World's Series

In the tabulated statistics of a baseball game, commonly known as the "box score" are from seven to fourteen columns of figures (depending on the detail with which the game is reported). The last column on the right is headed "E," which stands for "error." Here are recorded the players' single "mechanical mistakes"--the dropped fly, the fumbled grounder, the ball that should have been fielded and was not. The story of a baseball game is told largely in terms of hits by the attacking side and errors by the defense.

It was the "errors by" that made the World's Series of 1927 as one- sided as any series that ever has been played. Probably the New York American League team, the Yankees, would have defeated the Pittsburgh National League team, the Pirates, even with perfect defensive play by the Pittsburgh players. Yet but for Pittsburgh errors the New York club could hardly have won four games out of four, could hardly have made the watching thousands wonder audibly, indeed raucously, how the Pittsburgh team ever succeeded in winning the right to represent the National League in the contest for the baseball championship of the world. Errors made a lost cause almost ridiculous.

P: It was in the first inning of the first game that the Pirates started their error accumulation. Louis Gehrig, New York first baseman, hit a ball into right field. Paul Waner, Pittsburgh right fielder, rushed in, attempted the physically impossible feat of reaching the ball before it fell. The ball struck the ground in front of him, bounced past, rolled toward the fence. Batter Gehrig reached third base on a hit normally good for only one base; fielder Paul Waner had started Pittsburgh on the road to ruin. In the third inning Second Baseman George Grantham kicked a grounder from Batter Koenig; Catcher Smith dropped a thrown ball from Third Baseman Traynor; the Yankees earned one run, had two more given them and won the game by a 4-3 score. But for the Grantham-Smith lapses, the result might well have been 3-2 in favor of Pittsburgh.

P:In the second game, the recruit George William Pipgrass of New York outpitched the veteran Victor Aldridge of Pittsburgh by such a wide margin that Pittsburgh had little chance to win. Even here, however, Pittsburgh errors helped the Yankees in their two scoring innings, Outfielder Lloyd Waner duplicating his brother's first game error in the third inning, and Pitcher Aldridge making a wild pitch in the eighth. P: Errors apparently could have played no part in the outcome of the third game, which the Yankees won 8-1. Pitcher Herbert Pennock permitted no Pittsburgh player to reach first base until one man had been retired in the eighth inning. Against such pitching no game can be won. Yet Pittsburgh errors again helped every New York run. In the first inning, when New York made two runs, Pitcher Meadows deflected a ground ball away from Second Baseman Rhyne, who then played tag with it while the batter reached first safely. Batter Gehrig hit a fly to left field which a fast left fielder might have reached but which Pittsburgh Outfielder Barnhart could not touch. In the eighth inning New York made six more runs, including a home-run by Batter Ruth with two men on base. With good fielding, however, Batter Ruth never would have come to the plate. Pitcher Meadows threw to first when he should have thrown to second, Second Baseman Rhyne threw to first when he should have thrown to second, and Rhyne also made a throw to the plate which failed to put out a runner coming in from third base. After these various misadventures, the Pittsburgh pitcher weakened and the New York club, by hard hitting, ran up their big score. CE The Pirates saved the most damaging error for their last hopeless stand. With three games already lost, they rallied to save themselves from the humiliation of four successive defeats and came into the ninth inning with the score tied at 3 to 3. This despite another home-run by Hitter Ruth. Batting in the ninth, the Yankees put three men on base with no one out. Then John Miljus, Pittsburgh pitcher, struck out Batters Gehrig and Meusel and had one strike on Batter Lazzeri. Even the New York crowd almost wished that Pitcher Miljus would throw two more strikes. But the error habit was too well established. Pitcher Miljus threw the ball far from the plate and Catcher Gooch cuffed but could not stop it. It rolled to the grandstand while Base Runner Combs ran in (he could almost have walked in) with the generous Pirates' parting gift. Thus, flatly, anticlimactically, ended the World's Series of 1927. . . .

The better club unquestionably won. Good pitching by Pitchers Wilcey Moore and George Pipgrass, marvelous pitching by Pennock, the two Ruthian home-runs and the sustained New York attack were too much for the National League team. But the factor that made the series almost a farce-- the factor that enabled the Yankees to run off four consecutive victories (a feat previously performed by only the Boston National League club in 1914) was not so much New York pitching, or New York hitting. It was "errors-by--," errors by Pittsburgh.

For making errors each Pittsburgh player received $3,728; for taking advantage of them each Yankee, $5,592.

*Paul Waner was not officially credited with an "error" in the "box score"--because he never touched the ball. But surely he was guilty of an error of judgment in rushing in to "trap" the ball when he might have "played it safe-"