1943 National League Champions

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The Story | Season Highlights | W.S. Opponent | Game Summaries | Series Box Score | Series MVP | World Series Program

The Story of the 1943 Championship Season

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1943 Regular Season Highlights

Regular Season Pitching Performances

Team Accomplishments

Individual Accomplishments

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World Series Opponent

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Game Summaries

October 5 at New York (attendance: 68,676)

Yankees Starter:  Spud Chandler (RHP), 20-4

Cardinals Starter: Max Lanier (LHP), 15-7

 

STL	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0		2	7	2
NYY	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	0		4	8	2

Homeruns: Gordon, NYY

WP: Chandler (1-0)

LP: Lanier (0-1)

Yankees lead Series 1-0

Highlights:

The Yankees made the Cardinals pay dearly for their mistakes.  In the fourth, Frank Crosetti was safe at first when pitcher Max Lanier tried covering the base and dropped the throw from Lou Klein.  Crosetti stole second and went to third when rookie Billy Johnson bunted for a single.  Charlie Keller bounced into a double play, scoring Crosetti and tying the game 1-1.  Gordon, the next hitter, quickly gave the Yanks the lead with a 450-foot homer to left.

Two innings later, the Cards having tied the game 2-2, Crosetti singled, despite again not getting the ball out of the infield.  Johnson's single moved Crosetti to second.  With Keller at the plate, Lanier unleashed a wild pitch that hit in front of the plate and caromed to the right.  Alas, catcher Walker Cooper turned the wrong way as he started to give chase, giving Crosetti time to score from second base and Johnson to scoot into third.  Bill Dickey's Texas Leaguer drove in Johnson for a 4-2 Yankees lead.

The Cards couldn't manage any more off A.L. MVP Chandler.  Ray Sanders had two of the seven St. Louis hits.  They threatened only in the eighth, when Klein and Musial singled but didn't budge past second. 

October 6 at New York (attendance: 68,578)

Cardinals Starter: Mort Cooper (RHP), 21-8

Yankees Starter: Tiny Bonham (RHP), 15-8

 

STL	0	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	0		4	7	2
NYY	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2		3	6	0

Homeruns: Marion, Sanders - STL

WP: M. Cooper (1-0)

LP:  Bonham (0-1)

Series tied 1-1

Highlights:

Ace Card's pitcher Mort Cooper struggled against the Yanks in both of his starts during the '42 Series.  But his October experience took a difficult turn on the morning of October 6, 1943, as he prepared to take the mound for game two.  His father, R.J. Cooper, passed away at his home in Independence, Missouri.

Walker Cooper, Mort's younger brother and the Cardinals stout young catcher, got the news first but waited to tell his brother until later in the morning.  After mulling it over, the brothers decided their dad would have wanted them to play the game.  He was the chief reason the boys had grown into big leaguers, a dream that first belonged to Dad and was passed on to the sons with plenty of his own time and sweat.

Mort and Walker responded to the news by playing a fine game and helping the Cards even the Series with a 4-3 victory.  Mort allowed only six hits and one walk, with two of the hits and two runs coming in the ninth.

Shortstop Marty Marion gave Cooper a 1-0 lead with a 320-foot homer in the third.  The Cards went up 4-0 in the fourth.  Musial singled and went to second on Walker Cooper's sacrifice.  Whitey Kurowski drove Musial home with a base hit, then Sanders belted a 350-foot shot into the right-field seats at Yankee Stadium.

That was enough for Mort Cooper.  Walker Cooper ended the game by catching a pop foul.

October 7 at New York (attendance:  69,990)

Cardinals Starter:  Alpha Brazle (LHP), 8-2

Yankees Starter:  Hank Borowy (RHP), 14-9

 

STL	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0		2	6	4
NYY	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	X		4	8	0

Homeruns: none

WP: Borowy (1-0)

LP: Brazle (0-1)

Yankees leads Series 2-1

Highlights:

With a World Series record crowd on hand, Al Brazle and Hank Borowy locked into a pitcher's duel through 7 1/2 innings.  The Cards scraped together only 5 hits in the first eight innings, three of those coming in the fourth.  They loaded the bases on a single by Musial, a double by Kurowski, and an intentional walk to Sanders.  Danny Litwhiler made Borowy pay with a 2-run single to left.  The Cards again had the bases loaded with one out later in the inning, but they could not capitalize.

Brazle, a 29-year-old rookie, seemed equal to the challenge.  The Yankees had only five base runners the first seven innings, two of whom reached on errors.  They scored once in the sixth as Borowy bounced a ground-rule double into the left-field seats, went to third after Musial made a spectacular one-handed catch, and crossed the plate when third baseman Kurowski muffed Johnson's grounder.  

Such a tight game, and it blew up all over Brazle in the eighth, as the Yankees scored five times to win 6-2.

The Redbirds' defense continued its erratic play.  Johnny Lindell, the NY centerfielder in DiMaggio's war-related absence, led off the inning with a single, then Harry Walker fumbled the ball in the outfield to allow Lindell to head to second.  First baseman Sanders subsequently fielded a bunt and threw to third in time to nab Lindell, but third baseman Kurowski dropped the ball as Lindell crashed into him.

A walk to Crosetti loaded the bases, and Johnson cleaned up with a triple.  He soon scored on Gordon's hit.  Clearly, the Yankees still knew how to flex their muscle.  And the Cardinals were walking away with "shiners" to prove it.

October 10 at St. Louis (attendance:  36,196)

Yankees Starter:  Marius Russo (LHP), 5-10

Cardinals Starter: Max Lanier (LHP), 15-7

 

NYY	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0		2	6	2
STL	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0		1	7	1

Homeruns: none

WP: Russo (1-0)

LP: Brecheen (0-1)

Yankees lead the Series 3-1

Highlights:

After a couple of off days that allowed the Cooper brothers and team representative Johnny Hopp to attend R.J. Cooper's funeral, the Series moved to Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.  But the Yankees didn't lose their momentum.

They took a 3-games-to-1 lead behind an unlikely hero:  pitcher Marius Russo, whose regular-season record was 5-10 with a 3.71 ERA.  He worked in and out of trouble in the game's final three innings.  The Cards put up a two-out rally in the seventh, helped by a couple of errors, an intentional walk, and Litwhiler's two-base hit.  But they could score only once, tying the game at one.

The Yankees had taken a lead in the fourth on Gordon's double and Bill Dickey's RBI single.  But Lanier was masterful through seven before leaving for a pinch hitter.  Reliever Harry Brecheen got off on the wrong foot when pitcher Russo led off the eighth with a double -- his second of the game -- and eventually scored the winning run on Crosetti's sacrifice fly for a 2-1 Yankee triumph.

Russo allowed a couple of hits in the eighth and a Marty Marion double in the ninth.  But he made key pitches to avoid real danger.

"The boys have been hitting thus far like a bunch of violet vendors," Southworth said.

October 11 at St. Louis (attendance:  33,872)

Yankees Starter:  Spud Chandler (RHP), 20-4

Cardinals Starter:  Mort Cooper (RHP), 21-8

 

NYY	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0		2	7	1
STL	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	10	1

Homeruns: Dickey - NYY

WP:  Chandler (2-0)

LP:  M. Cooper (1-1)

Yankees win the Series 4-1

Highlights:

Mort Cooper was back in St. Louis in hopes of prolonging the Cardinals' hopes in Game 5.  He was splendid.  In seven innings, he permitted just five hits, walked two, and fanned six.  Cooper made just one notable mistake, a sixth-inning pitch that Dickey drove into the right-field stands for a two-run homer.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Yankees star Spurgeon "Spud" Chandler didn't make any such mistakes.  And New York won its 10th World Series championship with a 2-0 victory.

The Cards put their leadoff hitter on base four times in the first six innings and piled up 10 hits, two apiece from Kurowski and catcher Ken O'Dea, who replaced a broken-fingered Walker Cooper in the fifth.  But the Redbirds went hitless in 10 at bats with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 base runners.

"I knew last spring that this ball club would win the pennant," Yankees manager Joe McCarthy said.  "It had the championship spirit...I've got championship players on this ball club."

So did the Cardinals.  They just didn't have enough clutch hits.

The Yankees gained full winner's shares of $6,139.42 for their efforts.  The Cardinals pocketed loser's shares of $4,321.96.

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Series Composite Box Score