CHARLIE GEHRINGER: I was the on-deck hitter when [Mickey] Cochrane got hit by Bump Hadley in Yankee Stadium. My goodness, he went down like someone had hit him with an ax. He got hit right above the ear. The ball bounced right back to the pitcher. Some doctor said that if it'd been an inch lower he probably would never have awakened. He later tried managing from the bench, but I think he had too much time to think on the bench. He'd outguess himself. On the field he was able to make instantaneous decisions. Whether the beaning had any effect on it, I don't know.

Mr. Navin died the winter after we won the World Series and Mr. Briggs, who had been a silent partner, took over. He fired Mickey halfway through the '38 season. You would have thought that somebody with Mickey's record would find a place in the Tigers' organization. Of course, Mickey was pretty quick on the draw with his temper, as was Briggs, and I guess Briggs and Cochrane had a word fest that didn't help matters.

Del Baker replaced Cochrane. He was the last manager I played for. I liked to play for him. He was all baseball, morning, noon, and night. He was pretty experienced. He'd never played much major-league ball, but he was connected with it all his life.

We surprised a lot of people, including ourselves, when we won the pennant in 1940. The Yankees had won four straight World Series, and most of our team was over the hill. Cleveland had such a great team. We nosed them out in the last series of the year. They thought they had it all wrapped up until the last couple weeks of the season, when everything fell apart over there.

We got Bobo Newsom, who had a big year. He also was probably the biggest character on the Tigers. He was a funny guy. A great jokester. He could do Amos and Andy so well that if you didn't look at him, you'd think you were hearing the radio. He was always pulling some trick, especially on Schoolie. Schoolie wasn't too quick with a repartee, so Bobo was always getting the best of him. Nailed his spikes down to his locker once, and things like that. Just drove Schoolie crazy.

Good pitcher, though. He probably was on more ball clubs than anybody that ever pitched, but he certainly had a great arm and a great heart for the game. Pretty good beer drinker, but other than that, he really put it all out.

I remember him pitching against Greenberg once before he came over to our club. It's a hot day, he's got two strikes on Hank, and all of a sudden he just walks off the mound. He didn't even give the umpire a sign or anything. just took off for the dugout. Everybody said, "Well, where's he going?" Bobo goes into the dugout, and we see him going over to a big pail of water, and he's washing his face and he's toweling it off. All this time Greenberg's just waiting, probably thinking Bobo had hurt himself. Finally, after he's all washed up and dried off, Bobo trots out and throws one strike and Greenberg's out. I'd never seen anyone leave quite like that before. Or since. I forget whether he was with the Browns or Washington then, but Bobo was in a class by himself.

We played Cincinnati in the World Series. Bobo's father died during the series, but he said he still wanted to pitch. He beat the Reds the first two games he pitched against them, but then he lost the last game, 2-1. We could've won it, if Dick Bartell hadn't been asleep.

We were leading 1-0 late in the game, when Frank McCormick led off with a double. The next guy up hit a ball over Bruce Campbell's head in right field. Campbell picked it up right away and threw it into Bartell. Bartell thought, "Gee, with that double McCormick must've scored," but McCormick had waited to see whether it was going to be caught. So McCormick, who was no speed demon, was just rounding third when Bartell got the ball. I kept yelling, "Home, home, home!" Gee whiz, with Bartell's arm, he's a dead pigeon. But he never did throw the ball. Even after he looked and still had a chance, he didn't throw. And to this day, I don't know why. I'll have to ask him some day. Must have bet on the other team.

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