History of the World Series – 1928
When the season ground to a halt, Yankees had withstood the Athletics’ furious challenge and won their third consecutive American League pennant. The margin was 2 1/2 games.
The Yankees entered the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals not only with wounded pride over their runaway-turned-close pennant call but also with wounded personnel. Pitcher Herb Pennock (17-6) was on the sidelines for the Series with a sore arm. Center fielder Earle Combs was available only as a pinch-hitter because of a broken finger. Second baseman Tony Lazzeri was a liability afield with a lame throwing arm, which resulted in rookie Leo Durocher serving as a late-game defensive replacement in the Series. And Babe Ruth was playing on a bad ankle.
Ruth, ankle injury and all, and slugging mate Lou Gehrig put on an astounding display in the Series. In the opener, Ruth rapped a single and two doubles and scored twice and Gehrig was 2-for-4 with two RBIs as the Yankees beat Bill Sherdel and the Cardinals 4-1. Bob Meusel socked a two-run home run for the Yankees, who received three-hit pitching from Waite Hoyt.
Facing their World Series nemesis of two years earlier, Grover Cleveland Alexander, in Game 2, the Yankees struck with a vengeance. Gehrig unloaded a three-run homer in the first inning and New York, collecting another run in the second and four in the third, went on to a 9-3 romp. Ruth singled and doubled and scored two runs.
Gehrig stole the show in Game 3, and Ruth was the show in Game 4. Gehrig drilled two homers — the first a bases-empty shot and the second a two-run drive — as the Yankees took a three-game-to-none lead with a 7-3 victory. Ruth had two more hits for New York. Then, in Game 4, The Bambino walloped solo home runs in the fourth, seventh and eighth innings and Gehrig connected after Ruth’s smash in the seventh. The Yankees had dispatched the Cardinals in four games, putting them away with another 7-3 victory. New York hit a Series-record five homers in the decisive game with Cedric Durst also banging one over the boards.
Ruth’s homer parade was marvelous theater. For the second time in three World Series, Ruth had crushed three home runs in one game — and each performance came in Game 4 at Sportsman’s Park. In the ’28 version of the prodigious feat, Ruth’s second homer came after the Cardinals’ Sherdel had thrown a third-strike quick pitch past the Bambino. However, umpire Cy Pfirman ruled against the delivery and Ruth subsequently slashed a Sherdel pitch over the right field pavilion.
Ruth and Gehrig went 16-for-27 at the plate — a .593 average — against the Cardinals and hammered seven homers with 13 RBIs. Ruth set a Series record with a .625 average and set a four-game Series mark with 10 hits; Gehrig, who hit .545, knocked in a record nine runs for a four-game fall classic.
Incredibly, the other Yankees batted .196. But the heroics of Ruth and Gehrig and solid pitching by Hoyt, George Pipgras and Tom Zachary — the only hurlers New York used — were more than enough to handle the Cards. Hoyt won twice, following his success in Game 1 by going the distance in the clincher despite allowing 11 hits. Pipgras, who led the Yankees staff with 24 victories (one more than Hoyt), fired a four-hitter in the second game and Zachary, after a rough start, shut down St. Louis on one run in the final eight innings of Game 3.
Only one Cardinal regular batted .300 or higher in the Series, and just one Redbird had more than one RBI. Shortstop Rabbit Maranville hit .308 and first baseman Jim Bottomley — who belted his club’s only homer of the Series — had three RBIs.
The Series proved quite a turnaround from the ’26 affair for St. Louis, now under the direction of Bill McKechnie, who succeeded Bob O’Farrell as manager in 1928 after O’Farrell had filled the Cardinals’ managerial void in 1927 following the Rogers Hornsby-for-Frankie Frisch trade with the New York Giants. Tommy Thevenow, the Cards’ leading hitter in their first Series meeting with the Yankees, was playing behind the 36-year-old Maranville and made just one brief appearance in the Series. And Alexander, who had a 1.33 ERA in 20 1/3 innings in the ’26 Series, collapsed to a 19.80 ERA in five innings in ’28.
For the Yankees, the World Series was expiation for their late-season decline. And it was proof that Huggins’ team, having swept the last two Series, was baseball’s finest.
This article was originally published on TSN
Game Recaps from Retrosheet
1928 World Series Stories
The 1928 Post-Season Games
World Series: New York Yankees (4) defeated St. Louis Cardinals (0)
World Series Game 1 Played on Thursday, October 4, 1928 (D) at Yankee Stadium I
STL N 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 1 3 1 NY A 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 x - 4 7 0
BOX+PBP WP: Hoyt (1-0) LP: Sherdel (0-1) HR: Bottomley (1), Meusel (1)
World Series Game 2 Played on Friday, October 5, 1928 (D) at Yankee Stadium I
STL N 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 4 1 NY A 3 1 4 0 0 0 1 0 x - 9 8 2
BOX+PBP WP: Pipgras (1-0) LP: Alexander (0-1) HR: Gehrig (1)
World Series Game 3 Played on Sunday, October 7, 1928 (D) at Sportsman’s Park III
NY A 0 1 0 2 0 3 1 0 0 - 7 7 2 STL N 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 3 9 3
BOX+PBP WP: Zachary (1-0) LP: Haines (0-1) HR: Gehrig 2 (3)
World Series Game 4 Played on Tuesday, October 9, 1928 (D) at Sportsman’s Park III
NY A 0 0 0 1 0 0 4 2 0 - 7 15 2 STL N 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 - 3 11 0
BOX+PBP WP: Hoyt (2-0) LP: Sherdel (0-2) HR: Durst (1), Ruth 3 (3), Gehrig (4)
