Backroads and Ballplayers #72
Stories of the famous and not-so-famous men and women from a time when baseball was "Arkansas' Game." Backroads and Ballplayers Weekly is always free and short enough to finish in one cup of coffee.
Lost Stories from Past Septembers: More Highway 10, the Debut of a Pitcher from the Fourche River Valley, & Benintendi and the Sad Sox.
Lost Story of Johnny Sain’s September 1948
Johnny Sain was the best pitcher in big league baseball in 1948, but the most retold story of Sain’s career was the supporting role he played in one of America’s most significant cultural events the previous season. On April 15, 1947, Johnny Sain from Havana, Arkansas, threw the first pitch to Jackie Robinson in Robinson’s first major league game.
Every action in baseball is initiated by the pitcher vs. hitter confrontation. A very small number of these encounters go beyond the relative importance of a sport and rise to the level of an event of historical proportions. Perhaps no single event in baseball history reaches this level as significantly as the first pitch on Opening Day 1947 in Brooklyn, New York.
Johnny Sain could have been part of the cultural story of that event, but despite attempts to make the white pitcher from rural Arkansas versus the Black rookie from California part of the story, Sain redirected the narrative back to baseball.
Johnny Sain’s role in the Jackie Robinson story is a positive episode in his legacy. Unlike many players of his day, he did not provide quotes laced with racially motivated resentment that he would someday regret. Many great players who played on opposing teams and a handful of his teammates would have the story of their baseball careers tainted by their intolerance of Jackie Robinson. Arkansas’ Johnny Sain’s part in the dramatic event is limited to curve balls, double plays, and an Opening Day loss for his Braves.
The 1948 season has become an obscure chapter in the Johnny Sain story despite statistical marks that seem unrealistic today. In the 1948 regular season, Sain appeared in a league-leading 39 games. He pitched 314 2/3 innings, 28 complete games, and recorded 24 pitching victories, all of which led the National League.
It was the Boston Braves’ most celebrated season, the year of “Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain.” The usually hapless Braves won their first pennant since 1914 and their last as a National League franchise in Boston.
Most baseball fans are familiar with the sportswriter’s attempt at poetry. The Spahn member of the duo became the greatest lefty of his time and a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Johnny Sain is best remembered in the context of an April day in the life of Jackie Robinson.
If Johnny Sain’s 1948 season is among the most outstanding single-season pitching performances in baseball history, September was the spectacular concluding act.
In September 1948, Johnny Sain celebrated his 31st birthday. He pitched in eight games, posted a 7—1 record, and a 1.72 ERA. He pitched seven complete games and opposing hitters batted a weak .231 against the veteran Arkansas country boy.
Sain pitched well in the World Series, winning Game One, 1—0 in a pitching duel with Bob Feller and losing Game Four, 2—1. He was slated to be the starter for Boston if the series reached Game Seven, but Arkansas’ Gene Bearden was destined to be the hero in a World Series Cleveland won in six games.
The 1948 pennant-winning season would be Johnny Sain’s signature season. He finished second to Stan Musial in the National League MVP vote. Before the Cy Young Award became the yearly pitching honor, the Sporting News named Johnny Sain the 1948 Pitcher of the Year.
Johnny Sain had another 20-win season in 1950, but the Braves were never contenders in the National League again. After falling into the second division and losing the attendance war to the cross-town rival Red Sox, the Braves traded Sain to the Yankees for Lew Burdette and moved the team to Milwaukee in 1953.
In New York, Johnny Sain reinvented himself as the top relief pitcher in the American League and enjoyed three more Septembers to remember. He led the league in appearances and saves in 1954, although the “save” was not an official stat category until 1969. Sain won three World Series rings with the Yanks and went on to become a highly respected pitching coach.
Sain received significant support from the Veterans Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame but has yet to be selected. He became a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1966.
John Franklin Sain died in 2006. He is buried at Havana Cemetery just off Highway 10, in Yell County, Arkansas.
Chuck Daniel and More Birthday Month Adventures
Charles Edward Daniel was born on September 17, 1933, in one of Arkansas’ most scenic and remote valleys, a slice of farmland tucked away on Fourche Lafave River, between two ranges of the Ouachita Mountains. Daniel was a star athlete at Fourche Valley High School, where basketball, rather than baseball, was his claim to local fame.
He was discovered by the Detroit Tigers after becoming an outstanding freshman pitcher for the College of the Ozarks in 1952. Two years of military service delayed his eventual progress through the Tigers’ minor league system, but by the summer of 1957, Detroit had him tabbed as a sure major leaguer.
Under the headline, “Daniel’s Dandy Hill Work Helps Skaff Laugh at Charleston,” his minor league manager Frank Skaff lavished praise on his young hurler. Combined with obvious natural ability, the manager credited Daniel with a great work ethic. “Ambitious almost to a fault, the kid just wants to play ball.”
When the American Association minor league season ended, Daniel got the call to meet the big club for a series in Washington, beginning September 10th. A week later, on September 17, 1957, Chuck Daniel celebrated his 24th birthday with the Tigers at Yankee Stadium.
On September 21st, the Tigers moved to Kansas City for a Saturday afternoon game with the seventh-place A’s. Detroit had their ace, Jim Bunning, ready to pitch. The Future Hall of Famer had won four straight in September. Inexplicably, the game with the lowly A’s would be one of Bunning’s worst outings of the year.
After not allowing a hit and striking out three in the first two innings, Bunning fell apart in the third. The usually consistent Bunning gave up four runs on five hits including two homers and a triple before manager Jack Tighe had seen enough. In a scenario he could never have imagined, Charles Daniel was summoned to relieve the great Jim Bunning in his first major league game.
Daniel got off to a good start, stranding the runner at third and getting the third out on a groundout by Hector Lopez. He faced the minimum in the fourth when catcher Hal Smith was caught stealing after a single, Billy Hunter fanned, and Jack Urban tapped out to second.
In the fifth inning, a routine out was followed by a double by veteran Joe DeMaestri. Gus Zernial batted next, and the big Texan launched a two-run homer over the left field wall. Although Daniel settled down and retired the next two batters, his spot in the batting order was first up in the sixth.
Jay Porter pinch hit for Daniel, whose line for the day was 2 ⅓ innings pitched, with 2 runs allowed on 3 hits. The totals would also stand as Daniel’s stats for his entire big league career. Although he remained with the Tigers until the end of the season, Daniel did not get another chance on the mound. His 1957 season and his major league career ended that day in Kansas City.
The Daniel baseball story has a happy ending. Picked up in an emergency by Ray Winder who had to build the 1960 Travelers in two weeks, Daniel celebrated his 26th birthday helping the Little Rock Travelers win the Southern Association Playoff Championship in September 1960.
More complete stories of both Arkansas-born pitchers are linked below and both are featured in my books, Backroads and Ballplayers and Hard Times and Hardball.
The White Sox Make History, but Has Benintendi Found His Swing?
The exploits of the 2024 Chicago White Sox will live forever in modern baseball history. Not many last-place teams can say that. Without help from expansion, the hapless Chisox of 2024 have equaled the record for the most losses in a season since the turn of the century. They are well positioned to set a new record without sharing with the 1962 Mets before their season mercifully ends this weekend. Being a member of the 2024 White Sox is not something to put at the top of a resume.
Former Razorbacks Andrew Benintendi and Dominic Fletcher are both members of the White Sox. Fletcher plays mostly against right-handed pitching. He is hitting .205 with a home run and 15 RBIs. Benintendi is batting .224 with 19 home runs and 60 runs batted in, but there is some hopeful news about Benny if we dig a little.
In his last 50 games from July 25 to September 22, Benintendi is batting .269. He has hit 11 home runs in those 50 games, and his OPS is .862. He has been the only bright spot in a dark year. Despite his recent success, he is greatly overpaid based on his season totals. The Sox will likely clean house, but using the last third of his season as an indicator, maybe Benintendi will land in a better place. That is almost guaranteed.
Christmas season special on signed books: Link to book ordering page.