Joe Gordon - Yankees

Yankees

After batting .418 in his sophomore year, he signed with the Yankees in 1936, with scout Bill Essick reporting: "(Gordon was) at his best when it meant the most and the going was toughest." After being assigned to the Yankees AA-level club, the Oakland Oaks, in the Pacific Coast League, Gordon proceeded to put up solid numbers in his first season in professional baseball, hitting .300 while spending the majority of time in the field at shortstop. In 1937, Gordon was moved to the Newark Bears, another AA team in the International League and continued to excel, hitting .280 with 26 homeruns. His 1937 Bears' team is often regarded as the best minor league team in history with future all-stars George McQuinn, Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich, Babe Dahlgren, and Spud Chandler joining Gordon to lead the team to an incredible 110 wins in 158 games.

His success made 33 year old Tony Lazzeri expendable for the Yankees, who was released following the 1937 season, and Gordon debuted with New York in April 1938. His 25 home runs as a rookie set an American League record for second basemen, surpassing Detroit Tiger Charlie Gehringer's previous record of 19. Gordon would hold the AL record for homeruns by a second baseman 64 years before being surpassed by Bret Boone's 36 homeruns in 2001. Along with Jeff Heath of the Indians, who had batted .343, Gordon was one of the AL's top rookies, hitting .255 with 97 RBI and placing second to Gehringer in the AL with 450 assists as the Yankees won their third straight pennant. In the 1938 World Series sweep of the Chicago Cubs, he hit .400 and slugged .733. He had an RBI single, doubled, and recorded the final out in a 3-1 victory in Game 1. Gordon doubled in the first two runs in Game 2's 6-3 win. In Game 3, a 5-2 win, he had a solo home run to tie the game 1-1 in the fifth inning, and singled home two more runs in the sixth. He scored twice in an 8-3 win in the final Game 4 as New York took their third consecutive title.

1939 saw Gordon improve his batting average to .284 and top his own home run mark with 28. He led the AL in putouts, assists and double plays, and was second on the team to Joe DiMaggio and fifth in the league in both homers and RBI (111). On June 28 he hit three home runs; he made his first of nine All-Star teams, and finished ninth in the MVP vote. In the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds he hit only .143, but scored the first run in a 2-1 Game 1 victory. In Game 4, he drove in the tying run with one out in the ninth inning, and the Yankees scored three in the tenth to win 7-4 and complete another sweep for their unprecedented fourth straight championship. In 1940 Gordon again increased his home run total to 30 and was second on the team to DiMaggio in homers and RBI (103), leading the AL in assists and posting career highs in runs (112), triples (10), slugging average (.511), total bases (315) and stolen bases (18) while hitting .281. On September 8, he hit for the cycle. But the Yankees finished two games behind Detroit, in the only year between 1936 and 1943 that they lost the pennant.

In 1941 he batted .276 with 24 HRs and 87 RBI, scoring 104 runs and teaming with rookie shortstop Phil Rizzuto to lead the AL in double plays; Gordon placed seventh in the MVP vote as New York returned to the top of the standings. In the 1941 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers he played phenomenally, hitting .500 with stellar defense. In Game 1 he started the scoring with a solo home run in the second inning, had an RBI single and was walked twice (once intentionally), and turned a double play with the tying run on first base to end a 3-2 win. In Game 2, he was walked three times, once intentionally, and had three double plays in a 3-2 loss. In Game 3 he tripled, walked and had four assists, one of them to end the 2-1 win. He doubled in two runs in the ninth inning of Game 4 to give the Yankees their final 7-4 lead, four batters after Dodger catcher Mickey Owen famously dropped a third strike which would have ended the game. And he drove in another run in the final 3-1 victory in Game 5. His five double plays (three of them in Game 2) remain a record for a five-game Series. After the Series, Yankees manager Joe McCarthy said, "The greatest all-around ballplayer I ever saw, and I don't bar any of them, is Joe Gordon."

Gordon led the Yankees to another pennant in his 1942 MVP season, edging Triple Crown winner Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox for the award. He batted .322, fourth in the AL, with 18 homers and 103 RBI, and finished sixth in the league in total bases (264) and slugging (.491) while he and Rizzuto again led the league in double plays. He had another poor World Series, however, batting just .095 in the five-game loss to the St. Louis Cardinals – his only Series loss in six trips; he was picked off at second base in the bottom of the ninth in the last game. By his own lofty standards he had a subpar yet productive season in 1943, batting .249 with 17 HRs (5th in the AL), 69 RBI and 82 runs, and leading the AL in assists; despite his low batting mark, he was still among the league's top ten players in both slugging (.413) and on base percentage (.365), thanks to a career-best 98 walks (second in the AL).

In the World Series rematch with the Cardinals, he gave New York a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning of Game 1 – a 4-2 win – with a solo homer, and scored the first run in a 2-1 win in Game 4. He threw out the final batter of the Series with the tying runs on base in the 2-0 Game 5 victory, with the Yankees taking home another title. He again fielded brilliantly, setting still-standing records for a five-game Series of 20 putouts, 23 assists, 43 total chances, and a 1.000 fielding average; his 8 assists in Game 1 and 3 assists in the eighth inning of Game 5 are also records. Afterwards, he served in the U.S. Army in 1944-45 during World War II, missing those seasons.

He returned to the Yankees in 1946, which turned out to be his most challenging year in major league baseball. Gordon was spiked in an exhibition game and severed a tendon in his hand, which required surgery, and he suffered a chipped bone in his finger. As the rest of the Yankees headed to The Bronx to begin the 1946 regular season, Gordon stayed behind in Florida for a month to recover. As Gordon told Oregonian sports editor L. H. Gregory, just two weeks after returning to the Yankees lineup, Gordon tore a leg muscle. He taped the leg and resumed playing, only to tear a muscle in his other leg. Following a brief break, Gordon retore a leg muscle and then fractured his thumb. Gordon played in just 112 games that year and stepped up to the plate just 376 times, nearly 170 fewer at bats than his pre-war 1943 season. As a result, he batted .210 with 11 HRs and 47RBI, much to the displeasure of new Yankees president/general manager Larry MacPhail. With Gordon-ally Joe McCarthy resigning from the Yankees club in May 1946 and following his worst season in baseball, Gordon was in trouble. Trade rumors were rampant and MacPhail even consulted Gordon teammate DiMaggio about "Flash's" eventual trade for one of Cleveland's pitchers. Taking DiMaggio's advice, on October 11 MacPhail settled on Indians pitcher Allie Reynolds in exchange for Gordon: a move that benefited both ball clubs. Gordon departed New York after precisely 1,000 games and 1,000 hits: the only player in baseball history with those statistics.