Sal Yvars is among a handful of players who got exactly one at-bat in a World Series (which puts him ahead of Hall of Famers like Rod Carew and Ryne Sandberg). A backup C for eight years with the New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals, Yvars got his chance in the 1951 Fall Classic against the Yankees.

• In his fifth year with the Giants, Yvars hit .317 in 25 games as backup to Wes Westrum.
• "I never got along with Leo [Durocher, Giants manager] because Leo had the most vulgar mouth and he treated guys like dirt and I didn't like him," Yvars recalled. "One time I threw shin guards at him, and he embarrassed the hell out of me in spring training." To make matters worse, Sal got into an argument with Durocher a month or so before the World Series."
• In the third game against the Yankees, Leo failed to use the right-handed hitting Yvars as a pinch-hitter against lefty Ed Lopat. When questioned by a reporter after the game, Leo said, "That kid is one kid who is not going to get into the World Series."
• When he learned of what his manager said, Sal confronted Durocher, who told him to get out of his office and go catch batting practice. "I was nasty as hell and broke all my bats because I knew I wasn't giong to get in."

But baseball, like life, doesn't always go as we expect. Fast forward to Game Six at Yankee Stadium with the Yanks leading three games to two. True to his promise, Durocher had not used Yvars in the Series.

• Yvars: "I was in the bullpen warming up Sal Maglie in the ninth inning when we were down, 4-1. We rallied to score two runs ... with the tying run on second and two outs. Leo then starts signaling for a pinch-hitter, and we had five guys down there who didn't know who he was calling for because the phones weren't working in the bullpen. ... So then a batboy runs out to the bullpen telling us Leo wants Yvars to hit."
• "I trot in from the bullpen. I go by third base where Leo was coaching, and he didn't say a word, except to report to the umpire that I was batting for Hank Thompson." Leo didn't want the left-handed Thompson to face southpaw reliever Bob Kuzava.
• "The batboy comes up to me and says, 'Mr. Yvars, you don't have a bat.' Believe me, I broke them all, so I tell him to pick one out for me."
• "I played against Kuzava two years in Triple A, so I was familiar with him. Anyway, I am at home plate getting a bat and didn't use the weight bat to loosen up and didn't even have batting practice before that game. ... And I'll never forget the umpire [Lee Ballanfant]. He says, 'Sal, good luck. Let's see you swing that bat.' I never heard that from any umpire."
• "So now I made up in my mind with the tying run on second, Kuzava ... was going to throw that fastball fading away. I used to be a pull hitter in the minors until I broke all my fingers, and I started to get smart by just trying to meet the ball."
• "I guessed right. Kuzava threw the fastball that tailed away from the outside corner, and I was trying to hit it right through the middle but instead hit a line-drive over the second baseman [Jerry Coleman] where RF Hank Bauer, who was playing close in, made a diving catch, rolled over and came up with the ball. That ended the World Series."
• "In the clubhouse, Leo came walking by and said, 'Tough luck, kid.' And I said a few words, thinking I was through with this club."
• But Yvars wasn't finished with the Giants. In 1952, he appeared in 66 games, his most ever. He was traded to the Cardinals during the 1953 season.

Memorial Day, 1938. The biggest crowd ever to see a baseball game to that point – 83,533 – gathered at Yankee Stadium for a doubleheader with the Boston Red Sox. The two-time defending World Series champion Yankees swept the twinbill, 10-0 and 5-4.

The afternoon's highlight (or lowlight) was a fracas during the first game that included fisticuffs.

• Irritated by a bad pitch which hit him on the leg, Yankee LF Jake Powell, walked out to challenge the Red Sox pitcher. Before any blows were struck, Player-Manager Joe Cronin tried to intervene.
• Cronin, years later: "Archie McKain, a little lefty, was pitching for us. ... Powell came out toward McKain and made some threatening gestures. I thought he was overreacting, so I came in from SS."
• The confrontation developed into one of the bitterest melees ever staged in Yankee Stadium. Cronin and Powell exchanged blows before a bigger crowd than would see Barney Ross and Henry Armstrong fight the next night, and Max Schmeling and Joe Louis battle on June 22.
• Cronin: "There were some words, and we started punching and rolling around, and Cal Hubbard, the umpire, threw us both out."

But the tussle didn't stop there.

• Cronin: "In those days, the visiting team had to go through the Yankee dugout to get to its locker room. As I went down the runway, Powell began popping off some more. It was dark, a lot of beer barrels around, but we squared off again. The trouble was, this was enemy territory. I was surrounded by Yankees. They started to gang up on me, but then Hubbard showed up. He was a big guy, a former All-American football player and a pro, and he must have thought the odds were against the Irish kid. He tossed me one way and Powell the other, and that was the end of the fight."
• Neither Cronin nor Powell played in the nightcap.

Two months later, Powell was suspended by the commissioner for a remark he made during a radio interview.

• On July 29, 1938, Powell, who was born in Silver Spring MD, did an interview with WGN Radio announcer Bob Elson before a game with the White Sox at Comiskey Park.
• Elson asked what Powell did during the off-season. Powell replied that he was a policeman in Dayton OH.
• When Elson inquired as to how he stayed in shape, Jake replied that he cracked blacks over the head with his nightstick. Only he didn't say "blacks" but used a common racial slur instead.
• Hundreds of angry listeners called WGN to complain. Others complained to the Chicago office of baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Before the next day's game, a delegation of black leaders presented a petition to the umpires demanding that Powell be banned from baseball for life.
• Forced to act in the face of such public outrage, the commissioner suspended Powell for ten days. The Sporting News reported that this was the first time a ML player had been suspended for a racist remark.

Those were the facts as the public knew them. But the story had other twists.

• The Washington Nationals had traded Powell to the Yankees in 1936 for blatant racist Ben Chapman from Nashville TN. Chapman later became the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. In that role, he did his best to make Jackie Robinson's life miserable in his rookie season of 1947.
• The Nationals shipped Powell to the Yankees because he was unpopular with his teammates despite his .312 average and 98 RBI in 1935. He had deliberately collided with Detroit's Jewish 1B Hank Greenberg, breaking Hank's wrist and ending his 1936 season after 12 games. Furthermore, Powell's gambling had driven him deeply into debt, and his creditors threatened to sue the Nationals to settle the score.
• Powell lived in Dayton during the off-season but never worked for the city's police department. Friends told the The Dayton Daily News that his remark about blacks was his idea of a joke.

Black writers kept up the pressure on the baseball establishment following Powell's suspension.

• They urged their readers to boycott Yankee games and the sponsors of the radio broadcasts.
• This action forced the Yankees to apologize and ask what they could do to improve relations with the black community.
• Black leaders also demanded that the Yankees trade or release Powell. When Powell took the field in a game at Washington's Griffifth Stadium, spectators threw bottles at him.

The incident in Chicago derailed Powell's promising baseball career.

• Powell stayed with the Yanks two more seasons but played sparingly. He was released in 1941.
• He returned to the Nationals in 1943 during the player shortage caused by World War II. Washington traded him in 1945 to Chapman's Phillies. He played no more ML games after that season.
• In 1948, Powell was arrested in Washington for passing bad checks. While being questioned in a police station, he shot himself to death. He was only 40 years old.

Jake Powell

Joe Cronin

Cal Hubbard

Jackie Robinson and Ben Chapman in a picture that Commissioner Happy Chandler mandated in 1947.