Cleveland, Not Boston: Part 3

The teams returned to Yankee Stadium for Game 6 with the Yankees leading, three games to two. In the sixth inning, with the score tied at 1-1, Henry Albert Bauer, one of the greatest clutch hitters in World Series history, tripled with the bases loaded and the Yankees hung on for a 4-3 victory. It was their fourteenth World Championship.

The winter passed quickly, especially for those who wanted to hold on to being world champions, and once again, the Indians would be the Yankees' primary challenger. The Red Sox had finished eleven games out in 1951 and were picked to do worse in 1952 for two reasons. The first was that they had no pitching and the second was that on January 9, 1952, the United States Marines informed Ted Williams that they needed his services more than did the Red Sox.

Williams was one of the greatest, if not the greatest hitter of all time. April 30th, 1952 was Ted Williams Day at Fenway Park. It was Williams' last game before he left to defend freedom. With the game tied 3-3 in the ninth inning, he hit a game winning two-run home run. That was Ted Williams. Nevertheless, his team was and is another story. Boston finished the 1952 season in sixth place, nineteen games behind the Yankees.

Cleveland and Chicago presented the Yankees with the most problems. On July 4 the Yankees led the Sox by 2 ½ games and the Indians by 3 games. The Indians hung tough and on September 1, Cleveland, with its great pitching, trailed by only 2 ½ games, but the Yankees won 19 of their last 24 to finish a mere 2 games ahead of Cleveland.

Once again it was an all New York World Series only it was New York against Brooklyn. Just as the Red Sox had lost Ted Williams, the Giants lost Willie Mays, who, like Williams, had to defend democracy. The Brooklyn Dodgers faced the Yankees in one of the great World Series of all time, with the Yankees prevailing in Game 7 thanks to Billy Martin catching Jackie Robinson's two out pop fly with the bases loaded. The Yankees had now won four straight World Championships, tying the 1936-1939 teams as the only teams to win four straight. Number five would be achieved in 1953.

Entering the 1953 season, the Yankees were a formidable

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