Eddie Dyer - Skipper of Postwar Cardinals

Skipper of Postwar Cardinals

At the war’s end, and with the big league Cardinals in need of a manager upon Billy Southworth’s departure for the Boston Braves, Dyer returned to baseball and his first major-league managing assignment in 1946. The Cardinals were a powerhouse, having won NL pennants from 1942 to 1944 and finished second in 1941 and 1945, but ’46 was an extremely challenging season for Dyer and his team. He had to blend returning war veterans and young players with Southworth's wartime club, and lost three key players — undefeated left-handed pitcher Max Lanier, second baseman Lou Klein and relief pitcher Fred Martin — to the marauding Mexican League.

Dyer also had to deal with the Cards' implacable foes, the Dodgers of Leo Durocher, back at full strength after the war. Led by pitchers Howie Pollet and Harry Brecheen, and the hitting and leadership of future Hall of Famers Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter, the Cardinals made up a five-game All-Star Break deficit and were tied with Brooklyn for the pennant on the season’s final day. The Cards then swept the Dodgers in a best-of-three playoff behind the pitching of Pollet and Murry Dickson.

In the 1946 World Series, the Redbirds faced what would be the only World Series in which Ted Williams would play. The Red Sox had breezed to the American League pennant by 12 games and featured 20-game winners Dave Ferriss and Tex Hughson. Idle during the NL playoffs, Boston played an exhibition game against an AL "all-star" team in an effort to tune up for the Fall Classic. Williams was struck on the elbow by a pitch, and when the Series began, he was ineffective. Brecheen won three games, the Cardinals played inspired baseball, and in the deciding seventh game, Slaughter scored from first on a double (often mistakenly remembered as a single) by Harry Walker, a shocking feat. His was the winning run in the game and the Series.