Win, Lose or Draw…
A parting shot at the World Series
By Francis E. Stann
Off what was shown in the World Series – and if you were picking an all-star team of Cardinals and Red Sox players – where would Ted Williams fit into the picture?
Williams is a better hitter – he is nothing else, to be sure – than he showed in the series, when the wiry little Cardinal pitchers held him to five hits, including a gift bunt, and permitted him to drive across a single innocuous run in seven games. But if the outfield were to be picked on achievements in the series, Williams doesn’t fit into the picture at all.
By far the best outfielder was Enos (Country) Slaughter of the Cards, whom we suspect was the best in baseball all year. He can run, hit, throw and field. His throwing arm is unsurpassed. He can run like a thief and does so at all times, even after he is retired and is en route to the dugout. Slaughter digs harder in returning to the Cards’ ridiculous, splintery bench than Williams and most others do when running out base hits.
As everybody must know by now, Slaughter’s slide of home in the eighth inning won the world championship. And it stands to reason the fellow is a hitter. He led both major leagues in runs batted in.
Walker was surprise hero of classic
Slaughter’s place as the World Series right fielder must go unchallenged, but what of left field and Harry Walker? Here’s a fellow who totes a bat that looks as if it were bought from a five-and-dime store. It’s a two-tone stick of ash and apparently it was just fancy woodwork during the season because the brother of the renowned Dixie of the Dodgers – a kid brother, incidentally, who captured or wounded 29 Germans in the war – was just a banjo hitter.
But in the series, he was terrific. He wound up hitting .411 and he was the guy who drove across the championship run. And he was the guy who made all the spectacular catches Terry Moore didn’t make.
Over a season it would be asinine to suggest that Walker is a better man than Williams. But in the series Williams wasn’t close to this fellow.
The centerfielders, Dom DiMaggio and Moore, didn’t hit much, but the skill and determination of the 34-year-old Moore, playing with less than one good leg, were remarkable. As in the case of Williams vs. Walker, the more valuable man to a club over a stretch of time is DiMaggio. But the World Series centerfielder was Moore.
Pesky more of a ‘goat’ than Williams
In the infield there was no outstanding star, with the exception of Rudy York, the bald-headed Georgian who is part Indian, part first baseman. He outshone the brightest star in the National League constellation, Stan Musial.
There is no comparison between the first basemen, everything taken into consideration. Musial has youth, an established background and a richness of promise which are beyond recall by York. But in the series York singlehandedly won two games and Musial was little more effective than Williams.
Second base was a tossup. Bobby Doerr and Red Schoendienst played steady but not spectacular ball, and in a final analysis it remains a question of choosing between Doerr’s potential home run bat and Schoendienst’s ability to hit from both sides of the plate. Doerr had slightly the better batting record, Schoendienst was a little better afield.
Neither of the shortstops was a ball of fire, but Marty Marion of the Redbirds had to be the winner over Johnny Pesky if only because he avoided becoming the No. 1 goat of the series. Pesky was a tragic sort of a figure all during the affair, playing the worst game of shortstop since Rog Peckinpaugh in 1925. He was doomed with finality when he was holding a relay from Culberson in the final game and wondering if Slaughter had the nerve to try for home. Slaughter had.
A very definite vote for ‘The Cat’
At third base it had to be Whitey Kurowski over Pinky Higgins. Neither burned up the series, but Kurowski, in the final game doubled and scored in a 4-3 victory while Higgins left enough people stranded to start a new township.
The catcher of the series undeniably was Joe Garagiola, youngest of the participants. He’s only 20 and was so awed by his presence among so many stars that it was 50-50 whether he was going to signal for a pitch or ask somebody for an autograph. He still insists it must be a dream. … He, Joe Garagiola of St. Louis, playing in a series. … Williams talking with him as the great man batted (Ted talks to himself even in batting practice, incidentally). … George Raft, oh gosh, watching a game in Boston. … Slaughter, whom he chased down streets for a signature on a score card, thumping him on the back.
Between dreams Garagiola did very well. He batted .311 and tied a record by hitting safely four times in one game.
But the real big star was little Harry (The Cat) Brecheen, only southpaw in history to win three games in a World Series. The Cat was the difference between the two clubs, which bears out the old adage that good things come in small packages. If he were a Red Soxer there’d have been a hot tune in the Hub town last night!
