1947 World Series: Lavagetto's Double

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (97-57) - 15th World Series (Won 10 previous times)
National League: Brooklyn Dodgers (94-60) - Fourth World Series

What Happened
Floyd "Bill" Bevens was drafted by the New York Yankees in 1937, at 20 years old. Despite throwing two no-hitters in the minor leagues, he wasn't able to pitch sufficiently well enough to warrant additional attention from the big league club. It took Bevens until 1944 to earn a call up to the big leagues, and that likely happened only because most of baseball's stars were fighting in World War II. Teams needed bodies wherever they could find them, so players like Bevens were given a shot they otherwise might not have gotten.

Bevens started out his professional career surprisingly well. He wasn't the best pitcher on the Yankees, but he did well enough to stay in the rotation even when the regulars started trickling back from Europe and the Pacific. His secret to staying in the majors was the reduction of the walks that so hurt him throughout his minor league career.

It all started to fall apart in 1947, though. His walk rate shot up, he started to give up more hits, and he started losing more games. While he had a winning record each of his first three seasons, he fell to 7-13 in 1947. He had the worst numbers of the six pitchers who started for the Yankees that year; in fact, he was the only Yankee pitcher with a losing record, regardless of the number of games played.

Yet Bevens took the ball for Game 4 of the series, with the Yankees up 2-1 but reeling a little bit after losing Game 3 in Brooklyn. And Bevens looked bad, walking a Dodger batter in almost every inning, throwing one wild pitch and a couple other close calls, and generally looking like he had no control of the strike zone. And yet, he was still on the mound to start the bottom of the ninth, holding on to a precarious 2-1 lead, three outs away from the first no-hitter in World Series history.

Bruce Edwards led off the bottom of the ninth with a deep fly ball to left. Ebbets Field didn't have a lot of room in the outfield, but it had enough on this hit. Johnny Lindell closed his glove on it. One down. Bevens then walked Carl Furillo, his ninth walk of the game. They tying run was now on first. Spider Jorgensen was next, and he fouled out to first, which was tough to do since Ebbets Field had about as much foul territory as your average closet. Two down.

Brooklyn went to the bench, as Pete Reiser pinch-hit for the pitcher and Al Gionfriddo pinch-ran for Furillo. Right away, Gionfriddo was off, steal second to put the tying run on second. Then Yankee manager Bucky Harris broke the golden rule in baseball: he put the winning run on base, ordering Reiser intentionally walked to set up the force play. While it went against all conventional wisdom, it was a little bit understandable. Bevens hadn't given up a hit, after all. So the winning run was on first, and there were two outs, and Cookie Lavagetto came up to pinch hit.

Harry "Cookie" Lavagetto made his major league debut as a 21-year-old second baseman for the Pirates in 1934. After three years as a backup, he moved over to Brooklyn, switched to third base, and became a perennial all-star. He played for the Dodgers in the 1941 World Series, but played poorly, batting .100 while the Dodgers went down in 5. Then, in the prime of his career, he was gone, one of the hundreds of Major Leaguers to fight in the war. By the time he came back in 1946, he was done. He was once again a part-time player, a guy playing out the string. Lavagetto had a couple of hitless at bats in Game 1, so he stepped up to the plate 1-for-12 in his World Series career. Bevens threw a first pitch, a strike. He got ready to throw the second pitch...

There were five future hall-of-famers, and a handful of other all stars, playing in the 1947 World Series. The most prominent of them was Jackie Robinson, who capped off his historic rookie season by becoming the first black man to play in a World Series. But he had no part in the next pitch, Bevens' 137th of the night, one of the most memorable pitches in baseball history. None of the Hall of Famers did. Instead, it was a pitcher and a hitter, both nearing the end of their careers, hanging on for one more moment of glory, wondering how they got picked by the baseball gods to be here in this moment.

Bevens threw the 0-1 pitch, and Lavagetto swung. He made solid contact, sending a liner toward the wall in right. It caromed off the wall, Brooklyn's first hit of the game, and Gionfriddo came around to score. As Tommy Henrich bobbled the ball coming off the wall, Reiser came flying around third to score the winning run. Bevens had been one out from immortality, but instead walked off the mound a 3-2 loser.

It was a truly remarkable game, a sublime moment, but baseball didn't have time to reflect. There was still a World Series to finish. And Bevens and Lavagetto stepped away from the spotlight and let the rest of the players to their jobs. Lavagetto would get four more at bats in the series, including another chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth the very next day (he struck out; fate had a sense of humor, but it wasn't insane). Bevens pitched in relief in Game 7 and would have earned the win under today's rules. As it was, though, he was credited with a no-decision.

And that was it. When the 1947 World Series ended, and the Yankees were crowned champions again, Bevens and Lavagetto took their final bows. Bevens never pitched in the majors after 1947, bouncing around the minor leagues for five years, including the Pacific Coast League before hanging them up. Lavagetto's game-winning hit in Game 4 was the final hit of his major league career. He, too, spent time in the Pacific Coast League, playing for his hometown Oakland team.

Perhaps Lavagetto faced Bevens in some long-forgotten minor league game during that span. It would have been something to see, just two old players trying to hang on to something, serving as a reminder of fleeting and fickle fame can be. As it was, they'll always be remembered, the unlikely stars of one of baseball's greatest moments.

MVP
They didn't pick MVPs back then, and a quick glance doesn't reveal an obvious star. I guess it'd be Lindell, the Yankee left fielder, who batted .500 with four extra base hits and a team-high seven runs batted in. It doesn't matter. All that mattered was Game 4, a game won by the team that ended up losing the series.
 
Scores 
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Brooklyn	3	3	9	3	1	8	2
New York	5	10	8	2	2	6	5

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

8. 1947 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
9. 1972 - Oakland (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-3
Numbers 10-19
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
10. 1926: St. Louis (N) 3, New York (A) 2
11. 1962: New York (A) 1, San Francisco 0
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
17. 1972: Oakland 3, Cincinnati 2
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
20. 1986: New York (N) 8, Boston 5 
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
25. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
26. 1947: New York (A) 5, Brooklyn 2
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

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

1941 World Series: Strike Three

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (101-53) - 12th World Series (won in 1923, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939)
National League: Brooklyn Dodgers (100-54) - Third World Series

What Happened
At the start of the 1941 World Series, New York City was buzzing about the matchup between the Yankees and the Dodgers. Usually, when it was an inter-city matchup, it was the Giants trying to conquer the mighty Yankees, so the Dodgers were excited to finally have their chance at them. It was a novel matchup at the time, but the Yankees-Dodgers matchup would eventually become commonplace, as 1941 was the first of what would be seven Yankees-Dodgers World Series to be held while the Dodgers were in Brooklyn.

It's also the only one of those series remembered for a single pitch.

There were plenty of tense moments in the 1941 series, many games that could have turned on a single pitch. The first three were all one-run games, each featuring game-winning runs scored in the sixth inning or later. All three winning starters threw complete games, and all three had to deal with at least one tense inning late in the game. Game 5, the game where the Yankees clinched, was the only one without any late-inning drama, and even that one was only a two-run game.

And yet none of it mattered, forgotten to history. because of one stunning, jaw-dropping inning. Because of one rule that rarely comes into play, because of one pitcher's pitch that was, somehow, too good, the ninth inning of Game 4 became one of the greatest innings in World Series history.

Defining Game
Game 4 had been much like the previous three. With the Yankees up 3-0 in the 4th, Brooklyn pinch-hitter Jimmy Wasdell hit a two-out, two run double to cut the deficit. One inning later, Pete Reiser hit a two-run home run to give Brooklyn the lead, and they held that lead into the 9th inning.

On the mound was Hugh Casey, who had come into the game to get out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the 5th. Now that Brooklyn was ahead, Casey was in line for the win, needing only to get through the 9th unscathed. The first two Yankees to bat in the ninth grounded out harmlessly. Casey then got two strikes on Tommy Henrich. With his team one strike from tying the series, Casey decided to put a little bit extra on this next curveball (whether literally or figuratively is up for debate). Casey threw, and Henrich started to swing, only to watch in horror as the ball dropped several feet and out of the strike zone. Henrich tried to check his swing, but failed. Strike three. Game over.

Except Mickey Owen didn't catch the ball. And as Owen futilely chased the ball toward the backstop, Henrich ran to first base safely, taking advantage of baseball's Rule 6.09(b), stating that The batter becomes a runner when the third strike called by the umpire is not caught, providing (1) first base is unoccupied, or (2) first base is occupied with two out. Henrich was safe. The game was still alive.

It doesn't take much more than an intermediate knowledge of baseball history to know what happened next. There's a reason the Yankees always won the World Series, while it seemed like the Dodgers always lost. When given any break, any second chance, the Yankees killed you. And that's what happened next.

With the Dodgers still one out from tying the series, Joe DiMaggio singled, sending Henrich to third. Then Charlie Keller doubled, scoring Henrich and DiMaggio and giving the Yankees the lead. Quick, ruthless, devastating. And it wasn't done, because after a walk to Bill Dickey, Joe Gordon hit another double, again scoring two runs. Just four batters earlier, the Dodgers thought they had a game-ending and series-tying strikeout. Now, they were trailing 7-4. Needless to say, they lost the game that day, and they lost the series the next. And Mickey Owen is now forever known for a ball he didn't catch.






MVP 
In a fantasy world, the MVP could have been fate, or the muse, or whatever ancient creature or diety smiled on the Yankees so many years ago to make sure they got all the big breaks. But the 1941 World Series was played in reality, as unrealistic as it seemed, so the MVP was Joe Gordon. A .500 batting average, a team-high five runs batted in, one of only three home runs hit in the series, and - of course - the back-breaking game-winning hit in Game 4. He was the MVP by far, even if it wasn't yet an official award.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Brooklyn	2	3	1	4	1
New York	3	2	2	7	3

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

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

1916 World Series: Ruth for 14

The Teams
American League: Boston Red Sox (91-63) - Third World Series (won in 1903, 1912)
National League: Brooklyn Robins (94-60) - First World Series

What Happened
Bases loaded, top of the ninth, two out. Brooklyn first baseman Jake Daubert stepped to the plate, hoping to continue the Robins' improbable rally. Trailing 6-1 entering the ninth inning of Game 1, the Robins loaded the bases with one out. Their comeback seemed thwarted when Mike Mowrey hit a tailor-made double play ball, but Boston's Hal Javrin booted it, allowing a run to score and keeping the game alive. What happened next wasn't pretty, but after two infield singles, an infield popup, and a walk, the Robins had cut the lead to 1. That's when Daubert stepped up to the plate. He hit the ball up the middle, seeming destined for the outfield, but Boston shortstop Everett Scott cut it off, stopped, and fired to first, getting Daubert by a half-step. Boston had survived.

It's rare that the decisive play in a playoff series comes in the first game, but many people believe that's exactly what happened in the 1916 World Series. Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson - after whom the team was named - said for years afterwards that he felt that if Brooklyn had won that first game, they would have won the series.

It's not like they didn't have their chances, though. After losing a 14-inning classic in Game 2, the Robins won the first World Series game played in Ebbets Field to cut the deficit to 2-1, and they led 2-0 after the first inning of Game 4.  But then Boston's Larry Gardner hit a three-run, inside-the-park home run to give the Red Sox the lead, and they pulled away from there, winning that game and Game 5 to win their second consecutive championship.

Would the series have turned out differently if Daubert's ninth-inning hit had snuck through? It's possible, sure, but not likely. Even though they split the next two games, the Robins pitchers started to tire as the series dragged along. Boston didn't exactly have a powerful lineup, especially after trading away legendary center fielder Tris Speaker over the winter, but they had won two championships in the previous four seasons. They wouldn't have blinked at a 2-1 series deficit, and they had plenty of pitchers to keep trotting out there, while the Robins quickly ran out.

Either way Scott's great play to end Game 1 was a turning point. One that went a long way toward making sure the Red Sox repeated as champs.

Defining Game
Game 1 might have had the biggest play of the series, but Game 2 was the most stunning. Brooklyn centerfielder Hy Myers hit an inside-the-park home run to give the Robins a 1-0 first-inning lead, but then Boston pitcher Babe Ruth - who led the American League with nine shutouts during the season - shut them down from there. Ruth drove in the run that tied the game in the bottom of the third, then kept throwing up zeroes. Not to be outdone, Brooklyn pitcher Sherry Smith matched Ruth zero for zero, inning after inning. Brooklyn's only threat came in the 8th, as they put runners on the corners with one out. Mowrey was caught in a rundown between home and third after a grounder for out number two, and Ruth got out of it from there. In the bottom of the ninth, Myers cut down Javrin trying to score the game-winning run on a not-deep-enough fly ball, and the teams went into extra innings.

As the zeroes piled up, it was clear that both pitchers were tiring, but they didn't come any closer to giving anything up. In fact, Ruth was so tired that when he came up with the winning run on first with two out in the bottom of the 12th, he couldn't even consider swinging. He bunted weakly to Smith, then kept right on pitching. Finally, the Red Sox ended the drama on Del Gainer's rbi single in the bottom of the 14th. Gainer's hit was rightly overshadowed, though, by Ruth's performance. He went the final 13 innings without giving up a run, pitching well past the point of exhaustion. That streak was the start of something else, too. Though he didn't pitch the rest of that series, Ruth pitched two twice in the 1918 World Series and eventually extended his scoreless-innings streak to 29 1/3 innings, a record that would stand until 1961.



MVP

Three choices here, each with their plusses and minues. Ruth, obviously, is a choice for his 14-inning masterpiece, but he only pitched in one game in the series. Fellow pitcher Ernie Shore is also a choice - two starts, two wins, a 1.53 ERA. But, he was on the mound when Brooklyn began their near-series turning comeback in Game 1. Duffy Lewis was the best hitter in the series - a .353 average, two doubles and a triple - but his hits didn't mean much; his only rbi drove in the first run of the series, and his biggest plate appearance was his sacrifice bunt in the 14th inning of Game 2.

I'll go with Shore. The Robins' ninth-inning rally included two infield singles and an error on a double play ball. Hardly his fault, and he was brilliant the rest of the time.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Brooklyn	5	1	4	2	1
Boston	6	2 (14)	3	6	4

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

53. 1916 - Boston (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-1 
54. 1949 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-1
55. 1942 - St. Louis (N) def. New York (A) 4-1
56. 1974 - Oakland (A) def. Los Angeles (N) 4-1
57. 1955 - Brooklyn (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
58. 1979 - Pittsburgh (N) def. Baltimore (A) 4-3
59. 1987 - Minnesota (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-3
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1949 World Series: Casey and Allie

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (97-57) - 16th World Series (Won 11 previous times)
National League: Brooklyn Dodgers (97-57) - Fifth World Series

What Happened
After a third-place finish in 1948 - their fourth such finish in five years - the Yankees decided a change was needed. Looking for a new manager, they went with the unlikely choice of Casey Stengel. After a playing career with the Giants where he was better known for his clowning than his playing, Stengel had a less-than-stellar managerial record. In fact, he wasn't even in the Majors in 1948. But the Yankees liked what they saw, as Stengel steered an injury-riddled team to within a breath of the pennant in 1949. With a pair of wins over Boston in the final weekend of the season, the Yankess were back in the World Series, where they believed they belonged all along.

The pitching dominated the first two and a half games of the series, with the teams splitting a pair of 1-0 games. New York's Allie Reynolds matched Brooklyn's Don Newcombe pitch-for-pitch in Game 1, and the game was still scoreless when Tommy Henrich led off the bottom of the ninth with a home run. In Game 2, Jackie Robinson's second-inning run - coming after he had razzled Yankee starter Vic Raschi with his dancing on the basepaths - was enough for Preacher Roe to get the shutout for Brooklyn.

Game 3 was tied 1-1 as the teams entered the ninth inning in Ebbets Field. Ralph Branca was one strike away from getting out of the ninth unscathed before the Yankees' Johnny Mize lined one off the right field wall to score two runs. The Yankees added one more run, then held their collective breath as the Dodgers homered twice in the bottom of the ninth before falling one run short.

Having gotten a road win to reclaim home-field advantage, the Yankees went into Game 4 hoping to put the Dodgers away for good. Brooklyn tried to counteract that by bringing back Newcombe to pitch on short rest. That turned out disastrous, as the Yankees knocked the Dodger ace out of the game with a three-run fourth inning. A three-run fifth seemed to put the game away, but the Dodgers still had fight. Seven straight hits in the bottom of the sixth cut the lead to 6-4. Brooklyn still had two runners on when Game 1 starter Reynolds came in to relieve for the Yankees. Reynolds struck out Spider Jorgensen, then ended the game with three perfect innings. After going up 3-1, the fifth game was just a formality, as the Yankees took a 10-1 lead to cruise to another title.

It was the first title for Stengel, in his first season, and it was only the beginning. The Yankees would win the next four World Series and won a total of seven with Stengel at the helm. And to think people thought they were crazy for hiring him.

Defining Game
Game 3 was tight throughout mostly because of the great pitching of Yankee reliever Joe Page. Entering the game with the bases loaded in the fourth, with the Dodgers having already scored once, Page got two straight infield outs to get out of that inning, then held the Dodgers down the rest of the way - or, at least until he had a three-run lead in the ninth. Then, tiring, he gave up two solo home runs before striking out Bruce Edwards to end the game.

MVP
Allie Reynolds, and it wasn't close. After giving up only two hits to the powerful Dodger lineup in Game 1, his great relief work in Game 4 sealed the series. In his 12 innings in the series - more than a quarter of the innings the Yankees pitched in the series - he gave up only two hits and didn't give up a run.

Scores(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Brooklyn	0	1	3	4	6
New York	1	0	4	6	10

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:
52. 1949 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-1
53. 1942 - St. Louis (N) def. New York (A) 4-1
56. 1974 - Oakland (A) def. Los Angeles (N) 4-1
57. 1955 - Brooklyn (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
58. 1979 - Pittsburgh (N) def. Baltimore (A) 4-3
59. 1987 - Minnesota (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-3
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1955 World Series: Finally

The Teams
National League: Brooklyn Dodgers (98-55) - Ninth World Series
American League: New York Yankees (96-58) - 21st World Series (Won 16 previous times) 

What Happened
The story of the 1955 World Series started with the 1941 World Series. That was the first time the Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series. That year started a pattern. Six times, the Dodgers topped the National League, and six times, they lost to the Yankees in the World Series. No matter how good the Dodgers were, no matter how ho-hum the Yankees were, the Yankees were always better when it counted.

There were other losses, of course. Losing the pennant to Philadelphia on the final day of the 1950 season. Losing to the Giants in the 1951 playoff. But the narrative always came back to Dodgers vs. Yankees. And the story always ended the same.

There wasn't much reason to believe that 1955 would be the proverbial Next Year for Brooklyn. That was supposed to be 1953, when the Dodgers tore through the National League, putting together one of the best seasons in that league's history. And still, they lost. In 1955, they were a little bit older, a little less skilled than they had been. Time was running out.

Robinson steals home in Game 1,
perhaps the defining moment of his career.

The series didn't start well for Brooklyn. Five home runs were hit in Game 1 - three by the Yankees. Jackie Robinson, the aging pride of the Dodgers, stole home with two outs in the eighth Game 1 and the Dodgers down 2, but it wasn't enough, as the Dodgers fell by 1. In Game 2, the Yankees got 5 singles in the fourth inning, giving them all four runs they needed to take a 2-0 lead to Brooklyn.

In the friendly confines of Ebbets Field, the Dodgers' mighty bats woke up. The Dodgers scored 8 runs in both games 3 and 4, with Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, and Duke Snider all homering in Game 4. Snider hit two more bombs in Game 5, and Brooklyn took a 3-2 series lead back across the East River. They were one win away from finally breaking through. But the Dodgers were always one win away when it came to playing the Yankees. Whitey Ford made sure they had to wait, getting five first-inning runs to cruise to a complete-game Game 6 win.

So decades of frustration, six years of heartache against the Yankees, all came down to one game, played in historic Yankee Stadium, with a 22-year-old starter who had gone 9-10 during the regular season the man tasked with giving the Dodgers a championship. Here's the ball, Johnny Podres. Go win us a World Series.

And so he did.

Amoros makes the catch in Game 7.

Hodges got single runs batted in in the 4th and 6th innings, and Podres was cruising through five. In the sixth, the Dodgers started preparing for the end game, putting Sandy Amoros into the game for his defense, two batters later, there were two men on and nobody out when Yogi Berra sliced a ball deep to the left field corner. Amoros ran, and ran, and ran. And he caught it, the kind of catch that the Dodgers never used to make, the kind of catch that can win you a championship. Plus, he got the ball back in the infield in time to turn the double play.

The Yankees still had three more innings to try to catch up, and they mounted some threats, but the game was over after Amoros' catch. He had single-handedly saved Brooklyn. In the end, when the game was over and Brooklyn was finally World Champions, the heroes weren't one of the famous Boys of Summer, like Robinson or Snider or Hodges or Campanella or Reese. No, they were Amoros and Podres.

Defining Game
I have Game 7 ranked as the 13th best  Game 7 of all time. Try telling a Brooklyn fan it's anything but number 1. I've written about it before; see that post here. 

MVP
Snider could have been named MVP for his series-high four home runs and seven runs batted in. But the first official World Series MVP award was given to Podres, the 22-year-old kid who stared decades of disappointment in the face and laughed.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Brooklyn	5	2	8	8	5	1	2
New York	6	4	3	5	3	5	0

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

57. 1955 - Brooklyn (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
58. 1979 - Pittsburgh (N) def. Baltimore (A) 4-3
59. 1987 - Minnesota (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-3
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 0
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis 4, Philadelphia 2
29. 1965: Los Angeles 2, Minnesota 0 
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0

1920 World Series: Two pitches, four runs, three outs

The Teams
American League: Cleveland Indians (98-56) - First World Series
National League: Brooklyn Robins (93-61) - Second World Series

What Happened
The Indians entered the 1920 World Series with heavy hearts. In late August, their starting shortstop, Ray Chapman, died after being hit by a pitch in a game. The loss devastated the Indians, for obvious reasons. They eventually replaced Chapman with 21-year-old Joe Sewell, who made his Major League debut that September. Lucky for Cleveland, Sewell was playing the first games of what would turn into a Hall of Fame career, and putting him in the middle of a lineup that already featured living legend Tris Speaker gave them the spark they needed to eke out their first American League pennant.

The World Series had a different flavor to it in 1920 with first-timer Cleveland playing the Brooklyn Robins. It was the first series since 1907 where neither team had won the title previously, so having somebody new to root for must have felt refreshing for fans still reeling from the fixed series of the year before.

What they got was a lot of low scoring games. In the final season before the juiced ball entered the league to capitalize on the popularity of the home run, many of the series games were over early. Brooklyn won two of the first three games in Ebbets Field, and all three games were won by starters throwing complete games backed up by just a couple early runs. No drama. When the series moved to Cleveland, the offense picked up a little bit, with the Indians getting five runs to back up Stan Coveleski's complete game to tie the series.

Then came Game 5, one of the most fascinating games in World Series history. If you look only at the score - Cleveland 8, Brooklyn 1 - you'd think it was the least exciting game the series. But look again. In the first inning, Cleveland's Elmer Smith hit the first grand slam in World Series history. Given the way the series had been going, it seemed like the game was already over. That was especially true when pitcher Jim Bagby added a three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth. Brooklyn started a rally in the top of the fifth, getting the first two guys on base. Then, Brooklyn pitcher Clarence Mitchell hit a soft line drive up the middle that Cleveland second baseman Bill Wambsganss caught near the bag. After touching second and tagging a very surprised Otto Miller running from first, Wambsganss had completed the first unassisted triple play in World Series history. So because of two pitches - Smith's grand slam and Mitchell's soft line drive - Game 5 went down in World Series lore.

It also turned the series. Brooklyn salvaged one run late in Game 5, but then they were done scoring for the series. The clincher was won by Coveleski, finishing his third complete game of the series. In fact, the winning pitcher in all seven games threw a complete game.

Defining Game
Game 5. A grand slam and an unassisted triple play in the same game. Yah, I think that's the one.

MVP
Coveleski. Three complete games, three victories, two runs allowed. Easy choice.

Random Fact

The first four World Series all featured two teams that had never won the series before. After a long break, the 1920 one was the fifth such series. There wouldn't be another one until 1980.

Scores:
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Cleveland	3	0	1	5	8	1	3
Brooklyn	1	3	2	1	1	0	0

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

75. 1920 - Cleveland (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 5-2
76. 1945 -  Detroit (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-3
77. 1940 - Cincinnati (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-3
78. 2009 - New York (A) def. Philadelphia (N) 4-2
79. 1984 - Detroit (A) def. San Diego (N) 4-1
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. This one doesn't count, though, because although it had a seventh game, it didn't have a Game 7 as we know it, in which the entire season has come down to one game. So it doesn't get on this list.

The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
29. 1965: Los Angeles 2, Minnesota 0 
45. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago 3

1951 National League: The Shot

Pregame
What if Hank Thompson hadn't struggled in 1951? That was one of the biggest disappointments for the New York Giants in the early part of that season. After watching their third baseman Thompson struggle offensive early in the year, the Giants moved outfielder Bobby Thomson in to the hot corner for the first time since his rookie year, opening the door for the Giants to field youngsters Don Mueller and Willie Mays in the outfield along with veteran Monte Irvin. Things would have been so different if Thompson had just hit.

What if the Giants didn't have so many home games in a row in August and September? Really, it shouldn't have mattered. Entering play on August 12 with a 13-game lead over the second place Giants, the Dodgers should have been able to cruise to the National League pennant that year. And they did cruise down the stretch, ending the year with a 27-24 record that should have been good enough. But then there was the matter of the Giants stretch of home games. Starting with a double header on the 12th, the Giants ripped off a 16-game winning streak, with all but three of the wins coming at the Polo Grounds. Still, though, they had some work to do, entering play on September 22 down by 3 games. Unfazed, they won 7 games in a row to close out the season to put the pressure on the Dodgers.

What if the Giants hadn't put that pressure on the Dodgers? Then maybe Dodgers ace Don Newcombe wouldn't have had to throw a complete-game in his September 29 shutout of the Phillies that kept the Dodgers in a tie. Then maybe they wouldn't have needed to go to Newcombe again the next day, summoning him from the bullpen in the 8th inning in a tie game, a one-inning stint that turned into four as the Phillies and Dodgers played deep into the fading light.

What if Jackie Robinson hadn't been, well Jackie Robinson? After all, it was his overall brilliance that won that deciding game for the Dodgers. His triple in the fifth helped jump-start a rally from 6-1 down; his brilliant catch of a bases-loaded line drive saved Newcombe and the Dodgers in the bottom of the 12th; and his home run leading off the 14th won the game and set up the most famous three games in National League history.

Well, check that. The most famous single game. See, for all the excitement and fame of the pennant race and the ultimate final game, the first two games of the Giants-Dodgers playoff have become largely forgotten. In Game 1, New York's Jim Hearn outdueled Brooklyn's Ralph Branca and the Giants won 3-1 behind a home run by Thomson. The Dodger bats responded in Game 2, with Clem Labine throwing a shutout and the Dodgers winning 10-0.

Game 3 was back in the Polo Grounds because the Dodgers, despite winning the coin toss, chose to play two games on the road. Why? Who knows. But the Dodgers had Newcombe on the mound, and regardless of the stadium and his fatigue down the stretch, they felt like they could win with him. The Giants responded with 23-game winner Sal "The Barber" Maglie.

The Game
With their aces on the mound, both teams must have felt like one run would win the pennant. For the Dodgers, that one run came early, thanks to a first-inning single from Jackie Robinson - who else? - but Brooklyn also left two runners on base that inning. For all Newcombe's brilliance, they knew he was running on fumes after his late-season heroics, so they had to be wondering how safe that lead really was.

But for six innings, it was perfectly safe. Maglie was pitching brilliantly, but Newcombe was even better, and the Dodgers still had their 1-0 lead entering the bottom of the seventh. Finally, then, the Dodgers broke through, as Thomson hit a sacrifice fly to tie game. With the Giants still threatening, Newcombe got the rookie Mays to ground into a double play to end the threat.

Having been sitting on a 1-0 lead for so long, the Dodgers responded immediately to the newly tied game, backing up their ace with a three-run 8th inning. So it was 4-1 entering the bottom of the ninth, and then the questions came up again.

What if Newcombe hadn't been over used down the stretch? Then he wouldn't have told Robinson entering the ninth that he was dog tired. Of course, manager Chuck Dressen left in him anyway. Then Dark led off the ninth with a single. Mueller - who wouldn't have had an open spot in the lineup if Thomson hadn't been able to move so seamlessly into third base - followed with another single. After a pop out, Whitey Lockman singled home Dark, with Mueller going to third and spraining his ankle.

While the trainers were tending to Mueller, Dressen was calling down to the bullpen. Branka and Carl Erskine were both warmed up, but Erskine's final warm-up pitch, a curveball, bounced, so Dressen went with Branca. What if that ball hadn't bounced? What would Erskine have done in this clutch situation? As it was, it was a matchup between Branca and Thomson. And remember, Thomson had homered off Branca in Game 1 of the playoff.

Another question to be asked is what if Dressen had ordered Thomson walked to face the rookie Mays? In retrospect, it seems crazy that it was even a possibility that you would intentionally walk somebody ahead of Willie Mays, but it wasn't then. Thomson was the Giants' best hitter, and Mays was a rookie who had at times struggled with the transition to Major League play. But the old adage went that you don't put the winning run on base, and Thomson represented the winning run, so it was him that was facing Branca. But if it had been Mays? Hoo boy. He is already considered one of the top three players in baseball history. If it had been Mays getting the pennant-clinching hit in this game, maybe that would have been the clinching argument that pushed Mays ahead of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb atop baseball's list of immortals.

But it was Thomson. And as the 1-0 pitch sunk into the left-field bleachers, he started leaping as he ran around the bases. The Dodgers slunk off the field - all of them except Robinson, that is, as he stayed to make sure Thomson touched every base.

Postgame
Thomson leaped onto home plate and got engulfed by his teammates, eventually being carried off the field. It was his moment, and his alone. All the things that had happened that summer, all the little plays or decisions that could have turned out differently had led to this. If anything had happened differently between August 12 and October 3, maybe we wouldn't remember Bobby Thomson at all. Maybe he'd just be a footnote in baseball history. As it is, he'll always be remembered as the author of the Shot Heard 'Round the World, the most famous home run in the greatest game in baseball history.

It's surprising how rarely it's mentioned that the Giants lost the subsequent World Series to the Yankees. It's like it doesn't matter, that the ultimate goal was simply the National League pennant. Maybe in this instance it was.

Mays, who missed his chance at immortality by one spot in the batting order, spent the next two seasons in the military, returning for the 1954 season. That year, he led the Giants to another World Series appearance, and he took advantage of his second chance at immortality that year, making The Catch to help jump-start a four-game sweep.

Thomson was with the Braves by 1954, a season in which instead of making history, he became a footnote to history. When Thomson broke his leg in spring training of 1954, it forced the Braves to call up a young outfield prospect by the name of Henry Aaron.

As for the Dodgers, the 1951 season became simply the most painful of their failures to win the World Series. They were even better in 1952 and 1953, but they couldn't get past the Yankees in the World Series. It took until 1955 for them to finally erase the demons of 1951 and win the World Series

The Rundown
What am I doing? Go here to find out. The list:

1. N.Y. Giants 5, Brooklyn 4 (1951 National League playoff)
2. Minnesota 6, Detroit 5 (2009 AL Central tiebreaker)
3. Seattle 6, N.Y. Yankees 5 (1995 ALDS)
4. Colorado 9, San Diego 8 (2007 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
5. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 4 (1978 AL East tiebreaker)
6. San Francisco 6, Los Angeles 4 (1962 National League playoff)
7. Chicago 1, Minnesota 0 (2008 AL Central tiebreaker)
8. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 3 (1949 American League)
9. Arizona 2, St. Louis 1 (2001 NLDS)
10. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
11. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
12. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
13. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
14. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
15. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
16. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
17. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
18. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
19. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
20. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
21. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
22. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
23. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
24. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
25. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
26. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
27. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
28. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
29. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
30. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 American League tiebreaker)
31. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)

October 8, 1956: Perfect

BRONX, N.Y. - The Boys of Summer were getting a little long in the tooth in 1956. After having finally claimed their elusive World Series in 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers were aging, a team in transition. Jackie Robinson was now a 37-year-old utility player, Roy Campanella struggled to keep his average above .200, and Pee Wee Reese had become merely average. The outfield was still powerful, though, and the pitching was still strong, and the Dodgers were still good enough to top the National League and head back to the World Series.

The Yankees, of course, were still the Yankees, frighteningly efficient and clearly the class of the American League. Led by Mickey Mantle's triple crown and a pitching staff featuring nobody who lost 10 games, New York eased into the World Series hoping to exact revenge for the previous year's loss.

The Yankee were clearly the better team in the '56 series, but Brooklyn had finally figured out how to beat them the previous year and so were given a legitimate chance to beat the Yankees again. The Dodgers' offense took off in the first two games in Ebbets field, scoring 19 runs in the two games to take a 2-0 series lead to the Bronx.

For the pivotal game 5, the Dodgers would send Sal Maglie, their longtime Giants nemesis and now their second-best pitcher. As for the Yankees, their pitcher would be revealed a couple hours before the game. Yankees manager Casey Stengel kept his pitchers on their toes, often not telling them they were pitching until the day of the game. The pitcher would know it was his turn to throw when he arrived at the ballpark and saw a ball in his shoe in his locker.

And so Don Larsen entered the Yankee Stadium clubhouse in the afternoon of October 8 and saw the fateful ball in his spike. He was a bit of a surprising choice, as he had been battered around in game 2, getting knocked out in the second inning. Also, depending on who you believe, he got between one and five hours of sleep the night before and may very well have been hung over. But the ball was his in a game the Yankees needed to win to avoid having to win twice in Brooklyn.

The first three innings flew by, as neither team got a baserunner the first time through the lineup. The closest either team came to a baserunner was when Robinson hit a smash that deflected off third baseman Andy Carey's glove straight to Gil McDougald at short, who just barely threw Robinson out.

Larsen got through the fourth unscathed, and Maglie got the first two outs in the fourth before Mantle put one in the right field seats on a ball that was fair by inches. It didn't seem at the time that Mantle's home run would be too important - just the first run, nothing more. But oh, was it important.

The Dodgers' first big threat came in the top of the fifth, as Gil Hodges hit a one-out pitch to the deepest part of left-center. But Yankee Stadium's left-center gap was the deepest in baseball, and Mantle made a running catch to keep the Dodgers off the bases. Sandy Amoros followed with a deep drive to right that went foul by inches before he grounded out.

New York added another one in the sixth, as Larsen's sacrifice was followed by a Hank Bauer single to make it 2-0. Bauer went to third on a single, but was caught in a rundown for the second half of a double play to end the inning. A 2-0 lead normally wouldn't seem safe against a lineup as potent as the Dodgers', but in order to score twice, you have to get a baserunner first, something they had failed to do through six innings.

By this time, the Yankees dugout had grown silent. Nobody wanted to say anything for fear of jinxing the perfect game. Normally someone who couldn't stop talking or joking around, Larsen at one point turned to Mantle and said "wouldn't it be something if I got this no-hitter?" Mantle hurried away like Larsen had the plague. Larsen was more relaxed, though, even taking a cigarette break during the seventh inning stretch. He felt more comfortable on the mound than in the silent dugout.

Larsen got through the seventh on eight pitches, a ground out and two flyouts. The Yankees put a couple of runners on base in the bottom of the seventh but couldn't score. They probably had other things on their minds. The eighth went through without incident, with Larsen needing only 10 pitches to finish the job then. One inning to go.

The Yankees clearly had other things on their minds in the bottom of the eighth, as Maglie cut them down on three straight strikeouts. Now it was just Larsen and history. The crowd was going crazy. The announcers had been trying to avoid mentioning the no-hitter, hinting at it without actually saying it. And the Yankee players were secretly hoping that Larsen would finish the job with three straight strikeouts.

Carl Furillo's fly ball to right landed safely in Bauer's glove, and Billy Martin had no problem with Campanella's grounder. Two outs. Up stepped Dale Mitchell, pinch-hitting for Maglie and starting what would end up being the final plate appearance of his career. Larsen's first pitch was a ball, then two strikes. Mitchell fouled off the first two-strike pitch, and Larsen threw his 97th pitch of the game. It looked a little high, perhaps outside. Mitchell checked his swing, but umpire Babe Pinelli, calling the last game of his career, raised his fist.

Yankee Stadium erupted. Larsen ran off the mound toward the dugout, only to be intercepted by a jubilant Yogi Berra leaping into his arms. The rest of the Yankees surrounded their pitcher, followed by swarms of fans. The first postseason no-hitter, and it was a perfect game to boot.

The Dodgers offense, in shambles after Larsen's perfect game, disappeared for the rest of the series. They managed to win game 6 with a 1-0, 10-inning victory, before getting blown away in game 7 in the final World Series game ever played in Brooklyn. Robinson retired after the season rather than accept a trade to the Giants, and the Dodgers were playing in Los Angeles by 1958.

Larsen pitched until 1967, bouncing around a lot and never matching the 11 wins he got in 1956. He did win another World Series game, taking game 4 of the 1962 series in relief, beating the Yankees while playing for the Giants. He finished with a losing record for his career, and would likely be forgotten if not for his one magical day.

After his retirement, Larsen stayed in the limelight because of his perfect game. After Berra's feud with Yankee management ended in 1999, Larsen was invited back for Yogi Berra Day in New York. That day, with Larsen in attendance, David Cone threw a perfect game for the Yankees. It was the first baseball game Larsen had watched from start to finish since his retirement.

October 5, 1941: Owen drops the ball

BROOKLYN - Hugh Casey knew the Dodgers needed this out. With two outs in the ninth, leading 4-3, Brooklyn was one out away from tying the World Series at 2 games apiece. They had stolen homefield advantage in game 2 by winning in the Bronx, but the Yankees had taken it right back in game 3. A win here, and the series would become a best-of-three.

At the plate stood Tommy Henrich, who had been having a terrible series so far, batting .133. Behind him in the order waited Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Keller, Bill Dickey, and Joe Gordon, all of them all stars, three of the hall-of-famers. Casey really needed to get Henrich.

Casey, Brooklyn's ace reliever, was the fourth Brooklyn pitcher of the day, having come in to extinguish a rally in the fifth. In four innings of work, he had given up only two hits with no walks, all without the benefit of a strikeout. In that time, the Dodgers had scored four unanswered runs to take a 4-3 lead.

Casey got two quick strikes on Henrich. Then, fate intervened. Perhaps at this point Casey was tired after throwing four innings of relief, so he felt like he needed a little extra on the ball, or perhaps he knew how important this out was to Brooklyn, so he wanted to give himself whatever edge he could. Whatever the reason, he threw a sinker that broke far more than any other sinker he threw that day, and Henrich swung over the top of it for strike three.

And Mickey Owen dropped the ball.

Defenders of Owen say that the ball Casey threw was almost certainly wet, an illegal spitball, and that was the reason Owen couldn't hang onto it. Others say Owen had a habit of lazily backhanding pitches in the dirt, and this time that laziness cost his team. Either way, Owen dropped the ball, it rolled away, and Henrich was on first base.

That didn't have to be the turning point of the game. Casey could have easily gotten out of the inning with just a ground ball, and Owen's drop would have been forgotten. But these were the Yankees, the team that never died, with the heart of their lineup coming up. And Casey had thrown four tense, brilliant innings. He might have been exhausted. Or, he might have been deflated from having what should have been the final out reach base. Either way, everything fell apart for the Dodgers.

DiMaggio singled, sending Henrich to second. Still not much to worry about - there were three force plays available to end the game. But then Keller cleared the bases with a double, and the Yankees had the lead. And they weren't done, as Dickey reached on a walk, followed by another double by Gordon. In a flash, a 4-3 Dodger win had turned into a 7-4 Yankee lead.

The Dodgers went down quietly in the ninth, and really, who can blame them? It was about as deflating a ninth inning as anybody had ever had. The series was virtually over at that point, though the official nail in the coffin didn't come until game 5 the next day.

October 4, 1955: Next Year

BRONX, N.Y. - Johnny Podres was an unlikely candidate to be a hero. Only 22 years old, he went 9-10 in the 1955 season as the Dodgers No. 3 starter. But he had won Game 3 of the '55 series, an absolute must-win as Brooklyn was already down 2 games to 0. So he had handled pressure well earlier in the week. But this was an entirely different kind of pressure.

After seven straight World Series losses, the losing can start to wear on you. After so many heartbreaking losses, the refrain of "wait 'til next year" starts to sound a bit hollow. It'd be one thing if those losses had been to different teams in different eras, but the last five losses had all been to the Yankees. The Damn Yankees. Why should this year be any different?

If Podres was feeling any pressure, it didn't show in his performance early. The first two innings went by without incident. Trouble came in the third, though. With two outs, Rizzuto walked and Martin singled, with the heart of the order coming up. Even with Mantle injured, it was still a dangerous lineup. Then, finally, a break. McDougald grounded one to the left side that probably would have gotten through, but it hit Rizzuto. Automatic out, inning over. The Dodgers finally got a lucky bounce.

It wasn't just losing, either, it was how they lost. Like the '47 Series, when they won Game 4 after getting their only hit with two outs in the ninth. It seemed like they had fate on their sides, then, until they blew the two-run lead in game 7. 1952 might have been the worst, though; that talented team, coming back to Brooklyn only needing to win one of the last two games to take it all, then blowing a game 6 lead, then watching that damn Martin save game 7 by catching that wind-blown popup that he never really saw. It's after stuff like that when you start to think the franchise really was cursed.

Maybe they were emboldened by finally catching a break, but Campanella's one-out double in the fourth gave the Dodgers life. He moved to third on a groundout, then scored when Hodges singled him home. Berra doubled to lead off the fourth - now how big was that ball that hit Rizzuto the previous inning? - but Podres pitched around it, got through the fifth as well. In the sixth, it was a single, an error, a bunt, and a walk, before Hodges drove home another with a sacrifice fly. So Podres had two runs to work with now. Based on Brooklyn's World Series history, that might have to be enough. Go get 'em, kid.

Of course, a loss doesn't have to happen in the World Series to be painful. Like 1950, when the pennant-winning run was thrown out at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, and the Phillies hit that home run in the top of the 10th. Or 1951, and Bobby Thomson's home run. Both on the last day of the season, both with the World Series painfully close to their grasps. At least those losses weren't to the Yankees, but that's really very little consolation.

Fate came back into play again in the bottom of the sixth. Shuba had entered as a pinch-hitter for Zimmer the previous inning, but he was no infielder. So the Dodgers moved Gilliam in to second and put in Amoros, the speedy left-handed Cuban, out in left field. Martin and McDougald reached, bringing up Berra. He was a lefty, so the outfield shifted over toward right. Naturally, Berra sliced it into left. But Amaros can fly. He ran somewhere between 50 and 500 feet, tracked it down on the track, reached out and caught it just before hitting the wall, fired to first for the double play. Two bits of fortune there: Amoros was the only player on Brooklyn's roster who could have caught up to that ball, and him being left-handed made the catch possible; a right-handed leftfielder almost certainly misses that ball. Maybe Fate had changed sides for once.

Nobody remembers the '16 and '20 World Series. They were so long ago as to be irrelevant to what was happening today. They weren't even called the Dodgers then, were they? But 1941 is recent enough for people to remember, for it to matter. That's when the Dodgers started their run. That's when they started being that team that was brilliant, but not quite good enough. It was someone different each year - for a few years there, it seemed like the Dodgers were perpetually two games behind the Cardinals, or they were just barely inferior to the Yankees, or they were one painful run short of the National League champion de jure. Always second-best. Always waiting 'til next year.

No lead is safe. Nothing can come easy. In the seventh, it was Mantle, pinch-hitting despite being barely able to walk. Of course he was the tying run. There was a sigh of relief when he popped out. In the eighth, it was that damn Berra again. It seems like he's always batting with two runners on base. But when Furillo closed his glove on Berra's fly ball, it seems like the worst of it was over. Bauer then struck out. Three outs to go.

It wasn't just how often the Dodgers lost, it was how often the Yankees won. Since 1923, only the Cardinals had beaten them in the World Series - in 1926, when Alexander struck out Lazzeri and Ruth ended the series by being caught stealing, and 1942, when the Cardinals were about as good as they had ever been (of course, the Dodgers finished two games behind the Cards that year. Of course they did). For those keeping track, that's a 15-2 record in the World Series. At some point, it stops being about luck. The Yankees were damn good, always would be. That's why they were so hard to beat.

Another Dodgers rally fizzled out in the ninth, and Podres went back out to pitch the most important inning in Brooklyn baseball history. A quick look around the field probably revealed some nervous faces, people afraid of having the ball hit to them for fear of making the crucial error. Reese doesn't have the fear, though, that's for sure. Snider in center probably doesn't, either. Too bad Jackie's hurt, 'cause you know he'd want the damn ball hit to him, even demand it. For the first out, though, Podres fielded Skowron's grounder himself. Two outs to go. Then Cerv flied to Amoros, probably to remind everybody of his great catch earlier. One out to go.

Pee Wee Reese joined the Dodgers in 1940 and played in the World Series for the first time the following year. In his long career, he was always good, never great, but always consistent. His years are filled with top-10 MVP finishes, and he became the captain, the heart and soul of the team that would come to be known as the Boys of Summer. Nobody embodied the Dodgers like Reese. He was the only man who had played in every World Series game between the Yankees and Dodgers. More than anybody else, he knew the pain of always coming up just short, knew exactly what it would mean to the team and the borough to get this last out.

Podres took the sign, got set. He started his windup and threw. Howard liked what he saw and swung, making solid contact. A grounder to the right side, right at Reese. Of course it was Reese. Could it be anybody else? He fielded it cleanly, made a perfect throw.

Next Year was finally here.