September 28, 1953: Future Dodgers legends Walt Alston, Tommy Lasorda combine for Triple-A title

Walter Alston and Tom Lasorda stood at the center of many of the biggest moments in Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers history. Between them, Alston and Lasorda managed the Dodgers for 43 consecutive seasons from 1954 to 1996, winning 3,639 regular-season games, six World Series titles, 11 National League championships, and eight National League West Division titles.1

Before Alston and Lasorda were big-league legends, they made history with the Dodgers’ farm club in the Triple-A International League. On September 28, 1953, the Alston-managed Montreal Royals knocked off the Rochester Red Wings, 3-2, to win the IL’s playoff title, the Governors’ Cup, for the second time in three seasons.2 Left-handed pitcher Lasorda starred, scattering nine hits and a walk but nursing a complete-game win.

The victory was sweet for Lasorda. He’d started the deciding game of the previous season’s playoffs against Rochester but lasted only three batters before being knocked semiconscious in a home-plate collision with Red Wings player-manager Harry Walker. Lasorda made a happier exit from the field in 1953, carried off on his teammates’ shoulders.3 He was six days past his 26th birthday.

The Red Wings and Royals had finished one-two in the IL pennant race. Rochester, a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate, went 97-57 to take first place, while Montreal finished second at 89-63,4 seven games back. In the four-team Shaughnessy-style playoffs, the Red Wings bounced back from a 3-games-to-1 deficit and eliminated the Baltimore Orioles,5 while the Royals charged past the Buffalo Bisons, 4 games to 2.

Montreal’s regular-season performance was a few games off the previous seasons’ pace for Alston, who’d won 95 games with the Royals each of the prior two seasons. A veteran of a single major-league at-bat,6 the quiet 41-year-old Alston had been working his way up the minor-league managerial rungs since 1940, posting winning records from Nashua, New Hampshire, to Pueblo, Colorado.

Royals and Red Wings hitters slugged it out all summer for league supremacy. As teams, Rochester and Montreal finished first and second respectively in hits, runs, RBIs, total bases, and batting average. Royals outfielder Sandy Amorós led the IL with a .353 batting average, finishing tied for third in home runs and RBIs (23 and 100) to boot. Royals first baseman Rocky Nelson placed second in the loop with 34 homers and led with 136 RBIs, on top of a .308 batting average, and won IL Most Valuable Player honors. For Rochester, first baseman Chuck Kress collected 25 homers and 121 RBIs, ranking third and second respectively, while outfielder Tom Burgess added a .346 average, 22 homers, and 93 RBIs.

Both teams had strong performers on the mound as well. The 1953 season was Lasorda’s fourth straight in Montreal without a call-up to the majors. He won a career-high 17 games, tied for second in the league, with a 2.81 ERA.7 Cot Deal led Rochester with a 16-9 record in 41 games, including 18 starts. He’d been one of several Red Wings pitchers to appear without distinction in the series’ third game, on September 26, when Montreal stormed to its third straight win, 8-2.8

After rain on September 27 pushed the fourth game back a day, Walker placed the Wings’ dwindling hopes in the hands of Floyd Wooldridge.9 The 25-year-old righty had gone 15-13 with a 2.20 ERA for the Houston Buffaloes of the Double-A Texas League before receiving a promotion to Rochester eight days before the end of the regular season.10 Wooldridge won the fifth and seventh games of the opening-round series against Baltimore, turning in 6 1/3 innings of shutout relief to seal the clincher.11

On Monday night, September 28, 9,150 fans turned out at Montreal’s Delorimier Downs to see if the Royals could finish off the Red Wings. The visitors took a first-inning lead. Red Wings right fielder Ed Mierkowicz lined a single and left fielder Allie Clark drove him in with a double to left-center for a 1-0 advantage.12

Wooldridge’s first two innings passed without a baserunner, but the Royals caught up with him in the third. Second baseman Roy Hartsfield began the rally with a weak infield single, and shortstop Chico Fernández drew a walk. Wooldridge bobbled Lasorda’s bunt but recovered to get the out at first. Third baseman Don Hoak belted a single into right field that Mierkowicz had trouble handling, and Hartsfield scored the tying run. Mierkowicz “dropped the ball like he would an ingot out of a blast-furnace,” the Montreal Star wrote.13

The Red Wings responded in the top of the fourth. Second baseman Lou Ortiz led off by lacing a double to left field. Center fielder Wally Moon, a .307 hitter during the season, bunted Ortiz to third. Catcher Vern Rapp poked a single into right to give the Wings a 2-1 lead.14

That lead held until the bottom of the sixth inning. Hoak, who hit 25 doubles during the season, led off with a ringing two-bagger off the wall in left field. A long fly by left fielder Dick Whitman moved Hoak to third base, and Amorós “banjoed one into left,” in the words of the Montreal Star, for a single that tied the game.15

Nelson hit a slow bouncer to third that Red Wings third baseman Don Richmond couldn’t handle. Richmond was variously reported as suffering from a thyroid problem or from the aftereffects of a beaning during the Baltimore series, and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle said he “wasn’t at his best in the field.” Nelson reached first with a single.16 The Royals’ Tim Thompson grounded to Kress at first. Kress tried to start what would have been an inning-ending 3-6-3 double play, but his throw to second was off-target, and the bases were loaded.17

The game turned on the next play. Montreal’s Ken Wood lofted a pop into shallow center field, where Red Wings shortstop Vern Benson and center fielder Moon converged. Moon, running forward, was judged by observers to be in better position to catch the ball and throw home. But Benson made the catch instead with his back to the plate, and Amorós had no trouble beating his throw to give the Royals a 3-2 lead.18

Lasorda stiffened in the final frames. After giving up eight hits in the first six innings, he allowed only one in the last three.19 Rochester mustered one final baserunner with one out in the ninth. Deal, batting for Wooldridge, hit a grounder to Hoak that the third baseman misplayed for an error.20

Benson struck out looking, then gave plate umpire Joe Serafin such an earful that Rochester’s next hitter, pinch-hitter Les Fusselman, had to restrain him.21 Fusselman popped out to Hoak to end the game in 1 hour and 59 minutes, giving Montreal the Governors’ Cup. The win sent the Royals to the Junior World Series, which they won over the Kansas City Blues, 4 games to 1.22

Postgame analysis credited Lasorda and Wooldridge for excellent performances, noting that Rochester fielding errors and Benson’s questionable judgment on Wood’s pop fly had made the difference. “It is very doubtful if the Royals will ogle a better pitcher in the Little World Series than Floyd Wooldridge,” the Montreal Star opined.23 Meanwhile, the Rochester paper tipped its cap to “tantalizing Tommy Lasorda,” the “jaunty little lefthander” who strengthened as the game went on.24

While the Royals were steamrolling all comers, their parent club in Brooklyn was losing the World Series to the New York Yankees for the third time in five seasons. In the offseason, manager Chuck Dressen demanded a multiyear contract. Owner Walter O’Malley instead hired Alston on the first of 23 one-year deals.25

The announcement in November 1953 played poorly in New York, where newspapers greeted the new skipper with the question “Who’s he?”26 After a second-place finish in 1954, Alston established himself by leading the team to Brooklyn’s only World Series title in 1955. He won three more Series and remained in charge until he retired in September 1976.

The 1954 season brought new opportunities to some of the game’s other participants. Moon debuted with the Cardinals, hit .304, and won the NL Rookie of the Year Award. He later played under Alston on the Dodgers’ World Series champion teams of 1959, 1963, and 1965. Hoak got his first call to the majors, while Amorós, who’d played 20 games with Brooklyn in 1952, made it back. Another unnoticed game participant launched a Hall of Fame career in 1954. Nestor Chylak, who umpired on the bases, was hired as an American League ump, beginning a 25-season career.

Walker had to wait until 1955 to return to the majors, when he replaced Eddie Stanky as Cardinals manager.27 Wooldridge got his only big-league experience, 18 games with the Cardinals, that same season.

As for Lasorda, he received brief call-ups with the 1954 and ’55 Dodgers, then made 18 appearances for the 1956 Kansas City Athletics. He ended his big-league career with an 0-4 record and a 6.48 ERA. After retirement in 1960, Lasorda became a Dodgers scout, then a minor-league manager, working his way up as Alston had.

Hired as Alston’s third-base coach in 1973, Lasorda replaced his old manager with four games left in the 1976 season. He stayed until ill health forced his departure in June 1996, adding two World Series titles – 1981 and 1988 – to Dodgers history. Lasorda was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1997, 14 years after Alston.

Acknowledgments

This story was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the specific sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for general player, team, and season data and the box scores for this game.

Retrosheet does not provide box scores for minor-league games, but the September 29, 1953, editions of the Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle and the Montreal Gazette and Star published box scores.

Photo of 1952 Parkhurst Frostade International League card #66 downloaded from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 This list of postseason appearances does not include the wild-card berth earned by the 1996 Dodgers, who were managed by Lasorda through June 23 and by Bill Russell for the remainder of the season. Lasorda retired from the team after suffering a heart attack and undergoing an angioplasty. Alan Stowell, “Tom Lasorda,” SABR Biography Project, accessed July 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/tom-lasorda/.

2 The Royals beat the Syracuse Chiefs to win the Governors’ Cup in 1951, then lost to Rochester in the 1952 Finals. Baseball-Reference BR Bullpen, “Governors’ Cup,” accessed July 2025, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Governors%27_Cup.

3 George Beahon, “Collum, Wings Top Royals, 3-2, Win Playoffs; Open Junior Classic Against Blues Tomorrow,” Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, September 26, 1952: 36.

4 And two ties.

5 “Rain Gives Wings Reprieve; Wooldridge to Hurl Tonight,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 28, 1953: 1. In 1953, the Baltimore Orioles were a Philadelphia Phillies farm team. Baltimore became a major-league city in 1954 when the St. Louis Browns moved there; the big-league Orioles and the Rochester Red Wings later enjoyed a long and successful affiliation from 1961 to 2002.

6 As a first baseman with the St. Louis Cardinals, Alston was struck out by the Chicago Cubs’ Lon Warneke in his only major-league plate appearance on September 27, 1936.

7 Frank Lary of the Buffalo Bisons, a Detroit Tigers farm team, also won 17 games. The league leader was Bob Trice of Ottawa, a Philadelphia Athletics farm club, who won 21.

8 “Montreal Wallops Wings 8-2, Takes 3rd Straight Win,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 27, 1953: 1.

9 “Rain Gives Wings Reprieve; Wooldridge to Hurl Tonight.”

10 Dink Carroll, “Royals Defeat Rochester 3-2 to Capture Governors’ Cup,” Montreal Gazette, September 29, 1953: 23.

11 George Beahon, “Hatters Eye Grand Slam After Win; 11,532 Fans Cheer Comeback Triumph,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 23, 1953: 24.

12 Carroll, “Royals Defeat Rochester 3-2 to Capture Governors’ Cup.”

13 Carroll, “Royals Defeat Rochester 3-2 to Capture Governors’ Cup”; Lloyd McGowan, “Hoak Too Hot for Walkermen,” Montreal Star, September 29, 1953: 33. Mierkowicz was not charged with an error. Game accounts suggest that he did not misplay the ball in the air, but rather that Hoak hit a sizzling line drive that Mierkowicz had some trouble coming up with.

14 Carroll, “Royals Defeat Rochester 3-2 to Capture Governors’ Cup.”

15 George Beahon, “Royals Clip Wings for Series Sweep,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 29, 1953: 28; McGowan, “Hoak Too Hot for Walkermen.”

16 Beahon, “Royals Clip Wings for Series Sweep”; McGowan, “Hoak Too Hot for Walkermen.” No error was charged on the play.

17 Beahon, “Royals Clip Wings for Series Sweep”; Carroll, “Royals Defeat Rochester 3-2 to Capture Governors’ Cup.”

18 Beahon, “Royals Clip Wings for Series Sweep”; Carroll, “Royals Defeat Rochester 3-2 to Capture Governors’ Cup.”

19 Beahon, “Royals Clip Wings for Series Sweep.”

20 This is extrapolated from box scores, which indicate that Deal reached base in the ninth without a hit, and from the Montreal Star, which mentions that Hoak “lost a roller from Cot Deal” in the ninth after making a great one-handed play on the previous hitter.

21 Carroll, “Royals Defeat Rochester 3-2 to Capture Governors’ Cup.”

22 Carroll, “Royals Defeat Rochester 3-2 to Capture Governors’ Cup”; Baseball-Reference BR Bullpen, “1953 Junior World Series,” accessed July 2025, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/1953_Junior_World_Series.

23 McGowan, “Hoak Too Hot for Walkermen.”

24 Beahon, “Royals Clip Wings for Series Sweep.” The Montreal Gazette referred to the winning pitcher as “Talkative Tom Lasorda.”

25 Mark Stewart, “Chuck Dressen,” SABR Biography Project, accessed July 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Chuck-Dressen/; Bill Johnson, “Walter Alston,” SABR Biography Project, accessed July 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/walter-alston/.

26 United Press, “Alston – Who’s He?,” Davenport (Iowa) Morning Democrat, November 25, 1953: 14.

27 Walker, age 36, also appeared in his final 11 major-league games with the 1955 Cardinals.