October 7, 1949: Johnny Mize’s first World Series was all right

As pennant races go, the 1949 races in both the American and National Leagues were among the closest in history. In the American League, the New York Yankees trailed the Boston Red Sox by one game with two to play (in Yankee Stadium) and won them both to win the AL title. In the National League, the Brooklyn Dodgers trailed the St. Louis Cardinals by one game on September 28. The next day the Cardinals lost and the Dodgers won a pair. Brooklyn had a half-game lead and hung on to win the pennant by one game.1

The first two games of the World Series had been exciting only among those who enjoyed pitchers’ duels. The Yankees, hosts of the first two games, won Game One 1-0 with a Tommy Henrich walk-off home run off Don Newcombe. The next day, the Dodgers reversed that score and tied the series behind Preacher Roe. Dodgers fans started lining up for the 2,700 bleacher seats available for Game Three at Ebbets Field hours before Game Two started. A 17-year-old, Matty Segall of Brooklyn, started the line at the Bedford Avenue bleacher gate at 9:00 A.M. on Thursday for the Friday afternoon affair. Abe Stark, he of the famous “Hit Sign, Win Suit” sign at Ebbets, passed out doughnuts to those in line.2

Yankees manager Casey Stengel named Tommy Byrne to start the pivotal Game Three. Byrne had been fighting a sore shoulder toward the end of the season but told Stengel he was ready.3 Byrne had led the American League in fewest hits per nine innings (5.7) and most strikeouts per nine innings (5.9), but also became the fifth AL pitcher since 1901 to walk more than 175 batters in a season.4 Dodgers manager Burt Shotton chose Ralph Branca over Rex Barney to start Game Three, but was especially confident in his hitters. “I figured we would take care of things in our own orchard. We’ll start hitting now and we’ll be rougher,” Shotton said.5

It is impossible to have fewer runs scored in the first two games than this World Series had, surprising for both teams. (Brooklyn led the NL in runs scored, the Yankees were second in the AL.)6 But both teams were second in their league in fewest runs allowed, and another low-scoring game was a possibility.

Both pitchers had one-two-three first and second innings. The Yankees’ Cliff Mapes led off the top of the third inning with a walk. After Jerry Coleman struck out, Byrne got the game’s first hit, a single, moving Mapes to third. After Phil Rizzuto‘s attempt at a squeeze bunt drifted foul, he lifted a fly ball to right field and Mapes scored. Byrne was perfect in the third, but Pee Wee Reese homered to lead off the Dodgers’ fourth inning, and the game and Series were tied again.

After Reese’s homer, Byrne retired Eddie Miksis, but Carl Furillo singled. To this point, Byrne had been able to keep his wildness in check, but the law of averages kicked in for a man who averaged 0.91 walks per inning in 1949. Byrne walked Jackie Robinson and Gil Hodges to load the bases, whereupon Stengel called on the best relief pitcher of 1949, Joe Page.7 Page had led the league with 60 appearances, and had gone 6⅔ innings on October 1, helping the Yankees save their season, and was tasked to go the rest of the way on this day. Page escaped the inning by getting Luis Olmo to foul out and Duke Snider to ground out.

While Byrne found an early shower, the veteran Branca had found the groove that Preacher Roe was in the day before. After allowing a two-out double to Gene Woodling in the fourth inning, Branca retired 12 straight batters from the fifth through the eighth. Page was almost as effective during this stretch, allowing only a walk to Jackie Robinson in the sixth inning and a walk to Reese and single by Miksis in the eighth. He escape the eighth by getting fly outs from Furillo and Robinson.

Branca’s mastery extended to the first batter in the ninth but it took a spectacular play by Robinson to get the first out. Yogi Berra had missed Game Two after aggravating a left thumb injury in Game One, but now he coaxed a walk out of Branca. Branca was laboring now too, and after getting Joe DiMaggio to pop out, Bobby Brown singled and Woodling walked to load the bases. Johnny Mize, purchased by the Yankees from the Giants earlier in the year for $40,000, had “an abnormal ability to respond to the most urgent demands.”8 He also owned a lifetime .349 batting average with five home runs off Branca from his days with the Giants. Stengel’s decision to have Mize bat for Mapes brought out the hecklers from the Dodgers dugout. “Hey John, Leo’s watching you” was the chant from the Dodgers bench.9 “I could hear them, too,” Mize said, “especially that Gene Hermanski. He’s got a foghorn in his throat.”10 Leo Durocher watched as Mize clobbered a 2-and-1 pitch against the screen in right field, scoring Berra and Brown. Before facing Mize, Shotton had sent out coach Clyde Sukeforth to talk to Branca. In the dressing room after the game, Reese was asked what Sukeforth had told Branca. “I didn’t hear,” Reese replied, “but whatever he told him was wrong.”11 One batter too late, Shotton replaced Branca with Jack Banta, who gave up a run-scoring single to Jerry Coleman, giving the Yankees a 4-1 advantage.

Page now needed three outs to give the Yankees a 2-1 Series lead, but he was tiring too. Olmo and Roy Campanella hit solo home runs to bring the Dodgers within one run with two out, but Page struck out pinch-hitter Bruce Edwards to secure the victory. Shotton was philosophical after the game. “When they get men on bases and then hit it up against the fence, there’s gotta be runs,” he observed. He consoled Branca, saying, “Ralph Branca got the ball where he wanted it and still Mize hit it. If you had to throw that ball 40 times it would still be right there. Only trouble is, he hit it.”12

Stengel insisted that he planned to leave Mize in even if Shotton had changed pitchers. “Mize came in at just the right time,” said Stengel. “Shotton had Joe Hatten warming up. That’s why I waited to see if he were going to change before I took out Mapes. But Mize has been hitting left handers and right handers for years. I wouldn’t have changed again. He’s like DiMaggio and Henrich and Berra. They hit all kinds of pitching.”13 After the game, Mize said, “This World Series stuff is all right.”14 In his first World Series in 11 major-league seasons (along with three years of military service during World War II), Mize got used to that “all right” feeling as the Yankees won Games Four and Five to win the 1949 Series, and was a big part of the Yankees’ run of five straight titles.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com, as well as the following:

Anderson, Dave. Pennant Races – Baseball at Its Best (New York: Galahad Books, 1994.)

NOTES

1 The only time up to this point that pennant races had been closer was in 1908, when the Chicago Cubs won the title by one game over the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Detroit Tigers won the pennant by a half-game over the Cleveland Naps.

2 Richard J. Roth, “‘Faithful’ Pass Loyalty Test in All-Night Vigil,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 7, 1949: 1.

3 Tommy Holmes, “It’ll Be Branca or Barney – Yanks Pick Byrne – And Experts Hear the Bats Booming,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 7, 1949: 5.

4 Other pitchers who walked 175 or more in a season were Bob Feller (1938, 1941), Bobo Newsom (1938), Bob Harmon (1911), Nolan Ryan (1974, 1976, 1977), Bob Turley (1954, 1955), and Sam Jones (1955).

5 Holmes.

6 The only other World Series to have two 1-0 games was the 1966 Series between the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers, when the Orioles won Games Three and Four in their Series sweep.

7 The save became an official statistic in 1969 and has been calculated retroactively. Page’s 27 saves in 1949 were more than that every other major-league team, and nearly 11 percent of all saves in 1949.

8 Jerry Grillo, SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/a7ac6649.

9 The reference was to Leo Durocher, Mize’s manager with the Giants.

10 “‘Leo’s Watching,’ Brooks Chant Before Mize Hits,” New York Times, October 8, 1949: 17.

11 Gene Kessler, “Numbers Game for Mize,” Chicago Sun-Times, October 8, 1949: 34.

12 Ted Smits (Associated Press), “Burt Shotton Philosophical,” Portland Oregonian, October 8, 1949: 13.

13 “Mize Proud as Rookie of His Role in Series,” Chicago Tribune, October 8, 1949: 20.

14 “Mize Proud as Rookie of His Role in Series.”