The Boys Who Were Left Behind: The 1944 World Series Between the Hapless St. Louis Browns And the Legendary St. Louis Cardinals - Hardcover

Heidenry, John; Topel, Brett

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803224281 ISBN 13: 9780803224285

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2006

Synopsis

When the New York Times sportswriter Arthur Daley called the 1944 St. Louis Browns “the most astonishing ball club ever to reach the World Series,” he wasn’t handing out bouquets. An ill-assorted collection of castoffs, 4-Fs, no-accounts, farm boys, and brawlers with not much more than a few minor league games under their belts, the team was playing professional ball for only one reason: the best players had been drafted or had enlisted. Adding to the drama, these misfits were facing the fabled St. Louis Cardinals and their mvp, Stan Musial, one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. The story of this unlikely meeting between crosstown rivals—dubbed the “Streetcar Series” because so many fans took the trolley to Sportsman’s Park—is told here for the first time.

Mining a treasure trove of coverage, including on-the-spot commentary by the Hall of Fame sportswriter Bob Broeg, the authors bring this contest between baseball’s David and Goliath vividly to life, giving readers a sense of what this suspenseful six-day series must have meant both to those on the homefront and U.S. servicemen around the world. A marvel of American sportsmanship, patriotism, and boyish innocence, the Streetcar Series will forever be remembered as the best and the “worst” of an era long past.

About this title

About the Author:

John Heidenry is a native of St. Louis and the founding editor of St. Louis Magazine. He is the author of Theirs Was the Kingdom and What Wild Ecstasy. Brett Topel is a freelance sports journalist and an adjunct professor of journalism at Adelphi University. He is also the art director of The Week magazine.

From Booklist:

Baseball's St. Louis Browns, a team that had never won anything, took advantage of the depletion of the game's stars during World War II to win the American League pennant and then nearly win the World Series against their cross-town rivals, the Cardinals. Heidenry and Topel have compiled a very entertaining history of one of baseball's most improbable, inspiring, and occasionally comic moments. Drawing only on players unsuitable for military service, the Browns boasted, for example, a catcher who would pass out if he gazed upward to catch a pop foul. The Browns won the pennant by a single game, and their starting pitcher in the regular season finale was Sig Jakucki, a legendary drinker and brawler. He promised he wouldn't imbibe the night before the big game but couldn't resist a taste or two the morning before the first pitch. Such was wartime baseball, fondly chronicled in all its idiosyncratic charm by two writers who understand that, in its best moments, baseball appeals most when its underdog egalitarianism takes center stage. Wes Lukowsky
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About this edition

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0803224281
• ISBN 13: 9780803224285
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 173