Dom Dimaggio dead at 92; The Fox Connection
Leon Culberson of Rome Ga went in for Dimaggio in St. Louis in 46. Culberson almost married my Aunt Virginia Fox Richey, my dad's oldest sister.
From the NY Times:
He enlisted in the Navy after the 1942 season, then returned to the Red Sox in 1946, hitting .316 for a team that romped to a pennant by 12 games over the Tigers.
DiMaggio had a moment of exhilaration, but then intense disappointment in Game 7 of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park.
In the eighth inning, he hit a two-run double that tied the game at 3-3, but he injured a hamstring rounding first base. The Cardinals won the Series in the ninth inning on Enos Slaughter’s “mad dash” from first base when Leon Culberson, having replaced DiMaggio in center, made a weak relay to shortstop Johnny Pesky after fielding Harry Walker’s drive to left center, and Pesky hesitated before throwing home.
“Slaughter would never have scored if I’d been in center field,” DiMaggio maintained in “When the Boys Came Back” (Holt, 1996) a history of the 1946 season by Frederick Turner. “In fact, I might have had a play on him at third base because I’d have played that much farther over, and I’d have been charging the hell out of that ball.”
Great story easily googled up in today's NY Times; and Marshall Frady's great friend David Halberstam had a great version of the Culberson story of 46 in The Teammates.
From the NY Times:
He enlisted in the Navy after the 1942 season, then returned to the Red Sox in 1946, hitting .316 for a team that romped to a pennant by 12 games over the Tigers.
DiMaggio had a moment of exhilaration, but then intense disappointment in Game 7 of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park.
In the eighth inning, he hit a two-run double that tied the game at 3-3, but he injured a hamstring rounding first base. The Cardinals won the Series in the ninth inning on Enos Slaughter’s “mad dash” from first base when Leon Culberson, having replaced DiMaggio in center, made a weak relay to shortstop Johnny Pesky after fielding Harry Walker’s drive to left center, and Pesky hesitated before throwing home.
“Slaughter would never have scored if I’d been in center field,” DiMaggio maintained in “When the Boys Came Back” (Holt, 1996) a history of the 1946 season by Frederick Turner. “In fact, I might have had a play on him at third base because I’d have played that much farther over, and I’d have been charging the hell out of that ball.”
Great story easily googled up in today's NY Times; and Marshall Frady's great friend David Halberstam had a great version of the Culberson story of 46 in The Teammates.
posted by foxofbama | 2:48 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home