Dodger manager Burt Shotton send Harry "Cookie" Lavagetto up to pinch-hit for Eddie Stanky. Lavagetto hits a double-off the right-field wall at Ebbets Field, which the Yankees' Tommy Henrich can't catch, and the Dodgers win, 3-2.
Red Barber, calling the game for the Dodgers' radio station, WMGM, AM 1050, watched the hit, and the play, and the pounding on the back Lavagetto got from his teammates, and said this, concluding with one of his Southern expressions:
Gionfriddo walks off second, Miksis off first. They're both ready to go on anything. Two men out, last of the ninth. The pitch, swung on, there's a drive hit out toward the right field corner. Henrich is going back. He can't get it! It's off the wall for a base hit! Here comes the tying run, and here comes the winning run! Friends, they're killin' Lavagetto, his own teammates, they're beatin' him to pieces, and it's taking a police escort to get Lavagetto away from the Dodgers! Well, I'll be a suck-egg mule!
Hugh Casey, the Dodgers' closer throughout the 1940s, and the losing pitcher in The Mickey Owen Game in 1941, is the winning pitcher this time.
Instead of the Yankees being up 3 games to 1, the Series is now tied. This becomes known as The Cookie Game.
Two days later, Al Gionfriddo will rob Joe DiMaggio with an amazing catch to preserve the Dodgers’ lead in Game 6, but the Yankees win the Series in Game 7. By a weird twist of fate, neither Bevens, nor Lavagetto, nor Gionfriddo will ever play again.
Two days later, Al Gionfriddo will rob Joe DiMaggio with an amazing catch to preserve the Dodgers’ lead in Game 6, but the Yankees win the Series in Game 7. By a weird twist of fate, neither Bevens, nor Lavagetto, nor Gionfriddo will ever play again.
Floyd Clifford Bevens (1916-1991) was called "Bill" because, in a minor-league game, he caught a popup after it bounced off the bill of his cap. He said, "I'm lucky it didn't bounce off my nose!"
Harry Arthur Lavagetto (1912-1990) was called "Cookie" because he was signed by Victor Devincenzi, the owner of the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks, whose nickname was Cookie. The Oaks played from 1903 to 1955, winning Pennants in 1912, 1926, 1948 (managed by Casey Stengel, and with Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi, and 2nd baseman and future manager Billy Martin) and 1954.
A 3rd baseman, Cookie was a fan favorite in Brooklyn, especially in the Pennant season of 1941. A Dodger fan and commercial artist known as Fierce Jack Pierce would buy tickets for 2 seats, one for himself, and one for a helium tank. With the tank, he would blow up balloons with "COOKIE" written on them every time Lavagetto came to the plate, chanting, "Coooo-kie! Coooo-kie!" He was probably not the inspiration for the Sesame Street character Cookie Monster.
October 3, 1947 was a Friday. Elsewhere in Brooklyn, Fred DeLuca, who went on to found the Subway fast-food franchise, was born.
It was too soon for the NBA and the NHL. And the NFL played no games. But there was a game in the All-America Football Conference, which challenged the NFL from 1946 to 1949. The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Chicago Rockets 35-31 at Soldier Field in Chicago.
Mickey Colmer scored 3 touchdowns for the football version of "Dem Bums," who were coached by former Washington Redskin Hall-of-Fame running back Cliff Battles. The Rockets were coached by Jim Crowley, one of "The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame" in 1924. But their best player, receiver Elroy Hirsch, had suffered a fractured skull earlier in the season, and was out for the season. This gave "Crazy Legs" another nickname, "The Highest-Paid Waterboy In Football." He would later become a Hall-of-Famer for the Los Angeles Rams.
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