1926 World Series: Alexander in the Rain

The Teams
National League: St. Louis Cardinals (89-65) - First World Series
American League: New York Yankees (91-63) - Fourth World Series (Won in 1923)

What Happened
Lou Gehrig tossed the bat aside and jogged to first. The Yankees would have probably much preferred to have Gehrig swing the bat, but the Cardinals were having none of it, not with Game 7 of the World Series on the line. So Gehrig went to first, and the bases were loaded, and Tony Lazzeri walked to the plate. 1926 was Lazzeri's rookie season, but he hit the ground running, hitting 18 home runs, driving in 114 runs, and finishing 10th in the MVP voting. He wasn't Ruth or Gehrig, but he was a feared hitter.

So the Yankee fans roared to life. They were still down 3-2, with two outs in the seventh, but they had all the momentum. Cardinals manager Rogers Hornsby walked slowly in from his position at second base to the mound to speak to pitcher Jesse Haines. Haines, a knuckleballer, had thrown a great game, capping off a great series, but he couldn't go on. All those knuckleballs had popped blisters on his finger tips; he was bleeding, and it was raining to boot, so he couldn't grip the ball. So with the crowd still roaring, Hornsby pointed out to the bullpen beyond the outfield.

The bullpen door swung open, and out walked a tall, lanky figure, walking slowly, deliberately through the mist. The man walking toward the mound had seen it all, done it all, except win the World Series. Now here he was, 39 years old, alcoholic and epileptic, coming in for the most important appearance of his career. And at the sight of him, the Yankee fans fell deathly silent.

Grover Cleveland Alexander, often known as Old Pete, had already won 327 games when he walked toward the Yankee Stadium mound that day. More importantly, he had beaten the Yankees twice in that World Series, including a complete-game victory the previous day. Because of those nine innings, nobody expected him to see the mound in Game 7, most of all, probably, Alexander himself. But there he was, taking the ball from Hornsby and preparing to save the Cardinals' season. And the Yankee fans fell silent, because they knew what he could do.

Hornsby asked Alexander how he wanted to pitch to Lazzeri. Alexander wanted to start him with a high and inside fastball. Hornsby wasn't sure, but Alexander said "Sure, he'll swing, but he'll never be able to keep it fair." Hornsby nodded and jogged back to his position. Alexander turned toward the plate to face Lazzeri, one epileptic to another, and fired a high and inside fastball. Lazzeri swung and blasted it high and deep to left, and for a moment, Yankee fans had hope. But just like Alexander had predicted, the ball started drifting, eventually landing safely foul in the seats in deep left. Strike one.

Having shown Lazzeri the fastball, the wily Alexander now had the rookie right where he wanted him. The next two pitches were breaking balls, starting in the middle of the plate and breaking hard away. Lazzeri had no chance, flailing at both of them to strike out and end the inning.

Alexander's strike out of Lazzeri was the biggest out of the series, but it wasn't over yet. Alexander retired the next five Yankees, bringing up Babe Ruth with two out in the bottom of the ninth. It was a potentially great moment, the Hall of Fame pitcher against the greatest player of all time with a World Series on the line. But Alexander and Hornsby wanted nothing to do with it. Ruth had already homered four times in the series, and Alexander wasn't going to make it five. He walked Ruth, officially not intentionally, but it might as well have been. And just as Alexander settled in to face Bob Meusel, Ruth inexplicably broke for second.

Maybe he was frustrated at the Cardinals refusing to pitch to him, as his ninth inning walk was his fourth of the game and his 11th of the series. Or maybe he thought he could catch the Cardinals napping and put himself in scoring position. Whatever he was thinking, most observers agreed that Ruth's decision to try to steal in the 9th inning of Game 7 was by far the worst decision of his career, maybe even the only mental mistake he ever made. He was thrown out by a mile. The Cardinals were World Champions.

MVP
Had Haines been able to finish Game 7, he might have had an argument. But Alexander won the MVP award the moment those bullpen doors opened in Game 7.  (Well, there wasn't an official MVP award back then, but you get the idea). Along with his Game 7 save, Alexander won Games 2 and 6 and gave up only four runs on 12 hits while striking out 17 in 20 innings pitched. And while he pitched in four more seasons after 1926, the World Series title was the fitting cap to a brilliant career.

Random Fact
The Cardinals were the last National League team to make it to a World Series. By 1926, the only team that hadn't made it were the Browns, the Cardinals' landlords, who wouldn't break through until 1944.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

St. Louis	1	6	4	5	2	10	3
New York	2	2	0	10	3 (10)	2	2

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

13. 1926 - St. Louis (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
14. 1995 - Atlanta (N) def. Cleveland (A) 4-2
15. 1960 - Pittsburgh (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
16. 1952 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
17. 1997 - Florida (N) def. Cleveland (A) 4-3
18. 1993 - Toronto (A) def. Philadelphia (N) 4-2
19. 1956 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
Numbers 20-29
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

3. 1960: Pittsburgh 10, New York (A) 9
5. 1997: Florida 3, Cleveland 2
7. 1946: St. Louis (N) 4, Boston (A) 3
9. 1925: Pittsburgh 9, Washington 7
10. 1926: St. Louis (N) 3, New York (A) 2
12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
14. 1952: New York (A) 4, Brooklyn 2
15. 1971: Pittsburgh 2, Baltimore 1
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
23. 1973: Oakland 5, New York (N) 2
24. 2002: Anaheim 4, San Francisco 1
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
35. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0
36. 1956: New York (A) 9, Brooklyn 0

1918 World Series: Ruth on the Bench

The Teams
American League: Boston Red Sox (75-51) - Fifth World Series (won in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916)
National League: Chicago Cubs (84-45) - Fifth World Series (won in 1907, 1908)

What Happened
It's commonly known that Babe Ruth was an all-star caliber pitcher before he became known as the game's greatest slugger. What isn't as well known is that there was really only one season where he was both. In 1918, with the Red Sox roster devastated by old age and World War I enlistments, Boston manager Ed Barrow had little choice but to use Ruth in both roles. Ruth started 20 games for Boston, going 13-7 with a typically wonderful ERA. When he wasn't pitching, Ruth was playing left field, the first time in his career he had seen extended action in the outfield, and he didn't disappoint. He hit an American League-high 11 home runs (out of only 15 the Red Sox hit as a team) and led the team in doubles, runs batted in, and batting average.

With such a powerful, versatile player in their midst, it didn't really matter that the rest of the Red Sox were ho-hum at best. Ruth won the American League pennant basically by himself, and his presence in the lineup made the Red Sox the easy favorites over the Cubs in the World Series, which was played the first week of September as baseball was forced to shut down the season early for World War I.

Entering the series, though, Boston manager Ed Barrow made a curious decision. He announced that Ruth would appear in the series only as a pitcher, not as an outfielder. Barrow said his reason was that the Cubs were going to use only left-handed pitchers in the series, but that excuse rang as hallow then as it does now. There was no good reason for Barrow to deprive himself of his team's best weapon. But he did it anyway. (Even more curiously, it wasn't the first time that had happened. Ruth got only one at bat in Boston's 1915 World Series victory and only started one game in the 1916 series. Makes you wonder what the Boston management was thinking).

Ruth showed just how dominant he could be on the mound in Game 1 by shutting out the Cubs, continuing his personal World Series scoreless innings steak to 22. The Red Sox needed every bit of his brilliance, too, as they could only manage 1 run off Hippo Vaughn, who won the National League's pitching triple crown in 1918. But after his shutout in Game 1, Ruth retreated to Boston's bench, not budging as his team split games 2 and 3, scoring only three total runs in the process.

Barrow's decision was justified a little bit by the surprising good play by Ruth's replacement in left field, George Whiteman. Even though he was 35 years old, Whiteman had played only 15 career Major League games before the 1918 season began, but he handled himself well as Ruth's backup in the outfield. Starting all six games of the series instead of the two or three he probably should have started, Whiteman surprised in the series, getting several clutch hits and making two huge defensive plays - a running catch in the fourth inning of Game 3 that saved at least one run, and a stumbling catch in the eight inning of Game 6 to preserve a one-run lead. But it's not like Ruth couldn't have made those catches - he was still a lean, muscular athlete in 1918, nothing close to the pot-bellied slugger that has become his trademark. And the Red Sox only scored nine runs in the series, so you imagine he could have added at least a couple more to that tally.

But alas, the Red Sox didn't need him. They had a 2-1 series lead when he took the mound again in Game 4, and though he finally gave up a run - ending his scoreless innings streak at 29 innings - he hit a two-run triple that helped the Red Sox to a 3-2 win and a 3-1 series lead. He then became a spectator again, watching as they were shut out in Game 5, then as they won Game 6 2-1. He was on the field at the end of Game 6, but as a defensive replacement.

It didn't make sense, but it worked, as the Red Sox celebrated their championship, their fifth in the first 15 years of the World Series. It started to fall apart after that. Ruth requested to play just one position in 1919 - either pitcher or outfield - and the Red Sox picked outfield. He responded with a then-Major League record 29 home runs, then was promptly sold to the Yankees. After selling Ruth, Barrow followed him to New York, taking over as general manager of the Yankees and eventually building baseball's first great dynasty. Meanwhile, after beating the Cubs in 1918, the Red Sox waited 88 years to win their next title.

MVP
Ruth was the MVP. Two complete-game wins, plus the two-run triple in Game 4. Looking back, it almost looks like he was the only player on the field who knew how to play the game. Imagine if he had played every game in the series.

Random Fact
Ruth batted sixth in Game 4, the first and only time a pitcher has batted anywhere but 9th in a World Series game.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Chicago	0	3	1	2	3	1
Boston	1	1	2	3	0	2

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

26. 1918 - Boston (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-2
27. 1988 - Los Angeles (N) def. Oakland (A) 4-1
28. 1946 - St. Louis (N) def. Boston (A) 4-3
29. 1925 - Pittsburgh (N) def. Washington (A) 4-3
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1921 World Series: Ruth's Knee

The Teams
National League: New York Giants (94-59) - Sixth World Series (Won in 1905)
American League: New York Yankees (98-55) - First World Series

What Happened
Few offensive players have ever been better than Babe Ruth was in 1921. Aside from his jaw-dropping 59 home runs and 171 runs batted in - both major league records at the time - he also led the league in runs scored, walks, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage and was top-ten in batting average, doubles, triples, stolen bases and hits. He was an offensive force like none other, and he virtually single-handedly got the Yankees to their first World Series.

Because Ruth was larger than life, he was the main story of the first all-New York World Series and the first series played entirely in one stadium. It's no surprise, then, that the turning point of the series involved Ruth. However, it wasn't a gigantic blast that turned the series around, but Ruth's knee. He played the first five games of the series in varying degrees of pain, but, with the Yankees up 3-2, he could go no further, and the Yankees would have to be without him for the rest of the series.

Ruth had been big in getting the Yankees the series lead, but the true keys had been their pitching. They opened the series with a pair of 3-0 wins; Carl Mays won the first game, giving up five hits and getting 17 groundball outs, while Waite Hoyt gave up only two hits in Game 2. Oddly, the Yankees had a player steal home in both games.

The Giants got 20 hits to win Game 3, then used an 8th-inning rally to tie the series in Game 4. Then, Hoyt struck again, getting another complete-game shutout, albeit giving up 10 hits in the process.

Then Ruth was forced out of the series, and the Giants took advantage. After an 8-5 Giants win in Game 6 - in which all but one of the runs came in the first four innings - the games got tight and hitting became a premium. The Giants took Game 7 - which wasn't the final game, since this was the last of the best-of-nine series - on a two-out single by Frank Snyder in the seventh inning.

Defining Game
Game 8 was the third matchup between the Yankees' Hoyt and the Giants' Art Nehf. The Yankees had gotten the better of the matchups the first two times, with the Giants getting only a single unearned run in the two games. Hoyt was a little rusty early, walking two batters in the first inning, but it looked like he was out trouble when he got George "High Pockets" Kelly to ground weakly to short with two outs. But Roger Peckinpaugh let the ball go between his legs, and the Giants had been given a gift 1-0 lead.

It was all they needed. The Yankees challenged a few times - Wally Pipp struck out with two on to end the first, and Wally Schang flied out with the bases loaded in the fourth - but for the most part, Nehf was in control. It was still 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth when Ruth emerged from the dugout to pinch-hit. He was obviously not himself, though, and he could only ground weakly to first to open the inning. After a walk to Aaron Ward, Home Run Baker, former great of the Philadelphia A's, came up. Baker grounded one to the right side that looked destined to be a single to right, but the Giants' Johnny Rawlings tracked the ball down to get Baker at first. Meanwhile, Ward thought the ball got through to right field, so he rounded second and kept going to third. Kelly fired the ball across the diamond to Frankie Frisch to nail Ward for the most unusual World Series-ending double play of all time.

MVP
This is a difficult series to pick an MVP for. The Giants were pretty balanced offensively, so no one player really stood out. The pitchers dominated the Yankees hitters, but the best pitcher - Art Nehf - had a 1-2 record.  Hard to pick an MVP with that record. I'm going to go with Phil Douglas, who started three games and won games 4 and 7.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

N.Y. Yankees	3	3	5	2	3	5	1	0
N.Y. Giants	0	0	13	4	1	8	2	1

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

39. New York (N) def. New York (A) 5-3
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1923 World Series: The Yankees Begin

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (98-54) - Third World Series
National League: New York Giants (95-58) - Eighth World Series (won in 1905, 1921, 1922)

What Happened
As hard as it seems to believe right now, there was once a time when the New York Yankees had never won a World Series. For the first 20 years of the World Series, the Yankees failed to break through, including series losses in 1921 and 1922.

But 1923 was a different year. Instead of sharing a ballpark with the Giants, the Yankees had a beautiful new park of their own. Babe Ruth was in the prime of his career, batting .393 in his first year playing in the park designed just for him. For the first time, the Yankees were seen as favorites in the World Series against the Giants.

But it was the two-time defending champion Giants who started strong. Future Yankee manager Casey Stengel ruined the first two World Series games played in Yankee Stadium by hitting the game-winning home run in the late innings of both Games 1 and 3. In between, Ruth hit two home runs in Game 2 back at his own stomping grounds in the Polo Grounds.

Down 2 games to 1 entering Game 4, and the Yankees bats exploded. A six-run second inning put that game away early, and they were up 7-1 after two innings of Game 5. Game 6 started with a bang, too, as Ruth hit a home run in the top of the first, but Giants pitcher Art Nehf shut them down from there and the Giants had a 4-1 lead entering the eighth. Then, though, Nehf tired, and had already walked in a run when he was finally replaced. Reliever Rosy Ryan did little better, walking the first batter he faced to force in another run and giving up three more on a Bob Meusel single that was followed by an error. Now leading 6-4, the Yankees shut down the Giants over the final two innings to win the game and wrap up their first championship. As we well know, that was only the beginning.

Defining Game
Game 1 was the first World Series game ever played at Yankee Stadium, and it started out well for the Yankees. A first-inning double by Bob Meusel scored Ruth for the game's first run, and Whitey Witt drove in two with a second-inning single. The Giants took the lead with 4 in the third. Both starting pitchers were out of the game at that point, and the game settled down until the seventh. Then, Joe Dugan's triple tied the game for the Yankees, with Ruth coming up. To that point, the Giants had been playing a heavy shift on Ruth, and he responded by slicing the ball toward left field in every at bat. This time, though, he tried to rip one down the right field line. Giants first baseman George Kelly snared it and fired home in time to get Dugan. One batter later, the Yankees' threat was over. Then, with two out in the top of the ninth, Stengel did his damage. The ball he hit to left center wasn't hit particularly hard, but it was placed perfectly placed, allowing Stengel to fly around the bases for a game-winning inside-the-park home run.

MVP
They tried an infield shift against him. They tried walking him. Nothing the Giants did could slow down the great Ruth. Though several Yankees had great offensive series, their big outfielder was the star of the show. Three home runs, a double and a triple, 8 runs scored, 8 walks - Ruth completely dominated as the Yankees won the World Series. A trend was beginning.


Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

N.Y. Giants	5	2	1	4	1	4
N.Y. Yankees	4	4	0	8	8	6

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

48. 1923 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-2
49. 1944 - St. Louis (N) def. St. Louis (A) 4-2
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1916 World Series: Ruth for 14

The Teams
American League: Boston Red Sox (91-63) - Third World Series (won in 1903, 1912)
National League: Brooklyn Robins (94-60) - First World Series

What Happened
Bases loaded, top of the ninth, two out. Brooklyn first baseman Jake Daubert stepped to the plate, hoping to continue the Robins' improbable rally. Trailing 6-1 entering the ninth inning of Game 1, the Robins loaded the bases with one out. Their comeback seemed thwarted when Mike Mowrey hit a tailor-made double play ball, but Boston's Hal Javrin booted it, allowing a run to score and keeping the game alive. What happened next wasn't pretty, but after two infield singles, an infield popup, and a walk, the Robins had cut the lead to 1. That's when Daubert stepped up to the plate. He hit the ball up the middle, seeming destined for the outfield, but Boston shortstop Everett Scott cut it off, stopped, and fired to first, getting Daubert by a half-step. Boston had survived.

It's rare that the decisive play in a playoff series comes in the first game, but many people believe that's exactly what happened in the 1916 World Series. Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson - after whom the team was named - said for years afterwards that he felt that if Brooklyn had won that first game, they would have won the series.

It's not like they didn't have their chances, though. After losing a 14-inning classic in Game 2, the Robins won the first World Series game played in Ebbets Field to cut the deficit to 2-1, and they led 2-0 after the first inning of Game 4.  But then Boston's Larry Gardner hit a three-run, inside-the-park home run to give the Red Sox the lead, and they pulled away from there, winning that game and Game 5 to win their second consecutive championship.

Would the series have turned out differently if Daubert's ninth-inning hit had snuck through? It's possible, sure, but not likely. Even though they split the next two games, the Robins pitchers started to tire as the series dragged along. Boston didn't exactly have a powerful lineup, especially after trading away legendary center fielder Tris Speaker over the winter, but they had won two championships in the previous four seasons. They wouldn't have blinked at a 2-1 series deficit, and they had plenty of pitchers to keep trotting out there, while the Robins quickly ran out.

Either way Scott's great play to end Game 1 was a turning point. One that went a long way toward making sure the Red Sox repeated as champs.

Defining Game
Game 1 might have had the biggest play of the series, but Game 2 was the most stunning. Brooklyn centerfielder Hy Myers hit an inside-the-park home run to give the Robins a 1-0 first-inning lead, but then Boston pitcher Babe Ruth - who led the American League with nine shutouts during the season - shut them down from there. Ruth drove in the run that tied the game in the bottom of the third, then kept throwing up zeroes. Not to be outdone, Brooklyn pitcher Sherry Smith matched Ruth zero for zero, inning after inning. Brooklyn's only threat came in the 8th, as they put runners on the corners with one out. Mowrey was caught in a rundown between home and third after a grounder for out number two, and Ruth got out of it from there. In the bottom of the ninth, Myers cut down Javrin trying to score the game-winning run on a not-deep-enough fly ball, and the teams went into extra innings.

As the zeroes piled up, it was clear that both pitchers were tiring, but they didn't come any closer to giving anything up. In fact, Ruth was so tired that when he came up with the winning run on first with two out in the bottom of the 12th, he couldn't even consider swinging. He bunted weakly to Smith, then kept right on pitching. Finally, the Red Sox ended the drama on Del Gainer's rbi single in the bottom of the 14th. Gainer's hit was rightly overshadowed, though, by Ruth's performance. He went the final 13 innings without giving up a run, pitching well past the point of exhaustion. That streak was the start of something else, too. Though he didn't pitch the rest of that series, Ruth pitched two twice in the 1918 World Series and eventually extended his scoreless-innings streak to 29 1/3 innings, a record that would stand until 1961.



MVP

Three choices here, each with their plusses and minues. Ruth, obviously, is a choice for his 14-inning masterpiece, but he only pitched in one game in the series. Fellow pitcher Ernie Shore is also a choice - two starts, two wins, a 1.53 ERA. But, he was on the mound when Brooklyn began their near-series turning comeback in Game 1. Duffy Lewis was the best hitter in the series - a .353 average, two doubles and a triple - but his hits didn't mean much; his only rbi drove in the first run of the series, and his biggest plate appearance was his sacrifice bunt in the 14th inning of Game 2.

I'll go with Shore. The Robins' ninth-inning rally included two infield singles and an error on a double play ball. Hardly his fault, and he was brilliant the rest of the time.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Brooklyn	5	1	4	2	1
Boston	6	2 (14)	3	6	4

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

53. 1916 - Boston (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-1 
54. 1949 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-1
55. 1942 - St. Louis (N) def. New York (A) 4-1
56. 1974 - Oakland (A) def. Los Angeles (N) 4-1
57. 1955 - Brooklyn (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
58. 1979 - Pittsburgh (N) def. Baltimore (A) 4-3
59. 1987 - Minnesota (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-3
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1922 World Series: A Roommate Squabble

The Teams:
National League: New York Giants (93-61) - Seventh World Series (won in 1905, 1921)
American League: New York Yankees (94-60) - Second World Series

What Happened:
The Yankees and Giants were more than just neighbors in New York in the early part of the 20th Century. They were roommates, sharing the Polo Grounds beginning in 1913 after the Yankees' previous home, Hilltop Park, was deemed insufficient after only 11 years. At first, the Giants were happy to have the Yankees as tenants, thrilled to have a lesser team paying rent on their stadium while they were on the road.

But that relationship started to sour in Babe Ruth joined the Yankees. The home runs he hit started to draw big crowds to Yankee games at the Polo Grounds. Giants manager John McGraw bristled; he hated the popularity of the home run, preferring the strategic aspect of baseball, and he hated that the Yankees were becoming more popular than the Giants.

The rivalry came to a head when the Yankees and the Giants met in the 1921 World Series. Though the Giants got the last laugh by beating the Yankees, McGraw didn't like that the Giants had to wear their road gray jerseys in their own ballpark. Soon after that series ended, the Giants served the Yankees with an eviction notice.

With the Yankees new cathedral of a ballpark being built across the river, the two teams met again in the 1922 World Series in their last set of games as roommates. McGraw was determined to prove that strategic small ball was better than the home run ball, and, with plenty of help from his pitchers, did just that. The Giants got 50 hits in the 1922 World Series, with 46 of them going for singles. The Giants bunched those hits together well enough to win in a sweep.

It wasn't quite a four-game sweep, as Game 2 ended in a tie, with the umpires calling the game after 10 innings despite there being at least 40 minutes of sunlight left. That hiccup aside, the series feature five well-played games. The Giants won Game 1 when four straight 8th inning singles erased a 2-0 Yankee lead; took Game 3 on a four-hit shutout by Jack Scott; gunned down two Yankee baserunners in the ninth inning of a Game 4 win; then got an 8th-inning, bases-loaded single from High Pockets Kelly to win the clincher 5-3.

Overall, the Giants' small ball strategy worked brilliantly. Despite virtually no extra-base power, they batted .309 for the series while holding the Yankees to a team average of .203. Meanwhile, their pitchers held Ruth to just two hits for the series, with no home runs, causing people to question Ruth's clutch abilities for the first time in his career.

The Giants' joy didn't last long. The next year, playing in their spacious new Yankee Stadium, the Yankees beat the Giants in the World Series, then beat them the next three times they met in the series over the next three decades. McGraw may have won the battle in 1922, but the Yankees ultimately got the last laugh.

Defining Game
Game 4 featured the best back-and-forth action of the series, beginning when the Yankees scored two runs in the bottom of the first - it could have been more, but Wally Pipp was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double. The Giants countered, opening the fifth with four straight singles and eventually scoring four runs in the frame. Aaron Ward's home run - his second of the series - cut the Yankee deficit to 4-3 in the 7th. That was the score as Pipp led off the bottom of the ninth with a double. Then Bob Meusel - the brother of Giants star Irish Meusel - grounded to third. Instead of holding at second, Pipp got caught in a rundown, getting tagged out for the first out of the inning. The next batter was catcher Wally Schang, who singled to center with Meusel going to third. However, Schang was cut down at second when the throw from center was cut off. After two outs on the bases, Ward was the final out, flying out to left and ended the Yankees last home game in the Polo Grounds.

MVP
Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch batted .471 for the series, drove in two of the three runs in Game 3,  and was in the center of game-winning Giant rallies in games 1 and 5.

Scores:
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

N.Y. Yankees	2	3	0	3	3
N.Y. Giants	3	3	3	4	5

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

70. 1922 - New York (N) def. New York (A) 4-0, 1 tie
71. 1970 - Baltimore (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-1
72. 1931 - St. Louis (N) def. Philadelphia (A) 4-3
73. 1967 - St. Louis (N) def. Boston (A) 4-3
74. 1968 - Detroit (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-3
75. 1920 - Cleveland (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 5-2
76. 1945 - Detroit (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-3
77. 1940 - Cincinnati (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-3
78. 2009 - New York (A) def. Philadelphia (N) 4-2
79. 1984 - Detroit (A) def. San Diego (N) 4-1
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

1927 World Series: Murderer's Row

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (110-44) - Fifth World Series (won in 1923)
National League: Pittsburgh Pirates (94-60) - Fourth World Series (won in 1909, 1925)

What Happened
The story is told so often that you start to wonder if it's apocryphal. During batting practice before Game 1 of the 1927 World Series, the Yankees kept hitting blast after blast deep into the Forbes Field seats. The bombs didn't let up. Supposedly, the Pirates were so intimidated by the site of Ruth, Gehrig, and Co. making their giant ballpark look small that the series was over before it began. Or so the legend goes.

It's a convenient story to tell after the fact. After all, these were the Yankees, Murderer's Row, the greatest Yankee team of all time. Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs, more than any other team in the league. Lou Gehrig hit 47 homers, with 175 runs batted in. Tony Lazzeri was third in the league with 18 home runs. A Yankee lead the league in every offensive category except batting average. They annihilated the American League so thoroughly that the pennant race was over in July. The World Series was supposed to be nothing more than a coronation, the crowning of the greatest baseball team ever assembled.

It wasn't quite that simple, though. The Pirates had won the World Series in 1925, beating the legendary Walter Johnson in Game 7. They had five future Hall of Famers in their lineup, a lineup that, aside from the home runs, was just as dangerous as New York's.

And the Pirates gave the Yankees a good fight. Many people forget that in the glare of the Yankees' 110-win regular season and in the fact the series ended up as a New York sweep. But the Yankees needed to hold off an eighth-inning Pittsburgh rally to win Game 1, didn't put away Game 2 until a three-run eighth of their own, and won the series on a walk-off wild pitch in Game 4. So yah, it was a sweep, the only fitting result for a team that good. But the Pirates gave the Yankees as good a fight as any team could have been expected to.

Defining Game
Game 4. When Ruth hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead, it's possible the Yankee fans started celebrating their impending World Championship (I don't know. I wasn't there. It was 1927 - my grandpa was born in 1927). The Yankees might have gotten ahead of themselves, too, thinking about the champagne shower ahead of them, just 12 outs away. You have to get those outs, though, and the Yankees made things interesting with two eighth-inning errors that let the Pirates tie the game.

Then came the bottom of the ninth. The first two Yankees got on base, bringing up Ruth. What a perfect way to cap off the great season, the great Ruth getting the World Series-winning hit ... but a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third. Ruth was, of course, walked from there. Gehrig then had his chance, but he struck out. So did Bob Meusel. What was happening here? Why couldn't the greatest team ever finish the job? Up came Lazzeri, and he didn't get the series-winning hit, either; however, he was smart enough to lay off the pitch in the dirt that bounced to the backstop, allowing the series-ending run to come home.

MVP
Unofficially, Ruth. He hit the only two home runs of the series, batted .400, and even stole a base. Plus, he supposedly intimidated the Pirates beyond repair with his batting-practice home runs before Game 1. And when it was all over, he probably threw a hell of a party.



Scores
(Home team in Bold)

New York	5	6	8	4
Pittsburgh	4	2	1	3

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The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

92. 1927 - New York (A) def. Pittsburgh (N) 4-0
93. 2004 - Boston (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
94. 1932 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
95. 1908 - Chicago (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-1
96. 1999 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-0
97. 1963 - Los Angeles (N) def. New York (A) 4-0
98. 2010 - San Francisco (N) def. Texas (A) 4-1
99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

1932 World Series: Called Shot

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (107-47) - Seventh World Series (Won in 1923, 1927, 1928)
National League: Chicago Cubs (90-64) - Seventh World Series (Won in 1907, 1908)

What Happened
Virtually every player on every team made fun of Babe Ruth. Such was the height of his fame - and of his opponents' jealousy. Ever the showman, Ruth thrived on it, often shouting insults right back at his taunters, laughing as he rounded the bases after another moon shot of a home run.

Sometimes, though, things got downright vicious. In the 1932 World Series, the Chicago Cubs were especially ruthless to Ruth. He gladly took his insults and gave them right back, often calling the Cubs cheapskates for giving former Yankee Mark Koenig only a half-share of the World Series money.

Things took a turn in Game 3, though. Despite two relatively easy Yankee wins in the first two games of the series, the Cubs didn't stop with the bench jockeying. They called Ruth fat. They called him a gorilla. They made fun of his wife. Somewhere along the line, Ruth stopped taking it lightheartedly and started taking it personally. His shouts toward the Cubs bench were joined by gestures and finger pointing. The fans were getting into it. Things were getting ugly.

It was the top of the fifth. Ruth had already hit a three-run home run in the first inning, but the Cubs had come back to tie the game at 4. With one out, Ruth came to the plate, with the Cubs' taunting as loud as it had been all series. Cubs pitcher Charlie Root threw a first-pitch strike. The fans howled. Ruth pointed toward the Cubs dugout and held up one finger. After two balls out of the zone, Root threw another strike. Again, Ruth pointed toward the dugout, holding up two fingers.

Here is where fiction blurs into reality, where legend grows into fact. At this point in the at bat, Ruth pointed in the general direction of Root. A film of the at bat shows this indisputably. But what isn't known is exactly where Ruth was pointing. Was he pointing at Root? At the deep center field bleachers? Or just at the Cubs dugout?

The legend, of course, says that Ruth was pointing to center field, telling the Cubs exactly where the next pitch was going to end up. He was supposedly calling his shot. Naturally, he hit the next pitch exactly where he was pointing, the longest home run ever hit at Wrigley Field. The crowd was silenced, Ruth ran around the bases laughing and pointing at the Cubs. And a legendary career had its iconic moment.

Ruth himself was inconsistent in saying whether he called his shot or not. At first he was non-committal, but later, perhaps realizing what a good story it made, he went along with the legend. And why not? At this point, it's impossible to disprove. For all intents and purposes, Ruth called his shot. Who's going to say otherwise?

Ruth's shot essentially clinched the series. The Cubs were silenced, their spirit broken. The Yankees, already up 2 games to 0, would go on to sweep, their third straight World Series sweep. Ruth entered into immortality, and went out on a high note. His "called shot" was the last World Series home run of his career.

MVP
Lou Gehrig (unofficially). Seriously. This series was a microcosm of Gehrig's career. Ruth got all the attention, what with his called shot and all, but Gehrig was quietly much, much better. Ruth hit two home runs in the series, but Gehrig hit three, including one on the next pitch after Ruth's called shot. Ruth batted .333, but Gehrig batted .529. He was, by far, the best player on the field. Not that anybody noticed.

Scores
(Home team in Bold)

Chicago	6	2	5	6
New York	12	5	7	13

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The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

94. 1932 - New York (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-0
95. 1908 - Chicago (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-1
96. 1999 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-0
97. 1963 - Los Angeles (N) def. New York (A) 4-0
98. 2010 - San Francisco (N) def. Texas (A) 4-1
99. 1937 - New York (A) def. New York (N) 4-1
Numbers 100-107

1928 World Series: Sweep, repeat

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (101-53); fifth World Series (won in 1923, 1927)
National League: St. Louis Cardinals (95-59); second World Series (won in 1926)

What Happened
It's the 1927 Yankees that are almost universally known as the greatest team in Major League history, but it was the 1928 version that put in the most dominating performance in World Series history. The main reason for that is the quality of the opposition - the 1927 Pirates were a genuinely good team, one that would have had a very good chance to win the Series in any other year. The 1928 Cardinals were good, but they were no match for the Yankees.

It's true the Yankees took a step back in 1928. Their pitchers fell back a little bit, the hitters that weren't name Ruth and Gehrig had lesser seasons, Ruth had the audacity to not hit 60 home runs, and so on. But they were still Murderer's Row, a lineup of stars that gave opposing pitchers no breaks.

The 1928 series was a clinic in efficiency. The Yankees scored in the first inning of the first game -with Gehrig driving in Ruth - and they never looked back. They trailed for only six of the 36 innings in the series, and they often put the games away early. The Cardinals only managed three hits in a 4-1 Game 1 loss, and that was the closest game of the series. It was a sweep, the Yankees' second straight, and it established this Yankees team as one of the true juggernauts in the game's history.

Defining Game
Game 4 - Babe Ruth did a lot of things on a baseball field that nobody before him had ever done. The latest was his performance in Game 4, when he became the first man to hit three home runs in a World Series game. Ruth went deep in the fourth, seventh, and eighth innings, all of them to deep right, to put the series away. It was a fitting exclamation point to the Yankees' two years of dominance.

MVP
Ruth and Gehrig. Pick a name out of a hat. Or, pick both of them. To wit:

Ruth's stats: .625 average, 10 hits, 9 runs, 3 doubles, and of course the three Game 4 home runs.

Gehrig's stats: .545 average, 4 home runs, 9 runs batted in (as many RBI as the entire Cardinals team).

Can you imagine what pitchers of that era felt when they were about to face the Yankees and knew they'd have to face those two batters back-to-back? Frightening.

The Scores
(Home team in Bold)

St. Louis	1	3	3	3
New York	4	9	7	7

---

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here's the ones I've done so far:

106. 1928 - New York (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-0
107. 1917 - Cincinnati (N) def. Chicago (A) 5-3

February 6, 1895: Reform school legend

BALTIMORE - There is no more truly American story in sports. It's the story of a young man born into nothing, abandonded by his family, who through the force of incredible talent and tremendous personality became the most famous person in America. The man has been dead for 62 years, but he is still one of the most famous athletes in America, still sits head and shoulders above anybody else who has played his game.

When George Herman Ruth Jr. was born in the Pigtown neighborhood of Baltimore on February 6, 1895 - just around the corner from present-day Camden Yards - it seemed extremely unlikely that he would grow to become the most famous man in America. His father ran a succession of saloons - including one that stood in what is now Camden Yards' center field - and sold lightning rods to help the family scrape by. He was always getting into fights with bar patrons. His mother, standing only 4 foot 10, was always sick, as were his siblings; of seven kids born to the Ruths, only two lived past infancy.

Ruth was only 7 years old when his father sent him to live at St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a reform school and orphanage. The senior Ruth was essentially giving his son away, not wanting to deal with him any more. From then on, Ruth only saw his family on special occasions, and those occasions became more and more rare as the years went by.

Ruth's mother died of tuberculosis when he was 17. His father died in a bar fight a few years later. It's possible Ruth wasn't too affected by his parents' death. In his own autobiography, he got facts about them wrong. He was a lost soul, a boy with no past and no future.

But Ruth got lucky. Of all the deadend reform schools and orphanages that Ruth could have lived in as a child, he lived in the one operated by a Catholic missionary who was obsessed with baseball. Brother Matthias Boutlier got Ruth started on the game as a productive way to occupy his time. Boutlier became the father figure Ruth never had, teaching the young boy to read and write all while helping him improve in baseball.

And boy did he improve. Ruth took to the game naturally, first as a hitter and then later, as he matured, as a pitcher. He was a natural, completely overshadowing the boys at the school, even those much older than him.

In 1913, when Ruth was 18, he pitched for St. Mary's in a game against Mount St. Mary's College. Former Mount St. Mary's student Joe Engel, then a pitcher for the Washington Senators, was impressed with Ruth and contacted Jack Dunn, the owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles. Dunn arranged for a personal tryout on February 14, 1914, and, when he saw Ruth perform, signed him on the spot for $250. Because Ruth was 19 (the age of majority at the time was 25) and father had signed away custody when Ruth went to St. Mary's, Dunn had to become Ruth's legal guardian, as well. Other players on the Orioles began calling Ruth "Jack's newest babe." And thus, George Herman Ruth, Jr., became Babe Ruth.

Ruth didn't play for the Orioles for long. Dunn offered him to the Philadelphia Athletics, but they declined. So, too, did the Cincinnati Reds, who chose to sign two different Baltimore players instead. Finally, the Boston Red Sox took a flyer on the raw 19-year-old kid, purchasing his contract for an unknown sum.

Ruth pitched in four games for the Red Sox in 1914, then moved to the starting rotation in 1915. The Red Sox eventually won three World Series in four years with Ruth in the rotation, but it wasn't until he moved to the outfield - and to the Yankees - when his legend grew. But when it started to grow, it didn't stop, and by the early 1920s, Ruth was the greatest and most famous athlete in America. You could argue that he hasn't lost that title since.

Kate and George Ruth gave up on their oldest child at a young age. It's unknown if they were haunted by the decision, or heartbroken, or relieved. But it's likely, even probable, that doing so saved his life. It's certain that without his time at St. Mary's, George Herman Ruth, Jr., would never have become Babe Ruth, and the American sports world would look much different than it does today.

Ruth (top row, far left) at St. Mary's

February 2, 1936: The first five

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - Cobb, Ruth, Wagner, Mathewson, Johnson. The five faces that would be on baseball's Mount Rushmore, the true giants of the game. Any argument of the greatest players of all time include these five players, who are forever linked in baseball history as the first Hall of Famers.

After a hastily gathered history of baseball was published incorrectly saying that the sport was invented in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1839 by future Civil War general Abner Doubleday, the leaders of baseball decided to celebrate the fictional centennial of the non-event by opening a museum in Cooperstown dedicated to the best players in the history of the game. It would be called the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the organizers decided to elect five players per year, starting in 1936, plus five players from the 1800s, so that there would be 20 players to enter the Hall when it officially opened in 1939.

So the Hall of Fame ballots were sent out in December of 1935 to 226 baseball writers, and the first Hall of Fame class was announced on February 2, 1936: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. Nobody was surprised at the five players who got in first - all were deserving, and all considered, at one point in their careers, to be the best player of all time. The only truly surprising snub was Cy Young, which happened because voters weren't sure whether to put him in with the players from the 1800s or the 1900s (that oversight was fixed the next year, and Young earned his rightful place in the Hall).

Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, was the final count of votes. When the ballots were tallied, it was Cobb, not Ruth, who received the most votes. Eleven voters had left Ruth off the ballot, which seemed impossible, even when you consider Ruth's less-than-glorious final season in 1935. Even Cobb was left off of four ballots.

Final numbers aside, the five chosen were seen as perfect candidates to inagurate the Hall of Fame. By the time the museum opened in 1939, they had been joined by Young, Nap Lajoie, and Tris Speaker (1937); Pete Alexander (1938); George Sisler, Eddie Collins, and Willie Keeler (1939), plus managers Connie Mack and John McGraw.

Though the reasons for starting it are now seen as flawed, the Baseball Hall of Fame has become the Mecca for baseball fans around America. Every major and minor sport in America now has a Hall of Fame - there's even a Dog Hall of Fame - and they can all trace their existence to baseball's museum.

The first Hall of Famers: Top row (l to r): Wagner, Alexander, Speaker, Lajoie, Sisler, Johnson. Bottom row: Collins, Ruth, Mack, Young. Not picture: John McGraw had died before being inducted, and Ty Cobb was running late and missed the picture.

December 26, 1919: My Lady Friends

NEW YORK - No, No, Nanette was a musical comedy that debuted on Broadway in 1925. It told the story of Jimmy Smith, a millionaire Bible publisher, and his wife Sue, as they try to teach their ward, Nanette, how to be a respectable member of society. Of course, Nanette would rather spend time in Atlantic City, gambling and having fun and being courted by Tom Trainor. Meanwhile, Jimmy wants to find more ways to spread his income, so he becomes the benefactor to three young women, who .... well, really, it's not important. At least not to this story.

It was a long-held belief that Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees to help fund the Broadway production of No, No, Nanette. This rumor is hurt a bit by the fact that No, No, Nanette was released in 1925, by which point Ruth had already led the Yankees to three American League pennants and one World Series title. No, the real play that Frazee was trying to fund was My Lady Friends, which, though not a musical, was the play from which No, No, Nanette took most of its story.

So I guess it's true that in a roundabout way, Ruth's sale led to the production of No, No, Nanette. But if Red Sox fans want to place blame somewhere for the Curse of the Bambino, they should look to My Lady Friends. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to meet Ruth's contract demands, and needing money to fund his latest play, Frazee looked for people willing to trade for Ruth. He got only two responses. The White Sox offered Shoeless Joe Jackson and $60,000, which Frazee turned down (which, it turns out, was quite smart, considering Jackson's subsequent banishment the next year). The Yankees offered a straight cash deal, which was much more appealing to Frazee.

A deal was struck quickly. On December 26, 1919, Frazee agreed to sell Ruth to the Yankees for $125,000 cash ($1.37 million in today's dollars), three $25,000 notes paid over three years with 6 percent interest, and a $300,000 loan, with the mortgage on Fenway Park as collateral. With the deal, Frazee hoped he could both keep his team competitive and keep his Broadway interests successful.

Everybody knows what happened next. The Red Sox, who had won five of the first 15 World Series played, including three in four years with Ruth, didn't win another one until 2004. The Yankees, who had never played in the World Series, would win seven American League pennants and four World Series with Ruth in their outfield, kicking off the greatest dynasty in American sports.

It was the start of the Curse of the Bambino. And it all started with a play called My Lady Friends.

October 10, 1926: Caught stealing

BRONX, N.Y. - It remains the most improbable ending to a World Series yet, a play so baffling that it seems like a misprint in the decades-old play-by-play: Ruth caught stealing second, c-ss. Seriously, a game 7 of a World Series ended on that. It doesn't seem right.

It's not too surprising that Ruth was on base in that situation. He came to the plate with the Cardinals leading 3-2 with two outs in the ninth inning, and he had already homered in the game. Considering his other three plate appearances ended in walks, there was a better chance he'd see Bigfoot playing right field than there was of him getting anything to hit in that at bat. The Cardinals simply weren't going to let Ruth beat them.

Instead, they let him beat the Yankees.

Sure, Ruth had stolen 11 bases during the season, which isn't a terrible number, but how do you steal in that situation, where getting thrown out meant the end of your season, unless you know you're going to make it? With Bob Meusel, a very good hitter, batting and Lou Gehrig on deck? How do you steal? Unless you're trying to catch the Cardinals off-guard - which I suppose he did, because really, why would Ruth steal? But if Bob O'Farrell behind the plate was surprised, the feeling didn't last long, because he easily threw Ruth out.

The Cardinals were a bit fortunate to even be in that situation. After Ruth's third-inning home run, the Cardinals scored three in the top of the fourth - helped by a dropped fly ball by Meusel - then held on for dear life. See, the Yankees weren't quite the offensive juggernaut they would become the following year, but they still had Ruth and Gehrig and Meusel and Tony Lazzeri. A two-run lead likely wasn't going to be safe for long.

New York got a run back in sixth, then went into the bottom of the seventh trailing 3-2. With one out and a runner on second, the Cardinals intentionally walked Ruth, violating the old baseball adage of never putting the go-ahead run on base because, well, he's Babe Ruth. Meusel grounded out, beating the relay to prevent a double play, and then Gehrig walked, loading the bases with two outs. Instead of sticking with starter Jesse Haines, the Cardinals went to the bullpen to bring in Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander to face Lazzeri.

It was quite a surprise that Alexander was coming in. Though he was still one of the best pitchers in the National League and would eventually be elected to the Hall of Fame, the 39-year-old Alexander had pitched a complete game the day before and was thought to be unavailable for game 7. Also, he was in no physical condition to pitch, either because he was drunk, according to some people, or because he had suffered an epileptic seizure earlier in the day, according to others.

So the inning came down to future hall-of-famer Alexander pitching to future hall-of-famer Lazzeri with the bases loaded, two outs, and the Cardinals up by one run. And Alexander struck out Lazzeri on three pitches, completely blew him away, keeping the Cardinal lead intact.

That was pretty much the game there. Alexander pitched the rest of the way, and the only other Yankee to reach against him was Ruth in the ninth. It could have been a tense situation, but Ruth decided to steal, and the Cardinals had won their first World Series.

September 30, 1927: 60

NEW YORK - They tore through the American League like no team had before them. Cruising to a league-record 110 wins, the 1927 Yankees so dominated the league that they earned their lineup was called Murderer's Row. The offensive leaderboards that year was a who's-who of Yankees as manager Miller Huggins wrote four hall-of-famers into his starting lineup every day, with two more on the pitching staff.

At the center of all that brilliance was the most dominant player of his or any era. After a few subpar seasons - by his standards, anyway - Babe Ruth was enjoying a second career peak in 1927. With Lou Gehrig, now firmly established as a superstar, batting behind him in the batting order, Ruth saw more good pitches to hit in 1927 than he had for years, and he made American League pitchers pay. Ruth batted .356 in 1927, while driving in 164 runs; Gehrig, however, topped both those marks, hitting .373 with 175 runs batted in (for comparision's sake, only one player has topped Ruth's total since World War II, but Ruth was only second on his own team in runs batted in).

The Yankees made a mockery of the American League pennant race. A 12-1, 21-1 doubleheader sweep of Washington on July 4 put them 12.5 games up in the race, and their lead only expanded from there. The only drama left in the season was whether Ruth would match or break his record of 59 home runs set in 1921. Through most of the summer, he stayed near or ahead of his pace from that season, adding drama to a season that otherwise had none.

But adding to the fun was Gehrig, who made a serious run at 59 home runs himself. At one point mid summer, Gehrig actually passed Ruth in the home run race and was declared the favorite by some newspapers. The two battled back and forth throughout August and early September, and after Gehrig homered during an 18-inning marathon on September 5, the two sluggers were tied at 44.

The next day, September 6, in a 14-2 win over Boston, Gehrig hit another home run to give him 45, but Ruth hit two to jump ahead at 46. From there, Ruth stepped on the gas, hitting home runs at a faster rate than even he had ever done before. A doubleheader on September 7 saw Ruth hit three more home runs. He reached 50 on September 11, then hit five more in 10 days to get to 55 on September 21. On September 27, Ruth reached number 57, leaving him three blasts short of the record with four games to go. Gehrig hit number 46 that same day, his first home run since the 6th.

Ruth hit two more in a 15-4 win over Washington on September 29, tying his own record and giving him two games to hit number 60. His first chance came on September 30. Washington was visiting Yankee Stadium and sent Tom Zachary to the mound. Coming up to bat in the 8th inning of a tie game, Ruth took a 1-1 count and blasted it deep to right. The distance wasn't a question, but it was right down the line. Although Zachary always claimed he saw it as a foul ball, it landed fair by six inches. Ruth had his record.

Ruth's 60 home runs were thought to be completely untouchable. For years, it seemed that way, as many great sluggers in the years following came up painfully short. It took 34 years for the record to fall, when Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961.

After the regular season they had, the Yankees were heavy favorites to beat the Pirates in the 1927 World Series. In fact, it's often said that after watching the Yankees put on a power display in batting practice before game 1, the Pirates were so intimidated that the World Series was virtually already over. Ruth hit two more home runs in the Series as the Yankees completed the highly expected sweep.

......

In all the attention surrounding Ruth's 60th home run, another milestone moment in baseball came and went in that game in Yankee Stadium with almost nobody noticing. Walter Johnson, perhaps the greatest pitcher of all time, ended his 21-year Major League career in that game, pinch-hitting for Zachary in the top of the ninth. Johnson ended his career by flying out to Ruth in right.

July 6, 1933: The Star of Stars

CHICAGO - There was more talent on that field than had ever been assembled before on a single baseball diamond. Twenty men who would later be named Hall of Famers were in the two dugouts. The two managers, Philadelphia's Connie Mack and New York's John McGraw, still rank number 1 and 2 on the all-time wins chart in baseball history. Even two of the four umpires were Hall of Famers.

Yet despite all the star power, the true attraction of the first All Star game was, naturally, Babe Ruth. Though he was a few years past his prime, and had an ever-expanding waistline, Ruth was the star of stars, the man everybody wanted to see. The National League players who hadn't gotten to face Ruth in the past were awed by his presence, honored to be able to be on the same field as him. And with seven future Hall of Famers in the American League starting lineup, it was Ruth whose name was penciled in to the third spot in the batting order.

Arch Ward, the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, came up with the idea for the All Star Game. It was intended that the game would be a one-time occurrence, all of baseball's stars gathering in Comiskey Park in Chicago for one memorable afternoon. With 49,200 people in the stands, it quickly became apparent that this should be an annual event.

The attendance, the location, the founding, the players involved - those are all details. The story of this game was Ruth, stealing the spotlight from the rest of Major League Baseball just as he had been doing since being sold to the Yankees 14 years before. In the third inning, Ruth hit the first home run in All Star Game history, driving in fellow Hall of Famer Charlie Gehringer to put the A.L. up 3-0. With his league holding a 4-2 lead in the eighth inning, Ruth came up big again, reaching over the right-field wall to rob Chick Hafey of a game-tying home run.

There was no All Star Game MVP awarded in those days, but Ruth certainly would have won the award. The game would be revived the next year and continues to this day, the longest-running all star game in American sports.

June 13, 1948: Babe says goodbye

NEW YORK - Where once he stood tall, waving his bat as easily as if it were a toothpick, he now slumped over, using his bat as a cane to support his weight. Where once he filled his jersey to its max - first with a perfect athlete's body, later with the extra layers of fat from years of overindulgence - he now stood frail, his jersey seemingly hanging off him as it would a hanger.

The Babe Ruth that appeared at Yankee Stadium on June 13, 1948, bore little resemblance to the one who first stepped through its doors 25 years earlier, the man who helped make the stadium, and the team that played there, an American icon. But one thing was instantly recognizeable despite the ravages of age and cancer: the pinstriped jersey with the number 3 on the back.

Ruth was only months away from death when he returned to Yankee Stadium for the final time that day. He was there as part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the stadium. The Yankees started the day with an old-timer's exhibition, with the stars from the 1923 Yankees team - the first one to win the World Series - playing the current Yankees team. But the fans weren't there to see the old-timer's game; they came to see Ruth, to give one more standing ovation to the icon of their franchise.

The fans sang "Auld Lang Syne" as one. Ruth's number was retired and place alongside the number 4 of Lou Gehrig in the pantheon of Yankee greats. The old slugger himself even spoke a few words, surprising people with how frail and broken his voice had become. Everybody knew Ruth was dying; many didn't know exactly how close he was.

The day was bittersweet for Ruth. While he enjoyed seeing his old teammates, he also broke down, knowing it was likely the last time he'd gather with them. He had trouble getting to home plate that day, and when he got there, he took off his cap and looked toward right field, "Ruthville." The photo of him looking toward his old stomping ground won the Pulitzer Prize.

That day was one of Ruth's final public appearances. He appeared one more time, in July to attend the premier of the movie based on his life. He died on August 16, at the far too young age of 53.

May 28, 2006: A confusing home run

SAN FRANCISCO – Great. Now what are we supposed to think? I mean, numbers don’t lie, and according to the numbers, this is something that everybody’s supposed to be celebrating. But instead, we’re debating. What are we supposed to think?

The basic background of the story is this: in the fourth inning of a game on May 28, 2006, San Francisco’s Barry Bonds worked a full count against Colorado’s Byung-Hyun Kim, then hit the payoff pitch deep into the centerfield bleachers at AT&T Park. The San Francisco fans stood and cheered, and fireworks went off, and everybody was happy, though the Giants were still down 6-2.

Woah, wait. What’s that? You say that was Bonds’ 715th home run? Isn’t that one more than Babe Ruth? Huh. That makes things interesting. Historic, even. I mean, there’s no more iconic figure in baseball than Babe Ruth. And Bonds just passed him. Shouldn’t that be cause for massive celebration?

See, that’s where it gets confusing. Drugs will do that, will blur the line between an impressive achievement and a massive case of fraud. Sure, Bonds has never tested positive for drugs, nor has he definitively proven to have taken them, but come on. Look at the guy! I mean, compare what he looked like in Pittsburgh to what he looks like now. There’s no way he’s clean!

But so what, you ask. How much can drugs really help you? Sure, they can help you get stronger than otherwise would have been humanly possible, but that doesn’t help you hit the damn ball. That doesn’t help you recognize the difference between a ball and a strike, a hanging slider and a good slider. And what about all of Bonds’ accomplishments from earlier in his career, when he was truly the best player in the National League long before anybody suspects he took anything? Did his possibly (nay, probably) tainted accomplishments from the later part of his career simply erase everything he did earlier in his career?

It doesn’t help matters that Bonds was and is, by all accounts, a complete and utter ass. I mean, look at home plate after he just passed the Babe. The only person there to greet him is his son. Even the guy who was on base for the home run seems like he was waiting for Bonds only as an afterthought. I know it was only the 4th inning, and that the Giants were losing, but doesn’t it seem strange that he doesn’t have more people waiting to, at the very least, give him a high-five? Is that so much to ask for the guy who now has more home runs than Babe Ruth?

And that’s what really doomed Bonds. Sure, people don’t like the drugs. But he could have been forgiven in the eyes of many if he had just been a nicer guy about it, if he had gotten over his persecution complex a little. Yes, Babe Ruth was white, and Barry Bonds is black, and yes, Babe Ruth never hit a home run against a black pitcher because black pitchers weren’t allowed to play back then. But here’s the truth: If black players had been allowed to play when Ruth was in the league, he still would have hit 714 home runs, or come damn close to it. Talent transcends race. He just would have had competition as the sport’s biggest star. And he probably would have thrived on that competition and, seeing somebody out there who had a chance to outhit him, he likely would have been properly motivated to hit more.

The simple fact is people loved Babe Ruth because he was gregarious, outgoing, dedicated to children, and so on. Everybody who met him had glowing stories about him. People hated Barry Bonds because he was an asshole, or at least seemed that way from afar. Race had nothing to do with it.

There should have been a lot of reasons to celebrate Bonds’ 715th home run. Instead, we were left with a lot of reasons why we weren’t.

April 18, 1923: Some Ball Yard

BRONX, N.Y. - It became the most iconic stadium in America, the most well-known sports venue in the country. Built extra large to accomodate the crowds who wanted to see the biggest star in the game, it was the first ballpark to be called a Stadium. For 85 years, it stood guard over the Harlem River in New York City, the jewel of the Bronx, and it saw more historical sports moments than any venue perhaps anywhere.

Yankee Stadium opened on April 18, 1923, drawing a major-leage record crowd of more than 58,000 people for its first game. The Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1 that day in the first of 6,581 regular-season games that would be played there. It was only fitting that Babe Ruth, whose popularity made the park possible, hit the deciding three-run home run, the first home run hit in the park. His blast, and the large crowd there to see it, inspired a New York sports writer to call it The House that Ruth Built, a name that stuck for the next 85 years.

It's hard to believe the Yankees ever played anywhere else, but Yankee Stadium was their third home in New York City. Their first, Hilltop Park, was deemed outdated by 1912, and the Yankees moved to the Polo Grounds, leasing the space from the Giants. When the Yankees and Ruth became more popular than the Giants, the National Leaguers kicked the Yankees out, forcing them to build their own ballpark.

Yankee owners Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston and Jacob Ruppert privately funded the $2.4 million stadium, which was built in 11 months (contrasted to the new Yankee Stadium, which was built for $1.5 billion in public money and took three years to build). They wanted the stadium to be able to hold 60,000 fans, and when asked why they would risk doing so, when most stadiums then were built to hold 30,000, they replied, simply, "Babe Ruth."

So the Yankees had their cathedral in the Bronx. They won their first World Series in 1923 and have dominated baseball ever since. In all, Yankee Stadium hosted 100 World Series games and played host to 26 World Series champion Yankee teams.

It wasn't just baseball that made Yankee Stadium famous, either. The Notre Dame-Army college football series was held there for decades, with many of that sport's most famous early games taking place there. The New York Giants football team played in Yankee Stadium, including during the 1958 season when the "Greatest Game Ever Played" decided the championship. Many legendary boxers fought there, including Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, and Sugar Ray Robinson. And religious figures including Billy Graham and popes Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI held services there.

But the stadium will always be associated with baseball, and more specifically with Ruth. After winning the opening game with a home run, Ruth was asked his opinion of the Yankees' new home. His response: "Some ball yard."

That it was.