UD Yankee Stadium Legacy: September 18, 1923

Here's the next YSL card that I own:

This was a matchup of the first and second place teams in the American League, but the Yankees had a 16.5 game lead on Cleveland, and would clinch the pennant two days later. Therefore it mattered little that Cleveland led throughout, breaking the game open with five runs over the last three innings to knock off the Yankees, 8-3. 

Hall of Famer Waite Hoyt had beaten Cleveland two days earlier for his 16th win of the season. However it was Bob Shawkey who started for the Yankees this day, allowing five runs over seven innings to drop to 16-11. Hoyt and Shawkey were two of five Yankees starting pitchers with 16 or more wins on the season. Shawkey would go on to win probably the most important game of the Yankees' season, holding off the Giants in Game 4 of the World Series to tie it up at 2-2. The Yankees went on to win the next two games and their first World Championship.

ChatGPT had a lot harder time rendering Shawkey accurately than it did Babe Ruth. This isn't a perfect likeness but it's pretty close.

New Yorkers didn't get to read about this game as a newspaper strike began on the 18th and didn't end until the 21st. In other news, a tornado in Oklahoma and an earthquake in Malta caused damage but not deaths, and Mongolia named a new prime minister.