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BABE BARNA |
THE SOX STARS LEAVE
TO FIGHT IN THE WAR ...
Babe Barna's Red Sox debut
is a memorable one
June
16, 1943 ... Babe Barna made his debut for the
Red Sox in left field and it was more than incidental to Yank Terry's
third win of the year, a 3 to 2 escape from the Philadelphia
Athletics. Babe led off the ninth with a double, and with a fine
burst of speed, got into second base. He was bunted along by Roy
Partee and was able to jog home when Skeeter Newsome lined a hit
along the left-field foul line. The fans had a sense of his ability
even before he got himself the hit in the ninth-inning. He made a great running
catch of a pop up behind shortstop, that other players would not have even
touched. He hit a vicious line drive to right-field that would've been out in
many other ballpark in his first at bat. He next hit a towering fly ball to deep
right center, against a stiff east wind, that yesterday would have carried into
the bullpen.
His ninth-inning double was a ball that zipped inside first base, fair by two
feet, and caromed off the jutting corner of the right-field stands into right
field. He put on an extra burst of speed to arrive in the second base ahead of a
good throw.
Terry pitched a resolute ballgame and retired the first man ten men to face
him, before he yielded a single that bounced back through the box. He pitched to
only 16 batters in five innings and not one of them reached second base.
Yank carried a 1-0 lead into the sixth inning, thanks to a first inning
double by Pete Fox and another one by Jim Tabor, both of which bounced off the
wall in left field. Bobby Doerr made a great bid for another one, but Bobby
Estalalla leaped up against the wall to snare the ball for the third out.
Philadelphia evened the score in the sixth inning on two clean base hits and
then a bouncer in back of second base that Doerr came up with but then had to
make and off-balance throw.
Partee doubled off the wall to lead off the Sox seventh, paving the way for a
2 to 1 lead. Newsome bunted him along but was called safe as Partee made it over
to third. He scored on Dee Miles' fly to left.
Yank put the tying run on base in the eighth inning by giving a pass to Jo Jo
White. Estalalla hit a vicious line drive, barely inside the third-base foul
line, that bounced up against the left-field wall and scored White with the
tying run.
That was the set up for Barna who took charge, in collaboration was Skeeter,
in the ninth-inning. |
