Don Newcombe, the pitching ace of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early 1950s, has died. If you're not familiar with him, check out his obituary. The man was a pioneer in several areas, and he should be remembered far more than he is. He may have also been the last survivor of The Boys of Summer. Man, baseball must have great in the NYC area in the 1950s, when the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants were all really good. Subways Series in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956. https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/ny-sports-don-newcombe-dodgers-obit-20190219-story.html
Apparently there is still one Boy of Summer left, Carl Erskine ("Oisk"), he of the two career no-hitters and then-record 14 strikeouts in a World Series game. And the Golden Age of New York baseball was even longer than you're saying - from 1947 through 1958, 18 of the 24 teams that played in the World Series were New York teams.
Thanks, I had forgotten about Erskine. I know all the starting position players have been dead for a while. From 1947 to 1960, there were only two years (1948 and 1959) when at least one N.Y. team was not in the World Series (and 1959 deserves an asterisk because the recently relocated L.A. Dodgers were in the Series). Plus, you had those three great N.Y. centerfielders: Mantle, Mays and Snider.
No need to stop at 1960 - the Yankees were in the Series in 1961 through 1964 too. For 18 years October baseball was a given in New York.
The two transplanted teams didn't do badly, either. The Giants were in the Series in '62 and the Dodgers were in it in '63 and '65.
Little known factoid: the last former Brooklyn Dodger to play in a major league game and the last former New York Giant to play in a major league game each did so for the New York Mets - Bob Aspromonte (Dodgers) in 1971 and Willie Mays (Giants) in 1973. Some very appropriate symmetry there. Even lesser known and less meaningful factoid: the last former players to play in a major league game for the St. Louis Browns (Don Larsen), the first Washington Senators (Jim Kaat), the Milwaukee Braves (Phil Neikro), the Kansas City Athletics (Reggie Jackson), the Seattle Pilots (Fred Stanley), and the second Washington Senators (Toby Harrah) all played at some point in their careers for the New York Yankees, although none retired as a Yankee.
