The 1934 regular season was a breakout campaign for Dean, as he led the league with 30 wins, 195 strikeouts, and 26 complete games. In the final week of the season, he earned three wins to lift the Cardinals to the National League pennant. The Redbirds had trailed the New York Giants by as many as seven games on September 6, but a 21-7 record in the final week of the season propelled them past the defending National League champs.

Through the first six games of the World Series, the Cardinals and the American League champion Tigers had proven to be equals. Dean had taken the loss in Game 5 as Tigers right-hander Tommy Bridges held the Cardinals to one run and seven hits in a complete-game effort.

The following day, Dizzy’s younger brother Paul Dean outpitched Tigers ace Schoolboy Rowe, allowing three runs – one earned – in a 4-3 Cardinals win. That left Cardinals second baseman and manager Frankie Frisch with a decision to make regarding his starting pitcher for Game 7. He could either pitch Dizzy Dean again on one day’s rest or turn to left-hander Bill Hallahan, who had held the Tigers to two runs over 8 1/3 innings in Game 2.

Radio announcer France Laux recalled, “Finally Frisch said, ‘Hallahan, you start. Walker (left-hander Bill Walker), you’re in reserve.’ Just as he said that, the door opened, and here’s old Diz. He called Frisch ‘Franco.’ He said, ‘Franco, you know what the problem is? You’re going over the batting order, trying to decide who to pitch. You want to win, don’t you?’ He said, ‘There’s only one man to pitch, an’ here he is.’

“Frisch said, ‘Are you sure you’re able to go?’

“He said, ‘You let me pitch, an’ you won’t have any more problem.’

“Frisch said, ‘Okay, you start, and Hallahan, you’re in reserve.’”[1]

The Tigers countered with Elden Auker, a 23-year-old right-hander who had gone 15-7 during the regular season, then pitched all nine innings to earn the win in Detroit’s 10-4 Game 4 victory.

Before the game, Dean visited the Tigers bullpen and observed Auker as he warmed up.

“You don’t expect to get anyone out with that stuff, do you?” Dean asked.[2]

After both pitchers cruised through the first two innings, it was Dean who got the Cardinals’ offense sparked with a one-out double in the third. Pepper Martin followed with a single, and Jack Rothrock walked to load the bases ahead of Frisch. The 36-year-old Frisch came through with a bases-clearing double to give his team a 3-0 lead.

“That was a million-dollar hit to me,” Frisch said.[3]

Tigers catcher/manager Mickey Cochrane quickly turned to his bullpen, calling upon Rowe, who had earned the win in Game 2 but was outpitched by Paul Dean in Game 6 just one day earlier. After throwing all nine innings the previous day, Rowe had little left for Game 7. Joe Medwick grounded out for the second out of the inning, but Ripper Collins hit an RBI single and Bill DeLancey smacked an RBI double into right field to give the Cardinals a 5-0 lead and chase Rowe from the game.

With Elon Hogsett now in the game, Ernie Orsatti worked a walk and light-hitting shortstop Leo Durocher singled to load the bases for Dean.

“It’s all over, Mick,” Dean told Cochrane as he took his warm-up swings.

Dean bounced an infield single to third base that scored DeLancey, and Martin followed with a bases-loaded walk to extend St. Louis’s lead to 7-0. Finally, Bridges, the Tigers’ fourth pitcher of the inning, got a ground ball to end the inning.

Dean, meanwhile, continued to cruise. Detroit didn’t collect its first hit until Charlie Gehringer singled in the fourth. The Tigers finally threatened in the fifth when Hank Greenberg singled and Pete Fox followed with a one-out double. With two runners in scoring position, Dean struck out Bridges, then retired Jo-Jo White on a ground ball to Durocher to end the threat.

The most famous – or infamous – moment of the game took place in the sixth inning, when Medwick hit a two-out RBI triple. Medwick slid hard into the base, knocking Owen down in the process. After Owen landed on him, Medwick kicked at the Tigers third baseman, and the two players were soon wrestling in the dirt.

“I admit he slid hard. Joe always played hard. But it wasn’t a dirty slide,” Frisch wrote in his autobiography. “But Marvin Owen, the third baseman, thought Joe was carrying one of his spiked shoes too high as he slid, and perhaps accidentally or perhaps in retaliation, Owen took the high throw and came down on Joe’s leg harder than Joe thought was necessary. So Medwick kicked at Owen’s leg.”[4]

Collins followed with a single to center field, extending the Cardinals’ lead to 9-0. When the Cardinals took the field in the bottom half of the inning, however, the fans began to throw produce, cigar stubs, and empty soda bottles at Medwick in left field.[5]

Paul Gallico of the New York Daily News described the scene:

“I watched the crowd and Medwick, and the pelting missles (sic) through my field glasses, and it was a terrifying sight. Every face in the crowd, women and men was distorted with rage. Mouths were tore wide, open eyes glistened and shone in the sun. All fists were clenched. Medwick stood grinning with his hands on his hips, just out of range of the bottles. A green apple rolled to his feet, and he fielded that too.”[6]

The game was delayed as staff worked to clear the field of trash, and the public address announcer pleaded with fans to allow play to resume.

“I don’t know where they were getting all that stuff from,” Gehringer said. “It was like they were backing produce trucks up to the gate and supplying everyone.”[7]

Meanwhile, Medwick picked up an apple and began to play catch with Martin and Orsatti.

“Aw, it’s nothing, Joe. Don’t let it bother you,” Durocher said.

“Nothing, hell,” Medwick replied. “If you think that, you play left field and I’ll play shortstop.”[8]

Finally, commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis called Medwick, Owen, Frisch, and the umpires to his box on the third-base line.

“Mr. Owen, did Mr. Medwick attempt to kick you?” Landis asked.

“Yes, sir,” Owen answered.

“Is that true?” Landis then asked Medwick. “Did you attempt to kick Mr. Owen?”

“Yes, I did, sir,” answered Medwick.[9]

After determining that Owen had done nothing to prompt Medwick’s anger, Landis ordered the Cardinals slugger removed from the game. With 11 hits in the series, Medwick’s shot at tying the record of 12 was over.

“It’s a good thing Joe didn’t have a bat in his hands,” Frisch said. “He would have killed some of those fans.”[10]

“I was running to third base,” Medwick told the St. Louis Globe-Democrat after the game. “I saw Owen in front of the bag, and I slid in hard. Then the row followed. When Mr. Landis called me to him, he asked me if I had anything against Owen. I said ‘no.’ He asked Owen the same question, and he said ‘no.’ I offered to shake hands with Owen, but he refused. Mr. Landis then told me I was out of the game. That’s all there was to that, and I left.”[11]

After a 20-minute delay, the game was able to resume.

In the seventh inning, Durocher tripled and scored on an error and Rothrock hit an RBI double to make the score 11-0. It proved to be 10 runs more than Dean needed, even as he experimented with new pitches.

“Hey, Frank,” he shouted to Frisch late in the game. “If I’m as good as (Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell), I should be able to throw a screwball. Watch this.”[12]

Dean’s ensuing pitch sailed over DeLancey’s head.

“Bear down, dammit!” Frisch shouted.[13]

In the ninth inning, Gehringer and Billy Rogell each singled, but Dean struck out Greenberg for his fifth strikeout of the game. When Owen hit a ground ball to Durocher and the Cardinals’ shortstop flipped the ball to Frisch at second base for the force out, the Cardinals were world champions.

Dean had allowed just six hits over nine shutout innings, and every player in the Cardinals’ lineup had at least one hit. Together, Dizzy and his brother Paul Dean had earned all four of St. Louis’s World Series wins.

After the game, Dizzy celebrated with a rubber, inflatable tiger.

“Look at old Frankie Frisch over there,” he said. “He’s the best manager in both leagues. He knows more baseball than all them Tigers thrown together. Everything was just lovely today. I let them Tigers have a couple of base hits and then I throwed strikes at ‘em. Boy, there was nothing to it.”[14]

As champions, each of the Cardinals received $5,941 while the Tigers received $4,313.90.[15]

With tensions still high following Medwick’s dustup, the Cardinals received a police escort back to their hotel. There, Medwick and his roommate, pitcher Bill Hallahan, observed two men following them on the elevator and then down the hallway. They had barely gotten to their rooms when there was a knock on the door. It was the two men who had been following them.

“Which one of you is Joe Medwick?” one of them asked.

“He is,” Medwick said, pointing to Hallahan.

“I am not,” said a startled Hallahan. “He is.”

The men explained that they were plainclothes detectives assigned to protect Medwick until he left town.[16] Medwick ate dinner with the two detectives in his room that evening.[17]

“I never knew a city to take a World Series defeat so bitterly,” Frisch said. “Twenty-five years later, our center fielder, Ernie Orsatti, was in Detroit on a business trip and he registered at the Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel, where we were housed while playing the 1934 World Series. The desk clerk looked at the name on the register, then looked at Orsatti. He told Ernie he didn’t believe he could give him a room. Orsattie thought he was joking, but he wasn’t. Ernie had to go over the clerk’s head to get a room at the hotel.”[18]

While there was no love lost between Detroit’s fans and the Cardinals, the Tigers didn’t have any hard feelings for the Dean brothers.

“This Dizzy Dean they’re all talking about told the boys what he’s going to do to them, but after listening for a while, I kind of liked the kid,” outfielder Goose Goslin said. “There’s no real harm in him.”[19]

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[1] Peter Golenbock (2011), The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns, HarperCollins Ebooks, Page 191.

[2] Doug Feldmann (2000), Dizzy and the Gas House Gang: The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals and Depression-Era Baseball, McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, N.C. and London, Page 165.

[3] Charles W. Dunkley “Cochrane’s Handshake Fills Frank’s Cup To Brim,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 10, 1934.

[4] John Heidenry (2007), The Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-From-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series, PublicAffairs: New York, Page 270.

[5] John Heidenry (2007), The Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-From-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series, PublicAffairs: New York, Page 270.

[6] Paul Gallico, “Riot,” New York Daily News, October 10, 1934.

[7] John Heidenry (2007), The Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-From-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series, PublicAffairs: New York, Page 271.

[8] John Heidenry (2007), The Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-From-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series, PublicAffairs: New York, Page 271.

[9] Doug Feldmann (2000), Dizzy and the Gas House Gang: The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals and Depression-Era Baseball, McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, N.C. and London, Page 168.

[10] John Heidenry (2007), The Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-From-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series, PublicAffairs: New York, Page 272.

[11] Martin J. Haley, “Cardinals Win Series as Fans Stage Riot,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 10, 1934.

[12] Doug Feldmann (2000), Dizzy and the Gas House Gang: The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals and Depression-Era Baseball, McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, N.C. and London, Page 168.

[13] Doug Feldmann (2000), Dizzy and the Gas House Gang: The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals and Depression-Era Baseball, McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, N.C. and London, Page 168.

[14] Charles W. Dunkley “Cochrane’s Handshake Fills Frank’s Cup To Brim,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 10, 1934.

[15] “Each Card Gets $5,821, Tiger $4,313,” New York Daily News, October 10, 1934.

[16] John Heidenry (2007), The Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-From-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series, PublicAffairs: New York, Page 276.

[17] Doug Feldmann (2000), Dizzy and the Gas House Gang: The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals and Depression-Era Baseball, McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, N.C. and London, Page 170.

[18] Peter Golenbock (2011), The Spirit of St. Louis: A History of the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns, HarperCollins Ebooks, Page 194.

[19] Charles F. Faber (2014), The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals, Kindle Android Edition, Location 3536.

The post 1934 World Series Game 7: Dizzy Dean shuts out Detroit and Joe Medwick nearly sparks a riot first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

On January 23, 1968, Medwick woke with a swollen jaw from a toothache that would require a trip to the dentist in the afternoon. Before that, however, he went to his office at General Insurors, where he served as an insurance broker.[1]

As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Neal Russo described the scene:

It was 10:47 this morning when the telephone rang in Joe Medwick’s insurance office on Lindell Boulevard. The former Cardinal star had been calm as he awaited the call on what he referred to as “my hotline.” But when Medwick was getting word from New York that he had been voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame, his voice began to shake. Now the nervousness that he had experienced in two successive almost sleepless nights had returned.[2]

With the news of his election, Medwick received congratulations from his coworkers, then provided interviews to television, radio, and newspaper reporters who had gathered at the insurance building. Medwick, who recently had accepted a full-time position as a minor-league hitting instructor for the Cardinals,[3] admitted that he wasn’t a particularly motivated insurance salesman.

“I just showed up at the office occasionally,” he said. “But this is not my first love. Let’s face it. It’s baseball.”[4]

To be eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot, players were required to have retired at least five years earlier and no more than 20. With Medwick’s final season coming in 1948, he was in his final year of eligibility. If he hadn’t been elected, he would have had to wait for the Veterans Committee to consider his candidacy.

“It was the longest slump I ever had,” he said. “I’d gone 0-for-20, but not 0-for-20 years.”[5]

Medwick was named on 240 of the 283 ballots submitted for 84.8%. To clear the 75% threshold required for election, he needed just 213.

Medwick was the only eligible candidate to earn election in 1968. Roy Campanella, who would be inducted alongside Stan Musial the following year, received 205 votes, falling eight short of election. Lou Boudreau received 146, former Cardinal Enos Slaughter received 129, Ralph Kiner received 118, and another former Cardinal, Johnny Mize, received 103. All would eventually earn induction. Former Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion received 89 votes for 31.4% of the vote.

“It’s a good thing I have a good heart,” Medwick said. “The waiting was worse than waiting for the birth of my son.”[6]

Later, referring to the possibility that waiting for the Veterans Committee may have resulted in a posthumous induction, he said, “I didn’t want them to have to give it to my wife.”[7]

The Cardinals originally signed Medwick from the sandlots of New Jersey and sent the 18-year-old to Scottsdale, Pennsylvania, to play in the Mid-Atlantic League before playing in Houston the next year. In Houston, Medwick received the nickname “Ducky” when a female fan wrote to the Houston Post-Dispatch, saying, “Please tell me about Medwick. I have heard he was an Italian and can hardly speak English. Was this true? Joe Medwick was my favorite player, and I have nicknamed him ‘Duckie’ because he walks just like a duck.”

Medwick made his major-league debut as a 20-year-old in 1932, batting .349 in 106 at-bats. In 1934, his third year in the league, Medwick led the league with 18 triples while batting .319 with 18 homers and 106 RBIs, the first of six consecutive triple-digit RBI seasons for Medwick.

Medwick was well known as a bad-ball hitter. As Doug Feldmann wrote in Dizzy and the Gas House Gang, “At times, in fact, it seemed his favorite pitch was a running fastball inside, a pitch seemingly headed for his front shoulder. With a quick, tomahawk action from his short frame, he would ‘chop’ the ball into the left field gap.”[8]

“I’d rather pitch to any other hitter in the league,” Dodgers pitcher Van Lingle Mungo said.[9]

“Forbid Medwick to carry a bat to the plate—make him hit with his fists,” fellow Dodgers pitcher Dutch Leonard suggested. “Then he’d only get singles.”[10]

With Medwick batting cleanup, the 1934 Cardinals rallied to win the National League pennant by two games over the defending champion Giants and face the Tigers in the World Series. There, Medwick had already collected 10 hits when he tripled in the sixth inning of Game 7 to score Pepper Martin and give the Cardinals an 8-0 lead.

As Medwick slid into third, he spiked Tigers third baseman Marv Owens, and the two nearly came to blows. After Medwick scored and returned to the outfield in the bottom of the sixth, the Detroit faithful expressed their displeasure by hurling fruit, bottles, newspapers, and garbage at Medwick.

“I don’t know where they were getting all that stuff from,” Tigers second baseman Charlie Gehringer said. “It was like they were backing produce trucks up to the gate and supplying everyone.”[11]

“If somebody had an old Ford, they would have thrown that at him,” Tigers shortstop Billy Rogell said.[12]

Nonplussed, Medwick and his fellow outfielders Ernie Orsatti and Jack Rothrock picked up some of the fruit and began to play catch, which only enraged the crowd further.[13] Tigers manager Mickey Cochrane called for order three times, but the assault continued. After a 17-minute delay, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis called Medwick, Owen, and both managers to his box seat. After a brief conversation with all the interested parties, he ejected Medwick from the game.

With a 9-0 lead already in hand, the Cardinals cruised to an 11-0 final score and won the second World Series championship in franchise history.

Over the course of his career, Medwick proved willing to fight opponents and teammates alike. Among Cardinals, his opponents included Rip Collins, Tex Carleton, Dizzy Dean, Paul Dean, and even former pro boxer Ed Heusser.[14]

“He’s the durndest man I ever seen,” Dizzy Dean said. “Before you even get to do enough talking to get really mad enough to fight, Joe whops you, and the fight’s over. That ain’t no way to fight.”[15]

Medwick’s best season came in 1937 when he won the Triple Crown and the National League MVP Award. In addition to leading the league with a .374 batting average, 31 homers, and 154 RBIs, Medwick led the league in runs scored (111), doubles (56), and hits (237).

Medwick famously told J. Roy Stockton of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I have two good friends in this world: buckerinoes and base hits. If I get base hits, I will get buckerinoes.”[16] However, his annual salary never exceeded the $22,000 he made in Brooklyn. In 1938, the Cardinals paid him a high of either $19,000 (as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)[17] or $20,000 (per Charles F. Faber’s The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals).[18]

In 1940, Medwick’s desire for a higher salary led Branch Rickey to trade Medwick, along with pitcher Curt Davis, to Brooklyn for four players and at least $125,000. He went on to play with the Giants, Braves, and Browns before returning to St. Louis for his final big-league seasons in 1947 and 1948. Afterwards, he served as a minor-league player/manager in the Redbirds’ farm system.

Medwick retired with a career .324 batting average, 205 home runs, and 1,383 RBIs in 17 major-league seasons.

“I was never a home run hitter,” Medwick said. “I concentrated on driving in runs with singles and doubles, and I stretched a lot of triples into doubles.”[19]

The evening of his election, Medwick spent more than two hours at Stan & Biggie’s restaurant, eating dinner in between shaking hands and signing autographs.[20]

“For the first time in my life, I’m speechless,” Medwick said. “I’m all hopped up, just like a June bride.”[21]

“Getting into the Hall of Fame really rounds out my career,” he added. “I’ve had just about everything else, playing in World Series and All-Star Games, winning the Triple Crown, and being named Most Valuable Player in the National League. Baseball has been kind to me.”[22]

In July, Medwick was officially inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside Veterans Committee selections Goose Goslin and Kiki Cuyler. Medwick and Cuyler each accepted their awards from Eckert, while Cuyler was recognized posthumously and was represented by his family.

“My life is now complete,” Medwick said.[23]

Stan Musial, who was elected to the Hall of Fame the following year, represented the Cardinals at the ceremony.

“It’s been a long time coming, but I’m very proud,” Medwick said in his acceptance speech. “It’s a happy day. I have been fortunate all my life to be associated with the gentlemen in the great game of baseball, but I never realized when I started out in 1932 that I would wind up here.”[24]

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[1] Neal Russo, “Medwick Makes Hall of Fame,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 23, 1968.

[2] Neal Russo, “Joe Was Calm – Until the Call,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 23, 1968.

[3] Neal Russo, “Medwick Makes Hall of Fame,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 23, 1968.

[4] Neal Russo, “Joe Was Calm – Until the Call,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 23, 1968.

[5] Neal Russo, “Joe Was Calm – Until the Call,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 23, 1968.

[6] Neal Russo, “Joe Was Calm – Until the Call,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 23, 1968.

[7] Neal Russo, “Joe Was Calm – Until the Call,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 23, 1968.

[8] Doug Feldmann (2015), Dizzy and the Gas House Gang, Kindle Android version, Page 41.

[9] Doug Feldmann (2015), Dizzy and the Gas House Gang, Kindle Android version, Page 42.

[10] Doug Feldmann (2015), Dizzy and the Gas House Gang, Kindle Android version, Page 42.

[11] John Heidenry (2007), The Gashouse Gang, PublicAffairs, Kindle Android version, Page 272.

[12] Charles F. Faber (2014), The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals, Kindle Android version, Location 2128.

[13] Charles F. Faber (2014), The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals, Kindle Android version, Location 6869.

[14] Bob Broeg, “Stormy Days of Muscles Joe Now Just a Memory,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 24, 1968.

[15] Bob Broeg, “Stormy Days of Muscles Joe Now Just a Memory,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 24, 1968.

[16] Doug Feldmann (2015), Dizzy and the Gas House Gang, Kindle Android version, Page 41.

[17] Bob Broeg, “Stormy Days of Muscles Joe Now Just a Memory,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 24, 1968.

[18] Charles F. Faber (2014), The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals, Kindle Android version, Location 6919.

[19] Neal Russo, “Extra Inning for Medwick Career,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 24, 1968.

[20] Neal Russo, “Extra Inning for Medwick Career,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 24, 1968.

[21] Neal Russo, “Joe Was Calm – Until the Call,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 23, 1968.

[22] Neal Russo, “Extra Inning for Medwick Career,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 24, 1968.

[23] “Medwick: ‘Life Now Complete,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 23, 1968.

[24] “Medwick: ‘Life Now Complete,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 23, 1968.

The post Joe Medwick is elected to the Hall of Fame: January 23, 1968 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

Dean entered the game having won 11 of his last 12 decisions and each of his last four appearances. While Dean and his younger brother Paul were keeping the Cardinals in the pennant race, the Reds were mired at the bottom of the National League standings with a 21-44 record. Despite their season-long struggles, the Reds proved to be a challenge for Dean and the Redbirds as the lead exchanged seven times in the 18-inning affair.

Dean and Cincinnati southpaw Tony Freitas exchanged zeros through the first three innings. Frankie Frisch got the Cardinals on the scoreboard in the fourth with an RBI single, but the Reds scored a run of their own with two singles and an RBI groundout in the bottom of the inning.

After Dean retired the first two batters of the fifth inning, the Reds rallied for three consecutive hits, including an RBI single by Gordon Slade and an RBI triple by Mark Koenig that gave Cincinnati a 3-1 lead.

St. Louis tied the score again in the top of the sixth. Pepper Martin led off the inning with a single, snapping an 0-for-11 slump, and scored on an RBI double by Frisch. With two outs, Ripper Collins singled into center field to score Frisch.

From there, the teams continued to trade runs. A sacrifice fly gave Cincinnati a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the sixth before Martin hit a sacrifice fly of his own to tie the score in the seventh. In the bottom of the frame, Koenig doubled and former Cardinal Chick Hafey singled into right field to give the Reds a 5-4 lead. The Cardinals wouldn’t tie the score again until the ninth, when Chick Fullis hit a leadoff double and Leo Durocher singled into center field to drive him home.

From that point forward, Dean and Freitas exchanged scoreless innings until the top of the 17^th. With one out, Joe Medwick launched his eighth home run of the year onto a factory roof across the street.[1]

“The Reds had a lot of fun kidding Ducky during batting practice before the warfare started about his recent light hitting, and they also kidded him a lot when little Tony Freitas fanned him in the second and fourth innings of the long game. But he had the last laugh on Bob O’Farrell’s crowd,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.[2]

Dean returned to the mound for the bottom of the 17^th inning holding a 6-5 lead, but after he retired the first two batters he faced, Tony Piet doubled to left and Slade hit an RBI single to tie the score once again.

The Reds had replaced Freitas with a pinch-hitter in the frame, so former Cardinal Paul Derringer entered the game for Cincinnati in the 18^th. With one out, Derringer walked Burgess Whitehead. Pat Crawford, called upon to pinch hit for Dean, singled into center before Martin popped up for the second out.

With Jack Rothrock at the plate, Derringer uncorked a wild pitch that advanced the runners to second and third. Rothrock took advantage of the opportunity, reaching on an infield single that scored the go-ahead run. Frisch followed with his fourth hit of the day, a single into center field that gave the Cardinals an 8-6 lead.

With a two-run lead to protect, the Cardinals called on Jim Lindsey, a journeyman reliever who had pitched for the Reds earlier that season. Five weeks earlier, on May 23, the Reds traded Lindsey to St. Paul of the American Association to acquire Freitas. The Cardinals then purchased Lindsey from St. Paul and inserted him into the bullpen.

Lindsey’s former teammates didn’t make it easy for him. After Lindsey retired Hafey on a fly ball to center field, Jimmy Shevlin singled and Ernie Lombardi reached on an error. Lindsey retired Harlin Pool for the second out, but then walked Adam Comorosky to load the bases.

That brought former Cardinals slugger Jim Bottomley to the plate. The 34-year-old first baseman lifted a high fly into left field, and as the Cincinnati Enquirer described it:

When the ball left his bat, it looked good for three bases and would have won the game then and there. But Medwick cut back toward the scoreboard like a startled hare, leaped high and came down with the ball tightly encased in his glove.[3]

Frisch led the Cardinals offense with four hits in eight at-bats, while Martin, Rothrock, and Collins had three hits apiece.

Dean improved to 13-3 on the season with the win, which tied him with the Braves’ Fred Frankhouse for the National League lead. Over 17 innings, Dean allowed six earned runs on 18 hits and seven walks. He struck out seven of the 75 batters he faced.

“Just where the Cardinals would be without those Dean boys is not so hard to figure out,” Jack Ryder wrote in the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Somewhere down in the second division, anyway.”^[4]

Lindsey’s performance in the 18^th inning earned him the save.

For the Reds, Freitas received no decision for his 17-inning performance, which included six earned runs on 17 hits and two walks. He struck out five. With the loss, Derringer fell to 4-10 on the season.

Incredibly, after a game that lasted almost 4 ½ hours, the Cardinals and Reds had the second game of a doubleheader to play. That contest, which was played “just to keep faith with the fans who had been promised a double-header,”[5] the Cincinnati Enquirer reported, ended in a 2-2 tie after five innings before it was called due to darkness. Medwick drove in both the Cardinals’ runs with his second home run of the day.

“It was a great day, with a fine crowd and an abundance of remarkable plays, but 23 innings ought to be enough for the most confirmed fanatic,” Ryder wrote. “No one could complain that he didn’t get his money’s worth on this occasion, at least.”[6]

The Cardinals also got their money’s worth on the season, as Dean and Medwick also starred in that season’s World Series, helping the Cardinals capture their third world championship.

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[1] Jack Ryder, “Reds Lose First In Eighteenth — Second Game Tie Affair,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 1934.

[2] “Dizzy Dean’s 18-Inning Victory Keeps Cards Near Front,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 2, 1934.

[3] Jack Ryder, “Reds Lose First In Eighteenth — Second Game Tie Affair,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 1934.

[4] Jack Ryder, “Reds Lose First In Eighteenth — Second Game Tie Affair,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 1934.

[5] Jack Ryder, “Reds Lose First In Eighteenth — Second Game Tie Affair,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 1934.

[6] Jack Ryder, “Reds Lose First In Eighteenth — Second Game Tie Affair,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 1934.

The post Dizzy Dean, Joe Medwick star in 18-inning marathon: 7/1/1934 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

Signed off the New Jersey sandlots, the muscular and quick-tempered Medwick quickly developed a reputation as one of the best bad-ball hitters in the league. The Dodgers’ Van Lingle Mungo said, “I’d rather pitch to any other hitter in the league,” while his teammate, Dutch Leonard, suggested, “Forbid Medwick to carry a bat to the plate – make him hit it with his fists. Then he’d only get singles.”[1]

After appearing in 26 games in 1932, Medwick was inserted into the starting lineup and hit .306 with 18 home runs and 98 RBIs in 1933. During the Gashouse Gang’s world championship season in 1934, Medwick batted .319 with 18 homers and 106 RBIs.

“I just smell the lettuce,” Medwick said, using a slang term for money. “I have two good friends in this world: buckerinoes and base hits. If I get base hits, I will get buckerinoes. I smell World Series lettuce, and I’ll get my two or three a day.”[2]

Facing the Reds at Crosley Field on June 29, 1935, Medwick got more than the two or three hits he’d bargained for. Batting cleanup, he opened the day’s scoring with an RBI double to left field that scored Ernie Orsatti. Catcher Bill DeLancey launched a solo home run over the right-field wall to make it 2-0 before Medwick struck again in the third. This time, Medwick tripled into center field, scoring Burgess Whitehead. Ripper Collins followed with a single up the middle to score Medwick and give the Cardinals a 4-0 lead.

Medwick led off the fifth inning with a single and scored when DeLancey tripled off the right-field wall.

Paul Dean allowed two runs in the bottom of the fifth, including a solo home run by Oval Goodman, to trim the Cardinals’ lead to 5-3. After Cincinnati’s Billy Myers led off the seventh with a triple, manager Frankie Frisch replaced Dean with Bill Walker. Walker allowed five hits in the inning, including a two-run double by Alex Kampouris, as “base hits then cracked to all parts of the field like exploding firecrackers,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.[3] With the rally, the Reds grabbed an 8-5 lead.

The Reds continued to hold that three-run lead into the ninth. After Al Hollinsworth retired Orsatti and Whitehead, Medwick came to the plate seeking to keep the Cardinals’ chances alive, needing a home run for the cycle. With a blast that bounced off the left-field foul pole and back onto the field, he accomplished both.

Collins followed with a single, and DeLancey drew a walk to bring the winning run to the plate, but Terry Moore hit a ground ball to third base, and the Reds’ Lew Riggs stepped on the bag to force out Collins and end the game.

Medwick’s performance raised his average to .370, trailing only the Pirates’ Arky Vaughan, who was batting .392 through 199 at-bats. Medwick finished the season batting .353 with 23 homers and 126 RBIs and placed fifth in that year’s MVP voting behind Gabby Hartnett, Dizzy Dean, Vaughan, and Billy Herman.

Throughout the 1930s, Medwick was a mainstay in the Cardinals’ lineup, leading the league in runs, hits, doubles, home runs, RBIs, batting average, and total bases en route to the National League MVP in 1937. In 1940, to avoid his rising salary demands, the Cardinals traded Medwick and Curt Davis to the Dodgers for Carl Doyle, Bert Haas, Ernie Koy, Sam Nahem, and $125,000.

Medwick returned to the Cardinals for the final two years of his career in 1947 and 1948 before retiring. His 17-year major league career included a .324 batting average and 10 All-Star Game appearances. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1968.

Give the gift of Cardinals history! The Trades That Made The St. Louis Cardinals is available now on Amazon.

[1] Doug Feldmann (2015), Dizzy and the Gas House Gang, McFarland Publishing, Kindle file, Page 42.

[2] Doug Feldmann (2015), Dizzy and the Gas House Gang, McFarland Publishing, Kindle file, Page 41.

[3] J. Roy Stockton, “Medwick Hits Home Run, Triple, Double, and Single,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 30, 1935.

The post Joe Medwick hits for the cycle: June 29, 1935 first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

Heading into their May 7 contest against the first-place Brooklyn Dodgers, the Cardinals had won just five of their first 15 ballgames. They opened the season by losing six of their first eight, and had already lost their first two games in the Brooklyn series.

To compound matters, shortstop Marty Marion had injured his knee and center fielder Terry Moore sprained his shoulder in the first game against the Dodgers, leaving the Cardinals short-handed and desperate for a win.

They would respond with a historic offensive performance that featured 20 hits, including seven homers, four doubles, and two triples in an 18-2 drubbing of the Dodgers. The Cardinals’ 49 bases on the day broke the modern National League record of 47, set by the New York Giants in 1931, and their 13 extra-base hits tied a modern major league record set by the Tigers and Cardinals in 1925 and the Cardinals again in 1931.[1] Their seven home runs also tied the National League record. Along the way, the Cardinals had a hit in each inning and every player in the lineup had an extra-base hit, scored, and drove in a run.

Dodgers starting pitcher Hugh Casey allowed five of the Cardinals’ seven home runs, allowing 13 runs on 15 hits over seven innings. Mercifully, he was replaced by reliever Max Macon for the eighth inning, though Macon didn’t perform any better, allowing five runs on five hits, including two home runs.

Altogether, Johnny Mize and Eddie Lake hit two home runs apiece, while Don Padgett, Stu Martin, and Joe Medwick each hit one.

Padgett got the Cardinals on the scoreboard with a second-inning home run that landed just beyond the 422-foot measurement in center field. He hit the ball so hard that Dodgers center fielder Charlie Gilbert gave up on the play 25 feet short of the outfield wall.[2]

The Cardinals rallied for five more runs in the third. Lake led off the inning with a home run, then Martin singled and scored on a triple by Slaughter. Medwick hit an RBI single to score Slaughter, and Mize blasted a two-run homer to make it 6-0.

At that point, former Cardinal shortstop Leo Durocher, now managing the Dodgers, removed himself from the game and inserted rookie Pee Wee Reese to play the remainder of the game. Making just the 10^th appearance of his career, the future Hall of Famer had little impact on the game’s outcome as the Cardinals continued to build upon their lead.

Martin added a solo homer in the fourth, and in the fifth Johnny Hopp hit an RBI double and Lake added a two-run double. Medwick hit a two-run homer and Jimmy Brown added a sacrifice fly later in the inning to make the score 13-0.

Lon Warnecke shut out the Dodgers through the first seven innings – including a stretch in which he retired 14 consecutive batters – before they finally got on the scoreboard with four hits in the eighth. Casey was finally replaced with a pinch hitter in the inning.

“He asked to stay in there,” Durocher said. “He hadn’t had much work, and as long as the game was gone, I let him continue.”[3]

Macon didn’t fare any better, as Mize and Lake each homered, Hopp hit an RBI single, and Warneke added an RBI double.

For the game, Lake finished with two homers, a double, and five RBIs to lead the Cardinals’ effort. Mize had three hits, including two homers and a double, to finish with three RBIs, and Martin added three hits, including a home run.

Warneke finished the Dodgers off in the ninth to capture his first win of the season. For the day, he allowed two earned runs on nine hits and a walk.

Warneke pitched the ninth inning to catcher Bill DeLancey, who entered the game in place of Padgett for his first major-league appearance in almost five years. DeLancey had caught every inning of the 1934 World Series for the Gashouse Gang and was considered by Branch Rickey to be one of the best catchers he ever saw. In 1935, however, he fell ill with serious lung ailments and retired to Phoenix, Arizona, where it was believed the dry air would assist his recovery. DeLancey missed the entire 1936 season and became a player-manager for the Cardinals’ minor-league affiliate in Albuquerque in 1937.

DeLancey was declared fit to play for the Cardinals in a part-time role in 1940, and he was credited with helping the development of prospect Mickey Owen, who was only four years younger than DeLancey.

“DeLancey, as he strode to the plate, drew even greater cheers than the Cardinals’ tremendous hitting had attracted,” the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported.[4]

DeLancey played in just 15 games, and the next two seasons he served as a minor-league manager. Following the 1942 season, DeLancey left baseball as his health deteriorated once again. He died on his 35^th birthday in November 1946.

After the Cardinals made history with their home run barrage, Brooklyn’s ballclub made its own history. With their flight from St. Louis to Chicago, the Dodgers became the first major league team to travel by plane.[5]

Meanwhile, the win didn’t turn the Redbirds’ season around, but it did show their terrifying offensive potential. After a 9-5 loss to Brooklyn on June 6 that dropped the Cardinals’ record to 14-24, manager Ray Blades was removed from his position. Mike Gonzalez served as interim manager for six games (losing five) before Billy Southworth was named manager.

Southworth guided the team to a 69-40 record for the remainder of the season, good for third place in the final National League standings. Southworth’s Cardinals won 97 games to place second behind the Dodgers in 1941 before winning the National League title and the World Series in 1942.

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[1] Martin J. Haley, “Cards Break 2 Records and Equal 7 in Routing Dodgers, 18-2,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 8, 1940.

[2] Martin J. Haley, “Cards Break 2 Records and Equal 7 in Routing Dodgers, 18-2,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 8, 1940.

[3] “Casey Wanted to Stay In,” The Sporting News, May 16, 1940.

[4] Martin J. Haley, “Cards Break 2 Records and Equal 7 in Routing Dodgers, 18-2,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 8, 1940.

[5] “Dodgers in Chicago After First Mass Plane Flight by Major League Team,” Brooklyn Citizen, May 8, 1940.

The post May 7, 1940: Cardinals clobber seven home runs in 18-2 rout of the Dodgers first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.

You may sing the praises of Mickey Cochrane’s Tigers and the glory of the Giants from the housetops. Tell the story of Lynwood (Schoolboy) Rowe and the saga of Carl Hubbell, the wizardry of Grover Alexander and the blinding speed of Walter Johnson, but brother, if you were at Ebbetts Field yesterday, you’ve got something to tell your children.[1]

It wasn’t often in 1934 that someone managed to steal the show from Dizzy Dean, but on September 21, 1934, his brother managed the trick on a day that only served to bolster the legend of the incredible Dean brothers.

Both games were make-ups for games that were rained out earlier in the month. Before the double-header started, the Deans were speaking to a reporter in the visitor’s dugout when they were asked who would pitch the first game.

“I’m supposed to,” Dizzy said, “but I don’t feel so good. How about you taking it, Paul?”

“OK with me,” Paul responded. “Where’s the boss?”

Frankie Frisch, the Cardinals’ second baseman/manager, was just emerging onto the field and began to take infield drills. Before his pregame routine was complete, however, the Deans already had lost interest.

“Well, I guess there’s no help for it,” Dizzy said as he walked off to begin warming up.[2]

However well Dizzy was feeling, he went on to throw 7 1/3 no-hit innings in a 13-0 blowout. With one out in the eighth, Buzz Boyle beat out a slow roller to the shortstop. In the next inning, Sam Leslie and Joe Stripp each singled before Al Lopez reached on an error by Pepper Martin at third base. With the bases loaded, Dizzy ended the threat by striking out Nick Tremark for his 27^th win of the year.

“I didn’t know that I had a no-hitter,” Dizzy said. “I was way out in front and I was just coasting along. Boy, if I had known that I was so near to a no-hitter, I’d have given those Dodgers so much smoke and such fancy curves that they wouldn’t have even seen the ball.”[3]

Ripper Collins led the Cardinals’ offense with four hits and six RBIs, including a two-run single in the first inning, an RBI double in the third, a two-run home run in the fourth, and another RBI double in the sixth. Frankie Frisch and Spud Davis drove in two runs apiece, and Jack Rothrock added two hits and three runs scored.

With their win streak now up to five games, 21-year-old rookie Paul Dean and the Cardinals matched up against Ray Benge and the Dodgers. After Benge retired the Cardinals in order in the first, Paul issued a two-out walk to Len Koenecke before retiring Leslie on a fly ball.

“I’ve pitched better ball games in my career than the one today,” Paul said afterwards, “but everything went my way. It seemed that I was always ahead of the hitters, all but Koenecke, whom I walked in the first inning. I had him 3-and-2 and inasmuch as he tagged me for an extra-base hit last month in St. Louis, I wasn’t going to give him anything good.”[4]

Benge kept pace with Paul until the top of the sixth inning, when the younger Dean helped his own cause with a one-out double into center field. Pepper Martin followed with a double to left, and though he was thrown out at third by the center fielder Koenecke, Paul scored on the play to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

One inning later, Joe Medwick doubled to left field and scored on an RBI single to right by Collins. In the seventh, Paul had his closest call of the game as Leslie lifted a fly ball to deep left field that required Medwick to make a running, one-handed catch.[5]

“When did I first think about (a no-hitter)?” Paul said. “Why, after I got the first three outs of the game in the first inning. I said to myself as I went back to the dugout, ‘Well, no hits so far,’ and after the second inning I said the same thing.

“Then after a couple more innings I started to talk to (rookie catcher Bill) DeLancey about it. We’re roommates and I think a lot of him and we told each other after each inning that there wasn’t no hits yet. After six innings I said to Dee that if we could bear down just a little bit longer, we’d have a no-hit game for the room. Dee thought it was a good idea and we both cut the pie at each other when Medwick goes out near the bleacher wall in that seventh inning and comes up with Leslie’s fly, which was well rickety-cacked.”[6]

Paul Dean struck out two of the three batters he faced in the eighth, and in the top of the ninth Collins drove in his eighth run of the day on a ground ball that scored Medwick.

Down 3-0 in the bottom of the ninth and still seeking the Dodgers’ first hit, Casey Stengel called on Jim Bucher to pinch hit for Lopez. The move didn’t work, however, as Paul recorded his sixth and final strikeout of the game.

After Paul got the final strike, coach Miguel Gonzales, who caught Jesse Haines when he threw the first no-hitter in Cardinals history 10 years earlier, yelled at Paul, “Two more and you’ll get Dizzy jealous!”[7]

“I was pouring that ball through there in the late innings,” Paul said. “How did you like them strikes I throwed to Bucher? … He ain’t never saw anything I thrun.”[8]

The next batter also was a pinch hitter, as Johnny McCarthy came in to bat for Benge. McCarthy popped out to Frisch at second base, leaving Boyle between Paul and history.

“I was thinking it would be kinda nice to have the no-hitter, but if Boyle had been man enough to sock one, I’d have taken it without any crying,” Paul said.[9]

The Cardinals rookie never had to find out, as Boyle hit a sharp ground ball to Leo Durocher at shortstop, who blocked the ball with his chest[10] and recovered to throw Boyle out for the final out of the game.

With the game won, fans mobbed the field to congratulate the younger Dean. Delancey raced out to the mound to hand him the historic ball, but it briefly was stolen by a fan. One of the officers on duty, Jimmy Curran, grabbed the fan and the ball and returned the memento.[11]

“My curve was breaking good and as the game went along I felt looser and better,” Paul said. “I got faster as I went along and the funniest thing to me was that I wasn’t a bit tired when it was all over. I didn’t feel like I’d done no work at all. The fellows on the bench and the other players in the game acted like they’d been under a great strain and they kept sighing and heaving that they was glad it was all over, but I didn’t feel none of that. I felt like I could have pitched a couple more games.”[12]

Paul’s no-hitter was the first in the majors since Cleveland’s Wes Ferrell and Washington’s Bob Burke accomplished the feat, and the first Cardinals no-hitter since Jesse Haines did it 10 years earlier. Despite the accomplishment, Paul said his biggest thrill of the game was his offensive performance.

“I guess those two hits I got will knock Dizz off for a while,” he said. “Did I hit those or didn’t I? I never hit so good in my life. That single to right was good, but that double that I larruped out there to left-center was what I got a big kick out of. Yes sir. I guess Dizz won’t talk about his hitting for a while after those two wallops.”[13]

Of course, that didn’t mean that Dizzy Dean didn’t have anything to say. The two wins not only kept the Cardinals within three games of the New York Giants for the National League lead, but it meant that the Deans already had combined for 45 of the Cardinals’ 88 wins, matching a preseason prediction from Dizzy.

“Even Dizzy wasn’t dizzy enough to predict that the 45^th would be a no-hitter,” Durocher said.[14]

In later years, legend would allege that Dizzy told his brother, “Shucks, Paul, you shoulda told me you was gonna pitch a no-hitter, then I woulda pitched one too!” While the quote appears in Milton Shapiro’s The Dizzy Dean Story, published almost 30 years later in 1963, none of the papers covering the game appear to have recorded the anecdote.

What was indisputable, however, was that the Cardinals would end up winning 13 of their final 15 games to catch the Giants and win the National League by two games. Facing the Detroit Tigers in the World Series, Dizzy and Paul would each win a pair of games, including Dizzy’s Game 7 shutout to win the third world championship in St. Louis Cardinals history.

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[1] Bill McCullough, “Dean Brothers Wrote Mound History With Double Win Over Dodgers,” Brooklyn Times-Union, September 22, 1934: Page 1A.

[2] Tommy Holmes, “Dean Brothers Bubbling Over With Fame,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 22, 1934: Page 6.

[3] J. Roy Stockton, “Paul Dean First St. Louis No-Hit Pitcher Since 1924,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 22, 1934: Page 1B.

[4] Bill McCullough, “Dean Brothers Wrote Mound History With Double Win Over Dodgers,” Brooklyn Times-Union, September 22, 1934: Page 1A.

[5] Tommy Holmes, “Dean Brothers Bubbling Over With Fame,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 22, 1934: Page 6.

[6] J. Roy Stockton, “Paul Dean First St. Louis No-Hit Pitcher Since 1924,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 22, 1934: Page 1B.

[7] Bill McCullough, “Dean Brothers Wrote Mound History With Double Win Over Dodgers,” Brooklyn Times-Union, September 22, 1934: Page 2A.

[8] J. Roy Stockton, “Paul Dean First St. Louis No-Hit Pitcher Since 1924,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 22, 1934: Page 1B.

[9] J. Roy Stockton, “Paul Dean First St. Louis No-Hit Pitcher Since 1924,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 22, 1934: Page 1B.

[10] Bill McCullough, “Dean Brothers Wrote Mound History With Double Win Over Dodgers,” Brooklyn Times-Union, September 22, 1934: Page 1A.

[11] Bill McCullough, “Dean Brothers Wrote Mound History With Double Win Over Dodgers,” Brooklyn Times-Union, September 22, 1934: Page 1A.

[12] J. Roy Stockton, “Paul Dean First St. Louis No-Hit Pitcher Since 1924,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 22, 1934: Page 1B.

[13] J. Roy Stockton, “Paul Dean First St. Louis No-Hit Pitcher Since 1924,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 22, 1934: Page 1B.

[14] Tommy Holmes, “Dean Brothers Bubbling Over With Fame,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 22, 1934: Page 6.

The post How Paul Dean threw the second no-hitter in Cardinals history first appeared on STLRedbirds.com.