THE 100 YEAR JOURNEY OF
A BASEBALL JOURNEYMAN:
MIKE SANDLOCK

Edited By Karl Cicitto
Associate Editors Bill Nowlin and Leonard Levin

The 100 Year Journey Of A Baseball Journeyman: Mike Sandlock

Copyright © 2016

Cover design by Mike Sandlock, Jr.
Book design by Gilly Rosenthol

ISBN 978-1-943816-17-0

(ebook ISBN 978-1-943816-16-3)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

A production of the Smoky Joe Wood Connecticut Chapter of the

Society for American Baseball Research

Cronkite School at ASU

555 N. Central Ave. #416

Phoenix, AZ 85004

Phone: (602) 496-1460

CT Chapter: smokyjoewood.com

1948-9 Almandares Team. Batboy: Mike Sandlock, Jr.

Thank you

To Brian P. Wood, whose energy and input lifted accuracy and quality,

to Len Levin, who is generous and skilled at making us better writers,

to Alan Cohen, a bulldog of a teammate who provided help
when it was most needed,

to Bill Nowlin, our mentor and early reader, for showing the way,

to Ronnie Joyner, who allowed the use of his
terrific artwork on the back cover,

to Mike Sandlock, Jr. for sharing his time, thoughts, photos and family history — and for designing the front and back covers of this book.

to Mike Sandlock, Sr., who shows us how to live a long and admirable life,

thanks to you all.

KC

Introduction

A little more than eighteen months before Mike Sandlock turned 100 I reviewed a list of all MLB players that were born in the Nutmeg State. I was looking for a biography assignment. The idea of focusing on a player from Connecticut, i.e. from home, held appeal. I noted Mike Sandlock as the most senior of all living Connecticut players.

When Connie Marrero passed on April 23, 2014 and Mike became the oldest living former major league player it was evident that a Sandlock book could be a good project for The Smoky Joe Wood (CT) Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, a.k.a., SABR.

Fortunately, CT SABR member Don Harrison was already writing a Sandlock biography for the SABR Bio Project. Don had in fact included a chapter on Mike in his 2008 book, Connecticut Baseball: The Best of the Nutmeg State. Thus, we were off to a great start even before we began.

Would you trade your work experience for that of Mike Sandlock? He had a good one.

Mike’s baseball travels teamed him with Warren Spahn, Tommy Holmes, Ralph Kiner, Joe Garagiola, Casey Stengel, Leo Durocher, Roy Campanella, and Branch Rickey among others. He played when baseball questioned its very need to exist. He played when baseball struggled to accept desegregation and equal rights. He played for Hartford, Montreal ,Hollywood, Boston, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh and other cities. He played in eight National League ballparks that are legendary in baseball history, all but one now existing in memories alone.

The picture of Mike that one gets from reading about his career in newspaper archives and emailing with his family is one of an honest, disciplined, humble man. A good family man who came from strong immigrant stock.

Mike is still a baseball fan and roots for the Braves, the team that gave him his start in pro ball. It is not surprising to discover loyalty in a man who was devoted to playing the most demanding position on the field on an “as needed” basis while suffering the bruises and ball marks of knuckleballs that broke too late to catch.

Our gratitude goes out to the Sandlock family for their patience, generosity and hospitality.

Mike is a Connecticut classic. It has been an honor to work with my SABR colleagues on this book.

Karl Cicitto

Communications Manager

Smoky Joe Wood (CT) Chapter

Society for American Baseball Research

Smokyjoewood.com

Baseball’s Oldest Living Former Major Leaguer Reflects

By Don Harrison

When Mike Sandlock signed his first professional baseball contract, in 1938, he could not have envisioned that he would become a major-league teammate of no fewer than six Hall of Famers — Warren Spahn, Paul Waner, Ernie Lombardi, Pee Wee Reese, Billy Herman, and Ralph Kiner. Nor could he have imagined that during his five full or partial seasons in the National League, Hall of Famers Casey Stengel and Leo Durocher would be among his managers.

In 2015, Michael Joseph Sandlock held yet another distinction: He became the oldest living former major leaguer. This son of Polish immigrants, Stanley and Katherine Sandlock, marked his 100th birthday on October 17, 2015.

For 16 summers, many of them glorious, the Old Greenwich, Connecticut, native earned his livelihood in major- and minor-league ballparks. He was a 6-foot-1, 190-pound, switch-hitting infielder and catcher who possessed enough talent and grit to play for three NL clubs, the Boston Braves, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Pittsburgh Pirates. He played at the game’s next highest level, Triple A, for eight seasons, at San Diego, Hollywood, Montreal, and St. Paul. All of those cities became part of the major-league landscape.1

Sandlock wasn’t a star at the major-league level, but he played with many who were. He and Spahn were teammates with Evansville of the Three-I League in 1941; both were called up to Boston in September of 1942. Stengel was the manager of this seventh-place club, Lombardi, the regular catcher, was en route to winning his second batting title, and Waner played the outfield.

“That was the best drinking club I ever ran into,” Sandlock said of the 1942 Braves. He didn’t name names, but it’s well known that Stengel — still several years removed from being anointed a managerial genius with the New York Yankees — and Waner were on friendly terms with the bottle.

When Sandlock made his NL debut with the Braves on September 19, 1942, the news from most World War II fronts was alarming. The Russians were fighting for their very lives against the Nazis at Stalingrad. In the Pacific, US Marines were attempting to hold the Guadalcanal airfield in the Solomon Islands against repeated attacks by the Japanese. On another ominous note, Pope Pius XII granted an audience to President Roosevelt’s personal representative to the Vatican; they reportedly discussed anti-Semitic developments in Vichy France.

The crowd at Braves Field in Boston was sparse that afternoon when Stengel sent Sandlock to pinch-hit for shortstop Whitey Weitelmann in the eighth inning against New York Giants reliever Fiddler Bill McGee. Sandlock promptly lined a single up the middle and eventually scored on Clyde Kluttz’s two-run triple. Mel Ott’s bases-filled home run one inning earlier, though, put the game in the Giants’ win column, 7-6.2

Sandlock encountered Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson when the Dodgers went to Havana for spring training in 1947. Both were members of Brooklyn’s top farm club, the Montreal Royals of the International League; Jackie would eradicate baseball’s color line when he was promoted to the parent Dodgers just before the season.

Like most of the players in camp, Sandlock refused to sign the short-lived petition that opposed Jackie joining the Dodgers. “(Dodgers president) Branch Rickey called me into his office and asked if I would play pepper with Jackie,” Sandlock related. “‘Why not?’ I said.

“To me, Jackie was a great player, period. And a hell of a good golfer, too. After he moved up to Stamford we played golf together a couple of times.”

During the 1947 International League season, Sandlock formed a bond with Montreal teammate Roy Campanella, the future Hall of Fame catcher who won three Most Valuable Player awards and played a key role in five Dodgers pennants. “The nicest little chap, very friendly,” he said of Campy.

In his 2011 book Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella, author Neil Lanctot underscored their friendship: “We used to walk the streets and everything and talk baseball,” Sandlock remembered. “He was very easy to get along with … not hard to explain things to.”3

According to a 1950 article in Ebony magazine, Campanella attributed much of his defensive success “to a lesson he learned in 1947 from a white teammate, Mike Sandlock.” The latter “‘had spotted my windmill throwing motion and went to work on me. I learned to get the ball off quickly and without a windup.’ That’s when I started to nail some of those fast fellows.”

In 1948, Sandlock’s Montreal teammates included future Hall of Famer Duke Snider, hard-throwing right-hander Don Newcombe, and a lanky first baseman named Chuck Connors. “Moody,” he said of Snider, the talented power-hitter and center-fielder who led Brooklyn to five NL pennants in an eight-year span. “Newcombe, he threw hard and heavy. My hand used to puff up after catching him.”

The 6-foot-5 Connors reached the majors briefly with the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, but rose to prominence later in the title role of television’s The Rifleman and as a featured player in The Big Country and other films.

It was Connors who encouraged Sandlock to join him playing ball in Cuba during the winter of 1948-49. Their team, Almendares, won the championship, and among the notables on the squad were Monte Irvin, Sam Jethroe, Al Gionfriddo (he of the memorable catch of Joe DiMaggio’s wallop in the 1947 World Series), Connie Marrero and manager Fermin “Mickey” Guerra. The batboy in the team photo was Sandlock’s 5-year-old son, Mike.4

Marrero, a pitching legend in his native Cuba and an All-Star with the 1951 Washington Senators, died just two days shy of his 103rd birthday on April 23, 2014. His passing made Sandlock the oldest living former major leaguer.

When Sandlock returned to the majors at age 37 with Pittsburgh in 1953, Kiner, the seven-time home-run champion, still wore Pirate flannels. Their friendship would endure until Kiner’s death in 2014. Joe Garagiola, the catcher turned broadcaster and raconteur, was there, too. And so was another Greenwich native, infielder Pete Castiglione. All three were traded in midseason, and Sandlock was dealt to the Phillies that December.

Sandlock grew up in the Old Greenwich section — then known as Sound Beach — of Greenwich, a Fairfield County community called home by millionaire bankers and billionaire hedge-fund managers, where such notables as Ron Howard, Diana Ross, Frank Gifford, Steve Young, former Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent, Tom Seaver, and Mark Teixeira reside or once lived.

“This used to be a dirt road,” he said, gesturing toward Rockland Place, the same street on which he grew to manhood during the Depression. “There used to be cattle next door, haystacks over there.”

His father, who was born Stanley Sendlak, earned his livelihood as a landscaper who rode to his jobs on a horse-pulled wagon. His mother, Katherine, was employed as a housekeeper in a private residence.

Mike Sandlock’s formal education was limited to Sound Beach School and a couple of years at Wright Tech in neighboring Stamford. That was it. Then he was off to work at the Electrolux plant and play industrial league ball with the Cos Cob Fire Department and other teams. In 1937 he impressed Boston Bees scouts during a tryout, and they signed him to a professional contract.

“I was making $200 a month at Electrolux. My first year I got $75 a month to play at Huntington, West Virginia, in the Mountain State League,” he recalls. “My father used to say working in a factory is like going to jail. They open the gate in the morning and they don’t let you out until it’s time to quit.”

Sandlock’s rise through the Bees/Braves farm system was rapid. He hit a sound .276 at Huntington in 1938, an even .300 with Bradford, Pennsylvania, the following year, where he was voted the Pony League’s all-star catcher. He was relegated to backup duty with Hartford of the International League in 1940, but rebounded with .324 and .306 seasons at Evansville of the Three-I League, which earned him the late-season promotion to Boston in 1942. He played in two games at shortstop with the ‘42 Braves, finishing with that one hit and one at-bat, which translated into a 1.000 batting average.

With the war escalating, Sandlock sat out the 1943 season and worked in a plant in Evansville, Indiana, that built fighter planes. That winter the love of his life, Victoria (Suchocki) Sandlock, gave birth to Michael, the oldest of their three children.

He rejoined the Braves for 30 games and a .100 batting average in the first half of the 1944 season, before his contract was sold to the Dodgers. He hit .308 in 35 games with St. Paul of the American Association, setting the stage for his finest National League season. With a third-place Brooklyn club in 1945, Sandlock appeared in 80 games — 47 behind the plate but he also played third, short, and second — and batted a solid .282, with 2 home runs and 17 RBIs.

Manager Leo Durocher “really wanted to win. To me, he was a fine manager,” Sandlock said. “His wife, (actress) Laraine Day, was a very nice person. She’d play cards with you.”

As the Dodgers’ Opening Day shortstop, against the Philadelphia Phillies on April 17, Sandlock enjoyed one of his most productive days, going 3-for-4 with a triple and driving in three runs. Durocher played second base that afternoon. The Dodgers won handily, 8-2.5

Both of Sandlock’s major-league homers came that year, against the same Giants right-hander, Harry Feldman. “My first home run was in the Polo Grounds (on April 20). The second hit the clock at Ebbets Field (on September 19).” The latter, with two runners aboard, propelled the Dodgers to a 3-0 lead in a game they eventually won, 5-4.

To reach Ebbets Field from Old Greenwich, Sandlock rode the New Haven Railroad to Manhattan, and then boarded a subway to Brooklyn. He recalled walking to the ballpark and signing autographs for youngsters along the way. He remembered Ebbets Field as a “cozy park,” where the ushers always greeted him with a “Hey, Mike!” and members of the Dodgers Sym-Phony band sometimes supplied him with sandwiches between games of doubleheaders.6

Of Brooklyn fans, he said, “They boo you one minute and then cheer for you the next. ‘You’re bums, but you’re our bums,’ they used to say,” Sandlock told Ed Attanasio in the online feature “They Were There.” “I got to know some of them, including Hilda (Chester) with the cowbell. She was quite a character. The fans were really close to the players and people would yell out stuff that was funny and witty.”7

On his circuitous trip home after games, Sandlock occasionally met Red Barber, the Dodgers’ announcer, for a beer at Grand Central Terminal. Barber hung a nickname on Mike: “The Old Commuter.”

The Dodgers found themselves in third place at season’s end, behind the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, but there was more baseball to be played. That December Sandlock was among a team of major leaguers who made a USO-sponsored tour across the US, playing service teams, and then moving on to Hawaii and the Philippines. They returned home exhausted but happy at the end of January.

“Some of the flights were pretty scary,” he remembered. “We played Stan Musial’s (Navy) team in Hawaii and we ran into (Dodger pitcher) Kirby Higbe in the Philippines.” Another Dodger, Ralph Branca, Frank McCormick, Whitey Kurowski, and Red Barrett were among Sandlock’s notable teammates.

With the war over and a flock of stars returning from military service, major-league rosters were overstocked in the spring of 1946. Shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who spent three years in the Navy, center-fielder Pete Reiser, second baseman Billy Herman and third baseman Cookie Lavagetto were among the returnees from the Dodgers’ 1941 NL champions.

A split right forefinger, incurred in a spring-training victory over the Giants, delayed Sandlock’s arrival.8 He spent the first portion of the season with Brooklyn, hitting just .147 in 19 games, before being reassigned to St. Paul. He was destined to spend the reminder of his playing career at the Triple-A or Open level, save for the season in Pittsburgh.

No complaints, though. “The best time I had (in the game) was out on the Coast,” he said. “Some of the teams in the Pacific Coast League were better than some of the National League teams at the time.”

No question. Many stars on the way down — Joe Gordon, Luke Easter, Max West, Walt Judnich — were quite content to finish up in the PCL. Johnny Lindell, the former Yankee outfielder, spent two seasons perfecting a knuckleball with Hollywood, and both he and Sandlock accompanied manager Fred Haney to Pittsburgh in 1953.

God’s sunlight always seemed to shine on Hollywood. And the money was good, too. “I was making ten grand a year out there,” Sandlock said.

For four seasons (1949-52), Sandlock was Hollywood’s regular catcher, a period in which the Stars (as they were appropriately known) won two PCL championships and attracted crowds that taxed the capacity of Gilmore Field. Show-business personalities of the day — George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jack Benny, Phil Silvers, Mickey Rooney, Pat O’Brien, Gordon MacRae, Chill Wills, Gabby Hayes — populated the stands to see and be seen. Gene Autry, the singing cowboy, and William Frawley, who portrayed Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, were among the club’s investors.9

Sandlock’s son, Mike, recalled accompanying his father to the home of actors Michael O’Shea and Virginia Mayo and meeting other celebrities.

The Stars captured PCL championships in 1949 and 1952, and finished no lower than third in the seasons in between. Sandlock complemented his defensive skills as a backstop with a .297 average in 1950 and hit .286 in the playoff-winning 1952 season. He batted .243 in 1949 and .248 in 1951.

Included in the voluminous collection of Sandlock memorabilia is a black-and-white photograph of Joe DiMaggio swinging a bat, taken during an exhibition game on the West Coast in the fall of 1951 — the year Joe D retired. “That was Joe’s last (albeit unofficial) at-bat,” Sandlock said. In the photo, the catcher behind the plate is Mike Sandlock.

By this juncture, Sandlock had become known as a player who could catch the knuckleball — most of the time. “You don’t (catch it),” he said. “You box with it. You use either a left jab or a hook. … I had special gloves made. You can’t use a regular catcher’s glove, because you don’t let the ball slam into the pocket, the way you do catching a fastball pitcher.”10

Life was decidedly less glamorous in Pittsburgh. The 1953 Pirates, a mixture of graybeards and kids, won just 50 games and finished last in the eight-team National League. Sharing the catching with Garagiola, rookie Vic Janowicz, who had been a Heisman Trophy-winning running back at Ohio State, and Toby Atwell, Sandlock batted .231 in 64 games. Defensively, he handled the knuckleballs thrown by Lindell and Paul LaPalme and committed just three errors for a .991 percentage. He ranked fifth among NL catchers with 49 assists.

In the 2013 SABR publication Bridging Two Dynasties: The 1947 New York Yankees, Lindell gives considerable credit to Sandlock for his comeback as a pitcher. Wrote author Rob Neyer:

“ ‘He helped me greatly,’ ” Lindell said of Sandlock. ‘It was he who nursed me along, gave me encouragement and acted as my tutor and counselor. My luckiest break, next to coming back to the big leagues, was when Haney and Sandlock were brought up to the Pirates with me.’ ”11

For Sandlock, the highlight of the summer was Mike Sandlock Day at the Polo Grounds, held between games of a September doubleheader. (The Pirates actually won both.) A group of fans from Greenwich and Stamford presented him a new Dodge and other gifts during brief ceremonies while his wife and their two children, Mike and Mary Ellen, beamed. Their third child, Damon, was born a few years later.

Sold to the Phillies during the offseason, Sandlock appeared to have won a roster spot on the 1954 club managed by Steve O’Neill. That plan was thwarted by a severe knee injury sustained in the waning days of spring training. “We were playing an exhibition game in Schenectady (New York) and this young kid came barreling into me at the plate,” Sandlock said. “He was out from here to Broadway, but …”

A major “but.” The next uniform he wore was that of the Phillies’ Triple-A club, San Diego, where a 38-year-old Sandlock helped manager Lefty O’Doul’s Padres win the PCL title in a one-game playoff with Hollywood. He hit only .183, but caught with his customary expertise.

“Baseball has done a great deal for me,” Sandlock told Les Biederman of the Pittsburgh Press. “It’s enabled me to make a living. I have never been a great player but nobody can say I never have given my best at all times.”12

Sandlock retired from baseball after that season (major-league statistics: 195 games, 107 hits, 2 home runs, 31 RBIs, .240 average) and, as he had in most offseasons, continued to work as a carpenter. According to son Mike, “he worked as a builder (mostly additions) with Joe Valentine, and was able to determine the best playing position for his young son Bobby Valentine.”

Sandlock also developed into a two-handicap golfer at the local Innis Arden Golf Club, where he won five club championships and carded two holes-in-one. In 2009, at 93 and limiting himself to two rounds of golf a week, he was honored at the annual Jerry Porrecelli Sr. Memorial Golf Tournament at the club. Among those in attendance was Ralph Kiner.

“Mike is an old teammate of mine from the Pirates and it is a pleasure to be here for him on this day,” Kiner said. “I had a lot of fun playing with him … even though we didn’t have a great team.”13

Two other events, both baseball-related, probably resonated deeper in the Sandlock psyche. On April 30, 1998, Sandlock was inducted into the Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Fame, permanently reuniting him with Newcombe, Branca, Tommy Brown, and several other teammates. He recalled a chance meeting with Newcombe, when the 1956 Cy Young Award and MVP winner “gave me the biggest hug when I saw him at a card show on Long Island.”

On July 21, 2012, Sandlock was honored as the oldest living Dodger at the New York Mets’ Citi Field before their game with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Wearing a blue Brooklyn Dodgers cap, he navigated the field by cane, and was introduced to Dodgers manager Don Mattingly and several players from both clubs. He also reconnected with the Mets’ third-base coach, fellow Greenwich native Tim Teufel.14

The modern game irks him, Sandlock said. “Bunt, hit and run — they don’t do that anymore,” he said with a groan. “Everything is the long ball. I mean, a guy on first and second, jeez, bunt that guy to third. Get that one run if you can.”15

In his later years, Sandlock resided with his youngest son, Damon, Damon’s wife, Allie, and their two children in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich. His oldest son, Mike, lived in Tennessee; there were six Sandlock grandchildren. Sandlock’s wife, Vicki, who compiled the scrapbooks of his memorabilia, died in 1982.

On the verge of being a centurion, how did the former major leaguer spend his days? “He gets to Innis Arden once a week on weekends, and watches golf and baseball on television. He sits outside reading the paper on beautiful days,” said Allie Sandlock.

Sandlock’s low-key approach to life and longevity? “Win some, walk off. Go in, have a beer. That’s it.”16

Sources

Special thanks to Mike Sandlock for a follow-up interview on July 15, 2015; to Sandlock’s two sons, Mike and Damon Sandlock, for sharing their memories with the author on June 15, 2015, and July 8, 2015, respectively; and to daughter-in-law Allie Sandlock for her assistance on July 14, 2015.

“Phils Purchase Sandlock From Pittsburgh Club,” publication unknown, December 20, 1953.

Notes

1 Don Harrison, “Old Greenwich’s Gift to Majors,” Greenwich (Connecticut) Citizen, July 18, 2003.

2 James P. Dawson, “Ott’s Home Run With Bases Filled Conquers Braves for Giants, 7-6,” New York Times, September 20, 1942.”

3 Neil Lanctot, Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011).

4 Cesar Brioso, “Friendship With Chuck Connors Helped Mike Sandlock Land in Cuba One Winter,” Cuba Beisbol, January 26, 2011.

5 Jack Smith, “Sandlock Ousts Brown as Dodger Shortstop,” New York Daily News, April 10, 1945.

6 Louie Lazar, “At 97, the Oldest Living Brooklyn Dodger Reflects,” New York Times, April 3, 2013.

7 Ed Attanasio, “They Were There: Mike Sandlock,” “This Great Game,” 2015.

8 Gus Steiger, “Hatten Beats Giants; Sandlock Splits Digit,” New York Daily Mirror, April 3, 1946.

9 Jeff Hause, “Hollywood Stars: A History,” SportsHollywood.com, 2003.

10 Frank Yeutter, “Phils’ Sandlock Uses Special Catcher’s Mitt, Stands a Step Farther Back for ‘Knucklers,’” The (Philadelphia) Sunday Bulletin, February 28, 1954.

11 Rob Neyer, Bridging Two Dynasties: The 1947 New York Yankees (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2013).

12 Les Biederman, “The Scoreboard,” Pittsburgh Press, March 25, 1953.

13 Rob Kelley, “Sandlock: Former Major League Baseball Player Honored at Celebrity Golf Tournament,” Greenwich (Connecticut) Citizen, August 14, 2009.

14 Scott Ericson, “Sandlock honored at Citi Field,” Greenwich (Connecticut) Time, July 21, 2012.

15 Jack Cavanaugh, “Oldest Living ex-Dodger Will Meet the Current Team in New York,” Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2012.

16 Lazar.

Speaking of Sandlock

Interviews with
Mike Sandlock, Sr. and
Mike Sandlock, Jr
Memories of Mike from Teammates

Jackie, Campy, & Joe D.:
An Interview with
Mike Sandlock, Sr.

By Karl Cicitto
From a Phone Interview, March 29, 2015

Mike Sandlock is MLB’s eldest veteran at age 99. The Greenwich resident answered seven questions this morning in a clear and gentle tone. Mike’s first major-league at-bat came while pinch-hitting in 1942 at Braves Field. He singled off the Giants’ Fiddler McGee and scored on Clyde Kluttz’s triple. Mel Ott later homered to beat the Braves.

Mike, you singled and scored in your first at-bat. Were you nervous?

I just felt lucky to have a major-league uniform, you know? I pinch-hit in that game. That was the year that I batted 1.000.

Casey Stengel was your manager. Did you see him as a great manager at the time?

A lot of the time he did not have a good club. When you don’t have the horses, nothing you can do. He was more comedian than manager. He enjoyed managing the Braves. He was alright to play for.

You caught for Montreal in 1947 & 1948. Campanella and Newcombe were your team mates. How were the black players treated?

Campy got big-headed later in life with the $10 cigars, the four marriages, the big boat and big car, and that surprised me because I didn’t see him that way when he was younger. Don Newcombe was a helluva pitcher. He just needed a little direction sometimes. I tried to help these guys as I tried to help all the younger players. If I could, I would. When Jackie Robinson came up I was in spring training with the Dodgers in Florida, and we went to Cuba, too, and there was a rhubarb and the petition, too. But all that stuff never concerned me. I grew up with black guys and they were good guys and good ballplayers, too. I never had a problem. I also played golf with Jackie Robinson and he was a good golfer. He was a great athlete, the kind who could be good at anything.

You were behind the plate for DiMaggio’s last professional AB. Did you speak with him?

Oh sure, that picture of me and Joe is hanging on my wall. He hit a ground ball and I backed up first base. When he came to bat I said “Hi, Joe” and he said “Hi” back. Joe never talked much. Speaking of Italians, you should read the new book about 1957. In chapter four they give you every name they used to call Italians and Jews, Blacks, and Polish, too. It’s a good book. My grandson picks these books up and sends them to me. We all share them.

You’re Polish; who was the greatest Polish ballplayer of all time?

(Beat.) Stan Musial, of course! He was a helluva great player and a good Catholic Polish lad. I never spoke with him. He was in St. Louis and I was in Pittsburgh. I would say he was the greatest. And I had dinner with Yaz. Yaz was a happy-go-lucky fella but he didn’t speak good Polish. The difference between Stan and Yaz was that Stan was nice to everybody.

What memories do you have of Bulkeley Stadium and Hartford in 1940?

Sure I remember playing in Hartford in 1940. I was not well-liked by the manager, never got much of a chance to play. They shipped me to Class B. Bulkeley was an old wooden stadium. I think it had a short right field and a medium left field. It was OK. Pretty good ballpark.

As a catcher who do you rank the best ever, Berra? Bench? Dickey?

Oh, there have been so many good ones. It’s pretty hard to judge that. Dickey was my favorite because I saw him when I first saw the Yankees play. But I guess I would have to go with Campy. He moved really well and he was just so determined. I knew he would make it

Dugouts, Club Houses & Movie Stars: An Interview with Mike Sandlock, Jr.

By Karl Cicitto

Mike Sandlock, Jr., the first born of Mike and Vicki Sandlock, came into the world on Feb. 16, 1943. That was the year that his father chose to work in a defense factory rather than play baseball for the Boston Braves. Cut from strong immigrant stock, the Sandlock family remained tied to their roots in Connecticut even while Baseball took them to places inside and outside of the U.S..

Mike, Jr. now resides in Tennessee. This interview took place on Sept. 20, 2015.

Mike, you come from a family of 5, including a brother and a sister, Mary Ellen & Damon. Where did Dad’s athletic talent come from and which of the kids was it given to?

It wasn’t me. My brother is more athletic but he was a smaller frame than my father. He played basketball and other sports. He wasn’t of large enough stature to play football. I tried my hand at sports but just didn’t have it. Dad would have liked to make me a golfer. I had a good swing but I just couldn’t see getting up in the morning, walking on the wet grass and sweating for 4 hours and being frustrated. Just didn’t seem right.

What can you tell us about your Dad’s parents? What are their names? Where did they come from? What did they do?

All of our family is from Poland, not sure what section. They were farmers. They left Poland to come over here early in the 20th Century. They settled in Stamford (CT) in the Polish community. My grandfather’s name was Stanley Sandlock and my grandmother was Katherine. I grew up with them because we lived with the grandparents . They had chickens and horses and all of that. And a garden, which is where I get my love of gardening.

You are a graphic designer by trade. How about Mary Ellen and Damon?

Mary Ellen went to Katherine Gibbs and was a secretary. Damon is in Landscaping.

How did Mom & Dad meet?

I believe they met each other while he was playing ball in Stamford against the Yale Lock Co., which is where she worked. Dad worked at Electrolux. Right behind where we lived was the Electrolux factory and the train station nearby, too. The train station was a coal operation, I believe, so there was constant smoke and noise all night long. Plus the horses, chickens and cows.

So it’s fair to say that your Dad developed a very good work ethic as he grew up with farming and tending animals.

Oh, yes. He worked for my grandfather in landscaping. He had just a horse and wagon. He was probably the last one in town to have that. I remember him picking me up from kindergarten in a horse and wagon. An old buckboard. My grandfather said you work from sun up to sundown and you don’t take time to take the splinters out of your fingers. You do that after work.

Was Dad a rough hewn fellow as a younger man?

In reading through all of the old articles about him, they often refer to “Burly Mike Sandlock”.

Who were your heroes growing up, Mike? Any baseball players?

Probably not. I wasn’t really into Baseball. I was fortunate enough to sit in the dugout of almost every professional and minor league team that Dad played for. I was only 2 when he was in Brooklyn and I don’t remember the Braves that much, but I sat in the dugout for every game when he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates and also every game with the Hollywood Stars for the 4 years we were out there. And also the San Diego Padres. I used to go out on the field and shag balls for Lefty O’Doul. He was the manager of the San Diego Padres, a AAA team at that time.

That was Dad’s last year in professional ball, wasn’t it?

Yes, Dad’s last playing year was ’54 — last baseball job was in ‘58 with the Salt Lake City Bees as a coach.

Do you know what kind of coach he was?

I’m not sure but I suspect he coached catchers and pitchers. Back then everybody did everything. They didn’t have so many coaches and trainers with specific jobs. A manager, a coach, a trainer and a locker room boy was all they had.

Did he coach in those years of 1955 through 1958?

No, he went to work in the carpentry business. And the first person he had working for him was Joe Valentine, Bobby Valentine’s father.

Did you know his son, Bobby Valentine?

He came over the house a couple of times, his mother and him. But I never played with him. I know his Dad, Joe, asked my Dad to take a look at him and say what position he should go out for. My Dad said that based on the way he runs, moves and throws the outfield would be perfect for him.

Mike, you moved around a lot as a kid.

Oh, yes, that’s why I love to travel now.

By the time you were 11, Dad had played for Montreal and Hollywood and Pittsburgh and San Diego. You liked it.

I just accepted it. At one point I’d be playing with kids who spoke French in Montreal, a couple months later I was in Cuba playing with kids who spoke Spanish, and a couple of months later I’d be in California.

I pretty much had free rein in the baseball parks. I just went in and out as I wanted. There was no security then. I’d just sit in the clubhouse and play with my little soldiers and cowboys and Indians and listening to the game on the radio. Then I’d go up to the dugout and sit up there for a while. Then I’d go find a hot dog vendor.

You mentioned going to Cuba when you were the batboy for the Almandares.

Well, I was the token batboy. They had a regular batboy. I was about 5 years old. I had a uniform. I had come down to Cuba with a Montreal uniform. That was the only one they had to put me in so I wore it. Some of the guys in Montreal actually used to dress me up in catcher’s gear and send me on the field when they played O Canada.

You were very small on that trip. There were some very good players like Sam Jethroe and Monte Irvin on the team. Do you have any memories of the players?

Well, I remember Chuck Connors. We hung around him a lot. He had an irish setter. I had chicken pox one time and he’d carry me around. Keep me away from the other kids. And we lived just about on the beach.

Did your family stay in touch with Chuck as he went into entertainment?

Sort of. My Dad said Chuck was a little bit of an off-the-wall person. As a matter of fact Chuck was one of the people who asked my Dad to come down to Cuba when he was in between things, after Montreal, and my father said, “Sure, we can use a couple of hundred dollars”., and when Dad got down there Chuck said, how about you do me a favor and introduce me to some of the Hollywood stars you know and see if you can hook me up with some movie agents.

Your family experienced baseball in California before the major league expansion. Even as a youngster, could you foresee Baseball’s future popularity in California?

Oh, it was popular already out there. The players were celebrities. As a matter of fact the players didn’t really want to go to the big leagues. They were making big money there. They hung around with a lot of movie stars. They would go to a lot of parties. They had beaches and hot girls. The movie stars would come right into the dugout and clubhouse. You’d rub elbows with people like Gordon MacRae. Georgie Jessell was sitting out there with one of those big old cigars. Gabby Hayes always said, “Hey, Mike, how ya doing?”.

But my biggest thing while being out there for 4 years was that I knew where the hot dogs were and who would buy me a hot dog. And at the end of the first base side (of the grandstand) I could stand up and watch the drive in movies that were shown behind the stadium. I also had the leading position on the list of drinking Dr. Pepper. They had a list up there in the clubhouse and every time I took one they put an X by my name. I had a lot of X‘s.

Was it a big thing among your friends and school chums that Dad was a player on the Hollywood Stars?

I guess so. It never crossed my mind to think of myself as anything other than the son of someone who was working. Baseball was his job. It was just what he did.

It was just a job for Dad. He is a humble man, isn’t he?

Yes, very humble and very religious. Right up until the time that he was last able to get around he was on his knees every night in prayer. Right now he can’t get to church so he watches the 9 am Mass on TV.

How did you like Pittsburgh?

We didn’t really stay out there. It was close enough to CT so that I could go out there for a couple of weeks in between school years and hang out. It was great. I was able to go into the dugouts, watch Dad, sit there with Ralph Kiner, Joe Garagiola. The players were always invited to go to restaurants or the opening of a grocery store and they’d let them fill up a grocery cart. It was a celebrity type thing.

Did you have a favorite major or minor league park among those that your Dad played in?

Well, my favorite was Gilmore Field. I think CBS Studios were there, too, along with the Farmers Market and Hollywood Raceway, an auto track speedway. I also liked how you could go to the beach one day and the mountains the next. Or to some celebrity’s house, like Virginia Mayo, because her husband, Michael O’Shea, was very much into baseball and really loved it. He always hung around Gilmore Field, introduced us to stars and took us to rodeos. Go over their house to eat.

How was Baseball a part of your family life after he retired? Did he take you to Ebbetts Field or Yankee Stadium?

No. Not really. I think we went to a couple of old timers games at Yankee Stadium.

So the family was really not into Baseball as fans would be.

No, not really. But my mother always made clippings. She always cut everything out of the newspapers. I’ve got some of it. Most of it’s in a drawer that Dad has. There are just stacks of clippings and photographs in a drawer. My sister-in-law did scan some of them and I put them on Facebook. I think some are from 1939-1940.

Those would be minor league photos from 1939 and 1940.

Yes, those are from the Bradford Bees, Huntington Bees, the Boston Bees.

Your Dad played in Hartford, CT, too.

I did put on Facebook a scan of his contract with the Hartford Bees. You can go up there and see that they offered him $150 per month.

What was the most that Dad ever made in Baseball in one year?

$10,000 was the most he ever made in a season.

I put that into an inflation calculator. That’s about $132,000 in today’s dollars.

That’s still nowhere near what they make today.

Is Dad aware of how much money they are making today?

Oh, yeah. He says he would have played for nothing. He loved the game so much. It was a sport then. Today it is a business.

Did Dad have baseball heroes? Are you aware of any players that he looked up to in his youth?

Oh, yes. Babe Ruth. That’s where it started. My uncle took him to a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. They were sitting there and Babe Ruth came up and hit a homerun right over their heads. My uncle always said that you could have picked Dad’s jaw up off the floor. His eyes were big and his eyes were wide open and he said, “That’s what I want to do.”. His goal became to get on a team that babe Ruth played for and he did. That team was the Boston Braves.

Your Dad received praise from Roy Campanella and Johnny Lindell for mentoring them.

Yes, it’s printed in Campy’s book.

It sounds like your Dad is a caring, sharing team mate.

Right. And that’s why Branch Rickey wanted to make him a manager. My father didn’t want to be a manager. He knew people, knew pitchers, batters, and the veterans on his team told him to do it, but my father did not want to be a manager or a coach. He wanted to play.

Was the interest in Dad as a manager from Rickey when he was with the Pirates?

No, Brooklyn. I believe my father still has a letter from Branch Rickey to him on that subject.

In 1953 Dad was honored in the Polo Grounds with a Mike Sandlock Day. What do you remember about that day?

It was a double header and the Dodgers won both games. Branch Rickey said they should have Mike Sandlock Day every day. I remember between games they had Phil Silvers come out with his little troupe from his show, “You’ll Never Get Rich”. It was an Army type thing. They did a little routine.

That’s when my grandfather and grandmother came. It was the first time she had ever seen a baseball game. My grandfather never knew what he did, didn’t understand it, and my grandmother used to burn Dad’s bats and his gloves, saying it was stupid and he needed to get out there and work landscaping with his Dad. So one day my grandfather followed him to a game one time and just couldn’t believe that there were all these people watching Dad. And cheering.

Grandma and Grandpa were people of modest means and…

Yes, they were farmers from Poland. On my Mother’s side they were more into the Arts, city people from Poland. That’s probably where I get my love for the Arts, I guess.

My father would take Stanley (his nephew) to the games and dugout as well. Stanley is the son of Dad’s brother, Joseph. Stanley was the first boy to come along so he got all the baseball type stuff. Stanley was in attendance when they honored Dad in 2012 at Citi Field as the longest living Dodger. This was when Dad was just, just getting into a walker.

He was 97 and he was just getting into using a walker.

Well, he was still playing golf just a couple of years ago.

How many hole-in-ones does Dad have?

He has a couple of them. He is 5-time Champion of Innes Arden GC, and he got to play in the Ike Tournament because of that. He was a 2 handicap at the time.

Dad will soon be 100. In your view, what have been the reasons for his longevity?

Prayer. Always working out. When he was down here (in TN) a couple of years ago, when he was in his 80’s and 90’s, he helped to build a back porch, helping me carry big old 12 foot long 4 x 4’s.

He’s an amazing guy.

Yes, he still is!

Player Memories

Mike’s Teammates Recall
Their Diamond Days.

By Alan Cohen

Leroy Pfund

Leroy Pfund was in the major leagues for only one season, 1945, during which he went 3-2 for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He remembers one game quite vividly. It took place on Saturday, May 26. The Dodgers were facing the Cardinals in St. Louis. The Dodgers had won 17 of their first 24 games, but then went into a tailspin. They lost six games in a row between May 20 and May 25, and their record stood at 17-13. Manager Leo Durocher threatened to shake up his lineup, by picking names out of a hat, but elected to field his regulars at their usual positions. Pfund pitched that day, and Mike Sandlock was inserted at shortstop. It was Sandlock’s 13th game and the Dodgers’ 31st of the season, and it wound up being Sandlock’s finest game as a Dodger in 1945.

Lee Pfund remembers the game well. He had been moved up in the rotation to start on Saturday, because, being very religious, he would not pitch on Sundays. His wife and many family friends made the trip from Wheaton, Illinois, to see him pitch, and he did not disappoint.

Every Dodger, including pitcher Pfund, hit safely as the Dodgers won, 11-2. Sandlock had three hits — all singles. In the first inning, he capped a four-run rally with a run-scoring single. Pfund drove in the Dodgers’ ninth run with a single in the fifth inning.

Pfund remembers Sandlock as a good player who, at age 29, was slowing down a bit in 1945. Lee was not with the team for the entire season; he appeared in his last game as a Dodger on July 5. He came in to relieve in the fourth inning. Fats Dantonio was his catcher. Sandlock pinch-hit for Dantonio in the bottom of the sixth inning, and made his first appearance as a catcher when the Dodgers took the field in the seventh inning. Sandlock caught Pfund’s last inning in the major leagues.

Shortly thereafter, on July 10, Pfund was injured during an exhibition game against the Senators in Washington. The damage to his right knee was extensive, and his major-league career was over. Meanwhile, with Eddie Basinski established at shortstop, Sandlock stayed behind the plate for the balance of the season. He caught in 47 games, 40 as a starter. He shared the position with the likes of Dantonio, Mickey Owen, Stan Andrews, Ray Hayworth, Johnny Peacock, and Clyde Sukeforth. His fielding percentage as a catcher, .991, was the highest on the team among catchers who played in more than 10 games.

Pfund and Sandlock were reunited briefly with Montreal in 1947, before Pfund was reassigned to St. Paul in late June. Sandlock did not get to catch Pfund much at Montreal; another catcher, Roy Campanella, was getting most of the starts. Sandlock returned to the infield for most of his starts and also mentored Campanella. After 1947, the paths of Pfund and Sandlock would diverge.

Chuck Stevens

Chuck Stevens is not far behind Mike Sandlock on the “Oldest Living Player” list. As of September 25, 2015, the 97-year-old, whose professional career began in 1937, was fifth on the list.

Stevens had a short major-league career, 222 games in all, interrupted by three years of service during World War II. He played with the St. Louis Browns in parts of three seasons during the 1940s. His major-league career ended at the end of July 1948, when he was sold to the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. In 1949 Branch Rickey, then running the Dodgers, added Hollywood to the team’s stable of farm clubs and Mike Sandlock went to Hollywood. Sandlock was a converted infielder, and Stevens thought highly of his catching ability.

Stevens and Sandlock were teammates in Hollywood from 1949 through 1952, and Chuck thinks he was a teammate of Sandlock’s for a longer time than any other player. Those were good years, as the Stars finished first in 1949 (109-78) and 1952 (109-71). Sandlock, then 33, and Al Unser, then 36, shared the catching chores and mentored the young pitchers. Stevens noted, “Mike joined us in the late spring [of 1949]. He and Noren and Jimmy Baxes, all Brooklyn products, were heavy factors in our winning the pennant in 1949. Finishing third (in 1950 with a 104-96 record) was the worst we ever did at Hollywood.”

Stevens remembers, that Sandlock “was a great guy, and hasn’t changed any. He was a good catcher who could handle the knuckleball better than anybody I ever experienced, and I saw many good catchers in my day. He knew how to play ball and how to win, and that was important to me. I can’t say anything bad about him.” Stevens continued, “I can’t say enough about him. Everybody liked him. Everybody on the team had a nickname. Sandlock’s nickname, with love, was ‘The Polock.’ He was always ready to play and did a good job. He became a low-handicap golfer after his baseball days.”

Fred Haney was the manager of the Hollywood Stars in those years, and when Branch Rickey departed Brooklyn for Pittsburgh, he maintained control of Hollywood, which was a Pirates farm during the period from 1952 through 1957. At the end of the 1952 season, when Haney was promoted to Pittsburgh, he took knuckleball specialist and league MVP Johnny Lindell and his personal catcher, Mike Sandlock, with him to Pittsburgh.

Chuck and Mike have kept in touch over the years, talking often on the phone and exchanging letters. Chuck was quite active with the Association of Professional Ball Players of America (APBPA). The organization helps former ballplayers, umpires, scouts, and trainers through the tough times. Stevens was with the organization for 38 years, retiring in 1998 at the age of 80, and is appreciative that Mike Sandlock often participated in the organization’s golf outings, which were a major fundraiser for the group’s good works.

Chuck said he thinks about Sandlock often, and is glad to congratulate Mike on the occasion of his 100th birthday.

Johnny O’Brien

Johnny O’Brien and his twin brother, Eddie, were the second base-shortstop combination for the 1953 Pittsburgh Pirates. One of the catchers on the team was Mike Sandlock.

O’Brien observes that “Guys who played baseball are characters for the most part.” He remembers that “Sandlock was the only guy who could catch (Johnny) Lindell with that hard knuckleball Lindell threw. Whenever Lindell pitched, Sandlock caught. Mike was a pleasant guy. The players used to kid Sandlock, saying, ‘You had better hope nothing happens to Lindell.’”

O’Brien first met Sandlock in spring training in 1953. O’Brien was a bonus baby. Under the bonus rule in place in 1953, the Pirates were required to keep him on the major-league squad for two years. The Pirates trained in Havana that season. O’Brien wanted number 4, as he had idolized Lou Gehrig when he was growing up. The clubhouse manager told him that he could have it “if you talk Ralph Kiner out of it.” O’Brien wore number 30 in his rookie season.

During spring training there was turbulence as dictator Fulgencio Batista took over the country. It was a wild time; the hotel conditions were none too good, either. In later years the Pirates trained in Fort Myers, Florida.

The O’Brien brothers were drafted and spent the 1954 season in the Army.

Ed O’Brien, who spent his entire four-year major-league career with the Pirates, retired and went on to coach at Seattle University. He returned to the majors as the pitching coach for the Seattle Pilots in 1969.

As John O’Brien mentioned, “In those days, you did anything the team wanted.” In 1956 he went from being the everyday second baseman to “being a utility player” when Bill Mazeroski was promoted from the minor leagues. Mr. [Branch] Rickey decided that O’Brien should be a relief pitcher, and over the course of three seasons, 1956-58, O’Brien pitched in 25 games.

He remembers his first game as a relief pitcher. He was told to go into the game, and assumed his position at second base, only to see that Curt Roberts was stationed at the position. Umpire Dusty Boggess told them the team couldn’t have more than one second baseman. So O’Brien went to the mound and met with his catcher, Hank Foiles. Foiles asked him what he had, and O’Brien said, “Nothing.” His first warm-up pitch went to the backstop. The batter stepped in. It was Cincinnati’s Frank Robinson. The first pitch was a fastball that was taken for strike one. A second fastball was inside and Robinson hit the dirt. The final two pitches were both strikes and O’Brien had struck out his first batter, future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson.

Hank Foiles was injured a while later and Danny Kravitz took over as catcher. Needing a backup catcher, manager Danny Murtaugh asked O’Brien to put on “the tools of ignorance and catch batting practice.” So for a brief time, O’Brien was the backup. He didn’t get into any games as a catcher.

Since baseball, O’Brien has been involved in politics in King County, Washington, and operated the Kingdome.

Joe Garagiola

Joe Garagiola and Mike Sandlock were teammates on the 1953 Pittsburgh Pirates. When asked to comment on Mike, Joe sent the following message:

“Mike was the perfect guy for any baseball team. He could play all positions and never complained. A good guy to have on the team. He would not only help the team, but worked with other players who might be having problems.

“The best I can say is, ‘If I had a team, I would be happy to have a Mike Sandlock wearing the same uniform.”

Bob Friend

When Bob Friend teamed with Mike Sandlock on the 1953 Pirates, the team posted a record of 50-104 and finished dead last in the National League. As Mike Sandlock turns 100, Bob is 85 and still enjoys an occasional game of golf at Oakmont in Pittsburgh, where he has been a member for more than 50 years. Friend’s son Bob Jr. played on the PGA tour for six years, and Bob is proud to note that his son is now “making some noise” on the Champions Tour.

Bob remembers Mike as much for his golfing talents as for his baseball abilities. “I tell you one thing I remember — he was one hell of a golfer. He was a damn good catcher, too. I pitched to him and he was very good. Fred Haney brought him in mainly to catch (Johnny) Lindell’s knuckleball. We had a terrible club, but Mike did not hurt us — he helped us. He had a good swing and did not lose his (golf) game. He could beat anybody. I’m a golfer too, and I could never beat Mike. Mike had those big hands. He hit the (golf) ball a long ways. He had all of the touches on the golf course.”

Sandlock caught Friend for the first time on May 10, 1953, against the New York Giants. Friend started but wound up not being involved in the decision. Sandlock was behind the plate for two of Friend’s wins. On June 15 Friend notched his second victory of the season, going all 10 innings in a 3-2 win over the Milwaukee Braves. On July 4, in the second game of a doubleheader, Friend pitched another complete game as the Pirates beat Brooklyn, 5-2.

Friend had first played with Pittsburgh in 1951. During his first four years with some terrible teams, he posted a combined record of 28-50. In 1955 Friend had his first winning season. From 1955 through 1965, he won 163 games, pitching more than 200 innings each season, leading the league in durability in 1956 and 1957. His best year with Pittsburgh was 1958, when he won 22 games and finished third in the Cy Young Award balloting, as the Pirates finally escaped the second division. He was one of only two players from the 1953 team (Roy Face was the other) to play with the 1960 championship team. In 1960 Friend was 18-12, and was named to his third and final All-Star team.

Friend’s first game at Shea Stadium was the Mets’ home opener at their new ballpark. He pitched all nine innings. The Pirates won 4-3, and Willie Stargell backed up Friend with the first homer in the history of the ballpark. After playing 15 years with the Pirates, Friend finished up in 1966 with the Mets. “I had a hell of a catcher (Gerry Grote) when I was with the Mets,” Friend recalled. “He was very good, and worked hard behind the plate. Grote caught all my five wins with the Mets.”

Paul Smith

Paul Smith was from the Pittsburgh area and remembers playing high-school baseball and basketball against Dick Groat, with whom he would play on the 1957 and 1958 Pirates. He was signed by the Pirates as a center fielder in 1950. In three minor-league seasons he went from Class D Tallahassee (.319) to Class B Waco (.322), then emerged as the MVP of the Double-A Southern Association with the New Orleans Pelicans (.323) in 1952.

Smith got the call to the majors in 1953 and split his time between the outfield and first base, batting .283 for the last-place Pirates. He was a teammate of Mike Sandlock. Smith said Sandlock “was a fun guy, a good player, and a good caller of pitches.”

It was back to the minors and Triple-A Havana in 1954, where Smith batted .321. The next two years were spent in the Army. He returned to the Bucs in 1957, but by then Pittsburgh, although still in the second division, had a surplus of first basemen and outfielders and Smith’s role was mostly as a pinch-hitter until he was sold to the Cubs early in 1958. The Cubs sent Smith to the minors in June of that year and he never returned to the major leagues.

Irv Noren

Irv Noren was just coming up in 1949. He had signed with the Dodgers organization in 1946 and after being selected as the Texas league MVP in 1948 was promoted to Triple-A Hollywood for the 1949 season, where he was teamed with Mike Sandlock.

Oddly enough, Noren, who at age 91 is climbing up the “Oldest Player list” (as of September 25, 2015, he was number 56), also played with Connie Marrero, who was the oldest player before his death on April 23, 2014, when he was just two days short of 103 years old.

Noren remembers that Sandlock was one of two catchers on the team, a good catcher who helped the younger pitchers on the team.

Irv remembers that Mike was a quiet guy with a wry sense of humor.

He could put on a “drunk act.”

One time in San Francisco, “Here comes Mike down staggering down the street, putting on his drunk act for (manager) Fred Haney. Haney says, ‘Are you drunk or not?’ Sandlock said it was for him to know and for Haney to find out.”

Noren, after another MVP season in Hollywood, was sold by the Dodgers to Washington before the 1950 season and played eight seasons in the majors with Washington, the Yankees, Kansas City Athletics, Cardinals, Cubs, and LA Dodgers.

Art Schallock

Art Schallock is 91 years old and lives in the California wine country, where he grew up. He first signed with the Dodger organization in 1946. His career in Organized Baseball began with Pueblo, Colorado, of the Class A Western League in 1947. He had a career-high 13 wins (against 8 losses) as the team, managed by Walter Alston, finished third in the league. In the postseason playoffs, Pueblo won the league championship, defeating Sioux City. That earned Schallock a promotion in 1948 to Montreal, where one of his catchers was Mike Sandlock.

Shallock was part of championship teams in all but one year from 1947 through 1953. “I just happened to be in the right spot at the right time,” he said. In 1948 Montreal won the International League championship and went on to win the Little World Series against the American Association champion St. Paul Saints. In 1949, the Dodgers under Branch Rickey entered into a working relationship with the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. Among the players sent from Montreal to Hollywood were Sandlock and Schallock. The Hollywood Stars won the PCL pennant in 1949 with a 109-78 record. In 1950 they finished third with a 104-96 record.

Schallock remembers this about Sandlock: “He was my roomie (in Hollywood) and my catcher and a hell of a guy. Mike was my catcher in Montreal and also in Hollywood in 1949-1951. He was one hell of a catcher. We got along great together. I am happy to hear he is 100 years old. I can’t explain what he did behind the plate, but he made balls look like strikes. He would throw the ball back to me harder than I threw it into him, so as to keep me awake when he thought I was losing my concentration. We played golf together and had a few beers together. I was pitching with Hollywood in 1951 and was 11-5 when I was sold to the Yankees in July 1951. When I joined the team in Detroit, they sent Mickey Mantle down to make room for me.” In late August, Schallock won three consecutive starts as the Yankees were poised to make a September rush and win their third consecutive pennant.

Schallock was with the Yankees through the early part of 1955, and part of their world championship teams in 1951-53. During his time with the Yankees, he shuttled back and forth between New York and the Yankees’ Triple-A farm club in Kansas City, where his teams won the league playoffs in 1952 and 1953. He was claimed by Baltimore off waivers early in the 1955 season and pitched in a career-high 30 games with the Orioles that season. However, he injured his arm in 1955, and finished his career with Seattle in the Pacific Coast League. Although he went 11-9 with Seattle, the pain in his arm was such that he made the decision to retire at age 32.

After his playing days, Schallock went into the title-insurance business in California.

Bobby Morgan

Bobby Morgan signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1944 and worked his way through the minors with stops at Olean, New York; Newport News, Virginia; and Spokane, Washington, before a promotion to Triple-A Montreal in 1948. The shortstop played 151 games with Montreal and one of his teammates was Mike Sandlock.

“Mike was our second-string catcher (to Cliff Dapper). He did not play very much (79 games with a .264 batting average). He was a great influence on all the young pitchers on the team (including 22-year-old Don Newcombe), and a great guy to have around, especially in the clubhouse. He was an older guy, 10 years older than most of us, and he was a good friend of mine.”

The next season, 1949, Morgan batted .337 for Montreal, was selected the International league MVP, and was on his way to Brooklyn. He played parts of eight seasons in the majors for the Dodgers, Phillies, Cardinals, and Cubs. Three words stood in the way of his advancing with the Dodgers — Pee Wee Reese — and he was traded to the Phillies before the 1954 season. His best seasons were with the Phillies, and after his playing days he managed in the Philadelphia farm system.

At age 89 (he is 93rd on the oldest living player list), he is still working part-time at a liquor warehouse in Oklahoma City.

Johnny Hetki

Johnny Hetki pitched in the big leagues for eight seasons. He was a relief pitcher who finished his career with the Pirates in 1953 and 1954. He first played in the majors at Cincinnati for Bill McKechnie, whom he remembers as his favorite big-league manager.

Hetki actually started playing baseball as a kid in a cow pasture in Kansas and was an infielder. He played on a team with three of his uncles. When he was 16, they played a team from the 10th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Leavenworth. They were a black regiment and Hetki pitched for the first time, winning 4-2. He remembers playing against prison teams, as well.

As a youngster, Hetki was a big fan of the Chicago teams, particularly the Cubs, and he and his friends, growing up, would help each other with their chores so they could finish and play ball. They would tape up bats and balls to play the game they loved.

While in high school, Hetki had had a tryout with the Yankees, but couldn’t sign as he had to complete his senior year. He completed his high-school studies in April of his senior year and signed as an infielder with the Albuquerque team in the Class C Arizona-Texas League. In 1941 he batted .290 in 43 games with Albuquerque. The Reds liked what they saw and purchased his contract. In 1942 Birmingham manager Johnny Riddle put Hetki on the mound. He served in the military in 1943 and 1944, and made it to the majors late in 1945 after going 16-10 at Birmingham.

Hetki and Sandlock played together in 10 games that season, none particularly memorable. Hetki was given a rare start in the second game of a doubleheader against the Dodgers on May 31 and Sandlock was his catcher. As was so often the case that season, Pittsburgh was on the short end as Brooklyn won, 4-1.

After his playing days, Hetki worked with the St. Regis Paper Company.

Hetki, 93, remembers a road trip to New York in 1953 when he and Sandlock were teammates on the 1953 Pirates.

“He is quite a guy. We were in New York on a road trip, and took a trip to Sandlock’s home in Connecticut for golf and pizza. We slept overnight, played 18 holes of golf, and had pizza that night in Connecticut. Mike said, ‘I will take you to the best pizza place in the country.’ The next day we went back to New York.”

Sources

In addition to the interviews mentioned in the stories and cited below, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com.

The following interviews were conducted by the author:

Bob Friend — September 30

Art Schallock — September 15 and September 17

Bobby Morgan — September 16

Johnny O’Brien - September 15

Paul Smith — September 15

Chuck Stevens — September 14, 2015

Johnny Hetki — September 10, 2015

Leroy Pfund — September 10, 2015

Paul Petit — July 15, 2015

Irv Noren — July 13, 2015

Teams & Seasons

Looking back at the

1942 and 1944 Braves,

1945 and 1946 Dodgers

and the 1953 Pirates

Mike Sandlock
and the 1945 Brooklyn Dodgers

by Steve Krevisky

Mike enjoyed a fairly successful season with the 1945 Dodgers. Playing catcher, shortstop, and occasionally other positions, he tallied 55 hits in 195 at bats, compiling a .282 batting average, a .346 on-base percentage, and a .405 slugging average. He batted .234 at home, and a robust .314 on the road. A late season slide pulled him below .300 for the season. He batted almost everywhere in the lineup, but mostly eighth. He hit especially well at SS.

On April 17, the Dodgers opened their season at home, against the Phillies. Sandlock batted 7th, and enjoyed a successful season debut, going 3 for 4, with 1 run scored, and 3 RBI’s. He also enjoyed his first triple of the season, with this occurring in the 7th. The Dodgers won, 8 to 2, so it was a happy Opening Day in Brooklyn. It was also notable that the great Jimmie Foxx pinch-hit successfully for the Phils, in his last campaign in the majors.

On April 20, the Dodgers squared off against the Giants in the Polo Grounds, losing 10 to 6. Sandlock batted 8th, at SS, going 1 for 3, and delivering a home run in the 2nd inning, with 1 runner aboard.

Sandlock enjoyed another 3 hit game, this one in St. Louis on May 26, going 3 for 5 with an RBI, batting 7th, and playing SS. Teammate Luis Olmo was 2 for 6, with 4 RBIs, while Eddie Stanky scored 4 runs. All of this helped the Brooks romp to an 11 to 2 win over the Redbirds.

Yet another 3 hit game occurred for Mike on September 9 in Cincinnati, although the Reds came back to win 6 to 5 in 10 innings. Cincy scored 4 in the bottom of the 9th, to tie it at 5, and scored the winning tally in the 10th. The Dodgers outhit the Reds by a 10 to 5 margin, but left 12 men on base. Sandlock batted 8th, and caught.

Sandlock’s 2nd HR of the season came on September 19 at Ebbets Field, helping the Dodgers to a 5 to 4 triumph over their archrivals, the Giants. His 3 run blast put Dem Bums ahead early, though they had to rally later to win the game. Mike caught and batted 7th.

The Chicago Cubs captured the 1945 NL pennant, going 98 and 56, finishing 3 games ahead of the St. Louis Cards, who failed in their bid for a 4th consecutive pennant, though not by very much. The 3rd place Dodgers were 87 and 67, 11 games behind the Bruins. The Brooklyns scored 795 runs, which led the majors, but they also gave up 720 runs, for a Runs Scored-Runs allowed differential of + 74 well behind the Cubs and Cards. Mike’s boys took the season series from all of the NL teams, except for the Cubs and Cards, the 2 teams ahead of them, and the Reds season series, which was a tie. Against the tail-ending Phils, the Dodgers won 19, and lost only 3.

In other interesting statistics, the Dodgers were 48 and 30 at home, and 39 and 37 on the road. They both scored more, and gave up more on the road than they did at home. Their best month was in June, as they went 19 and 9, aided by a gaudy 13-3 record at home during that month. Leo the Lip Durocher, from West Springfield, managed the club, whose coaches were Red Corriden, Chuck Dressen, and Ray Hayworth.

Sandlock had some interesting teammates, including Luis Olmo, Eddie Stanky, Dixie Walker, Frenchy Bordagaray, Mickey Owen, Ralph Branca, and Augie Galan. With WW2 going on, and many stars away, the team was in transition, and would soon become the fabled Boys of Summer team. Sandlock would play briefly for the ’46 Dodgers, and then finish his career with the ‘53 Pirates.

1945 Brooklyn Dodgers

Rk

POS

Name

Age

G

PA

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

SB

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

OPS+

TB

GDP

HBP

SH

1

C

Mike Sandlock#

29

80

218

195

21

55

14

2

2

17

2

18

19

.282

.346

.405

.751

109

79

3

1

4

2

1B

Augie Galan#

33

152

698

576

114

177

36

7

9

92

13

114

27

.307

.423

.441

.864

141

254

10

2

4

3

2B

Eddie Stanky

29

153

725

555

128

143

29

5

1

39

6

148

42

.258

.417

.333

.751

111

185

7

4

19

4

SS

Eddie Basinski

22

108

361

336

30

88

9

4

0

33

0

11

33

.262

.293

.313

.606

69

105

11

4

11

5

3B

Frenchy Bordagaray

35

113

305

273

32

70

9

6

2

49

7

29

15

.256

.328

.355

.683

91

97

3

0

3

6

OF

Dixie Walker*

34

154

688

607

102

182

42

9

8

124

6

75

16

.300

.381

.438

.820

128

266

10

5

1

7

OF

Luis Olmo

25

141

595

556

62

174

27

13

10

110

15

36

33

.313

.356

.462

.818

127

257

11

1

2

8

OF

Goody Rosen*

32

145

673

606

126

197

24

11

12

75

6

50

36

.325

.379

.460

.840

134

279

4

3

14

9

1B

Ed Stevens*

20

55

237

201

29

55

14

3

4

29

0

32

20

.274

.376

.433

.809

125

87

3

1

3

10

SS

Tommy Brown

17

57

204

196

13

48

3

4

2

19

3

6

16

.245

.267

.332

.599

67

65

3

0

2

11

3B

Bill Hart

32

58

178

161

27

37

6

2

3

27

7

14

21

.230

.291

.348

.639

78

56

2

0

3

12

1B

Howie Schultz

22

39

158

142

18

34

8

2

1

19

2

10

14

.239

.294

.345

.639

78

49

4

1

4

13

C

Fats Dantonio

26

47

143

128

12

32

6

1

0

12

3

11

6

.250

.309

.313

.622

74

40

3

0

3

14

C

Johnny Peacock*

35

48

134

110

11

28

5

1

0

14

2

24

10

.255

.388

.318

.706

98

35

1

0

0

15

C

Mickey Owen

29

24

98

84

5

24

9

0

0

11

0

10

2

.286

.368

.393

.761

113

33

5

1

3

16

OF

Morrie Aderholt*

29

39

63

60

4

13

1

0

0

6

0

3

10

.217

.254

.233

.487

37

14

0

0

0

17

C

Clyde Sukeforth*

43

18

56

51

2

15

1

0

0

1

0

4

1

.294

.345

.314

.659

85

16

0

0

0

18

C

Stan Andrews

28

21

55

49

5

8

0

1

0

2

0

5

4

.163

.255

.204

.459

29

10

2

1

0

19

OF

Babe Herman*

42

37

39

34

6

9

1

0

1

9

0

5

7

.265

.359

.382

.741

107

13

1

0

0

20

OF

Red Durrett*

24

8

20

16

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

3

3

.125

.263

.125

.388

10

2

0

0

0

21

1B

John Douglas*

27

5

11

9

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

4

.000

.182

.000

.182

-47

0

0

0

0

22

2B

Leo Durocher

39

2

5

5

1

1

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

.200

.200

.200

.400

12

1

0

0

0

23

3B

Claude Corbitt

29

2

5

4

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

.500

.600

.500

1.100

209

2

0

0

0

24

Don Lund

22

4

4

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

.000

.250

.000

.250

-27

0

0

0

0

25

C

Ray Hayworth

41

2

3

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

.000

.333

.000

.333

-2

0

0

0

0

26

IF

Barney White

22

4

2

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

.000

.500

.000

.500

46

0

0

0

0

27

Erv Palica

17

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

28

P

Hal Gregg

23

42

102

91

11

20

6

0

1

9

0

2

13

.220

.237

.319

.555

54

29

0

0

8

29

P

Vic Lombardi*

22

45

75

71

8

13

2

0

0

5

2

1

10

.183

.194

.211

.406

13

15

0

0

3

30

P

Curt Davis

41

24

55

51

3

7

0

0

1

3

1

2

12

.137

.170

.196

.366

2

10

1

0

2

31

P

Art Herring

39

23

49

42

3

4

0

0

0

1

1

2

6

.095

.156

.095

.251

-29

4

0

1

4

32

P

Tom Seats

34

31

47

43

5

9

2

0

0

4

0

0

13

.209

.209

.256

.465

29

11

0

0

4

33

P

Ralph Branca

19

16

42

40

1

4

1

0

0

0

0

0

11

.100

.100

.125

.225

-37

5

0

0

2

34

P

Clyde King#

21

43

34

32

2

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

13

.125

.125

.125

.250

-30

4

0

0

2

35

P

Les Webber

30

17

30

22

3

2

1

0

0

1

1

2

5

.091

.167

.136

.303

-15

3

0

0

6

36

P

Lee Pfund

25

15

25

22

2

4

1

0

0

4

0

2

6

.182

.250

.227

.477

34

5

0

0

1

37

P

Ben Chapman

36

13

24

22

2

3

0

0

0

3

0

2

1

.136

.208

.136

.345

-3

3

1

0

0

38

P

Cy Buker*

27

42

20

16

0

3

0

0

0

2

0

1

1

.188

.235

.188

.423

19

3

2

0

3

39

P

Otho Nitcholas

36

7

4

4

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.250

.250

.250

.500

40

1

0

0

0

40

P

Ray Hathaway

28

4

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

41

P

Ernie Rudolph*

36

7

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

1.000

0

0

0

0

42

P

Claude Crocker

20

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Team Totals

29.3

155

6188

5418

795

1468

257

71

57

722

77

630

433

.271

.350

.376

.726

103

2038

87

25

111

Rank in 8
NL teams

3

1

2

2

1

5

3

1

1

3

1

3

1

1

6

Non-Pitcher Totals

29.4

155

5678

4960

753

1394

244

71

55

690

72

614

341

.281

.363

.392

.755

111

1945

83

24

76

Pitcher Totals

28.3

155

510

458

42

74

13

0

2

32

5

16

92

.162

.192

.203

.395

10

93

4

1

35

Three Seasons of Part-Time Work for Mike Sandlock

The Boston Braves 1942, 1944 and the Brooklyn Dodgers 1946

By Alan Cohen

Hall-of-Fame pitcher Warren Spahn was often quoted as saying he played for manager Casey Stengel before and after he was a genius.1 1942 was before Stengel became a genius. That season, Stengel was managing the Boston Braves. It was the first season of America’s involvement in the Second World War, and some of the Braves players were already in the service. Outfielder Max West was still around as were pitchers Jim Tobin, Al Javery, and Tom Earley. Outfielder Johnny Cooney turned 41 prior to the season, and the great Paul Waner, who had spent the bulk of his career with the Pirates, was in his second year with the Braves.

The Braves were not expected to contend in 1942 off their seventh place showing the prior season, but when they got off to a good start, winning their first four games, they led the league by one game. The month of April proved to be a month of streaks. After their quick start, the Braves lost their next eight games, and dropped to seventh place. On April 26, they concluded a four game series with the Giants with a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds. In front of 49,834 fans, 48,631 who paid their way in, they won both games behind the pitching of Tobin in the opener and a big six run second inning in the nightcap.2 They then made their way to Chicago and swept a three game series. In the middle game at Wrigley Field, rookie Johnny Sain came in to relieve in the fifth inning and allowed only one hit in the final four and one-third innings to get the first of his 139 major league wins. In 1946 he would post a 20-14 record and lead the National League with 24 complete games.

From April 26 through May 26, the Braves climbed back into contention. The won 19 of 28 games and moved as high as second place. But then there was a reversal of fortune, the Braves lost 22 of 26 games and spent the balance of the season mired in seventh place. When things go bad, there is little to cheer about, but on June 19 in a 7-6 loss to Pittsburgh, the 3,304 spectators at Braves Field witnessed history as Waner stroked his 3,000th career hit. His fifth inning single off former teammate Rip Sewell made him the seventh player to accomplish the feat. He drove in Tommy Holmes with the Braves second run of the game, and was awarded the ball by home plate umpire Tom Dunn. He was congratulated by members of both teams as play was suspended for three minutes.3

The hitting star of the 1942 Braves was Ernie Lombardi. Known perhaps as much for being slow afoot as powerful at the bat, Lombardi, a catcher, had spent ten years with Cincinnati before being sold to the Braves prior to the 1942 season. 1942 would be his only year with Boston. He batted a league leading .330 in 105 games. Under the rules in place at the time, which required a minimum of 100 games played to qualify for the batting title, Lombardi was awarded the batting title although he only had 347 plate appearances and 309 at-bats. He had won the batting title and been named MVP in 1938, when he caught both of Johnny Vander Meer’s successive no-hitters. He spent his last five season with the Giants and was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans’ Committee in 1986.

Rookie center fielder Tommy Holmes batted .278 for the Braves and became a fan favorite during his 10 seasons with the Braves. In his first season, he led the Braves with 155 hits.

Power-hitting Max West was one of many major leaguers whose careers would be interrupted by World War II. In 1942, the 25-year-old West was in his fifth year with the Braves and led the team in homers (16), RBIs (56) and walks (68). He spent the next three years in the military and after he returned only played in 160 games in 1946 and 1948, batting .198. He was through at age 31.

Eddie Miller was the Braves shortstop and, although forgotten a generation later, he played 14 major league seasons and was an All-Star seven times between 1940 and 1947. During his career, he had 263 doubles and led the National League with 38 doubles in 1947.

But most of the Braves from the 1942 season are largely forgotten. Rookie third baseman Froilan “Nanny” Fernandez put together eight consecutive hits from April 28 through April 29 to raise his average to .371. By season’s end, in 145 games, his average had fallen to .255. He did lead the team with 29 doubles, 63 runs scored, and 15 stolen bases. After three years in the military, he returned to the Braves in 1946-47, and finished up with the Pirates in 1950. In 408 games over four major league seasons, he batted .248.

In the first season of America’s involvement in the War, the Braves contributed to the effort. On June 25, their game at Braves Field with the Cardinals was played as a benefit for the Army-Navy Relief Fund and home plate was auctioned off to the highest bidder. The turnout for the game was 25,098, and it was the second most attended game of the season (a Labor Day doubleheader against the Dodgers drew 29,009)at Braves Field, where the total attendance for the season was only 285,332.

By the time the Braves swept the Giants in a doubleheader versus New York on August 12 behind pitchers Al Javery and Lou Tost, the Braves were 31 games behind the league leaguers. Tost’s win was his 10th and last of the season. For the season, his 10 wins were third on the team. Tobin and Javery each posted 12 wins. Tobin was the workhorse of the staff and his 287 and 2/3 innings were the best in the league, as were his 28 complete games. Unfortunately, he also led the league yielding 20 home runs and 127 earned runs in his league leading 21 defeats.

Towards the end of the season, it was time for the call-up of minor league talent. Warren Spahn, who had started the season with the Braves, pitching in two April games before being sent down to Hartford, was recalled on September 13. Mike Sandlock, who had signed his first professional contract in 1938 had played with Class-B Evansville in 1941 and 1942, batting .312 in 200 games. In his first game with the Braves, on September 19, he was sent in as a pinch hitter for Whitey Weitelman in the eighth inning, and, in his only at-bat, singled off reliever Bill McGee. The Braves, who went into the inning trailing 7-3, mounted a three run rally, Sandlock scoring one of those runs, but came up short, losing to the Giants 7-6. Sandlock’s second and last appearance of the 1942 season came on September 24 at Brooklyn when he entered the game in the bottom of the eighth inning at shortstop as a defensive replacement. He did not get up to bat. Sandlock and his 1.000 batting average would not return to the Braves until 1944.

When Sandlock returned to the Braves in 1944, they had a new look. The manager was Bob Coleman, who took over from Stengel during the 1943 season. Replacement players were not uncommon during the war years. The replacements, as they were known, filled in for players serving in the military during World War II. Some of the replacements like Butch Neiman, an outfielder who batted .265 with a team leading 16 homers showed promise. Buck Etchison, who played 109 games, 85 of which were at first base and hit eight homers, also showed promise until his career was cut short by injuries sustained when he ran into a wall in September. Others, like Ben Cardoni, who went 0-6 in 22 mound appearances, accomplished little. All of the replacements would be gone after the 1945 season.

The 1944 Braves were never in contention and finished in sixth place with a 65-89 record. They lost the first four games and spent the entire year in the second division. The most notable holdovers from the 1942 team were pitcher Jim Tobin and center fielder Tommy Holmes. Tobin would record 18 wins in 1944 to lead the club, and was no slouch with the bat, hitting .190 with a pair of home runs. Tobin’s first win of the season, a 5-0 one-hit whitewashing of the Phillies on April 23 broke the Braves’ early season skid. His no-hitter was broken up with one out in the sixth inning by a single off the bat of Moon Mullen.

It would be a bit of time until he allowed his next hit. Tobin’s next start was at Brooklyn on April 27. He walked the first batter he faced and then retired the next 26 batters in succession. There were two outs in the ninth inning and former teammate Paul Waner, finishing out his career with the Dodgers, came to the plate. Waner walked and the “People’s Cherce,” Dixie Walker strode to the plate. Walker grounded out to second base and Tobin had a no-hitter. The offense in the 2-0 game had been provided by Chuck Workman’s RBI single in the third inning and a Tobin homer in the eighth inning. Tobin’s hitless streak was stopped at 13 2/3 innings when he gave up a lead-off single to Frenchy Bordagary of the Dodgers on May 2. Later in the season, Tobin pitched his second no hitter of the season. In the second game of a doubleheader at Braves Field on June 22, he pitched five innings of no-hit ball against the Phillies when darkness resulted in the game being stopped with the Braves winning 7-0.4 One two other occasions during the season, the knuckleballer took no-hit bids into the sixth inning.

Another face from the 1942 Braves who was with the 1944 team was shortstop Whitey Weitelmann. Weitelmann was played with the Braves in September, 1942, after spending most of that season at Louisville, and took over as the Braves’ regular shortstop the following season. Among Weitemann’s backup’s was Mike Sandlock. Sandlock was used mostly as a defensive replacement until he was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers and assigned to their St. Paul affiliate in the American Association on August 12. When Weitelmann was unable to play after sustaining an injury in the first game of the Memorial Day doubleheader, Sandlock started eight consecutive games at shortstop, but went hitless in 17 at-bats.

As a rarely used backup on a team out of contention, Sandlock had little chance to shine. His highlight for the season occurred on June 11. The Braves were playing a doubleheader at Brooklyn. In the second game Sandlock went into the game at shortstop in the bottom of the second inning. At the time, the Dodgers led 4-0, but the Braves came back and took a 5-4 lead, and that was the score as they came up to bat in the seventh inning. They erupted for three runs with Sandlock driving in the final tally with a single. The hit was only his second of the season. For the Braves in 1944, Sandlock only had three hits in 30 at-bats.

The Braves’ standout position player in 1944 was center fielder Holmes. He batted .309 with 13 homers and 73 RBIs, and played in each of his team’s 155 games (there was a tie). He had 53 multiple hit games that season, and on three occasions had four hits in a game. His best game of the season came on September 29, when he went 4-for-5 with a home run as the Braves defeated the Cubs 5-1 at Braves Field before 501 onlookers.

During his time in the National League, Holmes was among the hardest players to strike out. In 1944, he struck out once in every 57.4 at-bats, to lead the league. He finished third in the league in hits (195) and doubles (42). There were few center fielders who could measure up to him defensively. In 1944, he was second in the league with 15 assists, and he led all outfielders in double plays with seven. Holmes is perhaps best known for putting together a then record 37 game hitting streak in 1945, his best season. In 1945, he led the National league with 224 hits, 47 doubles, and 28 homers. His 81 extra-base hits propelled him to a league leading slugging percentage of .577. In 1946, the players would return from the War, but Holmes would continue to be a dominant player through 1948. From 1944 through 1948, Holmes batted in excess of .300 each season, compiling an aggregate batting average of .321.

Although Holmes continued to excel when the players came home from the War, he was the exception. By 1946, Mike Sandlock, was in his second year with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Dodgers were no longer the daffiness boys of the 1920s and 1930s. Manager Leo Durocher was in his eighth year at the helm, and in all but one season, his teams had finished above .500. Expectations were that the Dodgers would contend in 1946, and they did not disappoint. They were in first place most of the season and, at the very end, the Cardinals tied them for the league lead. A best two-out-of-three playff would determine the national League champion. The first game, on October 1, was in the Gateway City. Howie Pollett bested Ralph Branca 4-2. The teams traveled east to Ebbets Field, and the Dodgers sent 14-game winner Joe Hatten to the mound to face the Cards’ Murry Dickson. The Cardinals were dominant. Each of their starters hit safely and six pitchers were used by the Dodgers. The Dodgers had drawn first blood, scoring in the bottom of the first inning, and bringing out cheers from the 31,437 Brooklyn partisans that filled the stands. The Dodgers’ paid attendance for the season was pushed to 1,796,824, tops in the National League. Triples by Erv Dusak and Dickson highlighted a two-run second inning for the Cardinals and they would not relinquish the lead. St. Louis broke open the game in the fifth inning. A double by Stan “the Man” Musial ignited a three run rally and the Cardinals had a 5-1 lead.

The Cardinals were leading 8-1 going to the bottom of the ninth, and the Dodgers needed a miracle. Augie Galan started things off with a double and Brooklyn was in business. A triple by Ed Stevens and a single by Carl Furillo cut the lead by two. The Dodgers were still down by five when Dickson exited and Harry “the Cat” Brecheen entered to get the final two outs. It wouldn’t be easy. Bruce Edwards greeted Brecheen with a single, and the Dodgers were within four runs of the lead. A walk to Cookie Lavagetto loaded the bases and brought the tying run to the plate. But the miracle was not to be. Brecheen struck out Eddie Stanky and Howie Schultz, and for the Brooklyn faithful, it was “Wait Till Next Year!”

Earlier in the season Mike Sandlock had been with the Dodgers as a backup catcher to Bruce Edwards. He had only five hits in 34 at-bats, but the last three of those hits came in Dodger wins. From June 19 through June 22, Sandlock started four consecutive games and the Dodgers won the first three of those games. When they won on June 21, they led the second place Cardinals by 2½ games. In that game, Sandlock had three productive at-bats. In the fourth inning, the Dodgers were behind 3-2 when with one out when Sandlock walked and came around to score the tying run. He bunted Furillo to second in the seventh inning, setting up Brooklyn’s seventh and last tally of the game, won by the Dodgers 7-3. Sandlock had also singled in the fifth inning, but was erased on an inning ending double play. The single was his last hit in a Brooklyn Dodger uniform. On July 11, it was reported that he was being optioned to Mobile in the Southern Association as they were in dire need of a shortstop. Once he arrived in Mobile, the regular shortstop returned to action and on July 19, Sandlock was sent to St. Paul, where he spent the balance of the season.5

The Dodgers, in 1946, were led by their captain Pee Wee Reese. The shortstop, in his first year back from overseas duty in World War II, was second on the team in batting with a .284 average. Dixie Walker led the team in batting with a .319 average and 116 RBIs. The Dodgers did not live off the home run in 1946. Only two of the players hit for double figures and Pete Reiser’s 11 were the best for the squad. Speed was the Dodgers’ strength and they led the league with 100 stolen bases, topped by Reiser’s 34. They also led the league in triples with 66 and a quartet of Dodgers had more than 20 doubles. And the Dodgers could walk — and how! Eddie Stanky led the league with 137 walks. The Dodgers not only led the league in walks with 693, but their total exceeded that of their closest competitor by 101.

The Dodger pitching staff featured Kirby Higbee, who posted a 17-8 record with three shutouts. Joe Hatten, who had lost the final game of the season, , pitched 222 innings to lead the staff. The bullpen contingent was led by Hugh Casey and Hank Behrman. They both posted 11-5 records. Forty-year-old Art Herring was pitching on borrowed time. Nevertheless, he had a good year for the Dodgers, going 7-2 with five saves in 35 appearances.

The Dodgers would go on to play in the World Series six times between 1947 and 1956. Pee Wee Reese would go into the Hall of Fame. Mike Sandlock, who was sent to Hollywood in the pacific Coast league in 1949, would remain in the Dodgers minor league system through 1950. In 1951, the Dodgers sold his contract to Hollywood, and Sandlock eventually returned to the majors with the Pirates in 1953.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the notes, the author also relied on:

Baseball-Reference.com

GenealogyBank.com

notes

1 Jim Kaplan, The Greatest Game Ever Pitched, (Chicago, Triumph Books, 2011): 184

2 John Drebinger, New York Times, April 27, 1942: 20

3 Tyler Ash, “Paul ‘Big Poison’ Waner Joins 3,000-Hit Club Against Former Team,” in Braves Field: Memorable Moments at Boston’s Lost Diamond, (Phoenix, AZ, Society for American Baseball Research, 2015): 156.

4 Arthur Sampson, Boston Herald, June 23, 1944: 22.

5 Daniel W. Scism, Evansville Courier, July 19, 1946: 22.

1942 Boston Braves

k

Pos

Name

Age

G

PA

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

SB

CS

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

OPS+

TB

GDP

HBP

SH

SF

IBB

1

C

Ernie Lombardi

34

105

347

309

32

102

14

0

11

46

1

37

12

.330

.403

.482

.886

162

149

17

1

0

2

1B

Max West*

25

134

526

452

54

115

22

0

16

56

4

68

59

.254

.354

.409

.764

126

185

4

2

3

3

2B

Sibby Sisti

21

129

469

407

50

86

11

4

4

35

5

45

55

.211

.296

.287

.584

73

117

10

4

13

4

SS

Eddie Miller

25

142

569

534

47

130

28

2

6

47

11

22

42

.243

.279

.337

.616

82

180

16

4

10

5

3B

Nanny Fernandez

23

145

620

577

63

147

29

3

6

55

15

38

61

.255

.303

.347

.650

92

200

16

2

3

6

OF

Chet Ross

25

76

237

220

20

43

7

2

5

19

0

16

37

.195

.250

.314

.564

67

69

4

0

1

7

OF

Tommy Holmes*

25

141

633

558

56

155

24

4

4

41

2

64

10

.278

.353

.357

.710

111

199

2

1

10

8

OF

Paul Waner*

39

114

404

333

43

86

17

1

1

39

2

62

20

.258

.376

.324

.701

109

108

7

1

8

9

UT

Johnny Cooney

41

74

226

198

23

41

6

0

0

7

2

23

5

.207

.290

.237

.527

57

47

5

0

5

10

1B

Buddy Gremp

22

72

223

207

12

45

11

0

3

19

1

13

21

.217

.267

.314

.581

72

65

5

1

1

11

C

Clyde Kluttz

24

72

220

210

21

56

10

1

1

31

0

7

13

.267

.294

.338

.632

87

71

4

1

2

12

OF

Frank Demaree

32

64

208

187

18

42

5

0

3

24

2

17

10

.225

.289

.299

.589

75

56

8

0

4

13

IF

Skippy Roberge

25

74

189

172

10

37

7

0

1

12

1

9

19

.215

.258

.273

.531

58

47

2

1

7

14

IF

Tony Cuccinello

34

40

114

104

8

21

3

0

1

8

1

9

11

.202

.265

.260

.525

56

27

3

0

1

15

C

Phil Masi

26

57

99

87

14

19

3

1

0

9

2

12

4

.218

.313

.276

.589

75

24

1

0

0

16

3B

Ducky Detweiler

23

12

46

44

3

14

2

1

0

5

0

2

7

.318

.348

.409

.757

124

18

1

0

0

17

SS

Whitey Wietelmann#

23

13

38

34

4

7

2

0

0

0

0

4

5

.206

.289

.265

.554

65

9

2

0

0

18

OF

Frank McElyea

23

7

4

4

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

19

SS

Mike Sandlock#

26

2

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1.000

1.000

1.000

2.000

494

1

0

0

0

20

P

Jim Tobin

29

47

132

114

14

28

2

0

6

15

0

16

23

.246

.344

.421

.765

126

48

2

1

0

21

P

Al Javery

24

42

97

86

6

9

1

0

0

1

0

2

30

.105

.125

.116

.241

-28

10

1

0

9

22

P

Lou Tost*

31

35

55

51

3

9

2

0

0

1

0

2

16

.176

.208

.216

.423

26

11

0

0

2

23

P

Manny Salvo

30

25

44

41

2

5

2

0

0

4

0

0

15

.122

.143

.171

.314

-7

7

0

1

2

24

P

Tom Earley

25

27

39

34

5

4

2

0

0

1

0

2

7

.118

.167

.176

.343

2

6

1

0

3

25

P

Johnny Sain

24

40

30

27

0

2

0

0

0

1

0

1

1

.074

.107

.074

.181

-46

2

1

0

2

26

P

Bill Donovan

25

31

29

25

1

6

0

0

0

1

0

2

4

.240

.296

.240

.536

60

6

1

0

2

27

P

Johnny Hutchings#

26

20

20

20

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

9

.050

.050

.050

.100

-70

1

0

0

0

28

P

Dick Errickson*

30

21

17

16

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

.125

.125

.125

.250

-26

2

0

0

1

29

P

Lefty Wallace*

20

19

15

14

0

2

0

0

0

2

0

1

6

.143

.200

.143

.343

2

2

1

0

0

30

P

Warren Spahn*

21

4

6

6

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

.167

.167

.167

.333

-1

1

0

0

0

31

P

Hank LaManna

22

10

2

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

32

P

Art Johnson*

22

4

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

33

P

George Diehl

24

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

34

P

Jim Hickey

21

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

Team Totals

27.2

150

5662

5077

515

1216

210

19

68

479

49

474

509

.240

.307

.329

.635

88

1668

114

20

89

Rank in 8 NL teams

7

7

6

4

8

3

4

7

3

6

6

6

6

7

5

Non-Pitcher Totals

27.2

150

5173

4638

481

1147

201

19

62

453

49

448

391

.247

.316

.339

.655

94

1572

107

18

68

Pitcher Totals

26.9

150

489

439

34

69

9

0

6

26

0

26

118

.157

.208

.219

.426

26

96

7

2

21

Rk

Pos

Name

Age

G

PA

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

SB

CS

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

OPS+

TB

GDP

HBP

SH

SF

I

1944 BOSTON BRAVES

Rk

Pos

Name

Age

G

PA

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

SB

CS

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

OPS+

TB

GDP

HBP

SH

SF

IBB

1

C

Clyde Kluttz

26

81

247

229

20

64

12

2

2

19

0

13

14

.279

.318

.376

.694

92

86

3

0

5

2

1B

Buck Etchison*

29

109

349

308

30

66

16

0

8

33

1

33

50

.214

.292

.344

.637

76

106

6

1

6

3

2B

Connie Ryan

24

88

381

332

56

98

18

5

4

25

13

36

40

.295

.364

.416

.780

115

138

11

0

13

4

SS

Whitey Wietelmann#

25

125

463

417

46

100

18

1

2

32

0

33

25

.240

.300

.302

.602

67

126

5

3

10

5

3B

Dee Phillips

25

140

531

489

35

126

30

1

1

53

1

28

34

.258

.301

.329

.630

74

161

7

2

12

6

OF

Chuck Workman*

29

140

473

418

46

87

18

3

11

53

1

42

41

.208

.287

.344

.631

74

144

7

4

9

7

OF

Tommy Holmes*

27

155

705

631

93

195

42

6

13

73

4

61

11

.309

.372

.456

.828

128

288

7

2

11

8

OF

Butch Nieman*

26

134

517

468

65

124

16

6

16

65

5

47

47

.265

.332

.427

.759

109

200

4

0

2

9

UT

Max Macon*

28

106

380

366

38

100

15

3

3

36

7

12

23

.273

.296

.355

.651

80

130

5

0

2

10

C

Phil Masi

28

89

286

251

33

69

13

5

3

23

4

31

20

.275

.355

.402

.757

109

101

4

0

4

11

OF

Ab Wright

37

71

217

195

20

50

9

0

7

35

0

18

31

.256

.326

.410

.736

103

80

5

2

1

12

C

Stew Hofferth

31

66

193

180

14

36

8

0

1

26

0

11

5

.200

.246

.261

.507

40

47

7

0

1

13

OF

Chet Ross

27

54

168

154

20

35

9

2

5

26

1

12

23

.227

.287

.409

.697

91

63

3

1

1

14

2B

Frank Drews

28

46

168

141

14

29

9

1

0

10

0

25

14

.206

.329

.284

.613

71

40

3

1

2

15

3B

Roland Gladu*

33

21

70

66

5

16

2

1

1

7

0

3

8

.242

.275

.348

.624

72

23

2

0

1

16

3B

Warren Huston

30

33

64

55

7

11

1

0

0

1

0

8

5

.200

.313

.218

.531

49

12

3

1

0

17

IF

Mike Sandlock#

28

30

36

30

1

3

0

0

0

2

0

5

3

.100

.250

.100

.350

-0

3

1

1

1

18

IF

Steve Shemo

29

18

35

31

3

9

2

0

0

1

0

1

3

.290

.313

.355

.667

84

11

0

0

3

19

SS

Dick Culler

29

8

32

28

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

4

2

.071

.188

.071

.259

-26

2

1

0

0

20

C

Hugh Poland*

34

8

23

23

1

3

1

0

0

2

0

0

1

.130

.130

.174

.304

-16

4

1

0

0

21

OF

Chet Clemens

27

19

19

17

7

3

1

1

0

2

0

2

2

.176

.263

.353

.616

69

6

0

0

0

22

IF

Ben Geraghty

31

11

17

16

3

4

0

0

0

0

0

1

2

.250

.294

.250

.544

52

4

0

0

0

23

2B

Pat Capri

25

7

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

24

Gene Patton*

17

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

25

P

Jim Tobin

31

62

134

116

13

22

5

1

2

18

0

16

28

.190

.288

.302

.590

63

35

3

0

2

26

P

Nate Andrews

30

37

100

88

2

10

1

0

0

4

0

8

23

.114

.188

.125

.313

-12

11

0

0

3

27

P

Red Barrett

29

42

89

75

5

13

3

0

0

7

0

2

16

.173

.195

.213

.408

13

16

0

0

12

28

P

Al Javery

26

40

84

79

4

12

1

1

0

2

0

0

21

.152

.152

.190

.342

-6

15

2

0

4

29

P

Ira Hutchinson

33

40

32

29

2

4

0

0

0

1

0

1

8

.138

.167

.138

.305

-15

4

0

0

2

30

P

Ben Cardoni

23

29

21

17

5

4

0

0

0

1

0

0

5

.235

.235

.235

.471

31

4

0

0

4

31

P

Johnny Hutchings#

28

14

17

15

0

1

0

0

0

1

0

2

0

.067

.176

.067

.243

-31

1

1

0

0

32

P

Woody Rich*

28

7

9

8

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.125

.125

.125

.250

-31

1

1

0

1

33

P

Stan Klopp

33

24

7

7

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.286

.286

.286

.571

59

2

0

0

0

34

P

Jim Hickey

23

8

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

35

P

Carl Lindquist

25

5

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

36

P

Harry MacPherson

17

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

37

P

George Woodend

26

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Team Totals

27.7

155

5870

5282

593

1299

250

39

79

558

37

455

507

.246

.308

.353

.661

83

1864

92

18

112

Rank in 8 NL teams

7

6

8

3

7

3

6

7

6

8

8

6

6

6

6

Non-Pitcher Totals

27.6

155

5375

4846

560

1230

240

37

77

524

37

426

405

.254

.316

.366

.683

89

1775

85

18

84

Pitcher Totals

29.2

155

495

436

33

69

10

2

2

34

0

29

102

.158

.211

.204

.415

15

89

7

0

28

Rk

Pos

Name

Age

G

PA

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

SB

CS

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

OPS+

TB

GDP

HBP

SH

SF

IBB

* - bats left-handed, # - bats both, else - bats right, ? - unknown; OPS_lg for OPS+ does not include pitchers.

1946 BROOKLYN DODGERS

Rk ▴

Pos

Name

Age

G

PA

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

SB

CS

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

OPS+

TB

GDP

HBP

SH

SF

IBB

1

C

Bruce Edwards

22

92

337

292

24

78

13

5

1

25

1

34

20

.267

.348

.356

.704

99

104

9

2

10

2

1B

Ed Stevens*

21

103

340

310

34

75

13

7

10

60

2

27

44

.242

.303

.426

.728

105

132

4

0

2

3

2B

Eddie Stanky

30

144

642

483

98

132

24

7

0

36

8

137

56

.273

.436

.352

.788

124

170

5

2

20

4

SS

Pee Wee Reese

27

152

644

542

79

154

16

10

5

60

10

87

71

.284

.384

.378

.762

116

205

10

1

14

5

3B

Cookie
Lavagetto

33

88

287

242

36

57

9

1

3

27

3

38

17

.236

.339

.318

.657

86

77

7

0

6

6

OF

Carl Furillo

24

117

379

335

29

95

18

6

3

35

6

31

20

.284

.346

.400

.746

110

134

10

1

12

7

OF

Dixie Walker*

35

150

647

576

80

184

29

9

9

116

14

67

28

.319

.391

.448

.839

137

258

9

1

2

8

OF

Pete Reiser*

27

122

482

423

75

117

21

5

11

73

34

55

58

.277

.361

.428

.789

122

181

3

1

3

9

UT

Augie Galan#

34

99

346

274

53

85

22

5

3

38

8

68

21

.310

.451

.460

.910

157

126

1

2

4

10

OF

Dick Whitman*

25

104

292

265

39

69

15

3

2

31

5

22

19

.260

.317

.362

.679

92

96

6

0

4

11

1B

Howie Schultz

23

90

272

249

27

63

14

1

3

27

2

16

34

.253

.298

.353

.652

84

88

4

0

7

12

C

Ferrell Anderson

28

79

228

199

19

51

10

0

2

14

1

18

21

.256

.330

.337

.667

89

67

6

4

7

13

3B

Billy Herman

36

47

211

184

24

53

8

4

0

28

2

26

10

.288

.376

.375

.751

112

69

6

0

1

14

3B

Bob Ramazzotti

29

62

133

120

10

25

4

0

0

7

0

9

13

.208

.264

.242

.505

43

29

1

0

4

15

OF

Gene Hermanski*

26

64

127

110

15

22

2

2

0

8

2

17

10

.200

.313

.255

.567

61

28

5

1

0

16

OF

Joe Medwick

34

41

85

77

7

24

4

0

2

18

0

6

5

.312

.369

.442

.811

128

34

1

1

1

17

3B

Eddie Miksis

19

23

53

48

3

7

0

0

0

5

0

3

3

.146

.212

.146

.357

2

7

2

1

1

18

IF

Stan Rojek

27

45

52

47

11

13

2

1

0

2

1

4

1

.277

.333

.362

.695

96

17

3

0

1

19

C

Mike Sandlock#

30

19

39

34

1

5

0

0

0

0

0

3

4

.147

.216

.147

.363

4

5

0

0

2

20

C

Don Padgett*

34

19

34

30

2

5

1

0

1

9

0

4

4

.167

.265

.300

.565

59

9

1

0

0

21

OF

Joe Tepsic

22

15

6

5

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

.000

.167

.000

.167

-51

0

0

0

0

22

1B

Jack Graham*

29

2

5

5

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.200

.200

.200

.400

13

1

0

0

0

23

3B

Lew Riggs*

36

1

4

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

24

OF

Goody Rosen*

33

3

3

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.333

.333

.333

.667

88

1

0

0

0

25

Earl Naylor

27

3

2

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

1

0

0

26

John Corriden#

28

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

27

Otis Davis*

25

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

28

P

Joe Hatten

29

42

85

79

4

6

1

0

0

4

1

2

24

.076

.099

.089

.187

-47

7

0

0

4

29

P

Kirby Higbe

31

42

83

77

5

10

2

0

0

7

0

0

11

.130

.130

.156

.286

-20

12

0

0

6

30

P

Vic Lombardi*

23

43

74

61

6

14

1

0

0

8

0

3

11

.230

.266

.246

.512

45

15

1

0

10

31

P

Hank Behrman

25

47

48

42

1

4

0

0

0

2

0

2

23

.095

.136

.095

.232

-34

4

0

0

4

32

P

Hal Gregg

24

26

41

32

3

4

0

0

0

1

0

2

13

.125

.176

.125

.301

-14

4

2

0

6

33

P

Rube Melton

29

24

31

28

2

3

1

0

0

0

0

0

9

.107

.107

.143

.250

-30

4

0

0

3

34

P

Hugh Casey

32

46

29

22

1

3

0

0

0

0

0

2

4

.136

.208

.136

.345

-2

3

1

0

5

35

P

Art Herring

40

35

24

22

2

4

2

0

0

0

0

1

2

.182

.217

.273

.490

38

6

1

0

1

36

P

Ralph Branca

20

24

23

18

3

2

0

0

0

0

0

5

8

.111

.304

.111

.415

20

2

1

0

0

37

P

Rex Barney

21

16

19

17

1

4

0

0

0

0

0

2

5

.235

.316

.235

.551

57

4

2

0

0

38

P

Ed Head

28

13

17

16

2

5

1

0

0

1

0

1

2

.313

.353

.375

.728

106

6

0

0

0

39

P

Les Webber

31

11

11

10

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.100

.100

.100

.200

-43

1

1

0

1

40

P

Jean-Pierre Roy#

26

3

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

41

P

Cal McLish#

20

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

42

P

Glen Moulder

28

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

43

P

Curt Davis

42

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

44

P

Harry Taylor

27

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

45

P

Paul Minner*

22

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Team Totals

28.4

157

6137

5285

701

1376

233

66

55

642

100

693

575

.260

.348

.361

.709

100

1906

103

17

141

Rank in 8 NL teams

4

2

3

3

1

7

1

1

5

3

1

3

2

3

7

Non-Pitcher Totals

28.4

157

5650

4859

671

1316

225

66

55

619

99

673

462

.271

.362

.378

.740

109

1838

94

17

101

Pitcher Totals

27.6

157

487

426

30

60

8

0

0

23

1

20

113

.141

.179

.160

.339

-4

68

9

0

40

* - bats left-handed, # - bats both, else - bats right, ? - unknown; OPS_lg for OPS+ does not include pitchers.

Farewell to Pittsburgh and to Baseball.

The 1953 Pittsburgh Pirate Season.

By Karl Cicitto

When Mike Sandlock followed four seasons in the big leagues with six years in the minors, he caught in 480 games for the Montreal Royals (1947-48) and the Hollywood Stars (1949 to 1952). In November of 1952 Mike signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 37-year-old good fielding, light hitting catcher might not have been in demand had he not had one talent that the Pirates needed: The ability to catch Johnny Lindell’s knuckleball.

Like Sandlock, Johnny Lindell was not a young man. The 36 year old former Yankee had primarily been an outfielder for the pinstripers from 1941 to 1950. Lindell was a good hitter who led the American League in triples twice and batted .324 in 3 World Series. The Yankees lost interest in Lindell, a career .273 hitter, when his average dropped below the Mendoza Line for 1950.

After bouncing from the Cardinals to the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League, Lindell recaptured the success he had experienced as a minor league pitcher in the 1940’s. Johnny’s 24-9 WL record with Sandlock and the 1952 Stars convinced Branch Rickey that Lindell could help the Bucs.

Only Mike Sandlock could catch Lindell’s knuckleball according to PCL Umpire Joe Iacovetti. On Nov. 11, 1952, Iacovetti was quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “The catcher the Pirates bought along with Lindell, Mike Sandlock, was the only one who could catch him. As a matter of fact, neither of the other two (Hollywood catchers), Ed Malone or Jimmy Mangan, would take the job…..they didn’t want any part of that knuckler”.

Sandlock and Lindell transitioned to Pittsburgh with three other Hollywood players: Dick Cole, Carlos Bernier and Paul LaPalme. The manager of the Stars, Fred Haney, became the Corsairs manager for 1953.

Haney, who was very familiar with all 5 of the Stars players joining the Bucs, was interviewed for the Dec. 17, 1952 edition of Post-Gazette and he provided these players little praise: Cole could field anything but couldn’t hit. Lindell could be good if he threw strikes. Bernier can’t hit. LaPalme had a confidence issue. Haney gave a more balanced assessment of Mike Sandlock.

“Speaking of Sandlock, we’re not fooling anyone that Mike will burn up the league. He was brought up for the reason that he gives that knuckler a real battle back of the plate. He has a good accurate arm. He isn’t afraid to call for the knuckleball at any time during the game, nor does it make any difference what the count might be on the batter. He is the type that can help Lindell and LaPalme pitch winning ball.”

On March 12, 1953, Hernon devoted an entire column in the Press-Gazette to Sandlock. In 774 words he wrote about the catcher’s technique with the knuckler, his baseball travels and the ball imprints that a knuckler leaves on the arm and wrist when one fails to catch the late breaks. “He is what the trade calls a smart receiver.…Old Sandbags won’t catch often but he will be back there sparring with the knuckler.”

When Mike Sandlock joined the Pirates for 1953 he joined a team in trouble. The Pirates had not finished first since 1927. They had losing seasons in six of their last seven campaigns. In 1952, the Bucs won 42 and lost 112, their worst performance since 1890, when playing as the Alleghenys they won 23 and lost 113.

The Pirates failed even as their fans were uplifted by Ralph Kiner,the undisputed home run king of baseball. Between 1946 and 1952, Kiner hit 294 home runs (34 more than his AL leading counterparts) and won 7 consecutive National League home run titles. In those same years, the Pirates played .410 ball. One man alone does not a team make.

Change was in the wind on Nov. 7, 1950 when the Chicago Tribune reported that Branch Rickey, the man venerated for founding the farm system and signing Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier, was named Executive Vice President & General Manager of the Pirates with a 5 year contract. In that article Rickey said he would concentrate on player development and find a title for his son, Branch, Jr., with responsibilities in the same area.

Change was in the wind indeed. In his first two years on the job, Rickey traded stars, changed managers, pick pocketed prospects from other teams and signed contracts with high profile collegians for whom baseball was a second sport.

As the season was set to begin, the Pirates looked better than the team of the year previous that won only 42 games. The 1953 Bucs had more experience, a new skipper in Haney, and a rejiggered outfield. They also had until the June 15 trade deadline to act on the persistent rumor that Rickey would trade their most valuable player (at the plate and at the ticket office), Ralph Kiner, for additional talent.

The Bucs 1953 starting rotation of Murry Dickson, LaPalme, Lindell and Bob Friend individually had a mixed track record.

36 year old Murry Dickson was the #1 starter. He was far from the successful swing man he had been for the Cardinals in the 1940s. Dickson led the NL in 1952 in losses (21), home runs allowed (26) and earned runs allowed (110). A frequent tosser of the gopher ball, Dickson set the major league record by allowing 39 dingers in 1948 (since broken).

29 year old Paul LaPalme was slated to be a starter as he entered his 3rd year of major league service in 1953. He had in the past largely been a reliever limited to under 60 innings per campaign while allowing a significant number of hitters to reach base. (Career WHIP 1.78.)

Johnny Lindell was a human interest story. The discarded Yankee outfielder was attempting to ride his knuckleball back to the major leagues at age 36. He was equal parts intrigue and risk.

Bob Friend was the youngest starter at age 22 and showed promising control and durability. He averaged 167 innings pitched in 1951-52 as a starter/reliever but did not yet have the pitching arsenal he would over a 16 year career that would include three All Star games.

When the season began, Howie Pollet was in the rotation with Dickson, Lindell and Friend. The left hander had an impressive pedigree when he arrived by trade in 1951. Pollet won 20 games in a season twice and earned 2 World Series rings with the Cardinals. He was the victorious starting pitcher in Baseball’s first-ever post-season playoff game in 1946. No longer able to throw his fastball by batters when he needed it, he pitched poorly in 2 starts and 3 relief appearances for the 1953 Bucs. Pollet made his last start for the Bucs on April 23. Paul LaPalme took a spot in the rotation for good on April 28.

In addition to a suspect starting rotation there were interesting developments in the outfield. The Corsair trio of Cal Abrams, Frank Thomas and Carlos Bernier was largely a retooled unit. Abrams was a fly chaser and an above average hitter who came to The Buccos in October of 1951 in a trade that sent power hitting outfielder Gus Bell to the Reds. Frank Thomas was a 23 year old who batted .299 with 100 home runs in 673 minor league games. Room for Thomas was made by dispatching 20 year old Bobby Del Greco to the minors after he batted just .217 for the Pirates in 1952. Carlos Bernier was a fleet outfielder from Juana Diaz, P.R., who stole 65 bases and batted .301 for Haney in Hollywood in 1952.

There was significant pitching in the pipeline. It just wasn’t quite ready. Little Elroy Face, 5’8” and 155 pounds, was an addition to the Pirates legion of hurlers though it was not certain how exactly he would fit in. Face excelled in the Phillies minor league organization but was taken by Rickey in the draft (not once but twice) when the Phillies did not protect him. Rickey drafted him once for the Dodgers and once for the Pirates. Face had an impressive fastball but he did not have his change of pace yet.

Johnny and Eddie O’Brien were potential catalysts for the moribund Pittsburgh franchise. The twin brothers excelled at baseball when enrolled at Seattle University. Though they stood just 5 ft. 9” tall they also excelled at basketball. Johnny became the first collegiate player to score 1,000 points in a season. Eddie led the SU team from the point guard position. Rickey made them twin bonus babies on March 19, 1953. The press reported the signing to be between $35,000 and $45,000. It wasn’t immediately known how Rickey would use them.

Vic Janowicz was another possible game changer brought in by Rickey. The 1950 Heisman Trophy winner excelled at Ohio State as a single wing halfback, a defensive back, a punter and place kicker. Janowicz also played catcher. The Mahatma signed him for $25,000.

Their first opponent of the 1953 regular season was the Dodgers. The Brooklyns presented an ominous challenge. They defeated the Bucs 13 consecutive times in 1952 and won the seasonal set 19 games to 3. Murry Dickson and Carl Erskine faced each other in game 1 on April 14 at Ebbets Field.

Before 12,433 fans on a chilly day at Ebbets Field, Dickson was rattled by home runs in the 4th and 5th innings. Roy Campanella drilled a 3-run bomb into the left field seats. Duke Snider banged a 3-run dinger of his own far over the high fence in right center. Eight runs were plated in those 2 innings. That was all that the Dressen men needed. A 4-run Pirate rally sparked by Joe Garagiola and Dick Cole wasn’t enough to match the Dodger’s 13-hit offense this day. The final score was Brooklyn 8, Pirates 5.

Opening Day foretold that April would not be an auspicious time for the Pirates starting pitchers. In 14 games that month, only Friend and Dickson recorded a performance that fit the definition of a quality start. The other 12 games ranged from fair to poor to bad. In his next start after being throttled in the opener, Dickson was pulled after the second inning against the Dodgers at Forbes Field on April 19, his own throwing error padding a Brooklyn rally. Pollet was ineffective in both of his 2 April starts, allowing 11 earned runs in 9 and one-third total innings. Lindell pitched well when he faced the Dodgers in his first start but was generous to the Phillies with home runs (Torgeson, Hamner and Ennis) in his second. Upon assuming Pollet’s spot in the rotation, LaPalme posted the best ERA (4.15 in April of all the starters. Dickson (8.80), Lindell (6.00), Pollet (10.61) and Friend (4.87) together with spot starters Bob Hall and Macdonald who combined for an ERA of 10.57 for the starting staff this month.

With the Pirate batters producing an average of 4.6 runs per game and the pitching staff yielding 6.14, the Pittsburghers closed April with a 5–9 WL record. That equates to a winning percentage of .357. It would be the best winning percentage in any month of the Pirates 1953 season until they reached September.

May was worse than April. Despite the fact that Pirate starting pitchers improved greatly, registering a 4.55 ERA for the month, the offense produced just 4.0 runs per game. The Pirates were 8-19 in May, 13-28 overall, and in last place, one and one-half games behind the Reds and 7th place.

For his part, Mike Sandlock stayed busy and held his own. He got into 19 of the team’s first 41 games, including the last 7 in a row in May. Joe Garagiola started behind the plate most of the time and batted .233 through the end of May. Sandlock out hit Garagiola with a respectable .254 at the same time.

As much as nothing was changing with the Pirates established legacy of losing, change was again definitely in the wind for personnel management. Rumors of Kiner’s departure via trade were hot since January, when Rickey also went public with his intention to cut the power hitter’s salary by 25%. The talk was non-stop right into the regular season.

On May 20, The Chicago Sun Times reported that Kiner would leave the Pirates for the Cubs before June 15. Wid Matthews, the Cubs Player Personnel Director, said he had Rickey’s agreement to call him when he was ready to execute the deal. The Sun Times claimed that the deal included $200,000 in cash and 2 Cubs going to the Iron City.

On June 4, 1953, after having squeezed Kiner’s salary from $90,000 to $75,000 and letting the trade rumors play in the newspapers for five months, Rickey traded him to the Cubs. Big Slug went to the Windy City with Joe Garagiola, George Metkovich and Howie Pollet. In return Rickey received Bob Adddis, Toby Atwell, George Freese, Gene Hermanski, Bob Schultz, Preston Ward and $150,000.

The Bucs lost 11 of their next 13 games immediately after Kiner was sold (June 5 to 14). They then lost 11 of 17 between June 15 and 28, and 12 of 13 from July 6 and 19. The team went from a record of 16-28 to 28-64 in five and one-half weeks.

The Bucs wrapped up July by winning 3 of 12 games. At least they received good pitching from LaPalme and Face. LaPalme bested the Reds 3-2 on July 22, and Dickson took down the Cubs 3-2 on July 26.

Dickson, Lindell and Johnny Hetki led the downward spiral. Dickson could only record one out in his July 23 start against the Reds. He gave up four earned runs on 1 walk, 3 singles and a triple in the first inning. On July 29, Lindell allowed the Cardinals to string 11 base runners together in 3 rallies that scored 8 runs, and exited with no one out in the 5th. Hetki came in to relieve Face on July 30 but instead of calming the Cardinals he yielded 4 runs in one and one-third innings allowing RBI doubles to Schoendienst and Slaughter.

The Pirate bats were unproductive in this stretch, averaging just 2.83 runs per game.

On August 1 the Bucs record stood at 32-73. They were 36 games out of first place, 7.5 games behind the 7th place Cubs and Ralph Kiner.

They would go 17-31 the rest of the way. August would be particularly bad with the Bucs winning only 8 of 30 games.

There was not much to celebrate in August other than Frank Thomas’ eight home runs. Thomas would add nine more in September to bring his total for the year to 30 home runs.

By the time September arrived, the Pirate line up was reset. Danny O’Connell played third base and batted .294. Frank Thomas played every day in centerfield and finished with a .255, 30, 102 slash line. Preston Ward was the regular 1st baseman, a light hitter who came to the Bucs in the Kiner deal. Dick Smith replaced Dick Cole and Eddie O’Brien at short. Hal Rice patrolled left field in place of Carlos Bernier, who did not hit for average but did steal 15 bases for the Bucs; he would spend the rest of his professional days with the teams in Hollywood, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, Mexico and Hawaii.

Five different catchers started for the Bucs in September of 1953, Mike Sandlock’s last month in the big leagues. There was Toby Atwell, a role player who arrived in the Kiner deal. There was Vic Janowicz, the Heisman winner, who batted .222 in that last month and got three times as many starts as any of the other backstops. There was Pete Naton and Nick Koback, age 22 and 18 respectively. Koback would play in 16 games for the Pirates over 3 years and 296 more in the minors before he washed out of pro ball in 1960. Naton played in six games in 1953 and never played in another.

September of 1953 was the last month of the last season of Mike Sandlock’s MLB career. He played in 2 September games going 3 for 7 and batting .429 for the month. He played all 18 innings in those games and the Pirates won them both. He went 2 for 4 on September 7 in the Polo Grounds, the park where he hit both of his career home runs. The Bucs won the final game of Sandlock’s career on a walk-off home run by Preston Ward sending Old Sandbags out a winner.

The season was over. The Bucs went 50-104. In September they went 9-9, elevating their game to the level of mediocrity at the very end.

Johnny Lindell, Sandlock’s ticket to Pittsburgh, ended up 5-16 with a 4.71 ERA and leading his team in strikeouts in 1953. Lindell’s highlights included a complete game, 5-hit shutout against the Durocher men at the Polo Grounds on May 19 and a complete game 8-2 victory over the Cuban All Stars on March 8, a game in which he retired the last 13 batters in a row. . The Pirates sold him to Philadelphia on Aug. 31. His pitching career ended on Sept. 27 when he gave up 4 earned runs in one-third of an inning against the Dodgers, quickly yielding 2 walks,2 singles, and a triple to Billy Loes.

The O’Brien twins were great athletes but they never became regular players in the majors. Johnny O’Brien appeared in 339 games over 6 part-time seasons, mostly with the Pirates, batting .250. He also pitched in 25 of those games. Eddie O’Brien batted .236 in 554 at bats over 5 seasons, all with the Bucs. They were out of the majors after 1959.

Heisman Trophy winner Vic Janowicz tried in earnest to succeed with the Pirates for two years but struggled at the plate. He signed with the NFL’s Washington Redskins at the conclusion of the 1954 MLB season. His 1955 performance for the Redskins ranked him among the league Top 10 in touchdowns, points scored, field goals and extra points made. In August of 1956 his left side became paralyzed as a result of a concussion sustained in a car accident and he retired from professional athletics.

Cal Abrams played 2 more full MLB seasons, and briefly in a third. He played for the 1954 Orioles, that team’s first year in Baltimore after leaving St. Louis. Abrams posted his best season totals at the plate in 1954 with a .280 BA, 73 Runs and 67 runs scored Frank Thomas, as of this writing, remains tall and lean at age 86. I found Frank signing autographs in Cooperstown on induction weekend, July 26, 2015. Energetic and fit, Frank looks like the mature version of the younger man who crashed 286 career home runs and made 3 All Star teams in his 16 year MLB career.

Roy Face would go on to a long career as a premier relief pitcher. In 16 seasons he made 27 starts and 821 relief appearances. His 18-1 W-L record for the 1959 Pirates achieved a winning percentage of .947, the best ever recorded by a pitcher in baseball history.

The 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Pirates 20 times. The Bucs beat the Bums just twice. Friend’s 7-hit complete game on July 4th beat the Brooklyns 5-2; Hal Rice, Danny O’Connell and Mike Sandlock had six RBI that day. Dickson mastered the Dodgers on August 21 with a complete game 7-hitter for a 7-1 win at Forbes Field. Frank Thomas crushed his 19th dinger, a 3 run blast, to provide Dickson all the scoring he would need.

The Sept. 28, 1953 edition of the Post-Gazette informed that Branch Rickey and Fred Haney had agreed to a $20,000 contract for 1954. Haney offered his assurance that the Pirates would be much improved next year.

That same edition stated that the unofficial attendance for 1953 was 572,757 down 113,916 from the prior year.

The Dec. 17 issue of the Post-Gazette reported that the Bucs finished last in the standings but above the Cubs in overall fielding, .973 to .967. The P-G further said that Mike Sandlock led the league in passed balls “due to the baffling knuckler of Johnny Lindell.” Frank Thomas finished second among all outfielders in assists, throwing out 17 runners, one fewer than Richie Ashburn of the Phils.

Four days later the Post-Gazette carried one final, 35 word blurb. Headline: Bucs Sell Sandlock. Story: “Mike Sandlock, the knuckleball catcher who came to the Pirates along with pitcher Johnny Lindell from Hollywood, has been sold by the Bucs to the Phils to join his former batterymate.”

SOURCES

CATCHERS KEPT AWAY FROM John LINDELL’S KNUCKLER. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov. 11, 1952.

ROAMIN’ AROUND, Straight form the shoulder. Haney interview. Jack Hermon. PPG. 12-17-52.

ROAMIN’ AROUND , Sandlock doesn’t need a glove. Jack Hermon. March 12, 1953.

SIDELIGHTS ON SPORTS by Al Abram. PPG. On Pitt season outlook and potential Kiner trade.

SOUP GONE FROM POLLET’S ARM. 4-25-53, PPG.

BROOKLYN HOMERS RIP PIRATES, 8-5. April 15, 1953 PPG.

Ralph Kiner’s hold out

1-22-53 PPG: Kiner w .244 and 37 dingers will be cut from 90,000 to 70,000. Rickey, Jr the messenger.

1-28-53 PPG reported that Kiner refused the 25% cut from 90 to 67.5, even in the face of an $800,000 revenue decline for the ballclub, but the ballplayer did say he’d agree to a smaller cut.

1-31-53 PPG rumoured that Kiner was on his way to the Braves in a trade that would give the Bucs Earl Torgeson, Joe Gordon, Sibby Sisti and cash.

1-29-53 PPG: BR expects no trouble at all signing Kiner or any othe the P’s

Nov. 7, 1950, Chicago Tribune. BRANCH RICKEY JOINS PIRATES STAFF.

April 16, 1953, FIRST DRAFT CHOIUCE OF BUCS FOR 1953. PPG. Elroy Face.

PIRATES SIGN UP O’BRIEN TWINS. March 20, 1953, The Miami News.

RED TIE HONOREES EDDIE AND JOHNNIE O’BRIEN. www.seattleu.edu

MCCULLOUGH TRADED, BUCS TO SIGN JANOWICZ. Dec. 4, 1952 PPG

VIC JANOWICZ, 66, WINNER OF 1950 HEISMAN TROPHY. NY times, Feb. 29, 1996.

HANEY AGREES TO ’54 TERMS WITH PIRATES. Spt. 28, 1953, PPG

KINER REPORTED ON WAY TO CUBS BY JUNE 15. May 21, 1953. PPG

BUCS WRITE HAPPY ENDING TO A SAD SEASON, 6-4. Sept. 28, 1953. PPG.

PIRATES WEREN’T LAST IN ONE DEPT. Dec. 7, 1953. PPG.

Eddie O’Brien, Who Played for Pirates With His Twin, Dies at 83. March 3, 2014. New York Times

VIC JANOWICZ JOINS WASHINGTON REDSKINS. Sept. 15, 1954, Gettysburg Times

Baseball-reference.com

Baseballalmanac.com

1953 PITTSBURGH PIRATES

Rk

Pos

Name

Age

G

PA

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

SB

CS

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

OPS+

TB

GDP

HBP

SH

SF

IBB

1

C

Mike Sandlock#

37

64

202

186

10

43

5

0

0

12

0

0

12

19

.231

.281

.258

.539

42

48

3

1

3

2

1B

Preston Ward*

25

88

332

281

35

59

7

1

8

27

1

3

44

39

.210

.319

.327

.646

70

92

6

1

5

3

2B

Johnny O’Brien

22

89

312

279

28

69

13

2

2

22

1

1

21

36

.247

.309

.330

.639

67

92

9

4

8

4

SS

Eddie O’Brien

22

89

282

261

21

62

5

3

0

14

6

1

17

30

.238

.289

.280

.569

50

73

4

2

2

5

3B

Danny O’Connell

24

149

654

588

88

173

26

8

7

55

3

4

57

42

.294

.361

.401

.762

99

236

13

4

5

6

OF

Cal Abrams*

29

119

512

448

66

128

10

6

15

43

4

4

58

70

.286

.368

.435

.803

109

195

2

0

6

7

OF

Frank Thomas

24

128

510

455

68

116

22

1

30

102

1

2

50

93

.255

.331

.505

.837

115

230

12

2

3

8

OF

Carlos Bernier

26

105

366

310

48

66

7

8

3

31

15

14

51

53

.213

.332

.316

.648

71

98

11

4

1

9

UT

Paul Smith*

22

118

426

389

41

110

12

7

4

44

3

0

24

23

.283

.329

.380

.710

85

148

8

3

11

10

OF

Hal Rice*

29

78

305

286

39

89

16

1

4

42

0

1

17

22

.311

.350

.416

.766

99

119

5

0

2

11

SS

Dick Cole

27

97

280

235

29

64

13

1

0

23

2

2

38

26

.272

.374

.336

.710

88

79

6

0

7

12

2B

Eddie Pellagrini

35

78

189

174

16

44

3

2

4

19

1

1

14

20

.253

.309

.362

.671

75

63

1

0

1

13

OF

Ralph Kiner

30

41

175

148

27

40

6

1

7

29

1

0

25

21

.270

.383

.466

.849

121

69

1

2

0

14

3B

Pete Castiglione

32

45

172

159

14

33

2

1

4

21

1

1

5

14

.208

.236

.308

.545

41

49

4

1

7

15

C

Toby Atwell*

29

53

164

139

11

34

6

0

0

17

0

0

20

12

.245

.352

.288

.640

70

40

8

3

2

16

C

Vic Janowicz

23

42

131

123

10

31

3

1

2

8

0

1

5

31

.252

.287

.341

.628

64

42

3

1

2

17

C

Joe Garagiola*

27

27

86

73

9

17

5

0

2

14

1

0

10

11

.233

.341

.384

.725

89

28

2

2

1

18

OF

Gene Hermanski*

33

41

71

62

7

11

0

0

1

4

0

0

8

14

.177

.282

.226

.507

35

14

2

1

0

19

OF

Felipe Montemayor*

25

28

62

55

5

6

4

0

0

2

0

0

4

13

.109

.210

.182

.391

4

10

1

3

0

20

SS

Dick Smith

25

13

49

43

4

7

0

1

0

2

0

1

6

6

.163

.265

.209

.475

26

9

1

0

0

21

UT

George Metkovich*

32

26

47

41

5

6

0

1

1

7

0

0

6

3

.146

.255

.268

.524

37

11

0

0

0

22

OF

Brandy Davis

25

12

39

39

5

8

2

0

0

2

0

2

0

3

.205

.205

.256

.462

20

10

0

0

0

23

2B

Dick Hall

22

7

25

24

2

4

0

0

0

1

1

1

1

3

.167

.200

.167

.367

-3

4

0

0

0

24

C

Nick Koback

17

7

18

16

1

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

4

.125

.176

.250

.426

10

4

2

0

1

25

C

Ed Fitz Gerald

29

6

17

17

2

2

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

2

.118

.118

.176

.294

-24

3

0

0

0

26

C

Pete Naton

21

6

14

12

2

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

2

1

.167

.286

.167

.452

22

2

0

0

0

27

C

Jack Shepard

22

2

4

4

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

.250

.250

.250

.500

31

1

0

0

0

28

Bob Addis*

27

4

3

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

29

Clem Koshorek

28

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

0

30

P

Johnny Lindell

36

58

109

91

11

26

6

1

4

15

0

0

16

15

.286

.404

.505

.909

136

46

6

2

0

31

P

Murry Dickson

36

45

67

61

0

7

0

0

0

2

0

0

2

11

.115

.143

.115

.258

-32

7

2

0

4

32

P

Paul LaPalme*

29

35

63

59

6

5

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

13

.085

.100

.085

.185

-51

5

2

0

3

33

P

Bob Friend

22

32

57

52

4

7

1

0

0

1

0

0

1

16

.135

.151

.154

.305

-20

8

1

0

3

34

P

Bob Hall

29

37

41

38

1

6

1

0

1

2

0

0

2

19

.158

.200

.263

.463

20

10

0

0

1

35

P

Roy Face

25

43

34

30

1

4

1

0

0

2

0

0

0

10

.133

.133

.167

.300

-22

5

0

0

4

36

P

Johnny Hetki

31

54

26

24

2

5

1

2

0

2

0

0

1

1

.208

.240

.417

.657

68

10

1

0

1

37

P

Jim Waugh

19

29

24

22

2

5

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

5

.227

.261

.227

.488

29

5

1

0

1

38

P

Paul Pettit*

21

11

11

8

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

2

.250

.400

.250

.650

75

2

0

0

1

39

P

Roger Bowman

25

30

8

7

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

4

.286

.375

.286

.661

76

2

0

0

0

40

P

Cal Hogue

25

3

6

5

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

.000

.000

.000

.000

-100

0

0

0

1

41

P

Bob Schultz

29

11

4

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

2

.000

.333

.000

.333

-3

0

0

0

1

42

P

Howie Pollet*

32

5

4

3

1

1

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

0

.333

.333

.333

.667

75

1

0

0

1

43

P

Bill Macdonald

24

4

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

44

P

Woody Main

31

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Team Totals

26.7

154

5903

5253

622

1297

178

49

99

571

41

39

524

715

.247

.319

.356

.675

77

1870

117

36

89

Rank in 8 NL teams

8

8

8

8

6

8

5

7

4

7

8

8

8

8

8

2

Non-Pitcher Totals

26.5

154

5448

4851

593

1227

168

46

94

543

41

39

496

616

.253

.327

.365

.691

81

1769

104

34

67

Pitcher Totals

29.8

154

455

402

29

70

10

3

5

28

0

0

28

99

.174

.231

.251

.483

26

101

13

2

22

Rk

Pos

Name

Age

G

PA

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

SB

CS

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

OPS+

TB

GDP

HBP

SH

SF

IBB

* - bats left-handed, # - bats both, else - bats right, ? - unknown; OPS_lg for OPS+ does not include pitchers.

Ten Great Games

Games in which Mike went yard, had 3 hits or was a witness to history.

Sandlock Shines While Davis Homers Leading Dodgers to 1945 Opening Day Victory Over Phillies

April 17, 1945; Dodgers 8, Phillies 2,
at Ebbets Field

By Peter Seidel

Opening Day is for all intents and purposes a national holiday in America. Leaving behind a long, cold winter, thousands of Americans may take the day off from school or work to witness the start of a new baseball season. On Opening Day, hope always springs eternal and, just maybe, this could be our year.

Though attendances were sometimes meager during the war years, it might be said that never were more baseball fans truly appreciative of their season opener as they were in 1945. As the war in Europe was drawing to a close, there was still conflict in the Pacific. The previous seasons saw the major leagues lose much of their top talent to military service. Travel restrictions imposed by the government forced teams to hold spring training closer to home. In 1945, the Phillies moved from Miami Beach to the high-school baseball field at Hershey, Pennsylvania, then moving to Wilmington, DE for 1944 and 1945. Meanwhile the Dodgers left Havana for Bear Mountain, New York.

By 1945, in addition to the travel restrictions, the Office of War Mobilization had asked the Selective Service System to re-examine the status of professional athletes classified 4-F, or physically or psychologically unfit for military service. Ominously, James F. Byrnes, chief of the Office of War Mobilization, had shut down all dog- and horse-racing tracks, and it was clear that Byrnes’ next move was to suspend the 1945 baseball season. Byrnes believed if a man was fit enough to play professional sports, he was fit enough to serve in combat.1

In November 1944 longtime Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis died, and the sport was facing its biggest crisis since the Black Sox scandal without its leader and savior. During the interim between Landis’s death and the appointment of Senator Albert B. “Happy” Chandler to replace him, Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith, National League President Ford Frick and American League President Will Harridge negotiated a last-ditch plan with the Office of Defense Transportation to salvage the 1945 season by agreeing to additional concessions on top of the existing travel restrictions. Travel would be reduced by an additional 25 percent.2 They agreed to cancel the All-Star Game and, if necessary, the World Series.

With the 1945 season saved, it was time to play ball. The Brooklyn Dodgers opened the season against the perennial residents of the second division Philadelphia Phillies. Ruly Carpenter, a du Pont executive, purchased the team in 1943 after former owner William Cox suffered a lifetime ban for betting on baseball games. Carpenter tried to rehabilitate the Phillies’ image by changing their nickname to Blue Jays. That moniker was not popular with Philadelphia fans and never really stuck.

While Carpenter failed to rename the team, he was successful in rebuilding it. Branch Rickey recognized this, saying before Opening Day, “Look out for the Phillies! The new owner is building soundly and surely. When the war’s over, the Phillies are going to be a factor in the National League race.”3 Rickey’s words proved true as the 1950 Phillies, dubbed the Whiz Kids, won the National League pennant.

Phillies in the Opening Day lineup making their major-league debuts were third baseman Bitsy Mott, left fielder Vance Dinges, and second baseman Garvin Hamner. (Garvin’s brother, 17-year-old shortstop Granny Hamner, was in the lineup too, but had played a few games the season before.) The Phillies had some newly acquired veterans to help mentor their rookies, including “an old Dodger killer”4 Vince DiMaggio, who patrolled center field, and Jimmie Foxx, who winded down his Hall of Fame career with the Phils.

The Dodgers were also counting on some newcomers as key contributors including former Boston Braves infielder Mike Sandlock. Eddie Stanky would embark on a breakout season after taking over for player-manager Leo Durocher at second base.

Durocher started Frenchy Bordagaray in left field for this game so as to not expose the left-handed batting Aderholt to crafty southpaw Ken Raffensberger5, who was an All-Star in 1944 despite a 20-loss campaign. The Dodgers countered with 41-year-old right-hander Curt “Coonskin” Davis, who had made his debut in 1934 as a 30-year-old rookie with the Phillies and was the ace of their staff for a couple of years.

The Dodgers took the field in front of a home crowd of just 9,865. It was a gloomy, rainy day and the weather kept many fans away from Ebbets Field.6 Mott and Dinges led off the game with singles, putting runners at first and third with no outs. René Monteagudo grounded to third baseman Bill Hart, who got the force out at second as Mott scored.

The Dodgers immediately struck back. Frenchy Bordagaray led off with a single and went to second when Garvin Hamner mishandled the throw-in from Dinges. Dodgers center fielder Luis Olmo singled, scoring Bordagaray and tying the score. Walks to Augie Galan and Mickey Owen loaded the bases with two outs, but Mike Sandlock grounded out to short to end the inning. (Sandlock would have opportunities later in the game to redeem himself.)

The Dodgers staged a two-out rally in the bottom of the third, taking the lead on consecutive singles by Owen, Sandlock, and Durocher.

Dixie Walker led off the bottom of the fifth with a walk and Bill Hart singled. On Mickey Owen’s bunt, the Phillies tried but failed to force Walker at third leaving the Dodgers with the bases loaded and no outs. Sandlock came through with a single, plating Walker and Hart and extending the Dodgers’ lead to 4-1. Sandlock’s hit chased Raffensberger in favor of veteran right-hander Vern Kennedy. Durocher’s grounder to third led to a double play: Owen was thrown out at home and Sandlock was thrown out at third. With two outs and pitcher Davis due up, it appeared that Kennedy was about to stifle the Dodgers’ rally. But pitcher Davis launched a Kennedy offering into the left-field bleachers, giving the Dodgers a 6-1 lead.7

Phillies catcher Johnny Peacock led off the top of the seventh with a double. With one out, Jimmie Foxx pinch-hit for Kennedy and singled, sending Peacock to third. Bitsy Mott’s grounder to second plated Peacock and whittled the lead to 6-2.

Charlie Ripple replaced Kennedy on the mound in the bottom of the seventh. He walked Bill Hart, who stole second and scored when Sandlock blasted a triple that got by Vince DiMaggio and rolled to the center-field fence.8 Durocher’s fly ball to left scored Sandlock and gave the Dodgers an 8-2 lead that held as Davis retired the final eight Phillies batters he faced after Foxx’s pinch-hit single.

Sources

In addition to the sources in the notes, the author also consulted: baseball-almanac.com, baseball-reference.com, retrosheet.org, and the following:

Burr, Harold C. “Davis’ Arm Makes Dodgers Look Good,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 18, 1945: 17.

Golenbock, Peter. Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers (Chicago: Dover Publications, 2010).

Harrison, Don. Connecticut Baseball, The Best of the Nutmeg State (Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: History Press, 2008).

Lazar, Louie. “Ebbets Field’s Echoes: At 97, the Oldest Living Brooklyn Dodger Reflects,” New York Times, April 3, 2013: B3.

Olsen, Ole. “Opening Game Muffed Bet; Lacked A Chorus — Olsen,” “Brooklyn Daily Eagle,” April 18, 1945, 17.

notes

1 James D. Szalontai, Teenager on First, Geezer at Bat, 4-F on Deck: Major League Baseball in 1945, (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009, 23.

2 IBID, pp.25-29

3 Harold C. Burr, “Rickey Taps Warning: Look Out For Phillies,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 17, 1945: 13.

4 Ibid.

5 Harold C. Burr, “Dodgers-Phils Pry Off Big League Lid Today,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 17, 1945: 1, 13

6 Ibid.

7 Tommy Holmes, “Clinical Notes on Opening Day,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 18, 1945: 17.

8 Ibid.

Brooklyn Dodgers 8,
Philadelphia Phillies 2

Game Played on Tuesday, April 17, 1945
at Ebbets Field

PHI N 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 2 8 2

BRO N 1 0 1 0 4 0 2 0 x - 8 11 1

BATTING

Philadelphia Phillies AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Mott3b 4 1 1 1 0 1 2 5

Dinges lf 4 0 1 0 0 0 2 0

Monteagudo rf 4 0 1 1 0 0 2 0

Wasdell 1b 4 0 1 0 0 0 7 0

DiMaggio cf 3 0 0 0 1 2 2 0

Garvin Hamner 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 1

Peacock c 4 1 2 0 0 0 6 1

Granny Hamner ss 4 0 0 0 0 1 2 1

Raffensberger p 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Kennedy p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Foxx ph 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

Caballero pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Ripple p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 34 2 8 2 1 5 24 10

FIELDING -

DP: 1. Mott-Peacock-Mott-Granny Hamner.

E: Mott (1), Garvin Hamner (1).

BATTING -

2B: Peacock 2 (2,off Davis 2).

GDP: Wasdell (1,off Davis).

Team LOB: 6.

Brooklyn Dodgers AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Bordagaray lf 4 1 1 0 1 0 1 0

Olmo cf 5 0 1 1 0 0 2 0

Galan 1b 4 0 0 0 1 1 9 0

Walker rf 4 1 1 0 1 1 3 0

Hart 3b 4 2 1 0 1 1 2 3

Owen c 2 1 1 0 1 1 6 0

Sandlock ss 4 1 3 3 0 0 1 2

Durocher 2b 4 1 1 2 0 0 3 3

Davis p 4 1 2 2 0 0 0 1

Totals 35 8 11 8 5 4 27 9

FIELDING -

DP: 1. Durocher-Sandlock-Galan.

E: Olmo (1).

BATTING -

3B: Sandlock (1,off Ripple); Walker (1,off Ripple).

HR: Davis (1,5th inning off Kennedy 1 on 2 out).

SH: Owen (1,off Raffensberger).

Team LOB: 9.

BASERUNNING -

SB: Hart (1,2nd base off Ripple/Peacock).

PITCHING

Philadelphia Phillies IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Raffensberger L(0-1) 4 7 5 5 4 1 0 25

Kennedy 2 1 1 1 0 1 1 6

Ripple 2 3 2 2 1 2 0 10

Totals 8 11 8 8 5 4 1 41

Raffensberger faced 4 batters in the 5th inning

Inherited Runners - Scored: Kennedy 2-1.

.

Brooklyn Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Davis W(1-0) 9 8 2 2 1 5 0 35

Umpires: HP - Babe Pinelli, 1B - Lee Ballanfant, 3B - Dusty Boggess

Time of Game: 2:05 Attendance: 9865

Sandlock’s First Homer Does Not Atone For Miscue As Giants Top Dodgers In Home Opener

April 20, 1945: New York Giants 10, Brooklyn Dodgers 6,
at the Polo Grounds

By Peter Seidel

While December 7, 1941 was proclaimed by Franklin D. Roosevelt as a day that would live in infamy, April 20, 1945 was also a monumental day in American history. While Adolf Hitler celebrated his 56th birthday, Allied forces commenced with a bombing mission in Italy known as Operation Corncob, and U.S. troops captured the German city of Nuremberg, while the Soviet troops were on the verge of invading Berlin1. Sensing imminent defeat, Hitler would commit suicide 10 days later as the European stage of World War II was drawing to a close. As the world was changing dramatically a continent away, 12,640 attended the Giants home opener at the Polo Grounds to enjoy the national pastime and take their minds off of such heavy world events.

After taking three out of four from the Braves, the Giants were looking forward to some home cooking against their crosstown rival Dodgers. The fireworks started early as the Giants erupted for three runs in the bottom of the first as they pummeled Brooklyn, 10-6, thanks in part to a pair of Phil “Mickey” Weintraub homers in the first and eighth innings.

The hometown heroes took the field, led by Weintraub at first base. At second base was George Hausmann who played all 154 games in 1945 and led all NL second basemen with 489 assists. Manning the hot corner was Nap Reyes who led the league in hit by pitches with eight. At shortstop was Buddy Kerr, who led the league in putouts and assists. In left field was Steve “Flip” Filipowicz, who was a running back for the New York Giants football team. Center fielder Johnny Rucker opened the 1945 season with an 18-game hitting streak, a Giants franchise record until Pablo Sandoval hit safely in the first 20 games of the 2012 season. Johnny’s uncle was Nap Rucker who pitched for Brooklyn from 1907-1916. Right field was patrolled by future Hall of Famer Mel Ott who was playing his last full season and who later this season became the first National League player to hit his 500th career home run. Ott hit .308, slugged 21 homers, and finished 13th in the NL MVP voting in ’45. After four seasons as a player/manager, Ott focused on managing the Giants and only played a combined 35 games in 1946 & 1947. Harry Feldman was the starting pitcher and his battery mate was another future Hall of Famer, Ernie “Schnozz” Lombardi. Even at the ripe old age of 37, Lombardi played more games at catcher (96) than anyone in the National League.2

Leading off for the visiting Dodgers was second-baseman Eddie “The Brat” Stanky. Stanky’s father-in-law was former infielder Milt Stock, who had also been Stanky’s manager at the Class-B Macon Peaches. Shortly after Stanky married his daughter, Stock traded him to the Milwaukee Brewers.3 Hitting second and playing first base was three-time All-Star Augie Galan. Galan had led the league in walks in ’43 and ’44. “The People’s Cherce” — right-fielder Dixie Walker — batted third. Walker was the NL batting champ in 1944. Morrie Aderholt was the cleanup hitter and played leftfield. Center-fielder Luis Olmo batted fifth and led the NL with 13 triples in ’45. Bill Hart played third base and batted sixth. Four-time All-Star catcher Mickey Owen batted seventh. As sure-handed a catcher as any, Owen has the misfortune of being remembered mostly for dropping the Tommy Henrich’s third strike, the potential game-ending out in Game Four of the 1941 World Series. The Yankees won that game and took a commanding 3-1 Series lead. Playing shortstop and batting eighth was Mike Sandlock, nicknamed “The Commuter” by broadcaster Red Barber, as Sandlock would often meet up with Barber for a beer at Grand Central Station after Dodger home games.4

In the bottom of the first inning, George Hausmann drew a one-out walk off of Dodgers starter Tom Seats. While Seats only pitched 121 innings in 1945, he managed to hit five batters that year, tying him for ninth place in the National League. Hausmann advanced to third on Mel Ott’s single. Steve Filipowicz then grounded into what could have been an inning-ending double play as Dodger second baseman Eddie Stanky flipped the ball to shortstop Mike Sandlock who was covering second. While Ott was forced out at second, Sandlock lost a few seconds trying to tap on the base and wasn’t able to get Filipowicz out on the throw to first,5 allowing Hausmann to score the first run of the game. Weintraub then drilled Seats’ offering over the center-field fence giving the Giants an early 3-0 lead.

Sandlock made things interesting again in the top of the second. With two outs and a runner on first, Sandlock sent an offering from Giants starter Harry Feldman over the fence narrowing the Giants lead to only one run. It was the first of Sandlock’s two career home runs. Ironically, Sandlock would connect again later this season off of Feldman on September 19, that time at Ebbets Field. Feldman, unable to serve in the Army due to a lung condition, was a productive pitcher for the Giants during the war years posting a 35-32 record (35-35 lifetime). In 1941, Feldman and catcher Harry Danning formed the first Jewish battery in the major leagues.6 At the start of the 1946 season, Feldman and Giants teammate Ace Adams accepted more lucrative offers to pitch for the Mexican League. This resulted in a five-year ban for both Feldman and Adams from major-league baseball. After pitching for only one season (1946) with the Veracruz Azules of the Mexican League, Feldman emerged in 1949 with the Sherbrooke Athletics of the independent Quebec Provincial Baseball League. After two seasons with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, Feldman retired from baseball in 1951 and opened a record store in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Feldman suffered a heart attack in 1962 and died at the age of 42.7

In the top of the third, following a leadoff walk by Stanky and a single by Augie Galan, Dixie Walker roped a double, giving the Dodgers a 4-3 lead. That lead was short-lived as in the bottom of the third Seats hit Ott with an errant pitch, gave up a single to Filipowicz and walked Weintraub. With the bases loaded and no outs, Clyde King was brought in to relieve Seats. King wasn’t able to get out of the jam Seats created as Ernie Lombardi’s ground ball single scored both Ott and Filipowicz and sent Weintraub to third, giving the Giants a 5-4 lead. Weintraub scored on Buddy Kerr’s flyout to centerfield extending the Giants lead to 6-4.

Stanky’s solo shot in the top of the sixth brought the Dodgers within a run. Feldman helped his own cause in the bottom of the sixth with a solo shot of his own keeping the Dodgers down by two. Feldman then gave a run back in the top of the seventh as he surrendered singles to Morrie Aderholt and Luis Olmo. Bill Hart’s sacrifice bunt advanced Aderholt and Olmo and Aderholt scored on Mickey Owen’s groundout. In the bottom of the seventh, King gave up singles to Lombardi, Nap Reyes, and Rucker giving the Giants an 8-6 lead.

Making his big-league debut, Ray Hathaway relived King in the bottom of the eighth. With one out and Filipowicz on first, Weintraub gave the Polo Ground fans another souvenir with his second home run of the game and secured the 10-6 victory.

After the game, Dodgers manager Leo Durocher was still fuming over the double play that wasn’t in the first inning. “That play just about cost us the ballgame,” Durocher explained to Brooklyn Daily Eagle sportswriter Harold Conrad. “If he makes it, the Giants get no runs instead of three.”8

Things were just as interesting prior to the game as well. New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Fans were entertained by music provided by the 17th Regiment Band of the New York State National Guard.9

A group African-Americans identified as the League for Sports Equality picketed outside of the Polo Grounds protesting the exclusion of African Americans from major-league baseball.10 Within seven months, Jackie Robinson signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers. On April 15, 1947, less than two years after protests outside of this game, Robinson made his debut with the Dodgers.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the notes, the author also consulted Retrosheet and Baseball-Reference.com, and the following:

(

Back To Baseball. (n.d.). Retrieved July 16, 2015, from http://www.backtobaseball.com/gamesiteregularseason.php?IDindex=NY1194504200

Harrison, D. Connecticut Baseball, The Best of The Nutmeg State Charleston, S.C.: History Press, 2008).

Notes

1 Robert Musel, “Reds Storm Berlin In Final 3-Way Drive,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 21, 1945: 1.

2 Baseball-Reference. n.d. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lombaer01.shtml.

3 Alexander Edelman, “Eddie Stank,” SABR Biography Project, http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/f33416b9

4 L. Lazar, “At 97, the Oldest Living Brooklyn Dodger Reflects,” New York Times, April 3, 2013

5 H. Conrad, “Sandlock’s Rhumba Costs Dodgers First Round in Feud With Giants,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 21, 1945: 6.

6 B. A. Boxerman & B. W. Boxerman, Jews and Baseball: Volume 1, Entering the American Mainstream, 1891-1948 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2006), 169.

7 “Harry Feldman - BR Bullpen,” Baseball-Reference.com http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Harry_Feldman

8 Conrad.

9 James D. Szalontai, Teenager on First, Geezer at Bat, 4-F on Deck: Major League Baseball in 1945 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 2009), page 114.

10 Ibid.

New York Giants 10, Brooklyn Dodgers 6

Game Played on Friday, April 20, 1945
at Polo Grounds V

BRO N 0 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 - 6 10 0

NY N 3 0 3 0 0 1 1 2 x - 10 13 1

BATTING

Brooklyn Dodgers AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Stanky 2b 4 2 1 1 1 0 4 3

Galan 1b 4 1 1 0 1 0 7 0

Walker rf 4 0 2 2 1 0 3 0

Aderholt lf 5 1 2 0 0 0 1 0

Olmo cf 5 0 1 0 0 0 5 0

Hart 3b 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 2

Owen c 4 1 2 1 0 0 1 0

Sandlock ss 3 1 1 2 0 0 3 1

Rosen ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Basinski ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Seats p 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2

King p 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0

Durrett ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Hathaway p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 37 6 10 6 4 4 24 8

BATTING -

2B: Walker (1,off Feldman).

HR: Sandlock (1,2nd inning off Feldman 1 on 2 out); Stanky (1,6th inning off

Feldman 0 on 2 out).

SH: Hart (1,off Feldman).

Team LOB: 9.

New York Giants AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Rucker cf 5 0 2 1 0 0 3 0

Hausmann 2b 4 1 1 0 1 0 4 4

Ott rf 3 1 2 0 1 0 2 0

Filipowicz lf 4 3 2 1 1 0 2 0

Weintraub 1b 4 3 2 4 1 0 8 1

Lombardi c 4 1 2 2 1 0 4 0

Kerr ss 5 0 0 1 0 0 0 3

Reyes 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 3 1

Feldman p 3 1 1 1 0 1 1 1

D. Gardella ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Adams p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 37 10 13 10 5 1 27 10

FIELDING -

E: Hausmann (3).

BATTING -

HR: Weintraub 2 (3,1st inning off Seats 1 on 2 out,8th inning off Hathaway

1 on 1 out); Feldman (1,6th inning off King 0 on 1 out).

HBP: Ott (1,by Seats).

Team LOB: 9.

PITCHING

Brooklyn Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Seats L(0-1) 2 4 6 6 3 0 1 14

King 5 7 2 2 2 1 1 24

Hathaway 1 2 2 2 0 0 1 5

Totals 8 13 10 10 5 1 3 43

Seats faced 3 batters in the 3rd inning

HBP: Seats (1,Ott).

Inherited Runners - Scored: King 3-3.

.

New York Giants IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Feldman W(1-0) 7 9 6 6 4 3 2 35

Adams SV(2) 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 7

Totals 9 10 6 6 4 4 2 42

Umpires: HP - Babe Pinelli, 1B - Lee Ballanfant, 3B - Dusty Boggess

Time of Game: 2:14 Attendance: 12640

September 19, 1945 — Brooklyn Dodgers 5, New York Giants 4

Sandlock Homers And Drives In 3

By Alan Cohen

Neither the Giants nor the Dodgers were in contention for the pennant as the teams took to the field on September 19, 1945. The Dodgers were in third place with no chance of going higher, and the Giants, in sixth place, had only the slightest of chances of escaping the second division and catching the Dodgers. Any game between these two combatants brought out the competitive urge in both teams, and their managers, Leo Durocher for the Dodgers and Mel Ott for the Giants.

Ebbets Field was the venue on this September afternoon and the number of onlookers was small. The total attendance was 10,146. The 5,909 paying patrons were joined by 2,874 servicemen and 1,363 women for the Wednesday afternoon Ladies Day promotion.

The Dodgers sent Vic Lombardi to the mound. The 22-year-old-rookie had a 9-11 record, including three wins against the Giants, and proceeded to retire the first six batters he faced. In the bottom of the second inning, Giants starting pitcher Harry Feldman (12-13) was solved by the first three batters he faced. First baseman Ed Stevens opened the frame with a broken-bat single. He advanced to third base on a single by Stan “Frenchy” Bordagaray. That brought up converted catcher Mike Sandlock. Sandlock, who had homered off Feldman at the Polo Grounds earlier in the season, got his second homer of the year and the score was 3-0 in favor of the Dodgers. Two batters later, after a single by Lombardi, Giants manager Mel Ott removed Feldman and summoned Bill Voiselle, who stopped the bleeding for the time being.

Things quieted down after that. Lombardi kept the Giants scoreless, scattering seven hits through the first six innings. Manager Ott, looking to get back into the game, removed Voiselle for pinch-hitter Clyde Kluttz in the fifth inning, and Kluttz became Lombardi’s fourth strikeout victim. Adrian Zabala took over the mound chores for the Giants and set down the Dodgers in the fifth and sixth innings without further damage.

In the top of the seventh inning, the 5-foot-7 Lombardi showed that he could be reached, and the Giants mounted a threat. Buddy Kerr opened the inning with a single. It was his third infield hit in as many at-bats. Napoleon Reyes kept the rally going with another single. With runners on first and second, manager Ott called upon another pinch-hitter. This time, Billy Jurges, batting for pitcher Zabala, walked to load the bases. The Dodgers seemed to have a chance to get their first out when Giants center fielder Leon “Red” Treadway sent a groundball toward Dodgers second baseman Eddie Stanky. Stanky could not handle the ball, the lead runner scored, and the bags remained loaded. George Hausmann walked to bring in the Giants’ second tally, and Dodgers manager Durocher signaled to the bullpen.

Cy Buker came on in relief, but was unable to protect the one-run lead, although the blame was not entirely his. Manager Ott inserted himself into the game as a pinch-hitter and popped out for the first out of the inning. Danny Gardella grounded to shortstop, but the Dodgers were unable to complete the double play. The score was tied at 3 apiece. That brought up the hard-hitting, slow-footed Ernie Lombardi. The Dodgers infielders were stationed on the outfield grass and Lombardi’s groundball went to shortstop Eddie Basinski. Basinski fumbled the ball, and the Giants took the lead, 4-3, on their third unearned run of the game. By the time Buker struck out Roy Zimmerman to end the inning, the damage had been done.

The Giants trusted their lead to Ace Adams, their fourth hurler of the game. He was making his 63rd appearance of the season, but this time the trust of the Giants in their top reliever was ill-placed. Dodgers center fielder Goody Rosen led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run, tying the score. Singles by Augie Galan and Ed Stevens chased Adams. There was but one out when Jack Brewer took over the mound chores. Brooklyn then tried a double steal, but Galan was thrown out at third as Stevens advanced to second. With two out, Bordagaray stepped to the plate and drove Stevens home with a sharp single to right field. Sandlock, who had given the Dodgers their early lead, hit a long single to center field and Bordagaray tried to score from first. Harold Burr wrote in the next day’s Brooklyn Eagle, “When he tried to score all the way from first, he found the ball and Lombardi waiting for him. Having Big Ernie waiting for you is, in itself, a frightening sight, and Frenchy was out by a city block.”1

There was no further scoring and Buker went back to the mound to shut down the Giants in their final two at-bats to secure the win for the Dodgers. It moved his record to 7-2. Adams took the loss for the Giants, and saw his record go to 11-9.

The final inning was not without entertainment value as Giant manager Ott took exception to an umpire’s call and spent 10 minutes making his case to anyone who would listen. Ott had used his fourth pinch-hitter of the game, Mike Schemer, to lead off the ninth inning. Schemer batted for Jake Brewer, the fifth Giants hurler of the afternoon. He popped out to shortstop Basinski. Eddie in transferring the ball from his glove to his throwing hand had dropped the ball. As Louis Effrat noted in the New York Times, “Lou Jorda, umpiring at third, signaled that Schemer was out, but George Magerkurth, from behind the plate, indicated the runner was safe.”2 The ruling was that the batter was out, and Ott was not about to change anybody’s mind. Watching from the Dodgers’ dugout, manager Durocher was a spectator as the normally mild-mannered Ott put on a presentation on a par with a typical Durocher encounter with the men in blue.

For catcher Mike Sandlock, his three RBIs were his best for a season in which he had only 17 for the entire campaign. Both figures were career highs. His first-inning home run was the last of his two major-league homers. The following season, he played in only 19 of the Dodgers’ first 70 games before being sent to Triple-A Montreal in July. He would spend seven more seasons in the minors before returning to the big leagues for his last hurrah in 1953 with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Dodgers second baseman Stanky had three walks in the game to bring him within 13 of the league record for walks in a season. By season’s end, he had set a new mark: 148 bases on balls. Stanky also led the league in plate appearances and runs scored.

Goody Rosen, whose game-tying homer was his 11th of the season, finished the afternoon in third place in the National League batting race with a .329 average. He went on to compile a team-leading .325 batting average with 12 homers and 75 RBIs. In the balloting for the National League MVP, Rosen finished 10th, His 12 homers were tops for the Dodgers as were his 197 hits. The 1945 season was his best in the majors. The following year, he was sold to the Giants in late April and, at age 33, batted .281 in 100 games for New York in his last major-league season.

Ace Adams, who was charged with the loss, recorded 15 saves in 1945 (based on 2015 statistical metrics) and led the National League in that category. It was his last meaningful season in the major leagues. The following year he appeared in three April games, pitched 2⅔ innings and had an ERA of 16.88. He was released, and a career that had begun in 1934 in the Class D Evangeline League was over.

Managers Ott and Durocher, in the last year of World War II, were both player-mangers. Ott, at age 36, was in his 20th major-league season. In 1945 he had his last productive season at the plate, batting .308 and hitting 21 homers. He hit 511 in his career and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1951. Durocher, whose career had begun with the Yankees in the 1920s, was pressed into action for two games in 1945. He managed in five decades, won 2,008 games as a manager, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994.

Sources

In addition to those sources cited in the notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 Harold C. Burr, “Ed Stanky Needs 13 Passes to Tie mark,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 20, 1945: 16.

2 Louis Effrat, “Dodgers Two Run Rally in Seventh Topples Desperate Giants, 5-4,” New York Times, September 20, 1945: 27.

Brooklyn Dodgers 5, New York Giants 4

Game Played on Wednesday, September 19, 1945 (D) at Ebbets Field

NY N 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 - 4 9 0

BRO N 0 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 x - 5 12 3

BATTING

New York Giants AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Treadway cf 4 1 0 1 1 0 2 1

Hausmann 2b 4 0 1 1 1 0 2 6

Filipowicz rf 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

Ott ph,rf 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Brewer p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Schemer ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

D. Gardella lf 5 0 0 1 0 1 2 0

Lombardi c 5 0 2 0 0 0 5 1

Zimmerman 1b 4 0 0 0 0 2 9 0

Kerr ss 4 1 4 0 0 0 2 2

Reyes 3b 3 1 1 0 0 0 2 1

Feldman p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Voiselle p 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Kluttz ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Zabala p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Jurges ph 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0

Adams p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Mead rf 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Totals 37 4 9 3 3 6 24 12

FIELDING -

DP: 1. Kerr-Zimmerman.

PB: Lombardi 2 (8).

BATTING -

SH: Reyes (8,off Buker).

Team LOB: 10.

Brooklyn Dodgers AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Stanky 2b 2 0 0 0 3 1 2 1

Rosen cf 5 1 1 1 0 0 2 0

Galan lf 3 0 1 0 1 0 1 0

Walker rf 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Stevens 1b 4 2 3 0 0 1 10 0

Bordagaray 3b 4 1 2 1 0 1 1 1

Sandlock c 3 1 2 3 1 0 7 2

Basinski ss 4 0 1 0 0 1 3 4

Lombardi p 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0

Buker p 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Totals 33 5 12 5 5 4 27 9

FIELDING -

E: Stanky (33), Bordagaray (17), Basinski (34).

BATTING -

2B: Stevens (12,off Voiselle).

HR: Sandlock (2,2nd inning off Feldman 2 on 0 out); Rosen (11,7th inning off

Adams 0 on 0 out).

GDP: Walker (7,off Feldman).

Team LOB: 9.

BASERUNNING -

CS: Galan (7,3rd base by Brewer/Lombardi).

PITCHING

New York Giants IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Feldman 1.1 4 3 3 2 0 1 9

Voiselle 2.2 1 0 0 2 1 0 11

Zabala 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 8

Adams L(11-9) 0.1 3 2 2 0 0 1 4

Brewer 1.2 2 0 0 1 1 0 6

Totals 8 12 5 5 5 4 2 38

Inherited Runners - Scored: Voiselle 1-0; Brewer 2-1.

.

Brooklyn Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Lombardi 6 8 4 1 2 4 0 29

Buker W(7-2) 3 1 0 0 1 2 0 12

Totals 9 9 4 1 3 6 0 41

Lombardi faced 5 batters in the 7th inning

Inherited Runners - Scored: Buker 3-2.

.

Umpires: HP - George Magerkurth, 1B - Bill Stewart, 3B - Lou Jorda

Attendance: 5909

Ward’s Blast in the 9th Propels Bucs to a
Walk-Off Win vs. Giants
at Forbes Field

Sandlock’s last hit,
run scored and game

September 27, 1953: Pittsburgh Pirates 6,
New York Giants 4, at Forbes Field

By Peter Seidel

The 1953 season was a tough one for both the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Giants. For the Pirates, it was yet another losing season in a post-World War II era that Pittsburgh fans would like to forget. In the 12 seasons from 1946 through 1957, the Bucs endured 11 losing campaigns, including seven last-place finishes. The 1953 season met both criteria for the Pirates.

Branch Rickey became the Pirates general manager after the 1950 season, following historic tenures with the Cardinals and Dodgers. Rickey’s plan to rebuild the Pirates followed the same formula he had previously used in St. Louis and Brooklyn — to build the farm system and trade his star players for young talent.

The biggest star in Pittsburgh by far was slugger Ralph Kiner, who led the National League in home runs every year from 1946 through 1952. Kiner was one of the highest-paid players in the game, once boasting that “home run hitters drive Cadillacs and singles hitters drive Fords.”1 However, after the Pirates finished the 1952 season with a dreadful 42-112 record, Rickey cut Kiner’s pay even though Kiner led the league in homers. The Mahatma reasoned, “[W]e can finish last without you.”2

Rickey wanted to trade Kiner, but the Pirates ownership wouldn’t allow it since Kiner was their star attraction. As bad as the Pirates were, they managed to draw over a million fans every year, largely to see the slugging Kiner. However, attendance plummeted to 686,673 in 1952 and 572,757 in 1953. Rickey then had leverage to trade Kiner and on June 4 he sent the slugger to the Cubs along with Joe Garagiola, George Metkovich, and Howie Pollet in exchange for Bob Addis, Toby Atwell, George Freese, Gene Hermanski, Bob Schultz, Preston Ward, and $150,000.

The 1953 season was a losing one for the Giants as well. Unlike the Pirates, however, this was in the midst of a four-year stretch in which the Giants had three 90-plus-win seasons, won two National League pennants, and won one World Series title. But the Giants couldn’t recover from the loss of Willie Mays to military service and finished the 1953 season with 22 fewer wins than in 1952.

On September 27 the Pirates took the field in front of a crowd of 17,367, a pretty decent showing for a meaningless game between two teams with losing records. Forbes Field at the time had a capacity of 34,249. The Pirates had added 519 seats to the ballpark in 1953. After the ’53 season, the Pirates removed “Kiner’s Korner” in left field and restored the outfield to its previous dimensions: 365 feet in left field and 406 feet in left-center field, making it once again one of the most difficult stadiums in which to hit home runs, particularly for right-handed hitters.

The home team had Preston Ward at first base, part of the package the Bucs received from the Cubs for Ralph Kiner. Light-hitting Dick Hall was at second base. For the first three years of Hall’s career the Pirates struggled to find a position for him. In 1955 Hall began to pitch, and he flourished on the mound for 16 years, appearing in 495 games and compiling a respectable 3.32 earned-run average. Rookie reserve Dick Smith was at shortstop and slick-fielding Danny O’Connell was at third. O’Connell had the best range of all NL basemen in 1953.

Cal Hogue was the starting pitcher for the Bucs. Hogue struggled to find the strike zone during his brief three-year career in the big leagues as he walked 96 batters in 113⅔ innings. Hogue’s batterymate was Mike Sandlock, who had made his return to the majors after a six-year absence. This was the final big-league game for the shortstop-turned-catcher.

Patrolling the outfield from left to right were Hal Rice, the young slugger Frank Thomas, and Cal Abrams, whose 12 assists led all NL right fielders in 1953.

Leading off for the visiting Giants was Alvin Dark, who was not playing his usual position, shortstop, but was pitching — the only time he took the mound in the major leagues. Two-time All-Star Don Mueller batted second and played right field. Batting third and playing third base was Hank Thompson, who cracked 24 homers in 1953. Hitting cleanup was center fielder Bobby Thomson, who led the Giants with 26 home runs. Playing left field and hitting fifth was Dusty Rhodes. First baseman Tookie Gilbert, 24, batted sixth and — like Pirates catcher Mike Sandlock — was also making what proved to be his final big-league appearance. Rounding out the lineup were second baseman Bobby Hofman, shortstop Daryl Spencer, and catcher Sam Calderone.

The Giants drew first blood in the top of the first when Dark reached on an error by Danny O’Connell and scored on a single by Bobby Thomson. In the bottom of the first, Dark gave up a one-out walk to O’Connell, then retired Hal Rice, whereupon slugger Frank Thomas cracked his 30th home run of the season to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead.

Rookie right-hander Ruben Gomez relieved Dark in the second inning and Dark moved to third base. Known as “El Divino Loco” (The Divine Madman) in his native Puerto Rico, Gomez became the first Puerto Rican to start a World Series game (Game Three of the 1954 World Series) and be on a World Series champion.

Gomez cruised through the next three innings until the fifth, when Mike Sandlock smacked a one-out single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Cal Hogue. A Dusty Rhodes miscue in left field allowed Sandlock to score an unearned run and gave the Pirates a 3-1 lead.

Cal Hogue couldn’t protect the lead, though, surrendering back-to-back solo home runs to Bobby Hoffman and Daryl Spencer that tied the game at 3-3.

With one out in the bottom of the eighth the Pirates regained the lead on a solo shot by Cal Abrams. Once again Hogue coughed up a lead when he walked Wes Westrum (who had taken over at third base for Al Dark in the third inning) and wild-pitched Westrum to second. Dick Smith’s error put runners at the corners. Bobby Thomson’s single to left field scored Westrum and knotted the game again.

Al Corwin relieved Gomez in the bottom of the ninth and gave up a leadoff single to Frank Thomas. This set the stage for Preston Ward. The first baseman smacked a Corwin offering into the Forbes Field bleachers, giving the Pirates their 50th win of the season.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author also consulted the following:

MLB.com, Pittsburgh Pirates Year-by-Year Results. Pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/pit/history/year_by_year_results.jsp, retrieved September 2015,

O’Toole, A. Branch Rickey in Pittsburgh: Baseball’s Trailblazing General Manager for the Pirates, 1950-1955 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2000).

SABR Baseball Biography Project. sabr.org/bioproj.

“Giants Drop Final,” United Press, Brooklyn Daily Eagle,13.

Notes

1 Mike Axisa, “Ralph Kiner’s Greatest Quotes,” February 6, 2014. Retrieved from CBS Sports: cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24433569/video-ralph-kiners-greatest-quotes. This quotation has also been attributed to Fritz Ostermueller and others.

2 Warren Corbett, “Ralph Kiner,” SABR Biography Project. Retrieved from SABR: sabr.org/bioproj/person/b65aaec9.

Pittsburgh Pirates 6, New York Giants 4

Game Played on Sunday, September 27, 1953 (D) at Forbes Field

Play by play events deduced from newspaper accounts. Fielding credits from box score event files.

NY N 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 - 4 9 1

PIT N 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 - 6 6 2

BATTING

New York Giants AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Dark p,3b 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 1

Westrum 3b 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 3

Mueller rf 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Thompson 3b 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Gomez p 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 2

Irvin ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Corwin p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Thomson cf 5 0 3 2 0 0 4 0

Rhodes lf 5 0 1 0 0 1 1 0

Gilbert 1b 3 0 0 0 1 1 15 2

Hofman 2b 4 1 2 1 0 1 2 1

D. Spencer ss 4 1 1 1 0 1 0 5

Calderone c 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 0

Totals 37 4 9 4 4 5 24 14

FIELDING -

E: Rhodes (3).

BATTING -

2B: Gomez (1,off Hogue); Thomson (22,off Hogue).

HR: Hofman (12,6th inning off Hogue 0 on 1 out); D. Spencer (20,6th inning

off Hogue 0 on 1 out).

Team LOB: 10.

Pittsburgh Pirates AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Abrams rf 4 1 2 1 0 0 2 0

O’Connell 3b 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 2

Rice lf 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Thomas cf 4 2 2 2 0 0 2 0

Ward 1b 4 1 1 2 0 0 12 1

D. Hall 2b 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 2

D. Smith ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 5

Sandlock c 3 1 1 0 0 0 7 0

Hogue p 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Totals 30 6 6 5 1 1 27 10

FIELDING -

DP: 1. Ward.

E: O’Connell (23), D. Smith (3).

BATTING -

HR: Thomas (30,1st inning off Dark 1 on 2 out); Abrams (15,8th inning off Gomez

0 on 1 out); Ward (12,9th inning off Corwin 1 on 0 out).

SH: Hogue (1,off Gomez).

Team LOB: 2.

PITCHING

New York Giants IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Dark 1 1 2 2 1 0 1 5

Gomez 7 3 2 1 0 1 1 25

Corwin L(6-4) 0 2 2 2 0 0 1 2

Totals 8 6 6 5 1 1 3 32

Corwin faced 2 batters in the 9th inning

Pittsburgh Pirates IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Hogue W(1-1) 9 9 4 3 4 5 2 41

WP: Hogue (3).

Umpires: HP - Lee Ballanfant, 1B - Artie Gore, 2B - Bill Jackowski, 3B - Al Barlick

Time of Game: 1:40 Attendance: 17367

Ott’s Grand Slam Propels Giants in 7-6 Victory Over the Braves

Sandlock Singles in MLB Debut

September 19, 1942:
New York Giants 7, Boston Braves 6, at Braves Field

By Peter Seidel

The year 1942 was a pivotal one in baseball. Concerns that the season might be canceled were put to rest when President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent the “Green Light” letter to baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, ensuring that the season would be played. The US war effort was in full swing and many of the game’s stars would enlist in military service. Bob Feller enlisted two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Ted Williams enlisted in May of 1942 and began his service that November. Many of the game’s biggest stars would soon follow.

We saw stellar careers draw to a close in ’42 and new ones being born. The Giants-Braves game at Braves Field on September 19 was evidence of just that. Giants starting pitcher Carl Hubbell made his second-to-last start of the season. “King Carl” pitched in only 12 games in 1943, approaching the close one of the great pitching careers in baseball history.

Twenty-six-year-old Mike Sandlock, called up from Evansville of the Three-I League, made his major-league debut and was a late-inning replacement for shortstop Whitey Wietelmann. Sandlock got his first hit and scored his first run in the eighth inning. Third baseman Ducky Detweiler, 23, also was called up from Evansville and made his debut on September 12.

Making the trip to Boston with Sandlock and Detweiler was rookie left-handed pitcher Warren Spahn, 21. Spahn saw action earlier in the season, but was demoted to Hartford of the Eastern League when he disobeyed manager Casey Stengel’s order to bean Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese. After the ’42 season, Spahn enlisted in the Army and served with distinction as a combat engineer. He saw action in the Battle of the Bulge and took part in the seizure of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen which allowed the Allied troops to cross the Rhine River. Spahn was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, and received a battlefield commission. Stengel would later regret his decision to demote Spahn. “I said ‘no guts’ to a kid who went on to become a war hero and one of the greatest left-handed pitchers you ever saw. You can’t say I don’t miss ‘em when I miss ‘em,” the Perfessor said.1 Spahn reunited with Stengel on the woeful 1965 New York Mets and joked, “I’m probably the only guy who worked for Stengel before and after he was a genius.”2

The Braves took the field led by rookie center fielder Tommy Holmes, who three years later would hit safely in 37 consecutive games, a National League record for 33 years. Holmes was flanked by Johnny Cooney in right and Nanny Fernandez in left. Cooney started his career with the Braves in 1921 as a pitcher. After arm trouble led to a four-year absence from the big leagues (1931-1934), Cooney returned as an outfielder. Cooney’s two career home runs came on consecutive days in 1939.

The Braves featured Max West at first base. West was an All-Star outfielder in 1940. The second baseman was Sibby Sisti, who had been the youngest player in baseball in 1939 when he made his debut with the Bees at the tender age of 18. Starting at shortstop was Whitey Wietelmann, who led NL shortstops in assists (581) and errors (40) in 1943. Ducky Detweiler manned the hot corner for the Braves.

Rookie Lou Tost, 30, was the starting pitcher for the Braves. This was Tost’s only full season in the majors, and he compiled a 10-10 record with a 3.53 earned-run average. Tost’s batterymate was future Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi.

Leading off for the Giants was veteran third baseman Dick Bartell. Bartell had been the starting shortstop for the National League in the inaugural All-Star Game in 1933. Second baseman Mickey Witek batted second. Batting third and playing right field was manager and future Hall of Famer Mel Ott. Another Hall of Fame slugger, Johnny Mize, batted cleanup and played first base. “The Big Cat” led the NL in ’42 with 110 runs batted in and like many other players served in the military after the 1942 season. Hitting fifth and playing center field was Babe Young. Young attended George Washington High School in Manhattan, which in later years was also the alma mater of Rod Carew and Manny Ramirez. Buster Maynard batted sixth and played left field. Billy Jurges batted seventh. Jurges was a three-time All-Star shortstop with the Giants and Cubs. Gus Mancuso batted eighth and was the starting catcher for the Giants.

King Carl hadn’t pitched since a rough start against the Cards on September 3, and the rust showed in the first inning when he issued a leadoff walk to Tommy Holmes. Johnny Cooney sacrificed Holmes to second, and Nanny Fernandez singled him home. Fernandez stole second, then scored on Ernie Lombardi’s double. Ducky Detweiler’s Texas Leager plated Fernandez and gave the Braves a 3-0 lead.

This was the start of a crazy game that featured 30 players, six relief pitchers (four by the Braves), three pinch-hitters, and two pinch-runners. In spite of all of the switches, the time of game was a mere 2 hours and 19 minutes in front of a sparse crowd of 1,841.

Braves starter Tost did his best to keep the lead. The Giants got single runs in the second and sixth innings. Johnny Mize hit the first of his two doubles in the second and Gus Mancuso singled him home. Mize accounted for the second Giants run in the top of the sixth, driving in Ott with his second double. The game began to unravel for Tost and the Braves in the top of the seventh when the pitcher walked Mancuso with one out. Pitcher Hal Schumacher ran for Mancuso. Harry Danning, pinch-hitting for Hubbell, followed with a single. After Tost walked Bartell to load the bases, Stengel brought in rookie Johnny Sain. Sain walked Witek, and Schumacher scored the tying run. Stengel replaced Sain with Tom Early, who had the unenviable task of facing Mel Ott with the bases loaded and one out. Ott sent Early’s third offering to the right-field bullpen for a grand slam and gave the Giants a 7-3 lead.

The Braves made a comeback in the bottom of the eighth. Bill McGee, who replaced Hubbell in the seventh, surrendered a one-out walk to Sisti. Mike Sandlock, pinch-hitting for Weitelmann, singled. Clyde Kluttz pinch-hit for pitcher Hank LaManna and socked a McGee offering for a triple, scoring Sisti and Sandlock and bringing the Giants to within two runs. Frank McElyea ran for Kluttz. Ott replaced McGee with star reliever Ace Adams. Adams, who led the National League in games finished from 1942 through 1945, gave up a single to Tommy Holmes that sent McElyea to third. Paul Waner’s groundout scored McElyea, bringing the Braves to within one run. Adams retired Fernandez to end the rally, then retired the Braves in order in the ninth to preserve the game for the visiting Giants and give King Carl his 10th victory of the season. Hubbell would win five more games in 1943, his last season.

Sources

In addition to the items cited in the Notes, the author consulted the following:

City Data — Baseball Forum. HYPERLINK “http://www.city-data.com/forum/baseball/786804-baseballs-most-memorable-quotes-expansion-pitchers.html” \l “ixzz3hg3r1dUl” city-data.com/forum/baseball/786804-baseballs-most-memorable-quotes-expansion-pitchers.html#ixzz3hg3r1dUl Retrieved August 1, 2015.

Craig, William J. A History of the Boston Braves: A Time Gone By (Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, 2012).

Dawson, James P. “Ott’s Home Run With Bases Filled Conquers Braves for Giants, 7-6,” New York Times, September 20, 1942: Sports 1 and 5.

Harrison, Don. Connecticut Baseball, The Best of The Nutmeg State (Charleston, South Carolina: History Press, 2008).

Moore, Gerry. “Another Ott Homer Beats Braves, 7-6: Hubbell Gets His Tenth, Stengel Uses Five Pitchers,” Boston Globe, September 20, 1942: 28.

Notes

1 Steven Goldman, “You Could Look It Up,” March 19, 2004. Retrieved from Baseball Prospectus, baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2686.

2 Quotes about Casey Stengel November 19, 2003. espn.go.com/classic/s/stengel_quote.html.

New York Giants 7, Boston Braves 6

Game Played on Saturday, September 19, 1942 (D)
at Braves Field

NY N 0 1 0 0 0 1 5 0 0 - 7 9 2

BOS N 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 - 6 9 0

BATTING

New York Giants AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Bartell 3b 3 1 1 0 2 1 4 2

Witek 2b 4 1 1 1 1 0 2 7

Ott rf 5 2 2 4 0 1 0 0

Mize 1b 5 1 2 1 0 0 13 0

Young cf 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 0

Maynard lf 4 0 0 0 0 1 4 0

Jurges ss 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 3

Mancuso c 2 0 1 1 1 0 1 0

Schumacher pr 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

McGee p 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Adams p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2

Hubbell p 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 2

Danning c 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 0

Totals 35 7 9 7 5 5 27 16

FIELDING -

DP: 1. Jurges-Witek-Mize.

E: Witek (17), Mize (8).

BATTING -

2B: Mize 2 (23).

HR: Ott (28,7th inning off Earley 3 on).

Team LOB: 6.

Boston Braves AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Holmes cf 4 1 2 0 1 0 5 0

Cooney rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Waner rf 3 0 0 1 1 0 1 0

Fernandez lf 5 1 2 1 0 0 3 0

Lombardi c 5 1 1 1 0 0 5 0

West 1b 4 0 0 0 1 1 12 0

Detweiler 3b 5 0 1 1 0 1 0 0

Sisti 2b 2 1 0 0 2 0 1 4

Wietelmann ss 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 3

Sandlock ss 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0

Tost p 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2

Sain p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Earley p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

LaManna p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Kluttz ph 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 0

McElyea pr 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

Johnson p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 35 6 9 6 5 2 27 9

BATTING -

2B: Fernandez (28); Lombardi (14).

3B: Kluttz (1).

SH: Cooney (5); Tost (1).

GDP: Wietelmann (1).

Team LOB: 9.

BASERUNNING -

SB: Fernandez (15).

PITCHING

New York Giants IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Hubbell W(10-8) 6 5 3 3 4 1 0 28

McGee 1.1 3 3 3 1 1 0 8

Adams SV(11) 1.2 1 0 0 0 0 0 6

Totals 9 9 6 6 5 2 0 42

Boston Braves IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Tost L(10-9) 6.1 7 5 5 3 4 0 28

Sain 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1

Earley 0.2 1 1 1 0 0 1 3

LaManna 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3

Johnson 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 5

Totals 9 9 7 7 5 5 1 40

Umpires: HP - Ziggy Sears, 1B - Tom Dunn

April 15, 1953: Brooklyn Dodgers 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 2, at Ebbets Field

By Bill Nowlin

It was a new season, the Pirates opening against the 1952 National League champion Brooklyn Dodgers. Pittsburgh had finished last (42-112-1) in 1952, 54½ games behind Brooklyn. Fred Haney had been brought in as manager. They’d played Opening Day at Ebbets Field the day before and taken a 4-0 lead in the top of the fourth, but then coughed up four in the bottom of the fourth and four more in the bottom of the fifth and lost, 8-5.

It was a cold and windy day and only a little over 3,100 fans came out for the second game of the season.1 This one matched up right-hander Russ Meyer of the Dodgers against Johnny Lindell for Pittsburgh. It was the temperamental “Mad Monk” Meyer’s first year for the Dodgers; he’d been with the Phils since 1949 and the Cubs before that. He retired the Pirates 1-2-3 in the top of the first.

Lindell had pitched in 23 games (2-1) for the Yankees back in 1942, mostly as a reliever. After he hurt his pitching arm, manager Joe McCarthy began using him as an outfielder starting in 1943, but after the war he took up pitching again. In 1951 and 1952, Lindell pitched for the Hollywood Stars and in ‘52 was 24-9 with a 2.52 ERA; the Stars won the Pacific Coast League title and Lindell was named league MVP. GM Branch Rickey bought his contract and brought him up to Pittsburgh in 1953. Hollywood manager Fred Haney was brought up to manage the Pirates.

Lindell was a little shaky in his first outing, his National League pitching debut, walking two in the first inning, seeing both runners advance on a grounder hit back to the mound, and then throwing a wild pitch to give Brooklyn an early 1-0 lead.

In the top of the third inning, catcher Mike Sandlock singled. He was forced at second on Dick Cole’s grounder, but then the Pirates took the lead when Lindell homered into the left-field stands off Meyer. They were the only two runs that Pittsburgh scored in the game.

Lindell had a .273 career batting average and this was his 69th home run in the majors.

Carl Furillo of the Dodgers homered to lead off the bottom of the fourth, also to left, tying the score 2-2. There was no more scoring in the game until Brooklyn came up in the bottom of the eighth. Gil Hodges and Furillo both singled and advanced on Meyer’s sacrifice bunt, and then both scored on team captain Pee Wee Reese’s single right up the middle through a drawn-in infield and into center field.

Meyer shut down the Pirates in the ninth and won the game, 4-2. It was the first time SINCE 1947 Meyer had won in his first start; he’d been 0-5 over the prior five seasons.

Both Meyer and Lindell had gone the distance, and each gave up eight hits, with one of them a home run. Neither team had committed an error, though there had been the wild pitch and Sandlock was charged with two passed balls. Lindell had become primarily a knuckleball pitcher, the pitch always notoriously difficult to catch. And windy conditions never help a knuckleball.

Lindell had walked 10 Brooklyn batters to Meyer’s one, but only his walk to Junior Gilliam to start the game cost him a run. Lindell had struck out four, and been active as a fielder, too, with seven assists. Among his teammates, only Sandlock, with three hits, had more than one hit.

For the Dodgers, Carl Furillo had a 3-for-4 day, with the one run batted in, on his homer.

Aside from Lindell’s own homer, the Pirates’ star on offense had been Sandlock, who had a 3-for-3 day, all singles. His third-inning hit had caromed off Meyer’s leg, a “savage liner off his right shin,”2 but the Brooklyn pitcher stayed in the game.

Haney had Catfish Metkovich pinch-hit for Sandlock in the ninth, “figuring the percentages were against Sandlock delivering a fourth safety,”3 but Metkovich struck out swinging. Joe Garagiola pinch-hit for Cole and grounded out unassisted to first base, ending the game.

Lindell credited his catcher for helping him get back to the majors. While on his way to Havana to join the Pirates for spring training, Lindell said of Sandlock, who like him was 36 years old at the time: “Sandlock was my catcher in Hollywood. He helped me greatly. It was he who nursed me along, gave me encouragement and acted as my tutor and counsellor. My luckiest break, next to coming back to the big leagues, was when Haney and Sandlock were brought up to the Pirates with me.”4

Dodgers manager Charlie Dressen was pleased to see another win on the books. Not on the basis of the first two games, which were at least competitive, Joseph Sheehan of the New York Times was already calling the Pirates “the predestined cellar tenants.”5 In fact, he proved right, though they won eight more games than the year before, finishing 50-104. Lindell finished his Phillies season 5-16 (4.74 ERA).

Notes

1 The Brooklyn Eagle commented, “The crowd of 3,149 was alarmingly small even for the day after opening day. There were 5,900 knothole kids on hand from Boys High School, George Washington High, James Madison High, and East New York Vocational School.” Harold C. Burr, “Flock Picks Giant ‘Killers,’ “ Brooklyn Eagle, April 16, 1953: 17.

2 Joseph M. Sheehan, “Meyer Winner in Brooklyn Debut As He Subdues Pittsburgh, 4-2,” New York Times, April 16, 1953: 38.

3 Ibid.

4 Associated Press, “Lindell Credits Haney, Sandlock for Comeback,” Omaha World-Herald, February 20, 1953: 26. The article said that Lindell would otherwise probably have been working as a cop at the Santa Anita Racetrack.

5 Sheehan.

Brooklyn Dodgers 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 2

Game Played on Wednesday, April 15, 1953 (D)
at Ebbets Field

PIT N 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 8 0

BRO N 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 x - 4 8 0

BATTING

Pittsburgh Pirates AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Abrams rf 4 0 0 0 0 2 0 0

Castiglione 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 1

Montemayor cf 3 0 0 0 1 2 3 0

Kiner lf 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

P. Smith 1b 4 0 2 0 0 0 10 0

O’Connell 2b 4 0 1 0 0 1 2 1

Sandlock c 3 0 3 0 0 0 6 3

Metkovich ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Cole ss 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 1

Garagiola ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Lindell p 3 1 1 2 0 1 0 7

Totals 34 2 8 2 1 7 24 13

FIELDING -

PB: Sandlock 2 (2).

BATTING -

HR: Lindell (1,3rd inning off Meyer 1 on 1 out).

GDP: O’Connell (1,off Meyer).

Team LOB: 6.

Brooklyn Dodgers AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Gilliam 2b 2 1 1 0 3 0 1 3

Reese ss 4 0 1 2 1 1 2 4

Snider cf 4 0 0 0 1 0 1 0

Robinson 3b 2 0 0 0 3 0 0 1

Campanella c 3 0 1 0 1 1 8 0

Thompson lf 3 0 0 0 1 0 1 0

Hodges 1b 4 1 1 0 0 2 12 0

Furillo rf 4 2 3 1 0 0 2 0

Meyer p 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 3

Totals 29 4 8 3 10 4 27 11

FIELDING -

DP: 1. Reese-Gilliam-Hodges.

BATTING -

HR: Furillo (1,4th inning off Lindell 0 on 0 out).

SH: Meyer (1,off Lindell).

Team LOB: 12.

BASERUNNING -

CS: Gilliam (1,2nd base by Lindell/Sandlock).

PITCHING

Pittsburgh Pirates IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Lindell L(0-1) 8 8 4 4 10 4 1 40

WP: Lindell (1).

Brooklyn Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Meyer W(1-0) 9 8 2 2 1 7 1 35

Umpires: HP - Frank Dascoli, 1B - Frank Secory, 2B - Hal Dixon, 3B - Larry Goetz

Time of Game: 2:18 Attendance: 3149

Chapman Battered For 5 Runs in the 4th in Durocher’s Last Game as Player-Manager

April 18, 1945: Phillies 6, Dodgers 2,
at Ebbets Field

By Peter Seidel

When Dodgers player-manager Leo Durocher had Frenchy Bordagaray pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the fifth, the 5,010 paying fans at Ebbets Field witnessed the Lip’s final game as a player. During the offseason, Durocher signed a player-manager contract under which he not only managed Dem Bums for the 1945 season, but promised to play at least the first 15 games at second base until he could find a suitable replacement.

After Durocher came up with a charley horse in the Dodgers’ 8-2 victory over the Phils on Opening Day, he met with Dodgers GM Branch Rickey and offered a $2,000 buyout of the player portion of his contract. While Rickey didn’t accept or reject Durocher’s offer, it was painfully clear that Leo could no longer play second base. Rickey recalled that Durocher didn’t have the arm strength to throw out Phillies rookie third baseman Bitsy Mott. “The old Durocher would have thrown Mott out. But he could barely get the ball over to first on the bounce. He doesn’t want to stand out there and be shown up.”1

Mott led off this game for the Phillies. A former Dodgers farmhand, he played 90 games for the Phils in ’45, and they turned out to be the only 90 games he played in the big leagues. After playing 10 of the next 12 years in the minors Mott retired from baseball and became a security guard for Elvis Presley.2 (Mott was a brother-in-law of Colonel Tom Parker, Presley’s manager.) Mott appeared in two of Presley’s movies, Wild in the Country and G.I. Blues.3

Another rookie, Vance Dinges, played left field and batted second for the Phils. Dinges was the lone Phillies player on the National League All-Star team in ’45. (Because of wartime travel restrictions, the All-Star Game, which was supposed to be played in Boston’s Fenway Park was canceled.) Havana native Rene Monteagudo batted third and played right field. This was Monteagudo’s last season in the major leagues; he and several other players were blacklisted by Commissioner Happy Chandler for playing in the Mexican League in 1946.4 Batting cleanup was first baseman Jimmy Wasdell, who only struck out 11 times in 1945 in 500 at-bats. His 45.5 at-bat-to-strikeout rate was bested only by the Boston Braves’ Tommy Holmes, who had 70.67 at-bats per strikeout (9 strikeouts per 636 at bats). Center fielder Vince DiMaggio batted fifth for the Phillies. DiMaggio was an All-Star for the Pirates in 1943 and ’44. He lacked the plate discipline of his younger brother, Joe, and led the league in strikeouts six times, including 1945.

Rookie second baseman Garvin Hamner batted sixth. His younger brother, 17-year-old Granny (technically a rookie even though he played 21 games in 1944), played shortstop for the Phils and batted eighth. Granny became a three-time All-Star during his 17-year career, mostly with the Phillies. Granny was a key member of the 1950 Whiz Kids team that won the NL pennant. Veteran catcher Gus Mancuso batted seventh. The 1945 season was Mancuso’s last, wrapping up a solid career that featured two All-Star Game appearances.

Starting pitcher Kewpie Dick Barrett batted ninth. Barrett pretty much coasted through this game. He went the distance and gave up two runs on seven hits. Barrett had also stymied the Dodgers on Opening Day 1944, a 4-1 Phillies victory at Shibe Park. The rest of the ’45 season wasn’t as easy as this one for Barrett; he finished the season with an 8-20 won-lost record (his 20 losses led the National League) and a 5.38 ERA. Barrett led the league with eight wild pitches in 1945, which was his last big-league season.

The weak-hitting Phils team battered Dodgers starting pitcher Ben Chapman for five runs on four hits and three walks in the top of the fourth. (In 1945 the Phillies ranked last in the league in batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, and hits, and tied for last in home runs and seventh in runs scored, and on-base percentage.) The inning began with a walk to Monteagudo. After Wasdell popped out to the catcher, DiMaggio smashed Chapman’s first offering to the right-field fence for a double, sending Monteagudo to third. With two outs, Chapman intentionally walked Mancuso. Granny Hamner then drove Chapman’s first pitch to right-center, scoring Monteagudo and DiMaggio and sending Mancuso to second. Chapman walked Barrett to load the bases. Bitsy Mott grounded an offering from Chapman to second base. Durocher went to his left and field the grounder, but couldn’t throw Mott out, and Mancuso scored. Dinges then drove a 3-and-0 pitch from Chapman to left field for a double, scoring Hamner and Barrett and giving the Phils a commanding 5-0 lead.

For the Dodgers, three-time All-Star Augie Galan was at first base. Galan was a switch-hitter for most of his career but became solely a left-handed hitter in 1943. Durocher started the game at second. Mike Sandlock was the shortstop. Sandlock eventually moved to catcher and spent the remainder of his career mostly behind the plate. Bill Hart manned third for the Dodgers. Morrie Aderholt patrolled left field. Aderholt played a few games at third in the minors; Branch Rickey described him as the “world’s worst third baseman ... but he’s a natural batsman,”5 thus the move to the outfield. Speedy center fielder Luis Olmo led the National League with 13 triples in 1945. Dixie Walker, the 1944 NL batting champ, was the right fielder.

Chapman got into more trouble in the fifth as he gave up a leadoff single to Wasdell, walked DiMaggio and yielded a single to Garvin Hamner. With the bases loaded and no outs, a Chapman pitch got by catcher Mickey Owen for a passed ball, allowing Wasdell to score. 6-0 Phillies.

Chapman broke in with the Yankees in 1930 at second base and third. Playing only 91 games at third, he led all AL third basemen with 24 errors. With the acquisition of Joe Sewell, the Yankees moved Chapman to the outfield, where he shined. Chapman was a four time All-Star outfielder in the 1930s. He led the league in stolen bases four times and led the league with 13 triples in 1934. He was also a racist. In New York he greeted Jewish fans at Yankee Stadium with Nazi salutes. With the emergence of rookie Joe DiMaggio in 1936, Chapman was traded in midseason to the Washington Senators. After 12 seasons as a position player, it appeared Chapman’s major-league career was finished after he hit only .226 with the Chicago White Sox in 1941.

However, after two seasons as a minor-league manager highlighted by a season-long suspension in 1943 for punching out an umpire, Chapman returned to the major leagues in 1944, as a pitcher with the Dodgers. He pitched decently in ’44, posting a 5-3 record with a 3.40 earned-run average and six complete games of the nine he started. His 1945 campaign was less successful; this performance was typical. Overall, Chapman had a 3-3 record and a 5.53 ERA. In 53⅔ innings pitched, he surrendered 33 earned runs on 64 hits and 32 walks. On June 15 the Dodgers traded Chapman to the Phillies. On June 30 the Phillies named Chapman a player-manager, replacing beleaguered Fred Fitzsimmons who had led the Phillies to an 18-51 record. Chapman pitched seven innings in relief for the Phillies, giving up eight runs (six earned) on seven hits and six walks. He pitched another inning in relief in 1946 and became a full-time manager afterward. In 1947 Chapman’s racist behavior was on full display. His taunting of Jackie Robinson from the Phillies dugout was particularly vicious. It was so bad that National League President Ford Frick had to intervene and arranged for the famous photograph of Chapman and Robinson in Philadelphia.

With the Dodgers trailing 5-0 in the fifth inning, Durocher pulled himself out of the lineup. After Mike Sandlock struck out, Durocher had Frenchy Bordagaray pinch-hit for him. Bordagaray singled to left field. Durocher replaced Chapman with pinch-hitter Goody Rosen, who reached on a fielder’s-choice grounder to first. Luis Olmo knocked a double to right, scoring Rosen.

In the top of the sixth, Durocher sent Eddie Stanky in to finish the game at second base. Stanky had been acquired from the Cubs midway through the 1944 season. He proved to be Durocher’s long-term solution at second base as he the league in ’45 in runs scored (128) and bases on balls (148). Defensively, Stanky led all NL second basemen in putouts (429), and double plays turned (101). He also led NL second basemen with 34 errors.

Vic Lombardi relieved Chapman and was followed by rookie Otho Nitcholas. Each pitched two scoreless innings.

The Dodgers got another run in the bottom of the sixth when Dixie Walker hit a single to left-center field and Bill Hart launched a triple to the center-field exit gate. As reporter Harold Burr commented in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “When you hit over the fleet DiMaggio’s head, you’re really tagging the ball.”6

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted these sources:

Back To Baseball, backtobaseball.com/gamesiteregularseason.php?IDindex=NY1194504200. Retrieved July 26, 2015

Burr, Harold C. “Dodgers Add a Dozen a Day,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 21, 1944: 8.

Golenbock, Peter. Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers (Chicago: Dover Baseball, 2010).

Harrison, Don. Connecticut Baseball, The Best of The Nutmeg State (Charleston, South Carolina: History Press, 2008).

Notes

1 Harold C. Burr, “Durocher Offers Rickey Two Grand to be Released From Playing Pact,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 19, 1945: 15.

2

3 Elisha Mott — Actor, IMDB: imdb.com/name/nm0609451/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1.

4 Monteagudo was reinstated and played in the minor leagues in 1950 and 1951.

5 I. Baly, Dodger Profiles, dodgerprofiles.blogspot.com/ /2006/04/morrie-aderholt.html. Posted April 27, 2006. Retrieved July 2015

6 “Durocher Offers.”

Philadelphia Phillies 6, Brooklyn Dodgers 2

Game Played on Wednesday, April 18, 1945
at Ebbets Field

PHI N 0 0 0 5 1 0 0 0 0 - 6 8 1

BRO N 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 - 2 7 2

BATTING

Philadelphia Phillies AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Mott 3b 5 0 1 1 0 0 1 3

Dinges lf 5 0 1 2 0 0 2 0

Monteagudo rf 3 1 0 0 2 0 1 0

Wasdell 1b 5 1 1 0 0 0 13 1

DiMaggio cf 4 1 1 0 1 1 3 0

Garvin Hamner 2b 4 0 2 0 0 0 1 3

Mancuso c 3 1 0 0 1 0 4 0

Granny Hamner ss 4 1 2 2 0 1 2 3

Barrett p 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 3

Totals 35 6 8 5 5 3 27 13

FIELDING -

E: Granny Hamner (1).

BATTING -

2B: DiMaggio (1,off Chapman); Dinges (1,off Chapman).

SH: Barrett (1,off Nitcholas).

IBB: Mancuso (1,by Chapman).

Team LOB: 8.

Brooklyn Dodgers AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Olmo cf 5 0 1 1 0 0 6 0

Owen c 4 0 1 0 1 0 6 0

Galan 1b 4 0 0 0 1 0 7 0

Walker rf 4 1 1 0 0 1 2 0

Aderholt lf 4 0 1 0 0 0 3 0

Hart 3b 4 0 1 1 0 1 2 0

Sandlock ss 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 3

Durocher 2b 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Bordagaray ph 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

Stanky 2b 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2

Chapman p 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Rosen ph 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

Lombardi p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Durrett ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Nitcholas p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Sukeforth ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 35 2 7 2 4 3 27 7

FIELDING -

E: Sandlock 2 (2).

PB: Owen (1).

BATTING -

2B: Olmo (1,off Barrett).

3B: Hart (1,off Barrett).

Team LOB: 10.

PITCHING

Philadelphia Phillies IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Barrett W(1-0) 9 7 2 2 4 3 0 39

Brooklyn Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Chapman L(0-1) 5 7 6 6 5 2 0 27

Lombardi 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 7

Nitcholas 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 7

Totals 9 8 6 6 5 3 0 41

BK: Chapman (1).

IBB: Chapman (1,Mancuso).

Umpires: HP - Lee Ballanfant, 1B - Dusty Boggess, 3B - Babe Pinelli

Time of Game: 2:17 Attendance: 5010

May 26, 1945:
Brooklyn 11, St. Louis 2

Sandlock Has a 3 Hit Day

By Alan Cohen

The Dodgers, who had won 11 in a row between May 5 and May 16, 1945, had fallen on hard times. They went on a six game losing streak the last three of which were the first three games of the four-game set in St. Louis. The Dodgers’ futility at the Cardinals’ home field had been pronounced. Dating back to the prior season, they had lost 12 in a row there.

In the Saturday night finale to a four-game series between the Dodgers and Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park, Brooklyn was looking to salvage at least one game from St. Louis before moving on to Chicago for a Sunday doubleheader against the Cubs. To allow the Dodgers to get a modicum of rest and catch a midnight train to the Windy City, it was agreed that no inning would commence after 11:00 P.M. 1

Manager Leo Durocher handed the ball to rookie right-hander LeRoy Pfund (1-0), whose first win had come earlier in the month. The devoutly religious youngster, who had it written into his contract that he would not pitch on the Sabbath, had his start moved up one day and was available for the Saturday night assignment. Durocher had threatened wholesale lineup changes to put some life into his team,2 but his only changes were to insert Frenchy Bordagaray at third base in place of Bill Hart, and Stan Andrews behind the plate in place of Mickey Owen.

An announced crowd of 10,784 was in attendance, but owing to a large contingent of servicemen in attendance, the paid figure was 7,600. 3

Brooklyn struck early and often en route to an 11-2 win that ended the six-game slide and broke a second place tie with the Cardinals. The Dodgers barrage included 16 hits, five for extra bases. The Cardinals needed eight hits to score their two runs and never mounted a serious threat.

In the top of the first inning, the Dodgers put up four runs and never looked back. Second baseman Eddie Stanky led off the game with a fly ball that was mishandled by Cardinals left fielder Dave Bartosch. New York Times sportswriter Roscoe McGowen, in the next day’s edition, recounted what happened next: “Goody (Rosen, the Dodger center fielder) whacked his third homer (of the season) into the deep right-centerfield bleachers and Augie Galan followed immediately with his No. 4 — a prodigious belt into the tower high atop the right-field pavilion.”4 The Dodgers were ahead by 3-0 before an out had been registered by St. Louis starter Ted Wilks, who had entered the game with a 2-3 record. Wilks retired Dixie Walker and Luis Olmo but Brooklyn was back in business when Bordagaray singled, stole second, and went to third as the catcher’s throw went into center field. Shortstop Mike Sandlock’s infield single, the first of his three hits in the game, scored Bordagaray and prompted a pitching change. Blix Donnelly entered the contest and Sandlock quickly stole second base. With pitcher Pfund in the on-deck circle, the Cardinals elected to give an intentional walk to Stan Andrews, and Donnelly retired Pfund on a fly ball to center field. Sandlock’s three hits increased his batting average to .367.

Pfund retired the first 10 Cardinals batters he faced, striking out two, and the Dodgers took a 4-0 lead into the fourth inning. A walk to Stanky, a double by Rosen (his second extra-base hit of the game), and a walk to Walker loaded the bases for Luis Olmo, the Dodgers’ left fielder. Olmo cleared the bases with his second grand slam of the season.

In the top of the fourth inning, the Cardinals reached Pfund for a pair of singles, but the runners, Debs Garms and Buster Adams, were left stranded as Brooklyn took an 8-0 lead to the bottom of the fourth and found another pitcher to victimize.

Harry Brecheen took over the pitching for the Cardinals in the top of the fifth inning and Andrews greeted him with his only career triple in 149 at-bats. Pitcher Pfund was up next and helped his own cause (as if help were needed) with a single that plated Andrews. It was the first of four RBIs in his first and only major league season. When Pfund tried to stretch his hit into a double, he was gunned down by Cardinals right fielder Debs Garms. Pfund returned to the mound in the bottom of the inning and worked his way out of trouble after surrendering singles to Del Rice and Emil Verban, striking out the last two batters he faced in the stanza.

Pfund lost his shutout in the sixth inning. Garms and Adams singled and Garms scored on a fly ball off the bat of Whitey Kurowski. The Dodgers got the run back in the seventh inning when Walker singled in Stanky, who had opened the inning with a walk. There was no further scoring until Adams solved Pfund in the bottom of the eighth inning. As McGowen noted, “Adams came up with two out in the eighth and exploded his sixth homer of the year among the left-field spectators, but that was all.”5

The Dodgers concluded the scoring in the ninth inning. Stanky walked for the third time in six plate appearances and came around to score his fourth run of the game, and his team’s 11th, on a fly ball by Walker.

After a leadoff single by Del Rice leading off the Cardinals’ ninth, Pfund retired the next three batters, striking out pinch-hitter Johnny Hopp for the final out of the game. He was credited with his second win of the season. This would be his only season in the majors. His record for the season was 3-2 with an ERA of 5.20.

The game was over in 2 hours and 14 minutes, and the Dodgers made their train to Chicago. En route, at 1:00 AM, they munched on the after-game meal.6

During the four games in St. Louis, Dodgers Goody Rosen and Augie Galan feasted on Cardinals pitching. Rosen batted .625 with 10 hits to raise his season’s average to .366, and Galan’s eight hits raised his average for the season to .314.

The country was still at war, but the end was in sight. 18 days before the game, on May 8, 1945, hostilities had ended in Europe , and the war in the Pacific would end less than three months after the game. Some of those who participated in this game would not see significant action in the majors once the players returned from the war in 1946.

Only nine men played in the game for the Dodgers on May 26. Three would not be in the major leagues in 1946.

Frenchy Bordagaray, who in 1969 was one of 40 players immortalized in the “Van Lingle Mungo” song7, was in his last season. During his 11-year career (six seasons with the Dodgers), he batted .283.

Stan Andrews, who saw limited action behind the plate with the Dodgers, played his first of 21 games with Brooklyn on May 26 and was put on waivers in early August. He finished with the Philadelphia Phillies, and 1945 was his last major-league season.

Mike Sandlock, who went 3-for-5 in this game, would move behind the plate in early July, , as Eddie Basinski held down the position at shortstop pending the return of Pee Wee Reese. Sandlock would be sent to the minors after appearing in 19 of the Dodgers’ first 70 games in the 1946 season and play in the minors through 1952. He returned to the majors in 1953 to catch Johnny Lindell’s knuckleball.

For the Cardinals, 1945 was the last hurrah for four of the players who were in the game on May 26.

Dave Bartosch, whose first-inning error led to the first Dodgers run, played in the major leagures only in 1945. However, he was a presence in the Cardinals organization for many seasons, and was an area scout as late as 1979. He continued on as a scout with the Cubs and later the Padres, with whom he scouted through 1992.8

Debs Garms, who scored the first Cardinals run, was in the last year of his 12 major-league seasons. He had a .293 career batting average.

Augie Bergamo, who played only in 1944 and 1945, had a composite batting average of.304 for the two seasons. In 1969 he was one of 45 players mentioned in “Van Lingle Mungo.”

After the game on May 26 the Dodgers were in second place, 6½ behind the league-leading Chicago Cubs. The Cardinals were in third, a game behind Brooklyn. The next season the two teams would battle down to the wire as the Cardinals won the pennant and went on to win their sixth World Series. The Dodgers would have to wait for 1947 to return to the World Series for the first time since 1920.

Sources

In addition to those sources cited in the end notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and the following:

Notes

1 Harold C. Burr, “Dodgers Get Four off Cards in First,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Mary 27, 1945: 21

2 Author Interview with LeRoy Pfund, September 10, 2015.

3 Roscoe McGowen, “Dodger Home Runs Rout Cards by 11-2,” New York Times, May 27, 1945, S1-S2.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Bill Nowlin (editor). Van Lingle Mungo: The Man, The Song, The Players, (Phoenix, SABR, 2014).

8 “Bullpen” in Baseball-Reference.com

Brooklyn Dodgers 11, St. Louis Cardinals 2

Game Played on Saturday, May 26, 1945 (D)
at Sportsman’s Park III

BRO N 4 0 0 4 1 0 1 0 1 - 11 16 0

STL N 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 - 2 8 2

BATTING

Brooklyn Dodgers AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Stanky 2b 3 4 1 0 3 0 2 0

Rosen cf 3 2 3 2 2 0 3 0

Galan 1b 5 1 1 1 1 0 10 1

Walker rf 5 1 2 2 1 0 2 0

Olmo lf 6 1 2 4 0 0 3 0

Bordagaray 3b 5 1 2 0 0 0 0 4

Sandlock ss 5 0 3 1 0 0 1 3

Andrews c 4 1 1 0 1 0 5 0

Pfund p 5 0 1 1 0 0 1 2

Totals 41 11 16 11 8 0 27 10

BATTING -

2B: Rosen (5,off Donnelly).

3B: Andrews (1,off Brecheen).

HR: Rosen (3,1st inning off Wilks 1 on 0 out); Galan (4,1st inning off Wilks

0 on 0 out); Olmo (3,4th inning off Donnelly 3 on 1 out).

HBP: Rosen (1,by Brecheen).

GDP: Olmo (3,off Donnelly).

IBB: Andrews (1,by Donnelly).

Team LOB: 12.

BASERUNNING -

SB: Bordagaray (3,2nd base off Wilks/O’Dea); Sandlock (1,2nd base off Donnelly/O’Dea).

St. Louis Cardinals AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Bartosch lf 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 0

Garms rf,3b 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 1

Adams cf 4 1 3 1 0 0 3 0

Sanders 1b 3 0 0 0 1 1 10 0

Kurowski 3b,ss 4 0 0 1 0 0 1 1

O’Dea c 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Rice ph,c 3 0 2 0 0 0 2 1

Verban 2b 4 0 1 0 0 0 3 2

Fallon ss 1 0 0 0 0 1 5 4

Bergamo ph,rf 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 0

Wilks p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Donnelly p 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Brecheen p 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 3

Hopp ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Totals 35 2 8 2 1 5 27 12

FIELDING -

DP: 1. Verban-Fallon-Sanders.

E: Bartosch (1), O’Dea (2).

PB: O’Dea (2).

BATTING -

HR: Adams (6,8th inning off Pfund 0 on 2 out).

Team LOB: 7.

PITCHING

Brooklyn Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Pfund W(2-0) 9 8 2 2 1 5 1 36

St. Louis Cardinals IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Wilks L(2-4) 0.2 4 4 2 0 0 2 7

Donnelly 3.1 4 4 4 5 0 1 18

Brecheen 5 8 3 3 3 0 0 25

Totals 9 16 11 9 8 0 3 50

HBP: Brecheen (1,Rosen).

IBB: Donnelly (6,Andrews).

Inherited Runners - Scored: Donnelly 1-0.

.

Umpires: HP - George Barr, 1B - Beans Reardon, 2B - Larry Goetz, 3B - Lou Jorda

Time of Game: 2:20 Attendance: 10784

Pirates Nip Reds 4-3 as Old Sandbags Stars

Sandlock Drives In Go-Ahead Run
and Scores Winner

August 6, 1953: Pittsburgh Pirates 4, Cincinnati Reds 3,
at Crosley Field, Cincinnati

By Karl Cicitto

Mike Sandlock was a batting, fielding and running star in a game in which he scored the go ahead run, tagged out a runner trying to score the tying run and drove in the winning run. This all occurred in the eighth and ninth innings and helped secure a 4-3 Pirates road victory over the Reds.

The Buccaneers and Reds met in the presence of 2,054 paid attendees on August 6, 1953 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati for a game that had no pennant implications.

The last-place Pirates, which had lost impressive rookie Dick Groat to the military and Ralph Kiner in a trade, were rebuilding the team under Branch Rickey. The Bucs had won only 36 of 111 games to this point.

The 1953 Reds were a second division team with the home run pop of outfielders Gus Bell (30), Jim Greengrass (20), and the first baseman, Ted Kluszewski (40). Coincidentally Reds pitching yielded a lot of home runs in 1953: 179, the most in the National League. Home runs allowed by Reds pitching played a major role in the outcome on this day.

The Reds’ Ken Raffensberger and Pirates’ Johnny Lindell faced each other in the starting pitcher roles.

Lindell was the former Yankee outfielder who tried to come back as a knuckleballer at age 36 and had come from Hollywood in the PCL with Mike Sandlock to join the Pirates in 1953.

Raffensberger was a 35-year-old lefty from York, Pennsylvania and was in his 14th season in the big leagues. He was coming off a 17-win season in 1952. He led the NL in shutouts twice. He frequently ended up on the losing end of a decision; he had the reputation of being one of the unluckiest hurlers in history when it came to run support. Meager run support would haunt him in this game as well.

In the top of the first inning, Raffensberger nearly gave the Pirates all that they would need when he surrendered two runs. He threw Carlos Bernier out at first on a ground ball and then yielded back-to-back home runs to Danny O’Connell and Hal Rice. Two fly ball outs followed and it was 2-0 Bucs after a half-inning of play.

In the bottom half of the first inning, Lindell pitched much better than Raffensberger. Johnny retired Rocky Bridges, Bobby Adams, and Gus Bell on a ground ball and two flies. Lindell, who was capable of striking out eight or walking eight with his knuckler, found his groove early in this game. He retired the first nine Reds he faced, striking out four of them.

After Lindell mowed down the Redlegs through three innings, Raffensberger responded in the second, third, and fourth innings by sending nine consecutive Buc batters back to their dugout, seven of them on infield ground balls.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Lindell finally allowed a base runner. Rocky Bridges singled to right field and advanced to second on an error by second baseman Eddie Pellagrini. A base on balls for Bobby Adams made it two ducks on the pond. Then Gus Bell attempted a sacrifice bunt, missed the ball, and Bridges and Adams were safe at second and third on a double steal. Bell than stroked a grounder up the middle for a single into center, driving in Bridges. Although Lindell walked the next man to load the bases with no outs, he struck out Greengrass and popped out both Willard Marshall and Andy Seminick to end the threat. Bucs 2, Reds 1 at the end of four.

The game remained tight through the middle of the seventh inning as neither team could rally. Lindell used his flutter ball to retire six straight and Raffensberger scattered three hits over the fifth, sixth, and seventh. The score remained 2-1 in favor of Pittsburgh through 6 1/2 innings.

The Reds scratched out a run in the bottom of the seventh. Lindell yielded a single to Greengrass and a double to Marshall. The left-hander struck out Seminick looking but the next batter, Roy McMillan, drove in Greengrass with a fly ball to right field. Another fly ball got Lindell out of the inning but the score was now 2-2 heading into the eighth inning. A dramatic ending was ahead.

Raffsenberger had pitched seven very competent innings but Reds manager Rogers Hornsby had pinch hit for him in the seventh. Hornsby sent Clyde King to face the Pirates number nine hitter, Mike Sandlock, to lead off the eighth. The 37-year-old catcher was batting .208 at the time. The old backstop greeted King by stroking his pitch into the right-field corner for a double. Old Sandbags was safe at third on the next play when the third baseman Adams dropped a throw from the shortstop McMillan on an O’Connell bouncer. Hal Rice then lifted a short fly to Gus Bell in center and the poor throw from Bell reached home on three hops, Sandlock sliding home with the tie-breaking run.

A bang-bang double play stopped the Reds from tying the game at three in the bottom of the eighth inning. Lindell first retired Bridges and then walked Adams and Bell. Pirate manager Fred Haney pulled Lindell, sending in Paul LaPalme to snuff the rally. LaPalme promptly loaded the bases by walking Kluszewski.

With the bases loaded, one out, and Bobby Adams at third, Jim Greengrass lifted a fly to Carlos Bernier in right field. Bernier fired his throw to the plate. Sandlock caught it on one bounce and tagged out the sliding Adams. It was an inning-ending double play. The score was Pirates 3, Reds 2 after eight innings completed.

Sandlock played a pivotal role in the next inning, too. Rajah sent King back out for the ninth and the big righty from Goldsboro, NC soon had two Bucs on with two out. Old Sandbags punched the ball into right field for a single, scoring Paul Smith and making it Bucs 4, Reds 2.

Sandlock’s RBI in the ninth turned out to be the game-winner. LaPalme, back on the mound for the ninth, allowed a run on a walk, a single, and an error by the second baseman, Pellagrini.

With the score 4-3, two outs in the ninth and the tying run at second, Bobby Adams lined a LaPalme pitch to left-center and Hal Rice made a fine running catch that was called “sensational” by Jack Hermon in the next day’s Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

The game was over. Mike Sandlock had a memorable game and the Pirates won their third game in a row in the August dog days of a very poor Pirate campaign.

Sandlock’s skills at the receiver spot were tested this day by Lindell’s knuckleball but there is no doubt that he knew how to handle the flutterer. Old Sandbags was the starting catcher in all 23 of Lindell’s starts for the Bucs. They were inseparable on the field in 1953 until The Mahatma sold Johnny to the Phillies on August 31. They were paired in 1952 in Hollywood and might have been together in 1954 on the Phillies had Sandlock not been injured in a spring training collision.

Sources

The author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet,org, and the following sources:

African-American Registry. “Pittsburgh Pirates Integrate,” (www.aaregistry.org).

Amore, Dom. “He’s hitting 100: Mike Sandlock, MLB’s Oldest Player Has a Lifetime of Milestones,” Hartford Courant, October 4, 2015.

Erardi, John. “Reds Made Up for Being Slow to Integrate,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 13, 2011.

Hernon, Jack. “Bucs Strong Arm Reds For 3 In A Row,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 7, 1953.

James, Bill. “The Turk Farrell Award, Part II,” www.billjamesonline.com, May 1, 2007.

Skipper, James J. Jr., Baseball Nicknames, A Dictionary of Origins and Meanings (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1992).

“MLB’s Black Pioneers,” www.foxsports.com/mlb/lists, February 1, 2013.

Pittsburgh Pirates 4, Cincinnati Reds 3

Game Played on Thursday, August 6, 1953 (D) at Crosley Field

PIT N 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 - 4 8 2

CIN N 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 - 3 5 1

BATTING

Pittsburgh Pirates AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Bernier rf 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 1

O’Connell 3b 4 1 2 1 0 0 2 1

Rice lf 4 1 1 2 0 0 2 0

Thomas cf 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Lindell p 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

LaPalme p 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

P. Smith 1b 3 1 1 0 0 0 3 0

Pellagrini 2b 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 1

E. O’Brien ss 3 0 0 0 1 0 3 1

Sandlock c 4 1 2 1 0 0 10 0

Totals 35 4 8 4 1 0 27 4

FIELDING -

DP: 1. Bernier-Sandlock.

E: Pellagrini 2 (5).

BATTING -

2B: Pellagrini (2,off Raffensberger); O’Connell (21,off Raffensberger); Sandlock

(4,off King).

HR: O’Connell (6,1st inning off Raffensberger 0 on 1 out); Rice (4,1st inning

off Raffensberger 0 on 1 out).

SH: P. Smith (8,off Raffensberger).

Team LOB: 6.

Cincinnati Reds AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Bridges 2b 5 1 1 0 0 0 3 1

Adams 3b 3 0 0 0 2 0 1 2

Bell cf 3 0 1 1 1 0 4 0

Kluszewski 1b 2 0 0 0 2 0 13 2

Greengrass lf 4 1 1 0 0 2 3 0

Marshall rf 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 0

Seminick c 4 0 0 0 0 3 0 0

McMillan ss 4 0 1 1 0 1 0 7

Raffensberger p 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 3

Hatton ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

King p 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Borkowski ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 32 3 5 2 6 7 27 15

FIELDING -

E: Adams (16).

BATTING -

2B: Marshall (7,off Lindell).

Team LOB: 8.

BASERUNNING -

SB: Adams (3,2nd base off Lindell/Sandlock); Bridges (6,3rd base off Lindell/Sandlock).

PITCHING

Pittsburgh Pirates IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Lindell W(5-12) 7.1 4 2 2 4 6 0 30

LaPalme SV(2) 1.2 1 1 0 2 1 0 8

Totals 9 5 3 2 6 7 0 38

Inherited Runners - Scored: LaPalme 2-0.

.

Cincinnati Reds IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Raffensberger 7 5 2 2 0 0 2 26

King L(2-5) 2 3 2 1 1 0 0 11

Totals 9 8 4 3 1 0 2 37

Umpires: HP - Frank Dascoli, 1B - Larry Goetz, 2B - Frank Secory, 3B - Lenny Roberts

Time of Game: 2:11 Attendance: 2054

Sandlock Gets Three Hits But Dodgers Blow Four Run Lead to Reds

September 9, 1945: Reds 6, Dodgers 5 at Crosley Field

By Peter Seidel

The Brooklyn Dodgers had finished a tough late season stretch to stay on the fringe of the 1945 pennant race. This included a tough four-game series in Pittsburgh where the Dodgers were happy to emerge with a split, featuring two extra-inning games and a 17-5 blowout loss.

In spite of the tough series, the Dodgers stayed within 7 ½ games of the first place Cubs with 23 games left to play. From September 2 through 8, the Brooks played extra innings four times.

As much of a grind as the Dodgers were going through, their next series was a five-game set in three days against the Reds at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. While five games in three days are demanding, the Reds were a sorry team in 1945. They had just finished a stretch dating back to August 1 where they lost 31 out of 41 games and had fallen 30 games out of first place.

If not for the hapless Phillies, the Reds would have been the cellar dwellers. This gave the Dodgers hope that a potential five-game sweep in Cincy would put the third-place Dodgers in a position to take on the Cards (1st place) and Cubs (2nd place) the upcoming week.

The series began with a Sunday twin bill. Game one featured a matchup between Dodgers youngster Ralph Branca and veteran hurler Vern Kennedy for the Reds. The Dodgers were familiar with Kennedy having faced him several times as a reliever for the Phillies, including their opening day victory at Ebbets Field. The Bums had some success against Kennedy as a reliever, plating a run in each of his appearances. However, Kennedy started an August 8 outing for the Reds at Ebbets Field and was the tough luck loser of a 1-0 complete game.

The Dodgers wasted no time scoring on Kennedy in the top of the first thanks to a leadoff walk to Eddie Stanky and a Goody Rosen single. Augie Galan’s flyout to center field preceded walks to Dixie Walker and Big Ed Stevens scoring Stanky and giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. With the bases full and one out, Luis Olmo grounded into a 6-4-3 double play ending the Dodgers rally and getting Kennedy out of a dicey situation.

The Reds struck back in the bottom of the third when Branca walked Reds pitcher Vern Kennedy with one out. He then walked Dain Clay and Steve Mesner to load the bases. Rookie right fielder Al Lebke’s fly ball scored Kennedy and advanced Clay and Mesner. With first base open and two outs, Branca wisely walked the Reds’ most dangerous hitter Frank McCormick and struck out Hank Sauer to end the Reds threat.

The Dodgers threatened in the top of the fourth when Mike Sandlock hit a one-out double and moved to third thanks to a Branca sacrifice bunt. Unfortunately Stanky’s popout to second left Sandlock stranded at third.

The Dodgers broke through in the fifth when Rosen reached thanks to Frank McCormick’s miscue at first base. Galan’s double put runners on second and third with no outs. After Walker popped out to second, a walk to Stevens brought Olmo to the plate again with the bases loaded and one out. Unlike the first inning, Olmo hit a bases-clearing double and gave the Dodgers a 4-1 lead. After stealing third base, Olmo scored on a Tommy Brown single. Sandlock’s single kept the rally alive for the Brooks, however Kennedy struck out Branca and induced a fly ball to center field off of Stanky’s bat that landed harmlessly in Clay’s mitt, minimizing the damage done. Kennedy’s line was complete surrendering five runs (all earned) on nine hits and four walks. The Dodgers had at least one base runner in every inning Kennedy pitched.

Branca on the other hand cruised, retiring 13 consecutive Reds hitters after an intentional pass to Frank McCormick in the third inning, and 16 out of 17 entering the bottom of the ninth. Through eight innings, Branca struck out 10 surrendering only one hit.

Things went haywire in the ninth when Branca walked the first two batters (McCormick and Sauer) and launched a wild pitch putting runners on second and third with no outs. Eddie Miller’s first hit of the game was a double to left scoring both McCormick and Sauer and narrowing the Reds deficit to 5-3. Branca retired the next two batters before giving up walks to Eddie Tipton (pinch hitting for relief pitcher Earl Harrist) and Clay, loading the bases again. Dodgers manager Leo Durocher saw enough and pulled Branca for 15 game winner Hal Gregg. This was a curious move by the Lip as he pulled Branca for his wildness and replaced him with a pitcher who led the NL in walks (137 in 1944 and would go on to lead with 120 in 1945) as well as wild pitches, hit batsmen, and earned runs allowed in ’44. Steve Mesner, whose first-inning double was the only hit Branca allowed prior to the ninth inning, promptly greeted Gregg with a line drive to right field scoring Miller and Tipton, knotting the game at five. Tommy Brown took Dixie Walker’s relay throw and nailed Clay at the plate keeping the game tied.

The Dodgers looked to rally in the top of the tenth when Eddie Miller booted a Mike Sandlock grounder to short. It was the fourth time Sandlock reached base in his five plate appearances. Gregg’s sacrifice bunt send Sandlock to second with one out. Stanky’s 4-3 groundout sent Sandlock to third with two outs. Galan’s popout to catcher Al Lakeman left Sandlock stranded at third.

Al Libke led off the tenth with a single and moved to second thanks to a sacrifice bunt by Reds slugger Frank McCormick. After Sauer flew out, Lakeman smacked a double to right field and the Reds walked off with an improbable win against the Dodgers.

Mike Sandlock shined both behind the plate and at bat in the game. He owned the Reds hurlers, with a double, and two singles while driving the ball in all five of his at-bats and reaching safely four times. He tagged out Dain Clay in the bottom of the ninth for the third out on Tommy Brown’s relay, briefly preserving a tie and forcing extra innings. Sandlock was deft behind the plate for all 10 innings, especially so when handling the effectively wild Branca, who struck out 10 and walked nine in 8 2/3 innings.

Game two was similar to game one in that the Dodgers attacked the Reds starting pitcher early and built a four-run lead. Al Lakeman caught both games of the doubleheader and was the offensive hero in game two as well. His homer in the bottom of the fifth broke a 4-4 tie. Lakeman led off the bottom of the eight with a double and scored an insurance run thanks to Kermit Wahl’s single giving the Reds a 6-4 lead that would hold.

The Dodgers remained mired in third place behind the Cubs and Cardinals, dropping to 9 ½ games behind with 21 games left in the schedule. They would drop three out of five to the Reds.

After taking two out of three games from the Cards in St. Louis, the Bums would drop three out of four to the front running Cubs in Wrigley. A grueling stretch of 16 games in 13 days on the road was too much for the Dodgers to overcome.

Sources

In addition to baseballalmanac.com, baseball-reference.com. Retrosheet,org, and SABR’s BioProject, the author also consulted:

Back To Baseball. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24, 2015, from http://www.backtobaseball.com/playballregularseason.php?page=0&IDindex=CIN194509091

Burr, H. C. “Crosley Field Still Plagues Dodgers; Need A-1 Hurling to Stay in Grind,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 10, 1945: 11.

Burr, H. C. “Pirates Nose Out Dodgers, 6-5 on Coscarart’s Hit in the 12th,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 9, 1945:16.

Golenbock, Peter. Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1984).

Cincinnati Reds 6,
Brooklyn Dodgers 5 (1)

Game Played on Sunday, September 9, 1945 (D)
at Crosley Field

BRO N 1 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 - 5 10 0

CIN N 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 - 6 5 2

BATTING

Brooklyn Dodgers AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Stanky 2b 4 1 0 0 2 1 2 2

Rosen cf 6 1 1 0 0 0 3 0

Galan 3b 3 1 2 0 0 0 0 0

Bordagaray ph,3b 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2

Walker rf 4 0 0 0 1 0 4 1

Stevens 1b 3 1 1 1 2 1 8 1

Olmo lf 5 1 1 3 0 0 1 0

Brown ss 4 0 2 1 1 0 0 1

Sandlock c 5 0 3 0 0 0 11 0

Branca p 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Gregg p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 39 5 10 5 6 3 29 7

BATTING -

2B: Sandlock (9,off Kennedy); Galan (31,off Kennedy); Olmo (22,off Kennedy).

SH: Branca (1,off Kennedy); Gregg (7,off Fox).

GDP: Olmo (11,off Kennedy).

IBB: Walker (15,by Kennedy); Stevens (6,by Kennedy).

Team LOB: 12.

BASERUNNING -

SB: Olmo (15,3rd base off Kennedy/Lakeman).

Cincinnati Reds AB R H RBI BB SO PO A

Clay cf 3 0 0 0 2 0 4 0

Mesner 3b 4 0 2 2 1 0 0 4

Libke rf 5 1 1 1 0 2 3 0

McCormick 1b 2 1 0 0 2 1 9 1

Sauer lf 4 1 0 0 1 2 2 0

Miller ss 4 1 1 2 1 2 2 1

Lakeman c 5 0 1 1 0 2 5 0

Wahl 2b 3 0 0 0 0 1 3 2

Sipek ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Williams 2b 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

Kennedy p 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 3

Carter p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Walker ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Harrist p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Tipton ph 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0

Fox p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 32 6 5 6 10 10 30 13

FIELDING -

DP: 1. Miller-Wahl-McCormick.

E: McCormick (8), Miller (13).

BATTING -

2B: Mesner (16,off Branca); Miller (22,off Branca); Lakeman (6,off Gregg).

SH: McCormick (3,off Gregg).

IBB: McCormick (20,by Branca); Miller (5,by Gregg).

Team LOB: 8.

PITCHING

Brooklyn Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Branca 8.2 2 5 5 9 10 0 37

Gregg L(15-12) 1 3 1 1 1 0 0 6

Totals 9.2 5 6 6 10 10 0 43

WP: Branca (3).

IBB: Branca (7,McCormick); Gregg (7,Miller).

Inherited Runners - Scored: Gregg 3-2.

.

Cincinnati Reds IP H R ER BB SO HR BFP

Kennedy 5 9 5 5 4 2 0 28

Carter 3 1 0 0 2 1 0 12

Harrist 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3

Fox W(6-11) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4

Totals 10 10 5 5 6 3 0 47

IBB: Kennedy 2 (10,Walker,Stevens).

Umpires: HP - Bill Stewart, 1B - Lee Ballanfant, 2B - George Magerkurth, 3B - Butch Henline

Mike’s Ballparks

Braves Field, Ebbets Field,
Polo Grounds, Forbes Field,
Shibe Park, Sportsmans Park, Wrigley Field, Crosley Field
and Bulkeley Stadium.

Brief histories of nine ballparks in which
Mike played, 8 of which
no longer exist.

Shibe Park

By James Lincoln Ray

(Note: Mike Sandlock had three home fields in his major-league career, Braves Field, Ebbets Field, and Forbes Field. Shibe Park was almost his fourth one. On December 21, 1954, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Mike had been sold by the Pirates to the Phillies along with his knuckleballing colleague Johnny Lindell. Both players were released by the Phils before playing for the Fightin’s in ’54 and Shibe never became home.)

Shibe Park, later known as Connie Mack Stadium, goes back to the Philadelphia Athletics, its original occupant, and their owner Benjamin Franklin Shibe. When Shibe in 1901 took charge of the new team, one of eight clubs in the brand-new American League, he could not have foreseen that the Athletics would become so popular so quickly.

Philadelphia already had a major-league team, the National League’s Phillies, who as of 2013 were the nation’s oldest continuous same-name, same-city sports franchise. Founded in 1883, the Phillies certainly weren’t breaking any attendance records. However, the American League Athletics caught on quickly with Philadelphia fans. In just its second season the team won the American League pennant. The Phillies, by comparison, didn’t win their first pennant until 1915, and their second until 1950 — one of the longest droughts in professional sports. The 1901 A’s attracted more than 420,000 fans to their 9,500-seat home field, Columbia Park, at 29th Street and Columbia Avenue in the North Philadelphia neighborhood known as Brewerytown. Theirs was the highest attendance in the American League, and nearly four times that of the Phillies.

When the Athletics won their second pennant, in 1905, attendance had grown to more than 550,000. By 1907 it had exploded to 625,000. The team often had to barricade the gates and turn away thousands. Ben Shibe thought that if he built a new park with greater seating capacity, Philadelphia fans would fill the place up.

Shibe found the ideal location for his planned stadium, on Lehigh Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets, just five blocks west of the Phillies’ home, Baker Bowl. He liked the site because the land was cheap and it was easily accessible by public transportation. Trolley cars ran east-west along Lehigh Avenue, and north-south along nearby Broad (14th) Street, aptly named because it was by far the widest street in the city, as well as the longest straight street in the United States, and both the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads had stations close by. The land was cheap because the Philadelphia Hospital for Contagious Diseases, called the “Smallpox Hospital,” was on Lehigh Avenue a block west of Shibe’s site. Shibe used inside information that the hospital was about to be closed down and acted quickly to buy up the entire block, totaling 5.75 acres, for $67,500. He used associates to purchase many small parcels of land in order not to arouse suspicion of his intentions that might lead some owner to hold out for an exorbitant amount.

Shibe wanted more than a ballpark. He wanted an edifice of the latest technology, and hired a remarkable company, William Steele and Sons, to construct it. Steele had built some of the city’s most important structures, including the highly acclaimed Witherspoon Building, the city’s first steel and concrete skyscraper, in 1895-97. The firm also designed and built the first cement-mixer truck, which revolutionized the industry. Steele broke ground on Shibe Park in April 1908 and completed the project in less than a year. Five hundred tons of steel and several thousand cubic yards of reinforced concrete were used in the construction.

The original stadium layout had a double-decked grandstand that ran from first base, wrapped around home plate, and continued down the line to third base. A grandstand roof protected fans from the elements, and metal folding chairs replaced common bleacher seats on both levels. The price of admission for lower-level seats was $1, and for upper deck seats it was 50 cents.

An additional 13,000 pavilion bleacher seats extended along the foul lines from first and third bases to the foul poles. Shibe priced these seats at 25 cents because, as the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph reported, those “who live by the sweat of their brow should have as good a chance of seeing the game as the man who never rolled up his sleeves to earn a dollar.”1 Pleased with the egalitarian design, the Telegraph proclaimed that Shibe had created a stadium “for the masses as well as the classes.” 2

In addition to the 23,000 seats, there were two standing-room sections, one in the outfield grass and the other in the wide aisles behind the pavilion bleachers. They could accommodate 17,000 more patrons.

The rectangular shape of the city block resulted in imbalanced dimensions for the field. The block was 40 feet shorter east-west than north-south. With home plate located in the southwest corner of the block, the right-field foul pole was 340 feet and the left-field pole 378 feet from home plate. Center field was enormous. At its deepest, the two perpendicular outfield walls met and formed a right angle 515 feet from home plate.

The exterior of Shibe Park was more French palace than ballpark. Outside the grandstand, an ornate brick façade had huge arched windows separated by Ionic pilasters, decorative friezes with baseball motifs, and gabled dormer windows on the upper deck’s copper-trimmed green-slate mansard roof. Figurative sculptures in terra cotta of Shibe and co-owner/manager Connie Mack peered out over the main entrances. Other entrances were decorated with the letter “A” carved in Old English script. Above the 21st Street entrance was one of the team’s stores. There was a restaurant on the ground level that faced both Lehigh and 21st Streets.

The iconic feature of the exterior was the domed tower at the corner of 21st and Lehigh. It contained offices for Shibe’s sons, Jack and Tom, who managed the team’s business operations. A domed cupola topped off the tower and housed Connie Mack’s “Oval Office.”

Upon completion, Shibe Park received rave reviews. “A palace for fans, the most beautiful and capacious baseball structure in the world,” said one Philadelphia newspaper.3 “Shibe Park is the greatest place of its character in the world,” said another.4 Mayor John E. Reyburn called the new facility a “pride to the city.” When he first saw the park, pioneer player George Wright said: “It is the most remarkable sight I have ever witnessed.”5

Monday, April 12, 1909, was Opening Day. By 9 A.M. the ticket line wrapped around the entire city block as baseball fans eagerly waited to see their team in its new baseball palace. As the crowd inevitably became impatient and rowdy, nervous ushers closed the gates to the entrances, turning the fans outside into a howling mob of thousands pressed against the locked barricades. 6

Eventually, the weight and pressure of the mass of humanity forced one of the gates open and hundreds poured in without paying. About 7,000 rooters watched the game from the outfield, standing seven deep and held back by a rope stretched across the entire expanse of the outfield. Another 6,000 fans looked in from rooftops around the block. “It seemed as if all of Philadelphia was there,” wrote the Public Ledger. Mayor Reyburn threw out the first ball a few minutes before the 3:00 P.M. start.

Future Hall of Famer Eddie Plank pitched a wonderful game as the A’s defeated the Boston Red Sox, 8-1. The Evening Bulletin reported, “It was a great day for Philadelphia in the baseball world, it was a great day for the fans, a most profitable one for the owners of Shibe Park, and a grand start for the Athletics. The attendance will probably go on the record as the largest in the history of baseball.”7 Plank’s catcher was 38-year-old backup Doc Powers, who was a physician and very popular around the league. He became ill in the seventh inning but finished the game. He died of complications from peritonitis two weeks later.

The Athletics enjoyed immediate success in their new home. Although they finished in second place in 1909, they won the American League pennant the next season, and went on to hammer the Chicago Cubs in the World Series in five games. The team repeated as world champions in 1911 and then again in 1913, each time beating the New York Giants.

The A’s performance encouraged Shibe to expand the park. He added a new unroofed bleacher section across left field, and also added roof structures to cover the open pavilions down the first-base and third-base lines.

But the record crowds Shibe and Connie Mack hoped for didn’t come. Despite the expanded seating, and another pennant-winning team, attendance dropped sharply in 1914 to 346,000, from a high of 674,915 in 1911. Besides the lowered revenues, the Athletics faced increasing competition for players from the upstart Federal League, which began in 1914 and induced American and National League stars to jump to the new league. Among them, Athletics pitchers Chief Bender and Eddie Plank signed with Federal League teams in December 1914.

Connie Mack decided that it would be better to sell his remaining stars for much-needed cash rather than risk losing them for nothing to the new league. Among those disposed of by Mack were future Hall of Famers Eddie Collins, Frank “Home Run” Baker, and Herb Pennock. By the middle of the 1915 season, the team that later became known as Connie Mack’s First Dynasty had been completely dismantled.

The talent drain led to seven straight last-place finishes and years of anemic attendance figures. Between 1915 and 1921 attendance averaged about 200,000 fans a year, less than a third of what the team had drawn during its heady days. Mack slowly rebuilt his team with new talent and attendance increased. This encouraged Shibe’s sons Jack and Tom, who shared control with Mack after their father’s death in 1922, to upgrade the park again. This time they replaced the open left-field bleachers with a double-decked roofed terrace, installed a 750-seat mezzanine area, raised the original grandstand roof, and installed a press box and 3,500 more seats beneath it.

By 1929 the A’s were once again on top of the baseball world. Behind the feats of future Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Mickey Cochrane, and Al Simmons, they ran away with the American League pennant, finishing 104-46, 18 games ahead of the Yankees. They crushed the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. The success of the 1929 team led to a new Shibe Park attendance record of more than 839,000. When the Athletics repeated as World Series winners in 1930, and won a third straight pennant in 1931, writers began referring to the team as Connie Mack’s Second Dynasty. The future for the team, its fans, and Shibe Park looked as promising and full of hope as a clear spring morning.

But in 1932 the full effects of the Great Depression hit Philadelphia. The team drew only 300,000 fans that season, one-third the attendance of three years earlier. Facing financial pressures and dim income prospects, Mack once again sold off his star players, and once again the team fell into the American League cellar. Fans stopped coming to the park. A terrible team and a worse economy were not a good recipe for drawing the working class to the ballpark. The Depression also led to the end of a great Shibe Park tradition, forever damaging the relationship between the A’s and their neighborhood fans.

From the time Shibe Park opened in 1909 through the end of Mack’s Second Dynasty, homeowners on 20th Street had a clear view of its playing field. They could watch games from their top-floor windows and their rooftops. Some said that the views from 20th Street compared favorably with many of the seats inside the park. Enterprising homeowners built bleachers on their roofs and sold tickets. During the 1929 World Series, almost 3,000 people watched from the makeshift bleachers. Two more World Series further lined the pockets of these homeowners.

As long as the Athletics were drawing big crowds, Mack and the Shibes tolerated the situation. But when attendance continued to decline after the selloff of the Second Dynasty, and when the team learned that strapped homeowners who could no longer fill their rooftop bleachers were pilfering customers from Shibe Park’s ticket line, Jack Shibe decided that enough was enough. In the winter of 1934-1935, the team built a 22-foot-high corrugated metal extension wall on top of the outfield wall. The extension made the right-field wall 34 feet high and blocked the view of the field from the 20th Street rooftops. Fans labeled the wall the spite fence or Connie Mack’s Spite Wall, even though Jack Shibe had spearheaded the project.

The wall didn’t just spite fans, it also infuriated some players who figured they were going to lose home runs. Outfielders also despised the hulking structure because its rippled corrugated facing caused baseballs to carom unpredictably.

Angry residents sued to have the fence taken down. Mack hired a tough young attorney named Richardson Dilworth, who won the case and the Spite Wall stayed. Dilworth later became a two-term mayor of Philadelphia.

In the middle of the 1938 season, the Phillies abandoned crumbling Baker Bowl and became tenants of the Athletics at Shibe Park. Despite resistance from neighbors, Mack installed eight 146-foot light towers. The first night game in the American League was played at Shibe Park on May 16, 1939. (The A’s lost to the Cleveland Indians, 8-3.)

After World War II, Mack tried to expand the seating capacity again, this time to 50,000. There was a problem with the design, however; the rear wall would protrude past the right-field fence, hanging 15 feet above the sidewalk of North 20th Street and forming a covered arcade walkway. The proposal galvanized the 20th Street neighbors against Mack, and this time his legal team lost.

Although the A’s would never field a legitimate contender after the 1932 dismantling (though they were in a crowded race in 1948), the ballpark’s other tenant, the Phillies, had been stockpiling young talent after World War II and had a remarkable season in 1950. They dramatically defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers on the last day of the season and captured the National League pennant, the last in the history of the ballpark. The Phillies were swept in the World Series by the Yankees.

After the 1950 season, the 87-year-old Mack retired after managing the Athletics for 50 years, the longest managerial tenure in baseball history. In a last effort to revitalize the team, his children changed the name of Shibe Park to Connie Mack Stadium before the 1953 season. It didn’t help at the box office. In 1954 the A’s drew just over 300,000 fans, less than one-half the Phillies’ attendance and not nearly enough to support a two-family business (the Macks and the Shibes). It was clear to all that Philadelphia would no longer support two baseball teams. Heavily in debt to the banks, in August 1954 the owners sold the franchise to Chicago businessman Arnold Johnson for $3.375 million. Johnson moved the team to Kansas City for the 1955 season.

Phillies owner Bob Carpenter purchased Connie Mack Stadium for $1.7 million and made immediate changes. When the ballpark opened for the 1955 season, large billboards covered the outfield walls advertising Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews, Plachter Cadillac, Alpo dog food, and Coca-Cola. Carpenter installed a new straight-across fence that covered the awkward square corner in center field and lessened the distance to center field to 447 feet. In 1956 he purchased a 50-foot-high outfield scoreboard similar to the one in Yankee Stadium. It was topped by a 10-foot-high Ballantine Beer sign, and was capped with a distinctive Longines clock.

After Connie Mack died in February 1956, sculptor Harry Rosin created a statue of “Mr. Baseball.” It was unveiled on April 16, 1957, across Lehigh Avenue in Reyburn Park (rededicated as Connie Mack Plaza) as part of the Opening Day ceremonies.

The final game at Connie Mack Stadium was played on October 1, 1970, with the Phillies defeating the Montreal Expos, 2-1, in 10 innings. Souvenir hunters began dismantling the ballpark while the game was still in progress. They pulled up chairs, signs, gates, and the sod from the field. A postgame ceremony was canceled because of the mayhem. Over a headline that said, “Wrecking Crew of 31,822 Breaks Up the Old Ball Park,” the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “Fans ripped up their seats and ransacked the dugouts. They tore off railing[s] and billboards. A gigantic old rain tarp was torn to shreds and both the infield and outfield were ruined.”8 A shameful end to a once-beautiful ballpark.

Over its 62 seasons, Shibe Park drew more than 47 million fans. The 1964 Phillies drew the highest single-season attendance, 1,425,891. The Athletics’ best-attended season was 1948, when they last were in contention for a pennant, and drew 945,076 fans. The A’s and the Phillies won a total of eight pennants in the ballpark. The Athletics played in seven World Series during their tenure at the ballpark, and clinched three of their five championships there.

Other great baseball moments at Shibe Park include the 1943 and 1952 All-Star Games; the first American League night game, in 1939; four no-hitters by A’s pitchers; and three historic performances by opposing players.

The first of those occurred on June 3, 1932, when the Yankees’ Lou Gehrig hit four home runs. He narrowly missed a fifth when Al Simmons made a great running catch at the wall in center field. The second historic feat came on September 28, 1941, the last day of the season. The Red Sox were in town for a season-ending doubleheader. The matchup meant nothing in the standings, but it did mean a lot in the record books. Ted Williams entered the day with a .3995 batting average, which would have officially been rounded up to .400 had he decided not to play. But Williams played, went 6-for-8 in the doubleheader, and finished the season at .406.

The third outstanding performance involved the Phillies. Sandy Koufax pitched a no-hitter against them on June 4, 1964 (Los Angeles Dodgers 3, Phillies, 0). Koufax faced the minimum 27 batters and struck out 12. Only a walk to Richie Allen on a full count in the fourth inning kept it from being a perfect game. Allen was thrown out trying to steal second base.

Events at Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium were not limited to major-league baseball. The park hosted its first Negro League game in 1919, and served as a neutral site for the 1945 Negro League series in which the Cleveland Buckeyes defeated the Homestead Grays. The Negro League Philadelphia Stars played home games at Shibe Park in the 1940s, and often drew crowds of more than 10,000. The National Football League‘s Philadelphia Eagles moved to Shibe Park in 1940 and played their home games there through the 1957 season. During that tenure, the Eagles won the 1948 and 1949 NFL titles. The 1948 title game was played in a blizzard. Several championship boxing matches were also held at the park, the most famous of which was the one between Benny Leonard and Johnny Kilbane in 1917.

Events at Shibe were not always sports-related. In 1940 Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie came to Shibe for a speech and political rally. Four years later Franklin Delano Roosevelt made one of his few 1944 public appearances at 21st and Lehigh. In 1948 Progressive Party candidate Henry A. Wallace made his acceptance speech there. The Ringling Brothers Circus set up shop at Shibe in 1955, and evangelist Billy Graham had many successful events there. A rodeo came to the park in 1962, but the animals destroyed the turf and weren’t invited back.

Less than a year after the final baseball game, two brothers sneaked into the park and started a fire that grew into a five-alarm blaze. The fire burned through most of the original upper deck, collapsing the roof. The intense heat twisted and exposed the steel beams and left them grasping out finger-like. The ballpark remained in this condition for four years until October 1975, when a judge issued an order that it be demolished. The famous corner tower and its domed cupola was the last section of the ballpark demolished, on July 13, 1976.

In 1991 Deliverance Evangelistic Church built a church on the site. A historical marker for the ballpark was erected by the Philadelphia Historical Commission on November 9, 1997.

This biography is included in the book The Year of the Blue Snow: The 1964 Philadelphia Phillies (SABR, 2013), edited by Mel Marmer and Bill Nowlin.

Sources

Fitzpatrick, Frank. “Bad Playoff Weather Dogged the Eagles of Old,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 19, 2003.

Karsch, Carl G. “Five Generations of Builders,” ushistory.org/carpentershall.

Kuklick, Bruce. To Everything a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991).

Macht, Norman L. Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007).

“30,000 in New Shibe Park,” New York Times, April 12, 1909.

Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, April 12, 1909.

Philadelphia Inquirer, April 13, 1909.

Baseball-Reference.com.

BaseballAlmanac.com.

Retrosheet.org.

philadelphiaathletics.org.

ballparktour.com.

Notes

1 Rich Westcott, Philadelphia’s Old Ballparks (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), 105.

2 Ibid.

3 Philadelphia Public Ledger, April 12, 1909.

4 Westcott, 109.

5 Ibid.

6 Philadelphia Public Ledger, April 13, 1909.

7 The official paid attendance was 30,162. An additional 5,000 fans either sneaked in or had free passes to attend. Several thousand more sat on the rooftops of the homes on 20th Street, and another 30,000 crowded the streets outside the stadium.

8 Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2, 1970, 1.

Shibe Park scoreboard: It is 1:25 A.M. on August 18, 1964, as the Phillies drop a 16-inning contest to the Cubs, 4-3, that took nearly five hours to complete.

The Polo Grounds

By Stew Thornley

(Note: Mike Sandlock played in the Polo Grounds in its last years. He hit the first of his two career home runs there. He played his last road game there on September 7, 1953, singling twice off Larry Jansen.)

The Polo Grounds, an odd name for an odd stadium, was home to several baseball teams, most notably the New York Giants until the team moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season. Its horseshoe-shaped grandstand and elongated playing area provided for ridiculously short distances down the foul lines and equally ridiculous long distances to the power alleys and center field. So short were its foul-line distances that inches were sometimes included in the measurements — 279 feet 8 inches to left; 257 feet 8 inches to right. As for the distance to center, the figure almost could have been rounded to the nearest hundred.

The Polo Grounds is actually the story of several stadiums. The final three were located beneath Coogan’s Bluff in upper Manhattan.

Polo Grounds III

The end of the 1922 season marked not only the departure of the Yankees from the Polo Grounds but also a radical change in the look of the ballpark. Initially the double-decked stands of Polo Grounds IV had resembled a hook more than a horseshoe. The stands reached approximately 40 feet into fair territory in right field but stopped short of the foul line in left field. Uncovered seats extended out from the permanent stands on both sides and eventually came together in center field.

Plans to renovate and enlarge the Polo Grounds started in 1921 when team president Charles Stoneham met with an architect to explore the possibility of increasing its seating capacity from 38,000 to more than 50,000. In August of 1922 plans were filed with the Manhattan Bureau of Buildings for a project that would extend the double-decked grandstand on both the north (left-field) and south (right-field) sides of the stadium. The grandstands would then curve in toward one another but not actually come together. An uncovered bleacher section — itself divided by a building that housed the clubhouses and administrative offices — was to be wedged between the two grandstand sections in center field with the clubhouse set back from the outfield fences along the bleachers, resulting in an alcove in straightaway center field. The area was in play, even the stairways on each side of the alcove that led to the Giants’ and the visitors’ clubhouses. The massive clubhouse actually served as the center-field fence, although it was so far away that it didn’t really matter.

Work on the stadium renovation began in November of 1922 with the removal of the old clubhouse. Construction proceeded through the winter and continued into the 1923 season. Fans attending the Giants’ home opener in late April saw tall red columns of steel in right and left fields, towers for the pouring of concrete, and thousands of feet of false timber-work, which were to become the concrete beds for thousands of new seats.

When construction was finally finished in mid-September of 1923, the Polo Grounds had assumed its final familiar look. “At the left-field foul pole, the concrete wall was 17 feet high, gradually rising to 18 feet in left center and then sloping to 12 feet where the left-field grandstand met the center-field bleachers,” wrote Lawrence S. Ritter in Lost Ballparks. “In right field, the wall was 11 feet high at the foul pole, gradually rising to 12 feet where the right-field grandstand met the center-field bleachers. The bleacher seats were behind 4-foot-high concrete walls topped by 4-foot-high wire screen.” So ample was the playing area that it was possible to fit the bullpens into fair territory with nary a chance that they would affect a ball in play. The visitors’ bullpen was in left-center and the home bullpen in right-center, both approximately 440 feet from the plate. In addition, in the center-field alcove, just in front of the clubhouse, was a 5-foot-high monument containing a tablet dedicated to Eddie Grant, a former Giant who was killed in the World War.

Much disappeared in the renovation, including the decorative fresco friezes on the façade of the upper deck. Before the 1920s were out, the coats of arms of the National League teams had also been removed from the top of the grandstand. One feature that did appear as a result of extension of the grandstands was the overhang in left field. Until 1923 the double-decked grandstand on the left-field side had ended before it reached fair territory. With the extension, though, the upper deck extended over the playing field 21 feet beyond the lower deck. (In right field, where the grandstand had already reached into fair territory before it was extended even farther, the upper and lower decks were flush. A photographers’ perch that was later built on the front of the upper deck created a slight overhang — but nothing that approached the extreme of the overhang in left field.)

While the look of the Polo Grounds received its last radical change with the 1922-23 expansion, most aspects of the baseball experience beneath Coogan’s Bluff remained constant, including the setting.

The look of the Polo Grounds continued to change in its final 40 years, not as dramatically as in the 1920s when the grandstands were extended but in ways that were noticeable.

By the mid-1940s, a pair of batter’s eyes — backdrops to help batters see the pitches more clearly — had been erected atop the bleacher walls on either side of the alcove in center field. Each measuring 20 feet wide and 17 feet high, “they guarded each side of the runway leading to the clubhouse like the impassive lions in front of the main building of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue,” wrote Lawrence S. Ritter in Lost Ballparks.

Advertisements on the outfield walls disappeared before the 1948 season. Gone were the colorful signs for products like Coca-Cola, Gem Razors, Burma-Shave, and Botany Ties. The reason was that the Chesterfield cigarette company, which had erected a large ad on the massive clubhouse wall in center field, didn’t want the competition from other advertisers, even those with noncompeting products. In paying $250,000 for the broadcast rights to Giants games on radio and television in 1948, Chesterfield demanded that all other advertising on outfield walls be taken down.

In the 1960s the clubhouse wall in center was finally used for a scoreboard, but until that time hand-operated scoreboards were squeezed onto the facing of the upper deck near the foul poles in left and right field.

Inside the stadium, changes in policy were made in the late 1940s to help the players get to the clubhouse after games without having to interact with the fans on the field. It was the end of a quaint tradition and one that usually posed no problems for either the players or the fans. However, a Brooklyn fan claimed that he was punched and kicked by New York manager Leo Durocher after a Dodgers-Giants game in April 1949. Commissioner A.B. “Happy” Chandler cleared Durocher of the charges, but the Giants management took action to prevent such encounters in the future. Fans could still exit by their usual route, but they would have to wait until the players and umpires had reached their dressing rooms before going onto the field.

Allowing fans to amble across the field didn’t make any easier the task of maintaining the field, not that these were easy grounds to maintain in the first place. Work had to be done on the Polo Grounds field every fall and winter to offset the natural falling away due to the quicksand that underlay it. The tendency of the Polo Grounds to sink was increased by the subway line that ran beneath the adjacent parking lot. In the mid-1940s, the Giants spent more than $125,000 to raise the field — using 3,000 cubic yards of gravel, 1,500 cubic yards of top soil, and 160,000 square feet of sod — and improve the drainage. This helped with some of the problems, but the job was still a challenging one for the groundskeeper.

Fortunately, by this time the Giants had one of the best, Matty Schwab. Schwab was always close at hand to take care of any problem — very close, since his home was beneath the left-field stands. For seven years Schwab had been the superintendent for Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, responsible for the entire facility, not just the playing area even though the latter was all he was really interested in. A third-generation groundskeeper (his grandfather and father had both tended ballparks in Cincinnati), Schwab was amenable to Horace Stoneham’s offer to come to the Giants in 1946 and be in charge of nothing more than the field.

His first year with the Giants, Schwab and his family — his wife, Rose, and son, Jerry — moved into the Concourse Plaza Hotel near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, but the living arrangements were far from ideal. Schwab tinkered with the idea of moving back to Brooklyn but hated the thought of the long commute to and from the Polo Grounds. Instead, he talked Stoneham into converting some empty space under the left-field stands into an apartment.

A roll-up door on the left-field fence, just to the left of the foul pole, led under the stands to the entrance to the apartment, which consisted of a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and a bedroom that was used by Jerry. The apartment had windows but none that offered much of a view. All that could be seen was the concourse area between the apartment and the area outside the ballpark to the north (which consisted of the repair area for the subway and elevated cars and then high-rise housing). It was possible for the family to exit the stadium through another roll-up door on the outside stadium wall, although normally they went via car, driving through the concourse under the stands in back of home plate and continuing around the entire stadium until they emerged through a door on Eighth Avenue underneath the grandstand in right-center field. Being on site at all times was handy for Schwab, who — helped by his son — often got up every few hours at night to move the large sprinklers around the field.

For many of the seasons between 1935 and 1950, the Polo Grounds served as a home to another baseball team besides the Giants — the New York Cubans of the Negro National League (Negro American League after 1948).

The Final Years

Two of the most historic events in the history of baseball took place at the Polo Grounds in the 1950s. In 1951 the Giants completed a great comeback in the race for the National League pennant with a three-game playoff series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Giants had trailed the first-place Dodgers by 13½ games on August 11, but the Giants won 37 of their last 44 scheduled games, and a playoff was needed to determine the league champion.

The teams split the first two games, and the decisive third game was at the Polo Grounds. The Dodgers carried a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but the Giants rallied and had one run in with runners at second and third with one out. Ralph Branca was brought in to relieve Brooklyn starter Don Newcombe. His first pitch to Bobby Thomson was a strike. Thomson turned on the next pitch and lifted a fly toward left. In many, if not all, of the other stadiums in the major leagues, it likely would have been nothing more than a fly out. But this was the Polo Grounds.

As Brooklyn left fielder Andy Pafko stood at the fence, the 315-foot marker near his feet, he stared up helplessly as the fly settled into the lower grandstand, a three-run homer to give the Giants the game, 5-4, and the National League championship.

In the broadcast booths, while Ernie Harwell described the play for television viewers, on the radio side Russ Hodges was shouting into the microphone his rendition that would become a classic in the annals of sports announcing: “The Giants win the pennant . … The Giants win the pennant . …”

Although the Giants couldn’t carry the momentum into the World Series — they lost to the Yankees in six games — Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” remains one of the most famous ever hit and has often been cited as the most memorable moment in baseball history.

But the game above all others that best demonstrates the vagaries of the Polo Grounds — and how the stadium could taketh away as well as giveth — may have been the opener of the 1954 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants at the Polo Grounds.

With the game tied in the eighth inning, Cleveland had runners on first and second with no out when Vic Wertz drilled a tremendous drive to center field. Giants center fielder Willie Mays turned and ran back toward the fence to the right of the alcove. Mays stuck out his glove and, three steps in front of the warning track, caught the fly over his right shoulder. The catch was remarkable, but so was what he did next. Mays was so far away that if he couldn’t get the ball in quickly, Larry Doby would have a chance to tag up and score all the way from second base. Mays spun and heaved the ball back toward the infield as he fell to the ground. Doby was able to get no farther than third on the play and was stranded there by the subsequent Cleveland batters. Thanks to Mays’s great play, the game remained deadlocked.

In the bottom of the 10th inning, with the score still 2-2, the Giants put runners on first and second with one out. Dusty Rhodes, a left-handed batter, pinch-hit for Monte Irvin and lifted a fly to right field. Right fielder Dave Pope drifted over toward the line but quickly came up against the fence. He leaped but the ball came down beyond his reach, into the first row of fans for a game-winning home run.

Dusty Rhodes won the game with a home run that traveled barely 280 feet while, two innings earlier, Vic Wertz sent one well in excess of 400 feet that was nothing more than a long fly out. The Giants went on to sweep the Indians, who had set an American League record with 111 wins during the regular season.

The 1950s turned into a most tumultuous period for fans of the National League baseball teams in New York.

Reports of the possible abandonment of the Polo Grounds had begun in the early 1950s. In the September 1953 Sport magazine, Jack Orr wrote, “There have been recent rumors that the Giants, at the expiration of their current lease in 1962, will turn the tables and become tenants of the Yankees.” That fall, planner Robert Moses — the “master builder” of New York City –suggested that the Giants make the move even sooner than that so the Polo Grounds could be torn down and used for public housing.

Soon the uncertain future of the Polo Grounds was casting shadows on the future of the Giants in New York. The team wasn’t averse to leaving the Polo Grounds. Parking had always been a problem, the stadium was becoming run-down, and the neighborhood was also deteriorating. (Before the start of an Independence Day doubleheader in 1950, a fan in the upper grandstand of the Polo Grounds was even killed by a stray bullet fired from outside the stadium.)

Moving into Yankee Stadium was one alternative. A new ballpark, built by the city, was one that appealed even more to owner Horace Stoneham (who had taken over the team from his father, Charles Stoneham). Soon he was making it clear that the Giants were no longer limiting their options to New York City. Meanwhile, similar threats were being made in Brooklyn. Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, also wanting a new stadium, was viewing the fertile territory on the West Coast as a possible place to play. In turn, Stoneham looked in the same direction, and that’s where both teams ended up. In 1957 Stoneham and O’Malley announced they were moving the Giants and Dodgers to San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively.

On Sunday, September 29, 1957, the Giants brought their history in New York to an end before a crowd of 11,606 at the Polo Grounds.

National League baseball had abandoned New York City — but the two ballparks, Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and the Polo Grounds — remained for several years and were used for a variety of events. Ebbets Field was finally knocked down in February of 1960; the Polo Grounds not only lived on but had a rebirth of sorts.

First, it absorbed a soccer team that had been playing at Ebbets Field. It also obtained a new football tenant, the New York Titans (later renamed the Jets) of the American Football League in 1960. And, by 1962, baseball had even returned. Ironically, by this time, the death warrant for the Polo Grounds had been issued and it was clear that the stadium was in its final years.

This article was adapted from Land of the Giants: New York’s Polo Grounds by Stew Thornley (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000).

Braves Field

By Ray Miller

Braves Field was the site of Boston’s first major-league Sunday game, its first night game, the 1936 All-Star Game, and three World Series. Although it was often derided as too big, too chilly, and too dirty, old Braves fans still declare that, in the early 1950s, at least, it “was the prettiest park in the majors.”1

Between 1876 and 1914, the team that eventually became the Boston Braves played at the South End Grounds, a tiny, out-of-the-way wooden park in north Roxbury.2 By 1914 it was a drab, poorly maintained facility that could not be enlarged because of its location. When New York contractor and Tammany Hall insider James E. Gaffney bought the team in December 1911,3 he made some minor alterations to the grounds4 and started looking for a new ballpark site. Now, everyone knows the saga of the 1914 “Miracle Braves”: In last place on the Fourth of July, they suddenly caught fire, won the pennant going away and swept the defending champion Philadelphia A’s in the World Series. The club led all National League teams in attendance for 1914. James Gaffney now knew just how profitable a pennant-winning baseball team could be — and if they could outdraw their rivals while playing most of their home games in a dump like the South End Grounds, what could they do in a big, modern park that was easier to get to? The time to build was now.

On December 4, 1914, Gaffney announced the purchase of the western portion of the old Allston Golf Club on Commonwealth Avenue, about a mile west of Kenmore Square.5 The size of the lot was 13 acres, and it cost $100,000. Ground was broken on March 20, 1915; the grand opening was originally scheduled for September 1, but work progressed rapidly and it was moved up to August 18. Hailed at the time as “the perfect ballpark” (Boston Globe6), Braves Field did not look much like the other classic parks that were built around this time. First, it lacked the quirky features that urban topography foisted on many of these other facilities (for example, Fenway’s left-field wall); Gaffney felt that these just interfered with the way the game “was meant to be played.” Besides, he loved inside-the-park homers and wanted “the playing field to be so large that it would be possible to hit [them] in any direction.”7 Secondly, the official seating capacity of 40,000 was larger than in any other current baseball stadium. In all, 42,000 “bugs” attended that first game, and later that year World Series attendance records were set there in Games Three and Four, when the Red Sox defeated the Phillies. (The American League team also took over the Braves’ home in 1916, in the first, second, and deciding fifth games vs. Brooklyn.)

Braves Field featured a covered 18,000-seat single-tiered grandstand that curved from first base to third base; this was flanked on either side by enormous mirror-image pavilions, each with unroofed seating on benches for 10,000. Finally, there was a tiny bleacher section in straightaway right that could hold up to 2,000 fans.8 This became Braves Field’s most famous section, known to one and all as the Jury Box, after a waggish sportswriter counted just 12 people in it one day. The playing field had gargantuan dimensions: according to Green Cathedrals, it was over 402 feet down the left-field line; 375 feet in right; 461 feet to straightaway center field; and a jaw-dropping 542 feet to the farthest point in right-center.9 It was surrounded by a 10-foot-high concrete wall, which featured a large scoreboard in left-center.10 Fans entered Braves Field through arches in the stucco ticket office on Gaffney Street, just behind the right-field pavilion. There was also an “in-stadium transportation facility,” courtesy of the Boston Elevated Railway: Trolleys came in from Commonwealth Avenue via Babcock Street and deposited fans onto the same courtyard pedestrians entered through the arches.11 Ed Burns, in his 1937 profile of the park for the Chicago Tribune, asserted that “[e]very seat [in the covered grandstand] gives an excellent view of the entire playing field”;12 and indeed, the expansive roof was supported by only 16 posts, fewer than in other recently built parks, which meant fewer obstructed seats.13

However, there were elements in the design of Braves Field that ultimately affected the fan experience adversely. Gaffney set Braves Field at the back of the lot, down by the Charles River and the Boston & Albany train yards. Fans soon discovered that a chilly east wind frequently blew in off the river, carrying with it dirty smoke from the railroad tracks. (Kaese quips that the team thus did local “cleaners and launderers a good turn.”14) Burns’s testimony notwithstanding, some fans found the sightlines in the facility less than ideal: “The grandstand had a very gradual slope to it. So consequently people sitting in these seats had difficulty seeing the action.”15 Half of the seating was on benches and exposed to the elements in those vast pavilions, and fans sitting toward the top of these were far from the action: Bob Ruzzo estimates that there was a whopping quarter of a mile between the top rows of the left- and right-field stands.

Between 1916 and 1944 the team changed hands four times. None of these ownership groups was financially strong or willing to spend money to make the team a winner. For the most part, throughout the 1920s and ’30s, “the Braves were broke”16 and could not afford to maintain the park in good condition. What is more, the style of baseball people wanted to see had changed forever about five years after the cavernous park opened. To put it mildly, Braves Field was not built for the power game inaugurated by Babe Ruth and the lively ball. The first time a batted ball left the park was on May 26, 1919, when Walton Cruise of the Cardinals put one into the Jury Box. No one cleared the left-field wall on the fly until Frank Snyder of the Giants did it on May 28, 1925, almost 10 years after Braves Field opened. It is no wonder that “Braves Field became a deserted village”17 at this time.

Starting in 1928, the Braves tried various stratagems to make their stadium feel cozier for hitters and fans. Inside fences were built, bleachers were added in left and center, home plate was moved around. The outfield dimensions changed — literally — on almost an annual basis into the 1940s, and Braves Field never looks the same in any two photographs from this period.18 Meanwhile, home plate was turned to the right in 1928, moved 15 feet closer to the backstop in 1936, then tilted right again in 1937. When they moved the dish in 1937, they had to blast a notch out of the right-field pavilion in order to accommodate the shifted foul line. After bleachers appeared in front of the distant left-field wall, a new scoreboard was built over the Jury Box, where it remained till the team left town.

Important events transpired in Braves Field in the 1920s and ’30s. This was where Joe Oeschger of the Braves dueled Leon Cadore of the Brooklyn Robins for 26 innings on May 1, 1920, the longest game by innings in major-league history. The first Sunday games ever played in Boston took place here early in 1929.19 Babe Ruth joined the Braves in 1935, and homered and singled off Carl Hubbell at Braves Field on Opening Day. In 1936 ownership tried to change the team’s fortunes by renaming them the Bees; that prompted the temporary rechristening of the ballpark as National League Field, although “The Beehive” inevitably became its unofficial nickname.20 The Bees hosted the All-Star Game that year on July 7. The National League won its first-ever All-Star Game, 4-3, defeating Lefty Grove. (Unfortunately, a newspaper had mistakenly reported that the game was sold out, although there were plenty of pavilion seats available, and only 25,556 people showed up — the smallest crowd in All-Star Game history.) Finally, Burns adds some interesting details about the Braves Field experience in the ’30s: the right-field pavilion was a haven for gamblers; the park featured “the only concession stand in the majors which carrie[d] a full line of chewing tobacco”; and the press box on the grandstand roof was “ ‘Earache alley’ — the noisiest … in baseball.”21

In early 1944 three of the franchise’s stockholders got “sick and tired of putting money into a constantly losing proposition”22 and bought out the rest of the syndicate. Lou Perini, Guido Rugo, and C.J. Maney were wealthy local contractors who made every effort to make the club (by then once again called the Braves) a winning proposition, on the field and at the gate.23 Starting in May 1944, the aggressive new owners made the physical renovations to Braves Field that gave it the appearance best remembered today. They shortened the distances in the outfield by installing a graceful two-level wooden inner wall from the corner of the left-field pavilion to right-center, and put a low chain-link fence in front of the Jury Box. Light towers were installed for 1946, and the first night game ever played in Boston was held on May 11.24 To improve the sightlines from the grandstand, the plate was once more turned to the right for 1946, and the infield was lowered 18 inches during a two-week road trip in June 1947.25 A huge new scoreboard was installed in left field for the 1948 season; and “Sky View Boxes” on the grandstand roof were also added around this time.26 Finally, the upper half of the inner wall was removed in left center in 1951, and fir trees planted behind the lower fence.27 Perini et al. also introduced the intangible changes that made the stadium the beloved “Wigwam” fondly remembered today: New publicity director Billy Sullivan introduced Fan Appreciation Day and the “Braves Minstrels,” who serenaded fans throughout the park; the Braves gave away cars and teamed up with local hotels and restaurants on special promotions for night games.28 Concessions were upgraded, and came to include “the best fried clams … in all baseball.”29

The pinnacle was reached in 1948, when the Braves won their first pennant in 34 years and hosted the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. Three games were played at the Wigwam, the Braves taking Game One and dropping the other two, including the decisive Game Six. The team set a home attendance record by drawing over 1.45 million fans. Overall, 5,970,324 people visited Braves Field between 1946 and 1950, the only stretch in the park’s history during which the team was able to exploit its large seating capacity so profitably.30 Alas, this momentum could not be maintained. In 1951, the Braves finished fourth, but drew only 487,475 fans to their home games; that was fewer than any other NL team, half as many as they had drawn in 1950. The 1952 experience was even worse. They finished seventh, and had a home attendance of 281,278. Lou Perini finally threw in the towel and moved to Milwaukee immediately before the start of the 1953 season.

Boston University purchased Braves Field on July 29, 1953. The Terriers football team played home games in a virtually unaltered Braves Field until 1955, when over the course of several months the inside walls were removed, and the Jury Box and left-field pavilion were torn down. The old grandstand was finally razed in late November 1959. The football field was then realigned to run parallel to the right-field pavilion, which now became the southern grandstand. Eventually, dormitories and the Case Athletic Center were built where the grandstand and left-field pavilion had once stood, and the facility was renamed Nickerson Field. Meanwhile, the distinctive ticket office became the headquarters of the BU campus police department. It was last renovated in July 2009, when a four-lane track was put in around the playing field. Now, BU boasts that Nickerson Field is “a 10,412 seat, FIFA-approved Field Turf facility.”31

You can still take a tour of Braves Field. More of it was left than any of the other classic steel-and-concrete ballparks built between 1909 and 1923 and subsequently abandoned. The old office building and right-field pavilion still stand.32 Ralph Evans is able to indicate exactly what remains of the old plant and what was subsequently added by Boston University, and he can point out the approximate location of home plate, the third-base dugout, where the grandstand wall stood, and other important points of reference.33

Sources

“Atlanta Braves Team History & Encyclopedia,” Baseball Reference.com

baseball-reference.com/teams/ATL/

Vincent, David W., ed. Home Runs in the Old Ballparks (Cleveland: SABR, 1995).

Notes

1 Quote is from an interview with Ralph Evans of the Boston Braves Historical Association conducted on May 21, 1997; see Ray Miller, A Tour of Braves Field (Boston: Boston Braves Historical Association, 2000), 11.

2 For a brief history of the park, see Miller, “South End Grounds” in The Northern Game — and Beyond (SABR, 2002), 36-38.

3 See Bob Ruzzo, “Braves Field: An Imperfect History of the Perfect Ballpark” (originally published in the Baseball Research Journal Vol. 41, No. 2 [Fall 2012], 50-60), for more on Gaffney and the details of the purchase of the Boston NL franchise.

4 Harold Kaese, The Boston Braves (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1948), 129.

5 Ruzzo, “Braves Field: An Imperfect History,” includes details of this real-estate purchase in footnote 21. (Kaese states on page 173 that Gaffney’s big announcement came on December 1). The state eventually built the Commonwealth Armory on the eastern half of the golf course. A familiar landmark standing directly across from the right-field wall, the armory was demolished in 2002 to make way for Boston University’s Student Village.

6 “Here’s How the Braves’ New Park in Allston Will Look,” Boston Globe, March 9, 1915; quoted in Ruzzo, “Braves Field: An Imperfect History.”

7 Kaese, 173.

8 On the structure of Braves Field, see (inter alia) Miller, A Tour of Braves Field, 4.

9 Philip J. Lowry, Green Cathedrals (New York: Walker & Co., 2006), 32. Ballpark Sourcebook (Oscar A. Palacios et al. Ballpark Sourcebook [Skokie, Illinois: STATS Publishing, 1998], 17) generally agrees: it has 402 feet, 375 feet, 440 feet, and 550 feet respectively. Michael Gershman, Diamonds. The Evolution of the Ballpark (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1993), 130, displays a photograph taken during the 1916 World Series: it clearly shows a low fence extending from the Jury Box to the center-field wall and cutting off the deepest corner from the rest of the field. Whether this was a permanent arrangement or set up for the standing-room Series crowd is unclear.

10 See photo in Lawrence S. Ritter, Lost Ballparks (New York: Viking Penguin, 1992), 20.

11 Consult Ruzzo, “Imperfect History,” and Bob Brady, “A Streetcar Named Braves Field” (Boston Braves Historical Association Newsletter, Spring 2010, 4-5), for specific details of the Braves Field trolley service.

12 From the series “Burns-Eye Views of Big Time Parks,” by Ed Burns of the Chicago Tribune. There were 15 one-page articles in all, one for each park. (Sportsman’s Park served both St. Louis teams; League Park and Cleveland Municipal Stadium are covered together in article No. 11.) They contain Burns’s own rather whimsical drawings of each park’s layout (with several captions), plus two columns of text that combine factual data with the author’s editorial comments. The website Behind the Bag has digitalized versions of Nos. 1-11 in the “Burns-Eye-View” series at behindthebag.net/category/burns-eye-views-of-big-time-parks/; uploaded to the site on April 20, 2013; they are given in descending order, which means you need to scroll all the way down for the Braves stadium (referred to by Burns as “National League Park”), which was first in the series. The article was originally published in the Chicago Tribune on June 6, 1937, on page B4.

13 See Lowry, Green Cathedrals (first edition, Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1992), 113.

14 Kaese, 173; Marazzi, “Four decades after their departure, the Braves (and their park) are fondly remembered by fans” (Sports Collectors Digest, September 29, 1995), 91.

15 Marazzi, 91. Ralph Evans vehemently disagrees with the allegation of faulty sightlines, but he remembers the more “fan-friendly” Braves Field of the last years.

16 Al Hirshberg, The Pick and the Shovel (Boston: Waverly House, 1948), 31.

17 Hirshberg, 38.

18 See Lowry, Green Cathedrals, 32, which contains graphic proof that the dimensions varied wildly in the periods between the years chosen for reference! By the way, after the renovations of 1937, the right-field foul pole stood 376 feet from home plate.

19 The Braves were supposed to play the first Sunday game ever in Boston on April 21, 1929, but the game was rained out. It was the Red Sox, in the end, who had the privilege, losing to the A’s in Braves Field on April 28. (Due to a provision of the new law that still forbade Sunday ball in fields close to churches, the Sox had to play their Sunday home games at Braves Field till May 1932. See Kaese, 211.) The Braves finally played their first Sunday home game on May 5, 1929.

20 Bob Brady points out (email of December 5, 2014) that the full official name emblazoned on the ticket office/administration building during the “Bees” era was “National League Baseball Field”; but Burns uses the shorter name in his 1937 ballpark profile, and this is also what is listed as an alternate name of the facility in Green Cathedrals, 31. To further muddy the waters here, both Hirshberg (71) and Kaese (236) write that Braves Field was called “National League Park” at this time.

21 “Burns-Eye-Views of Big Time Parks,” Chicago Tribune, 1937.

22 Hirshberg, 117.

23 On Perini, Rugo, and Maney, see Hirshberg, 116-25; and Kaese, 254-69.

24 Kaese, 263; aerial views of “The Wigwam” at night can be seen in old newsreel footage included in the short Boston University video “Remembering the Wigwam: Braves Field and Nickerson Field,” which can be accessed on YouTube at youtube.com/watch?v=r9q-MdefG-c.

25 Kaese, 263. Also Hirshberg, 180, who adds that this “job … was done while a rodeo was performed at Braves Field”!

26 None of the sources consulted state when exactly the boxes were installed on the grandstand roof, but Brady, in his November 15, 2014, email, informed us that the building of the “Skyview Boxes” was announced in a late 1947 issue of the team’s publication, the Braves Bulletin. Originally, they were only on the first-base side of the roof; a late 1948 issue of the Bulletin declared that Sky Views were being added to the third-base side for 1949. Also compare the two versions of the drawing of Braves Field by Gene Mack. The first was published in The Sporting News on January 15, 1947, 11, and shows no left-field scoreboard or seats on the grandstand roof; the second was a later revision, and is reproduced in National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Yearbook for 1984, 53; it shows what is labeled the “new scoreboard” and the Sky View box seats on the first-base side of the roof, and mentions the Braves pennant of 1948. We have not yet found publishing information for this later drawing; the 1984 Hall of Fame yearbook only states on 53 that this and the other ballpark cartoons it is reproducing are “courtesy of Mrs. Ruth (Mack) O’Toole.” The original drawings of 1946-47 can be viewed at baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?84778-1946-47-Sporting-News-Sketches-of-Major-League-Parks-by-Gene-Mack-Full-Set-of-14.

27 Marazzi, 91. The date is from the interview with Ralph Evans.

28 For more on Sullivan’s many promotions, see Kaese, 262-64, 268; Hirshberg, 178-85; Marazzi, 91; also George Sullivan, “Memories of Braves Field” (Boston Globe: “Sports Plus,” September 30, 1977), 18.

29 See the first edition of Philip J. Lowry, Green Cathedrals (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1992), 112.

30 Total home attendance for this five-year period was 5,728,659; we have subtracted the home attendance for the games of April 28, 1946, when the Braves used Fenway Park after the “Wet Paint Incident” of Opening Day. The only years they drew over 1,000,000 in Boston were 1947-1949. All attendance figures in this article are from the Braves’ Team Encyclopedia on the website baseball-reference.com.

31 See the page on the Boston University Athletics website: goterriers.com/facilities/nickerson.html. For more of the history of Nickerson Field from a BU perspective, see the article “Remembering the Wigwam” on the university website, at bu.edu/today/2012/braves-field-remembering-the-wigwam-2/. During the late 1990s, when Ralph Evans and this author collaborated on the print edition of his annual Braves Field tour, there was concern that BU was going to tear down all of what was left of the old ballpark. See Miller, A Tour of Braves Field, 11.

32 See Bob Brady, “Going, Going …” in Boston Braves Historical Association Newsletter, summer 2010, 4.

33 Evans says “he paced every square foot” of the park after starting to work as the BU clubhouse boy in 1955: “I would come to work early and just walk the park up and down.” He also was able to study the original blueprints.

Ebbets Field

By Peter Seidel

Even after the city of Brooklyn consolidated with New York, Queens, Richmond, and Bronx Counties to form New York City as we know it today, its residents continue to proudly identify themselves as Brooklynites rather than New Yorkers. Perhaps no team has ever identified more and aroused the passion of its community more than the Brooklyn Dodgers. And their home for 45 seasons was their cathedral, Ebbets Field. This elegant ballpark had some auspicious beginnings.

Dodgers owner Charlie Ebbets began looking for a permanent home to replace the old wooden Washington Park, which met the same fate as many of the older wooden ballparks: fire. The original Washington Park was situated between Third and Fifth Streets and Fourth and Fifth Avenues. The grounds had been the site of critical engagements between the Colonists and the British in the Battle of Brooklyn during the Revolutionary War.1 The team was then known as the Atlantics, then Hanlon’s Superbas. However, thanks to the trolley-car tracks that surrounded the park, the team would soon be known as the Trolley Dodgers or simply the Dodgers.2 In 1905 Ebbets began to slowly and somewhat secretly purchase parcels of land in a rundown section of Flatbush known as Pigtown, “where pigs roamed free, rummaging through the garbage dump.”3 Ebbets purchased these lots secretively fearing that if his intentions were known the cost of the lots would dramatically increase. Ebbets had wanted to build on the site of Washington Park but the cost was prohibitive.4

Construction began on March 14, 1912, about one month before Fenway Park and Wrigley Field opened. Ebbets wanted to start sooner, but a brutal winter delayed construction for several months. After the park opened, Ebbets admitted that he had “bitten off more than he could chew.”5 While Ebbets had an architectural background and was a capable manager of a ballclub, taking on the role of general contractor was a mistake. In addition to the poor weather, “problems with sewers, municipal approvals, labor woes, and steel deliveries hampered construction even more.”6 As the cold eased, there were issues with excavating thanks to “mud and more mud.”7 Tom Rice of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle quipped that fans would need “to wear hip boots and take a walking stick.”8 The total cost of the construction of Ebbets Field was $750,000.

On April 9, 1913, Pigtown was transformed into a magnificent baseball palace that Ebbets would name after himself.9 Originally the park was to be called Washington Park, but at the groundbreaking ceremony a Brooklyn reporter heckled, “Call it Ebbets Field, Charlie. You put yourself in hock to build it, and it’s your monument.”10 The Dodgers opened the season against the Phillies and lost 1-0 because of a dropped fly ball in the first inning.11 Four days earlier, the Dodgers had beaten the Yankees in an exhibition game, 3-2, thanks to a home run by Dodgers outfielder Casey Stengel.12 The official home opener was a sign of how the 1913 season would fare for the Dodgers; they finished in sixth place, 34½ games out of first place winning only 65 games and losing 84. It was their 10th straight losing season. The team improved enough to win the National League pennant in 1916 and again in 1920. The manager was Wilbert Robinson and the team was affectionately known during this era as the Robins.

Ebbets Field was a glorious ballpark. Its nerve center was a brick building with arches lined around the exterior. Fans purchased tickets at gilded ticket windows. Above the ticket windows were white block letters that read “EBBETS FIELD.” Patrons entered through a rotunda of Italian marble featuring floors lined with baseball stitches and a 27-foot-high domed ceiling with chandeliers featuring baseball-bat arms and baseball-shaped globes. The ballpark seated 23,000. The double-decked grandstand extended all the way down the right-field line but not completely down the left-field line. Part of the grandstand in left field was single-decked.13

Not all was perfect with the new ballpark on Opening Day; the flag and keys to the outfield bleachers were missing.14 Also absent was a press box, which was not built until 1929.

The lack of outfield seating initially made Ebbets Field a pitcher-friendly park. That changed in the 1920s when a seating section was added in left field. In 1932 the double-deck grandstand was extended from third base to the left-field foul pole, then across to center field. In the 1930’s a scoreboard was built in right field, and it became tougher for left-handed hitters to hit home runs. But the continual adding of seats in the outfield transformed Ebbets Field into one of the most hitter-friendly parks in baseball, so much so that when Duke Snider learned that the Dodgers were going to move, he wept.15

The dimensions of Ebbets Field changed quite a bit over the years. When the ballpark opened it was 301 feet to the right-field foul pole, 421 feet to the left-field foul pole, 450 feet to center field, and nearly 500 feet from home plate to the deepest part of the outfield. One of the interesting quirks of Ebbets Field was that due to its diamond shape, left-center field was only 356 feet from home plate. Right-center field was only 352 feet away. After the grandstands were extended in 1932, left field was shortened to 353 feet. The deepest part of the outfield in center field became 414 feet while the right-field foul pole was only 297 feet from home plate. While left-center field remained 365 feet away, the new scoreboard brought right-center field a little closer to home, 344 feet to 318 from left to right. The fences continued to move inward and by 1947 deep center field had moved from 447 feet to 399 feet from home plate. By then, there wasn’t an outfield fence over 400 feet away from home plate. The additional seats and grandstands increased capacity from 23,000 in 1913 to 34,000 in 1941.16

Other interesting elements made Ebbets Field a unique ballpark. For example, the right-center-field wall was concave and stuck out at the bottom. It was 19 feet high and was topped by a 19-foot wire screen that was in play. The scoreboard in right field actually stuck out by five feet. On top of the scoreboard was a Schaeffer beer sign that lit up “h” for hit and “e” for error when the official scorer made a decision. The famous billboard in left field that advertised Abe Stark suits was 30 feet long but only 3 feet high. The sign read “Hit Sign Win Suit” and the retailer awarded a free suit to any player who hit the sign on the fly. Mel Ott of the hated Giants was the first player to hit the sign and win a free suit.

After winning the pennant in 1920, the Dodgers were a second-division team for most of the 1920s and the 1930s. Throughout this period some historic moments occurred at Ebbets Field, not all in the Dodgers’ favor. On September 16, 1924, Cardinals first baseman Jim Bottomley went 6-for-6 with two home runs and one double and drove in a record 12 runs in a 17-3 Dodgers loss. (The record still stands as of 2015; it was matched in 1993 by Mark Whitten.) That low point came during a season in which the Dodgers had their best team of the era, finishing with a 92-62 record, good enough for second place, 1½ games behind the Giants.

On August 15, 1926, three Dodgers were caught standing on third base, and two were tagged out. With runners on first and third and one out, Babe Herman ripped a clean double to right field. Dazzy Vance, who was on third base, thought that Herman’s ball was going to be caught and held up. When Vance realized the ball wasn’t caught, he was trapped between third and home and retreated back to third base. Meanwhile, Chick Fewster had rounded second and slid into third base. When he saw Vance standing there, Fewster stepped off third base thinking he was automatically out and was promptly tagged out by Boston Braves third baseman Eddie Taylor. Meanwhile Herman had rounded second and headed to third, where he too was tagged out. But the Braves were even more hapless than the Dodgers, who swept a doubleheader that day.17

On September 21, 1934, the Dean brothers both pitched complete-game shutouts against the Dodgers. Dizzy Dean started the first game and surrendered only three hits as the Cardinals won a 13-0 blowout victory. His younger brother Paul outdid Dizzy by throwing a no-hitter in the second game for a 3-0 Cardinals win.

By 1938 lights were installed and night baseball debuted at Ebbets Field on June 15. Johnny Vander Meer pitched for the Reds and tossed his historic second consecutive no-hitter.

The Dodgers’ fortunes changed in 1939 when their second baseman, Leo Durocher, became the manager. They won the pennant in 1941 after a 21-year World Series drought. From 1941 through 1956 Ebbets Field hosted seven World Series.

In addition to great baseball games, there were other historic moments at Ebbets Field. On August 26, 1939, the ballpark was the site of the first-ever televised major-league baseball game, as the Dodgers split a doubleheader with the Reds. The World’s Fair was held in New York in 1939 and the doubleheader was a showcase of America’s advances in the new technology. While the ball couldn’t be seen and the swinging bat resembled a paper fan, it was still a technological breakthrough. Owners were leery of broadcasting games on television, fearing a loss of ticket sales, but they eventually realized the revenue potential in selling broadcast rights and ads. The game was broadcast on W2XBS, which became WNBC-TV.18

The 1939 season also saw the debut of the Brooklyn Sym-Phony (accent on “Phony”) band, a crew of musicians who walked through the grandstand playing music that made fun of everybody but the Dodgers. The Brooklyn Sym-Phony cacophony added a lot of fun to the atmosphere at the ball park. “That first year, Dodgers management did not want us at the ballpark,” trumpet player Danny Wilson recalled. “They felt we were a nuisance, but the players and the fans loved us.”19 Rachel Robinson reminisced, “The Sym-Phony was one of the things people loved about Ebbets Field. They provided a kind a special character and loving warmth that few other ballparks had, so I’d recognize them anywhere.”20

The Sym-Phony was predated by Hilda Chester, one of the original baseball superfans, who sat in the bleachers banging a cowbell and yelling encouragement to the Dodgers. She would start the festivities yelling, “Hilda is here!”21

The most important moment at Ebbets Field occurred without a doubt on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson made his major-league debut and broke baseball’s color barrier. Robinson batted second, played first base, and scored a run in a 5-3 Dodgers victory over the Braves. Robinson led the league in stolen bases and sacrifice hits and won the 1947 National League Rookie of the Year Award.

The Dodgers won the pennant in 1947 and lost the World Series again to the New York Yankees. The highlight for the Dodgers came in Game Four when Cookie Lavagetto hit a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the ninth — the only hit off Yankees pitcher Bill Bevens — to give the Dodgers a 3-2 victory and knot the series at two games apiece.

That 1947 season was the start of six National League pennants in 10 years. The first four (1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953) all resulted in heartbreaking World Series losses to the hated Yankees.

The 1952 Dodgers team dominated the National League, scoring a league-leading 775 runs. The Bums truly flexed their offensive muscle away from Ebbets Field, where they won 51 out of 75 games. On May 21 the Dodgers scored a record 15 first-inning runs en route to a 19-1 throttling of the Reds.

Things were different in 1955 as the Dodgers finally won the World Series, in seven games, beating their longtime tormenters the Yankees. Games Three, Four, and Five were played at Ebbets Field and the Dodgers won all three. The highlight of the Series occurred at Yankee Stadium when Jackie Robinson stole home in Game One. The Dodgers won the decisive Game Seven at Yankee Stadium.

The Dodgers met the Yankees again in 1956 only to lose again in a World Series highlighted by Don Larsen’s perfect game.

In spite of the great success of the Dodgers on the field, Ebbets Field started to show its wear and tear. The concrete and steel infrastructure was no longer sound, there was bad plumbing, and the community was in decline. After World War II ended in 1945, people began moving out of the cities into the suburbs and wanted to drive to ballgames. There wasn’t adequate parking to meet that demand. In 1952 Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley unveiled plans for a new stadium with a seating capacity of 56,000 and a domed roof. The proposed stadium was to be built in the Atlantic Yards section of Brooklyn, which eventually became the site of the Barclays Center and the NBA Brooklyn Nets. O’Malley’s biggest obstacle was powerful New York City Building Commissioner Robert Moses, who refused to allow him to develop the Atlantic Yards property. Moses countered with a site in Flushing Meadows in Queens that eventually became the site of the Mets’ ballpark, Shea Stadium. O’Malley refused Moses’ offer, insisting that the Brooklyn Dodgers would not become the Queens Dodgers.22

In an attempt to gain leverage over Moses, O’Malley had the Dodgers play several home games at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey, during the 1956 and 1957 seasons, but Moses refused to budge. O’Malley sold Ebbets Field to real-estate developer Marvin Kratter in 1956. Kratter leased Ebbets Field to the Dodgers in 1957. After the 1957 season, the Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles. Kratter demolished Ebbets Field in 1960 and built the Ebbets Field Apartments, which were renamed the Jackie Robinson Apartments in 1972.

Ebbets Field’s legacy remains today, as Mets owner Fred Wilpon borrowed much of the aesthetics of the old ball park when he built Citi Field, the new home of the New York Mets.

Sources

Besides the works cited in the Notes, the author also consulted the following:

Golenbock, Peter. Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1984).

Kahn, Roger. The Boys of Summer (New York: Signet, 1972).

Marzano, Rudy. The Last Years of the Brooklyn Dodgers: A History, 1950-1957 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. 2008).

SABR Baseball Biography Project. sabr.org/bioproject.

Notes

1 Washington Park (baseball), covehurst.net/ddyte/brooklyn/washington_park.html (Accessed January 10, 2016).

2 Timeline|Los Angeles Dodgers|1890s. http://mlb.mlb.com/la/history/timeline.jsp (Accessed September 29, 2015).

3 Josh Leventhal, Take Me Out to the Ballpark: An Illustrated Tour of Baseball Parks Past and Present (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 2000), p. 32

4 Ebbets Field — history, photos and more of the Brooklyn Dodgers former ballpark. n.d. ballparksofbaseball.com/past/EbbetsField.htm (Accessed September 25, 2015)

5 John G. Zinn and Paul G. Zinn, Ebbets Field: Essays and Memories of Brooklyn’s Historic Ballpark, 1913-1960 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, YEAR), p. 21

6 Ibid, p. 21

7 Ibid. p. 19

8 Ibid. p. 19

9 Ebbets Field Historical Analysis, Baseball Almanac. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/stadium/stadiume.shtml (Accessed September 26, 2015).

10 Dave Anderson, “Ebbets Field’s Echoes: 100th Birthday of Former Ballpark Conjures Memories,” New York Times, April 9, 2013: B13.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

13 Leventhal, p. 32

14 Philip Lowry, Green Cathedrals (New York: Walker & Company, 2006), p. 40

15 Leventhal, p. 33

16 Ebbets Field Historical Analysis by Baseball Almanac.

17 “Freak Play in First Game Features as Robbie’s Men Wallop the Braves Twice,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 16, 1924: p.16.

18 First televised Major League baseball game — August 26, 1939 — HISTORY.COM. history.com/this-day-in-history/first-televised-major-league-baseball-game. Accessed September 30, 2015.

19 Vincent Mallozzi, “Sour Notes Are Sweet for Sym-Phony of Brooklyn,” New York Times, August 14, 2007, p. B2

20 Ibid.

21 Anderson.

22 Bruce W. Dearstyne , The Spirit of New York: Defining Events in the Empire State’s History (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015) p. 232

Crosley Field

By Lon Garber

Crosley Field was the “married” name of Cincinnati’s beloved National League ballpark. Situated at the intersection of Findlay Street and Western Avenue, it lived the first 23 years of its life using its “maiden” name, Redland Field. Then in 1934 Powel Crosley appeared, swept it off its feet and blessed it with his own name.

Immediately after the 1911 season ended, construction crews tore down the wooden Palace of the Fans, clearing the site in only 15 days. Five months and $400,000 later, Redland Field greeted the 26,336 fans who showed up for Opening Day on April 11, 1912. In keeping with a trend started by Shibe Park, Forbes Field, and Comiskey Park, Cincinnati’s new park was built of concrete and steel. Almost 6,000 overflow fans stood in the outfield and in foul territory to watch the Reds inaugurate the new stadium by beating the Chicago Cubs 10-6. Nine days later, both Fenway Park and Tiger Stadium (then called Navin Field) opened for business. Ebbets Field opened the next year.

Redland Field’s exterior architecture was nothing to brag about. It was strictly utilitarian and blended in well with the other brick buildings in the surrounding warehouse and industrial neighborhood. Like all solid citizens, its beauty lay on the inside, not the outside.

The Great Depression took quite a bite out of baseball in Cincinnati, and by 1933 the Cincinnati Reds and Redlands Field were owned by its bank, Central Trust Company.

Central Trust hired Larry MacPhail to run the team. MacPhail’s first priority was to find a buyer for the team. He convinced Powel Crosley in 1934 that unless he purchased the Reds, Cincinnati would lose its team to an out-of-town buyer. Crosley’s decision to buy the team and the stadium was based more on loyalty to Cincinnati than any other factor. Crosley was an entrepreneur who had earned his wealth in the radio and automobile industries. Redland Field was renamed Crosley Field that same year.

MacPhail’s second priority was to increase attendance. For that, he turned to night baseball. The other major-league owners resisted the idea, but MacPhail knew it would work. He’d already done it in Columbus, Ohio, when he ran a minor-league franchise there. Further, night baseball had worked for other minor-league teams, and the Negro leagues had also used portable lights when they played doubleheaders. It had even been tried at Crosley Field when the Reds played an exhibition game against a minor-league team from Dayton. Still, night baseball had never been tried at the major-league level. Trusting his judgment, Crosley spent $50,000 installing more than 600 1,500-watt bulbs atop eight light towers scattered around the ballpark.

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in the White House on the evening of May 24, 1935, the lights lit up Crosley Field like a heavenly host of angels. The Reds won the game and went on to draw 448,247 fans that year, more than double their 1934 attendance. The Reds drew 130,337 of those fans in only seven night games. In spite of its obvious success in Cincinnati, it took more than a decade for the other teams to follow suit. The Chicago Cubs held out until 1988.1

On June 11, 1938, Johnny Vander Meer pitched a no-hitter against the Boston Bees. In the seventh inning, the Bees manager, Casey Stengel, started taunting Johnny about the no-hitter. That’s when Johnny first realized he had a no-no going. The scoreboard didn’t show hits at that time, only runs. Up to that point, he’d faced only one batter over the minimum. He’d walked three batters, but two of them had been caught trying to steal second. Despite Casey’s best attempts to rattle him, Vander Meer mowed down the Bees in the final two innings for his first of two consecutive no-hitters. Four days later he pitched another one against the Brooklyn Dodgers during Ebbets Field’s first night game.

Just a few weeks after that, on July 6, Crosley hosted the sixth All-Star Game. Vander Meer started and tossed three shutout innings. The National League won, 4-1.

In 1939 Mill Creek flooded in April and the Reds had to postpone two games, the first time an MLB game had ever been called off because of flooding. That year the Reds drew a record 981,443 fans and hosted their first World Series since the 1919 Black Sox scandal. This time, the opposing team came to win and the Yankees swept the Reds in four games. Crosley hosted Games Three and Four. With their backs to the wall in Game Four, the Reds led 4-2 going into the ninth inning. Reds shortstop Billy Myers dropped a double-play ball and before the inning ended, the Yankees had tied the game. The Reds committed three errors in the 12th inning and the Yankees won their eighth world championship, and their fourth in a row.

The World Series returned to Cincinnati in 1940 and Crosley hosted the first two games and the last two games of the seven-game series. The Detroit Tigers’ Bobo Newsom beat the Reds 7-2 in Game One, but his father, who had come to watch him pitch, died of a heart attack the same day. Bobo came back to beat the Reds again in Game Five, shutting them out 8-0. With the Series knotted at three games apiece, the Reds finally beat Newsom in Game Seven, 2-1, behind the complete-game pitching of Paul Derringer.

On August 29, 1943, the Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3 and 38,017 fans saw them do it. It was the largest crowd to ever see a game at Crosley Field.

World War II decimated major-league rosters and all teams were searching for replacement players wherever they could find them. The Reds found 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall in nearby Hamilton, Ohio. On June 10, 1944, Nuxhall became the youngest player ever to appear in a major-league game. His reaction: “I was pitching against seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders, kids 13 and 14 years old. ... All of a sudden, I look up and there’s Musial and the likes. It was a very scary situation. … Holy smoke, I’m in trouble now.” He was right. Two hits, four walks, a wild pitch and five runs later, he’d retired only two batters and had an ERA of 67.50. The Reds lost to the Cardinals 18-0. Joe did not return to the majors for eight seasons.2 After his playing days ended, Nuxhall broadcast Reds games for 37 years, partnering with the likes of Waite Hoyt, Al Michaels, and Marty Brennaman.

On June 22, 1947, the impossible almost happened at Crosley Field. That ballpark had already been part of Johnny Vander Meer’s back-to-back no-hitters in 1938 and it was happening again. Ewell Blackwell had no-hit the Boston Braves four days earlier and he’d already gone 8⅓ innings without giving up a hit in this first game of a doubleheader with the Brooklyn Dodgers. If he could somehow scare up two more outs, he would become the second major leaguer to throw back-to-back no-hitters. But the next batter, Eddie Stanky, hit the ball back up the middle, through Blackwell’s legs and into center field for a no-hitter-wrecking single.3

Crosley Field hosted the 20th All-Star Game in 1953. In the early ’50s the American League dominated the World Series (the Yankees won five world championships in a row from 1949 to 1953) and the National League dominated the All-Star Game. So it was no surprise when the National League won the contest, 5-1. The American League scored a run in the ninth inning to avoid the embarrassment of a shutout, but the AL All-stars managed only five hits in the game.4

No one predicted 1961 would be anything more than another disappointing year for the Reds. They’d finished with a losing record in 9 of the previous 11 seasons. Yet something clicked for them that year. Jim O’Toole and Joey Jay had banner seasons. Jim Brosnan and Bill Henry combined for 32 saves. Frank Robinson won the National League MVP award. Before anyone could say Cinderella, the Reds had won 93 games and the National League pennant. Groundskeeper Matty Schwab dressed Crosley Field in its Sunday best in preparation for another World Series appearance.

Unfortunately for the Reds, that was also the year the M&M boys chased Babe Ruth and each other for the single-season home-run record. Along the way the Yankees won 102 games. Crosley hosted Games Three through Five, but the only competitive game was Game Three, with Roger Maris hitting the game-winning home run in the top of the ninth inning.

Crosley Field was much more than the few major events it hosted over the years. For ballparks, as with our relatives, it’s their quirky characteristics that often make them charming and lovable. If so, Crosley Field had charm oozing out of every portal. Its flagpole stood 82 majestic feet above the ground in left-center field. Any ball hitting the pole and caroming back onto the playing field was in play.

The scoreboard grew in size and grandeur over the years and eventually reached 58 feet in height with its signature seven-foot Longines clock perched on top, proudly declaring itself Crosley Field’s “Official Watch.” At the peak of its glory, the Art Deco-style scoreboard was both electronic (balls, strikes, outs, and at bat) and manual (lineups and scores of other games). It took five men to man the board and they once had to scurry when a Wally Post homer crashed through a panel showing second-inning runs, showering them with shards of glass.5

Crosley Field was the only major-league ballpark that had the outfield ground rules painted on its walls. Even the casual fan could clearly see that, “Batted Ball Hitting Wall On Fly To Right Of White Line — Home Run.” Another sign to the right of the scoreboard informed fans that balls trapped beneath it were doubles.6

Crosley’s right-field bleachers had a sunburst sign painted on the rear wall declaring it the “Sun Deck.” For night games, the sign was changed to “Moon Deck.”7

Both the home and visitors’ clubhouses were located in a separate building behind left field. As a result, both teams had to walk among the fans when leaving and entering the field.8

For most of the ballpark’s history, the Superior Towel and Linen Service building formed the backdrop for left field. Most fans referred to it as “The Laundry,” but radio announcer Waite Hoyt called it “Burgerland” whenever someone homered there, in honor of his main broadcast sponsor, Burger Beer. A huge advertising sign crowned the top of the building. Siebler Suits rented the right side of the sign, declaring, “Hit this sign — win a suit.” Wally Post was the best-dressed ballplayer in Cincinnati. He hit the sign 11 times.

In 1953 Crosley added a slice of 700 seats in front of the 366-foot right-field fence that reduced the distance Ted Kluszewski had to hit a home run to 342 feet. Eventually this area became known as the “Goat Run.” The “Goat Run” was taken out in 1958 when Klu was traded to the White Sox.

But surely the signature feature of Crosley Field was the Terrace in front of the left-field wall. It served the same purpose as a warning track, but warning tracks seldom trip the left fielder unfamiliar with their treachery. The Terrace was a 15-degree incline in front of the wall. Many a visiting left fielder found himself flat on the ground as he ran after a fly ball over his head. Babe Ruth had that indignity on May 28, 1935, less than a week before he retired. York Street was four feet higher than the playing field and the steep incline eliminated the need to build a retaining wall to keep the street from falling into the field. In 1935 Marty Schwab added a gentler terrace to both center and right fields to accommodate a tiered effect for standing-room-only crowds.9

The on-the-field Reds players attracted fans to Crosley Field and made them fall in love with the team. But it was the on-the-street and in-the-stands personalities faithfully playing their roles year after year that caused fans to fall in love with the ballpark and the total baseball experience.

Harry Hartman was the public-address announcer for the Reds in the 1930s. Paul Sommerkamp, with his deep, rich voice, took over the job in 1951 and retired in 1985. Paul announced batters for every Cincinnati home game from his field-level seat beside the visitors’ dugout.10 His style never changed: “Now batting fourth for Cincinnati, the first baseman, number 18, Ted Kluszewski … Kluszewski.” He always said the last name twice with a pause in between for fans keeping score.

Ronnie Dale manned Crosley Field’s Hammond organ for decades. During the seventh-inning stretch, fans could count on hearing the “Mexican Hat Dance.”11 When a Red hit a home run, Dale played that player’s signature song. For catcher Ed Bailey, it was “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home.” When Vada Pinson homered, Dale played “Show Me the Vada Go Home,” and “Jingle Bells” accompanied Gus Bell whenever he circled the bases.12

Harry Thobe, a bricklayer from Oxford, Ohio, was the Reds’ super fan for 55 years from 1895 to 1949. He claimed to have never missed an Opening Day. Harry was hard to miss in his white suit, red-striped trousers, one red shoe, one white shoe, straw hat with red band, and his red and white parasol. Harry loved to flash his 12 gold teeth and dance a jig whenever he got excited, which was pretty much all the time. During the 1939 World Series, the Reds allowed 68-year-old Harry to circle the bases before the Crosley Field games and slide into home.

Outside the park, for 50 years (1932-1982) fans at Crosley Field and Riverfront Stadium could expect to hear the voice of “Peanut Jim” Shelton singing “Wanna-bag-o-peanuts? Wanna-bag-o-peanuts.” Dressed in his tuxedo tails, bow tie and stovepipe hat, Peanut Jim roasted the peanuts right on the street in his “Cadillac,” a coal-fired pushcart.13

Beer vendors filled the air with their catchy oral advertising: “Get moody with Hudy,” “Rock and Roll with Hudepohl,” and “Burger Beer here.”

Fenway Park, Tiger Stadium, and Crosley Field (under an assumed name) all opened within a week of one another in 1912. Tiger Stadium lasted until 2000, when it finally yielded to Comerica Park, but Fenway is still going strong. By the late ’60s though, the Reds’ owners decided Crosley Field had reached retirement age. They chose architects Heery & Heery to design a new ballpark on the banks of the Ohio River.

The Reds played their last game at Crosley Field on June 24, 1970, against the Giants. With the team behind 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Johnny Bench hit a game-tying home run and Lee May followed with a game-winning homer. The Reds won their first and last games at Crosley Field. In between, they lost a few.

After the game, no one wanted to leave. So they lingered and sang along while organist Ronnie Dale played his traditional end-of-game songs: “Auld Lang Syne,” “God Bless America,” and “Good Night Sweetheart.” The crowd stuck around until well after 11 P.M., and those who did saw the grounds crew digging up home plate. Mike Dolan handed it to the mayor, who helicoptered it to Riverfront Stadium for installation at its new home, linking the old park to the new.14

After retirement, the City of Cincinnati used Crosley as a vehicle impound lot for two years before demolishing it in the summer of 1972.

But old stadiums who’ve become dear friends never completely die, and loyal fans made sure Crosley Field lived on, even though in a slightly less grandiose fashion. Real-estate agent Larry Luebbers bought parts of Crosley Field at auction and by 1974 had reassembled a facsimile Crosley Field, including advertising and a partial scoreboard, on his farm in northern Kentucky. Larry’s son, Larry Jr., later played for the Reds in parts of three seasons. Luebbers eventually sold the farm and the memorabilia.

But Crosley Field still lives. The fine citizens of Blue Ash, Ohio, built a new facsimile stadium, including a full replica of the final Crosley scoreboard. The Blue Ash Crosley Field still stood as of 2015 and was the focal point of the Blue Ash Sports Center.15

Sources

Boxerman, Burton and Benita. Jews and Baseball: Vol. 1, Entering the American Mainstream, 1871-1948 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009).

Gershman, Michael. Diamonds: The Evolution of the Ballpark (New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1993).

Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 Greg Rhodes and John Erardi, Cincinnati’s Crosley Field: The Illustrated History of a Classic Ballpark (Cincinnati: Cleresy Press, 2009), 6.

2 Rhodes and Erardi, 116-117.

3 sabr.org/bioproj/person/99b3d493. Accessed February 2015.

4 baseball-almanac.com/asgbox/yr1953as.shtml. Accessed February 2015.

5 Rhodes and Erardi, 146.

6 baseball-almanac.com/stadium/st_crosl.shtml.

7 Philip J. Lowry, Green Cathedrals (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1992), 141.

8 ballparkdigest.com/201002132500/major-league-baseball/visits/crosley-field-cincinnati-reds-1. Accessed February 2015.

9 Rhodes and Erardi, 94.

10 Rhodes and Erardi, 113.

11 Steve McLister, Cincinnati Enquirer, April 6, 2012.

12 “Cincinnati Hit Parade,” Sports Illustrated, July 13, 1959: 26.

13 Jim Rohrer, “’Peanut Jim’ Soared Above the Crowd,” Cincinnati Enquirer, January 30, 2012.

14 Rhodes and Erardi, 198-199.

15 blueash-oh.gov/content/87/195/2639/303/default.aspx. Accessed February 2015.

Forbes Field

By Stan Dziurgot

In 1908, Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss, bought a 7-acre plot of land three miles east of downtown Pittsburgh. He wanted to build a ballpark to replace Exposition Park, which had been the Pirates’ home since 1891. Construction of the grandstand started in March 1909; it was built of steel and concrete, unlike other contemporary ballparks, which had wooden grandstands. Scoffers called the venture “Dreyfuss’ Folly” because it was built outside downtown. Built in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, near Schenley Park, it was at the intersection of Bouquet and Sonnott streets near the University of Pittsburgh. Dreyfuss solicited suggestions for the ballpark’s name, and got more than 100,000 letters. He named the ballpark Forbes Field after British General John Forbes, who captured Fort Duquesne from the French in 1758 and renamed it Fort Pitt during the French and Indian Wars.

Forbes Field’s grandstand ran from home plate to just beyond third base. Atop the grandstand was a small third deck with roof boxes that would be the equivalent of today’s luxury boxes. The dimensions of the field were immense even for the Deadball Era. The fence in left center field was 462 feet from home plate. The distance down the left-field line was 360 feet and down the right-field line it was an even further 376 feet. The fence was 12 feet high in left and center field and 9½ feet high in right field. When Forbes Field opened, the distance from home plate to the backstop was 110 feet. It was shortened to 84 feet in 1938 and to 75 feet in 1959. Elevators, ramps, telephones, and restroom attendants were amenities in the new ballpark.

Forbes Field opened on June 30, 1909, for a game against the defending world champion Chicago Cubs, who won the game, 3-2. The new ballpark had a capacity of 25,000 as opposed to Exposition Park’s 16,000. But on Forbes Field’s debut day, because of temporary bleachers and standing room, the attendance was 30,388. The 1909 team, with Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, won the World Series over Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers. The Pirates won two more World Series in their time at Forbes Field. In 1925, with future Hall of Famers Max Carey and Kiki Cuyler, they defeated Walter Johnson and the Washington Senators. In 1960 they topped the New York Yankees in seven games behind Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente and the walk-off home run of Bill Mazeroski. They won the National League pennant in 1927 but were swept in four games by the Yankees in the World Series.

In 1925 two pavilion decks were added to right field to cut the distance from 376 feet to 300 feet. In 1932 a 14.5 foot screen was put up to try to prevent cheap home runs to that area.

Barney Dreyfuss died in 1932 and his son-in-law Bill Benswanger was named club president. Anticipating a pennant in 1938, the club built a covered third deck atop the second deck in the area behind home plate. It came to be known as the Crow’s Nest. Unfortunately for the Pirates, the Cubs, fueled by a famous late-season Homer in the Gloamin dinger by Gabby Hartnett, won the pennant. In 1947, after the Pirates acquired right-handed slugger Hank Greenberg, the bullpens were moved from foul territory to left field, shortening the home-run distance from 365 feet to 335 feet. Left field came to be known as Greenberg Gardens. Hank played only one season for the Pirates, and the area was renamed Kiner’s Korner, for young Pirates slugger Ralph Kiner. After Kiner was traded in 1953, the bullpens went back to foul territory, putting the home-run distance back to 365 feet for the 1954 season.

Other Highlights of Forbes Field

1912: Chief Wilson helped by the ballpark’s spacious dimensions, set the major-league record of 36 triples in a season. As of 2015, the record still stood.

1914: Babe Adams of the Pirates and Rube Marquard of the New York Giants hooked up in a 21-inning game. Both pitchers went the distance. Adams gave up only 12 hits and didn’t walk a batter, but lost the game, 3-1.

1920: The Pirates and Cincinnati Reds played a tripleheader. The Reds won the first two games and the Pirates won the third.

1921: The first major-league game to be broadcast on radio was a Pirates game on KDKA with Harold Arlin at the microphone. Other well-known Pirates broadcasters were Rosey Rowswell and Bob Prince.

1927: The Yankees supposedly psyched out the Pirates before Game One of the World Series with a massive display of power in batting practice that would lead to a four-game Yankees sweep.

1925: Glenn Wright of the Pirates turned an unassisted triple play. The feat was duplicated by Jimmy Cooney of the Cubs in 1927.

1932: The Pirates held their first Ladies Day; they played the first night game at Forbes Field in 1940.

1930s: Padding was added to the outfield walls.

1930s and ’40s: The Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues played many games in Forbes Field. Hall of Fame catcher Josh Gibson played for both the Grays and Crawfords.

1935: Babe Ruth had his last big moment in the major leagues when he hit three home runs in a game at Forbes Field. The last one, Babe’s homer Number 714, was the first ball to clear the ballpark’s right-field roof.

1936: Chuck Klein of the Philadelphia Phillies hit four home runs in a 10-inning game at Forbes Field.

1943: In support of the war effort, a 32-foot-high statue of a Marine was placed in left field, on the field of play. Around that time period a 27-foot-high hand-operated scoreboard was built in left field with a large clock on top advertising Western Union and later Longines.

1944: Forbes Field hosted its first All-Star Game. It hosted a second in 1959.

1951: The movie “Angels in the Outfield” was filmed at Forbes Field.

1955: A statue of Honus Wagner was erected in Schenley Park, next to Forbes Field.

1960: Forbes Field had its most famous moment when Bill Mazeroski hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game Seven of the World Series to win the championship for the Pirates over the Yankees. That year Pirates shortstop Dick Groat was the National League’s Most Valuable Player.

1963: The Alou brothers, Felipe, Jesus, and Matty, played in the same outfield for the San Francisco Giants at Forbes Field.

1970: The capacity of the ballpark was now 35,000. The Pirates played their last games at Forbes Field on June 28. An overflow crowd of 40,918 saw them sweep a doubleheader from the Cubs. They then moved to their new ballpark, Three Rivers Stadium. Forbes Field was torn down in 1971.

In more than 4,700 games at the ballpark, a no-hitter was never pitched. The Pirates won the World Series in 1971 in their new ballpark; the Series was highlighted by the first World Series night game.

Home plate of Forbes Field is emplaced under glass in the lobby of the University of Pittsburgh’s Forbes Quadrangle building, in the exact spot where it was in Forbes Field. Sections of the outfield wall were preserved, and a plaque marks the place where Mazeroski’s home run went out of the park.

Mike Sandlock played his last major-league season as a Pittsburgh Pirate in 1953. The team, managed by Fred Haney, had a record of 50-104. (This was an improvement from 1952, when the team went 42-112.) Branch Rickey was the Pirates’ general manager, and among Sandlock’s teammates were Joe Garagiola and former football Heisman Trophy winner Vic Janowicz. Sandlock played 64 games in 1953; he had 15 passed balls. That could be a reflection of the dimensions of Forbes Field.

Sources

Benswanger, William E. Forbes Field 60th Birthday Picture Album (1969).

Deutsch, Jordan, Richard M. Cohen, Roland T. Johnson, and David S. Neft. The Scrapbook History of Baseball (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Publishing, 1975).

Leventhal, Josh. Take Me Out to the Ballpark (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2003).

Ritter, Lawrence. Lost Ballparks — A Celebration of Baseball’s Legendary Fields (New York: Penguin Group, 1992).

Sportsman’s Park (St. Louis)

By Scott Ferkovich

From the days when amateur baseball clubs first laid out a rough diamond at the corner of Grand and Dodier in St. Louis in the mid-1860s, until the Cardinals played their final game at Busch Stadium a century later, the fabled grounds were witness to some great baseball.

In the 19th century several teams called Grand and Dodier home. The first professional circuit, the National Association of Professional Baseball Players, had a St. Louis entry in 1875, known as the Brown Stockings. They played at a park called the Grand Avenue Ball Grounds, which was really nothing fancier than a single grandstand for the paying customers. The league folded after that year.

The park’s name was changed to Sportsman’s Park in 1876 with the arrival of the St. Louis Brown Stockings, a charter member of the new National League. After the 1877 season, the Brown Stockings went bankrupt, and the city was without a professional baseball team for four years.

In 1882 the new American Association was formed, with yet another St. Louis Brown Stockings team. Soon the name was shortened to Browns. They were led by young player-manager Charles Comiskey, and finished in first place from 1885 through 1888. The team’s owner was German-American saloonkeeper Chris von der Ahe, who renovated Sportsman’s Park. By keeping ticket prices low, the Browns were annually among the league leaders in attendance, and their fans were left with more money to spend on beer at games. Von der Ahe was a born promoter. In an effort to sell even more brew, he put up a beer garden in the right-field corner at Sportsman’s Park, which, oddly enough, was in play. Eventually the rules were changed so that a ball hit into the beer garden was a home run.

The American Association folded after 1891, and the Browns rejoined the National League. Grand and Dodier, however, sat vacant for the remainder of the decade, as the Browns moved to another location in the city.

With the dawning of the new century came an upstart new “major” league, Ban Johnson’s American League, which featured an entry in Milwaukee called the Brewers. After struggling in 1901, its only year in the Cream City, the franchise moved to St. Louis, changed its name to the Browns, and played at the newly refurbished Sportsman’s Park at Grand and Dodier.

Like most venues of the era, Sportsman’s Park was a wooden structure, susceptible to fires. But in the winter of 1908-09, the Browns’ ballpark underwent an extensive renovation, and by Opening Day of 1909 it featured a double-decked (and fireproof) concrete and steel grandstand. A covered single-deck grandstand extended down the left-field line. The outfield was ringed by single-decked wooden bleachers. The seating capacity was listed as 24,040.

The National League’s St. Louis Cardinals, the descendants of the Brown Stockings, had for years played at League Park, an outmoded and inadequate facility (the last wooden park, in fact, used by a major-league team). In July 1920 the Cardinals, together with Browns owner Phil Ball, worked out an arrangement that allowed the Cardinals to move into Sportsman’s Park as tenants. The Cardinals’ offices were located at 3623 Dodier, the Browns’ around the corner at 2911 North Grand. Both teams called Sportsman’s Park home until the Browns left town for Baltimore after the 1953 season.

The end of World War I brought an attendance boom to baseball in the early 1920s. To make room for more fans, Ball spent $500,000 to renovate the old ballpark. By the end of 1925 the park had taken on the form that it would assume for the rest of its days. The second deck now ran all the way down both foul lines. The old wooden bleachers in the outfield were replaced by concrete stands, including a covered pavilion from the right-field foul line to the center-field bleachers. The outfield distances were 351 feet to left field, 426 to dead center, and a mere 310 feet to right. The seating capacity was listed as 30,500. The short distance to the right-field fence necessitated the addition in 1929 of one of the quirkiest features of the park: a 25-foot screen atop the 11½-foot wall that extended 156 feet toward center, ending at the 354-foot mark in right-center.

The move by the Cardinals to bigger and better digs was the catalyst that forever changed the landscape of professional baseball in St. Louis. It was perhaps the most fortuitous decision the Cardinals franchise ever made. For the first two decades of the 20th century, neither the Browns nor the Cardinals fielded particularly competitive teams. After their second-place finish in their inaugural American League season in 1902, the Browns never placed that high again until 1922. The Cardinals, meanwhile, didn’t fare much better, never topping third place from 1900 to 1925. But relocating to Sportsman’s Park allowed Sam Breadon, the owner of the Cardinals, to sell League Park, the club’s former home. Branch Rickey, the team’s manager at the time, used the money to create baseball’s first farm system. By being able to develop homegrown talent on minor-league teams that they owned, the Cardinals became one of the more progressive teams in baseball.

As a result, the fortunes of the two St. Louis teams went in opposite directions. From 1926, when the Cardinals went to their first World Series, until early in the 1966 season, when they abandoned the Sportsman’s Park neighborhood, the club went to the fall classic 10 times, winning seven times. The Browns, meanwhile, became a byword for futility, a franchise that seemingly fell off the baseball radar.

While the Cardinals never led the league in attendance in their years at Sportsman’s Park, they did draw over a million fans in 13 different seasons. They annually outdrew their landlords by large margins. The highest single-season attendance for the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park was 1,430,676 in 1949, when they missed the pennant in a tight race with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Browns, meanwhile, never topped the million mark at Grand and Dodier. Their highest single-season total was 712,918 in 1922. In a four-year stretch from 1933 to 1936, they drew fewer than 100,000 fans in a season three times, with a ridiculously low 80,922 in 1935. Even in the pennant-winning year of 1944, the Browns attracted 508,644, fifth out of the eight American League teams.

By the middle of the 1920s, the Cardinals were beginning to come into their own as a franchise. Rogers Hornsby had emerged as perhaps the greatest right-handed hitter of all time. Certainly you cannot argue against a lifetime .358 batting average and 301 home runs. In 1926, with Hornsby as player-manager, the Cardinals reached the World Series for the first time, prevailing in seven games over the New York Yankees. In Game Four at Sportsman’s Park, Babe Ruth hit three home runs, one of which cleared the pavilion roof in right field. Two years later the Babe had another three-homer game at Grand and Dodier, in Game Four of the 1928 Series, which the Yankees swept. A second Cardinals world championship followed in 1931, capping a season in which the club topped 100 victories for the first time.

Perhaps no Cardinals team is as fondly remembered as the Gas House Gang of 1934. Depression Era America fell in love with this colorful collection of hard-nosed, rough-and-tumble players who always seemed to have the dirtiest uniforms on the field.

The player-manager of the Gas House Gang was second baseman Frankie Frisch, known as the Fordham Flash for his having attended Fordham University, and for his speed while starring in collegiate sports. The batting order also boasted first baseman Ripper Collins, future Hall of Famer Joe “Ducky” Medwick, and Pepper Martin, the hustling third baseman.

But the biggest star was a farmboy from Lucas, Arkansas, Dizzy Dean. With a blazing fastball, the 24-year-old Dean won 30 games that year, the last National League pitcher to do so. His brother Paul won 19. Dizzy’s meteoric career was cut short by injury, but it nonetheless warranted election to the Hall of Fame in 1953. He was brash, confident, and talented. But he also had a country-boy charm about him, and could tell a tale with the best of them, a quality that later helped him to forge a long career as a baseball broadcaster. The Gas House Gang won 95 games in 1934, edging the New York Giants by two games, and went on to defeat the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.

Starting in the 1930s, radio station KMOX began broadcasting Cardinals and Browns games. Because it was a 50,000-watt clear-channel station, games from Sportsman’s Park could be heard throughout the Midwest and much of the South. This helped the Cardinals (they and the Browns were at the time the westernmost major-league teams) to develop a strong fan base throughout the nation’s midsection. In 1945 broadcasting legend Harry Caray began calling games from his perch in the broadcasting booth behind home plate at Sportsman’s Park. He would go on to call Cardinals games for 25 seasons.

In 1940 lights were installed at the ballpark. The Browns played the first night game there, on May 24, drawing a crowd of 24,827, their biggest home attendance of the season. The Cardinals played their first contest under the lights on June 4, in front of 23,500 spectators, also the most at home they would draw that year. With the sweltering hot, humid St. Louis summers, players and fans could appreciate the novelty (and the relief) of playing at night.

From 1942 to 1946, the Cardinals experienced a stretch of excellence that saw them go to the fall classic four times, winning three of them. Their win totals in 1942, ’43, and ’44 were 106, 105, and 105. Stan Musial emerged as a star during this period, and the Cardinals were fortunate that he missed only one year, 1945, due to World War II. Stan the Man went on to have a long and storied career at Grand and Dodier, finishing with a .331 career batting average, 475 home runs, and what was then the most lifetime hits by a National Leaguer.

The war years were lean ones for baseball, as many stars of the game were called to serve Uncle Sam. As a result, teams were forced to fill their depleted rosters with castoffs, retreads, or unknowns who during normal times would most likely be toiling in the minor leagues. One-armed Pete Gray, who played for the Browns in 1945, came to be a symbol of wartime baseball.

Despite (or because of) the roster attrition, however, the unthinkable happened in 1944. The St. Louis Browns, who had had only four winning seasons in the prior 20 years, won the American League pennant. They started strong out of the gate, winning their first nine games. They also got hot at the end, when they had to win, going 11-1 in their final 12 games, including a four-game sweep of the Yankees on the final weekend.

It came down to the last game of the season at Sportsman’s Park. The Browns entered the October 1 game tied with Detroit for the top spot. Before a crowd of 35,518, the largest regular-season Browns crowd ever at Grand and Dodier, they prevailed over New York, 5-2, while the Tigers lost in Detroit to the Washington Senators. The Browns were the champions of the American League, with a record of 89-65. They wound up facing the Cardinals in the only All-St. Louis World Series ever. The Browns came up short, four games to two, in what was dubbed the Streetcar Series. It was the lone World Series appearance in the long history of the Browns.

The Browns finished third the next year with a record of 81-70. It was the final .500 season in their history. In July 1951, in the midst of a 102-loss season, the team was purchased by one of baseball’s foremost impresarios ever, Bill Veeck. A master of promotion and theatrics, Veeck pulled off perhaps his most famous stunt on August 19, 1951, between games of a Sunday doubleheader with the Tigers. A big birthday cake was wheeled onto the field. Suddenly, a 3-foot 7-inch midget by the name of Eddie Gaedel popped out, to the delight of the crowd. Had the promotion ended there, it would have been forgotten. But it didn’t, and it wasn’t. When the second game got under way, Frank Saucier was scheduled to lead off the bottom of the first inning for the Browns. The fans were shocked to see Gaedel come trotting up to home plate as a pinch-hitter. When nonplussed home-plate umpire Ed Hurley asked Browns manager Zack Taylor what the big idea was, Taylor presented the man in blue with a standard player contract with Gaedel’s signature on it. Veeck knew the umps wouldn’t appreciate his sense of humor, so he had had the contract prepared beforehand and sent to the league office after it had closed. Hurley had to comply, and Gaedel was allowed to bat. Tigers pitcher Bob Cain threw four straight balls, and the midget took his base. Gaedel got a standing ovation from the crowd as he was removed for a pinch-runner. His uniform number, ⅛, is on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Promotions aside, the Browns didn’t improve any on the field during Veeck’s reign. He did sign former Negro Leagues star Satchel Paige in 1951. Paige was in his mid-40s at the time. He pitched three seasons for the Brownies, winning 18 and losing 23.

In 1953 the Anheuser-Busch brewery, maker of Budweiser beer, purchased the Cardinals, with August “Gussie” Busch Jr. becoming team president. Veeck knew he couldn’t compete with Busch’s deep pockets. He tried unsuccessfully to move the Browns to greener pastures in Milwaukee. When that didn’t work, he promptly sold Sportsman’s Park to Busch. The tables were now turned; the Cardinals were the landlords and the Browns were the tenants.

The final game for the Browns in St. Louis came on September 27, 1953. The club lost its 100th game of the season, in front of an intimate gathering of 3,174 fans. By Opening Day 1954, Veeck had sold the team, and the new owners had moved it to Baltimore. The Cardinals now had St. Louis all to themselves.

By the late 1950s, discussions began to take place about a new ballpark. Now known as Busch Stadium, the ballpark had begun to deteriorate. The public perception of Busch Stadium was the same as that of many other urban ballparks during this period. For one thing, the neighborhood was become increasingly dangerous. Also, people preferred to drive to baseball games, rather than take buses or trolleys as they had in previous decades. Busch Stadium, with its lack of parking, could not accommodate them. In 1964 ground was broken for what would be the future Busch Memorial Stadium, in downtown St. Louis.

That same year the Cardinals captured the pennant by one game on the last day of the season after a thrilling three-way pennant race with the Phillies and the Reds. Thanks to Philadelphia’s classic late-season collapse, in which they blew the 6½-game lead they had with 12 games left to play, St. Louis went on to face the New York Yankees in the World Series. The seventh game featured Bob Gibson on the hill for the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Gibson threw a complete game as St. Louis won by a final score of 7-5.

The Cardinals were scheduled to move into the new Busch Memorial Stadium for Opening Day 1966. But construction delays forced the team to continue to play at the old Busch for the first 10 home games of the season. The end finally came on Sunday, May 8, an afternoon affair against San Francisco, which the Giants won 10-5. The final home run was hit by Willie Mays in the top of the ninth inning. In the bottom of the ninth, the Cardinals’ Alex Johnson made the last out, hitting into a double play. A modest crowd of 17,503 showed up. The team had had a disappointing 1965 season, and was in eighth place and playing very poorly at the beginning of 1966, which probably led to the small crowd.

Within six months the old ballpark at Grand and Dodier succumbed to the wrecking ball.

Sources

Benson, Michael. Ballparks of North America: A Comprehensive Historical Reference to Baseball Grounds, Yards and Stadiums, 1845 to Present (Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & Company, 2009).

Feldmann, Doug. Dizzy & The Gas House Gang: The 1934 Cardinals and Depression-Era Baseball (Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & Company, 2000).

Gillette, Gary, and Eric Enders. Big League Ballparks: The Complete Illustrated History (New York: Metro Books, 2009).

Jordan, David M. Closing ’Em Down: Final Games at Thirteen Classic Ballparks (Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & Company, 2010).

Leventhal, Josh. Take Me Out to the Ballpark. (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2011).

Smith, Ron. The Ballpark Book: A Journey Through the Fields of Baseball Magic (St. Louis: The Sporting News, 2000).

The Sporting News.

Baseball-Reference.com.

The Friendly Confines
of Wrigley Field

by Scott Ferkovich

It was built on the site of a former theological seminary (of all places). It is one of the most renowned addresses in baseball history, nestled in a vibrant urban neighborhood that takes on the atmosphere of a block party on game days. It has seen the Babe’s called shot, Gabby’s Homer in the Gloamin’, and the curse of the billygoat. It was the stamping grounds of High Pockets and Kiki, of Jolly Cholly and Hack, of the Mad Russian and Mad Dog, of Mr. Cub, Ryno, and the Hawk. It is as well-known for its famous foliage and its Bleacher Bums as it is for some of the heartbreak and incompetency that it has seen on the field. For decades, it stubbornly refused to evolve, becoming a symbol of “baseball as it was meant to be played.” To many, it is a kind of pastoral palace, a living fossil where folks can cling to their own rose-colored versions of the past. It has been a lovable dinosaur where progress died faster than the fleeting hopes of April and May. It has been immortalized in songs, in movies, in television commercials, and in its own cottage industry of coffee-table books and tributary tomes. It remains a must-see tourist attraction in a city full of them. It is the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field.

The ballpark that sprouted up in 1914 at 1060 West Addison Street in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood was initially the home of the Chicago entry in the Federal League. The team was known as the Federals (Chi-Feds for short) and was owned by Charles Weeghman, who named the park after himself. The Federal League, then in its first year of existence, was an upstart circuit in direct competition with the established National and American Leagues. By 1916, it had folded. Weeghman, however, bought the National League’s crosstown Chicago Cubs, who played at old West Side Park, and immediately moved them into Weeghman Park. The Cubs played their first game in their new home on April 20, 1916. The home team beat the Cincinnati Reds in 11 innings.

At this time, the park at Clark and Addison was a single-decked structure of steel and concrete. Weeghman had hired Zachary Taylor Davis (the architect of Comiskey Park, on the South Side of Chicago) to design the ballpark. The grandstand on the Clark Street (third base) side extended halfway to left field. The grandstand on the Addison Street (first base) side extended all the way to the right-field corner. One of the old seminary buildings loomed beyond the left-field fence, until it was demolished after the 1914 season, to be replaced by a bleacher section. In 1915 the scoreboard, which had originally been in left field, next to the seminary building, was moved to center. During these early years, only a brick wall extended from the right-field corner to center field. In 1916, while the Cubs cavorted on the field inside the park, a genuine cub bear frolicked in a cage stationed directly outside the park on Addison Street.

A new era was ushered in at the corner of Addison and Clark in 1918. That was when Weeghman sold his interest in the Cubs to minority shareholder William Wrigley, Jr., the magnate who had made his money in the production of chewing gum. By 1921, Wrigley had bought out the other shareholders and taken complete control of the club. The ballpark, which had been known at various times (in addition to Weeghman Park) as the North Side Ball Park, the Federal League Ball Park, and Whales Park, was by now going by the name of Cubs Park.

To William Wrigley’s credit, he was never hesitant to spend money on expansion and upkeep of his ballpark. The grandstand was double-decked in time for the 1928 season, and new bleachers were added from the right-field corner to center field, increasing the capacity from 18,000 to 32,000.

The Cubs had gone to the World Series in 1918 (losing to the Red Sox in six games), but the team finished in the second division for half of their seasons during the 1920s. Despite lackluster play on the field, the Cubs were developing a growing legion of fans, thanks to William Wrigley’s marketing savvy. The Cubs became one of the first teams in baseball history to fully take advantage of the new phenomenon called radio. Most team owners feared that game broadcasts would reduce attendance, as fans would stay at home and listen for free. But Wrigley had the foresight to see that games on radio were the ideal marketing tool. Also, since all games were played in the daytime, many of the fans listening to Cubs broadcasts were housewives. Wrigley took advantage of this emerging demographic through the promotion of Ladies Day games, which frequently drew packed houses to the ballpark and became a staple for years. By the summer of 1927, Cubs Park had been renamed Wrigley Field. That year, the Cubs drew over one million paying customers, becoming the first National League team to top the million mark. They continued to do so through 1931.

The team that Wrigley and team president William Veeck put together was a colorful, talented group of players who were a perfect fit for the Roaring Twenties. In 1929 manager Joe McCarthy’s club won 98 games to take the National League pennant.

The 1929 World Series was the first one played at Wrigley Field. (Their home games for the 1918 Series had been moved to Comiskey Park, which had a higher seating capacity.) Their 1929 opponents were Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics, a team featuring future Hall of Famers Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Lefty Grove. The Mack Men trounced the Cubs, winning in five games.

With the passing of William Wrigley, Jr. in January of 1932, his son, Philip K. Wrigley, took over the ownership reins of the team. “P.K.,” as he was affectionately called, would always consider the Cubs, and Wrigley Field especially, among his most cherished possessions. One of the reasons Wrigley Field has lasted so long is that both Wrigleys, father and son (as well as Charles Weeghman before them), always took such good care of the park. Whatever Philip Wrigley’s shortcomings as a baseball owner, it cannot be denied that he was a clever marketer. He clearly understood that by beautifying Wrigley Field, and keeping it clean and well-manicured, he could draw paying crowds to an afternoon of baseball in the sunshine, even if the team on the field was only ordinary. Every year, the ballpark got a fresh coat of paint. During the season, the place was kept in immaculate condition.

The Cubs made it back to the fall classic in 1932, taking on the New York Yankees. This was the Series that featured the most debated and dissected event in Wrigley Field history. It was Babe Ruth’s “Called Shot.” The seemingly endless dispute about whether Ruth did or did not point to the center-field bleachers before slamming his second home run off Charlie Root in Game Three is one of those questions that keep baseball historians up at night. According to the story, the Cubs bench jockeys had been riding The Babe during the first two games of the Series. When he stepped up to the plate, he supposedly made a gesture in the general direction of center field. Some witnesses claim he was merely pointing toward the Cubs dugout. Whatever the case, Ruth hit a shot that carried to the right of the center-field scoreboard, sailing past the temporary bleachers that had been built just beyond the park’s outer wall. Estimates had the ball traveling 490 feet. It was Ruth’s last World Series home run. New York, led by former Cubs manager Joe McCarthy, swept the Cubs in four games.

The main entrance at the corner of Addison and Clark is noted for its neon Art Deco marquee with the words “Wrigley Field Home of Chicago Cubs.” It was designed by the Federated Sign Company. For decades, it was blue with white lettering, but in 1965 it was repainted the red and white color scheme that still existed in 2014.

In 1937 a significant remodeling of Wrigley’s outfield bleachers took place. A new brick wall now ringed the entire outfield. The bleachers were expanded, and, most importantly, raised. They had been at field level, but would now be elevated to their present height of just above the brick fence. While Wrigley claimed this was done in order to give fans in that section a better view, in truth the change was as much a product of necessity as anything else: the grounds crew needed the space created beneath the new bleachers to store their mowers, rollers, and chalkers. Hence the metal doors in the brick wall (which for years were maroon-colored, unlike the green of later years).

As part of the refurbishment, the hand-operated scoreboard was built above the center-field bleachers. Fluttering atop the scoreboard are colorful flags, one for each National League team, showing the order of that day’s standings from top to bottom. Another enduring scoreboard tradition at Wrigley was the raising of a white flag sporting a blue “W” for a Cubs win or a blue flag with a white “L” for a loss. The flags were made easily visible to neighborhood residents strolling along Sheffield or Waveland Avenue, or commuters passing by on the nearby elevated train. A crossbar was attached to the top of the scoreboard, with a green light on one end, for a victory, and a red light on the other end, for a loss. This was for the benefit of train riders passing by late at night. The rear of the scoreboard, as seen from outside above the bleacher entrance, also became iconic, with the words “Chicago Cubs” in white block lettering on the image of a waving blue flag. At night, the letters light up in bright neon red.

By the end of 1937, the world’s best-known example of parthenocissus tricuspidata, or Boston Ivy, had been planted around the entire base of the brick wall. Bill Veeck (son of William Veeck, who died in 1933), claimed in his autobiography that he, along with a couple of groundskeepers, planted the mix of bittersweet and Boston Ivy one night by the light of incandescent bulbs strung along the outfield wall for that very purpose. The veracity of Veeck’s version of events is open to question. Whoever planted it and when, the Boston Ivy soon overtook the bittersweet, and the rest is horticultural history. Outfielders patrolling Wrigley Field are duly instructed to throw both arms up as a signal to the umpires when a struck baseball is hidden within the ivy, rather than search for the sphere; thus keeping the play alive.

Looking back on the years 1929 to 1945, one can easily make the argument that they were a kind of Golden Age for the Cubs at Wrigley Field. During that 17-year period, the team went to the World Series five times (1929, ’32, ’35, ’38, and ’45), although they didn’t win any of them. From 1926 to 1938 they led the National League in attendance eight times, while five times they drew the second-most at the gate. The 1938 season was the last in which the Cubs led the league in attendance. After their final World Series appearance, in 1945, the club finished third in 1946 with a record of 82-71, 14½ games off the pace. They would not have a season over .500 for the next 16 years.

If 1929 to 1945 was indeed a Golden Age, then the decades of the 1950s and 1960s were a nadir at Wrigley Field. Attendance was annually near the bottom of the league, and an aging Philip Wrigley was no longer as vigilant about keeping his ballpark in pristine condition. The surrounding neighborhood, while not exactly deteriorating, was getting a bit rough around the edges. Most importantly, the Cubs were becoming irrelevant in Chicago, as team owner Bill Veeck and his White Sox were growing in popularity, buoyed by their 1959 “Go-Go Sox” team that went to the World Series. From 1951 to 1965, Comiskey Park drew over one million fans every year but one, while the Cubs topped the million mark only once (1952). In 1962 the Cubs lost 103 games to finish ninth behind the expansion Houston Colt .45s, and were led by Philip Wrigley’s “College of Coaches,” an eight-man committee in lieu of a full-time manager.

After nearly two decades of mediocre baseball, 1969 saw the first pennant race on the North Side since 1945. Suddenly the fans began to pack Wrigley Field, to the tune of 1,674,993, at the time a club attendance record.

The 1969 Cubs never spent a day in second place the first five months of the season. On August 16 they had a nine-game lead over the surprising second-place New York Mets. From that point, it was a disaster of epic proportions. The Mets seemingly refused to lose, carving out two big winning streaks of nine and ten games while the Cubs won just eight of 25 games in September. When the dust settled, a season that had begun with so much promise for Chicago ended up in bitter defeat. And it wasn’t even close. The Mets took the NL East division by eight games over the Cubs.

The decades of the 1960s and 1970s saw baseball undergo seismic shifts, and the ballpark landscape was not immune to this change. Teams were abandoning their classic old ballparks and moving into modern stadiums. The vast majority were multipurpose facilities surrounded by parking lots rather than neighborhoods. Many of them featured that bane of ’70s baseball, artificial turf. They were derisively called “cookie cutters,” or “concrete doughnuts” because of their circular sameness. Richie Hebner once said of them, “I stand at the plate in the Vet (Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia) and I don’t honestly know whether I’m in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, or Philly. They all look alike.”1

In the midst of this progress, Wrigley Field remained as familiar as always. On the field, the Cubs endured some lean years in the ’70s. Nevertheless, the fans continued to come out to the old ballpark, as the club annually topped the million mark in attendance.

To many baseball purists in the last decades of the 20th Century, Wrigley Field had become the perfect antidote to the modern cookie-cutter stadium. In a baseball world that had grown weary of artificial turf, sterile domes, and concrete doughnuts surrounded by parking lots, Wrigley (along with Boston’s Fenway Park) came to symbolize baseball played on grass, in an intimate setting, where you were closer to the players. A game at Wrigley had a neighborhood feel, where people on rooftops across the street could set up a few lawn chairs and a grill, and make an afternoon of it. And the most wonderful thing of all, for Cubs fans, was that Wrigley Field remained the last major-league ballpark without lights.

After the 1984 season, mounting pressure had been put on the Cubs, from both the National League and the major television networks, to install light towers. The first night game was scheduled for August 8, 1988, versus the Philadelphia Phillies. However, by the fourth inning, rain began to fall hard, and after a two-hour delay, the contest was finally called. The first official night game, therefore, was August 9. The Cubs beat the Mets, 6-4, in front of 36,399 fans.

As the final decade of the 20th century approached, the cookie-cutter stadiums, which had been universally panned almost from the beginning, were now increasingly obsolete. Fans in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and other baseball towns waxed nostalgic about their long-lost fields of dreams. After the 1990 season, Comiskey Park on Chicago’s South Side would succumb to the wrecking ball. Of the classic ballparks, only three remained: Wrigley, along with Fenway Park in Boston and Tiger Stadium in Detroit. (Four, if one were to include a rebuilt Yankee Stadium in the list.) But a new era of ballpark design was about to emerge. In 1992 Oriole Park at Camden Yards in downtown Baltimore opened its doors. Groundbreaking in design, it harkened back architecturally and esthetically to the grand old ballparks, while giving fans all the modern amenities. The Retro Park movement had begun in earnest. Planners and designers of these new ballparks would look to the Friendly Confines and the other classic yards for inspiration.

And so Wrigley Field endures. It is in the midst of sweeping renovations that include two huge flat-screen video boards in right and left field, and a re-design of its famous bleachers. But to legions of fans, Wrigley remains a great place to take in a baseball game.

Sources

Benson, Michael, Ballparks of North America: A Comprehensive Historical Reference to Baseball Grounds, Yards and Stadiums, 1845 to Present (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009).

Dickson, Paul, Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick (London: Bloomsbury Publishing,2012).

Ehrgott, Roberts, Mr. Wrigley’s Ball Club: Chicago and the Cubs During the Jazz Age (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2013).

Gillette, Gary, and Eric Enders, Big League Ballparks: The Complete Illustrated History (New York: Metro Books, 2009).

Jacob, Mark, and Stephen Green, Wrigley Field: A Celebration of the Friendly Confines (New York: McGraw Hill, 2003).

McNeil, William, Gabby Hartnett: The Life and Times of the Cubs’ Greatest Catcher (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2004).

Shea, Stuart, Wrigley Field: The Unauthorized Biography (Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2004).

Smith, Ron, The Ballpark Book: A Journey Through the Fields of Baseball Magic (St. Louis: The Sporting News, 2000).

Stout, Glenn, The Cubs: The Complete Story of Chicago Cubs Baseball (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007).

Baseball-Reference.com

Notes

1 Charles A. Santo, Sport and Public Policy: Social, Political, and Economic Perspectives (Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics), 73.

Bulkeley Stadium: Hartford’s Last Home to Pro Baseball

By Norman Hausmann

In a March 2015 interview, Mike Sandlock remembered Bulkeley Stadium as an old wooden stadium with a short right field. Sandlock played the 1940 Eastern League season for the Hartford Bees, which called Bulkeley home. He played in 49 games and batted .234 that year for a Bees team that lost to the Binghamton Trips in the championship series, four games to one.

Morgan G. Bulkeley Stadium – Highlights

Bulkeley Stadium existed on a four-acre site at 30 Hammer Street in Hartford’s South End. It was located one block west of Franklin Avenue, near the Wethersfield town line. It continued a rich past history of baseball in Hartford.

Built in 1927, Bulkeley Stadium was a single-story building with a covered grandstand extending from the right-field fence to the third-base area and a bleacher section extending from that area to the left-field fence. Bulkeley was a concrete and steel edifice with a wood-shingled roof covering the grandstand. A wooden outfield fence, with colorful advertising signs, extended between the foul poles.

Seating capacity was 6,500. Grandstand seats had backs and arm rests. Bleacher seating was on plain wooden planks. For overflow space, spectators could stand facing the playing field in a roped off area in front of the outfield fence. Box seats were added in 1947.

The distances from home plate to the foul poles were 315 feet to left and 310 feet to right. It was 340 feet from the plate to the center-field fence.

The principal use of the field was for professional baseball but other events held there included semipro and amateur baseball, football, prize fights, track and field, motorcycle races, the circus, water shows, political events, and revivals.

The Eastern League was the principal organization conducting pro baseball at Bulkeley. Cities fielding teams in the EL over the years included Albany, Binghamton, Bridgeport, Elmira, Hartford, Holyoke, New Haven, Norfolk, Pittsfield, Providence, Richmond, Scranton, Springfield, Utica, Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, and Worcester.

Many talented athletes played as members of Hartford teams on the Bulkeley Stadium grounds before going on to big careers in the major leagues. They include Hall of Fame members Leo Durocher, Lou Gehrig, Hank Greenberg, Paul Richards, and Warren Spahn. In Bulkeley’s day, major-league teams frequently made trips to minor-league cities for exhibition games. Among those coming to Bulkeley were the Boston Braves, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals.

Babe Ruth made a cameo appearance at Bulkeley in 1945 as a barnstorming player for the local semipro Savitt Gems — after his retirement from the major leagues.

A brownstone monument commemorating the existence of Bulkeley Stadium has been placed on the Stadium grounds and a replica of home plate has been placed on the exact site of home plate at the old ball park. I hope these will exist long into the future to honor what really was a very special place.

Morgan G. Bulkeley Stadium –
A Chronology

March 1928. Bulkeley Stadium begins. The existing Stadium (named Clarkin Stadium) on the George Street Grounds was sold by James H. Clarkin to Robert J. Farrell and Associates in January of 1928. Following the sale, the stadium was re-christened Morgan G. Bulkeley Stadium in honor of a prominent nineteenth century Hartford businessman and politician who served as the first president of the National League.

April 18, 1928. First game played at Bulkeley Stadium. Hartford wass defeated by Bridgeport, 8-4.

January 14, 1930. President Robert J. Farrell died at age 32. Acute appendicitis wass the cause.

January 1931. Hartford became a farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

September 1931. Hartford won the Eastern League pennant.

June 1932. The Eastern League folded. Pro baseball left Hartford and Bulkeley Stadium.

1933 to 1937. Bulkeley Stadium was leased by Bill Savitt, owner of the Hartford jewelry store, Savitt Jewelers. The Savitt Gems semipro team played at Bulkeley Stadium during this time against a variety of opponents, including exhibition games vs. major-league teams.

February 1938. The Eastern League was reformed and pro baseball returns to Bulkeley Stadium. The Hartford team became a farm team of the Boston Braves. This affiliation continued until the end of pro baseball in Hartford (1952).

June 1941. The first permanent lighting system in Bulkeley was installed. Portable lighting systems had been used there a few times all the way back to the 1930’s but the new system brought night baseball permanently to Bulkeley Stadium.

Sept. 1944. The Hartford team, called the Hartford Senators, won the Eastern League pennant.

1946 to 1952. The team name became the Hartford Chiefs.

1952 season. Eastern League attendance at Bulkeley Stadium dropped to 30,000. The Braves pulled out of Hartford at the end of the season and relocated the franchise to Jacksonville, Florida.

July 7, 1955. Bulkeley Stadium was sold by the Milwaukee Braves to John E. Hays Realty of Hartford for $50,000. A shopping center was planned for the site but it never materialized.

Spring 1960. The stadium property was sold to enable construction of a nursing home. The Stadium structure was torn down. Demolition was complete by September of 1960.

Spring 1961. The Bulkeley Convalescent Home was completed on the site of Bulkeley Stadium. This business is now known as Ellis Manor, and is owned by Affinity Healthcare, Inc. of Cheshire, Connecticut and New York City.

Sources

The author relied on microfilm of the Hartford Courant and the Hartford Times available at The Connecticut Historical Society.

“Eastern Playoff, Class A,” The Sporting News, September 26, 1940: 8.

March 2015 interview of Mike Sandlock by Karl Cicitto.

Mike Sandlock’s Offensive Stats

Data wrangled by Tom Monitto using Retrosheet and sorted by year, ballpark,
RH/LH, runners on base, month and batting order.

Mike Sandlock Splits 1942

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

Total

2

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

1

1

1

Home

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

1

1

1

Away

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

vs_LHS

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

1

1

1

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

Day

2

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

1

1

1

Month

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

September

2

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

1

1

1

Bat_Order

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

7th

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

8th

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

1

1

1

Position

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

AT_SS

2

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

1

1

1

Park

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

NYC15

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

BOS08

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

1

1

1

Oppon

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

BRO_N

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

NY_N

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

1

1

1

Mike Sandlock Splits 1942 (cont.)

Mike Sandlock Splits 1944

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

Total

30

29

1

3

0

0

0

2

5

0i

2

1

1

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.103

0.257

0.103

Home

15

16

1

1

0

0

0

1

4

0i

2

1

1

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.063

0.286

0.063

Away

15

13

0

2

0

0

0

1

1

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.154

0.214

0.154

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

vs_RHP

17

0

1

0

0

0

0

3

0i

0

1

1

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.059

0.238

0.059

vs_LHP

9

0

1

0

0

0

2

0

0i

1

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.111

0.111

0.111

vs_RHS

3

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

0i

1

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.333

0.5

0.333

vs_LHS

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

1

-

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

Day

24

26

1

3

0

0

0

2

5

0i

2

0

1

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.115

0.258

0.115

Night

6

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

1

0

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0

0.25

0

Situation

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

None_On

13

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

1

1

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0.071

0

Men_On

7

0

1

0

0

0

2

2

0i

0

0

1

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.143

0.333

0.143

RISP

5

0

1

0

0

0

2

1

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.2

0.333

0.2

Close&Late

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0.5

0

Bases_
Loaded

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

Month

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

May

8

6

0

1

0

0

0

1

1

0i

0

1

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.167

0.375

0.167

June

12

18

0

1

0

0

0

1

3

0i

1

0

1

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.056

0.19

0.056

July

8

3

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0

August

2

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0i

1

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.5

0.667

0.5

Bat_Order

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

3rd

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

6th

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

7th

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

8th

25

29

1

3

0

0

0

2

5

0i

2

1

1

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.103

0.257

0.103

Position

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

AT_3B

22

24

1

2

0

0

0

1

5

0i

2

0

1

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.083

0.241

0.083

AT_SS

7

5

0

1

0

0

0

1

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.2

0.2

0.2

AT_PH

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

1

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

1

-

AT_PR

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

Park

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

PHI11

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

STL07

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

PIT06

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0

NYC14

2

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0

0.2

0

CIN07

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

-

-

NYC15

3

4

0

1

0

0

0

1

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.25

0.25

0.25

CHI11

5

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.333

0.333

0.333

BOS08

15

16

1

1

0

0

0

1

4

0i

2

1

1

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.063

0.286

0.063

Oppon

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

CHI

N

5

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0.333

0.333

0.333

CIN

N

5

8

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0i

1

0

1

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.111

0

BRO

N

4

4

0

1

0

0

0

1

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0.25

0.25

0.25

PHI

N

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

-

-

-

PIT

N

8

5

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

0i

1

1

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0.2

0.429

0.2

STL

N

4

5

0

0

0

0

0

1

2

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.286

0

NY

N

3

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.2

0

Mike Sandlock Splits 1944 (cont.)

Mike Sandlock Splits 1945

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

Total

80

195

21

55

14

2

2

17

18

6i

19

1

4

0

0

2i

3

2

0

0.282

0.346

0.405

Home

37

77

8

18

3

2

1

7

8

1i

10

1

3

0

0

1i

2

0

0

0.234

0.314

0.364

Away

43

118

13

37

11

0

1

10

10

5i

9

0

1

0

0

1i

1

2

0

0.314

0.367

0.432

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

vs_RHP

169

17

45

10

1

2

14

17

5i

17

1

4

0

0

2i

2

2

0

0.266

0.337

0.373

vs_LHP

26

4

10

4

1

0

3

1

1i

2

0

0

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.385

0.407

0.615

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

Day

61

153

15

41

10

1

1

9

16

4i

15

1

4

0

0

2i

3

2

0

0.268

0.341

0.366

Night

19

42

6

14

4

1

1

8

2

2i

4

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.333

0.364

0.548

Situation

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

None_On

107

0

31

11

0

0

0

5

0i

8

1

0

0

0

1i

0

0

0

0.29

0.327

0.393

Men_On

78

19

21

2

1

2

16

12

6i

8

0

4

0

0

1i

3

2

0

0.269

0.367

0.397

RISP

43

18

8

1

1

1

14

10

6i

6

0

1

0

0

0i

2

1

0

0.186

0.34

0.326

Close&Late

34

4

10

2

0

0

1

2

1i

3

0

1

0

0

1i

1

0

0

0.294

0.333

0.353

Bases_Loaded

6

3

1

0

0

0

4

1

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.167

0.286

0.167

Month

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

April

5

15

2

5

0

1

1

5

0

0i

2

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.333

0.333

0.667

May

11

21

0

7

1

0

0

4

3

2i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

1

0

0.333

0.417

0.381

June

8

9

1

3

1

1

0

1

1

0i

3

0

1

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.333

0.4

0.667

July

16

36

4

11

3

0

0

1

5

3i

4

0

1

0

0

0i

2

0

0

0.306

0.39

0.389

August

15

37

3

8

2

0

0

1

3

0i

2

1

1

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.216

0.293

0.27

September

25

77

11

21

7

0

1

5

6

1i

8

0

1

0

0

2i

0

1

0

0.273

0.325

0.403

Bat_Order

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

1st

3

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

1

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0

3rd

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

-

1

-

4th

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0

6th

2

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0

7th

16

49

5

16

1

2

1

9

6

1i

7

0

1

0

0

0i

1

1

0

0.327

0.4

0.49

8th

50

137

14

37

12

0

1

8

9

5i

11

1

2

0

0

2i

1

1

0

0.27

0.32

0.38

9th

6

4

2

2

1

0

0

0

2

0i

1

0

0

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.5

0.667

0.75

Position

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

AT_C

47

139

16

36

11

0

1

7

10

3i

14

1

3

0

0

2i

2

1

0

0.259

0.313

0.36

AT_2B

4

3

0

1

0

0

0

1

0

0i

0

0

1

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.333

0.333

0.333

AT_3B

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0

AT_SS

22

43

2

15

1

2

1

9

3

2i

4

0

0

0

0

0i

0

1

0

0.349

0.391

0.535

AT_PH

14

9

3

3

2

0

0

0

5

1i

1

0

0

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.333

0.571

0.556

Park

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

PHI11

4

16

2

4

1

0

0

1

1

0i

2

0

0

0

0

0i

0

1

0

0.25

0.294

0.313

STL07

7

20

3

11

3

0

0

3

1

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

0

1

0

0.55

0.571

0.7

PIT06

6

9

0

4

0

0

0

0

2

2i

0

0

0

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0.444

0.545

0.444

NYC14

8

23

4

5

2

0

1

4

1

0i

1

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.217

0.25

0.435

CIN07

6

21

2

9

4

0

0

1

1

1i

2

0

1

0

0

1i

0

0

0

0.429

0.455

0.619

NYC15

37

77

8

18

3

2

1

7

8

1i

10

1

3

0

0

1i

2

0

0

0.234

0.314

0.364

CHI11

9

24

2

4

1

0

0

1

4

2i

3

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.167

0.286

0.208

BOS08

3

5

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0i

1

0

0

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0

0

0

Oppon

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

BOS_N

10

18

1

3

1

1

0

1

2

0i

5

0

1

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.167

0.25

0.333

CHI_N

16

26

3

4

1

0

0

1

8

3i

3

0

1

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.154

0.353

0.192

CIN_N

9

26

2

9

4

0

0

1

2

1i

2

0

1

0

0

1i

1

0

0

0.346

0.393

0.5

PHI_N

11

42

5

11

2

1

0

4

1

0i

6

0

0

0

0

1i

0

1

0

0.262

0.279

0.357

PIT_N

10

18

0

6

1

0

0

0

2

2i

1

0

0

0

0

0i

2

0

0

0.333

0.4

0.389

STL_N

11

27

4

12

3

0

0

3

1

0i

1

0

0

0

0

0i

0

1

0

0.444

0.464

0.556

NY_N

13

38

6

10

2

0

2

7

2

0i

1

1

1

0

0

0i

0

0

0

0.263

0.317

0.474

Mike Sandlock Splits 1945 (cont.)

Mike Sandlock Splits 1946

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

Total

19

34

1

5

0

0

0

0

3

1

4

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.147

0.216

0.147

Home

9

16

1

2

0

0

0

0

2

1

2

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.125

0.222

0.125

Away

10

18

0

3

0

0

0

0

1

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.167

0.211

0.167

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

vs_RHP

23

0

5

0

0

0

0

2

1

2

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.217

0.28

0.217

vs_LHP

11

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.083

0

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

Day

16

28

1

5

0

0

0

0

3

1

3

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.179

0.258

0.179

Night

3

6

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Situation

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

None_On

20

0

5

0

0

0

0

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.25

0.318

0.25

Men_On

14

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

3

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.067

0

RISP

8

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.111

0

Close&Late

4

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.25

0.4

0.25

Bases
Loaded

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

-

-

-

Month

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

April

1

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

May

6

11

0

1

0

0

0

0

2

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.091

0.231

0.091

June

11

20

1

3

0

0

0

0

1

0

2

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.15

0.19

0.15

July

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Bat_Order

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

2nd

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

-

-

-

6th

2

8

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.125

0.222

0.125

7th

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

-

-

-

8th

14

25

1

3

0

0

0

0

2

1

4

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.12

0.185

0.12

9th

1

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

Position

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

AT_C

17

33

1

4

0

0

0

0

3

1

4

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.121

0.194

0.121

AT_3B

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

-

-

-

AT_PH

1

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

Park

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

STL07

1

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

PIT06

2

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.333

0.5

0.333

NYC14

2

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.333

0.333

0.333

CIN07

3

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.333

0.333

0.333

NYC15

9

16

1

2

0

0

0

0

2

1

2

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.125

0.222

0.125

CHI11

2

6

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Oppon

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

BOS_N

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

CHI_N

3

8

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

CIN_N

3

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.333

0.333

0.333

PHI_N

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.5

0

PIT_N

4

9

0

2

0

0

0

0

1

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.222

0.3

0.222

STL_N

4

9

1

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

1

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.111

0.2

0.111

_N

2

3

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.333

0.333

0.333

Mike Sandlock Splits 1946 (cont.)

Mike Sandlock Splits 1953

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

Total

64

186

10

43

5

0

0

12

12

1

19

1

4

0

0

3

3

0

0

0.231

0.281

0.258

Home

34

96

7

25

4

0

0

6

8

0

9

1

1

0

0

1

2

0

0

0.260

0.324

0.302

Away

30

90

3

18

1

0

0

6

4

1

10

0

3

0

0

2

1

0

0

0.200

0.234

0.211

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

vs_RHP

113

7

29

2

0

0

8

10

1

8

1

1

0

0

2

2

0

0

0.257

0.323

0.274

vs_LHP

73

3

14

3

0

0

4

2

0

11

0

3

0

0

1

1

0

0

0.192

0.213

0.233

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

Day

45

131

10

29

4

0

0

11

7

1

6

1

4

0

0

3

3

0

0

0.221

0.266

0.252

Night

19

55

0

14

1

0

0

1

5

0

13

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.255

0.317

0.273

Situation

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

None_On

105

0

24

4

0

0

0

3

0

13

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.229

0.257

0.267

Men_On

81

10

19

1

0

0

12

9

1

6

0

4

0

0

3

3

0

0

0.235

0.311

0.247

RISP

45

9

12

1

0

0

12

7

1

3

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

0.267

0.365

0.289

Close&Late

28

2

7

1

0

0

2

2

1

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.250

0.300

0.286

Bases Loaded

1

3

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

0.000

0.000

Month

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

April

4

12

0

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.333

0.333

0.333

May

15

47

3

11

1

0

0

4

4

0

4

0

1

0

0

1

1

0

0

0.234

0.294

0.255

June

21

62

2

14

1

0

0

3

5

0

7

0

2

0

0

0

1

0

0

0.226

0.284

0.242

July

13

34

1

2

1

0

0

2

2

1

5

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

0.059

0.111

0.088

August

9

24

3

9

2

0

0

3

1

0

3

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.375

0.423

0.458

September

2

7

1

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0.429

0.429

0.429

Bat_Order

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

5th

1

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.000

0.000

0.000

6th

17

47

2

12

0

0

0

1

1

0

5

1

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0.255

0.286

0.255

7th

30

95

3

21

2

0

0

9

8

1

7

0

3

0

0

2

1

0

0

0.221

0.282

0.242

8th

14

35

4

8

2

0

0

1

3

0

5

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0.229

0.289

0.286

9th

2

5

1

2

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.400

0.400

0.600

Position

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

AT_C

64

186

10

43

5

0

0

12

12

1

19

1

4

0

0

3

3

0

0

0.231

0.281

0.258

Park

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

PHI11

4

8

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.125

0.125

0.125

STL07

4

11

1

3

0

0

0

0

1

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.273

0.333

0.273

PIT06

34

96

7

25

4

0

0

6

8

0

9

1

1

0

0

1

2

0

0

0.260

0.324

0.302

NYC14

4

15

0

2

0

0

0

0

3

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0.133

0.278

0.133

CIN07

6

17

1

3

1

0

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.176

0.176

0.235

NYC15

5

16

0

5

0

0

0

1

0

0

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.313

0.313

0.313

CHI11

3

9

0

3

0

0

0

3

0

0

1

0

3

0

0

1

0

0

0

0.333

0.333

0.333

MIL05

4

14

1

1

0

0

0

1

0

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0.071

0.071

0.071

Oppon

G

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

IBB

SO

HBP

SH

SF

XI

ROE

GDP

SB

CS

AVG

OBP

SLG

MIL_N

10

35

3

7

2

0

0

1

0

0

6

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0.200

0.200

0.257

CHI_N

8

19

0

6

0

0

0

4

3

0

1

0

4

0

0

1

0

0

0

0.316

0.409

0.316

CIN_N

11

31

2

5

1

0

0

2

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.161

0.212

0.194

BRO_N

11

35

0

11

2

0

0

3

1

0

5

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0.314

0.351

0.371

PHI_N

8

20

2

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

0.200

0.200

0.200

STL_N

8

20

2

5

0

0

0

2

3

0

3

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.250

0.348

0.250

NY_N

8

26

1

5

0

0

0

0

3

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0.192

0.276

0.192

Mike Sandlock Splits 1953 (cont.)

Photo Gallery

Mike Sandlock, Jr.,

Gilmore Field

1949 Hollywood Stars Team Photo (Courtesy of Richard Beverage)

1950 Hollywood Stars Team Photo (Courtesy of Richard Beverage)

1951 Hollywood Stars Team Photo (Courtesy of Richard Beverage)

1952 Hollywood Stars Team Photo (Courtesy of Richard Beverage)

Mike Sandlock’s 1940 Hartford Bees contract (Courtesy of Mike Sandlock, Jr.)

The March 1944 notice informing Sandlock that the Hartford Bees had transferred him to the Braves.

Grandpa Sandlock (Courtesy of Mike Sandlock, Jr.)

Near the beach in Havana (Courtesy of Mike Sandlock, Jr.)

Yogi Berra, Sandlock, Jimmy Piersall, Elston Howard
at 1964 Stamford Old Timers Banquet. (Courtesy of Mike Sandlock, Jr.)

1953 and 1954 Topps cards (Courtesy of Topps)

Mike, Jr. & Jim Bloodworth, International League MVP.
1948 Montreal Royals. (Courtesy of Mike Sandlock, Jr.)

Sandlock’s 1948 Junior World Series Champions ring which he won as a member of the Montreal Royals. (Courtesy of Mike Sandlock, Jr.)

Sandlock enjoys a moment with Ralph Kiner at Innis Arden Golf Club in
Greenwich, CT.  Sandlock four times won the men’s championship at Innis Arden. 
(Courtesy of Mike Sandlock, Jr.)

Contributors

LEN LEVIN, while visiting relatives in New York as a young boy, saw some Dodgers games in Ebbets Field, but unfortunately didn’t get to see Mike Sandlock play. Len retired as an editor at the Providence Journal, and currently has a part-time job editing the decisions of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. He also spends much of his time editing baseball biographies and other material for SABR publications. He has been a passionate Red Sox fan for as long as he can remember.

DON HARRISON met Mike Sandlock for the first time when the former catcher was a much younger man — well, at age 87. He interviewed Sandlock for a sports feature that appeared in the July 18, 2003 edition of the weekly Greenwich Citizen, of which Don was the founding editor. Harrison’s lengthy career in journalism and public relations spans more than five decades, beginning with his work at four daily newspapers, the New York Mirror, New Haven Journal-Courier and the Waterbury Republican-American. He served as sports editor, and then executive sports editor, of the Waterbury newspapers, where he was twice voted Connecticut Sportswriter of the Year by his peers. Later, after a lengthy stint in corporate advertising and PR, he joined Sacred Heart University’s public relations department, where his duties ranged from manager of the university news bureau and director of sports information to launching Sacred Heart magazine as its editor. Harrison, a member of SABR, is the author of two books, Connecticut Baseball: The Best of the Nutmeg State and Hoops in Connecticut: The Nutmeg State’s Passion for Basketball, both published by The History Press. His free-lance work has appeared in The New York Times, The Sporting News, Sports Quarterly/Baseball, Fairfield Magazine and dozens of other publications. Don and his wife, Patti, are the parents of three grown children and reside in Fairfield, Connecticut.

RAY MILLER, a member of SABR since 1995, has written articles on old ballparks for SABR and The Baseball Digest. He is the author of A Tour of Braves Field (Boston Braves Historical Association, 2000) and the Braves Field biography in Braves Field. Memorable Moments at Boston’s Lost Diamond (ed. Bill Nowlin & Bob Brady, SABR 2015, 2-15), of which the article in this volume is an abridgement. He lives in Maine, and has recently retired after teaching at Bowdoin College for 30 years. A lifelong Cubs fan, he is a writer, songwriter, and musician.

STEVE KREVISKY has been President of the CT SABR Smoky Joe Wood chapter for several years. He has attended the national SABR conventions for 30 years where he has often presented, been on winning teams in the trivia contests, and been involved in fantasy/simulations baseball. As a Professor of Mathematics at Middlesex Community College, Steve often uses baseball to teach and does baseball presentations to the seniors groups on campus. He has made math and baseball presentations at national and international math and statistics conferences. Steve enjoys sabermetrics and baseball history. Steve is from New York City and follows the Yankees closely. He has the box score of the first game to which his Dad took him in 1958 and remembers that the Tigers beat the Yanks, 5-4. Steve has been to Cooperstown many times and enjoys seeing baseball games on road trips.

ALAN COHEN has been a member of SABR since 2011, and is vice president/treasurer of the Connecticut Smoky Joe Wood Chapter. He has written more than 25 biographies for SABR’s bio-project, and has contributed to several SABR books. His first game story about Baseball’s Longest Day — May 31, 1964 has been followed by several other game stories. His research into the Hearst Sandlot Classic (1946-1965), an annual youth All-Star game which launched the careers of 88 major-league players, first appeared in the Fall, 2013 edition of the Baseball Research Journal, and has been followed with a poster presentation at the SABR Convention in Chicago. He is currently expanding his research and is looking forward to having a book published. He serves as the datacaster (stringer) for the Hartford Yard Goats, the Colorado Rockies affiliate in the Class-AA Eastern League. A native of Long Island, he now resides in West Hartford, Connecticut with his wife Frances, two cats and two dogs.

The baseball writings of SCOTT FERKOVICH have appeared in the Detroit Free Press, DetroitAthletic.com, TheNationalPastimeMuseum.com,HardballTimes.com, and Seamheads.com. He was a judge for the 2014 Casey Award for best new baseball book of the year. Scott was the editor of the classic SABR book, Detroit the Unconquerable: The 1935 World Champion Tigers, and is willing to listen to cash offers from some of the major studios for the film rights. He also edited the upcoming SABR book, Green Seats and Yellow Mustard: Fifty Great Games at the Corner of Michigan and Trumbull. He is currently working hard on his next book, Mickey & the G-Men: The 1934-35 Detroit Tigers. If you follow only one person on Twitter, make it him @scottferk.

STEW THORNLEY has written a number of books about baseball history, including Land of the Giants: New York’s Polo Grounds. He is an official scorer for Minnesota Twins home games and is a member of the Major League Baseball Official Scoring Advisory Committee.

STANLEY DZIURGOT first joined SABR in the early 1980’s and has always enjoyed SABR historical publications. After a hiatus, Stan rejoined SABR after learning there was a chapter with local activities. He attended his first chapter meeting in 2006 and his first national convention in 2008. Stan is a Yankees fan whose first game was the Bombers’ pennant clincher in September of 1962. His father was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan who knew someone with Yankee season tickets. His Dad was thus able to secure seats for Stan’s first few games right behind the Yankee dugout. Stan is a graduate of the CT School of Broadcasting and worked at stations in Hamden and Waterbury. After leaving radio he worked for The New Haven Register. Since 1991 he has worked at a surgical instrument manufacturing firm, Medtronic. Stan and his wife, Mari Lea, were married in 1985 and have three sons.

KARL CICITTO is the Communications Manager for CT SABR. He reads baseball books year round and thinks author Leigh Montville has no equal. He owes his Red Sox DNA to his late Mom, Mary Ann, who drove the family to Fenway to see the Sox split with the Halos in 1968. Karl recently led the launch of CT SABR’s Media Panel event, Baseball in Twain’s Time at The Twain House, The Wood Pile chapter newsletter and this book. Karl is a multi media consultant with Digital First Media and Connecticut Magazine. He recently celebrated 30 years of bliss with his kind and tolerant wife, Lisa. His three wise and independent daughters occasionally find him humorous.

BILL NOWLIN has been vice president of SABR since 2004 and is author and editor of around 50 baseball books. Fifty is more or less the number of Grammy Awards won by artists on Rounder Records, which he co-founded.

A southern Ohio native, LON GARBER naturally became a Cincinnati Reds fan. His earliest baseball memory was listening to Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series and he has been a baseball addict ever since. As a little league second-baseman and centerfielder, his childhood heroes were Johnny Temple and Vada Pinson. He attended his first Major League baseball game at Crosley Field at age 8 and immediately fell in love with its sights, sound and idiosyncrasies. He continued attending games there until its demise in 1970. After graduating university, he moved to Orlando, FL bemoaning the fact that for the first time, he was beyond the reach of the Reds radio network on WLW radio. In 1990, Lon left his career as a software designer and became a pastor. In 2002, he and his wife, Valarie, became missionaries and moved to Namibia in southern Africa. Thanks to MLB At Bat and MLB Radio, he still listens to every Reds game even though most games start at midnight or later. He also has a home in Denver, CO and enjoys watching Rockies games at Coors Field when in town during baseball season. He became a SABR member in 2014.

JAMES L. RAY is an attorney who has lived and worked in Center City, Philadelphia for the past 25 years. Born and raised a Yankee fan, Jim moved to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Within a few years, he gave in to the lure of mediocrity and the heartbreak that personifies the Philadelphia Phillies, and has been a fan ever since. It is both the best and the worst decision he ever made. Jim has written for SABR the past seven years, and his contributions include biographies of Don Mattingly, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and Paul O’Neill for the SABR Bio project. Jim has also contributed chapters to several SABR books on the Phillies, Dodgers and Yankees. Jim has a lovely wife Cindy and two cats, Ivan and Buji. He also enjoys good beer.

BRIAN P. WOOD (“Woodie”) is an Eagle Scout and a retired Naval Officer who spent 20 years as an F-14 Tomcat aviator. He is a Research Associate at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA where he and his team conduct field experimentation on new technologies before they are sent to the fleet for operational use. Due to his father also being in the Navy he has been a fan of several teams as he moved around the country. Brian was a Washington Senators (II) and Texas Rangers fan growing up until he moved to the east coast in the 1980s and became a staunch Baltimore Orioles supporter—he can still spell out “O-R-I-O-L-E-S” like Wild Bill Hagy, throw in an rousing “O” during the last part of the Star Spangled Banner, and have “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” make him think of baseball and taking a stretch. He has lived in the Monterey, CA area for the past 20 years and is an ardent Giants supporter with his rubber chicken (shown when opposing pitchers would walk Barry Bonds) hanging in a spot of honor in his garage. Woodie has contributed several chapters to several SABR books including the Expos and Brewers. He has also fact checked/reviewed several articles for SABR publication. Woodie and his wife, Terrise, live in “America’s Last Hometown” Pacific Grove, CA and have three sons, Daniel, Jack, and Nathan, two cats, and a black and orange dog with a large noggin, “Bochy.”

TOM MONITTO, a resident of Bristol, was born and raised in New Britain. He has worked in IT since 1974. At one point his career landed him in Springfield, VT where he worked for a company from which the father of Carlton Fisk had recently retired. He didn’t realize this until he met the Hall of Fame catcher 20 years later. After returning to Connecticut, Tom met his wife Joneen at an interoffice softball game. He first took note of her when, as she played catcher, Joneen retired a runner on a tag play at home plate. Tom was a devoted fan of the NY football Giants — “a terrible team” — while growing up in the 1960s. The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox Team kindled a new interest. Around the time of the Joe Pisarcik fumble, football took a back seat to baseball. Tom enjoys the historical and analytic sides of the game. He reads fiction and non-fiction stories about baseball and loves to listen to old broadcasts. A SABR member since December 2013, he was given his SABR membership as a gift from his son and is an active member of the Smoky Joe Wood chapter.

Norman Hausmann is an acknowledged expert on Hartford’s long gone Morgan G. Bulkeley Stadium. Norm has presented a Bulkeley Stadium exhibit at the Connecticut Historical Society. He led the effort to honor the stadium’s site with a ceremony and plaque. Norm, a former insurance executive, is a longtime Red Sox fan and an Opera devotee.

PETER SEIDEL has been a member of SABR since 2014. A lifelong Yankees fan, Pete grew up a short ride from the Stadium in southern Westchester County. Currently residing in Brookfield, CT with his wife Monica and two children, Pete’s day job is Director of Business Development for AT&T’s Data Patterns and Wi-Fi Services. In 2015, Pete earned a Master’s degree from Harvard University. While the Sandlock book is Pete’s first contribution to a SABR publication, Pete has also contributed trivia The Wood Pile chapter newsletter.