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Without the big guy and another old reliable, Tommy Henrich, who leads the American League in doubles, triples, and runs scored, the 1948 Yankees would not be much of a ball club. They were certainly not in the same class with the great Yankee teams of the '20s (Ruth and Gehrig) nor the teams of the '30s (Gehrig, Dickey, Lazzeri, Rolfe). Yet even with DiMaggio hobbling last week, they had been able to keep the American League race so close that the race might not be over till the last day of the season.
Lou Boudreau's Cleveland Indians had one substantial advantage: in the final days of the race, they would not have to play either the Red Sox or the Yankees. The Sox and Yanks, playing two of their last five games against each other, might knock each other out of the title. Baseball weisenheimers were cracking that nobody was going to win the pennant—two teams were going to lose it.
The DiMaggio boys were doubly involved in all that. When Joe telephoned his mother in San Francisco the other day, she told him of Dominic's plans to be married. Dom, she said, would get married on Oct. 7—unless the Red Sox won the pennant and had to play in the World Series, in which case it would be Oct. 17. "Mama," said Joe, "I'll see that Dom is free to get married on the seventh."
*Their decision in case it happens this year: a playoff game between Cleveland and Boston on Oct. 4, with the winner to take on the Yankees Oct. 5. The World Series begins Oct. 6. *The other seven: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Hank Greenberg, Jimmy Foxx, Chuck Klein, Mel Ott and Rogers Hornsby.