April 21, 1955: Dodgers flex their dominance in record-setting victory

Few Flatbushers made the effort to attend the game on a cloudy, warm afternoon.1 Just 3,874 – only 12 percent of Ebbets Field’s capacity in 1955 – bore witness to a record-breaking 10th straight win to start the season.2

Before the season, Dodgers President Walter O’Malley reminded Brooklyn that the Dodgers had won four pennants in the last eight seasons. But “still our attendance declines,”3 he said. … “[W]e’ve already had too much of that wait-’til-next-year-stuff in Brooklyn.”4 He developed a plan for a 52,000-seat multipurpose, column-free Dodger Dome in Brooklyn with a movie theater, a shopping mall, and a retractable roof with plenty of parking.5

Second-year Brooklyn manager Walter Alston appeared calm “for a guy on spot after the Brooks lost in ‘54.”6 The Dodgers were in first place with a record-tying 9-0 start and 2½-game lead over Milwaukee. Even though shortstop Pee Wee Reese was unavailable with a pulled groin muscle, Don Zimmer “seems to have found the range, Pee Wee won’t be sorely missed.”7 Jackie Robinson’s availability was in doubt after he was hit by a pitch the game before.8

The Phillies’ rookie manager, Mayo Smith, had a tough job. Upon his hiring in October 1954, The Sporting News was ambivalent: “[Roy Hamey9 grabbed a microphone. … ‘This is Mayo Smith, the new manager of the Phillies.’” “Mayo Smith. … Who is he?”10 The Phillies were 4½ games behind the Dodgers, in fourth place with a record of 4-4. Even with the Dodgers pulling away after only two weeks, Smith believed “it’s anybody’s race in the National League” and “[T]here’s little difference to choose between the clubs.”11 Center fielder Richie Ashburn was unavailable “[a]fter having knee tapped [drained].”12 The Dodgers were facing the best pitcher in the league in Robin Roberts.13 Teammate Curt Simmons said, “[Roberts] was like a diesel engine. The more you used him, the better he ran.”14 Though he had a winning record at Ebbets Field, Roberts “hasn’t had too much success against the Brooks” with an overall career mark of 17-21 against the Dodgers.15

Russ Meyer took the mound for the Dodgers, coming off a two-hit, 6-0 shutout of the Pirates in his second start of the season and his 200th career start.16 The Phillies drew first blood when leadoff hitter Bobby Morgan hammered Meyer’s second pitch into the lower left-field stands for his second homer of the season. Meyers shook off the gopher ball, retiring Earl Torgeson, Del Ennis, and Smoky Burgess. Then Roberts displayed his expected dominance, retiring the Dodgers in order on 10 pitches.

Granny Hamner lined a double off Meyer to start the second, but the Brooklyn pitcher then retired the Phillies on three groundouts. Roberts experienced his first signs of trouble in the bottom of the frame. Gil Hodges led off with a line single to left. Sandy Amorós reached on an error unfairly charged to Roberts when Torgeson apparently thought the grounder hit down the first-base line was foul and neglected to toss promptly to Roberts covering first.17 Carl Furillo singled to right scoring Hodges and advancing Amorós to third. Roy Campanella delivered an 0-1 pitch sacrifice fly to left field, driving in an unearned run. Zimmer followed with a single to left. With Furillo in scoring position, Roberts struck out Meyer on a foul bunt, then Jim Gilliam grounded out to Hamner at short. The Dodgers were ahead, 2-1.

The Phillies tied the game in the third. Roberts singled to right, then went to third when Morgan doubled to left. Torgeson walked to load the bases. Ennis lofted a sacrifice fly to Duke Snider in center field, scoring Roberts. Meyer uncorked a wild pitch with Burgess at the plate and then intentionally walked him to load the bases. Whereupon Alston signaled in Joe Black.

Black was the 1952 NL Rookie of the Year. His signing “helped the Dodgers prove the success of desegregation.”18 The team tried to make Black a full-time starter. It failed, with Black last pitching in the majors on May 26, 1954.19 In his first appearance in the majors since then, Black induced an inning-ending double-play ball from Hamner.

Leading off the bottom of the third inning, Robinson “broke the deadlock” with his first homer of the season, into the familiar left-field stands.20 Then the fourth turned out to be the biggest frame of the young season for the Dodgers, with seven runs and seven hits. Roberts’s greatness abandoned him after two outs. Leading off, Furillo singled up the middle on an 0-and-2 pitch. Campanella lined to center for the first out. Zimmer doubled into the left-center gap, scoring Furillo. Black struck out looking. Roberts needed one out to keep the score at a manageable 4-2, but Torgeson butchered a Gilliam grounder at first. An implosion followed: two homers, one double, two singles, and six unearned runs. Robinson singled to right. Zimmer crossed the plate with a run. Snider delivered a three-run blast on a 2-and-0 pitch, driving it deep over the right-field screen. Roberts struggled with Hodges, who doubled. Amorós followed with a two-run homer over the right-field screen. Mercifully, Roberts was replaced by Bob Greenwood, who stanched the bleeding to end the inning. The Phillies were behind 10-2. Roberts departed with “one of the worst trouncings, if not the worst” of his career.21

In the fifth Zimmer hit his second homer of the season, leaving him only a triple short of the cycle. The sixth saw both teams score runs. Black allowed two runs. After Burgess doubled and Hamner singled, a balk was called on Black when, starting his delivery, “Joe accidentally hit a knee and dropped the ball” with Willie “Puddin Head” Jones at the plate.22 Burgess scored. Jones went down swinging but Stan Palys singled to center, scoring Hamner.

The Dodgers followed in the bottom of the inning with three runs on five hits off the ineffective Greenwood. With one out, Hodges doubled. Furillo sliced a grounder through the infield for his fourth hit, scoring Hodges. Campanella advanced Furillo with a line single to left. Zimmer failed to hit for the cycle, doubling for his fourth hit of the game, driving in Furillo. Black hit a “bad-hop single” to third, scoring Campanella.23 The Dodgers led 14-4.

The final three innings were quiet. By game’s end the Dodgers had eviscerated Phillies pitching with 17 hits, including four homers and four doubles. But Ron Mrozinski was effective for the Phillies in a mop-up role, pitching two hitless scoreless innings. Black faced the minimum in the last three innings, giving up only a walk to Ennis in the eighth that was followed by Burgess’s double-play grounder. Black earned the victory, his first since August 29, 1953.24 He was “the fourth Dodger relief pitcher in as many days to turn in a sparkling rescue performance.”25

With the win, the Dodgers established a new modern record by starting the season with 10 consecutive wins, breaking the record held by the 1918 Giants, 1940 Dodgers, and 1944 Browns. The record of 12 games of the 1884 Giants was next.26

The Dodgers were greeted by the sign on a clubhouse blackboard: “The Bums dood it. 10 straight.”27 Alston “wore a broad grin.”28 Furillo saw the Dodgers as a motivated group “because the boys missed the World Series money they didn’t get last year.”29 Reese saw the attitude as “a lot different” as the players were more determined, since last season they “just didn’t give a damn.”30 Snider tempered expectations: “[H]ell. We still got 144 to play.”31

The New York Daily News printed an ode to Black:

“A man named Black came in from the pen. Time tunnel back and the Dodgers had ‘ten.’”32