TUESDAY OCTOBER 4, 1921
YANKEES -ATHLETICS DOUBLEHEADER
Here are notes as I watched the doubleheader that goes a long ways towards deciding the American League pennant. The Yankees limp into the game having lost 6 straight to the A's and 15 of 20 this season. New York has also dropped it's last 4 games overall and six of their last seven. The A's have won 3 straight. Despite this New York is still 1.5 games ahead of Philadelphia and you have to think a split of the doubleheader should be enough to win their first pennant. After todays games New York has 1 game left against Boston while the A's go to Washington for two games tomorrow to end their season.
It is a cold, rainy day at the Polo Grounds with a crowd of 17,355 on hand. Bill Steen (17-13) gets the start for New York against A's ace Herb Pennock(25-11).
Clyde Barnhart gets a 1-out single in the top of the first but is stranded. Jim Poole gets a lead-off single in the home half but he also fails to advance. In the bottom of the second New York explodes for four runs with Ken Williams 2-run single being the big blow. The game is starting to look like a laugher as New York pushes two more runs across the plate in the bottom of the third to go up 8-0. It is clear that this is not Pennock's day.
Meanwhile Bill Steen keeps the A's off the scoresheet until the 6th inning when Max Carey delivers an rbi single. Steen would go the distance for his 18th win and the Yankees would win 10-1.
There would be no championship celebration today as the second game of the doubleheader was cancelled due to rain so New York's lead is 2.5 games. The Yankees magic number is just 1 as they prepare to host Boston tomorrow and then finish the season Thursday against the Athletics. Philadelphia boards the train for Washington where they will play two tomorrow knowing they have no margin for error.
Detroit beat St Louis 6-5 in 12 innings but the Tigers are eliminated with the New York victory. In National League action the champion Reds beat Chicago 7-2. Babe Ruth (.406,52,163) goes 1-for-3 while Bill Terry (.398,20,113) of the Cubs is 2-for-4 on the day. Rogers Hornsby (.399,36,129) has 2 hits in the Cardinals loss to Pittsburgh. With 1 game remaining for each of the three it appears Ruth's triple crown is secure.
FEDERAL SERIES GAME FIVE
Brooklyn moves to within 1 victory of it's fourth straight Federal Series title as the Tip-Tops go up 3 games to two in the series with an 8-2 victory. Jeff Tesreau went the distance for his second win of the series. Rookie third baseman Rube Lutzke had 2 hits including a homerun and drove in 3 runs for the winners.
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 5, 1921
YANKEES CLINCH PENNANT
The New York Yankees are going to the World Series for the first time in the 51 year history of the franchise. The Yankees clinched the pennant with a 9-6 victory over Boston. Bibb Falk (.358,15,105) hit a grand slam homerun while Ken Williams (.359,25,113) had 4 hits, including 3 doubles and drove in 2 runs to lead New York to victory.
Philadelphia split a doubleheader with Washington to drop to third place as the Detroit Tigers slipped into second with their fourth straight victory.
Meanwhile Babe Ruth became the first triple crown winner since 1872 as the National League season came to a close. Ruth finished with a .403 batting average to end .003 ahead of Rogers Hornsby at .400. Ruth also set major league records for homeruns with 52 and rbi's with 163.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 6, 1921
The major league season came to an end as Philadelphia beat the Yankees 4-3 in a make-up of the game rained out two days ago. Herb Pennock picked up his 26th win of the season as he gets the start after a terrible outing in New York two days ago, allowing the Athletics to finish the year tied with Detroit for second place, 2 games back of the Yankees.
FEDERAL SERIES
BROOKLYN WINS IT'S FOURTH STRAIGHT TITLE
The Brooklyn Tip-Tops dominance of the Federal League continues as they won their fourth straight Federal Series title after a 6 game victory over the Pittsburgh Rebels. Even the defection of stars Oscar Charleston and Jack Hannibal to the National League's New York Giants at mid-season did little to slow down the Tip-Tops, who have made 6 straight playoff appearances and averaged 113 wins over each of the past four seasons.
The deciding contest was a 4-3 victory as Frank Arellanes went the distance allowing 7 hits. Arellanes, who was acquired in a mid-season deal with the Cleveland Indians, had previously pitched 3 seasons for the Baltimore Terrapins. Brooklyn put the game away in the bottom of the 6th inning when they scored 3 times to snap a 1-1 tie. Rube Lutzke, who was named series MVP, started the rally with a lead off triple.
The 23 year old Lutzke hit .381 with 4 rbi's and 4 runs scored in the series. He hit .318 with 8 homers and 78 rbi's during the regular season, his first full year in the Federal League. Lutzke spent most of 1920 with Terre Haute of the Central League but was promoted to Brooklyn late in the year and played all 5 games of last seasons Federal Series, batting .300 for the Tip-Tops.
In real life Lutzke, a Milwaukee native, played 5 seasons for the Cleveland Indians and an additional 7 seasons in the minors, primarily with Kansas City and Newark. From what I have read he was an outstanding defensive third baseman and an ideal deadball era player as he had little pop in his bat. However his career began just as the deadball era was ending and as his defensive skills started to wane he lost his job in Cleveland