July 24, 1954. Indians 5, Yankees 4

I went to quite a few games in Yankee Stadium as a kid.  Not the “old” Yankee Stadium that was created in 1976, but THE Yankee Stadium.  The one that Babe Ruth at least subcontracted.  The one where my uncle got great seats because he had worked for WPIX and “knew some people.”

Oddly – several of the games were noteworthy for the kind of things that Yankee fans and legitimate baseball people understand   Things that set the game apart from the thousands of other games played there.

Here’s one.

I was talking to two friends yesterday about the first MLB games we attended.  Mine was at Yankee Stadium on July 24, 1954.  I won’t go into the details of the large expanse of grass in the huge building, or the fact that to leave the ballpark the fans walked across the field and out the gate in centerfield.  Nearly everyone of my era mentions those things. 

I’ll mention what I remember.  I remember Larry Doby hitting a home run to beat my Yankees 5-4 in 10 innings. I remember my mother telling me earlier in the game that he had been the first “Negro” to play in the American League and that he had to overcome the same kind of problems as her favorite player, Jackie Robinson. At that time I didn’t know what those problems were, but if my mother thought it was important enough for me to know, I would remember. That fact may have made the loss seem a little less important, since apparently Doby deserved the chance to hit that home run. 

My hero, Mickey Mantle, tripled in the 10^th but his run only closed the gap to 5-4.  But, that's not the good thing -- looking through the box score verified my memory of  something in that game.  Mantle had come up as a shortstop – and not a very good one –  but in the top of the 9^th, Casey Stengel, following some 8^th inning pinch hitting strategy,  made the  following moves:

Willy Miranda replaces Enos Slaughter (PH) playing 2B batting 8th
Mickey Mantle moves from CF to SS
Gene Woodling moves from PH to LF
Irv Noren moves from LF to CF

And then, the biggie in the top of the 10^th:

Mickey Mantle moves from SS to 2B
Willy Miranda moves from 2B to SS

(http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA195407240.shtml)

As I remember, some of the Mantle/Miranda shifting actually took place batter by batter.  Stengel apparently wanted to keep Mantle out of the line of fire so he and Miranda switched positions according to whether the batter was right or left handed.  This might qualify him as a switch fielder as well as a switch hitter.

Regardless, and what this is really leading up to,  it was the ONLY game Mantle ever played at 2^nd.

NOTE:  For his career, he made 7 appearances at SS (one as a starter) making no errors in 16 innings and one game at 3^rd, in which he made 2 errors in 4 innings.

In his appearance at 2b he handled  2 chances flawlessly.

(http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mantlmi01.shtml)

Baseball Almanac Box Scores Cleveland Indians 5, New York Yankees 4
Game played on Saturday, July 24, 1954 at Yankee Stadium
Cleveland Indians ab   r   h rbi Smith lf 4 1 1 0 Avila 2b 3 1 0 0 Doby cf 4 1 2 3 Rosen 3b 5 0 1 0 Wertz 1b 3 0 1 1   Glynn 1b 2 0 0 0 Philley rf 4 0 2 0 Dente ss 4 0 0 0 Hegan c 4 1 2 1 Mossi p 2 0 0 0   Lemon p 1 1 1 0   Newhouser p 0 0 0 0   Narleski p 0 0 0 0 Totals 36 5 10 5	New York Yankees ab   r   h rbi Noren lf,cf 4 1 2 1 Skowron 1b 4 0 1 1   Sain p 1 0 0 0 Mantle cf,ss,2b 5 1 2 0 Berra c 4 0 2 1 Bauer rf 5 0 0 0 Carey 3b 4 1 1 0 Coleman 2b 2 1 1 0   Woodling ph,lf 1 0 0 0 Rizzuto ss 2 0 0 0   Slaughter ph 1 0 0 0   Miranda 2b,ss 0 0 0 0   McDougald ph 1 0 0 0 Reynolds p 2 0 1 0   Robinson ph 1 0 0 0   Collins 1b 1 0 0 0 Totals 38 4 10 3
Cleveland 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 – 5 10 2 New York 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 – 4 10 1   Cleveland Indians IP H R ER BB SO Mossi   6.2 7 3 3 4 5   Lemon  W(11-5) 2.1 2 1 1 1 0   Newhouser   0.0 1 0 0 0 0   Narleski  SV(7) 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 Totals 10.0 10 4 4 5 6   New York Yankees IP H R ER BB SO Reynolds   7.0 7 3 3 2 3   Sain  L(5-3) 3.0 3 2 2 0 4 Totals 10.0 10 5 5 2 7   E–Rosen (14), Dente (4), Carey (13).  DP–Cleveland 3. Dente-Avila-Wertz, Avila-Wertz, Avila-Dente-Glynn, New York 1. Carey-Coleman-Skowron.  2B–New York Noren (11,off Mossi); Mantle (12,off Lemon).  3B–New York Mantle (10,off Mossi); Skowron (5,off Mossi).  HR–Cleveland Hegan (8,4th inning off Reynolds 0 on 1 out); Doby (20,10th inning off Sain 1 on 2 out)..  SH–Avila (10,off Reynolds); Mossi (1,off Reynolds); Smith (3,off Sain).; Carey (3,off Lemon).  Team LOB–6.  IBB–Woodling (2,by Lemon).  Team–10.  CS–Philley (2,2nd base by Reynolds/Berra).  U-HP–Charlie Berry, 1B–Hank Soar, 2B–Larry Napp, 3B–Ed Runge.  T–3:17.  A–39,117.