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    Detroit the Unconquerable: The 1935 Detroit Tiger: SABR Digital Library, #23
    Detroit the Unconquerable: The 1935 Detroit Tiger: SABR Digital Library, #23
    Detroit the Unconquerable: The 1935 Detroit Tiger: SABR Digital Library, #23
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    Detroit the Unconquerable: The 1935 Detroit Tiger: SABR Digital Library, #23

    By Society for American Baseball Research

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    It had taken three and a half decades, but the Detroit Tigers were finally crowned the best team in baseball in 1935. Coming on the heels of their hugely disappointing loss in the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals the year before, the Tigers emerged victorious in a thrilling six-game October showdown against a talented Chicago Cubs team.

    It was Detroit's first World Series championship. For a city suffering from the Great Depression, it couldn't have come at a better time.

    The team was led by player-manager Mickey Cochrane, and featured an offense fueled by Hank Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer, and Goose Goslin (dubbed the "G-Men"). On the mound were Lynwood Thomas "Schoolboy" Rowe, Tommy Bridges, Elden Auker, and General Crowder. With 93 victories that summer, the Tigers outpaced the New York Yankees by three games, taking their fifth American League title in club history.

    To commemorate the 80th anniversary of this great team, the Society for American Baseball Research is proud to present the 1935 Detroit Tigers in all their glory. With contributions from over 35 members of the SABR BioProject, this book is a delightful account of one of the most significant teams in sports history.

    "Navin Field was packed, and when we won Detroit really came alive. As a team we were like a bunch of brothers. Hank, Charlie, Billy, Goose, Schoolboy, Tommy...all of them. I think of those guys often. It was a wonderful time of my life." — Elden Auker

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSociety for American Baseball Research
    Release dateDec 1, 2014
    ISBN9781933599793
    Detroit the Unconquerable: The 1935 Detroit Tiger: SABR Digital Library, #23

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      Book preview

      Detroit the Unconquerable - Society for American Baseball Research

      1935 Tigers cover 400x600

      Detroit the Unconquerable

      The 1935 World Champion Tigers

      Edited by Scott Ferkovich

      Associate Editors: Bill Nowlin and Len Levin

      Contributing Editors: Ron Antonucci, Barry Deutsch, Mark Pattison,

      David Raglin, and Jim Wohlenhaus

      Society for American Baseball Research, Inc.
      Phoenix, AZ
      SABRlogo-1inch-300dpi-gray.tif

      Detroit the Unconquerable: The 1935 World Champion Tigers

      Edited by Scott Ferkovich

      Associate Editors: Bill Nowlin and Len Levin

      Contributing Editors: Ron Antonucci, Barry Deutsch, Mark Pattison, David Raglin, and Jim Wohlenhaus

      Copyright © 2014 Society for American Baseball Research, Inc.

      All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

      ISBN 978-1-933599-78-6

      (Ebook ISBN 978-1-933599-79-3)

      Cover and book design: Gilly Rosenthol

      Photos courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame: Pages 20, 30, 49, 73, 83, 88, 97, 111, 116, 136, 142, 146, 152, 163, 172, 173, 185, 192, 194, 195, 196, 211.

      Photos courtesy of Retro Images Archive: Pages 8, 12, 14, 23, 34, 38, 42, 53, 58, 64, 75, 78, 93, 103, 107, 123, 126, 130, 157, 200, 204, 207, 215.

      Photo courtesy of Collection of Bill Nowlin: Page 188.

      Cover photo of Hank Greenberg courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame.

      Back photographs courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame.

      The Society for American Baseball Research, Inc.

      4455 E. Camelback Road, Ste. D-140

      Phoenix, AZ 85018

      Phone: (800) 969-7227 or (612) 343-6455

      Web: www.sabr.org

      Facebook: Society for American Baseball Research

      Twitter: @SABR

      Table of Contents

      Introduction by Scott Ferkovich 1

      Sleeping Giant: Detroit in the 1930s

      by Gary Gillette 3

      The Babe’s Loss Was Detroit’s Gain:

      The Cochrane Trade by John Milner 8

      The 1935 Season in Review by Greg Erion 12

      THE OWNER

      Frank Navin by Marc Okkonen & David Jones 20

      THE PLAYERS

      Elden Auker by Robert H. Schaefer 23

      Tommy Bridges by Rob Neyer 28

      Flea Clifton by Kent Ailsworth 34

      Mickey Cochrane by Charles Bevis 38

      General Crowder by Gregory H. Wolf 42

      Carl Fischer by Jeff Bower 49

      Pete Fox by Gerald Nechal 53

      Charlie Gehringer by Ruth Sadler 58

      Goose Goslin by Cort Vitty 64

      Hank Greenberg by Scott Ferkovich 70

      Clyde Hatter by Frank Schaffer 75

      Ray Hayworth by Chuck Ailsworth 78

      Chief Hogsett by Rory Costello 83

      Roxie Lawson by Alan Cohen 88

      Firpo Marberry by Mark Armour 93

      Chet Morgan by Greg Erion 97

      Marv Owen by Mark Armour 103

      Frank Reiber by Gregg Omoth 107

      Billy Rogell by Raymond Buzenski 111

      Schoolboy Rowe by Gregory H. Wolf 116

      Heinie Schuble by Rodney Johnson 123

      Hugh Shelley by Scott Dominiak 126

      Vic Sorrell by Gregory H. Wolf 130

      Joe Sullivan by Gregory H. Wolf 136

      Gee Walker by David Raglin 141

      Hub Walker by Gregory H. Wolf 146

      Jo-Jo White by Kent Ailsworth 152

      THE COACHES

      Del Baker by Rob Neyer 157

      Cy Perkins by C. Paul Rogers III 163

      The Corner of Michigan and Trumbull

      by Scott Ferkovich 171

      By the Numbers by Dan Fields 177

      Good Afternoon, Boys and Girls:

      The Tigers on the Radio in 1935

      by Matthew Bohn 185

      A Mechanical Man, a Hammer, a Goose, and Black Mike: The 1935 Tigers in the Hall of Fame

      by Doug Lehman 192

      July 8, 1935: American League All-Stars 4, National League All-Stars 1

      by Chuck Ailsworth 199

      Detroit: City of Champions

      by Larry & Rob Hilliard 202

      World Series Opponents:

      The 1935 Chicago Cubs by Gregory H. Wolf 206

      I Thought I Never Would Get There:

      The 1935 World Series by Scott Ferkovich 211

      Contributors 219

      Acknowledgements 224

      Introduction

      By Scott Ferkovich

      Goose Goslin, Mickey Cochrane, and General Crowder.

      Gee Walker, Billy Rogell, and Jo-Jo White.

      Hank Greenberg, Firpo Marberry, and Schoolboy Rowe.

      Elden Auker, Tommy Bridges, and The Mechanical Man.

      Are these the characters out of a Damon Runyon story?

      No. They’re the 1935 Detroit Tigers, one of the best baseball teams ever to wear the Old English D. And they are all here in this book, the latest in the excellent series of team books compiled by members of the Society for American Baseball Research’s Biography Project.

      To be sure, 1935 was a year filled with headlines:

      Bruno Richard Hauptmann was convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby.

      Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

      The first canned beer was introduced by the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of Newark, New Jersey.

      For the first time, airplanes were banned from flying over the White House.

      Porky Pig made his film debut in I Haven’tGot a Hat.

      United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7034, creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

      Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Ohio.

      Oklahoma City installed the world’s first parking meters.

      In Chicago, a new advertising agency, Leo Burnett, opened its doors.

      The Nuremburg Laws went into effect in Germany.

      The Hoover Dam was dedicated in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River.

      A new board game, Monopoly, was released by Parker Brothers.

      The first airmail was delivered aboard the flying boat China Clipper. Taking off from Alameda, California, it reached its final stop a week later in the Philippines, having delivered 110,000 pieces of mail.

      Akla-Seltzer and Kit-Kat were introduced.

      The most popular baby names were Mary and Robert.

      Ernest Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa, John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat, and Rex Stout’s The League of Frightened Men, were all published in 1935.

      The year saw the births of Elvis Presley, singer Julie Andrews, and the 14th Dalai Lama. Actors Woody Allen and Donald Sutherland, and pitcher Sandy Koufax were also brought into the world, while politician Huey Long, humorist Will Rogers, and DeWolf Hopper, famous for his stage renditions of Casey at the Bat, all died.

      In baseball, Babe Ruth, playing for the Boston Braves, hit his 714th and final career home run. At Crosley Field in Cincinnati, the first major-league night game was played.

      And the Detroit Tigers won their first World Series championship, on their fifth attempt.

      2015 marks the 80th anniversary of a wonderful summer, and a wonderful team.

      The SABR Biography Project’s stated mission is to research and write comprehensive biographical articles on people who played or managed in the major leagues, or otherwise made a significant contribution to the sport. The project is run by SABR’s BioProject Committee.

      In addition to the captivating, exhaustively researched biographies of every member of the 1935 world champion Detroit Tigers, this book contains excellent feature stories that paint a complete picture of the season. And, of course, all articles are penned by some of the most distinguished baseball writers and researchers around.

      Elden Auker, the last surviving member of the 1935 Tigers, reminisced about that long, hot summer shortly before his death in 2006 at age 95. Navin Field was packed, and when we won Detroit really came alive. As a team we were like a bunch of brothers, Hank, Charlie, Billy, Goose, Schoolboy, Tommy… all of them. I think of those guys often. It was a wonderful time of my life. I have had a great life and I wouldn’t change a thing if I had to do it all over again.

      Sleeping Giant:

      Detroit in the 1930s

      By Gary Gillette

      In the decade of the 1930s, Detroit was a city uneasily poised between the Paris of the West of the 1920s and the Arsenal of Democracy of the 1940s. Auto industry titans like Henry Ford, the Dodge Brothers, the Fisher Brothers, Alfred Sloan, and Walter Chrysler had built a powerful industrial engine, but that engine was mostly idling, awaiting a return to prosperity.

      The entrepreneurial drive, innovation, and investment that had fueled the city’s meteoric growth had stalled in the Great Depression. While a disaster for Americans nationwide, the Depression manifested itself in an especially savage way in Detroit, where hundreds of thousands subsisted meagerly on relief. Poor and out-of-work Detroiters were literally starving to death by the early 1930s, providing the impetus for the famous and bloody Ford Hunger March of March 7, 1932. On that day, several thousand demonstrators — many of them unemployed Ford workers –marched on the Rouge Plant in Dearborn, where police and company security personnel opened fire without warning, killing five and wounding more than 50.

      Detroit’s population rose from less than 300,000 in 1900, 13th in the US, to almost 1.6 million in 1930. The fourth largest city in the country, Detroit grew by 58 percent in the 1920s. It saw a slight population decline in the early 1930s, but recovered to register a 3.5 percent growth rate in that decade. The suburban migration of the white middle class had already begun, as the population of Detroit’s suburbs grew by almost 20 percent in the 1930s.

      Geographically, the city reached its full extent with the large annexations that filled out the Northwest and Northeast quadrants of Detroit from 1921 to 1926, when a change in Michigan law effectively ended the city’s territorial expansion. Housing development in Northeast and Northwest Detroit would have to wait till the late 1940s, however, when the great postwar expansion filled those sections of the city with mile after mile of inexpensive single-family homes.

      While there were a handful of other companies making cars, the Big Three that would dominate the auto business for the rest of the century were already in place. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler were selling almost 90 percent of new cars in the US, and their power and influence in Wayne County and across the state of Michigan cannot be overstated.

      Considered a leader in public transportation, Detroit was the first city in the US to own its municipal transit system. Despite its nickname, the Motor City maintained a network of trolleys traversing the city and reaching far into the suburbs. The Detroit Street Railway system peaked at 466 route-miles in 1934; meanwhile, other Michigan cities were retiring their trolleys in favor of buses. Interurban trolleys ran from Detroit to Flint, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Port Huron, and Toledo.

      Detroit’s international connections to the city of Windsor and the province of Ontario across the Detroit River to the south were the same then as now. The recently completed Ambassador Bridge — the longest suspension bridge in the world when it opened — and the Detroit-Windsor vehicle tunnel, plus an older rail tunnel and a ferry, carried commercial and passenger traffic to and from Canada.

      Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s election as president in 1932 resulted in a series of new federal programs that partly ameliorated the depressed US economy. The Civilian Conservation Corps began in 1933. The groundbreaking Social Security Act of 1935 established unemployment compensation, aid to dependent children, and maternal and child welfare programs.

      The general national recovery was also felt in Michigan in 1935, with personal income up from its 1933 nadir. Car production, which had exceeded 5 million units in 1929 before plunging by about two-thirds by 1932, was quickly ramping back up. In 1937 auto production was three times the depressed level of five years earlier.

      Another seminal piece of federal legislation that had a major impact on Detroit was the 1935 Wagner Act, which led to the establishment of powerful industrial trade unions. The formation of the United Auto Workers in August 1935 and the resulting unionization of the auto industry in the late 1930s and early 1940s led to a rise in the standard of living that made Detroit’s middle class the envy of the world in the postwar era.

      Along with thousands of ethnic whites from Eastern and Southern Europe and from Appalachia, tens of thousands of African Americans had migrated to Detroit from the rural South to find work in the factories during World War I and the Roaring Twenties. Detroit’s black population surged from about 5,000 in 1910 to about 120,000 in 1930 (approximately 8 percent of the city). Henry Ford gave good-paying jobs to thousands of black men at Ford Motor’s massive Rouge Factory complex in Dearborn, enabling a substantial black middle class to grow in Detroit. A self-contained industrial city of 1,300 acres that could turn raw materials into a finished automobile in 28 hours, The Rouge employed almost 100,000 at its peak.

      The racial discrimination that would spark major riots in 1943 and 1967 was already deeply rooted in the Detroit area. Some people fought back, as when white and black Hamtramck High School students joined together to protest segregation in school activities in 1935. The Detroit chapter of the NAACP was, then as now, the influential civil rights organization’s largest, and the UAW would quickly become a major progressive force. Tragically, though, it was the legacy of ongoing racial tension that in many ways defined Detroit during the 20th century, epitomized by the 1925 Ossian Sweet murder trial, made famous by the 2004 book Arc of Justice.

      The city’s architectural landscape in the 1930s was dotted with skyscrapers well-known to many generations of Detroiters — among them the Penobscot Building, the Union Trust (later Guardian) Building, and the Book Cadillac Hotel — all erected in the 1920s. Along with the Fisher Building, the Guardian and Penobscot remain today as fine examples of Art Deco architecture.

      Despite the multitude of skyscrapers erected in Detroit in the 1920s, the city’s downtown was already in decline, both physically and economically. Retailing was dominated by J.L. Hudson’s enormous department store at Woodward and Gratiot, along with Crowley’s and Kern’s department stores one block away. The city’s share of metropolitan-area jobs in the manufacturing sector dropped by 23 percent from 1929 to 1939, and Detroit’s share of area employment in the retail and wholesale sectors was also dropping.

      Planning had already begun in the mid-1930s to build the large housing projects that would later become infamous, although all of that public housing was then segregated and mostly reserved for whites. The crowded African-American neighborhoods of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, where black citizens were ghettoized on the east side of the central business district, were considered slums by the white power structure. Both historic black areas were leveled under the guise of urban renewal after World War II.

      The biggest physical difference between 1930s Detroit and the postwar city was the riverfront. Before World War II, valuable riverfront land was not used for civic purposes or for public recreation as later. Instead, the blocks adjacent to the Detroit River were occupied by industry and commerce, plus the railroads and ships needed to move goods to and from the plants.

      The civic center of prewar Detroit was well north of the river, just south of the retail district. City Hall was an 1871 sandstone structure, a mishmash of Italianate, French, and Georgian elements located on the west side of Woodward Avenue on what would become Kennedy Square in the 1960s and Campus Martius four decades later. County offices were housed in the 1902 baroque Wayne County Building, east of City Hall across Cadillac Square. City Hall moved to the riverfront in the early 1950s; the County Building still stood in 2014 but was empty.

      Anchored by General Motors’ massive headquarters and the gilt-topped Fisher Building — both designed by world-famous architect Albert Kahn — the New Center business district along West Grand Boulevard (just west of Woodward) was still new in the early 1930s. Just south of New Center, the twin jewels of Detroit’s Cultural Center — the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) and the Detroit Public Library — were built along Woodward Avenue, directly across from each other, in the 1920s. Diego Rivera’s world-famous murals generated intense local controversy along with worldwide acclaim when unveiled at the DIA in 1932.

      Between the downtown business district and New Center, another major player was just getting organized. Over the years, it would become known as Detroit’s Midtown. In 1934 the recently amalgamated Colleges of the City of Detroit were renamed Wayne University. Wayne would add a School of Public Affairs and Social Work in 1935 and gain its Law School two years later. It did not become Wayne State University until 1956.

      Detroit’s media scene in the 1930s was dominated by the ink-stained wretches who wrote, printed, and distributed the city’s three major daily newspapers: the conservative News, the liberal Free Press, and the now-defunct, then Hearst-owned Times. The Detroit Tribune, founded in 1933, covered the city’s growing African-American community, competing with the Michigan Chronicle, today’s foremost African-American paper, which began in 1936.

      The print medium’s pre-eminence was being challenged by an electronic medium for the first time in the 1930s with radio’s rapid rise in popularity. Only half of Michigan households owned a radio set in 1930, but market penetration was almost universal by the end of that decade. The nationally famous radio drama The Lone Ranger originated from Detroit’s WXYZ, as did other national programs. Three other radio stations were on the air in Motown in 1934: WJR (which upped its broadcast signal to 50,000 watts in 1935), WWJ, and WMBC (later WJLB).

      Republican Frank Couzens, son of former Mayor and then US Senator from Michigan James Couzens, was the as mayor of Detroit from 1934 to 1938. The city of Detroit had a mayor-council form of civic government that was dominated by a strong mayor and featured a weak city council. The mayor’s office had been controlled by Republicans since 1912, with only two Democratic mayors interrupting that string. One was popular Democrat Frank Murphy, who defeated former Mayor Charles Bowles after Bowles’ recall in 1930. Bowles was notable mostly for being the candidate of the Ku Klux Klan, which operated openly and counted thousands of members in Detroit in the 1920s and 1930s. Murphy later became governor of Michigan, attorney general of the United States, and an associate justice of the US Supreme Court.

      The intense social and political unrest of the 1930s was fanned by Father Charles Coughlin, a radical populist dubbed the Radio Priest. Coughlin was initially a supporter of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but later became very conservative and bitterly opposed FDR. Coughlin’s primary forum was his weekly radio show on WJR, the Hour of Power. Previously an unknown parish priest, Coughlin took to the new medium in 1926 to raise money to build the Shrine of the Little Flower in suburban Royal Oak.

      At his height in the 1930s, Coughlin’s broadcasts from the Shrine commanded a national audience of 30 million or more listeners. He was initially carried on CBS, then later on a network of stations Coughlin himself put together. Coughlin’s popularity declined in the late 1930s as he became increasingly anti-Semitic and pro-fascist to the point of opposing US entry into World War II.

      Sports provided a pleasant diversion from the life-and-death issues of the Great Depression, and baseball was the unchallenged king. First in the affection of the city comes its baseball team, concluded a 1940 history of the city, Detroit: Dynamic City. No matter how seriously Detroiters may be divided among themselves otherwise, 99 percent of them stand solidly behind their beloved Tigers of the American League.

      A decade later, This Is Detroit, a pictorial history that was labeled as an official publication of Detroit’s 250th birthday festival, reiterated the status of the national pastime in the Motor City. The book featured only four images of prominent athletes: Charlie Bennett, Ty Cobb, Mickey Cochrane, and Joe Louis. Cobb and Cochrane were called baseball immortals, while Louis was unfairly called just a former heavyweight champion. The book included images of Recreation Park in 1886, where the National League Detroit Wolverines played, and of Tiger Stadium in 1940. Other sports mentioned included croquet, bicycle racing, boat racing, cricket, and ice skating — there was no mention of football, basketball, or hockey.

      The Corktown neighborhood, where Navin Field was built in 1912, was an Irish working-class area. Several local landmarks familiar to later Tigers fans were present in the 1930s, including the Gaelic League on Michigan Avenue, Brooks Lumber on Trumbull, and the massive Beaux Arts Michigan Central railroad station on Vernor, a half-dozen blocks west of the ballpark.

      Because of its large and prosperous black population, Detroit was considered a very desirable market by the businessmen who organized and ran the various Negro Leagues. Yet Detroit couldn’t sustain a successful Negro League team after 1931, when the Negro National League’s Detroit Stars had folded, along with the league.

      After playing at Mack Park on Detroit’s East Side through 1929, the Stars moved to Hamtramck in 1930, just north of the huge Dodge Main factory complex. Stars owner John Roesink, a major promoter of semipro baseball in Detroit, built Hamtramck Stadium for the team in what is now Veterans Memorial Park. Roesink was a friend of Ty Cobb, and the Georgia Peach showed up to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Hamtramck Stadium — a gesture that many might otherwise find incongruous. Turkey Stearnes, one of black baseball’s all-time top sluggers as well as the greatest African-American ballplayer in Detroit history, played for the Stars from 1923 through 1931 and in 1937.

      The short-lived Negro East-West League and its Detroit Wolves played in Hamtramck in 1932, though both perished before midsummer. In 1933 the advent of the second Negro National League brought a new Detroit Stars club that survived only one season. In 1935 the Nashville Elite Giants were slated to move to Detroit, but were unable to secure a lease to play at Hamtramck Stadium. The Motor City would see one last major Negro League team in 1937, when the new Negro American League debuted with another Stars franchise in Hamtramck that again lasted for only a single summer.

      In so-called Organized Baseball, the fading of the legends of the 1920s was also evident. The last legal spitball in the major leagues was thrown in September 1934 by Burleigh Grimes, who retired at the end of the season. Babe Ruth, who revolutionized the national pastime with his home run exploits in the early 1920s, retired at the end of May 1935.

      In 1935 Detroit was beginning to awaken from its slumber. The prolonged nightmare of the Great Depression, however, wouldn’t end until the United States began seriously arming for World War II several years later. Malcolm Bingay, the Detroit sportswriter who would serve as managing editor of both the News and Free Press in his career, knew the city better than most and as well as anyone.

      Bingay aptly called baseball Detroit’s Safety Valve.

      Two bits of trivia:

      On January 8, 1935, future Tigers infielder Reno Bertoia was born in Italy. Bertoia grew up in Windsor, became a bonus baby with the Tigers in 1953 along with Al Kaline, and spent most of his major-league career wearing the Old English D. After retiring, Bertoia was the longtime president of the Tigers players alumni association until his death in Windsor in 2011.

      On February 3, 1935, future Tigers infielder and coach Dick Tracewski was born in northeastern Pennsylvania. Tracewski served as a utility infielder on the 1968 world championship team and was the first-base coach on Detroit’s 1984 championship squad.

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      Articles

      Cowan, Russell, Detroit Giants Lose Park, Philadelphia Tribune, May 16, 1935, 11. Accessed via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

      9,000 See Ty Cobb Throw a Perfect Strike to Open Hamtramck’s New Base Ball Park, Detroit News, May 12, 1930.

      Michigan School Segregation Plan Is Failure, Pittsburgh Courier, May 18, 1935, 7. Accessed via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

      Nashville Giants Transfer Franchise to Detroit, Philadelphia Tribune, February 21, 1935, 11. Accessed via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

      Websites

      Baseball-Reference.com

      Detroit1701.org

      DetroitDataGuru.Wordpress.com

      DetroitNAACP.org

      ForgottenShow.net

      HamtramckStadium.org

      HistoricBostonEdison.org

      HistoricDetroit.org

      IMDB.com

      Michigan.gov

      Interviews and Communications

      Logan, Sam, publisher of Michigan Chronicle, Telephone interview with author, May 18, 2010.

      Shea, Stuart, telephone interviews and e-mail messages to author, 2014.

      Unpublished sources

      Gillette, Lina, Detroit Is, Because, Rudolph Steiner School Ann Arbor, 2013.

      Shea, Stuart, 24-7 Baseball MLB Club Broadcasting Database.

      The Babe’s Loss Was Detroit’s Gain:

      The Cochrane Trade

      By John Milner

      In the fall of 1933, the Detroit Tigers had just completed a 75-79 season, good for fifth place in the American League, 25 games behind the Washington Senators. The Tigers were still searching for that elusive first world championship; their most recent trip to the World Series having been in 1909. The club hadn’t been in serious contention since 1916, when Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, and Bobby Veach roamed the outfield in Detroit. With two games left in the 1933 season, manager Bucky Harris had handed in his resignation on September 27. Tiger owner Frank Navin was suddenly in the market for a new skipper for his team.

      He knew he needed a strong leader to light a spark under his perennially lethargic club. The Tiger locker room had taken on the atmosphere of a country club in recent years. But in addition to the club’s on-the-field problems, the Depression had caused attendance at Navin Field to drop to a third of what it had been ten years earlier. Navin had contemplated selling the franchise. Ty Cobb was reportedly involved in an effort to purchase the team, but it never came to fruition. So the Tigers boss had three crises to deal with: Finding a manager, improving the team, and boosting attendance.

      Navin felt he had the answer to all three problems in the Yankees’ Babe Ruth. The Sultan of Swat, who would be 39 in 1934, was clearly nearing the end of the line as a player, but he still had some pop left in his bat. He had hit .301 with 34 home runs and 104 RBIs for New York in 1933. Good numbers, certainly, for just about anyone not named Ruth. For several years, Ruth had made no bones about his interest in becoming the New York manager. The Yankees owner, Colonel Jacob Ruppert, however, did not reciprocate that interest, and in fact was seeking to be rid of Ruth altogether. Yankees manager Joe McCarthy and star first baseman Lou Gehrig, were barely on speaking terms with the home-run king, so perhaps Ruppert reasoned that dumping Ruth would be addition by subtraction. That’s where Navin saw an opening.

      Ruppert gave Navin permission to talk to Ruth about the Detroit managerial job. During the World Series that fall, Navin and Yankees general manager Ed Barrow discussed the framework of an arrangement that would have allowed Ruth to become the Tigers’ player-manager. Navin contacted Ruth by telephone, requesting that he come quickly to Detroit in order to work out the details. Ruth anticipated being offered the job, but nonetheless didn’t appear to be in any hurry to sit down with Navin. The Bambino put the meeting on hold in order to travel to Hawaii with his wife, Claire. Apparently, he had a commitment to play in a golf tournament, along with a few baseball exhibitions. Ruth abruptly ended the telephone call by saying that they could get together when he returned from the trip.

      Upon hearing about this, Barrow warned Ruth, You’re making a mistake. You’d better go see him now. There’s plenty of time, Ruth replied. The season doesn’t begin for six months. I’ve got these things all set in Hawaii. I’ll call him when I get back.¹ Perhaps Ruth felt that he was a lock for the job, and that he could afford to make Navin wait. If that was the case, Ruth had overplayed his hand. The Tigers owner wanted to get the deal settled, and didn’t appreciate such flippant treatment from a ballplayer.

      While in Hawaii, Ruth did get around to corresponding with Navin, but it did not go well. Navin was put off by Ruth’s salary demands, as well as his desire for a percentage of the gate. The Tigers owner suddenly grew cool to the whole idea, and walked away from a deal.

      It may have been the best move he never made.

      This being the Depression, the Tigers were not the only team facing financial difficulties. In Philadelphia the Athletics were losing money as well. Attendance at Shibe Park had been steadily plummeting, from 839,176 in the World Series-winning pre-Depression year of 1929 to 297,138 in 1933. To stay afloat, Athletics owner/manager Connie Mack was desperately trying to cut expenses. He had already begun by trading slugger Al Simmons and two other players to the Chicago White Sox for $100,000 in 1932. As recently as August of 1933, Navin had asked Mack to put a price on (Mickey) Cochrane, the Athletics’ star catcher. Forget it, Frank, was Mack’s reply at the time. I’d never sell him.² Navin assumed that was the end of it. After the season, however, Mack made it known to his fellow owners that he was willing to part with Cochrane, as well as ace hurler Lefty Grove, in a package deal for $200,000. He found no takers; such an asking price was too high for any team in that financial climate.

      It was at this point that H.G. Salsinger, a Detroit News sportswriter, helped to change the course of baseball in Detroit. Salsinger was somewhat of a confidant of Navin. He told the owner that Cochrane would not only solve the team’s catching problems, but would also be the answer to the vacant managerial position, providing the leadership that was so lacking on the team. Salsinger had bounced the idea off Cochrane and Cochrane had told him, I’d like nothing better.³ Based on this information, Navin began pursuing discussions with Mack regarding Cochrane. According to Mack: I saw this was Mickey’s chance. I owed him something extra for his loyalty, so I just couldn’t stand in his way when he could better himself. That’s the only reason I ever let Mickey leave me.⁴ Mack still wanted $100,000 for Cochrane, though, and Navin did not have that type of money on hand. So he borrowed the money from his partner, Walter Briggs, which started the ball rolling.

      On December 12, 1933, Mack had a busy day. He sold Grove, leadoff man extraordinaire Max Bishop, and 17-game-winner Rube Walberg, to the Boston Red Sox for $125,000 and two inconsequential players. He also finalized the deal with the Tigers, who acquired Cochrane in exchange for catcher Johnny Pasek and $100,000. Finally, he sent Pasek and former 20-game-winner and World Series hero George Earnshaw to the Chicago White Sox for $20,000 and Charlie Berry, who would remind no one of Cochrane as the Athletics’ new catcher. It was one of the darkest days in Philadelphia baseball history, but one of the brightest for the Detroit Tigers.

      An excited Cochrane exclaimed I’ll be happy to manage the Tigers for Mr. Navin, who impresses me as a great fellow and a man who will help me build. He said he’d give me a chance and his record proves it, as Hughie Jennings was there for many years, Ty Cobb for six years, and Bucky Harris for five. I see no reason why I can’t make the grade as a manager.⁵

      The addition of Cochrane was the catalyst through which the Tigers’ fortunes drastically improved. Cochrane had played with Philadelphia for nine seasons, including three trips to the World Series, winning in 1929 and 1930. He had been the league’s MVP in 1928. Although his years in Philadelphia had established him as a star player, the time Cochrane spent in Detroit would propel him to near-legendary status in the Motor City and beyond. He spent only four years in Detroit, but his competitive nature and leadership abilities resurrected the Tigers franchise to elite status while they played championship baseball.

      In some ways Cochrane was not ready to be a playing manager for the Tigers. He did not like the limelight that the position brought to his life, and the light only got brighter as he began his tenure. From the very beginning, however, Cochrane displayed a winning attitude. After all, that is what he was accustomed to from his time in Philadelphia. He expected the Tigers to have the same attitude from the very beginning, and he wasted no time in trying to instill his way of thinking.

      From the day he arrived in Detroit in January of 1934, Cochrane began spreading the word about the Tigers turning the page and becoming a contender again. He made the circuit of luncheons, banquets, social gatherings, and newspaper interviews. Cochrane was confident but not cocky. At a Kiwanis Club luncheon, he asserted, I played with the Athletics for nine years and in that time we never finished out of the first division and I do not intend to do so now. At another engagement he remarked, I’m not foolish enough to expect a pennant the first season and maybe not the second, but I promise you an improved team.⁶

      Once spring training began, Cochrane didn’t waste any time instilling a new attitude in the Tigers. One of the local headlines read, Cochrane Cracks Training Whip to Get Tigers into Fighting Trim. He added 20 minutes of calisthenics to the routine of training camp. He conducted clinics on the fundamentals of sliding and defensive positioning. He imposed a midnight curfew and had a 9:00 A.M. wakeup call for the three-hour morning practices, which started not a minute after 10:30. He even ordered the hotel chef that no man may order more than one steak a day.⁷

      One of the changes Cochrane made was a symbolic one. Before the 1930 season, the Tigers had done away with the classic Old English D on the front of their home jerseys. The logo had been worn since the club’s early days, including during their pennant-winning run of 1907-09. The new look apparently didn’t do much for Cochrane. He saw to it that the Old English D was put back on the uniforms and caps, in hopes that it would restore the Tigers’ champion pedigree. Indeed, there was a new boss in town, and baseball in Detroit was about to undergo a seismic change.

      Cochrane’s new attitude quickly rubbed off on the rest of the Tigers. He made the players believe in themselves, and once the summer heated up, so did the team. More and more fans began coming back to Navin Field, as the ballpark became a place where they could watch some exciting baseball and forget about the worries of the Depression for a couple of hours. The Tigers led the American League in attendance in 1934 with 919,161, their highest mark since 1924, and nearly triple their total of 1933.

      One of the biggest beneficiaries of Cochrane’s arrival was the young Detroit pitching staff. In particular, Cochrane is credited with turning the 24-year-old Schoolboy Rowe from a thrower into a pitcher. Rowe, in only his second big-league season in 1934, compiled a 24-8 record. Another second-year man, Elden Auker, won 15. Tommy Bridges improved from 14 wins to 22. The staff was one of the biggest keys to the Tigers’ success, as the team finished with a record of 101-53, seven games ahead of the Yankees, to capture the American League pennant.

      As for Cochrane in 1934, he averaged .320 and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player for the second time in his career (having also won in 1928). Despite Lou Gehrig’s having won the Triple Crown that season, Cochrane’s success as a player and a manager helped sway the voters in his favor.

      After the pennant-winning 1934 season, Packard Motor Car Company president Alvan Macauley chimed in: The Tigers have been an inspiration not only to this community but to this whole country. It was their never-say-die, refuse to be licked spirit that brought them through and that is the spirit Detroit needs and America needs today.⁸ Cochrane said, however, that Too much of the credit has been given to me. It belongs equally on the shoulders of these stalwart lads. No one man but all of them, playing as a smooth working unit, made this possible, this happy night of celebration possible.⁹

      The Tigers lost the 1934 World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games, despite having led three games to two. The loss was a crusher. The Tigers, and the city of Detroit, felt that there was some unfinished business to attend to come spring of 1935. …

      Sources

      Bevis, Charles, Mickey Cochrane: The Life of a Baseball Hall of Fame Catcher. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Press, 1998).

      Lowe, John, Mickey Cochrane Tied Historically to Detroit Tigers & Oakland Athletics ALDS, Detroit Free Press, October 4, 2013.

      The Sporting News

      Baseball-reference.com

      Bevis, Charlie, Mickey Cochrane, The Baseball Biography Project. sabr.org/bioproj/person/a80307f0

      Klumpp, Jeremy, The Trade for Mickey Cochrane. groundruledouble.wordpress.com

      Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Player File for Mickey Cochrane.

      Notes

      1 Charlie Bevis, Mickey Cochrane: The Life of a Baseball Hall of Fame Catcher, 108.

      2 Bevis, 108.

      3 Bevis, 109.

      4 Bevis, 109.

      5 Bevis, 109.

      6 Bevis, 110.

      7 Sam Greene, Cochrane Cracks Training Whip to Get Tigers into Fighting Shape, The Sporting News, March 8, 1934.

      8 Bevis, 120.

      9 Bevis, 121.

      Cochraneimg129.jpg

      The 1935 Season in Review

      By Greg Erion

      Despite what a lot of knowledgeable people in the world of professional baseball felt, Mickey Cochrane was nervous.

      In the spring of 1935, a poll of 194 members of the Baseball Writers Association of America indicated that the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals, pennant winners in 1934, would repeat. The poll, published in The Sporting News, included writers from all major-league cities. It gave the Cardinals a wide margin over the New York Giants, and the Tigers a narrow lead over the Cleveland Indians, who actually received more first-place votes than Detroit.¹

      How Detroit fared in the poll mattered little to Tigers player-manager Mickey Cochrane. The message it sent, that Detroit would repeat, probably did. Cochrane, veteran of a Philadelphia Athletics team that took three straight pennants in 1929-31, had seen complacency develop on that club and feared the same attitude might overcome the favored Tigers.

      The writers’ sentiments were not without foundation. A team that finished first by seven games in 1934 came to spring training virtually unchanged. Detroit had been an offensive juggernaut with a team batting average of .300 and an average of more than six runs scored per game. The infield of Hank Greenberg at first base, Charlie Gehringer at second, Billy Rogell at shortstp, and Marv Owen at third averaged 116 RBIs on the strength of a combined .327 batting average.²

      Outfielders Pete Fox, Jo-Jo White, and future Hall of Famer Goose Goslin, as well as backup

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