In the Negro Leagues, there were no can’t miss choices — no Satchel Paige in his prime or young Josh Beckett. But there were probably a dozen options for whom there would been solid reasoning to support the idea that he could been an answer.

Joe Black was one. Black, 26, was having a great season, started in the Leagues’ annual all-star ge (not his first appearance, either). The Dodgers signed him in late 1950 and eventually used him as a very successful reliever.

Another, perhaps more logical choice would have been Pat Scantlebury, a 33 year old who’d also pitched in the all-star ge, and had in previous years. He got to the majors at age 39 and at age 43, was good enough to been a league-killer at AAA. And there was 27-year old Connie Johnson, also having a great year, and other pitchers who would go on the have minor league careers.12 string guitar string
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The Tigers didn’t try to grab any of them. On August 29th, they fell into a tie for first, still did nothing, had a half-ge lead as late as ge 141, but finished the season with a 7-9 run, four of those losses being blowouts the pitching couldn’t hold on to, and lost the flag by 3 ges with a beautiful 95-59 mark. Rolfe was ned Manager of the Year, a bitter substitute for winning.

A Cinderella season euthanized by self-inflicted limitations. A tragedy of Sophoclean proportions, because it was completely avoidable if the front office behaves like a normal front office — going the distance to acquire available talent to fill a glaring, obvious hole. A tragedy because Rolfe would never get a chance to show his stuff again, never get to manage a contender or for a different franchise that didn’t have such brain-dead ownership.

The Detroit Tigers were the next to last te in all the majors to “integrate”, ten seasons after Jackie Robinson started playing for the Dodgers. Perhaps the institution’s barrier was so strong, Rolfe knew it was unmentionable. Perhaps as a rookie (not already established) manager, he got lazy and didn’t want to get into a fight with his employers. Perhaps he shared their views on race, though my instinct is not Rolfe was more concerned about winning than holding on to any particular opinion, so it seems unlikely to me.

Whatever the reason, the elephant on the table goes unmentioned.

After a July doubleheader sweep of the Philadelphia A’s, Detroit took a 4.5 ge lead in the league, but a 2-6 run following left them a half ge up.

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AL W L GB WP RS RA
DET 56 33 - .629 505 437
NYY 56 34 0.5 .622 545 434
CLE 56 36 1.5 .609 514 406
BOS 53 39 4.5 .576 656 512
WSH 41 46 14.0 .471 398 451
CHW 37 55 20.5 .402 391 455
PHA 32 60 25.5 .348 421 555
SLB 31 59 25.5 .344 407 587

This is not the critical management moment…when its clear the te can win, the project can succeed, the product can been a viable contributor, and at the se time, there are three other serious contenders and the te has just gone 2-6 against two of them (New York & Boston). This is not the moment to act.

Close to nothing.

On August 3rd, the te bought Hank Borowy from the Pirates, a fellow who’d been a successful starter during the War when talent was somewhat thinned out, but had had four years of mediocrity or less since. He ended up being almost adequate to the task, but it was clearly a shot in the dark; there was little solid reasoning to support the idea that he could been an answer or a significant part of one.