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As historic achievements and moments go, few seasons can top 1947 in Major League Baseball.

Foremost, Dodger first baseman Jackie Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier in spectacular fashion, batting .297, stealing an MLB-best 29 bases, scoring 125 runs, winning the Majors’ first Rookie of the Year award and leading Brooklyn to its first pennant in six years.

Robinson had plenty of competition for glory. In the NL alone, Pittsburgh’s Ralph Kiner and New York’s Johnny Mize slugged 51 HR and the Giants shattered the all-time record with 211 long balls (Willard Marshall had 36, Walker Cooper 35 and Bobby Thomson 29). Philadelphia’s Harry Walker led with a .363 batting average. Ewell Blackwell went 22-8, 2.47 for fifth-place Cincinnati. Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain each won 21 for fourth-place Boston, as did Ralph Branca for Brooklyn.

Ted Williams won the AL Triple Crown (.343-32-114), adding 162 walks, 125 runs, 40 doubles and also winning with a .499 OBP and .634 SLG for a sensational 1133 OPS. That wasn’t good enough to lift his Red Sox above third place or to give Williams the MVP, which went to the Yankees’ Joe DiMaggio (.315-20-97), who led New York to an MLB-best 97 wins and the World Series title.

That World Series had its own historic moments: Cookie Lavagetto’s Series-evening walk-off, two-run, pinch-hit double that ended Bill Bevan’s no-hit bid with two out in the ninth inning of Game Four; Dodger left fielder Al Gionfriddo robbing DiMaggio of a home run to preserve a Game Six win that forced the seventh game; Yankee rookie Yogi Berra hitting the first pinch-hit homer in Series history; Joe Page’s one-hit, no-walk, shutout five innings of relief to win Game Seven.

In the 18 seasons beginning in 1947, the Yankees would play in 15 World Series, winning 10. This was their first of six Series wins in a seven-year spans. The Yankees and Dodgers would meet six times in the decade that spanned Robinson’s MLB career, 1947-56.

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