DiMaggio Hits 46 Dingers... For KC!

Vince DiMaggio, Babe Ruth of the 1939 KC Blues

Joe and Dominic would not have played ball if not for Vince.  All three played for the San Francisco Seals.  All three were excellent major league center-fielders.  And Vince did all he could to join his younger brother Guiseppe on the big club.  Forty-six bombs (like Joe in '37), 100-plus ribbies, and led the Blues to the American Association pennant.

Visit I-70 Baseball for the complete story of the eldest DiMaggio baseball-playing brother (Mike and Tom were older, but stuck to fishing, though Mike was reputed to be a powerful hitter).

Of course, you can visit baseball-reference.com for Vince's numbers.  I also heavily recommend Richard Ben Cramer's biography on Joe, which details all of the DiMaggio's experiences, including their metamorphosis from a family fishing industry into a baseball playing, center-fielding-making factory.

1937 Yanks-1949 Red Sox

Fenway Park's Not-Yet-Green Monster

The 1937 New York Yankees 102-52

Two-time World Champions 

Manager: Joe McCarthy

The 1949 Boston Red Sox 96-58
Needing one of two against the eventual World Champions, the Sox dropped final two games against the Yankees to finish one game out – for the second straight year.
Manager: Joe McCarthy

Starting Line-ups
1949 Red Sox
CF Dom DiMaggio .307 BA .404 OBA 126 R
3B Johnny Pesky .222 BA .408 OBA 111 R
LF Ted Williams .343 BA 43 HR 159 RBI 150 R .490 OBA .650 SA
SS Vern Stephens .290 BA 39 HR 159 RBI 113 R .391 OBA .539 SA
2B Bobby Doerr .309 BA 18 HR 109 RBI .393 OBA .497 SA
RF Al Zarilla .281 BA 9 HR 71 RBI
1B Billy Goodman .298 BA 0 HR 56 RBI
C Birdie Tebbett .270 BA 5 HR 48 RBI

1937 Yankees
SS Frank Crosetti .234 BA 11 HR 49 RBI 127 R
3B Red Rolfe .276 BA 4 HR 62 RBI 143 R
CF Joe DiMaggio .346 BA 46 HR 167 RBI 151 R .412 OBA .673 SA
1B Lou Gehrig .351 BA 37 HR 159 RBI 138 R .473 OBA .643 SA
C Bill Dickey .332 BA 29 HR 133 RBI .417 OBA .570 SA
RF Geo Selkirk .328 BA 18 HR 68 RBI .411 OBA .629 SA
LF Myril Hoag .301 BA 3 HR 46 RBI
2B Tony Lazzeri .244 BA 14 HR 70 RBI
UT Tom Henrich .320 BA 8 HR 42 RBI .419 OBA

Starting Pitching
1949 Red Sox
Mel Parnell: 25-7, 2.77
Ellis Kinder: 23-6, 3.36
Joe Dobson: 14-12, 3.85
Chuck Stobbs: 11-6, 4.03 (as 19-year-old!)


1937 Yankees
Lefty Gomez: 21-11, 2.33 (led AL 1937)
Red Ruffing: 20-7, 2.98
Bump Hadley 11-8, 5.30
Monte Pearson 9-3, 3.17

The two teams lock horns for 154 games. They alternate five game series at each teams home field, though occasionally visits to other legendary stadiums are authorized! The games are all generated via Sim League Baseball by WhatIfSports. The author, though an unapologetic Yankees fan, sets the best line-ups for each team, each game. The computer makes all in-game substitutions, including relief pitchers. I should point out - in this Utopian Mac's Legendary Baseball environment virtually no one is less than 100 percent healthy. I do not try to abuse this. Lefty Gomez doesn't get to pitch 600 inning seasons - though Kid Nichols might! But the everyday players get to play, well, every day - regardless of their time on the DL. If the guy is out all year and played 19 games, he gets to sit. But if he played a good amount of the season, he gets to play a lot. And if he plays well, he gets to play more.

Anyway, here goes.
The 1937 Yankees were part of the most dominant run in baseball history. They won the second of four straight World Titles, far out-distancing the AL each year. They stomped everyone despite switching out Hall-of-Famers like interchangeable parts - Tony Lazzeri and Lou Gehrig yielding to Joe Gordon, Tommy Henrich, Babe Dahlgren and Charlie Keller... with Joe DiMaggio arriving and grabbing four World Series rings in his first four seasons. Their skipper was the intractable Joe McCarthy, who full expected to come to the park and win each and every game.

The 1949 Red Sox were also part of one of the most dominant runs in baseball history. Unfortunately they weren't the dominant ones. The 1946-50 Red Sox were like the 1947-53 Brooklyn Dodgers: two very powerful teams whose stars never really aligned. I once read Duke Snider's auto-biography. He said that when the Yankees won five straight World Titles (1949-53), the Yanks only won two more games than the Dodgers over that same five year period, including regular and post-season. Well, Teddy Ballgame went through pretty much the same agony. Lost the '46 World Series in the 7th game. Finished 3rd in '47. Lost a one-game play-off in '48. Lost by one game to the Yanks in '49 after dropping the last two to the Yankees. Third in '50 by 4 games despite going 94-60 (.610).

Let's look at the two squads as they played in the post WWII era.
NY Yankees 1946-50
1946 87-67 .565
1947 97-57 .630
1948 94-60 .610
1949 97-57 .630
1950 98-56 .636
5 yrs. 473-297 .614

Boston Red Sox 1946-50
1946 104-50 .675
1947 83-71 .539
1948 96-59 .619
1949 96-58 .623
1950 94-60 .610
5 yrs. 473-298 .613

One percentage point difference! Boston played and lost one extra game - the 1948 one-game playoff! This was a great team. And their manager in '48 and '49? The intractable Joe McCarthy.

Here in Mac's Legendary Baseball the '49 Sox get a second chance at glory. Their chance starts in front of 40,000-plus fans shoe-horned in Fenway Park, in 1949.


Opening Day! Fenway Park! 1949!
Al Zarilla gets a triple double and a pick six!
1937 N York Yankees - 023 010 100 - 7 11 0
1949 Boston Red Sox - 320 000 33x -11 13 0

Right fielder Al Zarilla doubles three times, goes 4-5 and plates six. He doubles home Johnny Pesky, Ted Williams and Junior Stephens in the 1st, doubles in Junior and 2nd baseman Bobby Doerr in the 7th, and lines his third two-bagger in the eighth. His double in the 7th puts the Red Sox up to stay, 8-7. Back-to-back doubles from Zarilla (his 3rd) and Sox 1st baseman Billy Goodman net three more insurance runs in the 8th. Boston’s bullpen makes it stand up with three innings of scoreless relief. And the 1949 Red Sox win the home opener 11-7.

Of course it wasn't that easy. Zarilla's 1st inning double gave Boston a quick 3-0 edge. But Yankee catcher Bill Dickey, himself enjoying a 4 for 4 afternoon, scores New York's run when Myril Hoag lines a double off the 37-foot high wall in left. Then with Boston ahead 5-2 in the 3rd and two mates on board, Dickey times a Mel Parnell curve perfectly and lines a 3-run homer to deep right, 390 feet away. Dickey’s shot ties the game at 5-5. In the top of the 5th Joe DiMaggio leads off, belting a double past his brother Dom in deepest Fenway center. DiMag scores when Bill Dickey bloops a single to right-center. New York leads for the 1st time, 6-5, and it’s Yankee catcher Bill Dickey’s four RBI which have done it. Joe DiMaggio pads that lead in the 7th with a fly ball solo homer down the left field line that just clears the 37 foot Fenway wall. New York leads 7-5.

But after the 7th inning stretch the 1949 Boston Red Sox battle back themselves. Yankee fireman Johnny Murphy enters the game. Ted Williams greets him with a ground single to right-center. Murphy then walks Vern Stephens. Bobby Doerr hits a bloop double to left-center, plating Williams. Murphy is relieved by Pat Malone. Al Zarilla greets him with a line drive double to deep right-center, scoring Stephens and Doerr. Zarilla’s 2nd two-bagger of the day puts the 1949 Red Sox back in front 8-7.

Relievers Tex Hughson, Earl Johnson and Mickey McDermott shut down New York for the final nine outs after Joe DiMaggio's 7th inning blast knocked Parnell out of the box. And 40,000-plus Bostonians went home happy.

Game 2 NY wins 8-2. 
Fenway Park
T.Lazzeri doubles twice and plates three.

The Yanks draw first blood in the second.
Tony Lazzeri rips a two-out, two-run line double to left-center, scoring George Selkirk and Tommy Henrich. 1937 New York Yankees are out in front, 2-0.

The Bronx Bombers scored five more in the sixth, again all with two gone. DiMaggio and Dickey both walk. They both score on a laser beam double to deep LF off the bat of rookie outfielder Tommy Henrich. Tony Lazzeri bloops a double to left-center, plating Henrich. Pitcher Charley ‘Red’ Ruffing doubles to left-center to bring home Lazzeri. And after Mickey Harris relieves starter Ellis Kinder, Yankee shortstop Frank Crosetti rips a
liner to LF for the Yanks’ 4th straight double. Ruffing score puts New York on top 7-0.
The Yanks coast from there, winning 8-2, squaring the season at 1-1.

Game 3 Boston wins 7-6.
Fenway Park
Bobby Doerr gets a pick six!

The 1949 Boston Red Sox 3rd:
Boston catcher Birdie Tebbetts grounds it thru the hole to right center for a single. Pitcher Joe Dobson walks. Dom DiMaggio lines a single to right. After Pesky flies out, Bump Hadley walks Ted Williams with the bases full, forcing Tebbetts home. Boston leads 1-0.

In the 5th Bobby Doerr triples past Joe DiMaggio in deep right-center. Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Ted Williams all score. The 1949 Boston Red Sox lead 4-0.

In the 6th inning Selkirk triples and scores on a Henrich ground out to 1st. It's 4-1 Boston. Then the 1937 New York Yankees rise up in the 7th. Frank Crosetti draws a one out walk. Third sacker Red Rolfe hits a fly ball double to deep center. After Joe DiMaggio grounds out to 3rd, Gehrig walks to load them for catcher Bill Dickey.
Dickey lines a single to right-center. Crosetti and Rolfe score.
Tex Hughson relieves Joe Dobson. George Selkirk greets him rudely, smacking a triple to the triangle in deepest center, plating Gehrig and Dickey. The 1937 New York Yankees take the lead, 5-4.

The 1949 Boston Red Sox answer after the 7th inning stretch. Pesky walks. Williams beats out an infield single to 1st. And with two away Bobby Doerr lines a 3-run homer to left-center. The 1949 Boston Red Sox are back in front, 7-5. They hang on to win 7-6.


Game 4: NY wins 7-2 to go 2-2
Fenway Park
DiMaggio and Lazzeri go long.

The Yanks rough up 19-year-old lefty Chuck Stobbs right away. Frank Crosetti hits abloop double down the left field line to open the game. One out later Joe DiMaggio crushes a 2-run homer to right. The Iron Horse rips a liner to right-center for a double. He scores on a Henrich line drive single to right. New York is leading 3-0 before most Fenway faithful have settled into their seats.

In the third Myril Hoag smokes a line drive single to left, scoring Joe DiMaggio. Then Tony Lazzeri smacks the back-breaking blow, a 3-run homer to left-center that barely clears the wall. It drives Stobbs from the game. It gives NY a 7-1 lead that sticks.


Game 5 Bos wins 6-0 to go 3-2
Fenway Park 1949
Al Zarilla double-doubles and Mel Parnell diffuses the Bombers.

Boston southpaw ace Mel Parnell, who was rocked on opening day, is masterful, throttling the Bombers with a six-hit (all singles) shutout. Boston wins 6-0. Of course he had help.

Right-fielder Al Zarilla doubles down the right field line in the 2nd, scoring Bobby Doerr. Zarilla scores on a Birdie Tebbetts groundball single to left. Boston leads 2-0.

In the 4th Zarilla lines a single to left. After a Billy Goodman single, Zarilla scores on a Tebbetts sac fly to center, beating Joe Dimaggio's throw home. Boston leads 3-0.

Bobby Doerr doubles home Williams in the 5th. Then in the 7th it’s Zarilla again, doubling home Williams to give Boston a 5-0 lead. The Boston right-fielder Zarilla's 2 two-baggers give him five, and his two ribbies give him eight in the first five games. Of course it also enables the '49 Red Sox to head to Yankee Stadium (and 1937) with a 3-2 record.


Game 6 Boston wins 4-3 to go 4-2. 
Yankee Stadium, 1937
Joe D goes deep twice but can’t beat the Sox as Al Zarilla delivers again.

Joe DiMaggio crushes a solo homer to left in the 1st. He hits a fly ball solo homer to center in the 6th. And he singles home Crosetti in the 8th. But it’s not enough.

Big Al Zarilla triples home Bobby Doerr in the 5th… and scores when Joe DiMaggio can't handle a Billy Goodman fly ball. Boston leads 2-1.

Ted Williams lines a single to right in the 6th, plating Dom DiMaggio. Williams scores on a Bobby Doerr ground single to RF. Boston edges the ’37 Yankees 4-3.
Ellis Kinder wins to square his record at 1-1. Mickey McDermott picks up his 3rd save. Red Ruffing goes the route while dropping to 1-1.


Game 7 Boston wins 4-3 to go 5-2. 
Yankee Stadium, 1937
The Splendid Splinter Homers in Victory.

In the 2nd Lou Gehrig hits a line-drive solo homer to left-center to give the Yanks an early 1-0 lead. But Dom DiMaggio prevents further scoring. The Little Professor schools the Yankees, nailing Bill Dickey at the plate after the Yankee catcher tags up on a long fly off the bat of George Selkirk. Dom’s peg ends the inning. The 1949 Red Sox win it in the 3rd.
Dom DiMaggio smokes a line drive single, one hop to his big brother in center. Johnny Pesky doubles him home. Ted Williams, facing an over-shift to the right, then hits a long 2-run homer to left.

Johnny Broaca relieves Bump Hadley. But he’s wild. After Vern Stephens and Zarilla walk, Tebbetts grounds a single to left-center for Boston’s 4th tally. The Red Sox lead 4-1. They win 4-3 for the second straight day, and have won five of the first seven. Joe Dobson goes six-plus for his 1st win, and Mickey McDermott saves his 4th. Bump Hadley is bumped in the third and takes the loss.

The 1949 Red Sox and the 1937 New York Yankees split the next six games. Game 12 at Fenway brings the 19-year-old Chuck Stobbs back to the hill, and this time he is brilliant, allowing just hree hits and no runs over six innings. Vern Stephens lines a two-run single to right in the first, scoring Pesky and Williams. And that's all the help Stobbs needs. Mickey McDermott saves his fifth. Boston wins 2-1. Boston salts away the next one early too, jumping on Lefty Gomez and scoring five in the first.

Myril Hoag has a fly ball ricochet off his glove in left field. Dom DiMaggio reaches on a 2-base error. Johnny Pesky grounds a single to RF. DiMaggio scores. Ted Williams bloops a single to right center. Vern Stephens skies one to LF that falls in for a double. Pesky and Williams score. Al Zarilla hits singls to deep short. Billy Goodman hits a line drive single to right, scoring Stephens. Birdie Tebbetts grounds to 3B. They get the force at 2B, but the Birdie hustles beats the throw to 1st to avoid the double play. Al Zarilla scores the fifth Red Sox run. They lead 5-1.
Mel Parnell goes all the way, scatters 13 hits and winning 7-4. The Red Sox up their record to 8-5.

Game 14 NY wins 17-6
Fenway Park, 1949
Eight run 7th dooms Boston.

Game 14 sees the 1937 Yankees enjoy their biggest offensive outburst to date. Frank Crosetti doubles home Red Rolfe with two out in the first. Tommy Henrich doubles to deep left in the fourth, scoring Ruffing and Crosetti . New York leads 4-1.

In the fifth George Selkirk smacks a 2-run homer to left that barely clears the Fenway 37-foot wall, increasing the Yankees lead, 6-1.

Bobby Doerr lines a 3-run homer to right-center in the 6th to close the gap, 6-4.

But that’s as close as they would get. The Yankees put their stamp on the game in the 7th.  With one out Red Rolfe smokes a line drive single to center. Lazzeri and Myril Hoag (hitting for Ruffing) both walk. Vern Stephens misplays a routine grounder. Crosetti reaches on the error. Rolfe scores. Henrich draws the third walk of the frame, forcing home Lazzeri.
Tex Hughson enters the game to pitch to Joe DiMaggio. The bases are loaded. DiMaggio unloads them, unloading on a Hughson fastball. He lines a long grand slam to left-center. New York goes up 12-4. They win going away 17-6.


Game 15 NY wins 8-3 to climb to 7-8Fenway Park, 1949
The Iron Horse drives in three. Bump Hadley has his 2nd strong start; his last two outings he’s 2-0, 1.88, 14 IP.
Top of the 1st: Lou Gehrig crushes a 2-run homer to center off of Joe Dobson. His 3rd bomb of the year scores Joe DiMaggio ahead of him and gives New York a 2-0 lead out of the gate.
In the fifth: Frank Crosetti tops an infield single to 2nd. Myril Hoag advances him with a line drive single to LF. Dom DiMaggio then misplays a deep drive off of the bat of Joe DiMaggio for a 2-base error. Frank Crosetti scores.

New York Yankees lead 3-0.

Tex Hughson enters the game in the 7th. With one out and one on Joe DiMaggio lines a single to left. Gehrig grounds a single to left-center, scoring Myril Hoag. Bill Dickey singles to right scoring the Yankee Clipper. George Selkirk grounds to 2nd. Bobby Doerr flips to Stephens for the force, but Selkirk hustles to beat the relay. Gehrig scores run number six.

1937 New York Yankees lead 6-0.

1949 Boston’s only offense comes in the seventh on a run scoring single from Ted Williams and a 2-run double to deep right off the bat of Billy Goodman. Boston closes the gap, 6-3. But that’s as close as they come as the Yanks make a winner out of Bump Hadley (2-1). Pat Malone picks up his first save.


Batting Leaders (15 games)
Lou Gehrig .403
Bobby Doerr .382
Myril Hoag .375
Ted Williams .370
Bill Dickey .354
HR
Joe DiMaggio 5
Ted Williams 3
George Selkirk 3
Lou Gehrig 3
RBIs
Bobby Doerr 17
Lou Gehrig 12
Bill Dickey 11
Tony Lazzeri 11

1937 Yanks - 1949 Red Sox Dead Even After 20 Games!
The two squads return to the Bronx where the Bombers take 3 of 5.


Game 16 NY win 7-4 go to 8-8
Yankee Stadium, 1937
Game 16: Tony ‘Poosh-em-up’ Lazzeri pushes 4 across in the 1st with a grand slam to seal the win. Lazzeri has had trouble getting his average above .220. Batting out of the eighth slot most of the year, he nonetheless has been productive.

The 1937 New York Yankees jump all over a Boston starter for the second straight day. This time it’s teenaged lefty Chuck Stobbs, who is coming off his best start of the young season. Stobbs walks Myril Hoag with one away.

Joe DiMaggio smokes a line drive single in front of brother Dominic in center. Gehrig rips a liner past Dom for a double, scoring Hoag and Joe DiMaggio. scores. Selkirk is intentionally walked. But Stobbs walks Rolfe too. Eighth place hitter Poosh-em-up Tony Lazzeri belts a fly ball grand slam to left.

The 1937 New York Yankees lead 6-0 after one at-bat. Monte Pearson and the Yankee pen make it hold up as New York reaches .500 (8-8) for the first time since game four.
Game 17 NY win 5-3 to go to 9-8
Yankee Stadium, 1937

The Yanks go over .500 for the 1st time all year the next day. Bill Dickey knocks in all five NY runs in a 5-3 win. Things looked good for the Red Sox late. Vern Stephens, who himself is struggling to hit .200, does come up with a big blow now and again. He does here in the Boston eighth, lining a long double past Joe DiMaggio, scoring Pesky and Ted, and giving the Sox a 3-2 edge. But in the bottom of the ninth DiMaggio and Gehrig each line singles to chase Mel Parnell fro the mound. On comes Earl Johnson for Boston. Up comes Bill Dickey, who in the 1st had doubled home the only two Yankee tallies. Out goes an Earl Johnson fast ball, as Bill Dickey lines a 3-run homer to right. He sends home two teammates ahead of him, as well as 43,886 raucously happy fans.


Game 18 Bos wins 12-3 to go to 9-9
Yankee Stadium, 1937
*Line-up change: Doerr (.354, 18 RBI) clean-up. Junior Stephens (.167, 11 RBI) moved down to fifth.

Pesky, Junior and Goodman each plate three as the 1949 Red Sox climb back to even.

In the third Red Ruffing suffers a wild streak. He walks three batters; all come around to score. Pesky doubles home Birdie Tebbetts who led off with a free pass. Ruffing walks Ted Williams with first base open, which is not unusual. But then he unintentionally walks Bobby Doerr, which is. Of course, the Sox make Ruffing pay. Junior Stephens delivers from the five-hole, doubling home Pesky and Williams. And right fielder Al Zarilla picks up Doerr with a single to right. Boston leads 4-1.

The following frame Pesky pads the lead, doubling home starter Ellis Kinder and center fielder Dom DiMaggio. 6-1 Boston. And in the ninth Billy Goodman clears the bases with a 3-run double and scores himself when reliever Tex Hughson singles him in. The Sox romp 12-3.Game 19 NY 6-5(11) 10-9
Yankee Stadium, 1937
Boston takes 5-3 lead into the 8th but cannot hold it. Red Rolfe wins it in overtime with a walk-off-walk!

As satisfying as the previous game was for the Red Sox, this one is as much an exercise in agony. New York jumps out to a two-run lead. The Red Sox show some pluck and catch them in the 3rd when back to back doubles from Doerr and Stephens plate three to put the Sox in front. Then after the Yankees tie it Stephens strikes again, lining a solo homer to center. When Al Zarilla scores on a Billy Goodman double to deep right minutes later, Boston looks good, leading 5-3 in the 8th. Even when George Selkirk homers in the bottom of the inning, Boston still seems to be in the driver’s seat.

Then the wheels come off. A Crosetti double and two walks load the bases. With one out Bill Dickey one-hops one to Pesky behind the 3rd base bag. Pesky fires home for the force, but Birdie Tebbetts is upended by Crosetti, preventing an inning ending double play. This proves huge because George Selkirk bounces one between Gehrig and Lazzeri, into right. Joe DiMaggio scores the tying run.

Two innings later it’s still 5-5.

Bottom of the 11th:
Mickey Harris enters the game to pitch.
Tommy Henrich tops a slow roller to third. Johnny picks up the ball and flips it to pitcher Mickey Harris. Joe Dimaggio gets jammed on the very next pitch and bloops a single in front of a charging Ted Williams. Henrich gets a great read on the ball and takes 3rd on a close play.
With no one out and the ballgame on 3rd the Red Sox bring the infield and outfield in. Mickey Harris then strikes out the great Lou Gehrig swinging. Bill Dickey then hits a hot bouncer to Billy Goodman, who quickly steps on first. DiMaggio, whose run is meaningless, advances to second, but Goodman holds Henrich at third. Two out. The infielders and outfielders back up. In fact, they play deep for powerful right fielder George Selkirk. But inexplicably, Mickey Harris, who has been magnificent thus far, loses the plate. Pitching carefully, he walks Selkirk. Selkirk’s run, like DiMaggio’s means nothing. But Henrich’s run means everything. And when Red Rolfe watches a fourth wide one go by, Henrich claps his hand once and trots home. Harris squats on the mound, staring at the ground… having lost the game without surrendering a single hard-hit ball.

1937 New York Yankees win 6-5.The '49 Red Sox again show a lot of spunk. They reverse the score, winning 6-5 to again square the season and their record at 10-10.


Game 20 Boston wins 6-5 to go 10-10.
Yankee Stadium, 1937.
Billy Goodman’s three-run double in the 5th cinches it for the 1949 Red Sox.

In the fourth with the Yanks trailing 3-1, they load the bases against Sox lefty Chuck Stobbs. With one away Yankees manager Joe McCarthy rolls the dice, pinch-hitting for pitcher Monte Pearson with rookie Tommy Henrich. Henrich is a lefty swinger facing a lefty thrower. He waits beautifully on a Stobbs curve and lines it down the left-field line. The ball sails into the left-field stands just to the right of the 301 foot sign. Grand Slam! New York leads 5-3. Boston's manager, Joe McCarthy, removes Stobbs. Walt Masterson comes in and retires the side.

In the top of the 5th the Sox rebound. Ted gets them started with a single to right. Bobby Doerr singles to center. And Yankee reliever Kemp Wicker. pitching carefully to Junior Stephens, loses him on a low curve - ball four. The bases are loaded for Boston now, with Al Zarilla looking to unload them. Wicker gets a fast one in on his fists though, and Zarilla lifts a short fly to right. Williams tags up, but Selkirk fires a strike to Bill Dickey, and Williams retreats. Billy Goodman, a lefty swinger like Zarilla, is next. Kemper sends one in on Goodman's fists as well. But Goodman turns on it and times it well. KERRRACK! The ball rockets between Selkirk and DiMaggio, one-hopping to the right of the 407-foot sign. Williams, Doerr and Stephens all score. Billy Goodman pulls into second with a stand-up double, having delivered a 6-5 Boston lead... and as it turns out, victory.

20 games NY is 10-10

1949 Red Sox............ BA/SA HR RBI
CF Dom DiMaggio.... .235/.269 0 1
3B Johnny Pesky...… .253/.367 0 8
LF Ted Williams....… .408/.577 3 14
SS Vern Stephens..… .192/.308 2 18
2B Bobby Doerr.....… .324/.514 2 19
RF Al Zarilla..........… .273/.416 1 12
1B Billy Goodman.… .291/.392 0 12
C Birdie Tebbetts..… .223/.238 0 6

1937 Yankees............. BA/SA HR RBI
SS Frank Crosetti...... .303/.404 0 8
3B Red Rolfe............. .237/.325 0 6
CF Joe DiMaggio....... .317/.553 5 11
1B Lou Gehrig........... .362/.579 3 15
C Bill Dickey.............. .345/.464 2 18
RF Geo Selkirk.......... .298/.614 4 12
RF Tom Henrich....... .333/.588 3 15
LF Myril Hoag........... .327/.418 0 5
2B Tony Lazzeri......... .212/.423 2 15

Ted Williams has 19 walks and 20 runs scored in 20 games.
The two squads split the next four games to go 12-12.

After the two teams go 12-12, the 1937 Yankees rise up. They rip off an eleven game winning streak.

George Selkirk has gotten white hot, batting .444 (16-36), smacking five homers, driving in 17, and accumulating 34 total bases over the last 10 games.


The Yankee pitchers have contained Ted Williams. He’s 7-41 (.171) with just 12 TB (.293 SA) and just three extra-base hits during Boston’s 11-game skid. Ted has no homers in 25 games. But Williams has driven home nine during the last eleven games, so the Boston skid cannot be laid at Ted’s feet.


Boston skipper Joe McCarthy has tinkered with his line-up to try and generate offense. He’s moved Billy Goodman into the clean-up spot and dropped Stephens, who has battled to stay above .200 all season, down to sixth. It seems to work. The problem is that the Red Sox hurlers cannot contain the Yankee sluggers. Consider that four New York outfielders are batting .300.


The two Yankee aces have gotten hot:

Lefty Gomez 4-0, 2.86 34 IP

Red Ruffing 3-0, 1.01 26 IP


While Boston’s one-two starters have gotten lit up.

Mel Parnell 0-5, 6.56 35 IP

Ellis Kinder 0-2, 5.81 26 IP


“I can’t step on my pitchers too hard…” says Boston’s skipper Joe McCarthy quietly. “I know what the boys on the other bench can do.” Then McCarthy smiles. “I’ve managed Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Williams. No complaints.”


Game 25 NY wins 8-4 NY is 13-12
Fenway Park, 1949
Joe D and Bill Dickey both homer in the 4^th. The Iron Horse launches a 3-run shot in the 7^th.


Game 26 NY wins 5-1(in 10) NY is 14-12

Yankee Stadium, 1937

Dom DiMaggio drives in Boston’s only run with a double. It enables Boston to take a 1-1 tie into the 10^th, when Joe DiMaggio lines a grand slam down the left-field line.


Game 27 NY wins 7-5 NY is 15-12
Yankee Stadium, 1937
NY wins in last at-bat for the second straight day. It’s a see-saw battle but when the see-saw stops New York is on top. Down 4-1, the Sox score three on RBI hits from Dom DiMaggio, Pesky and Williams. Then after a Selkirk solo home run, Bobby Doerr answers with an RBI triple. Unfortunately no one has an answer for Lou Gehrig’s two-run homer in the last of the ninth.

Game 28 NY wins 7-5 and goes 16-12
Yankee Stadium, 1937
Yanks win four straight with 7 in 6^th. They send 11 men to bat. Rookie southpaw Stobbs, who had shutout New York for five innings, walks three straight to force in two runs. Tex Hughson relieves, but the Yanks roll. Henrich doubles home two more and Tony Lazzeri belts a tremendous 3-run homer over the distant centerfield wall at Yankee Stadium. Lazzeri’s 4^th home run puts New York on top 7-5. And thus it would remain.


Game 29 NY wins 3-0 and is 17-12
Yankee Stadium, 1937
Lefty shuts out Sox on seven hits for Yanks’ fifth straight.


Game 30 NY wins 7-0 and is 18-12
Yankee Stadium, 1937
Ruffing shuts out Sox on three singles for Yanks’ sixth straight.


Game 31 NY 8-7 and is 19-12
Fenway Park, 1949
Line-up change: Billy Goodman moves from seven- hole to clean-up. Stephens, Doerr and Zarilla each move down a slot to five, six and seven. Boston scores seven. Al Zarilla smacks a 3-run double in the first. But once again New York comes back in the ninth. Down 7-5, Gehrig singles home two to tie it. Bill Dickey then singles to right. Gehrig rounds second and challenges Al Zarilla, beating Al’s throw to 3^rd. Rookie Tommy Henrich then lifts a fly to right-center. Gehrig tags, and the Iron Horse steams home. Zarilla fires to the plate but Gehrig again beats the ball. And the Yankees beat Boston for the seventh straight game.


Game 32 NY wins 14-11(in 11th) and are 20-12.
Fenway Park, 1949
Eight straight for Bombers.

George Selkirk homers and drives in three for the third straight game. His third RBI here is a bloop double in the 11^th inning which puts New York in front 12-11. Boston had battled back from 9-3 and 11-8 deficits. Down 9-3 in the eighth, Boston got RBI singles from Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Billy Goodman, an RBI groundout from Ted Williams, and a run-scoring double from a pinch-hitting catcher named Matt Batts! It closes the gap to 9-8. The following frame Ted Williams singles home two to help tie the game at 11-11. The Sox have battled all the way back… only to fall short in overtime.

Game 33 NY wins 16-7 to go 21-12
Fenway Park, 1949
Nine straight for Bombers.

NYY- 061 011 232-16 17 1

BOS- 010 001 104- 7 11 4

In the 2^nd:

Bill Dickey lines a single to CF.
George Selkirk walks.

Myril Hoag hits a groundball single to left, plating Dickey. Then it gets ugly. Pesky misplays a routine grounder and Lazzeri reaches on the error. Bobby Doerr misplays a routine grounder and Lefty Gomez reaches on the error. Selkirk scores. Crosetti singles home Hoag and Lazzeri. After a Rolfe walk, DiMaggio singles home Gomez and Crosetti. Given five outs, the Yanks pile up a 6-0 lead.

Joe DiMaggio belts a 2-run home run in the 7^th, which is not unusual. In the eighth Dom DiMaggio drops a deep fly ball for a two-base error, which is very unusual. His brother Joe scores along with Red Rolfe. It puts New York in front 14-3. There aren’t too many boos though. Most of the original crowd of 22,662 has long since departed.


Game 34 NY wins 13-5 to go 22-12
Fenway Park, 1949
Ten straight for Bombers.

The Yanks have scored 43 runs in three games. Everyone in New York’s starting line-up hits safely, including pitcher Ruffing. Gehrig leads the way with four hits, and George Selkirk, who wears the number 3 formerly worn by George Herman Ruth, does the uniform justice with 4 RBI.

Game 35 NY wins 7-5 to go 23-12.

Fenway Park, 1949
11 straight for Bombers.

“Sure the losing is wearying on everyone. But no one in this clubhouse is mailing it in. Look at today. Down 6-1, and we battled back to 6-5.” Then Teddy Ballgame shakes his head. He manages a wry smile. "You guys got any answers, now's the time."

Batting Leaders (35 games)

Lou Gehrig .359
Myril Hoag .344
Joe DiMag .338
Geo Selkirk .336
Ted Williams .333 (.458 OBA, 28 Runs)
Bill Dickey .324
Tom Henrich .318


RBIs
Geo Selkirk 31
Bobby Doerr 30
Bill Dickey 29
Lou Gehrig 29


HR
Joe DiMaggio 12
George Selkirk 11
Lou Gehrig 5

Game 36 Boston wins 4-3. NY is 23-13

Yankee Stadium, 1937.
Boston wins! Snaps 11-game slide!
19 year-old Chuck Stobbs steadies the ship with five-plus strong innings. Boston scores on a fielder’s choice in the 1st and on a double play grounder in the 2nd. Stobbs shuts down the ’37 Bombers through five. Boston pads the slim 2-0 lead in the 6th. With two away Dom DiMaggio takes a close one for ball four. The manager for New York, Joe McCarthy, is ejected for kicking dirt on the umpire over the call. Coach Art Fletcher is now running the team. Crosetti boots a routine grounder and J.Pesky reaches on the error. Ted Williams doubles to deep right. DiMaggio and Pesky score. The 1949 Boston Red Sox lead 4-0. Boston withstands a Selkirk a 2-run homer down the right field line and a Red Rolfe RBI single to win 4-3.

Game 37 Boston wins 4-0. NY is 23-14
Yankee Stadium, 1937.
Boston wins again!
Mel Parnell throttles the ’37 Bombers on three singles. Al Zarilla crushes a 3-run homer to right to provide all the offense Boston would need.

Game 38 Boston wins 8-2. NY is 23-15
Yankee Stadium, 1937.
Boston wins yet again!
Ellis Kinder goes 7-plus strong innings, giving up just two scores. Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky hit back-to-back doubles on Red Ruffing’s first two pitches to get the Sox rolling. Williams and Goodman follow with hits. Junior Stephens caps things with a 2-run double to deep left. And the Red Sox lead 4-0 after one at bat. Al Zarilla singles home Bobby Doerr in the eighth. Doerr, Goodman and Stephens each knock runs in the ninth. Boston rolls for the third straight day.

Game 39 Boston wins 6-4. NY is 23-16
Yankee Stadium, 1937.
Boston wins 4th! 
Joe Dobson holds New York to one run in six-plus innings while the Red Sox systematically build a 4-0 lead. Birdie Tebbetts singles home Junior Stephens in the second. Junior himself singles home Ted Williams in the third. Johnny Pesky doubles in Dom DiMaggio in the fourth. Doerr scores on a double play grounder in the seventh. And when the Yanks close to within two, Dominic DiMaggio singles through a drawn in Yankee infield. Zarilla and Tebbetts, who had been bunted over by reliever Tex Hughson, both score. Boston wins 6-4.

Game 40 Boston wins 8-6. NY is 23-17
Yankee Stadium, 1937.
Boston sweeps five in the Bronx! 
Teenage southpaw Chuck Stobbs wins his second straight. The Sox knock Monte Pearson out in three, building a 5-0 lead. Pearson is his own worst enemy in the first. He walks Dom DiMaggio, Billy Goodman and Birdie Tebbetts. Ironically, he fans Ted Williams on a pitch off the plate. Two of the walks force in runs with the bases loaded. Chuck Stobbs ends the inning by chasing a bad pitch for strike three. “That’s okay son,” McCarthy says. “Save your strength for them.” The Boston skipper nods toward the Yankee dugout. Stobbs does, holding the Bombers to two runs in 5-2/3 innings. While he does his mates score three more… Goodman singles home Pesky in the fourth. Al Zarilla doubles in Goodman and Junior Stephens moments later. The Red Sox bullpen bends but does not break, and Boston completes the sweep, 8-6.

40 games NY is 23-17
1949 Red Sox............ BA/SA HR RBI
CF Dom DiMaggio... .284/.347 0 7
2B Johnny Pesky.... .280/.375 0 18 16 2B
LF Ted Williams...... .327/.460 3 27 31W 31 R
1B Billy Goodman... .331/.406 0 27
2B Bobby Doerr...... .298/.460 4 32
SS Vern Stephens... .233/.374 3 29
RF Al Zarilla............ .268/.417 2 25
C Birdie Tebbetts.... .243/.272 0 15


1937 Yankees........... BA/SA HR RBI
SS Frank Crosetti... .286/.371 1 17
3B Red Rolfe......... .267/.345 0 16
CF Joe DiMaggio... .328/.580 12 29
1B Lou Gehrig....... .351/.520 5 31
C Bill Dickey.......... .307/.434 4 31
RF Geo Selkirk...... .338/.726 13 36
OF Tom Henrich.... .308/.495 4 26
LF Myril Hoag........ .351/.526 0 14
2B Tony Lazzeri..... .229/.396 4 26

Game 41   Boston wins 5-2   NY is 23-18

Fenway Park, 1949

Six straight for Boston’s boys!

Parnell out-duels Gomez in a battle of aces.

With the score tied 1-1 in the 3^rd Gomez suffers a wild spell.  He walks Pesky and Williams with one away.  Bobby Doerr legs out a ground ball to deep short.  Billy Goodman hits a high-hopper to third.  Red Rolfe snags it and fires plate ward.  But Pesky, with a great jump, not only scores but takes out Bill Dickey, preventing a throw to first.  Boston leads 2-1.

In the fourth Birdie Tebbetts slices a drive down the right field line.  It lands just to the fair side of what is now known as the Pesky pole.  His first homer of the year gives Boston a 3-1 lead.  Al Zarilla doubles home Doerr and Goodman in the seventh… 5-1.  At this point Mel Parnell has limited the ’37 Yankees to three hits.  They get only one more, a solo HR from Selkirk in the ninth before retiring the side. 

Game 42   NY wins 7-5(10) NY is 24-18

Fenway Park, 1949. 

For the second straight day George Selkirk drives in a ninth inning run.  With one out and one on, he grounds a single up the middle.  Lou Gehrig gets a great jump off of second, rounds third, and challenges Dom DiMaggio in center.  DiMaggio charges, scoops and fires homeward.  His throw sails up the 3^rd base line however, and Gehrig scores easily.  New York tacks on another, and snaps Boston’s six-game win streak, 7-5. 

Game 43   NY wins 13-8 NY is 25-18

Fenway Park, 1949.

The Iron Horse goes 5-5 and drives home four.  George Selkirk hits his 14^th home run.  And rookie Tommy Henrich homers with a man on board and singles in another.  “He don’t play like any damn rookie!”  Says Ted Williams.  The Splendid Splinter shakes his head.  He did everything he could to win it for Boston – four runs, three hits, two walks and two tremendous homers.  His first is a 477-foot grand slam to ‘Williamsburg’ in deep right.  It gives the Sox a 6-1 bulge that alas, they cannot hold.  When the Yanks close the gap to 6-5 Teddy Ballgame tags another shot in the fourth – this one 454 to dead center.  Joe DiMaggio takes three steps back, then remembers it isn’t Yankee Stadium, and merely watches the ball sail deeply into the packed bleacher crowd. 

The Yankee Clipper also watches George Selkirk single home Gehrig in the fifth.  He sees Selkirk score the go ahead run later in the inning on a bloop single to center by Yanks reliever Kemp Wicker, of all people.  Home runs by Selkirk and Henrich seal the deal for the Yankees.  And Williams’ great day goes for naught.

Game 44      Boston wins 10-7  NY is 25-19

Fenway Park, 1949

This time it’s Joe DiMaggio who drives in five – only to watch his team go down.  Williams plates four, giving him 9 RBI in two games.  He also scores three times to give him seven runs in two.  For the 2^nd day in a row Boston gets away quickly.  DiMaggio, Pesky, Williams and Doerr ALL double off of New York starter Monte Pearson.  After Pearson jams both Billy Goodman and Junior Stephens and inducing shallow pop-ups to left, Al Zarilla picks one away and parks it over the boards in deep left-center.  His two-run blast drives in runs 4 and 5, and also drives Pearson from the hill.

Back-to-back doubles in the second from Pesky and Williams make it 6-1, and Goodman drives home Ted moments later for a six-run lead.  Pesky’s third two-bagger in the third scores southpaw Chuck Stobbs… 8-1 Boston.  And Stobbs makes it stick, tossing six frames of one-run ball.  Each member of the starting nine hit safely, and all except Tebbetts and Stobbs collected at least two hits as Boston enjoyed a 10-7 bounce-back victory. 

Game 45   Boston wins 4-3   NY is 25-20

Fenway Park, 1949

Lefty Gomez gets wild in the fifth.  He walks his opposite number, Mel Parnell.  He also walks Johnny Pesky and Ted Williams to force in runs.  Bobby Doerr singles home Parnell and Pesky to give Boston a 4-0 lead.  Parnell holds the Yanks to three runs in seven-plus innings, and it’s good enough for the win. 

Game 46   NY wins 10-3 NY is 26-20

Yankee Stadium, 1937

Bill Dickey lines a grand slam to deep right in the first.  George Selkirk smacks his 15^th homer with two on in the third, to put the Yanks up 7-2.  Red Ruffing goes all the way to win his sixth. 

Game 47         Boston wins 16-3       NY is 26-21

Yankee Stadium, 1937.

1949 Bos – 0 1 2    0 0 3  0 10 0 – 16 19 0

1937 NYY – 0 0 0    0 0 1   2 0 0 –   3  9  0

Boston enjoys their biggest inning of the season.  Birdie Tebbetts goes 2-2 and drives in three – all in the eighth.  Bobby Doerr bloops a 3-run double down the left field line.  Dom DiMaggio doubles home two more.  And Joe Dobson coasts.   

Game 48         Boston wins 9-3   NY is 26-22

Yankee Stadium, 1937

Chuck Stobbs is again solid.  The 19-year-old who started the season 1-3 wins his 4^th straight to go 5-3, winning 9-3.  Al Zarilla has found his stroke.  He belts his 4^th home run, his 20^th double, and drives home three.  His three-run bomb gives the Sox an early 3-0 lead in the 2^nd. 

Game 49      NY wins 2-1     NY is 27-22

Yankee Stadium, 1937

Lefty Gomez goes the route.  Mel Parnell falls two outs shy, scattering just six hits.  Al Zarilla homers for the second straight day, a solo shot down the left field line in the second.  New York’s ace southpaw Gomez is also brilliant, allowing just three singles the rest of the way.  Zarilla’s blast looks like it will hold up, until the bottom of the ninth. 

Leading off the home ninth, Joe DiMaggio takes a Parnell fastball off the plate the other way, bouncing a single between Goodman and Doerr into right.  The Iron Horse follows with a line shot, one-hop to Williams in left.  Boston ace Parnell takes a deep breath, goes into the stretch, and fires a curve toward catcher Birdie Tebbetts.  But Yankee catcher Bill Dickey swings and lifts a fly to medium right-center.  Dom DiMaggio races over, calling Zarilla off, and makes a fine running grab.  But big brother Joe has tagged at third.  Dominic wheels and fires homeward.  Joe dashes toward the plate.  The ball arrives straight and true, but the Yankee Clipper executes a nifty backdoor slide, avoiding Tebbetts’ tag…SAAAAAFE!  Game tied 1-1! 

Boston’s Joe McCarthy goes to the mound to get Mel Parnell, who departs to a huge ovation from the partisan New York crowd of 43,778.  Tex Hughson takes mound and the ball.  His first assignment is the dangerous George Selkirk.  The second Yankee right fielder named George to wear number three, he has done the uniform justice – leading all hands in homers (15) and runs batted in (46).  Hughson gets Selkirk to bounce to Doerr, who holds Gehrig at second.  Two away, and Myril Hoag to deal with.  Hughson fires a fast one on the fists.  Hoag turns on it and hits a sharp grounder past Pesky, who dives to his left.  Gehrig races around third and dents the dish with the ballgame even as Dom DiMaggio picks up the ball in left-center.


Game 50         NY wins 8-5   NY is 28-22

Yankee Stadium, 1937

Coming into this game Red Ruffing had won four of his last five decisions.  But today he simply isn’t sharp.  The Red Sox jump on him early.  In the 3^rd  a Dom DiMaggio hit and a Johnny Pesky walk put two on for Ted Williams with no out.  The Splendid Splinter sends a shot back past Ruffing and into center, scoring DiMaggio to tie it 1-1.  Bobby Doerr’s single to left-center then loads the bases for Junior Stephens.  Junior has been scuffling all year, struggling to stay above .230 (he went .291-39-159 in 1949).  But here he unloads – and unloads the bases, lining a Ruffing fastball over the 415 sign in deep left.  Red Sox lead 5-1. 

Ruffing leaves the game after three, but his mates bail him out.  Tony Lazzeri, like Stephens, is not hitting for average…but still shows a knack of driving them in.  Lazzeri lines a 3-run homer to left in the fourth.  It’s a one-run ballgame, and thanks to some nifty relief work from the Yanks’ Kemp Wicker it remains so until the 7^th.  With two out and two on Myril Hoag, one of four .300 hitting Yankee outfielders, knocks a grounder between Doerr and Goodman into right.  Joe DiMaggio trots home from third with the tying run.  Tony Lazzeri laces a frozen rope into right.  George Selkirk comes across with the go ahead run, and as it turns out, the game winner.  The Yanks tack on two more for safekeeping, and win game number fifty, 8-5.


Game 51         NY wins 15-8.  NY is 29-22
Fenway Park, 1949
The Iron Horse drives home five.  Vern Stephens gets four hits, three ribbies, two doubles and a home run in a losing cause.  The Yankees bust open a 4-4 tie with an eight run seventh.  Tex Hughson walks Gehrig, then hits Bill Dickey.  Red hot George Selkirk lines a single to left.  Gehrig gets a great jump from second and rounds third.  But Ted Williams gets a great jump too, charges, scoops, and fires a strike homeward.  Ball, runner, tag…OUT!  The Fenway faithful accord Teddy Ballgame a huge ovation for gunning down the Iron Horse. 

Unfortunately Hughson, even with the help, doesn’t settle down.  He uncorks a wild pitch.  Bill Dickey races home without a throw, putting New York on top 5-4.  Boston skipper relieves Hughson with Earl Johnson.  He retires Myril Hoag but gives up a double to deep center off the big bat of Tony Lazzeri.  Then he walks three, himself.  The third walk is the fourth of the frame, and forces home Lazzeri.  Mickey McDermott comes in.  He walks Joe DiMaggio, making McCarthy apoplectic.  The young Boston southpaw, who is having a fine year, finds the strike zone with Lou Gehrig.  Unfortunately the Iron Horse, the all-time grand slam leader, knows what to do with a strike.  He lines McDermott’s offering far over Al Zarilla, far over the fence, and far over most of the Bostonian’s sitting in the ‘Williamsburg’ section of Fenway.  “They can call it ‘Louisville’ today.”  The Splendid Splinter says ruefully later.  The blow puts New York up 12-4, and effectively ices the game.

Game 52         NY wins 17-3 NY is 30-22

Fenway Park, 1949

George Selkirk homers twice and plates four.  Lazzeri drives home three more.  Frank Crosetti clears the bases with a three-run double.  And the Yanks accumulate 32 runs in two games by pummeling Boston pitching for the second straight day. 

Game 53         Boston wins 7-4     NY is 30-23

Fenway Park, 1949

Mel Parnell stops the Yankee juggernaut in its tracks.  He holds the Bombers scoreless for 8 innings while he and his mates pile up seven runs.  Parnell singles home Zarilla in the 3^rd.  He drives Zarilla in again in the 8^th.  Parnell scores himself along with Dom DiMaggio, on a Johnny Pesky double, also in the eighth.  DiMaggio had singled home Birdie Tebbetts.  The five-run eighth ices the game for Parnell and the Red Sox. 

Game 54         NY wins 4-2     NY is 31-23

Fenway Park, 1949

NY manager Joe McCarthy shuffles his line-up.  Rookie Tommy Henrich (.328, 32 RBI, 116 AB), moves up into the 2^nd spot, supplanting Red Rolfe (.253).  McCarthy also flip-flops DiMaggio and Gehrig, with the Iron Horse moving up to third.  “Lou has been getting on base an awful lot.  So has Henrich.  Maybe DiMag and Selkirk (moved up to 5^th) will have more to drive in.  We’ll see.”  The usually taciturn Lou Gehrig, upon learning he was moving up to third cracks, “I’ll have to set my alarm clock a little sooner…”  

Red Ruffing throws seven-plus strong frames.  Selkirk singles in Gehrig in the third and rookie Tommy Henrich in the seventh.  Bill Dickey and Joe DiMaggio also chip in, and after Ruffing gets the Yanks into the eighth, after which Johnny Murphy takes them the rest of the way… 1-1/3 innings of scoreless relief.  The 4-2 win puts New York eight games up (31-23) on Boston.

Game 55         Boston wins 12-11     NY is 31-24

Fenway Park, 1949

Forty-thousand plus Boston fans are treated to the most entertaining game of the season.  It doesn’t look good early.  Rookie Tommy Henrich starts the third inning scoring with a two-run double.  Lou Gehrig picks up Henrich with a frozen rope to center, one hop to Dom DiMaggio.  After a Selkirk walk, Bill Dickey lines a Joe Dobson fastball over Al Zarilla’s head and into the Red Sox bullpen.  New York takes a 6-2.  The Yanks tack on two more in the fifth.  Selkirk singles home Tommy Henrich.  It appears that moving the rookie into the two slot is paying dividends.   Joe DiMaggio scores on a fielder’s choice and the Yanks go up 8-3. 

But in the sixth Boston starts their comeback.  Birdie Tebbetts doubles to right and later scores on a Bump Hadley wild pitch.  Dom DiMaggio doubles.  He’s singled home by Ted Williams.  Billy Goodman singles to center to deliver Williams.  When Junior Stephens singles home Bobby Doerr, it’s 8-7.  The Sox have come nearly all the way back. 

Gehrig blasts a tremendous 2-run homer to dead center in the seventh –Dom DiMaggio doesn’t even turn around as the ball rockets high into the bleachers.  But in the home half of the inning Ted Williams doubles home DiMaggio and Pesky.  Bobby Doerr singles home the Splinter, and now Boston has come all the way back, 10-10. 

Eighth inning: Birdie Tebbetts lines a shot deep into the right-center field gap.  Joe DiMaggio and George Selkirk race back but the ball seems to carry with the roar of the hometown fans.  It lands in the Red Sox bullpen and the fans’ cheers take a quantum leap.  The Red Sox take the lead, 11-10. 

But not for long.  Rookie Tommy Henrich leads off the ninth and laces the first pitch he sees over the same bullpen fence in right field.  Just like that it is re-tied 11-11. 

Bottom of the ninth.  Forty-thousand plus are still here at 1949 Fenway Park.  In fact the noise is so deafening you’d swear a few more snuck in.  They’ve seen 22 runs scored, 31 hits, 19 by their Sox… and nothing decided.  They roar as Johnny Pesky is announced… no one hears the PA announcer.  No one hears the crack of the bat as Pesky grounds a sharp single to right.  But everyone roars as Ted Williams follows with a line single to right-center.  Pesky tears around second and races for third, sliding in just under Red Rolfe’s tag ahead of Joe DiMaggio’s dead-on throw.  

First and third, nobody out.  The Yanks, once 8-3 leaders in this game, now bring their infield AND outfield in.  Bobby Doerr swings and cracks a screaming one-hopper to Red Rolfe at third.  Rolfe scoops it, checks Pesky at third, and fires to first.  Out.  Williams coasts into second with a meaningless run.  Next is Billy Goodman.  Goodman swings at a 1-0 fastball and lifts a fly ball to deep left, towards the line.  Henrich gets back, reaches, and snags it.  Pesky at third takes off.  Henrich fires homeward.  Forty-thousand screaming Bostonians urge Pesky homeward with every step.  Ball, runner and Bill Dickey’s catcher’s mitt all converge.  Pesky slides… SAAAAAAFE!  Boston wins, 12-11!

Lou Gehrig goes 3-5 to raise his season's average to .391.

Game 56      Boston wins 24-6  NY is 31-25

Yankee Stadium, 1937

1949 Red Sox – 6 3 1 2 1 4 0 3 4 – 24 22 0

1937 Yankees – 3 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 –  6 10 5

Al Zarilla drives in eight.  He gets four hits, doubles twice, and lines a grand slam.  His slam comes in the six-run Boston first.  Zarilla drills a two-run double down the right field line in the sixth.  It follows a two-run homer to left from Bobby Doerr  and puts Boston ahead 17-4.  Vern Stephens smacks a 3-run homer over the 37-foot wall that would later be called the Green Monster, but was a multi-colored, ad-plastered monster in 1949.  His blast puts the Red Sox up 20-6, the first time either squad hits the ‘20’ mark this season.  Zarilla puts an exclamation point on things in the ninth, singling home Pesky and Williams… 22-6.  Zarilla drives in runs seven and eight, and scores for the third time when reliever Walt Masterson singles him and Junior Stephens home moments later.  Chuck Stobbs is the beneficiary of all this offensive largess.  Monte Pearson only lasts one-third of an inning and gets tagged with six runs and the loss. 

Game 57      Boston wins 4-3  NY is 31-26

Yankee Stadium, 1937

Mel Parnell outduels Lefty Gomez, going the route, scattering 10 hits and 3 runs.  Junior Stephens is heating up.  He belts his second homer in two games and his seventh in 11.  Al Zarilla belts his 26^th two-bagger.  It comes with one out in the 9^th, and with the Red Sox trailing 3-2.  Birdie Tebbetts follows with a double of his own to deep right.  Zarilla scores the game-tying tally.  Pat Malone relieves Johnny Murphy.  He fans Mel Parnell, who flings away his bat in disgust.  Dom DiMaggio says something to the Boston ace as they pass each other.  “The Professor said, ‘Take it easy Mel, I’ve got this one…” Parnell says later.  DiMaggio steps in the box and laces his 2^nd double of the afternoon, a shot to the huge Death Valley gap at Yankee Stadium.  Brother Joe races over and cuts it off, preventing an inside-the-park home run.  He fires to the cut-off man, Crosetti, holding Dominic at second… but much too late to prevent the eventual winning run, Birdie Tebbetts from scoring.  Mel Parnell sets down the Yanks in their half.  McCarthy would later grin.  “That bat that Mel threw was his best toss of the day.  I knew the Yanks had no chance against him after that.”

Game 58      Boston wins 9-2  NY is 31-27

Yankee Stadium, 1937

Junior Stephens is no longer heating up.  He is white hot – scalding.  He belts his 11^th homer and drives in five, giving him 55 on the year.  Both DiMaggio’s homer.  Dom’s is a shocker.  Red Ruffing takes the Yankee Stadium mound to open the game.  He tosses six warm-up pitches.  His seventh toss is a fastball to Dom DiMaggio, who swings and hits a bomb that rockets over the distant center field fence at Yankee Stadium, halfway between the 407 sign in right center and the 461 sign in dead center.  It’s Dominic’s first home run of the year.  It’s only one run, of course.  But the majestic bomb, coming so swiftly, gets the Yankee Stadium crowd buzzing.  Perhaps it nettled the competitive Ruffing as well.  Because he never really settles in.  Crosetti boots a bouncer off the bat of Pesky.  Ruffing walks Ted Williams (note: Williams actually broke in against Ruffing at the Stadium in 1939).  Bobby Doerr hits a rifle-shot, but right at Crosetti.  He looks toward second, but Doerr’s shot is so hard that the runners haven’t moved.  One out.  Billy Goodman hits a shot as hard as Doerr’s, but between 1^st and 2^nd.  Pesky gets a good jump off of second.  But the ball rockets toward the charging George Selkirk.  Pesky tears around 3^rd.  Selkirk grabs Goodman’s liner on one hop and fires.  Pesky slides, but Selkirk’s throw is so true that catcher Bill Dickey doesn’t even have to move.  Pesky slides right into mitt and ball.  OUT!  Two away.  Ruffing might just get out of this with just one run scored.  He busts a fastball in on the hands of Junior Stephens.  Swing… strike one.  Ruffing deals a change-up off the plate.  Junior Stephens is a bit out in front.  But when you’re white hot…CRAAAACK!  Stephens lines a shot down the right-field line… it’s only 296 feet to the pole and the fence is only four feet high…HOME RUN!  Red Sox lead 4-0. 

In the fifth, Bobby Doerr gets some payback for his hard 1^st inning out, looping a ground-rule double down the left-field line.  He scores Williams, who had blooped a double to left-center.  After Goodman walks, it’s Junior Stephens again.  With two out Ruffing goes 3-2, which means the runners are off with the pitch.  Junior bloops a Texas Leaguer to left-center.  Before DiMaggio can corral it, Doerr and Goodman both score.  The Sox are up 7-0.  New York at this point has only two hits.  Ellis Kinder and friends keep the Yankees contained, and Boston wins their fourth straight. 

Game 59      Boston wins 3-1   NY is 31-28

Yankee Stadium, 1937

Boston wins five straight!  Joe Dobson is magnificent; seven innings, nine hits, one run.  And he gets all the help he needs in the third.  Ted Williams singles Dobson and Dom DiMaggio home.  Billy Goodman bounces into a fielder’s choice, scoring Johnny Pesky.  And Boston is thinking the unthinkable, a five game sweep of the Yankees at the Stadium. 

Game 60      NY wins 6-5    NY is 32-28

Yankee Stadium, 1937

Red Rolfe, banished to the eight-hole, breaks a 5-5 tie with two away in the ninth, smoking a single to right-center to score George Selkirk.


Who's hot:

Vern Stephens is 16-38 (.421) over his last ten games.  He hit 8 HR with 26 RBI in 12 games and has batted .364 and slugged .818 over 17 games.

Al Zarilla has 28 RBI in 22 games.  Ted Williams has 24 RBI in 18 games.

For New York, George Selkirk has hit .463 and slugged .805 over the last ten games and has driven in 25 in the last 17.

The Sox and the Yanks split the next eight games.  Thus the two teams remain separated by four with New York 36-32.

Game 60      NY wins 6-5  NY is 32-28

Fenway Park, 1949

Red Rolfe, banished to the eight-hole, breaks a 5-5 tie with two away in the ninth, smoking a single to right-center to score George Selkirk. 

Game 61      NY wins 13-11  NY is 33-28

Fenway Park, 1949

Lou Gehrig is on base six times; three walks and three hits including a home run.  George Selkirk also homers and plates five.  His 20^th comes in the third with two on and puts New York up 4-0.  They lead 5-0 when the Red Sox rise up against Lefty Gomez in the fourth, scoring nine.  Dom DiMaggio triples home two and scores himself moments later on a Johnny Pesky single.  Ted Williams walks and singles and scores each time.  His second run comes on a Junior Stephens three-run homer to deep left-center, which puts a cap on the frame and puts Boston ahead 9-5.  Dom DiMag doubles home Birdie Tebbetts in the fifth.  Ted Williams hits a tape-measure solo shot to dead center in the sixth.  11-5. 

Rookie Tommy Henrich didn’t start today.  So he’s available to pinch-hit for Ivy Andrews in the top of the eighth.  And he’s able to triple to deep right-center, scoring Lazzeri and Rolfe.  He scores moments later on a Crosetti sac fly.  And the comeback is officially on.  George Selkirk doubles to left-center with two out and two on.  The two on, Gehrig and Hoag, both score.  Hoag, who did start instead of Henrich, collects three hits including a double.  The score is now 11-10, Boston.  And it stays that way… until the Iron Horse hammers a tremendous three-run homer to dead center.  His 440-foot blast gives the Yanks a comeback win, 13-11. 

Game 62      Boston wins 11-9  NY is 33-29

Fenway Park, 1949

The scoring barrage continues.  Myril Hoag gets the start again.  Hoag doubles home pitcher Bump Hadley in the 2^nd.  He scores moments later when Selkirk singles him home, putting New York in front 5-1.  But in the third Johnny Pesky lines one down the right field line.  It lands in the seats just to the left of the foul pole which later would bear his name.  It closes the gap to 5-3.  Ted walks.  Junior doubles.  Bobby Doerr lines a double to deep right, scoring both of them.  The game is tied 5-5.  Al Zarilla unties it with a line drive double down the right field line. 

The next inning Williams pads the lead (7-5) with a solo bomb to dead center field (428 feet).  But Red Rolfe singles home Selkirk in the fifth inning.  Joe DiMaggio singles home Hoag in the sixth to tie it 7-7.  Dom DiMaggio unties it in the bottom of the sixth, driving a Kemp Wicker fast ball into the bullpen in right-center.  In the seventh Bobby Doerr triples home Junior Stephens and scores himself on a Billy Goodman double to left-center.  10-7 Boston.  Vern Stephens, who continues to resurrect his season, singles in Pesky in the eighth.  It’s the 11^th tally, and proves to be the game winner. 

Game 63      NY wins 7-4(11)  NY is 34-29

Fenway Park, 1949

With the game tied 4-4 in the 11^th Frank Crosetti works a walk.  Myril Hoag singles to left-center.  Crosetti challenges Dom DiMaggio’s arm, rounding second and heading for third.  He slides in safely.  Lou Gehrig bounces one to Vern Stephens, who boots it.  Crosetti, running on contact, scores easily.  Selkirk and Bill Dickey each single home insurance runs, and the Yankees lead 7-4. 

In the bottom of the 11^th Johnny Broaca takes the hill to try and preserve the game.  He retires the first two, but then he walks Dom DiMaggio.  Johnny Pesky takes a Broaca fast ball the other way, lacing a frozen rope to left.  DiMaggio stops at second.  And T. S. Williams walks up to the plate as the tying run.  Broaca’s first one is fast one.   Williams doesn’t move…STEEEE-RIKE!  Broaca fires again… KERRR-RACK!  The ball rockets toward the bullpen in deep right.  Selkirk, playing very deep, races to his right, parks against the fence, and leaps, snagging the drive before it leaves the yard.  Williams rounds first, kicks the dirt angrily, then tips his cap toward Selkirk in right.  Then he trots head down toward the Red Sox dugout… tipping his hat to the crowd as they stand and accord him a huge ovation. 

Game 64      Boston wins 19-5  NY is 34-30

Fenway Park, 1949

NYY -  1 1 0  0 2 0  1 0 0 – 5 11 4

BOS  - 2 4 0 3 4 1   4 1 x – 19 23 1

Ted doesn’t fall short this time.  He singles home Dom DiMag in the bottom of the first – and scores himself moments later when Bump Hadley mishandles a Billy Goodman grounder.  He crushes a long home run over the left-field wall in the fifth, with DiMaggio and Pesky scoring ahead of Ted.  His blow makes it a 12-4 Boston ballgame.  In the seventh DiMaggio and Pesky again smack back-to-back singles.  Ted then lines a screamer toward right.  This time it rockets past Selkirk before he has a chance, slamming against the back wall of the bullpen.  Ted’s 5^th, 6^th and 7^th RBI of the day make it an 18-5 score, and the Red Sox romp. 

Game 65      NY wins 5-2  NY is 35-30

Fenway Park, 1949

Lefty Gomez goes the distance, holds the Sox to only seven hits and one earned run, and ups his record to 7-6.  Rookie Tommy Henrich is back in the line-up, and he collects three hits, including a double.  Joe DiMaggio drives in three runs.  Two of them come in the fifth when he singles home Gomez and Frank Crosetti to make it 4-2, New York… enough to make  Gomez and the Yankees winners as the two teams head to New York.

Batting Leaders (65 games)

Lou Gehrig    .368

Geo Selkirk    .361

Tom Henrich .353

Joe DiMag     .335

Johnny Pesky .331

Ted Williams .331 (.449 OBA, 58 Runs)

RBIs

Geo Selkirk    68

V Stephens     64

Ted Williams 61

Bobby Doerr 55

Lou Gehrig    54

HR

George Selkirk     21

Joe DiMaggio      14

V Stephens           12

Ted Williams       10

Lou Gehrig            8

Slugging: Selkirk .714. 

Doubles: Pesky 28. 

Triples: Selkirk 4. 

Game 66      Boston wins 5-3  NY is 35-31

Yankee Stadium, 1937

Ted Williams smacks two more homers and knocks in four of Boston’s five runs.  His first is a 2-run job that clears the center field wall… 461 feet away and 20 feet high.  His second blast sails down the left-field line and drops into the left-field stands.  I’s also a 2-run blast.  Ellis Kinder, who goes to 6-6, lasts into the ninth.  Tex Hughson picks him up, and picks up the save. 

Game 67      NY wins 10-9(10)  NY is 36-31

Yankee Stadium, 1937

The Yankees seemingly blow the game open in the sixth, scoring five to go up 8-1.  Tex Hughson suffers a wild spell, walking Crosetti and Henrich to force home Lazzeri, who had been walked himself.   Tex then lets loose with a wild pitch to score Roy Johnson.  Johnson had knocked in Bill Dickey with a fielder’s choice when he pinch-hit for Johnny Murphy.  And Gehrig singles home Crosetti and Henrich. 

Boston fights back.  Pinch-hitter Matt Batts (cool!) singles home Al Zarilla in the 7^th.  Bill Dickey lets one get by and Billy Goodman races home.  Pesky bounces to Rolfe, and the Yankee 3^rd sacker goes to first for the out as Tebbetts scores.  Matt Batts holds at 2^nd… until Teddy Ballgame crushes one down the right-field line that clangs off a seat in the stands.  Boston is within two, 8-6. 

The Sox still trail by two in the ninth, 9-7.  With one out Williams singles to right-center.  Junior lines one down the right field line.  Williams races around to third, rounds the bag, but then holds up.  Bobby Doerr then lines a single to left center.  Williams trots home easily, and just as importantly, Stephens dashes over to third.  Al Zarilla then belts one deep to DiMaggio in center.  Joe glides back and snags the 400-foot drive.  Junior Stephens races home, and the Red Sox, who once trailed by seven, have come all the way back.  It’s 9-9. 

Starting pitcher Ellis Kinder comes on in the tenth.  Rookie Tommy Henrich greets him with a line single to right.  Kinder then pitches carefully to Lou Gehrig.  The Iron Horse reaches out and rips an outside pitch down the left field line.  With Ted Williams shifted over toward the gap, it’s a long run to the ball.  He races over as Henrich races around the bases.  Williams scoops the ball and fires to Stephens in short left.  Stephens wheels and uncorks a perfect throw.  Tebbetts snags the ball, but Henrich avoids the tag and scores the game winner. 

Game 68      Boston wins 14-10  NY is 36-32

Yankee Stadium, 1937

The Splendid Splinter starts things right away, singling home Dom DiMaggio in the top of the 1^st.  But the Sox open fire in the second.  The first three batters single.  The third is by left-hander Chuck Stobbs, scoring Billy Goodman.  Dom DiMaggio and Ted Williams both walk.  Williams’ free pass forces home Birdie Tebbetts.  Junior Stephens then unloads the bases, unloading on a Monte Pearson fastball and driving it over the 407 mark in right-center.  The grand slam puts Boston ahead 6-0.  Johnny Broaca relieves Pearson.  Bobby Doerr and Al Zarilla greet Broaca with hits.  Tebbetts singles for the second time in the frame, scoring Doerr.  Then Chuck Stobbs gets his second hit of the inning.  It’s a double that brings home Zarilla and Tebbetts.  Boston leads 10-0.

Zarilla singles home Pesky and Williams the next inning to make it 12-0.  To the Yankees credit, they battle back.  To Boston’s credit they keep going.  Williams homers to left in the sixth…13-4.  Dom DiMag singles home Goodman in the seventh…14-4.  Thus the Sox are able to withstand a late charge from the Bombers to give the hard-hitting teenage southpaw Chuck Stobbs his 7^th win against 4 losses.

Game 69      NY wins 3-1  NY is 37-32
Yankee Stadium, 1937

Lefty Gomez out-duels Mel Parnell, going the distance.  George Selkirk drives in two of the three runs. 

Game 70      NY wins 9-3     NY is 38-32
Yankee Stadium, 1937

George Selkirk and Joe DiMaggio each homer.  Each drive in four.  Red Ruffing goes 7-plus innings for the win.

*Since being installed in the second slot, Tommy Henrich has gone 27-64 (.421) with 41 Total Bases  (.640 SA) and a . 493 OBP.  He's scored 13 runs in 17 games (14 starts).

Game 71      Boston wins 14-2  NY is 38-33

Fenway Park, 1949

The Red Sox score in only two innings.  But they score nine in the fourth and five in the seventh.  Every member of the starting eight except Al Zarilla drives in a run, and Zarilla scores a run.  Joe Dobson improves to 6-3 by going seven strong innings, allowing seven hits and two runs. 

Game 72      Boston wins 16-7  NY is 38-34

Fenway Park, 1949
NY -   0 2 4  0 1 0  0 0 0 -  7  13  4
Bos -  4 2 0  7 0 0  2 1 x – 16 15 0

Ted Williams homers and drives in five.  Junior Stephens homers twice and drives in five.  Neither Chuck Stobbs nor Yankee starter Spud Chandler goes past the third, which ends with the teams tied 6-6. 

Then in the fourth the Red Sox open with four straight hits.  DiMaggio, Pesky and Williams all single, with Ted bringing home Dimaggio.  Then the clean-up hitter Junior Stephens, well… cleans up.  He belts a 3-run homer over the wall in left-center.  Kemp Wicker relieves Spud Chandler but it doesn’t slow Boston down.  Bobby Doerr greets him by lining a triple deep into right-center.  Kemper walks Al Zarilla.  First and third and still nobody out.  Billy Goodman also laces one deep into right-center.  Doerr and Zarilla both score as Goodman goes into second standing up.  Goodman would later score on a fielder’s choice.  Boston comes away with a 13-6 lead that holds up, bringing the Red Sox back within four games of the Yankees.  

Game 73      Boston wins 8-4     NY is 38-35
Fenway Park, 1949
With the Red Sox trailing 2-1 in the 4^th, Yankee ace southpaw Lefty Gomez suffers a wild spell.  Billy Goodman, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky all draw walks.  The only hit of the frame is a bloop single to right center from Ted Williams.  Two men score and the Red Sox take a 3-2 lead.  The Sox are never headed after that.  RBI singles by Mel Parnell and Dom DiMaggio in the fifth and a 3-run bomb to left in the eighth give Boston all the padding they need.  Their 8-4 victory reduces the Yanks’ lead to three games.

Game 74 NY wins 3-0 NY is 39-35

Fenway Park 1949

Red Ruffing wins his ninth (9-6, 4.26, 133 IP) by shutting out the Red Sox.  He only goes seven innings because Ellis Kinder also shuts out the Yankees for seven innings.  Joe McCarthy pinch-hits for Ruffing in the eighth.  Myril Hoag singles, advances to second on a ground out, and scores on a single by rookie Tommy Henrich.  George Selkirk belts his 25th home run (Williams, Stephens and DiMaggio are all second with 15) in the ninth.

Game 75 NY wins 8-3 NY is 40-35

Fenway Park 1949

Spud Chandler gets a spot-start because Bump Hadley is 0-3, 9.69, 13 IP over his last 4 starts.  Chandler comes through, yielding one run on seven hits in five innings.  Henrich doubles twice and drives in three. Gehrig homers (10th) and drives in two (62nd, 63rd).

75 Games 

'49 Red Sox

Dom DiMaggio...  .289/.385  2 HR 22 RBI

Johnny Pesky..... .323/.427  1 HR 39 RBI

Ted Williams......  .347/.578  15 HR 81 RBI

Vern Stephens....  .279/.504  15 HR 76 RBI

Bobby Doerr......  .318/.490  7 HR 60 RBI

Al Zarilla............  .315/.459  6 HR 55 RBI

Billy Goodman...  .331/.383  0 HR 48 RBI

Birdie Tebbetts...  .263/.334  3 HR 26 RBI

'37 Yanks

Frank Crosetti......  .263/.344  3 HR 28 RBI

Tommy Henrich...  .358/.567  6 HR 48 RBI

Lou Gehrig...........  .351/.523  10 HR 63 RBI

Joe DiMaggio.......  .341/.527  15 HR 56 RBI

George Selkirk...... .348/.705  25 HR 80 RBI

Bill Dickey............ .283/.428  9 HR 57 RBI

Myril Hoag............ .319/.459  1 HR 26 RBI

Tony Lazzeri......... .237/.370  5 HR 43 RBI

Red Rolfe.............. .258/.305  3 HR 26 RBI

Game 76 NY wins 10-8 NY is 41-35

Yankee Stadium 1937

Joe DiMaggio hits two homers and drives in four.  Bill Dickey homers and drives in three.  DiMaggio's three-run shot comes in the fifth, as does Dickey's two-run shot.  The five run inning puts the Yankees ahead to stay.  Not that Boston didn't fight back.  Al Zarilla homers in the eighth with two on to pull within one (9-8).  Joe's second bomb, a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth, is his 17th, and gives the Yanks all the insurance they need.

Game 77 Boston wins 3-1 NY is 41-36

Yankee Stadium 1937
Mel Parnell goes the route and gives up just one run.  He also drives home Boston's first run, singling in Al Zarilla.  Parnell also scores their third run, following Birdie Tebbetts across when Dom DiMaggio lines a double deep into right-center.  New York's lone score comes on Lou Gehrig's 11th home run.

Batting Leaders 77 games (halfway point of season)

Batting Average

Tommy Henrich - .354

Ted Williams - .350

Lou Gehrig - .345

George Selkirk - .344

Joe DiMaggio - .343

HR

George Selkirk - 25

Joe DiMaggio - 17

Vern Stephens - 15

Ted Williams - 15

Lou Gehrig - 11

RBI

Ted Williams - 81

George Selkirk - 80

Vern Stephens - 76

Lou Gehrig - 64

Joe DiMaggio - 60

Bill Dickey - 60 

"Well we're at the halfway point, Lou.  As the Captain of the 1937 World Champions, give us your impressions on the season thus far."  The Iron Horse ponders for a minute.

"Well, I like this Boston club.  I like their aggressiveness.  They are always in every game.  And I like watching that Williams!" 

"Who does Ted Williams remind you of, Lou.  As a hitter.  You old pal, the Babe?"  Gehrig grins and looks down for a moment.  

"Nah... actually, I'm almost embarrassed about how this might sound.  But he reminds me a little of myself."

"Really!"  Gehrig grins again.

"The Babe swung from the heels.  He was the greatest, but I mean, sometimes I would fool around in batting practice, taking that big stride and that big cut... and I'd miss it by a foot.  And that was in batting practice.  I don't know how the Babe did it against guys going all out in games."  Gehrig chuckled and shook his head, remembering his boisterous teammate.  Then... "But this fellow here, Ted Williams... the way he sets himself at the plate... square, steady, solid, stock still... and then that short, quick, measured swing... never off balance or out of kilter.  That's the way I try to do it.  Wait for your pitch.  Get a good ball to hit.  Then...explode! But wait for the pitcher to come to you... sooner or later he has to! Some guys never quite get that.  But this Williams guy does."  Gehrig grins broadly.  "Of course, that's why you see me parked in short right field when he's up!"

"He said that?"  A wide-eyed, incredulous Ted Williams asks.  An affirmative response leads to momentary speechlessness from the Splendid Splinter.  He gazes downward.  When he looks up he seems to be searching for the right word.  Finally he clears his throat.  "I've talked hitting with just about every great hitter of the 20th century.  Hornsby, Terry, Cobb, Ruth, even Joe D over there.  But I never got to talk to Joe Jackson, because he was a little before my time.  And I never got to talk to... Mister Gehrig.  Because we... well, you know..."  Williams clears his throat again.  "I broke in against Lou... Mister Gehrig...my very first game.  Nobody really knew it, but he was already very ill... it was hard for him to move around.  And hard to watch."  Then Ted shakes his head. "To see him now, at full strength!  He's amazing."

"He also said 'get a good ball to hit...'"

"He said that?" Williams grins for the first time.  He shakes his head.  "All the times I've walked or singled.  I've never said anything to Mister Gehrig, except 'fine', whenever he comes over to hold me on and says 'How's things?'  I mean, he's an all-time all-time.  But I gotta say something, maybe catch him at BP.  Ask him about hitting, you know?"  Ted Williams looks down again.  "And tell him... that he's the best."

The 1937 Yankees begin the second half of the season by winning 3 out of 5.  Vern Stephens hits two home runs in a losing cause (game 78) as Red Ruffing wins his 10th, supported by George Selkirk and his two home runs.  Stephens homers again the next day (his 18th), and this time he is joined by Ted Williams (16th) and Bobby Doerr, who drives in five, leading Boston to a 13-4 thumping of the Yankees.  Game 80 goes into overtime.  Jake Powell, pinch-hitting for Kemp Wicker in the 10th, singles home Tony Lazzeri to snap a 8-8 tie.  Bobby Doerr's 9th home run goes for naught.  Game 81 sees the '37 Yankees go seven games over .500 (44-37).  The Yanks find themselves down 3-2 in the ninth.  Singles by Gehrig and DiMaggio bring George Selkirk to the plate, and he does what he's been doing all year.  He doubles home Gehrig and DiMaggio.  His 86th RBI gives New York their 44th victory.  Game 82:  Boston wins 10-3 despite George Selkirk's 28th home run.  Bobby Doerr drives home four more, giving him 14 RBI in four games.  Doerr fails to homer for the first time in four games.  But he singles home Dom DiMaggio for Boston's first score.  He singles in Pesky in the second to put the Sox up 4-0.  His 31st double, a liner off the CF wall in the fourth, drives in two.  Doerr scores moments later on an Al Zarilla single, putting Boston up 7-1.  Ellis Kinder goes the distance to win his seventh.  

New York takes two of the next three (games 83-85) to return to NY with a seven-game edge (46-39).

Batting Leaders (85 games)

Batting Average

Ted Williams - .351

Tommy Henrich - .349

Joe DiMaggio - .349

George Selkirk - .340

Lou Gehrig - .340

RBI

Ted Williams - 90

George Selkirk - 88

Vern Stephens - 87

Bobby Doerr - 75

Lou Gehrig - 71

HR

George Selkirk - 28

Joe DiMaggio - 19

Vern Stephens - 18

Ted Williams - 16

Lou Gehrig - 12

Slugging: Selkirk .682, Williams .577, DiMaggio .565

Doubles: Zarilla 37, Pesky 34.

Triples: Henrich 5, Selkirk 4, Joe DiMaggio 4.

Pitching

New York 

Lefty Gomez - 9-8, 3.92, 167 IP

Red Ruffing - 10-7, 4.69, 144 IP

Monte Pearson - 4-7, 6.77, 91 IP

Bump Hadley - 4-8, 7.01, 86 IP

Boston

Mel Parnell - 9-10, 4.30, 173 IP

Ellis Kinder - 7-10, 5.95, 127 IP

Joe Dobson - 7-4, 6.21, 121 IP

Chuck Stobbs - 7-6, 6.21, 100 IP

The '37 Yankees rip off six straight (games 83-89) to go up 11 games (50-39) for the first times since game 33, when they were 22-11.  This despite Vern Stephens' continued hot hitting; over ten games he hits 7 homers, drives in 17, bats .395 (17-43) and slugs .953.  In game 86, an 8-5 loss at Yankee Stadium, Junior goes deep three times and drives in four, but the Yanks drive Ellis Kinder from the box with a six-run third.  Stephens homers again the next day, (game 87) a 2-run bomb to dead centerfield in the 4th.  But he's outgunned by Bill Dickey (3-run homer in the first), Red Rolfe (2-run shot to right in the seventh), and Tommy Henrich (solo HR to left-center in the eighth).  Plus, Bump Hadley is 'bumped' from the rotation temporarily due to his 0-5, 12.43 ERA, 21 IP performance over his last 7 starts. Instead Spud Chandler gets a spot start.  He's not masterful, but a six inning, six-hit, three-run outing is enough to give the Yanks a 10-4 victory.  Game 88 begins well for Boston as Al Zarilla doubles in three in the first to put the Sox up 3-0.  But the Frank Crosetti snaps a 4-4 tie in the tenth with a double into deep left at 1937's Yankee Stadium.  Jake Powell, who had pinch-singled for Kemp Wicker, makes Wicker a winner (6-3) by racing all the way around from first to score the tie-breaker.  Finally, in game 89, Mel Parnell holds the '37 Yanks to 2 runs over six-plus innings... and loses his 11th because Lefty Gomez holds the '49 Red Sox to one.  Myril Hoag pinch-hits for Gomez in the seventh with the Yanks down 1-0.  He doubles to the Death Valley left-center field gap at Yankee Stadium, scoring Lazzeri and Rolfe and turning Gomez from a loser into a winner, 2-1.  

With a 4-0 lead after five and Red Ruffing working on a two-hitter, New York is looking good.  But the Red Sox chip away at Ruffing. Billy Hitchcock pinch-triples home Billy Goodman in the fifth. Goodman himself ties it in the eighth, knocking in Al Zarilla in the eighth with a groundout.  And in the tenth Vern Stephens continues to rescue his season, doubling to left-center, scoring Pesky and Williams, and completing the comeback win, 6-4.  Boston snaps the Yanks six game streak.

Batting Leaders (90 games: New York 50-40)

Batting Average

Joe DiMaggio - .352

Ted Williams - .348

Geo Selkirk - .342

Bobby Doerr - .341

Tom Henrich - .340

RBI

Vern Stephens - 96

Ted Williams - 91

George Selkirk - 90

Bobby Doerr - 77

Lou Gehrig -75

HR

George Selkirk - 29

Vern Stephens - 22

Joe DiMaggio - 19

Ted Williams - 16

Lou Gehrig -13

Slugging: Selkirk .674, Williams .564, DiMaggio .556

Doubles: Al Zarilla 39, Pesky 34.

Triples: Henrich 5, Joe DiMaggio 4, Selkirk 4.

Game 91   Boston wins 13-4.   NY is 50-41.

Fenway Park, 1949  

The Yankees spot Spud Chandler a 4-0 lead into the fifth.  But Joe Dobson and Dom DiMaggio start the inning with singles.  Johnny Pesky doubles to deep right-center, scoring them both.  Chandler loses control: a walk to Williams, a walk to Stephens and a wild pitch scores Pesky.  With the score now 4-3 Kemp Wicker relieves the beleaguered Chandler.  Billy Goodman picks out a Wicker curve and drives it down the right field line.  Williams and Stephens both score, and the Red Sox take the lead.  They never relinquish it.  They pile up 20 hits and 13 runs to give Joe Dobson a comfortable cushion, his 8th win, and Boston's 41st.  

Game 92   NY wins 13-8 (15)   NY is 51-41

Fenway Park, 1949

This time the Yankees hit the 13-run pool, but it takes 15 innings.  Junior Stephens snaps a 3-3 tie with a 2-run homer (his 23rd) down the left field line, over the ad-covered-not-yet-green-monster.  New York answers with a five-spot in the sixth. Myril Hoag and Lou Gehrig each hit run-scoring doubles.  Joe DiMaggio singles in Gehrig.  And George Selkirk, still wearing the #3 jersey, does what he's been doing all year... he belts a 2-run bomb.  His 30th home run gives the  Yanks an 8-5 lead.  

The lead evaporates immediately.  Al Zarilla singles home Stephens in the seventh, and scores, along with Bobby Doerr, when Billy Goodman doubles them both in, retying the game, 8-8.  

The two bullpens clamp down.  Coming into the fifteenth the teams are still fighting and most of the 40,724 fans are still in Fenway, watching.  They see two singles and a walk load the bases for Yankee catcher Bill Dickey.  Dickey lines a Jack Kramer fastball into right-center, scoring Gehrig and DiMaggio.  Singles from Lazzeri and Myril Hoag bring home three more, and New York wins late, 13-8.  

Game 93  Boston wins 3-1  NY is 51-42

Fenway Park, 1949

George Selkirk homers for the second straight game.  But Boston's lefty ace Mel Parnell (10-11, 4.10, 189 IP) is terrific, allowing only four other hits all day.  Bobby Doerr drives in two and belts his 11th homer. 

Game 94  Boston wins 16-15 (12)   NY is 51-43

Fenway Park, 1949

39,766 fans are treated to easily the most entertaining game of the season thus far.  And happily for the Boston fans, this time they are rewarded with a victory.  Of course it doesn't come easily.  George Selkirk hits his third homer in three days.  "I really do wonder if the Babe really retired..." Says Ted Williams after the game with a wry grin.  "From now on, he's 'George Herman Selkirk'..."  But on this day it's Bill Dickey doing his Babe Ruth impersonation.  He homers to the bullpen in right-center with one on in the 3rd.  He lines a grand slam to left-center in the ninth to close Boston's five run lead to one, 11-10.  Pinch-hitter Roy Johnson ties it moments later by doubling home Tony Lazzeri.  

At the end of regulation the manually operated Fenway Scoreboard looks something like this:

NYY  - 3 0 2  0 0 0  0 1 5 -  11  12   0

BOS  - 0 0 2  1 0 0  0 8 0 -  11  12   0

Even.  Dead even.

With the score still tied in the top of the 12th, Joe DiMaggio singles through the right side.  Boston skipper Joe McCarthy, his pitchers exhausted after several long games, turns to his ace, Mel Parnell.  Parnell is game.  But he's facing a gauntlet.  George Selkirk doubles to deep left-center.  Joe DiMaggio races around the bases and scores just ahead of Ted Williams' throw.  The Boston fans groan as the Yanks take a 12-11 lead.  Then Bill Dickey crushes their hopes entirely, crushing a 2-run homer to deep right center.  His third bomb gives him eight RBI on the day.  After the Yanks tack on another to make it 15-11, Mel Parnell fans Frank Crosetti for the third out and departs the mound, head bowed.  The Boston fans, knowing he'd gone the route in victory the day before, accord him a classy standing ovation.  

Bobby Doerr leads off the home 12th by lining a double to deep left.  When Al Zarilla singles to right, the fans begin to cheer for their no-quit team.  Billy Goodman gets everybody on their feet and roaring by belting one to deep right.  But Selkirk camps against the bullpen fence and catches the drive, 390 feet away.  The crowd groans, even as Doerr tags and scores easily.  It's 15-12, but the Red Sox are down to their last two outs.  Two more singles load the bases and get the crowd roaring once more.  This time the roaring will not subside.  Dominic DiMaggio lines a rope to left-center, scoring Al Zarilla...15-13.  With the bases still full, Johnny Pesky digs in.  Kemp Wicker gets Pesky to a 2-2 count.  Wicker's next pitch is a dandy, a fastball tailing away from Pesky at the knees.  But Pesky is a dandy of a hitter, .302 lifetime.  He goes with the pitch and lines it to deep center, a rocket past Joe DiMaggio.  All three Red Sox runners are off with the CRRACKK... and all 40,000-odd Bostonians are on their feet, screaming at the top of their tired lungs, urging their heroes around the bases.  Tebbetts scores easily.  Pinch-hitter O'Brien scores the game-tying tally. Joe DiMaggio fires the ball toward the infield just as his brother Dominic races around third.  Dom, in no mood to let things go any further, heads home, challenging his brother's arm.  But Joe's throw is just to the first base side of the plate, and it's just enough for Dom to execute a nifty fall-away game-winning slide...SAAAAFE!  

NYY  - 3 0 2  0 0 0  0 1 5  0 0 4 -  15  18   0

BOS  - 0 0 2  1 0 0  0 8 0  0 0 5 -  16  18   0

Boston wins 16-15!  

Johnny Pesky's game winner gives him six RBI.  Ted Williams and George Selkirk each homer and drive in four... giving each man 98 RBI on the season.  The beleaguered but noble Mel Parnell wins his second game in two days, squaring his record at 11-11... and reduces the Yanks edge to eight games (51-43). 

Game 95  Boston wins 8-5  New York is 51-44

Fenway Park, 1949

George Selkirk becomes the 1st player overall to surpass 100 RBI when he launches his 4th homer in four days.  His 33rd blast, with two on board, puts New York up 4-1.  They are still up by three (5-2) in the eighth when Boston rises up.  They send twelve men to the dish.  Teddy Ballgame collects two hits, scores one and drives one in.  His second safety drives in Tebbetts and Billy Hitchcock, gives the Sox a 8-5 lead, and make Williams the first Red Sox player, and second overall to reach 100 RBI.

Game 96  Boston wins 8-7  New York is 51-45

Yankee Stadium, 1937

Boston wins their sixth of seven.  They spot New York a 6-0 lead.  Bobby Doerr scores the first two runs for the Sox.  He homers in the fifth, a solo blast to deep left.  He scores in the 7th on a Birdie Tebbetts single.  In the eighth Boston pulls to within two (6-4) on run-scoring singles from Al Zarilla and Billy Goodman.  After the Yanks tack on a run, Boston opens the ninth by sending out Mel Parnell - as a pinch-hitter.  Parnell lines a bullet past Joe D in center and pulls into second standing up.  A walk and a single load the bases - for Ted Williams.  Ted lines one near the 407 sign in right-center.  He pulls into second.  Parnell and Dom DiMaggio score to make it a 7-6 ballgame.  After Vern Stephens is called out on strikes, Bobby Doerr, who started the Red Sox comeback, caps it.  He drives one deep into Death Valley.  Joe DiMaggio races over like a panther and cuts it off, perhaps preventing an inside-the-park home run.  But not even DiMaggio can keep Pesky and Williams from scoring.  Doerr pulls into second standing with the third double of the inning.  The Yankee Stadium scoreboard reads 8-7, Boston.  And so it remains.


Batting Leaders (96 games)

Batting Average

Joe DiMaggio - .356

George Selkirk - .351
Ted Williams - .348

Bobby Doerr - .345

Myril Hoag - .335

HR

George Selkirk - 33

Vern Stephens - 23

Joe DiMaggio - 20

Ted Williams - 17

Lou Gehrig - 14

Bill Dickey - 14

RBI

Ted Williams - 102
George Selkirk - 101

Vern Stephens - 99

Bill Dickey - 83

Bobby Doerr - 82

Slugging - Selkirk .697, Williams .565, J. DiMaggio .557

Doubles - Al Zarilla - 42, Pesky - 40, Doerr - 38

Triples - Henrich - 5, Joe DiMaggio - 5, Selkirk - 4

Hot: George Selkirk collects 4 HR and 11 RBI in 5 games (91-95).  He hits .478 (11-23) with 24 TB for a 1.043 slugging mark.

Ted Williams behind Yankee Stadium BP cage before game 97.  

"The only thing Mister Selkirk did wrong was follow the greatest hitter of all time.  George Selkirk was a great hitter in his own right.  And he is proving it now.  He's got a very real chance to win a 'Triple Crown' here."  It's pointed out that the Splendid Splinter himself is the only other one in the top five in Average, Home Runs and RBI.  But Ted is already shaking his head.  "I'll never catch him in homers.  He's got - what - double?"  (Almost... it's 33 to 17)  "But he's an example why those Yankees get on a roll.  We have a helluva line-up.  They have a helluva line-up. They've got four .300 hitting outfielders.  They got Joe Gordon and Charlie Keller waiting in the minors!  I believe in my heart of hearts that our best against their best is at least even.  But the Yanks always have more... not better... more!"  Williams smiles, nods, and enters the BP cage.  And as always, everybody else stops what they are doing. 


The 1949 Red Sox win three of the next four to pull back within four at 52-48.  Vern Stephens becomes the second Red Sox (and 3rd overall) to surpass 100 RBI in game 97, a game in which Dominic DiMaggio goes 5-5 with a double, a homer and 3 RBI to lead Boston to an 11-6 win in the Bronx.  Lefty Gomez shuts out the Sox on seven singles to win game 98, 6-0.  Bobby Doerr's 2-run homer, his 13th, leads the Sox past the Yanks in game 99, 4-3.  In game 100, Johnny Pesky singles home Dom DiMaggio in the seventh to tie the game 5-5. Pesky doubles home DiMaggio in the eighth to put Boston ahead 6-5.  Vern Stephens then singles in Pesky to make it 7-5... enough for Boston to hold on, 7-6.   

100 Games   New York: 52-48  

'49 Red Sox              BA    SA   HR   RBI 

Dom DiMaggio CF   .302  .412    4      34

Johnny Pesky SS    .317  .416    1      60

Ted Williams LF      .347  .557   17    105

Vern Stephens SS   .269  .502   23   103

Bobby Doerr 2B      .341  .544    13    87

Al Zarilla RF            .315  .488     8     75

Billy Goodman 1B   .321  .372     0     65

Birdie Tebbetts C    .267  .328     3     40

'37 Yanks

Frank Crosetti  SS     .254  .326    3     39

Tom Henrich RF       .326  .529     8     53

Lou Gehrig 1B          .336  .512    15    84

Joe DiMaggio CF      .350  .551    21    77

George Selkirk RF    .349  .687    33   106

Bill Dickey C             .291  .459    14     83

Myril Hoag  OF         .333  .476     1      36

Tony Lazzeri 2B        .247  .369     6     54

Red Rolfe 3B             .273  .328     3     38

The 1937 Yankees sweep five games at Fenway (games 101-105).  The Yankee offense is on a roll, failing to score in double figures just once in the five games (16-9, 8-5, 13-4, 11-3, 13-11).  The Sox lose game 101 despite a four hit. six RBI performance from Junior Stephens.  Joe DiMaggio and George Selkirk each homer and drive in four. Eight different Yanks drive in runs, including pitcher Monte Pearson, who drives in two.  Game 102 goes 11 innings.  In the top of the 11th Lou Gehrig singles home pinch-hitter Roy Johnson with the eventual game winner.  George Selkirk tacks on two with a single for an 8-5 final.  With that 2-run single, Selkirk leads all players in all three Triple Crown categories. 

       102 Games 34 HR 112 RBI .354 BA 

Joe DiMaggio has heated up.  He drives in 14 RBI in four games, with three homers.  Junior Stephens has 14 RBI in his last seven, with at least one in each game.

105 games   NY is 57-48

Batting Leaders

Average

Joe DiMaggio -  .354 (.3538)

George Selkirk - .354 (.3536)

Ted Williams - .352

Bobby Doerr - .343

Lou Gehrig - .340

Myril Hoag - .339

Tom Henrich - .328

HR

George Selkirk - 34

Vern Stephens - 26

Joe DiMaggio - 24

Ted Williams - 17

Lou Gehrig -17

RBI

George Selkirk - 118

Vern Stephens - 115

Ted Williams - 108

Bobby Doerr - 92

Lou Gehrig - 91

Joe DiMaggio - 91

Slugging: Selkirk - .690, J.DiMaggio - .567, Williams - .561

Doubles: Zarilla - 46, Pesky - 41, Doerr - 38

Triples: Selkirk - 5, J.DiMaggio - 5, Henrich - 5.

Game 106    Boston wins 6-0   NY is 57-49.

Mel Parnell shows what an 'Ace' is... tossing a 3 hit shutout, needing just 86 pitches to do so.  No Yankee reaches second base, but Parnell singles in a run and scores one.  Ted Williams hits a 3-run homer in the 3rd, his 18th.  His two hits make the batting race squeaky tight:

Joe DiMaggio -   .3537

George Selkirk - .3535

Ted Williams -    .3533

Game 107    NY wins 11-10   NY is 58-49.

BOS - 0 1 3  0 0 0  0 6 0 -  10  14  1

NYY - 1 0 0  2 2 0   2 3 1 -   11  17  0

The Yanks bounce back and win game 107, 11-10.  They win a see-saw battle when pinch-hitter Roy Johnson singles home Tony Lazzeri in the bottom of the ninth.  The number 3, 4, and 5 Yankees hitters (Gehrig, DiMaggio and Selkirk) all homer.  trailing 7-4, Boston rallies for six in the eighth, sending 11 to the plate.  Ted goes 2-2, starting the rally by singling and scoring, and capping it by singling in Birdie Tebbetts and Dom DiMaggio to put the Red Sox up 10-7.  But Ted's most famous rival, the Yankee Clipper, lines a 3-run homer to deep right center in the bottom of the inning to tie it 10-10... setting up the dramatic ninth.  

With the Yankees 58th victory in hand they now need 20 wins to clinch the 154-game season.

Game 108  Boston wins 8-7  NY is 58-50

The Red Sox enter the top of the 9th trailing 7-6.  With one down Dom DiMaggio lines a double to deep left.  Johnny Pesky then lines one down the right field line that bounces over the 4 foot high Yankee Stadium wall, just to the left of the 296 ft sign.  Dom DiMaggio trots home with the tying run... 7-7.  With Pesky perched on second Ted Williams tries to end it.  But he gets under one and pops it up to Lazzeri at second.  Two out.  Junior Stephens steps in... and rips one past Joe DiMaggio in center.  Pesky scores easily and Stephens coasts into second with a game-winning double.   

New York wins the next two behind great pitching performances.  Monte Pearson goes 6-2/3, gives up no earned runs, and homers to right field, winning game 109, 5-1.  Then Lefty Gomez shows why he's an ace.  He goes nine, allows just two hits and a scratch run.  Tony Lazzeri provides all the support Lefty needs in the home 7th, lining a Mel Parnell curve out of the park in deep left-center.  His 3-run bomb snaps a 0-0 tie.  It's only the third hit given up by Boston ace Mel Parnell, but it's more than enough to win game 110, 4-1.   

110 games  NY is 60-50

Batting Leaders

Batting Average

Joe DiMaggio - .352 (.3523)

George Selkirk - .352 (.3519)

Ted Williams - .350

Bobby Doerr - .341

Tom Henrich - .333

Myril Hoag - .331

HR

George Selkirk - 35

Vern Stephens - 26

Joe DiMaggio - 25

Lou Gehrig - 19

Ted Williams -19

RBI

George Selkirk -122

Vern Stephens - 117

Ted Williams - 117

Lou Gehrig - 96

Joe DiMaggio - 96

Slugging: Selkirk - .680, Williams - .569, J.DiMaggio - .563

Doubles: Zarilla - 49, Pesky - 44, Doerr - 41

Triples: Henrich - 5, J.DiMaggio - 5, Selkirk - 5

Game 111  NY 11-4  NY is 61-50  

Fenway Park, 1949

New York goes up 11 games over Boston for the third time this season, winning their ninth in eleven tries.  Henrich, Selkirk and Rolfe knock in two apiece.  Henrich and Lazzeri both homer.  Red Ruffing improves to 13-8 by going seven innings and giving up three runs... all of which come on a Bobby Doerr 3-run shot to dead center field in the second.  

Game 112   Boston wins 8-7  NY is 61-51

Fenway Park, 1949

Heading into the sixth it's a 4-4 tie.  Frank Crosetti lines a Joe Dobson fastball into the bullpen in deep right center.  Red Rolfe scores ahead of 'Crow', and the Sox trail 6-4.  It's still 6-4 in the eighth when Dom DiMaggio hits a frozen rope to short.  Crosetti snags it for the out.  Yankee skipper Joe McCarthy, seeing the scorched liner, signals for Johnny Murphy to get loose.  Bump Hadley pitches to Johnny Pesky, who lines one where nobody catches it - deep left-center. Pesky pulls into second standing up.  And the tying run comes to the plate in Ted Williams.  Hadley, pitching carefully, gets Williams to ground one to the right side.  But with Lazzeri overshifted and in shallow right field, Williams legs it out, and Pesky takes third.  Johnny Murphy relieves Bump Hadley, and faces Junior Stephens.  He fires a low fastball on the outside edge.  Stephens had been pulling off the outside pitch earlier in the year when he was struggling to hit .200.  But after-game BP sessions with Williams have paid off.  Stephens stays on the knee high pitch and lines it to deep center.  Joe DiMaggio races back but quickly realizes it's a futile chase.  The ball lands high in the center field bleachers, and 38,921 screaming Bostonians cheer the 7-6 lead their heroes suddenly enjoy.  After Bobby Doerr walks, Yankee skipper McCarthy brings in Pat Malone to face Al Zarilla.  Zarilla lines an outside fastball the other way.  It booms off the high LF wall.  Zarilla's 50th two-bagger brings Doerr all the way around, and Boston has an 8-6 lead it would not relinquish.  

Al Zarilla is quietly having a great season:

.305 BA  225 TB  .473 SA  50 2B  3 3B  8 HR  80 RBI 

Most of his production is coming from the six-hole.

After 112 games the batting race is still tight:

Ted Williams -    .350

Joe DiMaggio -   .3498

George Selkirk - .3491

Game 113   Boston wins 4-2  NY is 61-52

Fenway Park, 1949

Monte Pearson pitches 5-2/3 of no-hit ball, until Ted Williams singles in the sixth.  Pearson leaves for a pinch-hitter in the seventh with a 2-0 lead, courtesy of a Lazzeri homer and a Myril Hoag RBI double.  It's still 2-0 headed to the home 8th.  Boston still has only two hits when Red Sox pinch-hitter Billy Hitchcock lines a double to deep left-center.  Leadoff man Dominic DiMaggio follows by lining a double high off the LF wall.  Hitchcock scores easily.  Yankee skipper McCarthy brings in Pat Malone, who retires Johnny Pesky on a grounder to Gehrig, unassisted.  Dom DiMaggio advances to third.  That's important because Ted Williams drills one to mid right-center.  Joe DiMaggio, over-shifted, catches the laser-shot.  Dom DiMaggio, tagging at 3rd, takes off.  Joe fires... ball... tag... SAAAAAAFE! Dom slides around Dickey's tag and ties it 2-2.  

In the 11th Williams lines a hit to left off of Kemp Wicker.  Wicker, remembering what Junior Stephens did to a low-and-away fastball, tries to bust one in on the fists. But Stephens' hands are lightning quick; he belts the fastball over the left-field wall for the 4-2 win. 

Game 114:  Lou Gehrig homers twice, and his 3 RBI give him 100. He is the second Yankee and fifth overall to reach the century mark.

George Selkirk - .347 BA 35 HR 125 RBI

Vern Stephens - .275 BA 28 HR 123 RBI

Ted Williams -    .350 BA 19 HR 118 RBI

Bobby Doerr -     .341 BA 16 HR 103 RBI

Lou Gehrig -        .336 BA 21 HR 100 RBI

Tommy Henrich, hitting .343 with 59 RBI in only 312 AB's, is riding the bench as part of a super-platoon because right-handed hitting Myril Hoag is hitting .325!  Henrich comes off the bench in the seventh with New York trailing 5-3.  He doubles to deep right, driving home Tony Lazzeri.  After Tex Hughson comes in to pitch for Boston, Frank Crosetti lines a single.  Red Rolfe scores the tying run and Henrich races in right behind him with the eventual game-winner... 6-5.  

Game 115:  George Selkirk, Bill Dickey and Tony Lazzeri each drive home three.  Bill Dickey goes 5-5 with a double.  Selkirk hits home runs 36 and 37.  And Red Ruffing coasts to win his 14th.  He is now 14-8, and the Yankees are now 63-52.  

115 Games   NY is 63-52

'49 Red Sox           BA       HR     RBI

Dom DiMaggio      .297       4       38

Johnny Pesky       .313       1         68

Ted Williams        .348      19      119

Vern Stephens     .277      28      123

Bobby Doerr         .342      16      104

Al Zarilla                .305       8        80

Billy Goodman     .318       0        72

Birdie Tebbetts    .260      4        43

'37 Yankees          BA     HR      RBI

Frank Crosetti    .248     6         49

Tom Henrich       .338     10       59

Lou Gehrig           .338     21      100

Joe DiMaggio      .344     25       97

George Selkirk    .350     37      128

Bill Dickey            .309     15       96

Myril Hoag           .325       1        38

Tony Lazzeri        .254     10       67

Red Rolfe              .283      3        47

George Selkirk leads all players in batting average, home runs, RBI, and slugging (.678).  He's also tied for the lead in triples (5) with Joe DiMaggio and Tom Henrich.
Game 116: Boston scores in each of the first four frames (nine runs total) to put the game away early.  Stephens homers twice; a 3-run shot in the first and a solo shot in the third.  The Splinter goes long with one on in the fourth.  Joe Dobson goes eight-plus to win 10-3.

Game 117: Boston strings together five consecutive scoring innings this time, scoring all of their 11 runs in frames 4-8, winning 11-2.  Bobby Doerr lines a grand slam in the fifth.  Birdie Tebbetts singles in two in the fourth, and doubles in another in the seventh.  And 19-year-old Chuck Stobbs holds NY to one run on just four hits in five strong innings.  

Batting race at 117 games

Ted Williams        .3463

George Selkirk     .3462

Game 118: The Yankees romp 9-2 to go 64-54 on the season. Joe DiMaggio becomes the 3rd Yankee and sixth overall to reach 100 RBI.  He singles home Crosetti in the 7th, then singles in Crosetti and Henrich during a five run Yankee eighth.  Lefty Gomez cruises, giving up just six hits and two runs, improving to 14-9, 3.65 on the season.  

Game 119: The Yankees win 5-1 in a contest where all the scoring comes on home runs.  Bill Dickey's 3-run blast in the second puts the Yankees up to stay.  Joe DiMaggio hits two solo shots.  Bobby Doerr hits one.  And Red Ruffing goes nine to go 15-8 on the year. The Yanks are now 65-54. 

Game 120: The Yanks go 12 games up on the Red Sox (66-54) for the first time, winning 4-1.  For the third straight game Yankee pitching tames the powerful Boston line-up.  Bump Hadley goes 6-2/3, giving up just five hits and one run.  Johnny Murphy relieves Hadley and is perfect - seven up, seven down - the rest of the way.  Run-scoring hits in the first and second from Selkirk, Dickey, Henrich and DiMaggio seal the deal early. Bill Dickey becomes the fourth Yankee and seventh player overall to reach 100 RBI.  

120 Games   NY is 66-54

'49 Red Sox           BA       HR     RBI

Dom DiMaggio      .292       4       39

Johnny Pesky       .313       1         70

Ted Williams        .342     20      122

Vern Stephens     .275      31      128

Bobby Doerr         .343      18      111

Al Zarilla               .299       8        80

Billy Goodman     .321       0        75

Birdie Tebbetts    .260      4        46

'37 Yankees          BA     HR      RBI

Frank Crosetti    .245      7         51

Tom Henrich       .334     10       61

Lou Gehrig           .331     21      102

Joe DiMaggio      .350     27      103

George Selkirk    .346     37      132

Bill Dickey           .306     16      100

Myril Hoag           .322       1        38

Tony Lazzeri        .253     10       68

Red Rolfe              .279      4        48

The 1937 Yanks need just 12 wins to clinch the 154 game season.  The 1949 Red Sox need to go 24-10 to do the same.

All during their respective careers, it was a widely held belief that Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio would each have a shot at Ruth's (then) single season home run record of 60.  Yet here, with 80% of this mythical season in the books, neither great is even approaching their own seasonal totals (DiMaggio hit 46 in '37, Williams hit 43 in '49).  This despite playing 77 games in Fenway and Yankee Stadium.  

"Well the biggest reason I can think of..." muses the Yankee Clipper, "...is the Boston pitching staff.  We are playing them, not the ballpark.  That '49 staff was very good.  Remember, we had to win the last two just to beat them out."

"Dammit Joe.  Why-ja hafta bring that up?"  A jaunty deep voice belonging to the Splendid Splinter brings a small grin to the face of Joe DiMaggio.

"I meant that as a compliment, Ted.  Anyway, the Boston pitchers have been pitching smart - at least to me.  In Fenway, Parnell has been moving the ball around.  I've hit to the big part of the park.  Parnell throws that tough slider in on your fists.  You can hit it hard over the third base dugout... or let it go by.  But there's another factor that I think effects both Ted and me.  Our ballparks."  Ted Williams nods and grins.

"Joe's right.  Look, I love hitting home runs as much as anybody.  But you can't tailor your whole game around them.  Not if you wanna win.  Yankee Stadium is a lousy place for me to hit home runs.  Hell, Babe Ruth hit more on the road.  And he was lefty!"

Now it's Joe nodding again.

"Yankee Stadium was the toughest park for me - Cleveland was tough later.  In order to hit any homers there, I had to learn to wait for a low, inside pitch and turn on it.  That takes perfect timing.  But if you do the same thing at Fenway, that same swing will get you a hard shot off the wall - a single or double off the wall.  And if you get into the habit of trying to lift it over the wall, it'll screw you up for the Stadium - a lot of long fly ball outs.  And trying to change your swing every few games... that's the quickest way to a slump I know."

"Damn, Joe!  That's the most I've ever heard you talk... ever!"  Williams playfully nudges his long time rival behind the Fenway BP cage.  "But seriously, Joe, you're absolutely right.  The reason... the biggest reason homers are hard to come by... is what Joe said.  The pitching.  Neither Joe nor I get to face any lousy seventh place pitching staff.  We face a staff that allowed the fewest runs in '37.  And Joe gets Parnell, Kinder and Dobson... hell, even that kid Stobbs was pretty good.  Even if you beat these staffs, you're not gonna get many mistakes.  You're gonna have to hit their pitch."  

"That..." interjects Joe D, "is what makes what Selkirk is doing all the more remarkable."

"Amen!" Agrees Ted.  

Game 121    NY wins 10-4    NY is 67-54

Fenway Park, 1949

Lou Gehrig doubles and scores in the first, homers with a man on in the second, an homers with two on in the fourth.  His second home run puts the Yanks ahead 8-0.  At this point Boston has only two hits, and they never get back in the game. 

George Selkirk  .34945     37 HR 132 RBI

Joe DiMaggio    .34942     28 HR 104 RBI

Selkirk once again leads in all Triple Crown categories.

Game 122     NY wins 8-6    NY is 68-54

Fenway Park, 1949

This time it's the Yankee Clipper burying Boston early.  Jolton Joe triples in Gehrig in the first.  He then homers with two on board as part of a six-run New York second.  His shot puts the Yanks up 7-0.  Boston fights back with a six-run sixth, with Billy Hitchcock pinch-hitting a 3-run double.  The Yanks hold on though, and their 68th win leaves them just ten shy of clinching the season. Boston needs to go 24-10 to accomplish the same things. 

Game 123     NY wins 8-3    NY is 69-54

Fenway Park, 1949

In what's become a discouraging refrain for Boston, the Yankees jump out to a 6-0 lead by the fourth frame and coast.  Four come in the top of the first.  Joe DiMaggio, George Selkirk and Tony Lazzeri all get run-scoring hits, with Lazzeri's being a 2-run double. DiMaggio and Selkirk drive in runs 5 and 6 in the fourth, and Red Ruffing takes it from there... 9 innings, 8 hits, 3 runs, and now, a record of 16-8.  

Game 124     NY wins 5-2    NY is 70-54

Fenway Park, 1949

Bill Dickey goes 4-4.  George Selkirk hits his 38th home run. The Yankee Clipper doubles in one in the first; triples home two more in the ninth.  Bump Hadley (WP 7-9), Johnny Murphy and Pat Malone limit Boston to just five hits.  New York's winning streak stands at seven.  And New York's 'magic number' is eight.

Game 125     Boston wins 7-2    NY is 70-55

Fenway Park, 1949

Nineteen-year-old Chuck Stobbs steps up about as well as you can.  He goes eight tremendous innings.  He allows just two hits and one run.  The rookie southpaw benefits from a big day by the Splendid Splinter, who homers, drives in two, collects three hits and scores four times. Al Zarilla doubles twice to give him 53, and drives in two to give him 83.

Batting Leaders  125 games

Batting Average

Joe DiMaggio -     .352

George Selkirk -   .351

Ted Williams -      .344

Bobby Doerr -       .343

Lou Gehrig -          .333

HR

George Selkirk -    38

Vern Stephens -    31

Joe DiMaggio -      29

Lou Gehrig -           23

Ted Williams -       21

RBI

George Selkirk -    135

Vern Stephens -    130

Ted Williams -       127

Bobby Doerr -        116

Joe DiMaggio -      114

DOUBLES

Al Zarilla -                53

Bobby Doerr -         50

Johnny Pesky -       46

Dom DiMaggio -     42

Ted Williams -        38

TRIPLES

Joe DiMaggio -         7

Tom Henrich -          5

George Selkirk -       5

SLUGGING

George Selkirk -    .662

Joe DiMaggio -      .574

Bobby Doerr -        .559

Ted Williams -       .558

Tom Henrich -       .531  

The Red Sox take 3 of 5 at Yankee Stadium.  Though they win the five-game series (games 126-130), it leaves them 57-73, only five games from 'elimination'. The Sox would have to go 21-3 to beat out the Yanks.  

Game 126 sees the Yankees come up with three in the bottom of the ninth to win 4-3.  With two out, no one on, Myril Hoag and Lou Gehrig get scratch singles.  Then Joe DiMaggio, George Selkirk and Bill Dickey each single in runs.  Lefty Gomez had stood to be the loser despite giving up just one earned run over nine innings.  Instead he goes to 16-9.

The next day Al Zarilla is the ninth-inning hero, lining his 54th double deep into the Death Valley left-centerfield gap.  Junior Stephens, who had walked, flies all the way around from first to snap a 2-2 tie. The 3-2 score holds up.

Game 128: Al Zarilla seems to be channeling the all-time doubles king, the great Tris Speaker.  He hits two more (for 56), and drives in two.  Unfortunately it's not enough.  George Selkirk homers, doubles and plates five.  His 3-run blast in the seventh puts New York ahead 8-4, seemingly icing the game.  Boston fights back.  Zarilla's second double in the eighth drives in Stephens to make it 8-6.  Stephens himself smacks a monstrous home run to dead center with Ted Williams on board, to make it an 8-8 ballgame.  But in the home 9th, Tony Lazzeri walks.  Red Rolfe sac-bunts him over to second.  And pinch-hitter Roy Johnson lines one to deep right-center.  The ball bounces over the fence, and Lazzeri trots home for the 9-8 win.  The teams split games 129 and 130, to give the Yanks a 73-57 mark after 130 games. 

130 Games       NY 73-57

'49 Red Sox          BA     SA   HR   RBI     2B    3B

Dom DiMaggio   .285   .392    5      42     42       3

Johnny Pesky     .307   .399    1       73     47       1

Ted Williams      .347   .565   22    129    39       3

Vern Stephens   .278   .520   32    136    31       2

Bobby Doerr       .351   .570   19    122     53       4
Al Zarilla              .297   .454    8      87     56       3

Billy Goodman   .314   .369    0      76     29       0

Birdie Tebbetts  .249    .311    4       47     17       0

'37 Yankees              BA           SA     HR   RBI   2B    3B       

Frank Crosetti       .237      . 324      7       52      23      3

Tom Henrich         .330       .526    10      64      32      5

Lou Gehrig             .332       .527     23     113     29      0

Joe DiMaggio        .348       .563     29     116     19      7
George Selkirk      .350       .672     41     146      23     6

Bill Dickey              .314       .472     17     105     31      0

Myril Hoag             .320       .447      1       39      27     3

Red Rolfe                .270       .325      4       49      14     1

Game 131     NY wins 18-12     NY is now 74-57

'37 Yankees -  3 0 3  0 5 0  3 3 1 -   18  22  3

'49 Red Sox - 0 2 0  0 0 2  2 6 0 -  12  13  0

The Iron Horse and the Splendid Splinter each drive in five runs.  But Red Rolfe drives in three, Bill Dickey and Tony Lazzeri chip in two more as the Yanks romp. 

Game 132   Boston wins 12-9   NY is 74-58

'37 Yankees - 3 0 0  0 0 0  2 4 0 -  9  12  2

'49 Red Sox - 0 0 0  3 1 0  2 6 x - 12 12  0

This time it's Selkirk with five ribbies.  But this time Boston comes back to win. For the second straight day the Sox score two in the seventh and six in the eighth.  George Selkirk homers (42nd) with two on to give the Yanks a quick lead.  Boston ties it in the 4th.  Monte Pearson suffers a wild spell, walking Doerr, hitting Goodman with the bases loaded, and letting in the tying run on a wild pitch.  Williams homers in the fifth to give Boston the lead.  Selkirk homers again (43rd) with one on in the 7th to give the Yankees the lead.  Junior Stephens homers in the bottom of the 7th to take it back... Boston is up, 6-5.

In the eighth Gehrig lines a frozen rope to left-center, singling home Roy Johnson and Frank Crosetti (NY leads 7-6).  Joe DiMaggio belts a double to deepest right-center, bringing home Hoag and Gehrig.

In the home 8th Boston finally seizes the game.  With the bases jammed Johnny Pesky singles home Tebbetts.  The Splendid Splinter then ties it with a two-run single to right.  After Stephens fouls out, Bobby Doerr walks to reload the sacks.  Al Zarilla flies out to deep right.  Right-fielder Al Zarilla is having an outstanding year from the six-hole, batting .296.  His game winning RBI is his 88th.  Pesky tags and scores what proves to be the winning run, beating Selkirk's throw.  Billy Goodman singles home Williams and Doerr to put icing on the cake.     

George Selkirk: .353, 43 HR 152 RBI (1st, 1st, 1st)

Ted Williams: .353, 22 HR 137 RBI (2nd, 4th, 3rd)

Selkirk's three hits and is batting .3532.  Ted Williams' four hits have him at .3526.

Game 133  Boston wins 6-4    NY is 74-59

Mel Parnell (13-17) outduels Lefty Gomez (17-10).  

Game 134  Boston wins 19-6  NY is 74-60

'37 Yankees - 2 0 0  0 1 0  0 0 3 -    6 12 2

'49 Red Sox - 1 0 2  4 0 4  3 5 x -   19 23 0

Ted Williams collects four hits, homers twice, scores four times, and drives in nine.  He scores Dom DiMaggio with a sac to brother Joe in the 1st.  He homers with DiMaggio on board in the 3rd to put Boston up 3-2.    Billy Goodman drives in three, Zarilla and Tebbetts two each as Boston romps.  He singles home DiMaggio and Pesky to make it 7-2.  Williams singles home (guess!) DiMaggio in the 7th and scores on a fielder's choice to make it 14-3.  Inthe eighth the Splinter hits his 2nd homer, with (yes...) Dom DiMaggio and Ellis Kinder scoring ahead of Ted.  Vern Stephens goes back-to-back, and Billy Goodman singles in Bobby Doerr for Boston's 19th tally.  

After 134 games:

Ted Williams -     .356, 24 HR 147 RBI

George Selkirk -  .355, 43 HR 154 RBI

Joe DiMaggio -    .352, 29 HR 122 RBI

Ted's huge day vaults him back into the batting lead and puts him back into the RBI conversation as well.  

Game 135     Boston wins 20-6       NY is 74-61

'37 Yankees - 0 0 0  0 3 2  1 0 0 -  6  14  1

'49 Red Sox - 0 2 9  5 3 1  0 0 x - 20 22  1

Boston stomps all over the Yankee pitching staff for the second straight day, building a 16-0 lead.  They blow it open with a nine run third, sending 13 to the dish.  Pesky goes 2-2 and drives in three; singling in DiMaggio to put Boston up 3-0, then ripping a two-run double to deep right later to make it a 10-0 romp.  Pesky singles, doubles, triples and collects six RBI on the day - the second time he does so this season.  

Game 136   NY wins 8-0   NY is 75-61  

Their 'magic number' is 3.

Monte Pearson throttles the Red Sox, a team which had just collected 39 runs and 45 hits in two games.  He allows just two hits in 6-2/3 innings.  The Iron Horse triples home Frank Crosetti in the first.  Joe DiMaggio lines a 3-run home run down the left-field line in the 3rd.  Tommy Henrich belts a grand slam in the 4th.

Game 137   Boston wins 3-0   NY is 75-62

In the top of the first Junior Stephens smokes a liner to center, scoring Dom DiMaggio.  In the bottom of the first Joe DiMaggio lines a single to left.  And that's the last hit New York collects this day.  Mel Parnell totally blankets a squad that scored over 1000 times in 1937.  Johnny Pesky singles home the other two runs.  In the ninth Mel Parnell walks two, gets Joe DiMaggio to ground to first, and then walks Selkirk to load the bases.  The only drama of the game occurs when Boston skipper Joe McCarthy pops out of the dugout and walks slowly to the mound.  He chats with his ace, takes the ball, rubs it up.  He then drops it back in the mitt of Parnell and walks back, with the New York crowd strangely cheering as he does.  Then on Mel Parnell's next and last pitch, he gets Bill Dickey to bounce into a 3-6-3 double play.  The New York crowd of 46,844 stands as one and accords the brilliant southpaw a long, loud ovation.  

Game 138   NY wins 11-1   NY is 76-62

Lou Gehrig drives in five for the fourth time this season. The Iron Horse homers with Rolfe and Henrich on baord in the third.  He singles in two more in the eighth, then scores, along with Joe DiMaggio when George Selkirk smacks his 45th home run.  Red Rolfe singles in two more to cap an 8-run seventh.  Red Ruffing allows only four hits and goes to 17-10.

Game 139  Boston wins 8-5 in 10 innings  NY is 76-63

The Yanks are trailing 5-1 coming into the ninth.  Joe DiMaggio lines a triple to deep right center, scoring Henrich and Gehrig.  Bill Dickey and Red Rolfe follow with run-scoring hits.  And the game goes into extras tied 5-5.  

Boston manages to load them in their tenth; a Billy Goodman double and two walks bring Johnny Pesky to the plate. He does not disappoint, lining a booming drive to deep right-center.  The ball rolls toward the auxiliary scoreboard near the 407 foot sign.  Goodman, Birdie Tebbetts and Dom DiMaggio all race around and dent the plate with Pesky pulling up at second.  8-5, Red Sox.

The Yankee tenth is not without its drama.  Southpaw Mickey McDermott comes on, and opens by walking Frank Crosetti.  Tom Henrich sends one deep to right, pinning Zarilla to the fence near the 344 foot sign as he makes the catch.  The Iron Horse the gets the Yankee faithful out of their seats, lining a double to left-center. Crosetti holds up at third as Joe DiMaggio makes his way to the plate.  Joe raps one to deep short.  Stephens back-hands it and fires to first as the runners hold.  Two gone.  But then McDermott, pitching carefully to George Selkirk (45 HR, 159 RBI, .352), walks him on a 3-2 curve.  Bill Dickey comes to the plate and the Yankee fans again come to their feet, roaring.  Dickey swings at a 2-0 fastball...KERRACKK!  The ball soars to deep right-center.  But it's roomy out thee, and Al Zarilla, getting a great jump, races back and over, making a fine back-handed grab 390 feet away.  And the Red Sox hold on.

Game 140     NY wins 7-4      NY is 77-63

The Yanks clinch a tie for the season. Boston needs to win 14 straight to do the same.  Joe DiMaggio homers in second to give New York a quick 1-0 lead. In the top of the fifth Junior Stephens doubles to left-center, scoring DiMaggio and Williams.  Boston 2, NY 1.  Bottom of the fifth: Frank Crosetti lines one down the left-field line tha clangs off the left field foul pole.  Myril Hoag scores ahead of the Crow.  3-2, New York.  In the top of the seventh Ted Williams doubles home Dom DiMaggio.  Bobby Doerr later grounds a single to right, scoring Williams and putting Boston back on top, 4-3. After 44,899 New Yorkers sing 'Take Me Out to The Ballgame' (Jack Norwood), get some hot dogs, peanuts and Cracker Jack, the Yanks secure the game.  As Boston skipper Joe McCarthy does a slow burn, Tex Hughson and then Earl Johnson walk three Yankees.  The third walk, to Joe DiMaggio, forces in Crosetti with the tying run.  "Grand slams don't bother me.  But walks..."  

Then the inevitable... George Selkirk belts a long double to deepest center - the only hard hit ball of the inning.  It clears the loaded bases, and give the Yanks the 7-4 win.  

'49 Sox                     BA     SA   HR   RBI    2B  3B 

Dom DiMaggio  .290   .396     5      44     44    4

Johnny Pesky    .317    .414      1      88     51    2

Ted Williams     .356    .578   24    150    44    3 

Vern Stephens   .274    .513   34    142    34    2

Bobby Doerr       .346    .565   21    132    56    4

Al Zarilla             .294    .453   10     94     58    3

Billy Goodman   .316    .382    1       87     34    0

Birdie Tebbetts  .250    .310    4      53     18    0

'37 Yanks     

Frank Crosetti    .235    .323     8     54    24    3

Tom Henrich      .337    .534   12       71    33    5

Lou Gehrig          .336    .543   26   132    32    1

Joe DiMaggio     .357    .573    31    130    21    8
George Selkirk   .353    .674   45   162    22    7 

Bill Dickey          .309    .457   17    110    32    0

Myril Hoag          .324    .446     1     40   27    3

Tony Lazzeri       .250    .373    10    73    31    1

Red Rolfe             .270    .322     4     53    15    1
Batting Race after 140 games
Joe DiMaggio    .3566   214-600
Ted Williams     .3558   195-548
George Selkirk  .3527    188-533

The 1937 New York Yankees clinch the season against the 1949 Boston Red Sox in Game 144.

It takes four tries.  The Bosox fight hard and well at Fenway, winning games 141-143.  Game 142 in particular was a thriller for the 36,977 Bostonians who show up to back their heroes.  Trailing 9-5 in the eighth, the Red Sox take advantage of a wild spell by Johnny Murphy, sandwiching three walks around a Billy Goodman single.  The 3rd one forces in Al Zarilla.  Pat Malone comes in to try and stem the tide, but the Red Sox are rolling.  Dom DiMaggio lines a rope to left-center to deliver Goodman.  Vern Stephens goes the other way, scorching one to right-center.  Birdie Tebbetts and pinch-hitter Matt Batts come around to tie the game 9-9.  Then in the ninth seldom-used Tommy O'Brien belts a three-run homer over the LF wall... Boston wins 12-9.  Boston wins a tight one the next day, 3-2.

But the Yankees put game 144 away early - in the top of the first.  Gehrig and Dickey line run-scoring hits to right.  Tony Lazzeri then puts his stamp on things, crushing a 411 foot homer to deep right, delivering Gehrig and Dickey... 5-0.  Gehrig homers with one on in the eighth, and NY wins going away, 9-3.  

New York is now 78-66.

Batting Race at 144 games: 

Joe DiMaggio -    .357 (220-616)  31 HR  131 RBI

Ted Williams -    .353 (200-566) 24 HR  153 RBI

George Selkirk -  .349 (192-550) 46 HR 165 RBI

Game 145: Fenway Park 1949  NY wins 11-10.  NY is 79-66
With the season decided, the two squads travel 109 miles and 62 years to visit 2011 and the new Yankee Stadium, opened in 2009.
Game 146: Yankee Stadium 2011, NY wins 10-7.  NY is 80-66.  The Iron Horse homers (28th) and drives in three.  Lefty Gomez wins 18th.  
Game 147: Yankee Stadium 2011, NY wins 7-4.  NY is 81-66.
Tony Lazzeri homers twice and plates five.Red Ruffing wins (18-10, 4.53). 
Game 148: Yankee Stadium 2011, NY wins 14-5. NY is 82-66. 
Lou Gehrig homers (29th) drives in SEVEN! 
Game 149: Yankee Stadium 2011, Boston 9-4. NY is 82-67.  Williams drives in three. His 166 RBI tie him with New York's George Selkirk for the overall lead.  Al Zarilla becomes the fourth Red Sox player and eighth overall to reach 100 RBI.  
Game 150: Yankee Stadium 2011, Boston 10-6. NY is 82-68.  Vern Stephens hits three homers for the second time this season; drives in six.   
  

Batting Race at 148 games: 

Joe DiMaggio -  .364 (230-632) 32 HR 140 RBI

Ted Williams -   .359 (210-585) 26 HR 163 RBI

George Selkirk   .349 (196-561) 47 HR 166 RBI

.  

Batting Race at 149 games:

Joe DiMaggio -    .366 BA 32 HR 140 RBI

Ted Williams -    .358 BA 26 HR 166 RBI
George Selkirk - .350 BA 47 HR 166 RBI

Game 150: Boston wins 10-6.  

Game 151: Fenway Park 2011   NY wins 18-12.  NY 83-68.

NYY -  2 5 5   0 0 3  0 1 2 -  18  26  2

BOS -  0 0 0  4 0 6  0 2 0 -  12  17  0

Lou Gehrig homers (30) and drives in  SEVEN - AGAIN!
Batting Race at 151 games:

Joe DiMaggio -     .366 (.3663), 33 HR 146 RBI

Ted Williams -      .366 (.3656), 29 HR 173 RBI

George Selkirk -   .355, 48 HR 169 RBI

Game 152: Fenway Park 2011   Boston wins 8-7.  NY 83-69.  
Al Zarilla doubles three times (65 for season) and drives in three.
Game 153: Fenway Park 2011   Boston wins 7-5.  NY 83-70.  
Zarilla smacks 66th two-bagger, plates three more.
Game 154: Fenway Park 2011   Boston wins 8-6.  NY 83-71.  
The Splendiid Splinter reaches base five times (3 hits, 2 walks).  Al Zarilla knocks in three for the third straight day to close out the season.  Besides helping Boston close the season strong, the Red Sox right-fielder scores one for integrity and teamwork.  Coming into the game Al Zarilla has 66 two-base hits.  One more would tie Earl Webb's all-time single season record.  In the third with a man on and Boston trailing by two, Zarilla lines one into deepest right-center.  Billy Goodman flies all the way around from first.  Zarilla, looking over his shoulder, flies around second and cruises into third... even though his 3rd base coach - and his teammates in the dugout - are all yelling for Al to stop at second.  Zarila scores the game tying tally moments later when Vern Stephens doubles high off the left field wall.  
"I never even considered it."  Zarilla says after the game, with a grin. "I'm the tying run.  One out.  I gotta take third, where I can tie the game on an out."  Zarilla shrugs and grins again.  "Look, records are nice.  But winning is nicer.  Can't be thinking of numbers while your teammates are bustin' their butts trying to take the game."
154 games     NY 83-71

Final Batting Statistics

1949 Red Sox        AB    H      BA    SA  HR   RBI   2B   3B

Dom DiMaggio     693   202   .291  .391    5      50    46     4

Johnny Pesky      664   212   .319  .407     1     96    51     2

Ted Williams         609   225   .369  .612   30   177    52     3

Vern Stephens     642   182   .283  .531   39   158    38     2

Bobby Doerr         634   218   .344  .565   24   141    60     4

Al Zarilla                653   197   .302  .461   10   110    66     4

Billy Goodman     629   199   .316  .382     1      91    38     0

Birdie Tebbetts    555   144   .259  .326     4      58    25     0

1937 Yankees

Frank Crosetti     683    161   .236   .325  10     62     25     3

Tom Henrich       422    143   .339   .528  12     73     34     5

Lou Gehrig          600    209   .348   .577  32    161    39     1

Joe DiMaggio      661    243   .368   .584  33    147    26     9

George Selkirk    588    207   .352   .660  48    172    23     7

Bill Dickey           610   189    .310   .467  20    122    36     0

Myril Hoag          350   109     .311   .420    1      43    29     3

Tony Lazzeri       572   145    .253   .379  13      87    31     1

Red Rolfe            611   165    .270   .327    4      60    19     2