SLAUGHTER SLIDES IN SAFE

THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 2 ...
A POWERFUL RED SOX TEAM FAILS
IN THE WORLD SERIES ...
 1946 WORLD SERIES, GAME #7
Enos Slaughter's dash for home
wins it all for St. Louis

October 15, 1946 ... Harry Brecheen stalked the Red Sox for the third and fatal time today. In a desperately waged seventh game, in which Harry "The Cat" Brecheen came in for a relief role, racking up his third victory, and winning the 1946 World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis was a fighting, snarling baseball team, that rebounded in the last of the eighth-inning to beat the Red Sox 4 to 3.

Enos Slaughter, racing with his head down was not going to stop, scoring from first base on a line drive double to left field by Harry Walker, with two out in the eighth-inning. Racing around the bases, Slaughter ran nonstop and won his gamble when Johnny Pesky, stationed out in short left field, froze for a split second with the ball in his hand, after it had been relayed to him by Leon Culberson. Pesky's pause was fatal, as Slaughter had turned third and was racing headlong for the plate, sliding in a cloud of dust, three feet ahead of the throw.

Brecheen took over then and with the tying run on third base in the Red Sox ninth, he got three batters out, without allowing the ball out of the infield. Rudy York started the ninth-inning with a line drive single to left, and was pinch run for by the more speedy Paul Campbell. Bobby Doerr smacked a hard single down toward Marty Marion that he couldn't field cleanly and Campbell raced to second. Mike Higgins hit a ground ball down to Whitey Kurowski, who tried to turn the double play, getting Doerr at second by failing to get Higgins at first. On the play Campbell made it to third base. Roy Partee came to the plate and the best he could do was hit a foul pop up that was put away by Stan Musial. Pinch-hitter Tom McBride came up, batting for the pitcher Earl Johnson, and hit a ground ball down a Red Schoendinst, who tossed it over to Marty Marion, forcing Higgins with the final out of the World Series.

The Cardinals swarmed around Brecheen, who became the first pitcher to win three World Series games since Stan Coveleski of the 1920 Cleveland Indians. Del Rice grabbed one leg and Stan Musial grabbed the other and they hoisted Harry onto the shoulders, marching him triumphantly off the field, while the fans in the stands were rocking in spasms of delirium. The Cardinals, a 7 to 20 long shot, had fought the uphill fight, and fought to a conclusion.

The 1946 Red Sox thus became the sixth Boston Red Sox team to play in a World Series, and have the dubious distinction of being the first one to lose one. They lost this game, not because Johnny Pesky hesitated a second too long but because of the great fielding of Terry Moore.

It was Moore, who tore to deep center field robbing Ted Williams of a triple in the first inning. It was this grizzled veteran with a bad knee, that ran nearly 50 yards to his right in the fifth inning, to make a stupendous catch near the wall and robbing Mike Higgins of a solid double. And in between those catches came Harry Walker, maybe the fastest of the Cardinals, to make another incredible rob of Williams' line drive to center field. This happened in the fourth inning. The Cardinals played the over shifted defense on Williams in every at bat. Sprinting furiously after the ball that Ted had stroked solidly and high to dead center, Walker swept across the grass and in full stride, reached far ahead to snare the ball at the last second.

The Cards drove the Red Sox number one pitcher, Dave Ferriss away in the fifth inning with a two run, four hit onslaught. Harry Walker led off with a single, Marty Marion sacrificed him along, and Murry Dickson smacked a double to left field to score Walker. Schoendinst then parked the first pitch he saw, beyond Pesky to drive home Dickson, giving the Cardinals a 3 to 1 lead. These weren't soft hits, they were hitting Ferriss very hard. Terry Moore followed with his only hit of the day, a line drive single to center, sending Ferriss to the bench in favor of Dobson.

The Red Sox went down swinging. They fought for every inch and took every desperate chance. They wound up with Bobby Doerr in the dugout with a sprained ankle and Dom DiMaggio sitting next to him with a pulled muscle. It was DiMaggio who made the big blow that sent the Red Sox rolling down on the Cardinals and into a 3 to 3 tie going into the last of the eighth-inning.

Glenn Russell was sent up to pinch-hit for catcher Hal Wagner in the eighth-inning with the Sox down 3 to 1. He made his second pinch-hit single of the series, a hot shot which went straight past pitcher Murry Dickson into center field. Joe Cronin then called for George Metkovich to pinch-hit for pitcher Joe Dobson. Metko answered by drilling a long double down the left-field line, with Russell holding up at third. It was now that St. Louis manager Eddie Dyer called on Brecheen one more time. Two men on and nobody out when "The Cat" prowled onto the mound.

Dickson was gone. He had yielded a run on successive singles by Wally Moses and Johnny Pesky in the first inning, followed by DiMaggio's sacrifice fly. He then had allowed just one infield scratch hit by Bobby Doerr up until this eighth-inning. But now he was out and Brecheen was in.

Brecheen threw one outside and then fired three past Wally Moses for one out. Johnny Pesky came up and took the first pitch for a ball. The next pitch he hit to right field, very high and very short, an easy catch for Enos Slaughter for two outs. DiMaggio came up and took a strike, then three successive balls. Brecheen went into the stretch and delivered a sharp curve that Dom smashed with authority, up against the wall in right-center, 354 feet away. Slaughter took off after it and leaped, but the ball was too high. Russell and Metkovich scored and DiMaggio pulled in to second, and after making the turn pulled his hamstring. He was replaced with Leon Culberson as a pinch runner. Up to the plate came Ted Williams, now more than ever needing a base hit to put the Red Sox ahead. Brecheen fired and the best Williams could do, was a pop up to Red Schoendinst to end the inning with the score tied.

The Cardinals were sadly underrated all the way. They earned the series, being a team that had to fight and brawl its way into a National League playoff just to win the right to play the Red Sox. They outscored the Sox 28 to 20, outhit them 60 to 56, and out fielded them 4 errors to 10.

A feather hitting the floor of the quiet Red Sox dressing room, would've sounded like an empty can dropped on the cement after the game. Everyone in the room could hear Johnny Pesky, who stood forlorn before his locker saying, " I had the ball in my hand, I hesitated and gave Slaughter six steps. When I saw him, I couldn't have thrown them out with a .22 ... I didn't pay any attention to him ... I couldn't hear anybody, there was too much yelling ... It looked like an ordinary single ... I thought he'd hold up at third, so late in the game." Somebody finally told him to sit down and give it a rest. Pesky sat down quietly, his face in his hands.

The Red Sox lost the World Series, not because of their shortstop, but by winning the pennant too early and losing their edge. Said Marty Marion "We won the World Series because we stopped Ted Williams" that was the consensus of the Cardinals team. They set out to stop him and they did. Few of the Red Sox consoled each other. None of them spoke to Williams.

1946 baseball season is over. The Red Sox have won their first pennant in 28 years and lost their first World Series.

ENOS SLAUGHTER, HARRY BRECHEEN & RED SCHOENDINST