By George T. Wiley

     On April 11, 1927, the Yankees won their home opener from the Athletics, 8-3. The victory came without any help from Babe Ruth, who struck out twice, popped out, and was lifted for pinch hitter Benny Paschal in the sixth. On September 22, 1932, the Yankees defeated the Athletics in ten innings despite two home runs from Jimmy Foxx. In between these two games the Yankees and the Athletics played each other 131 times as they shared six American League pennants. Here are the results of those games.

   Although Hoyt, Pennock, Pipgras, Ruffing, and Gomez pitched for New York during these years and Grove, Walberg, Rommel, Quinn, and Earnshaw hurled for the A's, these games were usually dominated by the hitters. Pennock, for example, was only 8-7 against the A's, and Grove 11-13 against the Yankees. The Yankees averaged over six runs a game and Philadelphia almost five. The following 20-13 games show the capabilities and the batting power of these teams:

May 22, 1930 (2) At Philadelphia

New York       720   201   215   20

Philadelphia    014   205   001   13

Errors - Schang, Earnshaw.

Runs batted in - Lazzeri 4, Gehrig 8, Chapman 3, Ruth 2, Dickey, Lary, Combs,

Simmons 2, Dykes 2, Foxx 6, Bishop, Boley.

Two base hits - Cooke 2, Lazzeri 2, Miller, Haas, Schang, Chapman.

Home runs - Ruth, Gehrig 3, Simmons, Dykes, Foxx 2.

June 3, 1932 at Philadelphia

New York       200   232   326   20

Philadelphia    200   602   021   13

Errors   Ruth, Gehrig, Crosetti 2, Allen, Earnshaw.

Runs batted in - Gehrig 6, Combs, Ruth, Crosetti 2, Saltzgaver, Lazzeri 6, Chapman,

Dickey, Cochrane 2, Cramer 3, Coleman 3, McNair 2, Foxx.

Two base hits - Lazzeri, McNair, Ruth, Coleman.

Three base hits - Bishop, Cramer, Chapman, Lazzeri, Foxx.

Home Runs - Gehrig 4, Cochrane, Combs, Ruth, Lazzeri, Foxx.

Runs Scored Each Game, 1927-32

Victory Spread

Average Spread         NY    4.58 runs     Phil   3.27 runs

   These two teams were the two most consistent for high averages in the American League over this six-year stretch. However, except for New York in 1927, the batting averages against each other were always lower than the average they made against the rest of the league.

   The following list shows how the regulars performed from 1927 to 1932 in this most crucial series. The batting champion of this competition was Mickey Cochrane, who recorded a .359 average in 116 games. Even more significant to the challenge of the pressure game is the fact that Cochrane batted 38 points higher against the Yankees than he did against the rest of the league. Cochrane was one of four A's players to accomplish this. The leader in responding to pressure, however, was Leo Durocher, who played 2B and SS for New York in 1928 and 1929. Leo hit 101 points higher against Philadelphia than he did against the rest of the league. Ten Yankees hit for a plus average against the A's. The leader in games played, of course, was Lou Gehrig, 133, because he never missed a game against anybody.

   Several players had excellent single-season series. Red Ruffing as a batter once had 11 for 22, and in 1927 Gehrig hit safely in 21 of 23 games.  Koenig hit safely in 15 straight games against the A's in 1928. Simmons hit in 18 of 20 in 1929, including one 5 for 5 game. Combs had two five-hit games and Yankees Koenig, Lazzeri, and Sewell did it once. Dud Branom played only one year in the majors, 26 games at lB for the A's in 1927, and batted only .234. Against New York, however, Dud hit .391, twice getting three hits.

                       Single Season Batting

       Ruffing, 1932      .500             Cochrane, 1931  .403

       Cochrane, 1930    .439             Lazzeri, 1928      .400

       Gehrig, 1927        .426             Simmons, 1929   .398

       Reese, 1930          .409             Byrd, 1932          .395

       Dykes, 1927         .404             Branom, 1927    .391

    During these six years Ruth and Gehrig dominated the American League in hitting home runs. It wasn't until 1932 that the A's Jimmy Foxx with 58 gave the league leadership to any but a Yankee. This domination was evident in the New York-Philadelphia series. In 11 games Ruth and Gehrig both hit home runs. On 12 occasions Ruth hit two or more homers. Gehrig did it five times, including the four he hit on June 3, 1932. Foxx and Simmons both homered in the same game four times, all in 1932. Foxx didn't get two homers in one game against the Yankees until the last game in 1932. Simmons never did during these six years. In all, 37 players homered in these games. Gehrig with 10 in 1927 and 1932 and Foxx with 10 in 1932 had the single season high.

                           Home Runs

                   New York                       Philadelphia

               Total       vs. Phil.          Total       vs. NY

1927           158          16                 56              5

1928           123          26                 89            11

1929           142          21                122           30

1930           152          27                125           17

1931           155          24                118           13

1932           160          32                173           30

                     Long Hits by Individuals

Home Runs                  Triples                                  Doubles

Ruth                49         Foxx               14                    Simmons         33

Gehrig             44         Gehrig            12                    Lazzeri            29

Simmons         27         Lazzeri           10                    Gehrig             26

Foxx                22         Cochrane        10                    Cochrane         24

Dykes                8         Combs             8                     Combs             23

Bishop               7         Bishop             7                     Miller               19

Haas                  7         Simmons         6                     Bishop             16

Lary                   6         Hale                 6                     Ruth                16

Chapman          6         Haas               5                     Haas                15

                                    Chapman          5                     Chapman         15

    Not all of the players in the A's-Yankees games from 1927-1932 were responsible for these teams dominating the American League. Bubbles Hargrave ended his career in 1930 by catching 34 games for New York, Baby Doll Jacobson played outfield for the A's in 1927. Art Daney pitched only one game in the majors and it was against New York in 1928. Neal Baker had his only hit in the majors against the Yankees, driving in two runs. New York used 68 players and Philadelphia 72 in the 133 games; 16 playing in only one game.

    The New York-Philadelphia rivalry carried over from the field to the stands. Record crowds in both parks were frequent as the league leadership was usually on the line. Few such scenes were as picturesquely described as the record crowd of 85,265 in Yankee Stadium on September 9, 1928, by Westbrook Pegler of the Chicago Tribune Press Service:

        The crowd was so vast and so wild that the ball game had

    to be halted several times until the players, the umpires, and

    the house policemen cleared the ground of old straw hats and

    drifting papers.

        When all was over the ground and the stands were covered

    with such debris that the cleaners were still at work loading the

    litter into hand trucks long after darkenss had fallen.

        Police lines were set a quarter of a mile from the Yankee

    Stadium and perhaps 20,000 more customers were turned

    away after 1:30, half an hour before time of the first game.

        Automobiles were parked in solid acres on the regular

    parking spaces generally sufficient for the stadium trade and

    thousands more were drawn up in rows on one of the city's

    undeveloped playgrounds just north of the ball park, where

    policemen and racketeers seemed to be partners in the parking

    business. They must have collected thousands of dollars, for

    the tariff was one dollar per car.

        No  world  series games, not even the first ones in

    Washington, St. Louis or Cincinnati, where the citizens

    achieved something rather distinguished in the way of frenzy,

    ever drew a more frantic crowd. The patrons were so eager to

    be on the scene that some of them lay flat on the concrete

    footways leading from tier to tier of the grand stand and

    peered through gaps in the architecture.

        The aisles and the cat walks overhead were packed solid

    with trade. People sat on the steps, perched or teetered in

    comfortless places on the railings, and even dangled in festoons

    from the beams. The roofs of apartment houses three furlongs

    away were fringed with optimists and policemen were seen

    chasing hundreds off the fire escapes lest they tear down the

    walls with their weight.

   The day was hot, dusty, and close, and the air outside the

stands just before the game was thick with the fumes of auto-

mobiles gnashing their fenders and bleating angrily in the

traffic jams.

On September 22, 1932, correspondent William Brandt wrote:

         Another prospective world series ace (Lefty Gomez) was

     trumped with Philadelphia homers today, but the Yankees

     staged a finish that was truly championship in caliber to take a

     ten-inning 8-to-7 decision over the Athletics for an even break

     in  the two-game series concluding the season's relations

     between the champions and ex-champions.

But the domination by two of baseball's greatest teams was over. In 1933 Washington won the flag with New York second and Philadelphia a distant third. In 1935 Philadelphia finished last.