Friday, October 4, 2013

World Series: Did You Know?

Don Drysdale was the first pitcher to take the hill in a World Series game played on the West Coast.

Taking the hill in game 3 of the 1959 World Series on October 4, 1959, Drysdale didn't have his best stuff this day. But it was enough that his team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, got a 3-1 win of the Chicago White Sox.

Drysdale gave up 11 hits in only 7 1/3 innings. He was picked up nicely by Larry Sherry, who earned his second save of the Series.

Another interesting thing about this game: both starting pitchers first and last names began with the letter, "D" Let's sing a song to that old Sesame Street song, "Letter B". You remember? A parody of the Beatles song, "Let It Be"? Only, let's use letter D!

Letter D, letter D, letter D, letter D

The first World Series on the west coast,
And you need starting pitching,
That no one else can see.
You just might get an itching, 
And use pitchers with, letter D!

We've even got the name, "Don", used twice here: Don Drysdale and Dick Donovan!

Anyways Donovan, starting for the Chi Sox, gave up a hit to Gil Hodges in the bottom of the second. There was one out at the time. Gil was then erased on an inning-ending double play. Other than that, it was 1-2-3 go the Dodgers for the first 6 innings. Yep, the Dodgers weren't seeing Dono's pitches to well!

Why should the Dodgers? Donovan led the AL in winning percentage and complete games in 1957. He also led the AL in ERA in 1961. That was the year he was pitching with the expansion Senators.

Going into the bottom of the 7th inning, Donovan had faced just 18 batters. In terms of batters faced, he right on pace with Don Larsen's second start from 3 years earlier.

But in the that fateful inning, he gave up a single and two walks. Bases loaded, 1 out, and Gerry Staley came in to pitch. Carl Furillo greeted him with a single that scored 2 runs. It was the first two runs of the game. The White Sox came back with a run of their own in the top of the 8th, but that was it.

With the 3-1 win at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in this game 3, the World Series had taken one more step to being, the "World" Series.


References

Enders, Eric. 100 Years Of The World Series. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. 2005. Print.

Fonseca, Lew, director. 1959 World Series. Performance by Vince Scully, Major League Baseball Productions, 1959. DVD produced by A&E Home Video.

Neft, David S., Richard M. Cohen, and Michael L. Neft. The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, 1992. 12th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. Print.

Nemec, David et all. 20th Century Baseball Chronicle: A Year-by-year History of Major League Baseball. Collector's Edition. Lincolnwood, Ill: Publications International, 1993. Print.

Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 04 Oct. 2013.

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