"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

 

Ripping a page from Doug K.'s book—and a quote from one of America's greatest writers—today we celebrate the Yankees' four-game, 1939 sweep of the Reds.  

As you can see, the program cover was a tribute to Lou Gehrig, already laid low by ALS early that season. Poor Lou watched from the dugout, but could do nothing more. 

It didn't much matter, at least on the ballfield. Many rank the 1939 Yankees—even with Babe Dahlgren taking Gehrig's place—as the greatest team ever assembled, and the Series was their fourth straight championship, and ran their streak of consecutive Series games wins to nine. They had polished off the Cubs in four straight the year before, and they would eventually beat Brooklyn in the 1941 opener, to run the streak to ten.

Still, that did not top their 1927-1928 and 1932 Series streak of 12 straight wins. That record remained until the 1996, 1998-2000 Yankees won 14 in a row—days we will never see again.

The 1939 Series was remembered mainly for a completely extraneous run in Game Four.

Going into the 9th inning, the Yanks were trailing, 4-2, when they used three singles and an Cincy error to tie the game, silencing the Porkopolis crowd. In the 10th, they surged ahead on a walk, another three Cincinnati errors, and three-run single by DiMaggio.

Joe D. singled to right field to drive in Frankie Crosetti from third, with the go-ahead run. When Reds' right fielder Ival Goodman fumbled the ball, Charlie "King Kong" Keller alertly raced home, plowing into receiver Ernie "Schnozz" Lombardi, just as the ball got there. Lombardi was quickly parted from both the ball and his senses—and seeing that, DiMaggio shot home "like an arrow," just getting a foot in to make it 7-4, before Schnozz could fully recover.  

You can see him scoring, below, and walking calmly away from the confusion. No hand signals necessary, no leaping up and down. 

Those Yankees were like a pack of wolves. At the least sign of vulnerability, they dragged you down and ripped your throat out, then calmly loped away.  

How I missed such teams!