 |
|
RUDY YORK'S HOME RUN |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 2 ...
A POWERFUL RED SOX TEAM FAILS
IN THE WORLD SERIES ...
1946 WORLD SERIES, GAME #1
Rudy York wins it in the 10th inning
October 6, 1946 ... Rudy York found a big fat curveball hanging high across the letters of his Red Sox shirt, with two out and nobody on base in the 10th
inning of a 2-2 game at Sportsman's Park. With one swing of the bat, the Red Sox gained a 1 to 0 advantage in the 1946 World Series.
It was a pitch which Howie Pollet, the young lefty ace of the Cardinals pitching staff, wished he could retrieve immediately. He meant the ball to break downward, but there it hung. And York brought the full power of his massive shoulders behind the bat, which he swung like a buggy whip.
Pollet knew it immediately, and didn't have to look. Leftfielder Erv Dusak just turned made two small steps, stopped and hung his head. It landed with a crash in a concession stand, 410 feet away, at the top of the left-field stands.
York ran around the bases, as joy spilled over the lip of the Red Sox dugout. He won the game for Earl Johnson, who came out to relieve snake-bit Tex Hughson. Earl had put the Cards away 1-2-3 in the ninth-inning to protect 2 to 2 tie that Tom McBride's clutch single had delivered in the
ninth-inning. He had the top of the Cardinals batting order coming up in the 10th.
|
|
|
.jpg) |
|
TOM YAWKEY & EDDIE COLLINS |
Red Schoendinst rifled a ground ball to Johnny Pesky, who kicked it into left field for an error. Terry Moore made the traditional sacrifice to send Schoendinst to second base. Now came Stan Musial who grounded weakly to Bobby Doerr on Johnson's curveball. Up next was Enos Slaughter. Johnson
broke off a big curve for a strike. Slaughter fouled off the next pitch into the screen behind the plate, then grabbed the third pitch and hit a high fly to right-center field, where Wally Moses scurried over and caught the ball to end the game.
Pollet had The Red Sox teetering on the verge of defeat. He gave the Red Sox seven hits, all singles, over nine innings. Until McBride tied the game in the ninth-inning, the Cardinals seemed sure to win the game. They were smoother, faster and crisper.
|
|
|
.jpg) |
|
HOWIE POLLET |
Tex Hughson started for the Red Sox and sprinted through the Cardinals for five innings, enjoying a 1 to 0 lead. The run was engineered in the second inning when Pollet hit York on the left arm. He then passed Doerr and Mike Higgins hit a single between center and right field. It was a half
swing accidental base hit that scored Rudy York.
In the sixth inning Hughson was up to his neck in trouble. He had one down and Schoendinst bounced one back to him at the mound. The ball took a high hop over Tex's glove and Pesky charged in from shortstop, but bobbled the ball and Schoendinst was safe. Hughson then forced Moore to hit a
ball down to Doerr. Bobby juggled the ball, but since Schoendinst had broken on the pitch with a hit and run, he would not have gotten him at second base anyway. Instead he threw Moore out at first.
Stan Musial greeted Hughson with a line drive double off the left-field wall. McBride played the ball excellently but fired low and wide to Pesky. The ball bounced away into short left field and Schoendinst sprinted home with the tying run, as Musial moved to third on the error. An
intentional walk to Slaughter and a ball that hit Whitey Kurowski on the arm, loaded the bases. But Hughson buckled down and struck out Joe Garagiola.
In the eighth-inning, Dom DiMaggio had done something he very seldom does. He paused under a towering fly ball from Garagiola, lost it, ran back, turned the wrong way, and finally got hit in the arm, with what was scored as a double. Kurowski in the meantime, charging around from first base,
scored, putting the Cardinals ahead 2 to 1.
|
|
|
.jpg) |
|
TOM McBRIDE |
In the top of the ninth-inning, the way things were going, the Red Sox seemed cooked. With one out, Mike Higgins took a screwball and bounced it toward shortstop Marty Marion. That ball took a freak hop in the infield dirt and skipped past Marion for a base hit. Gutteridge ran for Higgins
and Glenn Russell came to bat for Hal Wagner. Russell had murdered the ball in batting practice and greeted Pollet with an equally impressive smash to the right of second base, sending Gutteridge to third. After Partee struck out, pinch hitting for Hughson, McBride came up. He had struck out
and grounded out three times. This time he took the count to 2 and 2. On the next pitch he pushed the ball between Marion and Kurowski for an infield hit that scored Gutteridge with the tying run.
Probably the most downcast member of the Cardinals was Marty Marion, who missed the ball hit by Mike Higgins and kept the Sox alive. Cardinal catcher, Joe Garagiola, said that Ted Williams kept talking to them every time he came to bat. Pollet was pitching him inside with all fastballs and
Ted kept asking Joe is he was hitting the ball on his fists. Joe was impressed because if he was hitting off his fists, the second one almost made it off the fence. |
