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Giants World Series hero Dusty Rhodes dies at 82

I remember Dusty well. He was a most undistinguished fifth outfielder and a marginal major leaguer, but was a perfect illustration of the old adage that "every dog has his day." Dusty's "day" was a year - 1954. He batted .341 with a slugging average around .700 - more than 200 points higher than his second-best season. He knocked 15 homers and 50 RBI in only 164 at bats. Do the math, multiply it times about three and a half to get a full season, and you come up with about 50 dingers, 175 RBI - like the best year for Jimmy Foxx. To bring the season to a climax, as fate would have it, his Giants got into the World Series.

Dusty and his teammates faced the highly favored 1954 Indians, who finished 111-43. That's the best winning percentage in American League history. The Yankees won 103 games that year, which was actually their best total between 1949 and 1958, but it was the only year during that span when they lost the pennant. Think about that. Think about how good the Yankees were in the 50s and that this was their best year - but the Indians were 8 games better. The Indians were just overwhelmingly good. They had one of the best pitching staffs ever assembled: Hall of Famers Early Wynn and Bob Lemon won 23 games each and finished 3rd and 4th in the league in ERA. The Tribe's third and fourth starters, Mike Garcia and Art Houtteman, went 34-15. Oh, and by the way, Garcia led the league in ERA. Their fifth starter was a guy you may have heard of, an A-list Hall of Famer named Bob Feller, who chipped in a pretty solid 13-3 of his own. Their bullpen by committee featured not one but three great relievers: Don Mossi, Ray Narleski, and Prince Hal Newhouser, who had once been a great starter himself. On paper, the Indians of 1954 were a match for any team in history.

There were, however, no match for James Lemar "Dusty" Rhodes, who pretty much beat them single-handed. In game one, Dusty won it with a pinch-hit "walk off" homer in the bottom of the tenth off HOF pitcher Bob Lemon. In game two, Dusty tied it with a pinch hit single, then stayed in the game and homered, with both hits coming off HOFer Early Wynn. In game three, Dusty came into a 1-0 game and knocked a two-run single, this time off AL ERA leader Mike Garcia. Since Dusty was basically a pinch hitter, he was never needed in game four, when the rest of the Giants finally got their act together and completed the sweep. For his astounding achievement of knocking in seven critical runs in three games without starting a single one of them, the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America gave the Dust-man their Babe Ruth Award, which is presented to the World Series MVP.