The World Series Read Online Free PDF

right spot, there was little chance he would be able to outrun a throw to first.
    Shotton decided to risk it. He also risked giving Gionfriddo the steal sign. Both risks paid off. Gionfriddo slid under Phil
     Rizzuto's throw, landing safely at second, and Bevens intentionally walked Reiser. There were runners at first and second,
     and two outs.
    So far, the Yankees hadn't given up a single hit in the game; the Dodgers' one run had come on walks and an error. If they
     got the next batter out, New York would be the first team to win a no-hitter in the World Series.
    Of course, that was the last thing Brooklyn wanted.Shotton sent pinch hitter Cookie Lavagetto to the plate with one order: Get a hit.
    Lavagetto obeyed. On the second pitch, he blasted the ball far into the right field toward the concrete wall. He took off
     for first. Eddie Miksis, running for Reiser, dashed for second. Gionfriddo ran for third.
    Meanwhile, outfielder Tommy Henrich was fading back. He had a choice: jump up against the wall to try to make the game-ending
     catch or pick up the ball after it hit the dirt and hope he could throw out a runner before the winning run was scored.
    With a history-making no-hit game on the line, he went for the catch — only realizing seconds later that the catch was impossible
     to make. The ball ricocheted off the concrete at a crazy angle. By the time Henrich got his hands on it, not one but two runners
     had touched home plate. The Dodgers won the game, 3–2!
    The Series now stood at two games each. It was still tied after the next two meetings. That sixth game, a Brooklyn win, was
     memorable for one truly remarkable play.
    It was 8-5 at the bottom of the sixth. The firstYankee batter got out on a line drive, the second got a free ticket to first, the third popped out into foul territory, and
     the fourth got a single. That brought up New York's finest, Joe DiMaggio. With two men on, two men out, he needed a hit.
    He connected on southpaw reliever Joe Hatten's first pitch. The ball soared into the left field near the bull pen. The runners
     took off and crossed home plate. DiMaggio rounded first at full speed and then, certain his hit was a home run, slowed to
     a jog.
    Outfielder Al Gionfriddo wasn't jogging, however. He was sprinting. When that fly ball came down, he was there to make the
     catch. And what a catch it was — a beautiful, over-the-shoulder, top-of-the-wall, one-handed nab that robbed DiMaggio of his
     homer, erased the two runs, and ended the inning with the Dodgers still ahead by three! And when the game ended with Brooklyn
     still up by two, the 1947 World Series was forced into the seventh and final game.
    The Dodgers were still riding high when they entered Yankee Stadium for the last game. In the second inning, they knocked
     in two runs.
    Unfortunately for Brooklyn fans, those two runs were all the Dodgers would get. New York answeredwith a run in the second, and then added two more in the fourth, one in the sixth, and one in the seventh. The game, and the
     Series, ended in the top of the ninth with a classic, shortstop-to-second-to-first double play.
    The Dodgers had lasted longer against the Yankees than anyone had expected. But in the end, the Yankees were simply too powerful,
     that year and in the years to come. The two teams battled for the championship title several more times in the next decade,
     but only once did the Dodgers come out on top.

CHAPTER FIVE
1950s
1955: The Dynasty Is Toppled — Once
    Baseball in the 1950s was dominated by one team: the New York Yankees. From 1950 to 1959, they earned trips to the World Series
     an amazing eight times, winning seven. Three of those wins came after they beat the Brooklyn Dodgers. But in 1955, it was
     the Dodgers who at last bested their archrivals.
    The 1954 Series was one of the two series not to feature the Yankees. That year, the other New York team, the Giants, pounded
     the Cleveland Indians four games to none. But the 1954