1960 World Series: Confusion, and then Maz

The Teams
National League: Pittsburgh Pirates (95-59) - Fifth World Series (Won in 1909, 1925)
American League: New York Yankees (97-57) - 25th World Series (Won 18 previous times)


What Happened
Depending on what set of games they were watching, baseball fans saw two very different World Series in 1960. If anybody watched just games 2, 3, and 6, they saw a bludgeoning unlike any that had ever been seen in a World Series. Over those three games, the Yankees pounded the helpless Pirate pitchers for 38 runs, setting all sorts of team and individual records over those games. It wasn't just the offense, either, as they got two shutouts from Whitey Ford and only gave up 3 in the other (what a waste of two good pitching performances, by the way; combined score of the two games Ford pitched: 22-0).

If anybody watched just games 1, 4, and 5, they saw an opportunistic Pirate offense scrape together enough runs to take a lead into the seventh inning, then turn the game over to magnificent reliever Roy Face to close it out. Face was a year removed from compiling a truly bizarre 18-1 record as a reliever, but he might have been even better in 1960, even if he didn't go 18-1. He held the leads handed him in the 1960 World Series with little difficulty.

And for the people who watched each of the first six games, the series must have been incredibly confusing. Heading into Game 7, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates 46-17 and out-hit them 79-49, yet the series was tied. The Pirates had won three close games, but there hadn't really been any truly tense games. It was a truly bizarre series.

And then came Game 7.

The game started with the Pirates taking a 4-0 lead after two innings, burning through two Yankee pitchers in the process. They handed a 4-1 lead over to Face in the sixth, and Face promptly blew his first lead of the series. Yogi Berra's three-run home run was the biggest blow, and it made the score 5-4 Yankees.

But things were just getting started

After the Yankees added two more runs off Face in the 8th, that seemed to be all she wrote. The Yankee bats had won out again, and they had finally pounded the Pirates into submission. But the Pirates got five hits in the bottom of the eighth, the biggest a three-run home run by catcher Hal Smith that put Pittsburgh ahead 9-7. The Pirates went from being left for dead to being three outs from a championship. A shocking turn of events.

Now it was the Yankees' turn to face elimination. With one run in in the ninth, they had runners on the corners with one out. Berra smashed a grounder down the first base line that Pirate first baseman
Rocky Nelson snared on a hop. He stepped on first and turned to second, hoping to get the out at second that would end the World Series. Instead Mickey Mantle, who was on first, dove back to the bag, somehow avoiding the tag to get back safely. Meanwhile, Bobby Richardson was coming home with the game-tying run. The Pirates were stunned. They got the double play ball that would have won the World Series, saw it played perfectly, yet were still tied.

They barely had time to register what had happened when second baseman Bill Mazeroski led off the bottom of the ninth of a tie game. After taking a ball, Mazeroski swung and lifted a fly ball to deep left field. Forbes Field had a pretty deep left field, leading to an ivy-covered wall facing against a small grove of trees, so as Berra (playing left field, not catcher) turned his back to chase the ball, it looked like he was going for a jog through the woods. He looked up expecting to play the ball off the wall, only to watch as it scraped the top of the ivy and bounded into the trees beyond.

Mazeroski sprinted around the bases, hat in hand, waiving his arms. The Pirate fans stormed onto the field in celebration, forcing Mazeroski to navigate a maze of fans while rounding the bases. He finally made it around and stepped on home, the first man to end a World Series with a home run. It had been an odd series, a deceivingly one-sided series. But the magnificent Game 7 made it a series for the ages.

MVP
As a sign of how odd the series was, Bobby Richardson was named MVP. In case you weren't paying attention, he played for the Yankees. A member of the losing team was named World Series MVP. The reasons seemed justified at the time - Richardson had a World Series record 12 runs batted in, including a record six in Game 3. But Mantle had 11 runs batted in and outhit and out homered Richardson. Bill Skowron had a series-high 12 hits for the Yankees, and Ford didn't give up a run in two complete-game victories. Almost any Yankee hitter could have been the MVP. Except, of course, that they lost the series. For those who think only the winning team should provide the MVP, it should have been Mazeroski. He led the Pirates in runs, hits, extra-base hits, home runs, and runs batted in. Plus he played his usual outstanding defense at second base. Oh, and he hit the first World Series-ending home run in history. The fact that he wasn't named MVP just shows how confused everybody was about the 1960 World Series.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

New York	4	16	10	2	2	12	9
Pittsburgh	6	3	0	3	5	0	10

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

15. 1960 - Pittsburgh (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
16. 1952 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
17. 1997 - Florida (N) def. Cleveland (A) 4-3
18. 1993 - Toronto (A) def. Philadelphia (N) 4-2
19. 1956 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
Numbers 20-29
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

3. 1960: Pittsburgh 10, New York (A) 9
5. 1997: Florida 3, Cleveland 2
7. 1946: St. Louis (N) 4, Boston (A) 3
9. 1925: Pittsburgh 9, Washington 7
12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
14. 1952: New York (A) 4, Brooklyn 2
15. 1971: Pittsburgh 2, Baltimore 1
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
23. 1973: Oakland 5, New York (N) 2
24. 2002: Anaheim 4, San Francisco 1
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
35. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0
36. 1956: New York (A) 9, Brooklyn 0

1952 World Series: The wind-blown popup

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (95-59) - 19th World Series (Won 14 previous times)
National League: Brooklyn Dodgers (96-57) - Sixth World Series

What Happened

The Dodgers entered the 1952 World Series battered and beaten, having lost the pennant on the final day of the season each of the previous two seasons. They finally avoided the late-season drama in 1952 and accepted the National League's annual invitation to play the Yankees in the World Series. The Yankees were there for the fourth straight year - or fifth time in six years, or 12th time in 16 years, or whatever crazy metric you want to use. The fact is that they were back and, for the fourth time, were playing the Dodgers.

The biggest story of the beginning of the series was Joe Black, the Dodgers' ace reliever who started Game 1 despite only starting two games all season. Black was brilliant, though, throwing a complete game to beat the Yankees. He was also brilliant in Game 4, but wasn't as good as Allie Reynolds, who shut out the Dodgers. The games on either side of Game 4 were among the best of the series - the Dodgers won Game 3 after Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson both scored on the same wild pitch in the ninth inning, and they won Game 5 on an 11th-inning double by Duke Snider.  

Snider's double gave the Dodgers a 3-2 series lead heading back to Ebbets Field, but late home runs by Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle erased that deficit. The only problem the Yankees had with Game 6 was that they had to use Reynolds in relief to finish off the win. But the Dodgers were pressing their luck by starting Black yet again, his third start in the series after spending the season as a reliever.

And despite pitching valiantly, Black seemed to tire in Game 7. After three scoreless innings, the Yankees got one run in each of the next four, while holding the Dodgers to just two - despite committing four errors. It was 4-2 in the seventh inning when the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out and Snider and Robinson due up. Snider didn't get the job done, popping out to third, so it came down to Robinson. And like his teammate, Robinson popped up.

Sometimes, the biggest play in a postseason series isn't a run-scoring hit or a clutch strikeout. Sometimes, it's something as simple as a popup, something that gets marked in the score book as simply "F-4." Normally, Robinson's popup would have been routine, a big out but more a sigh of relief than anything. But it went up, and it stayed up, and it started drifting. One runner crossed the plate, and the ball stayed in the air, drifting in the wind. Another runner crossed the plate, the potential tying run, and it still hadn't come down. Billy Martin, the second baseman, was tracking it, following it, hoping. He followed it all the way over to first, in front of the bag, before reaching down and catching it a foot off the ground. F-4.

The Dodgers had come so close to getting the big break they had always wanted in a World Series. Instead, they got more heartbreak. They went down meekly over the final two innings, and the Yankees celebrated their fourth straight championship.

MVP
Reynolds couldn't start Game 7, but he could come in as a reliever, and he threw three innings, getting the win. That was on top of his Game 4 win, and his Game 1 start, and his Game 6 save. Mickey Mantle was great in the series, hitting the ball all over the field, but Reynolds was the reason the Yankees won.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

New York	2	7	3	2	5	3	4
Brooklyn	4	1	5	0	6 (11)	2	2

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

16. 1952 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
17. 1997 - Florida (N) def. Cleveland (A) 4-3
18. 1993 - Toronto (A) def. Philadelphia (N) 4-2
19. 1956 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
Numbers 20-29
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

5. 1997: Florida 3, Cleveland 2
7. 1946: St. Louis (N) 4, Boston (A) 3
9. 1925: Pittsburgh 9, Washington 7
12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
14. 1952: New York (A) 4, Brooklyn 2
15. 1971: Pittsburgh 2, Baltimore 1
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
23. 1973: Oakland 5, New York (N) 2
24. 2002: Anaheim 4, San Francisco 1
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
35. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0
36. 1956: New York (A) 9, Brooklyn 0

1956 World Series: Perfect

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (97-57) -  22nd World Series (Won 16 previous times)
National League: Brooklyn Dodgers (93-61) - Ninth World Series (Won in 1955)

What Happened
Don Larsen staggered into the Yankee Stadium clubhouse. He was hung over, possibly still drunk. He had been out drinking the night before Game 5, like he had been after every game of the 1956 World Series, like he had been most of the season. On this day, he showed up at the stadium working on only an hour and a half of sleep. When he sat down at his locker, he saw something puzzling; a baseball was in his glove. It was his turn.

See, if you were a pitcher for the Yankees in the 1950s, you never knew if you were going to pitch in that day's ballgame until you showed up to the ballpark. If there was a baseball in your glove, you were the guy, so you better head out to the bullpen. Larsen certainly didn't expect to be handed the ball after the mighty Dodgers had pounded him around Ebbets Field in Game 2. But there was the ball. Nothing he could do about it now. Larsen immediately got up, walked into the trainer's room, and took a nap.

He woke up at noon, an hour before first pitch, and went to warm up. To say his start was important was an understatement. The series was tied 2-2, with the home team winning all four games. In most years, the Yankees would just shrug their shoulders, grip the bat a little tighter, and start a killer rally to put the Dodgers away for good. But this year was different. For the first time ever, the Dodgers were the defending champions. They wouldn't go away easily this time. So the Yankees needed Larsen at his best.

What they got was better than they could have ever expected.

He got lucky a few times. In the second inning, Jackie Robinson ripped a liner that deflected off the glove of third baseman Andy Carey and bounced right to shortstop Gil McDougald, who threw out Robinson by a half step. Later, in the fifth, Gil Hodges got a hold of one, sending it deep to the gap in left center field. Mickey Mantle, that year's triple crown winner, tracked it down right in front of the monuments in deep center field.

But that was it. The Yankees got a run on a Mantle home run, another one on a Hank Bauer single, then held their breath to see if Larsen could do it. By the time they got to the ninth inning, nobody on the Yankees wanted the ball hit to them, afraid they'd screw up Larsen's date with history. The first two outs of the ninth were hit to fielders, though: a fly out to Bauer in right and a grounder to Billy Martin at second. The last batter was Dale Mitchell, pinch-hitting for Sal Maglie, who had thrown a great game himself. It would be Mitchell's final Major League plate appearance, but that's not why it's been replayed over and over again.

Mitchell checked his swing on a 1-2 pitch, but home plate umpire Babe Pinelli called it a strike anyway. Yogi Berra leaped from behind the plate, jumped up and down up the first base line, and leaped into Larsen's arms as he tried to walk off the field. Soon the rest of the Yankees joined in the celebration. It was the first, and so far only, no-hitter in World Series history, and it was a perfect game to boot. There have been many unlikely pitchers to throw perfect games, but Larsen's gem in the World Series, against the powerful Dodgers, might have been the most unlikely of all.

Well, powerful might be a bit of a stretch, because the Boys of Summer were getting long in the tooth. It was obvious in 1956 that they were wearing down. The fire in Robinson's belly was fading, catcher Roy Campanella was flat-out collapsing. They were running on fumes. This was their last shot at glory.

In many ways, Larsen's perfect game signaled the end of the Boys of Summer dynasty. Over the final three games of the series - including two in tiny Ebbets Field - the Dodgers only scored one run, coming on an RBI single by Jackie Robinson in the 10th inning of Game 6. That game may have technically kept the series alive for the Dodgers, but it was only delaying the inevitable. The last game was the fourth Game 7 played between Brooklyn and the Yankees, and it doubled as the worst Game 7 ever played. Berra's home run gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead before the Dodgers even came to the plate, and Brooklyn only managed three hits in a 9-0 humiliation. It was a sad end to one of the National League's best dynasties. And it all started with a baseball in a drunk man's glove.

MVP
Larsen threw a perfect game. Of course he was going to be named MVP. Who cares if he got knocked out of his other start in the second inning. Perfect game!

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

New York	3	8	5	6	2	0	9
Brooklyn	6	13	3	2	0	1 (10)	0

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

19. 1956 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
Numbers 20-29
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

7. 1946: St. Louis (N) 4, Boston (A) 3
9. 1925: Pittsburgh 9, Washington 7
12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
15. 1971: Pittsburgh 2, Baltimore 1
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
23. 1973: Oakland 5, New York (N) 2
24. 2002: Anaheim 4, San Francisco 1
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
35. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0
36. 1956: New York (A) 9, Brooklyn 0

1964 World Series: Turning Point

The Teams
National League: St. Louis Cardinals (93-69) - 10th World Series (won in 1926, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1944, 1946)
American League: New York Yankees (99-63) - 29th World Series (won 20 previous times)

What Happened
For the 15th time in 18 seasons, the Yankees won the American League pennant in 1964. It was a tradition as reliable as baseball itself. But this year, the Yankees dynasty was sputtering to an end. Mickey Mantle was now a sore-legged right fielder, Yogi Berra was managing rather than catching, and even the great Whitey Ford was starting to reach the end of the line.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals were back on their way up. After dominating the 1940s with a team built by Branch Rickey, St. Louis fell back in the 1950s after Rickey moved on to Brooklyn and the stars he signed with the Cardinals started to retire. In 1964, though, they climbed back on top, riding the superb pitching of Bob Gibson to beat the Dodgers and Giants to the pennant.

Ford looked to give the Yankees an early lead in the series, and he took a 4-2 lead into the 6th inning. Then, suddenly, his arm went dead. With no warning or explanation, Ford lost all zip on his fastball and command of his off-speed pitches, and he left the game in the middle of the inning; he would never pitch in a World Series game again. Meanwhile, the Cardinals were mounting a comeback off Ford and reliever Al Downing. By the time they were done, they had a 9-5 win.

Ford's arm troubles turned out to be a lucky break for the Cardinals, as they lost the next two games, including Game 3 on a walk-off home run by Mantle. The Cardinals then seized the advantage in the series, winning Games 4 and 5 in Yankee Stadium. Game 4 was won on the strength of a Ken Boyer grand slam, and Gibson followed that up with a complete-game, 13-strikeout gem, which the Cardinals won on a three-run home run by Tim McCarver in the 10th.

Back home in St. Louis, the Cardinals blew their first chance to clinch by losing Game 6; Joe Pepitone's eighth-inning grand slam was the biggest blast. Game 7 was a matchup between Gibson, who was pitching just two days after throwing 10 innings in Game 5, and Mel Stottlemyre, the 22-year-old Yankee rookie who beat Gibson in Game 2. Like Gibson, Stottlemyre had also pitched in Game 7; unlike the great Cardinals' ace, he seemed to be affected by it. The Cardinals scored three runs off Stottlemyre in the 4th, then added three more off Downing in the 5th. That was enough for Gibson, but only just so - he gave up three home runs, including two in the ninth - but ended up with the 7-5 win.

The '64 series was viewed as a turning point in baseball. In a simply athletic sense, it propelled the Cardinals into dynasty stage, as they went to the World Series two more times in the 60s, while the Yankees wouldn't be back until 1976. On a larger front, it has retroactively been assigned a big racial significance, as the "blacker" National League had once again proven superior to the "whiter" American League. In reality, the Cardinals were a bad team to use as this example, as they were among the last National League teams to integrate, doing so seven years after Jackie Robinson debuted and just one year before the Yankees. Still, though, the fact remains that the National League teams were generally quick to embrace black or Hispanic players while the American League was slower to, and that seemed to change after 1964.

Defining Game
Through four innings, Game 5 was a great pitching duel between Gibson, the Cardinals ace, and Stottlemyre, the de facto Yankees ace now that Ford was out. The only threat came in the second, when the Yankees loaded the bases before Gibson struck out Clete Boyer (Ken's brother) and Stottlemyre to end the threat. That was it until Gibson started his own rally in the fifth, singling and scoring the first run. The Cardinals added one more run that inning, then sat back and let Gibson do his thing. That worked just fine until the 9th, when New York's Tom Tresh hit a stunning two-out, two-run home run to send the game into extra innings. Forced to work extra, the Cardinals bats woke up again, as McCarver's three-run home run gave Gibson a huge cushion. This time, he finished the job.

MVP
Not surprisingly, Gibson won the award after winning Games 5 and 7, even though of the three World Series he would eventually pitch in, this one was his worst. Still, you can't argue with 31 strikeouts in 27 innings. Well, unless you're McCarver. The Cardinals catcher batted .478 in the series with 11 hits and five runs batted in. He even added a steal of home in Game 7. Think of that the next time he says something asinine on a national baseball broadcast.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

New York	5	8	2	3	2	8	5
St. Louis	9	3	1	4	5 (10)	3	7

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

35. 1964 - St. Louis (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
36. 2003 - Florida (N) def. New York (A) 4-2
37. 1977 - New York (A) def. Los Angeles (N) 4-2
38. 1996 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-2
39. 1921 - New York (N) def. New York (A) 5-3
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5

31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0

1953 World Series: Same Old Story

The Teams

American League: New York Yankees (99-52) - 20th World Series (won 16 previous times) 
National League: Brooklyn Dodgers (105-49) - Seventh World Series

What Happened
Dodgers vs. Yankees. Yankees vs. Dodgers. It seemed like every year - or at least every other year - the World Series was the Yankees against the Dodgers. And every year, it was the Yankees beating the Dodgers.

This year, though, was supposed to be different. After all the years of predictability, 1953 was supposed to be the Dodgers' year. For the first time, they were clearly the better team. They won a franchise record 105 games, led the league in virtually every offensive category, and won the pennant by 13 games. For long-suffering Dodger fans, 1953 was supposed to finally be "next year."

But it wasn't next year. It was the same story as it was in 1952, 1949, 1947 and 1941. The Yankees were just too good. Because while Brooklyn may have had the best offense in baseball, their pitchers were no more than good enough, and good enough usually didn't cut it in the World Series. And if the Dodgers had forgotten that key fact, the Yankees quickly reminded them; Billy Martin's three-run triple was the key hit of a four-run in the first inning of the first game. Brooklyn fought back to tie the game, but the Yankees scored four runs in the final two innings to win the first game.

The Yankees won the next one, too, coming from behind again. Martin tied the game with a home run in the 7th, and Mickey Mantle won it with a blast in the 8th. The Dodgers had entered the series with so much optimism, but that was all shattered after the first two games. It was just two games, but it was the same old story. Even though the Dodgers won the next two games - Game 3 on an 8th inning home run by Roy Campanella, Game 4 in much easier fashion - the optimism, the hope was gone.

Game 5 was the one that turned things, as the Yankees smashed four home runs to become the first team to win a road game in the series. After breaking serve, there was no doubt they'd win the series in Yankee Stadium, and though the Dodgers made things close, Martin's one-out single in the bottom of the ninth sent Hank Bauer around third for the game- and series-winning run.

Defining Game
One game away from their annual destruction of all of Brooklyn's hopes and dreams, the Yankees took a 3-0 lead after two innings of Game 6, a lead that would have been much bigger if not for them leaving the bases loaded both innings. It was 3-1 entering the ninth when the Dodgers finally woke up, with Carl Furillo hitting a two-run home run to tie the game. After reliever Clem Labine struck out to end the inning, the Yankees quickly went to work. With one out, Martin came up with runners on the corners and ended the series with a single.

MVP
Martin dominated the series from the first inning to the last, hitting .500 with a series-high 8 runs batted in. He had two triples and two home runs, and seemed to do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.
 
Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Brooklyn	5	2	3	7	7	3
New York	9	4	2	3	11	4

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

40. 1953 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-2
41. 1941 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-2
42. 1958 - New York (A) def. Milwaukee (N) 4-3
43. 1959 - Los Angeles (N) def. Chicago (A) 4-2
44. 2008 - Philadelphia (N) def. Tampa Bay (A) 4-1
45. 1933 - New York (N) def. Washington (A) 4-1
46. 1929 - Philadelphia (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-1
47. 1982 - St. Louis (N) def. Milwaukee (A) 4-3
48. 1923 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-2
49. 1944 - St. Louis (N) def. St. Louis (A) 4-2

Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1961 World Series: One for the role players

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (109-53) - 26th World Series (won 18 previous times)
National League: Cincinnati Reds (93-61) - Fourth World Series (won in 1919, 1940)

What Happened
The 1961 regular season was all about the M&M boys. Two Yankees outfielders chased Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs, with Roger Maris catching and passing Ruth and Mickey Mantle falling just short.

Once the regular season was over, though, those two stopped being the focus of the Yankees. Mantle was injured and could only play in two games in the '61 World Series, and while Maris played the whole series, he was a non-factor with only two hits. Instead, the Yankees had to rely on their role players. Luckily for them, they had plenty of good ones, as would be expected for a 109-win team. Even without a healthy Mantle or an effective Maris, the Yankees were still better than the Reds.

A big reason for that was Whitey Ford. The 1961 season was the best of Ford's career, as he went a sublime 25-4, and he carried that momentum into the World Series with a two-hit shutout in Game 1. The Yankees gave away Game 2 with three errors that led to three unearned runs for Cincinnati. Game 3 featured Maris' only significant contribution to the narrative of the series, as his go-ahead home run in the ninth inning gave New York a 2-1 series lead.

Entering Game 4, Cincinnati had every reason to be optimistic. Sure, they were losing the series, but they had held the Yankees to just seven runs in the first three games; in fact, they had outscored them. They had every reason to believe they could hang with New York. But then they ran into Ford in Game 4. Though Ford only threw five innings, they were five more shutout innings. Reliever Jim Coates finished the shutout, and the Yankees bats came alive for 7 runs.

With the Yankees a win away from the championship, Game 5 turned early. With two outs in the first, Bobby Richardson was picked off first base, only to be safe when Gordy Coleman dropped the ball. Given a reprieve, the Yankees exploded for five runs in the first. Another five run inning in the third put the World Series to bed. A year after dominating the World Series but losing, the Yankees again dominated the World Series, but this time finished the job.

Defining Game
Game 3 was by far the best game of the series. The Reds took a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning, only to see that lead disappear on a two-out pinch-hit home run by Yankees backup catcher Johnny Blanchard. Maris then led off the ninth with his only extra-base hit of the series, a blast to deep right that gave the Yankees the lead. The Reds got a one-out double from Leo Cardenas in the bottom of the ninth but couldn't bring him home.

MVP
Ford was named MVP for his 14 shutout innings, but it just as easily could have been Richardson - who had nine hits, though all but one were singles - or Blanchard - who batted .400 with three extra-base hits.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Cincinnati	0	6	2	0	5
New York	2	2	3	7	13

---

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

89. 1961 - New York (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-1
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107