1934 World Series and the “Gashouse Gang”

 1934 World Series and the “Gashouse Gang”



Baseball History Comes Alive Now Ranked #2 by Feedspot Among All Internet Baseball History Websites and Blogs!

Guest Submissions from Our Readers Always Welcome!

Click here for details




 

Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive for automatic updates (sign-up block found in right side-bar)

As a Free Bonus for subscribing, you’ll get instant access to my two Special Reports: Memorable World Series Moments and Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide!

“Gashouse Gang” Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:

 

Let’s Remember the 1934 World Series and the “Gashouse Gang”

“Why, they wouldn’t even let us in that league over there. They think we’re just a bunch of ‘gashousers’.” – Leo Durocher, speaking derisively of the American League

My tour through memorable World Series stops today in 1934 with the Fall Classic between the St. Louis “Gashouse Gang” and the Detroit Tigers managed by the great Hall-of Fame catcher,  Mickey Cochrane. 

I’ve always been fascinated by the “Gashouse Gang” and their great season of 1934. No one thought the Cardinals had a chance to wrest the National League pennant from the 1933 champion Giants. But they won 95 games that year, including an amazing late-season comeback, winning 20 of their last 25 games, clinching the pennant on the last day of the season. They carried their momentum to a victory in an exciting seven-game World Series over the heavily favored Detroit Tigers, a team featuring such stars as Hank Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer, Mickey Cochrane, and Goose Goslin.

In the classic featured photo above, we see members of the “Gashouse Gang”: Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Ernie Orsatti, Bill DeLancey, Rip Collins, Joe Medwick, Frankie Frisch, Jack Rothrock, Pepper Martin.

The team was led by player-manager Frankie Frisch and captain Leo Durocher. Other stars included Joe Medwick, Ripper Collins, and Pepper Martin – the heart and soul of the team whose zany antics kept the Cardinals’ clubhouse loose. The

Pepper Martin

team featured five regulars who hit at least .300, a 30-game winner in Dean, and four All-Stars. Rip Collins had quite a year,  leading the team in sixteen offensive categories with a .333 batting average, a .615 slugging percentage, 35 home runs, and 128 runs batted in.

In the World Series, the Cards and Tigers split the first two games in Detroit, and the Tigers took two of the next three in St. Louis. St. Louis proceeded to win the next two, including an 11-0 embarrassment of the Tigers in Detroit to win the

Series. The stars for the Cards were Medwick, who had a .379 batting average with one of St. Louis’s two home runs and a series-high five RBI, and the Dean Brothers, who combined for all four of the teams wins with 28 strikeouts and a minuscule 1.43 earned run average.

The architect of the Gashouse Gang team was Branch Rickey, the Bible-reading Methodist who transformed the also-ran Cardinals into perennial winners. Together with owner Sam Breadon, they produced a remarkable five pennants and two world championships in eight years. Rickey had the unique ability to recognize talent amidst the improbable reservoir of miscreants, rubes, country hicks, drunks, and other assorted odd-ball personalities called baseball players, and then somehow transform this dysfunctional mix into championship teams.

Rickey paid a huge price for glory in 1934 – he had to contend with Dizzy Dean and his habitual whining and endless clowning. All this is detailed in John Heidenry’s great book “The Gashouse Gang.” It’s hard to put Dean’s tiresome antics into words. Combine, if you will, the annoying, tiresome personalities of Jose Canseco and Barry Bonds,the prankish natures of Bob Uecker and Ozzie

Paul and Dizzy Dean from the Brace collection

Guillen, and the pitching talents of Nolan Ryan…then multiply by a factor of ten…and you might begin to appreciate Branch Rickey’s burden that year.

Dean would have been enough to drive mere mortals from the game. But Branch Rickey, as we know, was no mere mortal; and, in later years became almost a saint. In 1934 Dean simply had to be tolerated, as he put together a phenomenal year: 30 wins, 2.66 ERA, 195 strikeouts, 311 innings pitched, and winning two games in the World Series. Together with brother Paul, the Deans won an astounding 49 of the team’s 95 victories.

The “Gashouse” nickname, by most accounts, came from the team’s generally very shabby appearance and rough-and-tumble tactics. An opponent once stated that the Cardinals players usually went into the field in unwashed, dirty, and smelly uniforms. According to one account, scrappy shortstop Leo Durocher coined the term. He and his teammates were speaking derisively of the American League, and the consensus was that the Redbirds—should they prevail in the National League race—would handle whoever won the American League pennant. “Why, they wouldn’t even let us in that league over there. They think we’re just a bunch of gashousers.”

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: The George Brace Baseball Photography Collection; and public domain.

Background Information: “Nice Guys Finish Last”, by Leo Durocher; Excepts edited from my review of “The Gashouse Gang,” by John Heidenry; and excerpts edited from “The Gashouse Gang” Wikipedia page

I'm a baseball historian who also enjoys writing. My forte is identifying ballplayers in old photos, and my special interest is the Dead Ball Era.

4 Comments

  1. Larry Rockensuess · January 6, 2018 Reply

    Great stuff, again, Gary. Can I buy a book directly from you? The reason is I’d like to get you and Don to autograph it for me. Please reply Thanks! — Larry

    • Gary Livacari · January 6, 2018 Reply

      Thanks for the kind words Larry…Greatly appreciated! Probably best for you to order directly off Amazon, as I don’t have any extra copies (I only have one left myself!). Then I’d be glad to send you a autographed card that you can affix to the inside of the book…with a nice little message thanking you for your ongoing support of my humble efforts (Wow!…this is really my 15 minutes of fame…people asking for my autograph!). If this sounds good, just send me your address. Thanks again! Gary

  2. Drury · January 13, 2018 Reply

    Hello,

    Thank you for this excellent article. It is very well written, and I learned great deal from reading it. I look forward to reading some of your other work!

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.