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Template:WorldSeriesRt The 1944 World Series was an all-St. Louis World Series, matching up the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park.

1944 saw perhaps the nadir of 20th-century baseball, as the long-moribund St. Louis Browns won their only American League pennant. The pool of talent was depleted by the draft to the point that in 1945 (but not 1944), as the military scraped deeper and deeper into the ranks of the possibly eligible, the Browns actually used a one-armed player, Pete Gray. Some of the players were 4-Fs, physical rejects whose defects precluded duty in the trenches but not limping around the bases of ballparks.^{[citation needed]} Others divided their time between factory work in defense industries and baseball, some being able to play ball only on weekends. Some just plain got lucky.

Stan Musial of the Cardinals was one. Musial, enlisting in early 1945 but never called, was able to stay with his team throughout the war. The Browns, on the other hand, were not so fortunate, and their 1944 team was a patched together fabric of those ineligible for military service, virtual misfits, alcoholics and retreads who somehow managed to win games.^{[citation needed]}

As both teams called Sportsman's Park home, the 2-3-2 home field assignment was preserved. The Junior World Series of that same year, partly hosted in Baltimore's converted football stadium, easily outdrew the "real" Series and attracted attention to Baltimore as a potential major league city. Ten years later, the Browns transferred there and became the Orioles. Another all-Missouri World Series was played 41 years later, with the Kansas City Royals defeating the Cardinals in seven games.

The Series was also known as the "Streetcar Series", or the "St. Louis Showdown."

Records: St. Louis Cardinals (W: 105, L: 49, Pct: .682, GA: 14 ½) - St. Louis Browns (W: 89, L: 65, Pct: .578, GA: 1)

Managers: Luke Sewell (Browns), Billy Southworth (Cardinals)

Umpires: Ziggy Sears (NL), Bill McGowan (AL), Tom Dunn (NL), George Pipgras (AL)
Note: George Pipgras became the fourth person to appear in the World Series both as a player and as an umpire.

Getting There

Many of the games' best players were called away for the war, and the result was a seriously depleted pool of talent. The top team in the American League was the St. Louis Browns, who collectively batted .252 in route to their only pennant. They only had one .300 hitter in outfielder Mike Kreevich (who barely made it at .301), one man with twenty home runs, shortstop Vern Stephens (who hit exactly twenty); and one player over the eighty-five runs batted in mark, Stephens, who knocked in one-hundred nine runs. On the mound, the Browns boasted Nelson Potter and Jack Kramer who combined for a mediocre thirty-six victories. The Browns squeaked into first place by winning eleven out of their final twelve games, including the last four in a row over the defending champion New York Yankees. The victory, combined with Detroit's loss to Washington, enabled St. Louis to finish one game ahead of the Tigers in the American League.

Across town, the other Major League team from St. Louis was doing business as usual. In making off with their third straight National League pennant (leading by 14½ games over Pittsburgh), manager Billy Southworth's Cardinals had won one-hundred five games and ran their three-year victory total to three-hundred sixteen.

Summary

NL St. Louis Cardinals (4) vs. AL St. Louis Browns (2)

Game	Score	Date
1	Browns 2, Cardinals 1	October 4
2	Cardinals 3, Browns 2 (11 innings)	October 5
3	Browns 6, Cardinals 2	October 6
4	Cardinals 5, Browns 1	October 7
5	Cardinals 2, Browns 0	October 8
6	Cardinals 3, Browns 1	October 9

Matchups

Game 1

October 4, 1944 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri


Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Browns	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0
Cardinals	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	7	0
WP: Denny Galehouse (1-0) LP: Mort Cooper (0-1) Home runs: SLB: George McQuinn (1) STL: None

George McQuinn hit the Brown's only home run of the series to put his team ahead in the 4th inning, while Denny Galehouse outpitched World Series veteran Mort Cooper to hold on for the win.

Game 2

October 5, 1944 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri


Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	R	H	E
Browns	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	7	4
Cardinals	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	7	0
WP: Blix Donnelly (1-0) LP: Bob Muncrief (0-1)

Blix Donnelly came in as a relief pitcher in the eighth inning, and tallied no runs, two hits and seven strikeouts for the win. Ken O'Dea's pinch-hit single in the eleventh scored the winning run.

Game 3

October 6, 1944 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri


Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Cardinals	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	7	0
Browns	0	0	4	0	0	0	2	0	X	6	8	2
WP: Jack Kramer (1-0) LP: Ted Wilks (0-1)

Jack Kramer struck out ten batters on the way to a 6-2 Browns triumph.

Game 4

October 7, 1944 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri


Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Cardinals	2	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	5	12	0
Browns	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	9	0
WP: Harry Brecheen (1-0) LP: Sig Jakucki (0-1) Home runs: STL: Stan Musial (1) SLB: None

Brown's starter Sig Jakucki had been away from baseball for five years, but returned to win 13 games in 1944. He lasted only three innings giving up 4 runs. Stan Musial hit a two run homer in the first, and the Browns never recovered.

Game 5

October 8, 1944 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri


Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Cardinals	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	2	6	1
Browns	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	1
WP: Mort Cooper (1-1) LP: Denny Galehouse (1-1) Home runs: STL: Ray Sanders (1), Danny Litwhiler (1) SLB: None

Mort Cooper recovered from his opening game loss to beat Galehouse with a seven-hit, 2-0 shutout. In the Cardinals' 1942-1943-1944 stranglehold on the National League championship, Cooper had won sixty-five games and thrown twenty-three shutouts.

Game 6

October 9, 1944 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri


Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Browns	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	2
Cardinals	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	10	0
WP: Max Lanier (1-0) LP: Nels Potter (0-1)

For Game 6, it was Max Lanier and Ted Walks (who both had seventeen wins and shared a 2.65 ERA), that wrote the final chapter to the Brown's "Cinderella season" with a 3-1 victory that wrapped up the Cardinals' second Series title in three years.

Composite Box

1944 World Series (4-2): St. Louis Cardinals (N.L.) over St. Louis Browns (A.L.)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	R	H	E
St. Louis Cardinals	3	0	3	4	0	2	1	1	1	0	1	16	49	1
St. Louis Browns	0	1	4	2	0	0	4	1	0	0	0	12	36	10
Total Attendance: 206,708 Average Attendance: 34,451
Winning Player’s Share: – $4,626 Losing Player’s Share – $2,744

Trivia

Both teams had the same home field, Sportsman's Park. The only other World Series in which both teams had the same home field were in 1921 and 1922, between the New York Yankees and New York Giants, played entirely at the Polo Grounds; Yankee Stadium opened the following year.

"The funny thing about that World Series (in 1944), the fans were rooting for the Browns, and it kind of surprised me because we drew more fans than the Browns during the season. The fans were rooting for the underdog, and I was surprised about that, but after you analyze the situation in St. Louis, the Browns in the old days had good clubs. They had great players like George Sisler and Kenny Williams, and the fans who were there were older fans, older men, old-time Brownie fans. But it was a tough series." - Stan Musial

With one-hundred five (105) victories, the St Louis Cardinals franchise became the first ever with three (3) consecutive one-hundred win seasons.

Reference(s)

Neft, David S., and Richard M. Cohen. The World Series. 1st ed. New York: St Martins, 1990. (Neft and Cohen 196-200)

External links

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 The '''[[1944 in baseball|1944]] [[World Series]]''' was an all-St. Louis World Series, matching up the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park.
-saw perhaps the [[nadir]] of 20th-century baseball, as the long-moribund St. Louis Browns won their only [[American League]] pennant. The pool of talent was depleted by the [[Conscription|draft]] to the point that in 1945 (but not 1944), as the military scraped deeper and deeper into the ranks of the possibly eligible, the Browns actually used a one-armed player, Pete Gray. Some of the players were 4-Fs, physical rejects whose defects precluded duty in the trenches but not limping around the bases of ballparks.{{Fact|date=April 2007}} Others divided their time between factory work in defense industries and baseball, some being able to play ball only on weekends. Some just plain got lucky.
+saw perhaps the [[nadir]] of 20th-century baseball, as the long-moribund St. Louis Browns won their only [[American League]] pennant. The pool of talent was depleted by the [[Conscription|draft]] to the point that in 1945 (but not 1944), as the military scraped deeper and deeper into the ranks of the possibly eligible, the Browns actually used a one-armed player, [[Pete Gray]]. Some of the players were 4-Fs, physical rejects whose defects precluded duty in the trenches but not limping around the bases of ballparks.{{Fact|date=April 2007}} Others divided their time between factory work in defense industries and baseball, some being able to play ball only on weekends. Some just plain got lucky.
 [[Stan Musial]] of the Cardinals was one. Musial, enlisting in early 1945 but never called, was able to stay with his team throughout the war. The Browns, on the other hand, were not so fortunate, and their 1944 team was a patched together fabric of those ineligible for military service, virtual misfits, alcoholics and retreads who somehow managed to win games.{{Fact|date=April 2007}}