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Is it better to start a World Series with a rested team or with one riding the wave of momentum? The defending World Series champion New York Yankees clinched the 1962 American League pennant on September 25, five days before the end of the season.1 In the National League, the San Francisco Giants trailed the […]

The New York Yankees had every reason to feel confident. They had won three consecutive World Series championships, 1949-51. When they arrived for a five-game series, July 25-28, 1952, at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, they were again in first place in the American League. And they had won eight of their last 10 games against […]

Bottom of the ninth. Game tied. Series tied. Only one team can win. On the mound for the New York Yankees was 24-year-old Ralph Terry. Leading off the inning for the Pittsburgh Pirates was 24-year-old second baseman Bill Mazeroski. The crowd “sucked in their collective breaths”1 as Terry delivered a shoulder-high fastball. Home-plate umpire Bill […]

For the first time in seven years, the Yankees and the Dodgers resumed their World Series rivalry in 1963. In the decade from 1947 through 1956, they had met six times. Since the Dodgers had moved to Los Angeles in 1958, they had missed postseason competition with each other. The New York Yankees entered their […]

The New York Yankees had won the American League pennant each season from 1955 to 1958, but as they hosted the Chicago White Sox on Friday, July 17, 1959, in the opener of their four-game series, Chicago, not New York, topped the AL standings. In a game Joe Trimble of the New York Daily News […]

Roger Maris connects for his 60th home run of the season in the third inning on September 26, 1961, as Baltimore Orioles catcher Gus Triandos looks on. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   Sometimes it’s the statistics few know that tell the story. Or at least part of the story. If nothing else, they […]

In his second at-bat of the second All-Star Game in 1960, Willie Mays made history by completing the All-Star Game cycle. In the span of just two days, Mays had collected the four necessary hits to hit for the cycle: a single, double, triple, and home run. No major leaguer has ever hit for the cycle […]

After the Cardinals took two out of three games from the Yankees in New York, the World Series returned to St. Louis with the home team on the verge of capturing its seventh championship. Each of the games in New York had been tightly contested, and each game’s outcome had been determined by a home […]

The 1966 New York Yankees were two seasons removed from a seven-game World Series loss to a powerful St. Louis Cardinals team in 1964. The 1965 season saw the Yankees collapse into sixth place in the American League, their worst finish since 1925. As the 1966 season began, the team’s future looked slightly brighter. In […]

With the Milwaukee Braves having won the opening game of the 1958 World Series the day before, the narrative was simple for both teams. If the Braves were to win again, they would take a 2-0 lead in the series and start to feel really confident about capturing their second straight title. If the New […]

The New York Yankees were five-time World Series champions heading into the 1954 season. Nobody would argue, not even Yankees manager Casey Stengel, that New York had the firepower to keep hanging championship banners from the rafters at Yankee Stadium. What was the last team to win a pennant in the American League before the […]

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 […]

The New York Yankees were hurting. The 1961 AL Fireman of the Year, Luis Arroyo, had not pitched since the end of April and was on the disabled list with a sore elbow.1 Mickey Mantle had torn a muscle in his right thigh on May 18 while running out a grounder for the final out […]

As their 1954 season staggered toward its conclusion, the Philadelphia Athletics would host the New York Yankees in the home finale at Connie Mack Stadium. The game, however, was bereft of suspense for either team. For the Yankees, winners of the previous five World Series, their dethroning by the Cleveland Indians was complete. The day […]

Harmon Killebrew clouted 573 home runs in his 22-year big-league career, but few were more dramatic than his walk-off, two-run smash with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Minnesota Twins an exciting victory over the New York Yankees, 6-5, on Sunday, July 11, 1965, at Metropolitan Stadium. “The scene could have been […]

After 15 years of resounding success under the bright spotlights of New York City, the Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle Show played a less celebrated encore performance in July 1968, in Syracuse, New York, the baseball equivalent of off-Broadway.1 Ford, one year into retirement and serving on the New York Yankees’ coaching staff, returned to […]

New York Yankees infielder Gil McDougald led a life of accomplishment both on and off the diamond. During his ten seasons in pinstripes, McDougald was the 1951 American League Rookie of the Year, a five-time All-Star team selection, and a member of eight American League pennant winners. Although often overshadowed by Cooperstown-bound teammates like Mickey […]

Center field at Yankee Stadium is hallowed ground. Once upon a time, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle patrolled this section of the House That Ruth Built. Now, granted, Bernie Williams — whose 16-season New York Yankees career lasted from 1991 to 2006 — may at best be a borderline Cooperstown inductee, but he is a […]

Unlike quite a number of major leaguers, World War II veteran Art Schallock didn’t play baseball during his time in the service. He worked as a radio operator in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater of Operations, serving aboard the USS Coral Sea. Per the aircraft carrier’s tribute site, the Coral Sea saw […]

When you only pitch a few innings in the big leagues, in a meaningless game on the last day of the season, you don’t necessarily expect to get a lot of respect. So perhaps right-hander Jim Hisner wasn’t surprised to find that the Associated Press accounts of his one start called him Harvey Hisner. His […]

How do you throw a spitball? “The idea is to get part of your grip wet, and the other dry. When the ball leaves your hand, it slips off your wet fingers and clings, just tiny-like, to the dry part on your thumb. The ball jumps on account of it. If it’s a good ’un, […]

In all their history since Babe Ruth arrived, the New York Yankees have suffered through very few lean years. The most notorious were 1966 and 1967, when they finished 10th and 9th in the American League. One of the few bright spots in that period, however, was Dooley Womack. In 1966, the righty reliever made […]

Ruggedly handsome with dark wavy hair, an engaging smile and a boyish grin, the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman was equally capable of leading the league in both home runs and pranks. General manager Branch Rickey suspiciously called him the instigator, to which James Anthony Collins remarked: “Rickey always accused me of being the […]

The Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at The Original Crusoe’s Restaurant in South St. Louis on Monday, October 20, 2014 with 18 members and guests in attendance. Chapter vice-president Jeff Ecker called the meeting to order. Chapter secretary Jim Leefers announced that the winner of the pre-season predictions contest was chapter president Brian Flaspohler (unable […]