Adcock’s Record
Back before the ballparks shrunk, bats were manufactured with specific sweet spots, and batters were allowed to wear all sorts of body armor to the plate, Joe Adcock set the record for most total bases in a single game.
It’s since been broken - but it’s hard at times to take modern offensive records seriously. Adcock racked up 18 total bases, and did so in the days before batting helmets were mandatory.
And, fittingly, Adcock broke the record in Brooklyn, which is where Hodges set it four years earlier - and against the Braves, too.
The Brooklyn Eagle printed this foreboding warning on July 31st:
I’m not sure you can even print a headline like that today without getting some sort of special permission.
The Dodgers and Giants were battling it out for the pennant. The Braves weren’t all that far behind:
Of course, with Newcombe on the mound, the Dodgers probably fancied their chances that afternoon.
And in this case the headline really tells the story:
Interestingly enough, though, the best description of the feat came in the Brooklyn newspapers:
While the 1954 newspapers didn’t quite have the poetic beauty of the earlier journalists, there were still a few interesting tidbits like this one:
And this was a pretty nice touch:
Interestingly enough, the crowd in Brooklyn was relatively small:
This was a Saturday afternoon game featuring two teams in the pennant race, played right in the heart of the summer. And they barely drew over 12,000 people.
Keep that in mind when you wonder why the Dodgers moved.
Not a great day for editors: Dave Anderson misspelled Eddie Mathews's last name both times -- the guy led the league in home runs the year before, so it wasn't for lack of familiarity with him -- and the headline writer called him Aaron. (And Adcock;s 18 total bases got typoed down to 17 in your second paragraph. At least you can correct that one.)