History of the World Series – 1930
Seemingly.
It wasn’t until 1925, in fact, that the Athletics reappeared in the American League’s first division. Rube Walberg had arrived in 1923, and Al Simmons came along in 1924 to bolster the Athletics. Mickey Cochrane, Lefty Grove and Jimmie Foxx (as a 17-year-old) joined the A’s in ’25. And Mule Haas and George Earnshaw made their Philadelphia debuts in 1928. While it took longer to get back to the top than Mack ever imagined, the Athletics made the most of their re-entry into baseball’s elite (the team’s poorest record from 1927 through 1932 was 91-63). Mack’s team nearly upset the heavily favored New York Yankees in the 1928 pennant race, then breezed to the flag in 1929 and won comfortably in 1930.
The ’30 World Series provided Mack with an opportunity to win his fifth fall classic and second in a row. But the opposition would be a St. Louis Cardinals team that batted .314 and featured an all .300-hitting lineup.
That the Cardinals could make contact was obvious. However, everyone was making contact in 1930, baseball’s Year of the Hitter if ever such a designation applied. The Cards’ lofty team average placed only third in the National League, which set a modern major-league record with its .303 membership-wide batting mark. Indeed, six NL clubs had above .300 averages, with the New York Giants setting a modern record with a .319 figure and the Philadelphia Phillies hitting .315. (The Phillies’ pitching staff rendered the offense meaningless by compiling a 6.70 earned-run average, an all-time high in the majors. As might be expected, the Phils finished last.) Balls were flying around the American League, too, as evidenced by its .288 average. And in Simmons, Foxx, Cochrane and Bing Miller, the Athletics had more than their share of mashers.
In the Series opener, the Cardinals collected nine hits and the A’s only five — but all of Philadelphia’s hits went for extra bases and each figured in the American Leaguers’ scoring, which came on single runs in the second, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Two of the A’s hits were homers by Simmons and Cochrane, and they helped Grove beat veteran Burleigh Grimes, 5-2.
Unable to gather more than one hit in an inning in Game 1, Philadelphia made amends quickly in Game 2. After Cardinals pitcher Flint Rhem retired the first two A’s in the first inning, Cochrane homered, Simmons singled and Foxx slugged a run-scoring double. The two runs would be all Earnshaw needed, but the A’s added four more and won, 6-1.
With the scene shifting to St. Louis, the Cardinals found themselves trailing two games to none in the Series. But coming from arrears was nothing new to the Cards, who on the morning of August 1 were tied for fourth place and trailed National League-leading Brooklyn by 11 games.
And rebound the Cardinals did. Wild Bill Hallahan shut out the A’s, 5-0, in Game 3, which had been a scoreless battle until the fourth when Cardinals center fielder Taylor Douthit stroked a home run off Walberg (who had retired all nine batters he had faced to that point). The next day, St. Louis’ 37-year-old Jesse Haines, pitching in his third Series for the Redbirds, was a 3-1 winner in a duel with Grove.
Then, with the Series lead on the line in Game 5, Grimes and Earnshaw hooked up in a masterpiece. Through seven innings, each had allowed only two hits in a scoreless game. Grimes, acquired in June from the Boston Braves and also 37, ran into trouble in the eighth when he loaded the bases with one out, but the famed spitballer worked out of the jam by inducing Max Bishop and Jimmie Dykes to hit into forceouts. In mounting the threat, the Athletics had used a pinch-hitter for Earnshaw — but Mack had just the man ready in the bullpen: Grove. Despite working eight innings the day before, the lefthander came through with a scoreless eighth and the game moved into the ninth.
Cochrane opened the inning by drawing a walk off Grimes, but Simmons popped out. Foxx, who had hit 37 home runs and driven in 156 runs in the regular season, was up next. He measured a Grimes delivery and slammed the ball into the left-field stands. Athletics 2, Cardinals O. And that’s the way the game ended as Grove nailed down the triumph.
While Earnshaw wasn’t Philadelphia’s pitcher of record in the dramatic Game 5, he clearly was throwing with consummate skill. So, with one day of rest, the 30-year-old righthander was Mack’s choice to start Game 6. Gabby Street, the third man to manage the Cardinals to a pennant in five years, opted for Hallahan.
The A’s pounced quickly. And before day’s end, they had parlayed their first-game offensive “strategy” into a Series-deciding victory. Cochrane and Mill rapped run-scoring doubles in the first inning, and Simmons rifled home run in the third off Cardinals reliever Syl Johnson. Dykes solved Johnson for a two-run homer in the fourth and for intents and purposes it was over.
Remarkably, the A’s again made each of their hits an extra-base blow, collecting five doubles in addition to the two homers. And Earnshaw didn’t allow a run until there were two out in the ninth, and he wound up with a five-hit, 7-1 victory.
In the World Series capping the Year of the Hitter, the A’s reigned as champions despite batting .197 in the classic (compared with St. Louis’.200). Mack’s players got the big hits, with 18 of their 35 hits going for extra bases. And the A’s received splendid pitching from Earnshaw, who was 2-0 with a 0.72 earned-run average in 25 innings, and Grove, who followed up a 28-5 regular season by winning two of three decisions with a 1.42 ERA in 19 innings.
Their mastery of the Cardinals made the Athletics the first team in history to win two World Series in a row twice. The A’s previously had won consecutive Series titles in 1910 and 1911.
Look out, Mack was back.
