Val, Sandy, and My Dad

Val has put up this year's BlogCuba . He requested posts on Cuba from other bloggers and posted them on his site. I haven't read them all yet, but Sheila's entry was great.

I feel terrible that I didn't contribute. Val asked me and I flaked. So in a very feeble attempt at atonement I'd just like to say that a Cuban made millions people in Brooklyn, including my 8-year-old father, happier than they ever thought they could be in the Fall of 1955. (Only before having their hearts broken for good a few years later.)

The catch by Sandy Amoros in 1955, on the other hand, came in the seventh game and preserved Johnny Podres' 2-0 shutout over the Yankees. If he hadn't made the catch, the Yankees quite likely would have won the game and the Series.

Going into the bottom of the sixth at Yankee Stadium, the Dodgers had a 2-0 lead behind Podres, but the clever lefty appeared to be tiring. He walked leadoff hitter Billy Martin. Gil McDougald then beat out a bunt and Yogi Berra came to the plate.

The Dodger outfielders were pulled around toward right against the left-handed hitting Berra. But when Podres threw an outside pitch, Yogi reached for it and drove it down the left field line. It looked like a sure double that would tie the game. McDougald was certainly sure of it; he raced down to second and turned the base, while Martin held up at third to see what happened.

Here's what Martin saw, from his very good vantage point: Sandy Amoros, the Dodger left fielder, raced toward the foul pole. It was a long run, because the ball was slicing away from him. Just as he reached the tight corner, barely five feet from the left field stands, he stretched out his gloved right hand and snagged the ball.

Like Mays the year before, Amoros recovered almost instantly from his long run, checked his momentum, and fired the ball to shortstop Peewee Reese. Martin managed to scramble back to second, but Reese's relay to Gil Hodges caught McDougald.

Instead of a 2-2 game with the lead run at second base and no one out, it was still 2-0 with two outs and a much less important run at second. That great play seemed to resuscitate Podres. He gave up just one more hit the rest of the way and the Dodgers had finally won a World Series.

A year later, they lost to the Yankees in the Series, and two years after that they became the Los Angeles Dodgers. But, mainly because of that catch by Sandy Amoros, they had brought a world championship to Brooklyn.

I'm sure life wasn't easy for Sandy Amoros when he came here, first playing in the Negro Leagues, then finally in the majors, but he was and always will be one of my dad's heroes. There have been great Cuban ballplayers as long as they've played baseball in Cuba. And someday, when The Beard is dead, they will flood the Major Leagues like players from other Latin countries. They won't have risk their lives like they and so many other Cubans do now to get here and they won't have to leave their families behind.

They'll just play ball.