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three-run lead could vanish in an instant.
     He decided to sweeten it if he could. After Gil Hodges flied out to left field, Robinson came up to bat. He hit a solid blast
     down the left-field line. He stretched the hit into a double, touching the base as he ran past it and then turning to jog
     back to the bag.
    Outfielder Elston Howard nabbed the ball from the ground and then glanced at Robinson. He thought Robinson was too far off
     the bag. One quick throw, and he could get Robinson out.
    However, Robinson was one step ahead of him —literally. When Howard hurled the ball to second, Robinson whirled back around
     and charged to third, beating the relay throw! Robinson was safe, and when Sandy Amoros hit a single to right, he made it
     home to put the Dodgers up 7–3. It was a trick he'dused many times early in his career, but one that no one had expected to see him pull the World Series!
    Brooklyn added another run that inning and went on to win, 8–3. Totally juiced by their victory, they took the next two games
     to go ahead in the Series.
    Then New York tied it all up in game six, forcing the championship to a final meeting. The Dodgers and the Yankees had been
     in this same situation in 1947 and in 1952. Both times the Yankees had won the seventh game.
    Game seven was bittersweet for Robinson. Having aggravated an old injury to his heel, he was forced to watch the action unfold
     from the sidelines. Still, he had a front-row seat to the deciding match — and what a match it was.
    On the mound for the Dodgers was rookie pitcher Johnny Podres. Inning after inning, Podres defused every Yankee threat, denying
     them a place on the scoreboard. Brooklyn, on the other hand, chalked up two runs. When Elston Howard grounded out in the ninth
     inning, Podres' shutout was complete —and the Dodgers had finally beaten the Yankees to become World Champions!
    Unfortunately for Brooklyn fans, it was the last time the Dodgers would come out on top in the Subway Series. New York beat
     them in seven games the following year, and in 1958 the Brooklyn franchise was moved to Los Angeles, ending the cross-city
     rivalry forever.
    It wasn't the end of the Yankees' reign, however. Far from it.

CHAPTER SIX
1960s
1960: The Pirates Steal the Series
    The Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees had last met for the World Series in 1927. Then, the Pirates collapsed beneath
     the might of the Yankees, losing in four straight games. Their defeat had been handed to them in part by a pair of New York
     sluggers, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
    Now, thirty-three years later, history seemed about to repeat itself. New York had powered its way to its eleventh American
     League pennant thanks to its two home-run kings, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Together, Maris and “the Mick” accounted for
     79 of the Yankees' 193 home runs in 1960. Going into the Series, New York looked unstoppable — none of the teams they had
     faced in their last fifteen regular-season games had been able to stop them, anyway.
    But the Pirates were no slouches either. Theirrecord of 95–59 was nearly even with New York's 97–57.
    Still, most baseball followers didn't think Pittsburgh stood a chance against New York. The Yankees had been world champions
     eighteen times. The Pirates hadn't even won a pennant in more than three decades.
    At first, they seemed correct, for the leadoff batter, Yankee Tony Kubek, knocked out a single. But then Hector Lopez hit
     into a double play and the threat was defused, at least for the moment.
    Then Roger Maris came to the plate. He did just what Yankee fans hoped he would do — he clobbered a home run. Then cleanup
     hitter Mickey Mantle made the third out.
    Art Ditmar was on the mound for New York. He faced six batters and gave up a walk, a double, and three singles, to hand the
     Pirates three runs and only one out!
    Five hits, three runs? Manager Casey Stengel yanked Ditmar before any more damage was done. Ditmar's replacement,