To be honest, Newhouser's numbers aren't as good as they seem.
He was an outstanding pitcher, no doubt, and proved it with some
fine seasons laterin the decade. But this was the last war year, and the
player rosters had become very depleted. Newhouser was, in effect,
a man playing with boys; a star playing with replacement players.
Despite impressive credentials, it took Newhouser forty years
to be elected to the Hall Of Fame; this is because his best numbers
were posted during the war years. It's a tough call over whether
Newhouser belongs in the Hall; you don't want to give him too much
credit for pitching against diluted competition, but at the same
time it wasn't Hal's fault that there was a war on during his best
seasons. I think Newhouser is a borderline candidate for the Hall; he was similar to Billy Pierce or Jimmy Key; very good, but not
not truly great.
Roger Wolff was only pitching because of the war. He had one
great season, then disappeared quickly afterwards. Steve Gromek also had his
best year, though he had a long career and was generally a decent
pitcher. Wolff's teammate in Washington was Dutch Leonard. The war
didn't seem to have any effect on Leonard; the knuckleballer posted
the same numbers before, during, and after the war.
Allie Reynolds pitched for Cleveland, and had his first good
season, at age thirty. He had only gotten his chance to pitch two
years before, as a result of pitching shortages. Reynolds struggled
the next year, and appeared ready to disappear like all the other
war-time wonders. But he was then traded to the Yankees, which has
helped the careers of many pitchers, and was one of the most
successful pitchers in the league for the next decade.
