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- #1. The 1929 World Series Took Place A Month Before The Great Depression
- #2. Connie Mack Would Set The Record For World Series Wins
- #3. The Chicago Cubs First Appearance Since 1918
- #4. The Cubs Featured Mostly Right-Handed Hitters
- #5. Connie Mack Surprised The Cubs With A 35 Year Old Started In Game 1
- #6. The First World Series Played At Wrigley Field
- #7. Game 4 Was The Largest Comeback In World Series History
#1. The 1929 World Series Took Place A Month Before The Great Depression
America had enjoyed an immense amount of growth during the 1920s. There have been many innovations in technology, music, and even motion pictures. The Roaring 20s were finally coming to an end, and most folks who were at the 1929 World Series did not know what was in store for them.
A month later, the stock market would crash, The Great Depression would begin, many folks would lose their job, and some would even take their own life. This series would be the last entertainment that some of them would see.
President Herbert Hoover was in attendance. At the time, he had been in office since March and was enjoying much popularity. That would end by the 1930 World Series.
#2. Connie Mack Would Set The Record For World Series Wins
Connie Mack saw most of his success in the 1910s when he put together a dynasty that would bring home 3 championships (1910, 1911, and 1913).
In the 1914 World Series, the favored Athletics were surprised by the Boston Braves, which then led to a rebuild of the entire team.
Mack would become the worst team in the league for the next few years, and his teams would improve. However, the rise of the Yankees held his teams back from the American League Pennant.
He would again appear in the 1929 World Series and beat the Chicago Cubs. This win would push him ahead of John McGraw and Miller Huggins, who both had won 3 championships.
Ironically, the losing manager, Joe McCarthy, would be the first to surpass Macks's record when he managed the Yankees to 7 Championships.
#3. The Chicago Cubs First Appearance Since 1918
The Chicago Cubs dominated the first decade of the World Series, winning 3 of the championships. Then, after 1908, the infamous curse of the Billy Goat was placed on them, and the once-dominant dynasty could not seem to find much postseason success.
Their last appearance before 1929 was when they lost to Babe Ruth and the Red Sox in the 1918 World Series. Ironically, there are many rumors about the Cubs throwing that particular series a year prior to the 1919 World Series scandal.
They would not fare too well against the Athletics in 1929 and would lose in a 4 - 1 route.
#4. The Cubs Featured Mostly Right-Handed Hitters
Baseball was an evolving game, and matchups were starting to play a more significant role. However, the Cub's offense seemed to be loaded with right-handed hitters.
In fact, 7 of the 8 hitters on offense were right-handed, which would leave them vulnerable to right-handed pitching.
This would prove to be a problem in the series for the Cubs as Connie Mack believed in matchups and had a surprise for them in Game 1.
#5. Connie Mack Surprised The Cubs With A 35 Year Old Started In Game 1
Knowing the Cubs had only right-handed batters, Mack sat two of his best pitchers on the team, which included future Hall of Famer Lefty Grove, because they were left-handed.
Mack decided to gamble with a 35-year-old right-hander and a former Detroit Tigers pitcher named Howard Ehmke. The gamble surprised the Cubs, and Ehmke would post a series record of 13 strikeouts that was once held by Ed Walsh from the 1906 World Series.
Ehmke would pitch in Game 4 but would not last long as the Cubs had adjusted their approach to him.
#6. The First World Series Played At Wrigley Field
Despite early success from the Cubs in the first couple of decades of the World Series, none of their games had ever been played at Wrigley Field.
It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Whales of the Federal League, which folded after the 1915 baseball season.
The Cubs played their first home game at the park on April 20, 1916, defeating the Cincinnati Reds 7–6 in 11 innings.
The 1918 World Series would be played at Comiskey Park due to seating capacity.
Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. of the Wrigley Company acquired the Cubs in 1921. It was named Cubs Park from 1920 to 1926 before being renamed Wrigley Field in 1927.
#7. Game 4 Was The Largest Comeback In World Series History
Sticking to his right-handed-pitchers-only policy, Mack again made a risky move in Game 4 by starting 46-year-old Jack Quinn.
Unlike Ehmke, however, Quinn was no challenge to the Cubs hitters, who hit 7 runs off him before Mack pulled him in the sixth inning, setting the stage for the "Mack Attack" in the bottom of the seventh.
After Wilson's miscue on Haas's hit, an unknown fan wrote new lyrics to "My Old Kentucky Home," beginning with "The sun shone bright into poor Hack Wilson's eyes..." and ending with "For we'll sing one song for the game and fighting Cubs, for the record whiffing Cubs far away."
After seeing his seemingly safe 8–0 lead disintegrate to a 10–8 loss after the A's record seventh and a scoreless last two innings, Cub manager Joe McCarthy was anything but jovial. When a boy came by after the game asking for a baseball, "Marse Joe" muttered, "Come back tomorrow and stand behind Wilson, and you'll be able to pick up all the balls you want!"
That eight-run deficit overcome by the A's on that Columbus Day in Philadelphia is still the largest in postseason history, and Mule Haas's 7th inning inside-the-park home run was the last in a World Series game for 86 years.