GaryMrMets
10-24-2003, 01:17 AM
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/det/news/det_news.jsp?ymd=20031017&content_id=573349&vkey=news_det&fext=.jsp&c_id=det
10/17/2003 12:00 PM ET
Tigers used T.N.T. in '45 series
Tigers beat favored Cubs in memorable championship
By Jason Beck / MLB.com
Before the Cubs had the curse, they had the Tigers.
Fifty-eight years ago, the Cubs played in their last World Series game. But instead of the lovable losers, they were the recognized favorites. A memorable performance from Hal Newhouser and an offensive outburst against a pitcher who had owned Detroit turned the Tigers into World Champions and a goat into a cursed symbol in the Windy City.
The Cubs' title drought was still imposing at 37 years, but they had the equivalent of a National League dynasty going. The 1945 Fall Classic was their seventh since their last championship in 1908 and 16th National League pennant since beginning play in 1876. They had won a Major League-best 98 games, 10 more than the Tigers. They also had Hank Borowy, a midseason waiver pickup from the Yankees who was 11-3 for his career against the Tigers.
Detroit's .575 winning percentage, by contrast, was among the lowest for a pennant winner in American League history. The Tigers clinched the pennant on the final day of the regular season when Virgil Trucks -- just discharged from the Navy a week earlier -- pitched five innings and Hank Greenberg hit a game-winning, ninth-inning grand slam.
Guest analyst Rogers Hornsby predicted the Tigers wouldn't keep up with the speedy Cubs and would fall in six games. Tigers manager Steve O'Neill, in turn, predicted his team would win in six.
The series opener was a star-studded spectacle for a nation in the close of war, but it was not a supporting sign for O'Neill's prediction. The Cubs lit up 25-game winner Newhouser for four runs in the first inning and three more in the third. The 9-0 loss was a first for a World Series opener.
Truck used only fastballs in his lone regular-season outing to pitch Detroit into the World Series. He had his curveball and changeup working for Game 2, and along with an outing the previous year against many Cubs at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, it completed the package. Trucks went the distance, and Hank Greenberg's three-run homer provided the punch for a 4-1 win.
Cubs manager Charlie Grimm called Trucks the hardest-throwing pitcher his team faced all year. "I was bearing down too much to get nervous," Trucks told the Detroit News.
In a series already dotted with strong pitching, Claude Passeau followed with what some considered the best start in World Series history at the time. Rudy York's second-inning single and Bob Swift's sixth-inning walk accounted for Detroit's only baserunners in the Cubs' 3-0 win. Passeau pitched the second one-hitter in World Series history.
That left the Cubs with a 2-1 series advantage heading to Wrigley Field, where some fans had to sleep in railroad stations because Chicago's hotel rooms were sold out. While Chicagoans looked ahead to a Series win, O'Neill believed his Tigers could take three straight with the pitching trio of "T.N.T."
"We've got to win three games to take the big end," he told the Detroit News, "and we've got three top pitchers working in the rotation."
Dizzy Trout took care of the first part in Game 4, throwing a complete-game five-hitter in a 4-1 win. It was in that game that a Chicago bar owner named Billy Sianis tried to take a goat into the game, where he was turned back. He was angry enough, the legend goes, to put a curse on the team, which some believe lingers to this day.
With the series retied, Game 5 seemed to back up the hex. Newhouser won his rematch with Borowy when four straight hits leading off the sixth led to four runs. Greenberg went 3-for-5 and helped put Detroit on the verge of a series victory.
The final end of "T.N.T." was Trucks, who duplicated his Game 2 performance for four innings in Game 6 before four Cubs runs in the fifth. Down 7-3 in the eighth, the Tigers answered with four runs to tie it. However, they couldn't break the deadlock off of Borowy, who tossed four scoreless innings of relief. Stan Hack completed a four-hit game in the 12th with an ordinary single that took a funny hop past Greenberg in left, scoring the winning run in an 8-7 decision for Chicago.
Baseball rules required a day off between Games 6 and 7 so that Cubs management could print tickets -- and fans could bid on them. Box seats originally priced at $7.20 sold for as much $150 in hotel lobbies, and fans waved $100 bills at cab drivers and hotel bellhops in hopes for a grandstand seat.
The only day off in the series also affected the pitching matchups. O'Neill had all the confidence in the world for Game 7. "The Cubs don't have a pitcher that's ready to match Newhouser," he proclaimed.
Grimm went back on one day's rest to Borowy, who would pitch his third consecutive game. It was one of two crucial mistakes the Cubs made. Borowy allowed three straight singles to start the game and was pulled. The Tigers batted around for five first-inning runs, added another in the second and cruised to a 9-3 win.
Chicago's other mistake wasn't known until after the game. Greenberg's sprained right wrist, suffered in Game 6, was well-known but the extent wasn't. "He told me his wrist was so sore and so weak that he could hardly throw or swing a bat," O'Neill told the Detroit News. Greenberg made the first out of the game on a bunt and was walked in his next two at-bats.
The richest Series ever at the time set 21 records and tied 18 others. But it was the second headline of the day on Oct. 11, 1945. A typhoon on Okinawa left 90,000 Americans homeless.
Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to approval by Major League Baseball or its clubs.
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/images/2003/10/11/wDyCkxnv.jpg
Hal Newhouser was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 1945 World Series. (AP)
10/17/2003 12:00 PM ET
Tigers used T.N.T. in '45 series
Tigers beat favored Cubs in memorable championship
By Jason Beck / MLB.com
Before the Cubs had the curse, they had the Tigers.
Fifty-eight years ago, the Cubs played in their last World Series game. But instead of the lovable losers, they were the recognized favorites. A memorable performance from Hal Newhouser and an offensive outburst against a pitcher who had owned Detroit turned the Tigers into World Champions and a goat into a cursed symbol in the Windy City.
The Cubs' title drought was still imposing at 37 years, but they had the equivalent of a National League dynasty going. The 1945 Fall Classic was their seventh since their last championship in 1908 and 16th National League pennant since beginning play in 1876. They had won a Major League-best 98 games, 10 more than the Tigers. They also had Hank Borowy, a midseason waiver pickup from the Yankees who was 11-3 for his career against the Tigers.
Detroit's .575 winning percentage, by contrast, was among the lowest for a pennant winner in American League history. The Tigers clinched the pennant on the final day of the regular season when Virgil Trucks -- just discharged from the Navy a week earlier -- pitched five innings and Hank Greenberg hit a game-winning, ninth-inning grand slam.
Guest analyst Rogers Hornsby predicted the Tigers wouldn't keep up with the speedy Cubs and would fall in six games. Tigers manager Steve O'Neill, in turn, predicted his team would win in six.
The series opener was a star-studded spectacle for a nation in the close of war, but it was not a supporting sign for O'Neill's prediction. The Cubs lit up 25-game winner Newhouser for four runs in the first inning and three more in the third. The 9-0 loss was a first for a World Series opener.
Truck used only fastballs in his lone regular-season outing to pitch Detroit into the World Series. He had his curveball and changeup working for Game 2, and along with an outing the previous year against many Cubs at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, it completed the package. Trucks went the distance, and Hank Greenberg's three-run homer provided the punch for a 4-1 win.
Cubs manager Charlie Grimm called Trucks the hardest-throwing pitcher his team faced all year. "I was bearing down too much to get nervous," Trucks told the Detroit News.
In a series already dotted with strong pitching, Claude Passeau followed with what some considered the best start in World Series history at the time. Rudy York's second-inning single and Bob Swift's sixth-inning walk accounted for Detroit's only baserunners in the Cubs' 3-0 win. Passeau pitched the second one-hitter in World Series history.
That left the Cubs with a 2-1 series advantage heading to Wrigley Field, where some fans had to sleep in railroad stations because Chicago's hotel rooms were sold out. While Chicagoans looked ahead to a Series win, O'Neill believed his Tigers could take three straight with the pitching trio of "T.N.T."
"We've got to win three games to take the big end," he told the Detroit News, "and we've got three top pitchers working in the rotation."
Dizzy Trout took care of the first part in Game 4, throwing a complete-game five-hitter in a 4-1 win. It was in that game that a Chicago bar owner named Billy Sianis tried to take a goat into the game, where he was turned back. He was angry enough, the legend goes, to put a curse on the team, which some believe lingers to this day.
With the series retied, Game 5 seemed to back up the hex. Newhouser won his rematch with Borowy when four straight hits leading off the sixth led to four runs. Greenberg went 3-for-5 and helped put Detroit on the verge of a series victory.
The final end of "T.N.T." was Trucks, who duplicated his Game 2 performance for four innings in Game 6 before four Cubs runs in the fifth. Down 7-3 in the eighth, the Tigers answered with four runs to tie it. However, they couldn't break the deadlock off of Borowy, who tossed four scoreless innings of relief. Stan Hack completed a four-hit game in the 12th with an ordinary single that took a funny hop past Greenberg in left, scoring the winning run in an 8-7 decision for Chicago.
Baseball rules required a day off between Games 6 and 7 so that Cubs management could print tickets -- and fans could bid on them. Box seats originally priced at $7.20 sold for as much $150 in hotel lobbies, and fans waved $100 bills at cab drivers and hotel bellhops in hopes for a grandstand seat.
The only day off in the series also affected the pitching matchups. O'Neill had all the confidence in the world for Game 7. "The Cubs don't have a pitcher that's ready to match Newhouser," he proclaimed.
Grimm went back on one day's rest to Borowy, who would pitch his third consecutive game. It was one of two crucial mistakes the Cubs made. Borowy allowed three straight singles to start the game and was pulled. The Tigers batted around for five first-inning runs, added another in the second and cruised to a 9-3 win.
Chicago's other mistake wasn't known until after the game. Greenberg's sprained right wrist, suffered in Game 6, was well-known but the extent wasn't. "He told me his wrist was so sore and so weak that he could hardly throw or swing a bat," O'Neill told the Detroit News. Greenberg made the first out of the game on a bunt and was walked in his next two at-bats.
The richest Series ever at the time set 21 records and tied 18 others. But it was the second headline of the day on Oct. 11, 1945. A typhoon on Okinawa left 90,000 Americans homeless.
Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to approval by Major League Baseball or its clubs.
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/images/2003/10/11/wDyCkxnv.jpg
Hal Newhouser was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 1945 World Series. (AP)