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Casey Stengel Photo Gallery
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- Fans entering for the 1923 World Series
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- Casey with his 1939 Boston Bees team.
“Memorable World Series Moments”:
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 three games, or McGraw would have traded me to the Three-I League!” –Casey Stengel commenting after he hit two home runs to win two games for the Giants in the 1923 World Series and then was traded to the lowly Boston Braves.
The 1923 World Series pitted the Yankees against the Giants for the third consecutive year. The three consecutive matchups between the Yankees and Giants marked 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 Yankees, 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 “Old Casey” Stengel’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 photo below).
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
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Photo Credits: all from public domain
Information: Excerpts edited from the 1923 World Series Wikipedia page.
Enjoy your work immensely – to quote Bob Hope: “Thanks for the memories.” Question for you: I have been trying (to no avail) to find a piece written about Casey’s inside the park home run. I seem to remember this much (which may or may not be accurate): “This is how Casey ran … ”
I also seem to associate it with Paul Gallico or possibly Damon Runyan. Does any of that ring a bell with you?
Thanks & keep up the good work.
Carl G
Thanks for the kind words Carl. Sorry it doesn’t ring a bell. Maybe the article was referring to the fact that Casey was streaking around the bases with one shoe off!
Thanks for getting back to me so promptly. I was finally able to track it down.
This is Damon Runyon’s sports report on Casey’s inside the park home run to win game 1 of the ’23 World Series:
“This is the way old “Casey” Stengel ran yesterday afternoon, running his home
run home.
This is the way old “Casey” Stengel ran running his home run home to a
Giant victory by a score of 5-4 in the first game of the World Series of 1923.
This is the way old “Casey” Stengel ran, running his home run home, when
two were out in the ninth inning and the score was tied and the ball was still
bouncing inside the Yankee yard.
This is the way–
His mouth wide open.
His warped old legs bending beneath him at every stride.
His arms flying back and forth like those of a man swimming with a crawl
stroke.”