The longest season in the history of the National League up to that point needed to be extended by three days to determine a pennant winner. In 1962, the NL expanded to 10 teams and adopted a 162-game schedule. Previously, its teams had played 154 games in a season. However, after 162 games, the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers were tied atop the NL with identical 101-61 records, necessitating a three-game playoff.
The same teams participated in a similar playoff series in 1951, except they were then the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers. That was the playoff decided by Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” The teams had a few holdovers from that season. The only player who remained with the Giants was their superstar center fielder Willie Mays. Nonetheless, Giants manager Al Dark and his coaches, Larry Jansen, Whitey Lockman, and Wes Westrum, also played on that 1951 team. Duke Snider was the only remaining member from the 1951 Dodgers. The Giants manager in 1951, Leo Durocher, was now the Dodgers’ third base coach. From the coach’s box, Durocher was known to ignore manager Walter Alston’s signs and signal for steals and hit-and-runs. “We owe the Giants something,” Snider told Sports Illustrated.
It Takes a Thief
The Dodgers were led by shortstop Maury Wills, who set a major league record with 104 stolen bases and was the NL Most Valuable Player in 1962. His was a story of perseverance. Hard as it might be to believe today, the seven-time All-Star spent eight-plus years in the minors and didn’t get to the majors until 1959, when he was 26 years old. He credited two individuals for his development as a hitter. In 1958, his manager at Triple-A Spokane, Bobby Bragan, urged Wills, a natural right-handed batter, to become a switch-hitter. For three weeks, Bragan threw batting practice with Wills hitting left-handed. “Then he simply said, ‘OK, now you’re a switch-hitter,’” Wills told Bill Furlong of Sport, “and a year later, I was batting left-handed in the majors.” In 1960, Wills asked coach Pete Reiser to help him with his hitting. “He gave up three hours every day that he could have spent with his family,” marveled Wills. “Pistol Pete” taught him to be persistent and keep looking for pitches he could hit.
Maury Wills, 1962 #Dodgers#Baseball
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Meanwhile, Wills stole 50 bases in 1960 and 35 more in 1961. He could have padded those totals, he told Furlong, but he thought it unnecessary when the Dodgers had a big lead. In 1962, he changed his mind. “Now, with all the power in the league,” he explained, “I don’t think six or seven runs are too big a lead.” Wills, the leadoff batter, credited the second-place hitter Jim Gilliam for working the count and seeing plenty of pitches. If Gilliam saw 10 pitches in an at-bat, so did Wills, making it easier for him to steal.
The Say-Hey Kid
Meanwhile, the runner-up NL MVP was Mays, who led the majors with 49 homers while slashing .304/.384/.615 with 141 RBI. It was one of many MVP-like seasons turned in by Mays. It’s unfathomable that he won the award only twice. Throughout the years, there was thought that voters took him for granted or voted for other candidates, figuring Mays’ time would come. His contributions, however, weren’t lost on his Giants teammates. In 1987, when asked by Al Doyle of Baseball Digest to name a memorable Mays moment from 1962, pitcher Billy Pierce replied, “It’s impossible to single out a specific incident. Willie was constantly coming up with the great catch or the big hit. He was the greatest athlete I’ve ever seen.”
Things Fall Apart
On September 15, 1962, the Dodgers won their seventh consecutive game to improve their record to 98-51. They were in first place in the NL with a four-game lead over the Giants. Then they completely fell apart, losing 10 of their final 13 game despite playing mostly second-division teams. They finished the 162-game schedule with six home games against the expansionist Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals, losing five of them. In the final two games, they were shut out by Cardinals pitchers Ernie Broglio and Curt Simmons. Broglio beat them 2-0; the two runs were unearned due to a dropped fly ball by right fielder Frank Howard.
In the final game, Dodgers center fielder Willie Davis led off the third inning with one of the Dodgers’ five hits against Simmons. Then he inexplicably dashed toward second base as Johnny Podres popped out near the St. Louis dugout and was easily doubled off first. Los Angeles lost that game, 1-0, after Cardinals catcher and reluctant hero Gene Oliver hit a home run off Podres in the top of the eighth. Oliver told John P. Carmichael of the Chicago Daily, “The man threw me a hanging curve. What am I going to do? I want the Dodgers to win. I’m pulling for them. But there it was.”
No Deacon on the Field
Dark was a devout Christian. During this time, he was a deacon at the San Mateo Baptist Church, where he testified about his faith and helped pass the collection basket, and to which he tithed. (I wrote to him in 1998. Along with his autograph, he enclosed a religious pamphlet.) Would he stoop so low as to cheat? Hugh betcha! Candlestick Park was the scene of the first game. Before Game 1, Dark instructed the grounds crew to water down the field heavily to slow down the Dodger batters’ ground balls and give Wills a muddy basepath to run on. Inspecting the field an hour before the game, umpire Jocko Conlan became wise to Dark’s scheme. A United Press International reporter overheard an angry exchange between Conlan and Dark. The grounds crew was ordered back on the field to dry it out. “Dark’s no deacon once he climbs into a baseball uniform,” Dodgers publicist Red Patterson told Scripps-Howard writer Joe Williams.
Game 1
Game 1 matched left-handers Sandy Koufax for the Dodgers and Pierce for San Francisco. Pierce entered the game with a 15-6 record and was 12-0 with a 2.79 ERA at windy Candlestick. Explaining his success at home to Doyle, Pierce said, “The wind blew in from left field, and a right-handed hitter who tried to pull the ball was in trouble. I pitched inside to righties and kept the ball low and away to left-handed hitters.”
Before the season, the Giants acquired Pierce in a multi-player trade with the Chicago White Sox, where Pierce was a standout performer from 1949-1961. For Chicago, he was 186-152 with a 3.19 ERA. That included two 20-win seasons, an ERA title, and seven All-Star selections. Not quite Hall of Fame-worthy, he might be considered among the best of the rest. He was philosophical about his Hall chances when speaking with John Ralph of MLB.com in 2002, when his candidacy was being reconsidered by the Veterans Committee. “[I]t doesn’t always happen,” he said. “My wife and I have been married for 52 years now, and I think she would be more excited than me.”
Tonight's late night card from my collection.Time: 1:11 a.m.#cardsky
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Getting back to 1962, Koufax was knocked out early when he gave up a two-run homer to Mays in the first and a solo shot to Jim Davenport in the second. The Dodgers’ pitchers then set out to intimidate Mays. Ed Roebuck threw a pitch behind him in the third. Mays got up and lined a single to left field. In the sixth, Larry Sherry brushed him back. Mays dusted himself off and responded with another homer. Afterward, he brushed off the brushback pitches as accidents and claimed he was exhausted. “Maybe nobody believes me,” he told UPI, “but I’m so tired from playing all these ball games I can hardly stand up. Don’t ask me how I hit those home runs. Maybe it’s instinct.”
Meanwhile, the Giants kept scoring, and Pierce had a complete game, 8-0 victory. He surrendered just three hits and a walk. The visibly happy hurler told the media scrum, “It was one of those days when I believe I might have beaten any team. I had good stuff all day and good control.” A dejected Alston said, “We haven’t scored a run in 20 innings now. I don’t know if the opposing pitching is so good or our hitting is so bad.”
Game 2
The series shifted to Dodger Stadium for the duration. The New York Yankees, who won the American League pennant, took advantage of the vacant Candlestick and held a workout there. The Yankees weren’t trying to predict a Giants victory. They were familiar with Dodger Stadium, having played the Los Angeles Angels there nine times in 1962. They needed to get familiar with Candlestick. They may also have wanted to see what the field was like before Dark could doctor it again.
Dark chose right-hander Jack Sanford to start for the Giants, while Alston changed his mind about starting Stan Williams and chose Don Drysdale instead. Fans of managerial chess would have loved this game; altogether, the two teams used 42 players. The Giants used 13 pitchers; the Dodgers needed five.
It looked as though the Giants were on their way to the World Series when they went into the bottom of the sixth with a 5-0 lead. At last, however, the Dodgers’ bats woke up. They scored seven runs in the inning, with the big blow being a three-run, pinch-hit double by Lee Walls.
In relief, Ron Perranoski, Jack Smith, and Williams gave up two runs in the eighth and allowed the Giants to tie the game at 7-7. Afterward, Williams confessed to being nervous to UPI. “I can’t remember when I was more nervous in my life,” he said. “I was shaking more yesterday than I ever did in that playoff game against the Braves or even in the World Series with the White Sox.” Both took place in 1959.
In the bottom of the ninth, Wills and Gilliam led off with walks. Dark turned to Gaylord Perry out of the bullpen. The next batter, Daryl Spencer, laid down a sacrifice bunt. Catcher John Orsino shouted for Perry to throw the ball to third base, but Perry felt more confident throwing to first. Mike McCormick relieved, intentionally walked Tommy Davis, and got Ron Fairly to hit a fly ball to Mays in center field. Wills tagged and raced home, scoring the winning run ahead of Mays’ throw and ending the four-hour, 18-minute marathon. “Nobody in the ballpark was happier than I was,” said Williams.
Smokey
Alston may have checkmated Dark in that managerial chess match, but his players didn’t hold him in high regard as a manager, especially those who played in Brooklyn under their two aggressive, autonomous skippers Durocher and Chuck Dressen. They saw Alston as a puppet for the front office. “Smokey” Alston’s major league career consisted of one at-bat for the Cardinals in 1936, only because Johnny Mize was ejected from the game. Alston struck out and finished the game at first base. Fast forward to 1953, when Dressen demanded a multi-year contract to continue as Dodgers manager. Owner Walter O’Malley fired him instead. Alston, an unknown commodity who managed the Dodgers’ Triple-A team in Montreal and worked with general manager Buzzie Bavasi for many years in the minors, got the gig.
Today In 1953: Rare footage of Walter Alston being introduced as the new manager of the Brooklyn #Dodgers by Walter O'Malley. Fun Fact: Alston never had a multi-year deal with the club, he signed 23 one-year contracts! #MLB #Baseball #History #LetsGoDodgers
— Baseball by BSmile (@bsmile.bsky.social) 2024-11-24T13:49:40.765Z
When Alston took over in 1954, he managed the Dodgers like a minor-league team even though they had dominated the NL since 1947. He imposed strict rules. Jackie Robinson resented the way Alston never came to his aid when he argued with an umpire. Right away, Alston tried to change Snider’s batting stance; Snider reminded him that he hit 42 home runs with that stance the year before. Carl Furillo told Peter Golenbock, author of Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, that he heard Robinson, Gil Hodges, and Pee Wee Reese complain about Alston several times. “If he keeps fooling around like this, I’ll take his damn job,” said Reese.
Furillo recalled Alston once assembling his coaches before removing a pitcher. Alston said, “Well, as long as you’re agreeable, because most likely I’ll be called on the carpet about it with Bavasi.” Furillo told Golenbock, “And from that day on, I said to myself, ‘This guy is not a manager. This guy’s afraid of his own shadow.’ . . He was afraid of his own job. Let’s put it this way: He did a good job at keeping his job, because he was there for 20 years.” Actually, it was 23 years. Author Roger Kahn weighed in: “Alston was 20 years of bad managing. [Again, it was 23 years, unless Kahn meant there were three years where Alston was good at his job.] Witness what happened in ’54. They had a good team, and they weren’t even close in ’54.”
Game 3
More television sets were tuned to Game 3 than astronaut Walter M. Schirra Jr.’s six trips around Earth. Gotta have priorities, y’know. In other news of the day, White Sox shortstop Luis Aparicio demanded a trade, saying “the White Sox will need 40 years to win the American League pennant again.” He wasn’t far off! Cincinnati Reds star Frank Robinson announced that he changed his mind about retiring. He was 27 years old. Meanwhile, left-hander Podres, the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 1955 World Series as a rookie, got the nod to oppose Giants future Hall of Famer Juan Marichal. If Game 2 was a gift for fans of managerial strategy, Game 3 was a second-guessers’ delight.
The Giants led, 2-1, after five innings and loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the sixth. Alston removed Podres in favor of Roebuck, who escaped the inning without allowing a run. In the bottom of the inning, Tommy Davis hit a two-run home run off Marichal. In the home seventh, Wills singled, stole second, stole third, and scampered home on catcher Ed Bailey’s throwing error. The Dodgers’ 4-2 lead looked safe with Roebuck keeping the Giants in check.
In the bottom of the eighth, Don Larsen, he of the perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, took the hill for San Francisco. Tommy Davis led off by walking, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, and stole third. After Larsen struck out Howard, Dark ordered intentional walks to the next two hitters to bring up Roebuck. The 31-year-old Roebuck had thrown three innings and was tired, although he told Alston otherwise. Alston could have sent up a pinch-hitter and perhaps padded the lead, putting more pressure on San Francisco, and closed out the game with Drysdale, Koufax, or relief ace Perranoski. Roebuck grounded out to end the inning.
After the game, Alston defended the decision. “Why take Roebuck out for a pinch-hitter?” he asked, according to UPI. “I’d rather have him pitch with a two-run lead than anyone else I’ve got. Besides, he’s not that bad a hitter.” Roebuck was 6-for-28 in 1962. For the younger reader who never knew baseball before the designated hitter, that wasn’t too bad for a pitcher.
In the top of the ninth, the Dodgers disintegrated. Matty Alou batted for Larsen and lined a single to right-center. Harvey Kuenn forced him out at second. Roebuck then walked Willie McCovey and Felipe Alou. Next, Mays sent a hard line drive single up the middle that deflected off Roebuck, scoring a run. Alston turned to Williams – the same guy who was “shaking” on the mound in Game 2. According to Mays biographer James S. Hirsch, “Durocher thought Alston had lost his mind.” Williams gave up a sacrifice fly to Orlando Cepeda to tie the game, with Felipe Alou advancing to third. With Bailey up, Williams uncorked a wild pitch that moved Mays to second. Bailey was then intentionally walked. Then Williams walked Davenport to force in the winning run. Finally, Perranoski entered the game. An error by second baseman Larry Burright on Jose Pagan’s ground ball brought in a fourth run. When the inning ended, the Giants had scored four runs on just two hits.
Where were Drysdale and Koufax? Alston was saving them for the World Series, which was scheduled to start the next day. But this would be the Dodgers’ last game of 1962. Dark wasn’t saving anybody. Pierce pitched the ninth inning and retired the Dodgers in order, earning a save. The Giants won, 6-4. Former United States Vice President and California gubernatorial candidate Richard Nixon picked them to win the Series over the Yankees. What was he going to say?
Where the Action Was
Standing at his locker, a bare-chested Mays told the media swarm, “I never thought we’d do it. . . I’m the happiest guy in the world.” Remembering 1951, he said, “I was just a rookie then. I didn’t know what was going on. But I know now. I never thought we’d come back to win. . . Never in a million years. With two runs down in the ninth, who would give a nickel for our chances?”
The Dodgers clubhouse was closed for 56 minutes before they let reporters in. Snider stepped outside to explain that they’d need some time. “The kids are still in a daze,” he said. O’Malley and Bavasi called the clubhouse and told Alston that his job was safe for next year, saying it was the players, not Alston, who lost the pennant.
The players didn’t agree. Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney often said that if he were a sportswriter, he’d go to the loser’s locker room, because that’s where the action is. He’d have found plenty of it in the home clubhouse that day. The Dodgers, unimpressed with Alston already, were now livid at him. They tore their uniforms, broke beer bottles, and got drunk on whiskey. Some of them drank so much they were passed out on the floor. Catcher John Roseboro called it “the worst scene I ever saw with the Dodgers.” He had to get out of there.
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d play it the same way,” said Alston.
