Bauer, Burdette Leave Battlefields

It seems fitting, in a sporting sense, that two baseball greats who fought against each other in back-to-back World Series epics should leave the scene together. Hank Bauer, a right fielder who powered four home runs to help the New York Yankees win the 1958 World Series, and Milwaukee Braves right-handed pitcher Lew Burdette, who clipped the Yanks three times in the Braves' 1957 World Series title, both passed on to the diamond in the sky this month.

From solid franchises

The Braves left Boston in 1953 to become the Milwaukee Braves, an unusual uprooting at a time when baseball franchises didn't often leave their original nests. These days, the Braves hail from Atlanta. The Bronx Bombers have nested in New York City since the sun first began to rise. Their storied franchise is one of separate decades of dominance unmatched by any other team in major league baseball.

Hank Bauer - World Series hitting record

Bauer was a rough and tumble sort, a decorated World War ll Marine who epitomized the grit and win attitude of the team for whom he played, nicknamed the Bronx Bombers. Bauer won two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts in World War II on the real battlefield. After interrupting his diamond play to enlist in January, 1942, he was encouraged to continue the pursuit of a baseball career after his homecoming despite crippling shrapnel wounds to his left leg.

He returned to the game he loved, and he did more than pursue. He starred. In the 1957 World Series, against Burdette's Braves, he clubbed eight hits, including two home runs; in 1958, he slugged ten hits, with four homers. That production, along with nine hits (one home run) in the 1956 Series against the old Brooklyn Dodgers, was a work of art because it included a 17-game hitting streak that is still a World Series record today.

Bauer's 1958 World Series stats included a .323 batting average, six runs scored, and eight RBIs (runs batted in) in the Yanks' four-games-to-three championship. The world title was one of seven Bauer enjoyed while toiling for the New York City team.

Bauer liftetime stats

In his 12 seasons in the Yankee lineup, Bauer was always a threat with his bat. Opposing pitchers never took the first hammerin' hank lightly. In his 14-year major league career, two with Kansas City, Bauer slammed 164 balls for home runs. Relatively, his RBI total is huge - 703. He played in 1,544 games, smacked 1,424 hits, 229 doubles, 57 triples in 5,145 at bats. He scored 833 runs, and struck out a measly 638 times.

The Yankee Marine scored a lifetime batting average of .277. Three times, he celebrated being voted an All Star.

Lew Burdette - 1957 World Series dominance

Burdette, having gained infamy as a "spitter" (a thrower of illegal spit balls) from the mound, mowed down the mighty Yankees in the 1957 Series three times. The Braves won out, four games to three. Although Burdette gave up 21 hits in 27 innings pitched in the Classic, his ERA (earned run average) was a tiny 0.67, a very large achievement.

If Fidgety Lew wasn't a spitter, he did nothing to claim otherwise. His nickname was assigned for his every pitch antics, in which he invariably pulled on the bill of his cap and licked his fingers before throwing the ball. Was the ball wet? The engaging sports writer Red Smith apparently thought there was a chance of it, as he referred to Burdette's three major pitching statistics thusly: Wins, Losses, and Relative Humidity.

Burdette's three victories in one World Series in 1957 is a pitcher's dream. To know that he started three games, completed three games, and won all three is startling by today's game standards for pitching. In the modern era, pitchers rarely complete games they start. Most teams have ace relievers that are handed the ball in the seventh inning, or beyond to bring in the starter's win, or win the game themselves. In Burdette's time, pitchers displayed more stamina, and went to the ninth inning more often than not.

Two of Burdette's wins in the 1957 Series were shutouts. He won, 1-0, in game five, then returned for the series' final duel in game seven, and perfected a second goose egg, claiming a 5-0 victory, to hand the Braves the Series championship.

Entering the 1957 Classic, Burdette had won 17 games during the Braves' pennant-winning season. His three Series wins in games two, five, and seven gave him 20 victories on the year, another stat that is becoming rare.

Burdette lifetime stats

His teammates knew Burdette as a warrior, always ready to bring his A game. In 18 seasons, 13 with the Braves, Burdette won 203 times and lost 144 games. He started 373 games, completed 158, and achieved 33 shutouts. Although Burdette actually gave up, statistically, slightly more than one hit (3,186 total) per inning pitched (3,067 total), opposing teams usually struggled to knock him off the mound.

Burdette's lifetime totals include striking out 1,074 batters, giving up 1,400 runs, while allowing just 289 home runs.

Bauer managed a World Series title - 1966

In 1966, Bauer piloted the Baltimore Orioles a World Series championship as their manager. The Orioles' pitching dominated the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2, 6-0, 1-0, and 1-0. A believer in the need for a great pitching staff to win championships, Bauer engineered a fabulous rotation of determined young pitchers that included Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Wally Bunker, and closer Moe Drabowsky. In slugging, the Orioles had the advantage of Frank Robinson, who won the year's Triple Crown of hitting with 49 home runs, 122 RBIs and a .316 batting average.

Bauer and Burdette, two titans of back-to-back battles for baseball's supremacy, were never disappointing acts on the diamond. Their stats hold up well as the years push them back in time. They lived the game they loved, and they won't be forgotten.

A native of East St. Louis, Illinois, Bauer was 84 years old. Burdette, from Nitro, West Virginia, died at age 80.

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