Dodger right-hander Don Newcombe faces only 27 batters when he one-hits Chicago at Wrigley Field, 3-0. Gene Baker, who will be thrown out trying to steal second base, ruins Newk’s bid for perfection, with a fourth-inning single.
Roberto Clemente crashes Willie Mays’s birthday party in his second visit to the Polo Grounds, by banging a 430-foot triple over the birthday boy’s head in the midst of a decisive rally in a 3 – 2 Pirate win over the Giants. Jesse Abramson of the New York Herald Tribune reports: “Roberto Clemente tripled so far over Mays’ head that even Willie on his charger, shedding the cap, couldn’t catch it…”
The musical Damn Yankees, based on Douglass Wallop’s novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant opens on Broadway. The comedy, set in Washington, D.C during the Bronx Bombers’ dominance in baseball in the 1950s, tells the tale of an aging Washington Senators fan’s bargain with the devil to help his hapless team.
The musical Damn Yankees opens at the 46th Street Theater on Broadway, starring Stephen Douglass as Joe Hardy, Gwen Verdon as Lola and Ray Walston as Mr. Applegate. It will be a huge success, with 1,019 performances in its first run and will be turned into a successful movie in 1958. It is based on the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, published in 1954 by Douglass Wallop, a lifelong fan of the Washington Senators.
On May 5, 1955, in Ebbets Field in front of a robust crowd of 7,000 fans, Brooklyn Dodgers lefthander Tom Lasorda makes his first major league start against the St. Louis Cardinals. Lasorda throws three wild pitches in one inning, tying a major league record. During his one inning of work, will be spiked by…
“Clemente’s Brilliant Catch in 9th Kills Rally by Braves.” So reads the New York Times headline but that’s not the whole story. Clemente’s game-ending circus catch not only secures Pittsburgh’s 5 – 4 victory, it also bails out the main protagonist after his errant throw put the tying and go-ahead runs on 2nd and 3rd base. And who should walk to the plate at this moment but George Crowe, Clemente’s teammate and fellow Caribbean Champion with the Santurce Crabbers just three months earlier. As the Milwaukee Journal tells it: “Crowe, who had replaced the slump-ridden Joe Adcock at first base, pasted the ball against the remote grandstand not far from the right field foul line, only to have young Roberto Clemente race over and time his leap perfectly as he scraped the ball off the wall with his gloved hand.”
At Ebbets Field, Carl Furillo hits his sixth home run of the season with Jackie Robinson on base in the 12th inning to give the Brooklyn Dodgers a 2 – 0 victory over the Milwaukee Braves. Carl Erskine wins his fourth game in a row, beating Gene Conley, as both pitchers post complete games.
Cleveland Indians starters show up for a “pitching clinic” during a doubleheader sweep of the Boston Red Sox at Cleveland Stadium. Veteran Bob Feller pitches hitless ball for 6+ innings and hurls his major league record 12th one-hitter in a 2 – 0 victory in the opener, and in the nitecap rookie Herb Score strikes out the first nine batters (for a total of 16) en route to a 2 – 1 four-hit victory.
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