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The '49 American League season came down to one game between the Yankees and Red Sox. The contest was a portent of epic battles to come.
Baseball has seen exciting pennant races before and since. But there was something special about the climax of the 1949 American League season involving all-time heroes like Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Casey Stengel, and Joe McCarthy. The summer of '49 was brilliantly chronicled by multiple prize-winning journalist David Halberstam in a book of that name. In April, a lightly-regarded and injury-plagued Yankee team was given little chance under its new manager, Casey Stengel. Stengel had been a consistent loser with two other teams and was known primarily for clownish antics on the field. But his club got off to a fast start and led the league until late September. DiMaggio, recovering from heel surgery, joined the team only in late June and immediately hit his normal stride as a slugger and center fielder. At the same time, Jackie Robinson, in his third year, was having a break-through, most valuable player season, and was keeping the Brooklyn Dodgers in a tight National League race. Brooklyn fans who had seen their Beloved Bums fall in a New York Subway Series in 1947 were hoping for a rematch. But the Red sox, under former all-time winning Yankee manager Joe McCarthy made a strong comeback, catching and passing the Yankees with a week to go. They came into Yankee Stadium for a final two-game series needing only one to claim the title. Their two pitchers would be 25-game winner Mel Parnell and 23-game winner Ellis Kinder. Stengel gave the ball to Allie Reynolds, who had won 17 games but rarely finished nine innings in an era when complete games were common. This time he faded even earlier, allowing the Sox to take a 4-0 lead, and bringing on Joe Page. The Yankees' ace reliever was unsteady at first, but stifled Boston for five innings as the Yankees crept back into the game. Part-time left fielder Johnny Lindell eventually hit a game-winning home run, and it all came down to the last game. The Yanks' only 20-game winner, Vic Raschi, threw a shutout for eight innings against a hard-hitting crew led by the immortal Williams. However, he held only a 1-0 lead with tension mounting until the eighth inning, when the Yankees seemed to break it open with four runs. And now the Red Sox displayed heroics with a last-ditch three-run rally that almost drove Raschi from the mound. He had enough left to get the final out and frustrate the Sox, a portent of things to come. The Yankees went on to a record five consecutive world championships, starting with another victory over the Dodgers. The Red Sox faded from competition for a time, but they won pennants in 1967 and 1975, and met the Yankees once again in 1978 for one thrilling game that would decide the title. Again a home run by an unlikely batting hero, this time shortstop Bucky Dent, sank the Sox. In the late 90's and in 2003, the teams would battle memorably again, but it was only in 2004 that the Sox came out on top with an unprecedented comeback from a three-games-to-none deficit to win the American League pennant over the Yankees. It was a long time from the Autumn of '49.
The copyright of the article The Autumn of '49 in Major League Baseball is owned by David Hornestay. Permission to republish The Autumn of '49 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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