The World Series (5 page)

Unfortunately for Brooklyn fans, those two runs were all the Dodgers would get. New York answered
with a run in the second, and then added two more in the fourth, one in the sixth, and one in the seventh. The game, and the
Series, ended in the top of the ninth with a classic, shortstop-to-second-to-first double play.

The Dodgers had lasted longer against the Yankees than anyone had expected. But in the end, the Yankees were simply too powerful,
that year and in the years to come. The two teams battled for the championship title several more times in the next decade,
but only once did the Dodgers come out on top.

CHAPTER FIVE
1950s

Baseball in the 1950s was dominated by one team: the New York Yankees. From 1950 to 1959, they earned trips to the World Series
an amazing eight times, winning seven. Three of those wins came after they beat the Brooklyn Dodgers. But in 1955, it was
the Dodgers who at last bested their archrivals.

The 1954 Series was one of the two series not to feature the Yankees. That year, the other New York team, the Giants, pounded
the Cleveland Indians four games to none. But the 1954 World Series isn't remembered for that sweep; it's remembered for what
is now simply called “the Catch.”

The New York Giants had several strong players on their team, but their star player was twenty-three-year-old center fielder
Willie “Say Hey Kid”
Mays. Powered by his batting and fielding skills, the team won 97 games that year.

In game one of the Series, he proved just how good he was. It was the top of the eighth inning. The score was tied 3–3. The
Indians had runners at first and second, no outs, when their slugger, Vic Wertz, came to the plate. Wertz was three-for-three
so far, including a first-inning triple that scored the team's first two runs. No doubt he believed he'd added a fourth hit
when he socked relief pitcher Don Liddle's first pitch into deep center field. In fact, he and everyone else in the stadium
believed he'd just hit a home run.

Everyone, that is, except Willie Mays. The moment Wertz connected, the fleet-footed outfielder turned his back on home plate
and ran. The outfield fence at the Polo Grounds in New York is 460 feet from home plate. Wertz's blast looked certain to clear
it before Mays could get there.

But unbelievably, Mays did get there! His back still to the plate, he reached up and snagged the ball out of the air. Instead
of a home run, Wertz was out!

Mays didn't stop to congratulate himself, however. He knew those two runners could tag up and
head home. So he whirled around and whipped the ball in, holding the runners on base. His speed, powerful throwing arm, and
lightning-quick reflexes kept the Indians from earning three runs.

“I had it the whole time,” Mays joked later. Spurred on by his remarkable catch, the Giants took the game and, three days
later, the Series.

The following postseason saw the Dodgers and the Yankees meeting for their sixth Subway Series. Brooklyn was the sentimental
favorite; some baseball fans, including New York followers, were simply tired of seeing the Yankees win.

Game one was played at Yankee Stadium before a crowd of nearly 64,000 people. After a hitless first inning, both teams posted
a pair of runs in the second and added one more each in the third to make the score 3–3 going into the fourth.

By the sixth inning, however, the Yankees had pushed across three more, two of which were home runs by first baseman Joe Collins.
But the Dodgers weren't finished yet.

At the top of the eighth inning, Dodger Carl Furillo singled, stood on first while Gil Hodges got out, and then advanced to
third when the third baseman
flubbed Jackie Robinson's hit. Robinson reached second on that error. The next batter hit a sacrifice fly for the second out,
but Furillo made it home and Robinson was at third.

In his heyday, Robinson had been notorious for stealing bases. But now, few believed the thirty-six-year-old veteran was the
threat he had once been. Certainly pitcher Whitey Ford didn't think he was worth worrying about. He prepared to face the next
batter with scarcely a glance at Robinson.

That was a mistake. The moment Ford went into his windup, Robinson took off. He was attempting to steal home!

The crowd went wild. Catcher Yogi Berra shouted to Ford. Ford threw. Berra stood to make the play. Robinson hit the dirt and
slid feet-first toward home plate. Amidst a cloud of dust, Berra caught the ball, fell to his knees, and tagged Robinson.

Both men froze and looked at the umpire. Time seemed to stand still. Then the umpire made his call.

“Safe!”

Jackie Robinson had stolen home! The Dodgers were within one run of tying the Yankees!

Unfortunately for Brooklyn, they were still one
run behind when the game ended. They dropped the next game, too, giving New York a two-game lead in the Series. But in game
three, the Dodgers proved they weren't pushovers — and Robinson proved that he still had a few tricks up his sleeve.

At the bottom of the seventh, Brooklyn was ahead 6–3. But Robinson knew that that three-run lead could vanish in an instant.
He decided to sweeten it if he could. After Gil Hodges flied out to left field, Robinson came up to bat. He hit a solid blast
down the left-field line. He stretched the hit into a double, touching the base as he ran past it and then turning to jog
back to the bag.

Outfielder Elston Howard nabbed the ball from the ground and then glanced at Robinson. He thought Robinson was too far off
the bag. One quick throw, and he could get Robinson out.

However, Robinson was one step ahead of him —literally. When Howard hurled the ball to second, Robinson whirled back around
and charged to third, beating the relay throw! Robinson was safe, and when Sandy Amoros hit a single to right, he made it
home to put the Dodgers up 7–3. It was a trick he'd
used many times early in his career, but one that no one had expected to see him pull the World Series!

Brooklyn added another run that inning and went on to win, 8–3. Totally juiced by their victory, they took the next two games
to go ahead in the Series.

Then New York tied it all up in game six, forcing the championship to a final meeting. The Dodgers and the Yankees had been
in this same situation in 1947 and in 1952. Both times the Yankees had won the seventh game.

Game seven was bittersweet for Robinson. Having aggravated an old injury to his heel, he was forced to watch the action unfold
from the sidelines. Still, he had a front-row seat to the deciding match — and what a match it was.

On the mound for the Dodgers was rookie pitcher Johnny Podres. Inning after inning, Podres defused every Yankee threat, denying
them a place on the scoreboard. Brooklyn, on the other hand, chalked up two runs. When Elston Howard grounded out in the ninth
inning, Podres' shutout was complete —and the Dodgers had finally beaten the Yankees to become World Champions!

Unfortunately for Brooklyn fans, it was the last time the Dodgers would come out on top in the Subway Series. New York beat
them in seven games the following year, and in 1958 the Brooklyn franchise was moved to Los Angeles, ending the cross-city
rivalry forever.

It wasn't the end of the Yankees' reign, however. Far from it.

CHAPTER SIX
1960s

The Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees had last met for the World Series in 1927. Then, the Pirates collapsed beneath
the might of the Yankees, losing in four straight games. Their defeat had been handed to them in part by a pair of New York
sluggers, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

Now, thirty-three years later, history seemed about to repeat itself. New York had powered its way to its eleventh American
League pennant thanks to its two home-run kings, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Together, Maris and “the Mick” accounted for
79 of the Yankees' 193 home runs in 1960. Going into the Series, New York looked unstoppable — none of the teams they had
faced in their last fifteen regular-season games had been able to stop them, anyway.

But the Pirates were no slouches either. Their
record of 95–59 was nearly even with New York's 97–57.

Still, most baseball followers didn't think Pittsburgh stood a chance against New York. The Yankees had been world champions
eighteen times. The Pirates hadn't even won a pennant in more than three decades.

At first, they seemed correct, for the leadoff batter, Yankee Tony Kubek, knocked out a single. But then Hector Lopez hit
into a double play and the threat was defused, at least for the moment.

Then Roger Maris came to the plate. He did just what Yankee fans hoped he would do — he clobbered a home run. Then cleanup
hitter Mickey Mantle made the third out.

Art Ditmar was on the mound for New York. He faced six batters and gave up a walk, a double, and three singles, to hand the
Pirates three runs and only one out!

Five hits, three runs? Manager Casey Stengel yanked Ditmar before any more damage was done. Ditmar's replacement, Jim Coates,
retired the next two batters to end the painful inning.

By the top of the ninth, the Pirates had jumped ahead 6–2. Four runs is a comfortable lead but not insurmountable, especially
for a team as powerful as the Yankees. Their first hitter, Gil McDougald, belted out a solid single. A minute later, however,
he trotted back to the dugout after being forced out at second. Bobby Richardson was still on first, though. Then Elston Howard
blasted a home run! Suddenly, Pittsburgh's four-run lead had narrowed to two — and when Tony Kubek singled, it seemed possible
that the Yankees could steal the game from the Pirates.

They didn't. Despite being outhit 13 to 8, Pittsburgh won, 6–4.

The next day, Pirates fans flocked to the stadium, hoping to see their team go up by two. Instead, they watched New York ring
the home team's bell to the tune of sixteen runs, two of which were classic Mantle homers. And the third game was even worse
—Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford allowed the Pirates only four hits and no runs while New York racked up sixteen hits for ten runs
to go ahead in the Series two games to one.