1928 National League Champions

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The Story | Season Highlights | W.S. Opponent | Game Summaries | Series Box Score | Series MVP | World Series Program

The Story of the 1928 Championship Season

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1928 Regular Season Highlights

Regular Season Pitching Performances

Team Accomplishments

Individual Accomplishments

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World Series Opponent

1928 Murderer's Row

After squandering a 13 1/2-game lead and falling briefly behind the Athletics in early September, the Yankees recovered to meet the Cardinals--winners of another tight National League race--in the Series. With Herb Pennock lost to arm trouble, the Yankees made do with just three pitchers in extending their Series win streak to eight games.  

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Game Summaries

October 4 at New York (attendance: 61,425)

Cardinals Starter: Willie Sherdel (LHP), 21-10

Yankees Starter: Waite Hoyt (RHP), 23-11

 

STL	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0		1	3	1
NYY	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	X		4	7	0

Homeruns: Meusel - New York; Bottomley - St. Louis

WP: Hoyt (1-0)

LP: Sherdel (0-1)

Yankees lead Series 1-0

Highlights:

Ruth and Gehrig started things off with successive doubles and a run in the first inning of the opener, and when Bob Meusel followed Ruth's second double with a home run in the fourth, the Yanks had more than they would need to support Waite Hoyt's three-hitter. The Cardinals' Jim Bottomley homered off Hoyt in the seventh, but successive singles by Mark Koenig, Ruth, and Gehrig produced a fourth Yankee run and concluded the scoring.

October 5 at New York (attendance: 60,714)

Cardinals Starter: Grover Cleveland Alexander (RHP), 16-9

Yankees Starter: GeorgePipgras (RHP), 24-13

 

STL	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		3	4	1
NYY	3	1	4	0	0	0	1	0	X		9	8	2

Homeruns: Gehrig - New York

WP: Pipgras (1-0)

LP:  Alexander (0-1)

Yankees leas Series 2-0

Highlights:

Gehrig homered in the first inning of Game Two to get New York off to a 3-0 lead against forty-one-year-old Grover Cleveland Alexander. The Cards snapped back to tie the game, but the Yankees retook the lead with a run in the last of the second and put together four hits, two walks, and a hit batsman for four more in the third. A final Yankee run in the seventh capped a 9-3 four-hit win for pitcher George Pipgras.

October 7 at Saint Louis (attendance: 39,602)

Yankees Starter:  Tom Zachary (LHP), 3-3

Cardinals Starter: Jesse Haines (RHP), 20-8

 

NYY	0	1	0	2	0	3	1	0	0		7	7	2
STL	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0		3	9	3

Homeruns: Gehrig (2) - New York

WP: Zachary (1-0)

LP: Haines (0-1)

Yankees leads Series 3-0

Highlights:

Jim Bottomley gave St. Louis its first lead of the Series with a two-run triple in the first inning of Game Three. But Yankee Tom Zachary gave up only one more run, taking the third Yankee win as Gehrig drove in three runs with homers in the second and fourth, and his teammates scored three more in the sixth (thanks in large part to two Cardinal errors and Meusel's steal of home) and a final (unearned) run an inning later.

October 9 at Saint Louis (attendance: 37,331)

Yankees Starter: Waite Hoyt (RHP), 23-11

Cardinals Starter: Willie Sherdel (LHP), 21-10

 

NYY	0	0	0	1	0	0	4	2	0		7	15	2
STL	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1		3	11	0

Homeruns: Ruth (3) - New York

WP: Hoyt (2-0)

LP: Sherdel (0-2)

Yankees win the Series 4-0

Highlights:

New York completed its second straight Series sweep with another 7-3 win two days later. Waite Hoyt gained his second victory, mostly on the strength of five solo Yankee homers, including three by Babe Ruth.

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Series Composite Box Score

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Series MVP

Lou Gehrig's accomplishments on the field made him an authentic American hero, but his tragic early death made him a legend.

A tireless worker with a record 2,130 consecutive games played, Gehrig spent his whole career in New York, the nation's media capital. But it seemed that another teammate always got more headline attention, first Babe Ruth, then Joe DiMaggio. When historian Fred Lieb asked Gehrig about playing in Ruth's shadow, Gehrig's answer was true to form: "It's a pretty big shadow. It gives me lots of room to spread myself."

When actor Edward Herrmann was hired to play Gehrig in a TV movie, he had trouble getting into the role. "What made it so tough is I could find no Îkey' to his character. There was no strangeness, nothing spectacular about him. As Eleanor Gehrig told me, he was just a square, honest guy." Sportswriter Jim Murray described the tall, strong Gehrig as "Gibraltar in cleats."

His lifetime batting average was .340, 15th all-time highest, and he amassed more than 400 total bases on five occasions. Only 13 men have achieved that level of power in a season. Ruth did it twice, and Chuck Klein did it three times. Gehrig is one of only seven players with more than 100 extra-base hits in one season, and only he and Klein accomplished the feat twice.

In 13 years Gehrig averaged 147 RBIs a season. No player was to reach the 147 mark in a single season until George Foster did it in 1977. And, as historian Bill Curran points out, Gehrig accomplished it "while batting immediately behind two of history's greatest base-cleaners, Ruth and DiMaggio." Gehrig's 184 RBIs in 1931 remains the second all-time American League single-season record.

Gehrig won the Triple Crown in 1934 with a .363 average, 49 homers, and 165 RBIs, and was chosen Most Valuable Player in both 1927 and 1936. Despite his towering size, Gehrig stole home 15 times in his career, and he batted .361 in 34 World Series games with 10 homers, eight doubles, and 35 RBIs. He also holds the record for career grand slams at 23, he hit 73 three-run homers, and he hit 166 two-run shots, giving him the highest average of RBIs per homer of any player with more than 300 home runs.

On June 3, 1932, Gehrig became the first American Leaguer to hit four home runs in a game. After Gehrig's third homer to right field in a game against Philadelphia, an upset Connie Mack removed pitcher George Earnshaw and demanded that Earnshaw stay with him to watch reliever Roy Mahaffey pitch to Gehrig. Gehrig's fourth homer was to left field, and only a great catch by Al Simmons kept Gehrig from hitting his fifth homer of the day.

The son of German immigrants, Gehrig was the only one of four children to survive. He was preparing to enter Columbia University when he was advised by Giants Manager John McGraw to play summer professional baseball under an assumed name ("Henry Lewis"). "Everyone does it," McGraw explained, even though the illegal ballplaying could have jeopardized Gehrig's collegiate sports career. The gullible Gehrig was found out after playing a dozen games for Hartford of the Eastern League. As a result, Gehrig was banned from intercollegiate sports during his freshman year, 1921ö22.

Gehrig returned to sports to play fullback during Columbia's 1922 football season, and then pitched and played first for the Columbia nine in 1923. Signed by Yankee scout Paul Krichell in 1923, Gehrig returned to Hartford and hit .304. Called up to the majors in September, he hit .423 in 26 at bats.

Manager Miller Huggins petitioned McGraw to permit Gehrig to replace the ailing Wally Pipp on the Yanks' roster for the World Series. McGraw, always looking for an edge, exercised his prerogative and refused. The Yankees won anyway. After a full season at Hartford, where Gehrig hit .369, he became a Yankee for good in 1925. The first reports on Gehrig as a first baseman were not promising. Called a "tanglefoot," he begged Coach Charley O'Leary to give him extra fielding practice and sat next to Manager Huggins, who lectured him on the proper positioning for different hitters. On May 31 he pinch-hit for Pee Wee Wanninger. The next day, Pipp, who had been a reliable and productive first baseman, took the day off with a headache. Gehrig's streak of consecutive games played began and wouldn't end until 1939, after he'd played 2,130 straight games.

Gehrig's streak didn't come easily. He played every game for more than 13 years despite a broken thumb, a broken toe, and back spasms. Later in his career Gehrig's hands were X-rayed, and doctors were able to spot 17 different fractures that had "healed" while Gehrig continued to play. Despite having pain from lumbago one day, he was listed as the shortstop and leadoff hitter. He singled and was promptly replaced but kept the streak intact.

Gehrig didn't just move in and stay there. On three occasions in June 1925, a pinch hitter batted for him, and he didn't start the July 5 game that year, although he did appear later as a pinch hitter. But the Yanks were stumbling in seventh place, so Huggins stayed with the youngster.

After batting .295 in 1925, Gehrig hit .313, the first of 12 consecutive years he would top .300, and led the league with 20 triples in 1926. The Yanks won the pennant; Gehrig hit .348 in the World Series, but the Yankees lost to Rogers Hornsby's Cardinals in seven games.

Ruth and Gehrig began dominating the baseball headlines in 1927 in a way two players had never done before. That year Ruth hit 60 homers, breaking his old record of 59, and Gehrig clouted 47, more than anyone other than Ruth had ever hit. As late as August 10 Gehrig had more homers than the Babe, but Ruth's closing kick was spectacular. Together they outhomered every team in baseball except one.

The Yankees chased away all competition, winning the flag by 19 games over the A's and sweeping the Pirates in the World Series. Ruth was not eligible for the Most Valuable Player Award because he had won it before, so it went to Gehrig. In 1928 they tied for the RBIs lead with 142 and put on quite a show in the World Series. Despite being walked six times, Gehrig hit .545 and slugged a stunning 1.727.

Gehrig's average plummeted 74 points to only .300 in 1929, but after the season Ruth proposed that he and his teammate hold out together. However, the gentlemanly Gehrig refused to go for the power play.

During that season Paul Krichell brought an 18-year-old prospect to watch the Yankees play. "See that guy at first?" Krichell allegedly asked Hank Greenberg. "He's washed up. You can replace him." Greenberg didn't believe Krichell, saw that Gehrig wouldn't be dislodged for many years, and signed with Detroit instead. Gehrig bounced back to bat .379 in 1930 and tied Ruth for the AL lead in home runs with 46 in 1931, but Gehrig lost one on a curious play. With teammate Lyn Lary on second against the Senators, Gehrig smashed a home run so hard it bounced out of the stands and back into the arms of the center fielder. Lary misread the signals of the coach, who was trying to tell him to slow down, and he stopped running. Gehrig passed him, was declared out, and the Yanks lost two runs. They also lost the game by a two-run margin.

Ruth's dominance as a power hitter was slipping, and Gehrig was taking his place. The Yanks missed the postseason three years in a row (1933ö35). During an off-season barnstorming trip to Japan, the civil relationship between the two slugging stars boiled over, apparently over a comment Mrs. Gehrig made about how Ruth's daughter dressed. Ruth got word to Gehrig that he never wanted to speak to him again off the field. And the two never traded words until "Lou Gehrig Day" six years later.

Gehrig won the Triple Crown in 1934 and led the American League in home runs and on-base and slugging percentages in 1936, as the Yankees recaptured the title. For the next two years DiMaggio and Gehrig would dominate the league the way Gehrig and Ruth had, and the Yankees began a four-season dynasty that included winning four World Series and losing only three games out of 19. In 1936 Gehrig led the league in home runs and runs scored. In 1937 DiMaggio did the same. In 1938 Gehrig fell below .300 for the first time since 1925, and it was clear that there was something wrong. He lacked his usual strength. Pitches he would have hit for home runs were only flyouts. Doctors diagnosed a gall bladder problem, and they put him on a bland diet, which only made him weaker. Wes Ferrell noticed that on the golf course, instead of wearing golf cleats, Gehrig was wearing tennis shoes and was sliding his feet along the ground. Ferrell was frightened. When asked if he would remove Gehrig from the lineup, Manager Joe McCarthy said, "That's Lou's decision."

Gehrig played the first eight games of the 1939 season, but he managed only four hits. On a ball hit back to pitcher Johnny Murphy, Gehrig had trouble getting to first in time for the throw. When he returned to the dugout, his teammates complimented him on the "good play." Gehrig knew when his fellow Yanks had to congratulate him for stumbling into an average catch it was time to leave. He took himself out of the game.

The next day, as Yankee captain, he took the lineup card to the umpires, as usual. But his name was not on the roster. Babe Dahlgren was stationed at first. The game announcer intoned, "Ladies and gentlemen, Lou Gehrig's consecutive streak of 2,130 games played has ended." Doctors at the Mayo Clinic diagnosed Gehrig as having a very rare form of degenerative disease: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. There was no chance he would ever play baseball again.

New York writer Paul Gallico suggested the team have a recognition day to honor Gehrig on July 4, 1939. With more than 62,000 fans in attendance, Gehrig spoke his immortal words of thanks. (Note that the accepted order of the sentences was changed for the movies and most history books.)

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for 17 years, and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?

"Sure I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy?

"Sure I'm lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, send you a gift, that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies, that's something. So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for."

At the close of Gehrig's speech, Babe Ruth walked up, put his arm around his former teammate, and spoke in his ear the first words they had shared since 1934. Gehrig was elected to the Hall of Fame that December. He worked on youth projects for New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia until he was unable to walk. He died in 1941 at age 38, 16 years almost to the day after he had replaced Wally Pipp at first base for the Yanks.

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