Player losses to the military have taken some of the competition out of Cards-Brooklyn confrontations, but the brawling doesn’t stop. A duster aimed at Stan Musial by Dodger P Les Webber clears both benches.
The West finally stops the East, 2 – 1, in the 1943 East-West Game after five straight East-West Game losses. A record 51,723 fans turn out at Comiskey Park. Satchel Paige, Gread McKinnis and Theolic Smith toss 8 2/3 shutout innings for the West before a Buck Leonard homer. Two more East batters reach before Porter Moss relieves and gets Vic Harris to end it.
On July 31, 1943, the Brooklyn Dodger Dolph Camilli, the league’s MVP in 1941, is traded with Johnny Allen to the New York Giants for Bill Sayles, Bill Lohrman and Joe Orengo. Camilli declines to report to his new team and retires to a California ranch for the season. Next year, he will manage in the…
1943 – Phil Cavarretta of the Chicago Cubs homers off the RF foul pole against Johnny Allen of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The ball is retrieved and Bill Nicholson hits the next pitch out of Wrigley Field. The result: one ball, one pitcher, two pitches, two home runs. The Cubs go on to beat the Dodgers, 13 – 2.
In a Red Cross charity game played at Yankee Stadium, retired outfielder Babe Ruth leads a Yank-Lands club, a combination of former Yankee and Indian ballplayers, against the Cloudbusters, a U.S. Navy team from the Chapel Hill Naval Pre-Flight School based at the University of North Carolina. ‘The Bambino,’ appearing as a pinch-hitter in his only plate appearance in the 8-5 loss to the servicemen, is walked by 25 year-old Navy pilot trainee and Boston Braves right-hander Johnny Sain.
Without informing Bucky Harris, his current skipper, Philadelphia owner William D. Cox announces at a New York press conference that Freddie Fitzsimmons will be taking over the managerial reins of the team, never mentioning the man he is replacing. The Phillies players threatened to go on strike in protest, but, at the urging of their former field boss, decide to drop the plan after the owner threatens legal action.
After singling and scoring the tying run in the 9th, ex-Pirate Arky Vaughan launches a 10th-inning, game-winning grand slam inside-the-park home run off the base of Forbes Field’s left-center light tower more than 440 feet from home plate, thus preventing the Pirates from wresting second place from his current team, the Brooklyn Dodgers. The other Dodger home run in the game is not only hit inside-the-park, courtesy of Luis Olmo, but hits the same light tower.
1943 – Outfielders Luis Olmo, Augie Galan and Stan Bordagaray of the Dodgers account for 18 putouts in a game against Cincinnati.
July 13, 1943 – The American League edges the National League, 5 – 3, at Shibe Park in the first All-Star Game played under the lights. Bobby Doerr of the Red Sox is the hitting hero with a three-run homer off Mort Cooper in the 2nd inning. Vince DiMaggio of the Pirates has a single,…
An Armed Forces All-Star team managed by Babe Ruth and featuring Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams plays a fund-raising game against the Braves in Boston. The All-Stars win on a Splendid Splinter’s’ home run, 9-8.
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