Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Damn Yankees
Page 71
The Dodgers’ sixth World Series loss in six tries was clinched with a paltry .215 team batting average; burdened by slugger Gil Hodges’ 0 for 21 performance. The Yankees hit only a shade better, at .216, but exhibited much more pop.
The Yankees certainly would not have made it four championships in a row without Mickey Mantle’s help. Improving on his regular season play, Mantle batted .345 with a double, triple and two home runs; the first two of an eventual record 18 career World Series blasts for the Mick.
Mantle returned back to Commerce, Oklahoma, not as a failure but as a hero. A post-World Series parade given in his honor drew three times the town’s population. For a guy who wanted to chuck away his career little more than a year earlier, this was not a bad ascension.
The Yankees’ “Murderer's Row” had won four consecutive, 1936-1939, World Series championships under Joe McCarthy and with this title Casey Stengel became only the second manager in Major League history with four back to back championships.
"The Yankees don't pay me to win every day, just two out of three." - New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel