Ah, How Great It Is

It is also conceded that the modern player is bigger, faster and better conditioned than his predecessors. Logically, this should also make him better, but more than any other sport, baseball is a game of technique. A player must still swing a rounded bat at a round ball that is hurtling toward him on an erratic course. It is not easy to hit the damn thing, and extra size, speed and conditioning do not necessarily make for a better batter. While 210-pound Danny Fortmann could no longer play guard in the National Football League, as he did 40 years ago, someone of Joe Morgan's modest proportions can still win a Most Valuable Player Award in baseball.

So why not blunder willy-nilly into the time warp and venture a few comparisons? For purposes of violent argument, let us suppose that the 10 best Series-winning teams since 1920 have been the 1927 Yankees with their Murderers' Row; the 1929 Philadelphia Athletics of Jimmy Foxx, Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane and Lefty Grove; the 1932 Yankees of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Lefty Gomez and a cast of thousands; the 1936 Yanks of Gehrig, Bill Dickey and the kid, DiMaggio; the 1941 DiMaggio-led Bronx Bombers; the 1942 Cardinals of Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter; the 1955 Dodgers of Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, et al.; the 1961 Yankees of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle; the 1970 Orioles of the Robinsons, Frank and Brooks, and all those pitchers; and the you-pick-'em 1972, '73, '74 A's of you-know-who. All were world champions and all, save the Cardinals, who won 106 games and still only finished two ahead of the Dodgers, won pennants by comfortable margins. The Orioles and A's, of course, won their divisions, then the playoffs to achieve their pennants.

Some will cavil over the '55 Dodgers, contending that they were not the best of the Brooklyn teams of the early '50s. Remember, however, that this was the only Dodger club of that era to win the World Series. The Yankees won a record five Series in succession from 1949 through 1953 under Casey Stengel, but they were seen as if through a kaleidoscope, a succession of changing, shortlived images. It may be argued in the defense of these various Stengelian confections that many different players passed through Charlie Finley's swinging door in the A's recent world championship seasons, and so they did. But the body of the team—Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi, Sal Bando, Gene Tenace, Bert Campaneris and the fine pitchers—remained intact. Stengel was a genius. His teams lacked the identity the others have.

All of the Top 10 shared the requisite attributes of greatness—good pitching, defense, team speed and hitting. They had strength up the middle at catcher, shortstop, second base and center field. Consider the Yankee team of 1936: Catcher Dickey, Shortstop Frank Crosetti, Second Baseman Tony Lazzeri, Centerfielder DiMaggio. Possibly more impressive were the 1941 Yanks of Dickey, Phil Rizzuto, Joe Gordon and DiMaggio. That is strength up the middle.

Along with the obvious criteria, these teams possessed more subtle virtues. They could intimidate their opponents. Recall the legend of the poor Pirates of 1927, watching in chilled disbelief as the lethal denizens of Murderers' Row powered batting practice pitches to the far reaches of Forbes Field. It is said the Pirates never regained their composure after this unsettling spectacle. They lost to the Yanks in four straight.

Few teams have been more intimidating than the Cardinals in the summer of '42. They won 43 of their last 51 games to overtake the Dodgers, then devastated the Yankees four games to one. The Series may have shifted to the Cards in the sixth and seventh innings of the third game when Centerfielder Terry Moore, Leftfielder Musial and Rightfielder Slaughter robbed New York of two homers and a double with a succession of circus catches. This amazing defensive display seemed to demoralize the Yankees, causing them to believe that everything they hit would somehow be caught.

Snuffing out an opponent's firepower with such plays is one measure of greatness; taking advantage of his mistakes is another. The Yankees set the precedent for this in the fourth game of the 1941 Series. With two out in the ninth inning, two strikes on New York's Tommy Henrich and the Dodgers leading 4-3, Pitcher Hugh Casey broke off a wicked curveball (possibly a spitter) that Henrich swung at and missed for the third strike which, apparently, ended the game. But the ball bounced away from Catcher Mickey Owen, and a reprieved Henrich raced safely to first. It was a fatal blunder. DiMaggio singled, Charlie Keller doubled, Dickey walked and Gordon doubled. The Bombers had four quick runs, the game and a 3-1 lead in the Series.

The surfacing of unsung heroes at critical moments is another characteristic of the exceptional team. Tenace had played in but 82 games and hit only five homers for the A's in 1972, but glory was thrust upon him when a leg injury scratched Jackson from the Series. Tenace responded with four homers and nine RBIs, propelling the A's past a then not-quite-as-big Red Machine.

Some teams, however, are so awesome that guile seems merely an affectation. The Yankees of the '30s and the '40s had an air of superiority about them. In a somewhat less dignified way, so did the Dodgers of the '50s. But surely no team has dominated a season the way the Yankees of 1927 did. They set records for everything from home runs to the consumption of bootleg gin. They won 110 games, lost only 44, had a cumulative batting average of .307 and outscored their opponents by almost 400 runs. Ruth hit his 60 homers and Gehrig had 47. Ruth led the league in runs (158), walks (138), strikeouts (89) and slugging percentage (an astonishing .772). Gehrig led in runs batted in (175), total bases (447) and doubles (52). Centerfielder Earle Combs led in hits (231). Ruth and Gehrig were first and second in slugging, walks and homers; Gehrig and Ruth first and second in total bases and RBIs; Combs and Gehrig first and second in hits; and Ruth, Gehrig and Combs first, second and third in runs. Waite Hoyt led the league's pitchers with a 22-7 record and a 2.64 ERA.

The outfield of Bob Meusel, Combs and Ruth is still considered one of the finest defensively, and the infield of Gehrig on first, Lazzeri on second, Mark Koenig at short and Joe Dugan on third was first rate. The team had only average catching, but the pitching staff led by Hoyt, Herb Pennock, Urban Shocker, George Pipgras, Dutch Ruether and Wiley Moore was excellent.