High expectations, surprising achievements, and baffling disappointments marked the return of baseball's top stars from the war.
Baseball fans looked forward with more than the usual eagerness to the 1946 season. With the top stars back from World War II service, much was expected. As it turned out, there was high achievement and thrilling play--but not always from the teams and performers from whom expected.
In 1936, the New York Yankees began an unprecedented run of seven American League pennants in eight years, extending into the middle of the war. They lost only one World Series in the process. Joe DiMaggio had become a household name with his 1941 56-game hitting streak and two consecutive batting titles at the head of a juggernaut feared as the Bronx Bombers. Yankee fans, who had endured a fourth-place finish in 1945, anticipated a swift return to glory with pre-war favorites DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Tommy Henrich, Joe Gordon, and Bill Dickey back in the lineup.
It didn't quite work out that way. DiMaggio experienced his first ever sub-.300 season at .290 with 25 hoime runs. Gordon slumped to career lows of .210 and 11 home runs, while Dickey, one of the greatest catchers of all time, discovered his playing days were over at 39. In fact, these and other disappointments hastened the resignation of the hitherto fabulously successful manager Joe McCarthy in May and his replacement by Dickey. In his last full season, Spud Chandler burnished his already impressive career credentials with a 20-win season, but the rest of the Yankee pitching staff struggled.
The Yankee stumbles contrasted with better than expected performances by the returning Boston Red Sox regulars. Ted Williams, who also had two consecutive batting championships before going off to the war, contended again with a .342 average. His exploits wre supported by shortstop Johnny Pesky at .335 and Joe DiMaggio's younger brother Dom at .316. Moreover, the Red Sox got 20-victory seasons from returnee Tex Hughson and a 1945 rookie sensation, Boo Ferris, who proved himself one of the rare wartime achievers who was even better in 1946.
The Red Sox opened up an impressive early lead and were never approached, finishing 12 games ahead of the defending league champion Detroit Tigers and 17 in front of the floundering Yankees. Ironically, sore arms suffered by Hughson and Ferris the very next year destroyed the Sox's chances to build a dynasty and enabled a reinvigorated Yankee team to return to the top.
In the National League, a St. Louis Cardinals team that had won pennants in 1942, 1943, and 1944, was surprisingly stretched to the limit by the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Cardinals' "dream outfield" of Stan Musial (batting champion and Most Valuable Player that year), Enos Slaughter, and Terry Moore was reunited, they had the league's top shortstop in Marty (Slats)Marion, and 21-game winner Howie Pollett led a corps of talented pitchers.
The Dodgers, a not overwhelming blend of veterans and rookies, seemed outclassed by the Cardinals. The seasoned Dixie Walker was a solid.300 hitter and run producer, and PeeWee Reese and Ed Stanky made an outstanding double play combination. But youngsters filled most of the other slots, and the leading pitcher, Kirby Higbe, had only 17 wins. Nevertheless, the two clubs finished the regular season in a tie, necessitating a two-of-three playoff, which the Cardinals won 2-0.
The Boston-St. Louis World Series was a seven-game thriller, best remembered for Slaughter's dash around the bases with the winning run. Harry Brecheen, with a mediocre 15-15 season record, was the pitching hero with three victories. The anticipated Williams-Musial superstar confrontation fizzled out as each underperformed with .200 and .222 Series averages, respectively.
Among the also-ran teams, Bob Feller had a predictably brilliant year with 26 wins, 348 strikeouts, and his second career nohitter, but Hal Newhouser, suspected of being a wartime flash-in-the-pan, matched his 26 victories. Hank Greenberg smashed a major league-leading 44 home runs, but journeyman first baseman Mickey Vernon beat Williams for the batting title. Veteran slugger Johnny Mize seemed well on his way to the National League home run crown with 22 in July, but he suffered a season-ending injury and lost out to rookie Ralph Kiner who had a mere 23. Kiner went on to become one of the all time home run hitters, twice topping 50.
It was a thrilling season, both reassuring and surprising, and more than 18 million fans broke the old attendance record by almost 8 million.
Source: Baseball-reference.com
