October 4, 1953: Yankees’ blasts prove too much for Brooklyn to overcome

Roy Campanella with a mighty swing during spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early 1950s. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

Baseball fans making their way to Ebbets Field for Game Five of the 1953 World Series were in a festive mood even while a weather prediction of overcast skies took shape.1 Police officers yearned for a reduction of incidents they had dealt with so far. Patrol force personnel had a two-day total of 22 ticket scalpers being arrested and arraigned at Manhattan Night Court.2 After Game Four’s completion, a roan horse named Red broke loose from behind his stable on 96th Street in Brooklyn. The steed scattered Flatbush pedestrians and enjoyed a two-mile jaunt through jampacked city streets and crowded intersections before being lassoed by a patrolman.3

An impostor was escorted off the field during player interviews before Game Five after he clumsily interrupted New York’s Johnny Mize. When Mize requested the offender’s newspaper affiliation, the fellow declared, “Paper? I ain’t with no paper. I’m a barber downtown, and I want to know if you’re going to quit next year?”4

Yankees manager Casey Stengel had already named his starter, but Dodgers pilot Chuck Dressen remained tight-lipped about his choice. Stengel tabbed 26-year-old right-hander Jim McDonald, who was 9-7 with 3.82 ERA during the regular season. Dressen informed rookie left-hander Johnny Podres (9-4, 4.23) that he would be the Brooklyn starter right after the just-turned 21-year-old arrived at the ballpark. Dressen reasoned, “I wanted him to get a good night’s sleep.”5 Both hurlers would be making their postseason debuts. Speculation arose that Podres might be the youngest player to start a World Series game, but that mark remained with Bullet Joe Bush of the Philadelphia Athletics, who was 20 when he started Game Three of the 1913 World Series.

In honor of the golden anniversary of the fall classic, first-pitch honors went to 77-year-old Otto Krueger, who was on the roster of the 1903 Pittsburgh Pirates during the year of the first World Series. A standing-room-only crowd of 36,775 spectators shoehorned their way into the aged ballpark, equaling the announced attendance of the previous day.6

Statistics on Podres informed scribes that he had held the Yankees scoreless for 13 straight innings in a pair of exhibition contests. That streak ended quickly when Gene Woodling drove Podres’ fourth pitch high and deep toward the left side of the center-field wall. Duke Snider raced back and made a gallant leap, but the ball landed just over the barrier for a 1-0 New York lead.7 Woodling’s blast was the first time since October 13, 1909, that a World Series contest had opened with a home run.8 After the rough inauguration of his postseason, Podres settled down and retired the next three batters. McDonald allowed a leadoff single to Jim Gilliam, who moved no farther as the ensuing trio was dispatched.

The Dodgers put runners at first and second on hits from Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges to open the bottom of the second. Carl Furillo grounded to shortstop Phil Rizzuto, who hurried his force toss to Billy Martin and the ball was deflected into center. Campanella scored on the error to tie the game, 1-1, while Hodges raced to third. A big inning for the Dodgers looked probable, but defensive action quickly reversed the flow when Billy Cox lofted a fly to left. Woodling made the catch and fired a no-bounce strike to Yogi Berra as Hodges raced plateward. Berra put the tag on Hodges for a double play.9 Furillo at first base had gone halfway, then retreated to first.10 His decision not to advance cost Brooklyn a possible run when Podres singled to center. McDonald retired Gilliam on a groundball to strand the duo.

Rizzuto walked to start the third, and was bunted to second by McDonald. Woodling smashed a hard comebacker that knocked Podres’ glove off. In haste, Podres first picked up his mitt, then grabbed the ball to nip Woodling with Rizzuto moving to third. Joe Collins rapped a grounder toward first that bounced waist-high off Hodges’ glove, and Rizzuto scored on the miscue to move the Yankees up, 2-1.11 Podres then hit Hank Bauer with a two-strike pitch.12

Berra called time while batting and protested to second-base umpire Ed Hurley that he was being blinded by a glare from beyond center field. Play was halted while workers erected a makeshift tarp across the area.13 When action resumed, Podres walked Berra to load the bases. With Mickey Mantle up, Dressen decided to lift the youngster. He called for right-hander Russ Meyer, who had warmed up prior to the game, and had openly campaigned for a chance to pitch in the Series. Mantle had fanned six times through Game Four facing right-handers, and had been treated for a freak left-hand injury during batting practice.14 Stengel had previously told the switch-hitting Mantle to quit pulling everything when he batted left.15

Meyer went into his windup and glanced at third before he released an overhand curve that floated to the outside corner of the plate. Mantle leaned to go with the pitch, and drove the ball in a high arc to left. Jackie Robinson acknowledged the deep flight path and retreated a few steps before he simply halted to watch the ball sail into the upper deck. The 21-year-old slugger had increased the Yankees’ lead to 6-1 with the fourth grand slam in World Series history.16 Mantle dashed around the bases and was happily greeted by teammates who had scored ahead of him. Several Yankees also mobbed Mantle as he neared the dugout entrance.17

The shell-shocked Dodgers went down in order in the third on four pitches.18 A rally in the fourth was defused when Rizzuto grabbed Furillo’s bouncer up the middle and turned a 6-3 twin-killing. Meyer pitched in and out of trouble from the fourth through the sixth while stranding six New York runners. Cox made several remarkable plays at third base to keep the Yankees from adding to their lead.19 Brooklyn’s high-powered offense had been stifled until the fifth when the Dodgers made it 6-2 on a hit-by-pitch to Gilliam and singles by Pee Wee Reese and Snider.

Martin popped a two-run homer in the seventh for his 10th hit of the Series. Then McDonald, who hit .098 during the regular season with no extra-base hits, delivered a two-out run-scoring double to put the Yankees ahead 9-2. New York increased the mark to 10-2 in the eighth versus reliever Ben Wade. Collins opened with a double, was sacrificed to third, and scored on Berra’s deep fly ball.

McDonald tired in the Brooklyn eighth and the Dodgers parlayed four hits into four tallies. The capper came from a three-run home run by Cox to make the score 10-6. After lefty-swinging George Shuba was announced as a pinch-hitter, Stengel motioned to the bullpen. Shuba had belted a two-run pinch homer in Game One at Yankee Stadium. Southpaw Bob Kuzava, who had been the relief hero in Game Seven of the ‘52 World Series, was summoned. Right-handed batter Dick Williams replaced Shuba, and Kuzava fanned him.

Joe Black was tasked to hold the Yankees in the ninth. He fanned Martin, but gave up a solo home run to Gil McDougald to make the score 11-6. Kuzava came in to close out the Dodgers in the ninth, but Gilliam greeted him with a leadoff homer. It was 11-7. Snider singled with one out and Stengel brought in Game One starter Allie Reynolds to suppress Brooklyn’s notion of an uprising. The veteran right-hander coaxed Robinson to hit a hard grounder to the left of the mound. Reynolds reached but could not field it, but Martin swooped over to glove the hot shot. The second sacker flipped the ball to Rizzuto for the force and peg to first to complete the game-ending 4-6-3 double play.20

The contest took 3:02 to complete. The teams accounted for a World Series game record of 47 total bases.21 The Yankees scored 11 runs on 11 hits. The Dodgers scored seven runs on 14 hits, all but two of them singles. Each team committed one error. McDonald was the winner and Podres the loser as the Yankees had earned a three-games-to-two advantage. Three New York hurlers permitted no walks, while four Brooklyn pitchers walked six.

In the clubhouse, Dressen explained his decision to pull Podres: “I had to turn Mantle over. He can kill you right-handed, but we had been getting him out left-handed because he has that bad right knee and can’t pivot.”22

Stengel was photographed signaling one more win as the World Series shifted back to Yankee Stadium for Game Six the next day.23 Beginning in 1949, the Yankees had not lost a regular-season or postseason series to any team,24 and they appeared determined to retain that record.

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 “Fifth Game Flickers,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1953: 16.

2 “Ticket Scalper Arrests Total 22 in Borough,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 4, 1953: 1.

3 Ken Johnston, “Horse Joins in Dodger Spree,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 4, 1953: 1.

4 “Jawn Learns Interviewer Is No Scribe, But Barber,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1953: 16.

5 “Fifth Game Pickups,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1953: 13.

6 “Fifth Game,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1953: 13.

7 Dick Young, “Yankees HRs Pop Bums, 11-7, in Fifth Tilt,” New York Daily News, October 5, 1953: 144, 150.

8 “Fifth Game Flickers,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1953: 16. Davy Jones of the Detroit Tigers hit a bounce homer off Babe Adams of the Pittsburgh Pirates on October 13, 1909, leading off Game Five of the World Series. https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1909/B10130PIT1909.htm.

9 Young, “Yankees HRS Pop Bums, 11-7.”

10 “Field Day for Second Guessers,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1953: 16.

11 “Yankees HRS Pop Bums, 11-7.”

12 Tommy Holmes, “One Pitch to Mantle and What Happened,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 5, 1953: 15.

13 “Mirror May Have Annoyed Batters,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 5, 1953: 15.

14 “Yankees HRs Pop Bums.”

15 “Fifth Game Flickers,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1953: 16.

16 “Fifth Game,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1953: 16. Players who had hit World Series grand slams before Mantle were Elmer Smith of the Cleveland Indians in 1920, Tony Lazzeri of the Yankees in 1936, and Gil McDougald of the Yankees in 1951.

17 Video of Mantle’s Grand Slam, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jLqTK_hQI4.

18 Joe Trimble and Dana Mozley, “On the Block a Year Ago, McDonald Sold Casey” New York Daily News, October 5, 1953: 144, 150.

19 Dave Anderson, “Yankees Call Cox’s Fielding Tops,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 5, 1953: 15.

20 Video: A Championship Legacy:1953, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0u_6yjqjG0.

21 “Bombers Again Take Bulge in Battle of Boundary Belts,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1953: 13.

22 Tommy Holmes, “One Pitch to Mantle and What Happened.”

23 Photo Caption, “The One of His Dreams,” New York Daily News, October 5, 1953: 492.

24 Dan Daniel, “What About Vic Power? First Post-Season Poser for Yanks,” The Sporting News, October 7, 1953: 7.