1946 World Series: The Mad Dash

The Teams
National League: St. Louis Cardinals (98-58) - Ninth World Series (Won in 1926, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1944)
American League: Boston Red Sox (104-50) - Sixth World Series (Won in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918)


What Happened
Harry Walker ripped a liner to left center, and Enos Slaughter took off. Two outs, tie game, eighth inning, Game 7 - there was no reason for hesitation. Slaughter got a great jump and was already halfway to third base when the Boston outfielders were getting to the ball. Approaching third base, Slaughter snuck a peak over his right should to try to figure out how close Dom DiMaggio was to the ball, and ... wait, where the hell was DiMaggio?

That's right. On the bench. There were three DiMaggio brothers who played Major League baseball, and it was said that of the three, Joe was the best hitter, Dom was the best fielder, and Vince was the best singer. Dom could hit a little, too, as evidenced by his spot in the No. 3 hole in the Boston lineup, directly in front of the legendary Ted Williams. It was Dom's two-out, two-run double in the top of the eighth that put this Game 7 in a tie to begin with. But as he rounded first, he felt something pull in his leg; he made it to second, but that was it. He had to come out. He was replaced by Leon Culberson, who was no DiMaggio, either in the field or at the bat. Hopefully, as far as the Red Sox were concerned, it wouldn't matter.

It mattered. At least, to Enos Slaughter it mattered. With DiMaggio and his laser arm out in center field, Slaughter might have stopped at third base on that hit. But it was Culberson, and Slaughter kept going, running right through his coach's stop sign and accelerating toward home. Culberson retrieved the ball and threw to cutoff man Johnny Pesky, who ....

... wait, an aside here. For more than 50 years, most people who were at Game 7 claimed that Pesky hesitated when catching the throw from Culberson. The story went that Culberson threw in to Pesky, and Pesky, not expecting to have to throw the ball, turned around and paused to look for the runners, only throwing when he saw Slaughter running for home. It was a convenient story, a good place for Red Sox fans to look when trying to find a scapegoat for what would be their first World Series loss ever. But it wasn't true. Video unearthed many decades after the fact showed the play clearly, and it showed that Pesky didn't hesistate. He got the ball, he spun, and he fired, all in one motion. Maybe he was surprised, and because of that he didn't get everything he could have on his throw. But he didn't hesitate.

Back to the game, although the suspense is probably gone at this point. Slaughter slid home well ahead of the throw, giving St. Louis the lead. His run was praised as the ultimate example of hustle, and it is often said that he scored from first on a single, a compliment that leaves out the minor detail that Walker was (admittedly very generously) awarded a double on the hit. After Boston went down in order in the ninth, St. Louis had its third World Championship of the decade, while Boston was left scratching their heads.

Little did the Red Sox know that Slaughter's Mad Dash in 1946 was the beginning of the Curse of the Bambino. It had been a great series so far, with the teams alternating wins through the first six games. Game 1 had been the best so far, with Tom McBride rescuing the Red Sox from the dead with a game-tying single with two outs in the ninth. Rudy York then hit a go-ahead home run with two outs in the tenth - bouncing it off a concession stand in left field - to give the Red Sox the win. The main story line for the rest of the series was the struggles of Ted Williams, who hit only .200 with one run batted in in what turned out to be his only World Series. Despite that, the Red Sox were still up 3-games-to-2 when the series returned to St. Louis for Games 6 and 7. They never got that that fourth win. In fact, it took them until 2004 to get that fourth win.

MVP
Walker had better overall numbers, and got the series-winning hit, but Slaughter's mad dash was the defining moment of the series, and it capped a seven game where it seemed like Slaughter got every big hit for St. Louis.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Boston	3 (10)	0	4	3	6	1	3
St. Louis	2	3	0	12	3	4	4

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

28. 1946 - St. Louis (N) def. Boston (A) 4-3
29. 1925 - Pittsburgh (N) def. Washington (A) 4-3
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
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 (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 
36. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0

1949 American League: The Rivalry Begins

Pregame
A lot has been written in recent years about the rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. In the past decade, they have been the teams with the two highest payrolls and they have spent that money wisely. Since they're in the same division, each of their 18 regular season game has been treated with postseason-type importance, making it seem like the two teams have been bitter rivals forever.

But that hasn't exactly been the case. Just like the famous sale of Babe Ruth was very one-sided, the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry was virtually nonexistent through most of the first half of the 20th Century. In fact, from the American League's founding in 1901 through the 1947 season, the Yankees and Red Sox finished 1-2 in the standings exactly twice, and only once was the race close enough to be exciting in the final weeks of the season.

That changed in 1948, as the Yankees and Red Sox battled for the American League lead through most of the season. In the end, the Yankees fell off, and the Red Sox fell to Cleveland in a one-game playoff for the pennant.

The Red Sox and Yankees like their pennant race so much they did it again in 1949. Through much of the early part of the season, it looked like it would be a New York-Cleveland showdown for the pennant. But as the weather got hot, so did Boston, and as they stormed up the standings, Cleveland fell off, making it a two-team race between Boston and New York. But despite their hot play, Boston could not get within 3 games of the Yankees until New York star Joe DiMaggio got hospitalized with pneumonia. With their biggest rival out, Boston went on an 11-game winning streak and entered the final weekend of the season a game in front, needing only to win one of two games in Yankee Stadium to win the pennant.

The first game, on October 1, was tied 4-4 in the fifth, with both teams into the bullpen. Boston's Joe Dobson, normally a starter, did well in relief for Boston, but New York's relief ace Joe Page was even better, giving up only 1 hit in 6 2/3 innings. Page kept the Red Sox at bay until the eighth, when backup outfielder Johnny Lindell crushed a high fastball into the left-field seats to give the Yankees a 5-4 victory. After 153 games, the Yankees and Red Sox were tied, setting up a winner-take-all season finale.

The game
Red Sox starter Ellis Kinder reacted in an interesting way to starting the biggest game of the season. He got drunk. As his roommate, Joe Dobson, recounted years later in Summer of '49, he got back to his hotel room at 4:00 the morning he was scheduled to pitch with a woman Dobson had never seen before. Kinder was awake at 9:00 that morning, calling room service and asking for coffee.

Meanwhile, Yankees starter Vic Raschi. He had been hoping for this start all week, when it became apparent that the whole season could ride on the final game. Though he had pitched in and won game 152 for the Yankees, he was ready to go for game 154. He got a good night's sleep and spent most of the pregame sitting at his locker, staring at the floor, trying to ignore the reporters and photographers who were gathering.

After Raschi got through the Red Sox in the first, Yankee shortstop led off the bottom of the inning with a triple down the third-base line, aided by Ted Williams misplaying the carom in the left field corner. The Red Sox played the infield back for the next batter, first baseman Tommy Henrich, and he happily grounded to second to take the free rbi.

And that was it, at least for a while. For the next six innings, the two aces showed why they had each won 20 games that season, staying out of trouble and putting zero after zero on the scoreboard. Kinder had apparently recovered from his night of drinking, while Raschi was coming through in the game he desperately wanted to pitch.

The turning point of the game came with one out in the top of the eighth. Though Kinder had been cruising, completely keeping the Yankees off-balance, Red Sox manager Joe McCarthy pinch-hit for him in the eighth, sending up Tom Wright, called up from the minors just that week. With a fuming Kinder watching, Wright drew a walk, but was quickly erased on a double-play grounder. The Yankees still had their 1-0 lead, and they no longer had to worry about Kinder.

Boston brought in their other 20-game winner, Mel Parnell, in relief for the eighth. Like Kinder, Parnell had been overused down the stretch as the Red Sox tried to squeeze every inning they could out of their two aces. Parnell had started and lost the day before, though, and he was exhausted as he entered game 154. Parnell didn't have it on this day, giving up a home run to Henrich, the first batter he faced, to make it 2-0. After one more hit he was gone, replaced by Tex Hughson, who gave up three more runs to seemingly give the Yankees the pennant.

But Boston wasn't done. After pitching gallantly for eight innings, Raschi started to show signs of wear in the ninth. A one-out walk to Ted Williams was followed by two straight hits, including a triple to center that DiMaggio would have normally run down with ease, except he was cramping. DiMaggio called time after the play and took himself out, not willing to risk losing the pennant because he couldn't run down a flyball.

After another out, another single made it 5-3, with the tying run coming to the plate. But the Red Sox season died on the final day for the second year in a row as Birdie Tebbets fouled out to end the game.

Postgame
Invigorated by the pair of dramatic wins at the end of the season, the Yankees beat the Dodgers in the World Series for the second time in three years. The win in 1949 was the first of five consecutive World Championships for the Yankees, which still stands as the best streak in baseball history.

It took a long time for the Red Sox to recover, as they didn't finish higher than second place again until 1967. The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry didn't pick up again until 1978, when Bucky Dent broke the hearts of New Englanders everywhere.

Especially hurt by the loss was Williams. Looking for vindication after batting just .200 in the 1946 World Series and losing in the 1948 playoff, Williams instead came up empty. He went 1-for-5 in the two deciding games in 1949, in the process costing himself the batting championship. He later said that more than the 1946 series or the 1948 playoff game, the loss in 1949 was the toughest one of his career.

The Rundown

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 AL tiebreaker)
31. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)

September 28, 1960: Gods do not answer letters

***UPDATE - This event has been replaced. Go here for the new entry ***

BOSTON - He was an old man now, at the end of the line. Gone was the spindly slugger from San Diego who came into the American League in a flash and instantly established himself as the best hitter in the game. The man coming to plate now was 42 years old, and while he still had "it," he was also about to step off the stage for the final time.

Most people in Fenway Park knew that the game against Baltimore on September 28, 1960, would be Ted Williams' last game in Boston. The man who had debuted in 1939 and instantly started hitting, who had developed the ultimate love-hate relationship with the Boston fans and press, was stepping down after the season. What few people knew was that Williams had decided not to join the Red Sox for their final three-game series in New York to end the season, meaning that not only was this his final game in Boston, but it was his final game, period.

It was 19 years earlier to the day, September 28, 1941, when Williams entered the final day of the season with a batting average of .39955. Due to the laws of rounding up, his batting average would be listed as .400 if he had simply sat out the doubleheader. But Williams wouldn't think of it, wanting to get .400 legitimately, and he went out and put up a 6-for-8 line in the two games to seal what is still the final .400 season in Major League history.

Was he thinking of that day when he stepped to the plate in 1960? Was he reflecting on any other day from his career, now nearly over? Knowing Williams, probably not. His was a singluar focus: get a hit, preferably a home run. And so he played in the game after a short pre-game ceremony and tried to focus on the task at hand.

A first-inning walk, followed by two flyball outs, and Williams was almost done. As the outs ticked away, it was obvious that his eighth inning at bat would be his last, and so when his name was announced, the fans stood and applauded. They didnt' cheer. They just applauded, honoring the man for 21 years of memories, and hoping beyond hope for the one thing they dare not ask for.

And then it came. A majestic blast on a 1-1 pitch, a towering drive out towards the bullpen, a no-doubter. Williams had improbably, impossibly, hit a home run in his final at bat. And despite the racious cheers and clamoring from the fans, he ran around the bases with his head down, like always, refusing to tip his cap. When he got to the dugout, he ignored the pleas of his teammates who implored him to go take a curtain call, instead sitting in the dugout waiting to go back into the field.

And so he did, running out to left field in the top of the ninth, only to run back in the dugout as he was replaced, a chance for the fans to give him a final cheer. And again, he didn't acknowledge them. He never had, so why start now? His message to the fans had come before the game, and his final statement had been that home run. What more could he say?

---

Williams final game was captured brilliantly and perfectly by John Updike, who attended the game. His essay can be found here.

July 8, 1941: Not just another home run

DETROIT - Wait, what's going on here? Ted Williams, clapping his hands and jumping up and down as he rounded the bases? That never happened. Williams never showed an emotion other than brooding, at least in public. He had never even tipped his cap to Boston fans, and now he was jumping up and down and smiling after a home run? What's up with that?

So that's what it took to get Williams excited - a walk-off home run in the All-Star Game. I suppose that's proof that the game had taken off in popularity, that only eight years after its debut, it had become a can't-miss part of summer. It's the ultimate contest of league pride, the only way for the two leagues to say our best players are better than your best.

Williams and Joe DiMaggio were the overriding story in baseball in the summer of 1941- Williams because of his ultimately successful run for a .400 average, and DiMaggio because of his 56-game hitting streak - so it's fitting that they were the two players in the center of one of the most exciting ninth innings in All-Star Game history. When the ninth inning started, DiMaggio had already scored two runs, including a run in the eighth after a hit by his brother Dominic. Williams had hit a run-scoring double, but had also committed an error. With the American League trailing 5-3 entering the bottom of the ninth, both stars stood looming, but they were four batters away. The National League had a chance to get out of Tiger Stadium with a win without having to face the game's two brightest stars.

Not so fast, though. After an opening out, three straight American Leaguers reached base, sending DiMaggio to the plate with only one out. He had a chance to be the hero. Instead, he narrowly avoided being the goat, beating the relay throw from second to barely avoid a game-ending double play. A run scored, and Williams came up with two on and two out. The NL elected to pitch to Williams, most likely to avoid moving DiMaggio, the winning run, to scoring position at second base.

Well, that didn't work. And as the ball cleared the right-field fence, and Williams started hopping, rather than running, around the bases, everybody knew from his reaction that it wasn't just another home run. With one swing, the All-Star Game had grown in stature, and it would be decades before it was again considered just a meaningless mid-season exhibition.