The Boston Red Sox in Wartime

On December 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and the United States declared war. It was only 39 days after the September 28 doubleheader in Philadelphia when Ted Williams went 6-for-8 and elevated his batting average from .3996 to .406, the last time a major-league batter has hit .400.

Baseball contined, and Ted squeezed in one more year – while taking Navy classroom work with rookie shortstop Johnny Pesky in the evenings during the 1942 season. Ted won the Triple Crown that year, and Johnny collected 205 base hits. Virtually the entire 1942 starting lineup was gone within a year save first baseman Tony Lupien, second baseman Bobby Doerr, and third baseman Jim Tabor.

Serving in the Navy were Mace Brown, Tom Carey, Bill Conroy, Emerson Dickman, Dom DiMaggio, Frankie Pytlak, and Charlie Wagner.

Earl Johnson was the real military hero of the WWII group, awarded the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Clusters and the Silver Star, and received battlefield commissions promoting him to lieutenant. Johnson served in the Army, as did Bill Butland, Joe Dobson, Bobby Doerr, Dave Ferriss, Al Flair, Andy Gilbert, Roy Partee, Jim Tabor, and Hal Wagner. In the Army Air Force were Paul Campbell, Danny Doyle, Mickey Harris, and Tex Hughson.

There were others who served, though not in military uniform. Lou Finney, for instance, missed the entire 1943 season not because he was in the US Army, but because he was farming – supplying essential foods for defense. He played some in the second half of 1944, but was then again asked to work the farm in 1945.

Of course, some ballplayers served in the war first and then joined the Red Sox afterwards.

Joe Cronin was the Red Sox skipper from 1935 through 1947 – right through the World War II years.  One can see that, indeed, the Opening Day lineup for the 1942 team was pretty much gone by 1943. 

1942

• 7 Dom DiMaggio, CF
• 6 Johnny Pesky, SS
• 9 Ted Williams, LF
• 3 Jimmie Foxx, 1B
• 5 Jim Tabor, 3B
• 12 Pete Fox, RF
• 26 Skeeter Newsome, 2B
• 11 Johnny Peacock, C
• 28 Dick Newsome, P

1943

• 7 Eddie Lake, SS
• 12 Pete Fox, RF
• 1 Bobby Doerr, 2B
• 82 Johnny Lazor, LF
• 3 Tony Lupien, 1B
• 15 Ford Garrison, CF
• 26 Skeeter Newsome, 3B
• 11 Johnny Peacock, C
• 21 Tex Hughson, P

1944

• 6 Skeeter Newsome, SS
• 2 George Metkovich, 1B
• 15 Ford Garrison, RF
• 8 Bob Johnson, LF
• 1 Bobby Doerr, 2B
• 5 Jim Tabor, 3B
• 11 Leon Culberson, CF
• 6 Roy Partee, C
• 18 Yank Terry, P

1945

• 1 Ben Steiner, 2B
• 2 George Metkovich, 1B
• 12 Pete Fox, RF
• 8 Bob Johnson, LF
• 4 Joe Cronin, 3B
• 11 Leon Culberson, CF
• 6 Skeeter Newsome, SS
• 26 Fred Walters, C
• 31 Rex Cecil, P

1946

• 7 Dom DiMaggio, CF
• 6 Johnny Pesky, SS
• 9 Ted Williams, LF
• 1 Bobby Doerr, 2B
• 3 Rudy York, 1B
• 2 George Metkovich, RF
• 35 Ernie Andres, 3B
• 8 Hal Wagner, C
• 21 Tex Hughson, P

1943

The Red Sox had climbed out of the cellar they inhabited for most of the 1920s, and had begun a climb up the standings. They were getting somewhere, finishing in second place in 1938, 1939, and 1941 – though averaging over 14 games out of first place those three seasons (second to the Yankees each of those years). In 1942 they finished second once more, nine games behind New York. But in 1943, having lost so many of their stars, they plunged to seventh place (68-84) and were 29 games behind the Yanks.  They had dropped from 93 wins to 68, a decline of 25 wins.  It was the largest year-to-year decline suffered by any American League team during the war years.1

Major-league teams brought in an assortment of “teenagers, graybeards and 4-Fs.”2 Each team did the best it could. Some of these men played quite well, but in the case of the Red Sox, it would have been too much to expect to replace, for instance, the number 1 and number 2 batting average leaders in the 1942 American League (Williams and Pesky).

The team’s leader in batting average in 1943 was 34-year-old Pete Fox, with a .288 average.

Rather than travel to Florida for spring training, wartime travel restrictions resulted in the Red Sox holding their spring training at Tufts College in Medford, Massachusetts.

Williams’s Triple Crown figures from 1942 were a .356 batting average, 36 homers, and 137 RBIs.  In 1943 Jim Tabor led in RBIs with 85, some 52 fewer than Williams had driven in. The team as a whole drove in 511 runs; in 1942, they’d driven in 702. It wasn’t just the loss of Ted. Team runs scored dropped almost 200, from 761 to 563. Bobby Doerr had been second in RBIs in 1942, with 102. He played all of 1943, but drove in only 75 runs. His 16 homers led the team.

The 1943 Red Sox just weren’t getting on base.  The team batting average dropped from .276 to .244, and its on-base percentage dropped from .352 to .308.  Williams had a .499 OBP in 1942 and Pesky had been second with .375.

It was probably more the loss of offense that cost the team – the pitching staff’s ERA was almost identical at 3.44 and 3.45 (in 1943).  Tex Hughson had won 22 games in 1942 but only 12 (enough to lead the staff) in 1943; but his ERA wasn’t appreciably different, either – 2.59 in ’42 and 2.64 in ’43.

Williams did play one game in Boston in 1943, an exhibition game at Braves Field on July 12. Managing Ted’s team was Babe Ruth, and one of his teammates was Joe DiMaggio. Ted’s home run helped the “Ruth All-Stars” beat the Braves, 9-8.

The Red Sox as a team played a number of in-season exhibition games in support of the war effort during the 1942-45 years – 24 of them, more than any other team in the majors.

1944

Regrouping a bit in 1944, the Red Sox swept a four-game series from the Yankees in the first half of June and found themselves in second place on June 11 (behind the surprising St. Louis Browns) while sweeping four from the Yankees. And on June 18, they were just a half-game back. 

The Sox stayed competitive, though as part of a pack.  As late as September 16, with only 15 games to play, they were just three games out of first place – but the Browns were still in first and the Tigers and Yankees tied for second, a half-game out.  Then the Red Sox lost ten games in a row. Yes, they were still in fourth place, but now 11 games behind with only five to play.

The year turned out to be a .500 year, on the nose: 77 wins, 77 losses.  The offense had bumped up – to 739 runs (not that far from the 761 in ’42), but it was the pitching that had let them down – yielding 676 runs. Team ERA was 3.82, up from 3.42 and 3.43 in the prior two years. Hughson led the way with a superlative 2.26 ERA and an 18-5 record, with Pinky Woods coming in second with a 3.27 ERA but an unfortunate 4-8 W-L mark.

They’d had a shot at the pennant, though, “at least until Boston lost three-fourths of their team (the up-the-middle combo of starting catcher, ace pitcher, and sparkplug second baseman) to military service at a critical juncture of the season.”3 Catcher Hal Wagner and pitcher Tex Hughson had been inducted into the service before the season began, and were just awaiting the call to report. Second baseman Bobby Doerr was awaiting induction. Hughson’s last game was August 9; he had that 18-5 mark, finished first in the league in won-loss percentage and in WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched), and ranked fourth in wins despite missing the season’s final 51 games (almost precisely one-third of the schedule).  Wagner’s last game was August 27; he was batting .332 at the time. And Doerr’s final game of ’44 was played on September 3; he was batting .325. At season’s end, the AL batting champ was Lou Boudreau, hitting .327. Doerr finished second. With Hughson, Wagner, and Doerr away from the team during the last several weeks of the season, and with Boston just three games back even a couple of weeks later, one sees how the Red Sox coulda been a contender.

Even though Doerr had missed almost all of September, the Boston baseball writers knew how important he had been and chose him the team’s MVP.

There was one final event at Fenway Park about a month after the baseball season ended. A huge crowd of about 45,000 crammed into the park for the final campaign rally of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fourth presidential campaign. It was the last major campaign event of his life.

1945

Things really fell apart in 1945, and the Red Sox fell to seventh place. They scored 599 runs and allowed 674 runs. For pitching, there was really Boo Ferriss and no one else. Had it not been for the rookie Ferriss (21-10, 2.96 ERA), matters would have been far worse. Only one other Red Sox pitcher won more than seven games, and he (Emmett O’Neill) had a losing record (8-11, with a 5.15 ERA). Ferriss had pitched back-to-back shutouts to launch his career, won his first eight starts, and didn’t lose a game until June 10. By the 15th, he’d beaten every team in the league at least once. The team’s ERA, however, was the worst in the league – 3.80.

The Red Sox failed to take an opportunity presented them on April 16, when – under political pressure – they offered a tryout to three Negro League players: Jackie Robinson, Sam Jethroe, and Marvin Williams. The three appeared to impress coach Hugh Duffy, but they never heard from the Red Sox again. Both Robinson and Jethroe were later voted Rookie of the Year, in 1947 and in 1950 respectively.

Joe Cronin broke his leg three days after the “Jackie Robinson tryout” and his playing career came to an end.

The 1945 All-Star Game had been scheduled for Fenway Park, but was canceled due to the war. There was instead an “All-Star replacement game” held during the break, “Boston’s United War Fund Game.” The Red Sox beat the Boston Braves, 8-1.

The Red Sox offense wasn’t too productive in the 1945 season. Bob Johnson’s 74 runs batted in were tops on the team. Only two others drove in more than 50 – Catfish Metkovich (62) and Eddie Lake (51).  Lake actually led the league in on-base percentage (.412); he scored a team-leading 81 runs.

The team finished seventh, 71-83. They were 17½ games out of first, spared the cellar only because of the pathetic Athletics (52-98, 34½ games behind the first-place Tigers). 

1946

The boys came back in 1946.  Though several key players were rusty, having been away from the game for as long as three or four years, the 1946 Red Sox still won 21 of their first 24 games. They finished 104-50, 12 games ahead of the second-place Tigers. It’s difficult to imagine a clearer statement of how much the war years had cost the Red Sox.

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In-season exhibition games played by the Red Sox against military opponents during the war years of 1942-45

1942

• 6/12 @ Fort Devens MA: Boston 11, Fort Devens 5
• 9/4   @ Camp Edwards MA: Boston 3, Camp Edwards 2

1943

• 6/8   @ Quonset RI: Boston 8, Quonset 2
• 6/11 @ Fort Devens MA: Fort Devens 6, Boston 5
• 6/14 @ Boston MA: Boston Red Sox 14, Boston Coast Guard 8
• 6/21 @ Camp Wood, Fort Monmouth NJ: Boston 8, Signal Corps All-Stars 0
• 7/14 @ Fort Meade MD: Boston 8, Washington Nationals 3*
• 7/19 @ Norfolk VA: Norfolk Naval Training Station 4, Boston 3   (10 innings)
• 8/5   @ Camp Myles Standish MA: Boston 8, Camp Myles Standish 3
• 8/31 @ Camp Shanks NY: Boston 10, Camp Shanks 1   (7 innings)
• 9/17 @ Camp Kilmer NJ: Boston 9, Philadelphia Athletics 4*  

1944

• 5/4   @ Mitchel Field, Uniondale, L.I., NY: Boston 16, Mitchel Field service team 6
• 5/8   @ Quonset RI: Boston 8, Quonset Naval Air Station 3
• 5/23 @ Great Lakes IL: Great Lakes Naval 3, Boston 1
• 6/5   @ Sampson NY: Sampson Naval Training Center 20, Boston 7
• 6/12 @ Camp Myles Standish MA: Boston 6, Camp Myles Standish 4
• 6/19 @ Bainbridge MD: Bainbridge Naval Training Center 5, Boston 2
• 6/27 @ Davisville RI: first game: Boston 3, Fort Thomas 1; second game: Boston 5, Camp Endicott 2 (two seven-inning games played on adjacent fields)
• 8/24 @ Fort Monmouth NJ: Boston 9, Fort Monmouth All-Stars 7

1945

• 5/7   @ Sampson NY: Boston 6, Sampson Naval Training Center 3
• 6/11 @ Camp Upton, LI, NY: Boston 7, New York Yankees 6*
• 6/26 @ Great Lakes IL: Great Lakes Bluejackets 3, Boston Red Sox 2   (Bob Feller struck out nine Red Sox for Great Lakes)
• 8/27 @ New London CT: Boston 12, Coast Guard Bears 8

*These three games were played against an American League opponent, but for the enjoyment of military personnel stationed at the respective facilities: Fort Meade, Camp Kilmer, and Camp Upton.)

BILL NOWLIN is old enough that he was born in the waning days of World War II — Hitler was still alive and Bill is pre-A-bomb (not a mutant). He was told from an early age,“Don’t ever ask your father what he did in the war.” Bill Nowlin Sr. did not play major-league baseball. Author of Ted Williams at War, and author and editor of what’s become a lot of books, Bill is a co-founder of Rounder Records and has been VP of SABR since the wonderful year of 2004.

 

Notes

1 In the National League, the 1943 New York Giants won 55 games, 30 fewer than the 85 they’d won in 1942, and the Brooklyn Dodgers dropped from 104 wins in 1942 to 81 in 1943.  They further declined to 63 wins in 1944.

2 The phrase was the title of Kit Crissey’s book: Harrington E. Crissey, Jr., Teenagers, Graybeards and 4-Fs (Philadelphia: self-published, 1982). There were two volumes, one on the National League and one on the American.

3 Doron “Duke” Goldman, “The ’44 Red Sox: A Season to Remember,” The Northern Game – and Beyond (Cleveland: Society for American Baseball Research, 2002), 51.