• Pie Traynor's club stretched their advantage to 6.5 games on many occasions.
  The Pirates had expanded the press box to accommodate all the writers who would descend on Forbes Field for the World Series against the mighty Yankees.
• But as the calendar changed to September, the Bucs began to falter.
• Meanwhile, the Cubs had jettisoned manager Charlie Grimm July 19 when the club lolled in 3rd place with a 45-36 record after a 8-3 loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers. The irony is that the Cubs had ripped off seven straight wins before that loss. C Leo "Gabby" Hartnett took over.
  Chicago owner Philip Wrigley explained the move. The decision to change was not a sudden one. I have been thinking about it for some time. In fact, I have thought about it so much that I have lost sleep and have almost lost my appetite. Charlie Grimm has done a swell job, but I decided that a change would be best for the organization. Grimm gave us everything he had, but the club has not done as well as we felt it should. ... I believe the man who can do the most for the club is Leo Hartnett.
• Starting September 4, the Cubbies won 17 of 20 in a repeat of their sensational stretch run three years earlier. That ride took Chicago from 3rd, 7 games behind, to 2nd and only 1.5 behind.
• On Tuesday, September 27 of the last week of the season, the Pirates started a three-game series at Wrigley Field.
• If Pittsburgh took two, the Cubs would fall 2.5 behind with only three games remaining. If Chicago won two, they would still be a half-game off the pace. But a home team sweep would put the red hot Cubs 1.5 ahead.

Gabby Hartnett and Dizzy Dean shortly after
Dean joined the Cubs in 1938.

To start the critical three-game set, Chicago player-manager Gabby Hartnett made a surprising choice - Dizzy Dean.

• The 28-year-old had been traded to the Cubs by the Cardinals April 16 for three players and $185,000.
• His fastball gone after he hurt his arm by returning to action too soon after suffering a broken toe in the 1937 All-Star Game, Diz had won six and lost one in limited action. Dean hadn't started a game since August 20.
  Gabby recalled, I stuck my neck out, but I had a feeling he'd come through for us.
  Diz recalled how he got the news he'd be starting. Ol' Gabby came in the clubhouse and, you know, he twirls that big seegar around in that red face of his and says, "Dizzy, you're pitchin', and I says, "Fine," but I thought he was kiddin' and then French and Bill Herman and them said, "He ain't foolin', Diz, you're pitchin'." My God, I couldn't break a pane of glass and I knew it, but I went out there to go after them Pirates.
• Dean didn't disappoint his manager, his teammates, or the overflow crowd of 42,238. "With little else on the ball but its cover" (as AP writer Earl Hilligan put it), Diz took a 2-0 lead into the 9th.
• He had narrowly avoided disaster in the 8th. C Al Todd led off with a single.
  Todd had broken Diz's jaw in a Texas League game in 1931. After Dean dusted him off on his next AB after tripling, Al rushed the mound and nailed Diz with a hard left.
  After a fly out, Lloyd Waner singled, sending Todd to 3rd. Paul Waner lined back to the mound, but Diz made a great stop and fired to Hartnett to nip Todd at the plate. When Johnny Rizzo flew out, Diz ambled to the dugout amid the roar of the crowd.
• With Bill Lee throwing in the bullpen, Diz hit Arky Vaughan to start the 9th but got Gus Suhr to pop out. When Woody Jensen bounced into a forceout, Dean was only one out from victory.
• But Lee Handley drove one of Diz's slow curves into LCF for a double, Jensen atopping at 3rd.
• With Todd, Diz's nemesis, up next, Hartnett brought in Lee. Dean trudged from the mound to a standing ovation.
• Big Bill unleased a wild pitch to make it 2-1 and send the tying run to 3rd. But Todd whiffed to bring a roar of exultation and relief from the crowd.
  Gabby explained: When the ninth came around, I decided to play safe and started Bill Lee warming up in the bullpen. Bill wasn't usually a good relief pitcher, but he was the best pitcher in the league, and that was a spot for the best we had if Dean got himself into trouble.
  Afterwards, Dizzy, who now had the club's lowest ERA at 1.80, said his arm hurt all afternoon but I wasn't goin' to have that stop me from winnin' the greatest game of my life.

So the Cubs trailed by only a half-game heading into Game Two Wednesday afternoon at 2:30.

• Traynor went with curveballer Bob Klinger, who had just made the majors that season at age 30. He had contributed 12 victories.
• Hartnett chose his second best starter, Clay Bryant, winner of 19 games.
• 34,465 turned out to see a game they would remember for a long time. The crowd, about 8,000 short of the series opener, was held down by a false report that all seats had been sold.

• With two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the 2nd, 1B Ripper Collins singled to RF.
• SS Billy Jurges swung and missed for strike three, but Todd couldn't hold the ball, and Billy reached 1B as Collins raced to 2nd.
• The Pirates committed their second error of the inning when 3B Lee Handley handled Bryant's easy grounder but threw the ball over Suhr's head to allow Ripper to score all the way from 2nd.
  Cubs 1 Pirates 0 after two innings

The hitters on both sides broke through in the 6th.

• After allowing just one hit in the first five frames, Bryant retired the Waner brothers to start the inning innocently enough.
• But LF Johnny Rizzo clouted a HR to LCF - his 21st - to tie the game.
• Apparently unnerved by the four-bagger, Bryant allowed a single to Vaughan and walked both Suhr and 2B Pep Young to load the bases.
• Handley atoned for his error with a single to CF that sent both Vaughan and Suhr across the plate.
• Not wanting to fall too far behind in such a crucial game, Hartnett brought in Jack Russell, who got the third out to avoid further damage.
  Pirates 3 Cubs 1 after 5 1/2 innings

The Cubs wasted no time in tying the game.

• Back to back doubles by Hartnett and Collins cut the 3-1 lead in half.
• Jurges dropped a bunt down the 3B line and beat it out to put runners on 1st and 3rd.
• Ken O'Dea batted for Russell and flew out to short RF, Collins holding 3rd.
• 3B Stan Hack's grounder to 2B plated Ripper with the tying run.
• 2B Billy Herman hit a grounder between 3B and SS. According to Sam Levy in the Milwaukee Journal, Red Corriden, coach at third, all but tackled Jurges trying to get him to stop at third when Vaughan came up with an "unconscious" one-handed stop in short left field. Arky righted himself in time to peg to Todd and Jurges was a dead fish. More than that, he was bounced off his back springs when he was knocked sprawling by the ponderous Pirate catcher. That ended the inning.
  Pirates 3 Cubs 3 after 6 innings

• 33-year-old rookie Vance Page had allowed two singles in the 7th but got a DP grounder to end the inning. He would not be so lucky in the 8th.
  The double play had produced howls of protest from the Pirates. As Page began his delivery on a 2-1 count to Rizzo, 3rd-base coach Jewel Ens screamed that the hurler had balked. Traynor claimed1B umpire Dolly Stark rushed in past the 1B bag as if to call the balk but, when Rizzo hit the grounder, Dolly hurried back to his position. The Pittsburgh Press writer reported that many fans groaned when Page committed the alleged balk. Traynor, Ens, Vaughan, and several other players - some say as many as 20 - besieged home plate umpire George Barr, but their protests fell on deaf ears. So they ran down to Stark and berated him to no avail. Finally, they confronted Larry Goetz at 2B but could not persuade him either.
  In the press box, a reporter asked NL President Ford Frick about the situation. He replied he didn't see the balk.
• Vaughan walked to start the bottom of the 8th, and Suhr singled him to 3rd.
• When Traynor sent up left-handed hitting Heinie Manush in place of Young, Hartnett brought in another right-hander, Larry French.
  Manush had started his Hall of Fame career with the Tigers in 1923. He had led the AL with 241 hits in 1928 and again with 221 in 1933 with the Senators. At age 37, Heinie had played sparingly for the Dodgers and Pirates in 1938.
• Manush crossed up the strategy by singling to LF, Vaughan scoring and Suhr taking 2nd.
• Pulling out all stops, Gabby summoned Lee again to end the rally.
• But Handley stroked a single to CF. Suhr crossed the plate, and Manush hustled to 3rd.
• Todd bounced to Jurges, who threw the runner out at home.
• For some reason, Pie let Klinger hit for himself. Cubs fans applauded the visiting P for his mound effort. But they cheered even louder when Bob bounced back to Lee, who started a 1-6-3 DP to end the uprising.
  Pirates 5 Cubs 3 after 7 1/2 innings
  

But the irrepressible Cubs didn't stay down long.

• After Collins opened the bottom of the 8th with a single, Traynor brought in Billy Swift, who had twirled a perfect inning the day before.
• Jurges walked. Runners on 1st and 2nd with no out.
• Tony Lazzeri, in his first season in the NL after a dozen years with the Yankees, hit for Lee.
• With Push 'Em Up Tony at the dish, Todd couldn't corral a Swift delivery. Collins raced to 3rd although Jurges stayed at 1st.
• After twice failing to lay down a sacrifice, Lazzeri excited the Cub faithful with a double to RF, scoring Ripper and sending Billy to the hot corner.
• The Pirates gave Hack an intentional pass to load the bases.
• But Herman singled to RF to tie the game. Joe Marty, running for Lazzeri, tried to follow Jurges across the plate but was thrown out by Paul Waner. It was the second straight inning the Cubs had a runner erased at home plate.
• Relief ace Mace Brown took the hill and got Frank Demaree to roll into a 4-3 DP.
  Pirates 5 Cubs 5 after 8 innings

With all the pitching changes and arguments, the contest dragged on much longer than normal as the early Fall daylight began to wane.

• Veteran Charlie Root, the victim of Babe Ruth's "called HR" in the 1932 World Series, took over the pitching chores. The Cubs now deployed a battery with a combined age of 76.
• Paul Waner smacked a one-out single to LF but was mowed down trying to steal by Hartnett.
• Rizzo fouled out.

With the 5:38 sunset approaching, the umpires met with NL President Ford Frick and decided to call the game if the Cubs failed to score.

• National League rules called for a tie game to be replayed from the start.
• So a doubleheader would be scheduled the next day.
• That would put a tremendous strain on the Cubs overworked pitching staff.

Brown faced Chicago's 4-5-6 hitters.

• As many in the vast throng started for the exits, Phil Cavaretta, who started in RF because Augie Galan twisted his knee sliding into 2nd the previous day, flew out to CF.
• 2B Tommy Thevenow threw out Carl Reynolds.
• That left the game, and possibly the Cubs' pennant hopes, up to Hartnett.

The 37-year-old skipper had been a fixture behind the plate for the Cubs since 1924.

• Known from the beginning of his career as one of the best defensive backstops in the game with a powerful throwing arm, Gabby had struggled against big league pitching at first.
• But he developed his hitting to the point where, given a chance when Bob O'Farrell went out with an injury during the 1923 season, Hartnett took over the catching duties and never relinquished it.
  Hartnett got his nickname from a reporter. When the big C first came to the Cubs, his mother advised him, Keep your mouth shut, your eyes open, and behave yourself. When Dean Sullivan of the Chicago Herald Examiner interview Hartnett, the young man gave terse answers. The sportswriter remarked, You're certainly a gabby guy. Sullivan began calling the Cubs C "Gabby" in his articles, and the nickname stuck. Actually, Hartnett lived up to his facetious nickname when among his friends and teammates.
• He won the NL MVP Award in 1935 and was runner-up in '37.
• Earlier in the 1938 season, Gabby stroked his 200th homer.

So Charles Leo Hartnett, in the twilight of his career, stepped into the right-handed batter's box in the September 28 twilight for one of the most famous at-bats in baseball history.

• The plate appearance didn't start well in "the thickening gloom" (Earl Hilligan). Brown jumped out in front 0-2 on a called strike and a whiff. On the second pitch, Gabby went to one knee after his big swing as the crowd groaned. He remained there as if in prayer.
  Pittsburgh backup C Ray Berres recalled: Mace made Hartnett look bad on a couple of curves that went down. Then he came back with one more. He was really going to snap one off. And, as so often happens when you try too hard, he hung it.
  Sam Levy wrote in the Milwaukee Journal the next day that Mace thought he would try and buzz his fast one past Gabby for strike three.
  The article in The Pittsburgh Press described the final pitch as "down the middle."
• If Hartnett had been praying, his prayer was answered. Looking for another curve, the future Hall of Famer smashed the ball high into LCF. Gabby said afterward, I felt it was gone the second I hit it. At the crack of the bat, Brown buried his head in his arms. He knew it was gone too. In the semi-darkness, breathless fans had trouble tracking the ball, but they could see LF Rizzo go back to the wall and look up helplessly as the horsehide landed amid a hundred hands in the bleachers to give the Cubs their ninth straight victory and put them in first place by a half game.
• Newspapers, score cards, straw hats, felt hats, women's hats - all kinds of hats - sailed into the playing field and behind them came a rushing stream of humanity ...(Pittsburgh Press) Hartnett had to fight his way through "a swirling, hysterical mob" to touch all the bases and had trouble reaching the dugout. One teammate even applied a strangle hold on Gabby. Other teammates formed a flying wedge around home plate to rescue their pilot from the mob and carry him on their shoulders to the clubhouse.
• Meanwhile, the Pirates remained glued to their positions - stunned by the dramatic suddenness of it all. Then they walked slowly off the field - and, perhaps, right out of a World Series. Brown ... brushed his hand across his eyes as he walked through the shadows to his clubhouse, head bent. (Pittsburgh Press)
  Paul Waner described what happened when Hartnett's blast reached the bleachers. The crowd was in an uproar, absolutely gone wild. They ran onto the field like a bunch of maniacs, and his teammates and the crowd were mobbing Hartnett and piling on top of him and throwing him up in the air and everything you could think of. I've never seen anything like it before or since.
  Edward Burns described the scene in the Chicago Tribune the next day: The mob started to gather around Gabby before he had reached first base. By the time he had rounded second, he couldn't have been recognized in the mass of Cubs players and frenzied fans.
  FINAL: CUBS 6 PIRATES 5

Postgame

Cubs Clubhouse

• Players hugged Hartnett. Some actually kissed him. It was an hour and a half later when he finally took off his slightly torn uniform. That was the greatest thrill of my life, he announced. I figured Brown for a curve on that 0-2 pitch, and I got set. I sort of felt it was a home run when I hit it. The ball "felt" good, and I just gambled on a home run or nothing.
• The man who used six pitchers was asked if Lee and Bryant would be tired by World Series time if he continued to employ them so often. Ignoring the overconfidence implied in the query, Gabby repied, Not those guys. All they need is a good sleep, a couple of steaks under their belts, and some batters to stand up in front of 'em.

Pirates Clubhouse

• Brown tossed his sweaty shirt in a corner and stomped on it. Had him in a hole, too, he mumbled. Two strikes, no balls. Why couldn't that curve break for me instead of him? Later he was seen sobbing in front of his locker. Paul Waner stayed by his side all night. I was so afraid he was going to commit suicide.
  Brown never forgot the "Homer in the Gloamin'" - a name attributed to AP writer Earl Hilligan. Waner told Lawrence Ritter: Mace can laugh about it now, practically 30 years later. Well, he can almost laugh about it anyway. When he stops laughing, he kind of shudders a little bit, you know, like it's a bad dream he can't quite get out of his mind.
• Someone told Klinger, Nice game, Bob. What's nice about it? he growled. We lost, didn't we?
• Traynor and his confidant-coach Ens sat silently in front of their lockers for a long time. Finally, Pie asked for a cigarette and recalled the 7th inning when the umps refused to call the balk on Page.
• Ens was still upset about the no call. The president of the league sends us quantity in umpires but no quality. You can bet Bill Klem would have called it. Why, even some of the Cubs knew it, and they were afraid Page was going to be called on it.
• Eventually, the Pirate manager dressed and walked silently back to the hotel with Ens. I was so wrought up inside, Pie recalled, I was ready to explode. If Jewel had so much as opened his mouth, I believe I would have slugged him.
  Traynor, who lasted one more season as Pittsburgh's manager, never got over the defeat. He insisted for the rest of his life that the umpires should have called the game in the 9th. A friend of Pie said years later, I think he was still very bitter about that. That was probably the biggest disappointment of his life. That was the only time I ever heard him be in any way bitter or regretful.

Postscript

The defeat took the starch out of the Pirates.

• They came back to Wrigley Field the next day emotionally spent.
• The Cubs, on the other hand, gushed with confidence. We could've beaten nine Babe Ruths, exclaimed Herman.
• The Cubs clobbered the Bucs 10-1 to sweep the series and take a commanding game-and-a-half lead with three to play (four for Pittsburgh).
• The Pirates split a doubleheader in Cincinnati the next day as darkness ended the Cubs' game at St. Louis in a 7-7 tie. Needing to win only one more game to clinch, Chicago split the Saturday doubleheader to go two up with one to play.

The jubilation of winning the NL pennant didn't last long as Joe McCarthy's Yankees swept the Series.