Dusty Rhodes, the incorrigible New York Giants free spirit who became the improbable hero of the 1954 World Series, died Wednesday in Las Vegas after a variety of illnesses, including diabetes and emphysema. He was 82.
The Alabama-born Rhodes, who came up to the Giants in 1952 with a reputation of being a hard-hitting, hard-drinking and defensively challenged left fielder, achieved baseball immortality in the '54 Series when he went 4-for-6 with two homers and seven RBI in the Giants' four-game sweep of the heavily favored, 111-win Cleveland Indians. Rhodes, whose lefthanded stroke was tailor-made for the short right field porch at the old Polo Grounds, won the first game with a pinch-hit, 10th-inning three-run homer off future Hall of Famer Bob Lemon just inside the right field foul pole, about 296 feet away. The next day, he delivered a pinch single in the fifth and a home run in the seventh against another future Hall of Famer, Early Wynn, to highlight a 3-1 Giants win. Finally, in Game 3, he hit a two-run pinch single off the Indians' Mike Garcia to spark a 6-2 Giants win.
For all three pinch-hitting opportunities in the Series, Giants manager Leo Durocher elected to have Rhodes bat for Negro League legend Monte Irvin, who went on to become a Hall of Famer himself.
"It's a sad day for me," Irvin said last night via phone from Houston. "Dusty and I were such good friends. Even though he was born in Alabama, he was like a brother to all the black players. Dusty was color-blind. He sure did like the good life, though, which would drive Leo crazy. I remember one time we were in Japan playing an exhibition series and Leo and I were standing in the hotel lobby late one night when Dusty came through the door. Leo said: 'Are you coming or are you going?'"
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