Sept. 12 – Rebirth of a Rivalry: 1949 Revisited
- Sal Maiorana
- Sep 12, 2017
- 5 min read
NEW YORK – Two years before Bucky “Fucking” Dent was even born, there was a Yankee named Johnny Lindell who broke Beantown’s heart in the most devastating of ways. And if you ask any old-time Red Sox fan – and we’re talking old-time here – who Johnny Lindell is, they might invoke the same middle moniker when they spit out his name.
Over the coming three days, the Red Sox were going to be in the Bronx to play the biggest series between these long-time bitter rivals since 1949. That was the year Lindell ripped the guts out of Red Sox nation by leading the Yankees to a season-ending two-game sweep at Yankee Stadium that decided the pennant and launched a Yankee dynasty that would see the Bronx Bombers win an unprecedented and likely never to be matched five consecutive World Series championships.
With Boston trailing the Yankees by just 1.5 games, this was the closest the two teams had been in the standings this late in a season since that epic pennant race in 1949 when Boston came to New York leading by a game, but lost back-to-back games because the unheralded Lindell delivered two humongous hits that catapulted the Yankees to victory.
It’s funny, because while Yankees-Red Sox is considered one of America’s greatest rivalries, it really wasn’t much of anything until the mid-1970s, mainly because the Yankees were always so much better than the Red Sox. Rarely was Boston ever in contention in the American League as the Yankees ruled the baseball world for the better part of four-plus decades.
From the time Babe Ruth was sold to the Yankees in 1920, until this 1977 season, the only time the teams duked it out for a pennant or division crown was 1949, Casey Stengel’s first year as the Yankee manager. Since winning the World Series in 1918, Boston’s only other pennant had come in 1946 when it ran away with the American League, only to lose the Series in seven games to the Cardinals. The Yankees won in 1947, Cleveland celebrated in 1948 (by beating Boston in a one-game playoff), and now either the Yankees or Red Sox were going to raise a flag depending on what happened in this two-game set.
Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.
In that 1949 season, the Yankees had suffered numerous injuries in the first half, most notably to Joe DiMaggio who didn’t make his debut until June 28. Upon his return, he helped the Yankees sweep the Red Sox three straight, and by July 4, despite all their problems, the Yankees were four games ahead of the Athletics, and Boston was lagging in fifth place, 12 games in arrears.
But former Yankees manager Joe McCarthy, now with the Red Sox, refused to wave the white flag. He boldly proclaimed, “From here in we’re the team to beat. We’re due to get some of the better breaks to balance for the overabundance of disaster that visited us.”
Old Joe, the native of Buffalo, was right. Starting July 5 with a win over the Yankees, the Red Sox reeled off eight straight and they continued their push behind the great Ted Williams. The Splendid Splinter would ultimately finish a magnificent year as he batted .343 with 43 home runs, 39 doubles, 159 RBI, and an obscene on-base percentage of .490.
On the penultimate weekend, the Red Sox swept the Yankees three straight to go from two back to one ahead, and that’s where things stood when New York’s Allie Reynolds and Boston’s Mel Parnell squared off on a Saturday afternoon in front of 69,551 fans.
Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel.
Boston jumped all over Reynolds and knocked him out inside three innings as it took a 4-0 lead. Reynolds walked three straight batters, and after Bobby Doerr hit a RBI single, Stengel hooked Reynolds and sent ace reliever Joe Page in with the instructions to hold it right there. Unfortunately, with the bases loaded, Page walked the first two men he faced to force in a pair of runs before he struck out two to end the inning.
The Yankees then began their rally in the fourth when DiMaggio doubled and scored on a single by Hank Bauer, and after Bauer took third on a single by Lindell, he scored on a sacrifice fly. New York then tied it in the fifth as consecutive singles by Phil Rizzuto, Tommy Henrich, Yogi Berra and DiMaggio, and a double play grounder by Billy Johnson, produced two runs.
It stayed that way until the bottom of the eighth when Lindell stepped in to face Joe Dobson. Stengel had considered pinch-hitting a left-handed batter for Lindell, but changed his mind, and was rewarded when Lindell ripped a 400-foot homer to left, just his sixth dinger of the season, and first since July, to win the game.
Now the teams were tied at 97-56, and in the winner-take-all Sunday afternoon finale, 23-game winner Ellis Kinder for Boston and 20-game winner Vic Raschi were given the critical assignments. They were brilliant through seven innings, the only run scoring in the bottom of the first when Rizzuto led off with a triple and scooted home on Henrich’s grounder to short.
From left, Vic Raschi, Tommy Henrich, Joe DiMaggio, Allie Reynolds and Yogi Berra.
Over the next six innings, neither offense could do anything, but that changed in the final half hour of the tense afternoon and it left 68,055 nearly breathless.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Yankees erupted for four runs and it seemed like it was over. McCarthy had pinch-hit for Kinder, so Parnell came on in relief and his second pitch was driven into the right-field seats by Henrich. Berra followed with a single, and Parnell was done, replaced by Tex Hughson, and he fared no better. He induced DiMaggio – weakened by a recent bout of pneumonia – to ground into a double play, but then that man, Lindell, got things started again with a single.
As it turned out, given what was to happen in the ninth, it was a huge moment for Lindell. Johnson singled, Cliff Mapes walked, and Jerry Coleman chased all three men home with a bloop double to right and the Yankees had what looked like a commanding 5-0 lead.
However, the Red Sox did not go quietly. Williams, who had a shockingly quiet series (1-for-5 with three walks), drew a one-out walk, and after Vern Stephens singled, Doerr lashed a two-run triple to right-center. Raschi got a second out, but Billy Goodman singled home Doerr and now the tying run came to the plate in the form of Birdie Tebbetts.
With hearts pumping, the Red Sox catcher did not come through, fouling out to Henrich at first base, similarly to the way Carl Yastrzemski fouled out to third to end the 1978 one-game playoff that made Dent a villain forever in New England.
Lindell went 4-for-6 with two walks and stole a base in the two games, all of which lifted his final season average to .242. But like Dent 29 years later, he was an unsuspecting hero in the series.
When Lindell was progressing through the Yankees minor league system, he was a pitcher, but he was never able to crack the Yankees rotation when he was finally called up for good in 1943. The manager that year was McCarthy, and it was he who converted Lindell to an outfielder. In the spring that season, McCarthy said of the then 26-year-old, “Keep your eye on Lindell because he looks like he's going places.”
Old Joe was right that time, too.
Here's an audio-only video montage of a portion of the final game.
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