TOMMY HENRICH

THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 2 ...
A POWERFUL RED SOX TEAM FAILS
IN THE WORLD SERIES ...
The Yankees halt the Sox winning streak

May 11, 1946 ... With the jeers for Ted Williams rivaling the cheers for the Yankees, the record Red Sox winning streak was ended at 15 straight games today. As a crowd of 53,000 fans royally roasted baseball's greatest hitter for his ineffective work at the plate and in the field.  Ernie Bonham rolled a two hitter into the teeth of the Red Sox juggernaut for a 2-0 victory.

Tommy Henrich knocked in both runs scored off Tex Hughson, the first with a double in the third inning, the second with his third home run of the season in the sixth. Today's defeat was the first for the Red Sox since April 24th when the Yankees beat them 12 to 5 in Boston. Their string of 15 victories was the longest in club history, and the longest in the American League since the Athletics won 17 in a row in 1931.

Except for the verbal undressing given Williams by the huge crowd, encouraged by his show of temper when he struck out in the third inning, this would have been just a skillfully played game that Bonham deserved to win. Ted's trouble actually started Friday when he took a called third strike with the bases full. He has been shut out at bat and the Yankee partisans were laying for him today.

The first time he faced Bonham he walked on four pitches. When he came up in the third inning, two men were on base and two were out. The crowd started to ride him but stopped when the first three pitches were called  balls. Bonham then slipped over a strike, and next came in with the first fastball which Williams fouled off. Then Bonham coyly served up another half-speed pitch and Williams watched it go for a called strike three. Williams strode off complaining and the fans open the faucets of insults and ridicule.

It seemed like fate had conspired against Williams, for in the next inning, Hank Majeski hit a high fly ball into the left-field corner. Williams came over easily, the catch a certainty, but just as the ball neared him he drew back. He lost the ball in the sun and chased after it with angry indifference. He retrieved it  and made a fine throw to third, as Majeski slid in for a triple that had not traveled more than 300 feet.  Hughson, who was in great form himself, bore down in the crisis and slipped a third strike past the pitcher Bonham. He then fanned Stuffy Stirnweiss, but Heinrich lined a hit to right field, getting a double when George Metkovich slipped and fell. Hughson retired the Yankees in order until Henrich batted again in the sixth inning. Then the Yankee right fielder drove a 350 foot home run into the right field stands to give the Yankees their 2-0 lead.

Only four Red Sox reached base against Bonham, two on walks, and two on hits. He walked Williams with two outs in the first, Dom DiMaggio with two outs in the fourth and Hughson made a clean hit to center off him with one out in the third. Pesky later bounced a single for the Red Sox only other hit.

The winning streak was enough to advance the Red Sox from third place to first place and a 5 1/2 game lead. The Yankees sliced one game from that lead today. Phil Rizzuto twice got Bonham out of trouble in the late innings. In the seventh, he stabbed a hard grounder from Rudy York and in the eighth he went deep in the hole for Andres' grounder to just nip him at first.

Leon Culberson was found to have a broken finger on his throwing hand today and went home back to Rome, Georgia.

Back in Boston, the first night baseball game was played in the city at Braves Field. A lighting towers broke up the gloom of the night before 37,000 fans. Mrs. Happy Chandler pulled the main switch at 8:25 and the golden glow could be seen for miles around. Inside the ballpark itself all was dazzling daylight. The gold seats and the maroon reserved seats, collaborated with the emerald green grass to make the joint look like a nightclub. On the negative side, since Braves Field is on the banks of the Charles River the mosquitoes seemed to be in abundance.