Kuzul

When the Washington Senators moved to Minnesota in 1961, the American League created a team to mollify individuals that resided, either part-time or full-time, in the nation’s capital.

The new Senators were a joke as a baseball team. They lost at least 100 games in each of their first four seasons. Their highest finish before the 10-team American League split into six team divisions in 1969 was sixth place, which they managed to accomplish only once.

The moribund team moved to Texas following the 1971 season to become the Texas Rangers, an entirely new franchise that carried on the Washington Senators’ losing tradition.

Unlike today, during the 1970s and 1980s, losers were still called losers.

The Rangers won the 2010 and 2011 American League pennants. They were considered a success, a winning team, because they made it to the World Series.

The only thing the 2010 and 2011 Rangers won was the right to lose to the San Francisco Giants and then to the St. Louis Cardinals.

To win means to finish first in a race or contest. Only one team can finish first.

To lose means to suffer defeat or fail to win, as in a contest, race, or game.

The Texas Rangers are in a position to join the 1907-09 Detroit Tigers as the only baseball team to lose three consecutive World Series.

The Chicago Cubs defeated the Tigers in 1907 and again in 1908. The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Tigers in 1909.

Many teams have lost two consecutive World Series, including the 1921-22 and 1963-64 New York Yankees, the 1924-25 and 1936-37 New York Giants, the 1952-53 Brooklyn Dodgers, the 1977-78 Los Angeles Dodgers and the 1991-92 Atlanta Braves.

Division play was partially responsible for bastardizing the meaning of winning. When each league had two divisions, a team could win the division in addition to the pennant and the World Series.

Minnesota Twins fans could “brag” that they were the first team to ever win the American League’s Western Division title. That did them a lot of good.

The Baltimore Orioles won the first Eastern Division title. How many New York Mets fans consider the Orioles “winners?”

Now that there are three divisions and soon-to-be two wild cards in each league, there will be so many “winners” that baseball is becoming closer to achieving the abominable concept that there are no losers.

Having nine teams that win something other than the World Series merely gives false hope to fans. If there were two wild cards in 2011, the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves would have made the playoffs.

Who thinks that those teams were “winners?”

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In 2011, baseball experts know the importance of on-base percentage, which is of greater significance than batting average, yet there is no award for the on-base percentage leader.

It is difficult to assess individual achievements since the 1994 strike-shortened season. Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Roger Clemens and, yes, even Andy Pettitte are among those who have introduced an uncontrollable variable into the game.

Therefore, let’s return to the 1950s, which many fans consider a golden age of baseball, and examine the National League. 

The following table lists each league’s batting champion and on-base percentage leader:  Batting average is the first number and on-base average is the second number.

 
YEAR    Batting Leader    OBP Leader      
              
1950    Musial .346, .437    Stanky ..300, .460    

1951    Musial .355, .449    Kiner .309, .452     

1952    Musial .336, .432    Robinson .308, .440   

1953    Furillo .344, .393    Musial .337, 437

1954    Mays .345, .411    Ashburn .313, .441      

1955    Ashburn .338, .449    Ashburn .338, .449  

1956    Aaron .328, .365    Snider .292, .399     

1957    Musial .351, .422    Musial .351, .422      

1958    Ashburn .350, .440    Ashburn .350, .440      

1959    Aaron .355, .401    Cunningham .345, .453     

Narrowing the analysis, Richie Ashburn led the league in both categories in 1955 and 1958.  Stan Musial led in both categories in 1957.

The only 1950s batting champion not in the Hall of Fame is Carl Furillo.  The only on-base leaders not in the Hall are Eddie Stanky and Joe Cunningham.

Admittedly, to paraphrase General Douglas MacArthur, although old batting champions never die, they just fade away.  On-base leaders don’t even fade away because they are never honored properly.

Duke Snider is a prime example based upon his 1956 season.  Snider batted under .300, which in those days was the artificial cutoff point between average and good hitters.  Even today, a certain amount of prestige accompanies a .300 batting average.

It is a rare fan that knows Snider led the league in on-base percentage in 1956, which didn’t become an official statistic until 1984.

Snider’s on-base percentage was .399. Batting champion Hank Aaron‘s was .365.

Simple arithmetic reveals that Snider had an OBP 107 points higher than his batting average while Aaron had an OBP a mere 37 points greater than his batting average.

Want to start a rally?  How about the Duke of Flatbush.

In 1950, Eddie Stanky’s OBP average was 160 points greater than his batting average. His lifetime OBP was .410 to go along with a mediocre .268 batting average.  Stanky deserves recognition for having reached base more often than anyone in the league, including the batting champ.

Hank Greenberg was one of the most feared sluggers of all time. Pitchers would often prefer to walk him rather than give him a pitch he could drive.  Greenberg has a .412 OBP.  Stanky’s OBP is .410.

The player who leads his league in on-base average deserves to be awarded.

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The Philadelphia Phillies are in a lot of trouble. They are an aging team that has seen better days. They’ll make the playoffs again, but a lot has happened since 2008.

It is an old axiom that pitching wins championship. The Phillies’ problem is that it applies more to the playoffs and World Series than to the regular season.

Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee give the Phillies three of baseball’s top starting pitchers.

Halladay will be 35 years old in May and Lee will be 33 in August. Halladay is starting his 15th season while Lee will be in his 11th.  Barring injury, they should do at least as well as they did last season.

Vance Worley and Dontrelle Willis are the other starters, although general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. stated Joe Blanton, who has had elbow problems, would probably be the Phillies’ fourth or fifth starter with Willis working out of the bullpen.

Antonio Bastardo was expected to be the closer until the signing of Jonathan Papelbon.  Bastardo wore down near the end of last season while Papelbon has had some major problems during his Boston Red Sox career.

The rest of the bullpen is no better than average.

Overall, the Phillies’ pitching staff ranks among the league’s best, but the drop off after Halladay, Hamels and Lee is significant.

Too many of the Phillies’ regulars are old, injured or both.

Ryan Howard’s offensive production has decreased steadily the last two years. He suffered a torn left Achilles tendon when he made the last out of the Phillies’ 2011 season. His return for 2012 is unknown. Howard is still a top player, but he no longer is in the Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder class.

John Mayberry and Ty Wigginton are expected to fill in at first base until Howard returns. Wigginton, who batted .242/.315/.416 for Colorado, plays first, second, shortstop and the outfield, none of them very well. Wiggington is no Michael Cuddyer. 

Sadly, Chase Utley has seen better days. He is 32 years old, has lost range at second base and batted only .259 with 11 home runs upon returning from injuries.

Placido Polanco is underrated, but now, at the age of 36 and a player with little power at a power position, he is no longer an effective table setter for the sluggers.

Who is the shortstop? Jimmy Rollins will probably return, but he, like Howard, is no longer the great offensive threat he was a few seasons ago.

UPDATE: Rollins and Phillies agree to a three-year, $33 million deal.

Hunter Pence in right field is a star and Shane Victorino is Shane Victorino, but who is in left field?

John Mayberry may be adequate, but he might play a lot of first base. Ty Wigginton and Laynce Nix are jokes. Nix is with his fifth team and is no better than a reserve. Domonic Brown is the hope.

Finally, Carlos Ruiz is a winner that is terribly underrated. He has some fine seasons ahead of him. Backup Brian Schneider can catch, but hitting is another issue.

The Phillies are almost certain to make the playoffs. With Halladay, Hamels and Lee, they will win playoff games.

The problem is that the offense can be stopped, which, as in 2010 and 2011, puts too much pressure on the three aces.

The San Francisco Giants lead with Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner.

The Atlanta Braves start Tim Hudson, Tommy Hanson, Jair Jurrjens and some highly prized youngsters.

The world champion St. Louis Cardinals have Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia and probably Adam Wainwright.

It doesn’t matter if the Phillies’ big three are better than their main rivals. The Giants, Braves and Cards starters can stay with them.

The answer is to improve the offense with some youth.  That’s not easy to accomplish.

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Willie Mays was in the on-deck circle at the Polo Grounds. Bobby Thomson was the batter with Whitey Lockman on first and Clint Hartung on third. The New York Giants trailed the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-2 with one out.

Mays started to pray.

”Please don’t let it be me. Don’t make me come to bat now, God.”

In 1951, Willie Mays was a 20-year-old rookie. Later, Willie prayed that he would be the one who would bat or have to make a great defensive play.

Willie Mays was responsible for the fact that he was waiting on deck that day because without the play he made on Aug. 15, the Giants would not have tied the Dodgers for the pennant.

The Giants were hosting the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds. The teams were tied 1-1 in Brooklyn’s half of the eighth inning.

With one out, Billy Cox, a fairly fast runner at that point in his career, was on third for Brooklyn, while pitcher Ralph Branca was on first.  Carl Furillo was facing Jim Hearn.

The outfield was playing Furillo to pull, with left fielder Monte Irvin shaded toward the left field line, right fielder Don Mueller playing well off the line in right and Willie almost in left-center field.

Furillo hit a fly ball to right-center field that everyone thought would be deep enough to score Cox with the lead run. Everyone was wrong.

Rookie Mays broke to his left and, running at full speed, made the catch.  It was a play that most good center fielders would make, but Mays had to run towards the right field foul line, which meant that he was moving away from home plate.

If he stopped running to set for the throw home, there would be no chance to throw out Cox.

Mays didn’t break stride. He planted his left foot, made a complete whirling pivot on the dead run as if he were a discus thrower and fired a guided missile home.

As the throw came flying toward the plate, first baseman Whitey Lockman let it go through. Catcher Wes Westrum caught the throw belt high and tagged out the incredulous Cox.

It was a greater play than the catch against Vic Wertz in the 1954 World Series.

When Willie was six months old, his father taught him how to walk by putting a baseball on the ground. Little Willie wanted the baseball and realized that crawling to it was not as fast as trying to walk.

Almost every book about Mickey Mantle refers to how his father Mutt and his grandfather Pappy taught him to switch-hit. A less publicized fact is that Willie’s father, who played semi-pro ball, was his first coach.

Leo Durocher influenced Mays more than anyone else. The fiery manager told Mays that he was born to play baseball.

Looking back, it is difficult to believe that Willie needed anyone to tell him that he was born to play baseball, but when he first joined the Giants, he was just beginning to become “Willie Mays.”

To show his regard for Willie and to build his confidence, Durocher batted him third in his first major league game. Durocher convinced Mays not to try hit a home run every at-bat. 

Willie listened, hit more singles, still hit home runs and won the 1954 batting title with a .345 average. 

Although it may seem difficult to believe for those who never saw him play, Mays was greater on defense than he was on offense. Many think that he was a greater defensive center fielder than Ozzie Smith was a defensive shortstop, and that’s saying something.

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Hank Bauer’s bat cracked at the most opportune moment for the New York Yankees. Manager Casey Stengel praised Bauer—not because he broke a $3.65 bat, but because the bat produced a bloop single that drove in two runs.

Speaking to reporters, Stengel expressed his pleasure:

“That Bauer was wonderful. I know he iced it with that homer later and I know that last one traveled about three times as far as the single in the fifth, but that single was the one that really did it for us.”

Why do modern sabermetricians think that only extra-base hits win games?

Bauer explained that Milwaukee Braves‘ right-hander Bob Rush had hit him on the fists with a fast ball, breaking his bat. The ball landed in short left field as Norm Siebern and Gil McDougald scored to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

Don Larsen shut out the Braves, Bauer drove in two more runs with a seventh-inning home run and the Yankees now trailed the Braves two games to one in the 1958 World Series.

It was a hard-fought game that the Yankees had to win after dropping the first two games at Milwaukee. Warren Spahn pitched a complete-game victory in the first game, and Lew Burdette followed with a complete-game win in the second game.

It would turn out that Bob Rush would be the only starter besides Spahn and Burdette that the Braves would use in the series.

No team has ever come back from a three-games-to-none deficit to win the World Series. The Yankees had never beaten Burdette. Spahn was scheduled to start the fourth game against Whitey Ford, while Burdette and Turley would hook up for Game 5.

The 1958 New York Yankees were a never-say-die unit. Mickey Mantle, Moose Skowron, Elston Howard, Yogi Berra, Ford and especially Bauer never gave in and the never gave up.

Even before he joined the Yankees, however, Hank Bauer was used to being a hero.

Bauer was a hero in WWII. He was with the Fourth Marine Regiment, Sixth Division, stationed at Okinawa, where his outfit suffered 110 percent casualties, either killed or wounded.

Bauer was hit in his left thigh by flying shrapnel. He spent two weeks in the hospital and was finished fighting, at least in WWII.

Many of the Yankees of the 1950s and ’60s championship teams have been forgotten, in part because Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and Elston Howard were such great players. But the Yankees would never have won so many World Series without Gil McDougald, Moose Skowron, Gene Woodling, Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi, Eddie Lopat, Ryne Duren and especially Henry Albert Bauer.

References:

By, L. E. (1958, Oct 05). Bauer’s broken-bat single proves luckiest ‘break’ for yankees in series. New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. S2. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/114519895?accountid=46260

Hank Bauer’s Broken Bat Single

Ex-marine plays a familiar role. (1958, Oct 05). New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. S2. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/114525622?accountid=46260

Marine Hero Bauer

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Casey Stengel had been there before and won.

The defending world champion Brooklyn Dodgers led the New York Yankees two games to none in the 1956 World Series. The Yankees had to win four of the next five games.

And that is what they did.

Warren Spahn beat the Yankees in the opening game of the 1958 World Series. Bob Turley started Game 2 against Yankees nemesis Lew Burdette in an effort to even the series.

Mickey Mantle hit a pair of home runs, and Hank Bauer hit one as the Yankees scored five runs off Burdette.

The problem was that the Milwaukee Braves blasted 21-game winner Bob Turley for seven runs in the first inning. The game was over almost before it started.

After the game, the Yankees put up what seemed to be a brave front, which was real.

Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Hank Bauer, Gil McDougald, Moose Skowron and Game 3 starter Don Larsen expressed confidence that things would change at Yankee Stadium.

Stengel was more than a bit touchy when asked if the Yankees’ situation was desperate.

“Desperate? Desperate? Who says things are desperate? This has happened before, for me, as well as against me. I don’t think the situation is desperate at all. We gotta get more hitting…and we gotta get more pitching.”

Whitey Ford believed that the World Series was far from over.

“They’ve had the good pitching and the hitting so far. Now we start. Larsen will beat the Braves Saturday. If Casey comes back with Turley on Sunday, Bob will even the series. Then, if the manager starts me, I’ll try to beat them on Monday.”

Berra explained why Turley lasted only one-third of an inning. He said the Braves were hitting Turley’s fastball so he switched to the curve, but Turley couldn’t control it.

They had to go back to the fastball. Then, Stengel had to bring in another pitcher.

Losing the first two games to the Braves in 1958 seemed different from losing the first two games to the Dodgers in 1956.

The Yankees had lost four times to Lew Burdette without ever beating him, and Warren Spahn always pitched strong games against them. 

After Bob Rush in the third game, the Yankees would face Spahn in the fourth game and Burdette in Game 5, if necessary.

Brooklyn’s Don Newcombe was hardly ever a problem for the Yankees. The only time he pitched a great game against the Yankees, in the 1949 World Series, Allie Reynolds shut out the Dodgers and beat Newk 1-0 on Tommy Henrich’s home run.

In 1956, it took Don Larsen’s perfect game to beat Sal Maglie, who held the Yankees to a pair of runs after he beat them 6-2 in the opener.

The Yankees were facing a difficult situation. But they remained undaunted.

Reference:

http://search.proquest.com/docview/114538292?accountid=46260

By Louis Effrat in The New,York Times. (1958, Oct 03). Stengel angrily denies Yankees’ plight is desperate after second defeat. New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. 35-35

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Addiction is a continued involvement with a substance or activity despite the negative consequences associated with it.

Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy LaSorda was one of the great managers of all time. He considers himself a leader and a patriotic American.

In his book, The Artful Dodger, which was published in 1986, LaSorda presented four beliefs that he lives by. He wrote:

“Baseball is the best game in the world; the Dodgers are the best sports franchise in the world; the U.S. is the greatest country in the world; Tommy Lasorda is the luckiest guy in the world because of his attachments to all three of the above.”

LaSorda has no room for “namby-pamby” approaches to anything. His philosophy reeks of rugged individualism and being responsible for one’s actions. His reaction to Darryl Strawberry is typical LaSorda.

Strawberry “disappeared” at the start of the 1994 baseball season. LaSorda became livid when he learned that Strawberry admitted he had a “drug problem.”

“I’m very upset,” Lasorda said. “When you’re weak enough to let something like that control you, it’s disgraceful. How someone can be so dumb to put something in his body that will destroy him is beyond me.

“I get tired of hearing people describe this as a sickness. Sickness is cancer, a heart attack. Not substance abuse. That’s a weakness.”

Circumstances don’t seem to matter to LaSorda. Weakness is not an excuse, and that also applies to his family.

Tommy Jr, LaSorda’s son, died of complications related to AIDS in 1991. The father and son were estranged, primarily because Lasorda refuses to acknowledge his son’s homosexuality. When asked about the cause of his son’s death, LaSorda insisted that he died of cancer.

Bobby Valentine, who has known LaSorda since the late 1960s, tells a story that illustrates how tough and unyielding LaSorda can be, both with his words and with his fists.

“He was tough with his fists,” Valentine said. “I saw him in front of his house one day hit a kid who had been speeding by on a motorcycle. Knocked him across the hood of a car.”

There have been times when LaSorda could be gentle. After his mother had suffered a stroke, he sat at her bedside, talking about her life with his father, recalling events with his four brothers and telling her how proud he was of her. He hoped that she was proud of him.

She later asked her son Joe how much Tommy received for making a speech. Joe told her that Tommy would usually be paid $2,500. Tommy’s mother said,

“Give him the whole $2,500. He just made the best speech I ever heard.”

Reference:

Verdi, Bob. “There’s trouble between the white lines.” The Sporting News 18 Apr. 1994: 9. General OneFile. Web. 26 Nov. 2011.

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The Brooklyn Dodgers had some outstanding center fielders, including Joe Medwick, Dixie Walker and Duke Snider.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have had some outstanding center fielders, including Willie Davis, Rick “The Patriot” Monday and most recently, Matt Kemp.

In 2011, the 26-year-old Kemp  had an outstanding season. He batted .324/.399/.586, leading the league with 39 home runs, 126 RBIs and 115 runs scored. He stole 40 bases.

Kemp’s great season serves to emphasize that he has a long, long way to go before he can be considered in Snider’s class.

Edwin Donald Snider was 26 years old in 1953. The Brooklyn Dodgers won their second consecutive pennant, only to lose their second consecutive World Series to the New York Yankees.

During the regular season, Snider batted .336/.419/.627 with 42 home runs, 126 RBIs and 132 runs scored. He led the lead in slugging and runs scored.

From 1953 to ’57, Snider hit at least 40 home runs each year, which put him second only to Babe Ruth, who accomplished the feat seven times. Los Angeles Dodgers fans are eagerly awaiting Kemp’s first 40-home run season.

When Walter O’Malley ended the Brooklyn Dodgers’ existence by moving the team to Los Angeles, their new home was the Los Angeles Coliseum, which had been built to host the 1932 Olympics. It was basically a football stadium, and it showed.

The distance down the left field foul line was a Polo Grounds-like 252 feet away. The distance to right center field was a Yankee Stadium-like 440 ft. Nobody was satisfied except O’Malley, because using the Coliseum instead of Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field meant many more tickets could be sold.

San Francisco ace left-hander Johnny Antonelli thought the Coliseum was “the biggest farce I ever heard of.” 

Warren Spahn, possibly the greatest of all left-handers, was more emphatic about the distance down the left field line. “I’d like to see a rule making it mandatory for a ball to travel at least 300 feet for a home run,” he said.

When Snider saw the “ballpark,” he said that he would practice hitting from the right side—shades of Mickey Mantle.

Although he was only 31 years old his first season in Los Angeles, Snider never did as well as he had in Brooklyn. From 1958 to ’62, he batted .292/.385/.523, averaging 24 home runs and 88 RBIs over a 162-game season.

Snider appeared in six World Series, five with Brooklyn. In 1952 and again in 1955, he hit four home runs to set a record that has since been eclipsed.

Matt Kemp is an excellent defensive player, but he has nothing over Snider, who was slightly underrated defensively because he played center field in Ebbets Field. During his World Series appearances, Snider demonstrated his great skills against the Yankees at the original Yankee Stadium.

From age 27 until he was sent to the New York Mets in 1962, Snider batted .300/.396/.581, averaging 36 home runs and 109 RBIs over a 162-game season.

This past season was the only time Kemp hit more than 30 home runs. He should be reaching his peak, but at age 26, Snider had already hit at least 30 home runs twice.

There is no question that Kemp is one of the best center fielders in the game. Curtis Granderson and Jacoby Ellsbury come close, but Kemp may prove to be more valuable in the future. Maybe not, but he had a better 2011 season than either of them.

If Kemp played in 1953, his 2011 season would have topped Mickey Mantle’s (.295/.398/.497), but it is dwarfed by Willie Mays.

The “Say-Hey Kid” won the batting title with a .345 average. He led the league with a .667 slugging average and won the MVP as he led the New York Giants to the World Championship.

Time will tell if 2011 were an aberration for Kemp, but one thing is certain: Duke Snider remains the greatest of all Dodgers center fielders.

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“Get him out of here. Put in someone who can catch a fly ball.”

At the start of play on Sept. 26, 1956, the Brooklyn Dodgers trailed first place Milwaukee Braves by one-half game. The next day, Don Newcombe started against the Philadelphia Phillies‘ ace, Robin Roberts. It was Newcombe’s next to last start of the season.

Duke Snider hit an inside-the-park home run in the first inning to stake “Big Newk” to a one-run lead. Yes, it was possible to hit an inside-the-park home run at bandbox Ebbets Field.

The Phillies came back in the second when Del Ennis hit a slow ground ball on which Newcombe couldn’t make the play. Ennis was credited with a single. Willie “Puddin’ Head” Jones hit a similar comebacker. Newk threw him out as Ennis moved to second.

Left-handed hitting Elmer Valo then hit a fly ball to left field that Sandy Amoros dropped for an error. It seemed that the sun and the wind were too much for him.  The Phillies took advantage to score three runs off Newcombe, two of which were unearned.

In the seventh inning, with Don Bessent on the hill, Amoros failed to charge a Del Ennis single, allowing Stan Lopata to reach third and Ennis to take second. The lackadaisical play set up two more runs as the Phillies beat Brooklyn, 7-3

The Dodgers trailed the Milwaukee Braves by one full game.

Brooklyn manager Walt Alston excused Amoros.

“I can’t fault the little guy,” Alston told reporters. “He had a bad day, yes. But he has been hitting well and helping us to win games. And don’t forget that world-series catch he made in the last game. I’m keeping him in the line-up and who knows?  He may help us win the games we need from now on.”

The Dodgers recovered and led Milwaukee by one game with one game left for each team. Don Newcombe started for Brooklyn, seeking his 27th win. He faced the Pittsburgh Pirates‘ Vern Law.

Leading off the sixth inning with Brooklyn ahead 6-2, Amoros hit a home run, but in Ebbets Field, the concept of “enough runs” didn’t exist.

When Amoros led off the eighth inning, the Pirates had pulled within one run—the run provided by Amoros’ sixth inning home run.

Amoros hit another solo home run. The final score was 8-6.

Brooklyn won its second consecutive pennant, Newcombe won his 27th game, but of greater importance, Newcombe learned to think before denigrating a teammate.

References:

By, A. D. (1956, Nov 27). Sports of the times. The New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. 58. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/113576636?accountid=46260

By ROSCOE McGOWEN The New York Times. (1956, Sept. 27). Dodgers lose to Roberts of Phillies and fall one game behind idle Braves. The New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. 45-45. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/113623937?accountid=46260

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One game was at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. The other game was at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.

The 34,124 fans were in high spirits, as their St. Louis Cardinals were leading the third place Chicago Cubs 2-1. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, Mort Cooper of the fourth place Boston Braves was shutting out the Dodgers 4-0.

The Cards were tied with the Dodgers for first place.

The date was Sept. 29. 1946, the last day of the season. It was one of the few times that the Cardinals didn’t win a game they had to win.

The Boston Braves beat the Dodgers. It was a very good thing, because the Cubs rallied in the sixth inning for five runs. They scored two more in the eighth on their way to an 8-3 win over St. Louis.

For the first time in major league history, there was a tie for the pennant.

The best-of-three series opened in Sportsman’s Park on Oct. 1. A disappointingly small crowd of 26,012 fans attended the game.

The Cardinals sent left-hander Howie Pollet to the mound to face Brooklyn’s Ralph Branca, who would become a household name five years later in another Brooklyn Dodgers’ playoff series.

Under a cloudless sky on a warm autumn day, Branca struck out Red Schoendienst and Stan Musial in the bottom of the first of the scoreless game, but in between the two future Hall of Famers strikeouts, Terry Moore singled to left.

Enos Slaughter kept the inning alive when he singled between first and second. Whitey Kurowski walked to load the bases. Joe Garagiola was the batter.

The left-handed hitting catcher sent a sharp ground ball to the left of third baseman Cookie Lavagetto. Shortstop PeeWee Reese backhanded the ball, leaped into the air and fired a strike to first, but it was an eyelash too late.

Who drove in the first run in the history of the playoffs? We’re talking about the real playoffs, before the need for playoffs was created by divisional play. 

It was Joe Garagiola.

Brooklyn tied the game on a Howie Schultz home run in the third. Schultz drove in Brooklyn’s other run on a seventh-inning single.

The Dodgers’ problem was that the Cardinals scored two runs in their half of the third on a walk and three singles. They scored their fourth and final run in the seventh for 4-2 victory.

The second game was played in Brooklyn on Oct. 3, 1946. Five years later, in a game at the Polo Grounds, Oct. 3 would become a day of mourning for Brooklyn.  It wasn’t too happy a day in 1946 either.

Murray Dickson held the Dodgers to one run over eight innings. The run came in the first inning to give Brooklyn a short-lived 1-0 advantage.

After the Cards scored once to tie the game, Dickson belted a triple to give the Cardinals a lead they never would relinquish. But they almost did.

Trailing 8-1 in the bottom the ninth inning, Brooklyn wouldn’t give in.

Augie Galan doubled. Dixie Walker hit a harmless fly ball to center field for the first out, but Ed Stevens tripled, Carl Furillo singled and Dickson’s wild pitch moved him to second.

Reese walked.

Guess who came in to pitch? It was Harry “the Cat” Brecheen.

Bruce Edwards greeted “the Cat” with a single to left to score Reese, making the score 8-4. Cookie Lavagetto walked to load the bases. The potential tying run was at the plate.

Brecheen struck out Eddie Stanky and Howie Schultz.

The Cardinals had their ninth pennant in 20 years.

References:

By JOHN DREBINGER Special to The New,York Times. (1946, Sep 30). 34,124 at st.louis see cubs win, 8-3. New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. 38. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/107643595?accountid=46260

By JOHN DREBINGER Special to THE NEW,YORK TIMES. (1946, Oct 02). Cardinals defeat dodgers in opening game of play-off series for pennant. New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. 35. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/107616811?accountid=46260

By JOHN DREBINGER The New,York Times. (1946, Oct 04). Cords win pennant, defeatinb dodgers again for two-game play-off sweep. New York Times (1923-Current File), pp. 17. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/107580441?accountid=46260

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