Very Scarce 1928 St. Louis Cardinals at New York Game 1 World Series Program.
Lot 6. Very Scarce 1928 St. Louis Cardinals at New York Game 1 World Series Program. For the second straight year, the unstoppable Yankees swept their World Series opponent. Like the Pirates in 1927, the 1928 Cardinals fell in four to Ruth, Gehrig and Hoyt. The 1928 championship make the Yankees the first team ever to sweep the World Series consecutively. One statistic illustrates the Yankees’ dominance: Lou Gehrig drove in as many runs in the series as the entire Cardinals team. More might have been expected of the Cardinals. After all, their manager, McKechnie, was a future Hall of Fame member, and so were six players: Alexander, Bottomley, Frisch, Hafey, Haines and Maranville. Led by Huggins, another future Cooperstown enshrinee, the Yankees successfully countered with their own HoF cast: Combs, Coveleski, Dickey, Durocher, Gehrig, Hoyt, Lazzeri, Pennock, and, of course, Ruth. These players are pictured in the program, along with three other future HoF members: Judge Landis, the Commissioner; Ed Barrow, secretary of the Yankees, and a very young Branch Rickey, vice president of the Cardinals. The Yankees won Game 1, 4-1, as this lightly pencil-scored program will attest. Gehrig went 2-4, and Ruth, 3-4. The 20-page program has a vertical crease and a tiny area of paper loss in the white border. It displays as vg-ex. One full inside page features Babe Ruth promoting Old Gold cigarettes. World Series program from the 1920s turn up infrequently. This example, published by Harry M. Stevens, is a desirable classic. Winning Bid $807.
