Dodgers pitcher and last surviving member of ‘Boys of Summer’ dies
Carl Erskine, who pitched two no-hitters as a mainstay on the Brooklyn Dodgers and was a 20-game winner in 1953 when he struck out a then-record 14 in the World Series, died Tuesday. He was 97.
Erksine died at Community Hospital Anderson in his hometown of Anderson, Indiana, according to Michele Hockwalt, the hospital’s marketing and communication manager.
Among the last survivors from the celebrated Brooklyn teams of the 1950s, Erskine spent his entire major league career with the Dodgers from 1948-59, helping them win five National League pennants.
The right-hander had a career record of 12278 and an ERA of 4.00, with 981 strikeouts.
Erskine had his best season in 1953, when he went 20-6 to lead the National League. He won Game 3 of the World Series, beating the Yankees 3-2 at Ebbets Field. He struck out 14, retiring the side in the ninth, for a record that stood until Dodgers ace Sandy Koufax got 15 in 1963.
He appeared in five World Series, with the Dodgers finally beating the Yankees in 1955 for their only championship in Brooklyn.
Erskine’s death leaves the 88-year-old Koufax as the lone surviving Dodgers player from the 1955 World Series team.
“I’ve often thought Carl deserved more credit than he received for his contributions to the success of the Brooklyn Dodgers,” said Peter O’Malley, whose father, Walter, owned the Dodgers from 1950-1979. “... But getting credit was not Carl and that is what made
him beloved.”
Erskine received the Buck O’Neil lifetime achievement award in July 2023 by the Baseball Hall of Fame’s board of directors to honor an individual whose efforts enhance baseball’s positive impact on society.
In the 1951 NL playoff with the New York Giants, Erskine and Ralph Branca were warming up in the bullpen. Branca gave up the gamewinning home run to Bobby Thomson in the famed “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”
Whenever Erskine was asked what his best pitch was, he replied, “The curveball I bounced in the Polo Grounds bullpen in 1951.”
His youngest son, Jimmy, was born with Down syndrome, which led Erskine to champion the cause of people with developmental disabilities. He wrote a book called “The Parallel,” about the similarities Jimmy and Erskine’s teammate Robinson shared in breaking down social perceptions. He was long involved with Special Olympics in Indiana.