1945 Chicago Cubs season

1945 Chicago Cubs
1945 National League Champions
Major League affiliations
Location
  • Chicago, Illinois (since 1871)
Other information
Owner(s) Philip K. Wrigley
Manager(s) Charlie Grimm
Local radio WIND
(Bert Wilson, Wayne Osborne)
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The 1945 Chicago Cubs season was the 73rd 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 1945 World Series, which they lost to the Detroit Tigers in seven games. As the start of the 2015 season, this stands as the most recent appearance the Cubs have made in the World Series.

Regular season

Season standings

National League W L GB Pct.
Chicago Cubs 98 56 -- .636
St. Louis Cardinals 95 59 3 .617
Brooklyn Dodgers 87 67 11 .565
Pittsburgh Pirates 82 72 16 .532
New York Giants 78 74 19 .513
Boston Braves 67 85 30 .441
Cincinnati Reds 61 93 37 .396
Philadelphia Phillies 46 108 52 .299

Roster

1945 Chicago Cubs
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders

Other batters

 Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

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
1B Cavarretta, PhilPhil Cavarretta 132 498 177 .355 6 97

Other batters

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

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Borowy, HankHank Borowy 15 122.1 11 2 2.13 47

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Chipman, BobBob Chipman 25 72 4 5 3.50 29

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO

1945 World Series

Main article: 1945 World Series

The Curse of Billy "The Goat" Sianis

The Curse of the Billy Goat is a curse on the Chicago Cubs that was started in 1945. 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?"

Game 1

October 3, 1945 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, Michigan

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

October 4, 1945 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, Michigan

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

October 5, 1945 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, Michigan

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

October 6, 1945 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois

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

October 7, 1945 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois

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

October 8, 1945 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois

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

October 10, 1945 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois

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 1
WP: Hal Newhouser (2–1)   LP: Hank Borowy (2–2)

Farm system

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

External links