The Tigers won 18 of 23 in September to clinch the last Friday of the schedule. The Red Sox started strong but faded during the dog days of summer, leaving the "crybaby Indians" and Detroit to fight it out.( On August 18, one writer speculated that the disease that ended Lou Gehrig's career had infected other Yankees.) But with CF Joe DiMaggio hampered by a leg injury that kept him out until May 7 and Lefty Gomez pitching only 27 innings all season because of arm troubles, Joe McCarthy's club started slowly, wallowing in seventh or eighth place until May 23, then spending most of the summer fourth before finishing third just two games out.The Bronx Bombers had terrorized the league for four years, winning the pennant by 9.5 or more games each season, including a 17-game runaway in '39.The American League produced its first pennant race since 1935 when the Tigers edged the Yankees by 3 games. McKechnie solved his catching problem temporarily by activating 39-year-old coach Jimmie Wilson, who had caught for the Phillies and Cardinals for 15 years. He was found sitting dead on the floor of his bathroom with his throat slit. Meanwhile, the Reds sent someone back to the hotel to check on Hershberger.When Hershy didn't show up for the first game of the doubleheader, McKechnie pressed Lombardi into service. But the next morning, he told his teammates that he was sick and would join them later at the ballpark.Bill thought he helped his catcher cheer up because Willard ate a good meal and joked with other Reds in the hotel lobby. That evening, he sobbingly told his skipper about his father's death, his own thoughts of suicide, and how he was letting the team down.I'll tell you all about it after the game. When manager McKechnie asked Hershy whether something was wrong, he replied, Yes, plenty. Two days later, Hershberger went hitless in five at-bats in the nightcap of a doubleheader loss to the Bees in Boston and failed to field a ball topped in front of the plate.I must have called for the wrong pitches. The pressure of calling every pitch in a pennant race became too much for " Hershy." When the Giants scored four in the bottom of the ninth July 31 off Walters to win 5-4, Willard blamed himself: That sort of thing doesn't happen when Lombardi's catching.when Hershberger was a high-school senior. Although popular with his teammates, he was an incessant worrier, a hypochondriac who traveled with bottles of pills and nose drops, a gun collector who carried a pistol in his suitcase, and a man haunted by the suicide of his father.345 in 63 games in '39 and better than that in '40 when he assumed full-time catching duties. No slugger, he hit for a good average. ![]() Backup C Willard Hershberger, a 30-year-old bachelor, took over behind the plate.Lombardi's injury led to a tragedy that nearly disrupted the Reds' season. The team that had been swept by the mighty Yankees in '39 was determined to win a World Series fair and square. The Reds had won only one World Series, and that one was tainted–the 1919 " Black Sox" series.Hardly able to walk, he played little the rest of the season. ![]()
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