1920-1929

[Baseball Guru]

1920

The bare-bones final score of 8-1 gave no hint of anything dramatic. No clue that a noteworthy event or two might have unfolded.

But, in fact, Game 5 of the 1920 World Series was one of the most remarkable in the history of baseball's premier event.

When Brooklyn and Cleveland squared off on Sunday, October 10, the Series -- another best-of-nine test -- was tied at two victories apiece. Indians righthander Stan Coveleski had throttled the National Leaguers on five hits in both Games 1 and 4, winning 3-1 and 5-1 decisions (in the latter contest, Leon Cadore, who had pitched the distance for Brooklyn in a 26-inning, 1-1 tie with Boston five months earlier, lasted one inning in his lone Series start). Brooklyn sandwiched 3-0 and 2-1 Series triumphs between the Cleveland victories, with Burleigh Grimes tossing a seven-hit shutout and Sherry Smith stifling the Indians on three hits.

It didn't take long for the theatrics to begin in Game 5, which featured a rematch of second-game starters Grimes and Jim Bagby of Cleveland. In the bottom of the first inning, the Indians' Charlie Jamieson and Bill Wambsganss touched Grimes for singles and Tris Speaker, Cleveland's playing manager, bunted for a hit. That brought Elmer Smith to the plate and the 28-year-old outfielder proceeded to write his name into the record books and send the Cleveland crowd into a frenzy by smashing the first grand slam in Series history.

The score remained 4-0 until the fourth when Bagby became the first pitcher to homer in the Series. And Bagby made it a particularly meaningful shot, connecting off Grimes with two runners on base.

Riding the landmark homers by Smith and Bagby to a 7-0 lead, Cleveland seemingly was in a position to coast. But the Indians left the record-keepers little time to regroup.

Pete Kilduff led off the Brooklyn fifth with a single and moved to second on Otto Miller's hit. At this point, Bagby had yielded eight hits in four-plus innings but hadn't been scored upon. Relief pitcher Clarence Mitchell, who had entered the game in the fourth, was Brooklyn's next batter. Mitchell, sometimes used as a pinch-hitter and as an outfielder or first baseman, lined to second baseman Wambsganss for one out. Wambsganss then stepped on second base, doubling off Kilduff, and wheeled around to tag Miller (who had broken for second) to complete a triple play. Never before had a triple play been pulled off in Series competition, and Cleveland's "Wamby" had accomplished it unassisted.

Manager Wilbert Robinson's Brooklyn club clearly was up against it this day. Mitchell, for one, could vouch for that. In his second and last trip to the plate in Game 5, he grounded into a double play. In two at-bats, Mitchell had accounted for five outs.

With one out in the ninth, Robinson's team had collected 12 hits -- and still hadn't scored. Hit No. 13, a single by Ed Konetchy, finally cashed in a run. Bagby retired the side without further damage, though, and Cleveland emerged an 8-1 winner. The triumph proved the only victory of the Series for Bagby, who had won 31 games during the season.

Suitably inspired, Cleveland then dusted off the National Leaguers in Games 6 and 7, with late-season acquisition Waiter (Duster) Mails and Coveleski throwing shutouts. Mails, a Dodger briefly in 1915 and 1916 and a minor-leaguer for most of the 1920 season, blanked Brooklyn on three hits in a 1-0 decision and Coveleski, pitching his third five-hitter of the Series, won the decisive game, 3-0. Cleveland pitchers had held Brooklyn to two runs in the final 43 innings.

For the second consecutive season, a first-time World Series entrant had made off with the title. Again, the champion hailed from Ohio as the Cleveland Indians supplanted the Cincinnati Reds as baseball's kingpins.

And Cleveland had to overcome incredible adversity -- the death of a teammate. In the heat of the pennant race, 29-year-old shortstop Ray Chapman was struck by a pitched ball in an August 16 game at New York and died the next day. Chapman was hitting .303 and, as usual, supplying excellent defense and leadership.

Cleveland battled on, with newcomers mails and Joe Sewell proving valuable additions. Mails, after posting an 18-17 record at Sacramento, went 7-0 in nine appearances with the Indians. Shortstop Sewell, obtained from New Orleans to replace Chapman, batted .329 in 22 games. Speaker hit .388 in the 1920 season and was ably supported by catcher Steve O'Neill (.321), outfielders Jamieson (.319) and Smith (.316) and third baseman Larry Gardner (.310). Coveleski backed Bagby's big season with 24 victories and Ray Caldwell won 20.

The Indians won the AL pennant by two games over the Chicago White Sox, who suffered in the late going from suspensions meted out to players implicated in the fixing scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series. Those suspensions came at the end of September 1920, when named finally were named and misdeeds exposed in the Black Sox episode of the previous year. The New York Yankees finished three games back.

[Baseball Guru]

1921

In 1921, the newest first-time entrant in the World Series was a franchise that started out as the Baltimore Orioles and played under that banner in the American League's first two seasons, 1901 and 1902.

In 1903, the team moved to New York, became the Highlanders and went head-to-head with the National League's Giants club and Brooklyn franchise for the metropolitan area's baseball dollar. The Highlanders set up shop at Hilltop Park and while they showed they could contend with Brooklyn at the turnstiles, they quickly proved no match for the nearby Giants. The AL club was such a non-factor, competition-wise, that the Giants -- having nothing to fear and a few bucks to gain -- took in the struggling team as a Polo Grounds tenant in 1913, a year in which the mighty men of John McGraw won their third consecutive National League pennant.

For the American Leaguers, 1913 was a season of change and here-we-go-again drudgery. The switch was in their nickname from the Highlanders to the Yankees. The constant came in the form of continued poor play with the 50-102 Highlanders of 1912 becoming the 57-92 Yankees of 1913.

Gradually, the Yankees assembled a decent club. By 1919, they were more than decent -- they were third-place finishers in the AL. By early 1920, they had purchased an outfielder/pitcher who merely changed the fact of the game. The acquisition: George Herman (Babe) Ruth, late of the Boston Red Sox.

Ruth, who had hammered 29 home runs (a major-league record for Boston in 1919, brought the game into a new era in 1920 by pounding 54 homers for the Yankees. At the same time, he brought throngs to the Polo Grounds -- as evidenced by the fact that he and the Yankees, playing their home games in the Giants' park, outdrew McGraw's team by more than 350,000.

As amazing as Ruth was in '20, he was even better in 1921 and led the Yankees to their first AL pennant. The Bambino increased his homer output to a staggering 59, boosted his runs-batted-in total from 137 to 171 and inched his batting average from .376 to .378. Ruth wasn't the whole story, though. Bob Meusel added 24 homers and 135 RBIs, and every Yankee regular batted .288 or higher. Carl Mays, obtained from Boston in mid-1919, was a 27-game winner for Manager Miller Huggins' team, which got 19 victories from Waite Hoyt (yet another acquisition from the Red Sox, coming over in December 1920) and 18 from Bob Shawkey.

The Giants were no slouches themselves. They had plenty of thump with such headliners as Frankie Frisch, Ross (Pep) Youngs, George Kelly and Irish Meusel (Bob's brother), and quality pitching in a staff featuring the foursome of Art Nehf, Fred Toney, Jesse Barnes and Phil Douglas.

In the first World Series to be played its entirety at one stadium, the Yankees and Giants got things going with a Mays-vs.-Douglas matchup. The Yanks made their first Series game a good one, blanking the Giants, 3-0, on Mays' five-hitter. Having gotten the hang of this postseason business in a hurry, Huggins' club went out and won by the same score the next day. This time, it was the two-hit pitching of Hoyt that turned the trick (loser Nehf allowed only three hits).

If the Giants' outlook in this best-of-nine battle appeared less than rosy at this point, it soon bordered on the bleak. With Game 3 scoreless after two innings, the Yankees hit the National Leaguers with four third-inning runs -- two scoring on a Ruth single. But McGraw's charges showed their mettle, rebounding with four runs in the bottom of the inning and then raking Yankees pitchers for eight runs in a seventh-inning outburst that featured Youngs' bases-loaded triple. By game's end, the Giants had 20 hits and a 13-5 victory. And when Douglas beat the Yankees, 4-2, in the following game despite Ruth's first homer in Series play, the 1921 fall classic was tied at two victories apiece.

Ruth, bothered by knee and arm ailments, nevertheless was a key figure in Game 5. Leading off the fourth inning of a 1-1 contest, the Yankees' slugger surprised the Giants by bunting for a hit. He scored what proved to be the winning run when Bob Meusel doubled. Hoyt, after yielding an unearned run in the first inning, held the Giants in check the rest of the way and the AL champions won, 3-1. But while the Yankees had regained the Series lead, three games to two, all was not well with Huggins' crew: The hobbled Ruth couldn't continue.

Considering the overall Strength of the Yankees, the absence of Ruth from the starting lineup probably didn't doom the club's hopes. Or did it? The Giants, getting home runs from Irish Meusel and Frank Snyder, won the sixth game, 8-5, and Douglas was a 2-1 victor over Mays in Game 7.

In Game 8, the Giants scored an unearned run in the first inning and, with Nehf and Hoyt at the top of their games, it remained a 1-0 contest entering the bottom of the ninth. First baseman Wally Pipp, having an awful Series (.154 average), was due to lead off for the Yankees. Huggins went to his bench, though and called on Ruth. The Babe grounded out to Kelly at first.

Aaron Ward drew a walk and Home Run Baker followed with a ground ball on which Giants second baseman Johnny Rawlings made a great stop. Rawlings, who fell while lunging for the ball, was sitting when he threw out Baker. On the play, Ward tried to advance to third, but Kelly's throw to Frisch cut him down and ended the Series. Nehf's first victory of the fall classic, a four-hit, 1-0 conquest, had sewn up the title for the Giants, five games to three.

The Yankees, in their first World Series, had come up losers despite an extraordinary performance by Hoyt, who did not permit an earned run in 27 innings. Mays also was effective with a 1.73 ERA over 26 innings. And Ruth batted .313 with one homer and four RBIs. (Replacement Chick Fewster homered in his first official at-bat after taking over for Ruth beginning in Game 6 but was 1-for-9 the rest of the Series.)

For McGraw and the Giants, it was a return to glory they hadn't known since 1905, when the second fall classic was played. After four October failures, the New York Giants once again were champions.

[Baseball Guru]

1922

The 1922 major-league season was not a majestic one for baseball's reigning box-office king and his court, Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees.

Oh, the Yankees had their moments, all right. Any team that earns its way into the World Series didn't exactly have a downer a year and, sure enough, the Yanks were in the opposing dugout October 4 when Art Nehf of defending champion New York Giants toed the rubber in Game 1 of the 1922 fall classic. The Yankees, though, had a real struggle getting there. They had won the American League pennant by a scant one game over the St. Louis Browns.

If the Yanks as a whole had a difficult time getting things going in 1922, consider Ruth's plight. The Bambino didn't appear in a league game until May 20. He and Bob Meusel had been suspended by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis for making an unauthorized barnstorming tour after the 1921 Series. Later, the Babe was handed short suspensions after run-ins with umpires and other indiscretions. When the pennant chase roared to a finish, Ruth had appeared in only 110 of 154 games. His batting average plummeted 63 points from the previous season, falling to .315, and naturally his home-run and RBIs totals suffered. Ruth's homer figure of 35 not only cost him the majors' seasonal crown, it also dropped him to third in the American League. And his 99 RBIs didn't even rank among the AL's top five.

Miller Huggins' team persevered and won a Series rematch with the Giants, pennant winners by seven games in the NL. The Yankees had fortified themselves with an off-season trade that netted pitchers Joe Bush and Sad Sam Jones and shortstop Everett Scott from the Boston Red Sox and the April purchase of outfielder Whitey Witt from the Philadelphia Athletics. The club further strengthened itself in a July deal with the Red Sox that made third baseman Joe Dugan a Yankee.

The Giants, too, made some moves. Key additions were third baseman Heinie Groh and pitcher Jack Scott. Groh, acquired in a winter trade, had batted .331 in 97 games for Cincinnati in 1921. Scott was signed during the 1922 season after being released by the Reds. Groh hit only .265 for the Giants in the regular season but went 3-for-3 in the first game of the World Series -- which had reverted to a best-of-seven format -- as John McGraw's club rallied for a 3-2 victory. Shut out by Bush through seven innings, the Giants rebounded from a 2-0 deficit in the eighth on Irish Meusel's two-run single and Ross (Pep) Youngs' sacrifice fly.

The Giants broke on top quickly in Game 2 as Meusel rocked Bob Shawkey for a three-run homer in the top of the first. The Yankees battled back to tie the score with runs in the first, fourth and eighth innings. Then, with the game still tied and at least a half-hour of daylight remaining, umpire George Hildebrand inexplicably called the game because of "darkness" after the 10th inning. Fans were furious, and Landis was nonplused. The commissioner, trying to make the best of a bad public-relations situation, announced that receipts of the game would be turned over to charities.

At this juncture, Ruth was 2-for-8 at the plate with one RBI. A troublesome season wasn't getting any better -- and it soon would deteriorate.

Jack Scott, who compiled an 8-2 record for the Giants while appearing in only 17 games, fired a four-hitter in Game 3 and beat the Yankees, 3-0. In Game 4, the National Leaguers' Dave Bancroft rapped a key two-run single and Hugh McQuillan notched a complete-game 4-3 victory. Nehf applied the clincher (as he had done the year before), stopping the Yanks on five hits in a 5-3 victory that featured a three-run Giants uprising in the eighth inning. Ruth was 0-for-9 in the three successive losses.

Groh batted .474 for the Giants in the Series and fiery teammate Frankie Frisch was right behind at .471. As for Ruth, the Sultan of Swat he was not. The Bambino wound up with two hits in 17 at-bats and a .118 average. Aaron Ward, who hit only seven homers during the season, was transformed into the Yankees' muscle man in the Series. The Yanks' second baseman walloped his club's only two homers of the fall classic, but they were his only hits in the five games. (The Yankees not only exhibited little power, they hit only .203 as a team and also suffered offensively because of numerous baserunning blunders.)

The Giants' four victories-to-none triumph -- with one tie, of course -- would prove McGraw's third and last World Series championship. Ruth and company, frustrated by the events of 1922, were still seeking their first.

[Baseball Guru]

1923

It was the Giants vs. the Yankees again in 1923. The third consecutive all-New York World Series. Only this time, the fall classic would not be played entirely within the confines of the Polo Grounds.

After 10 seasons as co-tenants, the Yankees no longer shared the horseshoe-shaped Manhattan stadium with the Giants. The Giants, from the National League, had served the suddenly prominent Yankees, from the American League, with an eviction notice, telling them to take their ball and find someplace else to play.

"Somewhere else" turned out to be somethin' else -- a place called Yankee Stadium. The ballpark was hailed for its prime location, enormous seating capacity and beauty. The location -- much to the chagrin of the competition-wary Giants -- was about a quarter-mile from the Polo Grounds and just across the Harlem River in the Bronx. The Yankee Stadium capacity was 62,000-plus, making it significantly larger than any existing baseball structure (an expanded Polo Grounds now held about 50,000). And, of course, the newness of Yankee Stadium was a gate attraction in itself.

That the addition of Yankee Stadium had enabled New York to corner the market on spacious and dazzling baseball facilities was not lost on the sporting public or the chroniclers of the day.

"It is a thrilling thought that perhaps 2,500 years from now archaeologists, spading up the ruins of Harlem and the lower Bronx, will find arenas that outsize anything that the ancient Romans and Greeks built," a Philadelphia newsman wrote.

The Giants, who in 1913 had no qualms about asking the struggling Highlanders/Yankees franchise to come in out of the cold and join them as Polo Grounds tenants, had more than a few qualms now. Once considered the "only game in town," despite the presence of the Brooklyn club and later the Yankees, the Giants had become the second game in town.

While the Yankees had yet to win baseball's biggest prize, the World Series, the Yankees clearly were winning the battle for fans. After all, they had the game's No. 1 drawing card -- Babe Ruth. And now they had the game's No. 1 arena.

Soon, the Yankees demonstrated they had major-league baseball's best team, too. A 16-game victory margin in the AL pennant race was an indication of this club's capabilities.

Ironically, the player who proved the biggest obstacle in the Yankees' path to World Series supremacy was Casey Stengel, who more than a quarter-century later won lasting fame as manager of the Bronx Bombers. A 34-year-old Giants outfielder, Stengel was the hero of the first Series game at Yankee Stadium and delivered the big blow in the second game there.

With two out in the top of the ninth inning of Game 1 and the score 4-4, Stengel lined a Joe Bush pitch into left-center field. The ball got between Bob Meusel and Whitey Witt and rolled to the wall, and Stengel set sail around the bases. He ran as hard as a sore-legged, veteran outfielder could. Arms flailing and one shoe half off, Stengel staggered home safely. The inside-the-park home run made Giants reliever Rosy Ryan a 5-4 winner.

The Yankees had now gone winless in their last nine Series games against the Giants, losing eight and tying the other. Ruth and Herb Pennock would put an end to this affront.

Ruth, coming off a season in which he hit .394 and shared the majors' home run title with the Philadelphia Phillies' Cy Williams (each rapped 41 homers), hit fourth- and fifth-inning homers in Game 2 and Aaron Ward also connected for the Yankees. Pennock, another in a long and impressive line of standout players acquired from the Boston Red Sox, pitched the distance in a 4-2 Yankees triumph at the Polo Grounds.

With the action alternating between the Yankees' and Giants' parks, Stengel was the man of the hour again in Game 3. Through six innings, the American Leaguers' Sad Sam Jones and the Nationals' Art Nehf were locked in a scoreless battle. Then, with one out in the seventh, Stengel homered into the right field stands at Yankee Stadium. Nehf made the run stand up, allowing five singles and a double in a 1-0 thriller.

The Yankees then went work. They collected 16 runs and 27 hits in the next two games and coasted to 8-4 and 8-1 victories. Witt had three hits and two RBIs in Game 4. Joe Dugan had four hits and three RBIs in support of Bush's three-hit pitching in Game 5, which produced the first Series triumph by the Yankees in their new stadium.

Miller Huggins' team finished off the Giants in Game 6. While Ruth drilled a bases-empty, upper-deck homer in the first inning, the Yankees needed a five-run eighth to overcome the Giants. Bob Meusel supplied the key hit in the big inning, a two-run single that enabled the Yanks to slip ahead, 5-4. The Yankees went on to win, 6-4 with Jones saving the victory for Pennock, who left for a pinch-hitter in the eighth.

In helping his club reach the pinnacle of the baseball world, Ruth had a marvelous Series. He slugged three homers, a triple, a double and two singles, drew eight walks and batted .368. The rival second basemen, Ward and Frankie Frisch, also stood out with 10 hits each. The Meusels also made their marks -- the Yanks' Bob driving in eight runs and the Giants' Irish hitting a Game 2 homer and collecting all three of his club's hits in Game 5.

The Giants did thwart the Yankees on one front. When Yanks first baseman Wally Pipp was injured late in the season, the AL club sought permission to use a late-season call-up from Hartford in his place. Giants manager John McGraw blocked the request, and Pipp started all six games. Who was the youngster? A 20-year-old named Lou Gehrig.

The 1923 World Series -- which featured two Yankee Stadium crowds in excess of 62,000 and another surpassing 55,000 -- was the first to hit the $1 million figure in gate receipts. More significant, though, was the fact this fall classic was the first won by the New York Yankees. Maybe this was a franchise to keep an eye on.

[Baseball Guru]

1926

First in war, first in peace and first in the American League. That was Washington in 1924.

The Washington Senators, under first-year Manager Bucky Harris, their 27-year-old second baseman, won the AL pennant by two games over the New York Yankees. The Senators' first flag meant that longtime pitching star Waiter Johnson finally would get a chance to pitch in the World Series -- and Johnson played no small part in creating the opportunity. The 36-year-old righthander, who had not had a 20-victory season since 1919, showed his old form in '24 by winning 23 games, tossing six shutouts and fashioning a 2.72 earned-run average, all of which led the league. Not bad for a pitcher working his 18th big-league season.

For the eighth time in 14 years, the National League representative was the New York Giants. Manager John McGraw's club, despite a .300 team batting average, had to scramble to win the NL pennant by 1 1/2 games over the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Johnson and Series veteran Art Nehf were pitching opponents in Game 1 of the Series, and both went the distance in what turned out to be a 12-inning cliffhanger witnessed by, among others, President Calvin Coolidge. Backed by home runs from George Kelly and Bill Terry (a promising first baseman who had played only 80 major-league games), Nehf took a 2-1 lead into the last of the ninth inning. However, Ossie Bluege's single and Roger Peckinpaugh's double sent the game into extra innings. In the 12th, Ross (Pep) Youngs' bases-loaded single and Kelly's run-scoring fly ball netted two runs for the Giants, who held off a Washington rally in the bottom of the inning to nail down a 4-3 victory.

Johnson didn't exactly flash his old form in this game, although he did strike out 12 New Yorkers. The Big Train allowed 14 hits and walked six.

Washington won two of the next three games and Johnson was pounded again in Game 5. This time, he gave up 13 hits -- including four by Fred Lindstrom and a home run by pitcher Jack Bentley -- as the Senators went down, 6-2. Johnson was now 0-2 in his first Series, and Washington was one loss from elimination.

Harris and Tom Zachary brought the Senators back from the brink. Harris came through with a two-run single in the fifth inning of Game 6 and Zachary, after allowing a first-inning run, was in command the rest of way. Washington's 2-1 triumph tied the Series at three games each.

Game 7 unfolded in a manner not unfamiliar to longtime Giants fans. Oh, the Giants and their supporters had enjoyed their share of ecstasy over the years, as reflected by three World Series championships. But they also had endured more than their share of agony as the legacies of Merkle, Snodgrass and Zimmerman would suggest.

This time, though, the Giants didn't succumb to the errors of their ways. McGraw's athletes did make mistakes, all right; in fact, they made three errors in the final game of the '24 Series (Washington had four). But it was Lady Luck who really did them in.

The Giants guarded a 3-1 lead entering the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 7 at Griffith Stadium, and a leadoff pop foul by Washington's Bluege drew New York within five outs of another Series crown. However, pinch-hitter Nemo Leibold doubled off the Giants' Virgil Barnes, Muddy Ruel collected an infield single and Bennie Tate, another pinch-hitter, walked. After Earl McNeely flied out (all three runners held), Harris hit a grounder that skipped over the head of 18-year-old third baseman Lindstrom. Two runs scored on the bad-hop single, tying the game. Nehf relieved Barnes and got Sam Rice to ground out.

Johnson came on in relief for the Senators in the ninth and, after retiring the first batter, yielded a triple to Frank Frisch. With the game on the line, Johnson intentionally walked Youngs, struck out Kelly and got Irish Meusel ground out. The Giants had squandered a golden opportunity.

The 3-3 deadlock continued until the bottom of the 12th. With one out, Giants reliever Bentley got Ruel to hit a foul pop. But the "sure" second out never materialized as Hank Gowdy, World Series hero for the Boston Braves a decade earlier, stumbled over his mask and dropped the ball. Given a new life, Ruel cracked a double down the third-baseline. Johnson reached base on shortstop Travis Jackson's error, with Ruel holding second. McNeely grounded to third and, as happened four innings earlier, the ball took an inexplicable hop over Lindstrom's head and Ruel scurried home with the Series-deciding run.

Fittingly, Johnson, after tough sledding in his two Series starts and some anxious moments in a four-inning relief sting in this climactic game, was the winning pitcher in this 4-3 game that netted Washington its first World Series title.

First baseman Joe Judge batted .385 for Washington, while left fielder Goose Goslin and Harris provided the power by combining for five home runs and 14 RBIs. Goslin hit a two-run homer and Harris socked a bases-empty shot in Game 2, which Washington won, 4-3, on Peckinpaugh's ninth-inning double. Goslin had four hits, including a three-run homer, in Washington's 7-4 victory in the fourth game, and he also homered in Game 5, a 6-2 Giants victory.

Terry hit .429 for the Giants, while Frisch and Lindstrom, a fill-in for the injured Heinie Groh, each batted .333 for the National Leaguers. Frisch's performance marked the fourth consecutive Series in which he had batted .300 or higher. New York had four homers, half being struck by pitchers (reliever Rosy Ryan, who connected in New York's 6-4 victory in Game 3, preceded Bentley in the homer column).

While McGraw would preside over many more outstanding teams and manage the Giants into the 1932 season, this was the final World Series for Little Napoleon. And although he met his Waterloo a record six times in the postseason extravaganza (against three victories), only one man has surpassed the great McGraw in total Series managerial appearances --Casey Stengel, with 10.

[Baseball Guru]

1925

After four games of the 1925 World Series, Washington's Big Train was like a runaway locomotive. Unstoppable. And so, too, it appeared, were Walter Johnson's talented teammates.

Johnson, who had encountered troubles as a starter in the 1924 Series, struck out 10 Pittsburgh batters in Game 1 of the '25 fall classic and gave up only five hits in a 4-1 victory. In Game 4, the 37-year-old master permitted just six hits as the defending World Series champions downed the Pirates, 4-0, and stretched their lead to three games to one.

Pittsburgh had won the second game, 3-2, on Kiki Cuyler's two-run home run in the eighth inning, while the Senators had prevailed in the third game, 4-3, thanks largely Sam Rice's late-game circus catch in right-center field.

Vic Aldridge, who had pitched the distance in the Pirates' lone victory of the Series, was called upon by Manager Bill McKechnie to keep his club afloat in Game 5. Aldridge did just that, pitching his second straight complete-game, eight-hit victory. The 6-3 triumph -- like his earlier success -- had come at the expense of Stan Coveleski, the onetime Cleveland pitching great who had been obtained by Washington after the '24 season.

Second baseman Eddie Moore, playing is first full season as an everyday player in the big leagues, then combined with second-year major leaguer Ray Kremer to help Pittsburgh tie the Series. Moore broke a 2-2 tie with a fifth-inning homer and Kremer set down the faltering Senators on six hits. The Pirates' 3-2 victory in Game 6 meant it would all come down to one game at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field. And it would be that man, Johnson, going against Aldridge.

Johnson had reached the 20-victory plateau for the 12th and last time in 1925 and, in the process, climbed within four victories of the 400 mark in his big-league career. He had spent his career with the Washington Senators, and that career dated to 1907. Aldridge, acquired from the Chicago Cubs after the '24 season, was coming off a 15-7 year with the Pirates. A righthander, Aldridge was 10 days from his 32nd birthday.

An outstanding pitching matchup. At least on paper.

In fact, Aldridge lasted one-third of an inning. But Johnson, given a 4-0 first-inning lead and a 6-3 edge in the fourth, couldn't contain the Pirates and was tagged for 15 hits in eight innings. Despite Johnson's ineffectiveness, the Senators carried a 6-4 lead into the last of the seventh and seemed poised to ring up their second consecutive Series championship. The inning got off to a shaky start for Manager Bucky Harris' team, though, when shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh muffed Moore's pop fly. Moore reached second on the error -- Peckinpaugh's seventh of the Series -- and scored on Max Carey's third double of the game.

Two outs later, Pie Traynor laced a game-tying triple off Johnson, but the Pirates' third baseman was out trying to stretch the hit into a home run.

With Game 7 tied at 6-6, tension was high when Washington came to bat against Pirates reliever Kremer in the eighth. After Ossie Bluege grounded out, Peckinpaugh strode to the plate. At this point, the Series had been a nightmare for the 34-year-old veteran. He had made one error in Game 1, two in Game 2, one in Game 3, another in Game 5, one in Game 6 and, to this juncture, one in Game 7. And he had collected only five hits in 23 at-bats. Possessing very little power -- he had hit 10 homers in the last four seasons -- Peckinpaugh, in a goat-to-hero turnaround, caught hold of a Kremer delivery and drilled it into the left-field seats. Washington was back on top, 7-6.

The prospect of Johnson holding on for his second Series-clinching victory in two seasons -- after the superstar pitcher had toiled for one Washington also-ran after another for the bulk of his career -- seemed the stuff of which baseball dreams are made. And the chances of same grew brighter as Johnson retired the first two Pittsburgh hitters in the bottom of the eighth, getting Glenn Wright to foul out and Stuffy McInnis to fly out.

Earl Smith and pinch-hitter Carson Bigbee followed with consecutive doubles, however, and for the second straight inning Johnson had frittered away the lead. Moore walked and Carey reached base when Peckinpaugh made a poor throw while attempting to record a forceout at second. Cuyler broke the 7-7 tie with a two-run ground-rule double, the Pirates' eighth two-base hit of the rainy afternoon.

The Big Train had jumped the tracks. And the Senators crashed with him, falling 9-7 and losing a World Series they seemingly had locked up a few days earlier. The Pirates' comeback marked the first time a team had rallied from a 3-1 deficit in games to win a best-of-seven Series.

While Carey batted a Series-leading .458 for Pittsburgh and Aldridge and Kremer each won two games, the individual spotlight fell mainly on Washington players. Of particular note was the performance of the Senators' outfield, as Goose Goslin whacked three home runs in the Series for the second straight year, Joe Harris hit .440 with three homers and Rice batted .364 and made an unforgettable defensive play.

With the Senators ahead by one run in the eighth inning of Game 3, Rice ran down a long drive by Smith at the wall in right-center and tumbled into the stands. There was no immediate indication whether Rice had speared the ball before falling and it took him about 15 seconds to untangle himself from the fans and return to the field -- at which time he held up the ball to signal he had made the catch. The Pirates disputed the call, saying a Washington fan may have stuffed the ball into Rice's glove, but umpire Cy Rigler called Smith out.

Rice parried questions about the play the rest of his life, but in a letter to Hall of Fame officials -- a missive to be opened only after his death, which occurred in 1974 -- he tried to put an end to nearly 50 years of suspense. "At no time did I lose possession of the ball," Rice wrote.

Peckinpaugh, of course, was always losing possession of the ball.

The AL MVP in 1925, he suffered a stinging comedown against the Pirates by setting a record with eight errors in one Series (regardless of position).

And then there was Johnson, overpowering in his first two starts but underwhelming in the decisive seventh game.

For the Pirates, it was a return to a supremacy of the baseball world they had not enjoyed since 1909 when rookie pitcher Babe Adams led the club to the World Series title by beating the Detroit Tigers three times. There was even a link to that previous title -- Adams, who at 43 pitched one inning of relief against Washington in Game 4.

[Baseball Guru]

1926

Bases loaded. Two out. Bottom of the seventh inning. Game 7 of the 1926 World Series. St. Louis Cardinals three victories, New York Yankees three victories. Yanks second baseman Tony Lazzeri approaching the plate. Cardinals trying to protect a 3-2 lead at Yankee Stadium.

A crucial, tension-filled situation quickly became one of the most dramatic moments in Series history when Rogers Hornsby, the Cardinals' manager/second baseman, ambled to the mound and signaled to the bullpen for Grover Cleveland Alexander. Surely there must have been some mistake. Alexander, 39, had pitched a complete-game victory the day before. And, the story goes, 0l' Pete had celebrated well into the night, wholly confident (and why not?) that his aging right arm wouldn't get another workout until the spring of 1927. (Many years later, Alexander contended he didn't celebrate at all after Game 6 because Hornsby had advised him that "I may need you.")

Hornsby's directive was no mistake. The battle-tested Alexander was the man Hornsby wanted to take over for Jesse Haines, who had shut out the Yankees in Game 3 and pitched reasonably well in Game 7 until a finger blister and a mounting New York threat brought about his removal.

Lazzeri, 22, had just completed an outstanding rookie season. He batted .275 for the Yankees with 18 home runs and 114 RBIs. Alexander was in the twilight of his career and had been obtained by the Cardinals on waivers from the Chicago Cubs in June. He won nine of 16 decisions for St. Louis.

With the Yankees' Earle Combs leading off third base, Bob Meusel stationed at second and Lou Gehrig on first, Alexander delivered his first pitch to Lazzeri. Ball one. The second pitch was a called strike. Lazzeri took a tremendous cut at Alexander's third offering and lined the ball just foul down the third-base line. Amid a crescendo of noise, Alexander readied himself once more and let fly. Lazzeri swung and missed. Ol' Pete had gotten the Cardinals out of a monumental jam.

After St. Louis threatened but failed to score in the eighth, Alexander retired the Yankees in order in their half of the inning. The Cardinals again were unable to add to their lead in the ninth, so it was up to 0l' Pete to protect the one-run margin one more time.

Combs started the Yankees' ninth by grounding out to third baseman Lester Bell, and Mark Koenig also was thrown out, Bell to first baseman Jim Bottomley. Only one batter stood between Alexander and the championship but, oh, what a batter. George Herman (Babe) Ruth. The Bambino worked the count to 3 and 2, then drew his 11th walk of the Series. Up next was cleanup hitter Meusel, representing the winning run. Meusel, though, was denied his at-bat when Ruth, who had stolen second base in Game 6 (some observers thought foolishly) tried to steal again. Catcher Bob O'Farrell's throw to Hornsby nailed the Yankees' slugger and ended the fall classic.

The Cardinals' decisive 3-2 victory had been fashioned not only by Alexander's clutch relief, but also by the continued standout play of shortstop Tommy Thevenow. A .256 hitter during the season, Thevenow broke a 1-1 tie in Game 7 with a two-run single in the fourth inning. Overall, Thevenow was 10-for-24 against the Yankees, making him the Series' top hitter with a .417 mark.

New York got standout production from Combs and Gehrig, appearing in their first Series, and Ruth. Combs led the Yankees with a .357 average; Gehrig hit .348 and drove in the winning run in Game 1. Ruth bashed four homers in the Series, three in the Yanks' 10-5 victory in Game 4 at Sportsman's Park.

St. Louis' Haines and Alexander and New York's Herb Pennock were the top pitchers in the 1926 Series. Besides getting the victory in the finale, Haines allowed five hits in a 4-0 Game 3 victory. Alexander retired the last 21 Yankees he faced in Game 2 and, backed by Billy Southworth's three-run homer, won, 6-2. He then coasted, 10-2, in Game 6 as Bell homered and drove in four runs. Pennock was a 2-1 winner in the Series opener, yielding just three hits, and came back for a 3-2, 10-inning victory in Game 5, a contest the Yankees tied in the ninth on Ben Paschal's pinch single and won in the 10th on Lazzeri's sacrifice fly.

The Cardinals were able to win the Series despite subpar performances from players instrumental in getting them to their first fall classic. Hornsby, a .317 hitter that season (after batting above .400 in three of the four previous years), hit only .250 against the Yankees. And pitchers Flint Rhem and Bill Sherdel, St. Louis' biggest winners with 20 and 16 victories, respectively, failed to win in the Series.

But there was Thevenow, whose hitting spree included an inside-the-park home run in Game 2 (Thevenow hit only two other homers in his 15-season career in the majors and, curiously, both came during the '26 regular season). Plus, the Cards had Bottomley and Southworth, both of whom hit at .345 against New York, and O'Farrell, a .304 hitter in the Series.

Best of all, St. Louis had that wily veteran trudging in from the bullpen in the seventh inning of Game 7.

[Baseball Guru]

1927

The 1927 Pittsburgh Pirates were an outstanding team as the presence of Pie Traynor, Paul and Lloyd Waner and Glenn Wright would indicate. The Pirates were talented enough, in fact, to win the National League pennant, finishing 1 1/2 games ahead of the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals and two in front of the New York Giants.

There was one major problem confronting manager Donie Bush's Pirates, though, as they prepared for the World Series. Their postseason opponent would be a truly great team -- quite possibly the best club in the history of the sport. Leveling opponents at virtually every turn, the New York Yankees had won the American League pennant by a staggering 19 games.

Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were the biggest guns in the Yankees' shoot-first, ask-questions-later attack. In the regular season, they combined for 107 home runs and 339 RBIs. Ruth, 32, set a major-league record with 60 homers, topping by one the mark he had set six years earlier. Gehrig, in only his third season as the New Yorkers' regular first baseman, set a big-league record with 175 RBIs.

Two other Yankees, Bob Meusel and Tony Lazzeri, exceeded the 100-RBI mark. Meusel drove in 103 runs, and Lazzeri had 102.

As murderous as the Yankees' row of sluggers was, manager Miller Huggins' athletes could hit for average. The outfield of Ruth, Meusel and Earle Combs combined for 597 hits and a .350 average -- Ruth and Combs hit .356, and Meusel finished at .337. Gehrig batted .373.

The Yankees could exhibit some speed, too -- thanks largely to the presence of Combs, the gifted center fielder who whacked 23 triples in 1927. And the New Yorkers didn't play station-to-station baseball. Meusel stole 24 bases (second-best in the league), Lazzeri 22 (tied for third in the AL) and Combs 15.

New York could get people out, too. Waite Hoyt tied for the league lead with 22 victories and was second in ERA at 2.63. Relief ace Wiley Moore won 19 games and headed the AL with a 2.28 ERA; Herb Pennock also won 19 and Urban Shocker 18. Dutch Ruether and George Pipgras ranked fifth and sixth on the Yankees' list of winners, but they combined for a 23-9 record.

It was a many-faceted juggernaut, to be sure. One that rolled to 110 victories, an AL record that stood for more than a quarter of a century.

That the Pirates knew they had their hands full was a given. That the National Leaguers were beaten even before they started -- the result of watching in awe as the Yankees displayed their long-ball proclivity in batting practice before Game 1 -- is baseball lore at its unsubstantiated best.

The Yankees made short shrift of the Pirates in the '27 Series. And they did it while flashing little of their vaunted power.

In Game 1, two Pirates errors helped New York to three third-inning runs and Gehrig drove in two other runs as the Yankees won 5-4 at Forbes Field. Second-year major leaguer Paul Waner, the NL batting champion with a .380 average, had three hits. Ruth singled three times. Pipgras yielded a triple to the first batter (Lloyd Waner) he faced in Game 2 and a sacrifice fly to the second (Clyde Barnhart) then settled down and pitched New York to a 6-2 victory.

The third game of the Series belonged to Pennock, the 33-year-old lefthander who took a 4-0 World Series record into the game. Pennock gave a hint of things to come by retiring the Pirates in order in the first inning. It was more of the same in the second and the third. In a groove, Pennock mowed down the Bucs 1-2-3 in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. At that point, the Yankees were in front 2-0, courtesy of Gehrig's first-inning triple that scored Combs and Mark Koenig.

The Yankees put the game away in the seventh, scoring six times. Ruth capped the outburst by clubbing the first home run of the Series, a three-run shot.

Cleanup man Wright was Pittsburgh's first batter in the eighth, and he grounded out to shortstop Koenig.

Twenty-two Pirates up, 22 down.

Traynor, coming off a .342 season, was up next. The Bucs' third baseman elicited a groan from the Yankee Stadium throng of 60,695 by singling to left. Barnhart followed Traynor to the plate and further spoiled matters for Pennock by hitting a run-scoring double.

With one out in the ninth, Pennock allowed a third hit -- a single by rookie sensation Lloyd Waner, who banged out 223 hits and batted .355 in the regular season. Hal Rhyne then flied out, and Paul Waner popped out. Pennock's stirring performance in the 8-1 triumph left the Yankees one victory away from becoming the first AL club to sweep a Series.

Bush turned to Carmen Hill, who had blossomed in 1927 as the ace of his pitching staff. In limited duty in six earlier seasons in the majors, Hill never had won more than three games. But in '27, he chalked up 22. Huggins nominated Moore, a 30-year-old rookie who had made only 12 starts in his 50 appearances.

Hill allowed a run-scoring single to Ruth in the first inning and was victimized by the Bambino again in the fifth when the power king slugged a two-run homer. The Pirates' righthander left the game for a pinch-hitter in the seventh, an inning in which Pittsburgh scored twice off Moore to forge a 3-3 tie. The game still was tied entering the last of the ninth when reliever John Miljus started his third inning of work for Pittsburgh.

Combs walked and Koenig beat out a bunt, and they advanced to third and second base when Miljus uncorked a wild pitch. Ruth was walked intentionally, filling the bases with no one out and bringing Gehrig to the plate. Some predicament. Gehrig up, Meusel on deck and Lazzeri in the hole. And a fly ball would end the Series.

Miljus, reaching back for all he could muster, struck out Gehrig. Then, he fanned Meusel. But with Lazzeri at the plate, he let loose with his second wild pitch of the inning and Combs danced across the plate with the winning run.

[Baseball Guru]

1928

The New York Yankees of 1928 didn't fold, spindle and mutilate the opposition the way the '27 Yanks did. At least not until the 25th World Series unfolded, anyway.

Miller Huggins' team started the season in scintillating fashion, boasting a 13-game lead over second-place Philadelphia on the morning of July 4. But the Athletics -- who among their number had the likes of Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Bing Miller, Jimmie Dykes, Lefty Grove, Rube Walberg and a couple on-their-way-out veterans named Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker -- caught fire and whittled away at the Yankees' advantage. Stunningly, Connie Mack's team slipped into the lead in September, only to drop right back out doubleheader loss to the New Yorkers.

When the season ground to a halt, Yankees had withstood the Athletics' furious challenge and won their third consecutive American League pennant. The margin was 2 1/2 games.

The Yankees entered the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals not only with wounded pride over their runaway-turned-close pennant call but also with wounded personnel. Pitcher Herb Pennock (17-6) was on the sidelines for the Series with a sore arm. Center fielder Earle Combs was available only as a pinch-hitter because of a broken finger. Second baseman Tony Lazzeri was a liability afield with a lame throwing arm, which resulted in rookie Leo Durocher serving as a late-game defensive replacement in the Series. And Babe Ruth was playing on a bad ankle.

Ruth, ankle injury and all, and slugging mate Lou Gehrig put on an astounding display in the Series. In the opener, Ruth rapped a single and two doubles and scored twice and Gehrig was 2-for-4 with two RBIs as the Yankees beat Bill Sherdel and the Cardinals 4-1. Bob Meusel socked a two-run home run for the Yankees, who received three-hit pitching from Waite Hoyt.

Facing their World Series nemesis of two years earlier, Grover Cleveland Alexander, in Game 2, the Yankees struck with a vengeance. Gehrig unloaded a three-run homer in the first inning and New York, collecting another run in the second and four in the third, went on to a 9-3 romp. Ruth singled and doubled and scored two runs.

Gehrig stole the show in Game 3, and Ruth was the show in Game 4. Gehrig drilled two homers -- the first a bases-empty shot and the second a two-run drive -- as the Yankees took a three-game-to-none lead with a 7-3 victory. Ruth had two more hits for New York. Then, in Game 4, The Bambino walloped solo home runs in the fourth, seventh and eighth innings and Gehrig connected after Ruth's smash in the seventh. The Yankees had dispatched the Cardinals in four games, putting them away with another 7-3 victory. New York hit a Series-record five homers in the decisive game with Cedric Durst also banging one over the boards.

Ruth's homer parade was marvelous theater. For the second time in three World Series, Ruth had crushed three home runs in one game -- and each performance came in Game 4 at Sportsman's Park. In the '28 version of the prodigious feat, Ruth's second homer came after the Cardinals' Sherdel had thrown a third-strike quick pitch past the Bambino. However, umpire Cy Pfirman ruled against the delivery and Ruth subsequently slashed a Sherdel pitch over the right field pavilion.

Ruth and Gehrig went 16-for-27 at the plate -- a .593 average -- against the Cardinals and hammered seven homers with 13 RBIs. Ruth set a Series record with a .625 average and set a four-game Series mark with 10 hits; Gehrig, who hit .545, knocked in a record nine runs for a four-game fall classic.

Incredibly, the other Yankees batted .196. But the heroics of Ruth and Gehrig and solid pitching by Hoyt, George Pipgras and Tom Zachary -- the only hurlers New York used -- were more than enough to handle the Cards. Hoyt won twice, following his success in Game 1 by going the distance in the clincher despite allowing 11 hits. Pipgras, who led the Yankees staff with 24 victories (one more than Hoyt), fired a four-hitter in the second game and Zachary, after a rough start, shut down St. Louis on one run in the final eight innings of Game 3.

Only one Cardinal regular batted .300 or higher in the Series, and just one Redbird had more than one RBI. Shortstop Rabbit Maranville hit .308 and first baseman Jim Bottomley -- who belted his club's only homer of the Series -- had three RBIs.

The Series proved quite a turnaround from the '26 affair for St. Louis, now under the direction of Bill McKechnie, who succeeded Bob O'Farrell as manager in 1928 after O'Farrell had filled the Cardinals' managerial void in 1927 following the Rogers Hornsby-for-Frankie Frisch trade with the New York Giants. Tommy Thevenow, the Cards' leading hitter in their first Series meeting with the Yankees, was playing behind the 36-year-old Maranville and made just one brief appearance in the Series. And Alexander, who had a 1.33 ERA in 20 1/3 innings in the '26 Series, collapsed to a 19.80 ERA in five innings in '28.

For the Yankees, the World Series was expiation for their late-season decline. And it was proof that Huggins' team, having swept the last two Series, was baseball's finest.

[Baseball Guru]

1929

It was the middle of the seventh inning of Game 4 of the 1929 World Series, and the outlook for the Chicago Cubs -- so bleak a few years earlier -- was brightening considerably.

The Cubs had dug a hole of massive proportions for themselves by dropping the first two games of the Series on their home grounds, but had rebounded for a 3-1 triumph over the Philadelphia Athletics in Game 3 at Shibe Park. Now, in Game 4 on the Athletics' field, the Cubs were coasting by an 8-0 score and Charlie Root was pitching a three-hitter. And with two of the next three games scheduled at Wrigley Field, Manager Joe McCarthy's Cubs had turned a bad situation into an encouraging one.

Seemingly.

Al Simmons, who had topped American League in 1929 with 157 runs batted in, gave the Philadelphia faithful something to cheer about when he led off the last of the seventh with a home run to left. Jimmie Foxx and Bing Miller followed with singles as Connie Mack's club threatened to take a bite or two out of the Cubs' hefty lead. Dykes was up next and he, too, singled. With the score 8-2 and two Athletics on base, the crowd began to stir. Joe Boley then delivered another run-scoring single, the fifth consecutive hit off Root, and now it was a five-run deficit. And still no one was out.

George Burns was sent up as a pinch-hitter for Ed Rommel and popped out, but Max Bishop kept things going with a base hit over Root's head. With the Cubs' lead pared to 8-4 and Mule Haas strolling to the plate, McCarthy replaced Root with Art Nehf, the 37-year-old lefthander who had won games for the New York Giants in four consecutive World Series earlier in the decade. Haas drove a Nehf pitch to center field, where the Cubs' Hack Wilson lost the ball in the sun. The ball shot past Wilson and rolled to the fence, and Boley, Bishop and even Haas scored on the play. The misplay-turned-home run sent the crowd into a frenzy. And it left the bewildered Cubs clinging to a one-run lead.

Mickey Cochrane coaxed a base on balls off Nehf, and Sheriff Blake then took over the pitching duties. Simmons, up for the second time in the inning, came through with a single. Now, incredibly, the potential tying run rested at second base. But not for long. Foxx drilled his club's seventh single of the inning, scoring Cochrane and tying it, 8-8.

Pat Malone, the Cubs' pitching ace in 1929 with 22 victories and a starter in Game 2, was summoned by McCarthy. Malone got the Cubs into more trouble by hitting Miller with a pitch, loading the bases. That brought up Dykes, who rammed a double to the fence in left. Two runs scored -- the ninth and 10th runs of the inning. Malone struck out Boley and Burns, ending the carnage. Simmons, Foxx and Dykes each had two hits in the inning.

The Cubs, understandably in a state of shock after blowing an eight-run lead, went meekly in the rest of Game 4. Philadelphia's relief pitcher, one Robert Moses (Lefty) Grove, had something to do with that, no doubt. Grove retired Chicago in order in the eighth and ninth innings and struck out four consecutive batters. The A's, staring at the likelihood of a 2-2 tie in games when they came to bat in seventh inning, now boasted a three games-to-one lead after their unlikely 10-8 triumph and looked to close out the Cubs in Game 5.

Malone obviously had other ideas. Paired against first-game winner Howard Ehmke, he kept the Cubs' hopes alive with a tremendous pitching performance. Malone and Ehmke were locked in a 0-0 struggle until the fourth inning, when the Cubs struck for two runs and drove Ehmke from the game. Rube Walberg replaced Ehmke and matched Malone zero for zero on the scoreboard. Entering the bottom of the ninth, Chicago still had a 2-0 lead and Malone had yielded only two hits.

Pinch-hitter Waiter French struck out, leaving the Cubs within two outs of sending the Series back to Wrigley Field. Bishop followed with a single, however, and Haas brought the crowd to its feet by slamming a Malone pitch over the right-field wall. Jolted by the game-tying homer, Malone nevertheless got Cochrane to hit a grounder for out No. 2. Simmons then doubled and Foxx was walked intentionally. Bing Miller was the next batter, and he hammered a Malone delivery off the scoreboard and Simmons chugged home with the winning run.

A three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth had dealt the Cubs another stinging defeat, and this time there was, in fact, no tomorrow for the National Leaguers. The 3-2 victory in Game 5 had made Mack's team the World Series champion for the first time since 1913.

And what a team Mack had. The A's were 104-46 in 1929 and won the AL pennant by 18 games over the New York Yankees, who had swept the World Series in 1927 and 1928.

While six pitchers on Mack's staff won 11 or more games in 1929, the A's manager surprisingly named the 35-year-old Ehmke, a seven-game winner who had worked only 54 2/3 innings, to start Game 1 of the Series. The crafty veteran responded by striking out a Series-record 13 Cubs and winning, 3-1. In Game 2, Foxx belted a three-run homer and Simmons added a two-run shot as the A's frolicked, 9-3.

Kiki Cuyler's two-run single and Guy Bush's steady pitching featured the Cubs' third-game victory.