Sport: And Still Champions

Dr. Gallup took no poll on U.S. sympathies, but a pro-Brooklyn sentiment hung unmistakably in the autumn air. At the White House, Ike Eisenhower shook his head when he heard that the Yankees were off to a fast start in the first game. He turned to his visitor of the day, Adlai Stevenson, and cracked: “It’s time for a change.” In Missouri, same day, Harry Truman told reporters: “The Yankees are getting to be a habit, and it’s time somebody did something about it.”

On paper, the Dodgers seemed the team to do it. They had outhit the Yankees (.285 to .273) in the regular season. Their sluggers led by Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Duke Snider and Carl Furillo, had rolled up 208 homers to the Yankees’ 139. True, the Yankee pitching staff was rich in veterans with the habit of winning in the World Series, but in Carl Erskine (20-6), Preacher Roe (11-3) and Billy Loes (14-8) Charley Dressen’s Brooklyns had a certified crew of winners, too. Growled old National Leaguer Rogers Hornsby: “If the Dodgers don’t beat the Yankees this time, they ought to cut their throats.”

As it turned out, such advance calculations underrated the Yankees, and a. clownish-wise man named Casey Stengel, at 63 the most successful manager in baseball history. Manager Stengel and his Yankees were in no mood for a change; they were after a record fifth World Championship in a row. When the series ended this week, Stengel & Co. had their record.

First Game. The Dodgers sent Right-hander Erskine against the Yankees, but he was wild and the Yankees knocked him out of the game in the first inning with four runs (on three walks and two triples). By the fifth inning the Dodgers were beginning to straighten out the fastball pitching of Yankee Allie Reynolds, but old National Leaguer Johnny Sain marched in to replace Reynolds and silence the Dodgers while the Yankees piled up more runs. Score: Yankees, 9; Dodgers, 5.

Second Game. What started as a southpaw pitching duel between Brooklyn’s Preacher Roe and the Yankee’s Eddie Lopat blew up in a Yankee victory in the eighth, when Mickey Mantle slammed a two-run homer to break a 2-2 tie. The Dodgers outhit the Yanks nine hits to five, but then left ten men stranded on the bases. Score: Yankees, 4; Dodgers, 2.

Third Game. Two games down and burning to ‘win in their home park, the Dodgers gave Pitcher Erskine a second chance. Erskine brought Brooklyn back into the Series, struck out 14 Yankees (Mickey Mantle four times) to set a Series record. Catcher Campanella, bothered by a swollen hand that had been hit by a first-game pitch, suddenly recovered. His eighth-inning homer beat the Yanks. 3-2.

Fourth Game. The Dodgers came out swinging, took a three-run lead in the first inning, and never fell behind. In the ninth inning, a Yankee rally was snuffed out when a fine throw by substitute Leftfielder Don Thompson caught Yankee Billy Martin at the plate. The Dodgers had evened the Series, 7-3.

Fifth Game. Mickey Mantle made up for his strikeouts. In the third inning, with the bases loaded and the score tied 1-1, he hit a soaring grand-slam homer into the upper leftfield stands. The Dodgers rallied, but the final score was Yankees 11, Dodgers 7.

Sixth Game. Carl Erskine again tried to pitch the Dodgers to a win, after only two days of rest, but he lasted only four innings. It was a close one, with the Yankees leading 3-1 going into the ninth. Dodger Carl Furillo then gave Brooklyn fans a foretaste of paradise by poling a two-run homer into the stands. Then the Yankees struck back; in the last of the ninth, with runners on first and second, Billy Martin drove a line single through the infield. It was his twelfth hit of the series. More important, it scored Hank Bauer with the run that made the Yankees World Champions for another year. Score: Yankees, 4; Dodgers, 3.