The heartache, the “Wait ’til next years” were all over.

Just 23 years old, Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Johnny Podres shut the mighty New York Yankees down in Game 7 of the 1955 World Series, giving the Dodgers organization its first World Series title.

 

“Johnny Podres to this day, possibly with the exception of Sandy Koufax, to me was one of the best clutch pitchers I’ve ever seen,” Dodger Hall of Famer Duke Snider said.

 

There was so much magic in the ’55 Dodgers. There were the 10 straight wins to open the season. There was the swing of emotion from falling down two games to the Yankees in the series to tying things up at three apiece.

 

There was the Jackie Robinson steal of home in Game 1, bookended by the Sandy Amoros catch in Game 7 in the left field corner that saved the day.

 

And there were the names that live on in baseball lore — Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Don Newcombe, Snider, Podres and manager Walter Alston.

After losses in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953 to the Yankees, the Dodgers finally crowned Brooklyn as the capital of baseball.

 

“What a memory. All I have left are memories at this stage of my life,” said Newcombe. “To have that ’55 championship and be the first the Dodgers ever had and me and Jackie and Roy were part of it.”