October 4, 1961. Yankee Stadium, the Bronx. The most feared lineup in baseball against the best team the National League had to offer -- and the Yankees were here to prove that Bill Mazeroski's walk-off ball from twelve months ago was a fluke, not a verdict.
Whitey Ford walked to the mound in Game 1 carrying 18 consecutive scoreless World Series innings from 1960, two shutouts of the Pirates already banked. Babe Ruth's record of 29⅔ stood 11⅔ innings away. Ford threw nine more zeroes at the Cincinnati Reds that afternoon, a complete-game shutout that pushed the streak to 27. The Yankees won 2-0. The crowd at the Stadium went home certain this would be quick.
They weren't wrong.
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 37 home runs and driven in 124 runs to win the NL MVP award. Joey Jay had gone 21-10. Bob Purkey had won 16. This was a legitimate club, not a warm body for the Yankees to brush aside.
Game 2 showed it. Jay -- a journeyman who'd found himself with a serious club -- completely throttled New York, 6-2 on four hits. Gordy Coleman slugged a two-run homer in the fourth. An Elston Howard passed ball let the Reds add another run in the fifth. The Series was tied, and the baseball writers who'd treated this thing as a formality reconsidered.
They reconsidered for about three days.
The Maris Question
Roger Maris had hit 61 home runs in the regular season -- an achievement so large it had required a commissioner's asterisk and a public argument about whether it "counted." He arrived at the World Series as the most talked-about player in the sport. He left it with a batting average that wouldn't print comfortably (he managed two hits in the Series, one a ninth-inning home run in Game 3 that won it -- the one hit that mattered entirely -- and one more).
That Game 3 home run deserves its moment. The Yankees trailed 2-1 heading to the ninth at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Bob Purkey had held them in check for eight innings. Maris led off the top of the ninth and drove one over the right-field wall -- his first Series hit and, as it turned out, the game-winner in a 3-2 Yankees victory. The blow gave New York a 2-1 Series lead. The other hit in the Series never mattered quite the same way.
Mickey Mantle, meanwhile, barely existed for this Series. An abscess on his right hip -- the product of a disastrous injection administered by the celebrity physician Mel Allen had introduced him to -- had sidelined him since late September. He appeared in just two games, sat out the last two entirely, and contributed almost nothing at the plate. The image of Mantle limping through the clubhouse on crutches, bloodstains on his uniform, wasn't the farewell anyone wanted for baseball's most compelling home run race. The M&M Boys finished the season at 115 combined home runs and couldn't combine for a World Series hit when it mattered.
The Record Falls
Ford came back in Game 4 on October 8 at Crosley Field, and this was what history would remember. He entered with 27 consecutive World Series scoreless innings. Ruth's record was 29⅔. The crowd at Crosley Field had no idea they were watching a man quietly rewrite the record books from the third inning forward.
In the third inning, Elio Chacon grounded out to Bobby Richardson. That out pushed Ford's streak to 30 innings, past Ruth's mark, past history, into territory no World Series pitcher had occupied in 43 years. Ford didn't pause. He didn't gesture to the crowd. He got the ball back and kept working.
He pitched through the fifth inning before an apparent ankle injury forced him out of the game. By then the streak stood at 32 consecutive scoreless World Series innings. Jim Coates took over for the final four innings and the Yankees cruised to a 7-0 win. The Reds managed three hits. It wasn't a contest.
Bobby Richardson went 3-for-5 in Game 4 (a game that would become a 1962 Topps card bearing the title "Whitey Ford Sets New Mark"). Across the full Series, Richardson batted .391 with nine hits in 23 at-bats -- both still major league records for a five-game World Series. Nobody remembers this because Ford was breaking Ruth's record in the same game and Lopez was about to steal the finale.
Hector Lopez Takes a Sunday
Game 5 on October 9 at Crosley Field wasn't supposed to be Hector Lopez's moment. Lopez was a utility man, a solid contributor who started because Mantle couldn't go. He'd had a quiet Series until Sunday afternoon. The first inning sent eight Yankees to the plate and produced five runs before Cincinnati could catch its breath -- Lopez hit a run-scoring triple in that opening frame. Then in the fourth, he deposited a three-run home run into dead center, and just like that he had five RBIs and the afternoon belonged to him.
The Reds scored five times to make it look slightly respectable, but the final was 13-5. The Yankees had their 19th World Series championship (their third title in six years, following Stengel's wins in 1956 and 1958). Bud Daley got the win in relief, his ankle perfectly functional, which is more than could be said for Ford's.
Lopez's five RBIs on a day when Maris went hitless and Mantle didn't dress -- that was the kind of story this franchise produced in its sleep during the early 1960s. It didn't matter who you penciled in. Someone would make it work.
Game 1 -- Ford Shuts Out Cincinnati
Whitey Ford throws a complete-game 2-0 shutout at Yankee Stadium, extending his World Series scoreless innings streak to 27. Yankees lead series 1-0.
Game 2 -- Joey Jay Evens It
Cincinnati's Joey Jay limits the Yankees to four hits in a 6-2 Reds victory at Yankee Stadium. Gordy Coleman homers; Series tied 1-1.
Game 3 -- Maris Walks It Off
Roger Maris leads off the ninth inning with a home run off Bob Purkey to give New York a 3-2 win at Crosley Field. Yankees take 2-1 series lead.
Game 4 -- Ford Breaks Ruth's Record
Ford extends his streak to 32 consecutive scoreless World Series innings, surpassing Babe Ruth's 29⅔ record set in 1916-18. The Yankees win 7-0; Ford exits after 5 innings with an ankle injury.
Ruth's Record Falls in the Third
Elio Chacon's groundout to Bobby Richardson in the third inning of Game 4 pushes Ford's streak to 30, officially past Ruth's 43-year-old mark.
Game 5 -- Lopez and the Blowout
Hector Lopez drives in five runs on a triple and a home run as the Yankees rout Cincinnati 13-5 at Crosley Field, clinching the championship.
| Series Result | Yankees over Reds, 4-1 |
| Ford's WS Scoreless Streak | 32 innings (through Game 4), record at the time |
| Ruth's Record Broken | Game 4, 3rd inning (Chacon groundout) |
| Hector Lopez, Game 5 | 5 RBI (triple + 3-run HR) |
| Bobby Richardson | .391 average, 9 hits in 23 AB (5-game WS records) |
| Roger Maris | 2 hits in Series, including go-ahead 9th-inning HR in Game 3 |
| Mickey Mantle | 2 games played, sidelined by abscessed hip |
| Championship | 19th in franchise history |
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was the MVP of the 1961 World Series?
There wasn't a formal World Series MVP award in 1961 -- Sport magazine gave an informal most outstanding player citation, and Whitey Ford was the consensus choice. He went 2-0, threw a complete-game shutout in Game 1, and broke Babe Ruth's World Series scoreless innings record in Game 4 while pitching five shutout innings in a 7-0 win. Nobody else was close.
What was Whitey Ford's World Series scoreless innings record?
Ford entered the 1961 Series with 18 consecutive scoreless World Series innings from his two shutouts against Pittsburgh in 1960. His Game 1 complete-game shutout pushed that to 27 innings -- two innings short of Ruth's record. He came back in Game 4 and broke the record in the third inning, then left after five innings with the streak at 32. It eventually reached 33⅔ innings during the 1962 World Series -- still the World Series record.
What happened to Mickey Mantle in the 1961 World Series?
Mantle was dealing with an abscess on his right hip -- the result of an injection he'd received from a celebrity physician named Max Jacobson, known as "Dr. Feelgood." The wound had been lanced and drained but hadn't healed by the time October arrived. He appeared in two games, missed the final two entirely, and was a spectator. It was a bitter footnote to a season in which he'd hit 54 home runs in the M&M chase with Maris.
What happened in Game 5 of the 1961 World Series?
The Yankees jumped on Cincinnati starter Joey Jay for five runs in the first inning. Hector Lopez -- starting in place of the injured Mantle -- hit a triple and a three-run home run, driving in five of the Yankees' 13 runs. The Reds cut it to 11-5 in the fifth on a Wally Post two-run homer, but couldn't get any closer. New York won 13-5 to clinch the series and 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.