Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 08, 2007
The Close One

Sean Kirst remembers Bill Bevens and his near no-hitter in the World Series sixty years ago.


Posted by David Pinto at 05:34 PM | World Series | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Excellent story on Bill Bevens and his almost no hitter in 1947 WS. He mentioned the Dodger hitter who won the game, Cookie Lavagetto. Now Sean should write about the other little known hero of that Series, little Al Gionfriddo and his tremendous catch off Joe DiMaggio to save Game 6. I sat in the bleachers right near that catch. Oddly none of the above 3 ever played another big league game after that Series.

Posted by: Bob S at October 9, 2007 12:06 AM

here's a little addendum ... gionfriddo took off to steal in the ninth, stumbled, and seemed to be dead meat. yogi's throw was wild (he was still a rookie, learning the position), rizzuto had to leave the bag to get it, and then he dove back for a razor-close play at 2nd. gionfriddo was called safe; decades later, in an interview with tim russert in which berra and rizzuto were both present, rizzuto swore he got gionfriddo - and yogi was still lamenting the throw.

sean

Posted by: sean at October 9, 2007 07:26 AM

One more Gionfriddo catch comment. I have read of comments decades later such as "out of position". I have Red Barber's tape..."outfield around to left and deep". That is out of position?
Richard Ben Cramer in DiMag book has Gionfriddo dancing Dardenella in circles and sticking glove out to make catch. What latecomers like Cramer write from is the occasionally shown newsreel tape of the catch. They didn't have outfield cameras in that first TV Series. What you see in newsreel is the next day re-creation of catch done very poorly and inaccurately. It is so phoney that an ump made a few bucks to come up to the catch and signal out. That was the first Series with foul line umps, but no ump was within 100 ft of that "Death Valley" catch. Gionfriddo, very fast, turned and raced back toward bullpen fence, looked once at oncoming liner, lost his hat, and had the liner come over his right shoulder into his extended lefty mitt. A stride later he came up to the fence. A triple for sure but not a HR. Joe D, maybe for the first time ever, showed emotion in the field, first kicking dirt near 2B and again kicking grass at his CF position.

Posted by: Bob S at October 9, 2007 08:36 PM

bevens' kid said dimaggio also showed a flash of emotion in the minutes after lavagetto's hit ... he said dimaggio touched bevens' shoulder and said, "tough break, big fella," or words close to that.

- sean

Posted by: sean at October 9, 2007 11:48 PM
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