Brooklyn Dodgers - The War Years - WWII (1940-1945)
 
   
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                  Yr P W L                         Decade
                  1940 2 88 65                         Click  
                  1941 1 100 54                         on Logo
                  1942 2 104 50                            
                  1943 3 81 72                            
                    1944 7 63 91                            
                          1945 3 87 67                            
                                                       
   
  Titles: NL Champs 1941  Top Dodgers Players of the War Years   
  Lost World Series to Yankees    
    Pitchers:  
  BallPark: Ebbets Field Whitlow Wyatt (16.9) -    52  
    Curt Davis (13.1) -    41  
  Team Name: Dodgers Kirby Higbe (6.26) -    36  
    Hugh Casey (5.84) -    22  
  Owner: Ebbets and McKeever Trusts (1940-1943) Hal Gregg (0.5) -    19  
  Branch Rickey, Walter O'Malley, John Lawrence Smith (1944-1945) Fred Fitzsimmons (4.86) -    11  
    Hot Potato Hamlin (3.19) -    10  
  President: Larry MacPhail (1940-1942) Ed Head (3.88) -  9  
  Branch Rickey (1943-1945) Larry French (4.42) -   8  
    Vic Lombardi (1.45) -    7  
  General Manager: None Vito Tamulis (4.1) -   6  
    Bobo Newsom (1.46) -    3  
  Managers: Leo Durocher (1940-1945)  
    Catchers:  
  No Hitters: Tex Carleston (1940) Mickey Owen (3.96) -    22  
    Babe Phelps (2.83) -  8  
  Hall of Famers: Bobby Bragan (0) -    0  
  Larry MacPhail    
  Branch Rickey First Basemen:  
  Leo Durocher Dolph Camilli (18.39) -    47  
  Billy Herman  
  Pee Wee Reese Second Basemen:  
  Arky Vaughn Billy Herman (11.44) -    19  
  Ducky Medwick Eddie Stanky (5.36) -    10  
     
  MVP ShortStop:  
  Dolph Camilli (1941) Pee Wee Reese (9.7) -    35  
    Arky Vaughn (6.9) -    20  
  Notable Events:  
  Third Base:  
  1940 - Hall of Fame outfielder Ducky Medwick, 28, and righthander  Cookie Lavagetto (3.55) -    10  
   Curt Davis, 36, are acquired in a deal with the Cards that included  
   $125K cash. The deal worked out badly as Medwick was beaned six days Outfield:  
   later by Cards pitcher Bob Bowman and was never the same player Dixie Walker (25) -    66  
   after that. Tough break for everybody except Branch Rickey of the Cards. Augie Galan (17.5) -    44  
    Pete Reiser (12.12) -    37  
   1940 - Pee Wee Reese, 21, Hall of Fame shortstop is a rookie.  Ducky Medwick (10.23) -    25  
  He was stolen from the Red Sox a year earlier in a deal which Luis Olmo (2.87) -    23  
   caused Boston GM Billy Evans to resign in disgust. Goody Rosen (5.33) -    18  
  In Boston's defense, they did have HOF SS Joe Cronin on their roster      
   and they had PCL star SS Johnny Pesky in their sights and signed  Notable Events:  
  him a short while later. That being said, Pesky was no Reese.    
    1942 - The Dodgers hire the saviest baseball executive in history,   
  1940 - Outfielder Pete Reiser, 21, is a rookie. Reiser was a Hall of Fame   Branch Rickey, to take over the GM reins from MacPhail.  
   calibre talent who ruined his health running into outfield walls.   MacPhail's act would have been impossible for anyone else to follow,  
      but not for Rickey. Rickey was always looking for an edge.  
   1941 - Righthander Kirby Higbe ,26, is obtained from the Phillies in a He built the Cardinals into a dynasty by inventing and developing the   
   trade plus cash. The Bums had grabbed star first baseman Dolph    farm system. He also deliberately put together a team of 4F's with the   
  Camilli from the hapless Phils in a similar deal a couple of years earlier. Cards (guys who would be rejected for military service) as the war  
   became imminent. Thus while everyone was playing with replacement  
  1941 - Outfielder Augie Galan, 29, is obtained from the Cubs in a   players, the Cards were playing with bonafide major leaguers during the  
  trade plus cash war. With the Dodgers, Rickey used two strategies to build Brooklyn's   
     post war dynasty. He started signing black players, knowing there were a   
   1941 - Second baseman Billy Herman, 31, is obtained from the now  bunch of primo talents in the Negro leagues and he signed teenagers  
  hapless Cubs in a trade plus cash, Cubs owner Pk Wrigley, who had   during the war,  betting that they would be OK, mature and ready to go  
  inherited the team from his father several years earlier, obviously was   when the war ended. Other baseball executives didn't want to sign  
  not into winning and MacPhail took advantage.  teenagers because they were afraid that it would be lost money when   
     the kids were drafted into the military. Rickey's gambles both paid off.   
  1941 - Dodgers win their first pennant in 21 years  going 100-54  Branch had no competition for the top  talents in both areas from  
  In World Series Game four,  a two out passed ball by Mickey Owen costs   other major league clubs - he had the picks of the litter  
  the Dodgers the game and eventually the Series to the Yankees    
  1942 - The Dodgers win 104 games and don't win the pennant as    
  1942 - Hall of Fame shortstop Arky Vaughn, 30, is obtained in a trade from  St. Louis wins 106  
  the Pirates for four players. The deal doesn't pan out due to Vaughn  
   going into the army and his hatred for Dodgers manager Leo Durocher 1943 - First baseman / catcher Gil Hodges, 19, is signed by Branch Rickey.   
     He is brought up  to the Dodgers briefly in '43 before going into the military  
   1942 - GM Larry MacPhail leaves his position to join the Army. Gil should be a member of the Hall of Fame, but mysteriously isn't.  
   When he returns after the  war, MacPhail heads a syndicate that  When you think of some of the people who made it into the Hall ahead  
  buys.the Yankees. His GM position with Brooklyn had been filled  of Hodges, it makes you cringe.  
  more than ably by Branch Rickey (the greatest baseball GM of all time)    
    after MacPhail had left for the war. MacPhail had been the guy who was  1943 - Outfielder Duke Snider, 16, is signed by the Dodgers.  
  responsible for turning the Dodgers organization around into a winner.  He will go into the military in '45. Snider comes up as a   
   MacPhail's dynamism and talent convinced the Ebbets / McKeever Trust rookie in 1947. Duke is a member of the Hall of Fame  
   to open up the purse strings to bring a winner to Brooklyn.    
   His ideas on night baseball and radio broadcasts, brought over from  1944 - Righthander Ralph Branca, 18, is signed by Branch Rickey.    
  his previous tenure with the Reds, made good business sense, as did He is brought up to the Dodgers '44 and will be a mainstay on the   
    funding a winning team. The Dodgers won 100 games twice in the first staff for a decade. Ralph never got drafted into the military.  
    half of the decade and won the 1941 pennant as a result of    
   MacPhail's manueverings. 1944 - Righthander Cal McLish, 18, is signed by the Dodgers.   
     He is brought up to the Dodgers in '44 and gets drafted into the military   
    in '45. Cal will end up being a star, but not with Brooklyn.  
     After a long journey, Cal makes it big with Cleveland in the late Fifties.  
       
    1944 - Second baseman Eddie Stanky, 28, is obtained in a deal with the   
    Cubs, one of a number of deals in which the Dodgers took advantage   
    Chicago in the Thirties and Forties