1920 New York Yankees season

The 1920 New York Yankees season was the 18th season for the Yankees. The team finished with a record of 95–59, just 3 games behind the American League champion Cleveland Indians. New York was managed by Miller Huggins. Home games were played at the Polo Grounds. The Yankees of 1920 were the first team in the history of Major League Baseball to have an attendance of more than one million fans.[1]

1920 New York Yankees
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkPolo Grounds
CityNew York City, New York
OwnersJacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston
ManagersMiller Huggins
← 1919 Seasons 1921 →

Offseason

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The year started with a bang on January 5, when the Boston Red Sox sold their star pitcher-turned-outfielder Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $125,000 (equivalent to $2,200,000 in 2023). The sub-headline in The New York Times the next day read, "Highest Purchase Price in Baseball History Paid for Game's Greatest Slugger."[2] This deal would live in infamy for generations of Boston fans, and would vault the Yankees from respectability (80 wins in 1919) to pennant contention.

Regular season

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Babe Ruth, his wife, and three teammates were in a car accident on July 7, 1920 from which they were lucky to walk away. Ruth was driving the group back to New York from Washington where the Yankees had beaten the Senators the previous day. Nearing Wawa, Pennsylvania at 2:00 AM, Ruth missed a sharp curve, drove into a ditch, and totaled the car where it flipped on top of them. Ruth was able to move the vehicle, and all five made it to a local farmhouse where they were attended to. They were driven that same day to Philadelphia where they boarded a train for New York.[3] Ruth was in the lineup for the next game on July 8, 1920 where he went one for four with a triple against the Detroit Tigers.[4]

The Indians won the pennant despite a horrific incident at the Polo Grounds on August 16. Yankees pitcher Carl Mays, another of several ex-Red Sox players who had come the Yankees' way, used a "submarine" (underhand) pitching style. He threw one up and in on Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman, who tended to crowd the plate and apparently never saw the ball coming. Chapman suffered a severe skull fracture, and died the following morning.[5] Mays was absolved of any wrongdoing, but the incident would haunt him for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, the Indians rallied around the memory of their shortstop, and won the season.

However, with Ruth leading the Yankees, and with his stunning total of 54 home runs (George Sisler the second place homerun holder that year, only hit 19) nearly doubling his own major league record from just the previous year, New York finished just a game behind the second-place Chicago White Sox and three behind the Indians. Ruth's 54 home runs marked an end to the dead-ball era, and ushered in a new style of play with an emphasis on power hitting. The Yankees had once been the "poor relations of the Polo Grounds", as Lamont Buchanan characterized them in The World Series and Highlights of Baseball. But the Giants had faded a bit in the late 1910s while the Yankees had grown stronger. The Yankees were now poised to take the next step to beginning the greatest dynasty in professional sports.

Season standings

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American League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Cleveland Indians 98 56 .636 51‍–‍27 47‍–‍29
Chicago White Sox 96 58 .623 2 52‍–‍25 44‍–‍33
New York Yankees 95 59 .617 3 49‍–‍28 46‍–‍31
St. Louis Browns 76 77 .497 21½ 40‍–‍38 36‍–‍39
Boston Red Sox 72 81 .471 25½ 41‍–‍35 31‍–‍46
Washington Senators 68 84 .447 29 37‍–‍38 31‍–‍46
Detroit Tigers 61 93 .396 37 32‍–‍46 29‍–‍47
Philadelphia Athletics 48 106 .312 50 25‍–‍50 23‍–‍56

Record vs. opponents

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Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team BOS CWS CLE DET NYY PHA SLB WSH
Boston 12–10 6–16 13–9 9–13 13–9–1 9–13 10–11
Chicago 10–12 10–12 19–3 10–12 16–6 14–8 17–5
Cleveland 16–6 12–10 15–7 9–13 16–6 15–7 15–7
Detroit 9–13 3–19 7–15 7–15 12–10–1 10–12 13–9
New York 13–9 12–10 13–9 15–7 19–3 12–10 11–11
Philadelphia 9–13–1 6–16 6–16 10–12–1 3–19 8–14 6–16
St. Louis 13–9 8–14 7–15 12–10 10–12 14–8 12–9–1
Washington 11–10 5–17 7–15 9–13 11–11 16–6 9–12–1


Roster

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1920 New York Yankees
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Truck Hannah 79 259 64 .247 2 25
1B Wally Pipp 153 610 171 .280 11 76
2B Del Pratt 154 574 180 .314 4 108
SS Roger Peckinpaugh 139 534 144 .270 8 54
3B Aaron Ward 127 496 127 .256 11 56
OF Ping Bodie 129 471 139 .295 7 77
OF Duffy Lewis 107 365 99 .271 4 59
OF Babe Ruth 142 457 172 .376 54 137

Other batters

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Bob Meusel 119 460 151 .328 11 83
Muddy Ruel 82 261 70 .268 1 14
Sammy Vick 51 118 26 .220 0 11
Frank Gleich 24 41 5 .122 0 4
Fred Hofmann 15 24 7 .292 0 1
Chick Fewster 21 21 6 .286 0 1
Joe Lucey 3 3 0 .000 0 0
Ray French 2 2 0 .000 0 1
Tom Connelly 1 1 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Carl Mays 45 312.0 26 11 3.06 92
Bob Shawkey 38 267.2 20 13 2.45 126
Jack Quinn 41 253.1 18 10 3.20 101
Hank Thormahlen 29 143.1 9 6 4.14 35
George Mogridge 26 125.1 5 9 4.31 35
Babe Ruth 1 4.0 1 0 4.50 0

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Rip Collins 36 187.1 14 8 3.22 66

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Ernie Shore 14 2 2 1 4.87 12
Bob McGraw 15 0 0 0 4.67 11
Lefty O'Doul 2 0 0 0 4.91 2

Awards

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Records

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  • Babe Ruth, 20th century record, Highest slugging average in one season (.847) [1]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Baseball's Top 100: The Game's Greatest Records, p.22, Kerry Banks, 2010, Greystone Books, Vancouver, BC, ISBN 978-1-55365-507-7
  2. ^ "Ruth Bought By New York Americans For $125,000, Highest Price in Baseball Annals". New York Times. January 6, 1920.
  3. ^ "Babe Ruth Injured In Auto Accident". Sacramento Union. July 8, 1920. p. 8. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  4. ^ "Detroit Tigers at New York Yankees Box Score, July 8, 1920". baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  5. ^ My Pitch That Killed Chapman Was A Strike! by Phyllis Propert, Baseball Digest, July 1957, Vol. 16, No. 6, ISSN 0005-609X

References

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