Baseball was extending it's reach in 1947. Fans everywhere would read box scores (a lost art it seems nowadays) and follow their teams on radio, but the only way to see them live was to buy a ticket and spend a day at the ballpark. Television was changing that and one of the very first teams to broadcast to it's fans were the Yankees. Helps that they played in the biggest market, but the Yankees were also a national brand behind their team of legends.
After an unthinkable 3 seasons without a title, the Yankees had entered the 1947 season with a new Manager in charge with Bucky Harris. The change worked as the Yankees rolled to a 97-57 record, running away with the pennant by 12 games over the 2nd place Tigers. The World Series that year was the first ever televised, but since it was still the early days of TV, only the big cities had access, which was good that the opponent to the Yankees was also a major market team that their fans could watch in the Brooklyn Dodgers. Three different television networks would share the rights to the series with each channel getting individual game rights, so fans had to have the right channel each time.
The Yankees and Dodgers split the first 4 games of the series with the home teams winning, then the Yankees took Game 5 in Ebbets Field with two chances to clinch the title at home. Game 6 was close until the Dodgers put up 4 runs in the 6th to take a 8-5 lead, but the Yankees threatened in the bottom of the inning when Joe DiMaggio stepped in as the tying run with 2 outs. He would belt a pitch to deep left, with Al Gionfriddo making his famous catch right at the wall to deny the Yankees any hope at the comeback that Brooklyn would win 8-6.
Like many of the Yankees-Dodgers Subway Series matches, this one would come down to Game 7, where Brooklyn would take an early 2-0 lead, but the Yankees would strike back, quickly scoring a run in the bottom of the 2nd, then string together a couple more runs in the 4th. By this point, Bucky Harris had been working in different arms from the bullpen when he handed the ball to Joe Page in the 5th. The Yankee Closer shut down any hope the Dodgers has as he retired the first 13 Dodgers he faced until he finally allowed a hit in the 9th inning with the Yankees leading 5-2. That runner was quickly erased on a double play and the Yankees were champions again.
Bucky Harris made history as the winning Manager, having waited 23 years to lead a team back to the top of baseball after his 1924 title year running the Washington Nationals.
Just another Joe DiMaggio all star season where he took home MVP while salty Boston fans cried that Ted Williams was robbed. The final score in the MVP voting was DiMaggio 202, Williams 201. He led the Yankees with 20 Home Runs and 168 Hits with his .315 Average. He had a couple homers in the World Series, including a shot in Game 5 that proved the difference maker in the 2-1 Yankee win.
Henrich would lead the American League with 13 Triples and just barely edge out DiMaggio with 98 RBI for the team lead. The all star would also lead the Yankees with 35 Doubles and 109 Runs.
Rizzuto may have sported just a B speed at 13, but it was fast enough for the Hall of Famer to lead the team with 11 Stolen Bases, though the 6 times he was caught was more than almost everyone else on the team even attempted to steal. He also had the unfortunate honor of leading the league with 8 times getting beaned at the plate.
Between the Hall of Fame tenures of Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra, Aaron Robinson was able to log in his own all star season at Catcher. Billy Johnson had his own all star year. George McQuinn looks out of place with his sharp looking color card, but his solid all star season had him finishing 6th for MVP.
To the bench. Charlie "King Kong" Keller had 13 Home Runs in just 151 At Bats, as his all star season was hampered by injury.
The Yankees traded Joe Gordon to Cleveland in the offseason to bring Reynolds to the Bronx and the new ace immediately paid off with a team leading 19 Wins, 129 Strikeouts and 241.2 Innings. He also added a Win in Game 2 of the World Series.
Spec Shea had a strong rookie campaign as he won 14 games and went to the all star game. He finished 3rd for Rookie of the Year, but the award at the time was for all of baseball, not one for each league so Shea would have won the AL version if possible. He was the first choice for the World Series rotation and won Games 1 and 5.
The other rotation guys. A bit of a step down from the Reynolds/Shea combo, but they held their own, especially Spud Chandler who went tot he all star game in his final season.
Joe Page was the Yankee hero for '47. He was a force out of the bullpen, racking up 14 Wins, 116 Strikeouts and a league leading 17 Saves. As a footnote in the MVP debate, Page finished 4th, but he got more 1st place votes than runner-up Williams received. In the World Series he pulled off the Save in Game 1, but it was Game 7 that he earned his paycheck, coming in to a 3-2 lead in the 5th inning and completely shutting the door on Brooklyn with 5 innings of 1 hit domination, getting the Win and locking up the title.
Bullpen and extra arms. Lesser known pitcher pictures are hard to come by in that era, but the Yankees had a fantastic group photo of their pitchers that I abused.
In 1947, the Yankees had a rookie who still needed to work on his Catching ability, but his bat demanded a place on the team. Yogi Berra would find places in the lineup wherever needed and managed some MVP votes to showcase his HoF potential. And naturally, one of the most prolific WS players would homer in his debut series.
