So sorry to be out of some of the best discussions we've had of late, but that terrible thing known as work has interfered.
(Remember that old ad for some aspirin, when the announcer used to say, "Isn't it terrible when something so unfair as a headache interrupts?"...which made every single person in the developing world hate us all the more.)
But I digress.
Stang, thanks so much for the great post on the 1926 World Series. I love me some Heywood Broun.
A Round Table regular and quite a character. Somebody—Dorothy Parker?—described him as always looking "like an unmade bed."
But actually, the 1926 was a helluva World Series.
It went seven games, with three of them decided by one run. Ruth did indeed become the first man ever to hit three homers in a World Series game—a feat that he, and later a certain, Mr. Reginald Jackson would match.
(We don't count Juice Ball boboes, Pablo and Albert.)
But it became most famous for Grover Cleveland Alexander striking out Tony Lazzeri, with the bases loaded in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium.
(Amazing fact: both men were epileptics!)
That was only in the seventh inning, though. The game ended when The Babe got, yes, another free pass, and tried to steal second with two out in the ninth.
Ruth was thoroughly lambasted for this, by sportswriters convinced it was a typically silly stunt by the big guy—or even hinting that he might have been paid off by gamblers.
Ruth, though, was not a bad base stealer, it was a close play, and he never regretted it. He was simply trying to put his team in a position to tie up the game.
The next hitter was Long Bob Meusel, who had had a triple earlier that afternoon, but only on a pop fly that the outfielder dove for and missed. He was hitting just .238 on the Series, and yes, the chances were way better that he might hit a single than a home run or another triple.
It also beat sending up Giancarlo Stanton or Trent Grisham to try to win the game.
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