Major League Baseball Transactions, 1946

By Robert J. Levy, reviewed by Paul Wysard

If you are a fan of the 1940s and Post-War baseball, if the names appearing below jog your memory or are of interest, you will thoroughly enjoy this book.  The title is a bit misleading in that it suggests dry lists of trades, contracts, and assignments.  Such information is ample, but Levy uses it to review a season that featured a sizzling NL pennant race, but, more importantly, the return of scores of players from military service.

Had a player retained or lost Big League skills?  Were "wartime" players good enough to stick in the mix of new competition?  Were there kids or other newcomers who deserved to play?  Managers on the fields and in the front offices had to assess and sort out this massive influx of talent, ever mindful that both national laws and the public mood emphasized re-employment and loyalty with respect to those who had left careers to serve.  Baseball is not ordinarily a sentimental business, but one senses a sincere effort to give everyone a full shot, and, looking back from this era of criticism and controversy, the game is to be commended.

Levy re-caps the season through reports of player movement from daily papers, The Sporting News, and, later in his research, the Commissioner's Office Bulletins.  The coverage is nicely spiced with anecdotes, personality quirks, inevitable spats, and the ebb and flow of the struggle between the Brooklyn Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals for the NL crown and the right to play the runaway (by 12 games) Boston Red Sox in the World Series.  This reviewer had become fascinated with baseball through the 1945 Series on the radio, and the 1946 season was welcomed with all the enthusiasm a 10-year-old could muster.  The Boston Braves were the chosen favorite, mostly because "everyone else" liked the Yankees, Dodgers, or Cardinals, but all players were considered special people, and their records were meticulously traced.  So many of those names come back in Levy's book, old friends from a long time ago.

Most fans know of the successful returns of some of the greatest players ever  -  Ted Williams, who has just left us, Feller, Musial, Mize, Greenberg, and Joe DiMaggio.  Those same fans are also very aware of the sudden stardom of players unknown before the War, such as Spahn, Sain, Lemon, Berra, and Kiner.  And there was the arrival of Jackie Robinson, placed at AAA in 1946, but about to lead other Black American players across the color line over the next several years.  All of these performers came together over the next decade or so to create one of the game's paramount eras  -  the Post-War Period.

The future Hall-of-Famers exuded talent and excellence, their stories uncomplicated. Lesser players faced twists and turns and disappointments in the struggle for a place in the sun - or even on the bench.  Following is a "team" from 1946.  Each man represents a situation shared by many others in that time of transition.

c - Ernie Lombardi.  There was still some sting in his bat, which produced 12 homers for the Giants that year, but he was old (38) and slow and was eased out by 1947. Subsequent studies of his personal life show a huge let-down after leaving baseball.   The game was his "identity," and the rest of his life was spent in serious depression.

1b - Vernal "Nippy" Jones.  Few came as far - geographically and professionally - as Jones that year.  When Spring Training was in session, he was in the Marines in Hawaii, teaming with other service players and some local folks in exhibitions against the PCL's San Francisco Seals, who were working out in Honolulu.  Jones mustered out in June, sat on the Cardinal bench for a while, then ripped up AAA pitching and returned to make the post-season roster.  He got an at-bat and a check in a winning World Series.

2b - Emil Verban.  He hade it to The Show during the War, hitting .412 for the Cardinals in the 1944 Series.  He was good enough to stay on afterwards, starting for the Phillies and the Cubs through 1949.  A .270 hitter, he captured our imagination as kids because he:  (a) was nick-named "Antelope" but never stole that many bases and  (b) hit only ONE homerun in six full seasons  -  inside the park.

3b - Sibby Sisti. A very young regular infielder for the Braves from 1940-42, Sisti's skills were so eroded in service that he played in only one NL game in 1946.  Optioned to AAA, he regained those skills and came back to be a fine utility player, competing in the 1948 Series and lastin long enough to move with the club to Milwaukee in 1953.

ss - Cecil Travis. In recent days we have remembered Williams, 1941, .406.  But do you recall who finished second to Ted?  It was Travis, at .359.  This excellent player was hit by frostbite on his feet during the Battle of the Bulge.  He was only 32 in '46, but was no longer able to play anywhere near the earlier level.  He retired at the end of the season.

lf -  Del Ennis.  He wasn't supposed to make the Phillies, but he had been a great hitter in service ball and word got back to management.  He lived up to the rumors and just kept on hitting and was named to the Rookie All-Star Team.  His later career featured seven 100-rbi seasons.

cf - Pete Reiser.  "Pistol Pete" returned from the military as able as the great players mentioned earlier, but he continued to be cursed by on-field injuries, all of which came from superior, nearly frantic, efforts.  He was never near a wall he didn't hit.  The NL batting champ in 1941, he was a terrific base-runner and -stealer.  Check the book, page 308, for his endless hurting in 1946 and a career way too short.

rf -  Clyde Vollmer.  After the proverbial "cups of coffee" before the War, Vollmer became, until 1950, one of those fringe players who drifts back and forth from AAA to the Big Team's bench.  He is remembered for a sudden eruption in 1951-52, when he hit 35 homers for the Red Sox, with bunches of them coming on Saturday afternoons.

  p -  Sal Maglie.  There was serious flirtation in 1946 between many Major Leaguers and the Mexican League.  Big salaries were offered, and some journeymen, like Maglie, made the move.  An unremarkable pitcher, Maglie was nevertheless banned from the American Major Leagues for several years.  Despite an abundance of talent, Organized Baseball was adamant in its punishment of defectors, almost certainly because of the threat to both the salary structure and the Reserve Clause.  When Maglie was finally allowed to return, he was smarter and meaner.  He threw inside, earning the shaving "Barber" nickname, but prospered in his mid-'30s, pitching in three World Series for the Giants (twice) and the Dodgers (once).

Several years ago, in a book review in our magazine, this contributor disagreed with the wonderful baseball writer Roger Kahn.  The subject was his book,  The Era: 1947 - 1957, which eulogizes the Post-War Period, but ignores 1946, which, it seems to me, was the start of that era in terms historical context, level of play, and  renewed enthusiasm for the professional game.  It was a rich, remarkable, most memorable season.