Q--As the 12th inning starts, how are you feeling?
“I think I was getting tired. I walk Robin Roberts to lead off the inning. Roberts was a decent hitter for a pitcher and I pitched him too carefully, but I was trying to bear down with what I had left to get him out. The next hitter, Eddie Pellagrini, is sacrificing and bunts to me and I go to second for the force. Roberts is called safe at second, but we thought he was out. And now they have first and second, and none out.”
Q--You go to a full count on Richie Ashburn. How loud is the crowd at that point?
“It’s pretty loud. The Dodgers were not well liked in Philadelphia and they wanted to beat us the way they had done the year before.”
Q--Ashburn grounds to Hodges and they get a force play at second. Roberts goes to third. You walk Willie Jones intentionally to load the bases. Whose decision was that?
“Charlie Dressen. That’s not my call.”
Q--Del Ennis is the hitter. The bases are loaded with one out in the 12th inning. If the Phillies score, the Dodgers lose the game and the pennant to the Giants, who had trailed them by 13 1/2 games in August. How are you going to pitch to Ennis?
“Del Ennis was a good power hitter and didn’t strike out very much. This is where the pitcher has to reach down and find the other 10 percent or 15 percent of effort that every athlete has. You go after Del Ennis and say, ‘You beat me or I beat you.’ I’m not going to walk him. You’ll hit what I’ve got and it’s going to be over the plate. And you reach down and get it. I’ve seen it happen with a lot of great pitchers...Warren Spahn, Robin Roberts, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Ennis is a good contact hitter and you’ve got to make him hit the ball. All I need to do is get Ennis out. I don’t worry about the next hitter, I know who it is. It’s Eddie Waitkus. I have to get Ennis first. I can’t do anything until I get Ennis first.”
Q--How were you going to pitch to Ennis?
“I was going with my best stuff. Good fastball and hard breaking curve. I struck him out with the fastball.”
Q--Two outs, bases loaded, Eddie Waitkus up. Did you position your infield and outfield with two outs and Waitkus up?
“Nope. No way. No way you tell Robinson, Reese, and Hodges where to play. If I went to Robinson and told him to move, I had never done it my whole career with the Dodgers. Jackie would have told me you got a job to do, I do mine, you do yours.”
Newcombe stands alone on the mound, ready to face Eddie Waitkus of the Phillies with the bases loaded, and the pennant and the season on the line.
Q--How were you going to pitch Waitkus?
“One thing I cannot do with Waitkus is walk him. That’s important. I had walked Roberts but I can’t walk Waitkus now. I have nowhere to put him so I have to get him out. He knows I have to come over the plate and I have to come over the plate with my best pitch.”
“I knew he was going to be swinging at the first pitch. Waitkus knew I had pretty good control. And he hits a line drive to my left. It’s a low line drive.”
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