REPLACEMENT PLAYERS IH WORLD WAR II 19 bond (purchased for $750) would have a value of close Daley suggested that"a sufficient number of traffic police- Merii-ComeredStar Bond8ase6a1/ Game to $13,400 in 2014 dollars. The $4,416,925 matured value men be installed at strategic points in order to avoid of war bonds purchased by fans in 1944 would be over snarls of various descriptions:5 by Mike Huber and Rachel Hamelers $59 million in 2014. than $56 million was actu- Pregame Festivities OT EVEN THREE WEEKS AFTER THE games. The Giants were 32-29. They lost seven of their Even more astonishingly, more amount raised by fans, D-Day invasion by American forces in Normandy, a next nine games and tied another game against Pittsburgh. ally pledged. In addition to the An hour or so before the game, 500 wounded servicemen Mayor Fiorello La Guardia announced that special baseball game took place in New York City. All The Yankees finished on the 25th with a 31-29 record. New York were scheduled to arrive to watch the game. They were $5o million in war bonds. And the world was focused on the Pacific and European battle- They had won four consecutive games and would win the city would purchase recuperating at area hospitals, including Halloran bond purchase fronts, but on the United States homefront the War Bond two more after this interleague affair. Bond Clothing Stores made a $1 million Hospital, St. Albans Naval Hospital, and the Brooklyn Sports Committee was developing a series of unique in exchange for an autographed scorecard of the game. Naval Hospital. The events to support the cost of the war by selling war bonds. Tri-Cornered Game was the brainchild of Max Kase, the sports editor of The day also showcased other talents. A fungo-hitting One of these efforts featured baseball's ultimate the New YorkJournal-American. Kase Do the Math contest was held, and an 18-year-old pitcher for Brooklyn Subway Series. had worked for the Hearst newspapers for most of his career and is widely credited with starting the Basketball On June 25, the day before the game, a New York Times named Cal McLish won the event with a 416-foot 5-inch, In the June 26, 1944 "Sports of the Times" column in the Association of America (forerunner to the NBA) and article said,"As major league baseball starts its tenth week shot. It was McLish's rookie season; he would spend 1945 New York Times, columnist Arthur Daley wrote: with helping to create the New York Knicks franchise.' of its campaign, Greater New York's three local clubs will in military service, away from baseball. To his family, he In 1952 Kase won the Pulitzer Prize for exposing bribery pause in their serious pursuit of pennants for the more was known as Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma Baseball is more than a hundred years old. Generally and other forms of corruption in college basketball. serious pursuit of war bond dollars."3 Another article told McLish. 6 In a throwing-for-accuracy competition for speaking, youth is rash and often radical. The ancients However, his baseball legacy is linked to the Tri-Cornered fans, "The jig-saw puzzle of working out this procedure catchers, the Dodgers' Bobby Bragan came closest to are the ultra-conservatives. But, despite its respectable Game of 1944. baffled the best minds of the game until they called upon throwing the ball from home plate into a barrel at second old age, the diamond sport is going completely haywire a mathematics professor at Columbia University, Paul base, besting five other backstops. There were three heats tonight. ... This is a three-ply offering involving The game was widely publicized. For example, the New A. Smith. Without scratching his head more than a few in a sprint contest. Each heat paired a runner who started Giants, Yankees, and Dodgers in a fantasticfray that York Times ran a story on May 24, 1944, a full month hundred times the professor came up with the following at home plate against a runner starting at second base. is certain of only one result. It will attract a gathering ahead of the event. The Dodgers had scheduled an exhibi- layout, which calls for 18 half-innings to be played, thus":4 The player who first reached the opposite base won. of more than 50,000 and will bring in a sale of ap- tion game with the Buffalo Bisons on June 26, but team Inning z 2. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Snuffy Stirnweiss, who led the American League in stolen proximately $6,000,000 in war bonds.' president Branch Rickey assured the Sports Committee Field DY DG YG YD GD GY DY DG YG bases in 1944, beat the Giants' ohnny Rucker, posting a that the nonleague contest would be postponed This fantastic fray did happen; three teams played in the Bat YD GD GY DY DG YG YD GD GY time of 7.8 seconds. Snuffy would also have the only or canceled. (See the box score below.) same game. That's right, one baseball game with three Rest GG YY DD GG YY DD GG YY DD stolen base in this historic game. Miskis different teams all fielding, hitting, scoring (at least in the In the other two heats, Dodgers sprinters Eddie chart, D denotes the Dodgers, Y the Yankees, and the case of the Dodgers and the Yankees), and trying to win Holy Cow! In the and Luis Olmo bested the Giants' Buddy Kerr and the title G the Giants. Two letters are listed in each inning, as Yanks' Johnny Lindell, respectively. of New York's best. The three New York teams The attendance plan for the Tri-Cornered Game called different teams played in different half-innings. For played at the Giants' ballpark, the Polo Grounds, on a for each fan to buy a war bond as a ticket. There were to were Before the game, during infield practice, the self-styled Monday night to a crowd of 5o,000 example, in the top of the first inning, the Dodgers fans, injured veterans, be 40,000 unreserved tickets for those fans who pur- Clown Prince of Baseball, Al Schacht, entertained the and in the field, the Yankees were batting, and the Giants celebrities. Although the result did not count in the chased a $25 bond (the bond maturity value), 5,809 re- first frame, crowd. The former Washington Senators pitcher was official standings, three major-league rested in the dugout. In the bottom half of the teams from the served seats in the lower stands, for fans buying a $100 renowned for his shtick. During the war, Schacht traveled same city played in a the Yankees took the field, the Dodgers batted, and the game where only one team would bond, and 3,796 Indies, box seats for the $1,000 bond purchasers. the dugout. to Africa, New Guinea, Sicily, the Dutch East win and so become unofficial champion of the Giants remained riding the pine in Big Apple. That in itself added up to 49,605 fans. Tickets went on and the Southwest Pacific,' entertaining troops with his sale round-robin algorithm had each team come to bat "boisterously Each of the three teams stood with similar positions in throughout the five boroughs of New York City. This baseball pantomime routine. Milton Berle Macy's 18 half-innings, or a nine-inning fans.' the standings (all winning records) on the morning of alone sold 5,o oo unreserved tickets. The box six times, constituting ushered in" musical numbers to the roar of the score's entry for attendance was game. Each team batted three times against each of the program was furnished by June 26. The Brooklyn Dodgers had a record of 33-30. simply "5o,000." To put Music during the entire day's this amount defenses. With the exception of the Guard They entered the exhibition game riding a five-game in perspective, a $25 war bond in 1944 actually other two teams' the Manhattan Beach-based United States Coast cost $18.75. inning, each of the three Mayor winning streak. After the Tri-Cornered Game, however, When it matured it could be cashed in for Yankees in the top of the first Band. Berle was followed by former New York City $25, which would be consecutive innings. In case anyone ceremonies and the Dodgers went on a sudden skid, losing 16 consecutive worth about $334 in 2014, factoring clubs would bat in two James J. Walker, who acted as a master of increases in the Consumer Price Index. Similarly, a $1,000 was confused with this scheme, Times writer Arthur 18 WHO'S ON FIRST? REPLACENEENIT 20 PLAYERS IN WORLD IVAll II 21 Owen. introduced a contingent of all-time diamond stars from walk and Eddie Stanky hit a double, driving in The box score:'4 SOURCES teams, including Zack Wheat, Nap Rucker, Frenchy Bordagaray singled to drive in Stanky, and the M.; • 1100.••••.••••••••^• the New York The box t.]).,34: Berger, Ralph.'Al Schacht." The SABR Baseball two more runs. Biography Project, sabr.org/ Otto Miller (all from the Dodgers), Wally Schang, Bill Dodgers had 000001110 YANKEE'S bioproj/person/ o4do1542. ab.r.b.pu, "... ib.r.h,p3.4 O. Dickey, and Herb Pennock (from the Yankees), and Roger nord•rai, 3b,2 0 1 1 0 0 aeweiss. 24.1 1 1 1 8 0 In the eighth inning, batting against Frank Seward and Bravo, ib.