When he was growing up, Whitey Kurowski fell off a fence and landed on broken glass. Three inches of bone above his right wrist were surgically removed, leaving his arm with an unnatural bend. A natural right-hander, he strengthened his arm muscles and became of one the hardest throwing 3rd basemen in the majors.

His best season was 1947, when he batted .310, 27 HR's, 108 runs scored and 104 RBI's.

George Kurowski played his entire career with the Cardinals and batted .289 in 916 games, 925 hits, 162 Ds, 106 HRs over 500 runs and also over 500 RBIs.

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The 1946 World Series featured the power hitting Boston Red Sox, who won 104 games during the season, and ended 12 games ahead of the second place Detroit Tigers. The St. Louis Cardinals captured their fourth National League pennant in five years, but struggled all season and finished in a tie for first place with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the first-ever major league pennant tie-breaker, the Cardinals rallied to win two straight over the Dodgers.

Two of the greatest hitters in baseball history, Ted Williams and Stan Musial, helped their teams win pennants with their leadership and game winning hits.

All season long, the Cardinals stars were Stan Musial, who led the major leagues in batting, .365, Enos Slaughter, .301, 'Whitey' Kurowski,.300, Harry 'the Hat' Walker and pitcher Harry 'the Cat' Brecheen. The Red Sox had Ted Williams, .342, Johnny Pesky, .335, Dom DiMaggio, .316, power hitting Rudy York and pitching aces Tex Hughson and Bob Ferriss.

The Red Sox edged the Cardinals in the World Series' opener on a top of the 10th inning homer by Rudy York. Harry 'the Cat' Brecheen shutout the Red Sox in Game 2. Rudy York crashed a three run homer in the 1st inning of Game 3 and teammate Ferriss shutout the Cardinals to put the Red Sox up 2 games to 1.

Game 4, the Cardinals exploded for a series tying record of 20 hits - four apiece by Enos Slaughter, Joe Garagiola and 'Whitey' Kurowski - to win 12-3. Game 5, pitcher Joe Dobson hurled a 4-hitter in leading Red Sox to a 6-3 victory, three Cardinal runs were unearned. Game 6 - Harry Brecheen held Boston to one run and the series was knotted up again - 3 games to 3.

Game 7 in St. Louis - the Cardinals were leading 3-1 going into the top of the eight, when Dom DiMaggio blasted a two run double off Brecheen, pitching in relief after winning the day before.

In the Cardinals half of the 8th, Slaughter led off with a single off Red Sox reliever Bob Klinger. With Slaughter on first base, Klinger retired 'Whitey' Kurowski and catcher Del Rice.

With two outs, Slaughter was running on the pitch as Harry 'the Hat' Walker lined a hit into left-center. The ball was fielded by Leon Culbertson, who had replaced Dom DiMaggio, who pulled a muscle running out his game tying double. Red Sox shortstop Johnny Pesky had hurried to 2nd base to cover what he thought was an attempt by Slaughter to steal second and then moved to shallow left-center to take the relay throw from Culbertson. The throw from center was not very strong, and Pesky, his back to the infield, hesitated slightly before making his own throw. However, playing heads-up-ball, Slaughter had not stopped running, ignoring his own 3rd base coach and ran for home. When Pesky finally made the throw home, it was too late. Slaughter's run won the World Series.

Brecheen then proceeded to set down the Red Sox in order in the top of the 9th to win his third game of the 1946 World Series.

The St. Louis Cardinals had captured their third World Crown in the past five years, 1942, 1944, 1946. Baseballhistorian.com World Series Archives

He then served in the military from 1943-1945 and returned at age 27 to the Red Sox. In 1946 he batted a robust .335, and .324 in 1947, 4th highest in the majors in each year. Pesky scored over 100 runs in his first six years with Boston and lined over 200 hits in his first three seasons. In 1949 he walked 100 times and struck out just 19 times in 148 games, and compiled a stunning .408 on-base-pct. He later managed in the minors and coached and managed in the majors.

Johnny Pesky career stats: .307 BA, 1,455 hits in 4,745 at-bats, 226Ds, 50Ts, 17Hr, 867 Runs, 404 RBIs, 662 Walks, 218Ks in 1,270 games, and a .394 on-base-pct.

In that season's regular schedule, playing centerfield, he hit a career high in batting average with .336, lined 35Ds, 9Ts, 11Hr, scored 106, and led all outfielders with a .997 fielding percentage.

Traded to the Boston Braves in '46, the good guy hit a solid .333, busted 23 doubles in 129 games and stole a career-best 28 bases. Johnny Hopp career: .296 BA, 1,262 Hits in 4,260 at-bats, 216Ds, 74Ts, 46Hr, 698 Runs, 458 RBIs, 128 Stolen Bases.

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Four Browns players hit over 10 homers ¡¦Chet Laabs 16¡¦ Wally Judich 15¡¦Vern Stephens 14¡¦Jeff Heath 12¡¦

1946 St Louis Browns Batting Averages:

Vern Stephens .307, 14 Hrs, 64 RBIs in 115 Games¡¦Al Zarilla .259, 4 Hrs, 43 RBIs in 125G¡¦Johnny Berardino .265, 5 Hrs, 68 RBIs in 144G¡¦Wally Judnich .262, 15 Hrs, 72 RBIs in 142G¡¦

Chet Laabs .261, 16 Hrs, 52 RBIs in 80 Games¡¦Chuck Stevens .248, 3 Hrs, 27 RBIs in 122G¡¦Mark Christman .258, 1 Hr, 41 RBIs in 128G¡¦Joe Grace .230, 1 Hr, 13 RBIs in 48G¡¦Jerry Witte .192, 2 Hrs, in 18G¡¦Lou Finney .300, 0 Hr, 3 RBIs in 16G¡¦Jeff Heath .275, 12 Hrs, 57 RBIs in 86G¡¦

Bob Dillinger .280, 0 Hr, 11 RBIs in 83G¡¦Frank Mancuso .240, 3 Hrs, 23 RBIs in 87G¡¦Les Moss .371, 0 Hr, 5 RBIs in 12G¡¦Babe Dahlgren .280 0 Hr, 9 RBIs in 28G¡¦George Archie .182, 0 RBIs in 4G¡¦Paul Lehner .222, 0 Hr, 5 RBIs in 16G¡¦

Hank Helf .192, 6 Hrs, 21 RBIs in 71 Games¡¦Johnny Lucadello .248, 1 Hr, 15 RBIs in 87G¡¦Joe Schultz .386, 0 Hr, 14 RBIs in 87G¡¦Boris Babe Martin .222, 0 Hr, 1 RBI in 3G¡¦Ken Sears .333, 0 Hr, 1 RBIs in 7G¡¦Glenn McQuillen .241, 1 Hr, 12 RBIs in 59G¡¦Len Schulte .400, 0 Hr, 2 RBIs in 4G¡¦George Bradley .167, 0 Hr, 3 RBIs in 4G¡¦

1946 St Louis Browns Pitching Stats:

Jack Kramer 13-11, 3.19 ERA in 31 Games¡¦Sam Zoldak 9-11, 3.43 ERA in 35G¡¦Nels Potter 8-9, 3.72 ERA in 23G¡¦Cliff Fannin 5-2, 3.01 ERA in 27G¡¦

Bob Muncrief 3-12, 4.99 ERA in 29G¡¦Frank Biscan 1-1, 5.16 ERA in 16G¡¦Stan Ferens 2-9, 4.50 ERA in 34G¡¦Al Hollingsworth 0-0, 6.55 ERA in 5G¡¦Fred Sanford 2-1, 2.05 ERA in 3G¡¦John Ox Miller 1-3, 6.88 ERA in 11G¡¦Denny Galehouse 8-12, 3.65 ERA in 30G¡¦Ray Shore 0-0, 18.00 ERA in 1G¡¦

Tex Shirley 6-12, 4.96 ERA in 27G¡¦Ellis Kinder 3-3, 3.32 ERA in 33G¡¦Al Milnar 1-1, 2.45 ERA in 4G¡¦Al LaMacchia 0-0, 6.00 ERA in 8G¡¦Tom Ferrick 4-1, 2.78 ERA in 25G¡¦Steve Sundra 0-0, 11.25 ERA in 2G¡¦Chet Johnson 0-0, 5.00 ERA in 5G¡¦

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