Kansas City baseball: Highlights, lowlights of A's, Royals and other basebal topics: 1940 Series: Something to shout about in Cincy

Paul Derringer pitched a seven-hitter and didn't allow an earned run as the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Detroit Tigers 2-1 in Game 7 to win the 1940 World Series. Derringer finished 2-1 in the Series.

Bobo Newsom missed a chance to win three games in the 1940 World Series when he and the Detroit Tigers dropped a 2-1 decision to the Cincinnati Reds in Game 7.

By Phil Ellenbecker

A crowd of 26,854 settled into Crosley Field the Tuesday afternoon of Oct. 8, 1940, to see if the hometown Cincinnati Reds could capture their first World Series title in 21 years.

The Reds did it, and the way they did it was a lot more exciting than the last time. And more honest. With some human-interest drama thrown in. And unlike last time, it happened at home, with a key play providing a bit of a preview of thrills to come in the 1946 World Series.

When Cincinnati wrapped up the title at Comiskey Park in 1919 by beating the Chicago White Sox 10-5 in Game 8 (it was a best-of-nine Series that year), the Reds first-ever World Series title was marred by the fact it came against a team accused of throwing the World Series. In fact, that 1919 Chicago American League team is no longer known as the White Sox. They're the Black Sox.

No such shenanigans and taint this time. Not that the Reds had anything to be ashamed of in 1919 -- to their dying day their players probably swore they were honestly the better team, and how do we know? But on this day in 1940 Cincinnatians and members of the Reds could truly hold their holds high after a 2-1 Game 7 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

No doubt about it, in the Queen City the Reds were the Kings of Baseball.

The deciding game came down to a taut pitching duel between Paul Derringer and Bobo Newsom, with Newsom holding the upper hand most of the way until the Reds pushed across two runs in the seventh inning.

That made Derringer perhaps the hero of the Series with two victories in three decisions while denying Newsom a place in history as the ninth pitcher to win three games in a Series -- and first since 1920 -- as he finished 2-1. Newton was pretty heroic himself, nearly getting that third win on one day's rest. And he was doing it with a heavy heart. Newsom's father suffered a heart attack and died the morning after his son had won the opening game.

Frank Lane, who later became famous or infamous, depending on how you look at it, as a general manager in the 1950s and '60s, rated Game 7 the "greatest game I saw." That's for an article by the same name in the April 1960 baseball issue of Dell Sports Magazine.

"Never have I seen so much excitement," stated Lane, who in 1940 was the Reds' assistant GM.

The excitement peaked in that fateful seventh. Newsom had a four-hit shutout until then, but Frank McCormick, that year's National League MVP, led off with a double off the left-field wall. Next came what Leo Bradley for the Society for American Baseball Research's Games Project described as "one of the most memorable moments in Reds history."

Jimmy Ripple followed McCormick with a drive off the right-field screen to apparently drive in the tying run. Except that McCormick, thinking the ball might be caught by Bruce Campbell, held at second initially. So it was going to be a close play at the plate when Reds manager Bill McKechnie, doubling as third-base coach, waved McCormick home after he got in gear. Except that when the relay throw went from Campbell to shortstop Dick Bartell, Bartell, back to the plate, held the ball. Shades of Johnny Pesky hesitating before throwing home on Enos Slaughter's Game 7 mad dash for the St. Louis Cardinals six years later. Only Bartell didn't even throw the ball.

"As Bartell tried to explain later, he had no reason to think about throwing out McCormick at the plate," Bradley wrote. "A double off the right-field wall should have scored McCormick easily."

And McCormick did score, with some bonus suspense thrown in, and it was 1-1 with Ripple on second with a double. Jimmy Wilson, who'd singled in his first two at-bats, moved Ripple to third with a perfect sacrifice bunt.

Jimmy Wilson emerged as an unlikely hero of the 1940 World Series. He'd been retired and was a coach for Cincinnati but was summoned as an emergency replacement at catcher for Ernie Lombardi. Wilson hit .353 in the Series. In Game 7 he went 2-for-2 and had a key sacrifice bunt in the Reds' 2-1 win over Detroit.

Wilson, age 40, had been a coach but was activated after Ernie Lombardi severely sprained an ankle Sept. 15, leaving the Reds without an experienced catcher because of a tragedy that had happened earlier in the year. Backup backstop Willard Hershberger had committed suicide.

So the Reds had turned to Wilson, with Lombardi limited to a Game 3 start in which he went 1 for 3.

But with the game on the line today, McKechnie called on Lombardi, the 1938 NL MVP and two-time batting champ, to bat for Eddie Joost. That move was essentially wasted when the Tigers chose to intentionally walk him. Then "Schnozz" was gone from the Series as Lonny Frey ran for him.

Up came Billy Myers with runners on first and third and a .136 average in the Series, after .202 during the regular season. He became the latest best supporting hero behind Derringer when he sent Barney McCosky to the wall in center for a fly out that scored Ripple and put Cincinnati ahead.

(Myers didn't get credit for a sacrifice fly, because 1940 was one of 36 of the 65 seasons before 1954 when the sacrifice fly rule wasn't in effect.)

Derringer hit into a fielder's choice, then went back out to the mound and clinched the championship.

He had to deal with the Tigers' vaunted G Men, Hall of Famers and all-time greats Charlie Gehringer and Hank Greenberg, starting off the eighth. Gehringer led off with a single, and McKechnie sent ace reliever Joe Beggs and Bucky Walters, a 4-0 winner the day before, to the bullpen to warm up.
But cleanup hitter Greenberg lined out to shortstop, and Derringer then retired the next and final five batters he faced. With two out in the ninth, Earl Averill, a Hall of Famer nearing the end of his career, batted for Newsom and grounded out to Frey at second base. Bring on the bedlam.

"Seat cushions flew from the stands, and fans emptied onto the field to join in the celebration," Bradley wrote. And outside Crosley, "on the streets of Cincinnati, confetti flew from the downtown skyline buildings as happy citizens celebrated a 21-year wait for the Reds to return to the top of the baseball world."

Derringer finished with a seven-hitter, and the only run he allowed was unearned. He walked three and needed only one strikeout.

The strikeout he got was a big one, though, as it came against Greenberg with two out and runners at first and third in the third inning after Detroit had taken a 1-0 lead. Greenberg whiffed for out No. 3, and the Tigers didn't cross the plate the rest of the way.

They came close the next inning, though, but the Reds and Derringer escaped with an unusual inning-ending play.

Pinky Higgins doubled with two outs and Billy Sullivan was intentionally walked, bringing up Newsom. Newsom hit a grounder toward Myers at shortstop, but Higgins got in the way going to third, was struck by the ball and was called out.

The Tigers threatened again in the sixth when Greenberg singled, went to second on a walk to Campbell and to third on Higgins' fielder's choice. But Sullivan grounded out, and Detroit didn't advance a runner to scoring position the rest of the way.

Derringer disposed of Detroit mainly through the air, as he got eight fly outs, five pops and three line outs.

The Tigers scored their run in the third when third baseman Bill Werber, who'd played some dazzling defense in the Reds' 4-0 win the day before, threw wide of first after fielding a hard grounder by Gehringer, allowing Sullivan to score. Sullivan had singled and Newsom bunted him to second. One out later McCosky walked and Gehringer followed with his hit. But Derringer bore down to fan Greenberg to keep it at 1-0.

The Reds got only two runners into scoring position before breaking through in the seventh. Wilson singled with two out in the second and stole second, the only steal by any player in the Series. Newsom then got Joost to ground out.

Mike McCormick doubled with two out in the sixth but was stranded when Ival Goodman lined out to center.

Newsom matched Derringer with a seven-hitter, walking one and striking out six.

Derringer, who'd gotten knocked around for four earned runs in 1 1/3 innings in the Reds' 7-2 opening-game loss, finished the Series with a 2.79 ERA to go with his 2-1 record. He bounced back with a 5-2 complete-game win in Game 4.

It took those two seventh-inning Game 7 runs to bring Newsom's final Series ERA up to 1.38. He'd beaten Derringer in Game 1 and shut out the Reds 5-0 in Game 5, two days before Game 7. He went the distance in all three of his Series starts. This after seeing his family off to Hartsville, South Carolina, for his father's funeral. Quilline Bufkin Newsom reportedly had just seen his pitch for the second time in the major leagues before suffering his fatal heart attack.

Now for the what-ifs

Ripple's game-tying double, and the decision of McCormick to hold his base, and the decision of Bartell not to go home were the subject of discussion for years afterward.

“Everybody in the ballpark except McCormick knew the ball wasn’t going to be caught," Eddie Joost said in a 1989 interview.

As for his decision to hold the ball, Bartell conceded in his 2007 book "Rowdy Richard" that maybe a perfect throw would have gotten McCormick. Joost in the '89 interview, noting McCormick's notorious lack of speed, said he would have been out. Werber, also in an 1989 interview, said only it would have been a close play.

Lane, recalling his press-box perch, added some personal detail in his 1960 Dell Sports Magazine article.

"Mike Higgins (Pinky), the third baseman, was screaming for the ball but the crowd was making so much noise Bartell couldn't hear him," he related. "While McCormick was lumbering home with the tying run, Bartell was tossing the ball up in the air and playing catch.

"I remember when McCormick held up, I nearly fell off the roof. I had forgotten where I was in my excitement. I could see Campbell (right fielder Bruce) couldn't catch the ball and I yelled to Frank, 'Run, you big SOB, run.'

"I screamed at him then and I screamed at him again when he rounded third. This time I was yelling, 'Hold up, you SOB, hold up.' I thought he was a goner. He would have been, too, if Barttell had turned around."

Game 6 'miracles'

While Weber's throwing error let in the Tigers' only run, he capped Walters' shutout win the day before in Game 6 by turning a double play that drew raves. With Gehringer at second and Greenberg at first and nobody out in the ninth, Weber stole a hit from Rudy York and went around the horn to turn two.

“Rudy York got a curve ball on the business end of his forty-ounce war club and smashed it hard down the third-base line," the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. "But Werber raced back like a flash, grabbed the ball in his gloved hand and turned it into a lightning double play, the third of the day for the stonewall infield.” National League President Ford Frick said, “The doubleplay handled by Werber was one of the best I’ve ever seen. It was close to a miracle.”

Evidently it was a day for miracles. Three innings before, Wilson scored on a play that as described proves the unlikelihood of his stolen base in Game 7. With the bases loaded, Walters hit a roller to Higgins at third, and all runners were safe after Wilson beat the throw home to make the score 3-0.

The Detroit Free Press’s description of what happened next is classic: “With the crack of the bat, Wilson gave his aging joints a stern talking to, called on them to do or die, and started off in low gear," the Detroit Free Press reported. "Ten steps and he was in second gear, doing a furious three MPH. Five yards from home he slipped into high, roared across the plate at between five and six MPH. He beat Higgins’ throw by an inch, and the crowd saluted him as if he had performed a miracle, which was exactly what he had done.”

Back when Wilson had his legs under him, he had stolen 13 and 12 bases in 1927 and 1928 and had a career total of 86. And he had stolen one base in the 1940 regular season.

Unlikely hero

Although Derringer won the climactic game, Walters had better numbers in the Series with a 2-0 record and 1.50 ERA, so choosing an MVP between the two might have been tough if MVPs had been chosen back then.

But Wilson might have been the sentimental favorite, the way he came out of retirement to hit .353, second-best on the Reds behind Werber's .370, and going 2-for-2 and setting up the winning run with his bunt in Game 7.

“ 'Old man' Jimmie Wilson had answered the call of his manager brilliantly and was hailed as the hero of the Series," Bradley wrote. "With his World Series exploits capturing the fascination of the nation, he was featured in Look magazine and also on the cover of The Sporting News under the headline Life Begins at 40!"

Venerable sports writer Dan Daniel had the highest of huzzahs for Wilson in Baseball magazine.

"Well, the biggest break the Reds got came when Lombardi hurt his ankle," Daniel wrote. "In place of 'Schnozz,' the Reds got the greatest catcher for those six games. Crafty, wise, calculating, instilling marvelous confidence in his pitchers, calling the turn on the Tigers hitters in many vital spots – he, James Wilson was the true hero. Every day he went from the game to an Epsom salt bath. Every day he had to be pasted together with bandages and adhesive, so he could go out and catch that game. The spirit of the Reds was this grand fellow named Wilson. The very spirit of the World’s Series."

Hall of Fame umpire Bill Klem called his last World Series game, at second base, in 1940's seventh game. It was the record 18th World Series for Klem, who called 11 games late in 1941 before retiring after 37 years. He was one of six Hall of Famers on the field for Game 7 in 1940.

Last call for 'Catfish'

Amid all the drama taking place in Game 7, legendary umpire Bill "Catfish" Klem surveyed his final World Series game.

Klem was the second-base ump in this game in the last of his record 18 Series, and first since 1934. He came back to ump 11 games late in 1941 before finally calling it quits after 37 years.

Klem joined Tom Connolly in 1953 as the first umpires inducted into the Hall of Fame and was one of six Hall of Famers on the field for 1941 Game 7. Besides the aforementioned Gehringer, Cochrane and Averill for the Tigers, McKechnie and Lombardi from the Reds are also enshrined in Cooperstown.

Follow the bouncing Bobo

Harry Simpson became known as "Suitcase" during the 1950s, but it would have been a far more appropriate moniker for Louis Norman “Bobo” Newsom, also known as Buck. For few players, if any, got around as much as Bobo.

Newsom pitched for nine teams in his 20-year career. He changed teams 16 times. For four teams, he pitched more than once, including five stints with Washington. He boasted that he had more terms in Washington than President Roosevelt.

That included many years with poor teams, which contributed to a final record of 211-222. He's one of only two pitchers who won more than 200 games but finished with a losing record.

As much of a vagabond as he was, he was firmly entrenched as a top pitcher in the game in 1940, his best season. With a 21-5 record he finished second in the AL in wins and was also runner-up in ERA at 2.87.