October 1, 1921: The 1st Yankee Pennant

October 1, 1921, 100 years ago: The New York Yankees go into this date with 4 games left in the regular season, and were 2 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians in the race for the American League Pennant.

The season before, the Yankees had finished in 3rd place, 3 games behind the Indians, with the Chicago White Sox 2 games behind. This season, with 7 White Sox players banned for life for their role in the fixing of the 1919 World Series (actually 8, but 1 had already retired), it's between the Indians, who went on to win the 1920 World Series, and the Yankees.

The Yankees had begun play in 1903, with the name "New York Highlanders" until 1912. And had never won a Pennant. In 1904, their 2nd season, they lost the Pennant to the team that would become the Boston Red Sox (and, eventually, their arch-rivals) on the last day of the season. In 1906, they finished 2nd, 3 games behind the White Sox. In 1910, they finished 2nd, but 14 1/2 games behind the Philadelphia Athletics.

They didn't get close again under their original owners, Frank Farrell and Bill Devery. In 1915, Jacob Ruppert bought the team, and began rebuilding. By 1919, they were 3rd, 7 1/2 games behind the White Sox. Then Ruppert purchased Babe Ruth from the Yankees, and the course of baseball history was changed. But it didn't quite result in a Pennant.

More pitching was needed, and with the addition of Waite Hoyt, and the record-breaking 59 home runs of Ruth, the Yankees -- wearing white caps for the last time in their history -- were now in line for a Pennant. They could win the Pennant on October 1, with a doubleheader sweep of the Philadelphia Athletics, or an Indians loss to the White Sox.

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This is what the world was like on October 1, 1921:

Major League Baseball was limited to America's Northeast and Midwest. There were no teams south of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers. The 2 teams in St. Louis, just barely, were the only teams west of the Mississippi River. New York had 3 teams. Boston had 2, including a National League team. Philadelphia and St. Louis each had 2, including an American League team. Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago (then still named Cubs Park) were the only stadiums in use then that are still in use now.

There were no black players. There were no Asian players. The only Hispanic players were Cubans light-skinned enough to be accepted as "white." There were no electric scoreboards, lighting systems, artificial turf fields, or domes, retractable or otherwise. The 1st radio broadcast of a baseball game had just occurred. Television was still just an idea. There were films made of baseball games, all black and white, and all silent. And uniform numbers weren't yet being worn.

Dizzy Dean was 11 years old. Joe DiMaggio was about to turn 7. Ted Williams was 3. Bob Feller was about to turn 3. Jackie Robinson was 2. Stan Musial was about to turn 1. Roy Campanella was about to be born. Ralph Kiner and Bobby Thomson would be born within the next 2 years. Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle would take another 10. Cap Anson, and John Montgomery Ward, and Candy Cummings, the alleged inventor of the curveball, were still alive.

The NFL had been founded only a year before, and its defending Champions were the Akron Pros. The NHL was a new league as well, and the holders of the Stanley Cup were the original Ottawa Senators. There was no NBA. Any professional basketball leagues were very minor. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Jack Dempsey.

There had never been a World Cup in soccer. The Olympic Games had been called off for 1916 due to World War I, but were held the year before in Antwerp, Belgium. It would take until 1924 for a Winter Olympics to be held. The Olympics have since been held 7 times in America; 4 times each in France and Japan; 3 times each in Canada, Germany and Italy; twice each in Britain, Switzerland, Norway, Australia, Austria, Russia, Korea; and once each in the Netherlands, Finland, Mexico, Bosnia, Spain, Greece, China and Brazil.

There were 48 States in the Union, and 19 Amendments to the Constitution. Women had gotten the right to vote only a year earlier, but couldn't legally celebrate it with a drink, because Prohibition was in effect. There had not been a Civil Rights Act since 1875. There was no federal banking insurance, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Environmental Protection Agency or OSHA.

Women playing sports at all was a novelty, and there was no Title IX to help them. The idea that they could decide for themselves if and when to have a child was unacceptable to authorities, given the prosecution of Margaret Sanger the last few years. The idea that two people of the same gender could marry each other, with all the legal protection of marriage, was ludicrous. But then, so was the idea that corporations were "people" and entitled to the protections thereof.

The President of the United States was Warren G. Harding. The Governor of the State of New York was Nathan L. Miller. The Mayor of the City of New York was John F. Hylan, namesake of Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island, even though he was from Brooklyn. The Governor of New Jersey was Edward I. Edwards.

There were still surviving veterans of the Mexican-American War, the European Revolutions of 1848, and the Crimean War. There were surviving members of Jesse James' gang, and Wyatt Earp was still alive as the last survivor of the Gunfight at the OK Corral.

The Pope was Benedict XV. The Prime Minister of Canada was Arthur Meighen, and of Britain, Andrew Bonar Law. The monarch of both nations was King George V. The holders of England's Football League title were Burnley, and of its FA Cup, Tottenham Hotspur. There have since been 18 Presidents of the United States, 4 monarchs of Great Britain, and 9 Popes.

Major films of 1921 included The Kid starring Charlie Chaplin, The Adventures of Tarzan starring Elmo Lincoln, The Sheik starring Rudolph Valentino, The Three Musketeers starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and the original version of Brewster's Millions starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Arbuckle, then the most popular comic actor in America, had recently been arrested for manslaughter, in regard to the death of actress Virginia Rappe. He would be cleared, but the damage to his reputation was done.

C.S. Lewis had published 1 book of poetry, and J.R.R. Tolkien 7 of them, but neither had yet published a novel or a work of nonfiction. They wouldn't meet until 1926. 

James Bond creator Ian Fleming was 13 years old. Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were 7. Batman creator Bob Kane was 6. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was 2 months old.

Popular songs of 1921 included "Ain't We Got Fun?", "April Showers," "I'm Just Wild About Harry," "Second Hand Rose," "The Sheik of Araby," "Shuffle Along" and "Wabash Blues." Louis Armstrong had begun playing trumpet professionally. Bing Crosby was still in high school. Frank Sinatra was about to turn 6.

Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $15.28 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 2 cents, and a New York Subway ride 5 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was 20 cents, a cup of coffee 15 cents, a burger 5 cents, a movie ticket 15 cents, a new car $310, and a new house $6,296. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day before, a Friday, at 71.08. That's not a typo: Seventy-one-point-zero-eight.

The tallest building in the world was the Woolworth Building in Manhattan. Most American homes didn't yet have telephones, and hardly any had radio receivers. Computers? Forget it: Alan Turing was only 9 years old. There were no credit cards or automatic teller machines. Artificial organs were not yet possible. Transplantation of organs was not possible. The distribution of antibiotics was not possible: If you got any kind of infection, you could easily die. There was no polio vaccine. In spite of the fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, no one had yet launched a rocket toward space.

During the 1921 baseball season, there were riots in Jaffa, in what was then called Mandatory Palestine; in Egypt, against European influence; and in Upper Silesia, a part of Germany where many Polish people lived. Ireland was partitioned. Coco Chanel released the most famous perfume in history, Chanel No. 5. A coal strike failed in Britain. And 600 people were killed in an explosion at a BASF nitrate factory in Oppau, Germany.

In America, Warren Harding settled in as the 29th President of the United States, putting the country on a path toward withdrawal from foreign affairs and a laissez-faire economy, both of which would prove disastrous. The Emergency Quota Act was passed, severely reducing immigration. White supremacists burned a section of Tulsa known as "The Black Wall Street" to the ground, killing nearly 300 people.

Margaret Gorman of the District of Columbia was proclaimed the 1st Miss America. White Castle, the 1st major hamburger chain, was founded. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was stricken with polio, seemingly ending his political career. And baseball was broadcast on radio for the 1st time.

Chief Justice Edward D. White, and Lady Randolph Churchill, and Enrico Caruso died. Jane Russell, and John Glenn, and Gene Roddenberry were born. So were legendary athletes Sugar Ray Robinson, and Stan Mortensen, and and Maurice Richard.

That's what the world was like on October 1, 1921, when the New York Yankees were in position to win their 1st American League Pennant.

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Here was the Yankee lineup for the opening game of their doubleheader with the Philadelphia Athletics at the Polo Grounds, at 155th Street and 8th Avenue in Upper Manhattan:

CF Elmer Miller

SS Roger Peckinpaugh

RF Babe Ruth

LF Bob Meusel

1B Wally Pipp

2B Aaron Ward

3B Mike McNally

C Wally Schang

P Carl Mays

Remember: No uniform numbers back then.

Oddly, it would be the pitcher, Mays, that started the Yankees scoring, with a single in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Miller hit a triple to left field, to bring Mays around. But in the top of the 4th, Mays allowed a triple to Whitey Witt, an RBI double to Jimmy Dykes, an RBI single to Tillie Walker, a groundout by Cy Perkins, a triple by Frank Welch, and an RBI single by Chick Galloway. It was 3-1 A's.

With 2 outs in the bottom of the 6th, Pipp singled, and tried to steal 2nd. Perkins, the A's catcher, threw the ball away, and Pipp made it to 3rd. Welch, the center fielder, threw the ball back, and it was a bad throw. This allowed Pipp, then better known for being one of the few home-run hitters before Ruth, to score. That make it 3-2 A's. (Pipp would later be best remembered for being replaced by Lou Gehrig.)

Even 100 years ago, walks, especially the leadoff variety, could kill you. McNally led off the bottom of the 7th with a walk. Schang singled, and, again, Welch made an error, allowing McNally to score the tying run. Mays bunted Schang over to 3rd. Miller singled Schang home.

Meanwhile, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, the White Sox beat the Indians, 8-5. Ray Schalk, one of the White Sox players who had no role in the Black Sox Scandal, did something no catcher had ever done before, nor has since: He makes a putout at every base at least once in a game.

Mays sent the Tribe down 1-2-3 in the 9th. Yankees 5, Athletics 3. For the 1st time, the New York Yankees were Champions of the American League. The win advanced Mays to a 27-9 record on the season.

The Yankees would also win the 2nd game, 7-6 in 11 innings. Elmer Miller hit a home run, Johnny Mitchell singled home the winning run, and the Babe himself was the winning pitcher.

But they would lose their 1st appearance in the World Series to their Polo Grounds landlords, the New York Giants. They would also lose to the Giants in the 1922 Series. But in 1923, in their 1st Series in the original Yankee Stadium, they would beat the Giants.

Meusel and Peckinpaugh lived until 1977, with Meusel living 11 days longer, making him the last survivor of the 1921 Yankees.