By John B Holway

            Due to an accident of birth, over which I had no control - I'm an old Geezer - this will be my fourth Boston-St Louis Series.

                                                              1946

            Game 1. St Louis. I was 16. The greatest game I ever saw (until Ortiz grandslam against Detroit). Owner Tom Yawkey and I were the only Boston fans in a crowd of 34,000 Midwesterners. Ted was playing with a painful right elbow. He even tried to bunt. Foul. The Sox were losing 2-1 with two out in the ninth. A war-time holdover, Tom McBride, hitless so far, stroked a bleeder through the infield to tie it. The next inning, Rudy York hit a long home run to win it.

            I also saw games 2 and 6, when lefty Harry Brecheen beat us.

            They gave the Cards a day off - on Sunday! - because they had not sold tickets yet for the final game! That also gave Brecheen a fatal day of rest.

            Game 7. Ted s elbow felt better, and he predicted he would blast one. As I listened  by radio, he actually blasted two 400-foot bombs to centerfield, buttywr caught.

In the seventh we were losing by two runs but rallied for two hits and  Brecheen was rushed in. Dom DiMaggio whacked a double to tie it - it just missed being a home run. Instead of trotting home, Dom raced for second  and limped in with a charlie horse. Baseball s best center fielder was out of the game.

            Sox skipper Joe Cronin lost the game with his next move. He waved his right arm to the bullpen. Not to call in Tex Hughson, his best pitcher with 20 wins and several days rest. Instead a 38 year-old journeyman right-hander, Bob Klinger, trotted in to pitch to lefty Enos Slaughter, the RBI champ. Enos singled. After two outs lefty Harry Walker was up. Dom hobbled to the top of the dugout stops and hollered to Leon Culbertson to shade toward left. Leon didn't move. Walker doubled to left, and Slaughter scored.

            No. Pesky didn't hold the ball. Look at the film. For 35 years Johnny and I had a standing offer: If you see watch the film and still honestly say you saw him hold the ball, we'll buy you a steak dinner for two. We have never had to buy a dinner.

            But that was not the final play of the game. The Sox still had three outs left. Bobby Doerr, the tying run, slapped a single. York, the winning run, lined another. So far Brecheen had blown a save and given up three huge hits in four batters faced. But the bottom of the order was up, and our only pinch-hitter had batted .206. Brecheen put them down 1-2-3.

Enos and Harry were the heroes. But years later Slaughter said,  I never would have tried it with Dom out there. And Brecheen told me the obvious: The day off had been a big factor in changing his blown save to a victory.