The 1926 World Series was the championship series of the 1926 Major League Baseball season. The 23rd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff pitting the National League (NL) champion St. Louis Cardinals against the American League champion (AL) New York Yankees. The Cardinals defeated the Yankees four games to three in the series, which took place from October 2 to 10, 1926, at Yankee Stadium and Sportsman's Park. This was the first professional sports championship ever won by a St. Louis-based team.
This was the first World Series appearance (and first National League pennant win) for the Cardinals, and would be the first of 11 World Series championships in Cardinals history. The Yankees were playing in their fourth World Series in six years after winning their first American League pennant in 1921 and their first world championship in 1923. They would play in another 37 World Series (and win 26 of those), as of the end of the 2025 season.
Cardinals' player-manager Rogers Hornsby's mother passed away on September 29 in Texas and doubt arose whether Hornsby would play in the Series. Hornsby was conflicted, but received a telegram from his uncle that his mother wished him to play in the Series, and the burial was delayed until after its conclusion.
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 St. Louis with a 6–2 victory. Knuckleballer Jesse Haines' 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.Ruth in 1928, Reggie Jackson in 1977, Albert Pujols in 2011 and Pablo Sandoval in 2012. 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.
The Cards 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 thus 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. The 1926 World Series is the only Series to date which ended with a baserunner being caught stealing.
This World Series also started the Cardinals run of dominance in the National League. Between the years 1926 and 1934, St. Louis captured five National League pennants and won three World Series titles.
In 2020, ESPN ranked the 1926 World Series as the 10th best ever played.
Season summary
The Cardinals won the 1926 National League pennant with 89 wins and 65 losses, two games ahead of the runner-up Cincinnati Reds, after finishing only fourth in 1925 at 77–76. Before 1926 was half over, they traded outfielder Heinie Mueller to the New York Giants for outfielder Billy Southworth. They also claimed future Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander on waivers from the Chicago Cubs. Their starting rotation was led by Flint Rhem with 20 wins and a 3.21 earned run average (ERA), far surpassing his eight wins and 4.92 ERA of 1925. Offensively, the Cardinals were led by Jim Bottomley, Rogers Hornsby (who had batted over .400 in 1925) and catcher Bob O'Farrell, 1926 National League MVP-to-be.
The 1926 NL pennant race was heated. During the second and third weeks of September, both the Cardinals and the Reds had multi-game winning streaks and traded first and second place almost every day. On September 17, the Cards took a one-game lead over the Reds and extended their lead when the Reds lost several games in a row. They lost the last game of the season to the Reds on September 26, but still finished two games ahead of them in first place in the final standings.
The Yankees had the best record in the AL at 91–63, finishing three games ahead of the Cleveland Indians and greatly improving on their 69-win, seventh-place 1925 season. Lou Gehrig played his first full season as the Yankees' starting first baseman, and the team traded for rookie shortstop Tony Lazzeri in the offseason, eventually playing him at second base. Gehrig, Lazzeri and Ruth led the offense, while Pennock and Urban Shocker led the starting rotation with 42 wins between them.
In early September 1926, thousands of Cleveland fans, confident that their Indians would win the pennant even when they trailed the Yankees by six games, made World Series ticket reservations. By September 23, the Indians were only two games behind New York, but then lost three of their final four games to finish the season three games behind.
On September 11, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis met with representatives from four of the top teams in each of the two major leagues. The group gave home field to the AL for World Series Games 1–2 (scheduled for October 2 and 3) and 6–7, while the NL would host Games 3–5. Each game was to start at 1:30 p.m. local time.
Some bookmakers made the Yankees a 15-to-1 Series favorite, while others, like New York's top betting commissioners, thought the teams were evenly matched. One New York Times writer found "little justification for installing either team as the favorite". Regardless of the odds, players from both teams were confident of victory. Hornsby said, "We're going to come through winners. We have the better pitching staff, the better hitters and the greater experience. That's what it takes to win. ... We're going to beat the Yankees. Any of my ball players will tell you that, and we expect to do it." Yankee skipper Miller Huggins retorted,
Series summary
Matchups Game 1
Yankee Stadium was filled with 61,658 fans on October 2 for Game 1. Those without tickets gathered at City Hall to watch the game's progress as charted on two large scoreboards. Before the start of the game, New York Supreme Court judge Robert F. Wagner, then a candidate for the United States Senate, threw out the ceremonial first pitch and took his position in the VIP box next to New York City mayor Jimmy Walker. Commissioner Landis and former heavyweight champion of the world Jack Dempsey were also in attendance. Southpaw Bill Sherdel started for the Cardinals, having posted a 16–12 record with 235 innings pitched in the regular season. The Yankees started Pennock, the team's only 20-game winner that season. The future Hall of Fame pitcher, nicknamed "The Knight of Kennett Square" for his hometown, had a 3.62 ERA in 266 innings during the regular season, and had finished third in the American League Most Valuable Player Award balloting behind winner George Burns and runner-up Johnny Mostil.
Taylor Douthit led off Game 1 with a double to left, advanced to third on Southworth's slow grounder to second baseman Tony Lazzeri, stayed there on Hornsby's comebacker right to Pennock but came home on "Sunny Jim" Bottomley's bloop single for the first run of the Series. In the bottom half, Sherdel walked Earle Combs, Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel, to load the bases. Gehrig scored Combs with a fielder's choice grounder for his first World Series run batted in (RBI), reaching first ahead of the relay. The Cardinals and Yankees were tied 1–1 after the first inning.
In the bottom of the third, Ruth singled and Meusel bunted him over, but Ruth split his pants sliding into second, prompting radio announcer Graham McNamee to exclaim, "Babe is the color of a red brick house!" Doc Woods, the team's trainer, ran out and sewed up Ruth's pants, much to the amusement of the crowd.
The score was still tied at one apiece in the bottom of the sixth, just as rain began to fall. Ruth lined a single past third baseman Les Bell. Meusel again sacrificed Ruth to second. Gehrig followed with a single, scoring Ruth and giving the Yankees the lead. Lazzeri lined a shot to left but Gehrig, on a headfirst dive, was tagged out at third by Bell. Lazzeri advanced to second on the throw. Bell bobbled Dugan's grounder for an error to put runners at first and third, but Hank Severeid forced Dugan at second to end the inning. The Yankees maintained their one-run advantage through the end of the eighth inning.
In the top of the ninth, Bottomley singled off Pennock but could not advance, giving the Yankees a 2–1 win in Game 1. Gehrig was their offensive star with both of his team's RBIs. Pennock went the distance, striking out four and yielding but three hits, two in the first and one in the ninth. Hard-luck loser Sherdel gave up only two runs and six hits while striking out one.
Game 2
The second game was played the next day, October 3, at Yankee Stadium in front of a crowd of 63,600. Urban Shocker was the starting pitcher for the Yankees. With 19 wins and 11 losses, Shocker had the second-best pitching record on the team, behind the Game 1 starter, southpaw Herb Pennock. Shocker had a 3.38 ERA in 258 innings, along with 59 strikeouts in the 1926 season. The Cardinals' Game 2 starter was 39-year-old Grover Cleveland "Old Pete" Alexander, a veteran player in his 16th major league season. That season, he posted numbers considerably lower than the pitching season statistics from his prime in the late 1910s with the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs. Alexander had compiled a 12–10 record in 200 innings, while posting a 3.05 ERA and 48 strikeouts, compared to the nearly 250 strikeouts he had in 1915 with the Phillies.
The Cardinals were first to bat in the game. After giving up a double to Rogers Hornsby, Shocker got a groundout from Jim Bottomley to end the run-scoring threat. In the Yankees' half of the inning, Mark Koenig grounded into a double play, and Babe Ruth followed by striking out. The Cardinals threatened again in the second inning, after back-to-back singles by catcher Bob O'Farrell and shortstop Tommy Thevenow. However, Alexander came to the plate and popped up to Koenig to end the inning. The Yankees scored first in the bottom of the second inning. Bob Meusel hit a single into center field, and Lou Gehrig followed by hitting a grounder to Alexander, which advanced Meusel to second base. Tony Lazzeri then hit a single to left field that scored Meusel from second. Joe Dugan followed with a single of his own, moving Lazzeri to third base. On the following play, Yankees catcher Hank Severeid struck out, and Lazzeri then attempted to steal home plate. Alexander made an error on his throw to catcher Bob O'Farrell, and Lazzeri was able to slide into home plate for the second Yankees run of the inning. O'Farrell then threw the ball to Thevenow, but the tag was late and Dugan was called safe at second base. The inning ended when Alexander struck out Shocker.