Eddie Hanyzewski: From the Factory to the Big Leagues

In 1941, a 20-year-old factory worker took the mound against the Cubs and proved he belonged on the same field as the big leaguers.

BY AARON HELMAN // POSTED FEBRUARY 10, 2026

It's June 26, 1941. More than 7,500 fans are packed into South Bend's Lippincott Park, a capacity crowd and then some. The bleachers are bursting at the seams, the standing room is overfilled, and the fire marshal has decided to look the other way. In South Bend, the factory leagues drew good crowds all summer, but this day was special. This day came with visitors from the big leagues.

The largest crowd that had ever witnessed a baseball game in South Bend crammed into the modest stadium just to catch a glimpse of none other than the Chicago Cubs, in town for one day for a nine-inning exhibition. The rooters pointed and gawked and cheered as their heroes trotted onto the field: Phil Cavarretta in center field, Babe Dahlgren at first base, Stan Hack at third.

Their opponents? The Studebaker Factory team, undoubtedly the best ballplayers in town, but hardly enough to compete with the star power of the visitor from the big leagues. Those 1941 Cubs included six all-stars and four players who would receive MVP votes, and none of those guys included the guy that the Cubs trotted out to the mound for the meaningless exhibition game in South Bend, Indiana.

That was Dizzy Dean, a former league MVP, a two-time MVP runner up, and a World Series champion. A decade later, he'd be in the Hall of Fame.

At Lippincott Field in 1941, the fans cheer for their heroes, straining their voices even before the first pitch, and when the umpire shouts to 'Play Ball', they anticipate the very best part:

Watching their heroes in action.

What most fans don't know, but a knowledgeable handful quietly suspect, is that a local kid is about to steal the show.

Eddie Hanyzewski was just 20 years old when he stood on the mound at Lippincott Park, wearing the jersey of the Studebaker club, ready to face down the Chicago Cubs. It hadn't always been an easy path for the young South Bender. His mother had died early. His dad had been an alcoholic and an abuser. He remembered too many nights from his youth when he'd sleep hidden beneath his own porch, afraid of his father's wrath.

Somehow, Hanyzewski had overcome all of it to become a standout athlete at Washington High School. He starred for the basketball team. He won a football state championship. In his senior year of high school, he pitched a seven-inning no-hitter and struck out 17 of the 21 batters he'd faced. After high school, Hanyzewski enrolled at the University of Notre Dame, and he was a star on the freshman baseball team, but freshman baseball was still a long way away from the pros. By the time he was twenty, Hanyzewski had already spent a handful of summers working at the Studebaker factory, and not because the company had any interest in the kid's ability to build cars.

They hired him because they needed someone to pitch on days like this, and Eddie Hanyzewski had already pitched in plenty of big games. It was 1939 — while he was still a junior in high school — that Hanyzewski became the ace on the Studebaker staff. He struck out 21 during a June contest and went on a late summer tear that saw him strike out 18, 16, and 13 in consecutive games, the last one a no-hitter.

Still, those were factory workers and teenagers, not big leaguers.

There was a big difference, and Hanyzewski knew it very well. Turns out, that game against the Cubs wasn't the first time he'd pitched against Major League ballplayers.

During that 1939 season (and I feel like I need to reiterate this next part again), while he was still a junior in high school, the Studebaker team had called on him to pitch during an exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox. He struck out nine of them.

In 1941, Stan Hack led the Major Leagues in hits, just as he had the year prior. He led the game off for the Chicago Cubs, and Eddie Hanyzewski promptly struck him out. He struck out Babe Dahlgren. He struck out Bill Nicholson. Three times.

Hanyzewski endured his only hardship in the fourth inning, but other than that, the 20-year-old put up nothing but zeroes. Unfortunately, his offense was quiet behind him, unable to catch up to real big-league pitching. The Studebaker squad dropped the game 2-0. They managed just three hits. Cubs pitchers had managed ten strikeouts.

But Eddie Hanyzewski had managed 14. He'd walked no one.

Bob Feller led the big leagues in strikeouts in 1941. His single game high was 13. In fact, no pitcher on the planet struck out more big leaguers that year than Eddie Hanyzewski did on that magical day in South Bend.

The westside kid had tears in his eyes as he walked off the mound, because he already had a pretty good feeling what was going to happen next. As for the throngs in the stands, they'd started to get the inkling of an idea by the third inning. It had been confirmed by the sixth. By the time the game ended, they abandoned rooting for their big league heroes and poured all of their energy instead into the local kid who was earning a pro contract right before their very eyes.

Cubs manager Jimmie Wilson was onto Hanyzewski the minute after the game ended, desperate to have the young hurler with him in Chicago. If Wilson had his way, Hanyzewski would have been on the bus back to Chicago with the rest of the team just as soon as everyone got a shower. Hanyzewski, just recently married, told Wilson he needed to talk it over with his wife. During the next month, he pitched a few more tilts for the Studebaker club and led his American Legion team to a national championship.

Then he wrote Jimmie Wilson and told him he was ready to take the leap.

Less than a year after the game in South Bend, Hanyzewski made his professional debut for those same Chicago Cubs. He became one of a handful of players to skip the expected tour through the minor leagues, and he would go on to spend parts of five seasons with Chicago.

His best season came in 1943, when he went 8-7 with a 2.56 ERA, but Hanyzewski wasn't the same pitcher he'd been a few years earlier when he struck out 14 Cubs in South Bend. He wasn't even the same pitcher he'd been in high school when he struck out nine White Sox. Hanyzewski struck out 55 batters across 130 innings during that 1943 campaign, and it was his career high.

There was a problem with the young man's arm, which shouldn't surprise anyone who knew his pitching schedule. For years, he'd been the ace of the Washington High School staff, the ace of the Studebaker staff, and the ace of the American Legion squad — all at the same time. His arm was on borrowed time, and when it finally gave up on him during a 1944 game in St. Louis, the sportswriters swore they could hear his elbow pop from the press box.

There were surgeries and rehabs, but Hanyzewski was never the same. When the Cubs made it to the World Series in 1945, Hanyzewski wasn't with them. A year later, his pro career was over. The kid was still just 25.

After his Major League career ended, Eddie Hanyzewski returned to South Bend. He pitched a summer of semi-pro ball and even pitched for a summer with the Studebaker team. But he was done for good when his arm gave out for the last time in 1949, when Hanyzewski was just 29 years old.

Ed Hanyzewski became a South Bend police officer and served 20 years on the force, retiring with the rank of captain. He raised two sons who both became star athletes. He coached youth baseball and refereed college football games.

Eddie Hanyzewski died in 1991 at the age of 71. He is buried in the St. Joseph Cemetery in South Bend.