June 14, 1957: Jim Gilliam’s steal of home stops pitchers’ duel, gifts Don Newcombe birthday win

Amid the stalemate over a new ballpark between Mayor Robert Wagner of New York City, Brooklyn Dodgers President Walter F. O’Malley, and New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham, during which The Sporting News reported that “Wagner had nothing to offer, and O’Malley and Stoneham had nothing to accept or reject,”1 the games continued at Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds, and the 1957 pennant race heated up.

On June 14, the National League race was tight with the Milwaukee Braves a half-game ahead of the Cincinnati Redlegs, a game ahead of both the Philadelphia Phillies and the two-time defending pennant-winning Dodgers, and 1½ games in front of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cardinals, headed to Brooklyn for a four-game series, were surging, led by 36-year-old Stan Musial, who had broken Gus Suhr’s NL record of 822 consecutive games played, two days earlier.2

Musial hit Brooklyn’s Don Newcombe, scheduled to start the series opener on his 31st birthday, especially well.3 Entering 1957, Musial had hit .383 with 31 hits in 81 at-bats, 14 extra-base hits, and 16 RBIs against Newcombe, the 1956 NL Most Valuable Player and major-league Cy Young Award winner.4 Still, Musial “called Newcombe’s fastball the most frightening pitch he ever had to face.”5

While the Cardinals were winning, the Dodgers, at home since June 4, were struggling.6 After a five-game winning streak had put Brooklyn alone in first place, the Dodgers had lost five of six. The Braves had bombed Brooklyn’s pitching staff for 23 runs on 35 hits in three games, with eight home runs.7

Newcombe, who had complete-game wins in both of his previous 1957 starts against the Cardinals, including a five-hit shutout in a Dodgers home game played in Jersey City, New Jersey, on May 3,8 faced 21-year-old righty Lindy McDaniel.

Entering the game, Newcombe was 4-6 with a 3.35 ERA; McDaniel was 6-2 with a 2.94 ERA.

McDaniel, in his third big-league season, had taken a regular turn in St. Louis’s rotation since April. He had pitched into the ninth inning in Brooklyn on May 4 but lost on Charlie Neal’s tiebreaking two-run homer.9

Through the10th inning on June 14, Newcombe and McDaniel battled, pitch for pitch, 267 in all.10 Newcombe threw 134 pitches, just one more than McDaniel.

With 16,381 in the stands for the night game, Newcombe began the game by striking out leadoff hitter Don Blasingame and getting the next two Cardinals, Alvin Dark and Musial, to fly out, Musial’s ball traveling to “deep center,” Ebbets Field at its furthest point 403 feet from home plate.

In the bottom of the first, Jim “Junior” Gilliam was the first Dodger to step into the batter’s box11 against McDaniel. Gilliam grounded out to second base.

Pee Wee Reese – his career in decline at age 38 – whiffed on a full count, bringing center fielder Duke Snider to the plate. Another Dodger in his 30s, Snider, singled to center, but cleanup hitter Gino Cimoli quickly ended the inning. He hit a first-pitch grounder to McDaniel, who tossed it to Musial, manning first.

To open the second, Wally Moon hit a grounder to John Roseboro, playing in his first major-league game and at first base, a position he had never played in the minors, with Gil Hodges out due to an injury. The 24-year-old Roseboro fielded it and tossed to Newcombe, covering first, for the out. Del Ennis flied out. Then, on a 3-and-1 pitch, Ken Boyer, in center field with rookie Eddie Kasko handling third, blasted his sixth homer of the season, over the left-field fence, breaking the scoreless tie.12

Roy Campanella singled with one out in the bottom of the second, bringing up Roseboro for the first time in the big leagues. Blasingame charged Roseboro’s grounder to second, attempted to tag Campanella, and threw to first for the out. Blasingame and manager Fred Hutchinson argued for a double play, but umpire Frank Secory ruled that Blasingame had missed the tag.13

In the third inning through the top of the fourth, the Cardinals had two baserunners and the Dodgers one, but no runs ensued.

In the bottom of the fourth, Snider grounded out to first. Despite Cimoli’s one-out single and Campanella’s two-out walk, no runs scored, McDaniel whiffing both Elmer Valo and Roseboro. (Valo was starting because Carl Furillo was out with a “run-down condition,” according to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.14)

Brooklyn finally broke through against McDaniel in the sixth. Reese led off with a single, and Snider walked. Cimoli struck out after attempting to sacrifice,15 but Valo’s single plated Reese with the tying run. On his 20th pitch of the inning, McDaniel kept the game tied by inducing Campanella to ground into a 6-4-3 double play.

In the eighth, Cimoli hit his second single and Valo walked. Campanella again stepped to the plate with two men on base, again with a chance to break the game open, but again grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

Musial’s second double of the game – the 1,117th extra-base hit of his career, tying Jimmie Foxx for fifth among all American or National League players16 – gave St. Louis a scoring opportunity to start the ninth. Dick Schofield ran for Musial. But neither Moon (fly out) nor Ennis (groundout) could advance the runner. The Dodgers intentionally walked Boyer. With Hal Smith, a right-handed batter, the next Cardinal to hit, Cimoli and Valo shifted positions, Cimoli moving to left, Valo to right. Behind in the count 2-and-1, Newcombe got Smith to pop out to first base.

The bottom of the Dodgers lineup batted in the ninth. Roseboro grounded out to shortstop. Neal struck out swinging. Newcombe grounded out to third. It was McDaniel’s 16th groundball out in the game.

In the top of the 10th, Kasko flied out. McDaniel singled, his second hit of the game. Blasingame’s grounder to second forced McDaniel. Al Dark’s single put Blasingame in scoring position. Joe Cunningham, playing first base with Musial out of the game, hit a grounder to Neal, who stepped on second to end the inning. Though Newcombe faced five batters, he threw just 10 pitches, only one a ball.

McDaniel started the 10th by walking Gilliam on four pitches. Reese, after working a full count, “sent a high pop to Al Dark at short. Snider whacked a real rainmaker that [second baseman] Don Blasingame waited and waited for in right before he gobbled it.”17 Cimoli singled to center, his third hit of the game. McDaniel walked Valo to load the bases. On McDaniel’s second pitch to Campanella,18 and from a full windup, Gilliam broke for the plate.

McDaniel’s pitch, meant “for the outside corner, missed it by a couple of feet.” Before Smith could tag him, Gilliam had scored, the New York Times reported.19 Smith said after the game, “If only Lindy had come inside or over the plate, we’d have gotten Gilliam for sure.”20

The Dodgers were winners, 2-1.

The steal, asserted the Times, “lighted a belated candle on Don Newcombe’s thirty-third [sic] birthday cake.”21 It was the second time in two seasons that Gilliam had stolen home in a one-run win against St. Louis,22 and it was Newcombe’s 11th straight win over the Cardinals. The steal was one of 26 for Gilliam in 1957, a career high; he was the Dodgers’ leading base thief that season.

Newcombe went on to finish 1957 with an 11-12 record and a 3.49 ERA. The Dodgers, who came in third in the NL, 11 games behind the Braves, relocated to California after the season, along with the Giants. The Cardinals were second in 1957, and McDaniel’s 15 wins tied for the staff lead. He later moved to the bullpen and had a long career as one of the game’s top firemen.

Newcombe celebrated only one more birthday as a Dodger; he was traded to Cincinnati on June 15, 1958, a day after turning 32.23

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO195706140.shtml

https://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1957/B06140BRO1957.htm

Photo credit: Jim Gilliam, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Dan Daniel, “Tie Game When Dodgers, Giants, and Mayor Meet,” The Sporting News, June 12, 1957: 2.

2 Bob Broeg, “Musial Moves Past Iron Man Milestone to Pace Card Sprint,” The Sporting News, June 19, 1957: 5.

3 It was the only time that Newcombe pitched on his birthday in his major-league career.

4 In 1952 and 1953, Newcombe served in the military.

5 Mike Kupper and Jorge Castillo, “Don Newcombe Dies at 92; Dodgers Great Won MVP, Rookie of the year, Cy Young and Lasting Respect,” Los Angeles Times, February 19, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-don-newcombe-20190219-story.html.

6 One home game, played in New Jersey, was called off after the first inning due to fog.

7 In the finale with Milwaukee on June 13, 20-year-old Don Drysdale had hit the Braves’ Johnny Logan with a pitch, sparking what the New York Daily News called “a chain-reaction brawl that ranks high in the hysterical history of Ebbets Field.” Dick Young, “Dodgers: Drysdale vs. Three,” New York Daily News, June 14, 1957: C3.

8 “Zip Played and Newk Zipped Cards,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), May 4, 1957: 29.

9 Dana Mozley, “Brooks Edge Cards, 4-2, on Neal Homer in 9th,” New York Daily News, May 5, 1957: 29C.

10 This article uses pitch-count data collected by Dodgers statistician Allan Roth, as found in Baseball-Reference.com’s play-by-play of this game. “Data Coverage,” Baseball-Reference.com, accessed February 27, 2024, https://www.baseball-reference.com/about/coverage.shtml.

11 In his 14-year career (he played only for the Dodgers), in 1,956 regular-season games, he batted leadoff in 1,037, reaching first on either a single or a walk 1,005 times.

12 In his eight-season career, six with the Dodgers, Charlie Neal played 663 games at shortstop, 162 games at second base, and 120 at third.

13 “Cardinal Notes,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 15, 1957: 3B.

14 “Cardinals Notes,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 15, 1957: 15.

15 Chris Kieran, “Brooks Beat Cards in 10th, 2-1, on Gilliam Home Theft,” New York Daily News, June 15, 1957: 26.

16 Jack Herman, “Gilliam Steals Home in 10th to Nip Birds, 2-1: Theft Gives Newk Nod Over Lin McDaniel; Boyer Homers, Singles,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 15, 1957: 1B. At this time, Babe Ruth’s 1,356 career extra-base hits were the all-time record. St. Louis Globe-Democrat coverage of the game asserted, “[t]he Bambino … is beyond Stan’s reach, however, unless he changes his time table and plays for several more years.” As it happened, Musial surpassed Ruth’s mark in on May 8, 1963, and retired with a then-record of 1,377 extra-base hits. As of 2024, he was third in the majors behind Henry Aaron, Barry Bonds, and Albert Pujols. Neal Russo, “Stan Wipes Out Babe’s Record, But Dodgers Are Ruthless: Cardinal Relievers Fail in 11-5 Defeat,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 9, 1963: 4B.

17 Kieran, “Brooks Beat Cards in 10th, 2-1, on Gilliam Home Theft.”

18 Of McDaniel’s 133 pitches, 77 were strikes. Newcombe threw 134 pitches – 89 were strikes.

19 Joseph M. Sheehan, “Newcombe Victor in 10th Inning, 2-1,” New York Times, June 15, 1957: 12.

20 “Steal of Home by Gilliam Gives Dodgers 2-1 Win,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 15, 1957: 6A.

21 Sheehan.

22 Gilliam stole home in the third inning of the Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Cardinals on August 21, 1956, at Sportsman’s Park. Jack Herman, “Steal of Home Beats Red Birds, 2-1: Gilliam Engineers Theft, Gets 4 Hits; Erskine Wins Over Wehmeier,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 21, 1956: 1C.

23 Charlie Park, “Newcombe Is Swapped for Bilko,” Los Angeles Mirror News, June 15, 1958: 1,1.