New York Yankees championship series 1938: The rise of mystique and aura

The Real Man of Steel

For the first time in 2,130 games, Gehrig took himself out of the lineup on May 2nd, 1939; his last game played was April 30th.

And so it was that two weeks after Gehrig had been forced to retire…

…on July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day, when the longtime Yankee first baseman uttered the famous words at a home plate ceremony at Yankee Stadium: “Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” The next day’s New York Times wrote “the vast gathering, sitting in absolute silence for a longer period than perhaps any baseball crowd in history, heard Gehrig himself deliver as amazing a valedictory as ever came from a ball player.”

Getting Personal

What few knew in the stands that day was that Lou’s teammates, led by the longtime catcher, road roommate, and fellow future-HOFer Bill Dickey, had come up with their own gift for Gehrig.

It sat upon the table with dozens of other as he made his famous speech.

Arguably the most cherished item Gehrig was given was a trophy from his 1939 Yankees teammates. On one side of the trophy were the names of all his current teammates; the other side a poem written by New York Times sports columnist John Kieran. It was reported that after Gehrig’s famed speech, he walked to the dugout carrying only one of the many gifts he had received, the trophy from his teammates. According to Kieran, one day Gehrig, from his chair by an open window, pointed to the trophy from his teammates and said, “You know, some time when I get – well, sometimes I have that handed to me – and I read it – and I believe it – and I feel pretty good.”

Lou Gehrig, the Iron Horse, died on June 2nd, 1941.

Better They Not Know

The Yankees knew none of that when the 1938 season began.

What they did know was that they had retooled and now had a great mix of youth and veterans. Baseball Almanac summed their season up to this way, and I can do no better.

This time five New Yorkers compiled RBI totals over ninety, and those five; Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey, Lou Gehrig, rookie Joe Gordon and Tommy Henrich had home run totals ranging from thirty-two to twenty-two. Red Ruffing led the American League in victories with twenty-one, followed in the rotation by Lefty Gomez (eighteen wins), Monte Pearson (sixteen wins) and Spud Chandler (fourteen wins). The result was a 9½ game lead over the Boston Red Sox for the American League pennant.

If Lou were not suffering more than regular mortals can know, this would have been one of the all-time great teams. Still, Gehrig…

…slashed .295/.410/.523 in 1938. He walked 107 times, drove in 114 runs and hit 29 home runs. That is a career year for a lot of players but is far below his regular production. In 1937, for instance, Lou slashed .351/.473/.643 with 37 home runs and 158 RBI’s. His OBP led the league for the fourth year in a row, as did his walks (127) for the third year; Lou also led the league for the third time in four years in both OPS (1.116) and OPSplus (176).

The Torch Passes

With Gehrig in decline, the team now belonged to third-year superstar Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio. He once again put up incredible offensive numbers. And brought grace to centerfield.

Still, his slash of .324/.386/.581 was worse than the year before. This might have prompted Joe to stop his aforementioned holdouts. If so it worked as his 1939 slash reads, .381/.448/.761. His AVG led the league that year, and DiMaggio won the MVP.

But there was never anything wrong with DiMaggio’s batting eye. Even in what he considered a down year, he hit 32 home runs while striking out 21 times. As a comparison, Aaron Judge currently has 11 home runs and 56 strikeouts, and he might win the MVP.

And so while the team did not amass an all-time record, they still cruised comfortably. But outside, the weather was frightful.

There’s More to Life

Yankee stadium saw two essential baseball events that summer.

One was Gehrig hitting his then-record 23rd grand slam. Today, only the Yankees Alex Rodriguez has more (25). And just seven days later (Aug. 27th), RHP Monte Pearson threw the first no-hitter for the Yankees in the Bronx, against the Indians.

But the Stadium saw a more momentous event than the players themselves did. On June 22nd, Joe Louis knocked out Heavyweight Champ Germany’s Max Schmeling in a rematch from two years previous.

Blues singer Bill Gaither wrote this, in part, about that night.

It was only two minutes and four seconds ‘Fore Schmeling was down on his knees He looked like he was praying to the good Lord To ‘Have mercy on me, please.’

Blood and Roses

The match dripped with racial and political overtones, and behind every punch rang the bells of war.

Like the rest of the 70,043 fans packed into Yankee Stadium that night, Gaither’s eyes were riveted on the ring when “Schmeling went down like the Titanic.” It was a magical moment when all seemed right with the world. It was, however, the fight’s cultural, racial and political ramifications that set it apart and led historian Bert Sugar to label it “The greatest sporting event of the 20th century.” What is more, the match foreshadowed a far greater struggle yet to come and shone an unflinching spotlight on the evils of the world. The fight also fanned the flame of hope that was lit for millions of black Americans when Louis first became champion. If nothing else, Louis gave people a reason and an opportunity to change. Schmeling, on the other hand, was the beetle-browed German who had tea with Hitler and gave the Nazi salute in the ring after beating American Steve Hamas in Hamburg. But by 1938, Germany’s expansionistic foreign policy and virulent anti-Semitism was making Americans nervous, and Schmeling, whether he wanted to or not, became the sporting symbol of the tyrannical Nazi regime.

And outside the Bronx, June 1938 would prove a momentous month.

Simply the Best

Perhaps the greatest feat in baseball history was completed on June 15th as Johnny Vander Meer tossed the second of his two consecutive no-hitters. He beat the Boston Bees 3-0 on the 11th, and now blanked the Dodgers 6-0.

In the modern age of baseball—in any era of baseball—this record might be the least likely ever to be tied, let alone broken.

As a side note, in researching, I found many items of interest that would have swelled this story to Encyclopedia levels. But one has to be included.

Indian catchers Frank Pytlak and Hank Helf broke the “all-time altitude mark” by catching baseballs dropped from the 706-foot Cleveland Terminal Tower on August 20th. Over the next few years, several players were seriously injured attempting to break this unusual record.

Oh, Sandy, The Aurora is Rising Behind You

None of that, however, was the biggest news in New York during that season. And that’s because this well-remembered storm, “The Long Island Express,” struck on September 21st.

Hurricane warnings weren’t even issued at first, and many residents didn’t know about the danger until they saw the winds pick up or their homes begin flooding. The storm claimed 700 lives – including 10 in New York City – and injured 708. Cars also took a beating – roughly 26,000 vehicles sustained damage in the storm – while 2 billion trees were reportedly wiped out across New York and New England. But the city did suffer serious flooding, wiping out power above 59th street in Manhattan and in the Bronx. Bill Cawley, a young reporter from Rhode Island, gave an eyewitness account about the shock of seeing the death toll in his hometown of Westerly. “I counted bodies — row upon sickening row of them — stretched out in the old town high school after all the city’s morgues were filled. When I left at four o’clock this morning, there were 74 dead and almost 100 missing.”

The storm also came to be known as the Yankee Clipper; later, so would Joe DiMaggio.

Once that was over, the 1938 Yankees would go into Chicago and establish for all time that it is the franchise that is to be feared, not just any single Yankees team.

The Battered Clubs

“By an amazing system of organization, the Yanks have built themselves into their present great structure, under conditions wholly permissible. And there is little the seven remaining battered clubs in the American League or the routed National League pennant winners can do about the matter.”

This was from John Drebinger after the ’38 series was completed in only four games. It was a sweeping statement for the ages, announcing to the baseball world, not just a winning team, but a perennially winning powerhouse franchise.

That’s somewhat understandable as 1938 was the third Yankees World’s Series win in a row.

No club had done that before. Even today, there have only been three such runs in baseball history, two of them by Yankees teams (Yankees ’49-’53; Oakland Athletics ’72-’74; Yankees ’98-2000).

Echoes From History

In the light of an unprecedented dynasty with no end in sight, The Sporting News soon echoed the thought. They did so while poking fun at the other clubs penchant for whining about the Yankees, instead of winning against them.

In considering the question of, “how to stop the Yankees?” other major league owners seemingly have two alternatives—to built up to the champions’ strength or to curtail their power by deadening the ball or limiting hits into short field stands to doubles and triples instead of home runs.

The series itself, however, is perhaps best summed up by one Chicago Cubs fan: “Them guys simply ain’t human.” Looking back, the real pain is in realizing he would never see his beloved Cubbies win it all.

No Shock, But Some Awe

As observers were awed not just at the team but at the organization, they were not surprised they won in 1938. Especially once they got out the AL.

While New York was busy dominating, Chicago (89-63) was just another team in the middle of the pack. That was easy in a parity-filled NL that year, with everyone trying to feast as much as possible on a moribund Phillies team.

A late season push, however, saw them shed a nine-game deficit, and when player-manager C Gabby Hartnett hit his famous Homer in the Gloamin’, the Cubbies were headed for the series.

The entire affair came down to game two, and when it was over, so was more than one Hall of Fame career.

And Infamous

With the series starting in Chicago, the Cubbies were confident they could take command. But as Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

And so when Red Ruffing beat Bill Lee (a name to remember in Yankees history) 3-1 in the opener, Hartnett made a panic move. He switched his rotation and advanced legend Dizzy Dean to the next day’s start. This put the series squarely on Ol’ Diz’s shoulders.

Of course, Dean was as famous for his incredible talent as he was for his Satchel Paige level confidence.

Dizzy Dean was best known for winning 30 games in the 1934 season while leading the 1934 “Gashouse Gang” St. Louis team to the National League Pennant and the World Series win over the Detroit Tigers. He had a 30–7 record with a 2.66 ERA during the regular season. [Dean] also bet he could strike out Vince DiMaggio four times in one game. He struck him out his first three at-bats, but when DiMaggio hit a popup behind the plate at his fourth, Dean screamed at his catcher, “Drop it!, Drop it!” The catcher did and Dean fanned DiMaggio, winning the bet.

These Days of Wine and Roses

But that wasn’t the man the Yankees faced on this day. The path back to the World’s Series and possible glory was a long and painful one for Diz. It was a journey that started one year earlier in the 1937 All-Star game.

With President Franklin D. Roosevelt looking on, Dean threw a pitch in the Mid Summer Classic to Indians All-Star centerfielder Earl Averill that was lined back and the St. Louis hurler, hitting him right on the big toe. Dean’s digit was broken. But trying to keep the Cardinals in contention, he pitched with the painful toe injury. The inability to follow through properly on his pitches caused Dean to snap an elbow ligament — an injury that would cost him less than a year of playing time following Tommy John surgery today. But in 1937 it was lights out for his career. The Cardinals sold Dean, who had averaged 22 wins a season since 1930, to the Cubs in 1938.

The injury robbed Dizzy of his best weapon, his fastball, and left him winning with junk and guile. That seemed like a long shot against the Bronx Bombers.

A Confidence Man

Dean, however, shocked everyone but himself by absolutely flummoxing the vaunted Yankees with his “smushball.” One observer described it thusly:

“It can be caught by the teeth without damage to a man’s dental equipment.” As the game progressed, Dean continued to throw pitches, “as soft as a cushion and as big as a watermelon”; and when the Yankees did hit the ball, “it sounded like they had kicked a bundle of wet wash”.

By the fourth inning, Dean was featuring his old bravado as well as his breaking stuff. Standing on first after a hit, Dean stared into the two-time defending champions dugout, at men such as DiMaggio, Gehrig, and Gordon, and yelled,

“Why don’t you great sluggers get out your press clippin’s and read how great you are?”

His performance proved worthy of his confidence through the sixth. When the Yankees came to bat in the top of the seventh, Dean and the Cubbies clung to a 3-2 lead. But with one on and one out, Frankie “The Crow” Crossetti came to the plate.

Once he swung the bat, the game, the Cubs hopes, and Dizzy Dean’s career would be over.

The Denouement

Crossetti drilled the next offering into the teeth of the wind. Left-fielder Carl Reynolds watched helplessly as the ball dropped into the bleachers for a two-run homer that gave the Yankees a 4-3 lead. As Crossetti rounded third, a heart-broken Dean yelled: “You wouldn’t a got a loud foul off me two years ago, Frankie. You’d a never done that if I’d had my fastball.” Crossetti responded honestly, yelling: “Damned if you ain’t right Diz!”

But the damage was done and the floodgates opened. In the ninth, Dean threw maybe his only bad pitch of the game, and DiMaggio deposited it onto Waveland Avenue. That was Dizzy Dean’s final pitch in a World Series game.

This would be his last moment in the sun, his last taste of baseball glory…and Dean seemed to sense it. The game and this moment have come to be known as Ol’ Diz’s Last Stand.

As Hartnett walked toward the mound signaling for Larry French in the bullpen, Dean stood on the mound, “drinking in his last draught of glory. For every step he took the customers, appreciative of his courage, thundered a salute. Their cheers came up from the steel stands like the roar of an angry surf to break upon Dizzy’s head like combers on a tropical reef. Not a man, woman or child was seated when the Arkansas boy, with a heart as big as any watermelon he picked as a youngster, ducked his head under the roof of the dugout and—with a tip of his blue cap—disappeared from sight.”

The Sun Never Sets on the Yankees Empire

When game two was over, and the Yankees headed back to the Bronx up two nothing, everyone understood the series was done. In a tradition I would like to see come back, the team even prematurely sang, The Sidewalks of New York, a song usually reserved for ultimate victory.

They had to wait just two more games, though, and the song suited the team. But this WS win by a good but not great Yankees team ended up meaning so much more.

It was the first time any organization had won three titles in a row, and we’ve already looked at that rarefied air. That, as we’ve also already seen, put the fear of the pinstripes permanently into baseball’s zeitgeist.

More importantly, it allowed for the ’39 Yankees to do something only Yankees teams have ever done: Win four World’s Series in a row. Only the ’49-’53 Yanks have ever tied or surpassed that mark.

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And when the 1939 Yankees swept the Reds, the two teams joined the ’27 and ’28 Yankees as the only ones to sweep back-to-back WS. They would later be joined by the ’98-’99 Yanks as the only others in all of baseball history.

Lou Gehrig continued to play after 1938, but his career was over. Ditto Dizzy Dean. Meanwhile, men such as DiMaggio, Gordon, and Henrich were just getting started. Joltin’ Joe would go on to lead the Yankees to nine championships in his 13-year career and win three MVPs.

Tack on Runs

The lasting legacy of this team is somewhat ironic. It is precisely because it is not an all-time team that it stands out.

Just as it takes the number nine hitter coming through in a big spot to win the big series’, it takes a good but not great Yankees team winning the World Series to show just how dominant this franchise has been. And what a dynasty really looks like.

Next: Yankees Championship Series 1928 Babe Ruth and a Real Called Shot

If not, the team still would have won back-to-back in ’36 and ’37, and then again in 1939. That’s still a dynasty, but one that other teams might match. But by winning four in a row, the Yankees organization did something no team did before, and that only one other Yankees team has done since.

That’s how you establish real domination when you do things no one can dream of. And create mystique and aura. It washed over baseball before ’39 and was entrenched forever thereafter.

And it’s all due to the 1938 Yankees, to Lou Gehrig’s last World Series, and to Diz’s Last Stand.