Wednesday, May 13, 2015

World Series: Did You Know?

The Babe himself was the first player to hit .600 or better in the Fall Classic. I'm not sure he really cared for that stat in the 1928 World Series. You see, he and some of his pals had one thought on their mind: Revenge!

The New York Yankees had lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1926. Babe Ruth, sort of left the field red-faced. He tried to steal a base with two down in the bottom of the ninth, and got gunned out. That's the only time an October Classic has ended that way.

But The Babe had plenty of company. Tony Lazzeri had been the victim of a famous strikeout by Grover Cleveland Alexander, who happened to also be the very first pitcher Babe Ruth faced in the Fall Classic, back in 1915 when he was with the Boston Red Sox.

So, game one of 1928 was a rather tame 4-1 Yankee win at home. Ruth didn't hit a home run, or even collect an RBI. But wait! St. Louis got a grand total of three hits in the game. Babe Ruth? He got three, and scored twice. So he had as many hits as the entire Cardinal team and scored one more run then all of St. Louis. The Babe was making it a point that things were going to be different this time around. And game two really proved that.

New York scored three times in the bottom of the first inning in game two. Lou Gehrig (Who had one amazing World Series in 1928), hit a three-run home run (after Ruth had walked). Who was it off you ask? Why Grover Cleveland Alexander.

The Cards somehow came back in the top of the second to tie it in the top of the second, but it would prove to be their last gasp. New York tallied the go-ahead run in the bottom of the frame, then outscored St. Louis 5-0 the rest of the way. Ruth singled and Gehrig walked to start the rally. Ruth added a double later but was stranded. Now up 2-0, it was "Meet me in St. Louie, Louie," but Ruth and co. had no intention of returning home.

The Bronx Bombers scored seven runs in game three, which was a bit of a come down. But they made sure to hold the Cardinals to just three runs again. St. Louis actually led 2-0 after one, fallen behind 3-2, then squared it at 3 after five. However, three runs by the Yankees in the top of the sixth inning put this thing out of reach. Ruth had hit into a force play that inning, but scored the game-winning run. The next inning, he added a run-scoring single for the Yankees final tally of the game.

So, "How Sweep It Is?" Well, game four actually was close, too, for a little bit. The Yankees just had too many horses going full speed in this game.

None more than Ruth. All he did was hit three home runs. The Cardinals scored their first run on a failed pickoff play at second. Gehrig added a home run in seventh right after Ruth had hit his second. All of this help turn a 2-1 Cardinal lead into a 5-2 Yankee lead.

Leading 7-2 going into the ninth (Ruth hitting his third home run in the top of the eighth), the Yankees needed three more outs. They didn't exactly come easily. The Cards not only scored a run, but the with two down, proceeded to get two more hits to load 'em up. Guess who made a nice catch to end it? Babe Ruth!

The Babe was quite a showman. Without hesitation, everyone knows his 714 lifetime home runs. However, he also batted .342. In the Fall Classic, he was good enough for a .326 lifetime mark, to go along with his (then) record of 15 home runs. Because The Bambino is thought of as a slow runner, many don't know that he also led the league in runs scored eight times (Compared to Ty Cobb, a speedster, leading the junior circuit five times!). In the 1928 Fall Classic, he hit for his highest average ever in the World Series, .625, becoming the first .600 + hitter there. He also scored nine runs despite only getting four RBIs. And, of course, that nice last play. The Babe had showed the way with his usual flair for the dramatic. Of course, I can only imagine that fans of his had come to expect that by that time.




References

Baseball Almanac, Inc. Baseball Almanac: Baseball History, Baseball Records and Baseball Research. Baseball Almanac, Inc. Web. 13 May 2015, <http://www.baseball-almanac.com/>.

Enders, Eric. 100 Years Of The World Series. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. 2005. Print.

Neft, David S., Richard M. Cohen, and Michael L. Neft. The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, 1992. 12th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. Print.

Nemec, David et all. 20th Century Baseball Chronicle: A Year-by-year History of Major League Baseball. Collector's Edition. Lincolnwood, Ill: Publications International, 1993. Print.

Retrosheet. Web. 13 May. 2015.  <www.retrosheet.org>

Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Informationhttp://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 13 May. 2015.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 13 May 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/>

Youtube. Web. 13 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/>

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