Saturday, January 14, 2017

World Series: Did You Know?

The Babe was also finding other ways than the long ball to help his Yankees beat the Pirates in 1927. He did have that flair for the dramatic in many ways, to tell you the truth.

In 1921, he stole second and third in one game against the New York Giants. 1928 saw him make a fine catch to end the Fall Classic vs. the Cardinals. What then, did he have in store for the Pittsburgh Pirates in that four-game sweep of 1927? Plenty!

The Babe got it all going by singling and scoring in the top of the first in the first contest, held at Forbes Field. He wasted no time and got another single, first pitch swinging in the third. And again, Ruth scored.

Pittsburgh, though played well at times in the first game. Ruth was robbed of another hit in the top of the 5th on a nice stop by George Grantham. The Yankees ended up scoring a run anyways on a sac fly by Lou Gehrig. Ruth added a single later in the game, only to be picked off. Good thing his team won 5-4. Three singles, two runs scored by The Bambino.

Ruth caught a ball that ended up being a sac fly in the bottom of the first in game two (Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead on that play), but later hit one of his own. That put New York up 3-1.

It was still 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh, when he made a nice fielding play. George Grantham doubled to right in the top of the seventh. This was a leadoff double. But The Bambino made sure he got no further. The Yankees, inspired by that play, added three runs in the top of eight while the Bucs could get only one of their own in the bottom of the frame. The 6-2 win sent it back to Yankee Stadium for game three.

Ruth hit a 3-run home run in the bottom of the seventh, That scored runs four, five and six of the inning, which had started with the home team up only 2-0. They ended up winning 8-1.

The Pirates didn't want to be swept, so they scored a run before Ruth and company got their first turn to the dish. The Babe singled home the tying run. Then he made a dash for second, and had himself a stolen base!

The Yankees didn't score another run that inning, but their pitching held the Pirates in check for a while. Ruth, meanwhile hit a two-run home run to break the 1-1 deadlock in the bottom of the fifth. Undaunted, the Pittsburgh Pirates scored two runs of their own in the seventh. Not via the long ball. Two errors, a single and a sac fly and we're tied 3-3.

The game went into the ninth still tied at that score. Wilcy Moore got 'em 1-2-3. The Babe came up in the bottom of the inning after the first two men reached. A wild pitched forced Pirate pitcher Johnny Miljus to walk him intentionally. Lou Gehrig and Bob Meusel both swung and missed at strike three, however.

Two down, bases full of Yankees. Tony Lazzeri was up. On the second pitch, Miljus uncorked another wild pitch, and Earle Combs came home with the series-winning run!

The Babe had two home runs to his name in 1927. He'd made a fine fielding play. He'd stolen a base. He'd even hit some singles, deviating from his big wallops. The Yankees were simply head and shoulders above the rest of the world of baseball that season. The Babe spearheaded the deadly offensive attack of the Yankees.


References


Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 14 Jan. 2017.

Neft, David S., Richard M. Cohen, and Michael L. Neft. The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, 1992. 12th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. Print.

Neft, David S., and Richard M. Cohen. The World Series: Complete Play-by-play of Every Game, 1903-1989. 4th ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1990. Print.

No comments:

Post a Comment