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On this day in New York · October 4, 1955

The Dodgers Finally Win It All

After seven trips to the World Series and seven letdowns, Brooklyn beat the Yankees on their own field and the borough finally got its parade.

The facts

Date
October 4, 1955
Final score
Brooklyn Dodgers 2, New York Yankees 0 (Series won 4 games to 3)
Winning pitcher
Johnny Podres, complete game, 10 strikeouts, named World Series MVP
Location
Yankee Stadium, the Bronx

On October 4, 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 2-0 in Game 7 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, taking the championship four games to three. Johnny Podres threw a complete-game shutout and struck out ten batters, and Gil Hodges drove in both Brooklyn runs. In the sixth inning, left fielder Sandy Amoros ran down a deep fly ball off the bat of Yogi Berra near the left-field foul line and turned it into a double play that snuffed out a Yankee rally. It was the only World Series the Dodgers ever won while they still played in Brooklyn; two years later the team left for Los Angeles.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. I shall be obliged if you will send Nora and the girls to church every Sunday for the next month to pray for the continued health and strength of the messrs. Gilliam, Reese, Snider, Campanella, Robinson, Hodges, Furillo, Podres, Newcombe and Labine, collectively known as The Brooklyn Dodgers.

    Helene Hanff, in a letter to London bookseller Frank Doel, quoted in her book 84 Charing Cross Road

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. THIS IS NEXT YEAR!

    New York Daily News back-page headline, October 5, 1955

    Source: At the Plate: 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers

Why it still matters

Brooklyn had lost to the Yankees in the World Series five times since 1941, and the borough had worn the joke wait till next year like a bruise. In 1955, next year finally came, and it took a team that would be gone for Los Angeles within two years to deliver it.

Sources

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