The following photo (which I lifted without permission) was posted on the facebook page of the
Institute for Baseball Studies.
Yogi Berra of the St. Louis Stockhams (left) steals home on Los Angeles Sunrise catcher Gene Mauch (right) during the 1942 (exact date unknown) American Legion baseball sectional tournament in Hastings, Neb.
I wondered if I could find the date. Looking through online newspaper archives showed me that the tourney took place at the end of August.
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| Omaha World Herald - August 26, 1942 |
The first game in the tourney was on Saturday, August 29. St. Louis didn't fare well.
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| Omaha World Herald - August 30, 1942 |
The second game was scheduled for the next day, Sunday August 30, and then the tie-breaker, if necessary, was to be played later in the day. As it turns out, it was necessary.
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| Omaha World Herald - August 31, 1942 |
The bell ringer was swarthy Yogi Berra, whose pants-around-ankles figure was in sight almost every time the L.A. boys looked. He went three for three, scored three runs, hit a double, the day's only extra baser, and swiped home in the seventh.
Well, there you go. Yogi stole home in the third game. That would be on August 30, 1942. L.A. won. Another baseball mystery solved.
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| Omaha World Herald - August 31, 1942 |
Yogi Berra was just a lad of 17 when he went to Hastings. Very soon after the tournament ended the Cardinals signed him, apparently to save him from a life of boredom by book learning.
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| Omaha World Herald - September 13, 1942 |
Looking into these games raises another issue. The caption on facebook says that
Gene Mauch was catching. According to the box scores he was playing third base. The catcher was listed as Kinaman. I assume that to be
Dick Kinaman who knocked around the minors from 1943 to 1961.
Interesting coincidence that the Sunrise scored 7 runs in the 7th inning of both Game 1 and Game 3. Peaches Postlewait is a great name!
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