• The game took 14 innings and lasted 4 hours and 25 minutes. The Detroit Free Press reported that the only Opening Day game to last longer in terms of innings was a 15-inning game between the Washington Senators and Philadelphia Athletics in 1926.
• The White Sox used 23 players, the Tigers 20; the 43 total players was one shy of the American League record for players used in one game, according to the Chicago Tribune game story.
• The winning runs scored on a two-run homer by White Sox second baseman Nellie Fox, who would hit only 35 home runs in his 19-year major-league career. It was Fox’s first home run since September 19, 1957.
• The temperature at game time was 37 degrees and dropping. “It was freezing,” recalled Chicago Daily News writer John Kuenster. “I even wrote down the temperature on my score sheet — it was 33 degrees when the game ended.”2
• Despite the frigid weather, White Sox team President Bill Veeck, who had acquired majority ownership of the team during the 1958-59 offseason, watched the entire game wearing only a sports jacket for protection. “Haven’t owned an overcoat since 1942,” he told reporters.3
• As Veeck braved the weather, the press reported that Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, whose rebels had taken control in January of 1959, “had to decline, with regrets,” an invitation from Veeck “to attend the White Sox home opener in Chicago . … Castro’s office, which said it had received 20 telephone calls from Chicago as Veeck attempted to line up Castro for a Chicago appearance,” had turned down a similar invitation from the Washington Senators.4
• The game was disrupted by fights in the stands, fans running onto the field, and objects thrown at players. White Sox left fielder Johnny Callison was “peppered … with empty cans, marbles, and sugar cubes,” said the Daily News. “One can struck him on the back of the head, and raised a lump.”5 “It was listed as BASEBALL opener in Detroit,” wrote Lyle Smith. “It turned out to be a BASE-BRAWL opener.”6

The game, played before 38,332 shivering fans, featured a matchup of two outstanding pitchers, Billy Pierce of the White Sox and Jim Bunning of the Tigers. Pierce was making his fourth consecutive Opening Day start for the White Sox (and the seventh of his career); he had faced Bunning and the Tigers in the 1958 opener at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, with Detroit winning, 4-3.

The 1959 opener began quietly. The Tigers scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the first when their number-3 hitter, Al Kaline, hit the first pitch he faced in the 1959 regular season into the left-field stands to give Detroit a 1-0 lead. That was all the scoring until the top of the fourth, when the White Sox loaded the bases on a single by future Tigers star Norm Cash, a bunt single by Al Smith, and a walk to Callison; Pierce’s fielder’s choice grounder brought Cash home with the tying run.

The game began to pick up steam in the fifth inning. Fox singled to open the top half of the inning for Chicago; Jim Landis followed with a two-run homer to give the White Sox a 3-1 lead. Cash singled one out later, and after Bunning, who had allowed nine hits in 4⅓ innings, threw a wild pitch that moved Cash to second with Smith at the plate, he was relieved by Tom Morgan, who got out of the inning with no further scoring. The Tigers responded with four hits and three runs in the bottom of the inning; the big blow was a two-run single by Harvey Kuenn, driving in Morgan, who had singled, and Eddie Yost, who followed with a double. Kuenn moved to third on a double by Kaline and scored on Gail Harris’s groundout.

Pierce was removed for a pinch-hitter in the top of the sixth, and the rest of the game featured a parade of relief pitchers (six for Chicago and four for Detroit, including Morgan). It also featured a parade of disruptions. “Altogether,” wrote Bob Vanderberg, “play was halted four times by fans entering the playing field.” The disruptions included fans hurling various items at White Sox players, particularly Callison, who was playing in his first major-league season opener. “People were throwing shit at me in the outfield,” he later recalled. “I had an empty fifth of whiskey come flyin’ over my head. And somebody got me in the head with a marble. I was a little shaky out there anyway. I didn’t need that. And there was one guy climbing up the foul pole. I’m thinking, ‘What the hell is this? They don’t do this in Bakersfield.’”7 Although several people were arrested, the White Sox were furious about the lack of police protection. “I didn’t see a cop all day,” said Veeck.8

The game continued, and the White Sox appeared to take control when they scored four times in the top of the seventh, a half-inning that featured two hits, two walks and a bases-loaded error by Tigers left fielder Larry Doby. Attempting to make a difficult catch on a fly ball by Billy Goodman, Doby slipped on the wet sod and all three runners were able to score. The Tigers fought back in the bottom of the eighth; White Sox reliever Ray Moore walked Doby and Rocky Bridges after retiring the first two hitters, and pinch-hitter Charlie Maxwell tied the game, 7-7, with a three-run homer into the right-field pavilion.

The score remained deadlocked until the top of the 14th inning, but there was plenty of action in the interim. Detroit put two men on the bottom of the ninth, but White Sox reliever Rudy Arias, making his first major-league appearance, escaped the jam. The 10th inning featured multiple baserunners for both teams. The White Sox had two men on with only one out in the top of the inning, but Tigers reliever George Susce got Ray Boone to hit into a fielder’s choice and then struck out Smith. The Tigers loaded the bases with nobody out against Jerry Staley in the bottom of the inning (Johnny Groth double, Bridges bunt single, intentional walk to Lou Berberet), but Staley retired pinch-hitter Gus Zernial on a dribbler in front of the plate that allowed White Sox catcher Sherm Lollar to retire Groth; Yost then hit into an inning-ending double play.

The White Sox finally took the lead for good in the 14th. Working his fourth inning in relief, Tigers left-hander Don Mossi retired the first two batters, but Sammy Esposito singled and Fox followed with his two-run homer. Detroit put a man on against Staley in the bottom of the inning, but White Sox left-hander Don Rudolph, summoned to face lefty-swinging pinch-hitter Neil Chrisley, got him to fly out to give Chicago the first win in what would prove to be a magical season. The Tigers, meanwhile, lost their first six games of the season (and 15 of the first 17); Detroit finished the year in fourth place with a 76-78 record, 18 games behind the White Sox.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET195904100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1959/B04100DET1959.htm

Notes

1 Briggs Stadium was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.

2 Bob Vanderberg, ’59 Summer of the Sox: The Year the World Series Came to Chicago (Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing Inc., 1999), 34.

3 Tommy Devine, “Oh You Nellie Fox — You’re Sly One,” Detroit Free Press, April 11, 1959: 14.

4 “Castro Turns Down Bid to Sox Opener,” Chicago Tribune, April 11, 1959: 79.

5 “Protect Callison from Fans,” Chicago Daily News, April 11, 1959: 20.

6 Lyall Smith, “Chicago Wins Thriller, 9-7,” Detroit Free Press, April 11, 1959: 1.

7 Vanderberg, 34-35.

8 “Cops Away, Fans Play; Hurl at Sox,” Chicago Tribune, April 11, 1959: 79.

With the season in its infancy, the White Sox entered the game at Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium tied for third place in the American League standings with a record of five wins and four losses. They trailed the first-place Cleveland Indians by 2½ games. Kansas City was in sixth place, 3½ games behind Cleveland with a record the opposite of Chicago’s, four wins and five losses.

Chicago had finished second in the American League in 1958, 10 games behind the New York Yankees. The White Sox were led by the double-play combination of second baseman Nellie Fox and shortstop Luis Aparicio and a trio of pitchers, Dick Donovan, Billy Pierce, and Early Wynn. Kansas City had finished the 1958 season in seventh place in the American League with a record of 73 wins and 81 losses, 19 games behind New York. On offense the 1958 Athletics were led by outfielder Bob Cerv (.305/38 home runs/104 RBIs). During the ’58 season the A’s had acquired young slugger Roger Maris (28 home runs, 80 RBIs) from the Cleveland Indians, and the team was hoping to improve in 1959.

To face the A’s, White Sox manager Al Lopez chose Early Wynn, (1-1 3.52 ERA), who was making his third start of the 1959 season in year number 19 of his career. Kansas City manager Harry Craft selected Ned Garver, (1-1 1.08 ERA), a veteran in his 12th big-league season. Garver was also making his third 1959 start.

Garver mowed the White Sox down one, two, three to begin the game on a groundout by Billy Goodman and fly outs by Fox and Jim Landis. Wynn gave up a leadoff single to Bill Tuttle, who stole second base with Whitey Herzog at the plate and moved to third when Herzog grounded out. Hector Lopez singled to left field to drive in Tuttle with the first run of the game. After retiring Maris, Wynn walked Kent Hadley but struck out Hal Smith to end the inning.

Chicago quickly tied the game in the top of the second inning on doubles by Sherm Lollar and  Jim Rivera. In the bottom half, Kansas City knocked Wynn out of the game with five runs, obtained on run-scoring singles by Garver and Herzog and a three-run home run by Maris. Lopez had seen enough and out came Wynn and in came Bob Shaw, who began what Richard Dozer of the Chicago Tribune called “another magnificent relief effort.”1 At that point in his career, Shaw was primarily a reliever, having started only five games in the previous two seasons while pitching in a total of 53 games for the Tigers and then the White Sox.

Chicago narrowed the gap to 6-5 in the third and fourth innings on a run-scoring double by Fox in the third and a three-run homer by Aparicio in the fourth. It was the Chicago shortstop’s second home run of the season. The light-hitting Aparicio would have just 29 extra-base hits during the season. After Aparicio’s blast, Garver was replaced on the mound by Bud Daley.

Chicago tied the game in the top of the fifth inning. Goodman led off with an infield single and left the game for pinch-runner Sammy Esposito. After Fox had singled, Landis advanced the runners with a sacrifice. The A’s then issued an intentional walk to Lollar to load the bases. Ray Boone, pinch-hitting for Cash, brought home Esposito with a fly ball.

Despite giving up a leadoff double to Maris in the fifth inning, Shaw got out of the inning unscathed. The White Sox then went ahead 8-6 in the top of the sixth. An error on a wide throw by second baseman Hector Lopez allowed Aparicio to streak home with the first run, and Fox drove home the eighth run of the game for Chicago with a single to left.

Tom Gorman assumed the pitching duties for Kansas City at the start of the seventh inning, and what followed is a story perhaps worthy of Ripley’s “Believe It or Not.”

Ray Boone, the first batter, reached first on a throwing error by Joe DeMaestri. Al Smith bunted and was safe when Hal Smith bobbled the ball trying to make a barehanded pickup. Johnny Callison lined a single to right to score Boone, and when Maris fumbled the ball, Smith scored and Callison advanced to third.

Aparicio walked and stole second base and Shaw walked to fill the bases. Gorman was removed from the game after throwing two balls to Earl Torgeson. Mark Freeman took over and walked Torgeson to score Callison.

Fox walked to force in Aparicio with the fourth run of the inning.  Landis forced Shaw at the plate, but Freeman passed Lollar and the fifth run strolled home. George Brunet, the sixth Athletics pitcher of the day, then took over. A walk to Boone saw Fox trot home with the sixth run of the inning. Al Smith walked to score Landis, and Callison was hit by a pitch, scoring Lollar with the inning’s eighth run. Lou Skizas ran for Callison, who had suffered a bruised arm, but nothing more serious.

Aparicio walked to force home Boone. Shaw struck out, but Brunet passed Bubba Phillips and Fox, pushing across the final two runs of the inning. The 10 walks in one inning fell one short of the major-league record, set by the New York Yankees against the Washington Senators on September 11, 1949. (New York walked 11 times in the third inning of the game.) Brunet got the final out of the inning (which took 45 minutes to complete) when Landis tapped a grounder to the mound. The White Sox now held a 19-6 lead. What was truly remarkable was the scoring of 11 runs in one inning on just one base hit.

Chicago scored another run in the ninth without the benefit of a walk to complete the 20-6 win over Kansas City.

The White Sox received 13 walks in the game. Wrote Richard Dozer: “The Chicago White Sox proved again Wednesday night that you can score without hitting. But never before were they so forceful in presenting their case.”2 It was a case that the White Sox — who would win the 1959 American League pennant despite ranking sixth in the league in both runs scored and team batting average — continued to present all season long.

Sources

In addition to the game-story and box-score sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites and the game story by Joe McGuff in the April 23, 1959, Kansas City Times.

Notes

1 Richard Dozier, “Sox Win, 20-6: Score 11 Runs on 1 Hit,” Chicago Tribune, April 23, 1959: 69.

2 Ibid.

Early Wynn was a bulldog on the mound, a take-no-prisoners right-hander who did not hesitate to use the occasional brushback pitch if he felt it gave him an edge. Throughout his career, Wynn struggled with his control, which did not hurt his intimidation factor. He had been a promising, hard-throwing youngster with the lowly Washington Senators, but his fortunes changed when he was traded to the Indians after the 1948 season. In the early 1950s Cleveland abounded in great starting pitchers, but was a perennial bridesmaid to the powerhouse New York Yankees from 1951 to 1953. Finally, in 1954, under skipper Al Lopez, the Tribe won 111 games to capture the American League pennant by eight games over New York. Much of the success came on the strength of its five aces: Wynn (23 wins), Mike Garcia (19), Bob Lemon (23), Art Houtteman (15), and Bob Feller (13). But the Indians were swept by the New York Giants in the World Series.

Wynn won 20 or more games four times with Cleveland (1951, 1953, 1954, 1956). Nevertheless, at the time of his trade to the White Sox, he was fast approaching 38 years of age, coming off an unspectacular campaign in which he had won 14 and lost 17, with an unsightly 4.31 earned-run average. Despite his being reunited with Lopez, who was now skippering the White Sox, Wynn’s first summer in Comiskey Park in 1958 was more of the same: 14 wins, 16 losses, and a 4.13 ERA, although he made his fifth All-Star Game appearance.

On the bright side, the 1959 White Sox looked like a team heading in the right direction. After half a decade of being the third-best squad in the AL after New York and Cleveland, Chicago had finished a distant second behind the Yanks each of the previous two seasons. Creating a buzz on Chicago’s South Side was new owner Bill Veeck, an iconoclast known as much for his promotional genius as for his eye for talent. The White Sox did not have much offense. They featured solid pitching and fielding, however, and Lopez insisted to Veeck that the team was good enough to win. A lot hinged on what kind of contribution they could get from the geriatric Wynn.

Hoping for a comeback season, Wynn started 1959 well enough, with a complete-game victory against the Tigers in which he gave up only one earned run. He proceeded to get hit hard in his next three starts, including a dreadful game in Kansas City in which he gave up six earned runs in less than two innings to the doormat Athletics (but did not figure in the decision).

By May 1, Wynn’s ERA was 6.14. He was scheduled to face the Red Sox that evening at Comiskey. Boston would be without the services of slugger Ted Williams, who was recovering from a stiff neck suffered in spring training. Although they were playing under .500, the Red Sox lineup still featured Pete Runnels, Vic Wertz, Jackie Jensen, and Frank Malzone. They were no pushovers. Chicago, in second place with a record of 10-6, was only a game behind the Indians.

With one out in the top of the first inning, Wynn stepped off the mound and gestured toward his shortstop, Luis Aparicio. Only two days removed from his 23rd birthday, Aparicio was a slick-fielding Venezuelan, an All-Star in 1958, and one of the rising stars in the game. Apparently, Wynn wanted Aparicio to take a few steps to his right. The positioning struck Aparicio as odd, given that the left-handed-hitting Runnels was due up. A classic singles hitter, Runnels had a great eye at the plate. A two-time .300 hitter, he was also riding a hot bat.

Aparicio, against his better judgment, moved slightly to his right. Moments later, Runnels hit a sharp grounder that eluded Aparicio’s outstretched glove just to the left of the second-base bag. As the ball bounded into center field, Aparicio was convinced that had he not listened to Wynn, he would have gobbled up the ball and thrown Runnels out easily.

To the fans still shuffling in, it was just an innocuous-looking base knock. Wynn struck out the next batter, and White Sox catcher Sherm Lollar gunned down Runnels trying to steal second. Runnels’ seeing-eye single, however, proved more significant as the game progressed.

Wynn was not at his best. Six times, he walked either the first or the second man in an inning (the second, third, fifth, sixth, and seventh). In the fifth, he issued back-to-back free passes after the first out. Through guile, however, along with a dizzying assortment of sliders, curves, and the occasional knuckleball, Wynn kept the Red Sox off-balance, fending off further trouble.

Wynn’s mound opponent, veteran righty Tom Brewer, was pitching a very strong game. At age 27, the South Carolinian was, like Wynn, looking for a bounce-back year. An All-Star in 1956 when he won 19 games, Brewer was coming off a lackluster 12-12 campaign. Both pitchers exchanged zeros, but the Red Sox threatened in the top of the eighth. Don Buddin worked a leadoff walk, advancing to second on a wild pitch. After a fly to deep right, Buddin scampered to third. Wynn settled down, however, striking out the next two batters.

In the bottom of the eighth, Wynn was scheduled to bat leadoff. One of the better-hitting pitchers throughout his career, he had already collected a double in the game. He took two quick balls, then a strike, before lifting a high drive to left field. It was deep, but playable, for Bill Renna. At the base of the wall, Renna timed his leap, reached … and the ball bounced off his glove into the waiting hands of one Bobby Sura, a 16-year-old from the nearby town of Argo.1 Wynn’s home run, his first of the season and the 15th of his career, put Chicago up, 1-0.

Wynn set the Red Sox down in order in the ninth, including a game-ending strikeout of Renna. That gave Wynn 14 K’s in the game (a career high), increasing his lifetime total to 1,849, the most among all active pitchers. After the first-inning hit by Runnels, Wynn did not allow another (although he walked seven). It was the second and final one-hitter of his career, the closest he ever came to a no-hitter. Later, in the clubhouse, Wynn admitted that he should never have directed Aparicio to reposition himself. “If I hadn’t, he would have fielded it easily,” he said. “After the game, Looey told me he’d never listen to me again.”2

Brewer, the Boston pitcher, was equally parsimonious, surrendering only five hits and one walk in going the distance. He wound up with a 10-12 record in 1959, coupled with a 3.76 ERA. Shoulder problems ultimately forced him from the game at 29.

The victory was the 252nd of Wynn’s career. Only Warren Spahn had tossed more shutouts among active moundsmen (45 to 38). Wynn would finish out his Hall of Fame career in 1963 with an even 300 victories.

The 13,000-plus in attendance savored the early-season highlight, a rousing start to the Veeck Era. The game helped kick-start a fantastic season for Wynn, who led the majors in wins (22), and the AL in starts (37) and innings pitched (255⅔). He also topped all of baseball in walks (119) for the second time. Wynn won the Cy Young Award in a landslide, back at a time when it was given to the single best pitcher in the major leagues.3 The White Sox, meanwhile, soon earned the nickname 4“The Hitless Wonders,” riding their strong pitching and fielding all the way to the 1959 World Series, only to fall to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Richard Dozer, “Wynn Wins 1-Hitter, 1-0, on Own Homer,” Chicago Tribune, May 2, 1959.

2 Munzel, “Hats Off…!” Sporting News, May 13, 1959.

3 So who got the better of the trade? Wynn went 28-29 for Chicago over the next three seasons before being released, his career win total stuck at 299. He returned to Cleveland to pick up his 300th victory. Al Smith batted .276 in his five seasons in Chicago, including an All-Star Game appearance in 1960. He is most famous for the photograph taken of him in the 1959 World Series: Standing with his back to the Comiskey Park wall on a Charlie Neal home run, Smith is doused on the head when an excited fan accidentally spills a cup of beer on him. Fred Hatfield collected only one hit in his Indians career, and while Minnie Minoso had two fine seasons in Cleveland, his stay was short-lived, as the Tribe dealt him back to the White Sox after the 1959 campaign.

4 The sobriquet was first applied to the 1906 White Sox, who won the AL pennant despite a team batting average of only .230, then captured the World Series from the crosstown Cubs, whose .763 season winning percentage still stands as the best in the majors.

Lou Hatter of the Baltimore Sun described Chicago’s battle with Baltimore by writing, “The White Sox taunted the punchless Orioles for 4 hours and 35 minutes.”2 A crowd of 25,782 turned out at Comiskey Park for the game. Only about half (12,562) paid for their tickets. The rest were “striking steel workers, plus idled white collar workers in the industry,”3 honor students and Pony League ballplayers. It was actually the second time the White Sox and Orioles went 17 rounds in the 1959 season. The first, on June 4 (also in Chicago), consumed 4 hours and 37 minutes and ended with a 6-5 Chicago victory. Both results saw the home team win in walk-off fashion.

Baltimore, seven games out of first place, was in the fifth game of a 15-game road trip, playing the second of a four-game series against Chicago. The Orioles had dropped four games in a row. League-leading Chicago was in a 13-game homestand and owned a three-game winning streak. The night before, Chicago had bested the Orioles, 2-1, with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth by Al Smith off Hoyt Wilhelm. In this Saturday afternoon match on the 25th, All-Star left-hander Billy O’Dell took the mound for the visiting Baltimore, opposed by Chicago’s righty Bob Shaw. Shaw was seeking his 10th victory of the season while O’Dell was after win number seven.

Baltimore took the lead in the first frame. Willie Tasby led off with a single to left, then was caught stealing. With two outs, Bob Nieman lifted a fly ball to right that Jim McAnany misplayed for a two-base error. Gene Woodling singled to left, driving in Nieman, and Baltimore was on top, 1-0.

Chicago answered in its half of the second inning. Smith doubled to left. John Romano followed with an RBI single into center field, and the ballgame was tied. O’Dell settled down, allowing just one hit (a two-out single in the third) through the next six innings.

From the second inning until the eighth, Shaw also kept the Baltimore batters in check, allowing just three singles. Then, in the top of the eighth, Tasby led off again, and again he reached on a single up the middle. Bob Boyd’s sacrifice advanced Tasby to second. Nieman smacked a double to left, and his “two-bagger sent the Birds ahead.”4 Woodling was intentionally walked by Shaw. Baltimore manager Paul Richards sent Albie Pearson in to run for Nieman. Shaw hunkered down and struck out Brooks Robinson, bringing Billy Klaus to the plate. Klaus singled to left, but the run-scoring opportunity was thwarted when White Sox left fielder Smith fielded the ball and fired to home, nailing Pearson at the plate. However, Baltimore had grabbed the 2-1 lead.

In the top of the ninth, Gus Triandos led off with a single and scooted to second on Shaw’s wild pitch. After Billy Gardner flied out, O’Dell sent a grounder to short. Triandos, in a baserunning blunder, tried to advance to third but was easily thrown out by All-Star and Gold Glove-winning shortstop Luis Aparicio.

It was do-or-die for Chicago in the bottom of the ninth. Sherm Lollar sent O’Dell’s first-pitch slider over the left-field wall for his 13th home run of the season. The game was tied, but Chicago continued to threaten. Smith worked a walk and Romano bunted him to second. Orioles skipper Richards called for an intentional walk to Bubba Phillips. Then “a gamble by Smith backfired.”5 McAnany bounced a grounder to shortstop Klaus, who threw to second baseman Gardner for the force out. Gardner’s relay to first baseman Boyd was not in time to get McAnany. Smith “rounded third and streaked plateward, only to expire at the counting station under Boyd’s throw to Triandos on an extremely close play.”6 This now forced extra play.

Chicago had at least two baserunners in each of the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th innings, but the White Sox could not manufacture the winning run. The game kept going. At the end of the 16th inning, the ballpark lights were turned on.

The 17th inning was the deciding, action-packed frame. With one out, Baltimore’s Gardner singled to center, and Walt Dropo, who had entered the game in the 15th, singled to left. Both runners were stranded as Turk Lown, the second pitcher for Chicago, retired both Tasby and pitcher Billy Loes.7 (Loes was sent to the plate because Baltimore had already used 13 position players in the game.)

In the bottom half, Jim Landis started things with a single to left field. Lollar singled to right, sending Landis to third. Sammy Esposito ran for Lollar. Smith was intentionally walked, giving the Orioles a chance for an out at any base. With the bases loaded, Jim Rivera grounded a ball to first, and Boyd threw home to get Landis for the first out. Phillips was due up. Chicago manager Al Lopez held him back in favor of pinch-hitter Harry Simpson. According to the Chicago Tribune, Lopez “remembered that Simpson had hit a two-run pinch single against Loes earlier in the year. Simpson also had hit a pinch homer for Kansas City this year to beat Loes in the ninth inning.”8 Simpson lined the knockout blow into right-center “to end the marathon.”9 Chicago had won in a walk-off, 3-2. After the game, Simpson described his success against Loes, saying, “I guess I hit him pretty good. I’ve made three pinch hits off him this year in four times.”10

The White Sox marooned 18 runners on the basepaths (to Baltimore’s 12). Double plays had choked off the Chicago rallies in each of the 14th and 16th innings. Both starters pitched well enough to win. Shaw stayed on the mound for 11 innings, while O’Dell pitched into the 10th.

Baltimore dropped its fifth straight game, making this the team’s longest losing streak of the season.11 Tasby had the most productive day for Baltimore, with a 3-for-8 performance. Baltimore batters had 12 hits in the game.

Chicago, meanwhile, won its fourth consecutive game (all by one run) and captured its 23rd one-run decision in 28 games. The White Sox finished the season winning 35 of 50 one-run games. The streaking White Sox were winners of 22 out of their last 31 since June 21 and 12 of 16 since the All-Star break.

This extra-inning affair was the second of four matches between Chicago and Baltimore that extended well beyond nine innings. On August 6 the two teams battled for 18 innings (the equivalent of two full games) before the tie game was called “on account of curfew.”12 Then, on September 11, in the second game of a doubleheader, the two teams played 16 innings in a game that ended in a 1-0 walk-off victory for the Orioles.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com, sabr.org, and retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Edward Prell, “Sox Beat Orioles, 3-2, in 17th Inning!” Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1959: 29-30.

2 Lou Hatter, “Chisox Nip Birds, 3-2, on Simpson’s Single in 17th,” Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1959: 41.

3 Prell.

4 Hatter.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Lown relieved Shaw to start the top of the 12th inning.

8 Prell. Simpson had been traded by Kansas City to Chicago in exchange for Ray Boone on May 3, 1959. Then, on August 25, Simpson was traded with Robert Sagers to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Ted Kluszewski.

9 “White Sox Beat Orioles, 3-2, in 17th,” New York Daily News, July 26, 1959: 191.

10 Edward Prell, “ ‘Unconcern’ Is Game with Winning Sox,” Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1959: 30.

11 The Orioles fell to the White Sox the next day as well, in the first game of a doubleheader. Baltimore won the nightcap. The six-game losing streak turned out to be their longest of the 1959 campaign.

12 retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1959/B08060BAL1959.htm.

The White Sox arrived in Cleveland with a 76-49 record and 1 1/2 game lead over the Indians. The Tribe, riding an eight-game winning streak, had fans envisaging a return to the top of the standings was imminent. After dropping the first two games of the series, the Indians entered the August 30 doubleheader 3 1/2 games off the pace.    

The 1959 White Sox were not an offensive juggernaut. The team finished the season sixth in team batting with a .250 average and dead last with 97 home runs. The team depended on small ball and a strong pitching staff. The Sox finished with a league-leading 3.29 ERA and had one of the strongest bullpens in baseball. The relief corps was led by a pair of right-handers, Jerry Staley and Turk Lown.2 The roommates combined for 17 wins, 30 saves, and a 2.53 ERA and factored prominently in the doubleheader.3

A huge throng of 66,586 fans jammed into cavernous Municipal Stadium on the shores of Lake Erie for the Sunday afternoon twin bill as afternoon temperatures rose to mid-80s under overcast skies. In the opener, right-hander Early Wynn notched his 17th victory of the year when he limited the Indians to three runs over seven-plus innings. He helped his own cause with a sixth-inning 400-foot, one-out home run to right that triggered a five-run rally that gave the Sox a 5-2 lead.4 Staley came in the eighth and pitched two scoreless innings to nail down the Sox 6-3 come-from-behind victory. The win increased their lead to 4 1/2 games and placed the Indians in a must-win situation heading into the nightcap.   

The White Sox sent right-hander Barry Latman to the mound. The 23-year old was making his 18th start of the season and entered the game with a record of 7-5 and 3.61 ERA. The home-standing Indians countered with 22-year-old hard-throwing Gary Bell. The Indians’ versatile right-hander, who finished third in the American League Rookie of the Year voting a year earlier, at varying times of the year worked as a starter, long reliever and closer. He entered the game with a record of 14-10 with a 3.78 ERA. 

Bell and Latman traded 1-2-3 innings before the White Sox broke through against Bell in the top of the second. Ted Kluszewski, described by a Cleveland writer as a “Percheron among ponies,” opened the inning with a single to center.5 Rookie catcher Johnny Romano drew a walk and with one out Al Smith singled to right-center to score Kluszewski and advance Romano to third.  Smith moved up to second when center fielder Jimmy Piersall fumbled the ball in center. Jim Rivera drew an intentional walk to load the bases. Latman followed with a long fly ball that sent Rocky Colavito to the screen to deep right-center for a two-run sacrifice fly.  Romano trotted home from third and Smith followed when third baseman George Strickland took the relay throw down the third-base line and started back for the bag at third without realizing Smith had already passed him.6 Once he realized Smith wasn’t there, Strickland pivoted and threw home, but Smith slid in safely ahead of the tag. 

The White Sox added to the lead in the top of the third. Second baseman Nellie Fox singled to center to start the inning. Jim Landis grounded into a fielder’s choice that forced Fox at second before Kluszewski and Romano walked to load the bases. Fearing the game may be slipping away early, Indians manager Joe Gordon summoned 24-year old right-hander Jim “Mudcat” Grant from the bullpen. Grant was greeted with a single off the bat of Billy Goodman that scored Landis and Kluszewski. After Smith was retired on a nubber handled by Indians catcher Ed Fitz Gerald, Grant intentionally walked right fielder Jim Rivera to load the bases and pitch to Latman.  Latman flied out to center to end the inning. However, the damage was done and the Sox now had a 5-0 lead.  

The Indians finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs Minnie Minoso walked. Tito Francona followed with a single to center before Colavito deposited his league-leading 39th home run into the upper deck down the third-base line to trim the White Sox lead to 5-3.7

The inspired White Sox responded quickly with two more runs in the top of the fifth inning. With one out Goodman tripled to center and moments later Smith hit his 12th home run of the year to increase the Sox lead to 7-3. The Indians Woodie Held, who also hit a home run in the opener, trimmed the lead to 7-4 with a lead-off home run in the bottom of the inning. It was Held’s 26th of year.

Right-hander Mike Garcia came on in relief in the top of the sixth. The Big Bear, who won 142 games in 12 seasons with the Indians, was nearing the end of his career.  After giving up a leadoff single to Luis Aparicio, who was erased when he was caught stealing attempting to steal second, Garcia pitched two scoreless innings.

The hard-throwing Lown came on in relief of Latman in the bottom of the sixth. Lown was in the midst of his best season and entered the game with a 9-2 record with 11 saves and 2.64 ERA. Just as Staley had down in the opener, Lown came in to nail down the victory. Lown scattered five hits and struck out three to earn a four-inning save.    

The White Sox added insurance runs in both the eighth and ninth innings. In the eighth, Lown singled to center with one out and advanced to third when Aparicio singled to right. Fox followed with a sacrifice fly to increase the Sox lead to 8-3. In the ninth, Sherm Lollar tripled to right with one out and scored the White Sox ninth and final run of the game when Sammy Esposito, who entered the game in the bottom of the seventh as a defensive replacement at third, sent a sacrifice fly to left. 

The victory was the White Sox 13th in 18 games against the Indians that season. Sox players celebrated the four-game sweep by whooping it up in the clubhouse, but when White Sox manager Al Lopez was asked by photographers to pose with a broom to show how the Indians were swept out of the pennant race, he cautioned, “Let’s not have any of that. We still have 25 tough games to play.”8  Cleveland manager Joe Gordon acknowledged the White Sox “beat the devil out of us.” 9  However, despite being 5 1/2 games off the pace, the Tribe’s skipper wasn’t ready to concede the race. “Sure the White Sox have a good lead now. You never can tell what’s going to happen to a ball club. They might hit a losing streak and we might get hot again and the race is wide open again, Gordon said.”10

News of the White Sox sweep set off celebrations throughout the South Side of Chicago.  It had been 40 years since the Sox had won the American League pennant and their fans were ready to celebrate. When the Sox returned to Midway Airport that evening, thousands of delirious fans were on hand to give the team a hero’s welcome. The crowd was so large the players were instructed to collect their bags on the tarmac to avoid a disruption in the terminal due to the large crowd.

Despite the jubilation throughout the Chicago, not everyone was convinced the Sox would hang on to win the pennant. One Chicago Tribune reader opined that the White Sox have the fielding and pitching, but lack “the hitting that every pennant winning team must have” and predicted the Indians would win the pennant.11 On September 22 the Go-Go Sox retuned to Municipal Stadium and clinched the American League pennant with a 4-2 victory over the Indians.  

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also relied on Baseball-reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Joe Doyle, “According to Doyle,” South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Indiana), August 31, 1959: 14.

2 Staley preferred “Jerry” but also appears as Gerry Staley on many baseball reference sites. 

3 Adam Ulrey, “Turk Lown,” SABR BioProject. Retrieved from https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/9b7e5ac4

4 “Gordon, Lopez Agree: Indians Still In It,” Evening Independent (Massillon, Ohio), August 31, 1959: 16

5 Edward Prell, “Sox Get Heroes’ Welcome: Come Home After Cleveland Sweep 5½ Games Ahead,” Chicago Tribune, August 31, 1959: 60. A Percheron is a well-muscled breed of draft horse known for its intelligence and willingness to work.  

6 Edward Prell.

7 Ibid.

8 “Gordon, Lopez Agree: Indians Still In It.”

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Thomas Cook, “Says Sox Lack Hitting,” Chicago Tribune, August 31, 1959: 60.

The ’59 Sox weren’t making things easy for their fans. A five-hit 1-0 shutout by right-hander Bob Shaw over the Detroit Tigers on Friday, September 18, had reduced the White Sox “magic number” (the combination of Sox victories and/or Indians losses needed to clinch the pennant) to two. But the magic number had stayed at two on Saturday and Sunday, as the Sox suffered a pair of 5-4 losses to the Tigers while the uncooperative Indians were logging a pair of victories over the Kansas City Athletics (by scores of 13-7 and 4-3). Both teams were idle on Monday, and the Sox entered Tuesday’s showdown in Cleveland with a 91-59 record, three and a half games ahead of the Tribe (87-62). Interest in Tuesday night’s game was so strong in Chicago that WGN-TV, the club’s television outlet, arranged to televise the game “as a public service,” with Jack Brickhouse and Lou Boudreau describing the action.1 Prior to then, WGN had televised only home day games involving the White Sox and Chicago Cubs.

To face the Indians, Sox manager Al Lopez selected staff ace Early Wynn, who entered the game with a league-leading 20 wins (20-10 record). Wynn and Lopez shared a long history, as Lopez had managed the Indians from 1951-56, years in which Wynn had recorded four 20-plus victory seasons for the Tribe. When the White Sox acquired Wynn in a trade with the Indians in December of 1957, Lopez had commented that “If there was one game I had to win, my pitcher would be Early Wynn.”2 Indians manager Joe Gordon countered with rookie right-hander Jim Perry, who entered the contest with a 12-9 record and an excellent 2.61 ERA. Perry was only 23 years old, and his experience paled in comparison to the 39-year-old Wynn, who was in his 19th major-league season and had posted 269 major-league wins. But Indians general manager Frank Lane, who had once held the same job with the White Sox (1949-55) was confident. “He’s a great money player,” Lane said of Wynn, “but we’re going to beat him.”3

The crowd of 54,293 watched Perry set down the White Sox in order in each of the first two innings. Cleveland threatened in the second when ex-Sox star Minnie Minoso (who had been traded to the Indians in the deal for Wynn) was hit in the left wrist to lead off the frame, and Russ Nixon followed with a single that advanced Minoso to third. Rocky Colavito then lofted a flyball to left field; Sox left fielder Al Smith, who had come to Chicago in the Wynn-Minoso trade (Fred Hatfield had gone to Cleveland along with Minoso), made the catch and “threw on the fly to [catcher John] Romano, who put the ball on the sliding Minoso”4 for a double play. (“Minnie and I used to have a bet—who could throw out the other guy,” Smith would later recall. “That year [1959], he didn’t throw me out once. I threw him out three times.”)[5] Woodie Held popped out to end the inning. Frank Lane, who was watching the game from the press box, unloaded on his own team for the failure to score: “That guy at third [Coach Jo-Jo White] doesn’t think at all. He shouldn’t have sent Minnie home. It was only a short fly… That Colavito can’t drive in a run except the ones he drives himself in on a homer.”6

The White Sox broke through against Perry in the third. Bubba Phillips singled to center with one out; after Perry retired Wynn, Luis Aparicio doubled home Phillips, and Aparicio raced home on another double by Billy Goodman. Cleveland got a run back in the fifth. Held walked to lead off the inning. After pinch-hitter Chuck Tanner batted for third baseman George Strickland and struck out, another pinch-hitter, Gordy Coleman, singled. Jim Piersall then singled to center to drive in Held, with Coleman advancing to third. As Vic Power stepped to the plate, Lane grumbled: “This’ll be a double play. All Power does is hit into double plays.”7 Sure enough, Power grounded to Aparicio, who started a 6-4-3 DP to end the inning, with Lane lamenting that the Tribe should have opted to have Power lay down a squeeze bunt.

Mudcat Grant relieved Perry in the sixth, and after retiring Romano to start the inning, gave up back-to-back home runs to Smith and Jim Rivera to increase the White Sox lead to 4-1. In Cleveland’s half of the inning, Tito Francona led off with a single and Russ Nixon hit a one-out single to move Francona to third. After Colavito drove home Francona with a sacrifice fly to center field, Lopez replaced Wynn with Bob Shaw, who retired Held to end the inning. Cleveland threatened again in the seventh when Piersall and Power hit two-out singles, but Shaw got Francona to ground out to end the inning.

Cleveland mounted one last threat in the bottom of the ninth. Shaw retired Held to open the frame, but Jim Baxes singled off the pitcher’s glove. Indians manager Joe Gordon then allowed pitcher Jack Harshman, a one-time minor-league slugger as a first baseman, to hit for himself, and Harshman came through with a single that moved pinch-runner Ray Webster to second, and Piersall hit an infield single off Fox’s glove to load the bases. With Vic Power due up and Billy Pierce, Turk Lown and Jerry Staley all warming up, Lopez brought in Staley, a sinker-ball specialist. “When the White Sox bought Staley from the Yankees [in May of 1956] he was depending mostly on his knuckle ball,” Lopez had commented about Staley. “Over here he throws mostly the sinker, a real good one with great control.”8 Staley was expecting to get the call. “A situation like that, a ground ball gives you a chance to get a double play and get out of the inning,” he recalled.9

Staley needed only one pitch to bring home a White Sox pennant. Bob Vanderberg recorded Jack Brickhouse’s call on WGN-TV. “Here we go. Power is 1-for-4, an infield single—there’s a ground ball… Aparicio has it! Steps on second throws to first… The ballgame’s over! The White Sox are the champions of 1959! The 40-year wait has now ended!”10

According to Vanderberg, the double play was completed at 9:43 PM Chicago time, setting off celebrations both on the field and back in Chicago. “An estimated 20,000 people gathered in the Loop to salute the victory,” he wrote. “Thousands more began heading for Midway Airport, where the Sox’s planed was scheduled to land around 2 AM.”11 The Chicago Tribune estimated the crowd at Midway at 25,000, The Sporting News at over 100,000.

Along with the excitement about the White Sox pennant in Chicago, there was confusion and even some panic among many of the city’s residents that night. Chicago Fire Commissioner Robert Quinn, a good friend of Mayor Richard J. Daley and a passionate White Sox fan, decided to honor the Sox victory by turning on the city’s air-raid sirens. Many citizens feared that the city was under threat of nuclear attack. “The sirens sounded for about five minutes and brought anything but joyful reaction from thousands of people who thought there was an air raid,” wrote Jerry (later known as Jerome) Holtzman. “Television and radio shows had to be interrupted to explain that the sirens were sounded only to signal the first White Sox pennant in 40 years…. The Illinois Bell Telephone Co. said it handled the heaviest deluge of calls since the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945.”12

“The sirens’ wail made the night memorable, since there was no way for the people of Chicago to know whether the sirens were announcing the White Sox victory or the imminent arrival of the Russians,” wrote Bill Veeck. “I mean, if you were a White Sox fan, you had to figure that it was just your luck for The Bomb to be dropped right after the White Sox won the pennant. What else could follow 1919?”13

Sources

Kalas, Larry. Strength Down the Middle: The Story of the 1959 Chicago White Sox (Chicago: RR Donnelly & Sons, 1999).

White Sox television schedule information from The Sporting News Dope Book 1959.

Notes

1] “WGN-TV Will Televise Sox Game Tonight,” Chicago Tribune, September 22, 1959: 64.

2 Ed Prell, “Lopez calls on Wynn to Clinch Title,” Chicago Tribune, September 22, 1959: 61.

3 Robert Cromie, “Indian Fans Dream, Rush for Tickets,” Chicago Tribune, September 22, 1959: 64.

4 Edward Prell, “White Sox Win Pennant!” Chicago Tribune, September 23, 1959: 54.

5 Bob Vanderberg, ’59; Summer of the Sox: The Year the World Series Came to Chicago (Champaign, Illinois: Sports Publishing, Inc, 1999), 138.

6 David Condon, “In the Wake of the News,” Chicago Tribune, September 23, 1959: 57.

7 Ibid.

8 Edward Prell, “Castoff Hurlers Aid Lopez’s Rise,” Chicago Tribune, September 22, 1959: 65.

9 Vanderberg, 139.

10 Ibid., 139.

11 Ibid., 140.

12 Jerry Holtzman, “Sirens Sound for Chisox; Calls Flood Switchboards,” The Sporting News, September 30, 1959: 8.

13 Bill Veeck with Ed Linn, Veeck—As In Wreck (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1962), 350.

The traditional midweek start of the World Series would have to wait an extra day because the Milwaukee Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers were engaged in a best-of-three playoff to determine the winner of the National League pennant. The Dodgers swept the series, two games to none. They used eight pitchers during the pair of one-run triumphs, so manager Walter Alston had to sort out his staff before naming a Game One starter.

With a complement of rested hurlers, Lopez enjoyed some luxury as he chose veteran right-hander Early Wynn, who at 39 had led the AL with 22 victories, to start for the White Sox.  Alston selected righty Roger Craig, who sported a 5-0 record during the dramatic pennant drive beginning on August 30. The 29-year-old Craig had a World Series record of 1-1 from Dodgers postseasons in 1955 and 1956 when the team represented Brooklyn. Pitching for the Cleveland Indians, Wynn started and lost the second game of the 1954 World Series.

On Thursday, October 1, some White Sox ushers found that their morning coffee routine might bar them from getting to their assigned gates since the entry access was locked to control crowds.3 Ticket scalpers were plentiful, and one man carrying equipment and dressed in work clothes was turned away as a “gate-crasher” with a phony story that he needed to get to the office of team President Bill Veeck to repair an electrical circuit.4 Four Chicago policewomen were on duty to watch for female pickpockets in the ballpark.5

Outside the ballpark, restaurants and cart suppliers “made a killing” by raising their prices for food and beverages. However, all merchandise costs inside the ballpark remained the same except for the game program which sold for a half-dollar instead of 15 cents.6 Ever the showman, Veeck had 20,000 red roses handed out to the women in the crowd. The White Sox explained the absence of traditional postseason bunting in the ballpark by saying they wanted the fans to see the interior just as it was during the season. Veeck also decided to have his players wear white stockings with black stripes for the first time in years and added that this had been suggested “by at least 500 letter writers this season.”7 A crowd of 48,013 moved toward their seats to get settled for baseball on a crisp and cool day. Vendors were ordered to peddle their wares without blocking the patrons’ view of the game.8 Singer-actor Tony Martin sang the National Anthem while the crowd gazed upon an American Flag that had stuck at half-staff because of a pulley problem on the hoist.9

The White Sox took the field as the fans roared to encourage their team. The starting battery of Wynn and Sherm Lollar waited while an honorary first pitch was delivered by 1917 White Sox world champion heroes Urban “Red” Faber and Ray Schalk. Dodgers switch-hitter Junior Gilliam stepped into the left-hand batter’s box for the symbolic delivery.10 Faber’s “spitter” to Schalk was clearly outside, but plate umpire Bill Summers emphatically signaled a strike.11 The game begun, Gilliam grounded a 1-and-2 pitch to shortstop Luis Aparicio who fielded the sphere cleanly and fired to first baseman Ted Kluszewski for the out. Charlie Neal knocked a one-out single off the glove of third baseman Billy Goodman. Neal stole second and Duke Snider walked. Wynn escaped the jam when Norm Larker lined out to right fielder Jim Rivera.12

Craig started out with a curve for a called strike before Aparicio popped up to shortstop Maury Wills. Nellie Fox walked and took a large lead from first base. During the regular season, the “Go-Go Sox” were tops in the American League in stolen bases. Dodgers catcher Johnny Roseboro called for a pitchout and Fox dived safely back to the bag.13 Fox raced to third on a single to right-center by Jim Landis. No stranger to the National League and having had great past success versus Craig, the left-handed-batting Kluszewski drilled a groundball single past the lunge of first baseman Gil Hodges. Second baseman Neal dived for the ball, but came up empty; Fox came home and Landis scampered to third. The White Sox tally was the first postseason run recorded by the franchise since October 9, 1919. Landis came across to make it 2-0 after Lollar swatted a long drive to right-center that Larker gloved on the run.14 (The opening excitement was too much for 62-year-old George Thielmann of Cary, Illinois, who collapsed in his box seat of a heart attack and died.15)

Both hurlers retired the side in order in the second. Wynn completed another 1-2-3 inning in the top of the third after Neal’s long two-out blast to left field barely hooked foul. In the bottom half, Craig retired his fifth consecutive batter before Fox lined a double into the right-field corner.  Landis followed with another safety and plated Fox for the White Sox’ third run. Kluszewski kept the Chicago fans on their feet by lofting a slider to deep right. The ball, aided by a crosswind, had just enough air under it to drop into the first row of the stands for a two-run homer and increase the White Sox lead to 5-0.16 Alston pulled Craig and brought in right-hander Chuck Churn.

Lollar followed with a routine fly ball to left-center. The din of the crowd kept left fielder Wally Moon and Snider from hearing each other,17 and the outfielders collided. The ball was jarred from Snider’s grasp and Lollar slid safely into second.18 Goodman singled Lollar home, and Al Smith doubled to left-center over Moon’s outstretched glove. As Snider chased down the ball. Goodman held up at third, but then he raced home and Smith dashed to third on Snider’s errant throw to second. Rivera hit a grounder to second baseman Neal, whose throw home glanced off Rivera’s bat in front of the plate and past Roseboro for the Dodgers’ third error of the inning.19 Smith scored and Rivera moved to second. Pitcher Wynn doubled to left-center to drive in Rivera with the seventh run of the inning. The White Sox sent 11 hitters to the plate and turned the opener into a 9-0 laugher.

In the bottom of the fourth, Kluszewski boomed his second home run of the afternoon with Landis on first after his third single for an 11-0 advantage. “Big Klu” sent a hanging curve from Churn down the right-field line, where it hit the façade of the upper deck and dropped to the field.20 Alston removed Churn for right-hander Clem Labine, and later employed southpaw Sandy Koufax and righty Johnny Klippstein, who all quieted the South Siders’ bats and kept the large Chesterfield scoreboard from displaying additional Chicago tallies.

Lopez stayed with Wynn until Gilliam’s eighth-inning single. Wynn said his right elbow was stiffening,21 so right-hander Gerry Staley relieved him and induced Neal to ground into a twin killing. Staley allowed two hits in the ninth, but Kluszewski saved the shutout with a nifty stab of Roseboro’s smash and throw to Aparicio for a force play and the second out.22 Pinch-hitter Carl Furillo then flied out to left to end the game in 2:35. The White Sox had 11 runs, 11 hits, and no errors; for the Dodgers it was no runs, eight hits, and three errors.

The “Main Man” in the victorious clubhouse was Ted Kluszewski, who had three hits, five RBIs, and nine total bases. A sportswriter asked the native of nearby Argo, Illinois, “What’s Argo?” Kluszewski laughed and said, “Throw that guy out of here!”23 Dodgers manager Alston moaned, “We had the Chicago speed figured out, but nobody told us about all this power.”24

Later in the evening, Broadway odds-makers made the White Sox 9-to-5 favorites to win the World Series.25

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com, SABR BioProject, and The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record.

Notes

1 Edward Prell, “White Sox Win Pennant, Riotous Welcome; Sirens Scare City,” Chicago Tribune, September 23, 1959: 1.

2 Ibid.                                                                                                                                  

3 “A Tough Cop Guards Gate at Sox Park,” Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1959: 3.

4 George Bliss, “World Series Usher in 1938 Hits Top in ’59,” Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1959: 2.

5 “A Tough Cop.”

6 Ibid.

7 “Veeck Gets Even With Perini,” Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1959: 55-56.

8 “A Tough Cop.”

9 Dave Condon, The Go Go Chicago White Sox (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1960), 185.

10 Condon, 182 (photo caption).

11 “Veeck Gets Even.”

12 Condon, 185.

13 Video Production, Baseball Classics, 1959 World Series (Rare Sportsfilms, Inc., 2000).

14 Ibid.

15 “Executive, 62, Dies at Game as Sox Take Early Lead,” Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1959: 2.

16 Condon, 187.

17 Richard Dozer, “Losers Await New Day; Winners Too,” Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1959: 55.

18 Video, Baseball Classics, 1959 World Series.

19 Ibid.

20 “Sox Crush Dodgers in Opener, 11-0,” Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1959: 55.

21 Robert Cromie, “Losers Await New Day; Winners Too,” Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1959: 55.

22 Video, Baseball Classics, 1959 World Series.

23 “Two Homers Klu’s Greatest Thrill,” Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1959: 75.

24 “Losers Await”: 57.

25 “Revised Odds Say Sox 9-5 Series Favorites,” Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1959: 55.

A swarm of excited White Sox fans converged on the South Side ballpark’s neighborhood to wait overnight for the bleacher gate to open at 8 A.M. on Friday, October 2, 1959. Through an intermittent drizzle, they passed the time by watching television, ringing cowbells, and playing bridge.1 A male foursome from Pearl City, Illinois, even asked for their names to be put in the newspaper, so their spouses would believe they had ventured to the city to attend Game Two of the World Series.2

Los Angeles manager Walter Alston had watched the Dodgers lose the Series’ first game, 11-0, the day before, and he did not want to go down two games before jetting back to the West Coast.  Alston tabbed left-hander Johnny Podres, the pitching hero of the 1955 world champions, to start Game Two. During the regular season, Podres posted a 14-9 mark with a 4.11 ERA. Podres, just turned 28, struggled at the Los Angeles Coliseum, but was 10-4 on the road. White Sox skipper Al Lopez selected 26-year-old Bob Shaw as his starter. The right-hander came of age in ’59 with an 18-6 record and 2.69 ERA.

The White Sox slightly adjusted their lineup from Game One. Lefty-swinging third baseman Billy Goodman and right fielder Jim Rivera were replaced by right-handed hitters Bubba Phillips and rookie Jim McAnany, respectively. LA’s starting lineup was unchanged.

With Senator John F. Kennedy a guest in Mayor Richard J. Daley’s field box,3 the crowd of 47,368 cheered loudly when the White Sox took the field. Earlier, a steeplejack scaled Comiskey Park’s 100-foot center-field flagpole to figure out why the American flag reached only half-staff for Game One. She diagnosed the problem as a defective pulley and repaired it.4 Nerves got the best of singer Nat King Cole when he erred on the words slightly at the end of the National Anthem. “I realized too late I had made a mistake and I couldn’t go back,” said Cole.5

Shaw retired the first two Dodgers before Wally Moon and Duke Snider stroked consecutive singles. Norm Larker stranded the pair when he lined out to McAnany in right. White Sox leadoff batter Luis Aparicio was kept off the bases the day before, but this time he bounced a double past first base and moved to third on a fly ball to right by Nellie Fox. Jim Landis walked, and rookie right-hander Larry Sherry got up to throw in the Dodgers’ bullpen.6 Ted Kluszewski strolled to the plate accompanied by deafening cheers from the White Sox faithful. He bounced a sure double-play grounder to the right side, but second baseman Charlie Neal bobbled the ball.  Neal managed to throw Kluszewski out, but Aparicio sped home with the first run and Landis went to second. Lollar hit a spinning grounder that squibbed past Neal and allowed Landis to race home with another tally.7 Al Smith smashed a hot shot to shortstop Maury Wills, who fumbled it for an error. Podres got Phillips to ground into an unassisted force out at third to escape the first frame down 2-0. 

Both hurlers worked out of two-out trouble in the second inning. The third and fourth proved uneventful with Chicago still in front. The “goose egg” scoreboard indicators were way too familiar for Dodgers veterans. Dating back to October 1956, the proud franchise had zeros displayed in 40 of the past 41 World Series innings. With two down in the top of the fifth, “the worm finally turned” for Los Angeles, accompanied by a “surprise splash.” Neal connected off Shaw for a long drive to left. Al Smith backed up against the nine-foot wall only to watch the ball sail into the lower stands for a home run, and ended up drenched in the face by a cup of beer that was inadvertently knocked off the ledge by a first-row fan.8 The Dodgers now trailed 2-1.

Shaw maintained the slim White Sox advantage until the seventh. With two outs, Alston sent up Chuck Essegian, a former Stanford fullback, to pinch-hit for Podres. Essegian deposited Shaw’s 3-and-1 pitch into the left-center-field upper deck to tie the score.9 Then Shaw walked Jim Gilliam, and Charlie Neal smoked a one-strike pitch deep to center field that was caught by Billy Pierce. The trouble with the slick grab was that Pierce backhanded Neal’s blast while warming up in the White Sox bullpen.10 Neal’s second homer of the game put Los Angeles on top for the first time in the Series, 4-2. Shaw was replaced by right-hander Turk Lown, who tamped down the Dodgers’ sudden scoring momentum.

In the bottom of the seventh, Alston penciled reliever Sherry into Larker’s lineup spot. Ron Fairly entered as the right fielder and would bat ninth, while Don Demeter replaced Duke Snider in center. Sherry retired the top of the lineup with no problem while Chicago’s stunned spectators remained silent. Rivera was substituted for McAnany in right field in the eighth, and Lown dispatched the Dodgers in order. The 24-year-old Sherry, called up at midseason from Triple-A St. Paul, had initially been used as a starter. However, armed with a new-found slider, he won headlines as a valued relief specialist.11

In the bottom of the eighth, Sherry faced the heart of the White Sox order. Kluszewski started things with a bloop single to center, and Lollar reached when his hard bounder glanced off Gilliam’s glove.12 With a rally brewing, the crowd resurrected its vocal support and foot stomping. Earl Torgeson ran for Kluszewski at second and Lopez decided to play “small ball” to move both runners along. With orders to bunt, Smith fouled a pitch and took a strike before watching three pitches out of the zone.13 Both runners were moving on the full count when Smith boomed a deep drive to left-center. Torgeson played it past halfway before he headed home after the ball sailed over Moon’s head and one-hopped the wall. The slow-footed Lollar momentarily lost sight of Smith’s drive and paused briefly at second base.14

After hesitating, Lollar ran for third, where coach Tony Cuccinello was waving frantically and yelling, ‘Go! Go!’ since he was sure Lollar could make it safely home to tie the game. Cuccinello gambled that center fielder Demeter would have to chase Smith’s ball down, and that the Dodgers would throw to third to keep the potential winning run at second.15 But Moon swiftly grabbed Smith’s knock on its rebound from the wall, and wheeled to throw a strike to the cutoff man, Wills, in short left. Wills turned and cut loose a relay peg that catcher Johnny Roseboro caught chest-high with Lollar still over 10 feet from home plate. Lollar did not slide and tried to sidestep Roseboro, but the tag was made. Plate umpire Frank Dascoli had an easy call as he signaled the out.16

Smith advanced to third base on the throw home, but the Dodgers still held a 4-3 advantage.  Goodman struck out as a pinch-batter, and Rivera popped foul to Roseboro to strand the tying run. Los Angeles left a runner on second in its ninth, and Sherry induced groundball outs from pinch-hitter Norm Cash, Aparicio, and Fox to even the series at a game apiece in 2:21. 

Line-score numbers showed four runs, nine hits, and one error for the Dodgers and three runs, eight hits, and no errors for the White Sox. Podres was the winning pitcher and Shaw, after allowing three home runs, the loser. Sportswriters surrounded Neal and Essegian to ask about their home run prowess,17 while Sherry sat relatively calm.18 Podres said he felt San Francisco and Milwaukee were better teams than the White Sox.19

Lopez was slightly ruffled as he described the Dodgers’ long-ball attack: “All the home runs came on bad pitches. Bob Shaw was a bit high all day.”20 Cuccinello was on the “hot seat” for sending Lollar home in the eighth, but Lopez backed his coach’s decision, saying, “I can’t criticize Cooch. It was the right play. It just didn’t work.”21

As he changed clothes, Alston showed reporters that he had mistakenly put on a pair of mismatched socks that morning before leaving for the game. Revealing a superstitious side, he laughed and said, “You can bet I’ll wear the same mixed-up pair of socks tomorrow and the next day.”22

On a sad note, and for the second successive day, a fan was fatally stricken at the ballpark. After complaining of chest pains, Herman Ruschel of Dubuque, Iowa, collapsed and was pronounced dead at Mercy Hospital.23

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com, SABR BioProject, and The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record.

Notes

1 Robert Wiedrich, “Sleepy Fans Dance to Band in Bleachers,” Chicago Tribune, October 3, 1959: 5.

2 Ibid.

3 Photo caption, Chicago Tribune, October 3, 1959: 74.

4 “Chicago Mom Climbs Pole to Free Flag at Half-Staff,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1959: 19.

5 “Singer Flubs National Anthem,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1959: 19.

6 Dave Condon, The Go Chicago White Sox (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1960), 191.

7 Video Production, Baseball Classics, 1959 World Series (Rare Sportsfilms, Inc., 2000).

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Ralph Berger, “Larry Sherry,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/8d3f9b7e.

12 “Neal’s Pair of Homers Paces Dodgers to Comeback Win,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1959: 19.

13 Ibid.

14 Video Production, Baseball Classics, 1959 World Series.

15 Robert Cromie, “Cuccinello Signaled Lollar, ‘All the Way,’” Chicago Tribune, October 3, 1959: 1.

16 Video Production, Baseball Classics.

17 Frank Finch, “Team Returns After Tieing Series,” Los Angeles Times, October 3, 1959: 1.

18 Photo caption, “Having a Ball,” Chicago Tribune, October 3, 1959: 28.

19 “Podres Isn’t Impressed by White Sox,” Chicago Tribune, October 3, 1959: 28.

20 Dave Condon, “In the Wake of News,” Chicago Tribune, October 3, 1959: 28.

21 The Go Go Chicago White Sox, 194.

22 The Sporting News, October 14, 1959: 19.

23 Ibid.

A crowd of 92,706, the most to ever witness a World Series game, showed up at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hoping to see their team bring home a championship. The White Sox not only faced the Dodgers, but they faced an “expanse of white shirted spectators in the huge oval and a bright sun which made fly balls a hazard for the outfielders.”2

Sandy Koufax started for the Dodgers. He had pitched two scoreless innings of relief in the Sox blowout back in Game One, and looked sharp from the start as he retired the first six batters on just 13 pitches.3 The White Sox finally hit Koufax in the third inning when a pair of singles brought Chicago to the verge of scoring. But he got out of the inning without surrendering a run when Luis Aparicio was thrown out at second while trying to stretch his single.

White Sox manager Al Lopez called on Bob Shaw for the start. Shaw had pitched 6⅔ innings in the White Sox’ 4-3 loss in the second game of the Series. Shaw surrendered eight hits, three of them home runs, in that game.

Shaw continued to give up hits in this game, surrendering at least one hit in every inning until he was removed after giving up two singles in the eighth. But his solid pitching and the White Sox defense kept Los Angeles from scoring. After Gil Hodges tripled in the fourth inning, Shaw got Don Demeter on a grounder to the mound and John Roseboro on a broken-bat popout to shortstop to snuff out the scoring opportunity.

The White Sox had scored a run in the fourth inning. Nellie Fox led off with a single and raced to third when Jim Landis followed with another single. Koufax got Sherm Lollar to ground into a second-to-first double play and the speedy Fox scored. Little did anyone in attendance, especially the Dodgers, expect Fox to be the only runner to cross home plate that afternoon.

“If our foresight was as good as our hindsight, maybe we would have got out of it by throwing to the plate on Lollar’s ball instead of turning it into a double play,” Koufax said later. “But at the time, the double play was the logical one.”4

It looked as though the Dodgers might score in the seventh. Shaw walked pinch-hitter Chuck Essegian, who was replaced by pinch-runner Don Zimmer after a leadoff fly out by Roseboro. Duke Snider batted for Koufax and hit a broken-bat groundball that got Zimmer at second. Johnny Podres ran for Snider. Jim Gilliam followed with a single.

Lopez, in a “stroke of genius,” now made a defensive move.5 He moved Al Smith from right field to left field replacing rookie Jim McAnany and inserted Jim Rivera in right field. Lopez thought that Charlie Neal was likely to hit the ball to the screen in left and wanted the veteran Smith to be there.

Alston hoped that Neal, who had hit two homers in the Dodgers’ 4-3 Game Two win, would be able to provide the offensive punch the Dodgers needed. But Shaw was not to be stopped; Neal said later that Shaw threw “almost nothing but sliders away from me.”6

After Shaw threw a wild pitch that allowed both runners to advance, Neal worked the count to 3-and-2. When he finally hit the ball, it went to right field, not left. The left-handed Rivera, “playing deep after experience with Neal in the Puerto Rican League, sped to his right and made an over-the-shoulder, one-handed catch.”7

Dodgers manager Walter Alston said: “I’ll give Al (Lopez) a helluva lot of credit for that one. He made the right move at the right time.”8 Whether the right-handed Smith would have made the catch can be debated forever, but “Rivera made Lopez look like the smartest guy in the arena.”9

“I thought for a moment it might give me trouble, but once I was underway I knew I had it,” Rivera said. Smith noted that it is “no fun to play [in the Coliseum]. I like baseball but that was nerve wracking.”10

The Dodgers might have scored on Rivera’s catch but third-base coach Pee Wee Reese held up Gilliam at third. “He faked me real good,” Reese said. “I thought [Rivera] was going to throw home and not to second. I should have kept Jim coming; I could have stopped him at the last second if necessary.”11

Koufax left after seven innings, having given up just five hits and the lone run. Dodgers fans had expected the team to score all afternoon so they weren’t worried about that one run until late in the game. Alston said of his pitcher, “I can’t expect any better pitching than I got today from Koufax.”12

The bottom of the eighth saw more dramatics as Shaw got himself in trouble again. Wally Moon led off with a single when center fielder Jim Landis lost the ball in the sun. After Norm Larker flied out, Hodges came to bat and hit the first pitch he saw into the left-field stands. The smash brought the crowd to their feet until it was called foul. Reese, coaching at third, said “(I)t was real close, to close to call.”13

Hodges then drove the ball to center field for a single. Moon beat center fielder Landis’s throw to third. The throw allowed Hodges to reach second and suddenly the Dodgers had two runners in scoring position.

Alston and Lopez tried to outguess each other. Alston sent up Ron Fairly to hit for the left-handed Demeter. Lopez pulled Shaw and brought in lefty Billy Pierce from the bullpen. Alston then Fairly and sent Rip Repulski to the plate. Lopez didn’t give him a chance to hit as he called for an intentional walk that loaded the bases.

Alston sent right-handed batter Carl Furillo to hit for Roseboro. Lopez promptly pulled Pierce and sent for right-hander Dick Donovan. When Lopez handed him the ball, his only words were “Get it over and keep it low.”14

After taking the first two pitches, Furillo hit a high foul pop that bounced off the screen behind home plate, preventing catcher Lollar from grabbing it. As Moon inched down the line, Donovan threw Furillo a low fastball. He connected but popped out to third base as “[a]ll of Dodgerville groaned.”15 Alston had run out of batters on his bench so he was forced to let Zimmer, who hadn’t batted since August 24, come to bat. Zimmer lifted an easy fly ball to left field and the inning was over.

Stan Williams set the White Sox down in order in top of the ninth inning. In the bottom of the inning, Donovan returned to the mound, seemingly immune to the “trumpet-tooting Dodger fans and their follow-up throaty ‘Charge!’”16

Since he had depleted his bench, Alston was forced to use pitcher Larry Sherry as a pinch-hitter for Williams. Sherry, who had just seven hits all season, grounded out to third base. Gilliam, the next batter, already had four singles in the game and Dodgers fans were on their feet hoping to see him get a record fifth. But Donovan got him to ground out to second.

Neal stepped to the plate, the last hope of the Dodgers. From the dugout, Shaw shouted, “Now you’ve got to go hard, Dick. Go hard!”17 Donovan got Neal to ground out to Aparicio at short, giving the White Sox the much-needed win and sending the Series back to Chicago.

Donovan said later that “I won’t be able to smile for three days. I wish, in all honesty, that I could say that I was completely calm. But I’ve never been in a spot exactly like that.”18 After the game, Lopez, with a big smile on his face, said, “This was the best played game of the series.”19

The 1-0 White Sox victory sent the Series back to Chicago, with the team trailing three games to two. Unfortunately for the White Sox, the Dodgers closed out the Series with a 9-3 victory in Game Six.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for box-score, player, team, and season information as well as pitching and batting game logs, and other pertinent material.

Notes

1 David Condon, “In the Wake of the News,” Chicago Tribune, October 7, 1959: 61.

2 Edward Prell, “Sox Win 1-0; Final at Home, Chicago Tribune, October 7, 1959: 1.

3 Paul Zimmerman, “Sox Defense Tightens at Crucial Time,” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1959: 82.

4 Al Wolf, “Lady Luck Ends Honeymoon With Dodgers,” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1959: 85.

5 Edward Prell, “Rivera’s Catch in 7th Shares Top Billing,” Chicago Tribune, October 7, 1959: 1.

6 Wolf.

7 Edward Prell, “Rivera’s Catch in 7th Shares Top Billing.”

8 “Alston Lauds Lopez for Rivera Switch,” Chicago Tribune, October 7, 1959: 61.

9 Braven Dyer, “Dodgers Lose Tense Struggle, 1-0, Before Record Throng of 92,706,” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1959: 81.

10 Richard Dozer, “We’re Going To Win It, Says Lopez,” Chicago Tribune, October 7, 1959: 61.

11 Wolf.

12 “Alston Lauds Lopez.”

13 Wolf.

14 Condon.

15 Dyer: 82.

16 Prell: 62.

17 Condon.

18 Ibid.

19 Zimmerman.

“I told Joe Becker, our pitching coach, that I felt real good, ready to pitch four or five innings. I never dreamed, actually, that I’d have to go that long.” —Larry Sherry, October 8, 1959.2

In 1959 Chicago’s Comiskey Park saw its first World Series since the ill-fated Black Sox of 1919. The Go-Go Sox faced the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were just two years earlier domiciled in Brooklyn. In their first year in Los Angeles, they had stumbled to a seventh-place finish. Now they were on the precipice of becoming the first team to finish as low as seventh place in one season and win the World Series the next year. The White Sox were built on speed and the Dodgers were a blend of the old power merchants from Ebbets Field and the new speedsters that would come to define the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers led, three wins to two, as the Series moved back to Comiskey Park for Game Six on October 8.

After three games in front of more than 92,000 fans in the Los Angeles Coliseum, Game Six was played in front of 47,653 spectators. The field was drenched in sunshine as the game began. Johnny Podres, who had won the clincher in the Dodgers’ first World Series win in 1955, was given the opportunity to bring the Dodgers another championship. Chicago’s hopes of extending the Series were entrusted to veteran pitcher Early Wynn, pitching on two days’ rest after being knocked out of the box in the third inning of Game Five.

“It was a fast ball away from me. As he always does (Early Wynn) was putting ’em in and out. (My swing) had that good feel to it. When you hit a ball real good, you don’t feel the contact.” –Duke Snider, October 8, 1959.3 

The Dodgers broke out on top in the third inning when after a two-out walk to Wally Moon, Duke Snider homered to left-center field. The Duke of Flatbush in two seasons at the spacious Coliseum had been shown to be a mortal insofar as his home-run production had been concerned, and he had acquired a new nickname —the Silver Fox. Nursing an ailing knee, he had not played in the three games in Los Angeles, and asked manager Alston to put him in the lineup for Game Six. After the game, Snider said, “I don’t know why I did it, but I’m glad I did. And Walt said, ‘okay.’ So here I am.”4 Snider’s blast in Game Six was his 11th in World Series competition, tying him for second most all-time. The two RBIs put him atop all National League players in the World Series.

Podres kept the White Sox off the board and the Dodgers broke the game open with six runs in the fourth inning. Norm Larker opened the inning with a single and pinch-runner Don Demeter advanced to second on Johnny Roseboro’s sacrifice. A single by Maury Wills and a double by Podres increased the lead to 4-0 and chased Wynn from the mound. Relief pitcher Dick Donovan was not the answer. A walk to Junior Gilliam and a two-run double by Charlie Neal were followed by a two-run homer into the right-field stands off the bat of Wally Moon. Neal’s double was one of 10 hits in the series for the Los Angeles second baseman, tying the Dodgers’ own World Series hit record. With the score 8-0 and only one out in the inning, Turk Lown came on for the White Sox and although he allowed Gil Hodges’ infield hit, he prevented further scoring.

The speedy White Sox were not without power. Ted Kluszewski, whose bulging muscles had led to uniform modifications when he played for Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, was acquired by the White Sox in late August and had played in 31 games for Chicago. In this first World Series, the first baseman had singled and hit a pair of homers in his first three at-bats to lead Chicago to an 11-0 win in Game One.

In Game Six, trailing 8-0, the White Sox had six innings to salvage the game and force Game Seven. In their half of the fourth inning, Nellie Fox popped up to lead off and Podres appeared to have an aura of invincibility. But then he couldn’t find home plate. He hit Jim Landis in the head with a pitch and walked Sherman Lollar. That brought up Kluszewski, who was 7-for-20 in the Series to that point. Big Klu’s three-run homer put a modest dent in the Dodgers lead and, after Podres issued a walk to Al Smith, manager Walter Alston decided to bring on Larry Sherry.

Kluszewki’s homer had set the record for RBIs in a six-game World Series. His three RBIs gave him 10 for the Series and broke the record of eight shared by Bob Meusel and Billy Martin. The runs would be the last scored by the White Sox in 1959.

Sherry, a native of Los Angeles, had not been on the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster. After appearing in five games at the beginning of 1958 and posting an ERA of 12.46, he was sent back to Triple-A and rejoined the Dodgers on July 4, 1959. He went 7-2 with three saves. He had appeared in each of the Dodgers’ three wins in the first five games of the Series, saving two and winning one. In seven innings, he had given up four hits and allowed only one run.

The right-hander, after allowing a single to Bubba Phillips that put runners at the corners, worked his way out of the inning, but not without an anxious moment or two. With runners on first and third, White Sox manager Al Lopez called upon Billy Goodman to pinch-hit for left fielder Jim McAnany. Sherry struck out Goodman for the second out of the inning and then Lown was removed for pinch-hitter Earl Torgeson. Sherry fell behind Torgeson and Dodgers coach Chuck Dressen took issue with the calls of home-plate umpire Frank Dascoli. First-base umpire Ed Hurley told Dressen to shut up, and Dressen came out of the dugout to discuss maters with Hurley. As Dressen said afterward, “I told him to shut up and he chased me.” Dressen became the third man ever ejected from a World Series game.5 Torgeson wound up walking to load the bases, but Sherry avoided further damage by getting Luis Aparicio to pop out on the first pitch for the stanza’s final out.

Gerry Staley took the mound for the White Sox in the fifth inning and pitched three scoreless innings. However, the White Sox were unable to mount a serious threat against Sherry. Billy Pierce pitched a scoreless eighth for Chicago, stranding two runners after allowing singles by Sherry (who went 2-for-2 at the plate) and Neal. Left-hander Pierce had been used sparingly in the Series as manager Al Lopez elected to go with right-handed starters in each of the games.  

The White Sox could have mounted a rally in the fifth inning, but Snider, playing on a bad knee, put an end to a budding rally. Nellie Fox led off with a double and Jim Landis stepped in. He sent a fly ball to short center field that Snider caught in full gallop.

The Dodgers tacked on one more run in the ninth inning. Snider was due up, but it was time to give his injured knee a rest. Chuck Essegian, batting for Snider, hit his second pinch-homer of the Series, becoming the first player to hit two pinch-hit homers in a World Series. It came off the fifth Chicago pitcher, Ray Moore, and made the final score 9-3. The Dodgers had banged out 13 hits in securing the win. In the bottom of the ninth, Snider’s spot in the outfield was taken by rookie Ron Fairly.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Sherry retired the side in order and when Dodgers left fielder Wally Moon corralled a fly ball off the bat of Aparicio, the Dodgers were the champions and Sherry had secured his status as the World Series MVP with two wins and two saves in four appearances.

Three thousand miles east of Los Angeles, there wasn’t much enthusiasm for the Dodgers’ win at their former home. Ebbets Field was empty, and the wrecking ball would soon be set in motion. Author Gay Talese said, “Ebbets Field, occasionally used for soccer, was surrounded by closed candy stores, rotting hotdog stands, and people who no longer care so much for the Dodgers.”6

But Los Angeles was ecstatic. The large crowds at the Coliseum contributed to a record attendance for a World Series —420,784. The record still stood in 2018. By 1963, when the Dodgers next played in the Series, they were in a new ballpark in Chavez Ravine, Dodger Stadium.

Sources

In addition to Baseball-Reference.com and the sources cited in the notes, the author used:

Associated Press. “Series Success Climaxes Uphill Fight for Sherry,” Hartford Courant, October 9, 1959: 27.

Drebinger, John. “Dodgers Win World Series by Beating White Sox, 9-3, in the Sixth Contest,” New York Times, October 9, 1959: 1, 33.

Notes

1 Bill Lee, “Dodgers Rout Chisox to Win Series,” Hartford Courant, October 9, 1959: 25.

2 Bill Lee, “With Malice Toward None,” Hartford Courant, October 9, 1959: 25.

3 Associated Press, “‘Old’ Dodger Duke Snider ignored Bad Knee to Play,” Hartford Courant, October 9, 1959: 27.

4 Ibid.

5 Lee, “Dodgers Rout Chisox to Win Series,” Hartford Courant, October 9, 1959: 25.

6 Gay Talese, “Brooklyn Displays Little Enthusiasm as Dodgers Win,” New York Times, October 9, 1959: 34.