1945 Chicago Cubs season

1945 Chicago Cubs
National League Champions
LeagueNational League
BallparkWrigley Field
CityChicago
OwnersPhilip K. Wrigley
General managersJames T. Gallagher
ManagersCharlie Grimm
RadioWIND
(Bert Wilson, Wayne Osborne)
← 1944 Seasons 1946 →

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

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Season standings

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National 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

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1945 National League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
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

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1945 Chicago Cubs
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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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

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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

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Starting pitchers

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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

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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

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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

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Main article: 1945 World Series

The Curse of Billy "The Goat" Sianis

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Main article: Curse of the Billy Goat

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[1]), 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".[2] 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."[2] 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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See also: Minor League Baseball
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

References

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  1. ^ *"The Curse of The Billy Goat". February 27, 2004. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
  2. ^ a b *"Da Curse of the Billy Goat...The Chicago Cubs, Pennant Races and Curses" – Chapter 1 – Enter the Goat. Retrieved October 18, 2006 Archived May 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
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