World War II Depletes Red Sox Roster, Franklin Roosevelt Gives Final Campaign Speech at Fenway in 1944
Editor’s note: Fenway Park opened on April 20, 1912. NESN.com will be celebrating Fenway’s 100-year anniversary with unique content from now until April 20, 2012.
With many of the best players — including Ted Williams — serving in the military in World War II, a depleted Red Sox team still put together a .500 season, but fell short of a postseason berth in 1944.
Even without its best player in the lineup, Boston finished a respectable 77-77, six games behind the rival Yankees and 12 games behind the American League champion St. Louis Browns. The 77 wins were also a nine-win improvement on the 68-84 record of 1943.
In the fall, the Boston Yanks, an NFL expansion franchise, played their first season and finished 1-3 at Fenway. The next year they merged with the Brooklyn Tigers, another NFL squad.
The highlight of football season came Oct. 14 when Dartmouth College hosted Notre Dame for a contest at Fenway. The Fighting Irish handily dismissed the Indians, 64-0.
On Nov. 4, Fenway hosted President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who delivered the final campaign speech of his career before the 1944 Presidential Election. In his speech FDR proceeded to take aim at "bigots" and "proponents of religious intolerance, social intolerance, and political intolerance." Four days later he was re-elected to his fourth and final term in the White House.
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