1926 Yankees

Seventh place. That's where the New York Yankees finished in 1925 -- 69-85, a franchise embarrassment that had Miller Huggins answering questions about whether he'd survive the winter. Babe Ruth had spent most of that season in hospitals and doghouses. The middle infield was a mess. The dynasty that had won three straight pennants from 1921 to 1923 looked finished. One year later, the Yankees won 91 games, took the American League pennant by three games over Cleveland, and pushed the St. Louis Cardinals to seven games in the World Series. The turnaround wasn't just dramatic -- it was the kind of thing that doesn't happen without somebody making bold decisions and getting most of them right.

Huggins' Gamble

The bold decisions belonged to Huggins. He handed the starting shortstop job to Mark Koenig, a young player with talent but no track record at the major league level. He installed Tony Lazzeri at second base -- a kid who'd hit 60 home runs for Salt Lake City in the Pacific Coast League the year before (a number that sounds fake, but the PCL played 200-game seasons and Lazzeri was legitimately terrifying). He sold Wally Pipp to Cincinnati for $7,500, formalizing what everyone already knew: first base belonged to Lou Gehrig.

The gamble was straightforward. Huggins bet that two unproven infielders and a 22-year-old first baseman could carry the defensive middle of a contending team. He bet that Ruth, at 31, would bounce back from the disaster of 1925 -- the Bellyache Heard 'Round the World, the suspension for insubordination, the 98-game season that had sportswriters writing his obituary. And he bet that his own job could survive the transition.

He was right on all three counts.

The

Gehrig was the revelation. At 22, he batted .313 with 16 home runs, 109 RBI, 47 doubles, and a league-leading 20 triples. That triples number tells you something about the Gehrig people forget -- in 1926, he could run. The lumbering first baseman of later mythology hadn't arrived yet. This was a young athlete who could gap a ball and leg it to third, and he did it more often than anyone else in the American League.

Ruth hit .372 with 47 home runs and 153 RBI. The numbers represented a full bounce-back from 1925, and combined with Gehrig's production, the Yankees had the most dangerous three-four combination in baseball. Bob Meusel added 12 home runs and 78 RBI from the outfield. Lazzeri contributed 18 home runs and 117 RBI as a rookie -- numbers that would've made him the story on any other team.

The Climb

The pennant race with Cleveland ground on through August and September. Huggins pushed himself to physical extremes during the stretch run -- by season's end, the 5'6" manager was reportedly down to 106 pounds. The detail reads like a footnote, but it foreshadowed something darker. Huggins' health would continue to deteriorate, and he died in September 1929 at age 50. The pennant race didn't kill him, but the toll was real.

The Yankees held off the Indians and clinched the flag with a 91-63 record. The .591 winning percentage represented a 143-point jump from 1925's .448 -- a 22-win improvement that remains one of the most dramatic single-season turnarounds in franchise history.

October Against the Cardinals

The 1926 World Series ran seven games, and it produced moments at both extremes of the emotional spectrum. Ruth hit three home runs in Game 4 -- the first player in World Series history to accomplish that feat in a single game. The Yankees won 10-5, and for one afternoon Ruth looked like the most unstoppable force in the sport.

Then came Grover Cleveland Alexander. The 39-year-old Cardinals pitcher had already won Games 2 and 6 as a starter. In Game 7, with St. Louis clinging to a 3-2 lead, Cardinals manager Rogers Hornsby brought Alexander out of the bullpen to face Lazzeri with the bases loaded in the seventh inning. Alexander struck him out. He held the Yankees scoreless through the eighth. The old man was pitching on fumes and whatever he'd been drinking the night before (contemporary accounts are diplomatically vague about his condition), and he was shutting down the most powerful lineup in baseball.

The

Bottom of the ninth, Game 7. Cardinals 3, Yankees 2. Two outs. Ruth drew a walk, putting the tying run on first. Bob Meusel stepped to the plate -- a .315 hitter who'd driven in 78 runs during the regular season. On the first pitch to Meusel, Ruth took off for second base. Catcher Bob O'Farrell fired the throw. Hornsby applied the tag. Ruth was out.

The World Series ended on a caught stealing. It's the only time that's ever happened.

Ruth said afterward he thought no one would expect it. He was right about that -- nobody did, including his own teammates. Whether the play was a genuine steal attempt or a botched hit-and-run has been debated for a century. What isn't debatable is the result: the 1923 champions watched their return to the World Series end on one of the strangest final plays in October history.

What It Built

The sting lasted exactly one winter. The 1927 Yankees went 110-44, Ruth hit 60 home runs, Gehrig drove in 175, and they swept Pittsburgh in the World Series. The core that Huggins assembled in 1926 -- Ruth, Gehrig, Koenig, Lazzeri, Meusel -- became the Murderers' Row lineup, and the 1928 squad swept St. Louis for a second straight championship. The dynasty came back harder than ever.

But it started here, in 1926, with a manager who bet on youth and a 22-year-old kid from Columbia who proved he belonged alongside the most famous athlete in America. The World Series loss hurt. What followed made it worth it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the Yankees' record in the 1926 season?

The Yankees finished 91-63, winning the American League pennant by three games over the Cleveland Indians. They lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. The 91-win season represented a 22-win improvement over their 69-85 seventh-place finish in 1925.

How did the 1926 World Series end?

The 1926 World Series ended when Babe Ruth was caught stealing second base in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7. With two outs and the Yankees trailing 3-2, Ruth drew a walk, then attempted to steal on the first pitch to Bob Meusel. Cardinals catcher Bob O'Farrell threw to Rogers Hornsby, who tagged Ruth out. It remains the only World Series in history to end on a caught stealing.

Who managed the 1926 Yankees?

Miller Huggins managed the 1926 Yankees to his fourth American League pennant. Huggins engineered the turnaround from the 1925 seventh-place finish by inserting young players Mark Koenig and Tony Lazzeri into the middle infield while maintaining faith in a rebounding Babe Ruth. The physical toll of the pennant race took a heavy toll on Huggins, who died in September 1929 at age 50.