October 7, 1952: In the decisive Game 7 of the World Series, the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, 4-2, to win their 4th consecutive World Championship, their 15th overall, and their 1st without Joe DiMaggio in 20 years.
The Dodgers still haven't won a World Series, and the idea that "Next Year" will come is getting more and more frustrating.
This game was highlighted by the Dodgers loading the bases with 1 out in the bottom of the 7th. Carl Furillo was on 3rd base, Billy Cox on 2nd, and Pee Wee Reese on 1st. Yankee manager Casey Stengel had already used each of his "Big Three" starting pitchers in the game: Vic Raschi, Eddie Lopat, and now Allie Reynolds. He called on the lefthanded reliever who had closed out the previous year's Series, Bob Kuzava.
The dangerous Duke Snider was up: The Dodgers' best slugger, a lefthanded hitter, with Ebbets Field being the best hitter's park in the National League, and the right-field pole being only 297 feet from home plate. But Kuzava got the Duke to pop up to 3rd baseman Gil McDougald. Now, to get out of the threat, he had to stop Jackie Robinson.
He got Robinson to pop the ball up, too, but the late afternoon Sun was peeking through the decks of Ebbets Field, and nobody saw the ball!
The day before, Raschi had attempted a sacrifice bunt, and it ricocheted off the leg of Dodger pitcher Billy Loes, helping a Yankee rally that forced this Game 7. Asked about it after the game, Loes said, "I lost the ball in the Sun!" It sounded stupid, because he was bent over, not looking up, but his teammates, more familiar with playing in the Flatbush ballyard, stood up for him.
Still, it ended up defining Loes' career: While such Brooklyn pitchers as Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, Elwin "Preacher" Roe and this game's starter, Joe Black, would remain admired by reminiscing ex-Dodger fans, Loes was not.
This time, the Yankee infielders couldn't see the ball, and all 3 runners were on the move. If the ball dropped, it would have been no worse for the Dodgers than a tie game. None of them saw it, except 2nd baseman Billy Martin, who dashed in, and caught the ball at his knee to end the threat.
Game 7 of the 1952 World Series was the 1st time that Billy Martin was a Yankee hero, and the 1st time he ruined Dodger hopes. The last time for each of these, it would be as a manager, and the Dodgers would represent Los Angeles.
Even though he did not enter the game, or any game in this Series, Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca was ejected by home plate umpire Larry Goetz, for excesses in bench-jockeying.
Gil Hodges finished the Fall Classic hitless in 21 at-bats, which had prompted some Brooklyn fans, some fellow Catholics, some not, to gather at local churches asking for divine help for their beloved 1st baseman.
Fortunately, Dodger owner Walter O'Malley, mean old man that he was, was not George Steinbrenner, and didn't do what George did to Dave Winfield following his 1-for-21 performance in the '81 Series against the L.A. edition of the Dodgers: Call him "Mr. May," in comparison to "Mr. October," Reggie Jackson.
Outfielder Irv Noren was the last surviving 1952 Yankee, dying on November 15, 2019. Whitey Ford, who lived for nearly another year, was not on the roster in this season, as he was serving in the Korean War.
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October 7, 1952 was a Tuesday. It was a great day for the Yankees, but it was a bad day for the world at large, only we wouldn't know it for half a century: Vladimir Putin was born in St. Petersburg, Russia (then Leningrad, the Soviet Union).
Football was in midweek. The new NHL season started in 2 days; the NBA season, in 24 days. So there were no other scores on this historic day.
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