August 30, 1953: Brooklyn’s bats and Erskine’s arm subdue Muggsy’s insults

The Brooklyn Dodgers take batting practice in an empty Ebbets Field. The Dodgers led or co-led the NL in home runs in every season from 1949 through 1955. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)

The Brooklyn Dodgers were as hot as the steamy weather that had ruled New York City boroughs for five days.1 The talented first-place squad was 88-40 and had a comfortable 10½-game lead over the Milwaukee Braves with four weeks of the season remaining. However, an anonymous letter postmarked from Youngstown, Ohio, and addressed to Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen did not wax kindly toward the Dodgers’ season. The text read in part, “What are you trying to do – dominate the National League? If you win the pennant this year, you will be shot. Yours in sports. A Rabid Fan.” Dressen surmised, “Fine stuff. If I win the pennant, I’ll be shot. If [I] lose it, I’ll be lynched. People are unreasonable.”2

Dressen disclosed that he had received a similar warning communication from northeastern Ohio before the end of the previous season, and nothing happened.3 His thoughts turned to the fourth-place St. Louis Cardinals (70-56), who were in town for a three-game series beginning Sunday, August 30, at Ebbets Field. The Cardinals were skippered by combative Durocher disciple and former Dodger Eddie Stanky, whose nicknames included Muggsy and The Brat.4

Rookie southpaw Harvey Haddix (16-6, 3.47 ERA), who was 3-0 vs. the Dodgers so far in the season, started against Carl Erskine (16-5, 3.60). The veteran right-hander Erskine had an 11-4 career mark against St. Louis. With a forecast of 90 degrees, many New Yorkers flocked to beaches and elsewhere hoping to cool off.5 Nevertheless, a crowd of 16,781 made their way into the ballpark.

With the exception of a walk to Stan Musial, Erskine had an easy first inning. It could have been the same result for Haddix, but an error by shortstop Solly Hemus on Pee Wee Reese‘s grounder extended Brooklyn’s chances. Reese went to second on a groundout, swiped third, and scored on a single by Jackie Robinson. Roy Campanella followed with his 34th home run deep into the left-field seats. The Schaefer Beer scoreboard displayed the Dodgers up, 3-0. All three runs were unearned.

The Cardinals stranded two runners in the second when Erskine pitched around a walk and a base hit by Sal Yvars. Carl Furillo opened the Dodgers’ second with a single. Haddix had Furillo picked off, but first baseman Steve Bilko muffed the throw. Furillo advanced to second on Bilko’s miscue, and later scored from third on Erskine’s fly ball, the Dodgers’ fourth unearned run.

After Hemus tripled in the third, Musial put St. Louis on the board with a line drive to right-center that cleared the scoreboard for his 20th home run. Musial’s blast not only cut the Cardinals’ deficit in half; it expanded his NL record of scoring 100 or more runs to 10 consecutive seasons.6 Brooklyn responded in its half when Campanella singled home Duke Snider. The Dodgers loaded the bases, but Haddix escaped the jam to keep the score at 5-2.

Both teams went scoreless during the next two frames, and the Cardinals made it 5-3 in the sixth. Enos Slaughter led off with a double, took third on a fly out, and sprinted home on a groundout. The Dodgers answered once again to push their lead to 6-3 when Jim Gilliam singled in Bobby Morgan. Haddix made it through the rest of the frame unscathed, but Stanky decided to lift his southpaw.

St. Louis had scored prolifically in the seventh inning of its last five games, so Stanky hoped his hitters could muster another rally.7 With one out, Red Schoendienst, the NL batting leader at .340 but nursing an ankle injury, batted for Haddix and grounded out.8 Erskine put down the Cardinals on three straight infield outs.

Right-hander Eddie Erautt came on to pitch for the Cardinals, and Stanky decided to initiate some entertainment-style bench banter. Jackie Robinson, who had been nursing a sore left knee, moved toward the plate while Muggsy went into his act. First, the St. Louis pilot motioned like an ape in the dugout, and then held onto a knee to get a rise from Robinson.9 The fans on the first-base side saw what Stanky was doing, and they initially laughed, but then the partisan crowd began to boil with anger and boo the former Brooklynite. After Robinson lost his balance to avoid an inside pitch while protecting his knee, he and Stanky exchanged barbs. Stanky barked that Jackie could fool himself, but not any ballplayers about the injury. Robinson stepped out and countered, saying that surely Stanky had fooled someone in St. Louis to be awarded a three-year contract.10

Erautt struck out Robinson and Stanky continued his insults by tossing towels in derision. Next, the scrappy manager wrapped his right knee (not the left), and limped to the water cooler. After returning to the Brooklyn dugout, Robinson ripped down the posted lineup card and waved it at Stanky. The St. Louis manager had earlier erred twice this season by issuing the wrong batting order to the umpires, thus causing automatic outs for his team.11

The roof was about to collapse on the mind-baiting Stanky and his squad. Erautt allowed a single to Campanella, walked Gil Hodges and Furillo, and then went 2-and-0 to Morgan. Stanky trudged out sans towel to bring in left-hander Cliff Chambers. During the parade of walks, Robinson held up a cardboard sign that read “How to Make Up a Lineup, by Eddie Stanky.”12

Upon Stanky’s return to the dugout, Brooklyn fans waved white handkerchiefs and tossed food items at him.13 Chambers completed Erautt’s mid-batter free pass, forcing in a run that made it 7-3, and then gave up a two-run single to Erskine. Another walk and two more hits followed to produce three additional tallies for a 12-3 spread. Out came Stanky again as the crowd was in a frenzy with the rout taking place. Willard Schmidt, a month removed from Triple A, was summoned from the bullpen. As Stanky traipsed back to his bench, a familiar local favorite postured herself next to the visiting dugout. Hilda Chester the cowbell lady, taunted Stanky as part of the hankie-waving swarm.14

The right-handed Schmidt fanned Robinson; however Stanky was beyond taking delight, or in conjuring up additional attempts to hex the Dodgers. Campanella singled home a pair before Hodges walked again, and Furillo chased both runners home with a double. Morgan hit the next pitch for his sixth homer to increase the assault to 18-3. The carnage finally ended when Erskine struck out, and the scoreboard operator slipped the little-used “12” plate into the slot for the Dodgers’ seventh. Brooklyn had sent 15 batters to the plate for a dozen runs on seven hits with Campanella, Hodges, Furillo, and Morgan all scoring twice in the inning. It was the most runs scored during the seventh inning in the NL since 1925.15 An oddity of the frame was that the ineffective Redbird relievers had actually struck out the side.

St. Louis plated a meaningless run in the eighth, and Brooklyn notched a hollow pair to bring about the eventual 20-4 final. Erskine (17-5) finished off the Dodger pitchers’ first complete game in their last eight contests in 3:04, and Haddix (16-7) took the loss. Campanella drove in five runs with his four safeties to move his league-leading RBI total to 122. This tied him with former NL catchers Gabby Hartnett (Chicago Cubs, 1930) and Walker Cooper (New York Giants, 1947). The line score for the Dodgers read 20 runs, 19 hits, no errors, while the Cardinals’ numbers showed 4 runs, 8 hits, 2 errors. St. Louis was now 0-for-9 in Brooklyn this season and had been outscored 91-28 in those contests.16 The Dodgers magic number fell to 15.17 Still, they nearly lost the day’s top billing for a winning margin when the Milwaukee Braves pounded the Pittsburgh Pirates, 19-4, at Forbes Field.

Stanky proved to be a diehard in the clubhouse when he insisted, “The ball is too lively. Too many humpties are hitting home runs.” Robinson continued rubbing it in on his former teammate. “Just like Durocher. Everything’s lovely as long as they are ahead. When they get behind, they start their yapping,” said Robinson.18

Days later, Robinson informed a Brooklyn scribe that his “best crack” at Stanky had not been quoted. “One Busch signed another bush,” Robinson repeated for publication.19

SOURCES

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

NOTES

1 David Quirk, “97.3, Year’s Hottest; Cool Tuesday, Maybe,” New York Daily News, August 30, 1953: 74.

2 Tommy Holmes, “Chuck ‘On Spot’ in Letter from Fan,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 31, 1953: 11.

3 Roscoe McGowen, “Crank Threatens to Shoot Dressen if Brooklyn Wins,” The Sporting News, September 9, 1953: 6.

4 Alexander Edelman, “Eddie Stanky,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/f33416b9.

5 Quirk, “97.3, Year’s Hottest.”

6 Bob Broeg, “Something Snaps as Cards Lose, 20-4,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 31, 1953: 16.

7 Broeg, “Something Snaps as Cards Lose, 20-4.”

8 Bob Broeg, “Stanky Throws Open Roster in Pitch to Stimulate Birds,” The Sporting News, September 9, 1953: 9.

9 Photograph Caption, “Ebbets Field Frolics,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 31, 1953: 11.

10 Tommy Holmes, “Stanky Incites Flock to Big Spree,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 31, 1953: 11.

11 Roscoe McGowen, “Bush Burlesque Show in Flatbush,” The Sporting News, September 9, 1953: 5.

12 McGowen, “Bush Burlesque Show in Flatbush.”

13 Holmes, “Stanky Incites Flock to Big Spree.”

14 Photograph caption, “Ebbets Field Frolics.”

15 Roscoe McGowen, “Only Seven Hits in Dozen Dodger Runs,” The Sporting News, September 9, 1953: 6. On May 28, 1925, the Chicago Cubs scored 12 runs in the top of the seventh inning during a 13-3 win at Redland Field vs. the Cincinnati Reds. (https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1925/B05280CIN1925.htm).

16 Broeg, “Something Snaps as Cards Lose, 20-4.” The Cardinals lost the next two games of the three-game set, 6-3 and 12-5, to end the ‘53 season winless at Ebbets Field.

17 “Dodgers Magic Number 15; Yankees 17,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 31, 1953: 11.

18 Holmes, “Stanky Incites Flock to Big Spree.”

19 McGowen, “Bush Burlesque Show in Flatbush.”