Next Stop For The Wayback Machine . . . 1942

Because the navigation system on the Wayback Machine is out of whack, it tends to deposit us in random years.  In this installment, we look at the Cubs in 1942.  Here’s the year in a box:

1942 in a Box
Record:  68-86 (6th in NL)
Runs Scored:  591 (4th in NL); Runs Allowed:  665 (7th in NL)—Pythagorean Record:  69-85
Home Record:  36-41; Road Record:  32-45
Park Factor:  96 Batting / 97 Pitching—back in this era, Wrigley Field was not the only small park in the league

Owner:  Philip K. Wrigley
General Manager:  James Gallagher
Manager:  Jimmie Wilson

Attendance:  590,972 (3rd in NL)—7,577/gm
By comparison, the 6th place White Sox drew 425,734

How Was the Ballpark Different?—No luxury boxes, message boards, “knotholes,” restaurants, rooftop construction, statues, “Walk of Fame,” elevators, patio areas, retired numbers, or lights.  The outfield wall didn’t have wire baskets. The backstop was further away.  The RF line was oriented differently, with the sightlines going to 2B (rather than the pitchers mound).  The gates on the outfield wall were red (not green).  Outfield distances were marked on plywood markers screwed into the brick.  Although the team roped off seats in CF during the 1941 season (thus forming the first hitters background in MLB), they began to allow fans to return to the seats in 1942.  Old, small clubhouses that were accessed from the LF/RF corners, rather than from the dugouts.  The press box hung under the upper deck.  The park was home to the Chicago Bears during football season (including their 1941 NFL championship), and also hosted some Negro League baseball, mainly exhibitions.

Uniform Style—the team would revert to a more classic uniform style the following season

Turning Point:  None, really.  The team was consistently inconsistent, hovering from 4th-7th place for nearly all of the season.

One Run Games:  21-24
Largest Win Streak:  5 games (June 10-14 and June 21-26)
Largest Loss Streak:  4 games (May 17-19, July 4-9, July 26-28, July 29-August 2, August 9-12, and September 22-27)

Nemesis:  Brooklyn and St. Louis (each 6-16).  I guess if they had to have nemeses, they might as well be against the two best teams in the league.

What Went Right:  They got a very good season by SP Claude Passeau, while returning Cub SP Lon Warneke was excellent but unlucky.  At the plate, RF Bill Nicholson and 3B Stan Hack were excellent, and 1B/OF Phil Cavarretta (still only 25) re-emerged to become a mainstay for the next several seasons.

What Went Wrong:  Trades in past years really hurt, particularly the trades of 2B Billy Herman and later OF Augie Galan to the Dodgers the previous year.  They needed some stability either at 1B or CF—because they didn’t, Phil Cavaretta flip-flopped between the two positions.  Jimmy Foxx was brought in to solidify 1B, but was brutal.  They also needed at least one more quality starting pitcher.  Aside from the top line talent, the team struggled, particularly in filling out the rest of the pitching staff and in getting production from the double play combo of SS Lenny Merullo and 2B Lou Stringer.  The bench was also terrible.

Youngsters (25 or under)—8 semi-regulars
Prime (26-29)—10 semi-regulars
Past-Prime (30-33)—5 semi-regulars
Old Timers (34+)—2 semi-regulars (1B Jimmy Foxx and RP Tot Pressnell)

Departing Veterans—None, really.  The Cubs probably kept more pre-war players in 1942 than all the other NL teams.
Top Prospect—Probably P Hank Wyse, who was brought up late
All-Stars— Passeau
Hall of Famers—Foxx (though Warneke and Hack are near-misses)

Most Runs Created:  Nicholson, 105 (4th in NL)
Highest Batting Average:  Hack and OF Lou Novikoff, .300 (tied for 6th in NL)
Lowest Batting Average:  Stringer, .236 (and off the bench, OF Charlie Gilbert, .184)
Most Home Runs:  Nicholson, 21 (4th in NL)
Most RBI:  Nicholson, 78 (8th in NL)
Most Stolen Bases:  Merullo, 14 (4th in NL)

Best Position Player:  Bill Nicholson
Worst Position Player:  Lou Stringer
Wade Boggs Award:  Typical of his style, Hack hit .300/.402/.409
Season in the Sun:  Novikoff, who played 128 games (more than twice his rookie year) and would play barely more than that for the rest of his career

Most Wins:  Passeau, 19 (3rd in NL)
Most Losses:  Passeau and Hi Bithorn, 14 (tied for 8th in NL)
Most Saves: Pressnell, 4 (6th in NL)—Of course, it’s really not fair to call Pressnell a “closer”; although he had the saves lead and finished more games, it wasn’t because he was a stopper
Best ERA:  Passeau—2.68 (8th in NL)—Warneke’s was 2.27 in his 99 IP as a Cub, but for the full-season it was 2.73 (10th in NL)
Worst ERA:  Pressnell—5.49 (I said he wasn’t a stopper!)—the worst starter’s ERA Jake Mooty’s 4.70
Most Innings:  Passeau, 278.3 (3rd in NL)—For all intents and purposes, the Cubs rotation was Passeau, Bill Lee, Warneke (when he came to the Cubs).  The final slot was usually filled by either Vern Olsen or Hi Bithorn (though Bill Fleming, Jake Mooty, and Johnny Schmitz each got more than 10 starts).

Best Pitcher:  Claude Passeau
Worst Pitcher:  Tot Pressnell only pitched 39.3 innings, so I’ll go with Jake Mooty

Career Best Seasons:  C McCullough, Merullo, and Novikoff
Career Worst Seasons:  Foxx, C Bob Scheffing

Heaviest Listed Player:  Nicholson—6’, 205# (Lou Novikoff was reported to be at 206 over the winter, but vowed to lose 20 pounds by Spring Training.  Also, at Spring Training, 5’6” OF Dom Dallessandro reported 20 pounds overweight, but lost 15 during Spring Training.)
Lightest Listed Player:  Gilbert—5’9”, 165#

Most Popular:  Hack didn’t get his nickname for nothing—he, Nicholson, and Novikoff were the most popular that year
Nicknames:  Smiling Stan (Hack), Swish (Nicholson), The Mad Russian (Novikoff), Dim Dom (OF Dallessandro), Beast or Double X (Foxx), Peanuts (OF Lowrey), Big Bill (Lee), The Arkansas Hummingbird (Warneke), Bear Tracks (Schmitz), Li’l Abner (P Paul Erickson), Hooks (Wyse)

Notables:

* Hi Bithorn was one of the more prominent Puerto Ricans and the San Juan stadium is named for him. 
* Claude Passeau was a sinker/slider pitcher whose best pitch was a sinker, which dropped so much that he was frequently accused of throwing a spitter.  He was always acquitted and denied it until he died. 
* Warneke had developed a knuckleball by this point in his career.
* Nicholson grew up in rural Maryland and, as a boy, was obsessed with the idea of going into the Navy and becoming an officer, reading Navy books, being a straight-A student, and wrangling an appointment to Annapolis.  When he got there for his physical, however, he was found to be color blind.  While players throughout MLB were enlisting for military service, Nicholson had to stay stateside.

1942 was a transition year for the Cubs, one that continued the slide that had begun ever since the ‘38 pennant winners (and arguably before then), and essentially continued until Leo Durocher arrived in 1966.  To properly set the stage for 1942, one must go back several years earlier, when William Wrigley died in January 1932 at the age of 79, leaving the team to his rather shy son, Philip.  At the time of his passing, Wrigley père and his vice-president, William Veeck, had put together a nucleus of talent that would win the pennants not only in ‘32, but in ‘35 and ‘38 as well.

Although he inherited the team from his father, Philip Wrigley did not inherit his father’s passion for the game.  Phil had been running the gum company since 1925 and although he vowed out of a sense of loyalty and duty to keep the team under his personal control, he would rather play polo, race motorcycles, or tinker with car engines than be seen at a baseball game.  This was just fine at the time—after all, the operation of the team was in the able hands of William Veeck.  When Veeck died the following year, however, things went downhill from there.  Not only did Veeck’s successors (William Walker and “Boots” Weber) lack the same credentials, but Wrigley fils often interfered with their work as well.  (For instance, overruling Boots Weber to acquire Dizzy Dean, even though it was widely known at the time that Dean’s arm was basically shot). 

Boots Weber eventually resigned out of frustration in 1940.  His assistant was Bill Veeck, Jr., whose abilities would be demonstrated in baseball over the next few decades.  Unfortunately, rather than follow his father’s example by hiring a confident, able, and strong-willed Veeck, Phil instead followed his father’s example by hiring a sports reporter, Jim Gallagher.

Unlike Veeck, Gallagher wasn’t outgoing, lacked patience, and ultimately didn’t know much more about professional baseball than the average fan.  Between him and Weber, the pennant winning team in ‘38 was dismantled piece by piece, often disastrously:

* After winning the NL pennant with an 89-63 record, in December 1938, Weber dealt RF Frank Demaree, SS Billy Jurges, and backup C Ken O’Dea to the Giants for OF Hank Lieber, SS Dick Bartell, and C Gus Mancuso.  Lieber would play sporadically for the next three years and Bartell and Mancuso would each play for one season before getting dealt themselves.  Meanwhile, Demaree would remain productive for the next few years, Jurges would be a Giants mainstay for most of the ‘40s, and O’Dea would also contribute over the next decade.

* In 1939, the team finished in 4th place with an 84-70 record, 13 games behind the Reds.  In December 1939, Weber dealt Bartell to the Tigers for SS Billy Rogell, a 34-year old who would see 33 games the next year before retiring.  After the deal, Bartell enjoyed some of his best years until 1943.

* Seeking to make a first impression, in November 1940, Gallagher fired manager and future Hall of Famer, Gabby Hartnett, replacing him with Jimmie Wilson.  This was a hugely unpopular move.  Gallagher hired Wilson not because of his managerial record (over five seasons, he had guided the Phillies to a 280-477 record, never finishing higher than 7th in the eight-team National League).  Instead, Gallagher hired Wilson because, as a coach, he had filled in ably for the Reds that season when Ernie Lombardi was hurt.  The fans grew to dislike Wilson as much as they disliked Gallagher.

* Gallagher then dealt OF Jim Gleeson and SS Bobby Mattick to the Reds for reigning World Series champion SS Billy Myers, who would play 24 games for the Cubs before retiring.  Gallagher must have been following the 1940 World Series quite closely.

* In May 1941, believing all the hype about hot rookie prospect Lou Stringer, Gallagher made way for him by dealing the (then) seven time All-Star 2B Billy Herman to the Dodgers for IF Johnny Hudson, OF Charlie Gilbert, and $50,000.  Neither Stringer, Gilbert, nor Hudson would enjoy much productive success after 1941.  Two months later, he dealt All-Star OF Augie Galan to the Dodgers for 32 year old RP Mace Brown and cash. 

Herman and Galan would be stalwarts for the Dodgers throughout the ‘40s, leading them to consistently battle the Cardinals for the NL pennant.  Fueled with the Herman and Galan acquisitions, the Dodgers would go on to win the pennant in 1941, while the Cubs finished in 6th place with a 70-84 record, 30 games out.  Suffice it to say that Branch Rickey “owned” Jim Gallagher and the Cubs.

Following the 1941 season, Gallagher and Wilson tried to enter their second year on a clean slate, going into a youth movement with open competition for nearly every position and prepared to deal anyone on the team.  Although the Cubs did not have a farm system to speak of, in November 1941, Gallagher and Phil Wrigley looked toward gaining full control of the Los Angeles Angels, a Pacific Coast League franchise owned by Wrigley.

Meanwhile, the nation prepared for war, which would come just a month later.  The war affected the league and the Cubs in many ways.  Most notably, it impacted plans to add lights to Wrigley Field.  At that point, there were only four major league parks without lights—Wrigley Field, Tiger Stadium (then known as Briggs Stadium), Yankee Stadium, and Fenway Park.  The Cubs were not unusual in avoiding night games.  Night baseball was not nearly the staple that it is today.  To the contrary, teams were limited to playing no more than seven night games at home and only increased the number to 14 in response to President Roosevelt’s request.

The Cubs had generally been apathetic about night baseball, but were prepared to install lights.  According to Phil Wrigley, he had acquired 165 tons of steel, 30,000 feet of copper wire, and other items of equipment needed for the project.  The lights were to be clustered on six towers, two in the outfield and the others over the grandstand.  When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Wrigley immediately turned these materials over to the government.

Although the Cubs’ plans to add lights is now fairly well-known, history has forgotten that when the league expanded to 14 night games, the Cubs were quite interested in joining in by renting Comiskey Park for these dates.  Phil Wrigley observed that “It would be a blow to our pride to play elsewhere than in our home park, but we feel that under the circumstances this would be the only same and logical thing to do.” He later added: “The stories that we were opposed to night baseball because it would destroy the beauty of the park for daytime baseball are without foundation.  It’s our job to give the fans what they want, and if we find that they want night baseball, they’ll have it.”

The White Sox were not so keen on this, however.  Perhaps they were peeved by the fact that the Cubs expressed their desires to the press before contacting the White Sox themselves, but they were chilly to the idea.  When the White Sox rejected the request, the teams issued a joint statement, stating in part:

“This [practice of one park hosting night games for two teams], of course, is done in other cities, such as in St. Louis and Philadelphia, but both managements feel that Chicago represents an entirely different situation.  Our city is definitely divided into sections, and there is as much rivalry between the north side and south side of Chicago, in fact more than there is between, for instance, Chicago and New York, and inasmuch as rivalry and competition is the spirit of baseball, both managements agree that it would be better not to use the same ball park, even for a limited number of night games.

“In fact, this is an agreement to disagree, and the rivalry between the two clubs will continue not only between the teams themselves but on the part of the managements, each to cater to their own fans and do the very best they can for them.”

With that, the Cubs then looked into other possibilities, such as starting games at 6:00 so that if they were completed in a (then) average length of time, they could finish before dark.  They also looked into the idea of installing lights sometime during the season, using materials that were then used in construction projects at Great Lakes and on Wrigley’s Catalina Island as well as the battery of lights directed at the Wrigley Building from their place on the southeast corner of the Michigan Avenue bridge.

Although there were many changes off the field, from a roster standpoint, entry into World War II did not affect the Cubs as dramatically as other teams.  While stars such as Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, Ted Williams entered the service, the Cubs did not lose any “regulars” to military service in 1942.  Instead, the Cubs brought a large contingent to Spring Training on Catalina Island, as well as a willingness to make deals.  Their largest concern was with the hitting, most notably with OF Lou Novikoff, their prized rookie in 1941 who struggled to hit .241/.284/.355 (good for an OPS+ of only 82).  In addition to LF, manager Jimmie Wilson was also concerned about who would start at SS and 2B as well.  There were even questions about Phil Cavarretta, still only 25, but who had been bounced back and forth between 1B and the outfield throughout the last several seasons, but unable to stick at any position.

A humorous aside:  In response to a question about the team’s sorry showing in Spring Training exhibitions, Gallagher attributed it to the fact that several players were love-sick.  2B Lou Stringer, 1B Babe Dahlgren, IF Bob Sturgeon, P Paul Erickson, and a few others all were either engaged or newlyweds.  As Edward Prell of the Chicago Daily Tribune noted:  “The Cubs’ general manager denied that he was opposed to love in general, but that the ailment in the romantic or honeymoon stage was not conducive to good baseball.”

The general consensus entering the season was that the Cubs would be in the middle of the pack, largely due to the lack of hitting, inexperience in the middle infield, and inconsistent pitching.  These concerns would all play out. 

With the young roster, they would remain close to break-even for much of the season.  Other than a brief periods at the end of May and into June, the Cubs remained within 5 games of .500 until late July.  Unfortunately, this put them at or near 6th place for most of the season, well behind the Dodgers and Cardinals.  (That season, the Dodgers got out to a huge lead, only to fade in the stretch.)

Some questions did begin to be answered.  Phil Cavarretta was emerging as a solid starting player, good enough to dislodge 1B Babe Dahlgren, whom the Cubs eventually sold to . . . the Dodgers, of course.  Novikoff played well that year, leading the team with a .300 average (in his only good season).  The middle infield remained unproductive, as did the pitching; Passeau led the team and Bill Lee was also fairly good, but they had real problems beyond that.

One thing that should be mentioned is the scheduling.  The Cubs played 34 doubleheaders in 1942, not only because of rain delays, but also because of wartime travel logistics as well.  I don’t know if that is any record.  Frequently, the Cubs played a doubleheader preceding or following an offday. 

On some of these “offdays,” the Cubs played exhibition matches against the Great Lakes Naval Academy or other teams made up of enlisted players.  Like other teams, the Cubs would stage these as benefits for the war effort.  On May 24, with the Cubs in Pittsburgh, a special all-star benefit was arranged, with retired pitcher Dizzy Dean leading a team of players currently serving in the army to play Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs, reigning three-time champions of the Negro American League.  The game drew 29,775, a Wrigley Field total that the Cubs exceeded only seven times that season.  The Monarchs prevailed 3-1.

When June rolled around, the Cubs made what they believed to be a dramatic move—on June 1, they claimed Hall of Fame 1B Jimmy Foxx off waivers from the Red Sox.  At the time, Foxx was believed to have had a cracked rib that had kept him out of the Boston lineup.  An X-ray proved that this was not the case, but he did have loose cartilage from being hit by a batting practice line drive.  Foxx would be the predominant 1Bman through most of June and July, while Cavarretta moved to CF.  It is perhaps fitting for the Cubs, however, that 1942 would prove to be Foxx’s worst season, hitting a meager .205/.282/.288 as a Cub after starting the season hitting .270/.392/.460 for the Red Sox.

The Cubs trudged along breaking even through June, highlighted not only by the Foxx deal but also by the game Bill Fleming pitched against the visiting Braves on June 13—a one hit, 1-0 shutout, in which the only hit came in the 6th inning, when a Tommy Holmes pop fly fell into CF, just eluding Cavarretta’s reach. 

In July, the big news was the return of former Cub and longtime Cardinal, P Lon Warneke, whom the Cubs bought from the Cardinals.  Warneke would go on to pitch 99 superb innings with an ERA of 2.27 as a Cub (an ERA+ of 141), but bad luck would keep him to a 5-7 record that season.  As the Cubs fans continued to see their beloved stagnate while the Dodgers and Cardinals push further past them, they began to call for Wilson’s dismissal.

Though the Cubs have always had a rivalry with the Cardinals, in 1942 they also had a bitter one with the Leo Durocher-led Dodgers as well.  Things came to a head on July 16.  That day’s festivities started as a brushback battle.  After Novikoff and Foxx had homered off Dodger starter Kirby Higbe in the 4th inning, Leo Durocher came to the mound.  Higbe’s next pitch was just behind Bill Nicholson’s back, which caused Jimmie Wilson to immediately send Cub reliever Paul Erickson to warm up.  The next inning, with Durocher riding him from the Dodger bench, Cub hurler Hi Bithorn knocked Higbe down with a wild pitch.  With the Dodgers ahead 5-2, Wilson pulled Bithorn as well as the catcher, Chico Hernandez.  Just before they returned to the Cub dugout, Bithorn whirled and threw a ball into the Dodger dugout.  Of course, given his lack of control, he didn’t hit anyone.

August saw the Cubs’ slide continue, when they went 13-18, were eliminated from the race on August 30, and had Claude Passeau injure his pitching had trying to snare a Pee Wee Reese line drive, missing nearly a week.  Although the Cubs tried their best to get Passeau his 20th win in September, he fell just short. 

At the end of the season, the Cubs played a City Series against the White Sox (at the same time as the Cardinals/Yankees World Series).  For the eighth year in a row, the Cubs lost the series 4 games to 2 to end what would otherwise be a thoroughly forgettable season.