Former Fordham baseball standout and Major Leaguer Hank Borowy passed away this week on Monday, August 23rd. He was 88.
Borowy was the mainstay in the Rams' starting rotation in the late 1930's, where he racked up 23 career wins for Fordham, which ranks second all-time at Fordham. His best season came in 1939 where he posted single-season records with 13 wins and 105 innings pitched, while recording 105 strikeouts, which is the second best single-season strikeout total in Fordham's 144 years of baseball. The shining moment of his Fordham career came on April 24, 1938, as he threw a no-hitter against Rutgers University, striking out 10 batters in the game.
Following his graduation from Fordham, he signed on with the New York Yankees, and as a 26-year-old rookie in 1942, he went 15-4, helping the Yankees to the World Series, where they fell to the St Louis Cardinals. Borowy continued his solid pitching for the Yankees over the next two seasons, which included helping them win the 1943 World Series against the Cardinals.
By 1945, Borowy was considered one of the top pitchers in all of baseball and was traded to the Chicago Cubs for nearly $100,000 in cash. The Cubs certainly got what they paid for as Borowy won 11 of 13 decisions with the Cubs, helping them to the 1945 World Series. He pitched in four World Series games that year, winning the opener via shutout, while saving the win in Game 6. The Cubs though would fall to the Detriot Tigers in Game 7.
Borowy pitched in the big leagues until 1951. After his career ended, he started a real estate business in his hometown of Bloomfield, NJ, and retired from that job in the early 1990s. In 1972, Borowy was recognized for his Fordham pitching career, as his was a part of the second class to enter the Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame.
He is survived by his children, Clarie Gelli, Mary Ellen Borowy, and Henry Borowy, as well his sister, Helen Muraski, and his two brothers Edward and William.
A funeral mass for Borowy will be held on Thursday, August 26 at St. Valentine's Church in Bloomfield, NJ. Visiting hours for his wake are from 2-4 PM and 7-9 PM at Frank Halprin's Brookdale Funeral Home in Bloomfield.
