History of the World Series – 1929
Seemingly.
Al Simmons, who had topped American League in 1929 with 157 runs batted in, gave the Philadelphia faithful something to cheer about when he led off the last of the seventh with a home run to left. Jimmie Foxx and Bing Miller followed with singles as Connie Mack’s club threatened to take a bite or two out of the Cubs’ hefty lead. Dykes was up next and he, too, singled. With the score 8-2 and two Athletics on base, the crowd began to stir. Joe Boley then delivered another run-scoring single, the fifth consecutive hit off Root, and now it was a five-run deficit. And still no one was out.
George Burns was sent up as a pinch-hitter for Ed Rommel and popped out, but Max Bishop kept things going with a base hit over Root’s head. With the Cubs’ lead pared to 8-4 and Mule Haas strolling to the plate, McCarthy replaced Root with Art Nehf, the 37-year-old lefthander who had won games for the New York Giants in four consecutive World Series earlier in the decade. Haas drove a Nehf pitch to center field, where the Cubs’ Hack Wilson lost the ball in the sun. The ball shot past Wilson and rolled to the fence, and Boley, Bishop and even Haas scored on the play. The misplay-turned-home run sent the crowd into a frenzy. And it left the bewildered Cubs clinging to a one-run lead.
Mickey Cochrane coaxed a base on balls off Nehf, and Sheriff Blake then took over the pitching duties. Simmons, up for the second time in the inning, came through with a single. Now, incredibly, the potential tying run rested at second base. But not for long. Foxx drilled his club’s seventh single of the inning, scoring Cochrane and tying it, 8-8.
Pat Malone, the Cubs’ pitching ace in 1929 with 22 victories and a starter in Game 2, was summoned by McCarthy. Malone got the Cubs into more trouble by hitting Miller with a pitch, loading the bases. That brought up Dykes, who rammed a double to the fence in left. Two runs scored — the ninth and 10th runs of the inning. Malone struck out Boley and Burns, ending the carnage. Simmons, Foxx and Dykes each had two hits in the inning.
The Cubs, understandably in a state of shock after blowing an eight-run lead, went meekly in the rest of Game 4. Philadelphia’s relief pitcher, one Robert Moses (Lefty) Grove, had something to do with that, no doubt. Grove retired Chicago in order in the eighth and ninth innings and struck out four consecutive batters. The A’s, staring at the likelihood of a 2-2 tie in games when they came to bat in seventh inning, now boasted a three games-to-one lead after their unlikely 10-8 triumph and looked to close out the Cubs in Game 5.
Malone obviously had other ideas. Paired against first-game winner Howard Ehmke, he kept the Cubs’ hopes alive with a tremendous pitching performance. Malone and Ehmke were locked in a 0-0 struggle until the fourth inning, when the Cubs struck for two runs and drove Ehmke from the game. Rube Walberg replaced Ehmke and matched Malone zero for zero on the scoreboard. Entering the bottom of the ninth, Chicago still had a 2-0 lead and Malone had yielded only two hits.
Pinch-hitter Waiter French struck out, leaving the Cubs within two outs of sending the Series back to Wrigley Field. Bishop followed with a single, however, and Haas brought the crowd to its feet by slamming a Malone pitch over the right-field wall. Jolted by the game-tying homer, Malone nevertheless got Cochrane to hit a grounder for out No. 2. Simmons then doubled and Foxx was walked intentionally. Bing Miller was the next batter, and he hammered a Malone delivery off the scoreboard and Simmons chugged home with the winning run.
A three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth had dealt the Cubs another stinging defeat, and this time there was, in fact, no tomorrow for the National Leaguers. The 3-2 victory in Game 5 had made Mack’s team the World Series champion for the first time since 1913.
And what a team Mack had. The A’s were 104-46 in 1929 and won the AL pennant by 18 games over the New York Yankees, who had swept the World Series in 1927 and 1928.
While six pitchers on Mack’s staff won 11 or more games in 1929, the A’s manager surprisingly named the 35-year-old Ehmke, a seven-game winner who had worked only 54 2/3 innings, to start Game 1 of the Series. The crafty veteran responded by striking out a Series-record 13 Cubs and winning, 3-1. In Game 2, Foxx belted a three-run homer and Simmons added a two-run shot as the A’s frolicked, 9-3.
Kiki Cuyler’s two-run single and Guy Bush’s steady pitching featured the Cubs’ third-game victory.
