1954 Baltimore vs New York and St. Louis vs Pittsburgh

 Today I'm going to give you a two-for-one. I'll summarize two 1954 APBA series I played. The first was a three game series using the Master game between the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees.

This series was all Yankees. Winning game 1 5 - 0 on a complete-game three-hit shutout by Bob Grim. Interesting highlight of game 1. Bottom of the first Gil McDougald, Andy Carey, and Mickey Mantle all walk. Berra grounds into a double play; McDougald scores. Joe Collins walks, men on 1st and 3rd. Enos Slaughter gets on on an error, Carey scores. Gene Woodling gets out. They score two runs without a hit or an RBI. The Yankees walked 10 times in Game 1.

Game 2: Sees the visiting Yankees winning 4 to 2 on a complete game by Harry Byrd. Yankees score all their runs in the 2nd; the Orioles tally single runs in the 1st and 9th. Still no homeruns by either team through the first two games.

Game 3: Sees the visiting Yankees winning 7 to 4. Yankees score all 7 runs in the 2nd, culminating with a three-run shot off the bat of Yogi Berra. The Orioles had a solo homer from Jim Fridley. The Orioles scored single runs in the 5th and 7th and put up a two-spot in the 8th.

The second series was played between the St Louis Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates using the APBA basic game.

Game 1: Sees the visiting Cardinals winning 9 to 7. St Louis had 17 hits, scoring 2 runs in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th and a single run in the 7th. Homeruns for St Louis came off the bats of Joe Cunningham who was 4 for 5 with 3 runs 3 RBIs and a triple and a homerun, he was double shy of the cycle and Rip Repulski who was 3 for 5 with 2 runs, 2 RBIs and the homerun. Amazingly in the 17 hits Stan Musial never got one. The Pirates racked up 14 hits of their own with a homerun off the bat of Sid Gordon. In the 9th inning of this game two pirates got injured, Jake Thies injured 10 games and Curtis Roberts injured 5 games.

Game 2: Sees the hometown Cardinals winning 8 to 1. The cardinals rack up another 14 hits off Pirate pitching. No long balls by the Cardinals but Red Schoendienst was 3 for 5 with a double, 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored. Harvey Haddix pitched a complete game for the Cardinals. The lone Pirate run was a homerun from Jerry Lynch.

Game 3: The visiting Cardinals win 6 to 2. They score 5 of their runs in the 1st and drop Dick Littlefield's grade from a C to a D. He still made it through 5 innings before being relieved. No homeruns in this game but Stan the Man finally got his first hit of the series in that 1st inning 5 run outburst. Gordon Jones pitched a complete game for the Cardinals.

Next Up will be the 1949 season.

D*** Yankees

The Minnesota Twins officially have a psychological problem with the Yankees. On this celebration of our Nations birth the Twins took a four game beating at the hands of the Yankees. The Yankees aren't even that good this year, Jeter, Rodriguez, Granderson, Texeira all are missing from the Bronx Bombers. Instead they field a team of rag tag players. Yet they still slug the heck out of the ball and seem to always beat the Twins.

 It wouldn't be so bad but no one but people in New York like the Yankees. Losing to them just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. In Boston they always talked about the curse of the Bambino and Boston over came that. I think it should just be the curse of the Yankees. Let's hope it doesn't take the Twins 100 years to overcome that curse.

I'm glad we only play them 6-7 times a year others the Twins might lose 162 games.

Let's hope July 5th is better than July 4th.

Bronx Cheer

How about dem Yankees!  The best hitting team money can buy and they fall flat on their face against the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers sweep the Yankees in 4 straight after an exciting game one in which the Yankees had an Ibanez comeback only to fall in Extras.

The biggest blow for the Yankees came in game one when Derek Jeter broke his ankle. Huge disappointment because he is the inspiration and the straw that stirs the Yankee drink. It might actually had been a different series with Jeter at full strength.

I am not a Yankee fan at all so I am glad they lost but I like to watch good baseball and the Tigers totally dominated the Yankees after that game one. I hope the World Series will be more exciting and if it is the Cardinals I'll have to root for the Tigers. The Cardinals won last year so it is up to the Tigers to win.

Maybe just maybe the Giants can come back from a 3 to 1 deficit in games.