DEVIL RAYS
Zimmer Takes 'Credit' For Brooklyn's 1955 Title
Published: Jun 22, 2007
Related Links:
ADVERTISEMENT
More from this channel:
Search for more information:
ST. PETERSBURG - He was a latecomer to the Boys of Summer, not quite the icon Carl Erskine was. Or Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella and the others who played for the Dodgers in the decade before the team abandoned Brooklyn.
But Don Zimmer typified as well as any of them the grit and feistiness of the franchise.
There were, for starters, two beanings, one in the minors, the other by Hal Jeffcoat of the Reds in 1956. Either could have cost Zimmer his career, perhaps his life.
Then there was the time in 1955 when he and Reese were driving on the Belt Parkway to the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, where so many of the Dodgers lived. Zimmer got pulled over for speeding. He said he wasn't.
"We're Giants fans," one police officer said, handing him a ticket.
Zimmer, the Devil Rays' senior adviser, told this tale recently.
"I don't say nothing," he recalled, "but I never paid it and never heard another word."
And consider July 8, 1955, at the Polo Grounds. Sal Maglie was a Dodger destroyer, 23-11 against them as a New York Giants pitcher. Brooklyn manager Walter Alston "is playing all the scrubeenies - that's what the extra guys were called - because we can't beat this guy," Zimmer recalled.
Zimmer went 4-for-5 with a home run and was audacious on the bases. With the score tied in the seventh inning, he got such a tremendous jump off first on ball four that he kept going, stole third on the play and continued home on a throwing error to score the deciding run in Brooklyn's 12-8 victory.
As for the greatest game in the greatest season Brooklyn ever played, Zimmer is more than willing to take credit for the victory - even if his role was greatly diminished that day. Game 7 of the '55 World Series turned on his not batting.
In the top of the sixth, with the bases loaded, two outs and Brooklyn leading the New York Yankees 2-0, Alston sent George "Shotgun" Shuba up to pinch hit for Zimmer. He grounded out. In the bottom of the inning, Alston moved right-handed Jim Gilliam from left field to second, Zimmer's position, and replaced him with speedy lefty Sandy Amoros.
Billy Martin led off with a walk, and Gil McDougald beat out a bunt. Yogi Berra then sliced a drive down the left-field line. McDougald took off for second while Martin waited just off the base. It likely would have been a game-tying double. Gilliam likely wouldn't have gotten to it.
Amoros did, despite shading the left-handed pull hitter toward center field. He stuck out his right hand, made the catch, then wheeled and made a perfect throw to Reese, the cutoff man at shortstop. Reese's relay doubled McDougald off first.
The threat was over and, with World Series MVP Johnny Podres pitching a shutout, so were the Yankees. Five times they had beaten the Dodgers to win the World Series. This time Brooklyn won it for the first and only time.
"It all started right here, pal," Zimmer said, grinning and poking his chest. "And don't ever forget that."
"He should take credit for that," Podres said. "That's what he said. Alston took him out and the Dodgers won."
