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1941 Pennant and 1944 Batting Title / 125 Day in Brooklyn and some sixty thousand people—cops, firemen, sanitation workers, school kids, office workers, church groups, Kiwanis Clubbers, Knights of Columbus, and the twenty-five players and entire staff of the Brooklyn Dodgers, this time led by a waving, grinning MacPhail with Durocher at his side—rode, walked and hopped down Flatbush Avenue from the Dodger offices to Prospect Park for a rally of congratulations. More than a million fans and school kids in a borough of some 2 million skipped their day’s chores to scream their joy and share the pleasure of the triumph with their Dodgers and friends. Frank Graham wrote, “Old timers said it was Brooklyn’s biggest parade since the Fourteenth Zouaves and the Twenty-third Regiment returned from the Civil War.” The World Series opened on October 1, 1941, at Yankee Stadium with Leo Durocher’s surprise starter, Curt Davis, battling future Hall of Famer Red Ruffing. Ruffing, one of the toughest competitors the game had ever seen, limited the Dodgers to six hits and beat them 3–2. Dixie led off, was hitless in three trips, and felt confident that his pal, Whitlow Wyatt would even things for the Dodgers the next day. Dixie was hitless again the next day, but Wyatt answered the call of Brooklyn fans by keeping Joe DiMaggio hitless in three tries and tying the Series with a 3–2 victory. Marius Russo, a Brooklyn native who had somehow escaped the Dodgers, beat Brooklyn 2–1 in the third game. It was Russo’s line drive off the left knee of the opposing pitcher, Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons, in the seventh inning that did the Dodgers in. Hugh Casey had to warm up rapidly for the eighth inning and the Yankees quickly collected the two winning runs off him. A double by Dixie for his first Series hit and a single by Pee Wee Reese in the bottom of the eighth accounted for Brooklyn’s only run. The next day, Sunday, October 5, 1941, was one of the most memorable in baseball history. The Dodgers led the Yankees 4–3 with two 126 / Chapter 8 out and nobody on in the top of the ninth. Hugh Casey was pitching for Brooklyn and Tommy Henrich was batting for the Yankees. “I saw the ball breaking and I swung and missed,” recalled Henrich some 65 years after the play. “I turned around on my follow through and caught [Mickey] Owen pushing off his mask and racing for the ball. I just took off for first as hard as I could.” Henrich was safe on first base as Casey’s curve or spitter—the legend has never been fully cleared up—got past the catcher. DiMaggio singled, Charlie (King Kong) Keller doubled, Bill Dickey walked, and Joe Gordon doubled as the Yankees collected four runs for the 7–4 win. Owen, who went on to a long career as a baseball scout, police officer , farmer, and operator of a baseball school that once had a North Carolina youngster named Michael Jordan as a student, was never traumatized by the passed ball. “It was a low-breaking ball,” he recalled shortly before his death at age eighty-nine in 2005. “I got down as low as I could. It just slid past my glove.” The Yankees closed out the 1941 Series the next day with Ernie (Tiny) Bonham, a bulky 215-pound right-hander, beating Wyatt 3–1. Dixie had a single in three trips and ended the Series with a disappointing .222 average. Dixie and Estelle with their two children, young Fred and the second daughter, Mary Ann, settled into their home in Rockville Centre for a good part of the winter before returning to Birmingham. Dixie spent a great deal of time at the package liquor store with his partner, Estelle’s brother-in-law Nicholas Callan, spoke at local clubs for a few extra dollars , and hunted in the Long Island woods with friends. On December 7, 1941, Dixie drove to the Polo Grounds with Estelle and the two children for a football game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. A public address announcement soon called for all members of the military to report to their units. The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. World War II began for the United States the next day when President Franklin Roosevelt declared December 7 [18.218.138.170] Project MUSE (2024-04...

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