Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Damn Yankees
Page 28
The Red Sox needed just one win in two games and were to pitch Mel Parnell in the first game. After trailing 4–0, the Yankees came back to beat Parnell 5–4, as Johnny Lindell hit an eighth inning, game winning, home run and Joe Page had a great relief appearance for New York. And so it came down to the last game of the season. It was Ellis Kinder facing Vic Raschi.
The Yankees led 1–0 after seven innings, having scored in the first. In the eighth inning, manager Joe McCarthy lifted Kinder for a pinch hitter who did not come through. Then he brought in Mel Parnell in relief, and Parnell yielded a homer to Tommy
Henrich and a single to Yogi Berra. Parnell was replaced by Tex Hughson, who had been on the disabled list and said his arm still hurt. But he came on and, with the bases loaded, Jerry Coleman hit a soft liner that Al Zarilla in right field tried to make a shoestring catch, but he missed and it went for a triple
and three runs scored. In the ninth inning the Red Sox rallied for three runs but still fell short.
It was in 1949 that Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey and Yankees GM Larry MacPhail verbally agreed to trade DiMaggio for Ted Williams, but MacPhail refused to include Yogi Berra, killing the proposed deal. Phil Rizzuto moved from eighth to first in
the batting lineup and finished the season second to Ted Williams in voting for the American League MVP Award.