Bob Klinger, a good pitcher put into a bad spot by his manager, was involved in one of the most exciting plays in Cardinals lore.
Seventy-five years ago, on Oct. 15, 1946, Klinger was the Red Sox pitcher who gave up the winning run to the Cardinals in World Series Game 7.
Though he hadn’t pitched in a month, Klinger was brought into a situation packed with pressure: bottom of the eighth inning, score tied, a championship on the line.
Adding to the degree of difficulty, the first man Klinger, a right-hander, had to face was a fearsome left-handed hitter.
He almost completed the task unscathed, but Enos Slaughter’s daring dash from first base on a Harry Walker hit lifted the Cardinals to victory and made Klinger the losing pitcher.
Rescued by Pirates
Klinger was born in Allenton, Mo., before the small railroad town was annexed by Eureka, Mo., home to the Six Flags St. Louis amusement park.
The Cardinals signed him and he spent nine years in their farm system.
After posting a 16-12 record for Elmira, N.Y., in 1933, Klinger was called up to the Cardinals in September but didn’t get into a game, according to the Society for American Baseball Research. He was on the Cardinals’ roster at spring training in 1934, but was returned to the minors before the season started.
Selected by the Pirates in the Rule 5 draft for $7,500 in October 1937, Klinger, 29, made his major-league debut on April 19, 1938, pitching two scoreless innings of relief and getting the win against the Cardinals at St. Louis. Boxscore
Moved into the starting rotation at the end of May, Klinger had a splendid rookie season (12-5, 2.99 ERA) for the second-place Pirates. Against the Cardinals that year, he was 4-1 with a 1.66 ERA.
Klinger was 62-58 in six seasons with the Pirates before he entered the Navy in April 1944. Discharged in December 1945, Klinger was released by the Pirates before he got to pitch for them again in the regular season. The Red Sox signed him on May 9, 1946, hoping he would bolster their bullpen.
“Klinger has the reputation of being a fireball pitcher,” the Boston Globe reported, “and that is the kind of fellow any club needs to shoot into a ballgame for relief work.”
Title contender
Klinger, 38, joined a smoking hot Red Sox team that won 21 of its first 24 games and cruised to the American League championship.
At a time when most starting pitchers took pride in completing games, Klinger contributed nine saves, tops in the American League in 1946, and was 3-2 with a 2.37 ERA, but his season ended on a downbeat note.
On Sept. 19, against the Browns at St. Louis, Klinger entered in the ninth inning to protect a 5-4 lead, but all four batters he faced reached base and two scored, giving the Browns a victory and Klinger a loss. He didn’t appear in any more games that month. Boxscore
Ten days later, before the Red Sox played their Sept. 29 season finale at home against the Senators, Klinger learned his 2-year-old son was seriously ill “with what was feared to be polio,” the Boston Globe reported. Klinger left immediately to return home to Pacific, Mo.
The Red Sox, who finished 12 games ahead of the second-place Tigers, waited to learn who they would play in the World Series. The Cardinals and Dodgers completed the National League schedule tied for first and needed a best-of-three playoff to determine the champion.
After the Cardinals clinched the pennant on Oct. 3, the World Series opened in St. Louis on Oct. 6. The Cardinals and Red Sox split six games, setting up the finale at Sportsman’s Park.
Trailing 3-1, the Red Sox rallied for two runs in the top of the eighth. Reliever Joe Dobson was lifted for a pinch-hitter during the inning, and Red Sox manager Joe Cronin had two possible replacements warming in the bullpen, Klinger and Earl Johnson, a left-hander.
Controversial choice
With Enos Slaughter, a left-handed batter who led the National League in RBI in 1946, due to lead off the bottom of the eighth, Earl Johnson seemed to some to be the obvious choice, but Cronin opted for Klinger.
“Why bring in Bob Klinger, a National League castoff, to pitch to the Cardinals in the eighth inning of the deciding game with the score tied?,” New York Sun columnist Herbert Goren wrote. “With Slaughter leading the inning, the percentage selection would have been Johnson.”
Others thought Cronin should have used right-hander Tex Hughson, a 20-game winner. Two days earlier, Hughson pitched 4.1 scoreless innings of relief in Game 6. As Sid Keener of the St. Louis Star-Times noted, Hughson held “a higher rating than Klinger in any manager’s book.”
Klinger hadn’t pitched in a game since his shelling against the Browns on Sept. 19, but Cronin apparently chose him because he was the club’s saves leader and had knowledge of National League hitters.
The problem with that logic was hitters were familiar with Klinger, too. Slaughter had a career batting average against Klinger of .338, with 23 hits. Harry Walker, who also batted left, had a career batting average versus Klinger of .300, with nine hits.
Hitting and running
Slaughter greeted Klinger with a sharp single to center. Whitey Kurowski, attempting to bunt Slaughter to second, popped out to Klinger.
Del Rice, a right-handed batter who had one home run for the season, hit “a towering fly to deep, darkest left field,” the Boston Globe reported, but Ted Williams caught it for the second out and Slaughter held at first base.
Walker was up next. With the count 2-and-1, the Cardinals called for a hit-and-run play. Slaughter started running as Klinger delivered his pitch and Walker stroked it to the gap in left-center.
“Slaughter turned second base, approaching third base at full speed, and was hell-bent for home,” the St. Louis Star-Times reported.
Center fielder Leon Culberson, who had replaced an injured Dom DiMaggio, gloved the ball and threw to the cutoff man, shortstop Johnny Pesky. With Slaughter steaming toward home and Walker dashing to second, Pesky hesitated, then threw to the plate “a looping toss with no oomph behind it,” the Star-Times noted.
Slaughter slid in safely, giving the Cardinals a 4-3 lead. They survived a Red Sox threat in the ninth, clinching their third World Series title in five years. Boxscore and Video
Klinger pitched one more season in the majors, going 1-1 with five saves for the 1947 Red Sox. At 40, he returned to the Cardinals’ system in 1948, pitching for manager Johnny Keane at Houston.
Leave a Reply