Dom DiMaggio's Replacement
Red Sox at Tigers, 5/3/1949
Dom DiMaggio’s Replacement
I was surprised when I set up the lineups to see that Dom DiMaggio wasn’t available. He’s been hitting over .400 in this replay, and was also hitting over .400 at this point in real life.
I thought he might have suffered a temporary injury, but I was wrong. This is what really happened:
DiMaggio missed this series due to his father’s funeral. This is one of the reasons why it’s so important to have access to original newspapers. Little details like this can be lost otherwise.
2nd Inning
I thought for a second that the Red Sox would break this one open early. Bobby Doerr led off the top of the 2nd with a double, and was then bunted to third by weak-hitting Billy Hitchcock. And that brought up Stan Spence, DiMaggio’s replacement:
We had the infield in, but to no avail. The Red Sox were up, 1-0, and the top of the order came up after starter Hal Newhouser walked pitcher Joe Dobson. However, the Red Sox did no further damage.
The Tigers came back right away. Catcher Aaron Robinson led off with a single, and advanced to second on a ground out by Paul Campbell. And that brought up Johnny Lipon:
8th Inning Rally
Things went quiet after that. In fact, it was so quiet that you could have confused it for one of my 1908 games.
However, the Red Sox started to piece it together in the top of the 8th. With a runner on first and two out, Dobson walked, as Newhouser seemed to really fall apart. And that brought up none other than Ted Williams:
Up came Vern Stephens, with a chance to really bust things open:
Side retired.
10th Inning
Things were quiet until we reached the bottom of the 10th.
With one out, Neil Berry singled for Detroit. That brought up Pat Mullin:
Now Detroit had two chances to drive in the run. And up came none other than George Kell, the man who famously won the batting title in real life:
I had no choice, of course. With a double play ground ball, I simply had to try to send Berry home to win the game. Even if Kell beat it out, which I strongly doubted was going to happen, we’d have runners on first and third with two outs. Instead we had runners on first and second with two outs.
Johnny Groth grounded out, however, and that ended that.
11th Inning
Poor George. He was so close to winning the game for the Tigers. And now Boston was going to make him pay.
Billy Goodman pinch hit for Dobson to lead off the top of the 11th:
Williams flew out to right for the first out. Stephens stepped up there, and Goodman managed to steal second base. And that led to this:
That made the score 2-1 — but Boston wasn’t done. Another base hit was followed by a walk, a pitching change, another walk, and another single. Hitchcock finally grounded out to third for only the second out, the score already 4-1.
Boston tacked one more before Detroit finally retired the side in the top of the 11th. And, well, that was the ballgame.
If you were wondering how good the Red Sox were offensively in 1949, pay attention to the left on base stats. Boston left 16 runners on base in this game, and still managed to win 5-1.
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this Boston lineup. They just need to work on that pitching staff.
Interestingly, the real game ended after 13 innings because of darkness with the game tied 14-to-14. Red Rolfe: “In one of the wildest, weirdest most exciting games that I ever expect to be a part of we alternatively won, lost, should have won and tied the game. Hutchinson started the contest and had little.”
The Red Sox of that era were certainly a good hit, no pitch team. The lineup top to bottom was devasting. Other than Mel Parnell, Ellis Kinder and Joe Dobson, the pitching was awful. The 1950 version was even more fearsome at bat than the 1949 version. In 1950, the Bosox batted .302 as a team. No team has batted .300 for a season since then and, considering the style of today's baseball, likely never will. In 1950, every Red Sox starter batted .300+. The one exception, Bobby Doerr, hit .294 with 27 home runs and 120 RBI. As in 1948 & 1949, the 1950 Red Sox were close, came close to winning the pennant but, in the end, finished in 3rd place, 4 games behind the Yankees and a game behind the Tigers.
I am curious about the Red Sox lineup in the game reported in this posting. Ted Williams was the leadoff hitter and Vern Stephens batted second. In the real life 1949 season, Williams batted 3rd and Stephens 4th. How did that batting order come about?
By the way, true to form, in real life the Red Sox and Tigers played to a 14-14, 13-inning tie on May 3, 1949. Williams went 3 for 7 with a homer and 5 RBI. Stephens went 5 for 7 with a homer and 4 RBI.