Construction begins Scranton Stadium Scranton Pennsylvania Photographs courtesy of Nicholas E. Petula "A History of Scranton Professional Baseball" and the Lackawanna Historical Society |
As the war came on, the Scranton Red Sox began losing all of their players to the
draft. A whole new team came in to play baseball and surprisingly, they were very
good. Frank Genovese hit 20 doubles, 19 triples and batted .327. Future Red
Sox' Ben Steiner hit 19 doubles, 17 triples and batted .292. those two speedsters
provided some excellent legs at the top of the lineup while Kenneth Champman
(.323), future St. Louis Cardinals' Bill Howerton (25 2Bs, .303) and Jon Zipay
(25 2Bs, .307) provided some extra lumber. The pitching meanwhile was magnificent.
the team was led by future Philadelphia Philly Chet Covington (21-7, 1.51)...
the team's first 20 game winner as well as Ollie Byers (19-7, 2.31) who nearly
joined him. Future St. Louis Browns' Al Widmar (10-5, 2.22) also pitched well.
The Scranton Red Sox put up their best record to date going 87-51, easily
taking first place but losing the playoffs to the Elmira Pioneers. 1944 would bring
some change to the clubhouse as the team switched their name back to their
old Scranton Miners roots, but retained their affiliation with the Red Sox. The
Eastern League was one of the few leagues that continued to play through the
war effort and WWII continued to take players away from the Red Sox lineup. They
finished the 1944 season with an abysmal 56-83 effort... their first losing season
despite fine pitching efforts from John Krall (14-12, 4.60) and Dwight Simmonds
(13-10, 2.35). Future Red Sox' Ty LaForest (37 2Bs, 7 3Bs, 5 HRs, .296)
was the Miners' most consistant hitter. |