High-Flying Birds: The 1942 St. Louis Cardinals

By Jerome M. Mileur

1942: Americans suddenly found themselves at war but were not about to be distracted from the National Pastime. The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees were looking to continue their World Series rivalry from the 1941 season, and a youthful team from St. Louis was determined to stop them. With only one player older than thirty, the St. Louis Cardinals were the youngest team to win the National League pennant and World Series. Built on good pitching and tremendous speed on the base paths and in the field, the team featured rookie Stan Musial, future Hall of Famer Enos Slaughter, and ace pitcher Mort Cooper, the National League's Most Valuable Player of 1942. With their winningest season ever, posting 106 victories, the 1942 Redbirds have been called the greatest Cardinal team of all time. Jerome Mileur was just a kid from downstate Illinois, but he well remembers his view of one game from the left-field grandstand--and the thrill of attending the second game of the World Series. In this book, he brings a sure and loving grasp of his subject to reconstructing one of the most remarkable pennant drives in modern baseball history, with the Cards winning forty-three of their last fifty-one games and clinching first place on the last day of the season. Mileur provides a game-by-game account of the season with play-by-play action, not only capturing all the thrills on the Cards' way to the top but also conveying the physical and mental demands that the players endured. Counted out by nearly everyone but themselves in August, the Redbirds caught fire in the season's final weeks to pass the seemingly unbeatable Dodgers. And by winning four games out of five to defeat the New York Yankees for the championship, they handed Joe DiMaggio his only World Series defeat. More than a recapitulation of a thrilling season, Mileur's book is a reminder of how major-league baseball in 1942 differed in so many ways from today's game--one startling example is Mileur's account of how the absence of outfield warning tracks contributed to a devastating injury to Brooklyn's star outfielder, Pete Reiser. The tenor of the times is reflected as well in the juxtaposition of the baseball season with the United States' first year in the Second World War. The 1942 Cardinals were not only a remarkable team unto themselves but also the beginning of a new baseball dynasty--1942's pennant was the first of three in a row for the Cards, as well as the first of three World Series victories in a space of five seasons. This account of that tremendous season is a page-turner for anyone who loves the game and a must-read for Cardinals fans.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826218342
• ISBN13: 9780826218346
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: University of Missouri Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Cardinals battle Dodgers for the ‘42 pennant

In his last season as team general manager, Branch Rickey’s farm system produced perhaps the greatest Cardinal team ever! Just about all the players came up through St. Louis minor league teams. Author Jerome M. Mileur seamlessly chronicles the baseball season with America’s first year in World War II. With President Roosevelt “green light” to keep playing ball, the game helps to distract fans from the early losses in the war. The fleet of foot Redbirds battle the Bums from Brooklyn for the pennant in one of the most memorable pennant-race in baseball history.

Teamwork: A Case History

Jerome M. Mileur hits a home run with his account of the "high-flying birds" from the summer of '42; the team that surprised and surpassed the talented Brooklyn Dodgers with a remarkable late season surge, and then polished off the mighty Yankees in the World Series so efficiently, they almost seemed bored by it all. This book was anything but boring for this diehard Cardinals fan and baseball historian. It's also a fascinating case history about the remarkable accomplishments that transpired when a bunch of hardworking, blue-collar ballplayers got together and defined what the essence of "teamwork" is all about. It's a story that makes you believe once again, that just about anything can be accomplished if a group of individuals work in perfect harmony with each other and collectively, rise above any reasonable expectation level.

A Valentine to a Great Baseball Team

What a terrific team; what a great baseball season! While the Cardinals had been competitive throughout the latter part of the1930s, they had not won a championship since 1934. They had challenged for the pennant in 1941 while losing to the Brooklyn Dodgers, but in 1942 the Cardinals enjoyed their winningest season up to that time with 106 victories. They then went on to take the World Series against the New York Yankees in five games. This book offers a fine discussion of a dramatic season, in no small part because the Brooklyn Dodgers also won 104 games and barely lost to the Cards. The Dodgers had a 10 game lead as late as early August but St. Louis caught fire in the last two months of the season, winning 43 of their final 51 games--and 12 of their final 13--to catch and surpass the Dodgers. When the dust settled, the Cardinals had finished two games ahead. This team also enjoyed several standout performances; pitchers Mort Cooper and Johnny Beazley finished one-two in National League wins and ERA. Cooper, the league's MVP, was 22-7 with a league best 1.77 ERA. Beazley finished 21-6 and had a 2.14 ERA. Most important, this was the first full season of Stan Musial, and he made an immediate impact with a .315 batting average. He was joined in the outfield by Terry Moore and Enos Slaughter. Slaughter also had a standout year, batting .318, leading the league in hits, and ranking among the league's leaders in RBIs and runs scored. There is more to this story than the stunning victory of the Cardinals in the 1942 baseball season. First, it represented the beginning of a dynasty in which the Cards won three more pennants and two World Series championships in the 1940s, taking the flags in 1943, 1944, and 1946, and triumphing in the World Series in 1944 and 1946. Second, 1942 represented the last year of Major League Baseball in which a majority of the players were not lost to military service in World War II. This is an important story and deserving of full discussion. Third, this was also the last year of Branch Rickey's reign in St. Louis. He departed the Cardinals thereafter for Brooklyn where he went on to lead the Dodgers and build it into one of the powerhouses of the National League. Finally, the success of the Cardinals in St. Louis in the 1940s finally drove the Browns, the American League entry in St. Louis, from the city. It demonstrated that the city was not big enough for both of them. The author deals with each of these issues to some degree but concentrates on the day-to-day story of the season. "High-Flying Birds" is an enjoyable, sometimes insightful history of the rise of the Stan Musial Cardinals. I was pleased to recommend it for publication and to give it a five-star rating. Enjoy.