Casey's Seventh Pennant

While the National League leaders wore each other out, the high-riding Yankees began their last Western trip of the year as if it were a vacation. Mickey Mantle's chance of hitting 60 home runs had died in a late-summer slump; Yogi Berra had already hit the 237th homer of his career and broken Gabby Hartnett's record for major-league catchers. There was nothing left to worry about but playing baseball. The Yanks played like champs.

It was a little late in the game for anyone to sing the old complaint that the Yanks win because their fat pocketbook buys the best players. There they were in front, without a single 20-game pitcher. (Whitey Ford, their best man, has a record of 18-5, has never had a 20-game season.) What they boasted was an abundance of fine fielders, men who could hold their own at the plate, men who for the most part had come up through the Yankee farm system. And there was an inexhaustible bench full of reserves.

Last season it was the Yanks who had a rough stretch struggle. They went into the series a sad and limping collection of invalids. This week they gave Manager Casey Stengel a firm grip on his seventh pennant in eight years, by brushing aside Runner-Up Cleveland 10-3. From here on in it will be all downhill.

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