1953 World Series

Our tour through the World Series stops today in 1953 with a rematch of the 1952 subway series between “The Bums from Brooklyn,”  Dodgers, and “The Bronx Bombers,” Yankees. The Yankees won the series four games to two. It was played on October 1-5. This World Series often gets overlooked because it resulted in the fifth straight win for the Yankees, and their second win in a row over the Dodgers. Game One featured the celemonial First Pitch being thrown out by 88-year old Cy Young.

Many felt that this was the Dodgers year as their starting pitchers were coming into the series after a great regular season. Carl Erskine was the ace of the staff with twenty victories, Russ Meyer went 15-5, Billy Loes came in at 14-8, and Preacher Roe went 11-3 (starting and relief). Clem Labine won ten games in relief and eleven games overall. Rookie Johnny Podres and Bob Milliken also contributed with a combined 17-8 mark. This solid pitching staff led the Dodgers to the National League pennant by a thirteen game margin over the newly moved Milwaukee Braves.

The ’53 Yankees were led by Yogi Berra (.296) and Mickey Mantle (.295). Together they drove in 200 runs. Gene Woodling (.306) and Hank Bauer (.304) also had great years. The Yankees top five pitchers posted a 74-30 record. Whitey Ford led the staff with 18 wins and veteran Eddie Lopat led the league with a 2.43 ERA.

Game 1 began with Billy Martin, the hero of the ’52 World Series, knocking four hits in a 9-5 Yankee victory. Berra and Joe Collins hit homers for the Yankees; while Jim Gilliam, Gil Hodges and George Shuba drove in runs for the Dodgers.  Martin continued his clutch hitting in Game 2 by adding a game-tying homer in the seventh. Mantle added a two-run homer that sealed Lopat’s 4-2 win over Preacher Roe.

In Game 3, Dodger ace Carl Erskine set a World Series record with fourteen strikeouts (four of them versus Mantle) and Roy Campanella hit a tie-breaking homer in the eighth that lifted the Dodgers to a 3-2 victory. They continued their hot hitting in Game 4 as Duke Snider added two doubles and a home run and Junior Gilliam had three doubles in a 7-3 victory.

With the series tied at two games apiece, Game 5 saw Billy Martin and Mickey Mantle shine again as both hit homers on the way to an 11-7, twenty-five hit blowout (Mantle’s was a grand slam). Game 6 was  closer, but again it was Martin who was the hero with the game-winning hit in a 4-3 Yankee triumph. Martin had twelve hits, setting a new World Series record, eight RBIs and a phenomenal .500 average. With the victory, the Yankees were now fifteen for sixteen in World Series appearances; while the Dodgers failed for the seventh time in seven tries.

The series featured 11 future Hall-of-Famers: Casey Stengel, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Mize, Phil Rizutto, Roy Campanella, PeeWee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, and Dick Williams.

The umpires for the Series were Bill Grieve, Bill Stewart, Ed Hurley, Artie Gore, Hank Soar, and Frank Dascoli