Beginning a Dynasty: “Jumpin’ Joe” and the Babe again

With the 1923 World Series tied at two games each the season came down to a best two of three series with the Yankees hold home field advantage. The winner of game five would need to win just one more to claim the championship while the loser would have to win two in a row, something that hadn’t happened yet in this World Series.

“Jumpin'” Joe Dugan

Game 5

For game 5 the Yankee bats stayed alive. Although there was no six run inning, the Yanks again put up eight runs and took a three games to two lead in the 1923 World Series.

Gaints starter Jake Bentley didn’t get out of the first inning without being clobbered. With one out Joe Dugan singled and Babe Ruth walked. A Bob Meusel triple scored both runners. A Wally Pipp sacrifice fly brought home Meusel to make the score 3-0.

The Giants got one back in the top of the second on an Irish Meusel triple and a Casey Stengel (there he is again) grounder. That was all they got and unfortunately that meant the Yankees got to bat again. With one out pitcher Bullet Joe Bush singled and went to second when Bentley walked Whitey Witt. That brought up Joe Dugan, who’d singled the previous inning. The lashed a ball into the right center gap and raced all the way around with another inside-the-park home run that scored both Bush and Witt. An error put Ruth on and sent Bentley to the showers. The Yankees tacked on another run when a single and a fielder’s choice scored Ruth to make it 7-1. In the fourth Dugan, Ruth, and Bob Meusel all singled to plate Dugan with the eighth Yankee run.

Bullet Joe Bush coasted for most of the game. After giving up the one run in the second he shut the Giants down. For the game he gave up three hits and two walks while striking out three. But the big hero was Dugan who scored three runs and had three RBIs on four hits.

At this point the Yankees led the World Series three games to two. A victory in either of the remaining games would give them their first ever championship. The Giants were faced with winning two games in a row.

 

Babe Ruth doing his thing

Game 6

Facing elimination in game 6, the Giants sent game 3 winner Art Nehf to the mound. He faced Herb Pennock who’d already tallied a win and a save. With lefty Pennock pitching, Casey Stengel again started the game on the bench.

The Yanks jumped out to a one run lead when Babe Ruth smashed a home run with two outs in the top of the first. The Giants countered in the bottom of the inning with three consecutive singles, the last by Ross Youngs that scored Heinie Groh to tie the game.

That was it for two and a half innings. Nehf gave up one walk and Pennock completely shut down the Giants. In the bottom of the fourth Frankie Frisch bunted his way onto first, then moved up on a groundout and came home on a Billy Cunningham (Stengel’s replacement) single. In the fifth, they tacked on another run with a Frank Snyder home run and in the sixth a Frisch triple and an Irish Meusel single gave the Giants a 4-1 lead.

Nehf got through the seventh and started the eighth with a three run lead. He got the first out then back-to-back singles and a walk loaded the bases. Then he walked pinch hitter Bullet Joe Bush (an opposing pitcher who pinch hit) to force in a run and make the score 4-2. That brought Rosy Ryan in to get the final five outs. He promptly walked Joe Dugan to make the score 4-3. He got Ruth on a strikeout which brought up Bob Meusel. A long single scored two and Dugan came around to score when Cunningham threw the ball away trying to get Dugan at third. With the Yanks now ahead 6-4 on a five run inning, Wally Pipp grounded to second to end the inning.

Pennock got a ground out, gave up a single, then got another ground out for the first two outs of the bottom of the eighth. Manager John McGraw sent up Stengel to pinch hit. For a change he didn’t come through, fouling out to Dugan to end the inning.

The Yanks went in order in the ninth, giving the Giants one more chance to tie the game. A Popfly and a ground out gave the Yankees two outs. A roller to second, a flip to first and the Yanks were world champs for the first time.

As a team, the Yankees hit .293 with five home runs (three by Ruth), four triples, and eight doubles. Dugan hit .280 but drove in five and scored five. Ruth had the three RBIs from his home runs, but scored eight runs. Bob Meusel had two triples and eight RBIs. The pitching came through with an ERA of 2.83 with 18 strikeouts and only 12 walks and 17 runs (all earned). Pennock had two wins (and a save) with Bush and Bob Shawkey picking up the other two wins.

The Giants hit .234 with five home runs (Stengel getting two of them). He hit .417 with the two homers, five hits, four RBIs and three runs while walking four times without a strikeout. One paper summed up the Series with a headline that said “Yankees 4, Stengel 2.” The pitching disappointed. The team ERA was 4,75 with 28 earned runs given up (of 30 total runs) and 20 walks to go with 22 strikeouts. Nehf and Rosy Ryan got the two wins.

Historically it was an important World Series. The Giants were toward the end of a great run by John McGraw. He managed one more pennant in 1924 (and lost the Series to Washington and Walter Johnson) then the team slid off and he never again finished first. For the Yankees it was the beginning of the greatest dynasty in baseball. It was the first of 27 championships.

 

 

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Beginning a Dynasty: the 1923 Giants

Polo Grounds

By 1923 the New York Giants were winners on consecutive World Series’. Except for 1917, they’d been also-runs for most of the 19-teens. They’d roared back in 1921 to defeat the crosstown Yankees in the Series, then done it again the next year. It was, as Giants pennant winners went, a very different team from the normal champs.

Baseballwise, the New York of the early 1920s was the bailiwick of John J. McGraw and the Giants. They’d won consecutive titles, and McGraw was an institution dating back to the turn of the century. More even than Babe Ruth, McGraw was “Mr. Baseball” in New York. That would begin changing with this World Series. The ’23 Giants weren’t a typical McGraw team, a team heavy in pitching and speed. McGraw had adjusted to the “lively ball” era very well and produced a team that led the National League in runs, hits, average, normal “deadball” stats. But it also led the NL in slugging, OBP, OPS, and total bases. They were third in home runs, stolen bases, and doubles, while posting a second in triples. The staff, unlike pre-1920 Giants teams was sixth in ERA, but higher in strikeouts, hits, and runs allowed while being third in shutouts.

The infield consisted of three Hall of Famers. George “Highpockets” Kelly held down first. He hit .307 with 16 home runs and 103 RBIs. The homers were second on the team, while the RBIs were third. His WAR was 2.5. Frankie Frisch at second was a star. He led the team with a 7.1 WAR and was second in runs scored and RBIs while his .348 average paced the regulars. Dave Bancroft also hit .300, but was beginning the downside of his career. He had 46 errors at short and was beginning to be pushed by 19-year-old Travis Jackson, another future Hall of Famer, he was second on the team with 3.7 WAR.. Heinie Groh was the non-Hall of Famer and, at 33, the oldest of the starters. He hit .290 with no power and posted an even 3.0 WAR. Fred Maguire, along with Jackson, was the primary infielder on the bench, although future star, Hall of Famer, and Giants manager Bill Terry got into three games.

Five men did the bulk of the outfield work. Hall of Famer Ross Youngs was in right. He hit .336, led the team with 200 hits and with 121 runs scored, producing an OPS+ of 125 and a 3.6 WAR. The other corner outfielder was Emil “Irish” Meusel, brother of Yankees left fielder Bob Meusel. It’s the first time brothers playing the same position faced each other in a World Series. “Irish” led the team in RBIs with 125, in homers with 19, in triples with 14 and was considered an excellent outfielder, although the general consensus was that his brother had the better arm. All that got him 2.2 WAR. Jimmy O’Connell got into 87 games, most in center field. He hit .250 with six home runs, good for fourth on the team. Bill Cunningham and 32-year-old Charles “Casey” Stengel (another Hall of Famer, but in a different context). were the other two outfielders. Cunningham saw action in 79 games, while Stengel got into 75. Stengel hit .335 and both men had five home runs, good for a fifth place tie on the team. Twenty-three year old future Hall of Fame inductee Hack Wilson got into three games late in the season.

Frank Snyder did most of the catching, getting into 120 games. He was a good defensive backstop but his backup Hank Gowdy hit better. Gowdy, a hero of the 1914 Series, was 33 and not able to catch as often as previously. Alex Gaston and Earl Smith got into just over 20 games each.

The pitching staff was a long ride from the Mathewson, McGinnity, Marquard, Ames staffs of the early century. While those pitchers are still reasonably well known (except maybe Red Ames), the ’23 Giants staff wasn’t filled with household names. Hugh McQuillan, Mule Watson, and Jack Scott were the right handers. McQuillan and Watson both had ERA’s of 3.41 while Scott’s was 3.89. All three had given up more hits than they had innings pitched. McQuillan’s 3.3 WAR was easily highest among the staff. Lefties Art Nehf and Jack Bentley both had ERAs north of four and continued the trend of giving up more hits than having innings pitched. The Bullpen featured spot starter Rosy Ryan who went 16-5 and Claud Jonnard. Both had ERAs in the mid-threes and Jonnard joined the pack that gave up more hits than had innings pitched. Ryan missed making it unanimous by less than four innings.

So it was a good hitting team that could make up for a mediocre pitching staff. Facing the American League pennant winner, mediocre might just not be good enough.

1924: McGraw’s Last Throw

Travis Jackson

After three consecutive National League pennants and two World Series victories (1921 and 1922), the New York Giants rolled to their fourth straight pennant in 1924. It was still John McGraw’s team, but it was a vastly different team from his Deadball teams. Those relied to pitching and timely hitting. This was a team that hit well and the pitching was a notch down from those 1904-1913 teams. It was also McGraw’s final pennant winner.

The infield consisted of five Hall of Famers and one pretty good player. George “High Pockets” Kelly held down first. He led the team with 21 home runs and 136 RBIs. The RBI total led the NL and the homers ranked fourth. He was being challenged at first by second year player Bill Terry. Kelly was, in 1924, still the better player, but McGraw was keen on installing Terry in the lineup. Frankie Frisch played second, hit .328, stole 22 bases, had 198 hits (third in the NL), and scored a league leading 121 runs. The shortstop was 20-year old Travis Jackson, currently in his third year with the Giants. He managed to hit .300 (.302) for the first time in 1924, hit 11 home runs (good for second on the team), and played a good short. At 34, Heinie Groh was the old man on the team, and the only one not later enshrined in Cooperstown. He was famous for the odd shape of his bat (“Bottlebat”), but also played a good third while hitting .281. He was hurt during the season, which allowed the Giants to bring up 18-year old Fred Lindstrom who hit only .253 in 1924, but was considered a coming star. He would figure in one of the most famous plays of the World Series.

Five men, two of them in the Hall of Fame, manned the outfield. The Hall of Famers were Ross Youngs and Hack Wilson. Youngs was the regular right fielder. His .356 led the team in hitting. His 10 home runs were third and his 112 runs scored were second on the team. He would have two years left before being felled by Bright’s Disease. Wilson did much of the center field work. He was not yet the fearsome power hitter he became in the late 1920s at Chicago. He tied Youngs with 10 homers and hit .295. Emil “Irish” Meusel (the brother of Yankees left fielder Bob Meusel) was the primary left fielder. He hit .310 with 102 RBIs. Billy Southworth (who also made the Hall of Fame, but this time as a manager) and Jimmy O’Connell spelled the other three. O’Connell hit .317 and Southworth .256. Neither showed much power.

McGraw used two catchers during the season. Hank Gowdy, who did less during the regular season, did almost all the catching in the World Series. His partner was Frank Snyder. Neither had much power (Snyder had five homers, Gowdy four) and Snyder hit .302 to Gowdy’s .325. Both were right-handed hitters so they weren’t used in a platoon situation.

They caught a staff that was weaker than the old Giants pitching staffs. There was no Mathewson or McGinnity or even a Marquard on the staff (there may have been a Red Ames or two). Six men pitched double figure games: right-handers Virgil Barnes, Hugh McQuillan, Wayland Dean, Mule Watson, and lefties Jack Bentley and Art Nehf. Bentley and Barnes both won 16 games, while Dean actually had a losing record (6-12). Barnes, Bentley, Dean, and Watson all gave up more hits than they had innings pitched while both Dean and Watson walked more men than they struck out. For the Senators Firpo Marberry had 15 saves. The entire Giants staff had 19 with Rosy Ryan leading with five. If it came to the staff and the bullpen, Washington had a distinct advantage.

The 1924 Series was held over seven consecutive days (no day off) with the Senators getting games one, two, six, and seven at home. The papers of the day (at least the ones I’ve found) felt it was going to be Washington pitching against New York hitting. It turned out to be a great series with an unforgettable game seven.