Word: smokey
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...Dodgers to Chicago. They were riding high. For the second time this season they had gone ten games without a defeat. They were nine games in front of the National League; they had won 21, lost only two, and their average stood at .913. By way of reception, "Smokey" Alston got an ossified pickle, a trophy presented by the president of the National Pickle Packers Association, "for getting out of the biggest pickle of the year...
Legal Headache. When the Dodgers took the field, Pitcher Don Newcombe, just a little bigger than life (6 ft. 4 in., 225 Ibs.), shambled to the mound. The week before, Don had decided that he was just too good to pitch batting practice. Smokey, who had handled Newcombe before, in Nashua, N.H., in Class "B" ball, had quietly told him to clean out his locker and go away. Now, threatened with a fine and properly penitent, Big Don whizzed through a one-hit game. He blew down the absolute minimum of 27 batters as the Dodgers...
...Dodgers proved that they could still get into a pickle occasionally. Smokey's heavy-hitting outfielder, Carl Furillo, had just explained how his golfing technique helped his baseball: "I've done two things: I've changed my grip, and now I hold my neck rigid so I keep my eye on the ball." In Chicago Carl had to take a day off: stiff neck. Then the Dodgers lost to the Cubs 10-8. That robbed the Giants of their only current distinction: until that game, only the Giants had beaten the Dodgers this season...
Even in stolid Milwaukee Smokey Alston found himself managing a teamful of unexpected trouble. Jackie Robinson, his uninhibited veteran third baseman who had barely stopped popping off about how seldom he was playing, came forth with a new idea: he thought he ought to sit out a few games. Milwaukee, however, was no place for Robinson to rest. His visit had already been disturbed by a process server. Last season, in a fit of pique, he had slung a bat into the Milwaukee stands. A couple of local customers, who said they had been hit, were suing...
Doubtful Decisions. The Dodgers' performance was all the more remarkable because, to hear the sports writers tell it in the preseason windjamming, the Brooklyn "Bums" were headed for nothing but trouble. All through spring training, the press sniped at Manager "Smokey" Alston with ill-mannered regularity. When Jackie Robinson had a beef about how seldom he was playing, he got columns of space in which to howl. When Catcher Roy Campanella had a complaint about his spot in the batting order (No. 8), his words were rushed into type. Dodger President Walter O'Malley wondered out loud...