Almost A Dynasty: 1940's Boston Red Sox

What actually makes a sports dynasty?  Obviously a teem needs to be successful for a continuous amount of time.  Every sport has that one iconic dynasty that fits the Dynasty category.  The NBA had the Boston Celtics who won nine out of ten championships.  The Montreal Canadiens won 7 of nine Stanley Cups (including six straight).  The NFL had several dynasties including the 49'ers, the Steelers, the Cowboys and, most recently, the Patriots.  Baseball itself has had the Yankees dynasties in several incarnations including the 1930's, 1950's and 2000's.

So what actually makes a team a dynasty?  There can of course be several definitions since there are varying levels of success.  A team can dominate their division for a decade but be bounced out in the first round of the playoffs year after year.  We could of course consider that to be a divisional dynasty but you wouldn't call it an overall baseball dynasty.  So let us set the parameters for this series of articles.  A dynasty, for our purposes here, is a team that wins multiple World Series championships (above two as back to back is nice but not a dynasty) within a 5-10 year period.  That being defined, this series will explore those teams that may have been a divisional or league dynasty but for whatever reason could not get over the hump to that World Series dynasty.

This series will show an array of near dynasties.  Some are teams that made the World Series year after year but fell short.  Others will be teams that competed right down to the end of the regular season year after year just to be beaten out.  It will be a series of near misses and what could have beens.

Don't miss the other almost dynasty articles: The Detroit Tigers of the 1900's, The Chicago White Sox of the 1910's and the Pittsburgh Pirates of the 1920's.  Now let's get started with this weeks "almost dynasty": The Boston Red Sox of the 1940's.

The Red Sox Yankees Dynasty
The Red Sox dominated the American League in the 1910's.  While the White Sox had an "almost dynasty" the Red Sox had a legitimate dynasty.  Their outfield of Lewis, Hooper and Speaker were widely accepted as the best group in the majors at the time and possibly ever.  Their infield of Everett Scott, Jack Barry and Larry Gardner were the tops in the league (especially after the $100,000 infield in Philadelphia was broken up).  Their best aspect was their pitching.  Their pitching was so good that future Hall of Fame pitcher Herb Pennock was relegated to a relief role.  Their starting rotation included Rube Foster, Ernie Shore, Carl Mays, Dutch Leonard and their ace pitcher Babe Ruth.  With varying versions of these players the Red Sox won the World Series in 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918.  After the 1916 win the team was sold to a man named Harry Frazee.  The name is infamous today but through the first two years Frazee was just another Red Sox owner and he even brought another World Championship to the team in 1918.

The decline of the Red Sox is associated, obviously, with the sale of Babe Ruth which theoretically brought a curse to Beantown.  There was so much more to it than the Babe.  It truly started in January of 1918.  Larry Gardner and Hick Cady were sent to the A's for Stuffy McInnis, runiting the First Baseman with Jack Barry.  This gave them 1/2 of the $100,000 infield, though McInnis was not what he used to be and Barry would spend the year in the military.  In April of 1918 Rube Foster was sent to the Reds.

In December of 1918 the transfer began.  Ernie Shore, Duffy Lewis and Dutch Leonard went to the Yankees.  June 1919 they sent Jack Barry and Amos Strunk to the A's.  In July 1919, after Mays walked out on the team. the Sox sent him to the Yankees leading to a near implosion of the league.  In December of that year Ruth was sold to the Yankees.  Almost exactly a year later Harry Harper, Waite Hoyt, Mike McNally and Wally Schang were sent to New York.  Harry Hooper was later sent to the White Sox.  In December 1921 Bullett Joe Bush, Sad Sam Jones and Everett Scott went to the Yankees.  In July 1922 Joe Dugan and Elmer Smith went to the Yankees.  Just before the 1923 season Herb Pennock and George Pipgras were sent to New York.

Photo of Babe Ruth Courtesy of Wikipedia

Looking at the 1921-1923 Yankee lineup, their first World Series teams, was like looking at the Red Sox dynasty.  On their 1921 AL Champion team Ruth, Mays, Schang, McNally and Hoyt had come from the Sox.  On the 1922 team Scott, Dugan Bush and Jones were added to that group.  In 1923, the Yankees pitching staff featured eight pitchers during the regular season.  Six of those had come from the Red Sox dynasty (Mays, Pipgras, Bush, Jones, Pennock and Hoyt).

While the Yankees were building an empire the Sox were floundering and Frazee was so far in debt to the Yankee owners, who were close friends, that the Yankees basically owned Fenway.  While the Yankees went forward to win the AL in 1921, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938,  1939, 1941, 1942 and 1943 (1932 was the last year with Ruth) the Red Sox plummeted.  They rarely finished above 5th and finished 8th in 9 of 11 years.  The other two years were a 7th place and a 6th place finish.

Rebuilding the Yawkey Way.
Tom Yawkey was born in Detroit in 1903, the year the Red Sox won the first ever World Series.  His birth name was Thomas Austin and his father had married the daughter of the Yawkey logging and timber fortune.  When Tom's father passed away in September of 1903, the family moved in with their wealthy uncle.  When his mother died in 1918, the year of the Red Sox's last World Series title for a long time, he and his sister were adopted by their uncle, William Yawkey.  Tom Austin became Tom Austin Yawkey.  He grew up in opulence.  His uncle even bought a substantial part of the Detroit Tigers and owned a large part of the team.  He was known as the spendthrift owner compared to the tight fisted Briggs.

At 16 Yawkey became an orphan again when his uncle passed away.  He inherited millions, including the stake in the Tigers but what the hell did a 16 year old know about running a business?  Even less, with all of his assets in conservatorship until his 30th birthday, what did he care about the Tigers?  His shares were sold to Briggs making Briggs the complete owner of the Tigers.

The Red Sox finished the 1932 season at 43-111.  The Yankees, led by Ruth, won the American League and World Series.  The Red Sox were dead last, 64 games out of first place.  They didn't reach double digit wins until June 11, by which point they were already 24 1/2 games out of first and had lost 40 games.  At the end of the year, owner Bob Quinn had thrown in the towel.  He had owned the team for ten years, inherited a baseball graveyard and had lost money every single year.  Luckily for Quinn, Tom Yawkey turned 30 in early 1933, at which point the lifelong baseball fan gained access to his millions.  His first big purchase was the Red Sox. Yawkey would not stand for being a loser and he would start to build this team from the ground up.

Photo of Tom Yawkey Courtesy of SABR.org

The 1933 team won 20 games more than the 1932 team.  They slowly added better players.  Catcher Rick Farrell was acquired from the Browns.  Billy Werber and George Pipgras were added from the Yankees.  Joe Judge was signed as a free agent.  It wasn't a finished product but it was better.  In December of 1933 they added Lefty Grove, the best pitcher in baseball, and Max Bishop from the A's.  In January 1934 they added Herb Pennock.  The turning point really was after the 1934 season.  The Senators were hurting for money and the Red Sox were hurting for leadership.  The result was the sale of Joe Cronin to the Red Sox.

Photo of Joe Cronin Courtesy of ESPN.com

The team was improving and by 1938 they felt they were ready to compete.  They had added Bobby Doerr,  a young second baseman from the Hollywood Stars, to go with Joe Cronin at Shortstop.  They finished second that year but were not nearly in contention, finishing 9 1/2 games behind the Yankees.

1939 was the big addition to the team. It was the year that the Splendid Splinter, the Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived, Teddy Ball Game came to town.  The 20 year old took the league by storm. He led the league in RBI, hit .327, 31 Home Runs and 44 doubles. What was more, his enthusiasm and dedication started to energize the others.  With his passion for the game and Cronin's intensity the Sox looked like they had a bright future.  They finished second again but 17 games behind the Yankees.  Still, the "almost dynasty" was taking shape.

Another key piece was added for 1940 with the younger brother of Joe DiMaggio.  "The Little Professor" hit .301 his first year in the league and gave the Sox defensive stability in center field.  The Sox fell to 4th, although they were only 8 games behind the Yankees.  They climbed back to second in 1941 but they were not nearly as close to first, finishing 17 games behind the Yankees.  This was the era of DiMaggio vs Williams for AL supremacy.  Williams always seemed to steal the show but DiMaggio always won the title.

Photo of Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr and Johnny Pesky Courtesy of Red Sox.mlb.com

After the 1941 season everything changed.  The war was on in full force. Players started leaving for the service. The season went on as usual and the Yankees won as usual, with the Red Sox in second, as was the pattern.  More players left in 1943 and the teams seemed to be a bit lost.  The aging Joe Cronin was still trying to play short stop and the Red Sox were hanging in there but without Williams and DiMaggio they didn't quite have the manpower.  1945 was the worst of all.  They fell to 7th while the Tigers broke the Yankees hold on the top of the league.

Postwar Prosperity.
Before the war one more key piece of the "almost dynasty" was added.  Johnny Pesky debuted in 1942 and played so well as a rookie that he came in third in MVP voting.  As the war ended and the players returned the Red Sox had their key players: Pesky, Doerr, DiMaggio and Williams.  They added another key big bat before the season by picking up Rudy York from the Tigers.

York was a fun loving guy with a habit of falling asleep while smoking.  The Tigers joke was that he led the league in burned mattresses and hotel fires but it was really no joke.  There were serious concerns for his safety.  He had struggled in the Tigers lineup without Hank Greenberg's bat and in his desperation to improve his strikeouts soared.  The Tigers, realizing they were an aging team and needing to rebuild, traded York to Boston.

With the war over and the stars back on the field, the excitement for the season was immense.  The Sox won their first five games and never looked back.  They won 15 straight as April turned to May and before you could blink the Red Sox were shocking everyone.  With the exception of Wednesday, April 24th, when they sat in second place, one game behind, they spent every day of the season in first place.  Their lead reached as high as 16 1/2 in early September.  They ran away with the pennant by 12 games.  It had been nearly 30 years since Boston had seen a Red Sox World Series team.  The organization had never lost a World Series.  Here is where the true heartache of the Red Sox Nation would begin.

I previously discussed in fairly significant detail the heartbreak of the 1946 World Series and the unfair blame that was placed on Johnny Pesky.  The loss was difficult to handle.  Still, the core four players and the near World Series victory brought excitement to the city that hadn't been there since the days of Hooper-Lewis-Speaker.  The 1947 Red Sox got off to a quick 4-0 start but it was clear that DiMaggio, Berra and the Yankees were back.  The Sox fought hard to stay near the top but again the Yankees outdistanced them.

The Three Team American League
The 1948 season started an era of fierce competition between the Yankees, Red Sox and Indians.  Every season between 1946 and 1958 one of the three teams would represent the American League in the World Series.  1948 was so tight that all three teams had a chance to win the pennant with a few days left.  The season ended with the Red Sox and Indians tied forcing the first ever American League one game playoff.  Boston gambled by starting Denny Galehouse and it was a gamble that did not pay off.  Galehouse was near the end of a 15 year career and was never what you would consider a dominant pitcher.  Galehouse would end the year with an 8-8 record (including the one game playoff) but he was 6-2 over the final two months of the season.  It was not that the Red Sox did not have options.  Mel Parnell had pitched 6 2/3 on 9/30 and won to improve his record to 15-8.  Jack Kramer had pitched a perfect game on 10/2 to improve to 18-5.  The complete game was necessary to keep the Sox in the race but it ruled out Kramer for the playoff game.  Joe Dobson started on 10/3, the last day of the regular season but did not look sharp in his 4 1/3.  Despite the short rest Parnell was positive he would be pitching.  Everyone was sure he would be pitching.  The morning of the  game Joe McCarthy changed his mind.  With the wind blowing out he decided a right handed pitcher would be a better choice.  He went with Galehouse.

The game was tied at one entering the top of the 4th.  Back to back singles by Lou Boudreau and Joe Gordon and a three run Home Run by Ken Keltner sealed the deal for Cleveland.  With an 8-3 win the Red Sox were headed home and the Indians were headed to the World Series.

The 1949 season was just as close.  It again came down to the final series of the year.  This time between the Yankees and the Red Sox.  On September 30 the Red Sox won while the Yankees lost to a below average Athletics team giving Boston a 1 game lead with two to play.  The final two were head to head against the Yankees.  Win one game and it was back to the World Series.  Game 1 was a classic Yankee-Red Sox grudge match.  In the top of the 3rd, already leading 1-0, an RBI single with the bases loaded by Doerr increased the lead to 2-0.  Back to back walks forced in two more runs and it looked like the Sox were on their way to the World Series.  A 2 run 4th and a 2 run 5th for the Yankees tied things up and Yankee Stadium suddenly got very loud while the Red Sox bats went silent.  While the heroes of Red Sox lore, the very legends of the organization, went silent it was an unheralded Johnny Lindell of the Yankees who kept the Yankees alive.  His Home Run in the bottom of the 8th allowed the Yankees one last chance at the pennant.  The final game was another tense game.  The Yankees scored one run in the first and so it stood through the 8th.  In between both teams left men on base, grounded into double plays and generally squandered chances.  It was the 8th inning that decided the season.  The Red Sox had pinch hit for Ellis Kinder in the 8th.  The pinch hitter walked  but was erased on yet another double play.  It was a tough decision to make but another that changed the "almost dynasty" of the Red Sox.  Mel Parnell took the mound to start the bottom of the inning.  He immediately gave up a Home Run to Tommy Henrich and a single to Berra.  He was relieved by Tex Hughson who got Joe DiMaggio to hit into a double play giving Red Sox fans some hope.  It was short lived.  Two singles and a walk loaded the bases bringing Jerry Coleman to bat.  Coleman hit a bases clearing double and the Yankees were up 5-0 just like that.  The Red Sox put up one last fight with a three run 9th but it was over, and with it the almost dynasty.

The Red Sox would finish as close as third in 1950 and 1951 but they were never truly in contention.  What could have been a dynasty was derailed by the dominance of the Yankees and the interruption of the World War.  Ted Williams continued to be one of the greatest hitters the game has ever seen but the Red Sox would not see another pennant race until the rise of Carl Yastrzemski.

TRIVIA QUESTION:

As mentioned in the section "The Three Team American League", between 1946 and 1958 the American League was won by either the Yankees, Red Sox or Indians.  The dominance was even greater than this though.  Between 1941 and 1964 only three teams were able to win the league other than the Indians, Red Sox and Yankees mentioned.  Which three teams were able to sneak in the World Series and what year did each do it?

Answer to Last Week's Trivia Question:
In the era of monopolies there was no rule in the Major Leagues saying that an owner could not own more than one team.  Several owners had stakes in multiple franchises.  The problem was that the owners would shift players from franchise to franchise on a whim.  For example, the owner of the Louisville Colonels also owned the Pirates and shifted the players as he felt necessary.  The owner of the Cardinals also owned the Cleveland Spiders.  The owner of the Reds also owned part of the Giants.  With so many teams being manipulated the competition suffered so the league decided to reduce the weakest teams.  The Louisville Colonels, Washington Senators, Cleveland Spiders and the Baltimore Orioles were dropped from the league. The Spiders were one of the worst  teams in the history of the game.  They finished their season at 20-134.

Forgiving Baseball's Scapegoats: Johnny Pesky

What the hell just happened?  That was the stunned general reaction of Red Sox fans at the conclusion of the play and the reaction seems to have been so strong that no two people seem to have seen the play the same way.

There was movement from first base, even before the pitch was delivered.  The Cardinals' Enos Slaughter was not the fastest runner, he had never stolen even ten bases in a season, but he was a smart base runner.  At this point in the season every step counted, every foot of ground was important (just ask Fred Merkle).  Game 7 of the 1946 World Series.  Top of the 8th inning.  The Red Sox had tied the game at 3 in the bottom of the 7th and the next run was the most important run in the career of whoever scored it. 

Enos Slaughter Photo Courtesy of Bleacher Report

Slaughter had led off the inning with a single but was left there when a failed sacrifice bunt was popped to the pitcher and an easy fly ball to left held Slaughter in place.  As Bob Klinger started his motion to the next batter Slaughter took the chance and went full speed for second.  The Red Sox infield reacted.  Bobby Doerr at Second base and Johnny Pesky at Shortstop moved towards the second base bag to cover a possible throw from the Catcher.

Photo of Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr Courtesy of NESN.

Harry Walker, the batter, made contact with the ball and Slaughter, who had a great jump from first, was almost around second by the time Leon Culberson fielded the ball.  Similar to the Fred Merkle play, this is the last moment that anyone agrees on.  Reading about the details of this play is like playing a game of telephone.  No one can quite agree on what happened and how it happened.  Some said that the ball took a quick scoot on the grass and nearly reached the wall.  Others said Culberson didn't field it quickly or cleanly.  Some said it was an easy bloop single and that Culberson lobbed an easy toss back to the infield.  The participants themselves can't even agree on what happened.  Pesky claimed that Culberson bobbled the ball but Harry Walker said "Culberson didn't bobble the ball and he didn't throw it bad.  It was a perfect throw to Pesky."  Regardless, the fact is Culberson fielded the ball and threw the ball back to the infield. 

Footage of the play shows Pesky making a quick reaction.  He is almost motionless until Klinger starts his movement but once Slaughter is on the move so is Pesky.  He takes about three steps toward second base when Walker makes contact and immediately heads out towards left-center field to take a possible relay throw from Culberson.  By all sane baseball reasoning Slaughter should have held at third.  Slaughter ignored all reasoning and turned third heading for home.  No one could have expected that.  Several newspaper reports said that Slaughter ran despite his third base coach telling him to stop.  One writer said the coach "flapped the come-on sign like an excited mother hen."  Slaughter says the coach was telling him to stop.  Several others agreed that he was sent.  One writer even suggested that Slaughter had time to reach third, check on Pesky and make a planned decision to take the extra base.  Again, regardless, the fact is no one in their right mind thought Slaughter was going to try to score from first on a bloop base hit.

As Slaughter tore around third Pesky received the throw from Culberson and again the stories differ.  Some said that Pesky turned towards second base.  Some said he held the ball.  Some said he made a weak throw home.  Some said he dropped his hands, froze for a moment and then threw home.  The fact of the play is Slaughter scored well ahead of the throw from Pesky.

Photo of Enos Slaughter completing his mad dash Courtesy of Bleacher Report

This all happened in the year of our lord 1946.  For Red Sox fans this happened in the year of our curse 26.  Red Sox fans had not seen a World Series team in nearly 30 years at this point and this was the first round in the 86 year "what if...?" game that followed.  The Red Sox nation screamed for years "what if Pesky hadn't held the ball?"  Fortunately for Pesky, a gracious and likable man, this was before the frustration of not winning a World Series had reached a boiling point so he didn't receive the pure hatred that Bill Buckner and Grady Little would experience in the coming decades.  In fact, up until he passed away just last August, Pesky worked for the Red Sox as a coach and special assistant for the club.  Further, Pesky will be remembered as long as Fenway Park operates.  The Right field Foul Pole has been called "Pesky's Pole" for years because Pesky, although only hitting 17 in his career, hit a big Home Run just around the pole while playing in Boston. 

Fortunately Pesky was able to overcome the label of scapegoat and become beloved by the fans, although, until his last day, he had to deal with the blame of losing the 1946 World Series.  There are plenty of reasons you cannot blame Johnny Pesky for the loss of the 1946 World Series.  Here are just a few:

1.  The Red Sox took a three games to two lead in the series and had to win only one of the final two games.  Despite seven hits and two walks in Game 6, the Red Sox grounded into three double plays and left four men on base while scoring only once.  The Cardinals had only one more hit and two more walks but took advantage of their opportunities and plated 4 runs.

2.  The Red Sox allowed the opportunity to go up three games to 1 slip by them.  Playing game 4 in Boston, the Red Sox had 20 game winner Tex Hughson on the mound facing off against a little used pitcher (only 2-2 on the year) Red Munger.  It was a total mismatch in Boston's favor but the Sox gave up three runs in the second and three runs in the third to allow the Cardinals an early 6-0 lead.  Helping several of these early runs were two errors by the Red Sox.  As the game went on two more Boston errors in the top of the 9th led to four more Cardinal runs.  The final score was 12-3.

3.  During the 1946 season Ted Williams hit .342 with 38 Home Runs scoring 142 runs and driving in 123.  That is one hell of an offensive season.  Hitting directly in front of Williams was Dominic DiMaggio hitting .316 with 73 RBI and hitting directly behind Williams was Rudy York with a .276 average but 119 RBI.  The Cardinals did their home work on Williams and noticed that most of his base hits went to right field and very few went to left field.  To defend against Williams the Cardinals utilised what has been known to history as the Williams shift.  Based on a strategy used by Indians' manager Lou Boudreau, the Cardinals pulled the Second baseman closer to first.  The Shortstop played on the right side of Second base, the Third baseman played a deep short stop and the Left fielder played shallow behind the Third baseman.  The message to Williams was clear.  "We dare you to hit it to the left side."  Instead of trusting the 119 RBI of Rudy York behind him and taking what the Cardinals were giving him by laying down a bunt for a single, Williams insisted on trying to hit everything  to the left side.  He ended the series with a .200 average and only 5 singles (one being a bunt to the left side with the shift on). York, on the other hand, had only six hits in the series but four were for extra bases including two Home Runs.  Had Williams laid down a few more bunts to third for singles York's RBI total may have been higher than the five he ended up with and the shift may have been defeated.  Williams was devastated by his performance and wept in the showers after Game 7 and in the entire cab ride home.

4.  This Cardinals team was a great team.  Although they had missed the 1945 World Series, mostly due to players serving time in the military, this was one of the great Cardinals dynasties and they had been in this position before.  The Cardinals had won the National League in 1942, 1943 and  1944 and had just completed a great pennant race with the Brooklyn Dodgers that ended in the first ever National League playoff.  The Cardinals were a team that had to fight all year to make the World Series, never getting more than a 2 1/2 game lead on the Dodgers after July 31.  The Red Sox, however, had not played a meaningful game coming into the World Series, having won the AL by 12 games.

5.  Slaughter's philosophy worked.  When you have the time to field a baseball and make a proper throw, something these men do almost mechanically, there are few simpler things.  However, when you are forced to catch, turn and throw, while determining how far the runner is from the plate and where the throw needs to be then things get much more complicated.  Possessing a strong arm does not always translate into being a great arm.  Ty Cobb would routinely take gambles on the base path and do the opposite of what the baseball strategies of the day said.  His theory was make them throw you out.  You know and they know that they have the ability to do it but can they do it when they have to do it.  This aggressive philosophy seems to be just what Slaughter had in mind and it could just as easily have backfired on him.  Slaughter had a great jump on the ball and took a gamble that he could surprise the Red Sox by making the turn.  His gamble and aggressive move forced the Red Sox to make a perfect field, throw, catch, turn, throw and tag to record the out.

6. Slaughter only made the gamble because Culberson was playing Center field.  The regular Center fielder was Dominic DiMaggio and he was a great fielding outfielder.  Probably one of the best of the era.  DiMaggio was responsible for sending the game into the 9th inning tied when he hit a two run double to tie the game.  Maybe this is where the curse talk should have started because DiMaggio hurt his leg rounding first on the double and was replaced by Culberson as the pinch runner.  Slaughter said later: "DiMaggio had a great arm but Culberson didn't have too good of an arm, and he wasn't as quick as DiMaggio.  DiMaggio would have gotten rid of it a lot quicker.  I don't think I would've even tried."  DiMaggio had even more confidence.  "He might not even have tried to go to third."

7.  Pesky did nothing wrong.  The video footage shows Pesky catching, turning and making a strong throw in a continuous motion.  The idea that Pesky turned towards second is ridiculous.  By the time Pesky even had the ball and had turned Slaughter was nearly a third of the way home.  Remember, this is a Game 7 of a World Series and the place is packed.  The home town team is about to score a winning run so it would be amazing if any fan had a voice left after this play.  The roar was deafening so although Culberson said that he and Williams were screaming that the play was at the plate and Bobby Doerr may or may not have notified Pesky as well, Pesky wouldn't have heard a thing.  He was on his own and given the circumstances the Red Sox were fortunate it was as close as it was.