Dodger World Series Star Lavagetto Dies at 77

Harry (Cookie) Lavagetto, the star of one of the most famous games in World Series history, died Friday of a heart attack.

Lavagetto, 77, also was a major league manager with the Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins.

In the fourth game of the 1947 Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees, Lavagetto broke up a no-hitter by the Yankees’ Bill Bevens when he doubled with two out in the ninth inning. The hit off the right-field wall at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field drove in two runs and gave the Dodgers a 3-2 victory.

The Dodgers evened the Series at two games apiece that day on Lavagetto’s last major league hit. The Yankees went on to win the Series in seven games.

Lavagetto played 10 seasons in the major leagues, starting with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1934. He joined the Dodgers in 1937, and he missed three seasons of baseball during World War II.

Lavagetto, a right-handed hitter who played third base and served as a utility player, had a lifetime batting average of .269.

He ended his playing career with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League in the early 1950s and later was a coach with several big league clubs. He managed the Senators from 1957 to 1960, and he was the Twins’ first manager when the Washington franchise was moved to Minnesota in 1961.