Sunday, October 4, 2020

OT : Tales from the New York Daily News Sunday Comics (#9) : "This is Next Year!!" - The Brooklyn Dodgers win the 1955 World Series!



65 Years ago today, on Tuesday, October 4, 1955, "Next Year" finally came. The Brooklyn Dodgers won their first (and what would be their "only") World Series, beating the hated New York Yankees in seven games by a score of 2-0, behind the brilliant pitching of Johnny Podres and a great catch in the outfield by Sandy Amoros.

Although they would lose the very next year once again to the same hated New York Yankees (and suffer the indignation of being perfect-gamed by Don Larsen), and ultimately leave Brooklyn for the bright lights of Los Angeles following the 1957 season, right now fans wouldn't know or care. It didn't matter. After 7 previous attempts, the Brooklyn Dodgers were the champion of baseball and a city-wide celebration was set-off, the likes of which would not be surpassed until the Miracle Mets of 1969.

I do not know whether the New York Daily News ran a special edition that very day, but the next day, October 5, 1955, two News front pages would run on the newsstands. The most famous one, and practically the most famous front page in Daily News history, was the iconic Leo O'Mealia "Who's a Bum?" Late Edition front page.   

 

  


But there was another edition that day, the Late Edition, "This is Next Year!" front page. I don't know which edition was first or whether there were other editions that day (there probably were), but I present both versions here, including the fact that the Leo O'Mealia version was actually the sports cartoon that ran on page 84, running under the title, "Wow!", and implying it was originally drawn for the sports page and was then hijacked by the editor for use on one edition of the front page.

Below are scans of how the News covered this day. Sports writers include Joe Trimble, Dick Young, Dana Mozley and Jim McCulley.

 
















ADDENDUM: April 17, 2024

Leaving only a 19 year old Sandy Koufax remaining from the 1955 season, Carl Erskine died on April 16, 2024 at the age of 97. The New York Daily News, to their credit, ran a full color back page of Carl for their April 17 edition. I'll put the back page and the interior coverage article by noted sportswriter Bill Madden, below....









No comments:

Post a Comment