My Dad, Mark Sydney Roby, turned 80 years old this past week. January 9, 1945; born in Chattanooga, Tennessee; a self-described Army Brat; fanatic reader of science, space, and medicine; still cracking jokes at 80 years of age. My dad resides in a VA home now in Rhode Island, battling the effects of diabetes and early onset of Alzheimer’s, but overall in very good spirits. We chat often and I visit him every chance I get when I travel up to Rhode Island. He and I have not always been on the same page, heck rarely are we in the same book. But we are Roby’s and he is me and I am him and for the rest of his life, I will make sure to be positive and do my part to make his day as best as possible.

I got to thinking about 1945. What make it historic? The end of World War II for starters. From a baseball standpoint, a ton of proud Americans volunteered to serve our country to fight in WWII, giving up precious statistics on a baseball field for the battlefields of Europe. So many to mention, but you know their names and faces and teams, and I cannot thank those brave men and women for their sacrifice enough.

So, 1945 did have a Major League Season and a Negro Baseball League Season. Statistics are now readily available for both leagues to view and review, so that’s what I did. So, in honor of my Dad’s birthday and his love of history and passion for research, I decided to check out the baseball stories of 1945. Here is what I came up with, courtesy of my go to research website, Baseball Reference:

Teams:

• American League Champs – Detroit Tigers
• National League Champs – Chicago Cubs
• Negro American League – Cleveland Buckeyes
• Negro National League – Homestead Grays
• bold – World Series Champion

Players – Offensive Leaders:

• Batting Average – Ed Steele, Birmingham Black Barons – .394
• Home Runs – Tommy Holmes, Boston Braves – 28
• Runs Batted In – Dixie Walker, Brooklyn Dodgers – 124

Players – Pitching Leaders:

• Wins – Hal Newhouser, Detroit Tigers – 25
• Strikeouts – Hal Newhouser, Detroit Tigers – 212
• Earned Run Average – Garnett Blair, Homestead Grays – 0.96

Most Valuable Player Awards:

• American League – Hal Newhouser (by the way, Newhouser had a heck of a year in 1945!!!)
• National League – Phil Cavaretta

For reference purposes, the Boston Red Sox were 71-83 and 3? They had ties back then??? Notably missing on their 1945 roster is one of, if not, the greatest Boston Red Sox players of all-time, Theodore Williams, who sacrificed like so many to serve our country in World War II. So, overall, fun exercise, thanks Dad for being 80 so I could do a little baseball research on 1945! Happy Birthday and here’s to your health and wellness in 2025, and hopefully for many years to come.