History of the World Series – 1923
“Somewhere else” turned out to be somethin’ else — a place called Yankee Stadium. The ballpark was hailed for its prime location, enormous seating capacity and beauty. The location — much to the chagrin of the competition-wary Giants — was about a quarter-mile from the Polo Grounds and just across the Harlem River in the Bronx. The Yankee Stadium capacity was 62,000-plus, making it significantly larger than any existing baseball structure (an expanded Polo Grounds now held about 50,000). And, of course, the newness of Yankee Stadium was a gate attraction in itself.
That the addition of Yankee Stadium had enabled New York to corner the market on spacious and dazzling baseball facilities was not lost on the sporting public or the chroniclers of the day.
“It is a thrilling thought that perhaps 2,500 years from now archaeologists, spading up the ruins of Harlem and the lower Bronx, will find arenas that outsize anything that the ancient Romans and Greeks built,” a Philadelphia newsman wrote.
The Giants, who in 1913 had no qualms about asking the struggling Highlanders/Yankees franchise to come in out of the cold and join them as Polo Grounds tenants, had more than a few qualms now. Once considered the “only game in town,” despite the presence of the Brooklyn club and later the Yankees, the Giants had become the second game in town.
While the Yankees had yet to win baseball’s biggest prize, the World Series, the Yankees clearly were winning the battle for fans. After all, they had the game’s No. 1 drawing card — Babe Ruth. And now they had the game’s No. 1 arena.
Soon, the Yankees demonstrated they had major-league baseball’s best team, too. A 16-game victory margin in the AL pennant race was an indication of this club’s capabilities.
Ironically, the player who proved the biggest obstacle in the Yankees’ path to World Series supremacy was Casey Stengel, who more than a quarter-century later won lasting fame as manager of the Bronx Bombers. A 34-year-old Giants outfielder, Stengel was the hero of the first Series game at Yankee Stadium and delivered the big blow in the second game there.
With two out in the top of the ninth inning of Game 1 and the score 4-4, Stengel lined a Joe Bush pitch into left-center field. The ball got between Bob Meusel and Whitey Witt and rolled to the wall, and Stengel set sail around the bases. He ran as hard as a sore-legged, veteran outfielder could. Arms flailing and one shoe half off, Stengel staggered home safely. The inside-the-park home run made Giants reliever Rosy Ryan a 5-4 winner.
The Yankees had now gone winless in their last nine Series games against the Giants, losing eight and tying the other. Ruth and Herb Pennock would put an end to this affront.
Ruth, coming off a season in which he hit .394 and shared the majors’ home run title with the Philadelphia Phillies’ Cy Williams (each rapped 41 homers), hit fourth- and fifth-inning homers in Game 2 and Aaron Ward also connected for the Yankees. Pennock, another in a long and impressive line of standout players acquired from the Boston Red Sox, pitched the distance in a 4-2 Yankees triumph at the Polo Grounds.
With the action alternating between the Yankees’ and Giants’ parks, Stengel was the man of the hour again in Game 3. Through six innings, the American Leaguers’ Sad Sam Jones and the Nationals’ Art Nehf were locked in a scoreless battle. Then, with one out in the seventh, Stengel homered into the right field stands at Yankee Stadium. Nehf made the run stand up, allowing five singles and a double in a 1-0 thriller.
The Yankees then went work. They collected 16 runs and 27 hits in the next two games and coasted to 8-4 and 8-1 victories. Witt had three hits and two RBIs in Game 4. Joe Dugan had four hits and three RBIs in support of Bush’s three-hit pitching in Game 5, which produced the first Series triumph by the Yankees in their new stadium.
Miller Huggins’ team finished off the Giants in Game 6. While Ruth drilled a bases-empty, upper-deck homer in the first inning, the Yankees needed a five-run eighth to overcome the Giants. Bob Meusel supplied the key hit in the big inning, a two-run single that enabled the Yanks to slip ahead, 5-4. The Yankees went on to win, 6-4 with Jones saving the victory for Pennock, who left for a pinch-hitter in the eighth.
In helping his club reach the pinnacle of the baseball world, Ruth had a marvelous Series. He slugged three homers, a triple, a double and two singles, drew eight walks and batted .368. The rival second basemen, Ward and Frankie Frisch, also stood out with 10 hits each. The Meusels also made their marks — the Yanks’ Bob driving in eight runs and the Giants’ Irish hitting a Game 2 homer and collecting all three of his club’s hits in Game 5.
The Giants did thwart the Yankees on one front. When Yanks first baseman Wally Pipp was injured late in the season, the AL club sought permission to use a late-season call-up from Hartford in his place. Giants manager John McGraw blocked the request, and Pipp started all six games. Who was the youngster? A 20-year-old named Lou Gehrig.
The 1923 World Series — which featured two Yankee Stadium crowds in excess of 62,000 and another surpassing 55,000 — was the first to hit the $1 million figure in gate receipts. More significant, though, was the fact this fall classic was the first won by the New York Yankees. Maybe this was a franchise to keep an eye on.
This article was originally published on TSN
Game Recaps from Retrosheet
1923 World Series Stories
The 1923 Post-Season Games
World Series: New York Yankees (4) defeated New York Giants (2)
World Series Game 1 Played on Wednesday, October 10, 1923 (D) at Yankee Stadium I
NY N 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 5 8 0 NY A 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 4 12 1
BOX+PBP WP: Ryan (1-0) LP: Bush (0-1) HR: Stengel (1)
World Series Game 2 Played on Thursday, October 11, 1923 (D) at Polo Grounds V
NY A 0 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 - 4 10 0 NY N 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 2 9 2
BOX+PBP WP: Pennock (1-0) LP: McQuillan (0-1) HR: Ruth 2 (2), Ward (1), Irish Meusel (1)
World Series Game 3 Played on Friday, October 12, 1923 (D) at Yankee Stadium I
NY N 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 1 4 0 NY A 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 6 1
BOX+PBP WP: Nehf (1-0) LP: Jones (0-1) HR: Stengel (2)
World Series Game 4 Played on Saturday, October 13, 1923 (D) at Polo Grounds V
NY A 0 6 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 8 13 1 NY N 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 - 4 13 1
BOX+PBP WP: Shawkey (1-0) LP: Scott (0-1) SV: Pennock (1) HR: Youngs (1)
World Series Game 5 Played on Sunday, October 14, 1923 (D) at Yankee Stadium I
NY N 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 3 2 NY A 3 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 x - 8 14 0
BOX+PBP WP: Bush (1-1) LP: Bentley (0-1) HR: Dugan (1)
World Series Game 6 Played on Monday, October 15, 1923 (D) at Polo Grounds V
NY A 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 - 6 5 0 NY N 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 - 4 10 1
BOX+PBP WP: Pennock (2-0) LP: Nehf (1-1) SV: Jones (1) HR: Ruth (3), Snyder (1)