History of the World Series – 1952 New York’s Vic Raschi and Brooklyn’s Billy Loes were the starting pitchers in Game 6, and for 5 1/2 innings neither team could score. But Duke Snider ripped a Raschi pitch over the right field screen to lead off the Dodgers’ sixth, and the ever-raucous Brooklyn faithful whooped…

  Like Monte Irvin’s dazzling play in the World Series, both at bat and on the bases. Like the entry of future superstars Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays upon the World Series scene and the departure of Joe DiMaggio from the fall classic (and the majors). Like the foreboding injury to Mantle in Game 2….

  Losing four consecutive World Series games to the Yankees, while distressing, hardly could qualify as an embarrassment. Others had taken the plunge against the wrecking crew from the Bronx: the Pirates, Cardinals, Cubs, Cubs again, Reds. In fact, with their four-in-a-row dismissal of the Phillies, the Yankees had swept six World Series in 24…

  Never able to finish higher than fifth in nine seasons as a National League manager with Brooklyn and Boston in the 1930s and 1940s, Stengel subsequently fought off his “clown” reputation and enjoyed managerial success in the minor leagues. After leading Oakland to the Pacific Coast League pennant in 1948, he was named to…

  Then, in the pressure-packed situation of a one-game playoff for the ’48 AL championship, Boudreau lashed two bases-empty home runs and two singles as the Indians routed the Red Sox, 8-3, and won only the second pennant in club history. Boudreau’s 4-for-4 performance at Fenway Park backed the five-hit pitching of rookie lefthander Gene…

  Although hardly on the scale of Game 4 and Game 6 in terms of significance, Game 3 of the ’47 fall classic also went into the Dodgers’ victory column. In that game, a young Yankees catcher named Yogi Berra belted the first pinch-hit homer in Series annals. But when the page closed on this…

After seven innings at Sportsman’s Park, the St. Louis Cardinals held a 3-1 lead over the Boston Red Sox. Cardinals righthander Murry Dickson, after giving up singles to the first two batters, Wally Moses and Johnny Pesky, had allowed only one hit since the first inning. In the fifth, Dickson had broken a 1-1 tie…

  Acquired on waivers in late July after he had compiled a 10-5 record for the New York Yankees, Borowy proceeded to win 11 of 13 decisions for the Cubs and helped Chicago fight off the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League pennant race. Then, in Game 1 of the World Series, he held…

  In 1944, the Browns fielded a team that batted .252, 61 points under the .313 figure posted by the ’22 club. The ’44 Browns had one .300 hitter, outfielder Mike Kreevich, who barely made it at .301; one man with 20 homers, shortstop Vern Stephens, who hit exactly 20; and one player over the…

  Most of all, the Cards got tremendous seasons from fast-emerging outfielder Stan Musial, who in his second season as a big-league regular won his first NL batting title by hitting a robust .357, and pitchers Pollet (who entered the service in August), Max Lanier and Mort Cooper, who ranked 1-2-3 in the league in…