They Said It Couldn't Be Done

Hank Greenberg's first game back after serving 4 years in WWII

DETROIT - July 2, 1945

The Sports Time Traveler has made a special trip back in time, precisely 80 years, to cover an event that many baseball experts had said was not supposed to have been possible.

Yesterday in Detroit’s Briggs Stadium, Hank Greenberg suited up to play a baseball game for the Detroit Tigers for the first time in over 4 years. 48,811 fans were on hand to see his return to the ball field to play against the Philadelphia A’s.

BACKGROUND

Back in 1940, 29 year old Greenberg had been the MVP in the American League, and led the Tigers to the 7th game of the World Series. He batted .357 in the 1940 series and had 2 hits in the 7th game, but the Tigers lost the game 2 - 1.

8 days after game 7, Hank Greenberg became the first player in the American League to volunteer for military service when he registered for the peacetime draft.

Greenberg was then rejected by the army for flat feet. But he knew he was perfectly fit, and he didn’t want to have the stigma of being seen playing baseball when others were going into the military, so he appealed his case.

In the meantime, he began the 1941 season with the Tigers and played in 19 games through May 6th. In the game on May 6th, he hit 2 home runs. He was very literally at the height of his career. Yet, by this time he had won his appeal, and the very next day, on May 7, 1941 he was inducted into the army.

And he remained in the army until just 2 weeks ago, a span of more than 4 years. Hank didn’t have a cushy role in the war. He requested and received an overseas assignment. In 1944, he was a captain at an army air base in China, involved in preparations for one of the most crucial parts of the war plan against Japan, the development of missions for B-29 Superfortress bombers to stage raids on mainland Japan. On July 2, 1944, the New York Daily News reported on the back page of the paper that Greenberg, “was in the B-29 bombing of Japan.” In another newspaper report in that same week, Greenberg helped save the lives of pilots after a plane had crashed on takeoff from the base in China. Greenberg ran towards the crashed plane, which exploded, sending him and others hurtling and leaving him unable to hear or speak for a couple of days. But he made a full recovery.

THE COMEBACK

Baseball experts said it was impossible for Hank Greenberg, who had been gone longer than any other ballplayer, to come back and perform in the major leagues after such a long layoff. He was now 34 years old. He hadn’t seen major league pitching in 4 years. There was no way he could ever regain the timing, the fitness, or the mental acuity necessary to play at the highest level of the sport.

Yesterday, just 2 weeks after being discharged, Hank Greenberg started in left field for the Detroit Tigers, determined to prove the experts wrong. And determined to help the Tigers win a pennant.

In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Greenberg came to the plate for his first at bat in 1,517 days. He lined out to right field. This was nothing short of incredible. He had gotten good wood on a major league pitch and drilled it into right field.

Greenberg next came up to lead off the bottom of the 4th. This time, he popped up to the catcher. Not great. But again, he had managed to do one of the most difficult things across all sports, get the bat on a major league pitch and send the ball in another direction.

His next trip to the plate was one inning later. He stepped in with 2 outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd. This time, he hit a fly ball to right field. It was caught to end the inning. But once again, he had managed to connect.

Hank’s 4th plate appearance was in the bottom of the 7th. On this trip, he walked. The next batter, Doc Cramer, smashed a hit into the outfield, and Hank had to hoof it around the basepaths. Dashing from 1st to 3rd base, Hank strained a muscle in his leg. But there was no way he was coming out of this game. Moments later, Hank Greenberg scored his 1st run in over 4 years when Rudy York hit a 3 run homer. That put Detroit ahead in the game 6 - 5. Detroit scored 2 more runs in the inning to take an 8 - 5 lead.

Hank came up for one last at bat in the bottom of the 8th. The count reached 2 balls and no strikes. On the next pitch, Hank crushed the ball. It soared 375 feet and landed in the left field stands.

Hank Greenberg had hit a home run in his first game back after 4 years in the military!

Here are pictures of Hank hitting the home run and being greeted at home plate.

The Tigers went on to win the game 9 - 5.

And the 48,811 fans in Briggs Stadium went home ecstatic. They had seen something very special - a Hollywood movie-type story had unfolded in real-life before their eyes. It was an ending that seemed almost too fantastical to have happened. An ending that wasn’t supposed to have been possible. But it did happen.

After the game, Greenberg was interviewed by M.B. Cossman in the Flint Michigan Journal. He told Cossman, “Boy it felt good to hit that one. I was proud of myself for even getting the ball twice to the outfield. But when I caught hold of that one off Charlie Gassaway, I felt good all over.”

Cossman wrote, “The ex-captain was still beaming, half an hour later, although his leg was in a tub of 110-degree swirling water, loosening tightened muscles in the back of his left thigh.”

Hank Greenberg had proved the experts wrong.

He can still play.

And suddenly, anything seems possible for the 1945 Detroit Tigers.

One more note, while Greenberg was smashing the ball against Philadelphia, his old unit from China was smashing Japan. Yesterday was the largest B-29 bombing raid over mainland Japan in the entire war. There is no doubt, Greenberg’s efforts played a role in the success of that mission.

The Sports Time Traveler is going to continue following Hank Greenberg and the Detroit Tigers for the duration of the 1945 season.

Thanks for reading.