Sport: World Series

The fourth inning was all the Cardinals needed. Right Fielder Watkins made a homer and most of the line-up hit safely, bringing in seven runs. They got three more in the sixth. When the last Pittsburgh batter was out, the Cardinals slapped each other on the back as they tossed their gloves away, and started across the field to the dressing room. It was the last game they needed to make sure of the National League pennant, and the 10,000 fans who had turned out for them in the chilly weather were yelling and throwing out torn-up score cards, newspapers, peanut bags over Sportsman’s Park.

Next day the Cardinals drove in a parade of triumph through the streets of St. Louis. They were banqueted and congratulated. Certainly no team ever earned a parade more thoroughly, for that game with the Pirates was the twenty-first they had won out of their last 24. Since August I, when no one thought them very likely to get the pennant, they had taken 43 out of 55, boosted their percentage more than 100 points. In the most exciting pennant contest in years, they had stood off the brilliant spurts of “Uncle” Wilbert Robinson’s erratic Brooklyn players and the threat of the New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs. Three days before their deciding victory over the Pirates they broke the season’s record for base hits, getting 26 in the game in which they beat the Phillies 19 to 16.

While Cardinal Manager Gabby Street was enjoying the enthusiasm of his fellow St. Louisians, a manager in Chicago was feeling badly. It was Joe McCarthy of the Cubs who had just been informed by Owner William Wrigley Jr. that Rogers Hornsby would take his place next year. “I must have a winner,” said Owner Wrigley, who was less disgruntled by the showing of his team this season than by their failure to beat the Athletics in the last world series. In Shibe Park in Philadelphia—home of Connie Mack’s Athletics, who had been sure of the American League pennant for many weeks—electricians were getting ready for the world series by installing the telegraph master-switchboard that was used in the Hall-Mills murder trial (TIME, Nov. 15, 1926).

¶ Comparison of the teams:

Pitching. When Connie Mack started the series with the Cubs last year he had three pitchers to choose from—the brilliant left-handers Grove and Walberg, and a right-hander as good as either of them. George Earnshaw. Craftily, Mack did not start with either Grove or Walberg, but began the series with his old spitballer Howard Ehmke. This year Walberg has not come up to his past standard and old Ehmke has been scouting instead of pitching. Manager Mack, sorely needing a good relief pitcher such as the Cards have in Rhem, Bell, Lindsey, Grabowski, is expected to be orthodox and start Grove and Earnshaw.

The Cardinals have no one with Grove’s control, but they have Wild Bill Hallahan who throws the ball with blinding speed and has the knack of winning games. They have Burleigh Grimes, greatest of the spitball school, an opportunist, a fine money-player. They have such able right-handers as Jesse Haines, seasoned in other world series, and Sylvester Johnson.

Batting. The reason that Mack did not rely so much on his left-handers against the Cubs last year was that he thought it a bad idea to use “lefties” against a team of good right-hand hitters. The Cardinals hit just as well right-handed as the Cubs. Douthit, Hafey, Wilson, Gelbert, Adams are all right-side batters; Frisch can bat on either side. This year (up to last week) the Cardinal outfield averaged .353 at bat, the Athletics outfield .311. Every man in the regular Cardinal line-up except Bottomley has hit over .300. The six best Athletics average only .281.

Fielding. The Athletics have “the best catcher in the world”—Mickey Cochrane. The Cardinals have Frankie Frisch— probably the best second baseman, who has played in five world series. Connie Mack’s famed defensive infield (Foxx, Bishop, Boley, Dykes) is about as efficient but certainly no more so than Gabby Street’s (Bottomley, Frisch, Gelbert, Adams).

Managers. Silver-haired Connie Mack, proud, taciturn, scientific, drills his squad at blackboard baseball until they are dizzy. Said he recently: “I hesitated to call these boys one of my greatest teams because they have only won a single world’s series. But after the way they’ve played this year I may as well say I think they’re among the best that ever wore a uniform with an elephant on it.”

Charles Street is called Gabby because he talks a lot. This year he has talked less than usual. He caught for the immortal Walter Johnson with the Washing ton Senators in 1909. During the War he was a tough and talkative top-sergeant. His field strategies are usually extemporaneous but almost always shrewd. He affects no aloofness toward his players but is a strict disciplinarian. He is the first Cardinal manager since 1925 to last more than a year at the job. This is the first time he has managed a team in a world series.