August 12, 1936: The Biggest Baseball Crowd -- In Berlin?

Bill Sayles. The "B" stands for "Brooklyn," not "Berlin."

August 12, 1936: What was definitely the biggest crowd in baseball history to that point, and may still be, sees a game in... Nazi Germany?

After having been a "demonstration sport," rather than an actual competition, at the Olympic Games in Paris in 1900, and again in Stockholm, Sweden in 1912, baseball returned to Olympic display, though still not yet joining official Olympic competition, in 1936.

There was a single exhibition game, played at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. Since Olympic competitors had to be amateurs until 1992, all of the players in the game were Americans who had not yet played in the minor leagues, let alone in the major leagues. The umpire was Leslie Mann, whose 16-year major league career included playing as an outfielder for the 1914 World Series-winning "Miracle" Boston Braves. He had been among the leading advocates for putting baseball in the Olympics.

The "visiting team," the one batting 1st, was called the "U.S. Olympics." The "home team" was called the "World Champions." The game was set for 7 innings. The game was set for 8:00 PM, and for most of the players, this would be their 1st experience in a night game. (The 1st night game in MLB had been played the season before, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, but that was still the only major league park with lights.)

Although the Olympiastadion was built for soccer and for track & field events, and didn't have room for a standard baseball field, I can find no reference to whether any accommodation was made for any "short fences."

The Berlin Olympiastadion

A crowd then estimated at 90,000 came out. Officially, the biggest crowd that had ever attended a single Major League Baseball game (rather than a doubleheader) was the 74,217 who were said to have attended the opening game of the original Yankee Stadium in 1923. (And that was almost certainly a lie, exaggerated by around 12,000 or so.)

But the Associated Press reported the crowd as being over 100,000, without getting any more specific than that. If so, then this remained a record for any baseball game until 2008, when 115,300 packed into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for an exhibition game. Regardless of the actual total, neither the Chancellor of Germany at the time, Adolf Hitler, nor any official of the Nazi Party, was said to have attended.

For the U.S. Olympics, 1st baseman Bill Shaw hit a 2-run home run in the 1st inning. At the end of 6 innings, the World Champions led, 5–4. The Olympics scored in the top of the 7th to tie the game, before Les McNeece hit a solo home run, what would now be called a walkoff home run, in the bottom of the 7th, to win the game for the World Champions, 6-5.

Bill Sayles was the starting pitcher for the World Champions. He was the only player in this game who would go on to play in the major leagues: He pitched in 5 games for the Boston Red Sox in 1939, 18 for the New York Giants in 1943, and 5 for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, with a record of 1-3, and an ERA of 5.61. Most likely, he made those 1943 appearances solely because of the manpower drain caused by the war the Nazis started. He lived on until 1996.

Baseball would once again be a demonstration sport at the Olympics in Helsinki, Finland in 1952, and then occasionally, until finally becoming an official competition sport in Barcelona, Spain in 1992. After 2008 in Beijing, it was dropped. It was restored for Tokyo in 2020 (2021), but dropped again for Paris in 2024.

UPDATE: It will be restored for Los Angeles in 2028, with a 6-team tournament to be played entirely at Dodger Stadium, during a planned 11-day break in the Major League Baseball season.

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August 12, 1936 was a Wednesday. Back in America, these major-league games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 11-7 at Yankee Stadium. Jake Powell hit a home run, Lou Gehrig went 0-for-2 with 2 walks, and rookie Joe DiMaggio went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Irving "Bump" Hadley went a shaky distance for the win.

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, 2-1 at Ebbets Field. Frank Gabler of the Giants and Van Lingle Mungo of the Dodgers each pitched 11 shutout innings. In the top of the 12th, Gabler himself tripled home 2 runs. But Gabler faltered in the bottom of the 12th, and had to be relieved by Carl Hubbell. He threw a wild pitch to get one of Gabler's runners home, but then shut the door for the Giants' win. Mel Ott went 0-for-5. Player-manager Bill Terry sent himself up as a pinch-hitter, but did not reach base.

* A doubleheader was split at Fenway Park in Boston. The Boston Red Sox won the opener, 6-4 over the Philadelphia Athletics. Wes Ferrell pitched and won, and hit 2 home runs. That season, he went 20-15 with a 4.19 ERA; and, in 135 at-bats, batted .267 with 5 home runs and 24 RBIs. The year before, he went 25-12 with a 3.52 ERA, and in 150 at-bats, batted .347 with 7 home runs and 32 RBIs.

He, Don Newcombe in 1955, and Don Drysdale in 1965 remain the only players to have 20 pitching wins and 7 home runs in the same season. Babe Ruth, of course, did both, but not in the same season. He won 23 games in 1916 and 24 in 1917, but wasn't yet an everyday hitter, notching just 3 and 2 homers, respectively. In 1918, he won 13 and hit 11 homers; in 1919, he won 9 and hit 29 homers.

(UPDATE: Through the 2024 season, Shohei Ohtani's peak for pitching wins in a season is 15, in 2022, with 34 home runs.)

The A's won the nightcap, 6-0. Harry Kelley pitched a 3-hit shutout. Over the 2 games against his former team, Jimmie Foxx went 2-for-8 with a walk.

* The Boston Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Paul Waner went 1-for-3 with a walk, and Lloyd Waner went 1-for-5.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-4 at League Park in Cleveland. Hank Greenberg was injured early in the season, and was out the rest of the way, including this game.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 8-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 5-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Frank Demaree went 4-for-5 for the Cubs, and Stan Hack went 3-for-5 with an RBI. But it was for nought, Joe Medwick and Johnny Mize hit home runs for the Redbirds.

August 9, 1936: His Name Was Sohn Kee-chung

August 9, 1936: The marathon race is held in the Olympics in Berlin, Nazi Germany. Officially, it was won by Kitei Son of Japan, a nation that would soon be an ally of the Nazis.

Unofficially, it was a much better story.

His real name was Sohn Kee-chung. He was born on August 29, 1912, in Sinŭiju, in what is now North Korea. Since 1910, however, Korea had been part of the Empire of Japan. And so, any athletes from Korea were forced to compete for Japan, under their flag, and with Japanese names.

Between 1933 and 1936, Sohn Kee-chung ran 12 marathons, finishing in the top 3 in each, and won 9. On November 3, 1935, in the Japanese capital of Tokyo, he set a world record with a time of 2 hours, 26 minutes and 42 seconds.

In the 1936 Olympics, Sohn tried to sign his name in its correct Korean form. But it was not his legal name, and so he was forced to write it in, and compete, as Kitei Son. Another Korean, Nam Sung-yong, entered the marathon, and had to compete under his legal Japanese name, Nan Shōryū. Sohn won the race in 2 hours, 29 minutes, 19.2 seconds, breaking the Olympic record. Nam finished 3rd, winning the Bronze Medal.

The International Olympic Committee, not recognizing Korea as a member, credited both medals to Japan's total. Sohn refused to acknowledge the Japanese national anthem while it was played at his award ceremony, and later told reporters that he was ashamed to run for Japan.

In 1945, Allied forces forced the surrender of Japan, and Korea was free. But, as part of the peace treaty, a line was drawn at the 38th parallel, and Communist forces had control over the northern part, including Sohn's hometown of Sinŭiju. The Korea War resulted, from 1950 to 1953, and the new border was a diagonal across the country, but roughly around the 38th parallel.

Sohn was named the team manager for Korea's national track & field team. In 1947, his trainee, Suh Yun-Bok, won the Boston Marathon, breaking the record that Sohn had set in Tokyo in 1935. For the Opening Ceremony for the 1948 Olympics in London, the entire Korean team chose Sohn to be their flag bearer. In 1950, another Sohn trainee, Ham Kee-Young, won the Boston Marathon.

In 1988, the Olympics were held in Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea (a.k.a. South Korea). The final runner in the Olympic torch relay, receiving perhaps the greatest ovation anyone has ever received in an Olympic ceremony, was 75-year-old Sohn Kee-chung. He attended the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, and saw Hwang Young-Cho win the Olympic marathon.

Sohn died on November 15, 2002. Nam Sung-young, who had worked with him at the Korean Sporting Association, had died a year earlier. On December 9, 2011, the IOC recognized Korean nationality of Sohn and Nam, and all other Korean athletes under the Empire of Japan, in their official profiles.

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August 9, 1936 was a Sunday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Athletics, 7-6 and 3-0 at Yankee Stadium. In the opener, Jake Powell singled Bill Dickey home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Dickey, Lou Gehrig and rookie Joe DiMaggio all hit home runs. Lefty Gomez started, and Johnny Murphy won in relief. In the nightcap, Gehrig's 3-run triple in the bottom of the 1st provided all the game's runs, and Monte Pearson pitched a 4-hit shutout.

Over the 2 games, Gehrig went 2-for-8 with a walk and 4 RBIs, DiMaggio went 3-for-9 with an RBI, and Dickey went 5-for-6 with 2 walks and an RBI.

* The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-2 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. Mel Ott went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers swept a doubleheader from the Boston Bees, 4-0 ant 5-2 at National League Park in Boston. Fred Frankhouse, known as "Freddy Frankhouse with the roundhouse curve," pitched a 5-hit shutout in the 1st game.

This was the year after a 115-loss season that led the former Boston Braves to, as we would say today, "rebrand." It never caught on, and in 1941, the team went back to being the Boston Braves, and the ballpark went back to its former name of Braves Field.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 8-2 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Jimmie Foxx went 2-for-4 with a walk and 3 RBIs.

* The Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the Chicago White Sox, 9-1 and 5-2 at League Park in Cleveland.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-3 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

* The Chicago Cubs swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-2 and 10-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Over the 2 games, Billy Herman went 5-for-9 with a home run and 4 RBIs, Phil Cavarretta went 5-for-10 with an RBI, Ethan Allen went 5-for-8 with 2 walks and 3 RBIs, and Stan Hack went 4-for-8 with 2 walks and an RBI. For the Pirates, Paul Waner went 4-for-6 with a walk and an RBI, and Lloyd Waner went 2-for-9 with an RBI.

* And the Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-2 and 12-5 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

August 5, 1936: The Helene Mayer Story

August 5, 1936: Helene Mayer wins a Silver Medal at the Olympics. Ordinarily, an athlete finishing 2nd in an Olympic event wouldn't be a big deal. This time, it is.

At 17, she won a Gold Medal in foil fencing at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, and was a national hero in Weimar Germany. She competed again in 1932 in Los Angeles, but just before a match, she was told that her boyfriend had died in a military training exercise. This was only a year after losing her father. Shaken, she only finished 5th.

She stayed in America to attend college as an exchange student. But when Adolf Hitler seized power in 1933, her membership at her native fencing club was terminated, because she was Jewish. She taught at California colleges, and then in 1935 her German citizenship was canceled with the Nuremberg Laws.

There was a movement to boycott the 1936 Olympics, scheduled for Berlin. To avoid this, Nazi authorities chose her as the token Jew on the German Olympic team. She won a Silver Medal, and, on the podium, in an effort to protect her family, gave a Nazi salute.

She went back to America, and won the U.S. women's foil championship 8 times in 13 years from 1934 to 1946. In 1952, with World War II over and freedom back in place, but perhaps knowing she was dying, she returned to her homeland, and got married, spending her last months in happiness. She was posthumously elected to the U.S. Fencing Association Hall of Fame.

Helen Mayer died on October 10, 1953, of breast cancer, in Munich, Germany. She was only 42 years old.

*

August 5, 1936 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Lou Gehrig went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Rookie Joe DiMaggio went 2-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. For the Red Sox, Jimmie Foxx went 3-for-4, but had no RBIs.

* The New York Giants beat the Boston Bees, 8-4 at the Polo Grounds. (This was the 1st of 5 seasons in which the Boston Braves called themselves the Bees, but the name never caught on, and they switched back.) Mel Ott hit 2 home runs.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 9-6 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. For the Pirates, Paul Waner went 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI, but his brother Lloyd Waner only went 1-for-5.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-4 at Navin Field in Detroit. (It was later renamed Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium.) Hank Greenberg was injured, and did not play. Billy Sullivan hit a 3-run double in the top of the 10th inning, and the Tigers could only respond with 1 run in the bottom of the 10th.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 4-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* And there was a doubleheader at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox, 16-4 in the opener. The nightcap was tied, 9-9 after 7 innings, when it was called due to darkness.

August 3, 1936: Jesse Owens Beats Aryan Supremacy

August 3, 1936: Nazi Germany's myth of racial supremacy is shattered by a black American.

The International Olympic Committee had awarded the 1936 Olympic Games to Germany in 1931, when it was still governed by the Weimar Republic. The Winter Games went to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria, on the nation's southern border, with Austria. The Summer Games went to the national capital, Berlin.

But in 1933, the National Socialist German Workers' Party -- Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpar, or "Nazi" Party -- came to power, and Adolf Hitler became Chancellor. Within another year, he had total control, and instituted the party's ideology, fascism: Nationalism, militarism, bigotry, and letting big business do whatever it wanted.

He also instituted his ideal of an "Aryan" "master race": White, blond hair, blue eyes, tall, physically strong. He, himself, was white, but not the other things.

And he falsely blamed Communists and Jews for Germany's defeat in World War I. Well before most people know what a "holocaust" was (originally, the word was used to mean a large fire), he was cutting Jewish people out of German society.

Like most dictators, he was not especially interested in sports. But, like many of them, someone talked him into using sports as propaganda for his ideals. And so, the 1936 Olympics, especially the Summer Games in Berlin, would be a spectacle celebrating "Aryan supremacy."

But a story which may be apocryphal (I hope it's true) shows that even his power was not absolute. In the Olympic Stadium (Olympiastadion) he had constructed for the Games, the restrooms had signs saying, "Dogs and Jews are not allowed." A representative of the International Olympic Committee told him to take it down.

Hitler: "When you come into a man's house, you don't tell him what he can and cannot put up!"

IOC official: "Excuse me, Mr. Chancellor, but when that five-ringed flag goes up over the stadium, it is no longer Germany. It is Olympia. And we are the masters there."

The signs came down.

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James Cleveland Owens was born on September 12, 1913 in Oakville, Alabama. One thing Southern white people and Southern black people have in common is frequently addressing boys by their initials, so Owens was usually called "J.C."

When he was 9, the family moved north, as part of the "Great Migration" of African-Americans seeking to leave the segregated South in search of less prejudice and better jobs in the Northeast, the Midwest, and the West Coast. The fact that they moved to Cleveland, both his and his father's middle name (Henry Cleveland Owens), appears to have been a coincidence.

Upon arrival in school in Cleveland, the boy was asked his name. He said, "J.C. Owens." The teacher misheard this, and said, "Your name is Jesse?" Not wanting to contradict her, he said it was. And so he was Jesse Owens from then on.

He became Ohio's biggest high school track star. On May 25, 1935 -- the day after the 1st night game in Major League Baseball -- he competed for Ohio State University at the Big Ten Championships at Ferry Field, the former football facility at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

He ran the 100-yard dash in 9.4 seconds, tying the world record. He set world records in the long jump (26 feet, 8 1/4 inches, a world record that would last for 25 years), the 220-yard sprint (20.3 seconds), and the 220-yard low hurdles (22.6 seconds). These 4 records were all set within a span of 45 minutes.

So when the U.S. Olympic Team set sail -- flying across the Atlantic Ocean was still too risky at that point -- for Germany in July 1936, Owens was considered one of the favorites in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, and the long jump. (Most of the world was now racing using the metric system, although the United States, as yet, was not.)

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The Games began on August 1, and were the 1st sporting event ever televised, though only a few people in Germany had sets on which to watch it. The Nazis instituted many of the things we now associate with the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, including the torch relay from Olympia, Greece into the stadium and the lighting of the cauldron; and the release of doves as a symbol of peace, although they used pigeons instead. When a cannon was fired as a salute, it literally scared the shit out of the pigeons, and many of the athletes got pooped on.

Established from the beginning in 1896 was the host country's head of state speaking before the crowd, and declaring the Games open. Hitler did this, in German, rather than French, the official language of the Olympics (he hated the French as much as he hated anyone else), or in English, by this point the semi-official language of the world. (As far as historians have been able to determine, German was the only language he spoke fluently.)

It's not always the head of state that does it. Sometimes, someone else is designated. In 1932, in Los Angeles, President Herbert Hoover sent Vice President Charles Curtis. In 1960, in Squaw Valley for the Winter Games, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent Vice President Richard Nixon to his native California to do it. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter sent Vice President Walter Mondale. President Ronald Reagan did it himself in his adopted home State in Los Angeles in 1984, President Bill Clinton did it in Atlanta in 1996, and President George W. Bush did it in Salt Lake City in 2002.

When Britain has hosted: King Edward VII did it in 1908, King George VI did it in 1948, and Queen Elizabeth II did it in 2012, despite being 86 years old. When Australia hosted in 1956 and 2000, and when Canada did it in 1976 for the Summer Games, and 1988 and 2010 for the Winter Games, it was the Queen's representative, the Governor-General, who did it, even though the Queen was in attendance in Montreal in 1976, as her daughter, Princess Anne, was competing in the equestrian events.

The Parade of Nations had also been established from the beginning, and many of the countries' delegations followed the tradition of dipping their flag before the host nation's head of state. The American delegation refused to do this with the Stars & Stripes, and it had nothing to do with said head of state being a Fascist maniac. They were criticized for this, but stood their ground.

On August 2, Owens ran in the qualifying heats for the 100 meters. In the 1st, he tied the Olympic and world record. In the 2nd, he broke it. On August 3, the final was held, and Owens won it with a time of 10.3 seconds. Finishing 2nd was another black American, Ralph Metcalfe, who would later serve the South Side of Chicago in Congress from 1971 until his death in 1978.

Owens was now an Olympic Gold Medalist, and, by winning the Olympic 100-meter dash, he became recognized unofficially as "the fastest man in the world."

On August 4, Owens won the long jump, with 26 feet, 5 inches. Finishing 2nd was Luz Long of Germany, who did fit the Aryan profile. Owens was missing the tape and fouling, and, in a great display of sportsmanship, Long advised Owens to jump a bit short of the tape, just to be sure. It worked, and he had a 2nd Gold Medal.

On August 5, he won the 200 meters in 20.7 seconds. Finishing 2nd was a runner from UCLA, Matthew MacKenzie "Mack" Robinson. He had a younger brother, who went on to star in track, and other sports, at UCLA: Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson. So Owens now had 3 Gold Medals, fulfilling his goal.

On the 1st day, Hitler shook hands with the German victors only, and then left the stadium. International Olympic Committee president Henri de Baillet-Latour told him that he had to greet every medalist or none at all. Hitler opted for none at all, and skipped all further medal presentations.

His refusal to congratulate Owens had nothing to do with hating black people, or hating Americans. Nor was it personal. Owens was not "snubbed by Hitler." Owens responded to these claims at the time:

Hitler had a certain time to come to the stadium and a certain time to leave. It happened he had to leave before the victory ceremony after the 100 meters race began at 5:45 PM. But before he left, I was on my way to a broadcast, and passed near his box. He waved at me, and I waved back. I think it was bad taste to criticize the "man of the hour" in another country.

The final of the 4x100-meter sprint relay was to be held on August 9. The intended American competitors were Frank Wykoff (Des Moines, Iowa and of Dutch descent, having already taken Gold Medals in the event in 1928 and 1932), Foy Draper (from Texas and of English descent, and would be listed as missing in action in World War II), and 2 Jewish runners, Marty Glickman from New York and Sam Stoller from Cincinnati. (Glickman went on to become the 1st great New York sportscaster.)

But the President of the U.S. Olympic Committee was Avery Brundage, a racist and an anti-Semite, who was just fine with the Nazis. He decided that, since Hitler's boys had already been beaten by black men, it would be worse if they were beaten by Jews. So he benched Glickman and Stoller, and told Owens and Metcalfe that they would run in those men's places. Owens objected. Coach Dean Cromwell told him, "You'll do as you're told." With no recourse but to drop out, which would have been much worse, he ran the anchor leg, and the U.S. team won.

Owens had his 4th Gold Medal -- possibly the most unwelcome medal in Olympic history. This feat -- winning the Gold Medals of the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the 4x100-meter relay, and the long jump -- has only been done once since, by Carl Lewis in Los Angeles in 1984.

From a distance, Owens was hailed as a hero upon his return to America. Up close, he was still treated like any other black person in the 1930s. He found it difficult to make a living -- "You can't eat four gold medals," he said -- and took part in demeaning stunts to raise money. During World War II, the U.S. Office of Civilian Defense appointed Owens as director of a national fitness program for African Americans, but he lost this job when peace came. Like his contemporary, Joe Louis, the Heavyweight Champion of the World, he fell into trouble over his taxes. Unlike Louis, he eventually got out of it.

He became what he called "a professional good example." He became an American representative at the Olympics, and was particularly honored the next time a free and democratic Germany hosted, in Munich in 1972. He even did an American Express "Do you know me?" commercial. He died on March 31, 1980, of cancer, at age 66. He is buried at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago.

The Olympiastadion still stands, having undergone some renovations. It is the home of the biggest soccer team in the German capital, Hertha Berlin. It hosted 3 games in the 1974 World Cup, and 6 games in the 2006 World Cup, including the Final and a Quarterfinal. It hosted the 2015 UEFA Champions League Final, and is scheduled to host the Final of Euro 2024. Having seated over 100,000 upon its opening, renovations and wider seats have brought capacity down to 74,475, but it is still the largest stadium in any German-speaking country.

In fact, the Olympiastadion in Berlin is 1 of 3 stadiums to have hosted an Olympic Games, a World Cup Final and a UEFA European Cup/Champions League Final. The others are the Olympiastadion in Munich and the old Wembley Stadium in London. In 2024, the Stade de France outside Paris will make it 4.

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August 3, 1936 was a Monday. It was the off-season for the NFL and the NHL, and the NBA hadn't been founded yet. And only 1 Major League Baseball game was played that day, as Monday is often a travel day. The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-4 at Navin Field in Detroit. (The ballpark was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938 and Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Tiger slugger Hank Greenberg got hurt on April 29, and missed the rest of the season.

Lynwood "Schoolboy" Rowe outpitched Mel Harder, and helped his own cause with 2 hits. Future Hall-of-Famers Charlie Gehringer and Al Simmons also got 2 hits for the Tigers, and Gerald "Gee" Walker got 3. Hall-of-Famer Hank Greenberg did not play in the game: He was injured on April 29, and missed the rest of the season.

Jerry G. Bishop was born on this day. He was the 1st actor to play the horror-themed TV show host Svengoolie, from 1970 to 1973. Rich Koz took over the role, and, as of August 3, 2022, still holds it.