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From left, Hank Aaron, Wes Covington and Felix Mantilla in the Milwaukee Braves locker room in 1957. Two years later, Mantilla's throwing error from shortstop let the winning run in as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Braves 6-5 in 12 innings to win the 1959 National League tiebreaker playoff.
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| Mantilla replaced Johnny Logan at shortstop after the four-time All-Star was knocked out of the game while completing a double play in the seventh inning. He was carried off on a stretcher. |
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| Norm Larker knocked Logan out of the game while breaking up a double play and had two hits in the Dodgers' 6-5, 12-inning victory that won them the National League pennant on the way to a World Series title. |
By Phil Ellenbecker
With two World Series titles, five pennants and two near pennants, the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers rank as the team of the 1950s in the National League.
But the Milwaukee Braves weren't far behind, winning one World Series, two pennants and tying for another. And finishing second, third, second and second in the four years preceding their pennants of 1957 and 1958. The three years they finished second they were behind the Dodgers, and in 1956 they were one game out.
The Braves lost out on one last chance of putting their stamp on the '50s when the Dodgers defeated them 6-5 in 12 innings in Game 2 of the 1959 tiebreaker playoffs Tuesday, Sept. 29 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. That gave Los Angeles, which had finished two games out of the cellar the year before in their first year in LA, a sweep of the series en route to a world title they won by defeating the Chicago White Sox in the Fall Classic.
The '59 NL playoffs, brought about when the Dodgers and Braves each finished the regular season 88-64, were perhaps decided in the bottom half of the seventh inning of Game 2. That's when the Dodgers' Norm Larker threw a body block on Braves shortstop Johnny Logan trying to break up a double play. Logan successfully completed the twin killing but was hurt on the play and carried off on a stretcher.
Larker, who had emerged as a top hitter this year with a .289 average, was also known as a hard-nosed player.
"If he isn't killing you with his bat, he's hurting you on the basepaths with his fierce running," said an article on Larker in Baseball 1961 magazine, the year after he'd finished runner-up in NL batting with a .323 clip.
Felix Mantilla moved over from second base to take Logan's spot. Logan, a four-time All-Star, was one of the most accomplished shortstops in the game during the 1950s, three times leading NL shortstops in fielding percentage in the early part of the decade. He fielded .975 with 18 errors in 138 games at short in 1959 and .965 over 1,380 games at short in a 12-year career.
Mantilla fielded .929 with eight errors at short in '59 and .951 over 180 games at short in an 11-year career that was about evenly divided between short, third and outfield when he wasn't playing second base.
So the Milwaukee defense was compromised after Larker took out Logan, and indeed Mantilla committed two errors over the final five innings after taking over at short. The first didn't cost the Braves. The second was fatal.
With two out in the bottom of the 12th, the Dodgers put runners at first and second with a walk to Gil Hodges and a single to left field by Joe Pignatano off Bob Rush. When Carl Furillo grounded up the middle, Mantilla threw wildly, allowing Hodges to score the winning run. "Furillo hit a ground ball past the mound and over second base," Harold Friend wrote in an article for Bleacher Report. "Mantilla fielded the ball. He probably had no real chance of getting Furillo, but he made a desperate throw toward first base that hit the Dodgers' first-base coach (Greg Mulleavy). Hodges scored the run that gave the Dodgers the pennant." “When the ball came over the pitcher’s head, I thought I could pick it up and step on the bag," Mantilla said in an article by Rick Schabowski at the Society for American Baseball Research's Biography Project website. "When I got it, I was past the bag and I knew I had to throw to first. I never thought of not throwing to first because I could’ve gotten him with a good throw. I was off balance when I threw, and that’s why it bounced away.” Braves manager Fred Haney said of Mantilla, “He did the only thing he could, he didn’t make a bad play. He was lucky to stop the ball at all.”
Furillo was credited with a single on the play but no RBI. The two teams squeezed out of bases-loaded jams to take the game into the 12th.
In the top of the 11th, Eddie Mathews, who'd homered earlier in the game, drew a walk from Stan Williams with one out and was forced at second on a grounder to short by Hank Aaron. Aaron advanced on a passed ball by Pignatano. After an intentional walk to Joe Torre, pinch hitter Al Spangler filled the bases by looking at an unintentional walk.
But Williams escaped by drawing a fielder's choice grounder to short from pinch hitter Joe Adcock.
Pignatano was hit by a pitch and Furillo reached on a bunt single to put runners at first and second against Joey Jay for Los Angeles leading off its half of the 11th. After Jay got Maury Wills and Ron Fairly to both to fly out to left, Jim "Junior" Gilliam, the league leader in walks that year, coaxed a base on balls to put runners at first, second and third.
Rush relieved Jay and got Charlie Neal, who'd tripled and homered in his first two at-bats, to ground out to third.
Williams retired the Braves in order in the top of the 12th and earned the victory, evening his record at 5-5. Rush took the loss and finished the year 5-6.
The extra-innings drama capped a topsy-turvy game in which the Braves were in control much of the way. It took a three-run ninth for the Dodgers to stay alive.
Los Angeles loaded the bases with back-to-back-to-back singles by Wally Moon, Duke Snider and Hodges starting the inning. Don McMahon, who finished second in the NL in saves and first in games finished in '59, relieved starter and league-leading 21-game winner Lew Burdette and surrendered a two-run single to left by Larker. That made the score 5-4.
McMahon then gave way to Warren Spahn, the third-winningest left-hander of all time and tying teammate Burdette that year for the league lead in victories. He was pitching in relief for the fourth time of 1959. Furillo delivered a sacrifice fly to right, bringing in Hodges with the tying run. After Spahn gave up a single to Wills that put runners at first and second, Jay came on and got out of the inning by coaxing a fielder's choice grounder by pinch hitter Ron Fairly and a fly out by Gilliam.
But the Milwaukee Braves weren't far behind, winning one World Series, two pennants and tying for another. And finishing second, third, second and second in the four years preceding their pennants of 1957 and 1958. The three years they finished second they were behind the Dodgers, and in 1956 they were one game out.
The Braves lost out on one last chance of putting their stamp on the '50s when the Dodgers defeated them 6-5 in 12 innings in Game 2 of the 1959 tiebreaker playoffs Tuesday, Sept. 29 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. That gave Los Angeles, which had finished two games out of the cellar the year before in their first year in LA, a sweep of the series en route to a world title they won by defeating the Chicago White Sox in the Fall Classic.
The '59 NL playoffs, brought about when the Dodgers and Braves each finished the regular season 88-64, were perhaps decided in the bottom half of the seventh inning of Game 2. That's when the Dodgers' Norm Larker threw a body block on Braves shortstop Johnny Logan trying to break up a double play. Logan successfully completed the twin killing but was hurt on the play and carried off on a stretcher.
Larker, who had emerged as a top hitter this year with a .289 average, was also known as a hard-nosed player.
"If he isn't killing you with his bat, he's hurting you on the basepaths with his fierce running," said an article on Larker in Baseball 1961 magazine, the year after he'd finished runner-up in NL batting with a .323 clip.
Felix Mantilla moved over from second base to take Logan's spot. Logan, a four-time All-Star, was one of the most accomplished shortstops in the game during the 1950s, three times leading NL shortstops in fielding percentage in the early part of the decade. He fielded .975 with 18 errors in 138 games at short in 1959 and .965 over 1,380 games at short in a 12-year career.
Mantilla fielded .929 with eight errors at short in '59 and .951 over 180 games at short in an 11-year career that was about evenly divided between short, third and outfield when he wasn't playing second base.
So the Milwaukee defense was compromised after Larker took out Logan, and indeed Mantilla committed two errors over the final five innings after taking over at short. The first didn't cost the Braves. The second was fatal.
With two out in the bottom of the 12th, the Dodgers put runners at first and second with a walk to Gil Hodges and a single to left field by Joe Pignatano off Bob Rush. When Carl Furillo grounded up the middle, Mantilla threw wildly, allowing Hodges to score the winning run. "Furillo hit a ground ball past the mound and over second base," Harold Friend wrote in an article for Bleacher Report. "Mantilla fielded the ball. He probably had no real chance of getting Furillo, but he made a desperate throw toward first base that hit the Dodgers' first-base coach (Greg Mulleavy). Hodges scored the run that gave the Dodgers the pennant." “When the ball came over the pitcher’s head, I thought I could pick it up and step on the bag," Mantilla said in an article by Rick Schabowski at the Society for American Baseball Research's Biography Project website. "When I got it, I was past the bag and I knew I had to throw to first. I never thought of not throwing to first because I could’ve gotten him with a good throw. I was off balance when I threw, and that’s why it bounced away.” Braves manager Fred Haney said of Mantilla, “He did the only thing he could, he didn’t make a bad play. He was lucky to stop the ball at all.”
Furillo was credited with a single on the play but no RBI. The two teams squeezed out of bases-loaded jams to take the game into the 12th.
In the top of the 11th, Eddie Mathews, who'd homered earlier in the game, drew a walk from Stan Williams with one out and was forced at second on a grounder to short by Hank Aaron. Aaron advanced on a passed ball by Pignatano. After an intentional walk to Joe Torre, pinch hitter Al Spangler filled the bases by looking at an unintentional walk.
But Williams escaped by drawing a fielder's choice grounder to short from pinch hitter Joe Adcock.
Pignatano was hit by a pitch and Furillo reached on a bunt single to put runners at first and second against Joey Jay for Los Angeles leading off its half of the 11th. After Jay got Maury Wills and Ron Fairly to both to fly out to left, Jim "Junior" Gilliam, the league leader in walks that year, coaxed a base on balls to put runners at first, second and third.
Rush relieved Jay and got Charlie Neal, who'd tripled and homered in his first two at-bats, to ground out to third.
Williams retired the Braves in order in the top of the 12th and earned the victory, evening his record at 5-5. Rush took the loss and finished the year 5-6.
The extra-innings drama capped a topsy-turvy game in which the Braves were in control much of the way. It took a three-run ninth for the Dodgers to stay alive.
Los Angeles loaded the bases with back-to-back-to-back singles by Wally Moon, Duke Snider and Hodges starting the inning. Don McMahon, who finished second in the NL in saves and first in games finished in '59, relieved starter and league-leading 21-game winner Lew Burdette and surrendered a two-run single to left by Larker. That made the score 5-4.
McMahon then gave way to Warren Spahn, the third-winningest left-hander of all time and tying teammate Burdette that year for the league lead in victories. He was pitching in relief for the fourth time of 1959. Furillo delivered a sacrifice fly to right, bringing in Hodges with the tying run. After Spahn gave up a single to Wills that put runners at first and second, Jay came on and got out of the inning by coaxing a fielder's choice grounder by pinch hitter Ron Fairly and a fly out by Gilliam.
But it took some nifty defense from Aaron in right field to keep the Dodgers from winning it right then and there. Gilliam took Aaron to the fence, but Bad Henry "loped over to the fence, stuck up a glove and speared it with one hand as if it were fungo practice," as reported by Murray Olderman in the 1960 issue of Sports All Stars Baseball magazine.
Milwaukee jumped on top right away on Torre's two-run single with one out in the first. After the Dodgers answered with a run on Neal's triple and Moon's single in their half of the first, Burdette singled in Logan to make the score 3-1 in the second. Mathews made it 4-2 with his solo homer off LA starter Don Drysdale in the fifth, countering Neal's solo shot in the fourth.
Mantilla, who emerged with the Boston Red Sox with 30 homers in 1964 and an All-Star selection in '65, gave the Braves a 5-2 advantage in the eighth with a sacrifice fly off Chuck Churn to score Del Crandall. Crandall had tripled with one out.
(Churn was pitching his 25th game in a three-season major league career, which ended with a two-thirds inning stint in the World Series that year in which he yielded two earned runs).
The Braves might have missed Logan's bat as much as his glove. Before he was knocked out he'd gone 2-for-3 with a line-out in his other at-bat. Joining him with multi-hit games for Milwaukee were Mathews and Aaron, each 2-for-4. Aaron was the NL batting champ that year at .355 while Mathews led in homers with 46.
(Churn was pitching his 25th game in a three-season major league career, which ended with a two-thirds inning stint in the World Series that year in which he yielded two earned runs).
The Braves might have missed Logan's bat as much as his glove. Before he was knocked out he'd gone 2-for-3 with a line-out in his other at-bat. Joining him with multi-hit games for Milwaukee were Mathews and Aaron, each 2-for-4. Aaron was the NL batting champ that year at .355 while Mathews led in homers with 46.
Moon went 3-for-6 for the Dodgers. Neal (soon to be a World Series hero with a .370 average and two homers), Hodges and Larker added two hits apiece.
For the Braves, this was their final hurrah as a prime contender in the NL in Milwaukee. They finished second next year but seven games behind Pittsburgh, then placed fourth, fifth, sixth and sixth through 1965 before they were headed to Atlanta.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, after recording the worst pennant-winning record until division play began in 1969, were just getting started on the Left Coast as a top power. After beating the White Sox in six games in the '59 Series, they slid back the next two years, lost a tiebreaker playoff to San Francisco in 1962 and then won pennants in 1963, 1965 and and 1966, winning the World Series in '63 and '65.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, after recording the worst pennant-winning record until division play began in 1969, were just getting started on the Left Coast as a top power. After beating the White Sox in six games in the '59 Series, they slid back the next two years, lost a tiebreaker playoff to San Francisco in 1962 and then won pennants in 1963, 1965 and and 1966, winning the World Series in '63 and '65.
Sources:
Box score and play-by-play: https://www.retrosheet.org/
More game info: https://bleacherreport.com/
The name of the Dodgers' first-base coach was provided by a Wikipedia entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/
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