Willard Mullin - 1949 Sports Cartoon - Yankees World Series + Dead Brooklyn Bum + Walt Whitman

Such a title, right? But it does fit this wonderful cartoon, which appeared in the New York World-Telegram shortly after October 9, 1949. That was the day of the final World Series game, in which the Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 4 to 1 in the series. Mullin took a page out of Walt Whitman's 1865 poem, "O Captain! My Captain", which was about the death of Abraham Lincoln. In this case, a Dodgers' fan sings a story of woe, of DiMaggio, Henrich and Rizzuto, while the dearly departed Bum lay dead in his arms. Little did Dodgers' fans know that this would be the first of five World Series titles in a row for the Yankees.

The drawing and design of the piece is wonderful, especially with how Mullin incorporated the text. Some knucklehead way-back-when decided to trim the left side of the artwork so that it could fit into a frame. I'm not sure how much got trimmed off. Likely not much, but still, I'd like to dig said knucklehead up and make him walk the plank off of that ship :-)