Sport: Yankees Again

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By the time the fourth game of the World Series started last week in Manhattan's Polo Grounds, about the last thing anyone expected of the New York Giants was a batting spree. In each of the preceding games the Giants had eked out one run while the New York Yankees had ground out the humiliating totals of eight, eight and five. Attendance, which had started out at the Yankee Stadium with 61,000 was down to 45,000 as the two teams trotted out onto the field for what everyone expected would be the last game of the dullest and most one-sided Series in years.

The fourth game started out as expected when the Yankees got a run off the Giants' No. 1 pitcher, lanky, left-handed Carl Hubbell, in the first inning, and the Yankees' least-prepossessing pitcher, Irving ("Bump") Hadley, held the Giants scoreless. First indication of a Giant revival came when Hank Leiber knocked out a clean single in the second inning. Encouraged, Johnny McCarthy and Harry Banning singled in quick succession, which scored one run. Then Burgess Whitehead slapped a grounder that unluckily struck Danning as he was running from first to second, thus putting him out for being hit with a batted ball. Whitehead, however, got credit for a single. Then Carl Hubbell and Joe Moore singled to bring in McCarthy and Whitehead. By this time Pitcher Hadley was replaced by Ivy Paul Andrews. But the Giants continued through their batting order. Coming up for the second time with the bases full, Leiber again singled, drove in two more runs, and the Giants ended the inning with a total of six. For the rest of the afternoon Hubbell pitched a practically flawless game, kept the Yankees' potent batters down to two runs, and brought the Giants their first victory, 7-to-3.

The fifth game started with Vernon ("Lefty") Gomez, who pitched the first game, back pitching for the Yankees, Cliff Melton for the Giants. This time the teams went on a home-run spree. In the second inning Yankee Outfielder Myril Hoag, who wears size 3½ shoes, cracked out a home run; and in the next inning Yankee Outfielder Joe Di Maggio, home-run champion of the major leagues, did likewise. Then Melvin Ott hit a homer for the Giants, brought in Dick Bartell to tie the score. In a fair way to lose his first Series game, Pitcher Gomez thereupon singled, scoring Tony Lazzeri, and a moment later crossed the plate on Lou Gehrig's double which was enough to win the game, 4-to-2 and the World Series, four games to one.