When Johnny Beazley returned to Nashville after his illustrious major league baseball career, he brought back two things: pride and a World Series ring. Beazley started his baseball career with the New Orleans Pelicans in 1941 before signing with the St. Louis Cardinals in the fall of the year. In the 1942 baseball season, Beazley had an impressive won-lost record of 21-6, but he is probably best remembered for his performance in the 1942 World Series against the legendary New York Yankees. He was the winner in two of the four Cardinal victories, pitching spectacularly in the fifth and final game of the series that gave the world championship to the Cardinals. Fred Russell, a sportswriter for forty-seven years, wrote: “A nation salutes the pitching poise of a twenty-three year old major league freshman who withstands World Series pressure to twice throttle the New York Yankees, for the past two decades the diamond’s mightiest aggregation, and brings the championship of the universe to the slashing, dashing St. Louis Cardinals. . . (His) triumphs stand as the greatest individual athletic achievement in Nashville’s history.” Beazley entered the Air Force in 1942, where he injured his arm. He returned to the Cardinals when he got out of the service in 1946-1947, and then went to the Boston Braves in 1948. In 1950 Beazley retired from baseball and returned to Nashville, where he was active as a councilman in local government.
