Pennant Races

The Yankees regained the AL crown after an absence of two years.

• But it wasn't easy as the Cleveland Indians hung tough, finishing 2nd by only 3 games.
• With Babe Ruth in tip-top condition after several poor seasons, manager Miller Huggins added youngsters Lou Gehrig at 1B (.313, 109 RBI, 16 HR) and Tony Lazzeri at 2B (.275, 117 RBI, 18 HR). Rookie SS Mark Koenig greatly improved the infield defense and hit a respectable .271.
• Babe hit .372, second only to Detroit's Heinie Manush, scored a league-leading 139 runs, and drove in a league-high 146. He also led in walks (144), HRs (47), and slugging average (.737).
• Three strong starters anchored the pitching staff: southpaw Herb Pennock (23-11) and righties Urban Shocker (19-11), and Waite Hoyt (16-12).

The St. Louis Cardinals won the city's first pennant in either league. Every other NL team had appeared in the World Series before the Redbirds made it.

• The tight race went down to the second-to-last day. The Cards took first place on August 31 by half a game over the Reds. Despite playing their last 24 games on the road, the Birds maintained a lead the rest of the way ex­cept for one day when they slipped half a game behind. The league re­scheduled a rained-out game for the last Sunday of the season at Cincinnati, but the game became anti-climactic when the Reds lost 7 of 8.
• Rogers Hornsby completed his first full year as player-manager after taking over from Branch Rickey, who continued as what today would be called General Manager. The added duty affected the Rajah's hitting, as his average dropped from .403 in '25, the third time in four seasons he topped the magic .400 mark, to a still-re­spectable. 317. He also missed 20 games due to injuries including two displaced vertebrae and infected boils. He hit consistently but with little power (11 homers after a league-leading 39 in '25).
• Two other Redbirds equalled or bettered their skipper's performance. RF Billy Southworth, obtained in a trade with the Giants on June 14 - perhaps the worst of John McGraw's long and distinguished career - also hit .317 while 3B Les Bell topped the team at .325.
• Flaky Flint Rehm won 20 games against 7 defeats to lead the hurlers. Bill Sherdel (16-12), veteran Jesse "Pop" Haines (13-4), and Vic Keen (10-9) also reached double figures in victories.
• 39-year-old Grover Cleveland "Old Pete" Alexander added 9 triumphs following his purchase from the Cubs June 22.
  Just as the Cards benefitted from McGraw's foolish trade, they obtained Pete because of Joe McCarthy's antipathy toward alcoholics. Taking over from Bill Killefer after the 1928 season for his first major league position, Joe didn't tolerate Alexander's drinking, which the veteran pitcher claimed helped control his epilepsy. So the skipper put Alex on waivers. Pete signed with the Cardinals in part because Killefer was now Hornsby's pitching coach and Pete had gotten along well with Bill the year before.
  Hornsby was fine with the old hurler's drinking, but Rickey arranged for a federal prohibition agent to follow Grover and other drinkers on road trips.
• According to Bell, Hornsby challenged the team the first day of spring training. If there's anybody in this room who doesn't think we're going to win the pennant, go upstairs now and get your money and go on home, because we don't want you around here.
  Hornsby had many spats with players throughout his managerial career. But his '26 Cardinals team seemed to have been a harmonious group, thanks in part to Rogers' simplifcation of signals, pitching instructions, and team regulations in general. C Bob O'Farrell recalled: Hornsby was a great manager as far as I'm concerned. That year in St. Louis, he was tops. He never bothered any of us.Just let you play your own game.

Lou Gehrig

Tony Lazzeri

Mark Koenig

Urban Shocker

Rogers Hornsby

Branch Rickey

Billy Southworth

Les Bell

Flint Rehm

Bill Sherdel

Graham McNamee

• Holm leads off. He took over the CF spot after the regular, Taylor Douthit, was hurt in Game 4. Hoyt comes back from 3-0 to get a grounder to Gehrig.
  Southworth hits a short fly on a 2-2 pitch to Meusel in LF.
  Hornsby, only 5-for-24 in the Series, bounces a grounder just past the reach of the diving Lazzeri into CF.
  Working fast and looking better than in Game 4, Hoyt induces Bottomley to foul out to Gehrig.
• Combs smacks Haines's second delivery on a long line to CF where Holm makes a nice running catch.
  Koenig grounds to Bottomley unassisted.
  A tremendous volley of cheers greets The Babe as he steps to the plate. The crowd then boos as Haines throws three straight balls. They want to see their hero hit one. After the automatic strike, Haines throws ball four to hand Ruth his eighth base on balls of the Series.
  Babe recalled in his autobiography: From a personal standpoint it was a good Series. Hornsby had his pitchers walk me a great deal. But even so I managed to get six hits, four of theem homers, in 20 times at bat, and hit an even .300.
  Meusel swings viciously at the first pitch but misses. On 2-2, Bob cracks a single to CF, Ruth taking 3B.
  Up steps Gehrig, the AL leader in triples with 20 (the most he would hit in a single season in his career). Lou cracks a hard grounder that Hornsby knocks down. The ball rolls a few feet away, but he retrieves it and throws out Gehrig to end the threat. McNamee on radio: If that shot had been three feet either way, it surely would have been a hit. Hornsby had to move fast to get in front of it.
  

2nd inning

• Bell leads off with a liner that 3B Dugan snags to his left and over his head. That is another one that a few inches either way would have turned into a hit.
  Hafey bunts the first pitch foul. He takes a strike, then goes down swinging.
  O'Farrell set a Series record with five straight hits, all singles, in Games 4 and 5. With the count 1-1, Bob skies a long fly to RCF that Babe catches over his shoulder after a hard run to save a double and maybe even a triple. The Babe's batting average is not so high for the series, but he has given eve­rybody a chance to cheer at every game. The catch he just made is one of the best catches of the series.
• As the sky brightens a little, Lazzeri strikes out on a 3-2 pitch.
  Jumping Joe Dugan raps a single to CF.
  On the 1-0 pitch to Severeid, Dugan tries to steal 2B. O'Farrell throws to Thevenow the SS at second and makes a bad throw. Thevenow gets it, however, on the first bounce and gets his man coming down to second. Nice work on Thevenow's part. ... Haines is using his fast ball almost exclusively. Another one - a little low, a ball. Haines is kicking the dirt around in the box now to get a more comfortable footing. Several pitches later, Severeid singles down the 3B line. Anyone but the slow-footed C would have ended up on 2B.
  Hoyt hits the 1-1 pitch back to the mound to retire the side.

3rd inning

• Waite gets two quick strikes on Thevenow but can't get the third one past him as the SS lines a single to LF. It is Tommy's ninth hit of the Series.
  Ruth: There was another guy on the St. Louis team who was poison for us, and that was the little Cardinal shortstop, Tommy Thevenow. In the regular season's averages he ranked last of the regular players on both clubs; but in the World Series he came out top man, with a batting average of .417. He even clipped a home run at the Stadium ...
  Haines bunts the first pitch to Gehrig who tags the batter as Tommy took 2B.
  Holm fouls out to Severeid behind the plate.
  Southworth gets hold of the first pitch and drives a fly to LF. The side is re­tired amid shouts, cries, and whistles.
• Combs grounds a 2-2 pitch to Bottomley who beats the fleet CF to the bag.
  Koenig is up. He is pounding the dirt off his shoes, getting the mud out of his cleats. ... Haines isn't using the curve so much, but when he does, he seems to have nice control. Koenig lifts a long fly to LCF that Hafey takes in.
  Again the crowd is cheering Babe Ruth as he comes to the plate. As on his first plate appearance, the fans boo when Haines throws one out of the strike zone. With the count 1-1, Babe swats a high fly that lands in the RF bleach­ers to give the Yanks a 1-0 lead. Babe Ruth comes in after a slow jogging trip around the circuit, bows and takes off his hat to the crowd.
  Meusel also hits the ball hard, but Hafey catches it in LCF.

Game 7: Waite Hoyt pitching purportedly to Rogers Hornsby. But there's a runner on 2nd base and Hornsby never came to the plate with a runner on 2nd during the game.

• Nobody has ever hit four HRs in any one series before, and as Babe goes into RF, the entire assemblage in the bleachers out there rises to greet him.
  Thus begins the fateful inning that would cost the Yankees the Series.
  The inning starts innocently enough with Hornsby bouncing back to the mound.
  Bottomley raps a single to LF.
  Bell, who homered the previous afternoon, smacks a grounder to Koenig, who boots it. Instead of two out and none on, the Cards have men on first and second with nobody out.
  Waite jumps ahead of Hafey 0-2. Then Chick gets enough wood on the pitch to drop a Texas Leaguer between Koenig and Meusel to load the bags. Meusel could have got the ball without much difficulty if Koenig had stayed away from it.
  O'Farrell lifts an easy fly to LF, but Meusel muffs it. A high fly was driven be­tween center and left. Meusel took the ball away from Combs, I think rightfully because Meusel has such a wonderful arm to throw home to catch the man and keep him from going in, but he dropped the ball. Tie game with the bases still full.
  Thevenow raps a single to RF that scores Bell and Hafey to put the visitors ahead 3-1. I don't care who you are rooting for, New York or St. Louis, it doesn't make any difference. If you are any kind of a sportsman at all, you have got to feel kind of sorry for Waite Hoyt out there pitching a peach of a game and his team simply going blah on him.
  Waite takes matters into his own hands, striking out Haines on three pitches.
  Holm swings and misses a 1-1 pitch and threw his bat all the way down to 3B. Everything is slippery here today. The ball is terribly slippery and the footing on the field too. Wattie then grounds to Koenig who steps on 2B for the force to end the nightmare inning.
• Haines' fast ball certainly has a zip to it today. Gehrig hits a long shot to the opposite field into the stands but just barely foul. He then walks.
  On 2-1, Lazzeri lifts a long fly that Holm makes a very nice catch on. The Yankees are not playing a sacrifice game now, they are trying to hit them out.
  Dugan hits a roller to the mound that sends Gehrig to 2B.
  Severeid socks the first pitch. Oh boy, I hope to tell you Thevenow made a catch! Oh, what a catch of Severeid's liner. It was ten feet up if it was an inch and it started to go by SS Thevenow. ... He went up in the air four feet. ... What a catch!
  

5th inning

• Southworth pops out to Gehrig.
  Hornsby connects with the 1-1 delivery and drives a fly to Combs.
  Bottomley hits a hard grounder to Lazzeri who throws to first to retire the side.
• Huggins lets Hoyt bat for himself, and the P grounds out to SS.
  Combs delivers a clean single over 2B.
  Koenig lines out to Hafey in LF.
  After the HR in the 3rd, Haines pitches carefully to Ruth. The crowd is giving Haines an awful booing for not pitching to Ruth. I don't know whether he has orders to shoot them outside or not, but the first one was very far from the plate. Babe takes first on the fourth wide one. Ruth looks disgusted as he throws his bat clear back to the dugout.
  Meusel confirms the Cardinals strategy by bouncing the first pitch to Haines.
  

6th inning

• Bell hits a long fly to LF.
  Hafey grounds the first offering to Dugan, whose throw pulls Gehrig off the base for NY's third error of the game.
  O'Farrell pops out to Dugan on the first pitch.
  Thevenow is getting a beautiful hand from the crowd. He is getting it for that gorgeous catch. He has been playing quite a little baseball, not only today but during the entire series. With the count 0-2, Hafey takes off for 2B. Thevenow strikes out, and Severeid fires to Koenig to complete the DP.
• For his second straight AB, Gehrig leads off the inning. He lifts a high foul fly down the RF line that goes into the stands. Bottomley was out there ready to take it. If he had an arm about two feet longer, he would have gotten it. Lou hit a grounder to Thevenow, who made another beautiful stop down there. Oh, it was a corker! Way over by second, he was running hard and he had to stretch out like an elastic band or something. That boy is some SS.
  Lazzeri continues his bad day by striking out. The afternoon would only get worse for him.
  Dugan drives a liner well over Thevenow's head for his second hit of the day.
  Haines falls behind Severeid 3-0. Haines is getting into more three and two holes and is pitching them a little wilder. ... They are having a little conference now, Hornsby, Haines, and O'Farrell. After Hornsby and O'Farrell return to their positions, Jesse fires two quick strikes. Then Hank drives a liner to LF. Instead of playing it safe and conceding a single, Hafey tries to make a shoestring catch, but the ball gets away. Severeid makes it to 2B as Dugan, running at the crack of the bat, scores all the way from 1B. 3-2 Cardinals
  Higgins sends Packy Adams out to run for Severeid and Ben Paschal to pinch hit for Hoyt with a chance to tie the game with a base hit. Haines zips a fast ball over the corner. [Paschal] seems to be crowding the plate too hard, and the umpire has warned him. Ben swings and misses to fall into an 0-2 hole. Here it is - a ball just outside. Haines evidently thought it was a strike, and he started in to the dugout ... He throws again, and the result is a high bounder that Haines grabs and throws to Bottomley just in time to avoid any further damage.

7th inning

• Huggins brings in his ace, Pennock, to keep the Cards at bay. Pat Collins completes the new battery. Herb starts Thevenow with a curve for a strike. Tommy then grounds out 5-3
  Despite signs of tiring, Haines hits for himself and launches the first pitch into LCF for a single.
  Holm also makes good contact, driving the ball to Dugan who forces Haines at 2B.
  With the count 3-0 on Southworth, Hornsby calls his RF to the on deck circle for a quick chat. After a strike, Southworth hits back to Pennock, who de­flects the ball to Koenig who tosses to first to retire the side.
• With the top of the order coming up, you can't blame Yankee fans for get­ting their hopes up. And they rise even higher when Combs raps the 0-1 pitch over Thevenow's head, Tommy almost snatching another one.
  Ruth: It was one of baseball's unforgettable innings.
  Koenig bunts the first pitch to Bell at 3B to move Combs up one base.
  Ruth up. They are having a conference in the middle of the diamond, the whole infield. ... The Babe is rubbing his bat and scraping his feet and getting himself set. After Haines throws ball one, McNamee concludes, He has got orders not to pitch to Ruth. He is throwing them away out. As the crowd voices its dis­pleasure, Haines completes the free pass. Ruth threw his bat about a hun­dred feet away. He stopped on his way to first base to tell Bob what to do to the ball.
  Ruth: They gave me another one of those intentional passes that used to tear my guts out when I was itching to get hold of another home-run pitch.
  Meusel wants to atone for his 4th inning muff. After he fouls the first pitch into the stands, O'Farrell goes to the box to talk to Haines. Bob hits the next pitch to Bell, who throws to Hornsby to force Ruth, Combs taking 3B.
  Gehrig strides to the plate with the tying run 90' away. After a called strike and a foul, O'Farrell again visits the mound. Despite the 0-2 count, Haines pitches so carefully to Lou that he walks him to load the bases.
  Lazzeri is up, and the crowd is again shouting, "Poosh-em-up-Tony," "Poosh-em-up-Tony." Again the Cardinal infield is all gathering around the pitcher's box. ... I think that the instructions at the last moment were to let Gehrig walk to get at the man who has already struck out twice today ... It is a long, long wait. I don't know what it is all about, a lot of conversation. Hornsby would reveal after the game that Haines had developed blisters on his pitching hand. So he calls for a new P from the bullpen beyond the OF wall.
  Haines: I had a blister on my finger and after I walked a man to fill the bases, Hornsby came over and looked at the finger and saw how it was. He said, "Well, I guess I'll have to relieve you." I don't know whether he mentioned Aleck's name or not, I just went on into the clubhouse to have my finger taken care of, and I heard the rest of the game on the radio.
  Ruth: Haines was complaining of a blister on a finger and kept looking at his hands and shaking it. Hornsby finally came to the pitcher's box, talked to him a bit, and then beckoned out to the bull pen in left field for a relief pitcher. We had seen old Aleck trudge out there a few innings before, but two or three younger and fresher Cardinal throwers were warmed up and ready to step in - and we could hardly believe it when the old fellow himself came through the bullpen gate and started walking slowly toward the infield. ... Hornsby met him in short left field and stopped him. For a long time Hornsby looked Aleck sharply in the eyes, and whatever he saw satisfied him. For he let him go the rest of the way to the box.
  Cardinal 3B Les Bell recalled the situation 52 years later. I can see him yet, walking in from the LF bullpen through the gray mist. The Yankee fans recognized him right off, and you didn't hear a sound from anywhere in Yankee Stadium as they sat still and watched him. And he took his time. Grover Cleveland Alexander was never in a hurry, and especially not this day. ... He just came strag­gling along, a lean old Nebraskan, his face wrinkled, wearing a Cardinal sweater, his cap sitting on the top of his head and tilted to one side - that's the way he wore it. We were all standing on the mound waiting for him .... And don't think when Alec walked in it wasn't slower than ever - he wanted Lazzeri to stand up there as long as possible, thinking about the situation. When Alec reached the mound Rog handed him the ball and said, "There's two out and they're drunk [meaning the bases were loaded] and Lazzeri's the hitter."
  "O.K.," Alec said. "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to throw the first one to him fast."
  "No, no," Rog said. "You can't throw him a fastball."
  Alec said patiently, "Yes I can. If he swings at it he'll most likely hit it on the handle, or if he hits it good it'll go foul. Then I'm going to come outside with my breaking pitch."
  Rog looked him over for a moment, gave a slow smile and said, "Who am I to tell you how to pitch?"
  To show you what kind of pitcher Alec was and the kind of thinking he did, he said, "I've got to get Lazzeri out now. Then in the eighth I've got to get ... one, two, three. In the ninth I've got to get Combs and I've got to get Koenig, one, two, so when the big son of a bitch comes up there [meaning Babe Ruth of course] the best he can do is tie the ball game." He had it figured out that Ruth was going to be the last hitter in the ninth inning.
  So we all went back to our positions and Alec got set to work. ... He was nearly 40 years old but, doggone, there wasn't another man in the world I would have rather seen out there at that moment than Grover Cleveland Alexander.
  
  As he told Hornsby after Game 6, Alexander didn't warm up in the bullpen. Reaching the mound, he takes off his red sweater and throws his eight allotted practice pitches. (Some accounts say he threw only three or four.)
  Lazzeri steps in. O'Farrell squats and gives a sign, but it's merely a decoy.
  Alex later explained, He don't pay no attention to me, and I don't pay no attention to him ... I just pitch whatever I happen to want to pitch, and I know Bob will get 'em all.
  True to his plan that had sent Tony home 0-4 in Game 6, Pete throws a curve that stays inside. 1-0. Then a high fast ball over the plate. 1-1. Lazzeri gets around on the next curve and drives it hard but foul into the seats down the LF line, just as Pete figured he would.
  Ruth: With the count 1 and 1, Tony then hit a blazing line drive into the left-field stands, but it just curved foul. If the ball had been fair, it would have meant four runs, and Tony would have been the hero of the year. But it missed. That is baseball. The count on Tony was two strikes and one ball.
  Alexander then fires a curve ball breaking low and outside that Lazzeri lunges at and misses. He struck him out! Alexander the Great comes in and strikes out Tony Lazzeri, retiring the side. The entire Cardinal team has rushed over to Alexander, petting him and patting him on the back, and are simply wild over him.
  Afterward, Pete was asked how he felt after fanning Lazzeri. How did I feel? Go and ask Lazzeri how he felt. I felt fine. ... The strain naturally was on Lazzeri.

Lazzeri strikes out with bases loaded.