1951 Yankee World Series of the Past: 1950

CATALOGING THE 1950 WORLD SERIES
Best Play by Yanks' Bauer
"The 1950 World Series, may it rest in peace:
Biggest Play: By Allie Reynolds in the eighth inning of the second game. A 1-1 score. Richie Ashburn bunted beautifully and safely to open the inning. Dick Sisler also bunted, trying to sacrifice. Reynolds swooped down on the ball, whirled and fired to Phil Rizzuto at second. Ashburn was forced in the closest play of the entire Series. The next batter grounded into a double play. The Yankees won in the tenth.
Top Surprise: Eddie Sawyer's announcement, twenty-four hours in advance, that Jim Konstanty would pitch the first game, his first start in any league since 1948.
Best All-Around Player: Jerry Coleman, Yankee second baseman. He batted .286, fielded perfectly, got four hits. So did Joe DiMaggio and Bobby Brown. Gene Woodling got six. But Coleman batted in three runs, more than any other player.
Biggest Hit: DiMaggio's line drive home run into the left-center field upper deck in the tenth inning of the second game.
Best Play: Hank Bauer's daring and sensational catch of Granny Hamner's vicious line smash to right center in the seventh inning of the first game. Bauer challenged the concrete wall, threw his full weight (185 pounds) as he backed into the barrier and nabbed the sizzling sphere high over his head at the moment of impact.
Worst Play: Andy Seminick's throw at second base in the third game, third inning. With two out, Rizzuto walked and broke for second on the next pitch. Seminick's throw struck six feet in front of the bag, bounced off Phil and into right field for an error. Phil galloped to third, scored on Coleman's single. That was the decisive run.
Best Strategy: The insertion of Johnny Hopp at first base replacing the plodding Johnny Mize, in the first game. In the ninth inning, Ashburn ripped a grounder smack over the bag that Hopp came up with on a startling play and outran Ashburn for the out. Consensus was that Mize never would have reached the ball.
Worst Strategy: The removal of Mike Goliat for a pinch runner in the third game. He was on second base, representing the winning run. His sub didn't score, either. A very slow and old player, Jimmy Bloodworth, was Goliat's replacement in the field. With two out in the ninth, both Woodling and Rizzuto singled off Bloodworth's glove. Goliat might have grabbed one of the bounders. Woodling scored on Coleman's single to win the game.
Slowest Man: Seminick.
Fastest Man: Reynolds.
Best Actor: Casey Stengel, who didn't miss a trick for the television cameras.
Smartest Play: A throw to the plate by Joe Collins, sub first baseman for Mize, in the third game, ninth inning. With Hamner on third, Goliat on first and one out, Dick Whitman hit to Collins, who could have tried for the double play by way of second base. Instead, he fired the ball home and Berra tagged out the sliding Hamner to cut off the winning run.
Dumbest Play: Bill Johnson's trap of Seminick's pop bunt that followed Hamner's double to open the ninth inning, third game. Johnson obviously thought that by failing to catch the tiny fly he might set up a double play, but he forgot that the runner was on second base instead of first.
Best Pitching: Vic Raschi's shutout in the opener. He allowed only two singles, both in the fifth inning.
Greatest Pitching: Konstanty's appearances in three games. He pitched fifteen innings, more than any other man, had only one bad time, the sixth inning in the final game, when he lost his stuff temporarily. A fine pitcher, master competitor, cold calculator.
Second Guess: On Sawyer's use of right-hander Stan Lopata to hit against right-handed Reynolds in the ninth inning of the last game. Lopata was to have hit, as a sub, against left-handed Whitey Ford. Sawyer failed to switch from Lopata to Whitman, a switch hitter, when Reynolds appeared. Yankee Stadium is a notorious graveyard for power right-handed hitters, a soft touch for a left-hander who can pull the ball. Lopata, representing the tying run at the plate, whiffed.
Best Hunch: Stengel's to let Coleman bat for himself in the third game, ninth inning. Casey had a notion to yank Coleman but relented. Coleman then batted in the winning run with a single."

-Franklin Lewis, condensed from the Cleveland Press (Baseball Digest, January 1951)