More than three years of war had taken a heavy toll on baseball by the time the 1945 season opened. Those who had advocated shutting down the game after the attack on Pearl Harbor felt vindicated when rosters were filled with untried youngsters not yet drafted and players long past their primes, while transportation restrictions eliminated spring training camps in the South and even the annual All Star Game.
But with victory in Europe in May, a few of the pre-war stars began to trickle back, and the feats of one of them gave hope for the resumption of "normal" baseball as early as 1946.
Greenberg is Back
Hank Greenberg was one of the authentic stars dating back to the 1930's. A New Yorker who had chosen the Detroit Tigers because Iron Horse Lou Gehrig occupied first base for the Yankees, he had become recognized as one of the top sluggers in the American League. Most Valuable Player for the pennant-winning Tigers in 1935, he had fallen just short of Babe Ruth's season record of 60 home runs with 58 in 1938 and produced the second highest runs-batted-in total in American League history with 183 in 1937. An acknowledged team player, he moved to left field that year to make room for the hard-hitting but less agile fielding Rudy York.. He then went on to repeat as MVP for another Detroit pennant-winner in 1940.
And it was not as if Greenberg hadn't done his share and more in the war effort. Drafted into the Army early in the 1941 season, he was discharged on December 5 of that year. When the Japanese attacked on December 7, Greenberg immediately enlisted in the Army Air Force and served in the Pacific until his release in June of 1945.
So it was with eager anticipation that Tiger fans welcomed Hammerin' Hank back on July 1, and he responded with a home run, the first of 13 he would hit in the remaining half-season.
The Pennant Race
Nosed out by one game by the St. Louis Browns in 1944, Detroit held a precarious lead over the Yankees when Greenberg returned. The race remained tight, with the Yankees fading but the Browns and the Washington Senators moving up.
It all came down to the last day of the season with only Washington and Detroit in contention. Due to a quirk in scheduling, the Senators had already finished their schedule at 87-67 while the Tigers were 87-65 with a season-ending doubleheader at St. Louis looming as a result of a rain-out. A Detroit win in either game would avoid a one-game playoff and give them the pennant.
Weather conditions deteriorated as the first game progressed. Pulling out all the stops, Tiger manager Steve O'Neill sent in 25-game winner Hal Newhouser to relieve in the fifth inning of a tie game. The move backfired as Newhouser yielded a tie-breaking run to the Browns.
As if scripted, the fate of the pennant race hung on the bat of the returned war veteran as Greenberg came to the plate in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and his team trailing, 3-2. Again, as if scripted, the mighty Hank hit a grand slam home run to win the game and the league championship.
Epilogue
Two more home runs by Greenberg helped the Tigers win the world Series, four games to three, over the Chicago Cubs, then as now without a world title since 1908. He played one more season with the Tigers, leading the league in home runs and runs-batted-in in 1946 against the full competition of the returned Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio et al and closed his Hall of Fame career in 1947 with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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