October 8, 1939: Ernie Lombardi's "Snooze"

October 8, 1939: Game 4 of the World Series is played at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The New York Yankees already lead the Cincinnati Reds, 3 games to none. The game is scoreless until the top of the 7th inning, when Charlie Keller and Bill Dickey hit home runs for the Yankees. The Reds come right back with 3 runs, started by an error by the normally sure-fielding Red Rolfe.

Mel Allen, then in his 1st season as a Yankee broadcaster, would later call Rolfe his all-time 3rd baseman, ahead of Pie Traynor and Eddie Mathews, the 2 most-named candidates at that point. This was while Brooks Robinson was still active, and before Mike Schmidt and George Brett debuted. So that should give an idea of how good Rolfe was, even though he is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Reds scored another run in the 8th. But their ace pitcher, Bucky Walters, ran out of gas in the 9th, and the Yankees sent the game to extra innings.

Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Frank Crosetti led off the top of the 10th by drawing a walk off Walters. Rolfe bunted him over. Keller -- nicknamed "King Kong," which he hated, because he was big, strong and hairy -- reached on an error by shortstop Billy Myers And Joe DiMaggio, already the best player in baseball at age 24, singled to right. Crosetti easily scored the go-ahead run.

It got worse for the Reds: Right fielder Ival Goodman bobbled the ball, and Keller tried to score. The throw got to catcher Ernie Lombardi, but there was a collision, and Lombardi dropped the ball. For a moment, he just lay there at home plate, in a daze. DiMaggio noticed this as he approached 3rd base, and tried to score. Lombardi snapped out of it, got the ball, and leaned over to tag DiMaggio, who executed a fantastic slide, thrown his entire body away from the plate, just brushing it with his right foot. It was 7-4 Yankees. That completed the World Series sweep, and manager Joe McCarthy's team became the first club to win 4 consecutive Fall Classics. It was their 8th World Championship overall.

The prudish press of the day said that Lombardi "swooned" or "snoozed" at the plate, but, in reality, Keller had inadvertently kneed him in the groin. His inability to act for a few seconds thereafter was understandable, even if he was wearing a cup.

Lombardi died in 1977, and was posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame in 1986. He batted .306 for his career, won 2 National League batting titles, was the NL Most Valuable Player in 1938, and was selected for 8 All-Star Games. But, because of his large nose, he was nicknamed "Schnozz." And because of that and the aforementioned play, it was said that he was "known for his schnozz and his snooze." This was unfair.

Keller looked like he might be headed for the Hall, but missed the 1944 season due to World War II, hurt his back during his service with the U.S. Merchant Marine, and was never the same player. He played his last game just after his 36th birthday, and still ended up with a .286 batting average, 189 home runs, and a career OPS+ of 152 -- considerably higher than Lombardi's 126. He retired to a farm in his native Maryland, trained racehorses with Yankee-themed names, and lived until 1990.

The last surviving player from the Yankees' 1939 World Champions -- and their 1937, 1938 and 1941 titlists as well -- was right fielder Tommy Henrich, a.k.a. Ol' Reliable, who lived until 2009. The Reds would rebound from this defeat, and win the 1940 World Series, beating the Detroit Tigers in 7 games.

*

October 8, 1939 was a Sunday. This was the only baseball game. The NHL season didn't start until the next month. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. But these NFL games were played:

* The football version of the New York Giants beat the football version of the Pittsburgh Pirates, 14-7 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The football Pirates would change their name to the Pittsburgh Steelers the next season.

* The football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Washington Redskins, 41-13 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Cleveland Rams, 35-21 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Rams moved to Los Angeles in 1946, to St. Louis in 1995, and back to Los Angeles in 2016.

* And the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Cardinals, 27-20 at the Dairy Bowl in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, Wisconsin. The Dairy Bowl was a football stadium built in the infield of a speedway, now known as the Milwaukee Mile, at the Wisconsin State Fair Park. The Cardinals moved to St. Louis in 1960, and to Arizona in 1988.

Also, Australian actor Paul Hogan, star of the Crocodile Dundee films, was born on this day. So was "underground" cartoonist Harvey Pekar.