The Little World Series

During the entire 1922 season, the St. Louis Browns and New York Yankees were battling each other for the American League pennant. One team was never more than five games back of the other and when one team wasn’t in first place, the other one was. Finally, in the middle of the month of September, the two powerhouses would do battle in a three game set in St. Louis that would ultimately decide the pennant.

The New York Yankees, managed by Miller Huggins, traveled to St. Louis up only a ½ game on the Browns. Heading into play, the Yankees were 86-55 and the club was led offensively by 27-year old outfielder Babe Ruth. The Bambino would finish the ’22 season with 35 home runs and one RBI short of 100 while being protected in the lineup by first baseman Wally Pipp, who would stroke a .329 average on the year.

However, the Browns, led by Lee Fohl, had just as much firepower at the plate. Outfielder Ken Williams, a 32-year old outfielder in only his third full big league season, led the American League in both homers (39) and RBIs (155). If Williams was the thunder, George Sisler was the lightning. The first baseman had a remarkable year, batting a league-leading .420 and stealing 51 bases while driving in 105 runs. Sisler and Williams were just two of four Browns who would drive in 100 runs or more, the others being second baseman Marty McManus (109) and outfielder Baby Doll Jacobson (102). Altogether, St. Louis drove in a major league high 868 runs.

The series was a great money making opportunity for scalpers in Missouri. The morning before game one, a couple from Oklahoma City bought a pair of $1.25 tickets for $45. The three games were even being touted as the ‘Little World Series’ by publications. Despite high ticket prices, over 30,000 fans showed up at Sportsman’s Park on a hot, muggy day in St. Louis. The park was even filled before the players came out of the dugouts for pregame warm-ups. On the mound for game one, it would be Urban Shocker for the Browns while the Yanks countered with Bob Shawkey.

The Yankees got to Shocker first with single runs in the second and third. In the second, Bob Meusel singled to lead off the inning and two batters later, he trotted home on an Everett Scott single to center. In the next inning, the New Yorkers got a 2-0 lead thanks to a Wally Pipp sacrifice fly that brought home Joe Dugan, who started the inning off with a base hit. Sadly for Brown fans, that was all the Yankees would need for a victory in the first game of the series.

Shawkey was dynamite for the Yankees, controlling the St. Louis bats with a great combination of speed and control. The only blemish for Shawkey came in the sixth, when the Browns put a run across the plate. With runners of the corners and one away, Eddie Foster hit a double play ball to second baseman Aaron Ward, who dropped it, allowing Wally Gerber to score. However, George Sisler would ground into an inning-ending double play during the next at-bat as the Yankees escaped with their lead intact. The Browns failed to threaten the rest of the way and the Yankees won 2-1.

Before the game ended, though, a near riot almost escalated in the bottom of the ninth. After Meusel recorded the first out of the inning on a fly out to center field, a fan stood up and hit center fielder Whitey Witt with a glass bottle right across the head. The throw knocked Witt unconscious and police got over very quickly to prevent fans in the outfield bleachers from rushing the field. Witt was carried off the field, and after getting stitches he was revived in the dressing room. The incident overshadowed the Yankees’ win across the sporting world. American League president Ban Johnson offered a $1,000 reward for any tip that led to the arrest of the perpetrator and the Browns also offered a $500 reward for information.

Saturday afternoon was another gorgeous day for baseball and another record crowd was on hand at Sportsman’s Park, this time it was 31,000+ walking through the turnstiles inSt. Louis. 21-year-old left-hander Hub Pruett got the ball for the Browns in the team’s biggest game of the season. Pruett would oppose Yankee righty Waite Hoyt. Also in the lineup was Witt, just one day after being knocked unconscious on the field. When Witt took his position in center field to begin the game, he got a rousing ovation from the crowd.

The Browns hit Hoyt hard to start the game, getting five hits in the first two innings, but the game would remain scoreless through five. After recording the first two outs in the sixth, Pruett ran into Babe Ruth. On a 2-2 count with no one on base, the Bambino blasted a Pruett fastball over the bleachers in right field for his 33 ^rd home run of the season. Despite being outplayed for the first half of the ballgame, it was the Yankees who had a 1-0 lead through five and a half.

After walking the first batter of the sixth, Hoyt then gave up a hard single up the middle to George Sisler and then paused while Sisler took in an ovation from the crowd. This wasn’t just another hit for Sisler, this was his 41 ^st straight game with a hit, breaking Ty Cobb’s American League consecutive hit streak record. When the game resumed, Hoyt continued to struggle. Ken Williams brought home Eddie Foster to tie the game up on a single to right field. Then with two outs in the inning, catcher Hank Severeid hit a groundball that was just out of shortstop Everett Scott’s reach. The ball rolled into center field and that allowed Sisler and Williams to score. After the sixth, the Browns had broken the game open a bit, 3-1.

That was all the run support that Pruett would need. Other than the home run to Ruth, the young lefthander was excellent against New York. He surrendered only five hits over nine innings while striking out eight Yankee hitters, leading the Browns to a much-needed 5-1 victory. The last two insurance runs came off the bat of Williams in the eighth, who blasted his 38 ^th home run of the season, and passed Rogers Hornsby for the major league home run lead. Once again, the Browns closed the gap on the Yankees to a ½ game for the AL pennant.

At this point, it would have been silly to say the pennant was riding on the final game of this series; St. Louis had nine games left on the calendar while the Yankees had 10, and both clubs would play very similar schedule strengths. Still, the next game would be a big one for St. Louis. A win would place them in first place for the first time in a month; a loss would drop them 1.5 games behind New York with the Yankees having a game in hand.  A win in the finale would be a big boost for the Browns. Fohl started veteran right-hander Dixie Davis, who had lots of success against the Yankees in his career. Opposing Davis was Joe Bush.

For the third straight day, the crowd at Sportsman’s Park grew, this time up to 32,000 spectators. The start of the game, for the most part, was a pitching duel between Davis and Bush. The only exception was in the home half of the second, when the Browns sent the record crowd into a frenzy by getting the first run of the game for the first time in the series. Jacobson led off with a double over the head of Witt. Two batters later, Severeid flew out to Ruth in right field, allowing Jacobson, who had moved up to third, to trot home on the sacrifice.

Meanwhile, Davis was getting much help from his defense. In the fourth, Wally Pipp led of the inning with off a hard hit to deep right field that looked like a sure double when Jacobson came flying over from center to make a tremendous catch near the overflow fans on the warning track. In the next inning, with runners on the corners and two outs, Joe Dugan hit a sinking liner to shallow left field. Shortstop Wally Gerber took a few steps back, laid out, and caught the baseball, keeping the Browns ahead.

The Browns padded their lead again in the seventh, when Marty McManus and Williams hit doubles; the former scoring on the latter’s hit. The Yankees got that run back in the eighth, when McManus threw a groundball hit by Witt into the bleachers, allowing Dugan to score from second. In what should have been the third out of the inning, the Yankees cut the lead in half and were threatening again with Witt standing at second base.  Davis buckled down, however, got two quick strikes on Bob Meusel, and struck him out looking on a dandy curveball.

Three more outs were all the Browns needed for a huge victory. Three outs. With the lead still at only a single run, the crowd let out a collective groan as Wally Schang led off the inning with a base hit. Davis’ next pitch was his last, a wild pitch to the backstop that allowed Schang to move to second base. Then the chess games began. Huggins put Elmer Smith in to pinch-hit and as soon as the switch was announced, Fohl elected to take the ball from Davis and replace him with game two’s hero, Hub Pruett. Huggins, not wanting the lefty-lefty match-up, then sent up a replacement batter, Mike McNally, for Smith.

After all of that, McNally laid down a bunt on the first pitch he saw. Instead of taking the out at first, Severeid fielded it and threw to third base. When the ball arrived at third, the speedy Schang was sliding in safely and the Browns still had no outs. A rattled Pruett walked the next batter to load the bases and that forced Fohl to make another pitching change, this time bringing in Urban Shocker, the starter in the series opener.

With the infield now in, McManus fielded a grounder and threw a dart to home plate, getting the force for the first out of the inning.  But the bases remained loaded with Whitey Witt coming up to the plate. Two afternoons prior, Witt was rendered unconscious when he was inexplicably hit with a glass bottle. Witt got his revenge, though, knocking a Shocker pitch into center field, scoring McNally and Scott for the game-tying and go-ahead runs. The Browns recorded an inning-ending double play on the next at-bat but the wind was out of their sails.

The Browns’ middle of the order put up no fight against Bush in the bottom of the ninth. Down went Sisler, followed by Williams, and finally, Jacobson to end a thrilling game and an exciting series. The momentum from the series finale carried on over to the next series for both teams. The Yankees swept the Detroit Tigers while St. Louis, clearly deflated, dropped two out of three to lowly Washington. With a week remaining, the Yankees had bought themselves a comfortable 3 ½ game lead for the AL pennant.

The lead got as big as 4 ½ games before the Browns made a late charge that was, well, too late. St. Louis won its last four games while New York went 1-4 to finish the season. As history looks back on the 1922 American League season, it shows the Yankees as pennant winners by a one game difference. To be more exact, though, the difference between a one-game playoff for the pennant and not was three scoreless at-bats for the Browns. It was the one that slipped away.