New York's Vic Raschi and Brooklyn's Billy Loes were the starting pitchers in Game 6, and for 5 1/2 innings neither team could score. But Duke Snider ripped a Raschi pitch over the right field screen to lead off the Dodgers' sixth, and the ever-raucous Brooklyn faithful whooped it up.

Not for long, though. Hopes that Loes could protect the 1-0 lead vanished immediately in the top of the seventh, when Yogi Berra led off with a drive over the same barrier. And before the Yankees were done batting, it was 2-1 New York, with Raschi knocking in the second run by singling off Loes' knee. Then, in the eighth, Yankees phenom Mickey Mantle hit his first World Series homer.

Raschi, working on a 3-1 lead, retired the first Dodger in the bottom of the inning, but the irrepressible Snider followed with another home run. After George Shuba doubled with two out, Allie Reynolds relieved Raschi. Reynolds, the Yankees' big winner in 1952 with 20 victories, struck out Roy Campanella to end the inning and, outside of allowing a walk to Carl Furillo, handled the Dodgers in the ninth.

With the Series-tying 3-2 triumph under their belts, the Yankees started Eddie Lopat against Joe Black in Game 7. Lopat, bothered by shoulder problems, had won only 10 games for the Yankees in '52 after going 21-9 in '51. Black, a rookie, was coming off a 15-4 season in which he made 56 appearances, the first 54 coming in relief. After getting two starting assignments in the final eight days of the season, Black drew starts in Games 1 and 4 (he was 1-1).

With Mantle belting a bases-empty home run and a run-scoring single and Gene Woodling also homering with no one on, the Yankees had a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh. By now, Lopat and Black had been dismissed. In fact, Lopat's successor, Reynolds, had left the game for a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh and now Raschi was on to start Brooklyn's half of the inning.

Raschi promptly gave up a walk to Furillo before getting pinch-hitter Rocky Nelson on a popup. Billy Cox then singled and Pee Wee Reese walked, loading the bases. Bob Kuzava was summoned from the bullpen, and the lefthander got Snider to pop out to third baseman Gil McDougald. Now, it was Kuzava against Jackie Robinson.

The Series quite possibly was on the line.

The count went to 3-2 on Robinson, who lifted a popup near the mound. A sure rally-killer under most circumstances. But this ball appeared to be going unattended. Kuzava stood transfixed. First baseman Joe Collins, the man in position to make the play, lost sight of the ball. All the while, Dodgers baserunners were in full flight with two having crossed the plate and another rounding third. Billy Martin, New York's second baseman, quickly sized up the situation and bolted in. And Martin, 24, made a miraculous grab of the ball about knee-high.

Kuzava was in control the rest of the way, and the Yankees put a 4-2 victory in the bank. Along with their World Series checks. Winners' shares, of course.

Accepting the losers' shares was particularly difficult for manager Charlie Dressen's Dodgers, who won Games 1, 3 and 5. In the Series opener, Black threw a six-hitter and Robinson, Snider and Reese slugged homers in a 4-2 victory. Preacher Roe was a 5-3 winner in the third game, and Carl Erskine prevailed 6-5 in 11 innings in Game 5. Erskine allowed four hits and all five runs in the fifth inning but permitted only one other hit -- a bunt single by Mantle in the fourth -- and retired the final 19 New York batters. Snider, who wound up with four home runs and eight RBIs in the Series, hit a two-run homer in the fifth in support of Erskine, who yielded a three-run blast to Johnny Mize in the Yankees' half of the inning.

Besides his final-game clutch play, Martin contributed mightily for New York in Game 2 with a three-run homer and an RBI single in Raschi's 7-1 victory. In Game 4, Reynolds tossed a four-hitte,r and Mize socked a home run in the Yanks' 2-0 triumph.

The Yankees' 1952 Series title enabled Stengel to match Joe McCarthy's mark of managing a club to four consecutive World Series crowns. McCarthy had accomplished the feat with the Yanks from 1936 through 1939, Joe DiMaggio's first four years. Now, in the first season after DiMaggio's retirement, Stengel had entered the record books alongside McCarthy.

While Ol' Case must have had some doubts about where he and the Yankees stood after the first five games of the 1952 World Series, there was no doubting their vantage point after seven games. The Yanks had the Dodgers exactly where they wanted 'em -- on the outside looking in.