Swindler and Junkman
Lopat's first season as a Yankee was decent. He won 17 and lost 11 with a 3.65 ERA but batters made contact off Eddie and in 226 2/3 innings he yielded 246 hits. Lopat always had excellent control and he walked only 66 batters. The Yankees didn't win the pennant in Lopat's first season.
The 1948 season saw one of baseball's great pennant races. The Yankees, Red Sox, and Indians were in a three-way tie for first on September 25. The Yankees faltered and the Indians and Red Sox were tied when the season ended on October 3. There would be a one game playoff in Boston on October 4 to determine the pennant winner.
Cleveland's playing manager Lou Boudreau announced that he was starting rookie lefty Gene Bearden, who had won 19 games. It sounds like an easy choice but it was quite controversial because both Bob Feller and Bob Lemon were vastly more experienced and the second guessers had a field day because Bearden started the game on ONE'S DAYS REST.
It was bad enough in 1948 but imagine what would happen to a manager in 2004 if he started a pitcher with one day's rest in a game that would decide the pennant. When Arizona Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenley started Curt Schilling on "only" three days of rest in the 2001 World Series, he was roundly criticized. When Schilling pitched a great game, few gave Brenley any credit.
Bearden won the game, pitching a 5 hitter, Boudreau hit two home runs, and Cleveland went on to the World Series, where they again beat Boston, but this time it was the Boston Braves. Boston hates Bucky Dent, Aaron Boone, and even Mookie Wilson but Boston fans seem to forget about the Cleveland achievement in 1948 over BOTH of Boston's teams.
The following season was the first in what became the greatest championship-winning streak in baseball history. The Yankees and Red Sox battled to the sweet end (read that "bitter end" if you are a Red Sox fan). Cleveland had fallen out of the race while the Yankees trailed the Red Sox by a single game going into the final two days of the season. The Yankees would host the Red Sox on Sunday and Monday.
The teams had been tied for first on Saturday but the Philadelphia Athletics beat Ed Lopat 4-1 on a three run Ferris Fain home run. Now the Yankees would
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