# 1945 Chicago Cubs season

The 1945 Chicago Cubs season was the 74th season of the Chicago Cubs franchise, the 70th in the National League and the 30th at Wrigley Field. The Cubs won the National League pennant with a record of 98–56, 3 games ahead of the second-place St. Louis Cardinals. The team went on to the World Series, which they lost to the Detroit Tigers in seven games. This was the Cubs last postseason appearance until 1984. It would take 71 years before the Cubs made it to another World Series.

## Regular season
### Season standings

vteNational League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| Chicago Cubs | 98 | 56 | .636 | — | 49‍–‍26 | 49‍–‍30 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 95 | 59 | .617 | 3 | 48‍–‍29 | 47‍–‍30 |
| Brooklyn Dodgers | 87 | 67 | .565 | 11 | 48‍–‍30 | 39‍–‍37 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 82 | 72 | .532 | 16 | 45‍–‍34 | 37‍–‍38 |
| New York Giants | 78 | 74 | .513 | 19 | 47‍–‍30 | 31‍–‍44 |
| Boston Braves | 67 | 85 | .441 | 30 | 36‍–‍38 | 31‍–‍47 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 61 | 93 | .396 | 37 | 36‍–‍41 | 25‍–‍52 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 46 | 108 | .299 | 52 | 22‍–‍55 | 24‍–‍53 |

### Record vs. opponents

1945 National League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BOS | BR | CHC | CIN | NYG | PHI | PIT | STL |
| Boston | — | 9–13–1 | 7–15 | 10–12 | 10–10–2 | 14–8 | 7–15 | 10–12 |
| Brooklyn | 13–9–1 | — | 8–14–1 | 11–11 | 15–7 | 19–3 | 12–10 | 9–13 |
| Chicago | 15–7 | 14–8–1 | — | 21–1 | 11–11 | 17–5 | 14–8 | 6–16 |
| Cincinnati | 12–10 | 11–11 | 1–21 | — | 6–16 | 12–10 | 10–12 | 9–13 |
| New York | 10–10–2 | 7–15 | 11–11 | 16–6 | — | 17–5 | 11–11 | 6–16 |
| Philadelphia | 8–14 | 3–19 | 5–17 | 10–12 | 5–17 | — | 6–16 | 9–13 |
| Pittsburgh | 15–7 | 10–12 | 8–14 | 12–10 | 11–11 | 16–6 | — | 10–12–1 |
| St. Louis | 12–10 | 13–9 | 16–6 | 13–9 | 16–6 | 13–9 | 12–10–1 | — |

### Roster
## Player stats
### Batting
#### Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| C | Mickey Livingston | 71 | 224 | 57 | .254 | 2 | 23 |
| 1B | Phil Cavarretta | 132 | 498 | 177 | .355 | 6 | 97 |
| 2B | Don Johnson | 138 | 557 | 168 | .302 | 2 | 58 |
| SS | Lennie Merullo | 121 | 394 | 94 | .239 | 2 | 37 |
| 3B | Stan Hack | 150 | 597 | 193 | .323 | 2 | 43 |
| OF | Peanuts Lowrey | 143 | 523 | 148 | .283 | 7 | 89 |
| OF | Andy Pafko | 144 | 534 | 159 | .298 | 12 | 110 |
| OF | Bill Nicholson | 151 | 559 | 136 | .243 | 13 | 88 |

#### Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| Roy Hughes | 69 | 222 | 58 | .261 | 0 | 8 |
| Paul Gillespie | 75 | 163 | 47 | .288 | 3 | 25 |
| Heinz Becker | 67 | 133 | 38 | .286 | 2 | 27 |
| Dewey Williams | 59 | 100 | 28 | .280 | 2 | 5 |
| Len Rice | 32 | 99 | 23 | .232 | 0 | 7 |
| Ed Sauer | 49 | 93 | 24 | .258 | 2 | 11 |
| Frank Secory | 35 | 57 | 9 | .158 | 0 | 6 |
| Bill Schuster | 45 | 47 | 9 | .191 | 0 | 2 |
| Reggie Otero | 14 | 23 | 9 | .391 | 0 | 5 |
| Johnny Ostrowski | 7 | 10 | 3 | .300 | 0 | 1 |
| Cy Block | 2 | 7 | 1 | .143 | 0 | 1 |
| Johnny Moore | 7 | 6 | 1 | .167 | 0 | 2 |
| Loyd Christopher | 1 | 0 | 0 | ---- | 0 | 0 |

### Pitching
#### Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Hank Wyse | 38 | 278.1 | 22 | 10 | 2.68 | 77 |
| Claude Passeau | 34 | 227.0 | 17 | 9 | 2.46 | 98 |
| Paul Derringer | 35 | 213.2 | 16 | 11 | 3.45 | 86 |
| Ray Prim | 34 | 165.1 | 13 | 8 | 2.40 | 88 |
| Hank Borowy | 15 | 122.1 | 11 | 2 | 2.13 | 47 |

#### Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Hy Vandenberg | 30 | 95.1 | 7 | 3 | 3.49 | 35 |
| Bob Chipman | 25 | 72.0 | 4 | 5 | 3.50 | 29 |
| Lon Warneke | 9 | 14.0 | 0 | 1 | 3.86 | 6 |
| Ray Starr | 9 | 13.1 | 0 | 0 | 7.43 | 5 |
| Jorge Comellas | 7 | 12.0 | 0 | 2 | 4.50 | 6 |
| Ed Hanyzewski | 2 | 4.2 | 0 | 0 | 5.79 | 2 |

#### Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
| Paul Erickson | 28 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3.32 | 53 |
| Mack Stewart | 16 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4.76 | 9 |
| Walter Signer | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3.38 | 0 |
| George Hennessey | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.36 | 2 |

## 1945 World Series
### The Curse of Billy "The Goat" Sianis

The Curse of the Billy Goat was a curse on the Chicago Cubs that was started in 1945 and ended in 2016. As the story goes, Billy Sianis, a Greek immigrant (from Paleopyrgos, Greece), who owned a nearby tavern (the now-famous Billy Goat Tavern), had two $7.20 box seat tickets to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers, and decided to bring along his pet goat, Murphy (or Sinovia according to some references), which Sianis had restored to health when the goat had fallen off a truck and subsequently limped into his tavern. The goat wore a blanket with a sign pinned to it which read "We got Detroit's goat". Sianis and the goat were allowed into Wrigley Field and even paraded about on the playing field before the game before ushers intervened and led them off the field. After a heated argument, both Sianis and the goat were permitted to stay in the stadium occupying the box seat for which he had tickets. At this point, Andy Frain (head of Wrigley Field's hired security company at the time), waved the goat's box-seat ticket in the air and proclaimed, "If he eats the ticket that would solve everything." However, the goat did not. Before the game was over, it started to rain and Sianis and the goat were ejected from the stadium at the command of Cubs owner Philip Knight Wrigley due to the objectionable odor of wet goat. Sianis was outraged at the ejection and allegedly placed a curse upon the Cubs that they would never win another pennant or play in a World Series at Wrigley Field again because the Cubs organization had insulted his goat, and subsequently left the U.S. to vacation in his home in Greece. The Cubs lost Game 4 and eventually the 1945 World Series, prompting Sianis to write to Wrigley from Greece, saying, "Who stinks now?" The Cubs would eventually break the curse and what would turn out to be a 108-year drought by winning the World Series in 2016 over the Cleveland Indians in seven games.

### Game 1

October 3, 1945, at Briggs Stadium in Detroit
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Chicago | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 13 | 0 |
| Detroit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| WP: Hank Borowy (1–0) LP: Hal Newhouser (0–1) Home runs: CHI: Phil Cavarretta (1) DET: None |||||||||||||

### Game 2

October 4, 1945, at Briggs Stadium in Detroit
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Chicago | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| Detroit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| WP: Virgil Trucks (1–0) LP: Hank Wyse (0–1) Home runs: CHI: None DET: Hank Greenberg (1) |||||||||||||

### Game 3

October 5, 1945, at Briggs Stadium in Detroit
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Chicago | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| Detroit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| WP: Claude Passeau (1–0) LP: Stubby Overmire (0–1) |||||||||||||

### Game 4

October 6, 1945, at Wrigley Field in Chicago
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Detroit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 1 |
| Chicago | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| WP: Dizzy Trout (1–0) LP: Ray Prim (0–1) |||||||||||||

### Game 5

October 7, 1945, at Wrigley Field in Chicago
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Detroit | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 11 | 0 |
| Chicago | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 2 |
| WP: Hal Newhouser (1–1) LP: Hank Borowy (1–1) |||||||||||||

### Game 6

October 8, 1945, at Wrigley Field in Chicago
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | R | H | E |
| Detroit | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 13 | 1 |
| Chicago | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 15 | 3 |
| WP: Hank Borowy (2–1) LP: Dizzy Trout (1–1) Home runs: DET: Hank Greenberg (2) CHI: None ||||||||||||||||

### Game 7

October 10, 1945, at Wrigley Field in Chicago
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Detroit | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 1 |
| Chicago | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 0 |
| WP: Hal Newhouser (2–1) LP: Hank Borowy (2–2) |||||||||||||

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AA | Los Angeles Angels | Pacific Coast League | Bill Sweeney |
| A1 | Nashville Vols | Southern Association | Larry Gilbert |
| B | Hagerstown Owls | Interstate League | Mickey Balla and Dutch Dorman |
| B | Portsmouth Cubs | Piedmont League | Ival Goodman |
| C | Leaksville-Draper-Spray Triplets | Carolina League | Jack Warner |
| D | Elizabethton Betsy Cubs | Appalachian League | Bill Kelly |
| D | Statesville Cubs | North Carolina State League | Jim Poole |