1947 World Series

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The Pittsburgh Press (September 28, 1947)

Branca favored to face Yankees

Reynolds or Shea Yankee starters

NEW YORK, Sept. 27 (UP) – Bucky Harris and Burt Shotton kept their world series pitching plans to themselves tonight. But indications were that Allie Reynolds or Frank Shea will be on the firing line for New York and Ralph Branca for Brooklyn in the opening game at Yankee Stadium Tuesday.

Harris said he would announce his opening game pitcher right after the Yankees and Red Sox close their season here tomorrow.

One school of thought figured Reynolds, who has been particularly effective at the stadium. Thirteen of his 19 victories have been scored at home as against two losses. His last two starts were shutouts.

Shea more impressive

Shea, however, have been more impressive in his series tuneups.

Coming back after a sore elbow kept him sidelined for weeks and rendered him ineffective when he did start, Shea turned in a four-hitter and a two-hitter. The rookie has won 14 games against five defeats.

Branca is a 21-game winner. There was a possibility Shotton might switch to either of his left-handers, Vic Lombardi or Joe Hatten, or Hal Gregg, a fastballer. Gregg, who came along fast near the end of the season, has been effective in his last outs.

Lombardi effective

If Branca goes in the opener, Lombardi is expected to pitch the second game. The little southpaw, the smallest pitcher in the majors, does not have an imposing record, 12 victories against 11 defeats, but since mid-season has been the Dodgers’ most effective pitcher.

If Reynolds works the opener for New York, Shea will be the starting pitcher in the second game of this best four-in-seven series.

Bobo Newsom, 11-game winner, and either Floyd Bevens, who has won only seven games, or Rookie Vic Raschi, who has won seven while losing only two since the Yankees brought him from Portland in mid-season, will start the fourth.

Rookie may get chance

If Branca and Lombardi pitch at the Stadium, Hatten, who has won 17 games, will pitch the third game at Ebbets Field Thursday with Gregg going in the fourth.

Shotton also may decide to give Rookie Harry Taylor, who has had a sore arm, a starting chance. When right, Taylor throws the kind of sinking fast balls that have given the Yankees trouble.

The Yankees were held at 9 to 5 favorites to win the series and 3 to 2 to win the first game. Those odds may drop to 7 to 5 by game time Tuesday.

Pinelli and Goetz named umpires

CINCINNATI, Sept. 27 (UP) – Commissioner A. B. Chandler announced today the appointments of umpires, official scorers and radio announcers for the World Series.

Umpires named from the National League were Ralph Pinelli and Larry Goetz with George Magerkurth named as alternate. The American League arbiters will be William McGowan and Ed Rommel with James Boyer as alternate.

Tommy Holmes, president of the Baseball Writers Association, will be the chief scorer assisted by Harold Burr of the Brooklyn Eagle and Dan Daniel of the New York World-Telegram.

The radio announcers will be Red Barber and Mel Allen.

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World Series mikemen veterans at working Yankee, Dodger games

Red Barber and Mel Allen have spent years with big league champions
By Si Steinhauser

When the World Series takes the air on Tuesday at 1:15 via KQV there should be no errors in naming players. Mel Allen, one of the play-by-play mikemen, has been describing Yankee games all season. Red Barber, the other, has been working Dodger games.

More than 500 Mutual network stations will carry the games to every state, Hawaii, Alaska and military personnel around the world, on land and sea.

Red Barber has been working the Dodgers and the National League since 1939. He has broadcast sports since 1934. A year ago he replaced Ted Husing as sports director of the Columbia network. He has been repeatedly drafted – with Mel Allen – for All-Star and World Series. Mel has been working the American League and Yankees since 1939. The Army “interrupted” his radio career for two years.

The same sponsor who has presented the games for eight years pays again.

Remember, this is the day you regain that hour you lost when Daylight Saving Time began. It ended last night. All stations revert to Eastern Standard Time.

Next Sunday night Fred Allen takes over the time Dorothy Lamour and the Army have been occupying. Summer hasn’t been the same because Fred hasn’t been yelling “I’ll never return to radio.”

Sherlock Holmes returns to KQV at 7 tonight. John Stanley and Al Shirley, both British, will portray Sherlock and Dr. Holmes. They were born in London’s St. John’s Wood section, a short distance from the Baker Street made famous by Conan Doyle’s Sherlock.

Holmes, the stories say, liked to play a violin as relaxation. Stanley, his portrayer, plays the cello.

Tomorrow morning’s (KQV 11:30) “Heart’s Desire” will award a ten-day free trip to Holland to a lucky couple. Douglas Fairbanks Jr., star of “The Exile” (Universal-International picture), will award the trip. It is first prize in a writing contest, involving the film story.

Fanny Brice had us puzzled for a while with this problem: “Guess how I hold a script with one hand, hold a pencil and note revisions with the other and eat at the same time.”

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We couldn’t guess so she sent the answer “I sip broth with a glass straw.”

That brat “Snooks” would think of that.

Bill Johnstone, who plays Mr. Groggins for Bill Goodwin’s show, stared at a group of people standing in line at the stage door of a New York theater. Someone gave him a shove and yelled “Get in line” at him.

He got in line just for the devil of it, was auditioned and landed in Helen Hayes’ “Cleopatra” cast.

Barry Kroeger, narrator of “The Big Story,” tells about a visit to West Point:

“I noticed a famous monument on which were engraved names of Union soldiers who died in action in the Civil War.

“Turning to a cadet I asked, ‘What particular monument is this?’

“‘This is a tribute to the marksmanship of the soldiers of the Confederacy, suh!’ drawled the cadet.”

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Mary Martha Briney has had to cancel New York concert engagements and her local radio work because of an attack of grippe.

That children think in different terms than adults, as maintained by Olga Druce, editor-producer-director of “House of Mystery” on KQV Sundays, was borne out by a letter Miss Druce received from a parent.

“My wife and I took our small daughter to see a revival of ‘The Sign of the Cross’,” he wrote. “During the scene in which the martyrs are thrown to the lions in the Roman arena, she began crying. We took her from the theater and tried to console her as best we could with explanations that it happened a long time ago and people didn’t do such things any more, etc. But the lions eating people wasn’t what was worrying her at all.

“The little baby lion didn’t get anybody to eat!” she cried. “Why didn’t they feed him, too?”

Pittsburgh’s Billy Leach will be starred on “Music For You,” at 10 a.m. five-day-a-week Columbia network program. He will sing to the accompaniment of Caesar Petrillo’s orchestra.

Georgia Burke, who plays the part of Lilly, Joan Davis’s maid in “When A Girl Marries,” is in London for a leading role in “Anna Lucasta.” Her part in “When A Girl Marries” will be written out of the show during the run of the play in the English capital.

Dick Haymes is singing lullabies to his third child, a daughter born last Thursday.

A picture of Fred Allen, published in the “New York Review” of February 4, 1922, shows the landlord of Allen’s Alley as a young man. Even then he had bags under his eyes, although they were much fainter than they are today. The accompanying article, headed “Shubert Vaudeville Discovers Another Comedy Star in Fred Allen, the Nut!”, proves that he had the same gift of humorous satire 25 years ago as he does today.

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The Evening Star (September 29, 1947)

Branca Bums’ best bet for World Series opener

Lombardi also ready for start tomorrow against Yanks’ Shea
By Jack Hand, Associated Press Sports Writer

NEW YORK (AP) – Freshman Frank (Spec) Shea, named by Manager Bucky Harris to pitch tomorrow’s World Series opener for the New York Yankees, probably will be opposed by 21-year-old Ralph Branca, Brooklyn’s ace 21-game winner, with Lefty Vic Lombardi a strong second choice.

Harris tabbed Shea, the first American League rookie ever to hurl the first game of a series, for opening duty after yesterday’s season final with the Athletics, but Manager Burt Shotton still refused to name his starting Dodger.

It could be that Shotton, who piloted the Brooks to the flag by a five-game margin, although he joined the club after the season had started, will wait until the morning of the first game before making his decision. Burt already knows who it will be, but he doesn’t want to take a chance on having one of his young men mull over the possibilities for 24 hours.

Branca rated best bet

Brance, the top man of the staff on the won and lost records, 21-12, is the best bet. Leo Durocher made the mistake of using a “sleeper,” Curt Davis, in the 1941 opener before pitching his ace, Whit Wyatt, and he never got out of the barrel. If Branca works tomorrow he’ll be ready to come back fully rested for the fifth game. A full three-day rest is a “must’’ for Branca, who is not effective with less.

If Shotton operates on the theory that left-handed pitching is his best bet against the Yankees, he may call on Lombardi, a half-pint southpaw who makes up for lack of a zooming fast ball with a cute curling curve and good control.

Outside of some concern about Catcher Bruce Edwards, whose right fingertips have been battered by foul tips, the Dodgers were in good shape for their final tune-up at Ebbets Field this morning. Edwards will, of course, start, but Shotton used Bobby Bragan yesterday in Boston just in case Bruce’s fingers may not be able to take further battering in the series.

Harris has no surprises

The Yankee lineup will carry no surprises. Harris disclosed he will follow his customary batting order, with George Stirnweiss at second base, Tommy Henrich in right field, Larry Berra, catching; Joe DiMaggio in center field, George McQuinn at first base, Bill Johnson at third base, Johnny Lindell in left field, Phil Rizzuto at shortstop and Shea, whose season record is 14-5. Should a lefty start for the Dodgers, Berra will start but he will bat eighth, with Lindell moving to third and Rizzuto to seventh.

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Dreams in baseball come true, Newsom, Harris, McQuinn find

By Burton Hawkins, Star Staff Correspondent

NEW YORK – Dreams come true. For convincing proof, three mellowing New York Yankees in whom Washington fans are considerably interested – Manager Bucky Harris, Pitcher Bobo Newsom and First Baseman George McQuinn – are presented as evidence.

Newsom always has been adept at engineering his dreams, cultivating a fondness for greener pastures and maneuvering to leap fences obstructing the way to his goal. His latest broad jump, from the seventh-place Nats to the pennant-winning Yankees, required the cooperation of a script writer from heaven.

In mid-July, when it was obvious the Nats weren’t destined to be factors in the American League race, Clark Griffith peddled Newsom to the Yankees for the waiver price of $10,000. The circumstances behind that sale bordered on the fantastic.

Griffith was (1) eager to unload Newsom’s high salary, (2) not charmed with the jealousy Bobo’s presence promoted among the Nats, as illustrated by a testy telegram dispatched to Newsom by other Nat pitchers, (3) not fascinated by his refusal to pitch batting practice, to be a relief hurler or to exercise enough to deflate a blubbery waist.

Newsom gets big break

The Yankees, on the other hand, were suffering with an epidemic of sore arms, in addition to which they didn’t relish the colorful Newsom wing signed by the New York Giants, who needed any sort of experienced pitcher, due to box office repercussions.

So Newsom landed with the Yankees and if he hasn’t been sensational he at least has been adequate. He’ll get his World Series chance against Brooklyn and that’s an event not even the imaginative Newsom dared dream when the season was launched.

Bucky, the “boy wonder” who steered Washington to its first world championship in 1924 and won a pennant again in 1925, has waited 22 years to come up with another winner and he owes at least a portion of it to the gleam he detected in his children’s eyes.

Harris was plucked from Buffalo, which had promoted him to general manager, to become executive assistant to Larry MacPhail, president of the Yankees. When MacPhail sought a manager for the Yankees, he scanned the field, then focused on Harris, convinced he was the best man for the job.

Harris took long chance

Reluctant to return to uniform, Harris informed his boss he would think it over. He returned to Washington and at dinner one night popped the question, “How would you like to see me manage the Yankees?” He kindled a fire of enthusiasm among his youngsters, so he accepted and tomorrow he’ll lead the Yankees in quest of an 11th world title.

The fellow who probably is happiest about it all, though, is 36-year-old McQuinn, born in Ballston, Va., once a student at Washington-Lee High and a firm believer in Santa Claus. Here is a man classed as “washed up” this time last year and presented the ultimate insult – a release from the cellar-dwelling Philadelphia Athletics – heading into a World Series he helped make possible for the Yankees with his spectacular early-season hitting.

McQuinn waited years for his dream to develop, for when he was 19 years old he hooked on with Wheeling of the Mid-Atlantic League. It was a link in a vast Yankee farm chain and he rose finally to Newark, only to find first base at Yankee Stadium unavailable due to the presence of a sturdy fellow named Lou Gehrig.

McQuinn gains peak

The Yankees had sent him back to the minors three times, so the St. Louis Browns drafted him and George spent eight long years there and another at Philadelphia. When released by the A’s McQuinn called Harris at home, requested a chance and, ultimately, was signed by the Yankees.

Now it’s baseball history. How the Yankees failed to make a deal for the Nats’ first baseman, Mickey Vernon; how McQuinn’s ailing back responded to treatment and how George staged a stirring comeback from baseball’s junk heap.

World Series aren’t new to them. Harris experienced the thrill at Washington, Newsom at Detroit and McQuinn at St. Louis, but this is different. They’re with the Yankees now and to each it represents fulfillment of a dream.

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Win, Lose, or Draw…
Adversity and the Brooklyn Dodgers

By Francis E. Stann, Star Staff Correspondent

NEW YORK – When a ball club moves into a World Series with an apparent edge in both hitting and pitching as will the Yankees tomorrow, it’s hard to see how it can lose. My guess is that it will be over in five games because the Dodgers aren’t quite ready yet to duplicate the feat of the Cardinals in the 1946 series, which consisted of spotting the Red Sox power and depth in the box and winning on speed and nerve.

But this is a strange team Brooklyn is sending against the Yankees. In fact, the Dodgers don’t seem to like a team so much as they seem a squad of faceless athletes who don’t figure to be a winning club, much less a series’ contender. Perhaps this is one reason why there is a tendency to underrate Brooklyn, or to establish an old, brittle Yankee club as nearly a 2-to-1 favorite.

There is a tough fiber to the Bums, despite their youth. There must be for them to have survived a series of crises and still come out on top. They don’t look or act tough, now that Leo Durocher is gone, but they’re a dead-game outfit. Here’s why, beginning with last spring:

  1. They lost their manager on the eve of the season opener.

  2. They had to buck a racial problem when Jackie Robinson became their first baseman.

  3. They sold five of their guys, including Pitcher Kirby Higbe, just when they were looking very good.

  4. They kept losing Pete Reiser, who doesn’t mean any more to Brooklyn than DiMaggio means to the Yankees.

  5. They had to lick the world champions in order to qualify for the series.

Jackie had a new position to master

The suspension of Durocher for one year by Commissioner Chandler just before the start of the season was bound to be a blow to the Bums, old and young alike. Durocher was their manager. He epitomized Brooklyn baseball. He knew his players and they in turn knew the style of ball expected of them.

Thus it must have come as a shock when, day before opening game a quiet, elderly man in a wrinkled suit and a battered hat, appeared in their dugout to take command. This was Burt Shotton, who had been in semiretirement at Palatka, Fla., called to pinch hit for the explosive Durocher. He didn’t know his own players, much less those of rival clubs.

When President Branch Rickey first signed Robinson and shipped him to the Montreal farm, some of the Dodgers were reported to be outspoken against the move. And when Robinson moved up to the Dodgers last spring the opposition remained firm. There was precedent to be broken and it took time. Besides Robinson, in addition to blazing the trail as the first Negro in the majors, had to learn a new position because the occupants of the two posts he knew best – shortstop and second base – were too good to be ousted.

Concrete is proved very hard

The sale of Higbe and four other players to Pittsburgh early in May wasn’t calculated to help morale. Higbe was a Flatbush favorite. His teammates respected his ability and regarded him as a potential game winner. The anti-Rickey press made much of the fact that Rickey was getting $300,000 and suggested that Brooklyn’s pennant chances thus were sold for cash.

Losing Reiser twice due to injuries (he keeps running into walls to test the quality of cement) not only hurt the Bums, but hurt Reiser, too. The Bums had been told that without Reiser they weren’t much ball club and Reiser, proving that he’s getting old, was affected physically by each crackup. It showed on his performance chart.

Finally, Brooklyn had to beat the Cardinals, the best team in baseball according to everybody who saw them knock off the Red Sox a year ago and cavort in the South. The Bums got the jump, which wasn’t unusual, but then St. Louis came charging back, confident that class would tell. Maybe class did tell, but it was Brooklyn that emerged triumphant and the Bums disposed of the Cards the hard way, which was by beating the champions in the final, crucial series in the West.

Yanks’ big edge is DiMaggio

Thus we come up to a new World Series and find this Brooklyn Club, so immune to adversity, very lightly regarded. That Shotton has speed and spirit on his team Is established, but once again the majority of so-called experts, amateur and professional, are swinging to the side having the big guns and the pitching depth.

This Yankee team isn’t one of the great ones as the Yanks will admit themselves, but they have more starting pitchers (Shea, Bevens, Newsom and Reynolds) than the Dodgers and they have Joe DiMaggio.

Lots of times the best hitter doesn’t come through in a series. Ted Williams didn’t last year, which more or less accounted for Boston’s defeat. But DiMaggio is more than a best hitter. He’s the best ball player and if he doesn’t hit at least up to par it’s comforting on the part of the club which owns him to know he’s on the field. It’s mighty comforting, in fact.

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The Pittsburgh Press (September 29, 1947)

Yankees name rookie Shea for opener

Dodgers expected to choose Branca
By Leo Petersen, United Press sports editor

Probable Lineups

NEW YORK (UP) – The probable lineups and batting order for the first game of the World Series at Yankee Stadium tomorrow:

Brooklyn New York
Stanky, 2b Stirnweiss, 2b
Robinson, 1b Henrich, rf
Reiser, cf Berra, c
Walker, rf DiMaggio, cf
Hermanski, lf McQuinn, 1b
Edwards, c W. Johnson, 3b
Jorgensen, 3b Lindell, lf
Reece, ss Rizzuto, ss
Branca, p Shea, p

UMPIRES: Pinelli and Goetz (NL); McGowan and Rommel (AL)

NEW YORK (UP) – A rookie pitcher whom they saved by paying his $200 appendectomy bill has drawn the opening game World Series assignment tomorrow for the New York Yankees.

Defying baseball tradition, Manager Bucky Harris yesterday nominated his freshman star, cocky Frank (Spec) Shea, a right-hander, to go after the first game of what promises to be the richest World Series in history.

In contrast to the Yankee pilot’s decision to ride along with one of his American League pennant-winning stars, Manager Burt Shotton of the Brooklyn Dodgers refused to name a starter until one hour before game time.

Everyone expected that it would be Ralph Branca, the fireballing 21-game winner.

Harris revealed that he would switch his batting order in the event the Dodgers start a left-hander – Little Vic Lombardi or Joe Hatten.

Berra to catch

Be it right-handed Branca or one of the southpaws going for the National Leaguers, however, Harris disclosed that his series’ catcher would be Lawrence (Yogi) Berra, who also has doubled in brass this season as an outfielder.

That means that for the first time in World Series’ history a rookie battery will go for one of the competitors. There have been three cases in which rookie pitchers started a series opener but never with a freshman receiver.

Babe Adams recalled

Babe Adams opened in one for the Pirates in 1909 but the other two rookies lost – Jeff Tesreau for the Giants in 1912 and Paul Derringer for the Cardinals in 1931.

While that part of baseball history was working against Harris’ gamble, he had other series’ tradition on his side.

Ever since the Yankees won the world championship in 1939, defeating the Cincinnati Reds four games in a row, the leagues have alternated in taking the October classic.

As the Cardinals, two-and-a-half to one underdogs, defeated the Red Sox in last year’s series, this is the American League’s turn.

History favors Yankees

Furthermore, the Yankees are old hands at winning World Series, capturing 10 of the previous 14 in which they have played. The Dodgers, on the other hand, never had won in their previous three series – losing to the Yankees in 1941, the Cleveland Indians in 1920 and the Boston Red Sox in 1916.

A capacity crowd of 73,000 including standing room, was assured for both the first and second games to be played at Yankee Stadium and it seemed a certain bet that both new World Series attendance and receipt records would be set.

The previous high for a single game was the 69,990 drawn by the Yankees and Cardinals, on October 7, 1943.

Please—
Don’t Phone for Scores

Telephone facilities are still limited – and the available lines are crowded.

Because of these reasons, please don’t phone for football or World Series scores.

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