September 6, 1941: Camilli’s blast helps extend Dodgers’ lead over Cardinals

It had been over two decades since the Dodgers won the 1920 National League pennant. Most of those years were spent in the second division. By 1937 the Dodgers were in dire straits financially. They were $700,000 in debt to their bank, the Brooklyn Trust Company, “$470,000 on a refinanced mortgage for Ebbets Field. (The club) had lost $129,140 in 1937 and hadn’t turned a profit since 1930.”1 The Dodgers’ phone service had been disconnected for nonpayment and Ebbets Field was in disarray with broken seats and mildew in the rotunda, and badly needed a fresh coat of paint.

National League President Ford Frick suggested that the owners hire a strong executive to manage the struggling club. Frick recommended Branch Rickey, who in turn recommended Larry MacPhail. MacPhail, a brilliant executive for the Cincinnati Reds, was available after the 1937 season, having left the Reds because of his heavy drinking and loutish behavior. Given the Brooklyn job, MacPhail wasted no time rebuilding the Dodgers. In March 1938 he acquired slugging first baseman Dolph Camilli from the Phillies for light-hitting Eddie Morgan and $45,000. Morgan would never play another game in the major leagues while Camilli led the National League in home runs (34) and RBIs (120) en route to a Most Valuable Player Award in 1941. That trade is widely regarded as one of the worst in Phillies history. MacPhail also stole Pete Reiser from the St. Louis Cardinals in 1938; Reiser also went on to star for the Dodgers.

In 1939 MacPhail hired Leo Durocher to manage the team, claimed Dixie Walker off waivers, and hired Red Barber to announce the games on the radio. In 1940 MacPhail added rookie Pee Wee Reese at shortstop and acquired outfielder Joe Medwick and pitcher Curt Davis for four players and $125,000 in a trade with St. Louis.2

By 1941 the Dodgers were engaged in a ferocious season-long battle for the National League pennant with the Cardinals. Brooklyn player-manager Durocher lamented before a September weekend series against their crosstown rival New York Giants, “There aren’t any tough clubs for us any more or any easy ones. It’s just as though we were playing the Cardinals every day. The only way to win a pennant is to win more games than any other club and it doesn’t matter who we beat as long as we have gained more decisions than St. Louis at the finish. And of course, to wind up with fewer defeats.”3

On September 6, the Dodgers hadn’t played since the 3rd. Meanwhile, the Cardinals had lost two straight games to the Cubs and fallen into second place. Going into this game against the Giants, the Dodgers (85-47) and Cardinals (83-47) were tied in the loss column, but the Dodgers had played and won two more games than St. Louis, giving them a precarious one-game lead in the National League standings. So important was this game to Durocher that he suited up and played shortstop to give slumping Reese a much-needed day off. Reese was having a rough time after breaking his ankle in August 1940 and seeing his rookie season end early. He began the 1941 season with a brace on his ankle and even though he managed to play in 152 games, he finished the season with a .229 batting average. Going into this game, Reese had been hitless in the Dodgers’ previous two series against the Phillies and the Braves and had only three hits in his previous 28 at-bats.

Bill Terry‘s Giants were ready to remind Durocher that not only were there indeed six other teams in the National League, but that nothing would delight Terry more than to knock their intracity rivals out of first place.

Taking the hill for Brooklyn was 37-year-old Curt Davis, Durocher referred to Davis as a “great clutch pitcher.”4 Davis won seven of his last nine decisions to close out the 1941 season and he didn’t beat himself as he led the National League with only 1.6 walks per nine innings. Considered a throw-in when he was acquired from the Cardinals, Davis had a stellar 1939 season, winning 22 games and making the All-Star team. As he started against the Giants, he was 10-6 with a 3.14 ERA.

After breezing through a one-two-three top of the first, Davis surrendered a leadoff single to Babe Young to start the second inning. However, Davis enticed the next batter, Jo-Jo Moore, into a 1-6-3 double play. Gabby Hartnett smacked a two-out single, but Billy Jurges‘ fly ball to center field ended the Giants threat.

Brooklyn drew first blood in the bottom of the second as slugger Dolph Camilli crushed a Bill McGee fastball well over the scoreboard in right field for a 1-0 lead. It was Camilli’s 30th round-tripper of the season, making him only the second Dodger have a 30-home-run season. (Babe Herman hit 35 in 1930.) Camilli’s wallop also ensured that he would win a Bulova watch for leading Brooklyn in homers that year. Lew Riggs and Jim Wasdell followed with singles to right field. Giants center fielder Johnny Rucker dropped Durocher’s fly ball in right center and Riggs scored, making it 2-0. Mickey Owen worked the count to 3-and-0 but smacked into a double play. Davis looked at strike three to end the Dodgers rally.

The game settled down until the Dodgers’ sixth. Walker led off with a single but was thrown out attempting to steal second. Billy Herman worked a walk off McGee and scored on a bloop double by Pete Reiser that landed just past Giants shortstop Jurges and skipped by left fielder Moore, who overran it. It was now 3-0, Dodgers. McGee intentionally walked Camilli. The Giants outfield then flashed some serious leather to keep the game close. Riggs launched a McGee offering to deep center field that Rucker caught on the run crashing into the center-field fence. Then Wasdell smacked a shot to deep right that Mel Ott tracked down, also crashing into the fence.

In the Giants’ seventh, Billy Herman bobbled Babe Young’s leadoff grounder and Moore singled, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Hartnett’s groundout plated Young, and the unearned run made the score 3-1, Dodgers. Davis wild-pitched Moore to third, but retired the next two batters.

With Ace Adams pitching for the Giants, Reiser led off the bottom of the eighth with a triple to left field and Camilli ripped a line-drive single past Adams, easily scoring Reiser and giving the Dodgers a 4-1 lead. Davis gave up a one-out single to Hartnett in the ninth, but got two more outs to claim his 11th victory.

The Giants outhit the Dodgers 9-7, but were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

The Dodgers got some help from Reds pitching ace Johnny Vander Meer, who hurled a two-hit shutout over the Cardinals, striking out 14 in the process. The Dodgers victory paired with the Cardinals loss gave Brooklyn a two-game lead over St. Louis. The next weekend, the Dodgers would travel to St. Louis and take two out of three games from the Cardinals. After winning a hard-fought National League pennant, the Dodgers lost the World Series to the Yankees in five games. Bill James referred to the 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers as “one of the greatest teams that never was.”5 Their roster featured four Hall of Famers (Herman, Medwick, Reese, and Paul Waner); the top two MVP candidates (Camilli and Reiser); and two 22-game winners (Kirby Higbe and Whitlow Wyatt).

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and BackToBaseball.com.

Photo credit: Dolph Camilli, Trading Card Database.

NOTES

1 Andy McCue, “Los Angeles/Brooklyn Dodgers Team Ownership History,” Retrieved from SABR.org: https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/los-angeles-brooklyn-dodgers-team-ownership-history/

2 Ralph Berger, “Larry MacPhail,” Retrieved from SABR BioProject: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/1b708d47.

3 Tommy Holmes, “Well-Rested Giants Threat to Dodgers,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 6, 1941: 7.

4 Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: Free Press, 2001).

5 James.