When It Was Just Beginning: One
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by user LouGehrig
It is the greatest dynasty in sports history but only a few astute individuals are aware of when it occurred. Yes, the Yankees have won 26 World Championships and 39 pennants since 1921, but that is not the real dynasty. The real Yankees dynasty began in 1927 and ended in 1953, a period of twenty seven years in which the Yankees won 16 pennants and 15 World Championships. Over the last fifty years, the Yankees have won 19 pennants but only 10 World Championships. No other team---repeat---NO OTHER TEAM in baseball history has won more than 9 World Championships, but when one sets a standard that is thought impossible to achieve and then one achieves that standard, whatever follows, no matter how outstanding, is anticlimactic.
On January 9, 1903, Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the defunct Baltimore American League franchise for the tidy sum of $18,000 and moved it to Manhattan. The New York Highlanders played in a ball park located on 168 St. and Broadway, one of the highest sites in the city, which is why the team was called the Highlanders. Logically, the park was named Hilltop Park.
The Highlanders' teams were not championship teams. The closest they came to winning the pennant was in the fateful season of 1904, a season in which there was no World Series because New York Giants manager John McGraw feared the American League. The official line is that McGraw didn't want to play the "upstart" American League because he and his team's owner, John T. Brush, were feuding with American League president, Ban Johnson, who had allowed the Baltimore franchise to move to New York, but there is more.
Boston had beaten Pittsburgh in the first World Series and some claim that McGraw wasn't unhappy passing up the chance of his Giants becoming Boston's next victim. Many National League owners felt they could not take the chance of losing the World Series to the American League. Interestingly, when the Giants announced that they would not meet the American League champion in a World Series, it appeared as though that champion would be the Highlanders. It wasn't.
Things were different in 1904. At the end of play on October 9, Boston's record was 94-58 with 3 ties. New York was 91-58 with 4 ties. The teams would end their seasons with a doubleheader against each other on October 10. New York had to sweep to win the pennant because only Boston and Chicago would play the entire schedule. In 1904, it didn't matter that New York played and won three fewer games than Boston or that the teams were TIED in the loss column. New York would never play its complete schedule.
Before a crowd of 28,000 fans, New York 41 game winner Jack Chesbro started against Boston's Bill Dineen, who had won a mere 21 games. The game was scoreless until "New York began the run-getting in the fifth inning." The Highlanders sent eight men to the plate, the bases were filled twice, but only two runs scored. It would not be enough. Boston tied the score in the seventh inning and scored the winning run in the ninth inning on a Chesbro wild pitch. Despite beating the Pilgrims in the nightcap to give each team 59 losses, the Pilgrim's three victories in the three games the played that New York didn't, gave Boston its second consecutive pennant.
The Highlanders came close in 1906, finishing 3 games behind Chicago's "hitless wonders" who upset Chicago's Cubs, the team that won 116 games, in the World Series, but that was as competitive as they would be. In 1913, the team moved to the Polo Grounds to share the park with the rival Giants. The Highlanders' name was officially changed to "Yankees," and in 1915, they were purchased by Colonel Jacob Ruppert and Colonel Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston for $1.25 million.
The Yankees did not fare well under the new ownership for the first few years, but on January 3, 1920, the Yankees purchased the contract of Babe Ruth from their friends in Boston. The 1920 Yankees finished in third place, 3 games behind the Indians and a single game behind the White Sox, who had some players who had done some bad things in the previous year's World Series. The Yankees had a .280 team batting average and hit 115 home runs, which was more than twice as many as runner-up St. Louis. It was starting.
The Yankees won the 1921 pennant and as luck would have it, they would face their landlord in the World Series. In the best of NINE Series, the teams would alternate as the home team. The Yankees were the visitors in Game 1 which saw Carl Mays, who was a 27 game winner, opposed by the Giants' Phil Douglas. Mays shut out the Giants, 3-0.
The Yankees were the home team for Game 2. Waite Hoyt, who later became a Cincinnati Reds broadcaster, shut out the Giants on 2 hits as the Yankees again won by a score of 3-0. Things were looking good, but they really weren't.
In the eighth inning, with the Yankees leading 1-0, Yankees shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh reached first when Frankie Frisch booted his ground ball. Ruth forced Peckinpaugh for the first out and Bob Meusel singled to center with Ruth heading for third. George Burns' throw was close, forcing Ruth to slide in order to make it in safely. It was a fateful play.
Ruth scraped his left forearm badly and it was recommended that he rest, but he insisted on playing the next day. Bob Shawkey, who is rarely mentioned when discussing outstanding Yankees' pitchers, Bob Shawkey who was a 20 game winner four different seasons, was facing the Giants Fred Toney. Shawkey was coming off an 18-12 season with a poor 4.08 ERA, while Toney had been 18-11 with a slightly better 3.61 ERA. It figured that runs would score, and they did.
The Yankees scored four runs in their half of the third inning, knocking out Toney and bringing in Virgil "Zeke" Barnes. They were up by 2 games and leading the third by 4 runs. Things seemed to be progressing beautifully, except for the Ruth situation.. Then the Giants answered the Yankees' four runs with four of their own.
Zeke Barnes started the rally with a lead off single. Zeke Barnes pitched seven innings. Zeke Barnes allowed only one run. Zeke Barnes was the winning pitcher in a 13-5 Giants' victory. The Yankees now led the Series, 2 games to 1. Ruth's arm had become so painful he was forced to leave the game in the eighth inning. His arm was put into a sling.
Game 4 was rained out, which gave Ruth a day to rest, but it was a bleak situation. Yankees' manager Miller Huggins, when questioned by reporters, responded philosophically, "It is a tough break for us, but it is all part of the game. Whether Ruth will be able to play again during the series I cannot say definitely, but I fear he will not. He will be unable to play tomorrow, that is certain"
Game time arrived and Ruth appeared on the field early with his elbow in a tight bandage. It was expected that Chick Fewster would be the Yankees' left fielder but after fielding practice, Ruth rose from the Yankees' bench, his glove on his right hand, and trotted to left field. The player who would be rated the greatest of all baseball players grounded out his first at bat, singled viciously to right field in his second at bat, struck out, and then hit the Series' first home run, but the Giants won, 4-2, as Phil Douglas beat Carl Mays to even the Series. It would get worse.
Twenty two year old "veteran" right hander Waite Hoyt started Game 5 for the Yankees. The Giants countered with Art Nehf. Hoyt was touched up for 10 hits but all the Giants could convert the 10 hits and 2 walks they received was into a single first inning run.
Ruth was hurting. After striking out in the first inning, he surprised everyone by bunting for a base hit leading off the fourth inning. Ruth beat it out and scored the lead run, which turned out to be the winning run, when Bob Meusel doubled him home. Meusel scored on a sacrifice fly as the Yankees again took the Series lead, 3 games to 2, but the Yankees would not beat the Giants again for two years.
Ruth was unable to play the after Game 5. He pinch hit for Wally Pipp in the final game, grounding out harmlessly to finish with only 16 at bats, a respectable 5 hits for a .313 average with a home run and 4 RBIs. The Giants won the next three games to win the Series, 5 games to 3.
References:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/nyy/history/timeline1.jsp
http://tsn.sportingnews.com/archives/worldseries/1905.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_World_Series
Greenberg, Eric Rolfe. (1993). The Celebrant. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.
"Boston's Win American League Championship; New Yorks Lose by the Errors of Williams and Chesbro." New York Times, 11 October 1904, p.7. "Ruth Out, Probably for Series, as Rain Prevents 4th Game; Huggins Fears Star Slugger's Infected Arm Won't Heal Before Championship is Settled." New York Times, 9 October 1921, p.1.
"Ruth Gets a Homer, but Giants Win, 4-2; World Series Tied; "Babe" Realizes Ambition in Ninth by Defying Doctor and Slugging Ball Past Stand." 10 October 1921, p.1.
"Ruth Near Collapse After his Bunt Wins for Yankees, 3 to 1; Both Legand Injured Arm in Bandages, Limping Player Scores Deciding Run. Hoyt Give Giants 10 Hits but His Gameness and Poor Base Running by Rivals Hold Nationals to Single Tally." 11 October 1921, p.1.
Date
Sun 07/02/06, 8:24 am EST
