Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Damn Yankees

Page 15

With the war over and the return of players from overseas, the Yankees set a Major League Baseball single season home attendance record by attracting 2,265,512 fans in 1946. McCarthy resigned as manager early in the season. The Yankees used two other managers during the year, Bill Dickey and Johnny Neun, and ended 1946 in third place. Catcher Yogi Berra made his Yankees debut that year. Bucky Harris was brought in to be the manager, and his 1947 team won the AL pennant and defeated the Dodgers in a seven game World Series. After the end of the Series, MacPhail sold his share of Yankees ownership to Topping and Webb for $2 million.

1948–1956: Stengel Hire and Five Straight World Series Wins

Despite contending late into the season, the 1948 Yankees

finished in third place. Harris was released and the Yankees brought in Casey Stengel to manage. At the time, Stengel had "a reputation of being a bit of a clown," and had been unsuccessful in two previous MLB managing stints. As the Yankees' manager, he optimized matchups by using a platoon system, playing more left handed batters against right handed pitchers. Numerous injuries affected the team during the 1949 season but it battled with the Red Sox for the AL pennant. Before a season ending two game

series at Yankee Stadium, New York trailed Boston by one game and needed a pair of wins. By scores of 5–4 and 5–3, the Yankees