The fact that both pennant winners would repeat for the third straight time paled into insignificance in the face of the continuing trend to more home runs - a trend that would surely change the complextion of the national pasttime. As the Roaring Twenties are reaching full stride, baseball too, hypoed it's activity by spicing the 1922 season with 1,359 homers, a remarkable achievement since the leagues combined for only 288 homers five years ago. Although the new slightly lively ball introduced in 1909 started a slow rise in the home run totals, it was the outlawing of the spitball and other trick pitches in 1920 plus the introduction of a really lively ball which was responsible for launching a skyrocketing increase to the majestic big flies. The owners decided that if the fans wanted to see home runs, that they should give them more home runs. The results now is that hitters are now concentrating more on hitting the long ball than going for average.
In the American League New York, Washington and Boston started hot but as the weather got hotter, so did the St.Louis Browns. The Brownies came roaring back and by mid-July had overtaken the rest of the league and never looked back as they clinched the pennant with about two weeks left in the schedule. St.Louis was once again powered at the plate by Rogers Hornsby and Harry Heilmann. Heilmann finished with 28 homers and 123 ribbies, good enough to finish in the top three in both categories. Hornsby, however, batted .392 while slugging a co-league leading 34 homers and drove in 149 runs, leading the league in homers and RBI to garnish the league's Outstanding Hitter award for the fourth straight time. The Red Sox finished in second place, 15 games behind, thanks to the record setting performance at bat by "The Grey Eagle", Tris Speaker. Speaker has set a new major league batting average record by hitting .424, besting Babe Ruth's .420 last season by .004!
The National League title race, on the other hand, was a tight dog fight with the Cubs, Reds, Phillies, Robins and Cardinals within a 7 game span from first to fifth. Heading into Labor Day weekend, the Cubbies held a 2-game lead over both Cincinnati and Philadelphia with Brooklyn 3 games back and St.Louis 5 back. With only 10 games remaining in the schedule, the Phillies had taken a 1/2 game lead over Chicago with St.Louis 6 1/2 games back while both Cincinnati and Brooklyn are falling out of the race. Philadelphia managed to get the distance between them and Chicago up to 2 games but the Cubs came back and got to within one game before the Phillies finally captured the NL pennant on the last day of the regular season. Once again, the mighty bat of Babe Ruth paced the Philadelphia attack as he batted .342 while clouting a major league leading 46 home runs and drove in 147 runs, first in the NL but 2 less than Hornsby for the major league lead. As was the normal case now, Babe Ruth was awarded the NL's Outstanding Hitter award, the fifth time in a row for the slugger. Chicago finished in second place only a single game behind and was led by hitters Ken Williams (.389 avg & 134 rbi) and Les Mann (.363 avg) and by pitcher Lefty Williams, who won 20 games and received the senior circuit's Outstanding Pitcher award as he chalked up a 3.71 ERA and 110 whiffs.
The 1922 World Series, like 1921's, was a battle to the final game as the Browns and Phillies went back and forth with the Brownies pulling it out by winning game seven by a score of 8-4 thanks to home runs by O'Farrell, O'Connell and Youngs.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
St.Louis 114 40 .740 -- Philadelphia 91 63 .591 --
Boston 86 68 .558 28 St.Louis 84 70 .545 7
Philadelphia 80 74 .519 34 Brooklyn 79 75 .513 12
Cleveland 76 78 .494 38 Boston 78 76 .506 13
Chicago 68 86 .442 46 Pittsburgh 78 76 .506 13
New York 67 87 .435 47 Cincinnati 76 78 .494 15
Detroit 66 88 .429 48 Chicago 70 84 .455 21
Washington 59 95 .383 55 New York 60 94 .390 31
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
R.Hornsby, STL .412 B.Ruth, PHI .420
J.Jackson, CLE .383 L.Gardner, STL .378
S.O'Neill, STL .375 J.Bottomley, CIN .359
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
H.Heilmann, STL 32 B.Ruth, PHI 64
C.Williams, PHI 31 H.Miller, BOS 22
B.Meusel, PHI 30 K.Williams, CHI 22
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
H.Heilmann, STL 166 B.Ruth, PHI 168
J.Jackson, CLE 127 J.Harris, BRO 127
R.Hornsby, STL 125 J.Bottomley, CIN 113
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
R.Hornsby, STL 133 B.Ruth, PHI 171
R.Youngs, STL 131 T.Cobb, STL 129
H.Heilmann, STL 123 F.Haney, PIT 119
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
F.Frisch, PHI 33 J.Evans, PHI 41
T.Shafer, BOS 30 D.Bancroft, BRO 30
G.Sisler, CLE 26 M.Carey, PIT 28
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
E.Rixey, WAS 3.35 F.Arellanes, PHI 3.03
U.Shocker, STL 3.53 J.Scott, PHI 3.35
D.Mails, STL 3.65 B.Doak, BOS 3.38
Wins W Wins W
D.Mails, STL 27 F.Arellanes, PHI 22
U.Shocker, STL 23 E.Mayer, BOS 21
J.Raleigh, STL 21 S.Stroud, PHI 20
Saves SV Saves SV
A.Sothoron, STL 9 J.Wisner, CHI 12
P.Perritt, PHI 7 L.Carlson, CIN 10
G.Bono, WAS 5 R.Johnson, BOS 9
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
D.Mails, STL 118 W.Johnson, BRO 130
G.Chalmers, NY 101 D.Ayers, NY 116
B.Grimes, CHI 101 L.Williams, CIN 112
1922 World Series
Game #1
Philadelphia (N) 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 10 1
St.Louis (A) 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 x - 4 10 0
R.Ryan, C.Schmutz (7) and S.O'Neill.
U.Shocker, J.Raleigh (3) and B.O'Farrell.
WP - J.Raleigh (1-0)
LP - R.Ryan (0-1)
HR - PHI: R.Blades (1) STL: B.O'Farrell (1), J.O'Connell (1)
Game #2
Philadelphia (N) 0 0 1 0 1 6 0 0 0 - 8 12 0
St.Louis (A) 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 5 4
J.Scott and S.O'Neill.
W.Cooper, A.Sothoron (9) and B.O'Farrell.
WP - J.Scott (1-0)
LP - W.Cooper (0-1)
HR - PHI: B.Bagwell (1)
Game #3
St.Louis (A) 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 - 6 9 1
Philadelphia (N) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 - 3 9 2
D.Mails and B.O'Farrell.
A.Nehf and S.O'Neill.
WP - D.Mails (1-0)
LP - A.Nehf (0-1)
HR - PHI: B.Ruth (1)
Game #4
St.Louis (A) 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 - 3 4 0
Philadelphia (N) 0 0 0 1 0 1 3 1 x - 6 10 1
J.Raleigh and B.O'Farrell.
R.Ryan, G.McQuillan (9) and S.O'Neill.
WP - R.Ryan (1-1)
LP - J.Raleigh (1-1)
HR - STL: R.Grimes (1) PHI: B.Ruth (2)
Game #5
St.Louis (A) 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 1 - 5 9 1
Philadelphia (N) 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 - 4 8 0
J.Raleigh, A.Sothoron (6) and B.O'Farrell.
J.Scott, C.Schmutz (8) and S.O'Neill.
WP - A.Sothoron (1-0)
LP - C.Schmutz (0-1)
HR - STL: B.Southworth (1)
Game #6
Philadelphia (N) 0 1 3 1 0 2 5 0 0 - 12 9 1
St.Louis (A) 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 4 - 8 17 3
A.Nehf, C.Schmutz (9) and S.O'Neill.
J.Raleigh, A.Sothoron (7) and B.O'Farrell.
WP - A.Nehf (1-1)
LP - J.Raleigh (1-2)
HR - PHI: B.Ruth (3) STL: R.Blades (2), B.Bagwell (2)
Game #7
Philadelphia (N) 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 - 4 10 1
St.Louis (A) 5 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 x - 8 13 0
R.Ryan, C.Schmutz (7) and S.O'Neill.
W.Cooper, J.Raleigh (7), A.Sothoron (8) and B.O'Farrell.
WP - W.Cooper (1-1)
LP - R.Ryan (1-2)
HR - STL: B.O'Farrell (2), R.Youngs (1), J.O'Connell (2)