Well, let's take a step back:
April 15, 1941: The Brooklyn Dodgers open the season with a lot of hope. They hadn't won a National League Pennant since 1920, and hadn't been in a Pennant race since 1924. But they had been rebuilt, under the auspices of team president Larry MacPhail. He had renovated Ebbets Field, hired Walter "Red" Barber as radio broadcaster, traded for shortstop Leo Durocher, made Durocher the manager, and made other key transactions, including trading for Durocher's replacement as shortstop, Harold "Pee Wee" Reese.
After going 62-91 in the last pre-MacPhail season, 1937, the Dodgers improved to 69-80 in 1938. In 1939, they improved to 84-69, 3rd place, but still 12 1/2 games behind the Pennant-winning Cincinnati Reds. In 1940, they were 88-65, 2nd place, but still 12 games behind the Pennant-winning Reds.
Still, hopes were high for 1941. But their opening series, at home to their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, was a flop: They were swept 3 straight, 6-4, 3-1 and 7-5. It wasn't that surprising: The Giants still had some of the players that had won Pennants in 1933 (also winning the World Series that year), 1936 and 1937. Then the Dodgers went up to Boston and turned it around, sweeping a 3-game series from the Braves.
April 20, 1941: The Dodgers and Giants started a new series. It was the Giants' home opener at the Polo Grounds, with a full house of 56,314 on hand. Remembering that Joe Medwick, the former St. Louis Cardinal slugger had been beaned shortly after MacPhail had traded for him, the Dodgers came to bat with metal inserts inside their caps. This was the 1st step toward baseball teams wearing batting helmets. The Dodgers won the game, 10-9, and ended up taking 2 out of 3 in the series.
From April 18 to 30, the Dodgers went 13-1. They ended the month in 1st place by 1 game. From May 6 to 14, they rattled off a 7-game winning streak. Then, through May 22, they lost 6 straight. Then, through June 1, they won 9 straight. They were tied for 1st with the Cardinals, with the next-closest team, the Giants, being 8 games behind.
But after June 1, they went downhill again. From June 2 to 18, they went 6-8. Then they got going again, winning 15 out of 19 decisions (plus a game that was called due to rain while tied) through July 11. They were 3 1/2 games ahead of the Cardinals. After losing 2, they won another 4, to go 4 games up.
This streaky team then took another downturn, going 2-10, including going 0-4 against the Cards, plus a game that was called due to darkness after 12 innings, as the Cards' Sportsman's Park didn't yet have lights. At the close of business on July 30, the Dodgers trailed the Cards by 3 games. They were playing like "Dem Bums" of old.
But they closed July by taking the finale of their series in St. Louis, 9-5. That started another hot streak, going 9-1 through August 11. But the Cards stayed hot, too, so, by that date, the teams were tied for 1st. The Dodgers won 5 straight: A doubleheader in Boston on August 17, a single game at home to the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 18, and a doubleheader against the Pirates on August 19. But no matter what the Dodgers did, they couldn't shake the Cards: As late as September 3, the teams were tied for 1st.
The Dodgers got hot one more time, going 13-6 from September 6 to 24. This run included a 10-inning win at home to the Giants on the 7th, an 11-inning win away to the Cards on the 11th, and 4 runs in the top of the 17th to beat the defending World Champion Reds.
September 25, 1941: The Dodgers can clinch their 1st Pennant in 21 years today, if they beat the Boston Braves at Braves Field in Boston. If not, there are 2 games left, both at home to the woeful Philadelphia Phillies.
They need not have worried. Whitlow Wyatt pitches a shutout for his 22nd win of the season, and is backed by a home run by Pete Reiser. The Dodgers win, 6-0.
Listening on the radio back at Ebbets Field, MacPhail calls the New York Central Railroad office at Grand Central Terminal. He wants the Dodgers' train back from Boston's Back Bay Station stopped at 125th Street, the last stop before Grand Central, so he can get on, and then get off with them to enjoy the party on arrival.
On the train, already a party every bit as chaotic as the plane flight the Mets would have back from Houston 45 years later, Durocher is told this, and he tells the conductor to forget the order, and plow right on through to Grand Central. Why should their fans wait any longer to celebrate, just because MacPhail's massive ego wanted some validation? And so, the train barrels right on through 125th Street, leaving MacPhail fuming on the platform.
The next day, MacPhail calls Durocher into his office, and fires him on the spot. Durocher appeals to the team's various owners, including the young lawyer operating the Brooklyn Trust bank's 1/4 share of the team, Walter O'Malley. MacPhail is overruled.
The Dodgers and their fans are feeling particularly potent right now. They are convinced that they will beat the Yankees in the World Series, and take over New York.
*
It is a difficult time for the world. World War II is on, and Nazi Germany is still pounding Great Britain with bombs, but the Royal Air Force renders them unable to make a crossing of the English Channel for a land invasion. Every country in Western Europe has been either conquered by the Nazis or, as in the case with the already-fascist-ruled nations of Italy, Spain and Portugal, and the neutral nations of Switzerland and Sweden, taken into their diplomatic orbit. And they have invaded the Soviet Union, and are besieging Leningrad, and are knocking on the door of Moscow itself. The Red Army is digging in.
And in the Pacific region, the Empire of Japan is truly a rising Sun, having effectively taken over Korea, Japan, and the Dutch East Indies (the eventual Indonesia). They are threatening British and French interests in Southeast Asia, and even Australia. As would soon be seen, even American possessions in the Pacific Ocean are not safe.
But baseball has been America's distraction from the threat of being dragging into this horrible war. The Dodgers had that great Pennant race. The Yankees ran away with the American League Pennant, due largely to the 56-game hitting streak that Joe DiMaggio had from May 15 to July 16. And Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox had batted .406, clinching the .400 batting average on the season's last day, September 28.
*
October 1, 1941, a Wednesday: The Moscow Conference ends. Averell Harriman, the American Ambassador to the Soviet Union (and later the Governor of New York), met with Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. Harriman convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to supply the Soviets with $1 billion worth of arms and equipment, as part of the Lend-Lease program FDR had already undertaken with Britain and the Soviet Union. Not to be outdone, the Nazis opened the Majdanek concentration camp outside Lublin, Poland.
And Game 1 of the World Series is played at Yankee Stadium. Durocher surprises everyone by choosing Curt Davis as his starting pitcher. He later admits he messed up the Dodgers' rotation for the Series, one of the few times Leo the Lip admits a mistake, rather than blaming someone else.
In hindsight, while the rotation was all out of whack, Davis pitched fairly well. But a home run by Joe Gordon and the pitching of Charles "Red" Ruffing gave the Yankees a 3-2 win.
October 2, 1941, a Thursday: Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany issues a message to his troops on the Eastern Front: "Today begins the last great, decisive battle of this year." By this, he means the assault intended to take the Soviet capital of Moscow. In the Lithuanian city of Žagarė, the Nazis massacre 2,146 Jews.
October 3, 1941, a Friday: The Maltese Falcon premieres, starring Humphrey Bogart as San Francisco private investigator Sam Spade. If "Bogie" wasn't already a legend, he certainly became one with this film. It was the 3rd film version of Dashiell Hammett's mystery novel, following the 1931 film of the same title (with Ricardo Cortez as Spade) and the 1936 film Satan Met a Lady (Warren William).
Ernest Evans was born. He would become known as Chubby Checker, the man who popularized (though did not create, nor write the song about) the dance craze The Twist. On the same day, a film version of Dashiell Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon premiered, starring Humphrey Bogart as private detective Sam Spade.
Given the proximity of the teams, a travel day wasn't necessary for the World Series, but it got one, anyway.
October 4, 1941, a Saturday: This was the birthdate of journalist Roy Blount Jr., horror novelist Anne Rice, and Elizabeth Eckford of the Little Rock Nine, and Anne Rice.
Game 3 of the World Series is played at Ebbets Field. The game is scoreless in the 7th inning, with Fred Fitzsimmons throwing goose eggs for the Brooklyn team, and Marius Russo doing so for the Bronx outfit. Russo comes to bat, and launches a line drive off Fat Freddie's kneecap. The ball caroms to shortstop Reese, who throws Russo out to the end inning.
On the official World Series highlight film, it's not clear how bad the injury is. Fitzsimmons is shown limping off the field under his own power -- probably a good thing, since he would have been pretty hard to carry off with all that weight. But the film is misleading: It turns out that the kneecap is broken.
Once an All-Star for the Giants, Fitzsimmons seemed to specialize in beating the Dodgers. But in 1937, a slow start led the Giants to trade him to the Dodgers, a big mistake. He was welcomed by the Flatbush Faithful, and they wouldn't have won the Pennant without him. Durocher said, "I wish we had 9 guys like Fitz. We'd never lose."
But now, he was permanently injured. At age 41, he would pitch just 1 game in 1942, and 9 more in 1943, before accepting his injury and retiring to the coaching ranks. He also ran a popular bowling alley in Brooklyn for many years.
Durocher was forced to bring Hugh Casey in to pitch the top of the 8th. The 1st relief pitcher to be called "The Fireman," because he "put out fires," he got the 1st out, but allowed 4 straight singles, scoring 2 runs. Russo allowed a double to Fred "Dixie" Walker and a single to Reese, but hung on to for a complete-game 2-1 win. The Yankees now led, 2 games to 1.
October 5, 1941, 80 years ago, a Sunday. Louis Brandeis, one of the greatest Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, died. The rest of the calendar year would feature the births of the Rev. Jesse Jackson; music personalities Paul Simon, Helen Reddy and Maurice White; actor Beau Bridges; British soccer icons Geoff Hurst and Alex Ferguson; and baseball figures Tim McCarver, Mel Stottlemyre, Darold Knowles and Ken Hubbs.
Arnold Malcolm Owen -- sometimes incorrectly listed as "Mickey Owens," but there was never an S on the end -- was a 4-time National League All-Star as catcher for the Dodgers, was elected a County Sheriff, and ran the Mickey Owen Baseball School. For the last 64 years of his life, he was decent enough to field questions about the one part of his life that everyone seems to remember.
In Game 4 of the World Series at Ebbets Field, Charlie Keller of the Yankees singled home a run off Kirby Higbe of the Dodgers in the 1st inning. In the top of the 4th, Johnny Sturm singled home 2 runs to make it 3-0 Yankees.
But in the bottom of the 4th, the Dodgers closed to within 3-2 when Jimmy Wasdell doubled home 2 men that Atley Donald had walked. In the 5th, Reiser hit a home run to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead.
Reiser was the NL's batting champion that season. The Cardinals had been scouting him since he was 12 years old. He was so talented that Durocher, later to manage the Giants and thus manager Willie Mays, said that Reiser might have been better. But he ended up crashing into outfield walls to make catches, much like Lenny Dykstra in the 1980s and '90s. And when Reiser did it, those walls were not padded. Injuries caught up with him, and he was never able to live up to his Hall of Fame-level talent.
The 4-3 Dodger lead held up until the top of the 9th. Casey got the 1st 2 outs. Tommy Henrich came to the plate as the Yankees' last hope. Casey got 2 strikes on him. Then he threw…
Casey said it was a curveball. Henrich also said he thought it was a curveball. But many observers, including the Yankees' rookie shortstop, Phil Rizzuto, said that they thought it was a spitball.
Henrich swung and missed. Strike 3. Ballgame over. Dodgers win, and the World Series is tied at 2 games apiece.
Except… Owen didn't catch the 3rd strike! The ball tailed away from him, as spitballs have been known to do, and he couldn't hold onto it. It rolled all the way to the screen. Henrich saw this, and ran to 1st, and Owen didn't even have time to get off a throw.
He later recalled: "It wasn't a strike. It was a low inside curve that I should have had. But I guess the ball struck my glove, and by the time I got hold of it, I couldn't have thrown anybody out at first. It was an error."
It is the most famous passed ball in baseball history, but if it was a spitball, which was and remains an illegal pitch anyway, then it should, instead, have been credited as a wild pitch, and be the most famous one of those, and Casey, rather than Owen, should be faulted.
No matter. Casey only needed to get 1 more out. Even if Henrich represented the tying run and the next batter represented the winning run. Just 1 more out.
The batter was DiMaggio. Uh-oh, you don't give the Yankee Clipper a written invitation to keep a game alive. Especially not in 1941, when he had become the most celebrated athlete in America, ahead of Ted Williams; ahead of football stars Sammy Baugh, Sid Luckman and Don Hutson; ahead of even the Heavyweight Champion of the World, Joe Louis.
DiMaggio singled to left. Now the tying run was on 2nd, the potential winning run on 1st. But there were still 2 outs. If Casey could get the next batter, the game would still end, however precariously, with a Dodger victory.
The batter was Keller. At this point in his career, before a back injury curtailed it, he looked like he was headed to the Hall of Fame. And he did nothing to dispel that in this at-bat: He rocketed a Casey delivery off the right-field wall, and Henrich and DiMaggio scored.
Keller would later say, "When I got to 2nd base, you could have heard a pin drop in Ebbets Field." The noisiest, most raucous ballpark of his time had been stunned into silence.
The Yankees scored 2 more runs in the inning, and won 7-4. They now led 3 games to 1.
5. Hugh Casey. He threw the pitch. Even if the pitch was a curve, a totally legal pitch, it was still in a bad spot. And Casey was never the most clutch of relief pitchers.
4. Leo Durocher. The Dodger manager messed up the pitching rotation that had won the Pennant. And he admitted it, a rare occasion when Leo the Lip didn't blame someone else, such as an umpire or a dirty player on the other team, and didn't try to claim credit solely for himself.
Durocher started Curt Davis in Game 1, on 9 days' rest. He could have had an additional start in between. Game 2: Whitlow Wyatt, on 7 days' rest. He could have had an additional start in between, or started the opener, since he was the Dodgers' current ace.
Fred Fitzsimmons, once a great Giant pitcher and a Dodger nemesis, once hated but now beloved by Dodger fans, pitched on September 18, and Durocher didn't use him again until Game 3 of the Series -- 16 days later! He could have had 3 additional starts. The fact that Fat Freddie pitched pretty well in Game 3 helps Durocher, but not much. In Game 4, he started Kirby Higbe, who was on 11 days' rest, so he could have had 2 additional starts. In Game 5, he started Wyatt on 3 days' rest.
The rotation should have been Wyatt, Fitzsimmons, Higbe, Wyatt again, and then, if it went further than that, Fitzsimmons in Game 5, Higbe in Game 6, and Wyatt again in Game 7. Instead, Durocher really blew it.
3. Marius Russo -- Two-Way Threat. The day before, in Game 3, Russo had not only pitched brilliantly, but hit a line drive off Fitzsimmons' knee, literally knocking him out of the game and the Series.
2. Tommy Henrich. He was alert enough to realize that he could take 1st, and it was DiMaggio and Keller who followed it up with key hits.
1. The Yankees Were Better. Certainly, with many of the men on that '41 team having played on World Championship teams in '39 and '38, some in '37 and '36, a few even in '32, they were much more experienced.
The Dodgers had finished 2nd in '40 and 3rd in '39, but before that, the team hadn't been in a Pennant race since '24 or a World Series since '20. Of the men on the Dodgers' 1941 World Series roster, only Durocher, Joe Medwick (both '34 Cardinals), Fitzsimmons ('33 and '36 Giants), Billy Herman ('32, '35 and '38 Cubs), Johnny Allen ('32 Yankees) and a washed-up Paul Waner ('27 Pirates) had appeared in a World Series before.
VERDICT: Not Guilty. "Mickey Owen's Muff," as it came to be known, was bad, but it was hardly the biggest, and certainly not the chronological first, reason the Dodgers lost the 1941 World Series.
Despite America's entry into World War II, Owen never went into the service. I wonder if some Dodger fans said, "Mickey Owen is such a bum, even the Army don't want him!"
I wonder if a lot of the accolades that would later come the way of Roy Campanella were due to Mickey Owen's Muff. That Campy might have been cheered not just for what he was, a fantastic player and a good guy, but for what he wasn't: Owen.
It's not fair to Owen. He was widely respected prior to the '41 Series, and most Dodger fans didn't go on to hate him. Certainly, he escaped the scorn that was heaped on Ralph Branca after 1951. And neither one of them got the kind of treatment that Bill Buckner got from Boston fans after 1986.
It is the most famous passed ball in baseball history, but if it was a spitball, which was and remains an illegal pitch anyway, then it should, instead, have been credited as a wild pitch, and be the most famous one of those, and Casey, rather than Owen, should be faulted.
No matter. Casey only needed to get 1 more out. Even if Henrich represented the tying run and the next batter represented the winning run. Just 1 more out.
The batter was DiMaggio. Uh-oh, you don't give the Yankee Clipper a written invitation to keep a game alive. Especially not in 1941, when he had become the most celebrated athlete in America, ahead of Ted Williams; ahead of football stars Sammy Baugh, Sid Luckman and Don Hutson; ahead of even the Heavyweight Champion of the World, Joe Louis.
DiMaggio singled to left. Now the tying run was on 2nd, the potential winning run on 1st. But there were still 2 outs. If Casey could get the next batter, the game would still end, however precariously, with a Dodger victory.
The batter was Keller. At this point in his career, before a back injury curtailed it, he looked like he was headed to the Hall of Fame. And he did nothing to dispel that in this at-bat: He rocketed a Casey delivery off the right-field wall, and Henrich and DiMaggio scored.
Keller would later say, "When I got to 2nd base, you could have heard a pin drop in Ebbets Field." The noisiest, most raucous ballpark of his time had been stunned into silence.
The Yankees scored 2 more runs in the inning, and won 7-4. They now led 3 games to 1.
October 6, 1941, a Monday. Were the Dodgers rattled by their 9th inning collapse of the day before? Maybe. In the top of the 2nd, Wyatt walked Keller, gave up a single to Bill Dickey that got Keller to 3rd, uncorked a wild pitch that scored Keller and got Dickey to 3rd, and gave up a single to Joe Gordon that scored Dickey.
Dem Bums did have their chances to bounce back. In the bottom of the 3rd, Wyatt helped his own cause with a double down the left-field line off his opposite number, Ernie "Tiny" Bonham. After getting Walker to fly out, Bonham gave up a hit to Lew Riggs, and Reiser hit a sacrifice fly to get Wyatt home. The next batter was Dolph Camilli, who would be named the NL's Most Valuable Player. But Bonham struck him out to end the threat. It was still 2-1 Yankees.
Henrich, who would be nicknamed "Old Reliable" by Yankee broadcaster Mel Allen, hit a home run in the top of the 5th, and that would be all the scoring in the ballgame. Bonham went the distance for the Bronx Bombers, getting the last out when Wasdell flied out to DiMaggio in center field. Yankees 3, Dodgers 1. The Yankees had won their 9th World Series, already more than any other team. It was the 1st time, though, that they had faced the Dodgers in a World Series. There would be more.
The Brooklyn Eagle newspaper printed a big headline, reading, "WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR." The next year, the Dodgers won 104 games, but the Cardinals won 106. The Dodgers would lose the World Series to the Yankees again in 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953, before finally winning it in 1955. The Eagle had closed earlier that year, so it was up to the New York Daily News to print the obvious headline on October 5, 1955, the day after the great triumph: "THIS IS NEXT YEAR!"
Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Mickey Owen for the Brooklyn Dodgers Losing the 1941 World Series
5. Hugh Casey. He threw the pitch. Even if the pitch was a curve, a totally legal pitch, it was still in a bad spot. And Casey was never the most clutch of relief pitchers.
4. Leo Durocher. The Dodger manager messed up the pitching rotation that had won the Pennant. And he admitted it, a rare occasion when Leo the Lip didn't blame someone else, such as an umpire or a dirty player on the other team, and didn't try to claim credit solely for himself.
Durocher started Curt Davis in Game 1, on 9 days' rest. He could have had an additional start in between. Game 2: Whitlow Wyatt, on 7 days' rest. He could have had an additional start in between, or started the opener, since he was the Dodgers' current ace.
Fred Fitzsimmons, once a great Giant pitcher and a Dodger nemesis, once hated but now beloved by Dodger fans, pitched on September 18, and Durocher didn't use him again until Game 3 of the Series -- 16 days later! He could have had 3 additional starts. The fact that Fat Freddie pitched pretty well in Game 3 helps Durocher, but not much. In Game 4, he started Kirby Higbe, who was on 11 days' rest, so he could have had 2 additional starts. In Game 5, he started Wyatt on 3 days' rest.
The rotation should have been Wyatt, Fitzsimmons, Higbe, Wyatt again, and then, if it went further than that, Fitzsimmons in Game 5, Higbe in Game 6, and Wyatt again in Game 7. Instead, Durocher really blew it.
3. Marius Russo -- Two-Way Threat. The day before, in Game 3, Russo had not only pitched brilliantly, but hit a line drive off Fitzsimmons' knee, literally knocking him out of the game and the Series.
2. Tommy Henrich. He was alert enough to realize that he could take 1st, and it was DiMaggio and Keller who followed it up with key hits.
1. The Yankees Were Better. Certainly, with many of the men on that '41 team having played on World Championship teams in '39 and '38, some in '37 and '36, a few even in '32, they were much more experienced.
The Dodgers had finished 2nd in '40 and 3rd in '39, but before that, the team hadn't been in a Pennant race since '24 or a World Series since '20. Of the men on the Dodgers' 1941 World Series roster, only Durocher, Joe Medwick (both '34 Cardinals), Fitzsimmons ('33 and '36 Giants), Billy Herman ('32, '35 and '38 Cubs), Johnny Allen ('32 Yankees) and a washed-up Paul Waner ('27 Pirates) had appeared in a World Series before.
VERDICT: Not Guilty. "Mickey Owen's Muff," as it came to be known, was bad, but it was hardly the biggest, and certainly not the chronological first, reason the Dodgers lost the 1941 World Series.
Despite America's entry into World War II, Owen never went into the service. I wonder if some Dodger fans said, "Mickey Owen is such a bum, even the Army don't want him!"
I wonder if a lot of the accolades that would later come the way of Roy Campanella were due to Mickey Owen's Muff. That Campy might have been cheered not just for what he was, a fantastic player and a good guy, but for what he wasn't: Owen.
It's not fair to Owen. He was widely respected prior to the '41 Series, and most Dodger fans didn't go on to hate him. Certainly, he escaped the scorn that was heaped on Ralph Branca after 1951. And neither one of them got the kind of treatment that Bill Buckner got from Boston fans after 1986.
Which is a good thing. Nobody deserves that. Well, maybe not nobody… But certainly not Buckner, nor Branca, nor Owen.
Owen died on July 13, 2005, in his home town of Mount Vernon, Missouri. He was 89. It's a little ironic that he and Branca both came from towns named Mount Vernon, in Branca's case the one in Westchester County, New York.
Owen died on July 13, 2005, in his home town of Mount Vernon, Missouri. He was 89. It's a little ironic that he and Branca both came from towns named Mount Vernon, in Branca's case the one in Westchester County, New York.
Henrich died on December 1, 2009, as the last survivor of this game. He was also the last surviving person who had been a teammate of Lou Gehrig. Herman Franks, who later helped steal a Pennant from the Dodgers as a 1951 New York Giant, had died earlier in 2009 as the last surviving '41 Dodger.
Today, the Sandlot Baseball Camp, formerly the Mickey Owen Baseball School, is still open on State Highway 96 in Miller, Missouri, in the southwestern part of the State, in the Ozark Mountains, about halfway between Joplin and Springfield -- 238 miles southwest of St. Louis, 171 miles southeast of Kansas City, 64 miles northwest of Branson (the "Redneck Vegas"), and 80 miles northeast of Mickey Mantle's hometown of Commerce, Oklahoma.
Today, the Sandlot Baseball Camp, formerly the Mickey Owen Baseball School, is still open on State Highway 96 in Miller, Missouri, in the southwestern part of the State, in the Ozark Mountains, about halfway between Joplin and Springfield -- 238 miles southwest of St. Louis, 171 miles southeast of Kansas City, 64 miles northwest of Branson (the "Redneck Vegas"), and 80 miles northeast of Mickey Mantle's hometown of Commerce, Oklahoma.
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