The DARK TRUTH About World Series 1955

For forty-nine years, the Brooklyn Dodgers had never won a World Series. They lost in 1916. They lost in 1920. They lost in 1941. They lost in 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953. Seven times they had reached the Fall Classic. Seven times they had gone home empty. Five of those losses came against the same team. The New York Yankees. Wait till next year. That was the phrase. Not a rallying cry. A funeral hymn. Three million people in Brooklyn said it every October, and every October it meant the same thing. Not yet. Not us. Not ever. This documentary tells the dark truth about the 1955 World Series. The year next year finally came. And the cost of getting there. Discover the team that carried an entire borough’s heartbreak on its shoulders. Jackie Robinson at thirty-six, slower than he had been but no less ferocious, playing third base because his legs could no longer handle second. Duke Snider, who hit 42 home runs during the regular season and tortured Yankee pitching in every October meeting. Roy Campanella, the three-time MVP catcher whose body was being ground down by the most physically demanding position in baseball. Pee Wee Reese, the captain, thirty-six years old, the man who had put his arm around Robinson in 1947 when the rest of the world was screaming at him to fail. Gil Hodges, the gentle giant from Indiana who had gone hitless in the 1952 World Series, 0-for-21, so devastating that priests in Brooklyn told their congregations to pray for him. The film chronicles the Yankees waiting on the other side. Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto, Hank Bauer, Billy Martin. The five-time defending champions who owned October the way landlords own buildings. Manager Casey Stengel had never lost a World Series. The Yankees had beaten the Dodgers so many times that the rivalry had become less a contest than a recurring humiliation. This documentary examines how the Series began exactly the way Brooklyn feared. The Yankees won Game One 6-5 behind Whitey Ford, with Joe Collins hitting two home runs. They won Game Two 4-2 behind Tommy Byrne. The Dodgers had seen this before. They had lived this before. Two games down to the Yankees. The old script writing itself again. Learn how manager Walter Alston made the decision that saved the season. He gave the Game Three start to Johnny Podres, a twenty-two-year-old left-hander from Witherbee, New York, a kid born in a mining town who had won just nine games during the regular season. Podres threw a complete game, scattering seven hits, winning 8-3. Campanella hit a two-run homer. The Dodgers were alive. The film chronicles the Dodgers winning three straight at Ebbets Field. Clem Labine, Gil Hodges, Duke Snider, and Sandy Amoros carrying the load. How Snider hit two home runs in Game Five. How the Dodgers took a three-games-to-two lead back to Yankee Stadium, one win from the promised land, knowing that if they could not finish it there, they would have to win Game Seven in the building where their dreams had gone to perish five times before. This documentary examines Game Six and the Yankees’ response. How Whitey Ford pitched a complete game, holding the Dodgers to one run. How Bill Skowron’s three-run homer broke the game open. How the Yankees won 5-1 with the ease of a team that had done this before and fully expected to do it again. The Series was tied at three games apiece. Everything came down to Game Seven. At Yankee Stadium. Against the Dodgers. Discover how Alston handed the ball back to Johnny Podres on two days’ rest. The twenty-two-year-old mining town kid against the Yankee dynasty. 62,465 fans at Yankee Stadium. The entire borough of Brooklyn listening on radios, watching on televisions in bars, in living rooms, on sets propped up in shop windows. Learn how Podres was magnificent. How he mixed a sharp curveball with a change-up that froze Yankee hitters. How Gil Hodges drove in both Dodger runs, a sacrifice fly in the fourth and an RBI single in the sixth. How the Dodgers led 2-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning. This documentary examines the cost of the victory. How it was the only championship Brooklyn ever won. Two years later, Walter O’Malley moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles, ripping the franchise from the borough that had loved it more than any city has ever loved a baseball team. The people who had waited forty-nine years and finally celebrated got exactly two seasons before the team was taken from them. Robinson retired after the 1956 season rather than accept a trade to the Giants. Campanella was paralyzed in a car accident in January 1958. Ebbets Field was demolished in 1960. The neighborhood changed. The memories faded. Next year had finally come, and then next year was gone. Johnny Podres. Sandy Amoros. Pee Wee Reese to Gil Hodges. October 4, 1955. The day Brooklyn defeated the Yankees. The only time it ever happened. And two years later, the team that finally brought them their championship was gone forever.