SAVAGE VIEWS – 74 YEARS AGO
Here we are on October 3, 1951, as the Brookly Dodgers prepare to face the New York Giants in a playoff game to determine who will face the Yankees in the World Series.
The Giants had won a remarkable 39 out of 47 games since August 11th to wipe out a 13 ½ game deficit. This was a Dodger team made up of five future Hall of Famers, Campanella, Hodges, Reese, Robinson and Snyder. Carl Furillo may have been the best all-around player on the team but overlooked when it came down to Hall of Fame voting.
Andy Pafko hit 29 homers that year. The pitching staff was headed by Don Newcombe and Carl Erskine, also known as Newk and Oisk, and Preacher Roe.
This was one of the best teams in modern history and yet not
good enough to hold off the Jints.
The best of
three playoff round kicked off on October 1st with Jim Hearn beating
Ralph Branca 3-1. Notably, Bobby Thomson hit a decisive two-run homer. The
Dodgers evened the series as Clem Labine pitched a complete game and the
Dodgers won easily 10-0. Rube Walker, playing in place of Roy Campanella, hit a
home run.
In
Greenpoint ten-year-old Raymond Savage, a sixth-grade student at St. Stanislaus
Kostka school, will be skipping school on a cloudy Wednesday to attend the
game. Ray takes the bus to Ebbets Field only to find out the game is being played
at the Polo Grounds. He was able to take a subway to upper Manhattan in time
for the game. Because of the detour Ray finds himself short of the $1.25 to
purchase a grandstand seat. Fortunately, a benevolent soul gives the
panhandling Ray a quarter so he is able to attend the game.
The Giants
started Sal, The Barber, Maglie versus the Dodgers Don Newcombe. After 8
innings the Dodgers have a comfortable 4-1 lead when Newk begins to falter. With
runners on second and third and a run in, Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen makes
one of the worst managerial decisions in history by bringing in Ralph Branca to
face Bobby Thomson. Ray Savage is in the right field grandstands saying to
himself “anybody but Branca”, “anybody but Branca”.
Bobby
Thomson owned Branca. It was a curious decision especially since Thomson had already
bested Branca in game one. The rest is history as Thomson launched one 315 feet
to left field that landed in the first row. The “shot heard round the world
“was witnessed by 34,320 who attended the game. Actually, the number who saw
the historic hit was a bit less as many Giants fans left early.
It was a sad
long ride home for Ray who had to contend with his best friend, Bobby Horst, who
was a Giants fan. Now that Oisk and Willie Mays are gone, I wonder how many are
still alive who actually attended that game. I know that I was there.
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Ray October 3,
2025 |
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1 comment:
Very cool. You could write a book. Great recap.
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