The Pittsburgh Pirates in Wartime

Led by Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio’s brother Vince, who belted 21 homers and knocked in 100 runs, the 1941 Pittsburgh Pirates under future Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch finished in fourth place with an 81-73 record, 19 games behind the National League champion Brooklyn Dodgers.  Two months later, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the country was embroiled in World War II. While many major leaguers left the game to enter the armed forces, including several Pirates, Pittsburgh remained one of the franchises least affected by the draft, which led to a relatively successful run between 1943 and 1945.

1942

The Pirates roster was changed more by the trade of future Hall of Fame shortstop Arky Vaughan than by the war.  Pirates management thought they had waited too long to trade another Pirates icon, Paul Waner, so they wanted  to get some good players in exchange for the 30-year-old Vaughan while he still had some value. On December 12, 1941, Pittsburgh dealt him to Brooklyn and received Pete Coscarart, Jimmy Wasdell, Luke Hamlin, and Babe Phelps in return.1

While all did contribute to the team in 1942, none were the level of Vaughan as the team sank to 66-81, fifth in the league.

Pittsburgh’s losses to the war in 1942 were minimal. Backup catcher Vinnie Smith, who had appeared in only nine games in 1941, went into the Navy and played with Bob Feller for the Norfolk Naval Base team.  Young shortstop Billy Cox actually was allowed to play for the Pirates in an exhibition game while in the military in May of 19422, and later saw action with the Army’s 814th Signal Corps in North Africa and Europe.  He was supposed to be the replacement for Arky Vaughan and did well after he returned from the Army, but was sent to Brooklyn in 1948 and became an effective third baseman for the Dodgers. Bill Clemensen pitched briefly for the Pirates in 1941 before going to the Army Air Force.  Right-hander Ken Jungels spent most of his abbreviated career with the Indians between 1937 and 1941 and finished his time in the majors with Pittsburgh early in 1942, before he entered the Army. Oad Swigart pitched in 10 games in 1939 and 1940 and was inducted into the Army shortly after the Piratrs’ 1941 spring training. While not lost to the military, third baseman Lee Handley was injured in an offseason car accident, hurting his arm; he spent the next two seasons in the minors and was never as effective as he had been before the accident.

Pirates newcomers in 1942 were led by Johnny Barrett (who later knocked in 83 runs in 1944) and Jim Russell, who became a regular in the Pittsburgh outfield between 1943 and 1947, hitting .312 in 1944.   Also debuting for the Bucs that year were Frank Colman, Huck Geary, Harry Shuman, and Johnny Wyrostek, who enjoyed a fine career with the Phillies and Reds after two abbreviated seasons with the Pirates in 1942 and 1943 in which he had a combined 114 at-bats, hitting .140.

1943

Pittsburgh improved greatly over its 1942 campaign, winning 14 more games by turning what was a minus-46 run differential in 1942 into a plus-64 a year later. Third baseman Bob Elliott, a future MVP with the Boston Braves in 1947, led the Pirates with 101 RBIs and a .315 average. Thirty-six-year-old eephus pitch practitioner Rip Sewell won 21 games, tied for the most among NL hurlers.

Perhaps the main reason for the Pirates’ dramatic improvement was the fact that their losses to the war effort remained minimal. Thirty-two-year-old second baseman Ed Leip, who had only 66 plate appearances with Pittsburgh and Washington in four seasons, went into the Army and never returned to the majors. Reserve outfielder Culley Rikard was in the Air Force and came back for one season in 1947, hitting .287 in 324 at-bats.  Pitcher Ed Albosta, whom the Pirates acquired in the 1942 Rule 5 draft, was a star pitcher in the war for Camp Livingston in Louisiana.  After he returned he had much less success for the Pirates in 1946 with a 6.13 ERA and an 0-6 mark.  Lefty Wilkie was 23-3 with the Army teams he pitched for, but had a less-than-stellar 8-11 mark for the Pirates in two seasons before the war.  He returned for one campaign in 1947 with a 10.57 ERA.  Probably the first true contributor the team lost was Ken Heintzelman.  Heintzelman once won 20 games with the Pirates’ Class-D team in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, and was 29-31 in his six years with the team from 1937-42.  He played for seven years after the war, the highlight being a 17-10 mark and 3.02 ERA with the Phillies in 1949. There was also shortstop Alf Anderson, who had played for the team in 1941 and 1942 before retiring from the game to work in his defense job.  He was drafted into the Navy and played with Ted Williams at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station before returning to the Pirates in 1946 when he had two final major-league plate appearances. Reserve outfielder Bud Stewart left for the Army after playing two years with Pittsburgh in 1941 (when he led the NL with 10 pinch hits), and 1942 before retiring.  He returned in 1948 and had a solid seven seasons with the Yankees (for whom he played only six games), Washington, and the White Sox. 

The newcomers were led by right-handed pitcher “Mr. X,” Xavier Rescigno, a stalwart out of the bullpen during the war years; Tommy O’Brien, an outfielder who played in the final three war years with the Pirates, hitting .310 and .335 in 1943 and 1945 respectively before coming back to the majors in 1949 with the Red Sox after a three-year absence; and reliever Cookie Cuccurullo, who was 3-5 in 62 games over three seasons in Pittsburgh. Added to the mix were Cuban Tony Ordenana, who had a career that lasted all of four at-bats, and 28-year old catcher Hank Camelli, whose highlight in Pittsburgh was hitting .296 in 125 at-bats in 1944. 

1944

While 1944 proved to be the high-water mark for player losses by the Pirates to the war effort, it also proved to be their most successful campaign since they won the National League pennant in 1927.  As the team hosted the All-Star Game at Forbes Field in 1944, they won 90 games that year, the last time they would do so until their memorable 1960 season. Pittsburgh’s 90-63 record was good for second place in the NL, although they were never a serious threat to St. Louis, which sauntered to its third straight pennant.

The Pirates were led by newly acquired first baseman Babe Dahlgren, whom they received from the Phillies for Babe Phelps.  Dahlgren was one of two Pirates to knock in 100 runs; the other was Bob Elliott.  On the mound, the staff finished third in the league in ERA with a 3.44 mark as the 37-year-old Sewell won 21 games for the second consecutive season.

As for the men who headed into the armed forces, it was by far the Pirates’ worst year – they lost 12 players, although only a handful had been major contributors.  Backup catcher Bill Baker, who played for Mickey Cochrane’s Great Lakes team in the Navy, returned to the Bucs in 1946 before ending his major-league career with the Cardinals in 1949.  Elbie Fletcher, who had manned first base since he came over from the Braves in 1939, was perhaps the most costly loss for the team during the war years.  After entering the Navy following the 1943 campaign, Fletcher returned in 1946 for two seasons before going back to the Braves in 1949 for one final year.  In a ranking of players by position, Bill James had Fletcher as the 46th best first baseman of all time.3  At shortstop Huck Geary, a .160 hitter in his two seasons in the majors, had left for the Navy. He never returned to the big leagues after the war.

Maurice Van Robays had a great season for Pittsburgh in 1940, hitting .273 while driving in 116 runs.  His eyesight began to worsen in 1942, prompting him to wear glasses.  His performance on the field suffered and he was sent to Toronto in 1943.  When he was brought up to the Pirates later that season, he rebounded with a .288 average.  Van Robays was drafted into the Army, and played baseball in Europe with the 71st Infantry team.  He returned for one last major-league season in 1946.

Though the team fielded a strong pitching staff in 1944, they still had heavy losses on the mound.  Russ Bauers, 29-29 with the Pirates over six years, went into the Army. After the war the Bucs cut him due to a back injury. He eventually returned, pitching in 16 major-league games for the Cubs and Browns.  Johnny Lanning, 25-31 with the Braves before winning 29 games for Pittsburgh between 1940 and 1943, went into the Army and then returned to the Pirates in 1945 and 1946, when he won four more games. Bill Brandt, who was 5-3 in his three major-league seasons between 1941 and 1943, went into in the Navy. Hank Gornicki won 14 games for Pittsburgh in 1942 and 1943 after two abbreviated seasons with the Cardinals and Cubs.  In the Army he was stationed at Camp Wolters in Texas, where he suffered from leg issues as well as pneumonia.  He pitched in only seven more major-league games for the Pirates in 1946.  Jack Hallett, a four-year vet with the White Sox and Pirates who won a single game for the Bucs in 1942 and 1943, entered the Navy.  He was 5-7 for Pittsburgh in 1946 and ended his major-league career in 1948 with the Giants.  Finally there was Bob Klinger, a fine right-hander who won 62 games for Pittsburgh in six years. He went into the Navy after the 1943 season and then pitched for the Red Sox for two seasons after the war.

Eight Pirates debuted for the team in 1944, including Joe Vitelli, an Army veteran who was hired first as a batting-practice pitcher before making some actual game appearances; as well as Vic Barnhart, Al Gionfriddo, Bill Rodgers, Hank Sweeney, Roy Wise, Len Gilmore, and Frankie Zak. None of those players would see significant major-league action after the war, although Gionfriddo is still remembered for his brilliant catch in Game Five of the 1947 World Series.

1945

Since the Cardinals had been hit hard with player losses to the military, many experts picked the Pirates to win the pennant in 1945.  While that didn’t happen, Pirates fans nonetheless witnessed a third consecutive winning season as the team finished fourth with an 82-72 mark.  Elliott once again was the offensive star with 108 RBIs while Nick Strincevich was the team’s top pitcher with a 16-10 record.

Minimal losses to the armed services for the third time in four war seasons helped fuel the winning record.  Pitcher Fritz Ostermueller, a 15-year vet who won 114 games with the Red Sox, Browns, Dodgers, and Pirates, including 16 with Pittsburgh in 1944 and 1945, went into the Army after earlier being classified as 4-F due to arthritis.  Serving only a few months, he pitched for the Pirates in 1946 and 1947, winning 20 more games. (Ostermueller was erroneously portrayed in the movie 42 as beaning Jackie Robinson.4)  The other Pirate to leave was little-used outfielder Bill Rodgers, who had five major-league at-bats before going into the Army.

Only two players made their debuts for the Pirates, Ken Gables, who won 13 games in his career between 1945 and 1947, and catcher Bill Salkeld, who cobbled together a six-year major-league career with Pittsburgh, the Boston Braves, and the White Sox after sitting out 2½ years in the minors with a severe knee injury.

Those in the Pirates system who served in the military before actually playing a game with Pittsburgh included Vic Barnhart (Army), Roy Jarvis (Navy), Ralph Kiner (Navy), Ken Gables (Army), Al Gionfriddo (Army), Burgess Whitehead (Air Force), and Joe Vitelli (Army).

Proof that the Pirates’ success during the war years was due to the fact they lost few important players to the armed forces came in 1946 after most of the game’s best players came back.  The Pirates returned to the second division with a seventh-place 63-91 record.  Between the end of World War II and 1958, they would enjoy only one winning season.

Below are the Pittsburgh Pirates starters by season, immediately before, during and immediately after the war years.

 

Pos	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946
1B	Elbie Fletcher	Fletcher	Fletcher	Babe Dahlgren	Dahlgren	Fletcher
2B	Frankie Gustine	Gustine	Coscarart	Coscarart	Coscarart	Gustine
SS	Arky Vaughan	Pete Coscarart	Gustine	Gustine	Gustine	Billy Cox
3B	Lee Handley	Elliott	Elliott	Elliott	Elliott	Handley
OF	Vince DiMaggio	Johnny Barrett	Barrett	Barrett	Barrett	Ralph Kiner
OF	Bob Elliott	DiMaggio	DiMaggio	DiMaggio	Al Gionfriddo	Elliott
OF	Maurice Van Robays	Jimmy Wasdell	Jim Russell	Russell	Russell	Russell
C	Al Lopez	Lopez	Lopez	Lopez	Lopez	Lopez
SP	Rip Sewell	Sewell	Sewell	Sewell	Roe	Ostermueller
SP	Max Butcher	Butcher	Butcher	Fritz Ostermueller	Strincevich	Strincevich
SP	Ken Heintzelman	Heintzelman	Klinger	Butcher	Sewell	Heintzelman
SP	Johnny Lanning	Hank Gornicki	Wally Hebert	Nick Strincevich	Butcher	Sewell
SP	Bob Klinger	Klinger	Johnny Gee	Preacher Roe	Ken Gables	Ed Bahr
SP		Luke Hamlin

 

DAVID FINOLI is a 15-year SABR member who is an author and sports historian that has written 18 books, mostly dealing with the history of sports in Western Pennsylvania. He has also contributed to Pittsburgh Magazine, the Pittsburgh Pirates alumni magazine, the Pittsburgh Pirates Game Day program, as well as The Cambridge Companion to Baseball: where he wrote a chapter on the history of the baseball expansion and franchise movement. Originally from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Finoli currently lives in nearby Monroeville and is a retail human resources/operations manager in North Huntingdon, PA.

 

Notes

1 David Finoli, For the Good of the Country, (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. Publishers, 2002), 43.

2 Baseball in Wartime, “Billy Cox,” baseballinwartime.com/player_biographies/cox_billy.htm.

3 Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, (New York: Free Press, 2003), 449.

4 Bruce Markusen, “What Really Happened With Fritz Ostermueller and Jackie Robinson,” Hardball Times, hardballtimes.com/cooperstown-confidential-what-really-happened-with-fritz-ostermueller-and-j/.