The Victory Season by Robert Weintraub

Author:Robert Weintraub [Weintraub, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316205900
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2013-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

The loss in Grodzicki’s debut was one of the few in the 8–3 run that the Cards were on when Brooklyn came to Missouri for a four-game set on July 14. The Dodgers led by 4½ games, so even a split would be a satisfactory result from the series, which began with a Sunday doubleheader.

The opener was tied at three in the eighth, with starters Higbe and Beazley long since departed. Brooklyn reliever Rube Melton, a wild sort who led the league in walks and wild pitches in 1942, aimed rather than threw a fastball to Slaughter, and Country launched a two-run homer to win the game. He had knocked in four of the five Cardinals runs.

In the nightcap, Brooklyn scored a first-inning run when first baseman Ed Stevens doubled in Bob Ramazzotti, then held on to the 1–0 lead into the eighth. Vic Lombardi gave up hits but kept scurrying out of trouble. But then Musial tripled and came home on a Kurowski groundout, and the game went to extra innings. Dickson matched zeroes with Lombardi until the twelfth. The packed house of thirty-four thousand, having sat through five hours of baseball, was tense on their seat cushions. Even Mary Ott was quieter than usual.

Musial led off the twelfth. Before sending Lombardi out to the mound, Durocher made it perfectly plain that he wanted his pitcher to dump Musial on his ass with a brushback pitch or two. Lombardi didn’t, and the Man whacked a homer to deep right to win it 2–1. Durocher was apoplectic in the clubhouse. “I’ll never ask you to pitch tight to anybody again,” he screamed at Lombardi, “because I can see you don’t have the nerve to do it. You let them take the bread and butter right out of your mouth.”

The Dodgers lead was down to 2½ games. Monday was “Red Schoendienst Day” at Sportsman’s Park, an unusual fete for such an inexperienced player. A group from back home in Germantown, Illinois, gave him a shotgun as a gift, then Red helped shoot down the Dodgers with a pair of doubles and 3 RBIs. Musial continued to annihilate Brooklyn pitching with four hits, including his ninth triple and eighth homer of the year. Brooklyn starter Hugh Casey got exactly one man out before Durocher yanked him out by the scruff of his jersey.

But using five pitchers and sixteen position players in the 10–4 loss was the least of Durocher’s headaches. In the third inning, Slaughter lined one to left that Reiser slid in to catch. Most witnesses felt he caught it, but umpire Al Barlick ruled Pete had trapped it. A run scored, and Leo went apeshit. He “barked and growled and circled Barlick like a contestant of a bull pit,” reported the Post-Dispatch. “Leo waved his arms, kicked dust on Barlick’s pretty blue pants, and all but rubbed noses with the guardian of baseball law in his protest.”

After a three-minute brannigan, Leo was ejected, along with Reiser. Durocher was suspended five games and fined $150 by the National League.

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