By Ron Griffitts
Contributing columnist
In an all New York City World Series, the New York Yankees (94-60) managed by Miller Huggins met the New York Giants (93-61-2) managed by John McGraw in the fall of 1922.
The Yankees were led on offense by Babe Ruth (.315 BA, 35 HR, 96 RBI, 94 R), Wally Schang (.319 BA), Wally Pipp (.329 BA, 94 RBI, 96 R, 190 H), Bob Meusel (.319 BA, 16 HR, 88 RBI, 13 SB) and Whitey Witt (.297 BA, 98 R, 89 bb).
Their pitching staff was anchored by Bob Shawkey (20-12, 2.91 ERA), Waite Hoyt (19-12) and Joe Bush (26-7).
The Giant offense featured Frank Snyder ( .343 BA), George Kelly ( .328 BA, 17 HR, 107 RBI, 96 R, 194 H ), Frankie Frisch ( .327 BA, 101 R, 31 SB, 13 3b), Dave Bancroft ( .321 BA, 117 R, 209 H, 16 SB), Casey Stengel ( .368 BA), Ross Youngs ( .331 BA, 105 R) and Irish Meusel ( .331 BA, 16 HR, 132 RBI, 100 R, 204 H, 17 3b), the brother of the Yankees’ Bob Meusel.
Their pitching staff was led by Art Nehf (19-13), Jesse Barnes (13-8), Phil Douglas (11-4, 2.63 ERA) and Jack Scott (8-2) with Rosy Ryan (17-12) in the bullpen.
Game one, as well as all of the other games, were held at the Polo Grounds in the Manhattan borough of New York City as that field was the home field for both teams.
The Yankees had a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning when Dave Bancroft, Heine Groh and Frankie Frisch singled off of starter Joe Bush. Irish Meusel then singled in Bancroft and Groh to tie the score. Ross Youngs followed with a sacrifice fly to score the winning run and the Giants won 3-2 and took a 1-0 series lead.
Game two was unusual in that it was one of the few tie games in World Series history as after ten innings of play, the game was called because of darkness and ended in a 3-3 tie. Irish Meusel homered for the Giants and Aaron Ward had one for the Yankees.
In game three, the Giants got good pitching from Jack Scott in the form of a four hit shutout. With the help of two Frankie Frisch RBI’s, the Giants won 3-0 and took a 2-0-1 lead in the series.
In game four, the Yankees took an early 2-0 lead but the Giants erupted for four runs in the fifth with what proved to be the winning run on an RBI single by Ross Youngs scoring Heine Groh. Hugh McQuillan pitched a complete game for the Giants for a 4-3 win to go up 3-0-1 in the series.
In game five, the Yankees again took an early lead but RBI singles by George Kelly and Lee King in the bottom of the eighth was all Giant lefthander Art Nehf needed as he pitched a complete game and the Giants won the game 5-3 and the World Series.
Both teams were back the following year in the Fall Classic.
Babe Ruth had one of his poorer World Series as he batted only .112 with two hits.
Statistics for this article were from baseball-reference.com and baseball-almanac.com.
