1940-1949

[Baseball Guru]

1940


Entering the 1940 major-league season, the defending National League champion
Cincinnati Reds had one World Series championship to their credit, a tainted one.

The Reds had won their only Series in 1919,
beating the Chicago White Sox. Late in the
following season, eight members of the
Chicago club were implicated in a fixing
scandal revolving around the White Sox-Reds
fall classic. While there were those who
contended that the Reds had the wherewithal
to beat Chicago -- regardless of their
underdog status -- the lingering feeling was
that without a little help from its enemies,
Cincinnati still would be looking for its first
Series title.

Cincinnati, of course, had a chance to win an unsoiled Series in 1939. Instead, the
Reds hung out their own dirty linen as the powerful New York Yankees zapped
them in four games. Plainly, this World Series evoked few pleasant memories for
the Reds.

Hopes that 1940 might be different rose when Bill McKechnie's club raced to 100
victories and a 12-game margin in the NL pennant race. The hopes rose even
higher when it was determined that the noted NL exterminators from the Bronx
wouldn't qualify for the fall classic.

While the 1940 AL champions were not the Yankees, they looked like the
Yankees. The Detroit Tigers, who finished one game ahead of Cleveland and two
in front of New York, had a 1-2 punch that combined for 74 home runs and 284
runs batted in. Plus, four Tiger regulars batted .313 or higher.

The Tigers exhibited some of their offensive prowess in the opening game of the
World Series, knocking Paul Derringer from the mound in a five-run second and
coasting to a 7-2 victory. Pinky Higgins, Dick Bartell and Bruce Campbell each
knocked in two runs for the Tigers, who got eight-hit pitching from Bobo Newsom.
Newsom's joy over his performance ended abruptly, though, with the news the
next morning of the death of his father, who had come from South Carolina to see
him pitch.

Jimmy Ripple's two-run home run and Bucky Walters' three-hit pitching enabled
Cincinnati to win, 5-3, the next day and even the Series. The Tigers regained the
upper hand in Game 3 as Rudy York and Higgins belted two-run homers in the
seventh -- the score was tied 1-1 entering the inning -- and pushed the Tigers
toward a 7-4 decision. York had 33 homers and 134 RBIs.

The Reds' Derringer rebounded from his pasting in the Series opener and spun a
five-hitter in Game 4. His 5-2 victory left the Series tied, 2-2.

The seesaw nature of the 1940 World Series continued in Game 5, with Detroit
resting on the high end of the plank after winning convincingly. Newsom, obviously
emotion-racked, threw a three-hitter and won, 8-0, as Hank Greenberg unloaded
a three-run homer and drove in four runs. Greenberg was coming off a monstrous
year, having mauled AL pitchers for 41 homers, 150 RBIs and a .340 batting
average.

Games 6 and 7 would be played in Cincinnati, but any edge the home field was
providing in this Series was offset by the pattern of alternating victories. It was
Cincinnati's turn to win in the sixth game and, sure enough, the Reds delivered.
Walters not only fired a five-hit shutout, he also homered in a 4-0 victory.

Tigers Manager Del Baker called on his best pitcher for Game 7, even if that
pitcher was coming off only one day of rest. Newsom was his man. McKechnie
opted for Derringer, who had two days of rest.

Newsom, a 20-game winner in the American League for the third consecutive
season, was the beneficiary of an unearned run in the third inning and made that run
stand up through six innings. However, Frank McCormick, easily the Reds' top
power threat (19 homers and 127 RBIs in '40), and Ripple hit consecutive doubles
to open the Reds' seventh. With the game tied, 1-1, Jimmie Wilson bunted Ripple
to third. After pinch-hitter Ernie Lombardi was given an intentional walk, Billy
Myers drove home Ripple with a fly ball to deep center.

Derringer, leading 2-1, went to work in his bid to nail down the Series. He allowed
an inning-opening single to Charlie Gehringer in the eighth, then retired the Tigers'
next six batters. The alternating-victory sequence had ended, and so had
Cincinnati's long wait for Series triumph No. 2.

Derringer and Walters, 20-game winners again in 1940 (Derringer for the third
straight season and Walters for the second), atoned for their winless efforts in the
'39 Series by posting two victories apiece this time. The Reds' Bill Werber batted a
Series-high .370, Wilson hit .353 and Ripple finished at .333. Ripple and Ival
Goodman had six and five RBIs, respectively, for the winners.

Wilson, a 40-year-old Reds coach, was pressed into late-season catching duty
when Lombardi suffered an ankle injury and wound up starting six World Series
games after appearing in 16 regular-season games. The season, while ending on a
joyous note for Cincinnati, had sadness, too. In early August, Reds reserve catcher
Willard Hershberger had committed suicide in his Boston hotel room.

Detroit's standout in the Series was Newsom, who won two of three decisions and
recorded a 1.38 earned-run average in 26 innings. Campbell, Greenberg and
Higgins posted .360, .357 and .333 averages and Barney McCosky -- like
Greenberg a .340 batsman in the regular season --had a .304 Series mark, none of
which was enough to prevent the Cincinnati Reds from winning their first World
Series of the non-tainted variety.

[Baseball Guru]

1941

"That was a tough break for poor Mickey to get. I bet he feels like a nickel's worth
of dog meat."

Mickey Owen surely felt a little worse than
that. And even if Tommy Henrich's quaintly
unprofaned size-up of the situation didn't quite
capture the gravity of the misdeed, it at least
conveyed some of the torment.

Owen, you see, had erred grievously in the
ninth inning of Game 4 of the 1941 World
Series.

With two out, no New York Yankees on
base and Brooklyn leading 4-3, a third strike
on the Yanks' Henrich got past Dodgers
catcher Owen. And instead of salting away a
victory that would have tied the Series at two
victories apiece, Brooklyn saw the Yankees break loose for four runs in the inning
and steal off with a 7-4 victory. New York won the Series the next afternoon.

"Sure, it was my fault," said Owen, nearly in tears after the game. "The ball was a
low curve that broke down. It hit the edge of my glove and glanced off, but I
should have had him out anyway.

"But who ever said those Yanks were such great sluggers? They're the real bums in
this Series, with that great reputation of theirs."

The facts said Joe McCarthy's Yankees were great sluggers. Joe DiMaggio,
Charlie Keller and Henrich all hit at least 30 homers in 1941, and Joe Gordon
slammed 24. But Owen had a point in terms of the New Yorkers' Series
production. Through the first four games of the fall classic, the Yankees had one
home run. And in their 34 innings of Series at-bats preceding the fateful ninth of
Game 4, the Yanks had scored only 10 runs.

The key play of the '41 Series occurred in Game 4, when Owen gave the Yankees
new life by letting Henrich's ninth-inning third strike and a potential Series-tying
victory get away.

As usual, though, the Yankees were getting the job done. Gordon had homered
and knocked in two runs in the Series opener, which went to New York, 3-2, on
Red Ruffing's six-hitter. After losing to Brooklyn's Whitlow Wyatt 3-2 in Game 2,
the Yankees got a break and reclaimed the Series lead.

Brooklyn's Freddie Fitzsimmons was locked in a scoreless duel with Marius Russo
in Game 3 when, with two out in the seventh, the Yanks' pitcher hit a line drive that
caught Fitzsimmons flush on the knee. While shortstop Pee Wee Reese caught the
deflected ball on the fly to end the inning, Fitzsimmons was through for the day.
Dodgers reliever Hugh Casey then was cuffed for four hits and two runs in the
eighth, and Brooklyn, able to get only four hits off Russo, lost 2-1.

Pinch-hitter Jimmy Wasdell's two-run double in the fourth inning and Pete Reiser's
two-run homer in the fifth enabled Leo Durocher's Dodgers to overcome a 3-0
deficit in the fourth game. Casey, who had come on to quell New York's
bases-loaded threat in the top of the fifth, then blanked the Yankees through the
eighth inning. In the ninth, he got Johnny Sturm and Red Rolfe on ground balls to
open the inning. Henrich was up next, and the Ebbets Field crowd -- sensing
victory -- was poised to let out a roar.

That roar was in the here-it-comes stage when Casey struck out Henrich but was
muffled when the ball got away from Owen and Henrich raced to first base.
DiMaggio followed with a single, and Keller shot the Yankees ahead with a
two-run double. After a walk to Bill Dickey, Gordon further quieted the Dodgers
faithful with another two-run double.

The Yankees' Johnny Murphy then turned in his second consecutive inning of
1-2-3 relief, and New York had handed Brooklyn a devastating defeat.

Ernie "Tiny" Bonham then put the Dodgers out of their misery, tossing a four-hitter
in Game 5. Henrich homered in the Yankees' Series-clinching 3-1 triumph.

The power-laden Yanks, who had scored another of their patented pennant
runaways in 1941 (winning by 17 games), hit just two home runs and batted only
.247 in the World Series. Still, they managed to blot out the Dodgers, who got
even less offensive production (one homer and a .182 average) and a couple of
tough breaks to boot.

[Baseball Guru]

1942

Game 1 of the 1942 World Series hadn't even ended yet. Decided, yes; ended, no.
But, clearly, the "experts" already had this one tabbed: The talent-heavy and
experience-rich New York Yankees were just too strong for the
skilled-but-youthful band of St. Louis Cardinals.

The Yanks, featuring Joe DiMaggio, Charlie
Keller, Joe Gordon, Bill Dickey and Red
Ruffing, were appearing in the Series for the
sixth time in seven years; the Cards, getting a
stupendous season from righthander Mort
Cooper and outstanding efforts from
fifth-year major leaguer Enos Slaughter,
21-year-old Stan Musial and rookie pitcher
Johnny Beazley, were competing in the fall
classic for the first time since 1934.

Entering the last of the ninth inning of the Series opener, Ruffing and the Yankees
led, 7-0. The Cardinals had managed one base hit off the 37-year-old Ruffing, and
it had taken them until the eighth inning -- until there were two out in the eighth, in
fact -- to get that measly hit, a single by center fielder Terry Moore. St. Louis had
four errors, New York none. If ever there was a case of savvy over jitters, this
appeared to be it.

Musial, the Cardinals' left fielder, fouled out to open the ninth. Catcher Walker
Cooper followed with a single, but first baseman Johnny Hopp flied out. The next
batter, pinch-hitter Ray Sanders, walked. Then, the Cardinals lashed five
consecutive hits that produced four runs. That brought Musial to the plate with the
bases loaded. Spud Chandler was now pitching for New York, and he got Musial
to hit a game-ending grounder to first base.

No, the Cardinals had not made a miraculous, game-winning comeback but they
had given the Yankees -- and the experts -- something to think about.

Manager Billy Southworth's Redbirds had proved conclusively during the 1942
National League season that they could battle back. They had trailed
league-leading Brooklyn by 10 games on the morning of August 5 and charged to a
two-game margin of victory over the Dodgers. Southworth's team was more than
capable of winning four of six games -- what it now would take to overcome the
Yankees in the'42 Series -- a fact demonstrated in clear-cut fashion during the
pennant race. A four-of-six pace was a day at the beach for these Cardinals; in
overhauling Brooklyn, St. Louis had won 43 of its last 51 games.

The Cardinals did not go out and beat the Yankees in four of six games. It didn't
take the Cards nearly that long to upend the New Yorkers.

Newcomer Beazley, who posted a 2.13 earned-run average while winning 21
games for St. Louis in 1942, carried a 3-0 lead into the eighth inning of Game 2 but
surrendered a run-scoring single to DiMaggio and a two-run homer to Keller. The
Cards won, though, 4-3, thanks to Slaughter's double and Musial's single in the
bottom of the eighth and Slaughter's ninth-inning throw from right field that nailed
Yankee pinch-runner Tuck Stainback at third base (and thereby short-circuited a
New York rally).

Cardinals lefthander Ernie White stole the show in Game 3, shutting out the
Yankees on six hits and winning, 2-0. White got marvelous outfield support, with
Moore making a great catch in the sixth and Musial and Slaughter making
homer-saving catches in the seventh. Suddenly, St. Louis was exhibiting the skills it
had honed while winning 106 regular-season games.

First-game loser Mort Cooper, who in the regular season won 22 games, fired 10
shutouts and posted an ERA of 1.78, went against Hank Borowy the next day.
Cooper lasted only 5 1/3 innings and was victimized by Keller's three-run homer in
New York's five-run sixth; Borowy lasted into the fourth, an inning in which St.
Louis got two-run singles from third baseman Whitey Kurowski and pitcher
Cooper (older brother of the Cards' catcher) and scored six times overall.

In the seventh, Walker Cooper's RBI single snapped a 6-6 tie and shortstop Marty
Marion delivered a run-scoring fly ball. St. Louis reliever Max Lanier not only
proceeded to pitch shutout ball the rest of the way, he also singled home an
insurance run in the ninth. The Cardinals held on in a wild one, 9-6.

Game 5 matched the older Ruffing against youngster Beazley. The Yankees
jumped on top when Phil Rizzuto, who had hit a total of seven home runs in his first
two big-league seasons, hammered a Beazley pitch into the left-field stands in the
first inning. St. Louis tied it in the fourth when Slaughter countered with a homer to
right, but New York slipped back in front in the bottom of the inning on
DiMaggio's run-scoring single. The resilient Redbirds forged another deadlock in
the sixth - Walker Cooper's fly ball drove in the run -- and the teams went to the
ninth tied 2-2.

Walker Cooper touched Ruffing for a single and was sacrificed to second by
Hopp. That brought up the 24-year-old Kurowski, 3-for-14 at that point in the
Series after batting .254 with nine homers during the regular season in his first
extended big-league duty. Kurowski whacked a Ruffing delivery into the left-field
stands, just inside the foul pole. Cardinals 4, Yankees 2.

The World Series setback was the first since 1926 for the Yankees, who had won
in all eight of their appearances in the fall classic in the interim.

[Baseball Guru]

1943

Having gathered a head of steam after their remarkable pennant-race and World
Series charges of the previous season, the St. Louis Cardinals blew past their
National League rivals in 1943 on the way to a second successive World Series
date with the New York Yankees.

Pennant-winners by two games in 1942, the
Cardinals finished on top by 18 in 1943. And
while the military call-up surely weakened the
opposition, it hurt the Cards as badly as any
team. Outfielders Terry Moore and Enos
Slaughter, second baseman Jimmy Brown
and pitchers Johnny Beazley and Howie
Pollet were key St. Louis players summoned
by Uncle Sam for World War II duty. St.
Louis got some sizable contributions from its
farm system, though, with Lou Klein taking
over for Brown at second base and Al Brazle
and Harry Brecheen providing pitching help.

Most of all, the Cards got tremendous seasons from fast-emerging outfielder Stan
Musial, who in his second season as a big-league regular won his first NL batting
title by hitting a robust .357, and pitchers Pollet (who entered the service in
August), Max Lanier and Mort Cooper, who ranked 1-2-3 in the league in ERA at
1.75, 1.90 and 2.30, respectively.

The Yankees lost Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto and Red Ruffing because of military
service but persevered, too. Charlie Keller and Joe Gordon still were on hand, and
they provided power with 31 and 17 homers, respectively. First baseman Nick
Etten, an offseason acquisition from the Philadelphia Phillies, proved a significant
addition. He drove in a team-high 107 runs. Spud Chandler led the pitching staff
with 20 wins. The result -- in Joe McCarthy's 13th season as Yankees manager --
was a 13 1/2-game difference over second-place Washington in the American
League.

As in the 1942 Series, the Cardinals fell in Game 1 of the 1943 fall classic.
Chandler pitched seven-hit ball in a 4-2 triumph with McCarthy's Yanks breaking a
2-2 tie in the sixth on singles by Frankie Crosetti and rookie third baseman Billy
Johnson, a wild pitch by Lanier and another single by Bill Dickey.

The Cooper brothers, playing despite the death of their father earlier in the day,
formed the St. Louis battery in Game 2. Mort pitched one-run ball for eight innings
-- the Yankees rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth -- and wound up a
4-3 winner. Walker singled in three at-bats and laid down a sacrifice bunt. The
hitting stars for the Cards were Marty Marion, who belted a third-inning homer
with the bases empty, and Ray Sanders, who powered a two-run shot in the fourth.

Could the Cardinals possibly match their 1942 feat of wiping out the Yanks in four
straight after losing the opener?

Brazle, a 29-year-old rookie who won 8-of-10 decisions in the regular season and
boasted a 1.53 ERA, kept the Cards' hopes alive for a repeat of '42 -- or at least
of seizing the lead in this Series -- by pitching masterfully through seven innings of
Game 3. But the roof caved in on the lefthander in the eighth as the Yankees
scored five times.

Johnny Lindell, a converted pitcher who was manning center field in the absence of
DiMaggio, began the inning with a single and took second when center fielder
Harry Walker misplayed the ball. Pinch-hitter George Stirnweiss bunted, and first
baseman Sanders threw to third baseman Whitey Kurowski in an effort to cut
down Lindell. The throw was in time, but Lindell crashed into Kurowski and jarred
the ball loose. After a fly ball moved Stirnweiss to second, Crosetti was walked
intentionally to load the bases. Johnson, a .280 hitter in his first season with the
Yankees, proceeded to foil the strategy by clearing the bases with a triple. Gordon
and Etten added run-scoring singles later in the inning, pushing the score to 6-2.
Johnny Murphy worked a 1-2-3 ninth in relief of winning pitcher Hank Borowy,
and the Yanks no longer had to fret about a rerun of the 1942 World Series.

Any fretting, in fact, soon went the Cardinals' way. Marius Russo, a 5-10 pitcher
for the Yankees in '43, limited St. Louis to seven hits in Game 4 and doubled and
scored the winning run in the eighth as New York won 2-1.

Now, the Cardinals were thinking survival. The Yankees, ever mindful of their '42
fate, were thinking revenge. It would be Mort Cooper against Chandler the next
afternoon.

By the end of Game 5, St. Louis was thinking about next year. The Cardinals
collected 10 hits off Chandler but couldn't score. The Yankees got a two-run
homer from Dickey in the sixth. And that was it -- 2-0, New York.

And that was it for McCarthy, who in turning the five-game tables on the Cardinals
had managed his seventh and last World Series champion.

[Baseball Guru]

1944

The American League franchise that competed under the banner of the St. Louis
Browns from 1902 through 1953 won exactly one pennant in its obviously
checkered history.

If one were trying to deduce which Browns
team was able to reach the World Series, a
simple check of rosters and individual
production over the years would point,
unequivocally, to the 1922 aggregation, the
team of George Sisler, Ken Williams, Baby
Doll Jacobson, Marty McManus, Urban
Shocker and Elam Vangilder. Sisler batted
.420, hit safely in 41 consecutive games and
drove in 105 runs. Williams batted .332,
slammed 39 home runs and had 155 runs
batted in. Jacobson hit .317 and compiled
102 RBIs, and McManus finished with a .312
average and 109 RBIs. And Shocker and
Vangilder combined for 43 victories.

In 1944, the Browns fielded a team that
batted .252, 61 points under the .313 figure posted by the '22 club. The '44
Browns had one .300 hitter, outfielder Mike Kreevich, who barely made it at .301;
one man with 20 homers, shortstop Vern Stephens, who hit exactly 20; and one
player over the 85-RBI mark, Stephens, who knocked in 109 runs. Nelson Potter
and Jack Kramer combined for 36 victories.

Fate, of course, isn't always kind, or fair, for that matter. Sure enough, it was the
1944 team that won the St. Louis Browns' only pennant. With outfielder Chet
Laabs drilling two final-day homers, each with a man on base, the Browns beat the
New York Yankees. The victory, combined with Detroit's loss to Washington,
enabled St. Louis to finish one game ahead of the Tigers in the AL. On the other
hand, the 1922 Browns wound up one game out of first place.

To say there were extenuating circumstances in the 1922 and 1944 AL pennant
scenarios would be understating the case, however. The '22 Browns, as good as
they were, lost out to a team that was headed for unrivaled glory: The Yankees of
the Babe Ruth era. The '44 Browns, as ordinary as they were, won out over an AL
field decimated by manpower cutbacks forced by World War II.

To their credit, though, the Browns put the American League's best team on the
field in 1944. The other major-league team in St. Louis, the National League
Cardinals, fielded the best club in either league in '44, another twist of fate that
eventually would put a damper on the Browns' long-awaited success.

In making off with their third straight NL pennant in '44, Manager Billy
Southworth's Cardinals won 105 games and ran their three-year victory total to
316. Their lead over Pittsburgh was 14 1/2 games.

The all-Sportsman's Park World Series -- the eight-time NL champion Cardinals
were, in fact, tenants of the long-downtrodden Browns franchise -- began on a high
note for Manager Luke Sewell's AL titleists as Denny Galehouse outpitched Mort
Cooper in a 2-1 game decided by George McQuinn's fourth-inning home run with
Gene Moore on base. The blast by first baseman McQuinn would prove to be the
Browns' only homer in World Series history.

After Blix Donnelly's stellar relief pitching -- no runs, two hits and seven strikeouts
in four innings -- and Ken O'Dea's run-scoring pinch single in the 11th inning won
Game 2 for the Cardinals, 3-2, the Browns came back for a 6-2 triumph in Game
3 as Kramer pitched a seven-hitter and struck out 10 batters, and McQuinn went
3-for-3 with two RBIs.

The Browns, ahead two games to one, appeared in good shape. The Cardinals
then proceeded to bend them out of shape. Sig Jakucki, the 35-year-old retread
who won 13 games for the '44 Brownies after being away from baseball for five
years (in his only previous experience in the majors, he was 0-3 for the '36
Browns), lasted only three innings in Game 4, a contest in which Cards lefthander
Harry Brecheen, 16-5 in the regular season, kept the American Leaguers off stride,
and Stan Musial belted a two-run homer. The Cardinals prevailed, 5-1.

The next day, Cooper fired a seven-hit shutout and beat Galehouse, 2-0. Ray
Sanders socked a home run for the Cards in the sixth and Danny Litwhiler
connected in the eighth. Cooper was coming off another outstanding year, having
thrown seven shutouts while posting 22 victories. In the Cardinals'
1942-1943-1944 stranglehold on the NL championship, Cooper won 65 games
and hurled 23 shutouts.

Max Lanier and Ted Wilks, pitchers who posted identical victory totals and
earned-run averages (17 triumphs, 2.65 ERA) for the Cardinals in '44, combined
to bring the Browns' memorable season to a halt in Game 6. Lanier worked 5 1/3
innings of three-hit ball, while the 28-year-old rookie Wilks -- who lost only four
times in the regular season -- retired all 11 browns he faced. The Cardinals,
benefiting from Stephens' throwing error in the fourth (one of 10 Brownie errors in
the Series) and getting run-scoring singles from Emil Verban and Lanier in that
three-run inning, notched a 3-1 victory that wrapped up their second Series title in
three years.

The World Series was becoming old hat for the St. Louis Cardinals, who had just
appeared in the event for the eighth time in 19 seasons. For the St. Louis Browns,
the fall classic was an experience to be enjoyed only rarely, like once in their
52-season history.

[Baseball Guru]

1945

Hank Borowy battled gamely as he tried to help the Chicago Cubs defeat the
Detroit Tigers in the not-so-classic 1945 fall classic. This was the last of the
wartime World Series, one that a Chicago sportswriter -- after surveying the talent
-- doubted either team could win.

Try as he might, the 29-year-old Borowy
couldn't win it for the Cubs, whatever the
caliber of the competition.

Acquired on waivers in late July after he had
compiled a 10-5 record for the New York
Yankees, Borowy proceeded to win 11 of 13
decisions for the Cubs and helped Chicago
fight off the St. Louis Cardinals in the
National League pennant race. Then, in Game
1 of the World Series, he held the Tigers to
six singles and was a 9-0 victor as the Cubs
bombed 25-game winner Hal Newhouser.
Bill Nicholson singled and tripled and drove in
three runs for Chicago, which got two RBIs
apiece from Phil Cavarretta (who rapped two
singles and a home run) and Mickey
Livingston.

Standout pitching performances continued
through Game 4, at which point the Cubs and
Tigers were tied at two victories each. Virgil Trucks, a 16-game winner for Detroit
in 1943 and only recently discharged from the Navy, pitched a seven-hitter in
Game 2 and won, 4-1, as midseason service returnee Hank Greenberg unloaded a
three-run homer in the fifth. Four days earlier, on the final day of the AL schedule
and in a game that marked Trucks' only appearance of the regular season,
Greenberg had smashed a pennant-clinching, grand slam in the ninth inning against
the St. Louis Browns.

In Game 3, Chicago's Claude Passeau tossed a one-hitter -- Rudy York singled to
left field with two out in the second -- and led the National Leaguers to a 3-0
triumph. Following his teammate's cue, Ray Prim set down the first 10 Detroit
batters he faced in Game 4, but after yielding a walk, two singles and a double in
what became a four-run fourth for the Tigers, Prim was removed in favor of Paul
Derringer. While Derringer and fellow relievers Hy Vandenberg and Paul Erickson
pitched shutout ball the rest of the way, it was to no avail. Detroit's 4-1 triumph,
fashioned on Dizzy Trout's five-hit pitching, knotted the '45 Series.

Now Charley Grimm went to Borowy, not once, not twice, but three times.
Grimm, in his second tour of duty as the Cubs' manager, was obviously impressed
with Borowy's combined regular-season record of 21-7, his second-half heroics
for the Cubs (which netted him the NL's earned-run-average title with a 2.14) and
his 56-30 mark with the Yankees. The man could pitch, and Grimm was going to
extract every bit of talent from Borowy's right arm.

That talent had the Cubs in a 1-1 tie through five innings of Game 5, which matched
Borowy against Newhouser. The 24-year-old Newhouser had just led the
American League in victories (he had 29 an 1944) and strikeouts for the second
successive season and topped the league with a 1.81 ERA. Newhouser wound up
going the distance on this day, while Borowy departed after allowing four straight
hits at the outset of the sixth. Detroit scored four runs in the inning and swept to an
8-4 victory. Greenberg slugged three doubles for the Tigers.

The Trucks-Passeau pitching pairing in Game 6 hinted at a low-scoring game, but
Trucks was routed in the Cubs' four-run fifth -- which featured Stan Hack's
bases-loaded single -- and Passeau left in the seventh, when Detroit scored twice.
After the Cubs rebounded with two runs in their half of the inning, it was 7-3,
Chicago. But Detroit struck for four runs in the eighth, the game-tying run coming
on a Greenberg homer, and suddenly Manager Steve O'Neill's Tigers were in a
position to close out the Cubs in six games.

Trout came on in relief for Detroit in the last of the eighth, and when the 7-7 game
moved into the ninth, Grimm decided to make another pitching change. Having
followed Passeau with Hank Wyse (the Cubs' top winner of'45 with 22 victories)
and Prim, Grimm now wanted Henry Ludwig Borowy. And Borowy delivered,
holding Detroit at bay with four scoreless innings. Then, in the bottom of the 12th,
with two out and Billy Schuster at first base as a pinch-runner (for Frank Secory,
who had come through with a pinch single), Hack hit a drive to left field that took a
weird bounce and bounded over Greenberg. The hit, ruled a double, scored
Schuster and gave Borowy and the Cubs an 8-7 victory.

This World Series, the one that neither team supposedly could win, had gone
unclaimed through six games. Now it would have to end. The Tigers were shooting
for their second World Series crown; their only previous Series title had come in
1935, against the Cubs. The Cubs were eyeing their third Series championship;
their two titles came in 1907 and 1908 at the Tigers' expense. It would be
Newhouser, working on two days of rest, going against -- no big surprise here --
Borowy, who was going on one day of rest after pitching the final four innings of
Game 6. Of course, Borowy also had also pitched into the sixth inning in Game 5.

Try as he might, Borowy couldn't win the World Series for the Cubs. He yielded
singles to the Tigers' first three batters, Skeeter Webb, Eddie Mayo and Doc
Cramer. Grimm, knowing Borowy had done all he could for the 1945 Cubs, told
his weary pitcher to call it a day, and a Series.

Derringer took over for Chicago, and by the end of the inning Detroit had scored
five runs -- three coming around on Paul Richards' bases-loaded double.
Newhouser went on to a 9-3 victory, allowing 10 hits but also striking out 10
Cubs. The Tigers were World Series kingpins.

The Cubs, on the other hand, had finished No. 2 in their last seven Series
appearances. Not even one of the more noted mid-season acquisitions of all time
could do anything about that.

[Baseball Guru]

1946

When it comes to drama-filled conclusions to World Series-deciding contests,
Game 7 of the 1946 fall classic has most of 'em beat by a Country mile.

For that you can thank, above all, one Enos
Bradsher Slaughter. But the fact is, the
marvelous theater that unfolded in the late
stages of the climactic game of the '46 Series
began a half-inning ahead of Slaughter's dash
into the spotlight and ended a half-inning later.
It just seemed like a one-man show.

After seven innings at Sportsman's Park, the
St. Louis Cardinals held a 3-1 lead over the
Boston Red Sox. Cardinals righthander
Murry Dickson, after giving up singles to the
first two batters, Wally Moses and Johnny
Pesky, had allowed only one hit since the first
inning. In the fifth, Dickson had broken a 1-1 tie with a double that scored Harry
Walker, and then trotted home himself when Red Schoendienst singled.

Now, in the top of the eighth, Dickson would face Boston's eighth-, ninth- and
first-place hitters. The first scheduled batter was Hal Wagner, but Manager Joe
Cronin sent up Glen (Rip) Russell to hit for the Red Sox's catcher. Russell singled
to center. Joe Dobson, who had relieved starting pitcher Dave (Boo) Ferriss in the
fifth, was due up next, and this time Cronin opted for George Metkovich. The
result was a double to left, and Boston had the potential tying runs in scoring
position with no one out.

Eddie Dyer, St. Louis' rookie manager, responded with a call to the bullpen. He
wanted lefthander Harry (The Cat) Brecheen, and for good reason. Brecheen had
been the pitching standout of this Series, tossing a four-hit shutout in Game 2 and
yielding only one run in a complete game triumph in Game 6. Furthermore, his
insertion was a matter of playing the percentages: Moses and Pesky, Boston's next
two batters, were lefthanded hitters, and Moses had collected five hits in his 11
Series at-bats thus far.

Brecheen, who compiled a 30-9 record in 1944 and 1945, had fallen to 15-15 in
1946. But his 2.49 earned-run average and five-shutout performance of'46
stamped his .500 season as misleading, as did his Series pitching success.

Brecheen struck out Moses. He then got Pesky to line out to Slaughter, whose
prompt throw to the infield kept the runners glued to their bases. Now
righthanded-hitting Dom DiMaggio was the batter. DiMaggio, who had driven in
Boston's run with a first-inning fly ball, came through with a nifty piece of clutch
hitting by ripping a Brecheen pitch off the wall in right-center field. The blow scored
Russell and Metkovich, tying the game at 3-3. Brecheen got out of the inning by
retiring Ted Williams on a popup.

When the Red Sox took the field for the bottom of the eighth, Bob Klinger was on
to pitch, Roy Partee had replaced Wagner behind the plate and Leon Culberson
was stationed in center field. Culberson had pinch-run in the top of the inning for
DiMaggio, who twisted his ankle rounding first while running out his crucial
two-base hit. Klinger, Partee and Culberson soon would be where the action was.

Slaughter, the man they called Country, promptly singled off Klinger. Whitey
Kurowski popped out to the Boston pitcher while attempting to sacrifice, and Del
Rice flied out. It was up to Walker, who already had six hits and five RBIs in the
Series. Walker hit a shot over Pesky's head into left-center, and Slaughter was off
to the races. By the time Culberson could get the ball back to the infield, Country
surely would be standing on third.

Except Country wasn't standing anywhere. Slaughter sped around second base and
then he tore around third. When shortstop Pesky hesitated in making his relay
throw to the plate -- a throw that drew Partee up the third-base line -- Slaughter
was home free. The daring baserunning had thrust St. Louis into a 4-3 lead.
Walker, meanwhile, had motored into second on his big hit and was credited with a
double (not a single, as often reported).

Brecheen, after making the final out in the eighth, continued the suspense in the
ninth by allowing singles to Rudy York and Bobby Doerr to open the inning. As the
Sportsman's Park throng inched forward, Pinky Higgins hit into a forceout that
moved pinchrunner Paul Campbell to third. With one out, the tying run was 90 feet
away.

Partee then fouled out to first baseman Stan Musial, leaving it up to pinch-hitter
Tom McBride, who was batting for reliever Earl Johnson. Brecheen induced the
reserve outfielder to ground to second baseman Schoendienst, who flipped the ball
to shortstop Marty Marion for a Series-ending forceout. The wrung-out crowd let
go. The Cardinals had won their sixth World Series title.

Brecheen, of course, was a big factor in the Cards' latest championship. He won
three games in the Series and fashioned a 0.45 ERA in 20 innings. After the Red
Sox had opened the Series with a 3-2, l0-inning victory that was decided on a
York homer, Brecheen came back the next day and hurled St. Louis to a 3-0
triumph. And following Dobson's four-hit, 6-3 decision in Game 5 that sent Boston
ahead three games to two, Brecheen squared the Series by stopping the Red Sox,
4-1.

Two of the game's greatest offensive stars, St. Louis' Musial and Boston's
Williams, struggled in this Series with .222 and .200 averages, respectively. While
neither team hit particularly well overall, the Cardinals did have one slam-bang
afternoon. One day after being shut out by Ferriss, 4-0, in Game 3, St. Louis went
on a 20-hit spree at Fenway Park and buried the Red Sox, 12-3. Slaughter,
Kurowski and rookie catcher Joe Garagiola all had four hits for the Cards in that
contest.

Runaways weren't the Cardinals' style, though. That was evident during the
just-concluded National League season, when the Cards and Brooklyn Dodgers
tied for the top spot and met in the major leagues' first-ever pennant playoff.
Beating the Dodgers two straight in the best-of-three match, St. Louis captured its
fourth NL flag in five seasons and took its theatrics to the fall classic.

While Games 1 through 6 of the 1946 World Series received favorable reviews, it
is Game 7 that lives on as one of baseball's all-time show-stoppers.

[Baseball Guru]

1947

The Brooklyn Dodgers won Game 4 of the 1947 World Series, the storied game in
which New York Yankees pitcher Floyd "Bill" Bevens lost a no-hitter -- and the
game -- with two out in the last of the ninth inning.

Two days later in that no holds-barred Series,
the Dodgers prevailed in Game 6, which
outfielder Al Gionfriddo saved for Brooklyn
by robbing Joe DiMaggio of a game-tying
home run with one of the greatest catches in
history.

Although hardly on the scale of Game 4 and
Game 6 in terms of significance, Game 3 of
the '47 fall classic also went into the Dodgers'
victory column. In that game, a young
Yankees catcher named Yogi Berra belted
the first pinch-hit homer in Series annals. But
when the page closed on this Series -- more
to the point, when relief ace Joe Page closed
this Series -- the Brooklyn Dodgers found
themselves just where they had been in 1916, 1920 and 1941: in the loss column.

While the Dodgers failed to step to the front in October 1947, they clearly had
been in the forefront in April. And on a much more meaningful area than the
winning and losing of ballgames.

The Dodgers introduced Jackie Robinson to big-league baseball. Robinson, the
first black player to perform in the modern-day majors, made quite a first
impression with a .297 batting average and a league-leading 29 stolen bases. He
got opponents' attention, to say the least.

The St. Louis Cardinals gave the Dodgers the best run in the National League
pennant race. But the defending NL champions wound up five games behind
Brooklyn, which got solid production from its outfield of Pete Reiser (.309 average
in 110 games), Carl Furillo (.295 mark and 88 runs batted in) and Dixie Walker
(.306 and 94 RBIs), catcher Bruce Edwards (.295) and pitchers Ralph Branca
(21-12 record), Joe Hatten (17-8) and Hugh Casey (10 victories in relief).

These Dodgers were not the long-ball crew they soon would become, however.
Shortstop Pee Wee Reese, the glue that held the Dodgers together, tied Robinson
for the club homer lead with 12.

The'47 Yankees, catapulted by a 19-game winning streak that began in late June,
won the American League pennant by a 12-game margin. But this club lacked the
usual Yankees power with no player attaining the 100 RBIs class and only one, Joe
DiMaggio, reaching the 20-homer level. But New York got great pitching from
Allie Reynolds (who won 19 games in his first season with the club after being
obtained from Cleveland), Spud Chandler (the league's ERA leader with a 2.46
figure despite missing most of the second half of the season because of injury),
rookie Spec Shea (a 14-game winner) and ace reliever Page (also 14 victories, all
out of the bullpen). Veteran Bobo Newsom, a July acquisition from Washington,
and Vic Raschi, summoned from the minor leagues, each won seven games.

Shea and Reynolds got the Yankees off to a fast start in the Series, winning 5-3
and 10-3 in Games 1 and 2. In the opener, the Dodgers' Branca pitched perfect
ball through the fourth, then couldn't get anyone out in a five-run fifth; Shea,
meanwhile, was on his way to a six-hitter. Reynolds allowed nine hits in the second
game but coasted to victory as New York banged out 15 hits. Yankees left fielder
Johnny Lindell had two RBIs in each of the first two games.

Back in the friendly confines of Ebbets Field, the Dodgers responded with a 9-8
triumph in Game 3. A six-run second inning -- in which Brooklyn got two-run
doubles from Eddie Stanky and pinch-hitter Furillo -- put New York on the ropes
early, and things didn't look much better for the Yanks after four innings, with the
Dodgers owning a 9-4 lead.

But DiMaggio stroked a two-run homer in the fifth and Tommy Henrich doubled
home a Yankee run in the sixth, cutting the deficit to 9-7. Then, with one out in the
seventh, Berra was sent up to bat for catcher Sherman Lollar and he whacked a
tremendous homer to right off Branca. While the blow proved dramatic, it was the
Yanks' last hurrah of the day.

Bevens, winner of only 7-of-20 decisions for New York in '47, was selected to
start Game 4 at Ebbets Field by first-year Yankees manager Bucky Harris. And
while Bevens permitted a fifth-inning run (on two walks, a sacrifice and a ground
ball), he entered the ninth with a no-hitter and a 2-1 lead. Edwards began the
Dodgers' half of the inning by flying out, and Furillo drew a walk. Spider Jorgensen
fouled out, bringing Bevens within one out of the first no-hitter in World Series
history.

Speedy reserve outfielder Gionfriddo was sent in to run for Furillo and, with Reiser
at the plate as a pinch-hitter for reliever Hugh Casey, Gionfriddo stole second.
Reiser, despite the fact he represented the potential winning run, was walked
intentionally (it was Bevens' 10th walk of the day).

Eddie Miksis was inserted into the game as a runner for Reiser, who was bothered
by a leg injury. Stanky was the next scheduled hitter, but Burt Shotton, who had
stepped into the Dodgers' managerial breach when Leo Durocher was suspended
just before the beginning of the season, replaced him with veteran Cookie
Lavagetto. And on Bevens' second pitch, Lavagetto walloped a double off the right
field wall and Gionfriddo and Miksis sped home.

Incredibly, with two out in the ninth, Bevens had lost his no-hitter and the game.
The Series was tied.

The American Leaguers responded to their misfortune in typical Yankees fashion,
shaking it off the next day and winning 2-1 as Shea pitched a four-hitter and singled
home a run and DiMaggio homered.

Brooklyn jumped to a 4-0 lead in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium, fell behind 5-4 and
then regained the lead with a four-run sixth capped by Reese's two-run single.
Then, with two on and two out in the bottom of the sixth and his Yankees down
8-5, DiMaggio made a valiant effort to tie the game. DiMaggio slammed a Hatten
pitch toward the left field bullpen and, just as it appeared the ball might drop over
the fence, Gionfriddo -- inserted into the game as the Yankees came to bat in the
inning -- made a twisting, glove-hand catch near the 415-foot mark.

DiMaggio, in a rare show of emotion, kicked the dirt in his disappointment.
Brooklyn held on for a Series-evening 8-6 victory.

Dodgers hopes zoomed in Game 7 when Shotton's troops drove Shea from the
mound in the second, an inning in which Brooklyn seized a 2-0 lead. But the
Yankees scored a run in the second, two in the fourth and, getting tremendous
relief pitching from Page, went on to a 5-2 triumph. Page threw five innings of
scoreless relief, allowing only one hit.

The disappointed Brooklyn club would have other chances to succeed in the
World Series, and the champion Yankees would have additional opportunities in
the fall classic.

But for'47 Series principals Lavagetto, Gionfriddo and Bevens, this was the end of
the line. Not only had these men played in their last Series, downward careers
would mean they had participated in their last major-league games.

[Baseball Guru]

1948

If a manager leads by example, Lou Boudreau set some example for the 1948
Cleveland Indians.

After the regular-season schedule had been
completed in the American League pennant
race, Boudreau's Indians were 96-58 and
tied for first place with the Boston Red Sox.
Boudreau, Cleveland's manager/shortstop,
had contributed mightily to his club's rise from
its fourth-place status of 1947 by compiling
pre-playoff statistics featuring a .351 batting
average, 16 home runs and 104 runs batted
in.

Then, in the pressure-packed situation of a
one-game playoff for the '48 AL
championship, Boudreau lashed two
bases-empty home runs and two singles as the Indians routed the Red Sox, 8-3,
and won only the second pennant in club history. Boudreau's 4-for-4 performance
at Fenway Park backed the five-hit pitching of rookie lefthander Gene Bearden,
whose victory in the extra game was his 20th of the year.

Cleveland's other big winners in '48, Bob Feller and Bob Lemon, were Boudreau's
pitching choices for the first two games of the World Series against Boston's other
big-time representative, the Braves, who under Manager Billy Southworth had
captured the National League pennant by 6 1/2 games. While the Braves had a
good-hitting ballclub, much of the National Leaguers' hopes rested on the arms of
Johnny Sain and Warren Spahn. In fact, the formula of "Spahn and Sain and two
days of rain" seemed to capture not only the depth of the team's starting pitching,
but also the essence of the Braves' strength.

Feller, who had won 25 or more games three times in the majors (and 24 on
another occasion), was a 19-game winner in '48. Since Feller had broken into the
majors in 1936, the World Series wait had been a long one for the 29-year-old
Iowan, and the hard-throwing righthander pitched superbly in his fall-classic debut.

Entering the last of the eighth inning of Game 1, Feller and Sain were locked in a
scoreless duel. Boston catcher Bill Salkeld drew a leadoff walk and gave way to
pinch-runner Phil Masi, who was sacrificed to second by Mike McCormick. Eddie
Stanky then was issued an intentional walk, and Sibby Sisti ran for Boston's
pepperpot second baseman. Feller and Boudreau proceeded to work a pickoff
play, with Feller whirling and throwing to his manager, who cut in behind Masi at
second. Umpire Bill Stewart made a safe call on the sliding Masi, and Boudreau
argued strenuously that he had made the tag before the baserunner got back to the
bag. Sain lined out to right field, but Tommy Holmes singled home Masi and it was
1-0, Braves.

Sain, a 24-game winner in '48, overcome third baseman Bob Elliott's two-base
throwing error in the ninth and protected the one-run lead. His four-hitter had
defeated Feller's two-hitter.

In Game 2, Lemon pitched shutout ball over the final eight innings as Cleveland
squared the Series with a 4-1 triumph. Boudreau and Larry Doby, who had
become the American League's first black player in July 1947, each singled,
doubled and drove in a run for the Indians.

Bearden continued his marvelous season by tossing a five-hit shutout against
Boston in Game 3, a game in which the 28-year-old pitcher singled and doubled
and scored the first run (on a throwing error) of a 2-0 contest. Steve Gromek then
put the Braves on the edge of elimination by hurling Cleveland to a 2-1 triumph in a
contest featuring home runs by Doby and the Braves' Marv Rickert. An
end-of-the-season replacement for outfielder Jeff Heath, who had batted .319 for
Boston with 20 homers before breaking his ankle, Rickert wound up starting five
World Series games for the Braves after appearing in only three regular-season
games for Southworth's club.

Boston wasn't through yet. Before a record major-league crowd of 86,288 at
Cleveland Stadium, the Braves hammered out an 11-5 victory in Game 5. Elliott
belted a three-run homer in the first inning for the Braves and a bases-empty shot in
the third, but the Indians rallied from a 4-1 deficit with a four-run outburst --
capped by Jim Hegan's three-run homer -- in the fourth. Salkeld tied the game with
a homer off Feller in the sixth, and Boston then tore into Feller and Cleveland's
relief corps for six seventh-inning runs.

Spahn, who hurled one-hit, scoreless ball in 5 2/3 innings of relief, was the winning
pitcher. Among the five pitchers used by the losers was 42-year-old Satchel Paige,
the Negro leagues legend who had been signed to his first big-league contract by
Indians President Bill Veeck in July. The appearance by Paige, who compiled a
6-1 regular-season record for the Tribe, made Satch the first black pitcher to take
the mound in a World Series.

Lemon, with 1 2/3 innings of relief help from the steady Bearden, was a 4-3 winner
in the decisive Game 6. Bearden yielded a run-scoring fly ball and an RBI double in
the eighth, drawing Boston within a run, but worked out of trouble and nailed down
the World Series crown for Boudreau's Indians.

Lemon, who had broken into the majors as a third baseman and played center field
for Cleveland in Feller's no-hitter against the New York Yankees in 1946, showed
everyone in 1948 that his conversion into a pitcher had been a wise move. He won
20 games for the AL champions, a plateau he would reach six more times in the
majors, and added two victories in the Series.

Cleveland prevailed against the Braves despite the Series slumps of Joe Gordon
and Ken Keltner and the failure of Feller to beat the National Leaguers. Gordon,
who hit 32 homers and totaled 124 RBIs while batting .280 in the regular season,
had one homer, two RBIs and a .182 hitting mark in the fall classic; Keltner,
coming off a .297 season in which he slugged 31 homers and knocked in 119 runs,
collected two singles in 21 Series at-bats (.095) and did not drive in a run. Feller
was 0-2 with a 5.02 ERA against the Braves.

But Cleveland had Lemon, Bearden, Gromek and timely hitting. Plus, the Indians
had the ever-present leadership of Lou Boudreau, who played errorless ball at
shortstop during the Series and contributed a .273 average for a team that hit .199
against the Braves.

[Baseball Guru]

1949

The man had proved he could play in this postseason classic and he was about to
prove he could manage in it too.

The fellow was Charles Dillon "Casey"
Stengel. In 12 World Series games with the
1916 Brooklyn club and the 1922 and 1923
New York Giants, Stengel, a fun-loving
outfielder, batted .393. Now, 60 years old,
Stengel had just completed his first season as
manager of the New York Yankees and was
ready to guide the Yanks against the Dodgers
in the 1949 Series.

Never able to finish higher than fifth in nine
seasons as a National League manager with
Brooklyn and Boston in the 1930s and
1940s, Stengel subsequently fought off his "clown" reputation and enjoyed
managerial success in the minor leagues. After leading Oakland to the Pacific Coast
League pennant in 1948, he was named to replace Bucky Harris as Yankees
manager.

New York -- which under Harris had tumbled from first to third place in 1948,
falling all of 2 1/2 games behind pennant-winning Cleveland -- responded to
Stengel's appointment by winning its 16th American League pennant and doing so
in dramatic fashion. Stengel's team trailed Boston by one game as manager Joe
McCarthy's Red Sox arrived at Yankee Stadium for a season-closing two-game
set, but the Yankees swept the Beantowners.

Don Newcombe, who had a 17-8 record as a Dodgers rookie in 1949 while
helping Brooklyn to a one-game victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL
pennant race, did all he could to spoil Stengel's World Series debut. Through eight
innings of Game 1 of the '49 fall classic, Newcombe had struck out 11 Yankees,
walked no one, yielded only four hits and had not permitted a run. Pitching rival
Allie Reynolds wasn't doing too badly, either: nine strikeouts, four walks, two hits,
no runs.

Reynolds retired Brooklyn in order in the ninth on a grounder, popup and fly ball.
Newcombe wasn't so fortunate. Leading off the bottom of the inning, the Yankees'
Tommy Henrich, always tough in the clutch, whacked a Newcombe pitch into the
right field stands. Old Reliable indeed.

The Dodgers countered the Yankees' triumph with a 1-0 victory in Game 2 with
Preacher Roe outpitching Vic Raschi and Gil Hodges singling home Jackie
Robinson, who had doubled, in the second inning.

The third game, a 1-1 deadlock through the eighth, had action galore in the final
inning. Former National League slugger Johnny Mite, purchased in August from the
New York Giants, rapped a bases-loaded single off Dodgers starter Ralph Branca
in the top of the ninth to boost the Yankees into a 3-1 lead, and Jerry Coleman
followed with a run-scoring single off reliever Jack Banta.

New York's Joe Page, having pitched 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief since taking
over for Tommy Byrne in the fourth, shouldered that lead into the Dodgers' half of
the inning. Page was rocked for two home runs, the first a one-out shot by Luis
Olmo, who hit one homer for Brooklyn in the regular season, and the second a
two-out smash by Roy Campanella. But no one was on base either time, and Page
and the Yankees hung on for a 4-3 victory.

While only four runs had been scored in the first 26 innings of the 1949 Series, the
pace was being stepped up -- evidenced by the windup to Game 3. In Game 4, the
Yankees drove Newcombe from the mound with a three-run fourth (Cliff Mapes
supplied the key hit with a two-run double) and then got three more in the fifth
when Bobby Brown drilled a bases-loaded triple off Joe Hatten. Brooklyn had a
big inning of its own, collecting four runs in the sixth off Eddie Lopat. But Reynolds
came to the rescue by retiring Brooklyn's final 10 batters and New York, a 6-4
winner, was one victory from winning the World Series.

In Game 5, the Yankees scored in five of the first six innings and built a 10-2 lead.
Hodges' three-run homer in the Dodgers' four-run seventh cut into the deficit, but
Page's relief work in place of Raschi shut down the Brooklyn offense. The
Yankees prevailed 10-6 with Coleman driving in three runs and Brown and Joe
DiMaggio collecting two RBIs each. DiMaggio, who missed half of the season
because of a heel injury, hit a bases-empty homer in the fourth.

The Yanks romped in this Series despite a poor showing by DiMaggio, who had
batted .346 with 67 RBIs in 76 regular-season games. Besides his homer,
DiMaggio collected only one other hit against Brooklyn. Brown and outfielder
Gene Woodling gave the Yanks a lift, however, by combining for 10 hits in 22
at-bats.

Postseason success was nothing new for the Yankees, who had won 12 World
Series. But a World Series managerial crown was a first for Stengel, an erstwhile
clown who would having the last laugh on just about everyone for many Octobers
to come.

[pmeares17]

hey james!! this is very cool i wish i had seen it sooner keep up the good work

[Baseball Guru]

Hey thanks Jesse...At least 1 person looks in here:biggrin:

[pmeares17]

there are others, James if you build it they will come,...


















:biggrin: