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.