Braves top of the World in 58

When Darrell Johnson spent another season in the minors he prepared for his usual October experience, to spend some time with his sweetheart and the rest of it huntin', shootin' and fishin'. A world far away from the World Series. But when the call came from Casey Stengel that he was in the Yankees squad, as third place catcher, that all changed. He knew that with Berra and Howard in the team he was likely going to spend the series as a benchwarmer. This he was until two out G6 top of the 11th. With the Yankees fast running out of pitchers and players, Johnson was sent to the plate with the chance to write himself into Yankee folklore. With Lumpe on 1st and McDougald on 2nd one hit could have sent the series to Game 7. Unfortunately, there are two sides to every fairy story, and in this one the ogre, as far as the Yankees were concerned, was about to step to the mound. Joey Jay had failed to earn a win in any game before the Series for the Braves, but already had 1 win and 1 save to his name in this series, without giving up a run. He struck Johnson out to end his dreams and send it to the bottom of the 11th.

Hank Aaron had a disappointing Regular season batting 248 with 11 rbis and 3 hr. But cometh the hour cometh the Hammerin' Hank. It took one pitch from Duke Maas that hung over the plate and Aaron despatched it into the left field stands for a 4-2 victory and spark crazy celebrations in Milwaukee.

In truth the series was evenly matched but the control of the Braves pitchers won the day. They only gave up 11 walks to the Yankees 23. You always had the feeling that if the Yankees recovered to 3 games all then they would be favorites for G7. It wasn't to be, as despite trailing in 2 of the 4 losses, the Braves offence proved sufficient delivering 20 runs to the Yankees 12. Mantle was kept under wraps batting only 250 with zero rbi.

Still it is a series that will live long in the memory particularly Games 6 and 7 which were in the balance until the very end....Roll on 59