Evening star., 1941-10-06
Two Have Hand
In Every Tally
By Yankees
Charley Setting Faster
AH-Time Series Pace
Than Gehrig, Ruth
BY BURTON HAWKINS,
Star Staff Correspondent.

Series the Yankees Charley Keller
and Joe Gordon have been as notice.
able as an elephant in a two-room
apartment. They have been almost
as destructive to Brooklyn as the
Dodgers have been to themselves.
The Dodgers have performed a
slick job of scuttling themselves,
with the aid of Manager Leo
Durocher's patented Corrigan style
baseball, but it hardly has dimmed
the sparkling batting feats OF Keller
and Gordon. The molasses-minded
Durocher, plus Charley and Joe,
have transformed Brooklyn into
city Of sighs.
AS the Yankees sought to sock
the series into oblivion with VIC
tory in the fifth game here today
Keller and Gordon had batted in
nine of the Yankees IA runs and
had scored six of them. Gordon
had compiled a .545 batting aver
age and Keller was nudging along
at .467 clip in a series that has
boasted more distinctive pitching
than hitting They had figured in
the scoring of every New York run.
After Ruth and Gehrig.
Keller is en- route to making a
valiant bid for all-time supremacy
as a pay-off player. In eight World
Series games-he batted .438 IN
dominating the 1889 classic-Charley
has batted .45l, knocked in II runs
and scored IL. With that record he
is surprising the feats OF more
famed predecessors.
Babe Ruth, over span OF 10
years. batted 1925 in World Series
competition. There is no intent to
classify Keller with Ruth, but at
least Charley has nice little start
toward beating the mark of even
the mighty Bambino. Lou Gehrig
was another producer in the clutch,
batting .361 over a stretch of seven
series.
Keller may or may not eclipse
those mountaineering seasons
will determine that-but in any
comparison with sAeh time-honored
names Is iris Speaker and Ty Cobb
he rates the edge, Speaker hit, -306
in three World Series, while Cobb
was a 1862 hitter. in three series.
Botheof these gentlemen, incidental
ly, were in their respective primes
at the time.
The former University of Mary
land athlete was stamped by
Durocher in a pre-series statement
as "a guy who can be pitched to-"
Lippy hasn't shared the secret with
his pitching staff, several of whom
have made the mistake of being on
the premises at a time when Keller
has been waving a menacing chunk
of lumber.
Gordon has been kind in way to
wrong-way Leo. It was Gordon
whom Durocher branded the Yam
KEGS most dangerous hitter before
the series was inaugurated. With
FIVE games played Joe owns New
York's highest average and doubt
less will be remembered as the shot
Durocher called correctly.
Durocher will have been second
guessed and criticized probably
more frequently and bitterly than
any other World Series manager
when, the current affair ceases. In
yesterdays game, however, the
Dodgers owned 4-3 triumph
despite Durocher. then blew a IA
decision to the Yankees with two
out in the ninth inning
No team ever will come closer to
victory than the Dodgers of yester-
day. Relief Pitcher Hugh Casey
had retired Johnny Sturm and Red
Rolfe to open the ninth. He needed
only to dispose of Tommy Heinrich
to even the series at two games each.
He did it the hard way, striking
him out, but at that juncture
Mickey Owen qualified as the series
goat.
Owen allowed the third strike to
skip away from him and when the
excitement expired there was Hen
rich on first and Joe Di Maggie at
the plate. Di Maggie didn't remain
at the plate very long. for he lashed
single to center that sent Heinrich
to second and placed the tying run
in scoring position.
Keller Hits Big Double.
Into that situation stepped the
burly Keller and doubled of the
right-fi field wall, scoring Heinrich and
Di Maggie to present the Yankees
with a 5-4 lead.
Casey, who was en- route to losing
his second game in as many days,
then blew up completely. He walked
Bill Dickey, and Gordon fetched
Keller and Dickey across with an
other double. Phil Rizzuto also
walked and Casey finally ended it
all by retiring Johnny Murphy on
an easy grounder. The Dodgers
half of the ninth was as unnecessary
as parsley on potatoes. The Yankees
had taken 10 lead in the first
inning when Keller singled to score
Rolfe, and in the fourth inning
Sturm boosted New York into a 80
lead with single that scored Dickey
and Gordon.
Jimmy Wasdell shaved that ad-
vantage to 80 in the Dodgers por-
tion of the fourth when he sliced
double down the left-ield line to
score Owen and Coscarart, and in
the fifth inning Brooklyn snatched
the lead
Dixie Walker doubled to launch
the inning and Pete Reiser, disdain-
ing a sacrifice, then blasted a tre-
mendous home run over the score
board in right field. Most Of the
33,8l3 customers were feeling pretty
wonderful about the world in general
down through the innings.
Then, at the last possible second,
came the break, and the Yankees
made compound fracture of 1t.
Three years ago - Yankees