Up Off the Floor

Before the saddened eyes of the loyal citizens of Milwaukee and several million television viewers, the Braves fell apart.

Milwaukee fans could spot the man and the moment when they began to have that sinking feeling. Man and moment came together in the fifth game, with the Braves basking in the 3-1 series lead. Switch-Hitter Red Schoendienst lined a drive toward left. Elston Howard took off with the crack of the bat, ran straight into the murderous glare that makes left field at Yankee Stadium the toughest sun field in the major leagues. Diving to his knees, Howard sprawled forward, stuck out his gloved hand, and came up with the ball that had looked like a sure base hit. Howard scrambled to his feet, gunned a strike to first base to double a surprised Bill Bruton, who had confidently rounded second before he recognized his mistake.

The Yankees, who had played like bush-ers in the first four games, came to life. In their half of the sixth, they zeroed in on Pitcher Lew Burdette just as if he had never beaten them three times running in the 1957 series, piled up six runs in their first sustained scoring outburst of the series. Bullet Bob Turley, blasted out in the first inning at Milwaukee when he pushed his fast ball up to the plate too enticingly, produced a suddenly dipsy curve to baffle the Braves with a scrawny five hits and breeze to a 7-0 victory.

Back in Milwaukee, the gallant Warren Spahn, who had beaten the Yankees twice, tried to do it again after only two days' rest. For a while it looked as if he could bring it off. In the second inning Milwaukee led 2-1, and loaded the bases. But Howard was there again, this time to catch Johnny Logan's short fly, make a perfect peg home to throw out lumbering Andy Pafko by 15 ft. In the tenth inning the ubiquitous Howard singled and scored what proved to be the winning run as the Yankees licked Spahn 4-3.

In the last game the Braves were too jittery to cope. Burdette and First Baseman Frank Torre messed up two routine infield taps that gave the Yankees a pair of unearned runs in the early going. Catcher Del Crandall failed twice at bat with the bases loaded. It hardly mattered that he struck a solo homer to tie the game in the sixth; pesky Elston Howard promptly untied it with an eighth-inning single, and the Yankees were home, 6-2.

Not since 1925, when Pittsburgh did it to Washington, had a team come off the floor to win after losing three of the first four series games. Post-mortem accolades went to the Yankees' burly Turley, who had a hand in every one of the last three-in-a-row victories--winning one singlehanded, getting the last out in another, saving the final game with a spectacular 6| innings of two-hit relief pitching. Hard-bitten Rightfielder Hank Bauer led the Yankees at bat with a .323 average and four home runs. But the man Milwaukee will remember most vividly was a catcher-outfielder, Elston Gene Howard.

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