1956 World Series

The 1956 World Series of Major League Baseball was played between the New York Yankees of the American League and the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League) in October 1956. The Series was a rematch of the 1955 World Series. It was the last all-New York City Series until 44 years later in 2000, as the Dodgers and the New York Giants moved to California after the 1957 season. Additionally, it was the last time a New York team represented the National League until 1969 when the New York Mets defeated the Baltimore Orioles in five games.

1956 World Series
Team (Wins) Manager(s) Season
New York Yankees (4) Casey Stengel 97–57, .630, GA: 9
Brooklyn Dodgers (3) Walter Alston 93–61, .604, GA: 1
DatesOctober 3–10
MVPDon Larsen (New York)
UmpiresBabe Pinelli (NL), Hank Soar (AL), Dusty Boggess (NL), Larry Napp (AL), Tom Gorman (NL: outfield only), Ed Runge (AL: outfield only)
Hall of FamersYankees:
Casey Stengel (mgr.)
Yogi Berra
Whitey Ford
Mickey Mantle
Enos Slaughter
Dodgers:
Walt Alston (mgr.)
Roy Campanella
Don Drysdale
Sandy Koufax (DNP)
Pee Wee Reese
Jackie Robinson
Duke Snider
Broadcast
TelevisionNBC
TV announcersVin Scully and Mel Allen
RadioMutual
Radio announcersBob Wolff and Bob Neal
World Series

The Yankees won the Series in seven games, capturing their seventeenth championship. Brooklyn won Games 1 and 2, but New York pitchers threw five consecutive complete games (Games 3–7) to cap off the comeback. The highlight was Don Larsen's perfect game in Game 5. Larsen was named the Series MVP for his achievement. The Dodgers scored 19 runs in the first two games, but only six in the remaining five games, with just one in the final three games.

This was the last World Series to date not to have scheduled off days (although Game 2 was postponed a day due to rain).

As of March 2020, four original television broadcasts from this Series (Game 2 partial, Games 3 and 5, Game 7 partial) had been released on DVD.[1]

Summary

AL New York Yankees (4) vs. NL Brooklyn Dodgers (3)

GameDateScoreLocationTimeAttendance 
1October 3New York Yankees – 3, Brooklyn Dodgers – 6Ebbets Field2:3234,479[2] 
2October 5†New York Yankees – 8, Brooklyn Dodgers – 13Ebbets Field3:2636,217[3] 
3October 6Brooklyn Dodgers – 3, New York Yankees – 5Yankee Stadium2:1773,977[4] 
4October 7Brooklyn Dodgers – 2, New York Yankees – 6Yankee Stadium2:4369,705[5] 
5October 8Brooklyn Dodgers – 0, New York Yankees – 2Yankee Stadium2:0664,519[6] 
6October 9New York Yankees – 0, Brooklyn Dodgers – 1 (10)Ebbets Field2:3733,224[7] 
7October 10New York Yankees – 9, Brooklyn Dodgers – 0Ebbets Field2:1933,782[8]

†: postponed from October 4 due to rain

Matchups

Game 1
Gil Hodges
Wednesday, October 3, 1956 1:00 pm (ET) at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York
Team123456789RHE
New York200100000391
Brooklyn02310000X690
WP: Sal Maglie (1–0)   LP: Whitey Ford (0–1)
Home runs:
NYY: Mickey Mantle (1), Billy Martin (1)
BRO: Jackie Robinson (1), Gil Hodges (1)

Three batters into the game, the Yankees led 2–0 on a Mickey Mantle home run. Brooklyn struck back with a Jackie Robinson homer in the second inning and a three-run Gil Hodges shot in the third, then won behind Sal Maglie's complete game.

Game 2
Duke Snider
Friday, October 5, 1956 1:00 pm (ET) at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York
Team123456789RHE
New York1501000018122
Brooklyn06122002X13120
WP: Don Bessent (1–0)   LP: Tom Morgan (0–1)
Home runs:
NYY: Yogi Berra (1)
BRO: Duke Snider (1)

Neither starting pitcher survived the second inning, Don Newcombe giving up a Yogi Berra grand slam, and Don Larsen giving up four unearned runs. Little-known pitcher Don Bessent worked the final seven innings for the win.

Game 2 set a number of peculiar records in World Series history, which are either matched or comparable with similar World Series records and performances, in limited instances:

  • Game 2 is the first of only two World Series games in history in which a grand slam-hitting team failed to win the game. While the Yankees would prevail in the 1956 series, the 1988 Oakland Athletics would produce a grand slam in Game 1, lose that game, and furthermore lose that series.
  • The number of Yankee runs put up in the game, eight, is the largest number of runs accumulated in a World Series game, by a team which lost the game, yet went on to win the series. This record is shared in common only with Game 3 of 1947, with the Yankees repeating this unusual record here in another Yankee/Dodgers series.
  • The combined run count of both teams in the game, 21, is the largest such combined run count between two teams in any one World Series game, such that the losing team won the series. The complementary record, the largest combined game run count with the game winning team being the series winning team, and the game losing team being the series losing team (and highest combined team run count ever in a World Series game) was set in Game 4 in 1993.

Game 3
Enos Slaughter
Saturday, October 6, 1956 1:00 pm (ET) at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York
Team123456789RHE
Brooklyn010001100381
New York01000301X581
WP: Whitey Ford (1–1)   LP: Roger Craig (0–1)
Home runs:
BRO: None
NYY: Billy Martin (2), Enos Slaughter (1)

Whitey Ford pitched a complete game, scattering eight hits, and got the support he needed from an Enos Slaughter three-run homer in the sixth that gave the Yankees a 4–2 lead; they never trailed in the game afterwards.

Game 4
Hank Bauer
Sunday, October 7, 1956 2:00 pm (ET) at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York
Team123456789RHE
Brooklyn000100001260
New York10020120X672
WP: Tom Sturdivant (1–0)   LP: Carl Erskine (0–1)
Home runs:
BRO: None
NYY: Mickey Mantle (2), Hank Bauer (1)

Hank Bauer's two-run homer in the seventh off Don Drysdale, pitching in relief, put the game away for the Yankees, who got a complete-game six-hitter from Tom Sturdivant. Mantle hit a home run off Ed Roebuck in the previous inning.

Game 5
Don Larsen's perfect game
Monday, October 8, 1956 1:00 pm (ET) at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York
Team123456789RHE
Brooklyn000000000000
New York00010100X250
WP: Don Larsen (1–0)   LP: Sal Maglie (1–1)
Home runs:
BRO: None
NYY: Mickey Mantle (3)
Main article: Don Larsen's perfect game

In Game 5, Larsen, working in an unusual "no-windup" style, pitched the only postseason perfect game, and the only postseason no-hitter until 2010. Of several close moments, the best remembered is Gil Hodges' fifth-inning line drive toward Yankee Stadium's famed "Death Valley" in left-center, snared by center fielder Mickey Mantle with a spectacular running catch.

A reporter asked Yankees manager Casey Stengel if this was the best game Larsen had ever pitched. Stengel diplomatically answered, "So far!" For Larsen, this was an especially satisfying performance, as he had acquired perhaps a better reputation as a night owl than as a pitcher. Stengel once said of Larsen, "The only thing he fears is sleep!" Larsen's perfect game was also the last game that umpire Babe Pinelli called behind the plate.[9]

Sports cartoonist Willard Mullin drew an illustration of a happy Larsen painting a canvas titled The Perfect Game, observed by Mullin's classic "Brooklyn Bum." Referencing the old saw "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like", the disgusted-looking Bum came up with a variation: "I don't care if it is art—I don't like it!"

Brooklyn starter Sal Maglie appeared on the game show What's My Line? the night before the game, with former Yankee Phil Rizzuto as one of the panel members.[10][11]

Game 6
Jackie Robinson
Tuesday, October 9, 1956 1:00 pm (ET) at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York
Team12345678910RHE
New York0000000000070
Brooklyn0000000001140
WP: Clem Labine (1–0)   LP: Bob Turley (0–1)

In a 10-inning scoreless pitching duel with both starters going all the way, Jackie Robinson's walk-off single to left in the bottom of the 10th won the game for Clem Labine and kept the Dodgers' championship hopes alive. Tough-luck loser Bob Turley gave up a 10th-inning walk to Jim Gilliam, a sacrifice bunt by Pee Wee Reese and intentional pass to Duke Snider before the decisive hit. Game 6 is one of only three games in World Series history to be scoreless through nine innings, the others being Game 2 in 1913 and Game 7 in 1991.

Game 7
Yogi Berra
Wednesday, October 10, 1956 1:00 pm (ET) at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York
Team123456789RHE
New York2021004009100
Brooklyn000000000031
WP: Johnny Kucks (1–0)   LP: Don Newcombe (0–1)
Home runs:
NYY: Yogi Berra 2 (3), Elston Howard (1), Bill Skowron (1)
BRO: None

Yogi Berra's two homers led New York to an unexpectedly easy 9–0 title-clinching victory. Yankee pitcher Johnny Kucks struck out Jackie Robinson to end the Series. It would be Robinson's final at-bat, as he retired at the season's end.

After belting the Yankee pitching staff for 19 runs and 21 hits in the first two games, the Dodger bats went silent in the next five games, scoring only six runs on 21 hits, batting only .142 (21–for–148). New York outscored Brooklyn 22–6 in Games 3–7, the Yankees winning their 17th World Series.

Composite line score

1956 World Series (4–3): New York Yankees (A.L.) over Brooklyn Dodgers (N.L.)

Team12345678910RHE
New York Yankees662605611033586
Brooklyn Dodgers094421121125422
Total attendance: 345,903   Average attendance: 49,415
Winning player's share: $8,715   Losing player's share: $6,934[12]

Broadcasting

NBC televised the Series, with announcers Mel Allen (for the Yankees) and Vin Scully (for the Dodgers). In 2006, it was announced that a nearly-complete kinescope recording of the Game 5 telecast (featuring Larsen's perfect game) had been preserved and discovered by a collector. That kinescope recording aired during the MLB Network's first night on the air on January 1, 2009, supplemented with an interview of both Larsen and Yogi Berra by Bob Costas. The first inning of the telecast is still considered lost and was not aired by the MLB Network or included in a subsequent DVD release of the game.

The Mutual network aired the Series on radio, with Bob Wolff and Bob Neal announcing. This was the final World Series broadcast for Mutual, which had covered the event since 1935; NBC's radio network would gain exclusive national rights to baseball the following season.

Notes
  1. http://www.raresportsfilms.com/1956-world-series.html%5B%5D
  2. "1956 World Series Game 1 – New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  3. "1956 World Series Game 2 – New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  4. "1956 World Series Game 3 – Brooklyn Dodgers vs. New York Yankees". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  5. "1956 World Series Game 4 – Brooklyn Dodgers vs. New York Yankees". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  6. "1956 World Series Game 5 – Brooklyn Dodgers vs. New York Yankees". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  7. "1956 World Series Game 6 – New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  8. "1956 World Series Game 7 – New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  9. Nemec, David; Flatow, Scott. Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures (2008 ed.). New York: Penguin Group. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-451-22363-0.
  10. "Sal Maglie; Ann Miller; Phil Rizutto [panel]". What's My Line?. Episode 331. October 7, 1956. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  11. "What's My Line? (1950-67 Daly)". Kent's Game Show Trading Page. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
  12. "World Series Gate Receipts and Player Shares". Baseball Almanac. Archived from the original on May 2, 2009. Retrieved June 14, 2009.
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See also

References
  • Cohen, Richard M.; Neft, David S. (1990). The World Series: Complete Play-By-Play of Every Game, 1903–1989. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 259–264. ISBN 0-312-03960-3.
  • Reichler, Joseph (1982). The Baseball Encyclopedia (5th ed.). Macmillan Publishing. p. 2164. ISBN 0-02-579010-2.
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