Newk AII by Himself

One day this week, a couple of National League ball clubs will probably play the big game, the one that will wrap up the pennant. For the Brooklyn Dodgers, that final accounting, however it adds up, could seem like just another statistic. The Dodgers have played their big game. They played it as they should have, at home on Sept. 19, against the molting St. Louis Cardinals. The hero, as he should have been, was a lantern-jawed, beetle-browed pitcher named Don Newcombe.

For one wonderful afternoon, at a time when the Dodgers seemed determined to outbungle the opposition and give away the flag, Brooklyn suddenly put on an exhibition of big-league baseball. Almost every regular got a hit, and Big Newk led the pack. While he held the Cards to two measly runs, the shambling fireballer walloped back-to-back homers his first two times at bat. Then he hit a clean single; a few minutes later he got his big feet churning and stole second. When the dust settled and someone took time to add up the score, the Dodgers had won, 17-2. Big Newk had won his 25th game, the first Dodger to do so since Dazzy Vance in 1924.

Later on, when even the World Series is just another set of numbers in the record book, the Dodgers will have time to muse on their unlovely, late-season staggers. But long after they have forgotten the men left on base, the muffed bunts, all the flubbed chances to put a close game on ice, they will remember Newk on the 19th. This was the kind of performance that makes legend--the legend of one man seemingly determined to do it all by himself.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.