NYYFans.com Forum - 1923 - The First Champions

We’ve all seen the write-ups and comparisons of which Yankees team was the greatest. 1927, 1939, 1961, 1998?

Little has been written on the very first Yankees team to call themselves champions…

Lets have a look-see…

The Yankees had won their first pennant just a few years prior in 1921 and participated in the very first all NY World Series. It would also be played exclusively at the Polo Grounds, home of the NY Giants as the Yankees had no official home of their own. The Series started out great for the Yankees as they took the first 2 games. With a 3 games to 2 lead in the series it all fell apart for the Yankees. They wound up losing the series 5 games to 3 with an injured Babe Ruth riding the bench for most of the series…

Though they won the pennant again in ’22, the Giants swept them out of the Polo Grounds (literally) 4 games to zip with one tie and told them not to return…find a new home…

The Yankees would oblige…gladly…

The Yankees won their third pennant in a row in 1923 and would face the NY Giants for the third year in a row as well. But this time it was different. The Yanks were in a new home…Yankee Stadium…the house that Ruth built. They were a team deep in pitching; a solid veteran ball club all around.

THE TEAM:

Their manager was Miller Huggins “The Mighty Mite”…

The 5’5” Hug spent 13 years in the bigs as a first rate sure handed second sacker. He was also an ideal switch hitting leadoff man who tallied 1002 career walks while swiping 50 bags a season (his SB’s were not tallied in Cincinnati)

He developed his leadership skills as a player manager with the St Louis Cardinals. A shrewd investor in the stock market, he attempted to purchase the Cardinals but was rejected. It was at this point before the 1918 season that the Yankees were looking for a managerial change when Ban Johnson highly recommended him to Jacob Rupert. Cap Huston, serving overseas in France wanted his good friend Wilbert Robinson, but Rupert ignored his pleas and telegrams and hired Huggins. Huggins’ managerial record at this point was hardly stellar but Johnson knew him to be a smart and sound baseball man who could help develop the Yankees. A livid Huston accused Rupert of double-crossing him and would never warm up to Hug. Together with Rupert and Barrow, Huggins and the Yankees ended the dead-ball era forever building a slugging team that would be known as Murderers Row by Ripley’s believe it or not comics by the late teens.

They were considered a bunch of rabble-rousers in uniform up until a horrible slump in 1925 (the season of Babe’s famous “belly ache”). The temperamental Mighty Mite who would challenge players and opponents who were twice his size (pretty much everyone) had enough…Coupled with a $5,000 fine and nine-day suspension of Babe Ruth, and with full management backing, Huggins cracked his whip and established himself as boss, beginning the club's tradition of Yankee pride.

By the time of his sudden and untimely death however in 1929 he will have led the Yankees to 6 pennants and 3 World Championships including the franchises very first in 1923…

Wally Pipp, originally purchased in 1915 from the Tigers, was entering his ninth season as the Yankees first sacker and was coming off his best season yet after hitting .329 with 9HRs and 90 RBIs. Though his stats would start to decline slightly this year, he was considered one of the best in the league and he would still hit .304 with 6HRs and 108 runs knocked in. In 1922, Wally Pipp, picking up a little extra money scouting for the Indianapolis club, observed a first sacker playing at Columbia University and strongly urged that he be signed…

That player was Lou Gehrig…

At the end of the ’23 season Pipp was injured and the Yankees sought permission to use a late-season call-up to replace him for the Series, but was rejected by sourly Giants manager John McGraw and Pipp started all six WS games.

The rejected call-up was a 20-year kid from Hartford … Lou Gehrig…

Pipp had held virtually every Yankee first base record until Lou Gehrig eventually broke them. He was also a top-notch fielder and is still among the career leaders for chances per game and putouts at first base.

Pipp, while visiting Detroit on May 2, 1939 ran into Lou Gehrig at the Book-Cadillac Hotel, where the Yankees stayed. Lou told Pipp that he didn't feel well and might sit out the game. That was the very game Gehrig took himself out of the lineup, ending the 14-year streak that began on the day Pipp sat…Very intriguing the way their lives intertwined…

Over at second was another seasoned veteran, Aaron Ward, going into his 7th season with the club. “Wardie” was a dependable second sacker and solid hitter, who actually began his career with the Yankees as a shortstop. He would post a .284 avg by seasons end and club 10 home runs. Although he could also play SS and 3rd he would appear at second for all 152 games of the 1923 season. Ward put on a great hitting display in the ’23 Series vs. The Giants batting .417 with a HR. Ward would eventually lose his job to future HOF second sacker Tony Lazzeri in ’26.

The Shortstop was the Iron Man Everett Scott coming off his first season with the Yankees. Acquired from Boston in 1921 in yet another steal along with Joe Bush and “Sad Sam” Jones for Roger Peckinpaugh, Jack Quinn, Rip Collins, and Bill Pierce he would run his consecutive games streak to 1,138 on the season’s finale against the A’s. Huggins would end Scott’s streak at 1307 games by benching him in May 1925 because his knees were “shot”. One month later a 22 year old rookie will pinch hit for Scott’s replacement, Paul (Pee Wee) Wanninger. The next day Wally Pipp will sit from the result of a beaning and is replaced at first by that same pinch hitter, thus starting his own streak that will extend into 1939…

That 22-year-old pinch hitter was Lou Gehrig…

The third sacker was Joe Dugan, who, during a controversial trade from the Red Sox to the Yankees in late July 1922, in the midst of a close pennant race, will largely be responsible for bringing about the June 15 trading deadline the following year…

By the time he joined the Yankees Dugan had developed into one of the best all around third sackers in the league. With great range…he could hit, run, field and throw. A master at fielding bunts, he would charge the ball, grabbing them barehanded and whipping the throw across his body cleanly to first...In 1923 he would hit .283 with 7 HR’s and 67 RBI’s. While appearing in 146 regular season games, he would commit only 12 errors.

The starting outfield consisted of Bob Meusel, Whitey Witt and Babe Ruth…

Left fielder Bob Meusel, entering his 4th season with the Yankees, would be squaring off not only against the Giants for the third consecutive post season, but against his brother “Irish” Meusel, who was an excellent outfielder as well…

Considered to have one of the best arms in baseball and great range, he would also bat .313 or better in seven of his first eight seasons with the Yanks. He would also become the very first Yankee to win a Home Run title with 33 in 1925. Bob led the Yankees in stolen bases five times, with a high of 26 in 1924. He also stole second, third, and home in a May 16, 1927 game against Detroit, and pilfered home twice in WS play. Meusel ranks among the all-time Yankee leaders in doubles (338), triples (87), RBI (1,005), and batting average (.311). “Languid Bob” had numbers that were comparatively better than some Hall of Famers; and could have done even better, according to manager Miller Huggins and others, had it not been for his indifferent attitude on the field.

During the ’23 season he would hit .313 with 9 HR’s and 91 RBI’s

Purchased from the Athletics of Philadelphia in April of ’22 was center fielder Whitey Witt. Witt was a great “punch” hitter and bunter reputedly getting about 40 infield hits a year, and often walked. During a September game against the Red Sox, Witt smacked a ball to third sacker Howard Shanks who booted it but it is scored a base hit. Red Sox Pitcher Howard Ehmke went on to retire the next 27 Yankees in a row for his 20th win…

Witt would have a fine season in ’23 batting .314 as the leadoff man and knocking in 51. He would lead the team in runs scored with 113…

The Babe…The Bambino…The Sultan of Swat. I generally don’t write up anything on the big guy…what can I say that you haven’t heard before…

The catcher…Wally Schang was considered one of baseball's premier catchers throughout most of his 18-year ML career. Schang was also a strong switch hitter (six seasons over .300) and good base runner (one of the few catchers to steal more than 100 bases), his defensive work was also outstanding. When not behind the plate, managers would play him in the outfield or at third base to keep his bat in the lineup. He was the Yankees' regular catcher when they won their first three pennants in 1921-23 and is the only player to be on three different World Championship clubs…

The starting staff:

Led by their ace 21 game winner Sam Jones, the 1923 Yankees were deep in pitching…Following Jones was “Bullet Joe” Bush with 19 W’s and southpaw Herb Pennock, also with 19 wins. Filling out the starters was journeyman Bob Shawkey and Waite Hoyt. The bullpen consisted of submariner Carl Mays, George Pipgras and Oscar Roettger.

“Sad Sam” Jones pitched for 22 consecutive seasons in the same league, a ML record shared with Herb Pennock, Early Wynn, Red Ruffing, and Steve Carlton… His finest season was 1923, when he was 21-8 as the Yankees' ace, hurling a September 4 no-hitter against the Athletics and leading New York to their first World Championship. His relief work in the final game of the Series clinched it for the Yanks… Bill McGeehan of the New York Herald-Tribune dubbed him Sad Sam because, to him, He always had a downcast look on the field. In actuality, the reason he looked downcast was because he would always wear his cap down real low over his eyes, glaring in to the batter…A look we all became familiar with watching Andy Pettitte for all those years… Jones possessed a sharp snapping curve also earning him the nickname Horsewhips Sam. Like most pitchers of his day, Jones relieved as well as started, and his eight saves in 1922 led the AL.

Traded to the Yankees for the 1922 season, “Bullet Joe” Bush enjoyed his finest season yet going 26-7, for an AL-high .788 winning percentage…During the 1921 season his curve would no longer break, so he developed a fork ball, then an almost unknown pitch and regained his dominance over hitters. Possessing a good batting eye, (.253 BA) he was often used as a pinch hitter. At the age of 20 in 1913 while with the A’s, he became the youngest pitcher to win a World Series game (vs. the Giants). He would beat the Giants again 10 years later in 1923, this time as a Yankee…

In 1923, Herb Pennock became one of the many prizes the Yankees stripped from Boston for just three nondescript players and $50,000. In that first year with New York, he led the league in winning percentage (.760), going 19-6, and the first of four over-.700 seasons. He then won two games in the 1923 Series triumph over the Giants. Pennock possessed a very fluid and almost effortless motion that was deceptive to hitters. He was even-tempered, cool under pressure and possessed a decent fastball, great curve, and a baffling change up that was all augmented by impeccable control. Huggins also described him as thinking mans pitcher, constantly studying the great hitters for weaknesses. Many an opponent was psychologically crossed up, as he routinely faked out hitters by pretending to shake off different pitches, then returning to the original signal.

Bob Shawkey, after going 16-8 in his sophomore season with the A’s (going for naught after the Miracle Braves' 4-0 sweep of the World Series), was sold to New York for $18,000 mid 1915 in another Connie Mack giveaway. Next year he was the Yankees workhorse, winning 24 games and achieving a 2.21 ERA in 53 appearances. From 1915 – 1922, Bob Shawkey was about as good a pitcher as the Yankees had on their weak staffs…

Most of 1918 was spent in the Navy as a yeoman petty officer aboard the battleship Arkansas, Thus the nickname “Sailor Bob”. He returned to a Yankees team now run by Miller Huggins, shortly to begin its habitual winning ways. Shawkey contributed 20 victories each in 1919, 1920, and 1922, helped along by 10- and 11-game winning streaks the first two of those seasons. He struck out 15 Athletics in 1919, which was a Yankee record for 59 years (broken by Ron Guidry “Hooooly Cow!!! vs. the Angels (18Ks)), and among his 37 career shutouts were seven 1-0 games, also a Yankee mark.

In 1923 he pitched the first game played at Yankee Stadium, beating the Red Sox 3-1; appropriately, Ruth walloped the first Stadium homer. He would return to the newly refurbished Yankee Stadium in 1976 at the ripe old age of 86 this time to throw out the first ball…

“Schoolboy” Waite Hoyt was entering his 6th season in the bigs and third with the Yankees and still only 23. Another Boston “acquisition”…his first two seasons he won 19 games each and was looking forward to becoming a 20 game winner…Little known piece of info is that during the off season he worked as an undertaker and was dubbed the Merry Mortician. During the 1921 World Series against the NY Giants (The very first “Subway Series”) he pitched in 3 games for 27 innings and finished with an ERA of 0.00 (2 runs scored off him were unearned).

He would go on the post a 17-9 record with a 3.02 ERA in 1923…

Carl Mays was in his last season with the Yankees in 1923. Pitching primarily from the bullpen, he would appear in only 23 games…Mays was an underhand submariner who basically up and quit the Red Sox mid season in 1919 and was bought on the spot by the Yankees. Mays was a five time 20 game winner in his career but was followed his entire life by the Chapman beaning death…

George Pipgras was another rookie pitcher snagged from the Red Sox that came to the Yankees in 1923…Pipgras also served with the 25th army engineers during WWI…He would not see much action during the ’23 season but would go on to be a dominating Yankees pitcher till traded back to the Sox during the ’33 season. He was the Yankees' pitcher when Ruth supposedly called his home run shot in 1932 and won all of his WS starts (one each in 1927, 1928, and 1932). Sadly when he was robbed in a railroad station, it was his 1923 World Series watch that was taken…

He later became an American League umpire and ejected 17 players during a Browns-White Sox game in 1938.

Oscar Roettger was primarily a pitcher from the old Western League before it became the AL. He played with the St. Paul Saints as a pitcher and first baseman during the 20’s and 30’s in the great St. Paul / Minneapolis rivalry that existed since the days right after the Civil War…It was a rivalry that consisted of player vs. player and fan vs. fan brawls… The Western League eventually changed its name to the American League and changed its status from a minor to a major league in 1901without Minneapolis and St. Paul. The following year, however, the Millers and Saints became charter members of the American Association. And by the time they hung up their spikes and shin guards for the final time, they had created a legacy for the incoming Twins to follow…

In 1923 he joined the Yankees and pitched in NY for only 2 seasons, 1923 and 24 appearing in only 6 games…(5 in ’23 and 1 in ’24). He would later turn up in the NL with the Dodgers for 1 game in 27 as an outfielder and again in the AL in ’32 with Philly at first base…

I’m not going to get into the bench as they include Gehrig, Bengough, and Gazella from the ’27 team and a few other utility guys…

There is one interesting fellow that I would like to discuss from the 1923 team and that is one Henry “Hinkey” Haines…

1923 would be his one and only season in professional baseball but it was the right place and the right time for Hinkey. Considered a bright baseball prospect twice making the college All-American in that sport with great acceleration and speed, he turned out to be a light hitting utility outfielder appearing in only 28 games…His .160 BA would not put Babe Ruth on the bench any time soon so gave up baseball and switched to professional football where he became one of the first NY Giants superstars as a running back appearing with the very first Giants Championship team of 1927. Hinkey Haines would become the one and only member of the very first Yankees championship team, and a member of the football NY Giants very first championship team…truly, a most remarkable feat!!!

The 1923 Yankees would finish the season with a record of 98 wins and 54 losses...

Key highlights of that first championship season:

Rupert formally bought out Cap Huston and became sole owner of the Yankees for $1.5 million dollars. Ten days later Rupert would buy two more sets of uniforms so his players can wear a clean uniform every day, an unprecedented move at that time…

Yankee Stadium would be completed in time for the beginning of the ’23 season winning the inaugural game against the Red Sox on Wednesday, April 18 with Bob Shawkey getting the win…

Lou Gehrig would appear for a few games that season and finish the year with Hartford. He would not participate in the WS against the Giants, but his brief stay at the Stadium, where he hit .423 in 13 games would not go unnoticed. He would be back…

Yankee Sam Jones no-hits the Athletics, 2–0 at Shibe Park on Tuesday September 4th.

Carl Mays appears in his last game as a Yankee against the A’s and loses, 7–6, knocking him out of the box with four runs in the 5th He had won 24 straight games against the A's. He will not appear in any of the World Series games. Ruth, filling in for the injured Pipp at 1B, clubs his 39th home run in the 1st. Eddie Rommel, in relief, is the winner.

1923 WORLD SERIES…the third consecutive subway series…

Game 1: Yankee Stadium

It is the very first World Series game played at Yankee Stadium in its very first season. It’s also the first World Series to be broadcast on a nationwide radio network. Graham McNamee, aided by a few baseball writers taking turns, is at the mike for the play by play…

The Yankees take a quick 3-0 lead but the Giants Heinie Groh triples in two runs in a 4-run 3rd that sends Waite Hoyt to an early shower…With the score tied at 4 in the ninth inning, Yankee killer Casey Stengel hits a frozen rope that gets between Bob Meusel and Whitey Witt and rolls to the wall in left center. The sore-legged veteran hobbles around the bases to score the winning run against reliever Joe Bush before a crowd of 55,307…

This was the Yankees ninth Series game in a row without a win against the Giants, losing eight and tying the other. Babe Ruth and Herb Pennock would put an end to this...

Game 2: Polo Grounds

The Yankees, looking to even up the series send Herb Pennock out to the mound. He scatters 9 hits and goes the distance for a 4-2 Yankees win. Babe Ruth smacks 2 HR’s, one in the fourth inning and one in the fifth and Aaron Ward clubs one of his own.

Game 3: Yankee Stadium

The 62,430 fans packed into Yankee Stadium were treated to an old-fashioned pitching duel in game 3. Stengel was the man of the hour again for the visiting Giants in the seventh inning. Sad Sam Jones and the Nationals' Art Nehf were locked in a scoreless pitching duel and with one out in the seventh; Stengel homered into the right field stands. Nehf made the run stand up, allowing just five singles and a double for a 1-0 shutout…

Game 4: Polo Grounds

The Yankees scored six runs in the 2nd off of three Giants hurlers to help a struggling Bob Shawkey to an 8–4 win. Whitey Witt has three hits and two RBI’s.

Game 5: Yankee Stadium

The Yankees will score three runs in the first and four in the 2nd to send Jack Bentley to an early shower while Bullet Joe Bush hurls a brilliant a 3-hitter for an 8–1 win. Joe Dugan shines with four hits, including a homer.

Miller Huggins' team would finish off the Giants in Game 6 at the Polo Grounds. Babe Ruth started things off by drilling a bases-empty, upper-deck homer in the first inning. The Giants however begin to peck away at Herb Pennock for four runs and take a 4–1 lead into the 8th…

Time for some 5 O’clock Lightning…

With one out, Art Nehf loads the bases on two singles and a walk, the walks in a run. Reliever Rosy Ryan forces in another run with a walk to Joe Dugan. Ruth strikes out, but Bob Meusel raps a single that scores the go-ahead runs. Sam Jones comes on in relief and holds off the Giants and the Yankees go on to win with a final score of 6-4…

Giving the New York Yankees their very first World Championship.

Ball game over…

1923 World Series over…

The Yankees win…

Theeeeeeeeeeee

Yankees WIN !!! :lol: