September 2, 1949: Dodgers rookie Don Newcombe tosses third straight shutout on Bill Klem Night

On July 8, 1949, the New York Giants − in their 67th season of existence – were finally integrated when Hank Thompson and Monte Irvin made their National League debuts, in a game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and rookie hurler Don Newcombe of the Dodgers also played in the game, marking the first time that more than three Black players had appeared in a National or American League contest.1 Four days later, the trailblazing Dodgers trio joined Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians as the first Black players to appear in an All-Star Game between the two circuits.

The next time five Black players appeared in a major-league game was on September 2 at the Polo Grounds in another matchup between the Dodgers and Giants.2 That evening the New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America had organized Bill Klem Night to honor the legendary umpire.3 The celebration was a success, but it was Newcombe who stole the spotlight. The 23-year-old righty tossed his third consecutive shutout, leading the surging Dodgers to an 8-0 blowout victory.

Despite several landmark events over the previous three seasons, the integration of the national pastime was progressing slowly. In 1949 only nine Black players appeared in major-league games, and 13 of the 16 teams still employed entirely White rosters.4 The September 2 contest was only the eighth time Black players had played on opposing teams in a NL or AL game.5

Newcombe (13-6, 3.23 ERA) had sparked Brooklyn since being called up from the Triple-A Montréal Royals in mid-May. When he made his first start with the Dodgers on May 22, they had a mediocre 16-14 record. Since then, the Dodgers had gone 61-36, putting them within striking distance of the first-place St. Louis Cardinals, who had been the hottest team in baseball from June to August.

The Dodgers were in second place at the start of play on September 2, two games behind the Cardinals. The fourth-place Giants were 14½ games out and in danger of finishing in the second division for the ninth time in 11 seasons.6

The Polo Grounds was an interesting choice as the venue in which to honor Klem, an NL umpire from 1905 to 1941 and the league’s current umpiring supervisor.7 For a time, Klem had been Public Enemy Number 1 at Coogan’s Bluff, the site of many of his run-ins with former Giants manager John McGraw.8 Klem had ejected the pugnacious McGraw 16 times, the most of any umpire.9 Yet on this night the fans stood and cheered the 75-year-old Klem for bringing “dignity and prestige” to his profession.10

A large number of Brooklyn rooters boosted the game’s attendance to 44,248, the second largest of the season for a Giants home game.11 Not surprisingly, the Dodgers were the visiting team for five of the six biggest crowds at the Polo Grounds in 1949.

Despite leading the league with a 2.55 ERA, Giants starter Dave Koslo came into the game with a losing record (8-9). The southpaw’s luck failed to improve in the top of the first inning: The Dodgers scored three unearned runs as a result of fielding errors by shortstop Bill Rigney and second baseman Thompson. Robinson and Carl Furillo recorded the only hits of the inning, both singles.

The hard-throwing Newcombe started the game with a flourish, recording five strikeouts in the first two innings.

The Dodgers blew the game open in the fourth. Left fielder Luis Olmo, inserted into the lineup for an injured Duke Snider, doubled with one out, and he scored on right fielder Mike McCormick’s single.12 Newcombe registered Brooklyn’s third consecutive hit, a double down the right-field line that advanced McCormick to third. Giants manager Leo Durocher pulled Koslo in favor of right-hander Andy Hansen, who fared no better.13 The first two batters Hansen faced, Pee Wee Reese and Billy Cox, hit RBI singles and the Dodgers led, 6-0.

Newcombe and Reese singled to open the sixth, knocking Hansen out of the game. Veteran reliever Kirby Higbe came in and allowed a fly ball to Cox; Newcombe tagged up and scored, giving Brooklyn a seven-run lead.

Newcombe, meanwhile, was using his fastball, changeup, and curve – sometimes mistaken for a slider – to dominate the Giants.14 He sprinkled four singles and two walks through the first eight innings, and he allowed only two baserunners to get as far as second base, Whitey Lockman in the first and Willard Marshall in the seventh.

In the ninth the Dodgers tacked on another run on a double by Furillo and an RBI single by Robinson. The hit raised Robinson’s batting average to .350 and gave him 110 RBIs for the season, with both figures leading the league by a comfortable margin.15

The Giants could muster only a single by Bobby Thomson in the bottom of the ninth. Newcombe got the final out by fanning first baseman Joe Lafata, giving him seven strikeouts in the game and pushing his league-leading total to 119 punchouts.16 (Lafata had been the Giants’ regular first baseman since 36-year-old Johnny Mize’s contract was sold to the New York Yankees on August 22.) The shutout extended Newcombe’s string of consecutive scoreless innings to 30.17

The next day the Brooklyn Daily Eagle opined that Newcombe − more than any other player − was the one who had kept the Dodgers in contention in recent weeks.18 “Newcombe was just about the best pitcher anybody’s seen in the NL since the days of Carl] Hubbell and Dizzy] Dean,” wrote Jim McCulley of the New York Daily News.19 Newcombe was well on his way to becoming the first great Black pitcher in the integrated major leagues.20

The win moved the Dodgers to within 1½ games of the idle Cardinals. Brooklyn won 16 of its next 22 contests, although it wasn’t enough to gain any ground on the league leaders. But when St. Louis was swept by the sixth-place Pittsburgh Pirates in a two-game series on September 27 and 29, the Dodgers had an opening. They took full advantage by sweeping the Boston Braves in a September 29 doubleheader to reclaim sole possession of first place for the first time since August 16. Newcombe pitched a shutout in the second game of the twin bill, shortened to five innings because of rain and darkness.21

The Dodgers hung on the rest of the way, clinching the pennant on the final day of the season on a 10th-inning RBI single by Snider, their sensational 23-year-old center fielder.

Robinson deserved a significant amount of the credit for delivering the pennant to Brooklyn with the best offensive season of his career. He earned the National League MVP Award after winning the batting title with a .342 average, knocking in 124 runs, and stealing a league-leading 37 bases.

Newcombe wrapped up his inaugural NL season with an impressive 17-8 record and a 3.17 ERA. He led the circuit with 5.5 strikeouts per nine innings and his five shutouts tied him for the league lead. The performance earned Newcombe the NL Rookie of the Year Award and eighth place in the MVP Award voting.

Manager Burt Shotton, who in April had claimed that the highly-touted Newcombe “doesn’t know how to pitch” and refused to promote him to the big leagues,22 clearly had a change of heart. Shotton tapped Newcombe to start Game One of the World Series against the vaunted Yankees on two days’ rest. The rookie was not intimidated on the big stage. He was locked in a scoreless pitchers’ duel with Allie Reynolds for 8½ innings until Yankees first baseman Tommy Henrich led off the ninth with a walk-off home run.23

Preacher Roe turned the tables on New York in Game Two by going the distance in a 1-0 Dodgers victory, but it was the only win Brooklyn could manage in the Series.24 The Yankees swept the next three games at Ebbets Field to claim the title. It was the third time the Yankees had beaten the Dodgers in the World Series in nine years.25

Despite their disappointing loss to the Yankees, the Dodgers were well positioned for future success. They were the youngest team in the NL and their openness toward integration continued to pay dividends. On the other hand, the franchises that were more resistant to change paid a price for their intransigence.26 The Dodgers went on to become the NL’s most dominant team in the 1950s, winning five pennants and two World Series titles in the decade.27

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the SABR biography of Don Newcombe.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NY1/NY1194909020.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1949/B09020NY11949.htm

Photo credit

Photo of Don Newcombe courtesy the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Rick Swaine, “The Integration of the New York Giants,” in The Team That Time Won’t Forget: The 1951 New York Giants (Phoenix, AZ: SABR, 2015), Bill Nowlin and C. Paul Rogers III, eds., accessed September 20, 2023, at https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-integration-of-the-new-york-giants/.

2 Based on roster composition, the Giants and Dodgers were the only two teams that could have played a regular-season game in 1949 involving five Black players. Black players made appearances for only three teams that season: the Dodgers (Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and Don Newcombe), Giants (Hank Thompson and Monte Irvin), and Indians (Larry Doby, Satchel Paige, Minnie Miñoso, and Luke Easter).

3 Associated Press, “Umpire Gets a ‘Night’ at Polo Grounds,” South Bend Tribune, September 1, 1949: 4.

4 Four major-league teams were considered to have been integrated by the end of the 1949 season: the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns, and New York Giants. But the Browns, who had briefly featured Hank Thompson and Willard Brown in 1947, hadn’t used a Black player since August 22, 1947. Thompson played in just 27 games for the St. Louis Browns, while Brown appeared in 21 games.

5 The Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Browns used at least one Black player in three 1947 games between the two teams (the second game of doubleheaders on August 9 and 10 and the first game of an August 17 twin bill). No games were played in 1948 with Black players appearing for both teams. (Only the Dodgers and Indians used Black players that season.) The four previous games in 1949 in which both teams used at least one Black player were between the Dodgers and Giants on July 8-10 and August 8.

6 The loss on September 2 dropped the Giants into fifth place. They finished the season in the second division (fifth place), 24 games behind the Dodgers. The Giants franchise got a major boost when future Hall of Famer Willie Mays made his National League debut on May 25, 1951.

7 The New York Chapter of the BBWAA also hosted a testimonial luncheon for Klem at Dinty Moore’s restaurant that afternoon. It was attended by 75 baseball men, including NL President Ford Frick, Dodgers manager Burt Shotton, Cincinnati Reds manager Bucky Walters, and NL umpire Jocko Conlon. Associated Press, “Umpire Gets a ‘Night’ at Polo Grounds”; “Arbitration Board,” New York Daily News, September 3, 1949: 32; Associated Press, “City’s Bill Klem Honored at Testimonial Luncheon,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 3, 1949: 21.

8 “My, How the Times Have Changed; They Have ‘Bill Klem Day’ Now,” Circleville (Ohio) Daily Herald, September 2, 1949: 13.

9 Klem ejected McGraw 16 times between 1905 and 1921. McGraw was not tossed by Klem in his final 11 seasons as manager. (McGraw mellowed – he was thrown out of only five games from 1922 to 1932.) Not surprisingly, Klem ejected McGraw more than he did any other manager or player.

10 Associated Press, “Umpire Gets a ‘Night’ at Polo Grounds.”

11 Dana Mozley, “Everyone Cheers Ump – Old Arbitrator Klem,” New York Daily News, September 3, 1949: 28.

12 Snider had a sore back. Mozley, “Everyone Cheers Ump – Old Arbitrator Klem.”

13 Durocher had gone from managing the Dodgers to piloting the rival Giants in the middle of the 1948 season. He persuaded Giants owner Horace Stoneham to begin signing Black players. Swaine, “The Integration of the New York Giants.”

14 Newcombe told Vin Scully early in 1953 that he did not throw a slider. The pitch that some thought was a slider was actually his curve. Durocher made that mistake during the September 2 game. “We just couldn’t touch him,” Durocher said. “He had curves, sliders, and dipsy-doos.” Bill James and Rob Neyer, The Neyer / James Guide to Pitchers (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 323. United Press, “Newcombe Can Give Dodgers Flag − Durocher,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 3, 1949: 6.

15 Ralph Kiner knocked in 29 runs from September 3 until the end of the season to finish with 127 RBIs. Robinson drove in only 14 runs during the rest of the season to bring his total to 124 RBIs, second best in the NL.

16 Newcombe finished the season with 149 strikeouts, second best in the NL. Warren Spahn led the league with 151 strikeouts, although he pitched 58 more innings than Newcombe.

17 Newcombe’s streak was broken in the second inning of his next start.

18 United Press, “Newcombe Can Give Dodgers Flag – Durocher.”

19 Jim McCulley, “Newk Rips Giants, 8-0, for 3d O Job in Row,” New York Daily News, September 3, 1949: 28.

20 Newcombe went on to win the National League MVP Award and the inaugural Cy Young Award in 1956 on the strength of a 27-7 record and a 3.06 ERA. He was the only pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP Awards until Justin Verlander matched the feat in 2017. Newcombe had the potential to become a Hall of Famer, but his career was curtailed by a battle with alcoholism. He also missed his age 26 and 27 seasons because of military service. He finished his career with a 153-96 record and a 3.57 ERA. He was a four-time All-Star.

21 Carl Lundquist (United Press), “Bums, Yanks Slight Choices in Four-Way Major Loop Battle,” Binghamton Press, September 30, 1949: 25.

22 Associated Negro Press, “Big Question Mark Hangs Over Hurler Don Newcombe,” Alabama Tribune (Montgomery), April 22, 1949: 3; Carl E. Prince, Brooklyn’s Dodgers: The Bums, the Borough, and the Best of Baseball (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 71.

23 This was the first walk-off home run in the World Series.

24 Newcombe pitched Game Four of the 1949 World Series, again on just two days’ rest. He lasted only 3⅔ innings and took the loss. Newcombe gave up three earned runs on five hits and three walks. He left the game trailing 3-0. New York eventually won the game, 6-4. 

25 The Yankees also defeated the Dodgers in the World Series in 1947, ’52, ’53, ’56, ’77, and ’78. They were beaten by the Dodgers in the World Series in 1955, ’63, and ’81.

26 The Boston Red Sox were the last major-league team to integrate. Pumpsie Green became the first Black player to appear in a Red Sox uniform when he made his major-league debut on July 21, 1959. The franchise won five World Series championships during the twentieth century, but none after 1918.

27 The Dodgers’ last World Series championship of the decade, in 1959, came after they had moved to Los Angeles.