How Hartnett's shot in the dark saved Cubs season

A do-or-die series in September.

A first-place team heading into Chicago, with the winner of the series determining who would advance to the postseason.

And Chicago desperately needing a sweep.

No, I'm not talking about the Cleveland Guardians arriving in Chicago to play the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. Best to put that out of mind.

I'm referring to the series played Sept. 27-29, 1938 between the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field, which would have a decidedly more satisfactory outcome decided by Gabby Hartnett's improbable "Homer in the Gloamin'."

The Cubs had started the season in promising fashion by taking the first two games against Cincinnati.

But they would quickly fall out of first place, regaining it briefly on June 5 for only three games.

On July 20, the Cubs announced that owner P.K. Wrigley had appointed catcher Gabby Hartnett to replace Charley Grimm as manager.

Wrigley was probably hoping to repeat the success of 1932, when the Cubs replaced Rogers Hornsby with Grimm and wound up winning a pennant.

During that 1932 season, first baseman Grimm was a playing manager, but by 1938, he had relegated himself permanently to the bench.

Hartnett, who emerged as one of the game's greatest catchers even though one scout said his hands were too small, would also be a playing manager, and in 1938 he proved to be his best asset.

Under Hartnett, the Cubs caught fire, eventually gaining second place. But they couldn't quite catch a Pittsburgh Pirates team led by Arky Vaughan and the Waner brothers, Paul (Big Poison) and Lloyd (Little Poison).

The Pirates also had a catcher named Ray Berres, who would later mold the great White Sox pitching staffs of the 1960s.

Manager Pie Traynor's troops had been clinging to first place since July 18, but that lead shrank to a half-game after the Cubs, behind a declining Dizzy Dean, tabbed by Hartnett to make his first start since Aug. 20, captured the series opener 2-1 on Sept. 27.

It was the Cubs' eighth straight win, but they still trailed the Pirates.

The next day, before a Wednesday crowd of 34,465 at Wrigley, the Cubs took the field behind starter Clay Bryant.

As the game progressed, thought, it became apparent the Cubs were facing two opponents, the Pirates and the approaching darkness.

Sportswriter Edward Burns wrote, "The 3 to 3 tie prevailed through the seventh. But gloom was thicker than the gathering dusk," as the Pirates jumped to a 5-3 lead.

Burns wrote, "it was rapidly getting dark. Things looked terrible."

But the Cubs rebounded in the eighth, tying the game on a Tony Lazzeri double and a Billy Herman single.

Which brought matters to the ninth and time running out. Could the Cubs pull out, dare we say it, a miracle?

In came Hartnett's longtime battery mate, Charley Root, infamous for giving up Babe Ruth's called shot in the 1932 World Series.

The leadoff hitter, Lloyd Waner, flied out to right fielder Phil Cavarretta. Or, Burns wrote, "It must have been Cavarretta, though you could hardly see him from the press stand."

Paul Waner then singled, but Hartnett cut him down trying to steal second, ending the Pirates' threat.

"Hartnett never threw with more deadly aim. It was only a question of whether the shot would tear off (shortstop Billy) Jurges' glove," Burns wrote.

It was now up to the Cubs offense and an accommodating sky, since in Burns' words, it grew "Darker, darker every second."

But reliever Mace Brown retired both Cavarretta and Carl Reynolds, leaving it up to Hartnett.

He seemed to have trouble seeing Brown's pitches, looking at two knee-high strikes.

Then, Hartnett swung at a higher pitch and sent into the bleacher in left center.

The jubilant crowd rushed the field, gathering around its hero before he reached first base.

Burns wrote, "By the time he had rounded second he couldn't have been recognized in the mass of Cub players, frenzied fans, and excited ushers but for that red face, which shone out even in the gray shadows."

In the Pittsburgh Press account, a shocked Brown, "tossed his sweatshirt in a corner and tramped on it," moaning, "Had him in a hole, too."

The homer became known as the "Homer in the Gloamin'," a nod to a song, "Roamin' in the Gloamin'," popularized by Sir Harry Lauder, who wrote it in 1911.

More importantly, Hartnett's swing sent the Cubs soaring into first place. They would complete the sweep against Pittsburgh the next day and take the NL pennant, finishing 89-63, two games up on Pittsburgh.

As late as 1968, Hartnett, who later ran a popular bowling alley in Lincolnwood, would still be talking about the homer, telling one writer, "As they said at the Old Timers' dinner, I always was at my best when I couldn't see."