October 6, 2019

August 18, 1952: An Afternoon At Fenway Park

The Burlington Free Press, Wednesday, August 20, 1952

Notes From Essex Center



Merle Wood and son, Merle, Mr. Leonard, Carl Paige, and Noah
Thompson attended the Yankees-Red Sox game in Boston Monday.
The son mentioned in this tidbit is 13 years old and will grow up to be my father.
Yankees - 202 000 000 - 4 10  0
Red Sox - 000 010 100 - 2  5  1
Monday, August 18, 1952 began with the Yankees (69-48) leading the American League by 1.5 games over Cleveland (67-49) and 5.5 games over the Red Sox (61-51).

This afternoon game was the make-up of a May 25 rainout. Vic Raschi pitched a complete game for the Yankees (9-5-2-2-3). Dizzy Trout went eight innings for the Red Sox (8-9-4-7-6; 3 walks were intentional) and Al Benton pitched the ninth. The game zipped by in only 2:12.

Phil Rizzuto went 4-for-5 and scored twice. Gene Woodling (3-for-4) and Hank Bauer each knocked in two runs. The Yankees (95-69) would go on to win the American League pennant (two games ahead of Cleveland) and the World Series (beating the Brooklyn Dodgers in seven games).

Starting on August 28, the Red Sox lost 24 of their final 32 games (and 14 of their last 18) and dropped to sixth place and finishing under .500 (76-78).

4 comments:

accudart said...

Great stuff Allan! Did you just find this nugget..

allan said...

No, I've had it for about three years (saved August 2016!). As far as I can recall, he never mentioned going to Fenway as a kid to me. I don't know if this would have been his first time or if he went again - until we went almost exactly 24 years later, when I was 12. I do know that they lived in Lexington, Mass., when he was in first grade or so, which would have been in the mid-40s.

In the past, newspapers would run these types of notices for every town in the area. ... Mrs X was in from Chicago visiting her parents in Westford for the long weekend. ... B plans to attend college in Boston this fall. ... I have no idea when that stopped, though.

Here's one from the Free Press of January 17, 1935, in the notes from St. Albans: "Mr. and Mrs. Merle Wood have returned from Flemington, N.J., where they attended the Hauptman trial." (They had gotten married the previous June.)

That's the infamous Lindbergh baby kidnapping/murder trial. Newspaperman writer H.L. Mencken called it "the biggest story since the Resurrection"!
March 1, 1932: Charles Lindbergh Jr. (20 months old) was abducted from his crib.
On May 12, 1932: Body found.
September 1934: Richard Hauptmann arrested.
January 2 to February 13, 1935: Trial.
April 3, 1936: Hauptmann was executed in the electric chair at the New Jersey State Prison.

allan said...

Another one, Free Press, July 22, 1961:

Warning - Unlicensed 'Driver' at Work
A dog shifted gears in a parked car Friday afternoon, causing the car to roll into another parked vehicle in the Country Store parking lot, Winooski police said.
The dog, alone in the car, knocked an automatic transmission handle out of gear, police explained. The car crashed into one owned by Country Store proprietor Merle Wood.
Neither car was damaged extensively, police said.

Jere said...

Cool stuff. I have found in my father's hometown's paper similar notes, about my grandparents "going to the shore" and stuff!