Harry Arthur "Cookie" Lavagetto (December 1, 1912 — August 10, 1990) was a
third baseman,
manager and
coach in
American Major League Baseball. He is most widely known as the
pinch hitter whose
double ruined
Bill Bevens'
no-hitter in Game 4 of the
1947 World Series and gave his
Brooklyn Dodgers a breathtaking victory over the
New York Yankees, a game known as
The Cookie Game.
The Cookie Game
On October 3, 1947 at
Ebbets Field, Bevens was ahead 2-1 going into the bottom of the ninth inning with two
outs. He had surrendered no hits — an unprecedented
World Series achievement at the time — but two runners were on base from Bevens' ninth and tenth
base on balls of the game. Lavagetto was summoned by Dodger pilot
Burt Shotton to hit for
Eddie Stanky and he cracked an opposite-field double to break up the no-hitter and score the two Dodger runners for a 3-2 Brooklyn win. It was Lavagetto's only hit of the series (won by the Yankees in seven games) and his last as a big leaguer.
Major league career
Lavagetto was born in
Oakland, California. Nicknamed "Cookie" after an owner of the
Oakland Oaks, his first professional team, Lavagetto played ten seasons in the
National League with the
Pittsburgh Pirates (1934–36) and Dodgers (1937–41, 1946–47). He missed four full seasons due to military service during
World War II. A right-handed batter and thrower, Lavagetto
batted .269 in 1,043 games; his best season was , when he hit .300 with 87
runs batted in...
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