September 24, 1944: Cooper and Raffensberger duel for 16 innings

The late-season doubleheader between the St. Louis Cardinals and homestanding Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park was a matchup between two teams at opposite ends of the standings. Entering play, the first-place Cardinals, who had already clinched the National League championship and punched their ticket to the 1944 World Series, had a record of 99-46 and a 12½-game lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The last-place Phillies were 58-85, one percentage point behind the seventh-place Brooklyn Dodgers and a discouraging 40 games off the pace.

Both teams entered the day with arm-weary pitching staffs, playing their ninth doubleheader of September. For the Phillies, it was their 17th twin bill since August 6. Given how overworked both pitching corps were, Cardinals manager Billy Southworth and Phillies skipper Freddie Fitzsimmons hoped their starting pitchers would be able to pitch deep. Neither would be disappointed, particularly in the opener, when both starters went the distance in a 16-inning marathon that was the longest game in the National league in 1944.

Ken Raffensberger, who earlier in the summer represented the Phillies and pitched two scoreless innings in the All-Star Game at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, got the starting assignment for the Phillies. The left-hander entered the game with a 12-19 record and a 3.43 ERA. According to baseball analyst Bill James, Raffensberger was one of the “unluckiest” pitchers in history.1 He was opposed by right-hander Mort Cooper who entered the game with a record of 21-7, a 2.59 ERA and a league-leading seven shutouts. Cooper, the 1942 National League MVP, was a big, burly pitcher who anchored the Cardinals pitching staff during the war years.2

The Sunday afternoon doubleheader drew a crowd of 13,480 to the venerable stadium on Lehigh Avenue. With the temperature in the mid-60s and under partly cloudy skies, Raffensberger delivered the first pitch of the afternoon. The Phillies’ southpaw retired the Cardinals in order in the top of the first. Cooper appeared headed to matching the effort when he retired the first two Phillies before Tony Lupien ignited a two-out rally with a single to center. Right fielder Ron Northey followed with a walk and Jimmy Wasdell singled to left to plate the Phillies’ first run of the afternoon.

The Phillies extended their lead in the bottom of the third. With two outs, Lupien doubled to left and scored on Northey’s single to center. With the score 2-0, the Phillies added another run in the fourth. Johnny Peacock singled to center to lead off the inning and was sacrificed to second by Glen Stewart. Granny Hamner followed with a single to left to advance Peacock to third. After the right-handed-hitting Raffensberger stuck out, second baseman Charlie Letchas singled to center to score Peacock and extend the Phillies lead to 3-0.

The Cardinals started their comeback in the top of the sixth inning. Raffensberger retired the first two hitters before Ray Sanders and Stan Musial both singled to center. Walker Cooper, the younger brother of Mort Cooper, doubled to center to drive in Sanders and Musial and cut the Phillies’ lead to 3-2.

The Cardinals tied the score with an unearned run in the top of the seventh inning when left fielder Danny Litwhiler led off with a double to left and took third when Letchas mishandled the throw to third from Wasdell. Marty Marion followed with an infield single to second that scored Litwhiler and tied the game, 3-3. From there, Raffensberger and Cooper settled into a protracted pitchers’ duel.

Over the next eight innings, both teams came within 90 feet of either taking the lead or winning the game. The Cardinals had runners at first and third with one out in the top of the eighth, only to see the threat snuffed out when Cardinals third baseman Whitey Kurowski grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Similarly, the Phillies threatened to end the game twice. In the bottom of the 12th inning, they put runners on the corners with two outs before Cooper retired Peacock on a fly ball to right. In the 14th, the Phillies loaded the bases with one out but were turned away. Letchas singled to left to start things off but was thrown out at second when he tried to stretch a single into a double. Buster Adams followed with a single and moved to third when Lupien singled back to the pitcher. Cooper intentionally walked Northey, who was already 3-for-4, to load the bases. The Cardinals hurler escaped the jam when he struck out Wasdell and induced Peacock to hit a grounder to Kurowski, who stepped on the bag at third to end the inning.

Raffensberger kept the Cardinals in check until the top of the 16th inning. After retiring Walker Cooper on a fly ball to center, Kurowski, who was 0-for-6 at that point, stepped to the plate and slammed his 17th home run of the season to give the Cardinals a 4-3 lead.

Clinging to a one-run lead, Cooper returned to the mound for the bottom of the inning. The Phillies refused to go down quietly. Adams led off with a single to shortstop. Lupien was retired on a foul pop fly to Kurowski. With one out, Northey singled to right field, his fourth hit of the day. However, Musial fielded the ball and cut down Adams trying to advance to third. Instead of having runners at first and third with one out, Wasdell came to the plate with Northey on first and two down. The Phillies right fielder hit a fly ball to right that Musial squeezed to end the 16-inning affair in a relatively brief 2 hours and 59 minutes.

The Phillies made four errors in the game as Raffensberger yielded four runs (three earned) on 13 hits. The 16-inning outing was the longest of Raffensberger’s 15-year major-league career and the tough-luck loss – one of many in his career – was his National League-leading 20th of the year. On nine other occasions, Raffensberger pitched 10 or more innings and true to the theme of being an unlucky pitcher with little run support, the York, Pennsylvania, native was only 5-5 in games in which he pitched beyond the ninth inning.

The 16-inning outing was also the longest of Cooper’s career.3 Despite giving up 19 hits and being in trouble throughout the game, the Cardinals ace was “tight in the pinches” as he earned his 22nd and last victory of the season – the third year in a row he won 21 or more games.4 Cooper went on to have two outstanding performances in the World Series against the St. Louis Browns. He was a tough-luck loser himself in a 2-1 Game One loss and came back to shut out the Browns in Game Five.

The victory over the Phillies made the Cardinals the first team in the National League to win 100 or more games in three consecutive seasons.5 They went on to beat the Browns in six games in the only all-St. Louis World Series.

The nightcap of the doubleheader was an equally as intriguing pitchers’ duel. The Cardinals’ Ted Wilks (17-3) bested the Phillies’ Charley Schanz (13-15), as both went the distance in a 1-0 Cardinals victory. The winning run scored in the top of the ninth inning when Hamner misplayed a potential inning-ending groundball, allowing pinch-runner Pepper Martin to score the winning run. The Phillies went scoreless in the last 21 innings of the double dip that featured one of the greatest pitching duels in Shibe Park history.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author relied on Baseball-reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

NOTES

1 Warren Corbett, “Ken Raffensberger,” SABR Bio Project, sabr.org/bioproj/person/bb62d1a2.

2 Gregory H. Wolf, “Mort Coooper,” SABR Bio Project, sabr.org/bioproj/person/9c707ace.

3 On two other occasions Cooper pitched 14-inning complete games.

4 “Cooper and Wilks Show They Are Ready for Series,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 25, 1944: 14.

5 Glen Perkins, “Hal Newhouser Gets 27th Win, Yankees Beaten: Cardinals Set Record in National by Getting 100 or More Wins for Third Year,” News-Herald (Franklin, Pennsylvania), September 25, 1944: 8.