Sport: World Series

The fourth inning was all the Cardinals needed. Right Fielder Watkins made a homer and most of the line-up hit safely, bringing in seven runs. They got three more in the sixth. When the last Pittsburgh batter was out, the Cardinals slapped each other on the back as they tossed their gloves away, and started across the field to the dressing room. It was the last game they needed to make sure of the National League pennant, and the 10,000 fans who had turned out for them in the chilly weather were yelling and throwing out torn-up score cards, newspapers, peanut bags over Sportsman's Park.

Next day the Cardinals drove in a parade of triumph through the streets of St. Louis. They were banqueted and congratulated. Certainly no team ever earned a parade more thoroughly, for that game with the Pirates was the twenty-first they had won out of their last 24. Since August I, when no one thought them very likely to get the pennant, they had taken 43 out of 55, boosted their percentage more than 100 points. In the most exciting pennant contest in years, they had stood off the brilliant spurts of "Uncle" Wilbert Robinson's erratic Brooklyn players and the threat of the New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs. Three days before their deciding victory over the Pirates they broke the season's record for base hits, getting 26 in the game in which they beat the Phillies 19 to 16.

While Cardinal Manager Gabby Street was enjoying the enthusiasm of his fellow St. Louisians, a manager in Chicago was feeling badly. It was Joe McCarthy of the Cubs who had just been informed by Owner William Wrigley Jr. that Rogers Hornsby would take his place next year. "I must have a winner," said Owner Wrigley, who was less disgruntled by the showing of his team this season than by their failure to beat the Athletics in the last world series. In Shibe Park in Philadelphia—home of Connie Mack's Athletics, who had been sure of the American League pennant for many weeks—electricians were getting ready for the world series by installing the telegraph master- switchboard that was used in the Hall-Mills murder trial (TIME, Nov. 15, 1926).

¶ Comparison of the teams:

Pitching. When Connie Mack started the series with the Cubs last year he had three pitchers to choose from—the brilliant left-handers Grove and Walberg, and a right-hander as good as either of them. George Earnshaw. Craftily, Mack did not start with either Grove or Walberg, but began the series with his old spitballer Howard Ehmke. This year Walberg has not come up to his past standard and old Ehmke has been scouting instead of pitching. Manager Mack, sorely needing a good relief pitcher such as the Cards have in Rhem, Bell, Lindsey, Grabowski, is expected to be orthodox and start Grove and Earnshaw.

The Cardinals have no one with Grove's control, but they have Wild Bill Hallahan who throws the ball with blinding speed and has the knack of winning games. They have Burleigh Grimes, greatest of the spitball school, an opportunist, a fine money-player. They have such able right-handers as Jesse Haines, seasoned in other world series, and Sylvester Johnson.