Not that the Yankees
had been doing anything to help Ted while DiMaggio was out. When
the Yankees clinched the pennant in Boston on September 4, the
earliest ever, they had a lead of seventeen and a half games.
Nevertheless, Atley Donald, a control pitcher, walked Ted four
straight times, before he managed to single on his final time
at bat. They were the only walks Donald issued all day. The same
thing had happened three weeks earlier in New York: four straight
walks, to the booing of the New York fans, after Ted singled in
a run on his first time at bat.
In the first game at Yankee Stadium, Ted has one single and knocked
in his 107th run. Keller knocked in his 120th. On Sunday, Ted
was facing Lefty Gomez, who almost never got him out. The first
time up, his drive hit high off the foul pole and bounced into
the stands, foul. Under the ground rules then in force, if a ball
hit the inside of the pole and landed in the stands fair, it was
a home run. If it hit the outside of the pole and landed in the
foul side of the stands – you can imagine how often that happened
– it was a double. If it hit flush and landed back on the field,
it was in play. Ted had been deprived of both an RBI and a home
run; in the only park he didn’t hit a home run in all year. Not
that he didn’t come close one more time. In the third inning,
he singled. In the fifth, he lambasted a double off the top of
the centerfield wall 450 feet away, missing a home run by inches.
And so when he came up with the bases loaded in the sixth, Gomez
– who was a pal of DiMaggio’s – walked Ted on four pitches.
It was his only RBI of the game. Charlie Keller started the day
by knocking in two runs, to bring his total to 122. Then he twisted
his ankle sliding into home plate and was through for the season.
With it all, Ted came out of the final game at Yankee Stadium
with his average up to .413 and only fourteen games left in the
season. And, beyond that, with a fighting chance of winning the
Triple Crown.
There was one pitcher he hit even better than he hit Gomez – Johnny
Rigney. Ted already had five home runs off Rigney, into distant
parts of both parks, and before he met the Yankees again he would
face Rigney one more time. On September 15, Ted hit yet another
monstrous three-run homer off Rigney – his thirty-fifth of the
season – giving him 116 RBIs, to tie with DiMaggio.
And so, when Ted finally found himself on the same field with
DiMaggio again, with one week left in the season, he had pretty
much locked up two-thirds of the triple crown and was tied with
DiMaggio (if you discounted the disabled Keller) for the third
leg.
On Saturday, September 20, DiMaggio knocked in two runs, to go
ahead of Ted, 118 to 116. On Sunday, Ted pulled even by hitting
his thirty-sixth home run, a tremendous wallop into the bleachers,
which came on his last swing at bat at Fenway Park in the 1941
season. Both of them were still four RBIs behind Keller.
Understandably enough, considering how late Ted’s prospects for
winning the Triple Crown had emerged, nobody seemed to be paying
any particular attention. Not even in Boston. The paramount concern
was that Ted was leaving Fenway Park batting .406, with six games
left to play – a single game followed by a doubleheader in both
Washington and Philadelphia.
No great bargain. The park in Washington was huge, and the Athletics
simply did not pitch to Ted.
In the opening game in Washington, he had one cheap hit off Sid
Hudson in three times at bat and dropped a point, to .405. The
hit was a gift double on a fly ball deep center that Doc Cramer,
finishing up his career in Washington, failed to hold onto. On
the third time up, Ted walked, and on his final time at bat he
backed the right fielder up against the wall.
The doubleheader the next day turned hairy. Dutch Leonard, the
best knuckleballer in baseball, shut him out in three times at
bat, and one Dick Mulligan, a rookie left-hander who had just
been called up from the minors, held him to one single in four
times at bat. Against Leonard he had two walks, fouled out, grounded
out, and on his last time at bat was retired on a long fly to
left center. He was down to .402.
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