After a three-year hiatus due to World War II, professional baseball resumed in Savannah, Ga. in 1946. But 1947 would be the perennial season, a yardstick that all other seasons in south Georgia would be measured against.
"1947 was the premiere, honest-to-God, best season we ever had," said Tom Coffey, who covered the Indians for the Savannah Evening Press.
"The team took off and did everything right. They had Lou Brissie that year; he won over 20 games and had almost 300 strikeouts."
"That was a great year," said Connect Savannah copy editor Delph Thorn, a longtime Savannah baseball fan. "The atmosphere in the ballpark was good, and the Indians had a lot of names driving it, like Lou Brissie. When he pitched, he packed the park."
The Savannah ballclub, at that time, was not affiliated with any major-league organization, but had a working agreement with Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, according to Thorn. If Mack needed a player from Savannah, all he had to do was make the call.
THE LEGACY OF LOU BRISSIE
Leland "Lou" Brissie was a baseball fan's dream. The 6-foot 4-inch South Carolina native could not only throw a blistering fastball, but he was a decorated war hero as well.
One of only three survivors of his infantry squad that was wiped out by German artillery in Italy in 1944, Brissie was hit by shell fragments, shattering his left shin bone into 30 pieces and breaking his left ankle and right foot. Evacuated to a field hospital, Brissie somehow talked doctors out of amputating his left leg. But he was not out of the woods.
He spent the next two years enduring 23 operations to remove fragments and splintered bone, rehabilitation, and learning how to walk with a leg brace. His hard work and determination would pay off.
In August 1946, Brissie checked in with the Philadelphia A's, the team he had signed with before the war. But he had to convince Connie Mack that he could still pitch. Mack sent Brissie to Savannah for the 1947 season and a local legend was in the making.
"He had a fastball that would be in the catcher's mitt before the batter had a chance to swing," recalls Thorn.
Brissie could not only pitch, but he also packed Savannah's Grayson Stadium like it had never been packed before or since.
"Savannah had a tremendous turnout that year, nearly 200,000," Coffey said. "On a Brissie night, you had to go out early to get a seat."
According to Coffey, the attendance for a game that Brissie started could easily fill the 8,000 seats at Grayson Stadium, with several thousand more people spilling out onto the grass between the grandstand and left-field bleachers.
Brissie went 23-5 in the regular season and set a Sally League record with 278 strikeouts. He also led the league with a 1.91 earned-run average.
"That season was phenomenal," said Brissie, who now lives in North Augusta, S.C. "They gave me my schedule up front, at the start of the season, and told me that I would pitch every fourth day, regardless. That was my real advantage. I knew how to prepare myself and I knew my schedule."
Brissie led the Indians to a second-place showing, the team finishing just a half game behind Columbus. Though the Indians didn't finish in first, they were a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs.
CLINCHING THE PENNANT
The Sally League semifinals began in the home park of the first- and second-place teams, with the second-place team playing the third-place team and the first-place team taking on the fourth-place team. The semifinals were the best-four-games out of seven.
Savannah squared off against the Charleston Rebels, and Augusta took on Columbus in the semifinals. Though Savannah won the first game against Charleston, the Rebels clawed their way back. They scored three runs in the 14th inning in game six and tied the series.
The final game was scheduled to be played in Charleston.
In game seven, Brissie was called in and threw three innings of relief, saving the game and clinching the series. Savannah would now face the Augusta Tigers for the pennant.
Augusta, however, proved no match for the Indians. Savannah took game one, lost the second game and then shut Augusta down, winning three straight games, including a Brissie shutout. The Indians won the pennant and the loyalty of a generation of Savannahians.
Brissie for his part, continued to pitch well. The day after Savannah won the Sally League pennant, Connie Mack called him up to the big leagues, and on Sept. 28, 1947, he stood atop the pitcher's mound in Yankee Stadium, facing the league-leading and soon-to-be world-champion New York Yankees.
Brissie played seven years in the major leagues. His best year was in 1949, with a 16-11 record for the A's, and he was named to the American League All-Star team. In 1951, Brissie was traded to the Cleveland Indians, where he finished his career two years later.
» Timothy Daiss is a journalist, syndicated columnist and author of "In the Saddle: Exploits of the 5th Georgia Cavalry" (Schiffer Military History, 1999), and, "Rebels, Saints and Sinners: Savannah's Rich History and Colorful Personalities" (Pelican Publishing, 2002)
Also by Timothy Daiss
» Shoeless Joe Jackson's Savannah Days and the Black Sox Scandal
» More submissions
Copyright © 2002 by Timothy Daiss. Posted November 1, 2002.
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