1940…one pitch in a
sad cycle
1940
was a tenuous time for America. Europe was at war, and we were certain to
follow. The Great Depression had waned, and prosperity was returning. As usual,
sports were the diversion from current events. Even as the 1940 Olympic Games
were cancelled due to the world’s turmoil. American sports were still in full
swing. Apart from baseball, the NFL was enjoying success…though maybe none more
than the Chicago Bears, who became the League Champions in what remains the most
one-sided victory in pro football history. A 73-0 drubbing of the Washington
Redskins.
In the
entertainment world, Hattie McDaniel became the fist person of color to earn an
Academy Award, for her role in Gone with The Wind.
And
there were many notable debuts on the entertainment front: Carmen Miranda made
her film debut, Captain America and Batman’s sidekick Robin made their first
comic book appearances, and Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker and Tom and Jerry all
arrived on the cartoon scene.
In the
baseball world, where the Cincinnati Reds won their first untarnished World
Series (they were the victors in the 1919 Series), there was one game that
hangs over the season…
One
game…
One
inning…
One
at-bat…
One
pitch…
During
a seemingly meaningless mid-summer game, the first place Reds were playing the
Giants in New York. Bucky Walters was cruising to a 4-1 victory in the bottom
of the ninth. Bob Seeds was down to his last strike but worked a walk. Burgess
Whitehead followed with a home run, also with two strikes. Now 4-3.
Two strikes on Mel Ott, as he
worked a walk. Harry Danning steps up, quickly falls to 0-2. Reds catcher
Willard Hershberger calls for a fastball, but Bucky Walters shakes him off.
Hershberger calls again for the fastball, and Walters shakes him off again.
Hershberger calls yet again for the fastball, and Walters gives him the
fastball. But he never caught it.
Danning slammed the 0-2 pitch into
the leftfield stands to win the game for the Giants.
The next day was a travel day, as
the Reds went to Boston for a six-game stand, including three doubleheaders in
a row. Bill Baker was pressed into action as the third-string catcher, catching
the first game. Regular starting catcher Ernie Lombardi was still nursing an
ankle injury but was rejoining the team in time to start game one the following
day.
The Reds lost the first game, 10-3.
Hershberger started the nightcap and went hitless. The Braves won 4-3 in the
bottom of the twelfth inning.
After the game, Willard was in a
bad place. He met with manager Bill McKechnie in his room that evening and told
the skipper that he felt that he let the team down, and that his teammates
probably felt the same way. He couldn’t take the pressure of being the starting
catcher, despite the fact hat he was batting .309 at the time, and that the
Reds were still in first place by six games, despite their three-game losing
streak.
McKechnie reassured the thirty-year
old that he was mistaken, that no one held him responsible for a loss. They
talked for more than two hours. He mentioned that he had contemplated suicide
but didn’t have the courage to follow through. McKechnie wouldn’t let Willard
leave his room until he felt that Hershberger had ‘cheered up’ somewhat. He
advised “Hershie” to get some rest, and that he would be starting in the second
game the following day.
His roommate, Bill Baker, suggested
that they go to the ballpark together, but Willard said that he would be along
in a little while. At game-time, Willard was still not at the park, so the
traveling secretary called the hotel, where Willard said that he wasn’t feeling
well and couldn’t play, but he would make it to the park as soon as he could.
At the conclusion of the first
game, still no Hershberger. And no answer at the hotel room. A friend of Hershberger’s
from Cincinnati named Dan Cohen was instructed to get to the hotel to bring
Willard back to face possible disciplinary action. While this was happening,
McKechnie took the opportunity to hold a brief team meeting telling the players
that Willard was taking that loss in New York hard, and that the stress was
getting to him a bit. To possibly go easy around the catcher for a little bit.
Cohen had gotten to the hotel room,
and found a maid to let him in. There he discovered Willard slumped over the
bathtub, towels placed all over the floor. His jugular vein had been slashed,
bending over the tub to try not to make a mess. Baker’s razor was on the floor,
and several uncashed paychecks were in his pocket. There was no suicide note.
Hershberger is the only player to commit suicide during the season.
It is easy to see where all the
signals were missed. Remember that this was 1940, so there was still a shroud
of secrecy and a cloud of shame over mental health issues. Flash forward eighty
years, and McKechnie would have had the team psychologist meeting with
Hershberger. There would have been counselors available to him. They would have
seen the signs and understood the significance of his actions.
He had recently taken out an
insurance policy. He had recently bought a house for his mother. He had been
suffering from insomnia and headaches. He had been losing weight. He talked
about suicide with his teammates and McKechnie.
In 1929, his father Claude,
committed suicide three weeks after the stock market crash.
He sat on the edge of the bathtub
in the middle of the night and used a cane to shoot himself in the chest with a
shotgun at point blank range. The gunshot awoke the entire family, including
Willard, who was a teenager. The mess that was created obviously left an impact
on Willard, as he made sure not to make the same mess when he repeated the act.
McKechnie found out what happened
in the middle of the game and waited until the game was over to announce it to
the team. They retired his number 5 for the remainder of the season as a
tribute to their fallen teammate and decided to win the Series for “Hershie”.
Which the did. The team also voted on a World Series share ($5,800) for
Hershberger, which was given to his mother.
Bill McKechnie, who died in 1965,
never did reveal what Hershberger told him, saying “He told it to me in confidence,
and I will not utter it to anyone.”
I don’t want you to think that
McKechnie holds any blame for the incident. Far from it. He used whatever
resources were available at the time. Drawing on his strong Christian faith, he
listened and counseled Hershberger to the best of his abilities.
Bill McKechnie was an outstanding
man. He was a solid major leaguer, and a successful coach and manager. He was
the first manager to win a World Series with two different teams (1925 Pirates
and 1940 Reds). He was quiet by nature, and sang in his church choir, earning
him the nickname “Deacon”. As a manager, if he had a player whom he thought was
partying too much, he would become that players roommate.
The Pirates Spring Training home in
Bradenton was called Bill McKechnie Field from 1962 until 2017.
Back to the 1940 baseball season at
hand…
Prior to the season, Commissioner
Landis discovered that the Detroit Tigers were violating rules and
‘restricting’ its minor league players. Landis found that the Tigers controlled
more than one team in two different minor leagues. As such, the Commissioner
voided their contracts, making 87 players immediate free agents. He then
ordered the Tigers to pay restitution to fourteen other players as
compensation.
While a blow to the Tigers
organization, they were still able to pace the American League, and win the
pennant by one game over the Indians, and two over the Yankees.
The season started off with a bang,
as Bob Feller of the Indians pitched the first and only Opening Day no-hitter.
Red Sox slugger Jimmie Foxx passed
Lou Gehrig for second place on the all-time home run list, and then became the
second to reach the 500-home run plateau.
The Sox became the first team to
hit four homers in one inning.
Shortstop and manager Joe Cronin
hit for the cycle for the second time in his career, becoming the first to do
so more than 10 years apart (1929 was his other)
And ‘The Splendid Splinter’, Ted
Williams took the mound for the first and only time in his career. In the
eighth inning of a game against the Tigers, with the Sox behind 11-1, Williams
came in to pitch the last two innings. He did well, allowing a run on three
hits. More impressively, he struck out Rudy York on three pitches. York had
four hits in the game, driving in five runs.
Yankees pitcher Spud Chandler drove
in six runs in a 10-2 win over the White Sox. His six runs batted in by a
pitcher tied the American League record with Pete Appleton, who pitched in the
ninth inning for the Sox.
In Cincinnati, with the loss of
Willard Hershberger, coach Jimmy Wilson was activated to shore up the catching
corps, with Ernie Lombardi still struggling with injuries. The forty-year old
Wilson caught six of the seven games in the Series, batted .353, and stole the
only base in the Series.
Reds first-baseman Frank McCormick
led the league in hits for the third straight season.
The Brooklyn Dodgers became the
first team to fly together, on May 7th, traveling from St. Louis to
Chicago. Well, most of the team. Babe Phelps had a sever fear of flying and
would follow the team by train instead. Phelps would be out of baseball by the
end of 1942.
The statistical breakdowns of the
leagues were as follows, pitching first:
National
League
|
|
Indians
|
Reds
|
White
Sox
|
Dodgers
|
Tigers
|
Cubs
|
And in hitting, we get this list:
Tigers
|
Pirates
|
Red Sox
|
Cardinals
|
Yankees
|
Reds
|
Which brings our overall power
rankings to this:
Reds
|
World Champions
|
Tigers
|
AL Champions
|
Yankees
|
3rd in AL
|
Indians
|
2nd in AL
|
Dodgers
|
2nd in NL
|
The 1940 World Series featured two
evenly matched teams, in the Tigers and the Reds. In an emotional see-saw
battle, with the teams trading wins, the Reds won the seventh game 2-1. The
Reds were playing with Willard Hershberger on their mind. In Game Seven, Tigers
pitcher Bobo Newsom was pitching just days after his father passed away. The
Reds won 2-1.
To the season review, we’ll look at
the pitching first, starting with the American League. The Junior Circuit
didn’t fare as well as their NL counterparts, underperforming by an average of
13.4% lower, our initial top ten performers look like this:
Team
|
W-L
|
ERA
|
|
Bob
Feller
|
Indians
|
27-11
|
2.61
|
Bobo
Newsom
|
Tigers
|
21-5
|
2.83
|
Ted
Lyons
|
White
Sox
|
12-8
|
3.24
|
Schoolboy
Rowe
|
Tigers
|
16-3
|
3.46
|
Al
Milnar
|
Indians
|
18-10
|
3.27
|
Marius
Russo
|
Yankees
|
14-8
|
3.28
|
Red
Ruffing
|
Yankees
|
15-12
|
3.38
|
Al
Smith
|
Indians
|
15-7
|
3.44
|
Johnny
Rigney
|
White
Sox
|
14-18
|
3.11
|
Eddie
Smith
|
White
Sox
|
14-9
|
3.21
|
Then, compared to team averages,
our next top ten performers are as follows:
Johnny Babich
|
A’s
|
14-13
|
3.73
|
Ken Chase
|
Senators
|
15-17
|
3.23
|
Elden Auker
|
Browns
|
16-11
|
3.96
|
Dutch Leonard
|
Senators
|
14-19
|
3.49
|
Bob Feller
|
Above
|
||
Bobo Newsom
|
Above
|
||
Nels Potter
|
A’s
|
9-14
|
4.44
|
Sid Hudson
|
Senators
|
17-16
|
4.57
|
Schoolboy Rowe
|
Above
|
||
Ted Lyons
|
Above
|
This brings our final top ten
American League pitcher rankings to:
Bob Feller
|
2nd in MVP vote
|
Bobo Newsom
|
4th in MVP vote
|
Johnny Babich
|
19th in MVP vote
|
Ted Lyons
|
22nd in MVP vote (tied)
|
Schoolboy Rowe
|
7th in MVP vote
|
Ken Chase
|
No votes
|
Marius Russo
|
No votes
|
Al Milnar
|
No votes
|
Red Ruffing
|
No votes
|
Dutch Leonard
|
No votes
|
Over to the National League, our
initial top ten list is:
Freddie Fitzsimmons
|
Dodgers
|
16-2
|
2.81
|
Bucky Walters
|
Reds
|
22-10
|
2.48
|
Jim Turner
|
Reds
|
14-7
|
2.89
|
Claude Passeau
|
Cubs
|
20-13
|
2.50
|
Paul Derringer
|
Reds
|
20-12
|
3.06
|
Rip Sewell
|
Pirates
|
16-5
|
2.80
|
Manny Salvo
|
Braves
|
10-9
|
3.08
|
Lon Warneke
|
Cardinals
|
16-10
|
3.14
|
Vern Olsen
|
Cubs
|
13-9
|
2.97
|
Gene Thompson
|
Reds
|
16-9
|
3.32
|
Then, against their team averages,
we get this next list:
Manny Salvo
|
Above
|
||
Freddie Fitzsimmons
|
Above
|
||
Dick Errickson
|
Braves
|
12-13
|
3.16
|
Claude Passeau
|
Above
|
||
Bucky Walters
|
Above
|
||
Joe Sullivan
|
Braves
|
10-14
|
3.55
|
Rip Sewell
|
Above
|
||
Hugh Mulcahy
|
Phillies
|
13-22
|
3.60
|
Vern Olsen
|
Above
|
||
Jim Turner
|
above
|
And that brings us to our top ten
pitchers in the National League:
5th
in MVP vote
|
|
Bucky
Walters
|
3rd
in MVP vote
|
Claude
Passeau
|
16th
in MVP
|
Manny
Salvo
|
No
votes
|
Jim
Turner
|
No
votes
|
Rip
Sewell
|
25th
in MVP
|
Paul
Derringer
|
4th
in MVP
|
Lon
Warneke
|
No
votes
|
Dick
Errickson
|
No
votes
|
Vern
Olsen
|
No
votes
|
Remember, there was no Cy Young
Award presented at this time.
Now to the hitting, where the AL
batters statistically outdid the NL batters by 11.3%, we get this initial
American league list:
Team
|
HR
|
RBI
|
AVG
|
RCG
|
|
Hank
Greenberg
|
Tigers
|
41
|
150
|
.340
|
1.61
|
Ted
Williams
|
Red
Sox
|
23
|
113
|
.344
|
1.56
|
Joe
DiMaggio
|
Yankees
|
31
|
133
|
.352
|
1.48
|
Rudy
York
|
Tigers
|
33
|
134
|
.316
|
1.33
|
Jimmie
Foxx
|
Red
Sox
|
36
|
119
|
.297
|
1.31
|
Charlie
Keller
|
Yankees
|
21
|
93
|
.286
|
1.26
|
Joe
Cronin
|
Red
Sox
|
24
|
111
|
.285
|
1.28
|
Charlie
Gehringer
|
Tigers
|
10
|
81
|
.313
|
1.29
|
Barney
McCoskey
|
Tigers
|
4
|
57
|
.340
|
1.23
|
Bob
Johnson
|
Browns
|
31
|
103
|
.268
|
1.20
|
And compared
to their team averages, we get this list:
Joe DiMaggio
|
Above
|
||||
Hank Greenberg
|
Above
|
||||
Ted Williams
|
Above
|
||||
Bob Johnson
|
Above
|
||||
Gee Walker
|
Senators
|
13
|
96
|
.294
|
1.21
|
Lou Boudreau
|
Indians
|
9
|
101
|
.295
|
1.22
|
Hal Trosky
|
Indians
|
25
|
93
|
.295
|
1.09
|
Frankie Hayes
|
A’s
|
16
|
0
|
.308
|
0.93
|
Buddy Lewis
|
Senators
|
6
|
63
|
.317
|
1.07
|
Wally Judnich
|
Browns
|
24
|
84
|
.303
|
1.18
|
And that brings the top American
League hitters to this list:
Hank Greenberg
|
AL MVP
|
Ted Williams
|
14th in MVP vote (tied)
|
Joe DiMaggio
|
3rd in MVP vote
|
Rudy York
|
No votes
|
Jimmie Foxx
|
6th in MVP
|
Charlie Keller
|
No votes
|
Bob Johnson
|
No votes
|
Joe Cronin
|
No votes
|
Charlie Gehringer
|
23rd in MVP (tied)
|
Wally Judnich
|
18th in MVP
|
Over to the National League, we get
this initial list:
Johnny Mize
|
Cardinals
|
43
|
137
|
.314
|
1.32
|
Frank McCormick
|
Reds
|
19
|
127
|
.309
|
1.30
|
Debs Garms
|
Pirates
|
5
|
57
|
.355
|
1.24
|
Arky Vaughan
|
Pirates
|
7
|
95
|
.300
|
1.29
|
Elbie Fletcher
|
Pirates
|
16
|
104
|
.273
|
1.24
|
Dolph Camili
|
Dodgers
|
23
|
96
|
.287
|
1.16
|
Ernie Lombardi
|
Reds
|
14
|
74
|
.319
|
1.01
|
Hank Leiber
|
Cubs
|
17
|
86
|
.302
|
1.17
|
Bill Nicholson
|
Cubs
|
25
|
98
|
.297
|
1.12
|
Maurice Van Robays
|
Pirates
|
11
|
116
|
.273
|
1.29
|
And against their team’s
performances, we get this list:
Johnny Rizzo
|
Phillies/Pirates/Cubs
|
24
|
72
|
.283
|
0.83
|
Johnny Mize
|
Above
|
||||
Frank McCormick
|
Above
|
||||
Dolph Camili
|
Above
|
||||
Pinky May
|
Phillies
|
1
|
48
|
.293
|
0.78
|
Hank Leiber
|
Above
|
||||
Bill Nicholson
|
Above
|
||||
Ernie Lombardi
|
Above
|
||||
Chet Ross
|
Braves
|
17
|
89
|
.281
|
1.05
|
Joe Marty
|
Phillies
|
13
|
50
|
.270
|
0.72
|
And that makes our top National
League hitters as such:
Johnny Mize
|
2nd in MVP vote
|
Frank McCormick
|
NL MVP
|
Dolph Camili
|
12th in MVP vote
|
Ernie Lombardi
|
9th in MVP vote
|
Debs Garms
|
13th in MVP vote (tied)
|
Arky Vaughan
|
15th in MVP
|
Hank Leiber
|
No votes
|
Bill Nicholson
|
20th in MVO vote
|
Elbie Fletcher
|
19th in MVP vote
|
Maurice Van Robays
|
24th in MVP vote
|
Brining us to the post season awards,
top 6 players in the American League (because 5 would leave out the pitcher)
were:
Hank
Greenberg
AL Player
of the Year
Ted
Williams
Joe
DiMaggio
Rudy
York
Jimmie
Foxx
Bob
Feller
AL Pitcher
of the Year
And the top 5 National League
players:
Johnny
Mize
NL
Player of the Year
Freddie
Fitzsimmons
NL
Pitcher of the Year
Frank
McCormick
Dolph
Camili
Ernie
Lombardi