Evening star., 1942-10-07
Redbirds in Fall
Different From
Starting Club j.
Southworth Vindicuted
After Surprise Sale
Of Mize, Worneke
BY JUDSON BAILEY,


NEW YORK. Oct. 7-One of the
reasons the st. Louis Cardinals
were able to spring a surprise on
the New York Yankees in the
World Series. and on a lot of other
people including the Brooklyn
Dodgers, was that they finished With
different team than the f1utter-
ing Redbirds who started last
spring.
When the Cardinals came streak
ing down the stretch in the Ma
tional League their rivals consoled
themselves with remembrances of
the earlier Redbirds and figured
they would return to their previous
pace.
1t took the World Series to prove
that winning 43 of their last 50
scheduled games was nearer the
natural gait of the Cards than
their performance in the first half
| OF the season, when they reached
the All-Star game intermission
with a record of 43 won and % lost.
At the start of the season the st.
Louis infield had Rookie Ray San
Gers on first, Frank Crespi on Sec
ond, Martin Marion at short and
Jimmy Brown at third. The ex-
perts were saying the Cardinals had
sold away their pennant chance by
letting big John Mize go to the New
York Giants.
Kurowski Thought a Busher.
George CWhitey, Kurowski, whose
| homer in the fifth game of the
| World Series clinched the cham
| plonshlp for the Cards, was con-
sldered likely timber for Rochester
or Columbus, or some other Redbird
farm. His short right arm, from
which three inches of bone was re-
moved in childhood operation,
made him a dead leftfield hitter.
Kurowski rode the bench for weeks
and it was not until his closest
friend. Crespi, failed to hit that the
reading, Pa, rookie received his
chance.
The Cards dropped double
header on May "a and at that point
had won only 10 games to II lost.
Manager Billy Southworth decided
the time was ripe to start MASTER
minding.
The next day Brown moved to
second and Kurowski became the
regular custodian of the hot corner.
The team won four straight.
Then came the next step in the
rehabilitation of the Redbirds. On
May q Johnny Hopp was installed
permanently at first base. The
change would have been made
sooner except that Hopp had in
jured thumb soon after the season
started.
However, right along about here
the Cards received a rude setback
because their two southpaw stars,
Ernie White and Howie Pollet, de-
veloped arm trouble A lump as big
as chestnut swelled up on Whites
left arm and he could not raise his
hand to throw the ball.
Leads to Beazley's Discovery.
He pitched an eight-hitter and
won on the day Kurowsski made
his debut, May Is. But from then
until June 10 he never got into an
other ball game, and he never won
another game until July /.
This pitching problem helped
lead to the discovery of Johnny
Beazley. He was going into games
as a relief pitcher, holding the foe
scoreless for four or five innings,
and he finally convinced South
worth it was a mistake to spot the
other teams three or four runs be-
fore putting in Beazley.
So the manager made up his
mind to make the lanky rookie a
starting pitcher and week later
sold Lon Warneke to the Chicago
Cubs for the waiver price of $500
in deal that shocked the baseball
front. Some folks thought the
Cards were conceding the pennant
to the Dodgers. 1t was Just the
other way around From the day
the Cards made this misunderstood
deal they won So games and lost
just 10.
In every respect it was a man.
agerial triumph for Southworth.
who took the material that was
given him by the front office and
knitted it into a world champion
ship team.
AS one fan said after the series,
Now the Yanks know what the
Dodgers were up against"