IN THE HANDS :

Slaughter's 'Dash' gave Cards a winning hand in 1946 (Dick Heller, 8/19/02, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

Fifty-six years later, it remains one of the signature plays in baseball history - at least for those who care about baseball history.

Oct. 15, 1946, Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals tied 3-3 in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the World Series. Enos "Country" Slaughter is on first base for the Cardinals with two out when Harry Walker bloops an apparent single to left-center field.

Running on a 3-2 count, Slaughter takes off before the ball is hit. He should advance only to second base on the weak hit, but the quick start enables him to turn the corner toward third.

Center fielder Leon Culberson, subbing for the injured Dom DiMaggio, does not have a strong arm, but he gets to the ball and makes the relay to shortstop Johnny Pesky. With his back to the infield, Pesky does not see Slaughter recklessly rounding third and heading home. He wheels around and hesitates - and with that, Slaughter scores the winning run of the 43rd World Series, sliding home well ahead of Pesky's hurried throw to catcher Roy Parmelee. [...]

Said Dom DiMaggio, whose defensive prowess in center field equaled that of big brother Joe: "I was sitting in the dugout after leaving the game, and we tried to get Culberson to move over [toward left] a little more because Walker was a notorious left-field hitter. Leon really did nothing wrong, but if he had been playing over a little more, it might not have gotten to that point. I often wonder, 'If I had been out there, would we have won?'"

William Sulik sent this especially good column about Enos Slaughter. To be a Red Sox is to believe that when the key moment comes we'll always have a Leon Culberson there rather than a Dom DiMaggio. In fact, there's a popular theory in New England this Summer : the possibility of a baseball strike is entirely dependent on the position of the Sox in the standings. If the Sox are out of the playoffs the strike will be avoided. If they get hot and catch the Yankees the strike is a certainty.
Posted by Orrin Judd at August 19, 2002 7:33 PM