No-hitter

The Brooklyn Dodgers were struggling in a pennant race in my 1947 APBA baseball replay. With only seven games remaining, they were trailing the St. Louis Cardinals by 5.5 games. Basically, the Bums had to win each of their last games and the Cardinals had to bomb in historic fashion.

Five of the Redbirds’ remaining eight games are against the Chicago Cubs, the worst team in the replay that is sure to lose 100 games this year.

So, after being swept in three games in St. Louis a few days earlier, Brooklyn took two out of three in Cincinnati and then traveled for what seemed to be two easy games to Pittsburgh before returning to Ebbetts Field. In fact, the first game of the two-game series against the Pirates, played on Sept. 17, 1947, seemed more of a football game. The Dodgers scored three touchdowns on their way to a 21-15 rout. It only stood to reason to speculate they’d score plenty the following game and head home with hopes still intact.

Ralph Branca, the Dodgers’ ace with a 20-6 record, faced Pirates’ hurler Kirby Higbe, an overused pitcher, both as a starter and reliever, with a 14-16 record. APBA rated Branca, a 21-year-old right-hander, as an “A” pitcher, which is about as good as it gets in the mostly weak pitching of that era. Higbe, a 32-year-old rightie from Columbia, S.C., was given a “C” rating. APBA grades pitchers based on their ERA and won-lost record, much like a grading system in school.

It seemed like a lock that the Dodgers would win, especially when only one hit was recorded in the game.

Brooklyn opened with Pete Reiser getting on base with a two-out walk. Dixie Walker then grounded out and the inning was over.

The Pirates responded with two runs. Jim Russell tripled, driving in Wally Westlake, and then Westlake scored on a long sacrifice fly by Frankie Gustine. Pittsburgh led, 2-0.

From then on, it was a pitcher’s duel. Higbe retired the next seven batters before walking keen-eyed Reiser again in the fourth inning. Meanwhile, Branca matched by getting eight out in a row before Hank Greenberg walked.  Higbe then bore down, getting 16 in a row out. Branca, meanwhile holding Pittsburgh hitless since the first, struck out Russell to end the eight and the Dodgers were up in the top of the ninth.

Higbe walked Eddie Miksis to open the top of the ninth and, after getting Eddie Stanky out on a grounder, hit Jackie Robinson with a pitch. For the first time in the game, Brooklyn had two runners on base. Reiser popped up and Walker, who leads Brooklyn with 132 RBIs in my replay, came to bat. Could he clout a home run and give the Dodgers the lead? Would he poke a single through a hole, scoring Miksis and continuing hope?

Nope.

Instead, and this is the case I’ve seen many times in APBA. Higbe bore down and struck Walker out.

The line score was simple. Branca gave up one hit and two runs. He walked four and struck out three. Higbe walked three and struck out five.

Earlier, St.  Louis beat the Boston Braves, 2-1, winning their 99^th game. A day later, on Sept. 19, the Cards took a 5-1 lead in the second inning against the hapless Cubs and a victory seemed assured. But Chicago came back, and fueled by Bill Nicholson’s 32^nd home run of the season, won, 7-6, after Emil Kush filled in as a reliever and gained his third save for the Cubs.

The no-hitter symbolized the frustration of the Dodger’s last two months of the season. On July 1, Brooklyn was a half game ahead of the Cardinals. Branca had won 11 games at that point and Harry Taylor and Joe Hatten had each taken 10 games. But since then, the Dodgers have gone 45-29 to St. Louis’ 51-22 mark. Stan Musial, with 141 RBIs and 30 home runs as of Sept. 19, 1947, is a lock to win the National League Most Valuable Player. Although the Cards have only two pitchers who could win 20 games in the season – Harry Breechen and Cotton Brazle – only one pitcher has a losing record. Jim Hearn has a 5-6 mark on the mound for the Cardinals.

Brooklyn will host Boston for two games and then New York before traveling for one game each in Boston and Philadelphia. Even if they win all six games to finish with a 100-54 record, if the Cardinals win two games of their remaining eight, which they surely will, they’ll take the pennant and head to the World Series where, whoever they face (the Yankees, Red Sox and Tigers are all in a dogfight and are within 1.5 games of each other now) will be the favorite to win it all.