1920 New York Yankees season

1920 New York Yankees
Babe Ruth's First Season in New York
Major League affiliations
American League (since 1901)
Location
Polo Grounds (since 1913)
New York City, New York (since 1903)
Other information
Owner(s)	Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston
Manager(s)	Miller Huggins
Local television	none
Local radio	none
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The 1920 New York Yankees season was the 18th season for the Yankees in New York and their 20th overall. The team finished with a record of 95–59, just 3 games behind the American League champion Cleveland Indians. New York was managed by Miller Huggins. Home games were played at the Polo Grounds. The Yankees of 1920 were the first team in the history of Major League Baseball to have an attendance of more than one million fans.^[1]

Offseason

The year started with a bang on January 5, when the Boston Red Sox sold their star pitcher-turned-outfielder Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $125,000. The sub-headline in The New York Times the next day read, "Highest Purchase Price in Baseball History Paid for Game's Greatest Slugger." This deal would live in infamy for generations of Boston fans, and would vault the Yankees from respectability (80 wins in 1919) to pennant contention.

Regular season

Ruth in 1920, the year he joined the Yankees.

The Indians won the pennant despite a horrific incident at the Polo Grounds on August 16. Yankees pitcher Carl Mays, another of several ex-Red Sox players who had come the Yankees' way, used a "submarine" (underhand) pitching style. He threw one up and in on Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman, who tended to crowd the plate and apparently never saw the ball coming. Chapman suffered a severe skull fracture, and died the following morning.^[2] Mays was absolved of any wrongdoing, but the incident would haunt him for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, the Indians rallied around the memory of their shortstop, and won the season.

However, with Ruth leading the Yankees, and with his stunning total of 54 home runs, nearly doubling his own major league record from just the previous year, New York finished just a game behind the second-place Chicago White Sox and three behind the Indians. Ruth's 54 home runs marked an end to the dead-ball era, and ushered in a new style of play with an emphasis on power hitting. The Yankees had once been the "poor relations of the Polo Grounds", as Lamont Buchanan characterized them in The World Series and Highlights of Baseball. But the Giants had faded a bit in the late 1910s while the Yankees had grown stronger. The Yankees were now poised to take the next step to beginning the greatest dynasty in professional sports.

Season standings

American League	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Cleveland Indians	98	56	0.636	—	51–27	47–29
Chicago White Sox	96	58	0.623	2	52–25	44–33
New York Yankees	95	59	0.617	3	49–28	46–31
St. Louis Browns	76	77	0.497	21½	40–38	36–39
Boston Red Sox	72	81	0.471	25½	41–35	31–46
Washington Senators	68	84	0.447	29	37–38	31–46
Detroit Tigers	61	93	0.396	37	32–46	29–47
Philadelphia Athletics	48	106	0.312	50	25–50	23–56

Record vs. opponents

1920 American League Records Sources:
Team	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	NYY	PHI	STL	WSH
Boston	—	12–10	6–16	13–9	9–13	13–9–1	9–13	10–11
Chicago	10–12	—	10–12	19–3	10–12	16–6	14–8	17–5
Cleveland	16–6	12–10	—	15–7	9–13	16–6	15–7	15–7
Detroit	9–13	3–19	7–15	—	7–15	12–10–1	10–12	13–9
New York	13–9	12–10	13–9	15–7	—	19–3	12–10	11–11
Philadelphia	9–13–1	6–16	6–16	10–12–1	3–19	—	8–14	6–16
St. Louis	13–9	8–14	7–15	12–10	10–12	14–8	—	12–9–1
Washington	11–10	5–17	7–15	9–13	11–11	16–6	9–12–1	—

Roster

1920 New York Yankees
Roster
Pitchers Rip Collins Carl Mays Bob McGraw George Mogridge Lefty O'Doul Jack Quinn Bob Shawkey Ernie Shore Hank Thormahlen		Catchers Truck Hannah Fred Hofmann Muddy Ruel Infielders Chick Fewster Ray French Joe Lucey Roger Peckinpaugh Wally Pipp Del Pratt Aaron Ward		Outfielders Ping Bodie Frank Gleich Duffy Lewis Bob Meusel Babe Ruth Sammy Vick Other batters Tom Connelly		Manager Miller Huggins

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
OF	Ruth, BabeBabe Ruth	142	457	172	.376	54	137

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Mays, CarlCarl Mays	45	312	26	11	3.06	92

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Collins, RipRip Collins	36	187.1	14	8	3.22	66

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO

Awards and honors

Records

• Babe Ruth, 20th century record, Highest slugging average in one season (.849) ^[1]

Notes

1. Baseball’s Top 100: The Game’s Greatest Records, p.22, Kerry Banks, 2010, Greystone Books, Vancouver, BC, ISBN 978-1-55365-507-7
2. My Pitch That Killed Chapman Was A Strike! by Phyllis Propert, Baseball Digest, July 1957, Vol. 16, No. 6, ISSN 0005-609X

References

• 1920 New York Yankees team page at www.baseball-almanac.com