Johnny Podres, RIP

[GA Russell]

Johnny Podres died yesterday. I had his bubble gum card in 1959. I would say that he more than anyone else was given credit for Brooklyn's World Series championship. Baseball is a team game, but Podres got all the credit!

Here's his AP obituary. The obit mentions Tommy Byrne. I read in Byrne's obituary a few weeks ago that he became quite a civic leader of Wake Forest just outside Raleigh.

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsBaseball/home

Obituary: Johnny Podres, 75

Pitched the Brooklyn Dodgers to their only World Series title

Associated Press

January 14, 2008 at 2:41 AM EST

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. — Johnny Podres, who pitched the Brooklyn Dodgers to their only World Series title in 1955, died Sunday at the age of 75.

A spokesman for Glens Falls Hospital confirmed Podres' death but said he didn't know any details.

The left-hander was a four-time All-Star and the first Most Valuable Player in World Series history. He became a hero to every baseball fan in Brooklyn when the Dodgers ended decades of frustration by beating the Yankees to win the World Series.

It was the first time a team had won a best-of-seven World Series after losing the first two games, and it was Brooklyn's only World Series victory. The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season.

A June, 2007, file photo shows members of the 1955 world champion Brooklyn Dodgers, from left, Johnny Podres, Duke Snider, Carl Erskine and Don Zimmer in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Dodgers lost the first two games at Yankee Stadium, then the Dodgers won the third 8-3 at Ebbets Field. Podres, going the distance on his 23rd birthday, scattered seven hits.

In the climactic seventh game, at Yankee Stadium, Podres shut out New York 2-0 on eight hits, relying on his fastball and a deceptive changeup.

As the story goes, Podres told his teammates to get him just one run and the Dodgers would win Game 7. They got him two, and the franchise celebrated its first and only championship while playing in Brooklyn.

Years later, Podres was uncertain he made such a brash statement.

“I don't know if I said it or not. That's what they said I said,” a grinning Podres recalled in 2005. “Probably young and dumb — something like that would haunt you your whole life. ... You put on a big league uniform, you've got to think you're pretty good.”

Tommy Byrne, the losing pitcher in that game, died Dec. 20.

Podres' career spanned 15 years with the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, the Detroit Tigers and San Diego Padres. He retired in 1969 at age 36 with a lifetime record of 148-116.

Podres also served as a pitching coach when he was older, helping develop Frank Viola when he was with the Minnesota Twins and Curt Schilling when he was on the Philadelphia Phillies staff.

[Chalupa]

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...st&p=738287

[Chuck Nessa]

I still have my "Johnny Podres" glove from junior high. It is a "leftie".

[AllenLowe]

large cheeks - good pitcher -

[paul secor]

Johnny Podres had a good career as a pitcher and later as a coach, but, like Don Larsen and Bobby Thompson, he'll always be remembered for one game. And there's nothing wrong with that.