Hugh Casey: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger by Lyle Spatz

Abstract

Reviewed by: Hugh Casey: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger by Lyle Spatz C. Paul Rogers III Lyle Spatz. Hugh Casey: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Brooklyn Dodger. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016. 320 pp. Cloth, $40.00. Lyle Spatz may not know it, but he did me and others like me a large favor by applying his considerable research and writing talents to pen a biography of Hugh Casey. I’ve long been curious to know more about Casey, who was one of baseball earliest relief specialists as well as one of baseball’s truly tragic, if overlooked, figures. Spatz’s biography fills in all the gaps of Casey’s too short life and provides depth and detail to the signal events in Casey’s career. It also masterfully takes the reader back to baseball in the 1940s, replete with bean-ball wars and bench- clearing brawls. It turns out that Casey was a son of the south, born and raised in Atlanta. His path to the big leagues was not easy, but along the way he was befriended by Wilbert Robinson, the legendary manager of the Brooklyn Robins (so named while Robinson was the manager) who was by then president of Casey’s hometown Atlanta Crackers. After three years in the minors, including a solid performance for the Crackers in 1934, the Chicago Cubs purchased Casey’s contract for 1935. Although he remained with the Cubs the entire season, Casey viewed his rookie year as “the worst year I ever spent” because he got into only 13 games and pitched only 26 innings (9). The next three seasons saw him bounce from the Pacific Coast League back to the Southern Association where he put together two solid years as a starting pitcher. The Brooklyn Dodgers selected Casey in the minor league draft after the 1938 season and, despite a weight problem that would plague him his entire career, he established himself as a big- league pitcher in 1939, winning 15 games with a 2.93 earned run average, mostly as a starter. As the Dodgers improved under manager Leo Durocher, he gradually began using Casey in a dual role of starter and relief pitcher. He was a key cog when the Dodgers narrowly [End Page 209] defeated the Cardinals for the pennant in 1941, their first in twenty- one years, setting up a subway World Series against the New York Yankees. As the author notes, Casey was the goat in his first World Series appearance, relieving in the eighth inning of a scoreless tie in Game Three and, after recording an out, proceeding to allow four straight singles as the Yankees scored two runs. He also failed to cover first on a ball hit to the right side and missed a pick- off sign. With the Dodgers down two games to one, Durocher sent Casey back out in relief in the fifth inning in Game Four with the bases loaded and two out and Brooklyn clinging to a 4– 3 lead. Casey retired Joe Gordon on a fly ball to escape the inning and held the Yankees scoreless into the ninth inning. He retired the first two batters in that frame and on a full count induced Tommy Henrich to swing and miss at a breaking pitch for the apparent third out. It was a strikeout which would have tied the Series two all, but instead was the famous pitch Mickey Owen couldn’t corral. With Henrich safely on first on the passed ball, Joe DiMaggio singled sharply to left and Charlie Keller hit a blast off the right field screen to drive in two runs and shoot the Yankees into the lead. What is often overlooked, the author notes, is that with the Dodgers still just needing an out for the victory after Henrich reached base, Casey got ahead of Keller 0– 2. But instead of wasting a pitch inside as his dugout was yelling at him to do, he hung a curveball which Keller didn’t miss. By the time the dust settled on the inning Casey had allowed four runs and lost his second consecutive World Series game. The Dodgers, on...