If the 1947 World Series had been an uneventful contest, it still would have held two historic distinctions. Most importantly, it was the first World Series featuring black players. Rookie of the Year Jackie Robinson was a big reason the Brooklyn Dodgers won the pennant. (The Dodgers also had a second Black player, Dan Bankhead, but he had been an ineffective relief pitcher late in the season and was only used as a pinch-runner in the World Series.) Secondly, it was the first World Series ever shown on television, albeit only in four East Coast markets. That’s where Kevin Cook gets the “Electric” of his title.
There were other big names besides Robinson involved in the series, including Hall of Famers like Pee Wee Reese, Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra (then so newly into his playing career many fans still called him Larry) and, of course, the legendary Yankee centerfielder Joe DiMaggio. You might expect an account of the World Series to focus on them, but that’s not what Cook is after. He tells the story of this World Series through six unlikely figures, men who were placed in their positions by accidents of fate and history, and responded in ways that defined their careers and baseball legacies.
The six men profiled by Cook are the managers of both teams, Bucky Harris of the Yankees and Burt Shotton of the Dodgers, Yankee infielder George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss, Yankee pitcher Bill Bevens, and Dodgers bench players Al Gionfriddo and Cookie Lavagetto. Their names will only be familiar to people with a keen interest in baseball history, but their stories are often as fascinating as those of their more famous teammates.
Bucky Harris became manager of the Yankees twenty-plus after his greatest triumph, leading the lowly Washington Senators to a World Series win and back-to-back American League pennants as a “boy wonder” player-manager in his mid-twenties. Harris became such a beloved figure in Washington society that he dined at the White House with Calvin Coolidge and married the daughter of a United States senator. He thought his managing days were behind him until convinced to take over the Yankees.
Similarly, Burt Shotton thought he was done managing when he got an emergency telegram from his old friend Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Dodgers. Leo Durocher, the Dodgers’ manager, had been suspended for the entire season for flaunting his infidelity with Hollywood actress Laraine Day and his friendships with gangsters. Handling the Dodgers in Jackie Robinson’s first season was going to be tricky, given how many players had signed a petition saying they didn’t want to play with a Black man. Shotton, a kindly man who treated Robinson like any other player, was the man for the job.
Al Gionfirddo had come to the Dodgers partly as a result of the prejudice against Robinson. A pitcher named Kirby Higbe was so against playing with Robinson that he had to be traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Gionfriddo, a fast outfielder who couldn’t hit was part of the return, along with $100,000 that, Cook claims, Gionfriddo carried with him to Brooklyn in a suitcase. Gionfriddo didn’t play much in 1947, but in Game 6 of the World Series he came in as a defensive replacement and made one of the most improbable catches in baseball history, robbing Joe DiMaggio of a potential game-tying three run homer. For the rest of his life, Gionfriddo would be defined by the catch, signing countless photos of the play for fans.
Cookie Lavagetto and Bill Bevens would both be defined by the same moment. In Game 4, Bevens was pitching the game of his life. Despite control issues leading to ten base-on-balls, Bevens took a no-hitter through 8 2/3 innings, just one out away from a feat that had never been accomplished in the World Series. But with two runners on due to walks, and the Yankees only ahead by one run, the last man up for the Dodgers was Lavagetto. The veteran infielder was past his prime, but he could still hit a fastball if it was on the wrong part of the plate. He hit a ball to the wall off a tired Bevens and two runs scored, giving Brooklyn one hit on the day, and a win. Like Gionfriddo, Cookie Lavagetto also reveled in the fame that came from his famous moment, even as he spent decades in baseball afterward in both playing and coaching positions without coming close to replicating it.
The sixth of Cook’s profiles is perhaps the most arbitrary inclusion. Snuffy Stirnweiss had a great World Series on both offense and defense, but without the defining moment of the others selected by Cook. In 1947, Stirnweiss was a former batting champion trying to prove he still belonged in the major leagues. His best years had come during wartime, with most of the game’s stars overseas. It rankled him that many thought he didn’t really belong. The main reason Cook seems to have included Stirnweiss, though, is due to his tragic death a little over a decade after the ’47 Series. Stirnweiss was a passenger on a commuter train that derailed into a river in 1958. Stirnweiss and dozens of other commuters drowned. It’s a sad note for the book to go out on.
Cook is a talented chronicler of baseball history with an ear for the anecdote that serves him well. Beyond the six men profiled, the book is stuffed with telling stories of the games and men involved. For instance, the story of Brooklyn reliever Hugh Casey getting into a fistfight with Ernest Hemingway during Dodgers’ spring training camp will appeal to readers of all kinds.
As a baseball fan, I particularly appreciated the insight into the way the game was played way back when. The reliance on statistical analysis that has come to dominate the modern game was not a factor, so managers were much more likely to rely on “hunches” about the players. Pitchers were left in games far longer than seems responsible to us now, and pinch hitters were selected based off gut instincts. Humorously, Cook has to admit he can find no justifiable reason for the decisions made by Harris and Shotton during the Series.
For any baseball fans with an interest in the game’s history, or just an appreciation for the colorful life stories of the players, managers, and other personnel who’ve made the game what it is today, Electric October will be an entertaining read.