Oct. 7, 1962 - Shrugging off the effects of a line drive that left him limping on a badly bruised leg, Bill Stafford (left) today hurled the New York Yankees to a 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants in the third game of the 1962 World Series. The victory before a crowd of 71,434 at Yankee Stadium gave Ralph Houk’s Bombers a 2-1 lead in the Series. The fourth game will start at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Stafford, the Yanks’ crack young right-hander, and Billy Pierce, the 35-year-old left-handed ace of the Giants, were locked in a scoreless mound duel when the Bombers suddenly exploded in the seventh inning with three sharp line-drive singles. The third one, by Roger Maris (right), drove in two runs, then Maris scored a moment later. The first single, by sensational rookie Tom Tresh, had gone to center, where Willie Mays fielded it flawlessly. The second shot by Mickey Mantle, however, went to left, and the next, by Maris, to right. Both were fumbled. In the last two innings, Al Dark’s San Franciscans roared back. They didn’t score in the eighth, but they did almost finish Stafford with a smash that caromed off his left shinbone. And in the ninth, with two out, Ed Bailey belted a two-run homer into the right-field stand. Stafford, however, stuck to his guns and nailed down his first World Series triumph with a sparkling four-hitter.
