Martin, Mantle Prepare Series Strategy
60 years ago, the World Series started on the first day of October. This year the World Series will begin October 24!
Here is another one of these great baseball news photographs. This one is from UPI dated September 30 1952. The caption reads:
New York: New York Yankee Second Baseman Billy Martin (left), who, because of injuries caused during the recent season has caused manager Casey Stengel to makeup an emergency line-up in case he, Gene Woodling and Gil McDougald could not play in the World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, shows outfielder Mickey Mantle the bat he hopes to make talk business against the NL pennant winners. Despite Stengel’s emergency measures, however, Martin, along with McDougald and Woodling said, Sept. 30, that they were fit and ready to go. The series opens Oct. 1 in Ebbets Field, Brooklyn.
The Yankees would go on to win their fourth consecutive World Series championship, beating the Dodgers four games to three.
And somewhere a young George Steinbrenner saw this photo in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and said to himself “Sweet Jesus that is one fire-able looking bastard…”