Pennant-winning Cubs no match for Navy
Posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2008
J. D. McGee saw the Chicago Cubs’ most recent pennant winner in action 63 years ago, but not while they were compiling a 96-56 National League record — or losing the World Series to the Detroit Tigers, four games to three.
Then 18 years old, McGee joined the Navy in June 1945. He was in boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Base on Lake Michigan, north of Chicago, when the Cubs sacrificed an open date in their NL schedule to visit Great Lakes for an exhibition game.
“I was already a St. Louis Cardinals fan, but at that time, I didn’t know anything about the fierce rivalry between the Cardinals and Cubs,” said McGee, now retired in Little Rock from a long career as a public school coach and administrator.
He said Great Lakes had a baseball team made up mostly of men waiting to be discharged, as World War II was within a few weeks of ending when the Cubs-Great Lakes game took place.
“I don’t remember who pitched for the Cubs that day,” McGee said. “They used several pitchers, like most bigleague teams would in an exhibition.
“ Bob Feller pitched for Great Lakes. I sure remember that.” The dominant power pitcher of his era, Feller of the Cleveland Indians had enlisted a day or two after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. When he faced the Cubs at Great Lakes, Feller had been in the Navy almost four years.
By 1945, all major league clubs were operating with, in McGee’s words, “4-Fs, or men too old [to be drafted ].” The St. Louis Browns even had a one-armed outfielder named Pete Gray, who batted. 218 in 77 games that summer.
After watching the Cubs and Tigers stumble through the first two or three World Series games, Chicago sportswriter Warren Brown offered this widely quoted opinion: “I don’t see how either of them can win.” Two established major leaguers, Feller and St. Louis Cardinals catcher Walker Cooper, carried the day for Great Lakes, with help from a hot prodigy.
“Johnny Groth was 18 or 19 then, just out of high school.” McGee said. “I think he went on to a pretty good baseball career after his discharge from the Navy.” (Indeed he did. Detroit’s regular center fielder for several years, Groth spent 11 full seasons and bits and pieces of four others in the American League, 1946-1960. )
“The [Cubs-Great Lakes ] game was scoreless for several innings,” McGee said. “Then Groth singled and Walker Cooper drove him in with a long double. Cooper was a huge guy with a lot of power.
“ The most dramatic moment came in the eighth inning. Feller walked the first three batters and then struck out Andy Pafko, Stan Hack and Bill Nicholson. Great Lakes won 1-0.” By 1945 standards, that was an extremely dangerous trio that a militaryrusty Feller blew away with the bases full.
Pafko, then 24 and draft exempt due to high blood pressure, drove in 110 runs for the Cubs that summer. During a 17-year career, he would appear in three other World Series for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1952 ) and Milwaukee Braves (1957-1958 ).
Hack, 35, a star third baseman with a. 301 career average, had played for Cubs’ pennant winners in 1932, 1935 and 1938. Chicago fans of a generation or so ago never tired of telling that, with the Cubs behind 4-3 in the sixth game and 3-2 in the Series in 1935, Hack tripled to lead off the ninth inning. When that game ended, he was still on third with the tying run, in the middle of a wild Detroit celebration.
Nicholson, 30, had led the NL in home runs and RBI in 1943-1944.
“Bob Feller in the eighth inning was my most vivid memory,” McGee said. “I might have enjoyed the game more if I’d realized that Cards and Cubs fans hated each other.”
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