark and a 3.43 ERA into Ebbets Field; he was a respectable 2-3 against the Dodgers. Since he shut out the Boston Braves on August 23, Melton had five losses without a win.

French retired the Phillies in the first without a ball leaving the infield. He collected another infield out to begin the second before Nick Etten stepped to the plate. Tommy Holmes of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described the ensuing action:

“Etten of the Phils hit a medium grounder just to the left of second base. Peewee Reese tore after the ball.

“He bent low and reached for the ball. All season long we have seen Reese eat up chances like this one. That he didn’t come up with Etten’s ball was not his fault. As his glove went down, the ball took a funny little hop, and skipped out to short center without touching the leather at all. It was unquestionly [sic] a hit, although a scratchy one.”4

Etten was not on base long. Rookie Bill Burich lined to Reese, who snatched the ball for the second out and fired to first; Etten could not return to the bag in time to avoid a double play. Despite Etten’s fluke hit, French had faced just three Phillies. Etten’s bad-hop single seemed unimportant at the time, but its significance grew as French continued to set down one Philadelphia hitter after another over the final seven innings.

While French was cruising, Melton flirted with trouble. He surrendered a hit to the first Dodger he faced, Dixie Walker, and with two out in the second Melton gave up a double to Mickey Owen, who reached third when Reese was safe on an error. But Melton got the third out, keeping Brooklyn scoreless until the third inning.

The Dodgers’ rally began with a walk to French, followed by Walker’s second hit, a double. With runners perched on second and third, Melton grabbed Arky Vaughan’s grounder, held the runners, and threw Vaughan out. It was a momentary reprieve: Pete Reiser put Brooklyn on top by belting the Dodgers’ third double, scoring French and Walker for a 2-0 lead.

The Dodgers went down one-two-three in the fourth, but in the fifth, they scored two. Vaughan walked with one out, Reiser singled him to second, and they both scored on Dolph Camilli’s triple, which reached the top of the right-center-field wall, striking above the 399-foot marker.5 The blast raised his RBI total to 101, the fifth time Camilli had reached the century mark in RBIs. Camilli had driven home 120 in 1941, when he topped the NL’s RBI charts and was named National League MVP.

With two away in the sixth and Philadelphia trailing 4-0, Melton was lifted for a pinch-hitter, Ernie Koy, who grounded out, then remained in the game to play center field. In Melton’s five innings, the Dodgers collected six hits (four for extra bases), three walks, and four runs.

Ike Pearson (1-5) pitched the bottom of the sixth and fared little better than Melton. Reese opened with a double to center, and took third on Billy Herman’s grounder to shortstop.6 Reese dashed home with Brooklyn’s fifth run when French poked a single to right.

Walter “Boom-Boom” Beck threw the final two innings for Philadelphia. The first two Dodgers in the seventh singled, but Beck got out of the jam. Phillies third baseman Pinky May grabbed Owen’s grounder, stepped on third, and tossed to first to complete a double play. May handled the third out too, scooping Reese’s grounder, and throwing him out.

Beck was not as fortunate in the eighth. Herman led off with a single and was bunted to second. Walker looped a ball safely to center; Herman hustled home to make it 6-0.

French toed the rubber to begin the ninth needing three outs to extend the Dodgers’ winning streak to four, claim his first one-hitter, record his fourth shutout of the season, and complete the 40th shutout of his career. Phillies manager Hans Lobert summoned two pinch-hitters in a futile attempt to break French’s long string of outs.

Bobby Bragan, batting for Danny Murtaugh, lined out to second; Bennie Warren, replacing Mickey Livingston, became French’s sixth strikeout victim. Koy, batting in the ninth spot in the Phillies order, grounded to Herman, and it was over.

As the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, “The remarkable feature of French’s victory was the fact that he pitched to only 27 men, retiring three in each inning.”7 Dick McConn of the New York Daily News made the same point, but more colorfully: “The lefthander, his curveball as wide as his grin, and his screwball and knuckler as sly as his wit, faced only 27 Phils – par for the course.”8

What French did is rare. He became just the 26th pitcher in the AL and NL since 1901 to face just 27 batters in a game despite allowing at least one man to reach base.9

French not only raised his record to 14-4, he received a pay raise. French had a bonus clause in his 1942 contract guaranteeing an additional $2,500 if he pitched 150 innings. French’s nine innings against the Phillies brought him to 144⅔ – short of triggering the bonus. Nevertheless, Dodgers President Larry MacPhail declared that French “deserved the dough,” and would get it.10

Brooklyn now had 100 wins, with four games left on its schedule. That night St. Louis won again to maintain its 2½-game lead with three games to play. Neither team lost the rest of the way; despite ending on an eight-game winning streak and compiling a 104-50 record (a franchise record at the time), the Dodgers settled for second place.

French did not get another start before the season ended, but in two relief assignments threw three innings and added his 15th win. His major-league career came to a close.11 As French said in the clubhouse after the Philadelphia game, “Yes, it was a nice one for a swan song.”12

The patriotic fervor did not end with the scrap drive.13 French and MacPhail each announced after the game his decision to enter active military service. MacPhail, a World War I veteran, resigned his Brooklyn position14 in order to enter the Army as a lieutenant colonel on September 25; French had joined the Navy, and would report after the season.15

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. The author also relied on game coverage in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the the New York Daily News, and reviewed SABR BioProject biographies for several players participating in the game.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1942/B09230BRO1942.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO194209230.shtml

Notes

1 “St. Louis Beats Reds and Maintains Pace; Brooklyn’s French Pitches to Only 27 Men,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 24, 1942: 29.

2 Dick McCann, “French Allows One Hit as Flock Rips Phils, 6-0; Faces 27 Men,” New York Daily News, September 24, 1942: 58. Total attendance was 13,446. The War Production Board was created in January 1942 to ensure that America’s factories received the raw material needed to make military equipment. The agency warned of looming shortages – especially steel, aluminum, and tin – urging Americans to collect scrap metal, which might then be turned into weaponry or equipment. In response, salvage drives became common across the country. Kenney, Dave, Minnesota Goes to War, (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005), 58. Brooklyn’s promotion collected enough to make a real contribution to the war effort, and at a time when there was little good news coming from the front lines, it boosted morale and fostered patriotic spirit.

3 George H. Wolf, “Larry French,” SABR BioProject, accessed September 10, 2023.

4 Tommy Holmes, “French’s One-Hitter Is Pre-Navy Finale,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 24, 1942: 11.

5 Tommy Holmes, “Reiser Bolsters Bid for League Batting Crown,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 24, 1942: 11.

6 “St. Louis Beats Reds and Maintains Pace; Brooklyn’s French Pitches to Only 27 Men.” Both Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com show Reese remaining at second base rather than advancing to third. McCann’s story says the run scored on Reese’s double, Herman’s infield out, and French’s single. It seems unlikely Herman would have been mentioned unless Reese advanced on his out.

7 “St. Louis Beats Reds and Maintains Pace; Brooklyn’s French Pitches to Only 27 Men.”

8 McCann.

9 SABR researcher Herm Krabbenhoft calls such a game an “imperfect perfecto.” It is a game in which a pitcher or pitchers face only 27 batters despite allowing at least one baserunner. According to Krabbenhoft’s research, this game was the 26th time it had been accomplished in the AL or NL since 1901. Herm Krabbenhoft, “Imperfect Perfectos,” Retrosheet.org, accessed September 11, 2023. Shortly after Krabbenhoft’s article appeared, certain Negro Leagues were declared to be major leagues, so research into those leagues will undoubtedly uncover more such games, but not many. At the time of French’s performance, it had been accomplished five times in the NL and not at all in the AL over the previous 20 years.

10 Holmes, “French’s One-Hitter Is Pre-Navy Finale.”

11 French made unsuccessful tries to return. Wolf.

12 Holmes, “French’s One-Hitter Is Pre-Navy Finale.”

13 The promotion did not work as well at the Polo Grounds on September 26. “A swarm of youngsters who had gained admission by depositing 10 pounds of scrap metal suddenly stormed out of the stands onto the field, making further play impossible and resulting in forfeiture by the Giants of the second game of their double header.” “National League,” The Sporting News, October 1, 1942: 20.

14 MacPhail’s resignation did not go into effect until the end of the year, and for the time being he continued as an honorary member of the Dodgers’ board of directors. “MacPhail Quits at Brooklyn,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 24, 1942: 29.

15 “French Headed for Navy Berth,” New York Daily News, September 24, 1942: 58. French sailed aboard a ship supporting D-Day. He was recalled for the Korean War, remained on active duty, and retired from the Navy in 1969 as a captain. Wolf.