Former wartime pitcher for Yankees dies at 88

Remembered as one
who kept baseball
alive during WWII
BY DICKMETZGAR
Staff Writer

BRICK — Hank Borowy will forever be remembered as one the New York Yankees let get away, and, in doing so, became one of the footnotes of baseball history.

A right-handed pitcher, Borowy helped the Yankees reach the World Series in 1942 and 1943, started the 1944 All-Star Game for the American League in 1944, and then was unceremoniously dumped by the Yankees in the middle of the 1945 season for $97,500 to the Chicago Cubs, where he helped the team win the National League pennant that year.

Henry L. "Hank" Borowy, who was born and raised in Bloomfield, died at his home in Brick Aug. 23 at the age of 88. He had moved to Point Pleasant 12 years ago and to Brick two years ago.

"My father was a very humble man," recalled his daughter, Mary Ellen Borowy, of Bloomfield, who was born the year her father retired from major league baseball in 1952. "I remember him as a family man and a wonderful dad, not as a celebrity."

Borowy will be remembered as one of the more talented pitchers who helped keep major league baseball alive and flourishing during World War II.

Borowy was one of the players the Yankees brought up to the parent club as a rookie in 1942, the first war year for major league baseball after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Borowy was 26 at the time.

"My father was already a family man when he came to the major leagues," his daughter said.

As a rookie, Borowy was 15-4 on the Yankee team that won the pennant. In 1943, he was 14-9 with the Yankee club that again won the pennant and defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, winning game three for his team.

Borowy started the all-star game for the American League in 1944, when he was 17-12, and was selected to the all-star squad in 1945, but the game was canceled because of wartime travel restrictions.

Ironically, his career reached a historic crossroads when he had his best year in 1945, when the Yankees’ new owners, Dan Topping and Del Webb, and Larry McPhail, the team’s new president, took over.

Borowy was 10-5 in July when the Yankees shocked the baseball world by shipping their star pitcher to the Cubs. He would finish the season 11-2 in leading the Cubs to the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. He would post a 2-2 record in the series, losing the final game, only the second pitcher in history to post four decisions in a single series.

He became the first pitcher to post 20 wins in the same season with two different teams.

To this day, the deal that sent Borowy to the Cubs is a mystery since the Yankees, then as now, apparently didn’t need the cash.

Allegedly, McPhail maintained that at the age of 29, Borowy would falter during the last half of the season, and that the Yankees were looking toward a youth movement.

Borowy would later pitch for the Philadelphia Phillies, Pitts-burgh Pirates and Detroit Tigers before retiring in 1942 after a 10-year major league career with a 108-82 record.

"He had a great history in baseball," said Bill Sybel, Borowy’s neighbor in Point Pleasant.

Sybel said he remembers Borowy as being a very friendly person. He said he was lucky enough to get an autographed baseball and picture of Borowy.

"I befriended him, and we became very well-acquainted," Sybel said.

Borowy played baseball during the wartime because he had a deferment because his off-season job was in a war plant.

His daughter said that during World War II, her father was sent to Alaskan Army and Navy bases in Kodiak, Anchorage and the Aleutian Islands as a member of a sports cavalcade to entertain the troops.

Following his graduation from Bloomfield High School in 1935, Borowy attended Fordham University in the Bronx, New York City, for three years, where he posted a 33-1 record for the school’s baseball team.

Following his retirement from major league baseball in 1952, Borowy owned the Hank Borowy Realty Co., retiring 15 years ago.

"My father really had two careers," his daughter said. "He had his baseball career and then his business career in realty and insurance when he devoted his time to being a family man and dad. When we asked him baseball questions, he would answer, but he was able to accept that his baseball days were over and moved on with his life."

There was one Hall of Famer that Borowy remembered with fondness, the late Yankee catcher Bill Dickey, who was with the club during his years as a Yankee, his daughter said.

"He said he had very good memories of Bill Dickey as a teammate," his daughter said. "But he never really dwelled on his baseball career after retiring. There are still old-timers in Bloomfield, however, who remember dad as a pitcher."

He is survived by another daughter, Claire Gelli, Florence, Italy; a son, Henry, of California; a sister, Helen Muraski; two brothers, Edward and William; and four grandchildren. His wife, Katherine, died in 1983.