1928 World Series

1928 World Series
Team (Wins) Manager(s) Season
New York Yankees (4) Miller Huggins 101-53, .656, GA: ​2 1⁄2
St. Louis Cardinals (0) Bill McKechnie 95–59, .617, GA: 2
Dates October 4–9
Umpires Brick Owens (AL), Cy Rigler (NL), Bill McGowan (AL), Cy Pfirman (NL)
Hall of Famers Umpire: Bill McGowan
Yankees: Miller Huggins.
Cardinals:
Broadcast
Radio NBC, CBS
Radio announcers NBC: Graham McNamee and Phillips Carlin
CBS: J. Andrew White
World Series

In the 1928 World Series, the New York Yankees swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games. This was the first time a team had swept consecutive Series.

Babe Ruth hit .625 (10 for 16) as the Yankees demolished their opponents by a combined score of 27 to 10. As he had done against the Cards in the 1926 Series, Ruth rocketed three home runs over the right field pavilion in Sportsman's Park in Game 4, the only one to do it twice in the World Series through the 2016 season. Unlike 1926, however, it occurred in the final game of a Series won by the Yanks and put an exclamation mark on their two consecutive World Series sweeps.

Lou Gehrig also had a good Series, hitting .545 ( 6 for 11) with four home runs. He drove in as many runs by himself (9) as the entire Cardinal team combined.

Bill McKechnie became the second manager to lead two different teams to the World Series, and like Pat Moran, won one and lost one.

Summary

AL New York Yankees (4) vs. NL St. Louis Cardinals (0)

GameDateScoreLocationTimeAttendance 
1October 4St. Louis Cardinals – 1, New York Yankees – 4Yankee Stadium1:4961,426[1] 
2October 5St. Louis Cardinals – 3, New York Yankees – 9Yankee Stadium2:0460,714[2] 
3October 7New York Yankees – 7, St. Louis Cardinals – 3Sportsman's Park2:0039,602[3] 
4October 9New York Yankees – 7, St. Louis Cardinals – 3Sportsman's Park2:2537,331[4]

Matchups

Game 1

October 4, 1928 1:30 pm (ET) at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York
Team123456789RHE
St. Louis000000100131
New York10020001X470
WP: Waite Hoyt (1–0)   LP: Bill Sherdel (0–1)
Home runs:
STL: Jim Bottomley (1)
NYY: Bob Meusel (1)

The weather in New York was terrific for the opener. But it soon seemed dark and cloudy where the Cardinals stood.

Same as 1926, Sherdel took the mound in Game 1 for the Cards. But this time the Series quickly developed more into a hitting contest between Ruth and Gehrig than a typical World Series matchup.

Ruth doubled with 2 outs in the first inning. Gehrig followed with an RBI double. Ruth lashed another double in the fourth and scored ahead of Bob Meusel's home run, one of only four hits off Sherdel in his seven innings. Consecutive singles by Mark Koenig, Ruth and Gehrig-for his second RBI-against Cards reliever Syl Johnson gave the Yankees the 4th run and a 1–0 series lead.

Game 2

October 5, 1928 1:30 pm (ET) at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York
Team123456789RHE
St. Louis030000000341
New York31400010X982
WP: George Pipgras (1–0)   LP: Grover Cleveland Alexander (0–1)
Home runs:
STL: None
NYY: Lou Gehrig (1)

The Cardinals produced 30 percent of their runs in the Series in the second inning of game 2. Three of them.

George Harper walked, Jimmie Wilson doubled, Rabbit Maranville singled, and Grover Cleveland Alexander reached on second baseman Tony Lazzeri's errant throw. It tied the game at 3–3.

And then, it was over. George Pipgras allowed only two more Cardinal hits, walking 3 other St. Louis batters. Miller Huggins helped him straighten out a delivery problem. Pipgras baffled the Cards with curveballs, and they couldn't score again.

New York went ahead 4–3 in the bottom of the second off Alexander, who completely fell apart in the third. Not getting pitched around by St. Louis in this series. Ruth led off with a single. Gehrig, having homered earlier (in the first inning to give the Yankees a 3–0 lead), drew a walk, and Meusel drove in a run with a double. After a walk loaded the bases, Benny Bengough chased Alexander with an RBI lead.

A hit batsman and another run-scoring hit made for a 4-run frame, and the Yankees are half way to another World Championship.

Game 3

October 7, 1928 1:30 pm (CT) at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri
Team123456789RHE
New York010203100772
St. Louis200010000393
WP: Tom Zachary (1–0)   LP: Jesse Haines (0–1)
Home runs:
NYY: Lou Gehrig 2 (3)
STL: None

The Redbirds led only 3 times the entire series and held an advantage in this game for 3 whole innings. They put up a 2–0 bulge in inning 1 on singles by Andy High and Frankie Frisch, followed by a dazzling line drive that so confounded center fielder Cedric Durst that Jim Bottomley wound up with a 2-run double.

The only other St. Louis run came in the 5th, when Taylor Douthit was hit by a pitch and scored to make it 3–3 game on High's 2-base knock.

Where the Cardinals had to plead for their runs, the Yankees used brute force to win this game. Gehrig belted a second-inning homer into the right-field pavilion. In the fourth, Ruth laced a single. and Gehrig followed with a screaming line drive that skipped over the head of hard charging fielder Douthit. The ball rolled to the fence, and Gehrig did a 120-yard dash for a two-run inside-the-park homer.

Ruth took to the bases again in the sixth when his grounder forced out Koenig. Gehrig drew a walk. 3rd baseman High fielded Meusel's bouncer and tried to start a double play. His throw got Gehrig at second, but Frisch's relay went wild and rolled to the fence. As Bottomley scampered after the ball, Ruth rounded third base and headed for home. The throw beat him, and umpire Bill McGowan called him out, But Ruth's terrific impact in the collision jarred the ball loose from catcher Jimmie Wilson, and McGowan changed the call.

Later in the inning, Meusel scored on the front end of a double steal, and the Yankees scored yet another run to open a 6–3 lead enroute to a 3–0 series lead.

Game 4

October 9, 1928 1:30 pm (CT) at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Missouri
Team123456789RHE
New York0001004207152
St. Louis0011000013110
WP: Waite Hoyt (2–0)   LP: Bill Sherdel (0–2)
Home runs:
NYY: Babe Ruth 3 (3), Lou Gehrig (4), Cedric Durst (1)
STL: None

The Cards led 2–1 in the top of the seventh. 21-game-winning southpaw Will Sherdel had an 0–2 count on Babe Ruth, who turned to say something to catcher Earl Smith, Sherdel "quick-pitched," or threw without a windup, for what he thought was strike three on the Babe.[5] "Quick pitches" were legal in the National League, but not in the American League or the World Series. So NL plate umpire Cy Pfirman called "no pitch," touching off a vociferous argument with the Cardinals they couldn't win. Ruth then took two balls to even the count at 2–2 before homering to tie the game at two apiece. Gehrig's ensuing back-to-back home run, his fourth of the Series, gave the Yanks a lead they never relinquished. They scored twice more in the seventh, and Ruth capped things off with his third homer of the game in the two-run Yankee eighth.[6]

St. Louis scored a lone run in the bottom of the ninth to make it 7–3, but that was their last gasp as future Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch hit a left field foul fly caught on the run by none other than the Babe up against the stands, as angry Cardinal fans swatted the "Sultan of Swat" with newspapers and programs. But Ruth merely kept running right into the dugout, holding the ball in the air and giving the Yanks their second straight World Series sweep.

In 1930, Ruth called this game the biggest thrill of his career.[5]

Composite line score

1928 World Series (4–0): New York Yankees (A.L.) over St. Louis Cardinals (N.L.)

Team123456789RHE
New York Yankees42450363027376
St. Louis Cardinals23111010110275
Total attendance: 199,072   Average attendance: 49,768
Winning player's share: $5,813   Losing player's share: $4,181[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ "1928 World Series Game 1 – St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Yankees". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  2. ↑ "1928 World Series Game 2 – St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Yankees". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  3. ↑ "1928 World Series Game 3 – New York Yankees vs. St. Louis Cardinals". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  4. ↑ "1928 World Series Game 4 – New York Yankees vs. St. Louis Cardinals". Retrosheet. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  5. 1 2 Creamer, Robert (1974). Babe: The Legend Comes to Life. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-21770-4.
  6. ↑ This was Ruth's second three home run game in the World Series, following Game 4 of the 1926 World Series and he was, as of 2012, the only player to hit three home runs in two World Series games.
  7. ↑ "World Series Gate Receipts and Player Shares". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved June 14, 2009.

References

  • Cohen, Richard M.; Neft, David S. (1990). The World Series: Complete Play-By-Play of Every Game, 1903–1989. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 124–127. ISBN 0-312-03960-3.
  • Reichler, Joseph (1982). The Baseball Encyclopedia (5th ed.). Macmillan Publishing. p. 2136. ISBN 0-02-579010-2.
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