July 4, 1961 - Responding to the roars of the season's largest baseball gathering, a crowd of 74,246, the Yankees stormed into the American League lead at the Stadium today. But they remained there only a few hours. Behind Whitey Ford's brilliant pitching, Ralph Houk's Bombers downed the Tigers in the first game of their doubleheader, 6-2. It was the southpaw’s 15th victory and his 9th in a row. The triumph sent the Yanks into the lead by 4 percentage points. But four hours later, the Tigers swept back into first place by bagging a 10-inning thriller, 4-3. Frank Lary, the Yanks' tormentor for years, did a job on the Bombers. The righty was the winning pitcher, and it was his bunt that pushed across the winning tally. Thus, at the close of the long day and before the Stadium's largest turnout since 1947, the Yanks were again one game behind Detroit's astonishing front-runners.
