• Cleveland has taken three in a row since a heartbreaking Game One loss at Braves Field.
• That day, Feller picked Phil Masi off second in the eighth inning only to have umpire Bill Stewart call the runner safe. Tommy Holmes then singled Masi home with the only run of the contest.

Feller had a so-so year in 1948 by his standards.

• His record was a poor 9-15 with a 3.56 ERA.
• He struck out only 164, a far cry from the record 348 he had fanned in 1946.
• Bob Lemon and Gene Bearden both won 20 to top the Tribe staff. The Braves starter is RH Nelson Potter, who went 5-2 after the A's released him in June. Comparing the credentials of the two starters, the home throng has every right to expect a celebration. However, baseball is the most unpredictable of games.

Boston jumps on Rapid Robert in the first as 3B Bob Elliott swats a three-run homer.

• However, the hometown heroes rally for 4 in the bottom of the fourth, driving Potter to the showers to take a 5-4 lead. The big blow is a three-run shot by C Jim Hegan.
• Billy Southworth, managing as if there's no tomorrow, brings on his ace lefthander Warren Spahn who cools the Indian bats, allowing only one hit and no runs the rest of the way.

The visitors tie the contest on a HR by Bill Salkeld in the sixth. Then the roof caves in on the Indians in the seventh.

• Holmes singles and is bunted to second. 1B Earl Torgeson singles in Holmes, knocking out Feller in favor of Ed Kleiman.
• He doesn't douse the fire, surrendering two singles and a walk.
• Manager/SS Lou Boudreau summons Russ Christopher, but he is touched for two more bingles.
• Finally, Satchel Paige (42+ years old) gets Spahn to hit a SF (although he is charged with an at-bat according to the rules of the day) to end a string of six straight reaching base. Holmes grounds out to end the nightmare.
• Boston sends the Series back to Beantown, 11-5. (Lemon pitches the clincher the next day with a save from Bearden, 4-3.)

Feller's line for Game 5:

6 1/3 innings, 8 hits, 7 runs (all earned), 2 walks, 5 strikeouts.

He never pitches in another World Series game and ends his Hall of Fame career with no post-season victories.

• After hitting only .227 (5-22) in the first six games, Tony hopes to contribute to a Yankee win in the decisive finale.
• However, he strikes out and flies out twice against Jesse Haines.

Then comes one of the most famous at-bats in baseball history.

• The Yankees load the bases in the 7th on a single by Earle Combs, a sacrifice by Mark Koenig, an intentional walk to Babe Ruth, and – after Bob Meusel grounds out – a walk to Lou Gehrig.
• At that point, player-manager Rogers Hornsby calls on Grover Cleveland Alexander, who had kept the Cards alive the day before with a complete game 10-2 victory.
• 39-year old Alexander strikes out Lazzeri to end the threat.
• Then "Old Pete" retires five in a row before walking Babe Ruth with two out in the ninth.
• With Meusel up (not Gehrig as is stated in some recounts of the game), Ruth inexplicably tries to steal only to be cut down by C Bob O'Farrell. It remains the only time a World Series has ended on an attempted steal.
• Denied another AB, Lazzeri finishes the Series a woeful 5-26 (.192). It was the worst of his six Fall Classics for New York. The best was his last, 1937, when he hit .400.

Contrary to the mythology surrounding this game, Alexander was not hungover when the trudged in from the bullpen to face Lazzeri.

• After Game 6, Hornsby had told him he might need him the next day.
• Alex swore to his dying day that he did not party the night before.

The Dodger "goat" was 1B Gil Hodges who went hitless in 21 at-bats in the seven games. Six times he went down on strikes. He did walk five times and actually had an RBI on a flyout in game 7. However, he was not credited with a sacrifice fly according to the scoring rules in place from 1940-1953.

Gil's worst game was the sixth at Ebbets Field when the Dodgers held a three-games-to-two edge.

• Hitting in the seventh slot, Hodges struck out three times against RHP Vic Raschi.
• Trailing 3-2, manager Charlie Dressen sent left-handed hitting Rocky Nelson to bat for Gil to lead off the ninth against Allie Reynolds. Rocky also struck out.

Gil's season-long stats in no way prepared the fans for what happened in the Series.

• In 153 games in 1952, his fifth full season with the Bums Gil hit .254 with 107 walks.
• He hammered 32 HRs and drove in 102. His OBP + SLG was .886.

Hodges was the Dodgers' Lou Gehrig, strong but sphinxlike.

• The gentle giant was known as a quiet, kindly man with a dry sense of humor.
• Yet coming into the '52 Series, Gil was not a beloved Dodger. Respected, yes. Beloved, no. Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, and Roy Campanella all outranked Hodges in the Brooklyn pantheon.
• Ironically, it was his 0-for-21 agony that made the big first-sacker one of the fans' favorite Dodger.
• Catholic priests at Masses all over the area implored their congregations, including Gil's own parish, to pray for an end to the slump. Nuns told their students to add Hodges to their daily prayer intentions.

• Father Herbert Redmond told his Brooklyn congregation one Sunday: "It's far too hot for a homily. Keep the Commandments and say a prayer for Gil Hodges."
• More than 30 people a day wrote Hodges. Fans sent him rabbits' feet, rosary beads, mezuzahs, and scapulars. One man sent him a container of carrot juice to improve his batting eye.
• Gil's good friend and fellow Indianan Carl Erskine recalled: Gil was distraught during his slump, but he didn't talk about it. He never talked about it. He would come out early and try things, and guys would give him advice - you get tons of advice when things are going bad - and Dressen had him out early, working on hitting to the opposite field. But it was not something talked about on the bench.
• Charlie finally figured out what was wrong. After looking at hundreds of photos of Hodges batting, he determined that the problem was stepping into the bucket, which threw his timing off. So Charlie said, Keep your front foot where it is, but move the back foot father from the plate. Now when you step back, you'll be stepping into line.
• Hodges began hitting again soon afterward, finishing the '53 season at .302, and led all Dodgers in the '53 Series with .364. He didn't bat less than .292 in any of his remaining four Fall Classics.

• The A's led Chicago two games to one, with the visiting team winning all three games.
• The Cubs were on their way to tying the series with an 8-0 lead going into the bottom of the seventh at Shibe Park. Charlie Root was coasting with a three hitter.
• 66-year-old Connie Mack, A's manager, told several regulars to go to the clubhouse after the inning to give his benchwarmers a chance to play in the World Series.

Then the roof fell in on the Cubs, aided by two misplays in centerfield.

1. LF Al Simmons homered onto the left-field roof. At least, Philly wouldn't be shut out.
2. 1B Jimmy Foxx singled to right.
3. RF Bing Miller flied to center but Hack Wilson lost the ball in the sun. Miller was credited with a single to put runners at first and second.
4. 3B Jimmy Dykes singled to left, scoring Foxx with Miller stopping at second.
5. SS Joe Boley singled to right, Miller scoring and Dykes to third.
6. George Burns, pinch-hitting for P Eddie Rommel, popped to short.
7. 2B Max Bishop singled over Root's head, Dykes scoring and Boley going to third. With the score 8-4, Cub manager Joe McCarthy brought in lefty Art Nehf, a veteran of four World Series with the Giants.
8. CF Mule Haas hit a long fly ball to center, but Wilson again lost the ball in the sun. This time Haas circled the bases for a three-run homer to pull the A's within one run.
   
   
   In the Philadelphia dugout, 3B Jimmy Dykes slapped the man next to him on the back and shouted, "We're back in the game, boys!"
   Imagine Jimmy's chagrin when he realized he just knocked his mana­ger off the bench.
   "I'm sorry," said Jimmy, pulling Mack to his feet.
   "That's all right, Jimmy," said Connie. "Everything's all right. Anything you do right now is all right. Wasn't it wonderful?"
   
   
9. C Mickey Cochrane walked. McCarthy replaced Neff with Sheriff Blake.
10. Simmons bounced a grounder that took a bad hop over 3B Norm McMillan's head for a one-bagger, Cochrane stopping at second.
11. Foxx singled, scoring Cochrane with the tying run. McCarthy made his third pitching change of the inning, calling on Pat Malone.
12. Miller was hit by a pitch, loading the bases.
13. Dykes doubled to the LF wall, scoring Simmons and Foxx.
14. Boley struck out.
15. Burns, batting as a pinch-hitter for the second time in the inning, struck out.

In what Cubs fans ever after called "the inning," Philadelphia scored 10 runs on nine hits, two of which were lost in the sun by Hack Wilson.

• The 10-run inning has been matched once (by Detroit in 1968) but never bested in any World Series.
• The A's held on 10-8 to take a 3-1 lead in games. Connie Mack's men won the Series the next day with three runs in the ninth, 3-2.

Wilson hit a robust .471 to lead all hitters in the Series, although he had no RBI in the cleanup spot behind the great Rogers Hornsby.

• Just like Bill Buckner of the Red Sox after the 1986 World Series, Wilson's miscues plagued him the rest of his career.
• An unknown fan rewrote lyrics to "My Old Kentucky Home" beginning with "The sun shone bright into poor Hack Wilson's eyes..."
• When a boy came by after the game asking for a baseball, McCarthy supposedly muttered, "Come back tomorrow, and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want!"
• One legend says that Wilson cried on the train ride all the way back to Chicago after Game 5.

Hack Wilson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979 by the Veterans Committee, primarily on the basis of his 1930 season when he drove in 191, which is still the record. So his World Series mishaps didn't carry over to the next year.

Watch silent video of the first two games of the 1929 Series.
Reference: Two Spectacular Seasons, William B. Mead (1990)