The Riverside Press-Enterprise
‘Boys of Summer’ Dodgers pitcher Erskine dies at 97
Carl Erskine, who pitched two no-hitters as a mainstay on the Brooklyn Dodgers and was a 20game 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 122-78 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. The Dodgers went on to lose in six games as the Yankees won their fifth consecutive championship. Erskine was an All-star in 1954, when he won 18 games.
He appeared in five World Series, with the Dodgers finally beating the Yankees in 1955 for their only championship in Brooklyn. He gave up a home run to Gil Mcdougald in the first inning of Game 4 and left after 3 2/3 innings. The Dodgers went on to win 8-5.
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. “He was a calming influence on a team with many superstars and personalities. 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.
He made his major league debut on July 25, 1948. Erskine began as a reliever, going 21-10 during his first two seasons.
In 1951, he transitioned to the starting rotation and joined teammates Roy Campanella, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider as one of the revered “Boys of Summer.”
Erskine pitched no-hitters against the Chicago Cubs in 1952 and the New York Giants in 1956.
Herzog dies
Whitey Herzog, the gruff and ingenious Hall of Fame manager who guided the St. Louis Cardinals to three pennants and a World Series title in the 1980s and perfected an intricate, nailbiting strategy known as “Whiteyball,” has died. He was 92.
Cardinals spokesman Brian Bartow said the team had been informed of his death by Herzog’s family. Additional details were not available. Herzog had been at Busch Stadium on April 4 for the Cardinals’ home opener.
“Whitey Herzog devoted his lifetime to the game he loved, excelling as a leader on and off the field,” Jane Forbes Clark, chair of the Hall of Fame’s board of directors, said in a statement. “Whitey always brought the best out of every player he managed with a forthright style that won him respect throughout the game.”
A crew-cut, pot-bellied tobacco chewer who had no patience for the “buddybuddy” school of management, Herzog joined the Cardinals in 1980 and helped end the team’s decade-plus pennant drought by adapting it to the artificial
surface and distant fences of Busch Memorial Stadium.
Under Herzog, the Cards won pennants in 1982, 1985 and 1987, and the World Series in 1982, when they edged the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games. Herzog managed the Kansas City Royals to division titles in 1976-78, but they lost each time in the league championship to the New York Yankees.
Overall, Herzog was a manager for 18 seasons, compiling a record of 1,281 wins and 1,125 losses. He was named Manager of the Year in 1985 and voted into the Hall by the Veterans Committee in 2010, his plaque noting his “stern, yet good-natured style,” and his emphasis on speed, pitching and defense.
Remembering Jackie
Angels manager Ron Washington said Jackie Robinson Day has a special meaning for him as a Black man who played and managed in the major leagues.
“I don’t think I’ll be sitting here managing and talking to you guys if it wasn’t for Jackie Robinson breaking that barrier,” Washington said before Monday’s game, when all players across MLB wore No. 42 to honor Robinson. “Class act. I don’t think when I look at his story that I could have endured what he went through.
“I’m happy for what he did for the game of baseball and for the Black baseball players and the minorities, period, in the game. But I don’t know if I could have done it. Watch that story and it was tough what he had to go through, but he withstood it, and his withstanding it gave me and other minorities an opportunity to move up in the game of baseball.”