The Mad Dash, or Slaughter's Mad Dash, refers to an event in the eighth

inning In baseball, softball, and similar games, an inning is the basic unit of play, consisting of two halves or frames, the "top" (first half) and the "bottom" (second half). In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other tea ...

of the seventh game of the 1946 World Series between the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

and the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

Background

Personnel involved

Context

The 1946 Boston Red Sox ran away with the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

crown, finishing 12 games ahead of the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

with a 104–50 record. The Red Sox were heavy favorites in the World Series against the

. Boston led the series, three games to two, as it headed back to

Sportsman's Park Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on t ...

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for Game 6. The Cardinals won that game with sensational defense and a brilliant pitching performance by Harry Brecheen to bring the series to a deciding seventh game. Game 7 was played in

on October 15, 1946. After Red Sox center fielder

Dom DiMaggio Dominic Paul DiMaggio (February 12, 1917 – May 8, 2009), nicknamed "the Little Professor", was an American Major League Baseball center fielder. He played his entire 11-year baseball career for the Boston Red Sox (1940–1953). DiMaggio wa ...

drove in two runs in the top of the eighth, the score was tied 3–3. DiMaggio pulled a hamstring during the play and was forced to leave the game; his place was taken by pinch runner Leon Culberson, who remained in the game as DiMaggio's replacement in center field in the bottom of the inning. Cardinal right fielder

Enos Slaughter Enos Bradsher Slaughter (April 27, 1916 – August 12, 2002), nicknamed "Country", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) right fielder. He played for 19 seasons on four major league teams from 1938 to 1942 and 1946 to 1959. He is noted prim ...

led off with a single off of pitcher Bob Klinger. After a failed bunt attempt by Whitey Kurowski and a flyout to left field by Del Rice, Slaughter found himself still on first base with two outs. Left fielder Harry Walker stepped to the plate and, after the count reached two balls and one strike, Cardinals manager Eddie Dyer called for a hit-and-run.

The play

With the hit-and-run on, Slaughter was running on the pitch, and with two outs, he was at full speed when Walker lined the pitch into left-center field. Culberson fielded the ball, then threw a relay to shortstop Johnny Pesky. Slaughter rounded third base, where legend says he ran through third base coach Mike González's stop sign and headed for home, while a stunned Pesky "held the ball", hesitating when he should have fired home immediately, costing the Red Sox the seventh and deciding game of the World Series. The validity of this description, however, has been hotly debated ever since. While some claimed that Pesky, assuming that Slaughter would not be running home, checked Walker at first base, instead of immediately firing home, and others contended that Pesky was so shocked to see Slaughter attempting to score, that he had a mental lapse which accounted for a delay, neither of these claims have born out to be definitively true. The notion that Pesky unnecessarily held the ball has also been called into question; the replay does not conclusively show such hesitation, and other contemporaneous accounts suggest that Pesky promptly executed his relay throw to home plate. In addition, several reports state that the third base coach was in fact frantically waving Slaughter around third, not attempting to stop him. Either way, Slaughter scored just as Red Sox catcher Roy Partee caught Pesky's relay up the line from home plate.

Official scoring

Walker's hit was scored as a double, although some contend that it could have been scored a single, with Walker advancing to second on the throw home.

Aftermath

The run put the Cardinals ahead 4–3 and proved to be the winning run of the decisive seventh game. In Boston, "Pesky held the ball" became a catchphrase, although a possible poor throw from Culberson may have been more to blame. Slaughter himself later admitted that if DiMaggio had still been in the game, he never would have considered trying to score on the play. In St. Louis, a statue depicting Slaughter sliding across home plate at the end of the play stands outside the current ballpark. This play was named #10 on the

Sporting News ''The Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a ...

list of Baseball's 25 Greatest Moments in 1999.

References

External links

YouTube: Enos Slaughter's Mad Dash.MOV
{{Major League Baseball on Mutual 1946 Major League Baseball season Boston Red Sox postseason St. Louis Cardinals postseason World Series games October 1946 sports events in the United States 1946 in sports in Missouri Historic baseball plays Nicknamed sporting events Baseball competitions in St. Louis