|
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 2 ...
A POWERFUL RED SOX TEAM FAILS
IN THE WORLD SERIES ...
A great catch and doubleplay in
the ninth loses it for the Sox
August 1, 1946 ... Jackie Conway sold himself unanimously to one of the largest Ladies' Day crowds in baseball history, as the Indians took a deciding game of the current series with the
Red Sox, in a 2 to 1 thriller. With the bases loaded and only one out, in the first half of the ninth inning, Conway made a spectacular stab of a sinking Glenn Russell line drive and then doubled up pinch runner Don Gutteridge at first base to end the game with a crash.
Bill (Barnum) Veeck gave the ladies in the crowd free nylons, further endearing the new owner to the fans. Because of the unprecedented and unexpected crunch of the fair sex, the start of the game was held up 20 minutes. But from the Boston standpoint, the whole story was condensed into the
ninth inning, which also saw for the first time this year, Dom DiMaggio yanked for a pinch-hitter.
With perfect fielding, Mel Harder and Joe Dobson would have had a scoreless deadlock going into the final round. The Sox helped the Indians to two runs in the third inning as Pat Seerey misjudging a Ted Williams line drive into a double, that led to the solitary Red Sox run in the fourth
inning.
After Ted had dribbled out to Harder to start the last inning, Rudy York and Bobby Doerr both singled. Paul Campbell, running for York, scooted to third on Doerr's base hit to center field. DiMaggio was walking to the plate, when Joe Cronin called him back and sent out Hal Wagner, who had
been sitting out with a shoulder bruise. When the switch was made, Lou Boudreau
went to Joe Berry from the Indians bullpen and sent Harder to the showers.
Berry started by walking Wagner on a 3-2 pitch and Gutteridge when in to run for him. Then Glenn Russell made two great tries to break it up. He pulled a ball past third that was an inch foul and then shifted the other way only to be con founded by Conway. Jackie grabbed Russell's liner at
full tilt, no more than 6 inches above the dirt and fired to first.
Most of the Red Sox team flew to Detroit immediately after the game, with a party that followed by taking a train in the evening. Bill Veeck announced that all the Indians home games would be played at the big Stadium and not be divided up between here and League Park next year. |
