1921 in baseball

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The following are the baseball events of the year 1921 throughout the world.

Headline Events of the Year

  • First radio broadcast of the World Series.
  • Babe Ruth breaks Roger Connor's All-Time Home Run record of 138.

Champions

Awards and honors

MLB statistical leaders

  American League National League
Type Name Stat Name Stat
AVG Harry Heilmann DET .394 Rogers Hornsby STL .397
HR Babe Ruth NYY 59 George Kelly NYG 23
RBI Babe Ruth NYY 171 Rogers Hornsby STL 126
Wins Carl Mays NYY & Urban Shocker SLB 27 Wilbur Cooper PIT 22
ERA Red Faber CHW 2.48 Bill Doak STL 2.59
Ks Walter Johnson WAS 283 Burleigh Grimes BRK 136

Major league baseball final standings

American League final standings

American League W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 98 55 0.641 53–25 45–30
Cleveland Indians 94 60 0.610 51–26 43–34
St. Louis Browns 81 73 0.526 17½ 43–34 38–39
Washington Senators 80 73 0.523 18 46–30 34–43
Boston Red Sox 75 79 0.487 23½ 41–36 34–43
Detroit Tigers 71 82 0.464 27 37–40 34–42
Chicago White Sox 62 92 0.403 36½ 37–40 25–52
Philadelphia Athletics 53 100 0.346 45 28–47 25–53


National League final standings

National League W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Giants 94 59 0.614 53–26 41–33
Pittsburgh Pirates 90 63 0.588 4 45–31 45–32
St. Louis Cardinals 87 66 0.569 7 48–29 39–37
Boston Braves 79 74 0.516 15 42–32 37–42
Brooklyn Robins 77 75 0.507 16½ 41–37 36–38
Cincinnati Reds 70 83 0.458 24 40–36 30–47
Chicago Cubs 64 89 0.418 30 32–44 32–45
Philadelphia Phillies 51 103 0.331 43½ 29–47 22–56


Negro League Baseball final standings

Negro National League final standings

Negro National League (West)
Club Wins Losses Win %   GB
Chicago American Giants 50 27 .650
St. Louis Giants 54 30 .645
Kansas City Monarchs 73 43 .630
Detroit Stars 46 46 .500
Columbus Buckeyes 30 39 .435
Cincinnati Cubans 30 39 .435
Indianapolis ABCs 43 60 .417
Chicago Giants 7 37 .159

East (independent teams) final standings

A loose confederation of teams were gathered in the East to compete with the West, however East teams did not organize a formal league as the West did.

East
Club Wins Losses Win %   GB
Atlantic City Bacharach Giants 34 28 .630
Philadelphia Hilldales 26 16 .619
New York Lincoln Giants 12 7 .590
Brooklyn Royal Giants 1 2 .333
Cuban Stars 12 26 .316
Baltimore Black Sox 2 6 .250

Events

January – May

June – September

  • July 12 – Babe Ruth hits his 33rd and 34th home run of the season. His 33rd home run gave him 136 career home runs, tying Roger Connor's all-time mark. His 34th home run makes him the all-time home run king, a title he will hold until 1974.
  • August 9 – The St. Louis Browns defeat the Washington Senators 8-6 in nineteen innings. Dixie Davis pitches all nineteen innings for St. Louis.
  • August 12 – The Philadelphia Phillies' George Smith gives up twelve hits and still pitched a shutout as the Phillies beat the Boston Braves 4-0.
  • August 19 – Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers becomes the fourth player with 3000 career hits.
  • August 27 – With a 3-1 victory at the Polo Grounds, the New York Giants complete a five-game sweep of the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates to move within 2.5 games of first place Pittsburgh. The Giants out scored the Pirates 27-6 in the series.
  • September 9 – The Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox lock up in a slugfest at Comiskey Park. The Tigers collect twenty hits and six walks on their way to scoring fifteen runs. However, the White Sox score twenty runs on 22 hits, including a home run by Earl Sheely.
  • September 16
    • In the first game of a crucial three game series for first place in the National League, the New York Giants' Fred Toney holds the Pittsburgh Pirates to two hits in the Giants' 5-0 victory.
    • Hall of Famer Goose Goslin makes his major league debut in the Washington Senators' 2-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians.
  • September 17 – The New York Giants complete a ten-game winning streak that sees them go from a half game back of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League to first place, 4.5 games up.
  • September 20 – With a 4-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers, and a 7-4 loss by the Cleveland Indians at the hands of the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees capture first place in the American League, and hold it for the remainder of the season.
  • September 25 – The New York Yankees defeat the Cleveland Indians 21-7. Surprisingly, none of the 21 runs scored are driven in by Babe Ruth, who goes on to compile one of the greatest single seasons of batting in Major League baseball history by hitting 59 home runs, driving in 171 runs, scoring 177 runs with 204 hits for a .378 batting average in only 540 At-Bats. His On-base percentage for the season is .510 and his slugging percentage is an astounding .846 mark. Ruth's 59 home runs are more than the other seven American League team home run totals combined.
  • September 29 – Hall of Fame outfielder Kiki Cuyler makes his major league debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is held hitless in three at-bats by the St. Louis Cardinals' Bill Sherdel.

October – December

  • October 2 – The Philadelphia Athletics lose 11-6 to the Washington Senators for their 100th loss of the season, giving both Philadelphia teams 100 losses for the season.
  • October 5 – The New York Yankees defeat the New York Giants 3-0 in the first World Series game in franchise history. The Series is the first to be broadcast on radio. Announcer Thomas Cowan recreated the game over Westinghouse-owned WJZ in Newark, listening to phoned-in reports from the stadium.
  • October 6 – The Yankees defeat the Giants in the second game of the World Series by the same score of the first game, 3-0.
  • October 7 – After having been outscored 10-0 in the World season, and falling behind 4-0 to the Yankees in game three, the Giants explode for thirteen runs, and defeat the Yankees 13-5.
  • October 9 – The New York Giants even the 1921 World Series at two games apiece with a 4-2 victory. Babe Ruth homers in the bottom of the ninth.
  • October 10 – Babe Ruth catches the New York Giants' infield off guard as the Yankee slugger bunts his way on to lead off the fourth inning. The strategy works, as Ruth scores the winning run in the Yankees' 3-1 victory.
  • October 11 – The New York Giants battle back from 3-0 and 5-3 deficits to beat the Yankees 8-5 in game six of the World Series.
  • October 12 – A costly error by second baseman Aaron Ward on a Johnny Rawlings ground ball leads to an unearned run, and is the difference in the Giants' 2-1 victory in game seven of the World Series.
  • October 13 – The New York Giants defeat the New York Yankees, 1-0, in Game eight of the World Series to capture their second World Championship, five games to three. For the first time in World Series play, all games were held at one site: the Polo Grounds in New York, with the home team alternating. The Yankees sub-leased the Polo Grounds from the New York Giants from 1913 through 1922.

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Deaths

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January–February

March–April

  • March 21 – Tom Vickery
  • March 24 – Larry McLean
  • March 25 – Harry Arndt
  • March 30 – Frank Bancroft, 74, manager who won 1884 championship with Providence Grays, also managed six other teams; introduced baseball to Cuba in 1879, and was Reds executive for 30 years.
  • March 31 – John Fitzgerald, 50, pitcher for the 1891 Boston Reds.
  • April  3 – Pop Corkhill
  • April  9 – Kid Butler
  • April 27 – Hal Mauck
  • April 21 – Tom O'Brien, 60, utility who played at in each position except shortstop, while batting a .231 average for five different teams between 1882 and 1890.

May–June

July–August

September–October

  • September 3 – Jim Clinton, 71, outfielder for 10 seasons; 1872–1876, 1882–1886.
  • October 2   Ed Carfrey
  • October 20 – Jack Hardy
  • October 24 – Jimmy Barrett
  • October 27 – Bill Kuehne, 63, German third baseman for the Columbus Buckeyes, Pittsburgh Alleghenys & Burghers, Columbus Solons, Louisville Colonels, St. Louis Browns, and Cincinnati Reds during the 19th century.

November–December

  • November  4 – Levi Meyerle, 76, infielder who won National Association batting titles in 1871 and 1874, later playing in the first major league game.
  • December  9 – Charlie Morton, 67, player, manager, and later a minor league president.
  • December 15 – Joe Weber
  • December 22 – Socks Seybold