Cleveland, Not Boston: Part 3
formidable team. Yogi Berra was the best catcher in the American League, the infield was solid, and a slowly maturing Mickey Mantle was entering his third season. The pitching staff still had Reynolds, Raschi, and Lopat as well as Whitey Ford, who had helped to defend the country and was back.
In the spring of 1952, Stengel was optimistic but realistic. He stated to columnist Arthur Daley, "We're gonna win. No, I'm not tryin' to say that we have the best team in the league. We didn't have the best team last season. But we win the close ones and that's why we're gonna take another pennant."
In the spring of 1953, Daley wrote that "Unless evidence to the contrary is produced, the belief as of this moment is that the Yanks will attain an unprecedented fifth championship. Cleveland will again be the main challenger, with the White Sox a new and more valid threat than they have been in the past."
The Yankees won the pennant by 8 ½ game over the Indians with the White Sox finishing third. Boston was fourth, 16 games out. Once again the World Series was all New York, with the Yankees facing a Dodgers team that was one of the greatest teams of all time.
There was Gil Hodges at first, Jim Gilliam at second, Billy Cox at third, and of course, Phil Rizzuto's friend and fan, Harold Henry PeeWee Reese at shortstop. The outfield consisted of batting champion Carl Furillo in right, Duke Snider in center, and Jackie Robinson in left, although Robinson also filled in at every infield position. After all, he WAS Jackie Robinson. Roy Campanella, whose only equal might have been Yogi, did the catching.
Hodges was one of the best defensive first basemen of all time and at third, Billy Cox was as good defensively as Brooks Robinson and Clete Boyer would be a few years later. The lowest batting average of any regular was Reese's .271 but the Dodgers' shortstop hit 13 home runs before the days of Ernie Banks and Alex Rodriguez. Led by Snider's 42 and Campanella's 41, the team hit an incredible 208 home runs, scored 955 runs, and had a team batting average of .285. And their pitchers had to bat.
Carl Erskine won 20 while losing only 6, Russ Meyer was 15-5, and Billy Loes was 14-8. Lefty veteran Preacher Roe was 11-3 and young lefty Johnny Podres,
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