The 1955 World Series: The Play that Saved The Brooklyn Dodgers

As the Brooklyn Dodgers prepared to face the New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series, the Boys of Summer were still looking for their first championship, having fallen to the Bronx Bombers in the five previous matchups between those two rivals, and to the Red Sox and Indians in their only other Series appearances.

The '55 Series opened at Yankee Stadium, and before the Brooklyn Faithful knew what hit them, they were down two games to none. In the first game, Dodger ace Don Newcombe, a 20-game winner during the regular season, was touched for three home runs as the Yankees prevailed, 6-5. The next day, Lefty Tommy Byrne held the Dodgers to 5 hits as the Yankees took Game 2, 4-2.

When the scene shifted to Ebbets Field, young Johnny Podres , with help from a Roy Campanella home run, celebrated his 23^rd birthday by pitching a complete-game 7-hitter, defeating the Yankees, 8-3 and reviving Brooklyn's hopes.

Campy homered again in Game 4, as did Hodges and Snider, and three Dodger pitchers combined to hold off the Yankees, 8-5, tying the Series at two games apiece. Duke Snider smashed two home runs and Sandy Amoros added one as the Dodgers took Game 5, to lead the Series, three games to 2.

Back in Yankee Stadium, Whitey Ford held the Dodgers to four hits in a 5-1 victory as the Bombers tied the Series at three games each.

Dodger Manager Alston gave the Game 7 assignment to Johnny Podres, hoping that the young left-hander could repeat his performance of three days earlier. Left-hander Tommy Byrne was the Yankees starter in the final game, prompting Alston to move the versatile, switch-hitting Jim Gilliam from his usual 2^nd base position to left field, replacing left-hand hitting regular Sandy Amoros. Don Hoak replaced the aging and injured Jackie Robinson at 3rd, and Don Zimmer started at 2^nd.

The two teams were scoreless through three innings. In the top of the 4^th, Gil Hodges singled in Roy Campanella, who had doubled and moved to 3^rd on Furillo's groundout.

Hodges came through again in the 6^th, when, with one out and the bases loaded, he lifted a sacrifice fly to deep right-center off Reliever Bob Grim that scored Pee Wee Reese and gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. When the next batter walked to load the bases again, Alston, hoping to break open the game, sent up left-hand hitting George Shuba to hit for Zimmer against the right-handed Grim. But Shuba groiunded out and the Dodger lead remained 2-0.

Alston couldn't have known it at the time, but his offensive maneuvers in the top of the 6^th would set up a defensive change that he would have to make in the bottom of the inning that, most experts agree, would determine the final outcome. With Zimmer out of the game, Alston brought Gilliam in from left field to play his normal second base position, and rather than place the defensively-challenged Shuba in the outfield, he called on Amoros to take Gilliam's spot in left.

The pesky Billy Martin led off the inning by drawing a walk - the second and final pass that Podres would issue. When McDougald bunted for a hit down the third-base line, Podres fielded the ball and threw high and wide to first, pulling Hodges off the bag. Runners were now on first and second with none out, and Dodger fans, with visions of Mickey Owen dancing in their heads and fearing that victory would once again be snatched from their grasp, held their breath. as Yogi Berra came to bat.

Yogi already had ten hits in the Series, including a home run in Game 5, and with Mickey Mantle out of the lineup, was the most dangerous of the Yankee batters. Two innings earlier, he had lofted a lazy, opposite-field popup into no-man's land in shallow left-center. Snider in center and Gilliam in left were each playing deep and toward right, out of respect for the powerful, pull-hitting Yankee lefty. Both outfielders galloped in toward the spot where the ball would land, looking up at the ball and waiting for the other to yell, "I got it!" When neither did, the ball fell between them for an embarrassing double. Podres escaped without harm, stranding Yogi at second.

Now in the 6^th, the outfielders again shifted toward right in anticipation of Berra pulling a pitch in that direction. Amoros, however, remembering Berra's dump shot in the fourth, played practically behind shortstop Reese in shallow left. The first pitch was a ball, high and inside. Podres then tried to slip a fastball low and outside, tempting the notorious bad-ball hitter. Extending his arms to reach the outside pitch, Berra sliced the ball up and away toward the left field corner. And Dodger fans held their breath.

Amoros had been crouched more than 150 feet from the Stadium's left field line. At the crack of the bat, he pivoted to his right, and with his glove loose on his right hand, sped across the outfield toward the left-field corner.

Back in the infield, Billy Martin stopped halfway between second and third, then turned his back to the plate to watch the ball drop in. McDougald, seeing the ball sail to a deliciously vacant part of the field, flew around second toward third, hoping to score on what he was sure would be a game-tying double.

Reese kept an eye on McDougald, who was now jogging toward Martin, standing between bases making sure the ball dropped in. Hoping for a play at the plate, the Dodger captain moved onto the grass in short left near the line to await the cutoff throw from Amoros, who was still racing toward the fence, one eye on the ball, the other on the fast-approaching left-field stands, a short step beyond the chalk foul line.

Stepping onto the warning track, Amoros planted his right heel to avoid a collision with the fence, then came to a jarring stop just inches from the 301 sign on the concrete wall, and stuck out his gloved right hand.

Meanwhile, Billy Martin, stunned and unbelieving for a second, had time to dart back to second. But he had to wait for the incredulous McDougald, standing almost next to him in the base line, to whirl and re-tag second on his frantic sprint back to first.

Facing the infield after the catch, Amoros fired a rope to the screaming Reese, who took the throw and in one fluid motion turned and fired a long strike across the diamond to an outstretched Hodges at first, just ahead of the sliding McDougald who was finally finishing his backward race around the bases, completing the double play.

Podres handled the Yankees in their final three at-bats, and the Brooklyn Dodgers finally had their first and only World Championship. But only after a heart-stopping scare in the 6^th inning and only after a play that sealed the victory and that is forever etched in the minds of Brooklyn fans.

As the drama of the 6^th inning unfolded, it's clear that The Play That Saved The Series for the Dodgers had two components.

One was Manager Alston's decision to start the bottom of the 6^th by bringing Gilliam in from left field to play second and replacing Gilliam with the left-handed Amoros. That meant that Amoros simply had to stick out his gloved RIGHT hand - in this case, the hand closest to the foul line - to catch Berra's fly ball. In contrast, had the right-handed Gilliam still been playing left field, with the glove on his left hand, he would have had to reach across his body to catch the ball...a considerably more difficult feat that also would have left him facing away from the infield. In that position, he would have needed extra time to pivot and throw back to the infield to the waiting cutoff man...precious time that most likely would have allowed McDougald to get back to first before Reese's relay reached Hodges.

Fittingly, Part Two of The Play centered around the 37-year-old Reese, the Dodgers' long -suffering Captain who had come up empty in five previous Series against the Yankees and who desperately wanted to experience a championship before the end of his wonderful career. In his 13^th season, he was the most experienced Dodger and the undisputed leader of the team. As soon as the ball left Berra's bat, that experience and his baseball savvy allowed him to anticipate a play at the plate, and he immediately positioned himself in short left field to take Amoros's relay.

Here, too, the few seconds he gained by moving closer to Amoros, rather than waiting for the throw at his normal shortstop position, no doubt allowed his own throw to Hodges to beat McDougald to the bag.

It all happened quickly, but for Dodgers fans who held their breath, it seemed like an eternity.
And for those who lived through that heart-stopping moment, it will be remembered for at least that long as the Play That Brought Brooklyn its one and only World Championship.

Reference:
Bums No More; Stewart Wolpin
Baseball-reference.com
http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/worldseries/side.html