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November 4, 2009

You Could Look It Up

Throwing The Series Away

by Steven Goldman

Among the many taunts offered by Phillies fans to visiting Yankees supporters during Monday’s game was one that insinuated that the Steinbrenner family had ordered the Yankees to throw Game Five of the World Series so that they could reap the benefit of an extra day’s gate receipts at Yankee Stadium. This is, of course, preposterous, but these kinds of rumors actually go back to the earliest days of the World Series.

The suggestion of trying to pack an extra day into the World Series seemed most realistic in the 1922 World Series between the Yankees and Giants, held entirely at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, a series that had many bizarre features and came at the end of a strange year for both teams. This was the first time in a few years that the Series was back to the best-of-seven format after shifting to an interminable best-of-nine after World War I (which is how the Black Sox had time to consider reversing themselves after the gamblers failed to come through with promised payments in 1919). The Series was controversial on several levels. There was the intense rivalry between the leagues, the rivalry between the Giants and their increasingly popular tenants from the junior circuit, the personal rivalry between Giants manager John McGraw and Babe Ruth, and finally, but most importantly, suspicion about game-fixing had not instantly disappeared with the installation of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as Commissioner and the arrival of Ruth in New York. The 1919 World Series was three years in the past, but it had taken longer than that for the story to emerge and for the Chicago trials to proceed; Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg, and pals had only been blacklisted about 13 months before. Worse, one of the Giants, pitcher Shufflin’ Phil Douglas, had that very seasons been banned for life for threatening to throw games. The corrupt culture of Prohibition and the Harding years held reign; nothing could automatically be assumed to be on the level, least of all baseball.

Appropriately, the Giants took Game One in controversial fashion. Yankees starter Bullet Joe Bush, winner of 26 games and a hurler who had posted a strong 3.31 ERA during the regular season (the league average that year was 4.74), had given up seven hits and a walk in seven innings, but had still kept the Giants off the board. The Yankees, meanwhile, had tallied single runs on a Ruth RBI single and Aaron Ward’s sacrifice fly, which had scored Bob Meusel. (Meusel had singled, but moved to third base when the Giants twice threw the ball away trying to retire the next batter, Wally Schang.)

Bush had done some fancy footwork throughout the game. In the Giants’ first, they had put runners on second and third with one out after back-to-back singles and a passed ball, with two of their best hitters, outfielders Irish Meusel (Bob’s brother) and future Hall of Famer Ross Youngs. Both had hit .331 on the season, but Bush got both on infield popups. In the bottom of the seventh, Bush began to struggle. After getting Youngs to fly out to open the inning, he allowed consecutive singles to George Kelly, Casey Stengel, and Pancho Snyder to load the bases. McGraw sent up tough catcher Earl Smith, a left-handed hitter to pinch-hit, but a 4-6-3 double play ended the inning with the score still 2-0 Yankees.

Perhaps Yankees manager Miller Huggins should have seen the action in the bottom of the seventh as a sign that Bush was tiring, but he did not. In fact, he was convinced that Bush was cruising along in such great form as to have the victory locked up. The Yankees went in order in the top of the eighth, and Bush was back on the mound for the bottom of the frame. The game unraveled quickly from there. Prior to the game, McGraw had told his team to try to tire Bush out by waiting and working counts. Now he changed strategies and told his batters to attack first pitches whenever possible. The inning opened with three consecutive singles to load the bases and bring Irish Meusel to the plate.