MARSE JOE'S BIGGEST SERIES THRILL? SWEEP OVER CUBS, WHO FIRED HIM
1932 Triumph Also Sweet To Yankee Pilot Because It Was His First Title
McCarthy Rates Gehrig Greatest Competitor For His Clubs In Fall Classic
"A decade ago, Marse Joe McCarthy would have been reluctant to deliver such direct answers, as he did when he celebrated his sixty-ninth birthday, April 21, to two direct questions from an old friend, J.G. Taylor Spink, publisher of THE SPORTING NEWS. The questions were:
'What World Series was your biggest thrill?' and 'Who's the greatest World Series competitor for your great Yankee teams?'
Time has sharpened the focus of McCarthy's marvelous memory and has brought the glowing events of nine World's Series and his seven world championship triumphs into an orderly sequence.
'I never had a greater thrill for a Series than the Yankees' four-game sweep over the Cubs in 1932,' Marse Joe began. 'Perhaps you understand why. First, it was my first World's Series winner; secondly, it was against the Cubs.'
McCarthy didn't put it in so many words that revenge was sweet and this series, he felt, vindicated him.
Marse Joe, taking over as Cub manager in 1926, had built them into a National League power, rising from eighth to fourth place in his first season. He won the pennant in 1929, but the nightmare of that ten-run World Series inning in Philadelphia, when Hack Wilson last two fly balls in the sun, hovered over the Bruins throughout the 1930 season.
Grabbed By Yanks Quickly
Owner Bill Wrigley dismissed McCarthy in the final week of the 1930 season. Ed Barrow was quick to sign Marse Joe to direct the Yankees.
Before the '32 season, Barrow bought Shortstop Frankie Crosetti for $75,000 and Vernon Gomez for $40,000 from the Pacific Coast League, acquired speedy Ben Chapman, Red Ruffing and Johnny Allen, who broke in with a 17-4 pitching record. The Yankees won 107 games and took the pennant by 13 games over the A's.
This was the celebrated Series when Babe Ruth called his home run shot into the center field seats at Wrigley, the most defiantly brazen gesture in baseball annals.
The Babe was great, but the old Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig, was, for McCarthy, the most dominant of Series stars.
'I didn't manage Ruth at his peak,' said McCarthy.
'But how could anyone be greater than Gehrig? Look at his World Series batting, .361. He was right at the crest of his career in 1932, and he put on the greatest one-man show I've ever seen. In the four games against Chicago, Lou batted .529 and was personally responsible for 14 runs.
'He had nine hits, including three home runs and a double. He scored nine runs and drove in seven; I heard Charlie Grimm say after that Series, 'I didn't anyone could be so good.' I often thought that Gehrig actually felt sorry for opposing pitchers.
'If he were a hungry hitter, a fellow greedy for headlines, he would have hit a lot more home runs and for a higher average. When we had a ball game wrapped up and Gehrig had a few key hits, he wasn't nearly so dangerous a batter. I guess he was the kind of fellow who never liked to rub in a defeat or embarrass a pitcher.
'The writers used to come down and visit our bench before games, and often you'd see someone pointing to a spot in the stands where a home run was hit. But I never heard Gehrig ever mention any of his home runs. The other fellows used to talk about them as you hear on every bench in the majors or minors.
'If you were around Gehrig, you'd get the impression that he never hit a home run in his life.'
The Yankees hit .313 and buried the Cubs under an avalanche of 37 runs in the four games in 1932. 'There was a lot of heat in the Series,' winked Joe, referring to the feud that the Yankees made of the Cubs' shabby treatment of Mark Koenig and their former manager, Rogers Hornsby.
Koenig was a popular ex-Yankee. Acquired in mid-season, Mark was a big factor in winning the pennant for Grimm, who had replaced Hornsby as manager on August 2. Koenig was voted a half share of the World's Series prize money and Hornsby didn't get a nickel.
'For such bench jockeys as Art Fletcher, the Yankees' coach; Sam Byrd and Ben Chapman, this was all the ammunition they needed,' chuckled McCarthy. They poured it on every inning. That Fletcher could put a burr under the hide of an elephant. He was at his best in the 1936 Series against the Giants when he got on Bill Terry for not joining the Players' Association.
'I enjoyed myself in the 1932 Series because our club was hitting. Even if it hadn't been hitting, Gehrig himself would have carried the attack. The third game was the crucial one for us. If the Cubs had won it, they probably would have tied the Series and we would have had to go back to New York to wind it up.
'As a manager, I had one big move to make in the Series and it came in the third game ... but to give you the background, we had four starting pitchers, Ruffing, Allen, Gomez and George Pipgras.
'It was at the bottom of the Depression but Commissioner Landis wouldn't allow tickets to be sold in singles, even at the Stadium; it was buy a strip of three or go home.
'It rained all morning and into the afternoon of the first game in New York, and the Series opened with a poor crowd, 41,459. Most fans didn't think there would be a game. In fact, the rain was so heavy that Gehrig, living in New Rochelle, didn't arrive at the Stadium until five minutes before game time.
'Missing batting practice never bothered him. He started out with a home run and a single and scored three runs as Ruffing went all the way for a 12 to 6 victory.
'Gehrig had three hits, scored two runs and drove in a third the next day as Gomez won, 5 to 2. Then we moved to Chicago.
'The third game was anybody's game until the last out. We had two relief pitchers, Herb Pennock and Wilcy Moore. Pipgras started the third game and pitched through the ninth, when Pennock came through in glorious style. We started with three runs in the first on Earle Combs' single, a walk to Joe Sewell and Ruth's home run. Gehrig homered in the third but the Cubs finally tied it up in the fourth.
Blow Silenced Cubs
'Now came the fifth inning, the one when Ruth called his shot. He was arguing with the Chicago bench at the time. Ruth's shot into the center field bleachers silenced the Cubs. When Gehrig followed with another homer into the right field bleachers, it was a worse shock to them. But they were fighters.
'The wind was blowing to right when Koenig appeared as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning for Lyle Tinning, a Chicago pitcher. Koenig was a switch hitter. I didn't want him to bat lefthanded against Pipgras for I was afraid that he'd pull the ball into the seats.
'That was why I brought in Pennock, a lefthanded pitcher. Koenig would have to switch, and he wasn't as dangerous as a righthanded batter who had to hit against the wind into left field. Grimm must have reasoned along with me, for he withdrew Koenig and sent up Rollie Hemsley. Pennock struck him out.
'The only person who asked me why I made that move was Bob Connery, the Yankee scout. It was the key one for us. The Cubs came back the next day and knocked out Allen in the first inning. Wilcy Moore pitched strong relief ball and we came back to tie the score at 5 to 5 going into the seventh.
'The Yankees got four runs in that inning and four in the ninth to win, 13 to 6. It was one of the great days in Yankee history. Ruth was held to one hit, Gehrig to a double and a single but it was a big day for Tony Lazzeri, Combs, Dickey and Sewell. Tony had two home runs and a single, Combs a homer, two singles and scored four runs. Dickey and Sewell each had three hits.
'That was the Series, above all the others, that gave me the big thrill.' "
-Cy Kritzer, Buffalo, N.Y. (The Sporting News, 1956)
