Mickey Owen the “Goat” of the 1941 World Series…But He’s Not the Only One to Suffer!

Mickey Owen the “Goat” of the 1941 World Series…But He’s Not the Only One to Suffer!



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Mickey Owen and the 1941 World Series Photo Gallery
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Mickey Owen the “Goat” of the 1941 World Series…But He Wasn’t the Only One to Suffer!

“That was a tough break for Mickey to get. I bet he feels like a nickel’s worth of dog meat!” –Yankee Tommy Henrich, the beneficiary of Mickey Owen’s passed ball.

1941 was a great season, one of the greatest in baseball history. It saw Ted Williams hit .406, Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 straight games, and the Dodgers win their first pennant since 1920.

Seventy-five years ago, in the 1941 World Series, the Dodgers faced a powerful Yankee lineup that included Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey, Charlie Keller, Joe Gordon and Tommy Henrich. Thias was one of the best teams ever, and the Dodgers knew they had their work cut out for them. Unfortunately, Mickey Owen became the “goat” in the Dodgers’ loss to the Yankees, committing one of the most notorious errors in World Series history. The miscue occurred in Game Four, and, like the Lombardi “Snooze” in 1939, it was another World Series incident with Joe DiMaggio at the center of the action.

Mickey Owen was an outstanding defensive catcher who played 13 years in the major leagues (1937-54) for the Cardinals (1937–40), Dodgers (1941–45), Cubs (1949–51) and Red Sox (1954). Over his career, Mickey hit .255 with 14 home runs and 378 RBIs. Ironically, Owen had set a record in 1941 for most consecutive errorless fielding chances by a catcher (508), since broken.

The Yankees led the series two-games-to-one entering Game Four at Ebbets Field. With the Dodgers leading 4–3, two outs in the top of the ninth, and a full count on Tommy Henrich, the Dodgers were one strike away from victory, one strike away from evening the series at two games. Henrich swung and missed at strike three. The game was over!

Or was it? With 33,813 Flatbrush faithful ready to erupt into a victory celebration, the infamous passed ball reared its ugly head. At least that’s how you saw it if you were a Dodger fan. It eluded catcher Mickey Owen and he chased after it all the way to the backstop. The crowd gasped as Henrich made it easily to first with no play. The pitch was a sharply breaking curveball (suspected to be a spitball) thrown by veteran Dodger reliever Hugh Casey. A great Yankee team was given a second chance, with Joe DiMaggio on deck. That can’t be good…

 And then the wheels came off. As if following a script, the reliable DiMaggio followed with a single. Keller then hit a clutch double to drive in Henrich and DiMaggio. Bill Dickey walked and then scored along with Keller on Joe Gordon’s double. Suddenly, hardly before anyone could fully realize what had just happened, the score was 7-4 Yankees. Incredibly, the passed ball had ignited a two-out four-run Yankee rally. In the bottom of the ninth, the demoralized Dodgers offered little resistance and went down in order before the stunned Ebbets Field fans. Instead of the series being tied, the victory gave the Yankees a 3–1  series lead. It was all over but the crying. Building on their momentum, the next day they beat the down-trodden Dodgers 3-1 and the 1941 World Series Championship was theirs.

 Mickey Own had to live with the “goat” stigma for the rest of his life, but there was another victim as well. Pitcher Hugh Casey was just one pitch away from redemption for sins committed earlier in the series. According to sportswriter Red Smith, “It was Casey who the Yankees battered for the winning hits in Game Three. It was he who Larry MacPhail castigated for failing to warm up properly before relieving Freddie Fitzsimmons in that game.”

 Coming in relief of starter Johnny Allen in the fifth inning of Game Four, the Yankees’ leading 3-2 with two out and the bases loaded, Casey got hot-hitting Joe Gordon to fly out ending the rally. He then cruised to the ninth without giving up a run, dodging a bullet in the sixth and a surviving a harmless DiMaggio single in the seventh. Into the ninth with Hugh Casey still on the mound. First two batters retired. One strike away from victory, one pitch away from redemption…

As Red Smith described the reaction of the Brooklyn fans: “Their mouths were open, their breath was indrawn for the last, exultant yell – and then The Thing happened. Mickey Owen missed the ball, and defeat was somehow snatched from the jaws of victory.”

Well…all we can say is, “That’s baseball!”

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited from the 1941 World Series Wikipedia page.

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I'm a baseball historian who also enjoys writing. My forte is identifying ballplayers in old photos, and my special interest is the Dead Ball Era.

3 Comments

  1. John Alcamo · November 29, 2016 Reply

    The one picture of the Yankee players is listed as Phil Rizzuto but I don’t think it’s the scooter
    also the other picture said NY Giants but it’s the Dodgers

  2. Gary Livacari · November 30, 2016 Reply

    Think it’s Frenchy Bordagaray

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