1930 World Series

As America welcomed in their third decade of professional baseball, the Philadelphia Athletics had clearly re-established themselves as one of Major League baseball's elite. Connie Mack's franchise had taken longer than expected to rebuild itself into the dynasty of the early 1900's, but it was certainly worth the wait. They had almost upset the up-and-coming New York Yankees in the 1928 pennant race, dominated the American League for the title in 1929 and won it comfortably in 1930 to return for another World Series appearance. The 1930 post-season provided Mack with an opportunity to win his fifth championship title and his second in a row. Their opponents, the National League's St. Louis Cardinals were more than worthy of the challenge while batting .314 with an all .300-hitting line-up. 1930 had been dubbed "The Year of the Hitter" as six National League clubs had above .300 averages, with the New York Giants setting a modern record with a .319 figure and the Philadelphia Phillies hitting .315. The American League was not far behind with a .288 average.

Despite their regular season rallies at the plate, the Athletics' bats struggled in Game 1 and only managed five hits to the Cardinals' nine. However, all five went for extra bases and each figured in the defending champions' scoring, which came on single runs in the second, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Two of the A's hits were homers by Al Simmons and Mickey Cochrane, and helped Lefty Grove to beat veteran Burleigh Grimes, 5-2. Despite the win, Philadelphia was determined to make amends for the "one-hit-an-inning" performance in the Series opener. Cochrane, Simmons and Foxx came out swinging and beat Cardinals' starter Flint Rehm in a 6-1 victory putting their team ahead two games to none.

As the Series shifted to St. Louis, the home team once again, found themselves in familiar territory. Come-from-behind situations were nothing new to the 1930 Cardinals who were tied for fourth in August and trailed the then National League leading Brooklyn Robins by eleven games. Their tenacity had allowed them to rebound to the top of their league and nothing had changed in Game 3. Veteran ace, "Wild Bill" Hallahan shut out the returning World Champions for a 5-0 triumph and Series veteran, Jesse Haines, beat out Lefty Grove in a Game 4, 3-1 duel that tied the contest at two games apiece.

Game 5 represented the Series leading win and both teams were determined to turn the tournament in their favor. Burleigh Grimes and George Earnshaw went at it for a nine-inning pitcher's masterpiece as neither team could manage any offense at the plate. Grimes blinked first as Cochrane managed a walk in the top of the ninth. Two batters later, Jimmie Foxx, who had hit thirty-seven home runs during the regular season, added number thirty-eight for the 2-0 Athletics' victory. Philadelphia had the advantage and was one game away from back-to-back championships.

Connie Mack's confidence in Earnshaw warranted the thirty-year old right-handers return for Game 6 despite having only one days rest while the Cardinals skipper, Gabby Street chose Game 3 winner, "Wild Bill" Hallahan to even the score. The questionable decision to start Earnshaw would prove meaningless as the Athletics' line-up would tag both Hallahan and reliever Syl Johnson for two run scoring doubles in the first, a homer in the third and a two-run blast in the fourth. Once again, the A's had made each hit worth extra-bases and their poorly rested pitcher backed them up with a solid outing for a five-hit, 7-1 victory. The win made the Philadelphia Athletics the first team in Series history to win back-to-back championships twice.

How ironic, that in "The Year of the Hitter", batting would be nothing more than a mediocre statistic in the World Series. Philadelphia managed to hit a meager .197 and St. Louis tallied an unimpressive .200 average. In this contest, "quality" apparently meant more than "quantity" as the A's had eighteen of their thirty-five going for extra-bases. The lack of offense was a testament to the solid pitching on both sides. Earnshaw was a standout, going 2-0 with a 0.72 ERA for twenty-five innings of work and Grove was not far behind with a 2-3 record with a 1.42 ERA in nineteen innings.