Five AL Pennants - Four World Championships
1941
New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers
Yankees win Series 4-1
The Yankees returned to the World Series after a year's absence to face their
neighbors, the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Yankees won the opener 3-2 behind Red Ruffing's
pitching and second baseman Joe Gordon's solo homer and RBI single. Game 2 ended in the
same score, 3-2, with the Dodgers coming out on top behind a complete-game effort by Whit
Wyatt.
In Game 3, the Yankees' Marius Russo and the Dodgers' Freddie Fitzsimmons battled for
seven scoreless innings. In the eighth, Russo scorched a liner off Fitzsimmons' knee,
bumping him out of the game. In the next inning, the Dodgers' Hugh Casey gave up a pair of
runs to the Yankees, and Russo finished the game off for a 2-1 Yankees' win.
The Dodgers led Game 4 by a score of 4-3 with two outs in the ninth. Hugh Casey struck
out Tommy Henrich for what should have been the final out, but Dodgers' catcher Mickey
Owen dropped the ball. Henrich reached first base, starting a four-run rally that gave the
Yankees an improbable 7-4 win. The Yankees' Tiny Bonham wrapped up the Series title with a
four-hitter in Game Five.
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1942
New York Yankees vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Cardinals Win Series 4-1
The New York Yankees started off Game 1 against the St. Louis Cardinals by scoring
seven runs, four of them unearned for a 7-0 lead into the ninth. The Cardinals rallied for
four runs in the ninth and had the bases loaded with two outs, but Stan Musial grounded
out to end the game. Enos Slaughter helped the Cardinals come back with a win in Game 2,
doubling and scoring the go-ahead run and then throwing out Tuck Stainback at third base
in the top of the ninth to preserve the 4-3 win.
The Cardinals built on the victory with with a six-hit shutout by Ernie White in Game
3. The Cardinals' Mort Cooper was knocked around in Game 4, but his brother Walker singled
in the decisive run in the seventh and the Cardinals finished with a 9-6 win.
After eight innings of Game 5, the score was knotted at two runs apiece, with starters
Johnny Beazley for the Cardinals and Red Ruffing for the Yankees going all the way. Walker
Cooper led off with a single in the top of the ninth was sacrificed to second. Whitey
Kurowski was hoping for a run-scoring single to break the tie but instead hit a homer just
inside the left-field foul pole. Beazley escaped a no-out, two-on jam in the bottom of the
ninth to clinch the World Championship for the Cardinals.
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1943
New York Yankees vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Yankees Win Series 4 - 1
The New York Yankees came back in 1943 to avenge their loss to the St. Louis Cardinals
the year before. Spud Chandler went the distance for the Yankees in Game 1, allowing just
two runs on seven hits while Franke Corsetti scored the decisive run, scoring all the way
from second on a wild pitch in the sixth inning. Home runs by Marty Marion and Ray Sanders
helped Mort Cooper hold a 4-3 win for the Cardinals in Game 2.
The Yankees scored five runs in the eighth inning of Game 3, the highlight coming on
Billy Johnson's bases-loaded triple, and the Yankees won 6-2. The Yankees' Marius Russo
took care of everything in Game 4. He went the distance on the mound, allowing one run,
and scored the go-ahead run after hitting his second double of the game.
Chandler wrapped up the Series with a ten-hit shutout in Game 5, with Bill Dickey's
two-run homer providing all the offense the Yankees needed.
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1947
New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers
Yankees win Series 4-3
The New York Yankees faced the Brooklyn Dodgers in the first post-World War II
"Subway Series" in 1947. The Yankees scored five runs in the fifth inning to win
Game 1 by a score of 5-3. The Yankees cruised in Game 2, with Johnny Lindell providing two
RBI on the way to a 10-3 drubbing of the Dodgers. The Dodgers finally showed some life in
Game 3 by jumping out to a 6-0 lead and holding on for a 9-8 victory.
The Yankees' Bill Bevens took a no-hitter and a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth
inning in Game 4. Pinch-hitter Cookie Lavagetto came to the plate with two on and two
outs, and promptly ruined the no-hitter and won the game for the Dodgers with a double.
Yankee Spec Shea, who won Game 1, pitched even better in Game 5, holding the Dodgers to
one run, and helping his own cause by driving in the first of the Yankees' two runs. A
record crowd of 74,065 saw the Dodgers win Game 6 with help from Al
Gionfriddo, who made a
fantastic catch on Joe DiMaggio's drive in the sixth, preventing a three-run homer that
would have tied the game. Joe Page then pitched five shutout innings of relief to help the
Yankees to a 5-2 Game 7 win and the World Series Championship.
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1949
New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers
Yankees win Series 4-1
Game 1 of the 1949 World Series was one of the great pitching duels, this one between
the New York Yankees' Allie Reynolds and the Brooklyn Dodgers' Don Newcombe. After eight
innings, Reynolds had only allowed two hits, with four walks and nine strikeouts, and
Newcombe had allowed four hits, with no walks and 11 strikeouts. Reynolds retired the
Dodgers in the top of the ninth, but Tommy Henrich smashed a home run in the bottom of the
inning for the game-winner.
Preacher Roe evened the Series for the Dodgers with a six-hit shutout in Game 2, with
Jackie Robinson scoring the only run of the game on Gil Hodges' RBI single in the second
inning. Game 3 was tied into the ninth inning until the Yankees' Johnny Mize broke it open
with a pinch-hit, two-run single. The Dodgers rallied but fell short and the Yankees won
4-3.
The Yankees scored a 6-4 win in game 4, highlighted by three RBI from Bobby Brown. The
Yanks then clinched it with a 10-6 win in Game 5. The lights at Ebbets Field were turned
on in the ninth inning of the final game, marking the first time a World Series contest
was played under the lights.
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