Fat Freddie's Bad Luck
The Yankee Stadium Crowd Rooted For the Visitors
Carl Hubbell couldn’t pitch every day and the Yankees’ bats couldn’t be stopped everyday either. The Yankees assaulted five New York Giants’ pitchers for a World Series record 18 runs as they easily won Game 2 and tied the Series. The Italian contingent from San Francisco – Tony Lazzeri, Frank Crosetti, and Joe DiMaggio – combined for 7 hits and 7 RBIs, including Lazzeri’s grand slam home run, and both Lazzeri and Bill Dickey batted in 5 runs. Joe DiMaggio recorded all three putouts in the ninth inning, ending the game with a spectacular catch of a 450 drive off the bat of Hank Leiber, just in front of the Eddie Grant stone monument in dead center field to end the longest game in World Series history – 2 hours and 49 minutes.
Fitzsimmons Allowed Only 4 Hits
The teams crossed the Harlem River for the next three games, two of which were won by the Yankees. Knuckleballer Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons faced the Yankees’ Irving "Bump" Hadley before a record crowd of 64,842 fans, who paid a record $235,108 in admissions. Fat Freddie gave up only 4 hits, the first of which was Lou Gehrig’s second inning home run into the bleachers, a shot that the Giants’ Jimmy Ripple matched in the fifth. The Yankees could manage only "…a double by the magical Joe DiMaggio in the fourth after Gehrig’s blast," but in the eighth inning, the Yankees got lucky, much to the chagrin of most of the fans, who were rooting for Freddie and his Giants.
A Pitcher Pinch Hits for the Pitcher
George "Twinkletoes" Selkirk led off with a sharp single to right, which was followed by a walk to Jake Powell on the 3-2 delivery, bringing up Tony Lazzeri, who had hit a grand slam in Game 2, but this was 1936, not 2006, and Lazzeri sacrificed the runners to second and third. Yankees’ manager Joe McCarthy then made a move that was questioned. He pinch-hit for Bump Hadley. Yes folks, it wasn’t the usual move to take out the starting pitcher in the eighth inning of a 1-1 game, but it gets better, great proponents of the designated hitter rule.
The Yankee Stadium Crowd Rooted for the New York GIANTS
Red Ruffing pinch-hit for Hadley. Imagine that. Red Riuffing, the Yankees’ pitching ace, was actually a good enough hitter to pinch-hit in a World Series game. Ruffing hit a comebacker to the mound. Fitzsimmons, a fine fielder despite his girth, stabbed the ball and fired home to nail Selkirk, as the Yankee Stadium crowd roared its approval, but the Yankees still had one out left in the inning.
Jake Powell was on third and Roy Johnson, who went in to run for Ruffing, was on first, with Frank Crosetti hitting. Fitzsimmons got two quick strikes, got the ball back from catcher Gus Mancuso, rocked in the box, and delivered the third pitch to Crosetti. All Frankie could manage was a weak ground ball to Fat Freddie’s left, a ball Freddie should have never attempted to play, but he did. The ball trickled away into no person’s land as Powell scored the lead run and Crosetti reached first with the Yankees’ fourth hit.
A Close Loss is a Tough Loss
Former Chicago Cubs’ right-hander Pat "Old Blubber" Malone retired the Giants in the ninth inning to preserve Hadley’s 2-1 win, giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead in the Series. Afterwards, Fitzsimmons expressed his dismay. "You wouldn’t mind if a ball was hit good. But to have to be beaten like that is tough to take. Giants’ manager Bill Terry, who was not upset after losing 18-4 in Game 2, felt quite different after losing 2-1, refusing to say much to reporters. The toughest losses are the close ones.
References:
- Drebinger, John. "Yanks Crush Giants, 18-4, a World Series Record; 45,000 See Second Game; Series Tied, 1 Game Each. New York Times. 3 October 1936, p. 1.
- Drebinger, John. "Record Throng Thrilled; Fitzsimmons, Who Allows Only 4 Hits, Loses Despite Heroic Stand." New York Times. 4 October 1936, p. S1.
- McGowen, Roscoe. "Giants Proud of Fitzsimmons’s Mound Work Despite Setback by the Yankees; Terrymen Bemoan Their Lack of Luck." New York Times. 4 October 1936, p. S9.
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