Since I began following the Dodgers in 1952, there have been many ups and downs and quite a few,“ Wait until next year”, times. Generally speaking in life I tend to look at the good times and not dwell on those that are not so good. The good times can’t be erased and the bad times cannot be made any better by lamenting and dwelling on the what-ifs.
I expect we all have the one moment in time that is the moment we select as our favorite moment in Dodger history. It may not even be a World Series moment but chances are it is. Without much thought, several come to mind among many others – Duke Snider’s two 4-home run WS performances, Larry Sherry in 1959, Sandy, Kirk Gibson’s home run, Orel, Bill Russel’s 11 hits in 1978, Burt Hooten in 1981, etc.
However, my favorite moment(s) came way back in 1955 when a brash youngster, an end of rotation guy coming off an injury-plagued season, stepped up and refused to wait until next year. That brash young man was left-hander Johnny Podres who turned 23 on September 30, 1955 when making his first World Series appearances against the ever dominating Yankees.
Johnny Podres, an unlikely hero, was born in 1932 in Witherbee, New York. Witherbee is located in the northern part of the town of Moriah and is bordered to the north by the hamlet of Mineville. It is 5 miles northwest of Port Henry, the largest settlement in the town of Moriah.
Podres attended Mineville High School and gained a bit of a reputation as a pitcher for his high school team. Enough attention to attract baseball scouts, especially Alex Isabel, a Brooklyn Dodgers’ talent scout from Amsterdam, New York. Isabel saw something special in Podres and he became a Dodger farmhand at age-18. Two years later he was with the AAA Montreal Royals.
For Johnny Podres, signing with a MLB team fulfilled two dreams. One was to play MLB and the other to play with the Dodgers.
As a youngster, he stayed up at night listening to Dodger games on the radio until his mother would scoot him off to bed. The first live MLB game he ever saw was a Dodger game.
Johnny Podres, with three other high school boys, drove out of Witherbee in August 1949, and 265 miles south to New York City to see the Brooklyn Dodgers play a baseball game with the Boston Braves.
“We sat way up in the upper-left-field stands,” Podres recalls. “Newcombe was pitching. The Dodgers had Robinson, Reese, Campy, Hodges, Furillo, Snider. I’ve always been a Brooklyn fan, and that day I made up my mind, I’m going to pitch for Brooklyn.”
He made his Dodgers debut on April 17, 1953 and although he gave up only two runs in seven innings he took the loss. I would have listened to that game but regrettably I cannot remember it like I can Karl Spooner’s first two games.
Over his first three seasons Podres went an ordinary 29-20 with little indication how his third season would come to a close.
During the 1955 World Series, Podres who only made the post-season roster due to a final good outing against the Pirates, was called upon to pitch the third game with the Dodgers trailing 2-0 in the series. On his birthday on September 30 he faced 17-game winner fireball Bob Turley. Undaunted, Podres put the Dodgers back in the series with a complete game 8-3 win.
Johnny Podres was an ordinary guy from a small town who had a pretty good outlook on life. He was advised by manager Walter Alston that he would pitch game-7 if the series went that far giving him four days to think about what might happen in a seventh game. He was still undaunted.
“There was no pressure on me,” Podres said of his 1955 Game 7 performance. “Who expected a guy 9-10, a young kid pitching against the Yankees, to beat them in the third game and then pitching again on the fourth day, to beat them again in the seventh game?
“If I get beat, I go home and they say, ‘Dem Bums, wait till next year.’
“But we changed all that.” said Podres, and we didn’t have to wait until next year.
Johnny Podres is remembered for those two games which earned him the MVP Award for the 1955 World Series. He was also selected as Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. But, Johnny Podres was far more than a two-game wonder.
A quick look at his career suggests he would be considered an elite pitcher by today’s standards. He became a leading pitcher for the Dodgers in the years that followed. He led the N.L. in earned run average, at 2.66, and shutouts, with six, in 1957, the Dodgers’ final year in Brooklyn, and was a consistent winner when they moved to Los Angeles. He had an 18-5 record in 1961 with a league-leading winning percentage of .783.
Because of the performances by Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, his career, unfortunately, gets overshadowed in Dodgers’ history. It is certainly understandable but unfortunate.
148-116 win-loss record, for a .561 winning percentage
3.68 ERA
2,265 innings pitched
24 shutouts
1,435 strikeouts
Podres pitched in four World Series with the Dodgers and he was an All-Star three times. He has four WS rings helping the team with a 4-1 record and a 2.11 ERA over 38.1 innings.
Following his playing career, he served as a pitching coach for 20 years with the Padres, Red Sox, Twins, and Phillies. He retired in 1996 due to ill health.
“He knew how to talk to pitchers,” says his wife Joan Podres. “He showed them that they could have the confidence to go out there and perform. He knew what pitchers go through, pitching every four games and being on your game plan. There comes a point when you have to think about what happens when you’re not getting it over the plate, and that’s when the coaching came in. Two of the pitchers he coached were Curt Schilling and Frank Viola.”
“He was the best pitching coach I ever had,” said Mitch Williams, the ex-Phils closer who’s now a Comcast commentator. “He was the only one that dealt with the mental side of the game, the most positive person and, again, hands down the best pitching coach I ever pitched for. He will be missed.”
Johnny Podres died on January 13, 2008. He will never be forgotten.
“When I heard of Johnny’s passing, my mind went back to Yankee Stadium, 1955, the seventh game of the World Series,” former teammate Don Newcombe said. “I thank God for Johnny Podres, as I do all the time. I remember how confident he was in the clubhouse before Game 7. [Manager] Walter Alston called a meeting and Johnny said, ‘Just give me one run.’ Well, they gave him two, and we were champs. He was a man of his word, he lived up to his word, and I appreciate it.”
Today the Moriah Central High School baseball field is named after the community’s favorite son, and a few years back, Joan Podres bought all the uniforms for the Moriah Youth Baseball and Softball teams. For one season, all the children wore the number “45” in honor of Johnny Podres, the hometown hero and Adirondack native.
In Cooperstown visible from the HOF building there is a pair of life size bronze sculptures. recreates the Brooklyn Dodgers battery, the pitcher and catcher, from the seventh and deciding game of the 1955 World Series. On the pitching mound is a statue of Dodger pitcher Johnny Podres. He is shown in Dodgers uniform, number 45. The left handed Podres has just thrown a pitch to the catcher Roy Campanella who is 60’6″ away. “Teammates forever”.
On August 09, 2011 the small town of Moriah held its first-ever “Johnny Podres Day.”
“We appreciate everything he did for the game of baseball, but here in Moriah he was also a great friend and neighbor,” related Tim Salerno, who helped organize Johnny Podres Day with his brother, Pat.
Johnny Podres remained forever humble and maintained his small town roots. Like us, he never forgot that day in 1955 when he refused to wait until next year. His vision of the game , not about Johnny Podres, but Sandy Amoros.
“I think about that game a lot,” Podres says. “I can still see [leftfielder Sandy] Amoros making that catch [of Yogi Berra’s drive with the two tying runs on base in the sixth inning].
Thank you Johnny Podres.
Sorry, I am tardy in getting this post up. Hire the lawyers on the blog to sue me! 😉
Actually, I got up at 4:30 to take my wife to the Airport (she’s flying to SF for a week) and I had an early meeting and it hasn’t let up until now.
Whew!
Enjoy!
I view one of the biggest perks of retirement to be time. If it means getting up at 4:30am to catch a flight, I’ll go the previous afternoon/evening.
Oh do I hate those 0’dark:30 flights
Sorry I couldn’t get the article to you yesterday.
So glad to see you Mark. A little worried but agree you are indestructible.
DC…thanks so much for the article on Johnny Podres. He was my favorite Brooklyn pitcher after Koufax and Newcombe. As a young girl in 55, I remember that WS in 1955. Very nice write-up as usual.
Hopefully DC your article foreshadows an MVP type performance from one of our young arms! What an incredible history our Dodgers have! Let’s add to it this October!
So Gavin Lux and Matt Beaty have made the postseason roster. No word yet on the pitchers, or how we’ll align the rotation
Great article DC!
DC did the Dodger ever entertain the idea to hire Podres as a pitching coach?
He was a coach in the Dodgers system and I expect left for an opportunity to coach at the MLB level sooner than he could have with the Dodgers.
Thank you DC. Did not know that.
DC & MT great work… Pods was something for the Dodgers…
Let me preface the following with the greatest Dodger pitcher I got to see was Sandy followed closely by Kershaw…
Fernando was my favorite to watch and take in the atmosphere… Beginning at the age of 18 or so he transformed the Blue and Chavez Ravine.. On the days he pitched, it seemed more a spectacle rather than a game of baseball… Throw your sombrero to the air…
I’ve completed my cursory short sessions of watching MLB TV and am suffering a liddle from analysis paralysis… I’ll be ready tommorow to hopefully get this party started…
Podres is the kind of guy that the Dodgers need – he always stepped up and pitched his best in big moments. The Dodgers waited how many years before 1955 to have someone do that (at least a pitcher do it).
The current Dodgers have fallen short when it matters most. What they need now is a Podres, a Koufax, a Hersheiser – someone who will step up and win when they need it most.
Do they have that guy this year?
Roberts ! Dont make dumb moves and dont take pitchers out when they are pitching good ! Dont overmanage !!!
And bat Puig cleanup!
Better than your boy Kikiii. He did hit a 3 run mash last WS 2018 before Roberts blew the game with his stupid managing !!
Kemp Cleanup !
And Wood in relief!
Cassidy, you just couldn’t resist could you?
Woodruff will be well rested for the Brewers spring training.
unfortunately roberts hasn’t changed…he will overmanage the pitching staff…will overuse at least one reliever like he did the last two years with Morrow & Madsen
Podres went the full nine in Game 7, crediting Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella with the 2-0 victory: “Campanella was calling the greatest game of his career. Every time he’d give me a sign, ‘I want you to throw it here,’ I was throwing it there. ‘I want it up and in.’ I’d throw it up and in. ‘I want it low and away.’ I’d throw it low and away. ‘Curve ball in the dirt.’ I put it in the dirt.”
Something I has d in my notes but missed including. Johnny Podres was called into the service during the 1956 season. The Dodgers lost 4- 3 in the WS to the Yankees. Perhaps with Podres in the lineup he would have had a fifth ring.
Johnny Podres one of the good old warriors! Great post DC! Ryu has a bit of Podres in him.
Thanks for summoning the spirit of the Great Johnny Podres. He was before my time, but I’m well versed in Dodgers history and he is one of the legends. Hopefully, his spirit will embody Ryu, the spirit of Koufax will embody Kershaw, and the spirit of Drysdale will embody Bueller. Is there a chant we can all start using to make that happen?
I just cancelled plans with wifey and her friend that’s visiting from Napa for Friday night dinner. I told her that she needs to go solo and leave me to watch the game.
This is the year. The team is talented, rested and I have a gut feeling about this.
First up, Patrick Corbin and the Nats. All the righties are rested and ready. Freese, Turner and Pollock will drive the offense. Please don’t bone head it by playing both Kike and CT3. Don’t stack all the righties so Corbin can get into a groove. This is the lineup I want to see against Corbin, assuming Ryu is pitching to his personal catcher…
CT3 OR Kike RF
Seager SS
Turner 3B
Bellinger CF
Freese 1B
Pollock LF
Muncy 2B
Martin C
That’s our best lineup against Corbin but please Roberts CT3 over Kike! Am a little nervous about Turner, Freese and Pollock being a little rusty! We shall see! Go Big Blue!
I agree with CT3 over Kike. It’s crazy how things change so much during a long season. Remember when Kike beat out CT3 at the beginning of the year and CT3 couldn’t hit at all for the first two month?
DC – great write up on Johnny Podres. I love stories of the players in that era. As a kid in the early 60’s my local A league town team included a 30ish pitcher/coach who was a fan favorite named Billy Harris. Billy was on the end of 14 years spent in the Dodger organization as a pitcher. As a youngster in 1952 Billy went 25 and 6 for the Miami Sun Sox with a .83 era, one of the best minor league seasons ever. He was teammates for a number of seasons in the minors with another pitcher, Tommy Lasorda. Billy pitched in only 2 games in the Bigs, one in 57 with Brooklyn and one with LA in 59. (where he was a teammate with a young Sandy Koufax who became a lifelong friend) Podres was on both of those teams. Later Billy became a good friend of mine and I played on a team where he was a player/coach. We shared lots of stories as I picked his memory of those days. He had great things to say about Johnny Podres who he felt was a terrific pitcher and later a great pitching coach. Billy said Johnny was a good guy as well. Thanks again for the article DC.
It is truly a small world. Thank you for that information. My only close connection to professional athletes has been Glen Murray in the NHL and Terry Baker in Canadian ProfessionL Football. I coached both – in basketball – in junior high school. I also coached Shawn Adams – in basketball- who went on as a professional curler in Canada. I like to say I gave them all their start. LOL!
Dodger Chatter, is this the same Terry Baker who played basketball and football, winning the Heisman at Oregon State? I ran a bar in Portland where he occasionally frequented in the mid 80’s. He was supposed to have been a talented baseballeer as well (if it’s the same Terry Baker)
No, this Terry only played professionally in the CFL as a place kicker.
Wow thanks for the fascinating history story philjones.
DBMom, my pleasure. Glad you enjoyed it.
The Dodgers will be facing old nemesis Patrick Corbin tomorrow. I hope the Dodgers don’t hit Freese leadoff. This almost always seems to lead to both Freese and Joc being wasted and out of the game in crucial situations or Joc facing a lefty late when we don’t want that . Freese is a clutch player who should hit in the middle of the lineup tomorrow. He’s hitting RH pitching even better than LH pitching this year and he’s had success vs Corbin. Freese should be hitting in the middle of the order tomorrow. I would like to see an order like this tomorrow.
Pollock-LF
Muncy-2B
Turner-3B
Belly-RF
Freese-1B
Seager-SS
CT3-CF
Smith-C
Buehler-P
Walker Buehler will officially start game 1. I prefer Ryu at home in Game 2, so let’s see how we do it
The only reason I see Buehler starting is because of the late season trouble Ryu had, a kind of mini-meltdown. But I think that he has pulled out of it. With a 10-1 record at home, Ryu deserved that start. Has Roberts started his shenanigans again?
Pretty much everyone thought Buehler would be Game 1 if they were going with a four man rotation. Ryu-2. Kershaw -3
Hopefully, it will be Ryu in game 2.
God I miss Verdugo.
All the time Verdugo and Pollock were unavailable this season vs lefties, combined with for whatever reason Seager struggled against lefties, combined with Hernandez having to fill in sometimes (and Roberts starting him for the hell of it) with a 758 OPS vs lefties, gave us a 777 team OPS vs lefties this season. I bet if those things I mentioned above didn’t happen our team OPS vs lefties would have been well over 800.
I forgot about Freese missing some at bats vs lefties due to health issues.
This offense is excellent when healthy. I’m a firm believer in this offense when healthy.
Touching article, much appreciated. I think that Podres won one of the four World Series games in 1963, perhaps the second one. He was always a clutch pitcher, and those are rare.
I was listening to the Dodgers station while driving today, and they were talking about Kershaw pitching Game 1, which I did not like at all, and I’m glad to see that it will be Buehler, as it should be. I know that Kerhaw pitches better at home, but you have to have Buehler ready to pitch two games in the series.. We cannot afford lose the first game, because we do not want to go to Washington tied 1-1 or worse, and facing Strasburg and Scherzer, in front of their home crowd. We won an excruciatingly tight Game 5 in Washington three years ago, and I don’t want to have to win two games there this year.
my blood pressure still hasn’t recovered from that Game 5
In the 1963 WS Koufax won game 1, Padres won game 2, Drysdale won game 3 with a complete game by a score of 1-0, and Koufax finished it off in game 4. Seems to me that a lot of fans don’t recall Drysdale’s gem in game 3. Of course some of you weren’t even born yet, whereas I remember watching that nail biter. Of course I’d rather not remember it if I could be a lot younger. 🙂
I could only hope that this years World Series could exceed the joy I got from 1963,
Big D was awesome and Sandy was incredible. As Mickey said to Roseboro after striking out :Hows a guy supposed to hit that sh*t!
Oh, don’t let me forget the excellent game #22 Johnny Podres pitched in Yankee Stadium, which was probably the biggest thing the Yankees never saw coming.
In that 1963 series the Dodgers used a reliever once, Ron Perranoski, for two outs in the ninth in Johnny Podres’ game. Podres acknowledged he was tiring and was quite willing to turn the ball over to Perranoski whom he called the best reliever in the game.
How does a team win96 games and get a playoff spot with Travis D’Arnaud as your cleanup hitter! Wow! I don’t think he could even make our 40 man roster! I think DFA’d him earlier this year
Patrick Corbin has allowed 2 ER in his last 30 IP vs the Dodgers with 38k, including 7 scoreless earlier this season
CT3, JT, Freeze, Pollock, and Smith will all be in the lineup. Add in Belly, Seager, and Muncy at 2b, and I think we know how we’ll stack that up.
First ever post season start for Corbin. I’m calling 2 walks and a jack in first inning. Dodgers go up 3-0 and cruise to easy first game win!