1926 World Series

1926 World Series
Babe Ruth registers the last out of the 1926 World Series at second base as he is caught stealing.
Teams
Team (Wins) Manager Season St. Louis Cardinals (4) Rogers Hornsby (player-manager) 89–65, .578, Games ahead: 2 New York Yankees (3) Miller Huggins 91–63, .591, Games ahead: 3
Dates	October 2–10
Umpires	Bill Dinneen (AL), Hank O'Day (NL), Bill Klem (NL), George Hildebrand (AL)
Hall of Famers	Umpires: Bill Klem, Hank O'Day. Cardinals: Grover Cleveland Alexander, Jim Bottomley, Chick Hafey, Jesse Haines, Rogers Hornsby (player-manager), Billy Southworth.‡ Yankees: Miller Huggins (manager), Earle Combs, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Herb Pennock, Babe Ruth, Waite Hoyt. ‡ elected as a manager.
Broadcast
Radio	Westinghouse Broadcasting
Radio announcers	Graham McNamee and Phillips Carlin
← 1925 World Series 1927 →

The 1926 World Series pitted the NL champion St. Louis Cardinals against the AL champion New York Yankees. The Cardinals defeated the Yankees four games to three in the best-of-seven series, which took place from October 2 to 10, 1926 at Yankee Stadium and Sportsman's Park.

This was the first World Series appearance for the Cardinals, and the first of eleven World Series championships in Cardinals history, while the Yankees were in their fourth World Series in six years, winning one for the first time in 1923. They would play in another 36 World Series (and win 26 of those) through the end of the 2012 season.

In Game 1, Herb Pennock pitched the Yankees to a 2–1 win over the Cards. In Game 2, pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander evened the Series for the Cards with a 6–2 victory. Knuckleballer Jesse Haines' complete game shutout in Game 3 gave St. Louis a 2–1 Series lead. In the Yankees' 10–5 Game 4 win, Babe Ruth hit three home runs, a World Series record equaled only four times since. According to newspaper reports, Ruth had promised a sickly boy named Johnny Sylvester to hit a home run for him in Game 4. After Ruth's three-homer game, the boy's condition miraculously improved. The newspapers' account of the story is disputed by contemporary baseball historians, but it remains one of the most famous anecdotes in baseball history. Pennock again won for the Yankees in Game 5, 3–2.

Cards' player-manager Rogers Hornsby chose Alexander to start Game 6, and used him in relief to close out Game 7. Behind Alexander, the Cardinals won the final two games of the series, and with it the world championship. In Game 7, the Yankees, trailing 3–2 in the bottom of the ninth inning and down to their last out, Ruth walked, bringing up Bob Meusel. Ruth, successful in half of his stolen base attempts in his career, took off for second base on the first pitch. Meusel swung and missed, and catcher Bob O'Farrell threw to second baseman Hornsby who tagged Ruth out, ending Game 7 and thereby crowning his Cardinals World Series champions for the first time.