Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Damn Yankees

Page 12

History

1942–1947: Pre-Stengel Era

The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred during the off season, and some baseball players immediately joined the Armed Forces. Most of the Yankees' roster remained with the team in 1942, and the club repeated as AL champions despite pitcher Lefty Gomez's departure. In the 1942 World Series, the Cardinals gave the Yankees their first Series loss since 1926, after winning in eight consecutive appearances. DiMaggio and other Yankees entered the military before the 1943 season, but the club won the AL championship for the 14th time and 7th since 1936. The Cardinals met the Yankees in a World Series rematch, and New York won four games to one.

Feast and famine were never more defined within baseball than in

the 1940s. After a few glorious years to start the decade, the major leagues had to play it lean, leaner and leanest through 1945 as America diverted all of its resources to winning World War II. The majority of major leaguers became absent from the game, enlisted or drafted into the armed forces to aid in the war effort. In their place, ballplayers who under normal circumstances might had been laughed out of spring training, low level minor leaguers, semi-pros and even a few men hampered by