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Casey Stengel’s Inside-the-Park Home Run Wins Game One of the 1923 World Series!

“It’s a good thing I didn’t hit three homers in these games, or McGraw would have traded me to the Three-I League!” –Casey Stengel commenting after he hit two home runs in the 1923 World Series and then was traded to the lowly Boston Braves.

My annual October tour through memorable World Series games stops today in 1923, with Game One of the Fall Classic between the New York Giants and the New York Yankees, played 103 years ago today, October 10, 1923, at new Yankee Stadium. Casey Stengel’s inside-the-park home run wins the game. His second round tripper in Game Three on October 12 proved to be the game-winner, as the Giants prevailed 1-0.

The 1923 World Series pitted the two New York teams for the third consecutive year, marking the only time that three straight World Series featured the same two clubs. The Giants won the first two meetings, but the third time proved to be the charm for the Bronx Bombers, as they prevailed against John McGraw crew four games to two.

The first game was also the first World Series game to be nationally broadcast on-site, a huge milestone in baseball history. The games were played in alternate parks between Yankee Stadium (the first year of its existence) and the Polo Grounds, not the 2-3-2 format that became the norm in later years. Babe Ruth had a great series, as he batted .368 and hit three home runs.

Casey Stengel’s Memorable Heroics

The few highlights of the 1923 World Series for the Giants included Casey’s two home runs to win Games One and Three. The first was an inside-the-park homer off the Yankees’ Joe Bush in the top of the ninth of a game tied 4-4. Casey legged out the long drive after hitting it into deep left-center field of cavernous Yankee Stadium. The Giants held on to win the game 5-4 and took an early 1-0 lead in the Series.

In typical Stengel eccentric fashion, Casey’s shoe came loose while streaking around the bases! (See the featured photo above).

The third game started out as a scoreless pitching duel between the Giants’ Art Nehf and the Yankees’ Sad Sam Jones. There was no score until the seventh when Casey struck again, this time with a homer that left the park, giving the Giants a 1-0 victory and a 2-1 Series lead.

A quarter century later, Stengel became the Yankees manager, and guided them through one of their most successful eras. In 12 years as the Yankees skipper (1949-1960), Stengel won 1,149 games and led them to ten American League pennants and seven World Series titles.

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All found on Google search

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