Sport: Fever Chart

When their sleeper pulled into Detroit, the New York Yankees were still running a temperature. A good morning’s rest at the Book-Cadillac Hotel was Step A toward winning at least two of the series’ three games with the Tigers.

The clerk said he was sorry, but the rooms were not yet ready. So the Yankees cooled their heels and tempers in the lobby. When they finally went out to Briggs Stadium, the red-hot Tigers continued the cooling-off treatment. And when the Boston Red Sox followed the Yankees into Detroit they got more of the same—to the point where they were really frozen out of the race.

By the time Detroit had taken two out of three from the Yankees, four straight from the Red Sox, Dizzy Trout had pitched his 26th victory of the year and Lefty Hal Newhouser his 27th. Meanwhile the Tigers’ unstoppable young leftfielder Dick Wakefield had taken over the league leadership with a batting average of .341.

All this would have dismayed any other runner-up than the feverish St. Louis Browns. They kept right on winning—seven out of nine, against the Tigers’ eight out of nine—and were just one game back as the American League pennant battle went into its final week.