Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Damn Yankees

Page 118

contended for their third straight pennant. Stengel was ejected several times for brawling or arguing with the umpire, and the league suspended him for ten games in one incident. McGraw continued to use him as a means of exerting some control over the younger players. During that summer, Stengel fell in love with Edna Lawson, a Californian who was running part of her father's building contracting business. They were married the following year. Near the end of the season, he sustained a mild foot injury, causing McGraw to rest him for a week, but he played the final two games of the regular season to finish at .339 as the Giants and Yankees each won their leagues.

Until 1923, the Yankees had been tenants of the Giants at the Polo Grounds, but new Yankee Stadium had been opened that year, and this was the site for Game 1 of the 1923 World Series on October 10. Casey Stengel's at bat in the ninth inning with the

score tied 4–4 was "the stuff of legend." Before the largest crowd he had ever played, Stengel lined a changeup from Joe Bush for a hit that went between the outfielders deep to left center. Hobbled by his injury and even more as a sponge inside his shoe flew out as he rounded second base, Stengel slowly circled the bases, and evaded the tag from catcher Wally Schang for an inside the park home run, providing the winning margin. Thus, the first World Series home run in Yankee Stadium's history was