October 8, 1949: One highly productive inning not enough for Dodgers in Game 4

They lined up. In the small hours after the New York Yankees won Game Three of the 1949 World Series with a three-run outburst in the top of the ninth that broke a 1-1 tie, the Brooklyn faithful lined up. Solo shots by Luis Olmo and Roy Campanella in the Dodgers half of the ninth made it close, but their efforts only narrowed the loss to 4-3. There were 1,000 fans by 3:00 A.M. for a game that would determine whether the Brooklyn Dodgers would even the 1949 World Series with the New York Yankees or leave the Dodgers on the brink of elimination. With only 2,700 bleacher seats available for the game, the line grew to 3,000 by 7:00 A.M.1 Brooklyn was turning out to see its Bums. Would the support be enough?

After the Game Three victory, Yankees manager Casey Stengel immediately named Eddie Lopat as his choice to pitch Game Four. Dodgers manager Burt Shotton would wait. His pitching staff appeared surprisingly depleted. Preacher Roe had injured his finger knocking down a line drive in Game Two, and Shotton’s choices appeared to be the middling Rex Barney or Joe Hatten. Perhaps Game One starter Don Newcombe might be able to pitch. Newcombe struck out 11 Yankees in the Series opener, and the only run allowed was a ninth-inning home run by Tommy Henrich that broke (and ended) a scoreless tie. Shotton wanted to see if his young emerging ace would be ready to pitch with two days’ rest. Stengel recognized the opportunity of beating Newcombe with Roe likely out for the Series. Stengel said, “If we can beat Newcombe, their best pitcher, we’ll be in a pretty good position, don’t you think?”2 Indeed, Shotton handed the ball to Newcombe with the Series likely on the line. Could the fans in the packed Ebbets Field be a difference-maker?

In the top of the first, the Yankees appeared to have kept their bats warm from their late-inning rally in Game Three. Phil Rizzuto and Henrich opened with singles into the Brooklyn outfield. Runners positioned at the corners, Yogi Berra slapped the ball to Eddie Miksis. The third baseman collected the ball and threw to Campanella for a play at home. The Dodgers catcher never tagged Rizzuto, who was called out by umpire Lou Jorda for running outside of the basepath. Meanwhile, Henrich had rounded second, observing the action involving Rizzuto. Henrich mistook Jorda’s raised arm for a timeout, and Campanella alertly fired the ball to Jackie Robinson to tag Henrich for the second out.3 Berra, whose ball started the mayhem, held first base. Newcombe issued consecutive walks to Joe DiMaggio and Bobby Brown to load the bases. With Newcombe’s control teetering, Duke Snider claimed Gene Woodling‘s drive to center field for the third out.

Pee Wee Reese opened the home half of the inning with a double to left-center, but three consecutive groundouts stranded him at second base. Lopat and Newcombe kept the opposition from reaching base in the second and third innings before the Yankees claimed the advantage in the fourth. DiMaggio had struggled offensively during the Series, likely the result of a recent illness,4 and brought a Series batting average of .091 into Game Four. While he connected with enough power to drive Newcombe’s pitch into deep left, Olmo made the catch in front of the advertising on the outfield wall. Brown smacked a double to center ahead of a Woodling walk, setting up Cliff Mapes to break the deadlock. Mapes hit a high fly toward the left-field corner; unlike DiMaggio’s ball, Olmo could not gather this one. Mapes’s ball landed for a double that scored Brown and Woodling for a 2-0 Yankees lead. Olmo caught Jerry Coleman‘s fly ball in foul territory before Lopat found the gap between Olmo and Snider for a run-scoring double. Down 3-0, Shotton sent Newcombe to an early shower, calling upon Hatten in relief. Rizzuto singled to left, and third-base coach Frank Crosetti waved his pitcher home. Lopat, however, “was running out of gas as he rounded third and his motor died on his way home.”5 Olmo’s throw home accounted for the third out.

Despite being winded to end the top of the fourth, Lopat made quick work of the Dodgers in the bottom of the inning. He allowed only a two-out walk to Robinson before the Yankees padded their lead in the fifth. Hatten issued a leadoff walk to Henrich, then Berra’s belter got past Hodges and into right field. Gene Hermanski was playing right field after Carl Furillo injured his right groin on a throw in Game Three.6 Although Henrich made no move toward third,7 Hermanski fired the ball to Miksis. The third baseman muffed the catch, which allowed Henrich to claim third base after all. Hatten loaded the bases by intentionally walking DiMaggio. Brown slammed Hatten’s pitch off the right-field wall for a bases-clearing triple. The Yankees proved unable to add to their 6-0 lead despite Brown’s presence on third with none out. Fly outs by Woodling and Hank Bauer, the latter replacing Mapes in the lineup, and a ground out by Coleman closed the visitors’ fifth.

Brooklyn’s bats came alive in the bottom of the sixth. Reese led off with a short fly toward center field. DiMaggio lost his footing on the play, allowing the ball to drop for a single. Shotton selected Billy Cox to pinch-hit for Miksis. Cox topped a grounder back to Lopat, which resulted in a single as the pitcher could not make the play. Snider’s grounder to Rizzuto started a double-play that left Reese at third. Snider struggled at the plate during the Series, finishing 3-for-21 with eight strikeouts. In response to a question about whether he should have pinch-hit for Snider at this point in the game, Shotton replied, “I have nobody who is a better hitter than Snider.”8 During the regular season, that may have been true.

It was now Robinson’s turn at the plate. Rumors about Robinson’s future were the subject of press reports on the day of the game, saying he was apparently headed to the Boston Braves for $250,000 in the offseason. Dodgers co-owner John L. Smith dismissed the report about Robinson as “a piece of flubdub.”9 Smith added, “I think it was an especially bad thing to have been started right now when Robinson and the rest of the Dodgers are fighting to win the World Series.”10

Robinson smacked Lopat’s pitch to left field, scoring Reese for the first Brooklyn run. Robinson’s hit was the catalyst for a singles parade that would bring the Dodgers back into the game. Hodges singled to center, advancing Robinson to third. Olmo also singled to center, a play that scored Robinson. 6-2, Yankees. Campanella smacked another single, this one to left, scoring Hodges. Hermanski then slapped the ball to Bauer, his right-field counterpart, which plated Olmo and reduced the deficit to 6-4. Hermanski’s base hit, the Dodgers’ seventh of the inning, tied a World Series record for the most singles in an inning.

Through the Dodgers rally, Stengel believed Lopat would find the elusive third out. The Yankees skipper stated, “[T]hose things were just ground balls with eyes that were drifting through the infield and I kept feeling that he’d get out of the inning.”11 Although he wanted to hold Allie Reynolds in reserve for Game Five, Stengel brought him to shut down the Brooklyn surge. A “flipping called third strike”12 on Spider Jorgensen ended the inning. Jorgensen complained later, “I thought it was high and a ball.”13

For the seventh, Shotton handed the ball to right-hander Jack Banta, who won 10 games for Brooklyn and enjoyed a run of eight straight starts over the final month of the season. Entrusted with keeping the Yankees off the scoreboard so the Dodgers could rally, Banta induced groundballs from DiMaggio, Brown and Woodling, all of them fielded by Robinson, for an easy three-up, three-down inning before the stretch. Reynolds and Banta traded zeros through the game’s final innings. The Dodgers’ sixth-inning rally proved fleeting, as Reynolds kept the Dodgers off the bases for game’s final three innings. The Dodgers could not muster enough action even to add tension or otherwise excite the sellout crowd in the home ninth. Campanella led off with a grounder to Brown for the first out, and Reynolds struck out Hermanski and Dick Whitman to end the game. Tommy Holmes characterized the game for his Brooklyn Eagle readers: “The fourth game produced one highly productive inning and eight disappointing ones for the Dodgers and their constituents.”14

Shotton faced criticism after the game for his choice of Newcombe, a 17-game winner who pitched an almost flawless Game One, over Barney or Hatten, both of whom had ERAs more than a run greater than Newcombe’s. It seemed as if Newcombe’s difficulties overshadowed the work of Lopat and Reynolds through eight of nine innings to quiet the Dodgers offense. After the Series, Stengel emerged as a defender of Shotton’s Game Four selection. “Pitching Newcombe on Saturday was the proper move. Just as my starting [Vic] Raschi again [in Game Five], with only two days’ rest, was the right thing to do.”15 Unlike Shotton, though, Stengel would get the result he wanted in making such a pitching move. Twenty-four hours after this game, New York would complete a sweep of games at Ebbets Field to claim the 1949 World Series.

SOURCES

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

NOTES

1 Tom Schroth, “Fans Keep Vigil in Fog Outside Ebbets Field,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 8, 1949: 1.

2 Arthur Daley, “Sports of the Times,” New York Times, October 9, 1949: 5, 2.

3 Harold C. Burr, “Dodgers Bow, 6-4, Must Win Today to Remain in Series,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 9, 1949: 1.

4 John Drebinger, “Yanks Defeat Dodgers, 6-4, For 3-1 World Series Lead,” New York Times, October 9, 1949: 5, 1.

5 Burr: 26.

6 Roscoe McGowen, “Dodgers’ Clubhouse Picture of Frustration After Third Loss to Yankees,” New York Times, October 9, 1949: 5, 3.

7 Drebinger.

8 McGowen.

9 Daniel, “Rumored Sale of Jackie to Braves Just ‘Flubdub,’” The Sporting News, October 19, 1949: 25.

10 “Sale of Robinson Denied,” New York Times, October 8, 1949: 17.

11 Holmes, “Three Straight Is All Dodgers Need,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 9, 1949: 26.

12 Burr: 26.

13 “Shotton Shuns Row Over ‘Turning Point,’” Brooklyn Eagle, October 9, 1949: 26.

14 Holmes.

15 “Stengel Defends Shotton, Calls Newcombe Right Pick,” The Sporting News, October 26, 1949: 6.