Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.
Damn Yankees
Page 66
do without a star of their own; ace pitcher Don Newcombe, also drafted by the military.
Without Mays, the Giants sputtered for a month, springing the Dodgers well into first place. Particularly cleaning up against the second division teams, the Dodgers spent the summer missing nary a beat, even without Newcombe. His absence was eased by yet another Dodgers prospect named Joe Black. A rookie at 28, Black quickly emerged as the Dodgers’ ace reliever by winning 15 games against four losses, saving another 15 and producing a 2.15 ERA that barely missed qualifying for the league lead. Opponents
batted just .201 off the right hander.
It wasn’t like 10 years earlier, when baseball scrambled and scratched for whatever talent they could find during World War
II, but the Korean War still was successful in making a dent in major league rosters, peaking in 1952.
The Dodgers developed a tormenting case of déjà vu when, at the beginning of September, a nine game lead over the Giants was quickly pared to three in just 12 days. The eerie parallels to 1951 would be short lived, however, as the Dodgers this time held steady over New York for the final three weeks, sparing the drama of a nail biting finish. It was, in fact, the first time