A Story from the Real 1934 Baseball Season
In today's NL headline, we make reference to a real baseball event from 1934 and perhaps one of its most famous stories. After winning the 1933 World Series, New York manager Bill Terry was asked by a reporter from a Brooklyn paper whether he anticipated trouble from the Dodgers in 1934. Terry famously (or infamously) replied:
"Brooklyn? Haven't heard much about them lately. Is Brooklyn still in the league?"
At the end of the season, St. Louis and New York were deadlocked for first with only a weekend's worth of games left. When New York arrived at Ebbets Field, they were greeted with signs that read: "Is Brooklyn Still in the League?" and taunts. Needing to win both games, New York was shot down by a determined Van Lingle Mungo, and saw their best pitchers Hubbell and Schumaker knocked around. As a result, St. Louis was able to squeak by New York at the very end of the season, and subsequently win the World Series.
In our replay, something similar has occurred as the Dodgers took 2 out of three at the beginning of September, putting the Cardinals in the "cat bird" seat as the final month of the replay gets under way.
In his biography of Branch Rickey, Lee Lowenfish provides some background on this story. Rather than portraying it as a deliberate insult as the Brooklyn press did, Lowenfish says that Terry was referring to the fact that he hadn't heard much coverage of the Dodgers, and that their business office was still closed in February. As a result, Lowenfish writes, Terry's "plaintive question" would be turned into an "arrogant affront" by the papers.
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