The Pittsburgh Press (October 12, 1943)
Dickey’s homer restores Yankee dynasty
Last of ‘Murderers’ Row’ tops record 38th showing with Series winning blow
By Leo H. Petersen, United Press staff writer
St. Louis, Missouri –
The power hitting that has distinguished the baseball dynasty of the New York Yankees for 20 years had paid dividends again with the St. Louis Cardinals the latest victims.
This time, the strength at the plate had to share honors with the strong right arm of pitchers Spud Chandler, Hank Borowy and Johnny Murphy and the left wing of Marius Russo, but in the end, it was the same old story – a ball hit out of the park by a Yankee to win the fifth and final game, 2–0, yesterday.
And the man who hit the ball that brought an end to the 1943 World Series and gave the Yankees their tenth championship in 20 years was a veteran, who was brought up in the best Yankee tradition – Bill Dickey – one of the greatest, if not the greatest, catcher of all time.
He stepped up to the plate at Sportsman’s Park yesterday afternoon in a tight ball game and took only one cut to close out baseball’s second wartime Series and put the Yankees back in the spot they relinquished last year to the speed boys of St. Louis.
Dickey, last man of murderers’ row, still had it in the clutch. He was following in the footsteps of such sluggers as the only Babe Ruth, the late Lou Gehrig (iron man of baseball), Bob Meusel (the bullet-armed outfielder), Tony Lazzeri (key man in one of the greatest infields in diamond history), and Earl Combs (as fleet a centerfielder as he game has ever seen).
Sixteen years of battering behind the plate have left their mark on the big boy from Louisiana. No longer does he have the speed he showed when he came up to the Bronx Bombers as a green kid of 20 to earn a place in one of the most feared batting orders any pitcher ever faced.
Power – in the clutch
There were two men out when Big Bill came to bat in that sixth inning and Charlie “King Kong” Keller was dancing off first base. The game was scoreless.
Mort Cooper had been blowing the Yankees down with a fireball that left five of them swinging helplessly in a row. Dickey had swung futilely at those pitches himself. But not this time. Cooper let it go and Bill – swinging from the heels in that old Yankee custom – met it right on the nose. The ball went up and out, and there was no question from the time it met the bat that this was the ball game.
As he lumbered around the bases behind the youthful Keller, the crowd of 33,872 knew that Yankee power had paid off again.
But the Cardinals kids – in true Missouri style – still had to be shown.
There was still trouble ahead as the Redbirds, driven by the slashing tongue of Billy Southworth, attempted to come from behind to win another one for Big Mort and his dad, who died several hours before Cooper stopped the Yankees at New York to even the Series at 1–0.
They tried in the seventh, again in the eighth and made their greatest bid for victory and prolongation of the Series in the ninth.
The sorrel-thatched kid from the cracker state had one man down and was only two outs away from his second victory of the Series. Then gangling Slats Marion, Cardinals shortstop, powered a single to left center and dangerous Danny Litwhiler, pinch hitting for the pitcher, followed with a single to center.
Chandler comes through
It looked bad for Chandler, who, all afternoon, had been fighting his way out of trouble. But then the spunky Spud showed he had it in the clutch – just as Dickey had in the sixth. He struck out Klein, Cardinals second baseman, with the tying runs on the bases; he forced Debs Garms – once the National League’s leading hitter – to ground out to Joe Gordon.
That was the 1943 World Series.
Chandler had started the Yankees on the right path by defeating Max Lanier 4–2 in the opener. Cooper then evened it with a 4–3 win over Ernie Bonham. But the Yankees left New York for St. Louis on this first one-trip classic with a 2–1 lead when Fordham Hank Borowy, with the help of Fordham Johnny Murphy, defeated rookie southpaw Alpha Brazle 6–2 in the third game.
When they resumed play two days later on the banks of the Mississippi, southpaw Marius Russo made it 3–1 with a 2–1 victory over Lanier and Harry Brecheen.
Then Chandler wound it up as he started it – with the help of big Bill Dickey, the sole survivor of Murderers’ Row.