October 9, 1934: The Joe Medwick Game

The offending play. Number 25 is Cardinal coach Mike González,

one of the earliest Cuban players in the major leagues.

October 9, 1934, 90 years ago: Before the proceedings began, Cardinal pitcher Jay "Dizzy" Dean said of himself and his brother and teammate, Paul "Daffy" Dean, "Me an' Paul are gonna win this here World Series." Diz was right: All 4 St. Louis wins had one of the Dean brothers as the winning pitcher. Today, the Cards pound the Detroit Tigers in Game 7, 11-0 at Navin Field, the ballpark that would be enclosed and renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and renamed again as Tiger Stadium in 1961.

That would have been stunning enough to make this game legend. But it's a legend for a darker reason. In the bottom of the 6th, Cardinal slugger Joe Medwick slides hard into 3rd base, and is tagged hard by the Tigers' Marv Owen. Medwick then kicks Owen, and the newsreel clearly shows it. A fight results, and when Medwick goes out to left field for the bottom of the 6th, Tiger fans start throwing things at him. Wadded-up programs. Hot dogs. Pieces of fruit. This goes on for minute after minute.

Finally, the Commissioner of Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, as always in attendance at World Series games, asks the umpires to call Medwick over, as well as the opposing managers, both player-managers wearing Number 3: Cardinal shortstop Frankie Frisch and Tiger catcher Mickey Cochrane. Landis, a former federal Judge, asks Medwick if he kicked Owen. Medwick confesses. Landis removes him from the game, not for disciplinary reasons, he says, but "for his own safety." It was probably a good idea, if not the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Afterward, Medwick, no dummy, says, "I understood why they threw all that food at me. What I don't understand is why they brought it to the ballpark in the first place." It was the left-field bleacher section at Navin Field, later replaced by the double-decked stands that formed the Tiger Stadium we knew. Those seats were the last to be sold, and fans had lined up all morning, and had brought their breakfast and lunch to eat while they were waiting. Clearly, some of them hadn't yet eaten their lunches. (I guess they didn't sell food in that bleacher section.)

In the ensuing off-season, Cardinal general manager Branch Rickey refused to give Medwick, his best hitter, a raise. Medwick tells the press, "Mr. Rickey thinks I can live for a year on the food that the Detroit fans threw at me."

Joe Medwick was a graduate of Carteret High School, Class of 1929, a 3-sport star. In 1937, he won the Triple Crown, leading the National League in batting average, home runs and runs batted in. He remains the last NL player to do so. He was probably on his way to both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs before a beaning in 1940 curtailed his career. He was nicknamed "Ducky" for the way he walked, and "Muscles" because he was so strong (How strong was he?), nobody dared to call him "Ducky" to his face.

A Middlesex County Park, stretching through Carteret and the Avenel section of Woodbridge, is named in his honor. He is 1 of 6 people who grew up in New Jersey who have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, 1 of 4 born in the State, and the only one from Central Jersey, let alone from Middlesex County.

The others are Newark native Billy Hamilton, Salem native Goose Goslin, raised-in-East Orange Monte Irvin, and raised-in-Paterson Larry Doby, and born-in-Pequannock but grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan Derek Jeter. Millville native Mike Trout has a legitimate shot at joining them.

The familiar nickname "The Gashouse Gang" would not be applied to the Cardinals until the next season. It's not clear who coined the phrase, but someone said that, with their filthy uniforms due to their roughhouse style of play, they looked like "a gang from the Gas House District." In New York, that area was on the East River, between the Lower East Side and the Gramercy Park area. In 1945, it was all demolished to make way for the housing projects Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

Pitcher Clarence Heise was the last survivor of the Gashouse Gang, living until 1999.