September 25, 1941: The Brooklyn Dodgers' Wild Ride

September 25, 1941: The Dodgers can clinch their 1st Pennant in 21 years today, if they beat the Boston Braves at Braves Field in Boston. If not, there are 2 games left, both at home to the woeful Philadelphia Phillies.

They had opened the season on April 15, with a lot of hope. They hadn't won a National League Pennant since 1920, and hadn't been in a Pennant race since 1924. But they had been rebuilt, under the auspices of team president Larry MacPhail. He had renovated Ebbets Field, hired Walter "Red" Barber as radio broadcaster, traded for shortstop Leo Durocher, made Durocher the manager, and made other key transactions, including trading for Durocher's replacement as shortstop, Harold "Pee Wee" Reese.

After going 62-91 in the last pre-MacPhail season, 1937, the Dodgers improved to 69-80 in 1938. In 1939, they improved to 84-69, 3rd place, but still 12 1/2 games behind the Pennant-winning Cincinnati Reds. In 1940, they were 88-65, 2nd place, but still 12 games behind the Pennant-winning Reds.

Still, hopes were high for 1941. But their opening series, at home to their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, was a flop: They were swept 3 straight, 6-4, 3-1 and 7-5. It wasn't that surprising: The Giants still had some of the players that had won Pennants in 1933 (also winning the World Series that year), 1936 and 1937. Then the Dodgers went up to Boston and turned it around, sweeping a 3-game series from the Braves.

The same teams started a new series on April 20. It was the Giants' home opener at the Polo Grounds, with a full house of 56,314 on hand. Remembering that Joe Medwick, the former St. Louis Cardinal slugger had been beaned shortly after MacPhail had traded for him, the Dodgers came to bat with metal inserts inside their caps. This was the 1st step toward baseball teams wearing batting helmets. The Dodgers won the game, 10-9, and ended up taking 2 out of 3 in the series.

From April 18 to 30, the Dodgers went 13-1. They ended the month in 1st place by 1 game. From May 6 to 14, they rattled off a 7-game winning streak. Then, through May 22, they lost 6 straight. Then, through June 1, they won 9 straight. They were tied for 1st with the Cardinals, with the next-closest team, the Giants, being 8 games behind.

But after June 1, they went downhill again. From June 2 to 18, they went 6-8. Then they got going again, winning 15 out of 19 decisions (plus a game that was called due to rain while tied) through July 11. They were 3 1/2 games ahead of the Cardinals. After losing 2, they won another 4, to go 4 games up.

This streaky team then took another downturn, going 2-10, including going 0-4 against the Cards, plus a game that was called due to darkness after 12 innings, as the Cards' Sportsman's Park didn't yet have lights. At the close of business on July 30, the Dodgers trailed the Cards by 3 games. They were playing like "Dem Bums" of old.

But they closed July by taking the finale of their series in St. Louis, 9-5. That started another hot streak, going 9-1 through August 11. But the Cards stayed hot, too, so, by that date, the teams were tied for 1st. The Dodgers won 5 straight: A doubleheader in Boston on August 17, a single game at home to the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 18, and a doubleheader against the Pirates on August 19. But no matter what the Dodgers did, they couldn't shake the Cards: As late as September 3, the teams were tied for 1st.

The Dodgers got hot one more time, going 13-6 from September 6 to 24. This run included a 10-inning win at home to the Giants on the 7th, an 11-inning win away to the Cards on the 11th, and 4 runs in the top of the 17th to beat the defending World Champion Reds.

On September 25, they played the Boston Braves at Braves Field. They need not have worried. Their ace, Whitlow Wyatt, pitched a shutout for his 22nd win of the season, and was backed by a home run by Pete Reiser. The Dodgers won, 6-0.

Listening on the radio back at Ebbets Field, MacPhail called the New York Central Railroad office at Grand Central Terminal. He wanted the Dodgers' train back from Boston's Back Bay Station stopped at 125th Street, the last stop before Grand Central, so he can get on, and then get off with them to enjoy the party on arrival.

On the train, already a party every bit as chaotic as the plane flight that the New York Mets would have back from Houston 45 years later, Durocher is told this, and he tells the conductor to forget the order, and plow right on through to Grand Central. Why should their fans wait any longer to celebrate, just because MacPhail's massive ego wanted some validation? And so, the train barreled right on through 125th Street, leaving MacPhail fuming on the platform.

The next day, MacPhail called Durocher into his office, and fired him on the spot. Durocher appealed to the team's various owners, including the young lawyer operating the Brooklyn Trust bank's 1/4 share of the team, Walter O'Malley. MacPhail was overruled.

It was a difficult time for the world. World War II was on, and Nazi Germany was still pounding Great Britain with bombs, but the Royal Air Force rendered them unable to make a crossing of the English Channel for a land invasion. Every country in Western Europe had been either conquered by the Nazis or, as in the case with the already-fascist-ruled nations of Italy, Spain and Portugal, and the neutral nations of Switzerland and Sweden, taken into their diplomatic orbit. And they had invaded the Soviet Union, and were besieging Leningrad, and were knocking on the door of Moscow itself. The Red Army was digging in.

And in the Pacific region, the Empire of Japan was truly a rising Sun, having effectively taken over Korea, Japan, and the Dutch East Indies (the eventual Indonesia). They were threatening British and French interests in Southeast Asia, and even Australia. As would soon be seen, even American possessions in the Pacific Ocean were not safe.

But baseball had been America's distraction from the threat of being dragging into this horrible war. The Dodgers had that great Pennant race. The Yankees ran away with the American League Pennant, due largely to the 56-game hitting streak that Joe DiMaggio had from May 15 to July 16. And Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox had batted .406, clinching the .400 batting average on the season's last day, September 28.

The Dodgers and their fans were feeling particularly potent at this moment. They were convinced that they would beat the New York Yankees in the World Series, and take over New York.

It didn't happen. How was a stunning story. The Dodgers would have a near-miss for the Pennant in 1942, fall short during World War II, had another near-miss in 1946, and won the Pennant in 1947. That year and 1948 were transition seasons, and in 1949, they began a run of success with a new group of players, some of whom had debuted in 1947, including Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider. Included in that was, finally, a World Series win.

Then came something much worse for their fans than losing a World Series: They lost their team.

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September 25, 1941 was a Thursday. There were 3 other bas* eball games were played that day:

* The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Mel Ott went 0-for-3 with a walk. Bob Carpenter went the distance to win the game for the Giants. Two years later, a different Bob Carpenter would buy the Phillies, and restore them to glory.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Rookie Stan Musial, who'd made his major league debut just 8 days earlier, went 2-for-4.

* And the Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

June 17, 1902: The 20th Century Limited Begins Operation

June 17, 1902: The New York Central Railroad begins the 1st run of the 20th Century Limited, a new train service from New York to Chicago. It becomes known as the fastest train in the Eastern United States.

The luxury train left Grand Central Terminal in New York, went up the Hudson River to Albany, then turned west, crossed New York State to Buffalo, then hugged the coast of Lake Erie, stopping in Cleveland, and in Toledo for a connection to Detroit, and terminated at Chicago's LaSalle Street Station. The 1st one completed its run in 20 hours, 4 hours faster than any previous New York-to-Chicago train. The introduction of Art Deco diesel cars in 1938 allowed them to cut the run to 16 hours.

Starting in 1938, the timetable was as follows: Leave New York at 5:00 PM; Harmon, New York at 5:46; Albany at 7:39; Syracuse at 10:05; Buffalo at 12:25 AM; Toledo at 3:06; Englewood, on the South Side of Chicago, at 7:26; and La Salle Street at 8:00 -- with the switch from Eastern Time to Central Time, 16 hours exactly.

The return trip: Leave Chicago at 3:00 PM, Englewood at 3:10, Toledo at 7:30, Buffalo at 10:01, Syracuse at 12:21 AM, Albany at 5:02, Harmon at 7:00, and Grand Central at 8:00.

The 20th Century Limited was the setting for a Broadway play in 1932, Twentieth Century, which was adapted into a film in 1934. and then into a Broadway musical in 1978, On the Twentieth Century. The train also figured prominently as a setting for major scenes in both Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 North by Northwest and George Roy Hill's 1973 The Sting -- which incorrectly had the train arrive in Chicago at night, not in the morning as it did in reality.

The increasing prevalence of the automobile ruined the passenger rail industry. The New York Central, and its competitor, the Pennsylvania Railroad, with its New York Penn Station-to-Chicago Union Station-running Broadway Limited, went bankrupt in the 1960s.

On December 2, 1967, at 6:00 PM, a 20th Century Limited left Grand Central Terminal's Track 34 for the last time. It was only due to the nostalgia factor that it was even half-full. As always, carnations were given to men boarding the train, and perfume and flowers to women. The next day, it arrived at LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, 9 hours 50 minutes late due to a freight derailment near Conneaut, Ohio, which forced a slow rerouting over the parallel Nickel Plate railroad freight line.

The competing railroads were merged in 1968, becoming Penn Central. In 1976, it was still bankrupt, and reorganized into Conrail. In 1971, Amtrak took over national passenger service. In 1975, Amtrak copied the 20th Century Limited, and created the Lake Shore Limited, running it from Grand Central to Chicago Union. In 1991, Penn Station became its New York terminus.

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June 17, 1902 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Giants were swept in a doubleheader by the Boston Beaneaters, 6-3 and 13-2 at the South End Grounds in Boston. The Beaneaters became the Braves in 1912.

* The Brooklyn Superbas beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at National League Park (later Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia. The Superbas became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Cleveland Bronchos swept a doubleheader from the Boston Americans, 7-3 and 4-3 at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Addie Joss beat Cy Young in the nightcap. The Americans became the Red Sox in 1908. The next season, the Bronchos renamed themselves for their best hitter and 2nd baseman, and even named him their manager: Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie. They became the Cleveland Naps in 1903, the Cleveland Indians in 1915, and the Cleveland Guardians in 2022.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 4-0 at Bennett Park in Detroit. Win Mercer pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-2 at at South Side Park in Chicago.

* Rain stopped the game between the St. Louis Browns and the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park in Baltimore, ending it 2-2 after 11 innings at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The Orioles folded at the end of the season, and were replaced by the New York team that would become the Yankees in 1913. After the 1953 season, the Browns moved, becoming... the Baltimore Orioles.

* Not scheduled for that day: The Chicago Orphans, the Cincinnati Reds, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals. The Chicago team, formerly known as the White Stockings and, for their youth, as the Colts, had long been led by 1st baseman and manager Adrian Constantine Anson. He was known as "Cap," for "Captain," until he got older, and became known as "Pop." He retired after the 1897 season, and the team became known as the "Orphans," because "they missed their Pop." They were renamed the Chicago Cubs in 1903.

February 2, 1913: Grand Central Terminal Opens

February 2, 1913: Grand Central Terminal opens in Midtown Manhattan, at 42nd Street and Park Avenue. It replaces the former Grand Central Depot on the site, which had been in place since 1871.

Ever since, people have called it "Grand Central Station," but this is incorrect: It has always been officially named "Grand Central Terminal."

It became home to the New York Central Railroad, including its New York-to-Chicago train, the Twentieth Century Limited. It also became home to the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad.

The New York Central tracks running under Park Avenue, including 49th Street, allowed for special access from track level to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, which opened in 1931. (The previous hotel by that name, at 34th Street and 5th Avenue, was torn down to make way for the Empire State Building, also opening in 1931.) From 1933 to 1945, this enabled President Franklin D. Roosevelt to take the New York Central from his hometown of Hyde Park, New York to Grand Central, and to be moved from the station to the hotel without the general public seeing his disability.

Grand Central became a major intercity conduit, and also a major commuter center, as it not only took people who lived in the Hudson Valley and Connecticut to their workplaces in Manhattan, but also served as an important subway junction, as the IRT's Lexington Avenue Line (today's 4, 5 and 6 Trains) and its Flushing Line (today's 7 Train) intersect there. A shuttle (now an S Train) connected the terminal with Times Square, 4 blocks to the west (Park Avenue to Madison, to 5th, to 6th, to 7th).

In 1963, the 808-foot Pan Am Building opened, between the station and the old New York Central Building. It was not popular: If anything, it was considered "too modern." In 1992, Pan American Airways went out of business, and the skyscraper became the MetLife Building. The New York Central Building, which opened in 1929, was renamed the New York General Building in 1958 and the Helmsley Building in 1978.

The New York Central Railroad went bankrupt, and in 1968 it merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad to form the Penn Central Corporation. By this point, a plan to build a skyscraper around the station, including demolishing the 42nd Street facade, had been released to the public.

The public hated it. No one more than former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who was a charter member of the New York City Landmarks Commission, formed in the wake of the destruction of the old Pennsylvania Station in 1963. She said:

Is it not cruel to let our city die by degrees, stripped of all her proud monuments, until there will be nothing left of all her history and beauty to inspire our children? If they are not inspired by the past of our city, where will they find the strength to fight for her future? Americans care about their past, but for short term gain they ignore it and tear down everything that matters. Maybe... this is the time to take a stand, to reverse the tide, so that we won't all end up in a uniform world of steel and glass boxes.

A lawsuit was filed, and finally decided in 1978, in favor of the City. The station would not be demolished. But it needed a major renovation and cleanup. It got them, but at a price. Not just an enormous sum of money: Amtrak, formed in 1971 to take the place of the bankrupt passenger railroads, moved all of its intercity service out of New York to the new Penn Station in 1991.

In 1983, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a State of New York agency that already ran the City's Subway system, took over the commuter operations out of Grand Central, and formed the Metro-North Commuter Railroad. It has 3 lines: The Hudson Line goes up the Hudson River to Poughkeepsie, the Harlem line goes up the other side of Westchester County, hugging the State Line with Connecticut; and the New Haven Line, in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Transportation, goes up Long Island Sound, into Connecticut, to New Haven, with branches to New Canaan, Danbury and Waterbury. Grand Central is 2nd only to Penn Station as America's busiest passenger railroad hub.

In 2008, work began on Grand Central Madison, allowing for the Terminal to finally be connected with the Long Island Railroad, to ease commuter congestion at Penn Station. It is scheduled to open in 2023. (UPDATE: It did, on January 25.)

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February 2, 1913 was a Sunday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. There was professional hockey, including the National Hockey Association, from whence 1 surviving team, the Montreal Canadiens, came. But the NHA had a rule against playing on Sundays, so there were no scores on this historic day.

January 8, 1902: The Park Avenue Rail Tunnel Crash

January 8, 1902: A southbound steam train, approaching Grand Central Depot in Manhattan, overruns signals in the smoky Park Avenue Tunnel, and collides with another southbound train, killing 15 people and injuring more than 30 others. At the time, it was the worst transit disaster in New York City history.

The Tunnel opened in 1875, to connect Grand Central with the New York Central Railroad and its branches as it spread out north of Manhattan Island, including what would eventually become the Hudson Line, the Harlem Line, and the New Haven Line of Metro-North Commuter Railroad.

This crash directly resulted in the construction of the modern-day Grand Central Terminal, and the development of Park Avenue as a residential destination and a metaphor for wealth. A week after the crash, New York Central president William H. Newman announced that all of the railroad's suburban lines to Grand Central would be electrified, and the approach to the station would be put underground.

The New York state legislature subsequently passed a law to ban all steam trains in Manhattan beginning on July 1, 1908. By December 1902, as part of an agreement with the city, New York Central agreed to put the approach to Grand Central Station from 46th to 59th Streets in an open cut under Park Avenue, and to upgrade the tracks to accommodate electric trains. Overpasses would be built across the open cut at most of the cross-streets.

Following Newman's pledge to electrify New York Central rail lines, plans to electrify the Park Avenue line and replace the then-overcrowded Grand Central Depot were announced. In March 1903, William J. Wilgus, the railroad's chief engineer -- a designer, not a train operator -- presented a more-detailed proposal to the New York Central board, describing a modern railroad terminal with separate levels for commuter and intercity railroads, among other things.

Wilgus' plan was approved, and subsequently Grand Central Depot was demolished in phases, and replaced with the Beaux Arts-style Grand Central Terminal in 1913. As part of the project, the rail yard and the approach from 59th Street were placed underground and electrified. Electric locomotives were placed in regular passenger service in January 1907. In October, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad also began running electric trains in.

With the elimination of the noise and pollution from steam locomotives, this once-undesirable section of Park Avenue, from 42nd Street to the emergence of the line above ground at 97th Street, and the land freed by the covering-over of the rail yard became prime New York City real estate.

The area became one of the city's most attractive residential areas as mansions and high-class apartments were constructed along Park Avenue, including the 2nd Waldorf-Astoria Hotel between 49th and 50th, replacing the one that had been demolished to make way for the Empire State Building; and 1049 Park Avenue between 86th and 87th, which became famous as the site of the TV show The Odd Couple.

"Park Avenue" -- and, also, "the Upper East Side," which was essentially created by all of this -- became a metaphor for wealth, not just in America, but worldwide. In a 1944 Tom and Jerry cartoon, Million Dollar Cat, Tom inherits $1 million from an eccentric aunt, on the condition that he not harm another living creature, "even a mouse." He moves into the penthouse of 1 Park Avenue -- in real life, between 32nd and 33rd, with Park Avenue South extending to 14th Street and Union Square -- while Jerry, to test him, moves to "1/2 Park Avenue."

On a 1956 episode of The Honeymooners, sewer worker Ed Norton (played by Art Carney) claims he always catches a cold while working in a sewer under Park Avenue, because, "They're air-conditioned."

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January 8, 1902 was a Wednesday. There were no scores on this day: Baseball and football were out of season, and basketball barely existed. On January 23, the Winnipeg Victorias won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Toronto Wellingtons in two games of what was meant to be a best-two-out-of-three series.