1961 World Series: Ford Breaks Ruth's Scoreless Mark

October 4, 1961. Yankee Stadium. 62,397 people in the seats and Whitey Ford walking to the mound for Game 1 of the World Series. Same as it ever was -- except for one thing. Casey Stengel was gone. The man who'd managed this franchise to seven championships in twelve years had been fired after the 1960 Series loss to Pittsburgh, replaced by Ralph Houk, a quiet backup catcher who'd spent years warming the bench behind Yogi Berra.

Nobody gave him much of a chance. And the club had something to prove besides: that Bill Mazeroski's walk-off from twelve months earlier was a fluke, not a verdict.

The 1961 Yankees

The 1961 regular season had belonged to Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle -- the M&M Boys, chasing Babe Ruth's record all summer in a story that consumed the country. Maris got to 61 on the final day of the season, a number so large it set off a public argument, refereed by the commissioner himself, over whether it "counted." Mantle, close all summer, finished with 54 and fell out of the race in September after a hip abscess put him in the hospital.

The abscess came from an injection. Mantle had gone to Max Jacobson, a celebrity physician Mel Allen had introduced him to, for what the era called a vitamin shot (history has since been more specific about what Jacobson kept in his syringes). It left an open wound in his hip that wouldn't close.

The Yankees won 109 games and took the pennant by eight. Ford went 25-4 with a 3.21 ERA and won the Cy Young Award. Whatever anybody thought of Houk in April, he didn't look like the problem by October.

The Reds Had a Case

The Cincinnati Reds weren't here by accident. They'd won 93 games and the National League pennant under Fred Hutchinson, finishing four games clear of the Dodgers. Frank Robinson had hit .323 with 37 home runs and 124 RBI to win the NL MVP. Joey Jay had gone 21-10. Bob Purkey had won 16. Gordy Coleman and Wally Post supplied the thump behind Robinson.

Respectable. A legitimate club. Just not a 109-win one.

The Series

Game 1 was Ford at his cleanest. He allowed two hits the entire game -- an Eddie Kasko single in the first, a Wally Post single in the fifth -- walked one, struck out six, and otherwise treated the Reds lineup as an inconvenience. Elston Howard homered to right in the fourth. Bill Skowron added one to left in the sixth. Yankees 2, Reds 0, in two hours and eleven minutes.

It was Ford's third consecutive World Series shutout, following the two he'd thrown at Pittsburgh in 1960, and it ran his scoreless streak to 27 innings. Ruth's record of 29⅔ sat 2⅔ innings away. The crowd went home certain this would be quick.

They weren't wrong. They were just early.

Game 2 is the one people forget, partly because the Reds won it and partly because of how. Jay -- a journeyman who'd found himself on a serious club -- threw a complete-game four-hitter. Coleman and Berra traded two-run homers in the fourth to make it 2-2. Then in the fifth, Elio Chacón scored from third on an Elston Howard passed ball, and the Reds were ahead for good. Cincinnati 6, New York 2. The Series was tied, and the writers who'd treated this thing as a formality reconsidered.

They reconsidered for about three days.

Game 3 moved the Series to Crosley Field in Cincinnati, and the Yankees found themselves down 2-1 in the eighth inning, with Maris 0-for-10 for the Series. Then Johnny Blanchard -- a backup catcher who'd hit 21 home runs in 243 at-bats during the regular season -- pinch-hit for Bud Daley and sent a Bob Purkey pitch out to right. Tie game.

Maris led off the ninth against Purkey and drove one over the right-field wall. His first hit of the Series, and it ended the 0-for-10 in the most abrupt way possible. Yankees 3, Reds 2. Luis Arroyo closed it, and New York led the Series two games to one.

Game 4 was Ford again, and this time history was waiting for him. He came in with 27 consecutive scoreless World Series innings -- 18 from the pair of shutouts against Pittsburgh, nine more from Game 1. Ruth's record of 29⅔ had stood since he set it with the Boston Red Sox in 1916 and 1918. In the third inning, Chacón grounded out to Bobby Richardson, and that out pushed Ford to 30. The mark was his after 43 years. He didn't pause. He didn't gesture to the crowd. He got the ball back and kept working.

He pitched through the fifth before an ankle injury forced him out, with the streak at 32. Jim Coates handled the last four innings, the Reds managed five hits all afternoon, and the Yankees won 7-0. Topps put the moment on a 1962 card titled "Ford Sets New Mark."

Richardson went 3-for-5 that day, and he finished the Series hitting .391 with nine hits in 23 at-bats. Nobody remembers it, because Ford was breaking Ruth's record in the same game and Lopez was about to steal the finale.

Mantle played in Games 3 and 4 and contributed almost nothing at the plate. By Game 4, blood from the open hip wound was soaking through his uniform. It wasn't the October anyone wanted for the man who'd pushed Maris all summer.

Game 5 on October 9 belonged to the people nobody talks about. Mantle couldn't go. Berra sat out too. The Yankees' two biggest names, combined, played exactly zero innings of the clinching game. In their place: Hector Lopez, a utility man, in left field.

The Yankees chased Jay in a five-run first, and Lopez's run-scoring triple was part of it. In the fourth, he hit a three-run homer to center. In the sixth, he pushed across one more with a sacrifice bunt. Five RBI for the fill-in. Blanchard, playing right, added three hits, including another homer.

The Yankees scored five in the first, one in the second, five in the fourth, and two in the sixth. The Reds got five back, three on Frank Robinson's homer in the third and two on Wally Post's in the fifth, and never got closer than 11-5. Bud Daley pitched the last 6⅔ innings for the win, his ankle perfectly functional, which is more than could be said for Ford's. Final: 13-5. Ralph Houk's Yankees were champions.

The Unsung Series

The 1961 World Series gets filed under Ford and Maris in most histories, which undersells what actually happened. Ford was brilliant -- 2-0, 14 innings, 0.00 ERA, Ruth's record, the Series MVP. But Maris managed two hits in the Series, and only the Game 3 homer mattered. Mantle played twice. Berra sat out the clincher.

The real work in the finale was done by Blanchard and Lopez, two guys who spent most of the season waiting for someone to get hurt. When Mantle and Berra finally gave out, they didn't flinch. That was the kind of story this franchise produced in its sleep in the early 1960s. It didn't matter who you penciled in. Someone would make it work.

Ford's streak wasn't done, either. He added more zeroes in the 1962 World Series before the Giants finally broke through in the opener, leaving the record at 33⅔ consecutive scoreless innings. It's still the World Series mark.

The championship was the franchise's 19th, and its third in six years after Stengel's titles in 1956 and 1958. Houk became only the third manager to win the World Series in his first season. The quiet backup catcher nobody gave much of a chance had won it in his first year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won the 1961 World Series?

The New York Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds four games to one for their 19th World Series championship. It was Ralph Houk's first year as manager after replacing Casey Stengel.

Who was the MVP of the 1961 World Series?

Whitey Ford. He went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 14 innings, threw a complete-game two-hit shutout in Game 1, and broke Babe Ruth's World Series scoreless innings record in Game 4 before an ankle injury forced him out after five shutout innings.

What record did Whitey Ford break in the 1961 World Series?

Ford broke Babe Ruth's record of 29⅔ consecutive scoreless World Series innings, set with the Boston Red Sox in 1916 and 1918. Ford entered the Series with 18 straight from his two 1960 shutouts of Pittsburgh, pushed it to 27 with his Game 1 shutout, and passed Ruth in the third inning of Game 4. He left that game at 32. The streak reached 33⅔ innings before the Giants ended it in the 1962 World Series opener, and it's still the World Series record.

Did Roger Maris hit a home run in the 1961 World Series?

Yes -- one, and it was the biggest hit of the Series. Maris was 0-for-10 when he led off the ninth inning of Game 3 against Bob Purkey with the score tied 2-2 and hit a solo home run to win it 3-2. He finished the Series with two hits.

What happened to Mickey Mantle in the 1961 World Series?

Mantle had an abscess on his right hip, the result of an injection from Max Jacobson, a celebrity physician known as "Dr. Feelgood." The wound had been lanced and drained but hadn't healed by October. Mantle played only in Games 3 and 4, with blood soaking through his uniform by Game 4, and sat out the clincher. It was a bitter footnote to a season in which he'd hit 54 home runs.

What happened in Game 5 of the 1961 World Series?

The Yankees chased Reds starter Joey Jay in a five-run first inning. Hector Lopez, starting in left field with Mantle and Berra both out, hit a triple and a three-run homer and drove in five runs. Johnny Blanchard added three hits, including a homer. The Reds got within 11-5 on home runs by Frank Robinson (a three-run shot in the third) and Wally Post (two runs in the fifth), but New York won 13-5 to clinch the championship.

How did the 1961 Cincinnati Reds end up in the World Series?

The Reds won 93 games and the NL pennant under manager Fred Hutchinson, finishing four games ahead of the Dodgers. Frank Robinson had an MVP season at .323 with 37 home runs and 124 RBI. Joey Jay won 21 games. They were a genuine contender -- just the wrong opponent in the wrong October.