Lombardi fanned 19 batters in a game twice in one week in the 1941 Penn State Association. Scouts who went to check him out were surprised to find he was just 5’7″ and 158 pounds. But by the last year of WWII, with talent scarce, Lombardi’s size was overlooked. Given a chance, he won between 10 and 13 games a season as a .500 pitcher for the 1945-47 Dodgers and the 1948 Pirates.