On May 24, 1946, a railroad strike and a bit of high jinks made a trip to Cincinnati an interesting one to say the least, as the Cardinals were forced to take a flight from New York where they had just finished up a two game set against the Giants. The strike, which began before the final game was played in New York sent management into a scramble to make arrangements to get the players to Cincy. The Cardinals traveling secretary, Leo Ward was the man who had the responsibility on his shoulders, and he made the arrangements to take a TWA flight with haste. Although, once the arrangements were made the pilot of the plane had to deal with thunderstorms, which led to the team landing 50 miles outside of Cincinnati in Dayton, Ohio. After an hour long delay the flight resumed to Lunken Field, which was just 15 minutes from Crosley Field.
A fleet of cabs were called in to complete the journey with a police escort in tow. The high jinks of the day came when the cab that Stan Musial, Buster Adams, Terry Moore, and Enos Slaughter were traveling in had a hood latch break, which led the cab driver into climbing onto the hood to hold it down, while Stan The Man drove with his head hanging out the window as they made their way to the ballpark. Meanwhile, more than 20,000 fans sat in the stands at Crosley Field waiting for their Reds to take on the Cardinals. The game began over an hour late and those that waited did get to enjoy watching their hometown club beat the Cardinals 5-1. With that said, the journey to get to the ballpark was one to be remembered with it being highly unusual to say the least.
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