October 4, 1947: Spec Shea’s pitching puts Yankees on the verge of title

Brooklyn fans could barely believe what they were seeing. After losing the first two games of the 1947 World Series, their team rebounded to win the next two games at Ebbets Field. The fifth game, the last one to be played in Flatbush for the Series, was packed with fans hoping to see the Dodgers take the lead in the Series.

Brooklyn manager Burt Shotton surprisingly picked Rex Barney to start. Barney had last started on July 4 and didn’t last through the second inning. Shotton’s starters had struggled throughout the Series, with none lasting more than four innings.

Tommy Holmes wrote in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that “while it was obvious that Shotton was in a bad way for pitchers, no one thought he’d dig deep enough in the barrel to come up with Barney.”1

Barney immediately made the Brooklyn faithful wonder if Shotton had made a mistake. He walked leadoff batter Snuffy Stirnweiss, who ended up on third when the next batter, Tommy Henrich, doubled. Then Barney walked Johnny Lindell to load the bases “with nobody but the great [Joe] DiMaggio at bat.”2

Pitching coach Clyde Sukeforth “dashed to the mound for a steady-down confab with the jittery starter and whatever he said should be recorded for posterity, observed sportswriter Dick Young. “Suddenly, erratic [Barney] was transformed into a confident phenom.”3

Barney struck out DiMaggio on a fastball. Then he grabbed George McQuinn‘s comebacker and threw home to get Stirnweiss. Finally, Barney struck out Billy Johnson for the third out.

Dick Young wrote in the New York Daily News: “There’s nobody like [Barney] to keep the crowd and the game in a constant state of commotion. He puts them on and then he blows them over.”4

After Bill Bevens lost a one-hitter the previous day on Cookie Lavagetto‘s pinch-hit double in the bottom of the ninth, Yankee starter Spec Shea told Bevens that he “would get even.” Later he said, “I wanted to square what they did to [Bevens] yesterday. That [loss] hurt me almost as much as it did him.”5

Rookie Shea started for the Yankees four days after he pitched five innings and earned a win in the Series opener. Shea showed that he meant to make up for the previous day’s loss by shutting down the Dodgers through the first five innings.

Pee Wee Reese was the first Brooklyn baserunner when Shea walked him in the fourth. But two quick outs left Reese stranded on first as Shea maintained his no-hitter.

Barney continued to pitch wild over the next two innings, walking three batters and throwing a wild pitch to give the Yankees several opportunities to score. In the third he managed to get out of another jam when DiMaggio grounded into a double play.

The Yankees finally took advantage of Barney’s wildness in the fourth. With two out, he walked Aaron Robinson and Rizzuto. With Shea coming to bat, Brooklyn fans probably felt that Barney could get out of one more jam.

But Shea “pulled far into the bucket on a curve ball and his bat sweeping around had the good fortune to be grooved in the path of the ball.”6 After Shea pulled into first with a single that brought Robinson home with the Yankees’ first run, he “looked somewhat astonished himself.”7

Barney walked the next batter, Stirnweiss, to load the bases but retired Henrich on a groundout to prevent any more scoring by the Yankees.

DiMaggio batted for the third time in the fifth, and “[t]he sight of 10 Yankees getting on base in the first four frames with only one run resulting must have annoyed [the] old pro.”8 DiMaggio hit a blast into the upper left-field seats that provided the second Yankees run.

DiMaggio later said, “I hit a fast ball for that one. I would have like a couple of others instead of those double play grounders. But Shea made up for our hitting shortcomings.”9

When Barney walked Billy Johnson, “Shotton’s nerves couldn’t stand it any longer.”10 Joe Hatten was called in from the bullpen and Barney left with nine walks, barely missing the record set by Bevens the previous day.

Shea kept the Dodgers hitless into the fifth, when Gene Hermanski hammered a single to right field with nobody out.11 But Shea retired the next three batters.

Not so in the sixth. Al Gionfriddo, pinch-hitting for Hatten, walked to lead off the inning. Shea struck out Eddie Stanky, then walked Reese. Jackie Robinson stepped to the plate. He had gone hitless in his last eight at-bats but chose this one to break out of his slump.

Robinson hit a single up the middle that “barely grazed Shea’s leaping glove-tips as it flew over the middle, then squeezed through the converging gloves of Rizzuto and Stirnweiss and bounded into center.”12

Gionfriddo scored and Reese ended up on third, arriving barely ahead of DiMaggio’s throw, and Robinson ended up at second. The Dodgers suddenly had an opportunity to tie the score and grab the lead. But Dixie Walker fouled out to third baseman Johnson and Hermanski hit an easy fly ball to DiMaggio for the third out.

After pulling Barney, Shotton relied on his bullpen down the stretch. The Dodgers relievers, Hatten, Hank Behrman and “the inevitable Hugh Casey, held fast, with the Bombers getting just two blows in the last four innings.”13

Behrman got into trouble in the seventh after a leadoff single by Henrich, a walk, and a passed ball put two runners in scoring position. But he struck out McQuinn and retired Johnson on a groundball back to the mound.

The Dodgers had another chance to catch up to the Yankees in the seventh. Bruce Edwards led off with a walk but Carl Furillo failed to move him forward when he “was unable to deliver a vital bunt.”14 With two outs, Arky Vaughan doubled. The Dodgers had runners at second and third. If Furillo had succeeded in his bunt attempt, the score would have been tied.

After pinch-hitter Pete Reiser was intentionally walked and Ed Miksis ran for him, Reese, who had walked twice after flying out in the first, came to bat. Shea buckled down and quickly got two strikes on him. Then “Reese stood at attention and let Shea curve him with that called third strike.”15

Casey kept the Yankees from scoring in the final two innings but had to work out of trouble twice. Shea hit a two-out double in the eighth and moved to third on a passed ball but never made it home after Casey struck out Stirnweiss.

In the ninth Henrich reached when Miksis couldn’t handle his groundball, and Casey hit Lindell on the right arm to put a Yankee in scoring position with no outs.

But Casey got DiMaggio to hit a double-play grounder to shortstop. Henrich reached third but he was thrown out when he tried to score on a wild pitch as a result of Edwards’s “cat-like pursuit of the ball” after Casey threw wild.16

Yankees manager Bucky Harris stayed with Shea in the ninth even though he had his best reliever, Joe Page, ready in the bullpen. Edwards led off with a single that had the Dodgers fans anticipating another comeback.

Vic Lombardi ran for Edwards. Furillo stepped into the batter’s box with a second opportunity to push a runner forward. His sacrifice bunt was successful this time and the Dodgers had a runner in scoring position.

After Jorgensen flied out to right field, Shotton sent the previous day’s hero, Lavagetto, to bat for Casey. The Dodgers faithful were on their feet in hopes that he might repeat his previous day’s heroics.

With the count 3-and-2, Shea “threw that Sunday curve over the plate. Lavagetto wasn’t cheated. He swung with all his power, pulling for the left field fence. But he missed.”17 Observed sportswriter Tommy Holmes: “The gods of baseball fortune will only take just so much.”18

Shea had allowed just four hits and Harris told his young pitcher afterward, “You pitched a swell game.” Then he told reporters gathered in the clubhouse: “I don’t want any more like that. Going down to the last pitch is too much wear and tear on the nerves. But it’s great to win those kind.”19

As the Series moved back to Yankee Stadium for the sixth game, Henrich left these parting words for his teammates: “We have said our farewell to Brooklyn for 1947. Now we’ll try to give them something to remember in the Bronx tomorrow.”20

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, I used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for box-score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO194710040.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1947/B10040BRO1947.htm

Photo credit: Spec Shea, Trading Card Database.

NOTES

1 Tommy Holmes, “Yankees Nip Dodgers 2-1 as Shea Stars,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 5, 1947: 23.

2 Holmes.

3 Dick Young, “Shea’s 4-Hitter Beats Dodgers 2-1,” New York Daily News, October 5, 1947: 96.

4 Young.

5 James Dawson, “Youthful Hurler Mobbed by Mates,” New York Times, October 5, 1947: 170.

6 Holmes

7 Holmes.

8 Dawson.

9 Dawson.

10 Young.

11 Young.

12 Young.

13 John Drebinger, “Shea Wins in Box,” New York Times, October 5, 1947: 169.

14 Young.

15 Holmes.

16 Holmes.

17 Holmes.

18 Holmes.

19 Dawson.

20 Dawson.