A Century of World Series
Selected high and low drama from fall classics throughout the past 100 years
Bygone baseball by C. Philip Francis
Part 3
After the Philadelphia A’s lost four straight in the 1914 World Series, they fell to last place where they stayed for the next seven years. Connie Mack’s team fought their way back before becoming one of the great teams winning three consecutive American League pennants in 1929, ’30, and ’31 along with two World Championships. They soon became second division dwellers, Mack never again took his team to the World Series, and following the 1954 season the A’s were moved to Kansas City and later to Oakland where they remain today.
Joe McCarthy, who had never played in a major league game, was at the helm of the Chicago Cubs in 1929 when they lost the WS to the A’s, and then fired a year later. McCarthy soon signed with the New York Yankees whom he led to 8 World Series and 7 Championships in the next 16 years.
The 1932 became a grudge series. New York won Games 1 and 2 at Yankee Stadium led by muscular Lou Gehrig. They moved to Chicago where the New York team was hissed, booed, and pelted with sawdust. Babe Ruth was irate when a fan threw a bag of water at he and his wife.
The Chicago stadium was packed when Game 3 began, but even before many of the Cub fans were even seated Ruth smashed a three-run homer over the left field wall. As Babe walked to the plate in the fifth with one out, he was greeted by a tremendous chorus of jeers and boos. Following two strikes that he called on himself, Ruth pointed to the far center field bleachers. He swung, connected, and the ball went straight to where he had indicated. Gehrig came right behind with another homer, and the game and series was all but over.
The 1933 Series with the New York Giants and Washington Senators featured two new managers, Bill Terry who had replaced New York’s John McGraw the year before, and freshman Joe Cronin who succeeded the Senators’ pitching idol, Walter Johnson. The 26 year-old Cronin became the youngest player/manager ever to take his team to the World Series, but lost the Championship to the Giants 4 games to 1.
In the 1930’s major league baseball had one of the most picturesque and lively teams ever seen. It was the St. Louis Cardinals, also called the “The Gashouse Gang”, with spirited characters such as manager Frankie Frisch, Pepper Martin also called “The Wild House of the Osage”, brothers Dizzy and Paul Dean, Leo Durocher, and Joe Medwick. They played hard and clean.
The “Gashouse Gang” won their only World Series in 1934 when they beat the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 3 when each Dean won 2 games. Dizzy had an easy time in Game 7 as the Tigers fell 11-0.
After Joe DiMaggio joined the New York Yankees in 1936 they won the next four consecutive World Series as the Giants (twice), Cubs, and Reds were downed by a new “Murderer’s Row”. Babe Ruth was gone, and it was now Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Bill Dickey, and Jake Powell. The Yankees’ Joe McCarthy became the first manager to win four World Championships in succession.
It was a New York subway series in 1941 featuring the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers. The Dodgers had won their last pennant in1920, and then spent much of the time in the second division before hiring fiery Leo Durocher as manager in 1939. Within three years Leo had given Brooklyn a pennant, but now they would be facing the mighty Yankees.
New York was ahead two games to one, but the Dodgers were leading 4-3 in the top of the ninth with two out. The Dodgers’ Hugh Casey had pitched beautifully since entering the game in the fifth, and the Series would now be tied at two games all. After two quick outs Casey only had Tommy Henrich. With a count of 3 balls and 2 strikes swung hard at a low curveball and missed for strike three. The game was over, the Dodgers had won, and now fans began running onto the diamond. But wait, the game was not over yet! The ball had gotten past catcher Mickey Owen, and rolled back to the wall as Henrich ran to first base. It was the most famous passed ball in baseball history.
The Brooklyn fans were stunned as New York scored four runs, and won the game 7-3. With the Yankees now up 3 games to 1, it was almost all over. New York pitcher Tiny Bonham tossed a four-hitter as the Yankees won 3-1, and another Championship.
By 1944 Chicago had seen only one Windy City Series, that in 1906 with the Cubs and White Sox; New York enjoyed the Subway Series competition between the Yankees and Giants in 1921, 1923, 1936, and 1937; and now it was the only all Mississippi River Championship Series – the St. Louis Cardinals versus the St. Louis Browns. The Browns won their only pennant when nosing out the Tigers by one game, and after taking two of the first three games, they were overtaken by the Cards who won the next three games. and the Championship.
With so many ballplayers in the military the 1945 Series was almost never played, but the two atomic bombs ended World War II in August and so the WS was played that year. It was the Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers, and with so many players still in the service some said no team would be able to win the Series. Tiger Hank Greenberg returned after three and a half years in the Air Corps, hit a home run in his first game back, and followed with a grand slam in the last game of the season giving Detroit the pennant. In the postseason Hank added two homers and batted in seven runs sending the Tigers to a 4 games to 3 Championship.
In 1946 a three-game playoff determined the National League pennant winner between the Cardinals and Dodgers. St. Louis prevailed and then met the Red Sox that had coasted to their pennant flag. In Game 7 the score was 3-all in the last of the eighth when the Cards’ Enos Slaughter scored from first on Harry Walker’s double. When Boston went down quietly in the top of the ninth, St. Louis captured the game and the Series crown.
Part 4 will continue on December 1, 2004.