Frolicking in Flatbush
Braves at Dodgers, April 25, 1949
Frolicking in Flatbush
I want to make something clear here. The 1949 Brooklyn Dodgers were actually a good team.
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. This team stinks, right? They’re 1-6 so far, and they can’t hit the broad side of a barn.
Trust me, though: these players can hit. They did quite well in real life, too. In fact, it was right around this time that they started to hit well in the real 1949 season, in part because of Roy Campanella’s emergence as their starting catcher.
At least, that’s what The Brooklyn Eagle reported on April 25th:
There was still enough of a question as to whether Bruce Edwards would be able to play regularly, though, for The Sporting News to print this on May 4:
Of course, as we know in hindsight, Campanella was a far better choice, both offensively and defensively.
Braves at Dodgers
The scoreboard read like binary code, which most people had never heard of in 1949. It was one of those strange games where neither team could string together more than a single run at a time.
Highlights were realtively few and far between. Brooklyn fans were certainly questioning the choice of the rookie catcher in the top of the 1st, as Bob Elliott led things off:
The Dodgers managed to stop the National League champions from scoring, however — and then Carl Furillo came up with two on and two out in the bottom of the 1st:
Tommy Holmes answered back quickly for the Braves with one on in the top of the 2nd:
Another poor play by Campy at the plate, and you got the feeling that the Brooklyn faithful were quickly losing patience.
Bats
But then came the Brooklyn bats.
It started off with Duke Snider in the bottom of the 3rd:
That made the score 2-1, and up came Campanella to redeem himself in the bottom of the 4th:
I had stuck Campanella down to 8th in the order due to his hitting slump. Who knows — maybe this is what he needs to get it truned around?
Billy Cox came up in the bottom of the 6th, again with nobody on:
Bingo is right — and now the Dodgers had a commanding 4-1 lead. Brooklyn added one more in the bottom of the 7th to make it 5-1.
The Comeback
The Braves weren’t going to go down quietly, though.
Ebbets Field was never exactly a cavernous ballpark, and it sure showed in this one. Marv Rickert came up in the top of the 8th, and you could hear the groan all around the burough:
The score was now 5-2. Ralph Branca looked like he could keep going for another inning, and so I kept him in to see what would happen.
That may have been a mistake.
The top of the 9th started off with a walk to Holmes after 6 pitches. That brought up Phil Masi:
I’ve got to blame Branca for not getting to first on time. Masi, a 33-year-old catcher not known for his speed, somehow managed to beat out that single, and there were now two on with nobody out.
Pete Reiser, who had been a Dodger as recently as December 1948, walked on four pitches.
Now it was crunch time. The bases were loaded with nobody out. We had a 5-2 lead, but the potential winning run was at the plate in the person of Bob Elliott.
I had no choice. I simply had to make a change.
And so I took out Branca and brought in Pat McGlothin — and started muttering prayers to myself as I slowly walked back to the dugout.
Elliott made an out, though he also managed to score a run:
That made one out, with runners at first and second, the score now Dodgers 5, Braves 3.
Up came Al Dark, another dangerous hitter. Dark grounded out to second, moving both runners up.
That brought up Eddie Stanky, with none other than Rickert on deck.
Now it’s time for you to think like a manager. What would you do in this situation?
Stanky was clearly the better hitter. The percentages called for us to walk Stanky and pitch to Rickert.
Then again, Rickert had just homered off of us in the 8th inning. I thought McGlothin had better stuff than Branca, but I didn’t want to give a hot batter a chance to beat us. I was going to look awfully silly giving Marv a chance to hurt us twice, and I’d never hear the end of it in the city if Brooklyn lost yet another game.
Still, first base looked mighty lonely, and it was mighty tempting to just put Stanky on. After all, putting him on set up a force out at any base.
It also wouldn’t hurt us that badly if Rickert hurt us instead of Stanky. We still had a 2 run lead, after all. The difference between run number 3 and run number 4 wasn’t really all that great. What we needed to do was whatever gave us the better chance of getting the man at the plate out, regardless of how many people were on base. I’d put 9 men on base in this situation if the rules allowed for it.
And so I made my decision:
Boy, that play by play announcer will sure make you quiver in your boots, won’t he?
Remember, too, that I was recording this game as I played it. I don’t do retakes, and I don’t really do a lot of post-recording editing. What you see is live. If I make a mistake, it still goes up, and the whole world can laught at me.
And so we pitched to Rickert, bases loaded, up by 2 in the top of the 9th, trying to stop the 1-6 skid at the start of the season:
I told you I’m a genius!
9 hits were nice, but we did strand 9 runners. And there were a total of 12 walks in this game, which was a really ugly affair. That’s 1949 for you.