1961 World Series: Ford, Houk, and the Backups Who Won It

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 a decade warming the bench behind Yogi Berra. Houk had managed exactly one game above Double-A before taking the job.

Nobody gave him much of a chance.

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. Mantle, close all summer, fell out of the race in September after a hip abscess put him in the hospital. Doctors had injected him with some kind of energy shot (the era called it a vitamin supplement; history has since been more specific) that left an open wound in his hip that wouldn't close.

The Yankees won 109 games. Houk was the third manager in history to win the World Series in his first season. Ford went 25-4 with a 3.21 ERA and won the Cy Young Award. Against those numbers, Cincinnati had won the National League at 93-61 -- Frank Robinson, Gordy Coleman, and a solid rotation anchored by Joey Jay and Bob Purkey. Respectable. Not 109 wins.

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 -- 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. Ford walked nobody. Struck out six. Two hours, eleven minutes. Game over.

It was his third consecutive World Series shutout, dating back to 1960.

Game 2 is the one people forget about -- partly because the Reds won it 6-2, and partly because of how they won it. Joey Jay matched Ford's intensity with a complete game of his own, but the turning point was stranger than that. Gordy Coleman and Yogi Berra traded two-run home runs in the fourth to make it 2-2. Then in the fifth, Elio Chacón scored from third on an Elston Howard passed ball. The ball barely moved -- rolled maybe fifteen feet. Chacón scored standing up, and suddenly the Reds were ahead for good. The passed ball was the whole game.

Game 3 brought the series to Cincinnati's Crosley Field, and the Yankees found themselves down 2-0 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, stepped in to pinch-hit for pitcher Bud Daley and sent a Bob Purkey pitch into the right-field bleachers. Tie game.

In the ninth, Maris led off against Purkey. Count ran to 2-and-1. Low slider. Maris got under it and golfed it into the right-field bleachers -- his first hit of the series, ending 0-for-10 in the most abrupt and satisfying way possible. Yankees 3, Reds 2. Luis Arroyo closed it.

Game 4 was Ford again, and this time history was waiting for him. He'd accumulated 27 consecutive scoreless World Series innings going in -- 18 from a pair of shutouts against Pittsburgh in 1960, nine more from Game 1 of this series. Babe Ruth's record was 29⅔, set with the Boston Red Sox in 1916 and 1918. In the third inning at Crosley Field, when Elio Chacón grounded to Bobby Richardson for the final out, Ford passed it. New record.

He pitched through five innings before an ankle injury forced him out. Jim Coates finished the shutout. Yankees 7, Reds 0. The streak stood at 32.

Game 5 belonged to the people nobody talks about. Mantle sat out -- his hip wound was bleeding through his uniform, and he couldn't go. Berra sat out with a stiff shoulder. The Yankees' two biggest names, combined, played exactly zero innings of the clinching game. In their place: Hector Lopez in left field, delivering five RBI on a triple, a home run, and two sacrifice flies. Johnny Blanchard added three hits, including another homer.

The Yankees scored five in the first, five in the fourth, two in the sixth. Final: 13-5. Ralph Houk's Yankees were champions.

The Unsung Series

The 1961 World Series is filed under Ford and Maris in most histories, which understates what actually happened. Ford was brilliant -- 0.00 ERA in 14 innings, broke Ruth's record, won MVP. But Maris contributed one home run and went 1-for-10 otherwise. Mantle contributed almost nothing. Berra sat out the final game.

The real work was done by Blanchard and Lopez -- two players who spent most of the season waiting for someone to get hurt. When Mantle and Berra finally gave out, they didn't flinch.

Ford's scoreless streak, meanwhile, would extend further. In the 1962 World Series against the Giants, he added innings before the Giants finally broke through. The official record: 33⅔ consecutive scoreless World Series innings. Mariano Rivera eventually surpassed it as a postseason record -- but the World Series mark still belongs to Ford.

The championship was the Yankees' 19th. Ralph Houk, who 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 defeated the Cincinnati Reds four games to one, claiming their 19th World Series championship. It was Ralph Houk's first year as manager, replacing the legendary Casey Stengel.

Who was the MVP of the 1961 World Series?

Whitey Ford won the World Series MVP award. He pitched two games, went 2-0, allowed zero earned runs in 14 innings, and set a World Series record for consecutive scoreless innings (32 in this series, 33⅔ total across 1960-62). His ERA in the 1961 World Series: 0.00.

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

Ford broke Babe Ruth's record of 29⅔ consecutive scoreless World Series innings, a mark Ruth had set with the Boston Red Sox in 1916 and 1918. Ford broke the record in the third inning of Game 4 at Crosley Field. He left that game with an ankle injury at 32 innings. The record eventually reached 33⅔ innings (1960-62 combined) before the Giants ended it in the 1962 World Series opener.

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 through the first three games before leading off the 9th inning of Game 3, working a 2-1 count against Bob Purkey, and hitting a go-ahead solo home run to win 3-2. It was his first hit of the series -- the 0-for-10 drought ended on one swing.

What happened to Mickey Mantle in the 1961 World Series?

Mantle had developed a severe hip abscess late in the regular season -- the result of an injection from a New York physician. He played in Games 3 and 4 despite the open wound, reportedly with blood soaking through his uniform by Game 4. He sat out Game 5 entirely. In his place, Hector Lopez drove in 5 runs to clinch the championship. Mantle's 1961 World Series contribution: minimal. His regular season contribution (54 home runs): extraordinary.