1959 WORLD SERIES

The '1959 World Series' featured the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers beating the American League champion Chicago White Sox, four games to two. It was the first pennant for the White Sox in 40 years (since the 1919 Black Sox Scandal). They would have to wait until 2005 to win another championship. The Dodgers won their first pennant since moving from Brooklyn in 1958 by defeating the Milwaukee Braves 2-0 in a best-of-three-games pennant playoff. It was the Dodger's second championship in five years and the first in Los Angeles, and marked the first Championship for a West Coast team. And it was the first ever World Series in which no pitcher for either team pitched a complete game.
Vin Scully remarked at the beginning of the official World Series film, "What a change of scenery!" This was the first Series since 1948 in which no Series games were played in New York City, breaking the streak of what documentary filmmaker Ken Burns called "The Capital of Baseball" during the 1950s. The Yankees won the A.L. pennant every year from 1949 through 1964, except for 1954, when the Cleveland Indians finished first, and 1959 when the White Sox finished first. Al Lopez was the manager of both these teams.
The Dodgers found an unlikely hero in Chuck Essegian, who hit only 1 home run in 1959 and had only 6 in his career to that point, set a World Series record with two pinch hit home runs.
Games 3, 4 and 5 were:

★ The first World Series games ever played on the West Coast;

★ The first ever played in Memorial Coliseum;

★ The first games in World Series history to exceed 90,000 in attendance each game (Game 5 drew 92,206 fans, a major league record as of 2006);
Larry Sherry of the Dodgers was the fifth pitcher in Series history to win the World Series Most Valuable Player Award. Sherry, who had been born with club feet, finished all four games the Dodgers won, winning two and saving two. His brother Norm was the Dodgers' backup catcher. The previous winning pitchers were:

★ Johnny Podres (Brooklyn 1955)

★ Don Larsen (New York (A.L.) 1956)

★ Lew Burdette (Milwaukee 1957)

★ Bob Turley (New York (A.L.) 1958)
Ted Kluszewski played for the losing "Pale Hose", but still managed to drive in a World Series record ten runs, and became the first player to have double-digit RBI totals for any length Series.
The Dodgers became the second team to win a World Series after relocating (the 1957 Milwaukee Braves being the first).
'Records:' Los Angeles Dodgers (W: 88, L: 68, Pct: .564, GA: - †) - Chicago White Sox (W: 94, L: 60, Pct: .610, GA: 5)
† Won a best-of-three game playoff over the Milwaukee Braves, September 28th (3-2) and September 29th (6-5)
'Managers:' Al Lopez (Chicago), Walt Alston (Los Angeles)
'Umpires:' Bill Summers (AL), Frank Dascoli (NL), Eddie Hurley (AL), Frank Secory (NL), Johnny Rice (AL: outfield only), Hal Dixon (NL: outfield only)
'Series MVP:' Larry Sherry (Los Angeles)
'Television:' NBC (Jack Brickhouse and Vin Scully announcing)

Contents

Summary

Matchups

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Game 5

Game 6

Composite Box

Quote

Reference(s)

External links

Summary

'NL Los Angeles Dodgers (4) vs. AL Chicago White Sox (2)'

Game	Score	Date	Location	Attendance
1	Dodgers – 0, 'White Sox' – 11	October 1	Comiskey Park	48,013
2	'Dodgers' – 4, White Sox – 3	October 2	Comiskey Park	47,368
3	White Sox – 1, 'Dodgers' – 3	October 4	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	92,394
4	White Sox – 4, 'Dodgers' – 5	October 5	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	92,650
5	'White Sox' – 1, Dodgers – 0	October 6	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	92,706
6	'Dodgers' – 9, White Sox – 3	October 8	Comiskey Park	47,653

Matchups

Game 1

October 1, 1959 at Comiskey Park I in Chicago, Illinois

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Los Angeles (N)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	'0'	'8'	'3'
'Chicago (A)'	2	0	7	2	0	0	0	0	x	'11'	'11'	'0'
'W': Early Wynn (1-0)   'L': Roger Craig (0-1)   'S': Gerry Staley (1)
'HR': 'CWS' – Ted Kluszewski (1, 2)

Game 2

October 2, 1959 at Comiskey Park I in Chicago, Illinois

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
'Los Angeles (N)'	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	0	0	'4'	'9'	'1'
Chicago (A)	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	'3'	'8'	'0'
'W': Johnny Podres (1-0)   'L': Bob Shaw (0-1)   'S': Larry Sherry (1)
'HR': 'LAD' – Charlie Neal (1, 2), Chuck Essegian (1)

Game 3

October 4, 1959 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Chicago (A)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	'1'	'12'	'0'
'Los Angeles (N)'	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	x	'3'	'5'	'0'
'W': Don Drysdale (1-0)  'L': Dick Donovan (0-1) )   'S': Larry Sherry (1)

Game 4

October 5, 1959 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Chicago (A)	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	'4'	'10'	'3'
'Los Angeles (N)'	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	1	x	'5'	'9'	'0'
'W': Larry Sherry (1-0)  'L': Gerry Staley (0-1) )
'HR': 'CWS' – Sherm Lollar (1)    'LAD' – Gil Hodges (1)

Game 5

October 6, 1959 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
'Chicago (A)'	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	'1'	'5'	'0'
Los Angeles (N)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	'0'	'9'	'0'
'W': Bob Shaw (1-1)  'L': Sandy Koufax (0-1) )   'S': Dick Donovan (1)

Game 6

October 8, 1959 at Comiskey Park I in Chicago, Illinois

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
'Los Angeles (N)'	0	0	2	6	0	0	0	0	1	'9'	'13'	'0'
Chicago (A)	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	'3'	'6'	'1'
'W': Larry Sherry (2-0)   'L': Early Wynn (1-1)
'HR': 'LAD' – Duke Snider (1), Wally Moon (1), Chuck Essegian(2) 'CWS' – Ted Kluszewski (3)

Composite Box

1959 World Series '(4-2): Los Angeles Dodgers (N.L.)' over Chicago White Sox (A.L.)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
'Los Angeles Dodgers '	0	0	6	6	1	0	5	2	1	'21'	'53'	'4'
'Chicago White Sox '	4	0	7	6	0	0	4	2	0	'23'	'52'	'4'
'Total Attendance': 420,784   'Average Attendance': 70,131
'Winning Player’s Share': – $11,231   'Losing Player’s Share' – $7,275

Quote

After the Dodgers lost the first game in Comiskey Park by a lopsided score, one fan was heard to yell at them, "You ain't playin' the Braves now, ya bums!" Of course the White Sox found out ''they'' weren't playing the Washington Senators, either. (Source: Paul Zimmerman, ''The Los Angeles Dodgers,'' 1960.)

Reference(s)

Neft, David S., and Richard M. Cohen. ''The World Series.'' 1st ed. New York: St Martins, 1990. (Neft and Cohen 275-280)

External links

★ 1959 World Series at Baseball-Reference.com

★ 1959 World Series at ''WorldSeries.com (MLB.com)''

★ 1959 World Series at Baseball-Almanac.com

★ 1959 World Series box scores and play-by-play at Retrosheet.org