New York Yankees 30’s: Dynasty Grows

                                                            Fifteen days after the A’s defeated the Cubs in the World Series, the stock market crashed, sending the US into the Great Depression. Many things would be affected by the crash. Jobs were scarce. Money for entertainment was even more scarce. But in 1930, the Yankees drew over a million fans. Topping their attendance from 29. But once again, Connie Mack’s A’s were the class of the league winning their second pennant in a row. The Yankees finished 3rd.

                                                           It wasn’t like the Yankees were that bad, they had six regulars hit over .300. Dickey, Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri, Combs and 21-year-old rookie, Ben Chapman. Jimmie Reese, Ruth’s roommate and future Angel coach, hit .346 as a reserve. The big difference was the pitching, and the fact that they had lost manager Miller Huggins who died unexpectedly in September of 1929 just before the season ended. Former pitcher, Bob Shawkey was the new skipper. 

                                                           Ruth was 35, but still had a very good year .345/46/154. Gehrig added 35 homers and 125 RBIs. Their winningest pitcher was George Pipgras. He went 15-15. But all of their starters had ERAs over 4. They hit 152 homers. The A’s pitching was just superior to the Yankees. Former aces, Herb Pennock and Waite Hoyt were not nearly as good. Hoyt was injured and only pitched in 8 games. Pennock, now 36, was 11-7 in his 25 games. They even finished behind the Washington Senators. 

                                                           In 1931, the Yankees hired a new manager, Joe McCarthy.  McCarthy came over after managing the Cubs for five seasons. He won the NL pennant in 1929 but lost the series to the A’s. He had a powerful offensive team. Yankees would score 1067 runs that year. They hit .297 as a team, and they still finished second to the A’s, 13.5 games back. Gehrig won the HR and RBI crowns and hit .341. He led the league in runs scored, hits, plate appearances, and total bases. Yet his WAR, 8.6 was almost 2 points below Ruth’s 10.5. Babe hit .373 with 46 homers to tie Gehrig for the league lead and 162 RBIs, second to Gehrig’s 185. 

                                                           Attendance dropped from over 1 mil to 911,000. The pitching was better with rookie Lefty Gomez leading the team with 21 wins. The 22-year-old was just starting his Hall of Fame career. The A’s pitching was just that much better than the Yankees. Lefty Grove led with 31 wins. Earnshaw and Walberg won 21 and 20 respectively, and the A’s led the league in team ERA winning 107 games.  But they would lose the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals. At the end of the 32 season, Mack would begin selling off his stars since he was strapped for cash. He sold 3 players, Al Simmons, Mule Haas and Jimmie Dykes to the White Sox for 100,000 dollars. By 1932, the A’s attendance had dropped to half of what it had been in 1929. His lone star as it were, was Jimmy Foxx, who he would finally trade in December of 1935 to the Red Sox for 2 players and 150,000 dollars. The A’s would not return to the World Series until 1972. 

                                                            In 1932, the Yankees would climb back and win the AL pennant. This time it was the Yankees who won the pennant by 13 games over the A’s. They won 107. The offense was nowhere near the 31 team, but the pitching, behind Lefty Gomez was much better. Ruth at 37 clubbed 41 homers. Gehrig had 34 and led the team in hitting and RBIs. Red Ruffing and Johnny Allen gave the Yankees 18 and 17 wins respectively. Both were 27 years old. 

                                                           In the World Series they faced McCarthy’s former team, the Cubs. The series would become famous for Ruth’s called shot off of Charlie Root. The star of the series was Gehrig who hit .529 with 3 homers and 8 driven in, but the headlines went to the 37-year-old Ruth. He hit 2 homers and drove in 6. The underlying story is that there was a lot of dislike by the Yankees of the way they felt former teammate, Mark Koenig had been treated by the Cubs. Koenig had been purchased from the PCL and had played well for the Cubs in limited action during the season, despite that, the team did not vote him a full World Series share. In those days, that money meant a lot. So, there was a lot of vitriol between the two teams. 

                                                       In the third game, the Cubs were riding Ruth pretty relentlessly. Ruth shut them up for a little bit when he hit a 3-run homer off of Root in the first. But the Cubs came back and tied the game. In the top of the fifth, Ruth led off. The catcalls got louder. Root fired a strike, the story is that Ruth held up 1 finger, meaning 1 strike. Root fired another strike, and the story went Ruth held up 2 fingers, and then either pointed at the center field bleachers or held up 1 finger meaning he had one strike left. Anyway, the next pitch Root threw, Babe hit it into the centerfield bleachers almost exactly where he is supposed to have pointed. All the way around the bases, Babe was gesturing to the Cubs dugout. What is almost lost is the fact that Gehrig, batting behind Ruth, then homered to deep right, giving the Yankees a 2-run lead in a game they won 7-4.  They pounded the Cubs the next day to sweep the series. 

                                                       As 1933 rolled around, it was becoming clear that the Yankees leader was now Gehrig. Ruth was 38 years old. He had what players today would call a pretty good year. By Ruth’s standards, it was subpar. He hit 34 homers to lead the team, but he hit only .301. Gehrig led the team with a .341 mark. Dickey, Chapman and Combs all hit .300 or better. They would finish second to the Senators. The Yankee pitching fell off of a cliff in 33. They had no 20 game winners, and the team ERA once again was over 4. Changes were coming, and a lot sooner than some thought. They did lead the league in attendance but drew only 728 thousand fans. 

                                                      In 1934 they would finish second again, this time to Mickey Cochranes Tigers. Gehrig won the triple crown, .363/49/166. But finished 5th in the MVP vote. Cochrane was the league MVP. Ruth at 39 hit only .288. His 22 homers were second to Gehrig, but he drove in under 100 for the first time since his 1925 season. The Babe was finished in New York and was sold to the Braves. Babe wanted to be a manager, but Yankees owner, Jacob Ruppert, did not believe Ruth had enough self-control to manage. Supposedly the Braves owner had said Ruth would manage the Braves after the 35 season when it was expected they would fire Bill McKechnie. He supposedly found out about it and undermined Ruth every chance he got. 

                                                        Gomez and Ruffing returned to form for the Yankees, so their pitching was much better, and they had gotten younger with guys like Johnny Murphy joining the staff. They finished second in the league in attendance, with it climbing to 854 thousand. From then on, they would play without Babe Ruth for the first time in 15 years. The torch was passed to Gehrig, who through no fault of his own, had always been in Ruth’s shadow. He too would pass the torch shortly because of his illness, which at this point had not shown up yet, to a young Italian outfielder from San Francisco. 

                                                                                                                                               Ruth crosses the plate for the final time. # 714

                                                       1935, the Yankees were obviously not the same offensive team without Ruth. Gehrig, now 32, had what many would say was for him a down year. He hit .329 but hit only 30 homers and drove in 120 runs. No other Yankee except for George Selkirk, who replaced Ruth. He had 93 driven in. They finished second to the Tigers. The Yankees pitching was pretty good, finishing 1st in the AL, but their offense just wasn’t good enough. Gomez finished under .500 at 12-15. Ruffing was the team leader in wins with 16. A little side note, Yankees had a 21-year-old rookie play in 8 games. He would later make a name for himself in Brooklyn, where he would be nicknamed, The Peeples Cheerce. Dixie Walker.

                                                       The 1936 Yankees were a whole different animal. They won 102 games, and then beat their cross-town rivals, the Giants in six games. They had a rookie in center field, Joe DiMaggio, who they had purchased from the San Francisco Seals of the PCL had an outstanding rookie season. He hit .323 with 29 homers and 125 driven in. He also tied for the league lead in triples with teammate, Red Rolfe, 15. Gehrig was still the star of the team. He led the AL in HR’s, WAR, runs, walks, OBP, Slugging and OPS. Dickey led the team with a .362 BA. He and Gehrig were the two players with an OPS above 1.000. 

                                                      The Ace of the staff was Red Ruffing who had 20 wins. Pearson 19, Broaca 12, Gomez 13, and Hadley 14, rounded out the starting rotation. Pat Molone and Johnny Murphy were the main bullpen guys. Malone had 12 wins and 9 saves, Murphy had 9 wins and 5 saves. But 36 was just the beginning. The Yankees were just starting to flex their muscles. McCarthy was on his way to being a Hall of Fame manager. 

                                                       The 37 Yankees won 102 games. The finished 13 games ahead of the Tigers. The offense was potent. They batted .283 as a team and clubbed 174 homers, led by DiMaggio’s 46. Gehrig 37, and Dickey 29, accounted for the bulk of the homers. DiMaggio led the league in runs and homers. He also struck out just 37 times, and he walked 64. Hoag, Selkirk and young OF Tommy Henrich also hit over .300. Selkirk contributed 18 homers to the cause. 

                                                      Gomez got his mojo back and led the team in wins with 21. Ruffing added 20. Hadley was the only other Yankee starter in double figures. Murphy out of the pen had 13 wins and 10 saves. They played the Giants in the World Series again, and this time the beat them in 5 games. The Yankees had 4 homers in the series to the Giants 1. Gehrig, Lazzeri, DiMaggio and pitcher Red Rolfe went deep for New York, Mel Ott hit the only Giants homer. Two in a row, the Yankees were feeling pretty good going into 1938. 

                                                      The 38-team won 99 games, but still finished 9.5 games ahead of the Red Sox. DiMaggio was the star of the team now, but the leader was Bill Dickey. Gehrig, unaware that the disease that would take his life was now affecting his play, had his worst season in years. He still managed to hit .295 with 29 homers and 125 driven in, but it was obvious that his skills were declining. Most attributed it to age, he was now 35. DiMaggio hit .324, best on the team. He, Gehrig, Dickey, Joe Gordon and Henrich all hit 20 homers or more. Dickey, Gehrig and DiMaggio all drove in more than 100 runs. 

                                                     Ruffing 21, Gomez 18, Pearson 16, and Spud Chandler 14, were the starters. Murphy was the top reliever with 8 wins and 11 saves. They met the Cubs in the World Series. The Cubs had won 89 games and beaten Pittsburgh by only 2 games in the standings. They did not have much star power, and even less at the plate. Their best hitter in the series was 21-year-old utility man, Phil Cavaretta, who hit .462 in the series. The great Dizzy Dean pitched in 2 of the 4 games, losing his only start. Lou Gehrig did not drive in a single run for the series. Joe Gordon hit .400, homered and drove in 6. It was a very quick series. 

                                                   Three in a row. Quite a feat for the Yankees who even in the Ruth era, never won more than 2 in a row. 1939 would mark the end of Gehrig’s time in baseball. He would have one last day in the sun on Lou Gehrig Day on the 4th of July. His speech would stir the feelings in many.  The 39-team won 107 games and finished 17 in front of the Red Sox. Gehrig played 8 games and took himself out of the lineup. He had played 2130 consecutive games. Many of them while injured. He was replaced at first by Babe Dahlgren. 

                                                  The offense was led once again by DiMaggio, but this time with a lot of help from young Charlie Keller and 3rd baseman, Red Rolfe. Rolfe led the league in runs, hits and homers. DiMaggio won the batting crown at .381. Keller hit .334. Dickey and Selkirk also hit over .300. The pitching was led by Ruffing with 21 wins. Six additional Yankee pitchers had 10 wins or more, Donald 13, Gomez, Hadley, Pearson, 12 each and Sundra 11 and Hildebrand 10. 

                                                    They played the NL Champion Cincinnati Reds. Could not have been more of a mismatch. They crushed the Reds for their second straight series sweep. They hit 7 homers to the Reds none. Game 1, a 2-1 contest with both teams’ aces pitching, Ruffing for the Yankees and Paul Derringer for the Reds, was the only close game. Charlie Keller was the hitting star for the Yankees with 3 homers and 6 driven in. The Yankees were well positioned for the next decade. Ove the next 20 years, the seeming invincibility of the franchise would grow. For now, only WWII would curtail multiple Series wins. Players joining the service for the War starting in 1942, would thin the star ranks of many teams. And lead to a surprise winner or two.  It was DiMaggio’s time, and his chief rival would be one of the best hitters to ever play the game.