They were World Series underdogs to the New York Yankees of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford, whose corporate management stood on its astonishing record—thirteen pennants and nine championships since 1949—to resist Negro players beyond their pioneer Elston Howard, as an unnecessary risk to the patronage of white ballpark customers.* Neither adverse odds nor racial subtext mattered to St. Louis fans, who welcomed the surprise gift of fall pageantry on Wednesday, October 7, cheering Dixieland bands that marched in the Busch Stadium outfield. The crowd howled with delight when a goofy reserve player named Bob Uecker impulsively caught pregame fly balls in the throat of a borrowed tuba, then roared when the blithe and limber Cardinals unexpectedly thumped the Yankees in the first game, 9-5.That evening in Washington, Walter Jenkins stood in for President Johnson at an office-warming cocktail party given by the editors of Newsweek. He departed alone on foot to the nearby YMCA, where at 8:35 P.M.
