One-time Yankee (albeit briefly), Lou Berdette, faced the Yankees 3 times in the 1957 World Series to bring the world championship to Milwaukee. It had been 37 years since a pitcher won three complete games in a series.
Two more franchise shifts were announced during the year and with them the National League lost both of its representatives in New York.
The New York Giants announced that they would play in San Francisco in 1958 and the Brooklyn Dodgers said that they would forsake Flatbush for Los Angeles.
Both pennant races were decided on Monday, September 23. six days before the end of the season.
The Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals had the biggest battle for the flag. It was an 11th-inning home run by Hank Aaron against the Cardinals that clinched the pennant for Milwaukee.
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The Yankees were in undisputed possession of first place from June 1st on.
Major league attendance was up almost 3% for the year, with 10 of the 16 clubs showing increases. The American League drew almost 8.2 million. The National League 8.8
million.
The 1957 World Series
The Yankees drew first blood with a run in the fifth and the two more they added in the sixth won the first game.
The second game saw the Yankees start diminutive Bobby Shanta. Haney countered with what was to prove his ablest mound weapon of the series: Lou Burdette. A misjudged fly ball gave Hank Aaron a triple in the second inning, after which he scored the game’s first run. The Yankees came right back with one and would have had more were it not for a sensational catch by Wes Covington. The Braves won the second game 4-2. Bauer’s homer was to be the last run the Yankees would score off Burdette in the series.
playing left field for the Yankees. Kubek’s first-inning homer set the tone for the Yankees. Mickey Mantle hit one too. The Yankees were walked 11 times and the Braves lost their first series home game 12-3.
The fourth game was one of the most exciting in series history. The Yankees got a run in the first, but the Braves scored four in the fourth with Hank Aaron and Frank Torre hitting homers. Starter Spahn was not in trouble again until the ninth.
He got the first two batters then Yogi Berra and Gil McDougald both singled. Spahn was worked for a 3-2 count by Elston Howard who then smashed the next pitch over the left field fence, tying the game at 4-4. The Braves failed to score in their half of the ninth. Spahn retired the first two Yankees in the 10th Kubek beat out a roller to Red Schoendienst and Hank Bauer tripled him home.
The Yankees, who had come into the last half of the ninth trailing 4-1 went into the last half of the 10th leading S-4. Tommy Byrne, pitching for the Yanks, hit the pinch-hitting ‘Nippy” Jones on the foot with his first pitch. Jones was awarded first base by plate umpire Augie Donatelli, who had not seen the ball strike Jones, but he found shoe polish on the ball when he examined it. Johnny Logan then doubled and Ed Mathews, the Braves’ power-hitting third baseman, tied the series with a drive over the right-center field fence giving the Braves a 7-5 victory.
Whitey Ford and Lou Burdette tried for their second victory of the series in the fifth game and both turned in masterful work. The game was scoreless when, with two out in the sixth, Hank Aaron was safe on a bad-hop single and Mathews dropped a base hit between Jerry Coleman and Hank Bauer. Joe Adcock then lined a single to right that scored a run, the only tally of the game. Burdette scattered seven Yankee safeties and the Braves took a 3-2 series lead as a result of this 1-0 victory.
The same pitchers who had started the third game again went to the mound in game six as the series moved back to New York. Bob Buhl was Milwaukee’s choice and Bob Hurley hurled for the Yankees. The American League champs went ahead in the third inning on a two-run homer by Yogi Berra. A home run by Frank Torre in the fifth made it 2-1 and in the seventh a circuit blow by Hank Aaron tied the score. But in the Yankee half of that same inning, Hank Bauer tied the series with a home run, and the Yankees won 3-2.
For the seventh game Don Larsen started for the Yankees, while the braves chose Burdette. Larsen had pitched the game’s only perfect game in the 1956 World Series.
Burdette continued his scoreless mastery of the Yankees. The Braves won the game and series when Eddie Mathews speared a drive by Moose Skowron and stepped on third base for the final out.
More 1957 Highlights
The 24th annual All-Star game was played in Busch Stadium. St. Louis on July 9. A
crowd of 30,693 saw the American League win their 14th game of the series, defeating the National League 6-5. Standout performer in the game was winning pitcher Jim Bunning of the Detroit Tigers, who set the Nationals down in order in each of the first three innings.
Sam Crawford and Joe McCarthy were inducted into baseball’s hall of fame.
For the second straight year, Mickey Mantle was chosen most valuable player in the
American League. Washington outfielder Roy Sievers led the league in home runs (42) and runs batted in (114). The batting title was captured by 39-year-old Ted Williams of Boston who batted .388. It was his fifth batting championship.
Mantle had an excellent season with 34 HR, 94 RBI and a batting average of .365. Bobby Shanta of the Yankees led the pitchers in earned-run average with a mark of 2.45.
Dick Donovan of the White Sox and Tom Sturdivant both had 16 wins and 6 defeats for a .727 percentage. Bob Keegan of the White Sox pitched the only no-hit game of the year, defeating the Washington Senators 6-0.
Henry Aaron of the Braves was named MVP of the National League. Stan Musial won his seventh batting title, one short of the record, with a mark of .351. Aaron paced the
circuit in homers with 44 and RBl with 132. Aaron also batted .322.
Johnny Podres of the Dodgers was the pitching pace setter with an ERA of 2.66. Bob Buhl of the Braves won 18 and lost 7 to lead in percentage with .720.
1957 MLB Standings
| 1957 | ||||
| Milwaukee Braves | ||||
| St. Louis Cardinals | ||||
| Brooklyn Dodgers | ||||
| Cincinanti Reds | ||||
| Philadelphia Phillies | ||||
| New York Giants | ||||
| Chicago Cubs | ||||
| Pittsburgh Pirates | ||||
| 1957 | ||||
| New York Yankees | ||||
| Chicago White Sox | ||||
| Boston Red Sox | ||||
| Detroit Tigers | ||||
| Baltimore Orioles | ||||
| Cleveland Indians | ||||
| Kansas City Athletics | ||||
| Washington Senators | ||||
Share your love for Baseball in 1957
