Stealing home on a '56 Topps card

Did a little Jackie Robinson research this morning, prompted by the 1956 Topps card shown above. I was curious as to when the slide into home may have occurred, presuming the scene depicted was based on a photograph of an actual occurrence. It was the number of the batter, really, that piqued my interest -- who is that? Through good deduction, dumb luck or whatever, it only took a few clicks to come up with the answer.

First, I suspected that it was a steal of home, because of the position of the batter so close to the plate, with his bat on his shoulder, gave me the impression that he had just stepped back. If Robinson was scoring on a hit, the batter would probably be further away from the plate, perhaps giving direction on whether -- and where -- to slide. Second, I figured that the opposing team was the Cardinals, based on the catcher's stirrups.

So I simply went to Baseball-Reference's Play Index (before I came across that list of Robinson's steals of home) and got the list of games in which Robinson stole a base against the Cardinals, then started clicking through box scores. Neither of his stolen bases in the two-steal game were of the plate, but the second one on the list -- August 29, 1955, was, and the play-by-play confirms that it was when starting pitcher Johnny Podres -- No. 45 in your '55 Dodgers scorecard -- was batting. Furthermore, Cardinals catcher Bill Sarni wore No. 15 in '55, and that certainly looks like a 5 on the back of the catcher; even if it's a 6, Sarni wore 16 in previous years with St. Louis.

Perhaps even more noteworthy: It was a triple steal to boot! That event didn't warrant much mention, however. In the New York Times story the following day, it had one paragraph dedicated to it, 10 grafs into the story. Podres' plunking of Stan Musial in a back-and-forth brushback spat grabbed the headlines and the photo. Musial was hit in the hand in the fourth inning but wasn't replaced until a double-switch in the seventh. (X-rays were negative, and he was in the lineup in Pittsburgh the next day.)

Compare that to the last triple steal, which wasn't even a straight steal of home (it involved a rundown), but did warrant its own headlines. It's so rare to even see a straight steal of home these days -- such an exciting play -- that the likelihood of a triple steal ever happening again has to be remote.

Farewell to "MVP 55"

A quick memory of Johnny Podres, who died over the weekend at 75:

Summer of 2001, I'm driving down to Lakewood, N.J., to cover the BlueClaws in a game that night. On the Garden State Parkway, I pass a Cadillac or Lincoln or some other luxury car type that's common with grandfathers. Think Jerry Seinfeld's dad on the show. In this instance, the New York plates on the bumper read "MVP 55." Clearly a personalized tag, I try to catch a glimpse of the driver, but can't really make him out. The rest of the drive, I'm trying to remember if I have any idea who the MVPs in 1955 could have been. (Roy Campanella and Yogi Berra, by the way, and I think I got Berra, but I knew he lives in New Jersey.) Remembering that Podres continued to be a Spring Training instructor with the Phillies, I wondered if that could be him, heading down to visit their lower Class-A team.

Down at the ballpark, I'm making my pregame rounds of the clubhouse and walk into manager Greg Legg's office.

"Dan, have you met Johnny Podres?" Legg asks me.

A gracious and funny interviewee, Podres, of course, makes it into my notebook that day and I check off another baseball legend I've met on my mental roster.

Here's that notebook entry:

THRILL RIDE: Johnny Podres, the 1955 World Series MVP for the Brooklyn Dodgers, remembers riding the Cyclones' namesake.

"When I got to Brooklyn, I went over to Coney Island and rode the Cyclone," said Podres, who works for the Phillies as a part-time roving pitching instructor. "We were sitting right in the front. What a ride."

While a short-season Class A team back in the borough does have historical interest, it won't be quite the same, Podres said.

"It's not gonna be like Brooklyn," Podres said while discussing curveball grips with Lakewood pitching coach Rod Nichols in the clubhouse Saturday. "At least it gives them a team in Brooklyn. They've got their foot in the door, you wonder what can happen from there. But I doubt it."