1941 & 1947 World Series

Good morning Fackers. The Yankees have just wrapped a series against the Diamondbacks, a team the Bombers faced in one very memorable World Series. I have mixed emotions about that series. The heroics of Tino Martinez, Derek Jeter, and Scott Brosius won't soon be forgotten. An equally momentous longball from Alfonso Soriano is all but forgotten thanks to what happened after it, but I still remember it fondly. And the Yankees' run through the entirety of that postseason will always be memorable because of what was going on in the city around them at the time. But in the end, that Series will be remembered for its painful conclusion. And given the youth of the Diamondbacks' franchise and the lack of history between the two clubs, interleague series such as this week's will always conjure up bitter memories.

After today's off day however, the Yankees will begin an interleague series against a franchise with whom they have far, far more history. And those memories are much more pleasant than those against Arizona.

The Yankees and Dodgers have faced each other in eleven World Series, far and away the most frequent match up in the 105 Fall Classics played. In fact, even if you were to discount their four October meetings after the Dodgers moved west, the seven Subway Series between the Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers would still be the most common pairing in World Series history. The Tigers, Reds, Braves, Pirates, Orioles, Phillies, Twins, White Sox, and Indians - all in existence since the first World Series in 1903 - have all appeared in fewer World Series than there have been Yankee-Dodger match ups.

Having Thursday off in advance of the weekend series gives us a little time and space to fill. As such, we're going to attempt to give at least a cursory overview of all eleven Fall Classics between the Yankees and Dodgers. We'll start in this very post with the first two Subway Series between the clubs and go on from there.

-1941-

1941 marked the fifth Yankee pennant in a six year period, and their twelfth in twenty one years. During that time they faced the cross-town Giants five times, but never once squared off against the Dodgers despite both leagues consisting of just eight teams. Prior to 1941, the Dodgers had last reached the Fall Classic in 1920, when they were still know as the Robins. The following year they would begin a twenty one season World Series drought. At the same time, the Yankees would win the first of three consecutive pennants, playing Subway Series against the Giants each time.

The Dodgers, under the tutelage of former Yankee infielder Leo Durocher, won the NL by 2.5 games over the Cardinals. They featured a potent offensive attack led by slugging first baseman Dolph Camilli and outfielders Pete Reiser, Dixie Walker, and Ducky Medwick. Meanwhile, the Yankees featured a balanced attack with future Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey, Joe Gordon, and the rookie Phil Rizzuto on offense, and Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez on the mound.

The Series began at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday October 1st. The Yankees cruised to a 3-2 victory behind a complete game from Ruffing. They never trailed, with Joe Gordon driving in two of the runs, one of them on a solo homer. Charlie Keller scored the other two runs with Bill Dickey adding two hits and picking up the remaining RBI. Ruffing allowed just nine base runners and fanned five, with one of the runs being unearned thanks to a Rizzuto error.

The Dodgers evened things up in Game Two, overcoming an early two run deficit to beat Spud Chandler 3-2. The winning run was unearned, courtesy of a Joe Gordon error.

From there the Yankees took over the Series. After playing seven scoreless innings in Game Three, in the eighth Joe DiMaggio drove home Red Rolfe, then Keller plated Tommy Henrich. Yankee starter and Brooklyn native Marius Russo gave one back in the bottom half, but it was the only blemish on his record as he went the distance for a 2-1 victory.

The Dodgers were poised to tie the Series in Game Four, as they carried a 4-3 lead into the top of the ninth inning. Dodger pitcher Hugh Casey retired the first two batters to put the Dodgers within an out of making the Series a best of three. Tommy Henrich was the Yankees last hope, and he went down swinging. It would have ended the game, but in one of the more notorious moments in World Series history, Dodger catcher Mickey Owen couldn't squeeze strike three. Henrich raced to first and the rally was on. DiMaggio followed with a single, then Keller doubled them both home to give the Yankees the lead. Dickey followed with a walk, the Gordon doubled both runners home to make it 7-4. Yankee fireman Johnny Murphy worked a flawless bottom half of the inning to push the Dodgers to the brink.

Their season died at Ebbets Field the very next day. Once again, the Dodgers helped squander the game, as a third inning wild pitch from Whit Wyatt allowed Keller to score the game's first run and Dickey to move into scoring position. Gordon promptly drove him in, to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. The Dodgers got one back off Tiny Bonham in the third, but it would be their only offense on the day. Bonham went the distance, allowing only six men to reach base. A Tommy Henrich solo shot in the fifth iced the game, and the Yankees clinched their fifth championship in the last six seasons, and their ninth overall.

The World Series MVP award was first issued in 1955, but had it existed in 1941 it surely would have gone to Gordon. The second baseman hit .500/.667/.929 over 21 PA, with one of only three home runs in the Series and a series leading 5 RBI and 7 BB. Charlie Keller (.389/.476/.500, 5 RBI) also had an outstanding Series.

-1947-

Two months after the conclusion of the 1941 World Series, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into the Second World War. American life was severely altered for the better part of five years, and Major League Baseball was far from immune to the changes. Several prominent players, and many Yankees, lost years serving in the armed forces. The Yankees picked up two more pennants and another championship during the war years, but it was with players,and against competition, that were diminished. Many players began returning to action in 1946, but it wasn't until 1947, when the war was over in both theaters, that things began to return to normal in MLB.

Just as they had in the final pre-WWII season, the Yankees and Dodgers met in the World Series for the first post-WWII. Though only six years had passed, much had changed with the two clubs. Gone were Hall of Fame managers Leo Durocher and Joe McCarthy. Durocher had been issued a season-long suspension for associating with gamblers, and was replaced by Burt Shotton. McCarthy had resigned during the '46 season, and after finishing the year under interim managers Bill Dickey and Johnny Neun, the Yankees had hired longtime Senators manager Bucky Harris.

In many ways it was a transitional year for both clubs, and not just in returning to normalcy after the war. Shotton was intended to be just a stopgap while Durocher served his suspension. Durocher returned in '48 for a ninth season as Dodgers skipper, but he would last only half a season before being replaced again by Shotton and heading across town for eight years at the helm of the Giants. Meanwhile, after fifteen and a half dynastic years under McCarthy, the Yankees were seeking stability after the chaos of three different managers in '46. Harris was supposed to be the steady hand, but he would last only two years in the Bronx before giving way to Casey Stengel and the next Yankee dynasty.

Yet as the two clubs opened the Series at Yankee Stadium on September 30th, no one knew of the sweeping changes that would come over the next year plus. Rookie Spec Shea got the ball for the Yankees. The Naugatuck Nugget spotted the Dodgers to a first inning 1-0 lead, but the Yankees struck back with five of their own in the fifth, on strength of a two run double from Johnny Lindell, a bases loaded walk from Bobby Brown, and a two run single from Tommy Henrich. Armed with a lead, Harris summoned fireman Joe Page to pitch the final four innings. Brooklyn scratched out single runs in the sixth and seventh, but would get no closer as the Yanks took the opener 5-3.

In Game Two Allie Reynolds made the first of his fifteen World Series appearances with the Yankees. Acquired for 1941 World Series hero Joe Gordon after the '46 season, the Super Chief went the distance, scattering nine hits, three walks, and allowing three runs while striking out six. The Yankees scored in six of their eight innings, pounded out ten runs on fifteen hits, and got multi-hit games from Henrich, Lindell, Snuffy Stirnweiss, George McQuinn, Billy Johnson, and even Reynolds.

Brooklyn got in the win column in a Game Three slugfest, winning 9-8. Yankee starter Bobo Newsome, and relievers Vic Rashci, Karl Drews, and Spud Chandler all got knocked around until Page shut the door for the final three innings. Dodger pitchers Joe Hattan and Ralph Branca weren't much better, but they did enough to withstand the Yankee offensive, which included home runs from Joe DiMaggio, and a youngster named Yogi Berra, playing in just the third of his record 75 World Series games.

Game Four saw Brooklyn even the series at two with a 3-2 walkoff victory, but the lasting story of the game was the tough luck loss for Yankee starter Bill Bevens. Bevens flirted with history, carrying a no-hitter into the ninth inning. He had surrendered a run on walks, a sacrifice, and a fielders choice in the fifth, but carried a 2-1 lead into the final frame on the strength of a bases loaded walk from DiMaggio and yet another RBI double from Lindell. Things went awry for Bevens on his way to making history though. After retiring the leadoff batter, he issued a walk to Carl Furillo. After getting the second out, pinch runner Al Gionfriddo stole second, prompting the Yankees to intentionally walk the winning run to first base. Bad idea. Cookie Lavagetto followed with a double, the first hit surrendered by Bevens all day, and the Dodgers walked off with a best of three looming.

The Yankees took control once again with a Game Five victory. Shea pitched with moxie that belied his inexperience, going the distance with seven strikeouts and just one run allowed. He also chipped in with an RBI single, and that combined with a Joe DiMaggio solo homer gave the Yanks a 2-1 victory.

Back at Yankee Stadium for Game Six, Brooklyn again pulled even in another slugfest. The Yankees burned through six pitchers in trying to close out the Dodgers, but a four run sixth was enough to propel Brooklyn to an 8-6 victory. Trailing 8-5 in the bottom of the sixth, Joe DiMaggio came to the plate with two outs and two on. He blasted one deep into Death Valley, a would-be game tying home run, but Gionfriddo made a running, lunging catch on the warning track. DiMaggio kicked at the dirt as he approached second base, perhaps his only outward display of frustration in his entire career.

With the entire season riding on one game, and the pitching staff decimated by the previous day's slugfest, the Yankees were in need of starter for Game Seven. On just a day's rest, Shea took the ball for the third time in the Series. He got the Yankees through the first, but when he got into a jam in the second, Harris wasted no time in going to Bevens. The Dodgers pushed two across to take the lead. An RBI single from Phil Rizzuto in the bottom of the inning cut the lead in half. Bevens held the fort through the third and fourth, and the Yankees plated two in the bottom of the fourth to take a 3-2 lead.

Given the lead, Harris went right to Page, despite his getting touched up for four runs in one inning the day before. Page rewarded Harris' trust by finishing the final five frames, allowing just one hit. For the second time in seven years the Yankees had beaten the Dodgers in the World Series. Unfortunately for Brooklyn, it was only the beginning of the heartbreak.

15 Days Until Spring Training: Tom Tresh

Just as we've seen with other numbers, there are many Yankees to have worn number fifteen who accomplished enough in Pinstripes to warrant a post in our countdown. Red Ruffing is a Hall of Famer who co-anchored the pitching staff on six World Series winning teams. Tommy Henrich wore it for much of his career; his outfield mate Charlie Keller wore it for a single season. Later Joe Collins wore it for several seasons while platooning at first base for the Stengel-era teams. But we're going to elect to focus on other players today.

As the 1962 season dawned, the Yankees found themselves in need of shortstop. The incumbent Tony Kubek, who manned the position for most of the five previous seasons, had been called up for active military with the Wisconsin National Guard. The team turned to a twenty four year old second generation Big Leaguer. Tom Tresh had made his Major League debut the previous September, appearing in nine games after spending four seasons in the minors. Tresh won the job and became the last Yankee rookie to be the Opening Day starter at shortstop until Derek Jeter in 1996.

Tresh impressed, hitting .286/.359/.441 (117 OPS+), was named to both All-Star teams, and earned Rookie of the Year honors. His twenty home runs were more than he had hit in any of his minor league seasons. When Kubek returned to the club in August that season, Tresh transitioned to left field, despite never having played the position in his professional career. The Yankees reached the World Series for the third consecutive year, and the rookie Tresh hit .321/.345/.464 with two stolen bases and a critical go-ahead three run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning of Game Five. But perhaps his biggest contribution came at his new defensive position.

Game Seven of the 1962 World Series is remembered for Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson snagging a screaming line drive off the bat of Willie McCovey, with the winning run on second base, to give the Yankees a 1-0 victory and back-to-back titles. Tresh however made a standout play of his own, one that was nearly as important. With the bases empty and one out in the seventh inning and the Yankees lead 1-0. Willie Mays stepped to the plate against Ralph Terry and The Say Hey Kid ripped a drive down the left field line, a sure extra base hit. But Tresh hauled it in, making a running snow cone catch. Instead of having the tying run in scoring position with one out for the dangerous tandem of McCovey and Orlando Cepeda, there were two outs and the bases were empty.

As a promising switch hitter who had been converted from shortstop to the outfield and who often spelled the hobbled or injured Mickey Mantle in center field, the inevitable Mantle comparisons followed Tresh. While he never quite reached those heights, Tresh was a valuable and productive player for the Yankees, playing on two more pennant winners and posting a 125 OPS+ from 1963 through 1966, with two top ten finishes in home runs, another All-Star Game, and a Gold Glove to his credit. When back problems forced Kubek's retirement after the 1965 season, the Yankees had a hole at shortstop. After shuffling players around for two years, Tresh returned to his original position as the Yankees primary shortstop in 1968 and 1969.

By that point though Tresh's numbers, and the Yankees as organization, had fallen from the heights they'd reached early in the decade. Tresh, along with Joe Pepitone, Jim Bouton, Al Downing, and Mel Stottlemyre, were the last wave of good players produced by the once fertile Yankee farm system. As the farm went fallow, Mantle, Ford, Maris, and Howard aged, and the Dan Topping and Del Webb ownership group sold the club to CBS, the Yankees no longer had the financial or human resources of their dynasty years. Tresh was betrayed by injuries, and his once promising career became pedestrian by the time he reached thirty.

In June of 1969 the Yankees dealt Tresh to his hometown Tigers, where he finished the final season of his career. Two months after the Tresh trade, a Yankee rookie made his Major League debut, inheriting Tresh's old number fifteen. That rookie's arrival was a critical event for the Yankees, as he would lead the team from the dark days of the late 1960s and back to the top in the mid to late seventies. We'll hear more about him later.

As for Tresh, he was a regular at Old Timers Day throughout his retirement. He passed away following a heart attack in October 2008.

R.I.P. Tommy Henrich

When a franchise boasts names such as Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra, Ford, and Mantle, it is riddled with second bananas. Yankee history is fraught with very good to great players whose accomplishments have been overlooked thanks to the passage of time and the presence of teammates who are amongst the game's all-time greats.

Players like Paul O'Neill, Willie Randolph, Graig Nettles, Roy White, Bobby Murcer, Roger Maris, Elston Howard, and Hank Bauer are still relatively familiar to Yankee fans, but what happens as time marches further from their careers and fewer fans actually remember their playing days? It's a theme we touched upon earlier this year as we looked some great, if somewhat forgotten, Yankees from the late 1930s and 1940s: Joe Gordon, Charlie Keller, and Tommy Henrich.

Thus, it somehow only seems fitting that Tommy Henrich passed away today of all days. After a playing career that saw Henrich perpetually overshadowed by more illustrious teammates, and a retirement that - at least in its later years - saw Henrich all but forgotten by the Yankees and most of their fans, Henrich passed away on one of the few days in the last three and a half weeks that offered legitimate baseball news. Henrich's passing was at least partially overshadowed by arbitration offers, or lack thereof.

Yet still, Henrich was remembered today: in statement from the commissioner, in posts throughout the Yankee blogosphere, and the baseball blogosphere at large. Perhaps he was better remembered than I thought.

It's been more than fifteen years since I read it, but Henrich's Five O'Clock Lightning was a personal favorite amongst the dozens and dozens of Yankee books I devoured around that time. Somewhere in my parents' house there is a video tape of a 12 year old me, as Tommy Henrich, being interviewed by my cousin as part of a seventh grade book report I did on Henrich's biography. I think I'm going to have to dig that up now.

We featured Henrich in late September in part because the death of Lonny Frey left Henrich as the oldest living Yankee. Henrich's passing leaves 92 year old Virgil Trucks, uncle of Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks and great uncle of blog favorite Derek Trucks, as the oldest living Yankees.

Godspeed Old Reliable.

The Yankees During WWII

While it took only a month after FDR signed the Burke-Wadsworth Act into law for for the draft to begin, it took much longer for its effect to be felt on baseball. A few players, such as Yankee first baseman Johnny Sturm enlisted voluntarily, but most waited for their number to be called by the draft boards.

Many Major League players were not considered for the draft for a couple of reasons. First, men who supported a family, event those who were married without children such as Joe Dimaggio were originally bypassed by many draft boards. Phil Rizzuto, who was not yet married, was similarly overlooked because he supported his parents and younger brother with his baseball salary. Additionally, there we players like Tommy Holmes who had a condition that didn't prevent them from playing baseball, but did preclude them from military service. Holmes, who was an outfielder for the Boston Braves, had a sinus condition.

As a result, the Yankees (and most of the major leagues) remained largely intact during the early years of the war. The Yanks made it to the World Series in 1941 with a full compliment of players, including hitters Dimaggio, Rizzuto, Gordon, Charlie Keller, Tommy Heinrich and pitchers Red Ruffing, Spud Chandler and Tiny Bonham, where they beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-1.

The Green Light Letter wasn't written in January of 1942 and the rest of baseball started to feel the affects of the war. Not the Yankees though, who returned all those players the following year and went off as 2 to 5 favorites to repeat. The Yankees started slow but won 103 games that year en route to an American League pennant.

When time came for the World Series, Tommy Henrich wasn't around because he had been called to duty by the Coast Guard in August. However, the Yankees had replaced him with Roy Cullenbine, who hit .364 from then until the season's end.

The Yankees faced the Cardinals in the Fall Classic and won Game 1 behind Red Ruffing, who took a no-hitter into the 8th inning. They lost 4-3 in Game 2 with Tiny Bonham on the hill despite an 8th inning really and dropped all three in New York to lose the Series. Had it gone beyond 5 games, Phil Rizzuto wouldn't have been able to play, as he was ordered to report to the Navy in Norfolk, Virgina the following day.

Joe Dimaggio enlisted the following January. Outfielder George Selkirk, first baseman Buddy Haskett and even 39 year old Red Ruffing who had lost 4 toes in a childhood accident were all called upon to serve.

That season, the Yankees were also ordered to move Spring Training closer to home to cut down on unnecessary transportation. They chose Asbury Park, New Jersey whose seaside breezes were welcomed in the summertime, but not as much in early March, forcing the majority of the workouts to be held inside. With little actual baseball to base his decisions on, manager Joe McCarthy inserted Snuffy Stirnweiss into shortstop and named Johnny Lindell is right fielder.

Although their position players had been decimated and Stirnweiss was quickly demoted from his starting post, their pitching staff was still in good shape. Spud Chandler led the way that year, going 20-4 with a 1.67 ERA along the way to a league MVP. Tiny Bonham, Butch Wensloff and Hank Borowy all started close to 30 games and posted ERAs under 3, and their pitching staff allowed the fewest runs since the Deadball Era. They met up with the Cardinals again in the World Series and this time returned the favor, besting them 4-1.

As the war dragged on, the Yankees were no longer able to dodge the effects of the conflict. For Spring Training in 1944, the Yanks moved south the Atlantic City. They practiced inside of an armory, but needed to relocate once the space was necessary to care for wounded soldiers and were moved to an abandoned airplane hangar.

By the time the April rolled around, Joe Gordon, Charlie Keller and Billy Dickey were gone. A week into the season, Chandler left as well. Stirnweiss, who hit .219/.333/.288 the year before was suddenly the team's biggest star. Other teams were facing the same difficulties so the Yankees were still competitive but they faded down the stretch.

The St. Louis Browns, who were the perennial basement-dwellers of the American League finally won their first pennant in 1944 because their original roster included 13 players who were determined to be (4-F) or unfit for service according to the military.

Meanwhile, many of the Major League players who had been enlisted in the Army were still on American soil, playing baseball against one another. Many commanders sought to assemble great baseball teams instead of sending the best players overseas to fight.

As a result, many Major Leaguers never saw active duty (with Bob Feller being one notable exception) and only two men who could rightly be called Big Leaguers before the conflict started died in combat.

At the end of the 1944 season, the Yankees were still under the control of the estate of Colonel Jacob Ruppert, who, as Matt mentioned earlier, up for induction to the Hall of Fame. The team was sold that offseason to an ownership group consisting of former Dodgers GM Larry MacPhail, a jetset socialite named Dan Topping and construction mogul by the name of Del Webb. For $2.8M, they not only got the Yankees, Yankee Stadium and their entire farm system.

The team shifted from a family run business to one that operated with the single-minded profit goals of a corporation. MacPhail and Co. sold pitcher Hank Bowory to the Cubs for $97,000 a move which infuriated manager Joe McCarthy. The Yanks finished fourth that year, but it didn't seem to bother the ownership much.

Before the 1946 season, Spring Training moved back to Florida, but MacPhail took the Yankees on a series of 50 exhibitions against minor league teams across the country. Midway through the season, after a contentious flight to Detroit, McCarthy resigned as manager of the team. Winner of 7 World Series in 8 trips over his 16 year career with the Yanks, McCarthy had been driven to the edge by the new ownership and an era in the Bronx had ended.

The Yankees has returned Rizzuto, Dimaggo, Chandler, Keller, Heinrich and Ruffing, but weren't the same dynastic force they were before the war. Their players had aged and their manager was gone. The Yankees did beat the Dodgers in the 1947 World Series but Larry MacPhail was forced out of ownership due to his actions at the parties after the victory.

The Yankees fared very well during the war, all things considered. The won the AL pennant three times and the World Series twice while it was going on, and even in the years that their financial resources and large minor league system couldn't buoy them to the top, they still finished 3rd and 4th.

[As you can tell if you click through the hyperlinks, I relied heavily on Yankees Century by Glenn Stout and Dick Johnson and For The Good Of The Country by David Finoli. Both were invaluable resources in generating this post.]

Remembering Old Reliable

Good morning Fackers. And of course, this particular morning is an especially good one, as yesterday the Yanks clinched the AL East and did so against the arch-rival Red Sox. Sixty years ago the Yankees also clinched against the Red Sox, but under circumstances that were far more dire.

On Saturday October 1, 1949, the Red Sox came into the Bronx for a season-ending two game series. They held a one game lead in the race for the AL flag, meaning the Yankees needed to sweep to take the pennant.

Saturday, the Yanks fell behind 4-0 in the third inning, then clawed back into it, pushing the go ahead run across in the bottom of the eighth to stay alive and make Sunday's contest the American League Championship Game.

The Yankees jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first, and the score remained that way until they tacked on four more in the bottom of the eighth. Those runs would be needed, as the Sox plated three in the ninth. With Birdie Tebbets at the plate as the tying run, Yankee ace Vic Raschi got him to foul out to end the game and give the Yankees the pennant.

The final out was caught by veteran Tommy Henrich, "Old Reliable" as Mel Allen had dubbed him due to his knack for big hits in big spots. Henrich was mentioned by Peter Abraham last weekend, as the death of former Yankee Lonny Frey left the 96 year-old Henrich as the oldest living Yankee.

Before Catfish Hunter, before Reggie Jackson, Henrich was the Yankees' first big free agent acquisition. Born in Ohio, Henrich signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1934. After being buried in the Cleveland system for three years without being advanced appropriately, Commissioner Kennesaw Landis declared Henrich's contract void, freeing him to sign with whichever club he chose. He signed with the Yankees in April 1937, and after a brief stint with the Newark Bears, he moved up to the big club.

Two weeks ago the New York Times ran an article mentioning how the Yankees - like many slow to integrate clubs -passed on an opportunity to sign Willie Mays after that 1949 season. After the article ran, River Ave Blues, Bronx Banter, The Yankees Universe and others salivated at the possibility of a Mantle-Mays-Maris outfield in the 1960s. While that assuredly would have been the greatest outfield in Yankee history, the greatest that did exist consisted of Henrich, Joe DiMaggio, and last Monday morning's topic, Charlie Keller.

DiMaggio debuted in 1936, a year before Henrich, and was an instant star. Henrich spent his rookie year as a bench player - albeit a productive one - before becoming the regular right fielder in 1938. Despite posting an OPS+ of 119, it wasn't enough to establish Henrich as a permanent starter. The arrival of Keller in 1939 pushed Henrich back to the bench, as the Yankee outfield consisted of DiMaggio, Keller, and George Selkirk, all of whom posted an OPS+ of at least 143.

Selkirk had another fine season in 1940, and still received the majority of the time, but Henrich posted better numbers in his part time duty and missed a large portion of the year due to knee surgery. In 1941, he finally became the regular right fielder, joining DiMaggio and Keller. The trio combined for 94 home runs, with the right handed DiMaggio's 30 trailing the two lefties. Henrich's 31 longballs was third in the league, while his OPS+ of 136 was good for tenth in the league, but last in his own outfield.

That fall, Henrich was at the plate for one of the more notorious moments in World Series history. He was at bat in the ninth inning of Game 4 with Dodgers about to even the Series at two games apiece. Henrich struck out for what would have been the game's final out, but Dodgers catcher Mickey Owens allowed the ball to get by him. Henrich ran to first, the Yankees rallied, with Keller driving in Henrich and DiMaggio to give the Yankees the lead. Rather than being tied at two games apiece, the Yankees took a commanding 3-1 lead en route to their fifth championship in six seasons.

The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor two months and one day after that Series ended, bringing the U.S. into World War II and altering the landscape of Major League Baseball for the next four seasons. The trio managed to stay in tact a year longer, winning the club's sixth pennant in seven seasons, but falling to the Cardinals in the World Series. DiMaggio and Henrich missed the entirety of 1943-45 while Keller missed the 1944 season and most of 1945, all due to military service.

1946 saw the end of the War in both theaters, with most Major Leaguers returning to their chosen profession. The trio reunited for one final season before Keller's back relegated him to part time duty.

Henrich remained with the club through 1950, winning three more World Series rings to run his career total to seven. He led the AL in triples in 1947 and 48, and in runs in '48 while posting a career best OPS+ of 151. He hit the first walkoff HR in World Series during Game 1 of the 1949 Series. He made the All-Star team five times, including each of his last four seasons. After taking four seasons to establish himself as a starter early in his career, Henrich turned in what were perhaps his best seasons after WWII, in what should have been the decline phase of his career.

As we said about Keller last week and as we said of their teammate Joe Gordon earlier this summer, Henrich is something of a forgotten Yankee superstar. Given the rich history of the franchise, it's easy for such players to get lost in the shuffle behind Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra, and Mantle, particularly when it's been nearly 60 years since these men last played for the Yanks. But that shouldn't diminish the contributions that these less legendary greats made during their time in pinstripes.

Number Crunching

Good morning Fackers. In case you missed it in Saturday night's late innings or in Peter Abraham's Friday game post, Brian Bruney, who had switched from #33 to #38 when Nick Swisher arrived, switched from #38 to #99. It led to this text message exchange between my buddy Gripp and me:

Gripp: Bruney switched to 99? Who does he think he is, Rick Vaughn?

Me: Vaughn has better control

Gripp: Maybe Bruney needs glasses

Me: Maybe he needs to bang Kate Hudson

With Bruney switching to 99, he joins Alfredo Aceves as current Yankees with numbers in the nineties. They are two of only three people in all of Yankee history to wear a number in the nineties. The third is Charlie "King Kong" Keller.

Keller is a forgotten star of the 1940s Yankees. While he was a perpetual second banana to Joe DiMaggio, from his rookie campaign of 1939 through 1947, Keller never posted an OPS+ lower than 141, and led the AL with a 168 mark in 1943.

Age and a bad back began to sap Keller's skill in the late forties. He played just one complete season after returning from World War II, and was released by the Yankees after the 1949 season. Keller spent the next two seasons as a useful pinch hitting specialist with the Tigers, until they released him after the 1951 season. Keller returned to the Yankees in September 1952, but by then his former number 9 had been claimed by Hank Bauer, prompting Keller to switch to 99.

The Yankees currently have 37 players on their active roster. They have two more on the 60 day DL. They have a seven man coaching staff. They have fifteen retired numbers. Joe Torre's #6, Paul O'Neill's #21, and Bernie Williams and #51 are unofficially out of circulation, and Mike Mussina's #35 hasn't been issued in the first year after his retirement. Numbers are getting tough to come by.

In the next several years we'll assuredly see #2 and #42 come off the board, probably #13 as well, and there's a good chance we could see #20 and #46 disappear too. High numbers are fairly uncommon in baseball. To date, the tradition rich Yankees have had only six players wear numbers in the seventies or above, three this year and all but Keller within in the last ten years. In the future though, that will probably be far more common out of necessity. We may end up seeing triple digit numbers in spring training one of these years.

Check out Cliff from Bronx Banter's Yankees by the Numbers post where he explains the origin of uniform numbers in baseball and lists the greatest Yankee to ever to wear each integer. YankeeNumbers.com is also a great resource if you need to look up anything related to the subject.

The Forgotten Hall Of Famer

(Photo from NYT)
This weekend brings the annual Hall of Fame inductions from Cooperstown. The attention this year will assuredly be focused on Jim Rice and former Yankee Rickey Henderson, but another, lesser known, Yankee great will be enshrined with them.

Former Yankee second baseman Joe Gordon was elected to the Hall by the Veterans Committee in December of last year, a full month before the BBWAA chose Rickey and Rice. Before there was Tom Gordon, before there was John Flaherty, Joe Gordon was "Flash", nicknamed after the popular comic book character and inspiration for the God-awful 1980 movie - Flash Gordon.

Gordon attended the University of Oregon, in the days before Phil Knight and Nike outfitted the Ducks with abominable football uniforms. In addition to playing for the baseball team, Gordon also played football and track, and according to some sources, may also have participated in gynamstics, soccer, and/or played the violin.

Following his collegiate days, Gordon joined the Pacific Coast League, the closest thing to major league baseball on the West Coast in the years before the Dodgers and Giants left New York. He spent 1936 with the Oakland Oaks, the same franchise that would later send both manager Casey Stengel and fellow second baseman Billy Martin to the Bronx, hitting .300 but making 42 errors as a shortstop.

Undeterred, the Yankees brought Gordon East after the season and sent him to their top farm club, the Newark Bears. There, he was part of what's considered one of the greatest minor league teams of all time, where his teammates included other future Yankees Babe Dahlgren and Charlie "King Kong" Keller. Switched to second base, Gordon still made 47 errors, but also led International League second basemen in putouts, assists, and double plays. At the plate, he finished second in the International League in both home runs (26) and runs (103), while batting .280 and slugging .474. His play was enough to usurp future Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri as the Yankee second baseman for 1938.

Joining a team that had won back-to-back World Series, Gordon became a key cog in a potent offensive line-up that featured Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, and a young Joe DiMaggio, as well as potent bat in second year man Tommy Henrich, and a solid complimentary parts in George Selkirk, Red Rolfe, and Frank Crosetti. Gordon hit .255/.340/.502, posted an OPS+ of 108, slugged 25 HRs, and drove in 97. With a pitching staff anchored by Hall of Famers Lefty Gomez and Red Ruffing, the Yanks cruised to their third straight pennant by 9.5 games, and swept the Cubs in the World Series, where Gordon hit .400/.438/.733 with a HR and 6 RBI.

Gordon improved as a sophomore, with the Yankees again winning the Series. He upped his batting line to .284/.370/.506 (123 OPS+), was fifth in the AL with 28 HRs, drove in 111, and made his first All-Star team. He also led AL second basemen in chances, putouts, assists, and double plays.

The Yankees' run of World Series victories ended in 1940, but Gordon turned in another exemplary season of .281/.340/.511 (121 OPS+), with 30 HR, 103 RBI, 112 runs scored. He again led AL second baseman in chances and assists and was second in putouts and double plays. The Yanks won the Series again in '41, with Gordon having another fine season (117 OPS+) and getting his second top ten MVP finish in three years. He also spent part of the year playing first base.

In 1942, with the league weakened by America's entering World War II, Gordon turned in his finest season. He hit .322/.409/.491 (155 OPS+), with all but his SLG representing career highs. His HRs dropped to 18, but that was still good for sixth in the AL, was fifth in OBP, sixth in SLG, fourth in OPS, and made his fourth straight All-Star appearance, three of them starts over fellow Hall of Famers Charlie Gehringer and Bobby Doerr. His campaign earned Flash the AL MVP award, sandwiching him between DiMaggio and Spud Chandler as the second of three consecutive Yankees to win the award. The Yankees again went to the Series, but lost in five games to the Cardinals, with Gordon hitting going just 2 for 21 (.095).

The team rebounded in 1943, beating the Cardinals for the title, following another great season from Gordon. He had a 126 OPS+ and finished sixth in the AL in HR, marking the sixth time in six seasons Flash finished in the top ten. He also finished second in BB, seventh in runs, and made his fifth straight All-Star team.

Gordon lost the 1944 and '45 seasons to military service. Orginally stationed in New Mexico, he was shipped to San Francisio before being relocated to Hickam Field in Honolulu with the Seventh Army Air Force in the summer of 1944. When he wasn't performing his duties in the motor pool, Gordon played baseball for the 7th AAF, along with Yankee teamamte Joe DiMaggio. As Gordon later recalled, they weren't the only two ringers on the team: "We had Don Lang, Bob Dillinger, Walter Judnich, Dario Lodigiani, Mike McCormick and Red Ruffing on our club. At one point we had a streak of about 31 straight wins. I think we finished with about an .800 average".

Upon his return in 1946, Gordon suffered through the worst season of his career. Thinking he was finished at 31, the Yankees traded him to Cleveland after the season, getting Allie Reynolds* in return.

*Nicknamed "Superchief" due to his Native American heritage, Reynolds became the Yankees ace, as they won the World Series in 1947, and five straight from '49 through '53. Reynolds was often used out of the bullpen as well, brought in during the late innings as the afternoon shadows crept over homeplate, making his 100 MPH fastball more unhittable than usual. Hmmm.... a Yankee pitcher of Native American descent who could dominate in relief and be a front end starter as well. Where have I heard this before?

Back to Gordon. Much to Cleveland's delight Gordon was not yet done. He turned in OPS+ of 134 and 135 in 1947-48, the second and third best of his career, finishing second in HR both years and in the top ten in RBI, SLG, and OPS. He returned to World Series for the sixth and final time in 1948, and won his fifth career ring as the Indians took what remains their last World Championship.

Gordon played two more Big League seasons, turning in a league average performance both years, before returning to the PCL as a player-manager with Sacramento. At 36, he led the league in both HR and RBI. He hung up his spikes after one more season, but continued to be involved in baseball as both a scout and a PCL manager. In 1958 he returned to the Majors as the Indians manager. In the middle of the 1960, Cleveland traded him to Detroit for Tigers manager Jimmy Dykes (for those of you scoring at home the Tigers had a manager name Jimmy Dykes and later a player named Rusty Kuntz). Following the 1960 season he became the manager of the Kansas City A's, only to become the first in a long line of skippers fired by Charlie Finley. He finished his association with MLB by managing the Kansas City Royals in their innaugural season of 1969. He died in 1978 at the age of 63.

Much like Jim Rice, I'm not entirely sure that Gordon is a HoFer, but he certainly was a great player. After Flash hit .500/.667/.929 in the '41 Series, no less an authority than Yankee Hall of Fame manager Joe McCarthy called Gordon the greatest all-around player he'd ever seen. In his New Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James ranks Gordon as the 16th best second baseman of all time, between Hall of Famer Nellie Fox and fellow Yankee Willie Randolph. James ranks Gordon ahead of HoFers Bobby Doerr, Tony Lazerri, Johnny Evers, Red Schoendienst, and Bill Mazeroski, but behind underappreciated and unenshrined players such as Bobby Grich and Lou Whitaker. He still holds the AL record for career HRs by a second baseman, and held the single season record until Bret Boone, likely pharmaceutically enhanced, bested him in 2001 and was later passed by fellow Yankee Alfonso Soriano.

Worthy of induction or not, I'm happy to see Gordon get some long overdue recognition. More than sixty years after he last put on pinstripes, Gordon is all but forgotten by modern Yankee fans. He was a major component of five Yankee pennant winners and four World Series champions and a former MVP, but his career is overshadowed by teammates Joe DiMaggio and Bill Dickey. While those two were surefire HoFers and are remembered to this day in Monument Park, those Yankee teams wouldn't have been nearly as successful without the likes of Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich, and of course Joe Gordon, all of whom have been undeservedly relegated to footnotes in Yankee history.