1955 : The Year ‘Next Year’ Finally Arrived

It was a different time in baseball, a time when players did not move from one team to another, one season after another. Good teams stayed together, year-in and year-out, almost in perpetuity.

There would be an occasional trade here or there, but if a team put together a contender, it would be a contender for years. And in those days, Brooklyn had a contender.

Piece by piece, the Dodgers came together, eventually assembling a lineup with no easy outs. At the top were the table-setters, Junior Gilliam and Pee Wee Reese. In the middle were the power guys, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges and Roy Campanella. Then Carl Furillo and the left fielder of the moment--sometimes Gene Hermanski, maybe Andy Pafko, occasionally Sandy Amoros.

The pitching staff had flame-throwing Don Newcombe and curve-baller Carl Erskine for openers, with flaky Billy Loes and Russ (Monk) Meyer behind them. Clem Labine was the boss of the bullpen. It was a formidable group as evidenced by its dominance of the National League. These Dodgers were on top almost annually, winning pennants in 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953 and just missing in 1950 and 1951.

Each year, they would find the New York Yankees waiting for them in the World Series, and each time they came up empty, beaten by Berra or Mantle or Ford or somebody. It was the frustration of those Dodgers that gave birth to Brooklyn’s anguished cry: “Wait ‘til next year.”

Forty years ago this week, “next year” finally arrived.

The Dodgers had a daffy reputation, perhaps best evidenced in this group by Loes. Asked for a prediction before one World Series, the Brooklyn left-hander picked the Yankees in six. His teammates were not amused.

Another time, Loes explained why it would be bad to win 20 games. “Then they expect you to do it every year,” he said.

Consequently, Loes never won more than 14.

The 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers began the season like they meant business. They shot in front, winning the first 10 games and 22 of their first 24.

“I think I was the losing pitcher in both of the games we lost,” said left-hander Johnny Podres, who finessed batters with his change-up. Not exactly. He lost just one of the games, the one that ended the start-of-season 10-game winning streak. The other loss went to Loes. Podres would, however, be heard from later.

One of the early games was started by a left-hander who was one of the low men on the roster. It was a no-decision and shortly afterward, Tom Lasorda was returned to the minors, squeezed out of the staff by the rule that required bonus baby Sandy Koufax to remain on the roster.

“It took one of the greatest left-handers in history to squeeze me off that club,” Lasorda is fond of saying. “I still think it was a big mistake.”

The manager was Walt Alston, a strong, silent man, who struck out in his only major league at-bat and became Brooklyn’s boss when Chuck Dressen demanded a multiyear contract, defying the club’s one-year-at-a-time policy. When Alston was hired, New York tabloids screamed “Walt Who?” He would stay for 23 seasons, one year at a time.

In his first year on the job, the Dodgers finished second and there was grumbling in the clubhouse that they might have won had Dressen still been around. Even after the fast start in ‘55, Alston faced a crisis. In early May, Newcombe refused to pitch batting practice for the second time in a week. Alston ordered him to take off the uniform and get out of the ball park and the ace of the staff stalked off.

A day later, though, Newk was back, somewhat contrite and fined for the indiscretion. He joined the team in Philadelphia, pitched two innings in relief that night and got credit for a 6-4 Dodgers victory.

The year before, Newcombe had struggled through a 9-8 season. In ’55 he won 18 of his first 19 decisions en route to a 20-5 year.

By July, Brooklyn was still in front but showing some slippage. Summoned from the minors were a pair of pitchers, Don Bessent and Roger Craig. On the day they were recalled, they started both games of a doubleheader against Cincinnati. The Dodgers swept and a message had been sent to the rest of the league. This was a team on a mission.

By early August, Duke Snider had 38 home runs and was ahead of Babe Ruth’s pace. He was hit by a pitch by Johnny Klippstein in Chicago and managed just four homers the rest of the way. He still led the league with 136 runs batted in and, like Podres, he would be heard from later.

Campanella won his third MVP award, batting .318 with 32 homers and 107 RBIs. Hodges had 27 homers and 102 RBIs and Newcombe, used frequently as a pinch hitter, batted .359 with seven homers in 117 at-bats.

On September 8 in Milwaukee, the Dodgers clinched the pennant, the earliest clinching in National League history. Afterward, the team partied in Maders, a popular German restaurant, and then went by bus to Chicago, where it had a doubleheader the next day. When the bus stopped for a rest stop, utility infielder Don Zimmer decided to stroll across the highway. Reese plucked him back from traffic and probably saved his life.

The World Series began in Yankee Stadium. Reese recalled thinking it might be a last chance for him. “I was 36,” he said. “If we didn’t win that year, I might never be on a world champion.”

The other Dodgers were growing older, too. Robinson also was 36. Campanella was 34, Furillo 33 and Hodges 31. Autumn was creeping up on the Boys of Summer.

The World Series started in Yankee Stadium and it did not begin well for the Dodgers. The Yankees beat Newcombe--a regular October occurrence--6-5 in the opener and then rode Tommy Byrne’s five-hitter to a 4-2 win over Loes in Game 2.

Back in Brooklyn, a desperate Alston handed the baseball to Podres on his 23rd birthday. “There was no pressure on me,” the left-hander said. “I was 9-10.” It had been a difficult season for Podres, who opened 7-2 but struggled with physical problems after that. Against the Yankees, though, he flourished.

Campanella homered in the bottom of the first for a quick 2-0 lead and the Dodgers went on to win, 8-3. Podres went the distance, scattering seven hits. Game 4 also went to the Dodgers, 8-5 with Snider and Hodges hitting home runs.

Now, with the Series tied 2-2, Snider put his personal stamp on Game 5, hitting two more homers in a 5-3 Dodgers victory. That gave him four for the Series and now it was the Yankees who were reeling.

At Yankee Stadium for Game 6, the Dodgers, on the verge of the world championship, ran into vintage Whitey Ford. The Yankees ace pitched a four-hitter in a 5-1 victory and now the Series would be decided in Game 7.

Again, Alston went for Podres, bypassing Newcombe and his legacy of October failures. As good as Newcombe was, he struggled terribly in the postseason, going 0-4 with an 8.59 earned run average in World Series play.

“I caught a break,” Podres said. “Mantle was hurt and couldn’t play.”

He also got an early lead. Campanella doubled and scored on a single by Hodges in the fourth inning. In the sixth, the Dodgers scored again, this time on a sacrifice fly by Hodges.

Now, as the Yankees came to bat, Alston made some defensive changes. Gilliam moved to second base and Sandy Amoros took over in left field. “Amoros was very fast, a very good fielder,” Podres said. “We made that switch a lot but I never heard why we did it so early that day.”

It turned out not to be too early. Instead, it was just in time.

Billy Martin opened the Yankees’ sixth with a walk and Gil McDougald beat out a bunt for a base hit. Two on, none out and lefty slugger Yogi Berra at the plate. It spelled big trouble for Podres.

With the Dodgers outfield playing Berra to pull to right, Yogi lofted a ball down the left field line. The left-handed Amoros sprinted full speed toward the corner, reached out with his gloved right hand and caught the drive. By then, McDougald had rounded second. Reese, in short left, grabbed Amoros’ throw and relayed to Hodges for the double play. It remains one of the most frequently replayed World Series highlights.

The rally was quelled and so were the Yankees. Three innings later, Reese threw out Elston Howard for the game’s final out and the celebration began.

Podres was the MVP with two complete-game wins and a 1.00 ERA. Snider batted .320 with four homers and seven RBIs. Reese batted .296 and scored five runs.

All Brooklyn partied into the night. The Dodger victory party was held at the Bossert Hotel in downtown Brooklyn, where Podres led a conga line around the dance floor.

“I remember Gil and I stepped outside for a while,” Podres remembered. “It was just tremendous with so many people in the street.”

Two years later, so much had changed. The Dodgers abandoned Brooklyn for Los Angeles. Robinson was gone, retired from the game he changed so dramatically. Campanella was in a wheelchair, paralyzed for the rest of his life by an automobile accident.

Still, Brooklyn always would have 1955, the only time it won a world championship, the one time it really turned out to be next year.