October 15, 1946: Enos Slaughter's Mad Dash To A Championship

On October 15, 1946, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Enos Slaughter made a Mad Dash straight into the history books in Game 7 of the World Series versus the Boston Red Sox. With the game knotted at three in the eighth, Slaughter led the inning off with a single, it looked as if it wouldn't amount to much as the next two batters were retired quickly and the Cardinals starting pitcher Harry Breechen was coming to the plate. Breechen had hit a meager .133 during the regular season so in most cases he could be considered an easy out, that was not the case on this day. The Cardinals hurler drove a ball all the way to the wall in left and Slaughter was off to the races. The Boston center fielder Leon Culberson cut the ball off quickly and spun around and threw it to his cutoff man, shortstop Johnny Pesky. Everyone in the ballpark probably expected a first and third situation but Slaughter had something else in mind as he just kept running. A surprised Pesky attempted to gun him down at the plate but he pulled his catcher Roy Partee up the line as Slaughter came sliding into home.  Breechen had come up big and was standing at second, while Slaughter had come up even bigger as made his Mad Dash home. In the top of that eighth inning, Breechen was called into relieve the Cardinals starter Murry Dickson. The Cardinals were clinging to a 3-1 lead at that point and Dickson got into a bit of trouble after giving up back-to-back hits that led to a first and third jam. The Cardinals manager, Eddie Dyer called on Breechen to hold the Red Sox off but it was something that he was not bale to do. The first batter he faced, Dom DiMaggio connected with a double that scored both runners and tied the ballgame up. It simply set up for Slaughter's run into history as he became an instant hero in the bottom half of the inning. After Slaughter put the Cards in from Breechen needed to get three more outs to finish the Red Sox off. He made it interesting by giving up back-to-back singles before setting down the next three batters in a row before the Championship celebration began in St. Louis.

Here's the box score: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN194610150.shtml