Charlie Dressen

Polo Grounds

Polo Grounds with
Clubhouse in CF

Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason

Polo Grounds press box visible in this picture from the 1921 World Series

Russ Hodges

Red Barber

Gordon McLendon

BASEBALL FEVER GRIPS CITY 3D DAY

• Thus read a headline in the New York Times Wednesday, October 3, 1951, on the occasion of the third game of the National League playoff between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants.
• The Dodgers had forced the rubber game with a 10-0 rout at the Polo Grounds that ended the Giants' eight-game winning streak.
• Brooklyn had won the provisional coin flip the last week of the regular season to gain the choice of starting the series at home before playing two away or on the road before two at home. Skipper Charlie Dressen remembered then-manager Leo Durocher's oft-questioned decision in 1946 to begin the first ML pennant playoff at St. Louis in order to have the deciding game at home. The Dodgers proceeded to drop two straight. So Charlie grabbed home field for Game One only to lose, as Leo did, 3-1.

• Jackie Robinson after Game Two: They've had their lucky clothes on, now we've got some lucky clothes on ourselves.
• Dressen: We've got 'em on the run. My boys are back to slashin' and slammin'. Duke Snider is swinging again and Gil Hodges seems to have pulled out of his slump. Their failure to hit has been hurting us.
• Don Newcombe, Dressen's choice to pitch the third game even though he worked nine innings Saturday and 5 2/3 Sunday to help keep Dod­ger pennant hopes alive: I'm always ready to pitch. The Giants are tough but they don't worry me none. I'll be ready. I'm not too tired.
• One source of worry to their fans, if not the Dodgers, was the absence of C Roy Campanella, who had pulled a hamstring in the last regular season game on Sunday. Rube Walker, an able backstop but a much weaker hitter despite clouting a homer in Game Two, would replace Campy.
• Some Dodgers thought Durocher, now the manager of the hated Giants, had outsmarted himself by going with Sam Jones, only 6-10 for the season, in the second game instead of ace Sal Maglie on two days rest. But Sal explained: There is still some stiffness in my shoulder. If I gotta win a big game, I'd rather do it with my regular rest. He had shut out the Braves 5-0 on Saturday.
• With Maglie scheduled to start, oddsmakers made the Giants 6 1/2 to 5 favorites to earn the right to face the Yankees in the World Series starting Thursday.

As 1:30 pm approached, a variety of people, famous and not-so-famous, prepared for the clash.

• All across New York City, fans gathered in front of sets in homes and public places to form an audience that would comprise 90% of those viewing TV that afternoon by the seventh inning. By the time the game started, Times Square assumed a Sabbathlike calm, wrote a Times re­porter. Channel 11, the NBC affiliate, would join 53 other stations na­tionwide showing the game.
• Abraham Chadwick, dying of stomach cancer, lay on his couch in Brooklyn, ready to watch on TV. The electricians' union had assigned the lifelong Dodger fan to the Polo Grounds to turn on the lights for night games and any day games when the umpires called for lights and to cater to any other electrical needs the club had. In July, the Giants asked him to install a buzzer system connecting the fourth window of the clubhouse to the bullpen in RCF.
• In Washington, numerous senators made arrangements to see at least part of the game in chambers adjacent to the Senate floor. Frank Bourgholtzer, NBC's White House correspondent, turned on a TV in the West Wing and tuned it to the game. Since press corps members spent most of their days waiting for announcements and interview opportun­ities, the game would provide a welcome relief from boredom although a blockbuster announcer would interrupt their viewing in the late innings.
• Comedian Jackie Gleason and singer Frank Sinatra met at Toots Shor's Restaurant in Manhattan. Frank had obtained three tickets from his friend Durocher. So Toots ordered a limo with a well-stocked bar to take him and his two pals to the Polo Grounds. Gleason, the only one of the trio rooting for the Dodgers, partook copiously of both the liquor and food by the time the group exited the limo and took their seats behind the Dodger dugout. (An urban myth says that J. Edgar Hoover joined them at the game. But the FBI Director was at work in Washing­ton. He would attend Game One of the World Series the next day.)
• Heavyweight champion Joe Louis, in town to promote a fight, hurried from his press conference to the ballpark in time for the first pitch.

In addition to NBC's TV crew, six radio networks set up shop in the press box attached to the underside of the upper deck.

• Russ Hodges did the Giants' broadcast solo because NBC hired his partner, Ernie Harwell, to handle their telecast. Hodges's friend Bob Prince, the Pirates' announcer, sat next to him as a guest.
• Red Barber and Connie Desmond would, as usual, call the game for the Dodgers.
• The Liberty Broadcasting Network, which recreated most of its baseball and football broadcasts from its studio in Dallas, sent "The Old Scots­man" Gordon McLendon to call the game live. (His broadcast is the only one that survives on tape today.)
• Al Helfer reported the actcion on the Mutual Broadcasting System, largest in the nation.
• Harry Caray of the Cardinals broadcast the game for a group of Mid­west stations.
• Buck Canel and Felo Ramirez did the Spanish broadcast for Latin America.
• Altogether, six of the first 13 recipients of the Hall of Fame's Ford Frick Award for broadcasters worked the game.

Surprisingly, the few fans who camped out all night to make sure they got tickets could have enjoyed a good night's sleep. Only 34,320 actually attend­ed the game in the 55,000-seat stadium.

• The second game had attracted just 38,609.
• Giants owner Horace Stoneham explained the turnout this way: We didn't sell out because so many people were misled with the expectation of a sell-out.
• His own front office may have been partially to blame because on Sep­tember 28, the club announced they would accept no more applications for World Series tickets, which led to this headline in the Herald Tribune the next day: GIANTS HAVE NO TICKETS! SERIES OVERSUBSCRIBED.
• Many fans may have assumed the playoff games were sold out as well. The TV ratings for the games showed that interest was at an all-time high.

Maglie and Newcombe warmed up in the unseasonable conditions: 71 de­grees, damp, overcast with strong wind blowing to right.

Continued below ...

Giants owner Horace Stoneham watches a game from his office in the CF clubhouse at the Polo Grounds

Clem Labine

Sal Maglie

Don Newcombe

• Without fanfare on the day he signed a one-year contract extension with the Giants for $50,000, manager Leo Durocher replaced Franks as the 3B coach on July 20 when the Giants trailed Brooklyn by 7.5 games.
• No one paid any attention to the change, assuming that Leo was trying to energize his team's offense. (A search of a national database of newspa­pers, including the New York Times, reveals not a single mention of Her­man Franks during July and August, 1951.)
• Further, no opponent or reporter noticed that the coach was not on the bench during the games. Where was he?
• Franks sat in Durocher's locked office in the CF clubhouse. He peered through a telescope mounted on a tripod and trained on home plate through a partially open window. Within Herman's reach was a buzzer connected to the phones in the Giants bullpen in RCF and in their 1B dugout.
• The former C went into action when the Giants came to bat. The tele­scope gave him a head-on closeup of the C giving finger signals to the P. Herman quickly deciphered the code and tipped the calls to the batter by a simple system: when the C called for a fastball, Franks rang the buzzer. C Sal Yvars sat at the CF edge of the bench. When the buzzer rang, he would flash a sign by some agreed upon means - crossing or uncrossing his legs, tossing a ball into the air, or sitting still. Sal never appeared in a home game after July 20 for the duration of the season. He was too val­uable in the bullpen.
• The players in the dugout could also tip the batter since they heard the buzzer there too. The code be as simple as calling out a batter's first name for a fast ball and using his last name or neither name for a curve.
• The Giants took 23 of their remaining 28 home games with the telescope system in place. If they had won just 22, they would have lost the pen­nant to the Dodgers by a game. New York also went 26-16 on the road in that period.

• The day before, Clem mastered the Giants 10-0 to force the rubber game. Durocher praised the rookie. "Labine pitched a great game." What Leo couldn't say was that it was so great that, even knowing the pitches, the Giants couldn't scratch a run. That's how good the rookie's curveball was.
• Clem's performance exposed Manager Chuck Dressen's bullheadedness in refusing to pitch Labine the previous eleven days. He had infuriated his manager in the first inning of a start against Philadelphia September 21. The Phillies loaded the bases in the first. Dressen ordered Clem, who had won his last four starts after being called up from the minors, to pitch to Willie Jones from the windup. Instead, Clem threw from the stretch and surrendered a grand slam.
• So Charlie not only yanked Labine from the game, he removed him from the starting rotation and didn't even use him in relief. Finally, with no one else to turn to as the Dodgers faced their ninth game in eight days, the hardheaded skipper chose the rookie to save the season and he re­sponded with a shutout.

Both managers had saved their aces for the final game.

• Salvatore Anthony Maglie strode to the mound for the Giants. He had won 23 games in 1951 and lost only six. Included in his victory total were five triumphs over the Dodgers.
• Although he was completing just his second full major league campaign, Maglie was 34 years old. His debut was delayed until age 28 near the end of the 1945 season because of World War II.
• Then he decided to head south to Mexico, attracted by the money Jorge Pasquel was throwing around to recruit American players to his new Mex­ican League. One of nine Giant system players to defect, Maglie quickly regretted his decision since playing conditions were worse than he experi­enced even in class D in the U.S.A.
• So he and the others returned home after two seasons. However, he re­turned a better pitcher thanks to the tutelage of his manager Dolf Luque, a Cuban native who won 194 games over 20 seasons in the majors. Dolf taught Sal to tighten the spin on his curve, throw it harder, and spot his pitches.
• His opportunity to showcase his new skills in American ball was delayed because the so-called "Mexican Jumping Beans" were blacklisted upon their return. So Sal pitched in Canada in 1949.
• Commissioner "Happy" Chandler reinstated Maglie and the other apos­tates in time for them to return to their original clubs for 1950. Sal ex­ploded onto the scene, leading the NL in winning percentage (.818), ERA (2.71), and shutouts (5) with an 18-4 record.
• Sal later said: When I joined the Giants ... in 1945, [manager] Mel Ott told me, "If you want to make money, you got to beat the Dodgers. Pitch high and tight and low and away." Preferring high and tight, Maglie quickly gain­ed a reputation for keeping hitters loose, so much so that he acquired the nickname "The Barber." It wasn't for his heavy beard but for the close shaves he gave batters with high hard ones to keep them from crowding the plate to hit his sharp curve.
• Sal had last pitched four days earlier, twirling a 3-0 shutout at Boston on the second-to-last day of the regular season to keep the Giants tied with the Bums.

Any thoughts of a second straight shutout vanished quickly.

• After RF Carl Furillo took a called third strike, Maglie walked SS Pee Wee Reese and CF Duke Snider.
• 2B Jackie Robinson singled to LF to score Reese, Snider stopping at 2nd.
• In danger of the game spiraling out of control, Maglie settled down and got LF Andy Pafko to groundout and 1B Gil Hodges to foul out.

Big Don Newcombe trudged to the mound for the bottom of the first.

• The 6'4" 220 lb righty from Madison NJ had won 56 games since his debut in 1949.
• The workhorse had thrown 776 innings in that time, an average of 259 per season.
• He led the NL in strikeouts in 1951 with 164.
• Don had pitched masterfully in his post-season debut, a 1-0 loss to the Yankees in Game One of the 1949 World Series. The tough luck loss would become a trademark of Newcombe's career.
• Newk, like Maglie, had started on Saturday and thrown a shutout, 5-0 in Philadelphia. He had also pitched three days earlier in Boston, a 15-5 Brooklyn victory. So he was starting his third game in eight days.

Oblivious to the fact that the Giants knew each pitch he threw, Newcombe set them down quickly in the first.

• 2B Eddie Stanky flew to LF.
• SS Alvin Dark popped up to 3B.
• RF Don Mueller lined out to LF.

Pregame | First Inning

The final game of the 1951 NL playoff entered the second inning with Brooklyn leading 1-0.

• When Dodger manager Charlie Dressen went to the 3B coaching box, he found that his counterpart, Leo Durocher, as was his wont, had erased all the chalk lines with his spikes so he could creep toward home to more ef­fectively bark at the home plate ump.
• Leo also wanted to create a better angle to steal signs from C Rube Walker, who replaced All-Star Roy Campanella, out for the second game in a row with a pulled hamstring.
• The backstop change caused only a minor dropoff in defensive prowess but a major decline in batting clout.
  Campanella: 33 HR, 108 RBI, .325 in 143 games for '51
  Walker: 2 HR, 9 RBI, .243 in only 36 games
• Dressen didn't mind Leo's handiwork since Charlie loved to steal a sign or two himself. However, Giants C Wes Westrum knew that and concen­trated on hiding his signs from intruding eyes.

Sal Maglie retired the Dodgers in order in the third.

• 3B Billy Cox grounded to the box.
• Walker struck out swinging.
• P Don Newcombe popped to 3B.

Campanella and Newcombe wanted to win the game even more than their teammates.

• On September 21, leading the Giants by 4.5 games with only eight left to play, the Dodgers accepted 12,000 applications for World Series tickets.
• That same day, Campy and Newk both asked GM Buzzy Bavasi for ad­vances on their World Series shares, receiving $4,440 and $3,600 respec­tively.
• That night, Brooklyn celebrated "Charlie Dressen Night" at Ebbets Field. The manager received a painting of himself with a plaque on the bottom frame that read: MANAGER OF THE BROOKLYN DODGERS - 1951 NATION­AL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!

• The Scotsman had endured an up-and-down five-year career with New York.
• His first full season, 1947, produced 2 HR, 85 RBI, and a .283 BA.
• But in '48 he dropped to 16 HR, 63 RBI, and .248.
• He bounced back the next season: 27 HR, 109 RBI, .309.
• Continuing the pattern, all three stats dropped in 1950, although not as far as they did in '48: 25 HR, 85 RBI, .252.
• 1951 had not produced the expected bounce back until July 20, when Durocher moved him from CF to 3B to make room for Willie Mays. At that point, Bobby was hitting only .237 with 16 HR. But from then to the end of the season, he smacked 15 HRs and raised his average to .289.
• A Sporting News article on Thomson's resurgence stated: He has been a tremendous tower of strength ever since the night of July 20 when Leo Durocher, in a sudden inspired move, told him to take over at third base.
• What the article didn't mention - because the writer didn't know about it - was that July 20 also marked the beginning of Coach Herman Franks stealing the opposing catcher's signs with his telescope in the CF club­house. No Giant benefitted from the purloined info more than the out­fielder-turned-hot-corner-man.

So when Thomson stepped in to face Newcombe in the second, he peered beyond 2B Jackie Robinson to RCF where bullpen C Sal Yvars relayed Franks' tips.

• When asked many years later if he checked the bullpen during his at-bats in the final playoff game, Bobby replied, I don't know why I wouldn't have.
• Thomson took a ball, then lashed a single to LF. Andy Pafko field the ball cleanly to hold Lockman at second.
• However, Thomson, thinking he had a double, ran hard around first and chugged toward second until he realized his teammate occupied the base. SS Pee Wee Reese relayed the ball to 1B Gil Hodges, who easily tagged the embarrassed runner out.
• The steam taken out of the rally, Mays lined to LF to retire the side.

As the Giants took the field on the overcast day, the umpires ordered the lights turned on. A pundit in the pressbox said, Now maybe Thomson can see where he's going.

• Maglie ran his streak of consecutive batters retired to eight by getting RF Carl Furillo to ground to the mount, Reese to foul out to 1B, and CF Duke Snider to strikeout swining.
• Newcombe walked Westrum the open the bottom of the inning. But Mag­lie's bunt resulted in a 1-6 forceout at 2B, and 2B Eddie Stranky grounded into a 5-4-3 DP.
• During the home team's at-bat, Gordon McClendon speculated on his na­tional broadcast: We may have had a famous repetition of the Fred Merkle incident here today, comparing Thomson's base-running error to the 1908 blunder that cost the Giants the pennant.

Both teams went down 1-2-3 in the fourth.

• Brooklyn: Robinson 4-3, Pafko K, Hodges 5-3.
• New York: SS Alvin Dark popped to 2B, RF Don Mueller lined to 1B, Irvin grounded out 5-3.

The pitching duel continued through the fifth.

• Cox led off with a bunt single, but Walker fanned again. Newcombe grounded into a force play at 2B before Furillo flied to left.
• Lockman grounded to Reese, but Thomson tried to make amends for his reckless baserunning by doubling on the ground down the LF line. With no runner ahead of him, his speed enabled him to beat Pafko's throw with a head-first dive.
• After Mays struck out, Dressen ordered Westrum walked intentionally to get to Maglie. While Newcombe threw four wide ones, Robinson com­plained to 3B umpire Larry Goetz that Durocher wasn't staying in the coaching box. So Goetz ordered Leo to stay put.
• Ralph Branca got up and started loosening in the Dodger bullpen in LCF.
• But he sat down quickly because Dressen's strategy worked like a charm as Maglie grounded to SS.

Whitey Lockman

Bobby Thomson

Eddie Stanky

Ralph Branca

Clyde Sukeforth

Monte Irvin

Leo Durocher and rookie
Willie Mays

Soviet Nuclear Test

As the Brooklyn Dodgers came to bat in the top of the sixth inning of the third and decisive game of the 1951 NL playoff, they clung to a precarious 1-0 lead.

• After Jackie Robinson's first inning single drove in the game's only run, Sal Maglie had retired 11 in a row until a bunt single in the fifth. Then he re­tired the next three hitters.
• But as the tension mounted, Giants manager Leo Durocher sent his other starters to the bullpen to replace the relievers. With the pennant on the line, The Lip would go with his best if Maglie faltered.

The Barber escaped a shaky sixth with no damage.

• After SS Pee Wee Reese took a called third strike, CF Duke Snider singled to center.
• But C Wes Westrum threw out Snider as he attempted to steal, 2B Eddie Stanky applying the tag.
• Robinson walked, but LF Andy Pafko popped to 1B Whitey Lockman.

Dodger starter Don Newcombe entered the bottom of the sixth on a streak of 21 1/3 scoreless innings.

• Despite pitching on two days rest, Big Newk looked strong, setting down the home team with ease.
  • Stanky: fly out to LF.
  • SS Alvin Dark: grounder to 3B.
  • RF Don Mueller: foul out to 1B.

• The 6-3 220 lb righthander arrived at the Polo Grounds that morning with his arm still stiff from his eight innings of work in the 3-1 loss two days earlier at Ebbets Field. His right triceps had ached ever since he threw back-to-back shutouts in late August.
• Trainer Harold Wendler applied the accepted treatment: a rubdown with Capsulin. As Branca recalled later, It burned so much, you forgot you had pain in your arm.
• As a starter, he needed more time to get ready to relieve. So he started tossing lightly in the fifth as bullpen coach Clyde Sukeforth watched closely. Branca's arm began to loosen as he continued through the sixth.

Maglie continued to baffle Dem Bums in the seventh.

• 1B Gil Hodges fouled out to C.
• 3B Billy Cox grounded to Dark.
• C Rube Walker grounded a single between 1B and 2B.
• Newcombe bounced out to Stanky, not even bothering to run to 1B.

Don finally faltered after Giants fans enjoyed their stretch.

• LF Monty Irvin smacked the second pitch on a line into LF and slid into second safely.
• That prompted Dressen to phone Sukeforth: "How's he throwing?" Sukey reported that Branca was in full throttle.
• Lockman looked to Durocher in the 3B coaching box for a sign before he stepped to the plate. Bunt? The Dodgers thought so, Dressen ordering a pitchout. But Irvin didn't move. Lockman bunted the next pitch a few feet in front of the plate. Walker pounced on it and fired to third but too late.
• With runners on first and third and none out, up stepped 3B Bobby Thom­son who, despite two hits, wore the goat's horns for his base-running blunder in the second. All the Scot had to do now to redeem himself was hit a medium-range fly ball to plate the tieing run. With the count 3-1, he did just that, driving the ball to Snider in deep CF, Irvin scoring easily.
• Presumably, Thomson benefitted from knowing what Newcombe would throw thanks to the sign-stealing system the Giants employed.
• It was a good thing for the Giants that Bobby came through because rookie CF Willie Mays grounded into a 6-4-3 DP.

The 157-game season came down to two innings. Who would be the hero?

• Would it be an established star like Snider, Reese, or Robinson for Brook­lyn or Irvin or Thomson, NY's leading RBI producers.
• Or would someone unexpected grab the spotlight, like one of the two Cs, neither of whom wielded a potent bat - Walker .243 and Westrum only .219).
• Would either pitcher last through the ninth? Would one of the starters that both managers deployed to their pens surrender the winning hit?
• Could fans survive a nerve-wracking extra-inning tilt?

Meanwhile, in the White House, the press corps interrupted their viewing of the game for an announcement by President Truman's Press Secretary.

• Frank Bourgholtzer, NBC's White House correspondent, had a particular interest in the goings on at the Polo Grounds. He had grown up in Thom­son's hometown of New Dorp NY. His family knew the Thomsons well. In fact, when Frank outgrew his Lionel train set, they were given to Bobby, five years younger.
• Joseph Short began his press conference by promising, "This won't take long." He then announced that the Soviet Union had exploded another atomic bomb in their country. He concluded his statement with "Further details cannot be given without adversely affecting our national security interests." He finished in less than a minute.
• Bourgholtzer and his colleagues hurried back to their desks in the press room to file their reports before returning to more important matters - the game!

• The tension was unbearable as Sal Maglie took the mound. The Giants had just scored to tie the game at 1.
• Since yielding a run in the first, The Barber had set the Dodgers down on just three hits.
• Still, Leo Durocher had his second best starter, Larry Jansen, start warm­ing up in the RCF bullpen. C Sal Yvars, an essential cog in the sign-steal­ing scheme when the Giants batted, caught the righty who had compiled a 22-11 record.

Maglie finally lost his touch.

• RF Carl Furillo lined back to the mound.
• But SS Pee Wee Reese lined a single to RF.
• CF Duke Snider grounded a single between 1B and 2B that sent Reese to 3rd.
• With 3B Jackie Robinson at the plate, Durocher worried that his counter­part, Charlie Dressen, would order a double steal. So Leo signalled for a pitchout. But no one moved. Ball one.
• Maglie's next pitch dove into the dirt and skipped past C Wes Westrum. Reese raced home, and Snider took second. Brooklyn led again.

The Dodgers weren't through.

• Durocher ordered two wide ones to Robinson to set up a DP with less­than-fleet LF Andy Pafko due up.
• In today's baseball, Jansen would replace an obviously tired Maglie. But managers followed a different script in 1951.
• Pafko did just what the Giants wanted. He smacked a sharp grounder to Thomson at third. But the ball kicked off Bobby's glove into foul territory. Snider scored to make it 3-1, and Robinson held at 2nd. Although the scorer called it a hit, many New York fans thought the Scotsman should have made the play.
• Maglie got 1B Gil Hodges to pop to Thomson.
• But 3B Billy Cox smashed a grounder that took one hop past Thomson's ear to drive in Robinson.
• Finally, Sal got the elusive third out when C Rube Walker grounded out, 2B Eddie Stanky to 1B Whitey Lockman, on Maglie's 109th and last pitch.

• His baserunning blunder in the 2nd had thrown cold water on a potential Giant rally.
• And now he failed to snare not one but two catchable grounders. A better third-sacker, like Brooklyn's Cox, would have kept the Bums from scoring even one run.

Don Newcombe mowed down the Giants on ten pitches in the bottom of the 8th.

• Bill Rigney pinch hit for Westrum but struck out.
• Hank Thompson batted for Maglie and grounded out 3-1.
• Stanky fouled out to Reese.
  
  

Many in attendance conceded the game to the Dodgers.

• Some of the wives of Giants players left their seats in Section 19 for the ladies lounge beneath the stands. The Brooklyn fans were heckling us, said Antoinette Yvars.
• High in the upper deck behind home plate, Yogi Berra and four Yankee teammates hit the road disappointed that they would be playing the World Series at Ebbets Field (capacity 34,000) rather than the 55,000-seat Polo Grounds. Yogi said, We wanted to beat the crowd. Newcombe was pitching good. I thought it was over.
• Two dozen writers left the pressbox and headed for the Brooklyn club­house in CF for the postgame celebration. They squeezed into the Dodger lounge to wait out the 9th. 300-pound clubhouse man John Griffin sat in a chair in front of the only window with a view of the field. Fortunately, Grif­fin had the radio tuned to Red Barber's broadcast.

Jansen took the mound for the 9th. If Giants fans were second-guessing Duro­cher in the 8th, Larry's performance provided more fodder.

• With Newcombe set to leadoff, Dressen didn't even consider a pinch-hitter - another unimaginable decision from today's viewpoint that says, "Bring in the closer for the 9th." Newk grounded to 2B.
• Furillo hit another grounder, this one to SS Al Dark.
• Reese flew to Willie Mays in CF.
• Among Larry's nine pitches, only one was a ball.

The Dodgers were three outs from surviving the Giants' furious pennant race finish.

Pee Wee Reese

Duke Snider

Billy Cox

Don Newcombe

Larry Jansen

Ralph Branca

Carl Erskine

Hank Schenz

Sal Yvars

Alvin Dark

Don Mueller

Monte Irvin

Whitey Lockman

Pregame | First Inning | Innings 2-5 | Innings 6-7 | 8th & Top of 9th

Don Newcombe trudged to the mound for the bottom of the ninth with a 4-1 lead.

• Big Newk was about to throw his 32nd inning in eight days. In the last 22 2/3 innings of that string, he had given up a single run, the one the Giants scored in the 7th to tie the game temporarily.
• After the 7th, the strapping right-hander came to the dugout and claimed he was tired. Jackie Robinson gave Newk no sympathy. Don't give me that tired shit. Get out there and pitch. (Another source relates the conversation like this: [Newcombe] came back to the dugut and announced frankly, "My arm's tight," only to be upbraided by his teammate Robinson: "Bullshit, you go out there and pitch until your goddamn arm falls off." The injured Campa­nella tried to cajole him more gently into doing the same ...)
• Don did just that, retiring the Giants in order in the 8th. Still, when Newk returned to the bench, he told manager Charlie Dressen, It looks like I just don't have it anymore. Take me out.
• But Dressen, following the conventional wisdom of the day when teams had no closers, left the decision up to his pitcher, who had no choice but to try to get the last three outs lest he damage his standing in the eyes of his black teammates.

Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, Jackie Robinson

• He had not one but two pitchers warming up in the LCF bullpen, both righties: Ralph Branca and Carl Erskine.
• Bullpen coach Clyde Sukeforth caught Branca, throwing the ball back in time to watch Erskine's pitch come in alongside him.

Alvin Dark stepped into the box wielding his black bat.

• The SS had not had a good playoff series. He had gone 0-for-3 against Newcombe to give him 1-for-12 in the three games.
• After taking a strike and fouling off several pitches, Dark hit a grounder between 1B and 2B. The ball glanced off Gil Hodges' glove toward second to put the leadoff man on. It was only the fifth hit off Newcombe.
• Afterwards, Dressen talked of the rally-starting hit: It was just a protective swing. And he just got it out of Hodges' reach. If Gil could have held the ball in his glove, Dark would have been out.
• Sore arm reliever Clyde King had never seen Dressen so jumpy. Since the 7th, Charlie had phoned the bullpen every few minutes. Who's ready? Who's ready?
• Now Dressen called the bullpen to ask the same question. Sukeforth judged Branca, who first got up in the 5th, the sharper of the two warm­ing up. Years later, Clyde remembered: Branca was showing off. He wanted to pitch tomorrow in Yankee Stadium. He was really humming. But Erskine looked good too.

Still, Dressen made no move as RF Don Mueller came to the plate.

• Don had compiled the same playoff batting average as Dark, 1-for-12.
• With a three-run lead and Mueller batting left-handed, you would think Dressen would signal Hodges to play his normal position and not bother to hold the runner on. But Gil, obeying his skipper's order, stood a few paces diagonally off the bag. (See picture below.)
• Known for his ability to place the ball where he wanted in Wee Willie Keeler "Hit 'em where they ain't" style, Mueller recalled years later, What happened next was no accident. I always checked the fielders before I swung. If Hodges had played deep, I would have swung differently ... Mandrake the Magician, as he was called, rapped a belt-high fastball on the ground through the hole between first and second past a diving Hodges. Dark reached 3B easily.
• Robinson again visited the mound. Two cheap hits. You're all right. But Newk disagreed. No, I ain't. I ain't all right.

Mueller Smacks Single to Right of Hodges

• But even with the NL's RBI leader, LF Monte Irvin, coming up, Charlie was­n't thinking about changing pitchers so much as changing catchers. He knew Campanella got more out of Newk than anyone else. But he was worried about the large amount of foul ground in the Polo Grounds. Sup­pose Irvin hit a pop foul and Roy couldn't reach it on his gimpy leg?
• So Charlie told his battery to keep the ball away from Monte and returned to the dugout without making a change.

Unlike the previous pair of hitters, Irvin, a right-handed batter, had an earlier safety off Newcombe, his third of the three-game playoff.

• Durocher told 3B umpire Larry Goetz: Now a belt. A home run right now.
• But on a 1-1 pitch Monte popped to Hodges in foul territory.
• Irvin, who prided himself on coming through in the clutch, slammed his bat down in disgust. When he returned to the dugout, he didn't look at team­mates. I was trying too hard to pull the ball, he muttered.

Newcombe now braced for another left-handed batter, 1B Whitey Lockman, who had singled in the 3rd to give him 2-for-9 in the playoff.

• Now, however, Lockman was looking to tie the game with one swing. But Newk wasn't about to let that happen and kept the ball away from the left-handed batter.
• After fouling off the first offering, Whitey lashed Newk's 100th delivery over 3B Billy Cox's head down the LF line against the wall on two boun­ces. As the crowd roared, Dark scored easily, and Lockman pulled into 2B with a standup double.
• As Mueller neared 3B, he looked to the outfield and, seeing Andy Pafko throwing to 2B, chose not to slide. But the last second decision caused him to catch his spikes in the dirt and twist his left ankle, tearing tendons.
• Just a step away, Durocher called for time and waved for help. The game was delayed while the team doctor and trainer attended to Mandrake.

Durocher Calls for Time to Help Mueller

• Sukeforth told him, Erskine just bounced a curve, but Branca's fast and loose.
• Little did "Sukey" know that his boss would use those words against him after the game.

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