1958 Yankee of the Past: Bobo Newsome

"The ubiquitous Bobo Newsome never hesitated to keep batters uneasy and shaky at the plate. 'Did you ever deliberately knock anyone down?' he was asked. 'No, I never did,' he replied with a grin. 'But I recollect that the ball did.' "

-Baseball Digest, August 1958

1958 Yankee of the Past: Paul Waner

HOW WANER GOT HIS 3,000

Wait For Good Pitching, Trap Pitcher By Intentionally Wasting Some, His Counsel

"How does a player go about amassing a total of 3,000 hits in the majors?

Paul Waner, one of the very few qualified to answer, makes it sound very simple.

'Wait until you get good pitches and swing at them,' is his terse explanation. 'I didn't always wait for the fat pitches, however,' he adds. 'That's why I didn't reach the 3,000-hit mark until my seventeenth year in the majors instead of arriving at the goal a couple of years previously.

'It's possible to get base hits while swinging at bad balls. I got my share in my 19 years. But where a consistent .300 hitter can usually hit four out of ten good pitches safely, he's lucky to hit one out of ten bad pitches safely.'

While 'Big Poison' admits he didn't always practice what he preaches, his failures to do so could not have been very frequent. For only one of the six other players in the history of baseball who were credited with 3,000 hits before him reached that goal in less than 18 years.

Waner's view that hitting at good pitches is what makes good stickers isn't exactly novel. We've heard many another big leaguer say the same thing. But the former Pittsburgh and Braves' outfielder offers another hitting theory that surprises no end.

'A hitter who doesn't try to do his best every time he steps to the plate,' he calmly opines, 'can be of more value to his club than one who attempts to knock the ball out of the park on every turn at bat.'

Impossible, you say?

Well, reserve judgment until you hear Waner's explanation.

'A smart pitcher,' he says, 'tries to build a batter up for a letdown. A smart batter should try to do the same against a pitcher.

'For example, in a game in Brooklyn, Whit Wyatt went to work on me like the master he was. When he got two runs ahead, he threw me fast balls inside as well as curves outside if there was nobody on base. He was trying to find out if I could pull his high hard pitch. If I showed I could by lining a homer over the right field fence, he'd still be a run in front and would know what not to throw if I came up in the clutch.

'But I was thinking as fast as he. I could have hit one over the wall. But I knew one run wouldn't help. So I backed away and fouled that inside pitch to left field, giving him the impression that he was too fast to pull.

'All that time I was telling myself that the time would come when I could win it by unloading on that serve.

'And I was right, though sound strategy robbed me of the chance.

'I was up with two mates on base in the bottom of the eighth. A homer would put us in front. I knew I had set the stage to get that pitch again. I got it, too, and I'm confident I could have knocked it right out of the park. But I had to sacrifice. No chances could be taken on my popping up. Percentages called for me to put the tying runs in scoring position with a bunt.

'The strategy, I repeat, was sound. I mention this only to show what I mean when I say a batter shouldn't try to do his best at all times. His worst now and then can turn out to be most helpful in the long run.

'Countless times I installed false security in a pitcher by purposely looking bad on pitches I could have 'murdered' when it wouldn't have done him much harm, and then I wrecked him by hammering the same pitch in a clutch later on.

'As I look at it, most games are close enough so that there comes a time when a long hit can give your side victory.

'Thus, I thought mainly of making sure I'd get the pitch I wanted in that spot, no matter what hits it might have cost me to arrange it.

'If every player on a club would do the same, you'd have the closest thing to an unbeatable outfit ever put together.' "

-Joe Cashman, Boston Record (Baseball Digest, June 1958, reprinted from the first issue of Baseball Digest, August 1942)

1958 Yankee of the Past: Joe Medwick

JUST TOO BAD

"About the only successful bad-ball hitter in the business today is Yogi Berra of the Yankees, who, as a kid in St. Louis used to root for Joe Medwick. Perhaps Yogi borrowed the unorthodox technique from 'Ducky,' as Joe used to be known.

Joe, one-time National League batting champion, was known as a bad-ball hitter in his time. He was never particular. If the pitch was outside the strike zone but suited him, he swung at it. Often, he would hit the bad pitch safely. That was the difference between Joe and most other bad-ball swingers. More than a swinger, he was a hitter; he hit those outside-the-zone deliveries safely.

That he was successful was attested by the fact he was rated one of the most dangerous hitters of his time and won the National League batting title with .374 in 1937. That year he also was named the league's Most Valuable Player. Among other achievements, he drove home 154 runs.

One time in Brooklyn, Medwick recalled, he was called out on strikes by Umpire Beans Reardon. The time before he had hit a tremendous home run.

'Beans,' Joe shouted, 'how could you call me out on that pitch? It was two inches inside.'

'Quit squawkin' Joe,' Beans said. 'The pitch you hit the homer on was a foot-and-a-half inside. If you could swing at that one, you could have swung at this one. You're still out!' "

-Sy Burick, the Dayton News (Baseball Digest, February 1958)

1958 Yankees World Series of the Past: 1938-1957

Yankees Excerpts from the Film Script of the Official Movie, "20 Years of World Series Thrills"

"Baseball's tremendous popularity is solidly built on its endless variety. New thrills brighten every contest. You never know when or where the game may be won or lost.

That is multiplied tenfold in the World Series where often the most obscure players rise to superhuman heights in the frenzied fight for the prestige and spoils of the victor.

So let's turn back the clock. Let's relive the spectacular thrills and heartaches of 20 years of [Yankees] World Series play ...

The Gionfiddo Catch!

Lavegetto's No-Hit Spoiler!

Larsen's Perfect Game!

Time will never erase their memory.

Over the past 20 years, from 1938 to 1958, the motion picture department of major league baseball has taken a half million feet of film on World Series plays alone. Every fall classic has been covered.

There was a modest beginning in the early years with only five minutes of the World Series incorporated into a general movie of the season's highlights. However, since 1943 we have made a full-length movie of each World Series. Every important play was recorded and every thrill was perpetuated in celluloid.

But in the final analysis, each Series is distinguished by one or two outstanding events ... a brilliant single play, a spectacular game performance or a heartbreaking failure.

These are the things the fans remember.

Here, then are our 20 years of [Yankees] World Series thrills ... the most memorable [Yankees] moments of the greatest spectacle in the world of sports.

1938

It's the second game of the Series between the Cubs and the Yankees at Chicago's Wrigley Field and Dizzy Dean, his fireball reduced to ashes by an arm injury, is making a valiant stand in the twilight of his career. Through sheer courage and cunning he stops such mighty sluggers as Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Bill Dickey through seven tense innings. He is leading, 3-2.

Then comes the eighth. Frankie Crosetti steps up to bat with Myril Hoag on base. But luck runs out! Crosetti lofts a fly ball into the bleachers. Dizzy's comeback dream is shattered and the Cubs lose.

1939

It's the Yankees versus the Cincinnati Reds ... with Joe McCarthy pitted against Bill McKechnie. The Series scene is Crosley Field and the Yankees have won the first three games.

It's the tenth inning of the fourth game. The score is tied, 4-4. Crosetti is on third and Charlie Keller on first. Bucky Walters is pitching. DiMaggio singles to right, scoring Crosetti, and when the ball is fumbled, Keller scores as he collides heavily with Ernie Lombardi, the Cincinnati catcher dropping the ball as he spins around and then falling to the ground. Lombardi is stunned by the collision. DiMaggio comes storming home and is safe with a graceful fallaway slide. Three runs score in the wild inning and the Yankees win, 7-4.

1941

Leo Durocher is in his first World Series as a manager when he leads the Dodgers to a pennant. It's a New York subway series with Joe McCarthy's Yankees.

Remember that powerhouse Yankee outfield? Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich and Joe DiMaggio. They totaled 94 home runs for the season.

After the first two games are divided at Yankee Stadium the scene shifts to Ebbets Field and the Yankees win the third one. Now it's the fourth game and Brooklyn is on the verge of tying the Series at two-all. The Dodgers have a 4-3 lead in the ninth inning.

Relief pitcher Hugh Casey retires the first two Yankees. He's now only one out away from victory as he faces Henrich. Tommy works Casey to a three-and-two count and then swings at a low-breaking pitch.

The Brooklyn crowd rattles the rafters with a deafening roar as Henrich misses. But there's a sudden hush. Catcher Mickey Owen also misses. The ball skips past him and Henrich is safe at first base.

It's a spark that starts an explosive chain reaction. DiMaggio singles and Keller doubles off the right field wall, scoring Henrich and DiMaggio.

Before the inning is over, the Yankees score four runs and win, 7-4.

1942

It's the St. Louis Cardinals, paced by their two young stars, Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter, challenging the New York Yankees.

In Game Two, the ninth inning, Johnny Beazley is pitching. Bill Dickey beats out an infield hit. Buddy Hassett singles and Slaughter's great throw cuts the runner down at third base.

In the ninth inning of Game Five, with Red Ruffing pitching for the Yankees, Walker Cooper singles. Johnny Hopp sacrifices Cooper to second. Whitey Kurowski wallops a home run into the left field stands, scoring two runs and the Cardinals go on to win by a 4-2 score to clinch the Series.

After losing the opener, the Cardinals came back with four straight victories.

1943

Billy Southworth leads the Cardinals into the World Series for the second straight year against Joe McCarthy and the Yankees.

Johnny Lindell leads off the eighth inning of Game Three for the Yankees with a single to center and when Harry Walker fumbles, Lindell takes second.

Stirnweiss bunts down the first-base line. Ray Sanders scoops up the ball and fires to Kurowski at third. Lindell is out! No, he is SAFE! Kurowski drops the ball as Lindell slides into third and collides with the Cardinal third baseman ... and Umpire Beans Reardon quickly changes his decision.

From this point, the Yankees go on to a 6-2 victory.

In the fifth game, the famous brother battery of Mort and Walker Cooper tries to halt the Yankee tide. But it fails when Bill Dickey hits a two-run homer to clinch the Series.

The Yankee clubhouse celebration is more boisterous than usual. Even the Commissioner, Judge Landis, is swept up in Yankee exuberance and hoisted onto the players' shoulders.

1947

New York's arch-rivals, the Yankees and Dodgers, managed by Bucky Harris and Burt Shotton, renew their crosstown feud. Among the spectators is the greatest slugger in baseball history ... the mighty Babe Ruth.

It is the fourth game and Floyd Bevens of the Yankees has a no-hitter going into the ninth inning. The Yankees lead, 2-1. Bevens walks the first man, then retires Carl Furillo.

Spider Jorgensen pops to George McQuinn. Bevens is now only one out away from the first World Series no-hitter.

Al Gionfriddo runs for Furillo and promptly steals second when Berra's throw is high. The Dodgers gambled everything on this play.

First base is now open and Manager Bucky Harris orders the dangerous Pete Reiser walked intentionally. Eddie Miksis walks for Reiser.

With the crowd half-hysterical, Cookie Lavagetto steps to the plate for Eddie Stanky. With two out and two on, Lavagetto slams the ball against the right field fence for a double. Gionfriddo scores and here comes Miksis dashing home.

The Dodgers win, 3-2, and Bevens' no-hit dream lies shattered in a spine-tingling finish. Lavagetto is nearly mobbed by joyous players and fans.

The Series races on in high-pitched excitement to the sixth game. Joe Hatten is pitching for Brooklyn in the sixth inning. The Dodgers lead, 8-5, with DiMaggion at bat and two on.

Joe hammers a terrific drive to deep left field. It's heading for the bullpen gate. And there goes Gionfriddo sprinting desperately to overtake the ball. He dashes to the 415-foot marker and spears the ball with a sensational glove-hand catch. It robs DiMaggio of a homer and saves the game for Brooklyn.

1949

It's another subway series involving the Yankees and Dodgers.

Don Newcombe of the Dodgers and Allie Reynolds of the Yankees are the Game One starters. It's a dazzling mound duel ... a battle of strikeouts. Neither side has scored going into the last half of the ninth. Reynolds has a two-hitter and nine strikeouts and Newcombe has allowed four hits and fanned 11.

Tommy Henrich leads off the Yankee ninth. Newcombe winds up and the first pitch is wide ... ball one. The next pitch also misses the plate ... ball two. Newcombe's third pitch is a curve ball. Henrich connects and away it goes ... into the lower right field stands for a home run. The 'Old Pro' has done it again. The Yankees win, 1-0.

1950

The Phillies, sparked by youngsters Richie Ashburn, Del Ennis and Granny Hamner, are the sensation of the National League. It's their first pennant since 1915 ... and Eddie Sawyer's Whiz Kids challenge Casey Stengel's seasoned Yankees in the World Series.

The opening game goes to the Yankees, 1-0, in a magnificent mound duel between Vic Raschi and Jim Konstanty.

In the second game, it's Allie Reynolds, an old campaigner, against Robin Roberts, youthful fastballer of the Phillies. Reynolds and Roberts continue their duel into the tenth. DiMaggio leads off for the Yankees.

Roberts takes his signal. Here comes the pitch ... and there it goes. DiMaggio blasts it into the second deck of the left field stands for his seventh World Series homer.

And the Yankees have done it again, winning, 2-1.

1951

It's a spectacular year.

The Giants, inspired by Manager Leo Durocher, stage a dramatic stretch drive to tie Brooklyn on the final day of the season.

They go into the ninth inning of the decisive game of the playoff series trailing, 4-1. But still, their fighting spirit recognizes no odds. They knock Newcombe out of the box. The score is 4-2 with two men on and one out when Ralph Branca comes in from the bullpen. He faces Bobby Thomson.

Here comes Branca's second pitch and it's gone! Thomson connects and the ball crashes into the left field stands for a stunning three-run homer that echoes around the world. The Giants win the National League pennant in a fantastic storybook finish.

Pandemonium breaks loose in the historic Polo Grounds. It was the most breathtaking climax any pennant race had ever known.

The Giants face their New York neighbors, Casey Stengel's Yankees, in the World Series. It's the first inning of the opening game. Allie Reynolds is pitching for the Yankees. The Giants have one run across with two out and Monte Irvin on third base. Reynolds starts his delivery and here comes Irvin racing for the plate. He's SAFE! It's only the seventh World Series steal of home in history.

Some of the Giant scrappiness and resourcefulness surprises the Yankees. It's the fifth inning of the third game. Eddie Stanky walks. Al Dark steps to the plate. Vic Raschi pitches. And there goes Stanky! He's caught stealing second. But wait! He kicks the ball out of Rizzuto's glove and races on to third.

In the eighth inning of the sixth game, Joe DiMaggio steps to the plate. He already has announced his pending retirement. With victory almost certain this will be the final appearance of the famed Yankee Clipper.

Joe slams one of Larry Jansen's pitches for a whistling liner between Willie Mays and Hank Thompson. It's a double. On the next pitch, McDougald bunts and DiMaggio is out at third base. He's out but it's a beautiful slide. DiMaggio makes his exit with the same grace and skill that marked his entire career.

The Giants battle right down to the last man. Manager Durocher sends Sal Yvars to the plate in the ninth for Thompson. Yvars lines Bob Kuzava's first pitch to right field ... and Hank Bauer makes a spectacular catch to save the game, 4-3,  and give the Yankees another championship.

1952

The Dodgers, managed by Charlie Dressen, are back to challenge Casey Stengel's World Champion Yankees again. The Series is a hard-fought seesaw battle that rages into the seventh game. Bob Kuzava of the Yankees relieves Vic Raschi in the seventh inning.

The Yankees lead, 4-2, but the Dodgers have the bases loaded with two out. That brings up the dangerous Jackie Robinson. A hit here might give Brooklyn its first world championship.

Robinson hits a wind-blown pop fly to the infield. Nobody goes after it. Then Billy Martin races in and makes a split-second catch while on the dead run.

It's only a pop fly but it's the biggest play of the Series. It saves the game and the world championship for the Yankees as Kuzava holds that 4-2 margin to the end.

1953

The Golden Anniversary of the World Series with the Yankees and the Dodgers renewing their rivalry at Yankee Stadium. In the opener third indeed becomes a hot corner for Manager Charlie Dressen of Brooklyn. It's the seventh inning with Johnny Sain pitching for the Yankees.

The Dodgers have just scored a run to tie the score, 5-5. There are runners on first and second with none out. Billy Cox is at bat.

Cox attempts to sacrifice and Gil Hodges is out at third on an extremely close play. The Dodger rally is stopped and the Yankees win.

It's the fourth game. Carl Erskine is hurling for Brooklyn. He is fanning the mighty Yankees right and left. Erskine goes into the ninth with a 3-2 lead and 12 strikeouts. Don Bollweg bats for Phil Rizzuto. Swish! He fans the air for strikeout No. 13 and Erskine ties the record set by Howard Ehmke of the A's against the Cubs in 1929.

Now Casey Stengel calls on his big ace pinch hitter .... big John Mize.

Erskine gets two strikes on him. Then Mize takes a vicious swing at the third one ... and misses ... and Erskine joins baseball immortals with an all-time record of 14 World Series strikeouts!

The fifth game is a 1-1 tie going into the Yankee third. Mickey Mantle comes to the plate with the bases loaded and Russ Meyer is summoned from the bullpen to replace Johnny Podres. Mantle wallops Meyer's first pitch for a grand slam homer into the upper deck in left field and the Yankees are on the way to an easy triumph. For Casey Stengel [after the Yankees win Game Six], it's also a record, his fifth straight world championship.

1955

Those World Series perennials, the Yankees and the Dodgers, are at it again, with Walt Alston leading the Dodgers against Casey Stengel.

The Series opens on a highly sensational note. It's a home run battle in the first game. Five are hit before the contest is half over with the most gigantic of all being Duke Snider's drive into the third tier of the right field stands in the fourth inning.

It's the Yankee sixth. Billy Martin lashes a hit over Junior Gilliam's head for a triple. That finishes Newcombe and Don Bessent comes in to pitch. Martin is impatient on third. He dashes for the plate on an attempted steal ... but Umpire Bill Summers calls him out on a very close play.

Now it's the Brooklyn eighth and Jackie Robinson is on third with pinch batter Frank Kellert at the plate. Here comes Robinson storming for home. It's another close one.

This time the umpire calls the runner safe ... even though Yogi Berra doesn't think he is.

It's a give-and-take struggle and they're fighting for the title in the seventh game. Johnny Podres, a lefty with a baffling changeup, has a 2-0 lead over the Yankees in the sixth inning.

Billy Martin leads off for the Yanks. He walks.

Gil McDougald then beats out a bunt to Podres and the Yankees have the tying run on base.

And up comes Yogi Berra. He slams a curving drive down the left-field line. And there goes Sandy Amoros racing over for the ball.

It looks like a sure hit and McDougald has rounded second base.

But Amoros sticks out his glove just in time and makes the catch.

He quickly throws to Pee Wee Reese ... who wheels and pegs to Gil Hodges to double McDougald at first base.

It's the twelfth double play in the Series by Brooklyn and the nineteenth by both teams. Both are records.

For the Dodgers it means the championship ... their first.

Never before has a team won a seven-game World Series after losing the first two games. It was Johnny Podres who started the incredible comeback surge by winning the third game and who then clinched it with a brilliant shutout in the final contest. It's Brooklyn's greatest day and the city goes topsy-turvy over the monumental event.

1956

For the fourth time in five years, it's the Dodgers and Yankees. But there's a difference. The Dodgers are the defending champions this time, the Bombers the challengers.

The second game turns into a thunderous slugfest. With Don Newcombe pitching, Yogi Berra slugs a grand slam in the Yankee second inning to give the Bombers a 6-0 lead.

But the Dodgers bounce back in the same inning. They have three runs across with two men on when Manager Stengel brings Tommy Byrne, a left-hander, to the mound to face the left-handed Duke Snider.

The Duke misses a wide curve. But not the next one! There it goes ... over the scoreboard in right center for a home run that ties the score, 6-6. It's Snider's tenth Series homer, tying him with Lou Gehrig. Only the mighty Babe, with a total of 15, has hit more.

The climax of the Series, perhaps for all World Series for all time, comes in the fifth game.

Sal (The Barber) Maglie, winner of the opener, is back to face Don Larsen of the Yankees.

Maglie retires the first 11 men to face him, but in the fourth inning Mickey Mantle, winner of the American League's Triple Crown, homers into the right field stands ... and Hank Bauer's single scores another run in the sixth and the Yankees lead, 2-0.

All attention by this time, however, is focused on Larsen. He hasn't permitted a hit nor has a single Dodger reached base.

It's the ninth inning. A strange hush falls over the crowd it realizes the overpowering drama of the situation as Larsen walks to the mound.

Never before has a pitcher hurled a no-hitter in the World Series ... much less a perfect game. Larsen is only three outs away.

First man to face Larsen in the ninth is Carl Furillo. The first pitch is a called strike. Furillo fouls the next one back into the screen. Ball one high. Another foul into the stands. Then another. Furillo flies to Bauer.

The second batter is Roy Campanella, another dangerous hitter. Every pitch carries the weight of baseball immortality. Campanella fouls the first pitch down the left-field line. Then Campy bounces to Martin and is thrown out.

Only one man now blocks Larsen from the greatest pitching achievement of all time. And that man is Dale Mitchell, who comes to the plate to pinch-hit for Sal Maglie.

The first pitch is a ball, high. Then a curve for a called strike. A swinging strike and the count is one-and-two.

Another pitch is fouled off ... Larsen faces the batter again ... and from behind the plate Umpire Babe Pinelli awaits the pitch with intense concentration. Here it comes! Mitchell starts to move the bat ... checks his swing and Pinelli's arm goes up.

Strike Three! And with that fateful move Pinelli opens the door to the Hall of Fame to Larsen. It also touches off one of the wildest Yankee player demonstrations in history.

Yogi Berra runs out and leaps into the arms of the huge pitcher ... and within a fraction of a second Larsen is surrounded by a seething mass of Yankees that sweeps him toward the clubhouse where bedlam breaks loose.

Larsen's fantastic performance will forever live in the minds and hearts of everyone present that day in Yankee Stadium.

1957

With the Milwaukee Braves leading the Yankees, 5-0, in the ninth inning of the seventh and final game of the Series, the Yankees are at bat with the bases loaded and two outs. Lew Burdette is only one out away from victory.

The Yankee slugger, Bill Skowron, hits a terrific shot down the third base line. Eddie Mathews makes a miraculous back-handed stab of the ball, races to third base for a force-out of McDougald, and the Braves are the new World Champions with a 5-0 victory.

Burdette is the man of the hour as hilarity continues in the clubhouse. No one pitcher ever before has beaten the Yankees three times in a World Series, and the veteran right-hander is the first pitcher to win two shutouts in a Series since Christy Mathewson did it three times in 1905."

Yes, we all thrill to 20 years of [Yankees] World Series plays. From Joe DiMaggio to Mickey Mantle.

Now to start another 20 years of [Yankees] World Series thrills."

-Lew Fonseca (Baseball Digest, October 1958)

ABOUT THE FILM

"The 1958 film 20 Years of World Series Thrills is the 39th movie produced for the major leagues by Lew Fonseca, former big league batting champion and manager, who originated the project in 1934.

During the current year alone, under Fonseca's direction, 4,500 copies of the previous films will have been shown 100,000 times before fraternal organizations, church groups, luncheon clubs, schools, U.S. Armed Forces, etc., and will be seen by approximately 17 million fans."

Baseball Digest, October 1958

1958 Yankee World Series of the Past: 1957

 HEIGHTS AND DEPTHS OF THE '57 WORLD SERIES

Mathews' Defensive Play Biggest Surprise

"Biggest Surprise: Ed Mathews' play at third base. Proved to be a sound infielder who made several clutch plays.

Best Infielder: Gil McDougald of the Yankees.

Scrappiest Player: Milwaukee shortstop Johnny Logan, who slid as if he were going for a first down every time.

Best Strategy: The intentional pass (only one in the Series) to Yogi Berra in the first inning of the last game. It worked when McDougald popped up.

Best Shine: On Nippy Jones' shoes in the fourth game. Tommy Byrne's pitch clipped Jones' foot and the polish on his shoe came off on the ball to convince Umpire Augie Donatelli, who wasn't convinced until then.

Guttiest Player: Lew Burdettte.

Deepest Sleep: By Fred Haney's board of strategy that permitted the Braves' outfielders, especially the man in right (the opposite field in this case) to station themselves nine miles away from the plate when Jerry Coleman, a notorious short hitter, was at bat. Three of his blows fell for safeties because no one on the Milwaukee bench moved the outfielders in.

Most Dramatic Pitch: Bob Turley's third strike to Hank Aaron in the sixth game, a ball that caught the outside half of the plate and had Aaron fooled completely.

Most Damaging Pitch: Tom Sturdivant's knuckler in the fourth inning of the fourth game. Aaron slammed the soft pitch over the left field fence.

Biggest Question: Why didn't Casey Stengel order Bob Grim to pass Mathews in the tenth inning of the fourth game, with the winning run on second, two out and first base open? Mathews' homer that followed was ruinous to the Yankees.

Worst Luck: Don Larsen's in the last game. He lost out because Berra goofed on a pop foul, starting late, and because Tony Kubek and Joe Collins failed to make infield plays.

Best Switch: Joe Adcock, who couldn't find himself at the plate, to Frank Torre [with the heart of a winner], who made several sensational pickups at first base and contributed two home runs.

Most Daring Switch: Stengel's on his first baseman in the first game. When Moose Skowron was hurt, Stengel gambled on Elston Howard, whose previous major league first-basing experience was 16 innings total.

Major Contributor to the World Series: The weather, ideal or almost ideal for all seven games.

Best Game: The fifth, with Burdette edging Whitey Ford, 1-0.

Pitcher Deserving Better Fate: Ford.

Player You'd Most Like to Have on Your Side: Hank Bauer, Hank Aaron and Gil McDougald tied. And, of course, Lew Burdette in clutch games.

Worst Play: The Braves (twice) when they had Coleman in one game and Bauer in another trapped between second and third on taps to he mound and permitted both to regain second base safely. This is a fundamental exercise high school players know how to execute.

Best Catches: Wes Covington's pair of catches, on Bobby Shantz in the second game and on McDougald in the fifth game. His catch on Shantz saved two runs that surely would have scored; his fence-smashing grab of McDougald's robbed Gil of a double, at least.

Best Single Play by an Infielder: Mathews' grab of Harry Simpson's wicked bounder in the fifth game to start a double play. Had the ball gone for a hit, Burdette might have been yanked and not have gotten the chance to pitch those 24 scoreless innings.

Bust of the Series: Harry Simpson. At bat 12 times (seven times with men on base) Simpson got only one hit, an infield single.

Purely Personal Puff: The umpiring in general was excellent.

Summation: A corking World Series, with drama, suspense and top-drawer plays."

-Franklin Lewis, Cleveland Press (Baseball Digest, December 1957)

1958 Yankee of the Past: Wally Pipp

GEHRIG- AND PIPP'S STRANGE RETURN

First Time Pipp Went To See His Successor, Lou's Streak Ended

"The dramatic aspects of Lou Gehrig's life have been immortalized in celluloid in the finest sports picture ever made, The Pride of the Yankees,  and on television in a Climax! program last year. But the story we would like to tell here is off-beat and starts on the second of June, 33 years ago,  in Cleveland. It's the story of two aspirin tablets and the strange reappearance of Wally Pipp.

It was a sultry day and Pipp, first baseman of the Yankees, had asked for a clubhouse boy to get him two aspirin tablets. Pipp gulped them down in a glass of water and then stretched out on a bench.

Little Miller Huggins, the Yankee manager, had been watching. He asked Pipp what was wrong. Pipp explained that the heat had him down. 'Hug,' he said, 'I have an eye weakness that always breaks out in hot weather in terrific headaches. This one is killing me.'

'Take a few days off,' said Hug, 'and I'll take a look at this clumsy kid from Columbia.'

So Gehrig, who had pinch hit for shortstop Pee Wee Wanninger the day before, played his first games as a Yankee June 1-2, 1925. He was awkward and cumbersome but showed signs of being a hitter. However, when Pipp informed Huggins on June 3 that he was ready to return to the lineup, the little manager did not hesitate. Pipp was listed at first base.

But a pitcher named Chuck Caldwell beaned the first-sacker in batting practice that day and rendered him hors de combat. So Gehrig took over again.

Lou walloped the baseball to all fields that day and Wally Pipp was destined never to play the bag as a Yankee again. Now surplus baggage in New York, he was sold the next winter to Cincinnati.

It was May 2, 1939, fourteen years later, and the Yankees were playing in Detroit. It is a strange fact that Pipp, from the time that he left baseball, had not seen Lou Gehrig again. He was a newspaper publisher in 1939 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and by a coincidence, had some business in Detroit that day. By another coincidence, he finished his business about 2 o'clock, noted that his ex-team, the Yankees, were in town, and decided to take in the game.

He hardly had taken his seat when Harry Heilmann, then Detroit's radio broadcaster, stopped by to chat. 'Too bad about Gehrig, isn't it?' asked Heilmann.

'What's too bad?' asked Pipp.

'Why, he's benched himself and ended his consecutive-game streak at 2,130,' said Heilmann. Harry then filled in the details of what has since become baseball's epic story: how Gehrig had gone to Manager Joe McCarthy that morning, described his slump and failure to account for it, said he felt he was hurting the team, and had asked to be replaced. He would work extra hard at batting practice and would tell McCarthy when he was ready to return.

The world now knows that Gehrig was destined never to return, that in the prime of a brilliant athletic career, he was struck down by the mysterious malady of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and died on June 2, 1941.

On that May day in Detroit, Manager McCarthy must have had a premonition. He was emotionally overcome. For 2,130 games in succession nothing had stopped the apparently indomitable, unbreakable Lou Gehrig. Something had to be radically wrong.

He said softly that maybe a rest would be the proper thing. That day the Yankees burst loose with their greatest offensive barrage of the year to win 22-2 after making a clubhouse vow to win the game for Lou.

And the man who surrendered his job 14 years before to Gehrig was, by an odd coincidence, there to see the end of Gehrig's unparalleled baseball career."

-Sam Balter, Los Angeles Herald and Express (Baseball Digest, August 1958)

1958 Yankee of the Past: Joe Page

THE FISH HAD TURNED A LITTLE PAIL!

"Baseball's best fish story concerns the time Joe DiMaggio, Eddie Lopat and Snuffy Stirnweiss framed Joe Page.

Page and the other Yankees had gone ocean fishing and Page fell asleep in the angler's chair. Quietly, the others baited his line with a bucket.

Page woke suddenly, screaming, 'I got one, I got one!' For an hour he tugged furiously on the line. He never caught on that the skipper, cleverly speeding up and slowing down the engines, was giving him the business.

He finally got the bucket on the surface but still thought he had a fish and screamed at DiMaggio: 'Look at the size of this one's mouth!' "

-Pat Harmon, the Cincinnati Post (Baseball Digest, June 1958)