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1957 World Series

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The 1957 World Series featured the defending champion New York Yankees (98-56) against the Milwaukee Braves (95-59), who had won their first pennant since moving from Boston in 1953. The Braves won the Series in 7 games for the franchise's first championship since the "Miracle Braves" of 1914. The Yankees had home field advantage in the series. Game 1-2 and 6-7 were played at Yankee Stadium, while Milwaukee's County Stadium hosted games 3-5.

Umpires: Joe Paparella (AL), Jocko Conlan (NL), Bill McKinley (AL), Augie Donatelli (NL), Nestor Chylak (AL: outfield only), Frank Secory (NL: outfield only)
Note: Frank Secory became the sixth person to appear in the Series both as a player and as an umpire.

MVP: Lew Burdette

Television: NBC (Mel Allen and Al Helfer announcing)

Series Overview

  • Game 1: Yankees 3, Braves 1
  • Game 2: Braves 4, Yankees 2
  • Game 3: Yankees 12, Braves 3
  • Game 4: Braves 7, Yankees 5
  • Game 5: Braves 1, Yankees 0
  • Game 6: Yankees 3, Braves 2
  • Game 7: Braves 5, Yankees 0

Game 1

Game 1 was talked about as a good pitching duel, with Warren Spahn for the Braves, and Whitey Ford for the Yankees. Ultimately, Ford came out victorious, and the Yankees won, 3-1. Both pitchers started out very well, besides a few hits Spahn gave up, including hits by Gil McDougald and Mickey Mantle in the 1st inning.

In the 3rd inning, the Yanks had to replace Bill Skowron who complained of a bad back. Elston Howard came in to play first base. It appeared that the Braves would strike first when they had runners at the corners in the 4th, after a Hank Aaron single. However, Joe Adcock abruptly grounded into a double play to end the inning, leaving the Braves unhappy. Again in the 5th inning, the Braves had a runner in scoring position after an error by Skowron's replacement, Howard. But the Braves still couldn't convert, as second baseman Red Schoendienst grounded out. The Braves had left four men on base, thus far. The score was still 0-0 heading to the bottom of the 5th.

The Yankees broke through that inning against Spahn with a leadoff single by Jerry Coleman, followed by two groundouts which moved the runner to third, and then a triple by slugger Hank Bauer to make it 1-0. After three consecutive baserunners reached in the 6th and a run scored on an Andy Carey single, Spahn was taken out and Ernie Johnson was put in by Milwaukee manager Fred Haney.

After that, the Yankees scored one more time when Coleman utilized the squeeze play and Yogi Berra scored from 3rd. The Braves broke through only once that game against Ford, when they scored Wes Covington, who was getting much more playing time that year due to a knee injury that Bill Bruton had sustained earlier that year, in the 7th on a Schoendienst single. Schoendienst had the only RBI for the Braves and Ford had pitched a complete game as the teams got ready for Game 2. The Yankees had two hits from Mantle and Coleman in the win.

Game 2

Unlike Game 1, the scoring was all done quite early in this one. The Braves clearly showed that this series was going to be a dogfight when they jumped out to a 4-2 lead against the Yankees' Bobby Shantz after four innings, and never relinquished it, behind Lew Burdette, who would end up being the series MVP for his incredible performances.

The Braves jumped on Shantz very early when Aaron led off the 2nd with a triple and scored on Adcock's single. The Braves got one in the 2nd, followed by the Yankees putting up one in the bottom half. Again in the 3rd, the Yankees matched the Braves with a run, which made the score 2-2 heading to the 4th. Both managers were worried about their starting pitchers, and after three straight singles in the top of the 4th from Adcock, Andy Pafko, and Covington, Yanks manager Casey Stengel had had enough. Top reliever Art Ditmar came into the game, coming off an 8-3 record with a 3.25 ERA and 6 saves.

Ditmar quickly settled things down, but the damage had been done and two runs were in (one on a Tony Kubek error from before). The score was 4-2 in favor of the Braves. After that, Burdette began pitching crisply and more like the 17-game winner he was that year. He only gave up four hits for the rest of the game, two of them coming in the 9th inning, where the Yankees would not go quietly. After a ground out, Kubek single to right to start things off. Stengel decided to pinch hit lefty Joe Collins, who was 30-for-149 (.201) that year and playing what turned out to be his final year, for the right-handed Coleman, who was a better 42-for-157 (.263) and also playing in his final season, to face right-handed pitcher Burdette. Collins popped to McDougald at short stop for the 2nd out. Then, Stengel again opted to pinch hit, this time in a much easier decision, as it was the pitcher Bob Grim's turn to bat. Howard came up in his spot and singled to advance Kubek to second. Bobby Richardson pinch ran for Howard. Bauer was next to bat for the Yankees. He had homered earlier in the game in the 3rd inning, for the Yankees last RBI. Then, a tired Burdette recorded the final out as he got Bauer to ground to short, where McDougald forced out Richardson.

The other RBI for the Yankees came from Coleman who had singled in Enos Slaughter, playing in one of his final seasons. The Braves got RBIs from Adcock, a solo home run by Johnny Logan, and Covington's single. There was no run batted in for the 4th run because it came on an error, one of two in the game for the Yankees (Kubek, Mantle).

Game 3

In Game 3, the Yankees, who were 1st in many major offensive categories that season including batting average, hits, and runs scored, showed their power against Bob Buhl and the Braves. The Yankees started their scoring in the 1st inning, Buhl was removed, and they never looked back.

In what was an offensive romp for New York, Kubek bagan things with a 1-out homer in the 1st inning. After that, things quickly fell apart for Buhl, who had performed great in the regular season (18-7, 2.74 ERA). He walked Mantle, then walked Berra, then made an error when he attempted to pick Mantle off of second, sending both up a base. After a sacrifice fly by McDougald and a single by first baseman Harry Simpson, Haney decided to end things before they got too bad. He took out Buhl and brought in rookie Juan Pizarro from the bullpen. He got the final out, then had a very good 2nd, but faired no better than Buhl in the 3rd as the Yankees began to pile it on. With hits from Mantle, Berra and Jerry Lumpe, and a walk to Howard (pinch-hitting for Simpson), Pizarro was removed from the game. Gene Conley was called upon to stop the bleeding. He did get the last two outs, but gave up a 2-run home run to Mantle in the next inning, making fans in Milwaukee begin to cringe.

With the score 7-1, heading to the bottom of the 5th, the Brewers knew they needed to put together a rally. That inning, they began to try to mount a comeback. After a single by Logan, Eddie Mathews flied to left. Future all-time home run champion Hank Aaron stepped to the plate and hit one of his 6 postseason homers to make the game 7-3 and to put new life back into the team and the fans. After a Covington walk, Adcock and Bob Hazle each made outs to end the 5th. Yankees pitcher Don Larsen, who had replaced starter Bob Turley earlier in the game after a wild pitch and a number of baserunners, could no longer cruise along with his lead down to four.

Then in the 7th, the Yankees put any talk of a comeback to rest with a 5-run inning against fairly unknown reliever Bob Trowbridge. The five runs came on a 2-run single by Beaur with the bases loaded and a Kubek 3-run home run to all but put the game away. The score was 12-3 heading to the bottom of the 7th. Trowbridge ended the series with a 45.00 ERA, typical of a pitcher who throws one nightmare inning.

For the rest of the game, there was only one more hit; an Aaron single in 9th, which was followed soon by Pafko getting hit by a pitch thrown by Larsen. Del Crandall made the last out and the series was on to Game 4 with the Yankees up 2-1. Left fielder Kubek had played one of the best game of his career, going 3-for-5 with two home runs, 4 RBIs, and 3 runs scored. He was only the 2nd rookie in history to hit 2 HRs in a World Series game.

Game 4

Game 4 started out as what looked like a normal game for the Braves, but it ended up being, thought of by most as, the best game of the series, and one of the best games in the history of the postseason. After going up, then down, then back up against the Yankees, the Braves had a huge 10th inning to secure a walk-off win in a game they desperately needed (being down 2-1). A pivotal moment in the Series occurred with the Braves trailing in the bottom of the 10th inning in Game 4; pinch-hitter Nippy Jones successfully argued that he had been hit by a pitch, pointing out a smudge of shoe polish on the ball to plate umpire Augie Donatelli. The Braves rallied to win the game.

After a game with 2 homers and 4 RBIs, Kubek was back getting hits right away, leading off for the Yankees. But this time, his hit was a simple bunt to the pitcher that he got on with. The bunt would ultimately lead to a run, after Mantle reached on a fielder's choice that Kubek was out on at third, followed a Berra walk, and a McDougald single to make the game 1-0. Braves pitcher Spahn was not shaken up, however, and ended up pitching 7 scoreless innings after the 1st, until the 9th.

The Braves had something going in the second, which was started by an Aaron single and then a Covington stolen base, but they could not convert. Aaron had the only hit of the first three innings for the Braves, and ended up 11-for-28 (.393) in the series. However, he would no longer have do it all by himself, because in the 4th inning, the Braves had their highest-scoring inning of the series thus far. The 4 runs would be tied in the 3rd inning of Game 7. It began with a walk to Logan, who had only 31 that season. Mathews doubled to right field, which sent Logan to third. The next batter Aaron, the hottest Braves hitter at the time, launched a 3-run home home run over everything at County Stadium. Aaron had hit 44 of his 755 home runs that regular season, and this was now his 2nd of the still young playoff series. The next batter, Covington, grounded out. This was followed by a solo shot off the bat of Frank Torre, a part-time first baseman who batted .272 that year, with only 5 home runs. He was giving Adcock a day off. The Braves were up 4-1 against Yankees starter, Tom Sturdivant, who had won 16 games that year for the Yanks. After this series, injury problems plagued him and he was never the pitcher he was in 1957 and before. In the 1956 World Series, he had been a key factor in the Yankees win over the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The next four innings, for the Yankees, were plagued by double plays. They hit into three from the 5th to the 8th (Simpson, Howard, Kubek). Spahn was getting ground out after ground out and the Yankees looked helpless; until the 9th. With the score 4-1 and 2 outs and nobody on base in the top of the 9th, two back-to-back singles put life back in New York. Spahn gave up one to Berra, followed by one to McDougald. With two runners on, Howard (8 HRs on the year), was the tying run. As if on cue, Howard began the craziness that was Game 4 by hitting a 3-run homer to tie the game. Fans in Atlanta were not happy, but still had the extra innings upper hand of being at home, and hoped to win it in the bottom of the 9th.

Left-handed Tommy Byrne had replaced right-handed Johnny Kucks in the 8th inning and was now the pitcher for New York. This prompted Haney to pinch hit Adcock, who was not playing, for Torre, who had hit a home run earlier in the game. Adcock grounded to short stop and Milwaukee went 1-2-3 that inning. The game was on to extra innings.

Milwaukee starter Spahn came out for the 10th. The scoring began right away in extra inning, starting with Kubek's second hit in the top of the 10th, followed by a triple by Beaur, putting the Braves in a hole right away. After Mantle flied to right, the Braves got ready for the bottom of the 10th down 1. Pitcher Spahn was first up, and not surprisingly, he was pinch hit for. The Braves bench, however, was not very full. Haney opted to put up Nippy Jones, a very part-time first baseman, who had played in just 30 games that year, and was 21-for-79 (.266). He had been hurt by back problems throughout his career, and this turned out to be his final appearance. Jones turned out to be an amazingly huge part of the series. A wild Byrne pitch wound up close to Jones, but it did not look like it struck him, but after an argument and a proved spot of shoe polish on the baseball, Jones had convinced umpire Donatelli that he was hit on the shoe. With 0 postseason hits, Jones is often considered the most important postseason player, without a postseason hit, of all time, now often along with Dave Roberts who is famous for his pinch-running and his stolen bases in the 2004 ALCS. Jones died in October 1995.

The inning continued with the more speedy Felix Mantilla running for Jones. Schoendienst hit an all-important sacrifice bunt that advanced Mantilla. Mantilla came around and scored the tying run on a double by Logan, who ended out with a double, a home run, and 2 RBIs in the series. With the game tied, Logan was now the winning run, and Mathews was the batter. The exciting Game 4 came to an end when Mathews hit a towering home run to score Logan and himself and win it for the Braves, 7-5.

Aaron was on base three out of the four time he came up, ending 2-for-3 with a walk and a home run. He had 3 RBIs. The teams were tied now heading to Game 5.

Game 5

After the great game that had taken place the day before, most people did not expect another one quite like that, but a great pitching duel was predicted with Whitey Ford going up against Lew Burdette. With two top pitchers, Game 5 was expected to be a low-scoring one, and it certainly turned out that way, with three straight singles in the Braves 6th getting one run home, being the only scoring of the game. Burdette had one of the best postseason performances of all-time, giving up a total of 7 Yankee hits.

Oddly, the game started out with the Yankees looking to score in the 1st inning. After a leadoff single by Bauer and a good sacrifice bunt by Kubek, McDougald hit a line drive that easily could have gotten through and put New York on the board, but turned into the 2nd out of the inning. After Berra grounded to Logan at short stop, the Braves breathed a sigh of relief. After that, Burdette barely let the Yankees get two baserunners in an inning, with it only happening in the 4th inning, when Berra reached on an error by Adcock and Slaughter singled.

Ford pitched a great game of his own, only faultering, and only slightly, in the 6th inning. Infact, in the first five innings, the Braves looked miserable, only picking up 3 hits (Pafko (2), Aaron). The Braves went down without a hit in the bottom of the 1st, as Schoendienst grounded out, Logan popped to second, Mathews walked and Aaron lined to left. In the end, while Ford did pitch one less inning, it is amazing that he gave up one less hit than Burdette at 6 and still lost.

By the 6th inning, the 45,811 spectators at County Stadium knew they were witnessing two top pitchers go at it. But in the end, one great performance would have to turn into the losing performance. In the bottom of the 6th with two outs and nobody on, the single rally of the game began, starting with a Mathews single. It was followed by singles by Aaron and Adcock, the latter to score Mathews and give the Braves a 1-0 lead which they would hold on to.

Uncharacteristically, the Yankees didn't even put up a good fight in the late innings against Milwaukee's Burdette. The best attempt came in the 8th inning after a hit by Coleman to right field. He was pinch run for with Mantle, who was getting the day off. Stengel hoped Mantle could steal 2nd base and get into scoring position, but after a strike out looking by Howard and an excellent job of holding the runner on by Burdette, someone got impatient. Mantle was caught stealing at 2nd base by catcher Crandall. With Beaur at the plate, some point to it as a fairly significant mistake. Ford was then taken out and Yankees reliever Bob Turley was in to try to secure the 1-run deficit and not let it get to any more than that. Turley did an excellent job, getting 2 strike outs and retiring the Braves in order.

In the 9th inning, the Yankees did nothing to even attempt a comeback and the Braves had won two series games in a row and had now taken their first series lead, 3-2. Berra made the last yankee out in the 1-0, complete game shutout by Burdette. His performance was his 2nd of three great starts that would win the Braves a World Series and secure himself a spot in Braves history forever.

Burdette's Game Statistics

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