1926 World Series

1926 World Series

The 1926 World Series pitted the NL champion St. Louis Cardinals against the AL champion New York Yankees. The Cardinals defeated the Yankees four games to three in the best-of-seven series, which took place from October 2 to October 10, 1926 at Yankee Stadium and Sportsman's Park.

This was the first World Series appearance for the Cards, the first of eleven World Series championships in Cardinals history ending with 2011, while the Yanks were in their fourth World Series in six years, winning one for the first time in 1923. They would play in another 36 World Series through the end of the 2012 season.

In Game 1, Herb Pennock pitched the Yanks to a 2–1 win over the Cards. In Game 2, pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander evened the Series for the Cards with a 6–2 victory. Knuckleballer Jesse Haines' complete game shutout in Game 3 gave St. Louis a 2–1 Series lead. In the Yanks' 10–5 Game 4 win, Babe Ruth hit three home runs, a World Series record equaled only four times since. According to newspaper reports, Ruth had promised a sickly boy named Johnny Sylvester to hit a home run for him in Game 4. After Ruth's three-homer game, the boy's condition miraculously improved. The newspapers' account of the story is disputed by contemporary baseball historians, but it remains one of the most famous anecdotes in baseball history. Pennock again won for the Yanks in Game 5, 3-2.

Cards' player-manager Rogers Hornsby chose Alexander to start Game 6, and used him in relief to close out Game 7. Behind Alexander, the Cardinals won the final two games of the series, and with it the world championship. In Game 7, the Yankees, trailing 3–2 in the bottom of the ninth inning and down to their last out, Ruth walked, bringing up Bob Meusel. Ruth, successful in half of his steal attempts careerwise, stealing bases, took off for second base on the first pitch. Meusel swung and missed, and catcher Bob O'Farrell threw to second baseman Hornsby who tagged Ruth out, ending Game 7 and thereby crowning his Cardinals World Series champions for the first time.