October 9: ON THIS DAY in 1927, Yankees clean up Pirates to win World Series

October 9, 2020 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1871, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Chicago In Ashes. Last night at ten o’clock a terrible fire started in a row of two story tenements in DeKoven street, between Jefferson and Clinton, and as was the case last night spread with terrible rapidity. Before a single engine could get on the road, half the block was in flames and burning furiously. The entire department were soon on the ground and at work. For a time it seemed probable they would succeed in confining it to two or three blocks. The wind was blowing freshly when the fire started, but afterward increased to a gale, and suddenly the flames seemed to spread in every direction beyond the control of the fire department. The flames, like hell let loose upon the earth, with a roaring, hungry noise swept along both banks of the river, devouring the timber in the lumberyards in an instant. The sparks flew upward all night like a rain of volcanic lava, and set fire to buildings vainly supposed to be out of the reach of danger.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1918, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, which reconvened Monday after the summer recess, adjourned yesterday until Monday on account of the influenza epidemic. Only minor business was transacted. The Court yesterday denied admittance to the chamber of all persons except lawyers.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1919, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — President [Woodrow] Wilson continues to hold the slight improvement in his condition noted yesterday, said a bulletin issued today by Rear Admirals Grayson and Stitt, his physicians … For the first time since he was called in a week ago, Dr. Sterling Ruffin of this city was not present at this morning’s consultation. Dr. Francis X. Dercum, the noted Philadelphia neurologist, who was summoned to Washington when the President’s condition took a turn for the worse more than a week ago, probably will see the President again Saturday. The President continued today to have a good appetite and, according to officials at the White House, had a very good night last night — one of the best he has had. Cooler weather was credited today by President Wilson’s physicians with aiding in his recovery, which now has reached the stage where he is able to spend part of his time sitting up. The unseasonable heat during the past few days was declared to have greatly retarded the patient’s progress, and with the change he is able to sleep better and to gain more strength from his rest.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1919, the Eagle reported, “Eddie Cicotte lost his second game in this [World] Series on two mechanical errors in his own fielding. He did not lose on his pitching, and the talk hereabouts was that if he got another chance he would pitch the Reds off their feet. He got the chance and he pitched exactly the way the Chicago wisenheimers predicted … He said before the series [that] he was the youngest and huskiest old man in the big league, and, by golly, he was yesterday, which is the reason we are all back in Chicago today.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1927, the Eagle reported, “The New York Yankees are baseball champions of the world today by virtue of the fact that they won four games from the Pittsburg Pirates in a row — and because in yesterday’s battle, the last of the series, John Miljus inserted a wild pitch into the ninth inning with the bases loaded with Yankee ball players. The score of the fourth game was 4 to 3. And it was just about as hectic and wild a bit of athletic drama as one could want to see. They made baseball, it seems, for this … ‘I can’t blame Miljus a mite for the wild pitch that lost the game,’ [Pirates] Manager Donie Bush said. ‘It was just the final break. Johnnie Gooch has caught worse balls in his career, although that was a very bad pitch, but the series is over and I must give credit to the Yankees as one of the finest clubs in the history of baseball.’”

ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “The highest-priced managerial contract in baseball history — a two-year $200,000 pact — awaited Casey Stengel today as soon as he is ready to sit down and sign it. Flushed with the success of four straight World Series victories, the grizzled, gray-haired New York Yankee manager presumably only is delaying his signing to determine how much of the sum he wants as a base salary and how much as a bonus. Stengel, who dropped vague hints about retiring before his Yankees landed in the World Series against the Giants last year, no longer gives quitting a thought. ‘Retire, hell!’ he snorted at the Yankees’ victory party Tuesday night. ‘I’ve got the greatest bunch of guys in the game around me and I think we got a great chance to win again. They didn’t quit on me, so why should I quit on them?’ … Stengel’s confidence for the 1953 season stems from the fact that his pitching staff undoubtedly will be bolstered by the return from service of lefthander Ed (Whitey) Ford, who posted an impressive 9-1 record before he entered the Army late in 1950.” Ford, a New York City native who won 11 pennants and six championships with the Yankees, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. He died on Oct. 8, 2020 at age 91.